Chapter 5

Father Mateo stared at the door. “Did that seem strange to you?”

“No more than half a dozen other things.” Hiro opened the cupboard and peered inside. A futon lay on the wooden shelf, along with a carefully folded quilt. He closed the cabinet and gestured to the tokonoma. “Like the local fascination with inferior paintings of bamboo.”

“It does look a lot like the ones in the teahouse.” Father Mateo paused. “A gift from the founder. . .Yuko-san?”

“Perhaps.” Hiro studied the scroll more closely. “Although this one shows less skill. More likely, the work of an apprentice.” He crossed the room, raised the pin that secured the exterior shoji, and opened the door enough to look outside.

The door opened onto a narrow ledge, more a catwalk than a true veranda, that ran the length of the ryokan. The building’s eaves extended past the ledge, preventing rain from leaking beneath the door. Heavy mist obscured the view, though Hiro guessed the faint glow to the west was the lantern beside the teahouse steps on the opposite side of the travel road.

He closed the door and dropped the wooden pin back into place to secure it.

Father Mateo switched to Portuguese. “Speaking of apprentices, do you think the woman we’re looking for is one of the two who moved away?”

“I suspect so,” Hiro replied in kind. “She should have reported the move to the clan, but. . .” Given that he was currently also in breach of protocol and orders, he felt disinclined to criticize Emiri’s choices. “We’ll continue to look for her on the way to Edo.”

“We could ask about her again before we leave,” the priest suggested.

“Not without attracting unwanted attention.”

“Something might have happened to her,” Father Mateo said. “Wouldn’t. . .your people. . .want to know?”

“Not at the risk of exposing my own identity,” Hiro answered. “Once we get to Edo, I can send a message to my cousin, telling him that we undertook this mission ourselves, in Ringa’s place, and letting him know of Emiri’s disappearance.”

Father Mateo seemed to accept that answer. “What animals can open an unbarred shoji? Bears?”

“They can. But normally, if a bear wants in, he’ll simply break the door.”

“How comforting.” The Jesuit knelt beside the futon farthest from the outer wall.

Hiro removed his swords from his obi and set them on the tatami beside his futon. “More likely, the problem lies with foxes coming in to hunt for mice.”

“Mice?” Father Mateo looked around as if expecting hordes of furry rodents to emerge from the walls at any moment. “If this place has mice, I think I might prefer a fox.”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t.” Hiro lay down. “They stink.”

Hiro woke to the muffled sound of urgent whispers. The room was dark, but his internal clock suggested dawn.

Father Mateo’s silent breathing told him the priest still slept, but the voices outside the door made Hiro curious. Silently, he pushed his quilt aside and grasped his wakizashi, leaving the longer katana on the floor.

Despite their urgency, the voices seemed too loud for people planning an ambush.

Slipping the scabbard through his obi, he crossed to the door and slid it open just a crack.

The reception room was empty.

The voices came from the far end of a hall that led from the reception room to the rear of the ryokan. Hiro slipped out the guest room door and crept across the floor to the hallway entrance.

Half a dozen shoji opened off the right-hand wall of the narrow passage, their locations and spacing suggesting guest room entrances. At the far end of the hall, an open doorway led to another room, most likely the kitchen. A shadowed male figure stood in the opening with his back to the hall.

Flickering light and the sound of voices drew Hiro down the hall. He stopped halfway to the kitchen door, not wanting to make the speakers aware of his presence.

Unlike the living areas, which sat on a raised foundation, the ryokan kitchen sat at ground level, where the earthen floor reduced the risk of fire.

Noboru stood on the lower of the two short steps that led to the kitchen, holding a lantern. “She isn’t here.”

The innkeeper’s words held an accusation.

“It was only a guess.” Kane’s whispered answer came from the kitchen. “I already told you, I went to sleep right after she left last night.”

“And she told you to remain awake, so you could help clean up when she returned.” Noboru hissed. “When I came home, and found you sleeping, I assumed—”

“I was tired”—a whine edged Kane’s voice—“and your mother didn’t want my help. She just couldn’t stand the thought of me getting any rest.”

“It was your duty.” Noboru sounded frightened. “Now she’s missing!”

“She probably just went to the latrine,” Kane replied.

“I’m going to find her,” Noboru said. “You start preparing breakfast for our guests.”

Hiro retreated to the guest room and closed the door.

“Hiro?” Father Mateo whispered. “Is something wrong?”

“It sounds as if the innkeeper’s mother did not return from the burial yard last night.”

Quilts rustled as the priest sat up. “If she is missing, we should help them find her.”

“We have no time to involve ourselves in other people’s problems,” Hiro said. “We have to warn the Iga agents on the travel road about—”

“A woman might be dead!”

“If she did not return last night, she almost certainly is dead, and will remain so—making our help entirely unnecessary.”

“Hiro!” Father Mateo’s disapproval carried clearly through the darkness.

Loud banging echoed through the inn as someone pounded on the ryokan’s front door.

Footsteps hurried past the guest room door as Noboru murmured, “Who could that be? It’s barely dawn.”

Hiro retrieved his katana from the floor and thrust the long-sword’s scabbard through his obi next to the wakizashi. He moved to the shoji and drew it open just as Noboru opened the inn’s front door.

A wild-eyed Masako stood on the veranda. Her hair had come partially loose from its braid, and her cheeks were flushed a brilliant red. The rest of her face looked deathly pale.

She tried to speak, but her trembling lips made only a terrified whimper.

She drew a deeper breath and tried again. “It has returned, and killed Ishiko-san!”