“Perfectly,” Ian said with a wink. He paused with his hand on the door latch. “I shall see you at the cathedral.”

When the doors had closed behind Ian, Charissa returned her attention to the crystal on the dresser before her. In it, she could see approximately what Morgan saw—all that lay within the scope of the large stone in the general’s badge of office. She caught a glimpse of Kelson in his state carriage to Morgan’s left, then the view straight ahead, beyond the ears of the black charger Morgan rode.

Soon, they would be at the cathedral. It was time she, too, was on her way.

AS Morgan drew rein before the Cathedral of Saint George, he glanced around suspiciously as he had done at least a hundred times during the slow procession down to the cathedral. Beside him and slightly ahead, Kelson’s open carriage had also come to a halt, and now three bishops and two archbishops were waiting to escort Kelson from the carriage to his place in the new procession being formed.

Archbishops Corrigan and Loris were scowling darkly—Morgan guessed they must have heard about the desecration of the crypt by now—but at least Bishop Arilan was extending a warm smile to his young king. Duncan remained well back from the archbishops, trying both to be near Kelson to lend him moral support, and to stay well out of range of his superiors.

As Morgan swung down from the great warhorse, he nodded to Duncan. Then he signalled for Derry, scanned the crowds anxiously as Derry saw him and hurried to his side.

“Trouble?” Derry asked.

“It could be,” Morgan replied, jutting his chin in the direction of Kelson and the archbishops. “Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?”

“No sign of Charissa, if that’s what you mean,” Derry said. “The crowd is odd, though. Almost as if they know something is going to happen.”

“Well, they’re right about that,” Morgan retorted. “Something is.” He scanned the buildings ahead, then gestured for Derry. “Do you see the bell tower next to the cathedral? I want you to go up there and keep a lookout. She’ll be obliged to bring some troops with her, so she can’t just appear. Your warning should give us at least a few minutes before she arrives at the cathedral.”

“Understood,” Derry nodded. “When do you think she’ll make her move, sir?”

“Probably in about an hour,” Morgan said. “If I know Charissa, she’ll wait until the coronation is well under way before she interrupts. She knows that we know she’s coming, so she’ll be counting on our own anticipation to increase our dread.”

“She’s accomplishing that already,” Derry murmured.

As Derry slipped away to take up his watch, Morgan worked his way over to Duncan, dodging scurrying choir-boys and servers and also doing his best to stay out of sight of Loris and Corrigan.