The Incense Game Read Online Free PDF Page A

from the samurai class. They had youthful, rounded features and a family resemblance. “Sisters,” Sano deduced.
    One’s lavish brocade kimono was a deep rose color; she was the elder sister, probably married. The other’s was a brighter pink, appropriate for a maiden. Their hair was elaborately coiffed, studded with jade beads on lacquered spikes. A motif in the patterns of their sashes caught Sano’s attention. It was a large dot circled by eight smaller dots.
    “I know who their family is.” Sano pointed to the symbol. “That’s the Hosokawa clan crest.”
    Dismay mixed with his satisfaction at finding a clue to the women’s identities. Lord Hosokawa was one of Sano’s top political allies, who headed an ancient family that controlled the fief of Higo Province. Higo was a top rice-producing domain and the Hosokawa clan one of Japan’s largest, wealthiest landholders.
    “I’ll have to inform Lord Hosokawa,” Sano said, even though he had a million other urgent things to do. This was too sensitive a matter to delegate to a subordinate. “I’d better take some of their personal effects to show him.” Sano gingerly untied the women’s sashes and tucked them in his horse’s saddlebag.
    A loud groan came from the bristly haired young townsman. He staggered as if he were drunk; he held his head in both hands. “Ow, my head aches!” Wheezing, he cried, “I can’t breathe!” and then he fell to the ground.
    His friends hurried to his aid. He vomited violently.
    “What’s the matter, Okura?” the headman asked.
    A stench arose as Okura’s bowels moved and diarrhea gushed down his legs. “I don’t know,” he said between retches and gasps. “My stomach hurts. I hurt all over.” Dazed, he looked around at the ruins as if seeing them for the first time. “What happened? Where am I?”
    Sano started to say, “Fetch a doctor,” then remembered that since the earthquake doctors were too few and too far between.
    Detective Marume said, “Vomiting, diarrhea—the women had those symptoms, too.”
    “You’re right,” Sano said. “I think they were poisoned.”
    “Okura must have breathed the poison when he went down in the hole,” Hirata said.
    Okura went into shuddering convulsions while the other townsmen tried to soothe him. The headman said, “But we all went down. Why is he the only one who’s sick?”
    “The rest of us didn’t go down until the hole was opened up and the fresh air got in,” Sano recalled. “And he didn’t wear his mask.”
    “Is he going to die?” the headman asked anxiously.
    “I don’t know.” But if Sano was right about the poison, it had already killed three people. “He’s young and strong. Maybe he got only a small dose of the poison and he’ll recover.”
    Sano did know that the likelihood of poison complicated the matter of the dead Hosokawa women. He said to Hirata and Marume, “This looks like murder to me.”

 
    4
    “I’M HUNGRY,” THE shogun announced to the boys crowded into his chamber. Lounging on cushions on the dais, wrapped in quilts, he stroked the heads of his two favorite boy concubines. They were twins, thirteen years old, with rosy, pretty faces and sweetly bland smiles. “Where’s lunch? It must be, ahh, at least an hour overdue.”
    Chamberlain Sano’s son Masahiro opened the door to let in three elderly servants. They staggered up to the dais, carrying trays laden with covered dishes. All the younger servants were out helping to fix the castle. Only two of Masahiro’s fellow pages and a lone, middle-aged bodyguard were on duty. The old servants set the trays before the shogun and bowed.
    “Ahh, at last.” The shogun took the lids off dishes, revealing rice, pickled vegetables, and a soup made with dried shrimp, tofu, and seaweed. The boys leaned forward hungrily. Masahiro’s stomach growled. The shogun frowned. “This is the same lunch I had yesterday! I want something else.”
    One of the servants said, “A thousand