As Meliadus entered the room, whose roof seemed so tall as to be one with the heavens and whose walls were so distant as to seem to encompass an entire country, his way was blocked by a double line of guards. These guards, members of the King Emperor’s own Order of the Mantis and wearing the great jewelled insect-masks belonging to that Order, seemed reluctant to let him pass through.

Meliadus controlled himself with difficulty and waited while the ranks drew back to admit him. Then he strode on into the hall of blazing colour, whose galleries were hung with the gleaming banners of Granbretan’s five hundred greatest families and whose walls were encrusted with a mosaic of precious gems depicting Granbretan’s might and history, along an aisle made up on either side by a thousand mantis warriors, each statue-still, towards the Throne Globe more than a mile distant

Halfway to the Globe, he abased himself in a somewhat peremptory fashion.

The solid black sphere seemed to shudder momentarily as Baron Meliadus rose, then the black became shot through with veins of scarlet and white which slowly spread through the darker shade until it had vanished altogether. The mixture like milk and blood swirled and cleared to reveal a tiny foetus-like shape curled in the centre of the sphere. From this twisted figure peered eyes that were hard, black and sharp, containing an oldindeed, an immortalintelligence. This was Huon, King Emperor of Granbretan and the Dark Empire, Grand Constable of the Order of the Mantis, wielder of absolute power over tens of millions of souls, the ruler who would live forever and in whose name Baron Meliadus had conquered the whole of Europe and beyond.

The voice of a golden youth now issued from the Throne Globe (the golden youth to whom it had belonged had been dead a thousand years):

“Ah, our impetuous Baron Meliadus…”

Again Meliadus bowed and murmured. “Your servant. Prince of All.”

“And what have you to report to us, hasty lord?”

“Success, Great Emperor. Proof of my suspicions…”

“You have found the missing emissaries from Asiacommunista?”

“I regret not, Noble Sire…”

Baron Meliadus did not know that it had been in this disguise that Hawkmoon and D’Averc had penetrated the capital of the Dark Empire. Only Flana Mikosevaar, who had helped them escape, knew that.

“Then why are you here, baron?”

“I discovered that Hawkmoon, whom I insist is still the greatest threat to our security, has been visiting our island. I went to Yel and there found him and the traitor Huillam D’Averc, as well as the magician Mygan of Llandar. They know the secret of travelling through the dimensions.” Baron Meliadus did not mention that they had escaped from him. “Before we could apprehend them they vanished before our eyes. Mighty Monarch, if