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Chapters (21)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Introduction
  5. CHAPTER ONE - “Princes met and talked against me.” PSALMS 119:23
  6. CHAPTER TWO - “Hell hath no fury like the woman scorned, Or the woman mourning.”
  7. CHAPTER THREE - “And I will give him the morning star.” REVELATIONS 2:28
  8. CHAPTER FOUR - “O God, with your judgement endow the King, and with your ...
  9. CHAPTER FIVE - “And a voice shall speak from legend.”
  10. CHAPTER SIX - “A Spokesman of the Infinite must guide. . . .”
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN - “Things are not what they seem.”
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT - “In the unknown lies terror, and in the night, deceit.”
  13. CHAPTER NINE - “Whence comes the wonder, whence the miracle?”
  14. CHAPTER TEN - “Even as Father, so the Son.”
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN - “For surely laughter masks a nervous soul.”
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE - “A gilded silver crucifix—yours, Duncan!”
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN - “Who, then, is the Defender?”
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN - “Defender’s Sign shall seal . . .”
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN - “You placed on his head, O Lord, a crown of precious stones. ...
  20. INDEX OF CHARACTERS
  21. INDEX OF PLACE-NAMES

There was a low murmur of discussion around the table, and Nigel reluctantly sat down, knowing that he had done all he could, for the moment. Jehana had really lashed out about Kelson’s absence. This was not starting out to be a good meeting at all.

Ewan looked helplessly around the table, then coughed nervously and bowed toward his queen.

“There are no questions, Your Majesty,” he said impassively. “If things are, indeed, as you say, I see no reason to delay any longer. As Hereditary Lord Marshal of the Royal Council of Gwynedd, I call this session of the Regency Council to order. Let Justice, tempered by Mercy, prevail in all our judgments.”

As he took his seat, grumbling under his breath, another murmur drifted around the table, to cease as Jehana rose at her place.

“My lords,” she began, her face terrible and pale against her widow’s weeds, “it distresses me to come before you like this today. It distresses me because I dislike admitting that my late husband and lord was not infallible as I had always believed him to be.

“For my Lord Brion made a dreadful mistake in his appointment of one of his Council lords. The man he appointed was and is a traitor and a blasphemer, and even now conspires against Brion’s legitimate heir. That is why Prince Kelson is not with us today.”

Her gaze swept the stunned faces before her, and her eyes took on a smoky darkness in the green.

“The man is well-known to you, my lords. He is, of course, the Duke of Corwyn, Lord General Alaric Anthony Morgan—the Deryni!”

CHAPTER THREE - “And I will give him the morning star.” REVELATIONS 2:28

CHAPTER THREE

“And I will give him the morning star.” REVELATIONS 2:28

AS he watched water bubble into the marble stoup he was filling, Monsignor Duncan McLain let his thoughts wander, sent his mind forth at full receptivity, searching.

Time was growing short. Alaric should have been here hours ago. And it worried him that he’d had no communication from his kinsman in so many weeks. Perhaps he wasn’t coming. Possibly, he had never even received word of Brion’s death, though the news had reached every corner of the Eleven Kingdoms by now, so far as Duncan knew.

As the water neared the top of the stoup, Duncan froze for the merest fraction of a second, then straightened quickly and set his water bottle on the floor.

Alaric was coming, and the young prince with him. And urgency was unmistakable in the growing rapport that intruded more and more now on Duncan’s senses.

He moved toward the open doorway of the west portal, smoothing his rumpled cassock with a quick, automatic motion of slim-fingered hands, then stepped into the sunlight and shaded his eyes against the midday glare.