I have worn this amulet so long I feel naked without it.”

She pulled the sheet away. “That would seem to be the point,” she said.

He reached out for her and drew her into his arms.

***

A loud banging on the door woke them.

“I think our captain wants his cabin back,” said Rhiana.

“A pity,” Kormak said.

“Sir Kormak, Lady Rhiana, you must get up now! We have been summoned to the Palace and the King-Emperor of Siderea does not like to be kept waiting.”

“What do you think, Sir Kormak,” Rhiana asked. “Shall we keep the King-Emperor waiting?”

“He’s not my King-Emperor.”

“Nor mine.”

“If you do not open the door, I will have my men break it down,” Zamara said. He sounded desperate enough to carry out the threat. He was a Siderean nobleman and King Aemon was his liege lord.

Kormak sighed. “I suppose we had best get dressed.”

***

Kormak’s muscles ached. He could not remember when he had last felt this weary, but the sight of the harbour cheered him. The daylight was golden.

Steep hills surrounded the bay on three sides. Row upon row of white-painted blue-shuttered houses rose to their crests. Atop a flat mountain in the city centre the Palace Imperial loomed. In the daylight, its walls gleamed white and blue. Thousands of panes of glass caught the Holy Sun’s light and reflected them back like mirrors.

Scores of ocean-going ships lay anchored in the harbour. Hundreds of smaller boats moved between them, shifting crews and goods and officials. In the distance lay the huge galleons of the trans-oceanic treasure fleet. Tribute from Terra Nova, a thousand leagues away across the World Ocean, filled them.

Kormak clambered down the side-netting into the ship’s boat. Rhiana joined did the same and then Frater Jonas, who had finally emerged from his cabin below decks. The small priest showed no signs of being any the worse for last night’s horrors. He looked like he had slept through them. His face had its usual olive colour. His beard and hair were neatly clipped. His yellow robes looked immaculate. His elder sign glittered gold in the sun’s light.

“Sir Kormak, I heard what you and Captain Rhiana did and now I am doubly grateful to you,” he said.

“Think nothing of it,” Kormak said. “We would have gone down with the ship if we hadn’t.”

“Nonetheless, not many men could have done what you did. Not many ladies either.” The words were ambiguous. Jonas had been an inquisitor once and he must have his suspicions about how Rhiana had guided the ship into harbour.

Zamara looked uncomfortable, as if the words had been a direct criticism of him. “Let us be off. We have been summoned to the presence of the King-Emperor,” he said. The words rolled off his tongue as if he relished them.

***

In daylight the Wizard’s Isle looked even more like a castle rising out of the sea. Not a trace of beach or natural rock was visible. There were only walls and windows, doors and a single desolate pier, jutting out into the harbour.