Yet we saw the fire and smoke! We smelt the odour of burning flesh!'

'Come with me,' said Kamakura grimly. 'The rest of you wait here!"

The five samurai followed him into the bedchamber.

There was no sign of fire, the woven straw matting was unscorched. The naked bodies of Yoritomo and Lady Mishiko lay exposed on the blood-soaked bed. Both their heads were missing.

Roz had not changed her mind and started a collection.

She had urged Cadillac to behead Mishiko to take the heat off Captain Kamakura and his family. From her trip around his brain she knew he was one of the few honest men they'd come across. There'd been enough killing. If he had his wits about him, he would - she reasoned quickly realise that Mishiko had also been bewitched. The authors of this crime lay beyond the palace walls.

She was correct. Kamakura cottoned on fast. The fact that Lord Ieyasu's head was also missing changed the whole nature of this affair.

The power of magic had been present - that was evident - but the two spirit-witches had done more than cast spells. They were agents who had skillfully plotted two audacious murders, and who had gained access to the secret pa.s.sages within the palace - pa.s.sages that not even the Shogun's bodyguards appeared to know about!

The heads had not vanished into thin air, they had been taken, in the time honoured fashion, as proof that the Toh-Yota family had suffered a mortal blow. The hand of the Yama-s.h.i.ta lay behind this, and Lord Min-Orota had been their treacherous intermediary - for it was he who had brought the spirit-witches to Lady Mishiko in the Winter Palace and provided the boat to bring her to AronGiren.

The witches and their valuable trophies were probably still moving through the secret pa.s.sageway. Kamakura knew the entrance lay hidden behind the right-hand wall beam, but because he had kept his eyes averted when Lady Mishiko had made her secret visit to the Shogun, he did not know where to find the release mechanism. The beam would have to be smashed open. To do that, heavy implements would have to be brought and valuable time lost. And when an opening was made - who would have the courage to go in after them?

And there was something else he had to consider.

If a subsequent enquiry found that the a.s.sa.s.sins had made use of a secret pa.s.sageway to the Shoguns bed-chamber, and he revealed his knowledge of it, someone who resented his meteoric promotion to Castle Commandant might accuse him of complicity in the crime.

Kamakura decided to say nothing. When the big names in the Toh-Yota family arrived for the inquest, the air would be thick with charges and countercharges.

There was no point in rocking the boat when he already had more trouble than he could handle ....

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Steve checked the luminous hands of his old-style watch.

Two fifteen . . . over three and a half hours since they were yanked out of bed and thrown into a stinking hole in the ground, and they were still without any clue as to what unpleasantness their hosts had in store. The only cheering note had been his contact with Roz, otherwise they were in the dark, literally and metaphorically - just the kind of situation he hated.

He sat down opposite Fran, leaving the width of the doorway between them.

Her aggressive att.i.tude and the threat to demote him stopped him feeling sorry for her. His wing-man training, followed by two years of roughing it on the overground, in constant danger of losing his life, enabled him to cope with this sudden downturn in their fortunes. Fran, on the other hand, was used to giving orders; being waited on hand and foot. Being sent to Ne-Issan with him was probably the biggest and riskiest adventure of her life, but she had still been wrapped in cotton wool. Until their sudden arrest and confinement, they had been privileged visitors, transported in relative luxury with j.a.ps bowing to them all along the way. There had been no whipping canes laid across her back.

A pity. Steve recalled the painful beating he'd undergone at the post-house prior to his transfer to the Heron Pool. An experience like that might make her a lot easier to get on with.

Pushing Fran and her personality problems out of his mind, Steve dozed fitfully for the next hour or so, then woke to the sound of several pairs of feet tramping along the corridor. The orange glow of an approaching lantern illuminated the square hole in the cell-door and spilled enough light inside for him to be able to make out Fran's upturned face.

They both rose as the footsteps halted outside, then stepped back as the heavy bolts were withdrawn. Steve didn't resist as Fran searched for his right hand and gripped it tightly. The door was thrown open, and the all-enveloping darkness inside the cell receded as the j.a.p holding the lantern raised it above his head.

Steve and Fran found themselves looking at five men.

Two were prison warders. There was another pair, dressed as soldiers, with helmets bearing the winged heron badge - worn only by the Shogun's personal troops. The face of one of them seemed vaguely familiar.

Steve couldn't place him but there was no mistaking the diminutive j.a.p who stood under the lantern.

It was Skull-Face, aka Fujiwara. In his glittering battle-dress, with its overlapping plates, he looked like an overgrown armadillo.

'Are these the prisoners you seek?" asked one of the warders.

Skull-Face nodded. 'Bind them!'

The two warders and the soldiers entered the cell.

Steve and Fran offered no resistance as their arms were pinned behind their backs and clamped into two sets of manacles; one around their wrists, the other around their arms, just above the elbow. The upper manacles were attached to an iron bar which forced their shoulders back unnaturally and soon proved extremely painful to wear - as was probably intended. As a final touch, their trail bags were hung around their necks, pulling their heads forward when the rest of their spine wanted to lean a different way.

With Skull-Face in the lead, Steve and Fran were sent stumbling along the corridor towards the stairs that ran around the sides of the square ventilation shaft.

Anxious faces crowded the windows of the other cell doors. Hands clutched the bars. A confused medley of voices, begging, complaining, protesting, swelled into a meaningless barrage of sound that was quickly silenced as the two warders lashed out right and left with their whipping canes, driving the frightened occupants back into the darkness.

Steve's heartbeat quickened as they mounted the stairs, pa.s.sed through the last set of iron gates, then stepped out through the heavy timbered entrance door into the main courtyard. Fresh air and freedom. He was sure of it as soon as he saw the two soldiers who were waiting outside.

These were part of the group who had been with Skull-Face on the beach.

The pair who had been keeping watch outside quickly threw hooded capes around Steve and Fran's shoulders, as. Skull-Face masked his lantern and switched from j.a.panese to Basic. 'Follow me. Stay close to the wall."

He strode off quickly. Fran went next, then Steve, each of them steadied by one if Fuji's colleagues.

The scene in the courtyard was one of controlled confusion. Squads of foot-soldiers and cavalry were being a.s.sembled and despatched through the open main gates and across the bridge into the darkness beyond.

Armed men patrolled the outer walls and galleries of the palace.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Steve saw a handful of cowed suspects being hustled towards the underground jailhouse. More late arrivals.

For many, besides themselves, ihis was obviously going to be a night to remember.

They reached a large set of double doors, one of which contained a smaller door. Producing a key, Fujiwara opened it, then stood aside until everyone had pa.s.sed through. Locking and barring the door behind him, he unmasked the lantern and ordered his men to remove the trail-bags and unshackle their prisoners.

'A thousand apologies for inflicting this painful subterfuge upon you.

It was necessary to apply constraints in order to convince prison guards we were taking you away for interrogation under torture."

'That's okay,' said Steve. He and Fran rubbed the cramp out of their arms and necks and took stock of their surroundings. It was a vehicle store. Several carts, carriage-boxes and their wheeled cha.s.sis were stacked neatly together, making the most of the available s.p.a.ce.

Around the walls, at chest and shoulder height, a variety of saddles hung over two staggered lines of short poles stuck into the stone walls.

Fran addressed Skull-Face: 'I appreciate you getting us out of prison, but before we go any further would you mind telling me just what is going on?"

The diminutive samurai answered with a polite bow.

'We are removing you from the Palace for your own safety. As they say in the Federation, "the s.h.i.t has. .h.i.t the fan"."

'That's obvious!" cried Fran. 'But you haven't answered my question!

We were sent here as envoys of the Federation on matters of state and we have been treated outrageously! I must warn you now, Major - if we are subjected to any further serious breaches of protocol, the consequences to your country will be dire!" 'Cool it,' muttered Steve.