2

He had heard him approaching of course. The fear and loathing and respect and awe creating the unmistakable smell of the Kurashi caste. Still, he sat rigid and unmoving, other than for his eyes across the scroll surface until he heard the coded knock at the back of the palanquin. Three short, one long: the request for permission to approach and speak.

"Speak." His voice low, gentle, the picture of benevolent power. "Pardon, you Grace, we arrive at Oasis Divers soon. It shall be no more than a quarter hour yet." The Cardinal nodded slightly. Acknowledgement, permission and dismissal in one. The captain backed away, unseen, silent in his body armor, like another skin upon his powerful frame.

Frederick looked down. He had completed the appointed prayers. He re-rolled the scroll, carefully inseting its ribbon of precious crimson and put it back into the cabinet. he folded his hands. The overly ornate and costly ring of his office reflecting what rays of the sun could yet reach over the cliffs. One. Two. Three. He sighed, then kicked his pedicured foot at the still inert body at his left. "Wake up. Get dressed. The green." Black eyes in an oval face turned toward him. His August Majestery Frederick Cardinal Constantine Alejandro Echeberria did not return the gaze. He turned his head toward the mountains on his right. And thought about tomorrow's business. How tiresome this tiny progrom would be. Still, he would extract as much benefit as he could from the local Tetrarch. It would be amusing, mildly, to manipulate him. He wondered with a corner of his mind whether he would take the title of this wretched valley for his own. It might be useful.