He should have learned that lesson, having been imprisoned for so long and so cruelly by the Elders of Gathandria. The recent despair he has been mired in was harsh but brief, and now Gelahn’s plans are sharp and clear once more. He has swept through Tregannon’s mind, breaching what little defences he had, and found nothing but fear, hatred and a hard-won respect. More than all, however, at the centre of his thoughts, the Lammas Land’s Overseer is still convinced that obedience to the mind-executioner is the best way of saving his people. That will be Ralph Tregannon’s downfall, because Gelahn has already decided that once the wretched scribe is dead and Gathandria is his, then he has no more need of the Overseer. Let the fool perish with his erstwhile lover. The two of them deserve nothing less. He smiles and gazes round the master bedroom of Tregannon’s castle. He has taken it for his own and the choice pleases him. Tregannon himself has had to move into a sparsely furnished guest room.
