Kronmir, despite a shimmering aethereal field of forbidden sorcery that blocked every spectrum, leaned close and whispered.

“We are all agreed that Master Smythe has not been particularly forthcoming about our adversaries. Yes?” the master spy asked.

Gabriel did not enjoy being patronized any more than anyone else, but he waved the man on.

“We are under the impression that the Necromancer was the adversary in Antica Terra. But information is coming to light to challenge that. One possibility is that the Necromancer represents . . . rebel odine, rebelling against the will, by which we mean the ‘main’ Odine . . .”

Gabriel leaned forward. “Is that even possible?” he asked.

Kronmir glanced at the surrounding black bubble. “Magister Mortirmir says it is possible,” he said.

Gabriel sat back and swallowed a curse.

Kronmir shook his head. “I think there’s another player,” he said. “I no longer think that the Patriarch of Rhum is a tool of the Necromancer. I have a little information on Lucius di Bicci now; may I summarize?”

“Be my guest,” Gabriel said.

“Bicci was a professional soldier. He was in orders as an archimandrite and he may have been a monk. Some years ago, he went east to find Holy Ierusalem. When he returned, he was a changed man—religious, charismatic. And he had arcane powers.”

“Possessed?” Gabriel asked.

Kronmir shook his head. “Hermetical powers are so much rarer here than in Alba, my lord. Magister Petrarcha; Al Rashidi; the famed Yahadut astrologer, Bin Maymum; a dozen in a generation, with ten times our population. And nothing like our hedge witches.”

“Or our Mag,” Gabriel said with a grim smile.

Kronmir bowed his head in assent.

“So?” Gabriel asked. “The point?”

“Your Grace, the point is that we might have three or thirty adversaries here. The Necromancer made the first move for the gate. I wonder if he was the best player? Or merely the least subtle?” Kronmir narrowed his eyes. “Or the most desperate?”

“He’s not done yet,” Gabriel said.

“Admitted. But if the Necromancer represents a rebel faction in the Odine complex-mind . . .”

“What does that mean, Jules?” Gabriel asked.

“That every worm is part of a greater . . . assembly.”

Gabriel sat back. “Clearly . . .” he said. “A single will.”

“Except that Mortirmir has this theory of rebel wills,” Kronmir said. “And perhaps it needs to be said that the evidence of the past . . . is very strong that the Necromancer is the one who looked for . . . evidence. About the workings of the gates, their locations, their interrelations, if I may coin a phrase.”

Gabriel digested this in silence.

“If all these monstrous powers were mere states playing the game of kings, I would guess, based on the evidence I see, that the Necromancer was never a lone player. He had an ally with whom he intended to work. Always. May I speculate?”

“What else do I pay you for?” Gabriel asked.