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  And then, just to be sure, he hoped to the middle of the table and leaning his head back, he did the same into the air.

  He flew up in the air and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the black vapors only he could see were sucked into the noses of both men, going deep to penetrate their lungs.

  He then quickly returned to his master before Abe no Tanetadai made it to his rooms and noticed him missing.

  He had no small amount of satisfaction in her heart.

  Chapter 21

  Before Abe no Tanetadai arrived outside the door he could feel the heat pulsating from out of it.

  “How long has be been like this” he demanded of the attendant who sat outside the door.

  “For two days now”

  “Two days” he roared. “Why wasn’t I summoned before now?” although in his mind he heard the answer before he continued any further. “Because you angered him with the truth, and Kiyomori though powerful and even clever, has never been wise.”

  Abe no Tanetadai cursed Kiyomori. “Nothing but trouble, years of problems started by that nine tail and continued by him.”

  “Let me through” he demanded, and the attendant winced as put his hands on the door and slid it open.

  Walking in Abe no Tanetadai was overcome with even more heat and the stench.

  It was not just that Kiyomori had soiled his bed repeatedly in the previous 48 hours, or that the stench of death clung to the very air, it wasn’t even the excess heat that he gave off, the room seeming to swelter inside.

  Although all of these things were all too true.

  But that it was also that there was the reek of evil in the room.

  As if he had been infected with actual hate and it was festering in his pores.

  “This is not natural” he said.

  He turned back out of the room to the attendant. “Why is he alone?” he demanded.

  “No one can stay in there for longer than a few minutes, it is why we have samurai at the end of each passage. “They can not stand in full uniform and in guard at the door. They pass out from the heat.”

  Abe no Tanetadai nodded. He himself felt light headed.

  “Why didn’t someone tell me that this was supernatural induced. You do not need to be an onmidoro to know this illness is not natural.”

  The attendant responded with a mere hai and nothing more, leaving Abe no Tanetadai to curse under his breath.

  “I need to return to my rooms and retrieve my things. I had no idea things had gotten so bad.”

  As he strode away he thought to himself that he hadn’t realized how bad the relationship he had had also become strained. Normally he would have found out be the evening of the first day at the latest. That the man was almost dead of an obvious supernatural cause did not bode well at all.

  Of course, everything had begun to fall apart of late. And he was merely the bringer of bad news, not the creator of it and not the one who even carried out the orders that made it better or worse.

  He was blamed for both telling the news and for no one following the advice he did give.

  Once he arrived in he looked at Karuso and wondered if he had anything to do about. he wished he had banished the spirit but was not yet ready to relinquish him knowing what they were facing. And better him than the other option.

  “Karuso” Abe no Tanetadai “do you know what happened to Kyiromori?”

  The bird crackled and hoped around the room.

  “Revenge, revenge, revenge. Can’t you smell it Abe no Tanetadai? Can you not feel it in the very air?”

  Abe no Tanetadai felt a chill run down his back. He thought back to the divinations he had been casting just a short month ago. The ones that kept warning of impending doom.

  “Karuso, what have you done?”

  Flapping his wings he began to fly in circles now, laughing his crow laugh, “Not just me, everywhere! Everything! Oooooooo revenge is coming. Retribution will be served!”

  Abe no Tanetadai felt an icy stab of terror in his heart.

  He remembered what he had forecasted and divined, the deaths, the famine, the evil sweeping the land.

  He had thought it had meant the Minamoto’s taking control from the Taira, that the child emperor would fall.

  And now he was afraid it would be all so much all encompassing than that.

  There was a knock on his door and before he could answer the door slid open and a samurai entered.

  “Lord Kiyomori is dead.”

  “I’ll be there in a moment to give blessings over the body” Abe no Tanetadai said.

  As he walked back towards the rooms of the man who was once the most powerful in Japan he shuddered at what was to come.

  Epilogue

  The Tengu felt the shockwave ripple through the atmosphere and dropped down beneath the forest canopy to land among the branches. A small, glowing, almost but not quite humanoid shape peeled off a branch and came to him.

  The Tengu watched it as it shivered and danced, before disappearing back into the tree.

  The Tengu nodded. The Kodama had not been wrong. Something terrible had happened. The balance between the natural and the supernatural had been upset. Only the Tengu cared much less about it than the Kodama did.

  Soft hearted creatures that they were.

  The Tengu wanted the upset. He wanted his lord and master Sutoku to return. When Sutoku had turned demon he had found a number of Tengu who had worshipped him. Here was a human who had made the ultimate sacrifice for power and had come close to straddling both the worlds.

  He had been thwarted, his human body killed before the merge with the Shinigami could be completed. Instead his Lord had been transmuted into a demon with powers that even the Oni envied. And a rage that made even those ogres tremble.

  That rage would be satisfied with nothing less than the destruction of the Japanese imperial dynasty. Those whom had fed upon his pain would soon be fodder for it.

  Rumors had it the nine tail fox Inoue, daughter of the even more powerful Tamamo-no-Mae had been behind the death of Sutkou’s body. All the sweeter that her sister had been the one to agree to help Sutoku on behalf of her human lover.

  The Tengu came out of his thoughts to sniff the air.

  Another Kodama appeared, obviously distressed the Tengu was still in its tree.

  The Tengu smirked at the little spirit.

  “You just do not want me here do you. Can you sense that I want my Lord back. I look forward to his revenge?”

  The little spirit shivered before dissolving back into its branch.

  Yes, foreign magic had come to the land. Something to tip the balance had been unleashed. And he was looking forward to participating in it.

  Book 3 Blade of Retribution

  An emperor’s wraith from the grave that would see the fall of a dynasty and the rise of the samurai.

  1183 Japan

  At great cost to his soul and sanity, Riku believes he has the demon Sutoku under control. With the aid of the witch Takiyasha hime the demon Sutoku is no longer a separate presence but a part of Riku - a part that demands the blood of those he seeks his vengeance upon.

  The war that had been brewing has been in stalemate and a supernatural famine is tearing apart the land. Before it reaches it’s breaking point the Taira move against the Minamoto and the Minamoto will be ready.

  For they have also made a pack for power and as betrayal after betrayal comes, the dark forces that threaten to consume the land grow stronger and stronger.

  Will Riku be able to overcome his past and stop both his and his country’s descent into madness?

  Blade of Retribution is the final installation of the Blood Samurai Trilogy, if you enjoy your Japanese historical fiction with samurai fantasy and yokai, get the last book on the Genpei war today.

  Sutoku's Story

  Enjoyed ? Please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads! Reviews help authors know that their books were enjoyed and that we should write more!Reprisal’s Lair
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  While you wait for other books in the Blood Samurai universe can read about Sutoku’s transformation in the short story . The Kitsune Trap, A Blood Samurai Prequel Short Story

  When a small boy is neglected by everyone at court but the nine tailed fox in disguise Tamamo-no-Mae, the seeds are sown for the revenge and creation of one of Japan’s most devastating Yokai.

  Prince Akihito just wants to be accepted. As the next emperor of Japan the small child should be dotted upon and idolized. The true nature of his birth means his “father” the emperor openly dislikes the child and the entire court follows suit.

  Everyone that is except for the emperor’s favorite consort, the beautiful Tamamo-no-Mae, a woman so beautiful and talented that she can not be human.

  Together the two inadvertently start the young boy down a path that would lead to the rise and fall of his powers and a pack with a Shinigami that will be felt throughout Japan for all time.

  The Kitsune Trap is a short story prequel in the Blood Samurai series. It tells of how Sutoku came to choose the path of vengeance that lead him to become one of Japan’s three evil Yokai and his need for the Kitsune’s child Riku to complete his revenge.

  The Kitsune Wife

  While you are waiting for the sequel you can visit www.lynnfrancis.com for your free copy of The Kitsune Wife, a Blood Samurai short story prequel.

  The Kitsune Wife

  Natsuko is not an ordinary woman. She is Kitsune, a fox spirit in human form. What she does in the name of love will send shock waves through Japan to be felt for centuries to come.

  1164 Japan.

  The final decades of what is known as the Heian period have been one of civil and political unrest for Japan. The Fujiwara (advisors to the emperor and the power behind the throne) have slowly lost control of the country thanks to the power the samurai class have allowed individual Lords to amass. In particular, two families; the Taira and Minamoto, both of imperial blood, have risen to be rival powers for control of the country.

  The political struggle is bloody and messy with no one left unscathed, with casualties from the peasantry to the imperial family.

  Ambitious families formed political alliances in bold moves for a share of the newly opening power and although sometimes it paid off, other times it resulted in the loss of everything.

  The Kitsune Wife begins after a minor noble named Koremura Ishikawa has made a play for political advancement and has paid dearly for his failure.

  The bargain he and Natsuko have struck in the name of vengeance will reverberate through Japanese history.