case as thin as a chopstick. When she unrolled the slip of paper inside, she said, “Oh.”
“What?”
She didn’t answer; she just handed it over. She looked like she might be sick.
Daigoro unfurled the scroll and squinted to read it in the half-light of the attic. Whispers spreading: Lady in the North seeks audience with Daigoro. Says Shichio is mutual enemy. Osezaki Shrine. Two nights hence, moonrise.
“Tell me you won’t go,” Aki said.
“What? I . . . I haven’t had time to give it any thought.”
“I’ve had all the time I need. It’s a trap, Daigoro.”
“That doesn’t make sense. You told me yourself: Lady Nene is Shichio’s enemy. Now Nene confirms it.”
“If Nene is the one responsible for these whispers. What if Shichio knows you’re aware of his rivalry with Nene? What if this is one of his ploys?”
Daigoro had to grant her the possibility. “Maybe. But still—”
“Have you forgotten your Sun Tzu? ‘To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.’ Don’t provide your enemy the means to defeat you, Daigoro. Don’t walk into this trap.”
“We don’t know it’s a trap. And Sun Tzu would tell me to gather intelligence before leaping to conclusions.”
Aki’s face grew dark. “Do you know Osezaki?”
“No. I’ve never been there.”
“It is a long, thin spit stretching out into Suruga Bay. In the middle it’s so narrow that I could throw a rock from the western shore to the eastern.”
“And I have seen you throw,” Daigoro said with a laugh. He tried to take her hand, but Aki snatched it away.
“The shrine is at the northern tip,” she said, “totally exposed to attack by land or sea. Mount Daruma overlooks every road leading to Osezaki, down to the last goat path. There is nowhere to hide.”
“Then an ambush will be easy enough to spot.” Finally she allowed him to catch her hand. “Akiko-chan. Did you marry a fool?”
She made him wait while she thought about it. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“My adoring wife.” He squeezed her fingers and she squeezed back. “My father raised me to be fearless, not suicidal. I love you. I love our child. I will not throw away my life for nothing. But you told me yourself: if I am to defeat Shichio, it will be through statesmanship, not swordsmanship. And in statecraft there are no better weapons than high-ranking allies. Neh?”
She nodded. They had discussed the matter many times—usually because Daigoro was too thickheaded to understand her the first time through.
“Well, who outranks Hideyoshi’s wife?”
“Precisely. This is bait, Daigoro. It’s too good to be true.”
“And yet it makes sense. Imagine if Shichio was my advisor. As my wife, wouldn’t you want him dead?”
“Yes. But Shichio knows that.” She clutched his hand hard enough to make him grateful that she held his left hand, not the right with its still-mending fingers. “I am your wife. I don’t care what pact you signed with the regent; I am still your wife.”
“Aki—”
“Listen to me. So long as you are my husband, it is my duty to obey you. You tell me how you can be certain—certain—that this is Nene’s work, not Shichio’s, and you have my support.”
She wasn’t wrong. Daigoro knew that. For a woman raised by a spymaster, certainty took on a particular meaning. She allowed no room for doubt.
The daughter of a spymaster. That was it.
Daigoro held up the letter—more a curled paper ribbon than a letter, really—as if presenting her with a new piece of evidence. “This is your father’s hand, neh?”
“Yes.” It was well known within House Inoue that the lord was so paranoid that he wrote all his messages himself.
“And he says this is Nene’s will, not Shichio’s.”
“Yes.”
“Then the question is, can we trust him? Did he write this idly, without proof that this is not Shichio’s doing? Or did he corroborate with his spies first, and confirm it was Nene before taking up his brush? If he holds true to his promise, then he cannot knowingly send me into enemy hands. If his promise is empty, then we can only speculate on who waits for me at Osezaki Shrine.”
“Knowingly,” Aki echoed. She looked not at Daigoro but at the black pigeon. Perhaps she hoped it would tell her something of her father’s mood. “That’s the riddle. If he knows Shichio has set a trap for you, then he breaks his faith by sending you there. But if he simply chooses not to find out .