The Incense Game: A Novel of Feudal Japan by Laura Joh Rowland

Author:Laura Joh Rowland [Rowland, Laura Joh]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780312658533
Amazon: 0312658532
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2012-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

22

A MESSENGER BOY from Edo Castle called into the courtyard of the Yushima Seidō: “Honorable Minister Ogyu! His Excellency the shogun wants you. You’re to come at once!”

The summons awakened Minister Ogyu, who lay in bed with his wife and children in their tent. Groggy consciousness gave way to an agonizing headache that felt as if a spike had pierced his right eye, stabbed through his brain, and pinned him to the bed. His body’s response to mental strain, the headache had come on yesterday after Chamberlain Sano’s visit. Ogyu wished he could go back to sleep, but he couldn’t ignore the shogun’s order. He rolled over and stifled a groan.

His wife roused immediately. She searched his face, read the pain that he hid from everyone except her. “Is the headache bad today?”

“Not very,” Ogyu lied, not wanting to worry her.

The mental strain had been his constant companion for as long as he could remember. Even when he was a child, fear and anxiety would pump through him and turn into pain in his head. “Make it go away!” he’d sobbed to his mother.

She had shaken him and scolded, “Never cry! Don’t be a sissy!”

“Obey your mother,” his father had said. “It’s for the good of us all.”

Even though they withheld comfort, Ogyu had never doubted that they loved and cherished him. He’d known their story ever since he’d been old enough to understand. His father had been a court physician, his mother from a minor noble family. They were desperate for a son to carry on the family name, until at last Ogyu was born, the precious only child. They expressed their love through ever-vigilant discipline.

His wife clambered out of bed, wrapped herself in her heavy coat, and said, “I’ll brew you some opium tea.”

She was more sympathetic than his parents had ever been. Ogyu loved her dearly for it. Most other men would think her plain and worthless, but he wasn’t like most other men. He appreciated her as the luckiest thing that ever happened to him.

He said, “I’ll have just a little.” Opium was the only thing that took the pain away, but he rationed his doses; he didn’t want to become a slave to it or impair his wits. “Because of Chamberlain Sano and his investigation. I need a clear mind.”

They hadn’t spoken about Madam Usugumo or the murders. They had a tacit agreement that they wouldn’t, except indirectly.

“But you dealt with Chamberlain Sano,” his wife said. “He went away.”

“He’s not finished with me,” Ogyu said. “We have to be on our guard.”

“We always are.” She smiled, proud of their unity against a world they’d both found cruel.

But Ogyu could see how tired she was, how dark the shadows under her eyes. Life after the earthquake was wearing her down, and she’d shared the burden of his problems for the nine years they’d been married. He himself badly needed a rest from the pressure to dissimulate, achieve, and impress. But it never let up.

Dragging himself upright, he remembered mealtimes at his parents’ house during his childhood.

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