Furi’s eyes glared at me like an over bright sun, righteous and accusing. I don’t know how I managed to speak, much less bid her come to me. And anyway, she refused.
She planted her feet on the tatami. With a prickling of electricity on my skin, I realized that it was time. I touch her—pursue death. New conviction rolled over my tongue with the power of strong sake. I took a step nearer. Only one step.
We both knew I had used her as a weapon and now she guessed the complexity of my motives and yet, she knew almost nothing. My throat tightened in anticipation of telling her the rest. But I was too weak to do it, and instead, bid her tell me. “You’re angry. Why?”
Her answer was equally evasive. A filmy screen to hide behind. “I am Okugawa’s concubine, if he is surviving,” She rested her lethal gaze on my bare feet.
“He survives. I have examined him myself. But he is sleeping under the influence of an…unrecognized poison.”
“What does that mean—unrecognized?”
“We’ll speak of it later. Right now, you should rest and recover your strength. When you are well… if you are you willing…we can talk about his illness.” How could I tell her?
“Not later. Now. Tell me; am I your prisoner?”
“Why would you think that?”
“How could I not be a prisoner? I have poisoned the very heir to the Ruling House throne. And you are no gardener, but a samurai, I would guess. It’s your duty to arrest and execute me at once or betray your Sovereign.”
“You’re no prisoner and I would protect you with my army and my own life, if necessary.”
“That necessity is not inconceivable,” she said, voice wooden.
“It won’t come to that.”
“Who are you to make that prediction?”
“I am the head of a revolutionary army. A former conscript and traitor to the Ruling House, but that’s not the betrayal you’re holding against me. It’s more personal than that. Am I right?”
All at once her voice shattered and her shoulders crumbled and the sight of it scalded my eyes.
“How could you do it? How could you enslave me to Okugawa?”
“Did you agree to it?”
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“The Sovereign said it was done!”
“The sovereign is crumpled in a pile on his death bed! And he was well ahead of himself. You aren’t married, much less his slave. And I beg your forgiveness for allowing him so near you, but we were armed and ready to strike him ourselves. And besides,” I added, “you were armed more elegantly than we could ever be.”
“Then you admit it! I’m your weapon!”
I swallowed over my guilt-lacquered tongue, then cleared my throat. “I told you years ago that I could not give you your freedom, but nothing could stop you from taking it yourself if you would. And now I ask you: will you take it?”
“To be Okugawa’s concubine?”
“Can’t you see? I’m talking about a New Otoppon. A rightful and position in a world you will help build yourself. Don’t you want that?”
“I don’t think I understand what that is.”
I exhaled and withdrew a clean handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to Furi. “I once promised to tell you all of my secrets.” I drew a quick breath. “Are you ready to hear them now?”
* * *
“I am Ansei Nagaishi, son of Toyo Nagaishi, late chieftain of the Nagaishi Domain. The last of the rebel clans to sign the Okugawa unification treaty when the Emperor fell and resisters of imperial control.”
“Why have you kept that such a secret?”
“Do you remember the rumors Kiyo confessed on the morning of your arrival at the Nobu castle?”
Furi stammered. “I remember.”
“What did she say about my family?”
“She said they had disowned you.”
“But not why?”
Furi cast her gaze to the floor. “It was your mother—a famed beauty who abandoned you.”
“A beauty? She was a spider! An Earth Kumo warrior who killed my father when he trespassed into her cave.”
Furi’s head swiveled and for a moment, I thought she would faint.
“It was your mother!”
“Who?”
“Your mother! She has been haunting me!” Furi dropped her head into her hands. “And you are—?”
“Half Earth Kumo, half mortal.”
She shuddered with what I could only assume was shock, revulsion, or both, and then at once she stilled to a posture of perfect composure.
“I knew.”
“What did you know?”
“An immortal.”
“I can and will die.”
“It was you at the well. It was you who spoke to my mind in the pool. Your Earth Kumo power that healed me.”
“We have,” I cleared my throat, “gifts.”
She lifted her chin, and almost smiled—a reparation, I thought, for having betrayed fear.
“There’s more to tell,” I said. “Will you know it now or is it enough?”
“Continue.”
“All my life, the Nagaishi Clan has been carrying out an underground resistance to the Ruling House. It’s finally come to carry out our plans.”
“Revolution,” Furi repeated, and the word fell heavily from her lips.
“Not like you imagine. This will be a bloodless revolution—and by that, I mean limited mortalities. Almost none, if our plans succeed. But the burden of this feat falls heavily upon a few shoulders.”
I shuddered at the look she turned on me, but forced myself to look at her—to give her the truth.
“You are the very center of our revolutionary offensive. Everything depends upon you.”
She blinked confusion.
“You’ve already used me to incapacitate your target. What more can you ask?”
“Much.”
She swallowed.
“Do you remember when we spoke that night on Madame Ozawa’s veranda? And I said someday I would make a request of you so great, I would have no right to expect you to honor it?”
“I can never forget it. I was so naïve that I thought I could answer you anything. I understand now the weight of what you then implied.”
“You know a fraction.”
“What else is there?”
My throat closed around the words, but I forced them out. “Will you give the New Otoppon an heir?”