Part 62 (1/2)

Sliding her belly back and forth on his, she pleasured Yoritomo with practised v.a.g.i.n.al contractions and felt the head of his shaft swell as he neared the point of o.r.g.a.s.m. She gave one more gentle squeeze.

Another gasp of delight broke from her brother's lips. His mouth opened wide as his body 'began to shudder.

She felt his stomach muscles tighten and he started to suck in his breath in a last desperate effort to prolong the moment.

With his hands elbows and legs still secured, Mis.h.i.+ko pressed down upon him, tightened her own belly muscles to hold him firmly inside her, then rolled the small gla.s.s phial she had been hiding in her cheek onto the tip of her tongue.

Yoritomo opened his lips and loosed a long, shuddering sigh of delight.

It was the moment Mis.h.i.+ko had been waiting for. The final curtain.

Crus.h.i.+ng the phial between her front teeth, she kissed her brother hungrily, plunging her tongue and its poisonous contents into the back of his throat. For a brief instant, Yoritomo smelt the odour of almonds, then gagged and swallowed involuntarily as the cyanide took hold.

Mis.h.i.+ko, her face contorted in agony, was close to death as he threw her aside. Screaming with pain, Yoritomo staggered to his feet, clutching at his throat as he tried to spit out the poison.

Alarmed by what sounded like a cry for help, his samurai bodyguard entered his private suite and burst into the bed-chamber in time to see the Shogun sink to his knees then fall dead at their feet, tongue extended from his gaping mouth, his lips blue. Behind him, on the bed, lay the naked body of Lady Mis.h.i.+ko.

The guards held their lanterns aloft and surveyed the scene, momentarily bewildered. Only three hours ago they had witnessed the death of the Lord Chamberlain, and now they had lost the Shogun!

Uesagi, Yoritomo's valet, and his two a.s.sistants, drawn from their quarters by the commotion, appeared in the doorway and cried out in horror. They were joined by several more who were soon jostling each other to get a better view.

Ryoku, the chief bodyguard, cursed them roundly, then ordered them to return to their quarters and stay out of sight. Uesagi, who had served Yoritomo for the last fifteen years, protested he had a duty to be at his master's side.

'With or without your head?!” cried Ryoku. He called to one of his four companions to draw his long-sword and kill anyone he found loitering in the Shogun's private suite after a count of three. The valet and the servants fled for their lives.

Ryoku borrowed one of the lanterns and took a closer look at Lady Mis.h.i.+ko. She appeared to have been killed by the same poison, but there was also blood on her lips. Something glinted as it caught the light. Ryoku stooped over her and saw it was a tiny sliver of gla.s.s.

One of several ... Merciful Heaven! The poison had been concealed in her mouth!

Ryoku stood up and tried to work out what to do next. He had never faced such an appalling predicament before. The two most powerful men in Ne-Issan removed from office in the s.p.a.ce of one night! And by the hand of the same woman! For it was Lady Mis.h.i.+ko who had been ieyasu's princ.i.p.al accuser.

But who was behind her? Was it a family cabal which had yet to reveal its hand, or was it the work of the Toh-Yota's enemies? And was Captain Kamakura to be trusted? The Shogun had placed him in command of the entire Palace Guard, but it was he who had helped the Lady Mis.h.i.+ko unmask the Lord Chamberlain! Who should they turn to for orders? To whom should they give their allegiance?

Ryoku and the other guards were under no illusions as to their probable fate if the blame for Yoritomo's death was to fall on their shoulders.

Their working lives had been dedicated to preventing such a tragedy.

They were the last line of defence - and a single woman had by-pa.s.sed all the checks and body-searches because the Shogun himself had waved them aside.

But who would be disposed to believe that? No one was going to say it was the Shogun's fault. The family's grief would not be a.s.suaged until the blame had been pinned on someone else. Someone who was alive.

There was no satisfaction to be gained by punis.h.i.+ng culprits who were already dead.

Ryoku cast these dark thoughts aside. If they could not avoid dishonour by taking their own lives, their fate at the hands of torturers on a public scaffold would have to be met with the same stoicism with which they had faced the daily possibility of death in the service of the Shogun.

Their obligation to him demanded they remain alive to give their account of this black day. With their help, the true architect of this conspiracy might yet be uncovered.

Ryoku pulled five dried flowers from a vase, cut off part of the stalks then cut one of the pieces in half.

Aligning the tops, he concealed the unequal ends in his closed palm.