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[concluding chapter 15]
“Shiro is in the bath, isn’t he?” Hiroki said when Jiro greeted him just inside the gate. Hiroki’s knee throbbed from the pace he’d had to set in order to catch up with Shiro and Tetsuo, and even then he hadn’t managed it. Still, even a day ago he wouldn’t have been able to walk this quickly at all, much less do it with as little pain as he was feeling now. He allowed himself a small measure of satisfaction with the treatment he had provided himself.
Now if only he could be as effective in treating the pain in his spirit. The contents of the note had come close to destroying the stability of spirit his work required.
“Otomo-dono? He is, master,” Jiro said. “I’ve placed the injured man in the kitchen of Lord Naitō’s quarters. I thought it the best place for him. We can’t put him in the women’s quarters with Katsumi and her nurse, and I wasn’t certain you’d want him in your place. That left just the stables or servant’s quarters, and that didn’t seem right for a samurai.”
“Lord Naitō agreed to this?”
“He did when Tetsuo — sorry, master, Shimada-dono — explained who the injured man was and what clan he was from.” Jiro gave Hiroki the gap-toothed grin he never shared with anyone else. “I took the liberty of fetching needle and thread for you, master. I only found one cut, but it’s a long one, on the back of the thigh. You’ll be having to sew it closed.”
“If Akamatsu is still alive then it’s not deep and it missed the artery,” Hiroki said. “Well. I’ll do what I can for him — I should be able to stop the bleeding, clean and bind up the wound, and give him something to keep him sleeping for a while.
“In the meantime, I want you to roust Otomo from the bath. Tell him I’ve ordered him to dress for battle. Say the same to Shimada, and tell him to set out armour for the three of us.”
“That’s my job, master.”
“You’re going to be busy, Jiro. We have to ride to Nara, and as quickly as possible. This means you have to get our horses ready. And because we have to act quickly we don’t have enough time to allow you to do one job after the other.”
“Things are that bad, then?”
“I don’t really know. It could be that we have already stopped the bad in its tracks. But I’d hate to be wrong about this, Jiro.” He swallowed. I don’t like even having to think about her, much less speak of her.
“Somebody is trying to murder my mother, Jiro. And as much as I hate the woman, I think she holds the key to finding the man who murdered Lady Tomiko.”
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14
Chapter 15
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