The courtyard was almost deserted, now, and the massive presence of the basilica loomed dark against the night sky. Far in the distance, they could hear the cathedral bells striking Compline, last of the canonical hours. And the last stragglers were filing from the lighter square of the basilica door across the way. Here and there, soldiers crossed the square in twos and threes, sometimes holding sputtering torches aloft in the fine drizzle, but more often just hurrying along, eager to get where they were going, in out of the cold and wet.

The two waited there in the shadows for perhaps five minutes, until the courtyard was nearly deserted. Then Morgan took Kelson’s arm and guided him around the perimeter of the square to the portico. They waited there for what seemed to Kelson like an interminable time, then slipped unobtrusively through one of the side doors and into the narthex.

The silent church was deserted now, as they had hoped it would be. The darkness was broken only by the low, pale wash of votive candles, splashing their ruby and sapphire glows over the stone floors and dark stained glass.

In the sanctuary, a single crimson vigil lamp burned steadily in its place of honor, casting a rosy glow over the entire chancel area. As the two moved quietly down the side aisle, a lone, black-clad figure detached itself from the shadows in the chancel, bowed once before the high altar, and came to meet them in the transept.

“Any trouble?” Duncan whispered as he led them to the study and closed the door.

“None worth mentioning,” Morgan replied. He crossed to the curtained window and peered outside intently for a long moment, then came back and sat down at the table in the center of the room. Kelson, too, took a seat and regarded his elders apprehensively. Duncan did not sit but instead took a heavy wool cloak from the chair at his desk and flung it around his shoulders.

“You might as well make yourselves comfortable for a few minutes. We’re going to use an old Deryni Transfer Portal to get to the cathedral from here—left over from the days when being Deryni was a respectable occupation.” He struggled with the clasp of the cloak for a moment, then mastered it. “I want to check out the other end before the three of us go through. With our phenomenal luck, someone would be in the sacristy just as we winked into existence. And the result then is not a happy thought.”

He crossed to the prie-dieu in the corner and touched a series of hidden studs along its surface, and a new section of the wall opened to its right, no more than four feet wide and two feet deep, as high as a man.

With a reassuring wave of his hand, Duncan stepped into the cubicle—and disappeared.

Kelson was amazed.