Thomas was awoken many hours later by Diana's soft voice as she whispered prayers to Caroli, begging for the strength and courage to face the trials that lay ahead. The wizard lifted his head to see over Jerry's night cap to see the two women wrapped in each other's arms, each drawing comfort from the presence of the other. His movement woke the nome, who looked miserably around at the luxurious room, and as Lirenna also stirred the two men pulled the covers up over their head while the women rose to get dressed.

     Just a few minutes later, while the women were averting their eyes as the men got dressed, a maid entered pushing a trolley with their breakfasts on it, confirming their suspicions that they were under constant observation. They thanked the maid, though, since the poor girl was probably as much a victim of Lord Basil’s cruel regime as they were, and when she’d gone they ate everything she’d brought them. Buttered rolls, bacon and eggs and a pot of hot coffee. They wanted to keep their strengths up in preparation for whatever lay ahead, all the while trying not to think of what, if anything, Shaun and Matthew were being given to eat. Their feelings of guilt as they enjoyed this five star treatment were almost too much to bear, and was only helped by the fact that there was nothing whatsoever they could do to change the situation.

     When they’d finished eating, they ventured a look out through the door into the corridor. They’d expected to find a couple of big, tough looking guards waiting outside to make sure they didn’t go wandering off, and so were surprised to see that the corridor was empty, with only the distant sound of female laughter to tell them that the mansion wasn’t completely deserted.

     “They don’t need to guard us,” said Lirenna unhappily. “They know we’re not going anywhere.” Thomas could only nod unhappily in agreement.

     The mansion was huge, as large as any nobleman’s mansion back on Tharia, with more bedchambers and bathrooms than they could count. They passed more maids bustling to and fro carrying breakfast trays and clean sheets. The questers tried to talk to them but they fearfully averted their eyes and hurried off. They also saw the occasional family member. Elegantly dressed men and women related to Lord Basil either by birth or marriage who carried themselves with authority and arrogance and sneered down at them as they went by. One of them, an especially unpleasant and arrogant young man in his twenties who identified himself as Cassius Konnen, turned out to be Lord Basil’s younger brother. He stopped them in the corridor to gaze with undisguised lust at Lirenna, whose half shayen beauty was unknown on Kronos. He questioned her at length about her life and interests while the others grew increasingly more afraid for her, but eventually he dismissed them and sent them away, perhaps having been warned by his Lordship that the new additions to his household were not to be molested. Thomas breathed a huge sigh of relief, but he knew that the danger wasn’t past and that she’d be at risk every second they were among these people.

     They came across a flight of steps in the main corridor and went down it to find themselves in an identical corridor in the floor below, the ‘ground’ floor. This was the business area of the mansion, and as they wandered around they came across a huge dining room with banqueting tables running around the walls. There were also smaller dining rooms for more informal meals, a library which, for once, held no interest for Thomas, kitchens, baths and even a full sized theatre complete with stage, curtains and hundreds of seats. The thing that surprised them more than anything else, though, was the chapel, which looked as though it must once have been magnificent but which had been neglected for generations and was now in a pretty poor state.

     In common with most Tharian temples, it had one main altar at its far end dedicated to its patron deity, in this case Conwar, God of Courage, and smaller altars along the other walls dedicated to the most popular and well known of the other Gods. A layer of dust lay over everything, though, telling them that the Konnens had long since abandoned their patron deity, who would undoubtedly have deplored their treatment of the questers. The bronze statue of the huge lion rearing up on its hind legs and clawing the air, the symbol of Conwar, had recently been cleaned and polished, though, and an area of floor in front of it was free of dust, indicating that somebody still came now and then to kneel before it, probably one of the servants. This discovery cheered them immensely and gave them hope that they might find friends even here. Perhaps even people willing to help them.

     Diana searched among the smaller alcoves and eventually found the one dedicated to Caroli, as dusty and neglected as the others. She carefully cleaned it up, rubbing it with a sleeve pulled down over her hand until the offering bowl and the silver caroli flower fixed to the wall above it gleamed with something approaching their original beauty. Then she knelt down in front of it and began praying.

     The others knew she’d be there for some time, even longer than she normally spent at her morning devotions, and so decided to take the opportunity to seek a bit of spiritual guidance and comfort themselves. Thomas looked around at all the altars, twenty five of them. Whose help do I need most right now? he asked himself. The answer came to him almost immediately, almost as if the Gods Themselves had replied to his question, and he turned to see the huge lion looking down at him, its fierce expression seeming to contain an element of pity and understanding. Suddenly, almost before he knew what he was doing, he was kneeling down before it and, too embarrassed and self conscious to speak aloud, he poured out his heart to the God of Courage in the privacy of his own head.

     He must have stayed there for some time, and when he stood again he was amazed by how much better he felt. Clear headed, confident and determined to do everything he could to ensure that no evil resulted from their temporary tour of duty in the service of the Konnens. He looked around to find Lirenna still busy praying at the altar of Ramthara, Goddess of Life, and Jerry kneeling before the altar of Tizar, Goddess of Wisdom. They were speaking aloud, although in a barely audible whisper and, knowing that they’d be as embarrassed as he to have their prayers overheard, he remained where he was until they and the cleric had finished. Then, after the other three had all bowed to the altar of Conwar, thanking Him for the use of His temple, they all left together, feeling much better than they had when they’d entered.

     That completed their tour of the mansion, except for a few rooms that were kept locked and, of course, the dungeons, and now Diana strode up to one of the house guards standing on duty on the ground floor. “I want to see two of your prisoners in the dungeons," she said. "My brothers Shaun and Matthew.”

     “I'm sorry, mistress,” replied the guard, more courteously than any of House Konnen’s other soldiers they’d met so far. “Nobody sees the prisoners without his Lordship’s permission.”

     “Well then, go and get his permission,” said the cleric angrily, “and tell him I’m not healing anyone until I get proof they’re still alive. And tell him I want to visit them twice a day, to make sure nothing happens to them.”

     The two guards looked at each other. The other guard smirked in amusement but the one who’d spoken first looked unhappy, as if he didn’t like the situation any more than they did. “I’m sorry, mistress,” he said again, “but we’re not allowed to leave our posts while we’re on duty. You’ll have to take it up with his Lordship yourselves.”

     Diana slumped in disappointment, clearly seeing that he meant what he said and that any further argument was pointless. Thomas was intrigued by the guard’s attitude, though. “You’re different from the other soldiers we’ve seen so far,” he said. “Not quite as unpleasant.”

     The guard looked at the other guard, who was looking back suspiciously. “I’m not a Konnen’s man,” he said. “I’m a Hewlak man, one of the Hewlak men on loan to the Konnens in accordance with the alliance treaty. I drew guard duty because of my prowess with the sword, his Lordship having many enemies.”

     “Is Hewlak another noble family, like the Konnens?”

     “Aye, if ‘noble’ is the right word to apply to the Konnens.”

     “Watch your tongue, Descius!” warned the other guard angrily. “You’d do well to remember his Lordship’s views on disrespectful language. You’re not so valuable that he wouldn’t throw you in the dungeons yourself for a few weeks.” He then turned to the questers. “Get out of here before we take your insolence out on your friends.”

     Diana paled with fear and Descius grew red with rage, but he said nothing. “Come on,” said the cleric, “We’d better get out of here.” The questers turned and hurried off down the corridor, leaving the guards behind.

     “So there are other noble families, apart from the Konnens,” said Thomas thoughtfully. “I wonder how many.”

     “At least three,” said Jerry. “The Konnens and the Hewlaks, and I’d bet that their enemies, the Traldians, are another noble family. There may be more, as well.”

     “If all the Hewlaks are like him, then I think I prefer them to the Konnens,” said Lirenna. “Pity we bumped into the wrong noble family.”

     “If they’re allied, they would probably have turned us over to them anyway,” said Thomas. “It’s their enemies I’m interested in, though. We’ve got to find out more about them.”

     As he was saying this, they came back to the entrance hall; the large chamber which contained the mansion’s main entrance. It was a two storey room with a balcony half way up the walls at the level of the first floor and a pair of magnificent sweeping staircases leading up to it so that people entering the mansion could, if they chose, go straight up to the first floor. Ornate crystal chandeliers with glowing globes of marble hung from the ceiling and the walls were adorned with tapestries and paintings depicting scenes from old Agglemon, full of Imperial glory. One painting in particular showed one of the Agglemonian Emperors sitting on a huge throne in an audience chamber surrounded by Generals, aristocrats and courtiers, all looking up at him in awe and reverence, and the Tharians weren’t too surprised to see that he bore a striking resemblance to Lord Basil.

     The huge double doors leading out into the forecourt and the rest of the city stood wide open, allowing the common folk outside a clear view of how their rulers lived, but there was no risk to security because a dozen burly soldiers stood on guard in the hall. There were more standing just outside the doors, they saw. At the top of the wide flight of steps leading down to the general floor level of the city.

     The Tharians looked at each other and began to move nervously towards the doors. They got as far as the very threshold itself where they could see the forecourt beyond, full of ordinary citizens busily going about their business and bustling to and fro through the tunnel streets leading to other parts of the city. Before they could cross the threshold, though, they were stopped by the guards and told in no uncertain terms to go back.

     “Well, at least we know the limits of our freedom now,” said Thomas as, with heavy hearts, they took one last look at the forecourt and turned back.