“Here’s to Sano for killing Hoshina,” Enju said, raising his cup to another toast they all drank.

“It’s just too bad that Sano is still chamberlain and more powerful than ever,” Yanagisawa said. “But he won’t be for long.”

Dark excitement charged the air as the three men contemplated the power struggle to come.

“You won’t hurt Chamberlain Sano when you oust him, will you?” Yoritomo said anxiously.

“I promise I won’t.”

But Yanagisawa believed promises were meant to be broken when necessary. And he knew that someone was bound to be destroyed during his bid to seize control of the Tokugawa regime. Better Sano than himself.

Laura Joh Rowland is a detective/mystery author best known for her series of mystery novels set in the late days of feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 1600s. Rowland takes some licence with known figures, creating fictionalised versions of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. Objective historical details, however, are credibly accurate.