Perhaps there would be an advantage to her becoming Queen Empress, then? That way she could choose her husband and that husband would be, of course, D’Averc. She could pardon him for his crimes against Granbretan, perhaps even pardon his companionsHawkmoon and the rest.

But no, Meliadus might agree to D’Avrec’s reprievehe would not agree to sparing all the rest.

Perhaps her scheme was foolish. She sighed. She did not altogether care. There was even doubt that D’Averc was still alive. In the meantime she saw no reason for not taking at least a passive part in Meliadus’s treason, although even she had some inkling of the awful consequences of failure, of the magnitude of Meliadus’s scheme. He must be desperate indeed to consider overthrowing his hereditary ruler. In all the two thousand years of his rule, no Granbretanian had previously dared think of deposing Huon. Flana did not even know if it were possible.

She shuddered. If she were made Queen, she would not choose immortalityparticularly if it meant becoming a wizened thing like Huon.

Chapter Two

Conversation Beside The

Mentality Machine

KALAN OF VITALL fingered his serpent mask with pale, old hands on which the veins stood out, resembling, themselves, so many curling blue snakes. Ahead was the main laboratorya great, low-ceilinged hall in which many experiments were being performed by men dressed in the uniforms and masks of the Order of the Serpent, of which Baron Kalan was Grand Constable. Strange machines gave off stranger sounds and stenches and miniature coloured lightnings flashed and cracked around them so that the entire area resembled some hellish workshop presided over by devils. Here and there human beings of both sexes and varying ages had been strapped out or fitted into machines as the scientists tested their experiments on the human mind and body. Most had been silenced in some way, but a few screamed or moaned or cried out in peculiar insane voices, often to the annoyance of the distracted scientists who would stuff rags into the mouths or sever vocal chords or find some other swift method of achieving a measure of quiet while they worked.

Kalan put one hand on Meliadus’s shoulder and pointed to a machine standing unattended nearby.

“You’ll remember the mentality machine? The one we used to test Hawkmoon’s mind?”

“Aye,” Meliadus grumbled. “That’s the one led you to believe we could trust Hawkmoon.”

“We reckoned without factors we could not anticipate,” Kalan said by way of defence. “Well, that is not why I mentioned my little invention. I was asked to use it this morning.”

“By whom?”

“By the King Emperor himself. He summoned me to the Throne Room and told me he wished to test a member of the Court.”

“Who?”

“Who d’you think, my lord?”

“Myself!” Meliadus spoke with outrage.

“Exactly. I think he suspects your loyalty in some way, Lord Baron …”

“How much, do you think?”