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A Division of little, Brown and Company (ilK) Bretxenham House
Lancaster Place london we2E 7EN In loving memory of my mother born
Agnes Rose Lewer July 22nd, 1904-December 1st, 1987 who gave me the
priceless gift of education but whose formidable personality caused me
to censor everything I wrote.
God bless you, Ma. Hang on to your halo.
This is where it starts to get interesting.
BOOK 4:
BLOOD RIVER
CHAPTER ONE
If it had not been for the fact that his youngest son suddenly took it
into his head to totter through the partially-open door while his
mother's back was turned, Izo Wantanabe would not have leapt up from
his writing table and stepped out onto the deck of the houseboat.
Had he not done so, the winter months would have passed with their
usual tranquil monotony and the lives of several hundred of his
comrades in arms would have been spared or, at the very least, expended
on a more profitable enterprise.
But it was not to be. Fate, in the guise of fatherly concern,
compelled him to follow and, as he scooped up the infant and lifted him
shoulder high, he saw something which took his breath away.
Two dark stiff-winged objects were moving across the sky on a line that
