When we reach the antechamber I pause, taking three long steadying breaths. I must not let my nervousness show. Not now, not here. The great double doors, with their striking embellishment of the giant Montgomery dragonfly glittering in the torchlight, stand closed, waiting. As custom demands, I stay still and silent, using nothing but my own will and my capacity for magic to slowly alert the coven to my presence. At length, the chamber on the other side of the doors falls into silence, too, save for approaching footsteps. There is a jarring clunk as the lock and handle are turned, and the doors slowly open. On the threshold stands a stout figure dressed in a robe of fiery reds and oranges, worked in exquisite needlepoint to cover the brocade that swings from his broad shoulders. He leans heavily on the ancient oak staff that he holds in his left hand. However contorted his voice might be, however much his mask obscures his face, there can be no mistaking the sturdy physique and arthritic gait of Lord Grimes, Master of the Chalice, stalwart friend of the late duke, and skillful necromancer. The sight of him calms me a little. I know I can rely on his unquestioning support, now and in the years ahead. He greets me with a low, if rather stiff bow, before stepping aside, indicating the chamber with a sweep of his arm.

“Enter and welcome, child,” he says.

I step forward, my heartbeating loudly. I am aware of Violet slipping into the chamber behind me to take up her place in the ranks. A dash of darkness to my right gives away Iago’s entrance. The Great Chamber boasts a higher roof than the catacomb it adjoins. The curved ceiling could have given the feeling of a cave, but such is the extent of the decoration that it is impossible to think of it as such. The brick and stone from which it was constructed have been plastered and painted the Prussian blue of a Nordic summer night sky. The joins of the rafters which crisscross it are studded with carved bosses, painted in rich colors, each depicting the symbols of a coven family—the Montgomery dragonfly, the Harcourt viper, the Grimes owl, and so on.