In one golden chair sat a woman, clad from head to foot in rich brocade and wearing a silver mask, delicately fashioned to resemble a heron. Next to her sat a figure dressed in bulky black leather, his shoulders crowned by a huge mask representing a black, snarling wolf. He inserted a golden tube into his goblet and stuck the other end through a tiny aperture in the mask, sucking slowly at the wine.

There was silence between the pair and the only sound came from beyond the verandahfrom the wake of the barges slapping at the wall, from a distant tower as someone screamed and laughed at once, from an ornithopter high above, its metal wings flapping slowly as it sought to land on the flat top of one of the towers.

And then, at length, the figure in the wolf mask began to speak in a low, thrilling voice. The other figure did not move its head or appear to hear but continued to stare out over the blood red water whose strange colour was attributed to the effluvia which poured from outlets near its bed.

“You are under some slight suspicion yourself, you know, Flana. King Huon thinks you might have had something to do with the mysterious madness which overwhelmed the guards the night the Asiacommunistans escaped. Doubtless I am not helping my own cause by seeing you thus, but I think only of our beloved homelandonly of the glory of Granbretan.”

The speaker paused as if expecting a reply. He received none.

“It is plain, Flana, that the present situation of the Court is not in the best interests of the Empire. I delight in eccentricity, of course, as a true son of Granbretan, but there is a difference between eccentricity and senility. You take my meaning?”

Flana Mikosevaar said nothing.

“I am suggesting,” continued the other, “that we need a new ruleran Empress. There is only one alive who is

a direct blood relative of Huononly one all would accept as rightful liege; legal inheritor to the throne of the Dark Empire.”

Again no reply.

The figure in the wolf mask bent forward. “Flana?”

The heron mask turned to regard the snarling wolf visage.

“Flanayou could be Queen-Empress of Granbretan. With myself as Regent, we could ensure the security of our nation and our territories, make Granbretan greater make the whole world ours!”

“And what would be done with the world once we owned it, Meliadus?” For the first time Flana Mikosevaar spoke.

“Enjoy it, Flana! Use it!”

“Cannot one tire of rape and murder? Of torture and destruction?”