Someone called her name. It was Doi. He gripped her arm and pulled her along through the mob. Etsuko heard Egen shouting to them, saw his frantic face in the crowd, his hand waving. When she and Doi reached him, he grabbed her other arm. The men shoved, fought, and trampled their way out of the crush.

The scene suddenly shifted. Etsuko, Egen, and Doi fell to their knees, exhausted from running, inside the Koishikawa district. Edo Castle loomed above a neighborhood of walled samurai estates. Men on horseback and ladies in palanquins, accompanied by servants on foot who were loaded with baggage, moved toward the hills outside town. Brigades of leather-clad firemen wielded pickaxes, tearing down houses at the edge of the district, clearing bare space in an attempt to halt the fire’s spread. They’d already leveled a swath littered with ruins.

“We’ll be safe here,” Egen said.

His face and Doi’s were black with soot, their clothes charred. Etsuko coughed up phlegm that tasted like smoke. Then she saw a familiar figure among the crowd. Tadatoshi leaned against a wall, standing perfectly still, alone. His gaze was lifted toward the flames that rose from the burning city. His face wore the same sly, private smile as on that night in the garden. Etsuko saw in his eyes the reflections of the fire.

“There he is!” she cried, pointing.

Tadatoshi turned. His gaze met hers. The sudden anger in his eyes exploded their fires into a huge, red-hot blast. The fire engulfed Etsuko, clothing her in a kimono of fire.

Her own scream awakened her. She heaved up from her bed and found herself in a room that was not her own. She could still smell the smoke from the burning city. Through the barred window came a faint, menacing orange light.

Dazed from sleep and medicine, Etsuko heard the same shouts, wails, and hurrying footsteps as when she and Egen and Doi had run through the inferno in her nightmare. She stumbled to the door but found it locked.

“Help!” she cried, banging on the door. “Fire!”

Drafts faintly tinged with smoke penetrated the walls of the chamber where Reiko sat waiting for Sano to come home. The lantern flickered; twilight deepened outside the window. Reiko heard Masahiro and Akiko laughing and splashing in the bathtub down the corridor. She rose and went to look in on them. Masahiro was sailing a toy boat and chatting with the nurse, and he didn’t notice Reiko, but Akiko did. As soon as her gaze met her mother’s, she drew a deep breath that puffed out her cheeks, then ducked under the water.

Reiko knew from experience that Akiko would stay submerged until Reiko went away or pulled Akiko up half-drowned and hysterical. Tonight Reiko couldn’t bear a scene. “I’m going, Akiko,” she said. “You can come up now.”

She took her hurt feelings back to her chamber. Soon she heard steps approaching, but it was Lieutenant Asukai, not her husband, who appeared at the door. The look in his eyes warned Reiko that he was bringing bad news.

“What is it?” Reiko cried in fright.

“The shogun has put Lord Matsudaira under house arrest.” Asukai was jittery and breathless with excitement.

“Merciful gods! Why on earth?”

Lieutenant Asukai explained that the shogun had realized at last that Lord Matsudaira was plotting to seize power. “I don’t know how the shogun found out. But my sources say that your husband was there when it happened. He’ll be able to tell you the details.”

Recovering from her shock, Reiko saw the ramifications of Lord Matsudaira’s arrest. “But this is good. Lord Matsudaira is locked up. He’ll have to stop fighting my husand. He won’t be able to hurt anybody anymore.”

With Lord Matsudaira out of the way, Sano could win back the shogun’s favor, regardless of the murder case. Reiko felt a thrill of hope that the tide had indeed turned for Sano. What good luck!

Lieutenant Asukai said, “Unfortunately, that’s not the only news I have. I just spoke with my friend who’s one of Lord Matsudaira’s personal bodyguards. He was there when Lord Matsudaira was brought home. He said Lord Matsudaira is desperate, and furious. He blames Chamberlain Sano. He swears he’ll get revenge. He says Sano must die.”

“That sounds like an empty threat,” Reiko said, but a cold, nauseating horror gripped her. She’d long been aware of Lord Matsudaira’s hostility toward Sano, but hearing it voiced, even thirdhand, made it more real for her. She felt as if she were breathing air laced with Lord Matsudaira’s corrosive hatred.

“But surely he can’t destroy my husband,” she said. “His allies will be distancing themselves from him and his troubles. He can’t fight a war.”

“That’s what he wanted to do at first. He wanted an honorable victory. But he’s come up with a new plan.” Lieutenant Asukai continued with breathless urgency, “The spy we caught wasn’t the only one he had here. There are more.”

Reiko’s lips parted in shock. Just when she thought she’d dispensed with that particular threat! “How many?”

“Nine of them,” Asukai said. “My friend doesn’t know who they are. Lord Matsudaira didn’t say. But here’s the worst part: They’re not just spies anymore. They’re not looking for information, and setting traps for them won’t work this time. Lord Matsudaira has sent them new orders. Their job is to assassinate Chamberlain Sano. If one man tries and fails and gets caught, the others are to keep trying until Sano is dead.”

As Reiko’s shock turned to horror, anguish showed on Lieutenant Asukai’s face. He said, “I’m sorry to be the bearer of such bad news, Lady Reiko, and I’m sorry to say that’s not all. I’ve come to warn you: Lord Matsudaira has ordered his assassins to kill you and the children, too. He doesn’t want your son to grow up and come after him for revenge, so he’s decided he’d better wipe out your whole clan.”

“Solving Tadatoshi’s murder should be easier with Lord Matsudaira under arrest,” Hirata said.

“Thank the gods for that stroke of luck,” Sano said, “and that the shogun doesn’t know about my role in the power play, at least for now.”

They sat in his office, where they’d taken refuge after the debacle at the palace. Hirata poured sake. “I propose a toast to Lord Matsudaira. With friends like Lord Arima, he doesn’t need enemies.”

Sano and Hirata drank. “We might as well enjoy this moment. It won’t last long,” Sano said, for the exposure of Lord Matsudaira’s campaign to seize power would cause him new difficulties. “And we have a new crime to solve.”

“The tutor’s murder is a complication we didn’t need,” Hirata agreed.

“But every crisis creates opportunities,” Sano said. “I can think of at least one new line of investigation to follow.”

They discussed strategies. Sano said, “My wife will be anxious for news. I’d better go tell her what’s happened.” But he was interrupted by moans in the passage, accompanied by heavy footsteps that shook the floor. Something bumped the wall. Sano and Hirata hurried to the door. They saw Detectives Marume and Fukida carrying Sano’s mother on a litter. She was swaddled in a blanket that held her body still, but her head tossed as she moaned.

“Mother!” Sano was glad to see her home, but disturbed by her condition. “What’s happened?”

“There was a fire near the jail,” Marume said. “The prisoners were let out.”

The law stated that when fire threatened the jail, the prisoners must be freed, to save their lives. It was a rare instance of mercy toward criminals, due to the Great Fire, when the main neighborhood gate near Kodemmacho was closed to prevent the prisoners from escaping. All the prisoners, and many neighborhood residents-some twenty thousand people-had been trampled and killed in the crush at the gate. Now prisoners were released under strict orders to return when the fire was out. Usually they did, with a few notable exceptions.