I am starting to become afraid of him myself. There have been a few times over the past few days when Lady Khiyana has hinted that she wanted to talk to me about something, privately, confidentially. When I have tried to draw her out, she has backed away quickly.”

“What could she possibly want to talk to a Church sorcerer about?”

“I have asked myself that. I reckon that she will talk in her own good time. People usually do when left to their own devices.”

“You are taking a remarkably soft line.”

“You will find that the Church is less powerful here, and the nobles much more so than in Siderea. People take their faith less seriously.”

“That is useful to know.”

“It’s something to bear in mind, Sir Kormak. This really is a new world.”

“I’ll try and remember that.”

The priest coughed so hard that he almost doubled over. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, and when he drew it away, Kormak could see there was blood on it. “If I can be of any aid to you, please let me know. It is good to know that there is someone here who is loyal to the ideals of the Holy Sun.”

“I will do that.”

“I had best return to my chambers. I fear I may be suffering a relapse.”

“You have rooms here?”

“Near here. But I am the Governor’s adviser on a number of matters. He likes to keep me on hand.”

“You are not quite so humble a priest as you had led me to believe.”

“As I told you earlier, everyone here is playing a part, one way or another. I shall wish you a good night, Guardian.”

Kormak watched him go. The priest’s ominous words set him to thinking about the dangers that might be lurking below the surface here. That brought Orson to mind. He wondered what the merchant was up to now.

Chapter Three

Orson strode through the gates of his mansion, loosening the buttons on his tunic’s collar and slapping at a mosquito. Sweat drenched his garments and not just from the heat. He really did not like the way the Guardian looked at him, like a wolf contemplating a nice fat sheep.

He had no doubt that Kormak suspected him of wrongdoing and rightly so. Both of his former bodyguards, Urag and Burk, had made covert attempts on the man’s life, and both had failed, even though Burk was a changeling, a shapeshifting assassin trained from the Courts of the Moon.

It had made for some interesting verbal fencing at the dining table of the Pride of Siderea during the voyage over. He doubted he had convinced the Guardian he had nothing to do with it. That was alarming. More so was the fact that there was a keen mind lurking behind that blunt, barbaric facade.

He paused and took a deep breath. He would have taken a palanquin from the Governor’s mansion if there had been any available. To a man of his great bulk walking even the few hundred strides from one great house to the other was a strain in this heat. No sea breezes here. Not tonight.

He produced a handkerchief and mopped his brow. Once again he wondered about the Guardian’s mission. According to the changeling, he was in Terra Nova to seek the source of the sarcophagus whose inhabitant had so nearly killed the King of Siderea. But that could just be a cover story.

Perhaps he had been sent here to stiffen the spine of Governor Aurin and take action against Balthazar’s people.