to Amarehk. It made him even more resentfulHuon had entrusted the Court of Sussex with an assignment rightfully his. Another score to settle, he told himself. He was glad now that he had bided his time and acceptedor appeared to have acceptedthe king’s orders. His opportunity, in fact, seemed to have been handed to him by the creature he now considered to be his arch enemy after Hawkmoon.

Meliadus pretended to think for a moment. “If you believe the Vultures to be untrustworthy, Monarch of Space and Time, then may I suggest I take with me their chief…?”

“Their chief? Asrovak Mikosevaar is deadkilled by Hawkmoon!”

“But his widow inherited the Constabulary …”

“Flana! A woman!”

“Aye, Great Emperor. She will control them.”

“I would not have thought that the Countess of Kanbery could control a rabbit, she is so vague, but if that is your wish, my lord, then so be it.”

For a further hour they discussed the details of the plan and the king gave Meliadus all possible information relating to Trott’s first expedition.

Then Meliadus left, his hidden eyes full of triumph.

Chapter Five

The Fleet at Deau-vere

OVERLOOKED BY THE turreted city of Deau-Vere, flanked on three sides by quays of scarlet stone, the small fleet lay at anchor in a livid sea. On the wide roofs of the buildings stood thousands of ornithopters, fancifully fashioned to resemble birds and mythical beasts, their wings folded; and in the streets below their pilots swaggered in masks of Crow and Owl, mingling with the sailors in their Fish and Sea Serpent helms and the infantry and cavalryPig, Skull, Hound, Goat and Bull who were preparing to cross the Channel not by ship but by the famed Silver Bridge Across The Sea which could be seen on the other side of the city, its great curve disappearing into the distance, all delicate and shining and loaded constantly with traffic coming to and from the Continent.

The men-o’-war in the harbour were crowded with soldiers clad in Wolf and Vulture helms and armed to the teeth with swords, spears, bows, quivers of arrows and flame lances and the flagship bore the banners both of the Grand Constable of the Order of the Wolf and of the Grand Constable of the Order of Vulture which had once been simply the Vulture Legion but which had been raised to the status of an Order by King Huon, for the fighting it had done in Europe and to honour the death of its bloodthirsty chieftain Asrovak Mikosevaar.