They claimed that centuries ago the Old Ones themselves would often walk among the revellers disguised like everyone else.”

“It has happened in other places.”

A look of interest passed across the little man’s face. “You say that as if you know it for a fact.”

“I have been to some of those places.”

“You have led an interesting life. I don’t suppose you would mind talking to me about it sometime. I am composing a monograph on the subject.” He coughed as if that admission had triggered the seeds of illness within him. It occurred to Kormak that this man might be dying, that his illness might be one of those fatal ones so common in the tropics.

“Perhaps. If I have the time.”

“You are here on a mission then?”

“When is a Guardian ever anything else? You said these rites were once celebrated by the Lunars. I would have thought that would have been stamped down on hard.”

“Come now, you know better than that. Sometimes the Church bans the old rites. Sometimes it incorporates them in its own rituals. What you are witnessing here is an attempt to make the old Lunar rituals our own. Unfortunately what seems to have happened is the old rites are absorbing our faith.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“Stay here as long as I have and then tell me that. I have witnessed the corruption of our Church. That is why when I saw you here, I expected . . .” His voice trailed off as if he could not quite decide what to say next. “This is a bad place, Guardian. The Light dims here even if the Holy Sun seems bright in the sky.”

“I would not have expected such words from a man of faith. Particularly from one entrusted with the use of the Power.”

“Perhaps you are right. I have been here too long and seen too much. Perhaps I have let it undermine my confidence in the righteousness of the Holy Sun. After all, you are here. Forgive me for boring you with my forebodings.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” Kormak said. “I’m interested to hear what you have to say. After all, I am a stranger here.”

“And how are you finding it?”

“It’s very difficult to say. I’ve only been here for a very short time. I suspect that these are very far from usual circumstances.”

“You may be surprised. The skeleton dance only makes obvious what lies below the surface all the time.”

A very beautiful woman wearing a long green dress and a mask of peacock feathers walked between them and said, “Is Frater Ramon boring you, Guardian? Has he been filling you with his gloom? I can guess the substance of your conversation—decadence, blah blah blah! The Church is corrupt, blah blah blah! Everything is going to hell in a handbasket in these lush tropical climes, blah blah blah!”

The priest did not look offended. He laughed. “I fear you know me too well, Lady Khiyana. I find it difficult not to be gloomy here.