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Jupiter hung overhead in the thin blue of the sky, an impossibly large ball of colour. It was almost noon.

Chris had been telling Genevieve about some of his adventures as they worked their way through a maze, but she seemed even more interested in life in the lower levels. It wasn’t just polite interest, either: it was the same curiosity as had driven Chris’s mother to watch endless docudramas about life at Court.

Now she had stopped at a tall hedge, covered with soft red flowers. The leaves were hexagonal, waxy and dark. The flowers 256

were the colour of wine, the petals geometric, complex, bunched into angular fists.

‘Stay there,’ she said. He stood on the path, obediently, as she stepped up to the hedge. She cupped one of the flowers in her hand, held it there for a moment.

‘Now you try,’ she said.

Chris peered at the bush, hesitant. ‘What does it do?’ he said.

‘Go on,’ she said. ‘Hold one of the flowers.’

He reached out and cupped one of the roses in his hand.

It uncurled, slowly, a silky movement across his skin. He watched, half expecting the thing to bite him, but it just opened and opened until it filled his palm.

‘See,’ said Genevieve. ‘It only does that with people who’ve got some latent psi ability.’

Chris looked up at her. ‘What?’

‘Not full-blown psis, it just ignores them. But it can tell if you’ve got a little bit of ability, or just the genes.’ She stroked the open flower in his palm. ‘No one knows why.’

‘It’s beautiful,’ he said.

‘Lady Genevieve,’ said a voice behind them. ‘It would be a good idea if you went into the palace now.’

They both looked up. A woman in white was watching them from the path. A moment later, a dozen security guards stepped out from another pathway in the maze.

‘Iaomnet,’ said Chris, staring at the woman.

‘What’s going on?’ said Genevieve.

‘Won’t you come with us, Mr Cwej?’ said Iaomnet. Her voice was like an angel choir, dozens of voices coming out of her mouth. ‘It’s almost time for the conjunction.’

‘Everything,’ said the Doctor.

Walid was giving him a polite but sceptical look. ‘I’m not sure I understand, Doctor.’

‘Have you heard of a covert organization calling itself the Brotherhood?’ said the Doctor.

‘I know the name,’ said Walid. ‘Are they real, then? I thought they’d been dreamt up by some of the more paranoid investigators.’ There’s that word again, thought the Doctor. The 257

Adjudicators have been assuring the Court for years that the Brotherhood don’t exist.’

No wonder Armand had been let off so lightly. ‘Oh, they exist.

It’s my belief they were behind the attack on you at my trial. The second expedition to Iphigenia was a secret mission for the Brotherhood.’

Walid consulted his DataStream again, running his thumbnail across the top of his moustache. ‘I see we had an Imperial agent aboard. She seems to have disappeared.’

‘Find her,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’ll confirm what I’m telling you.’

‘Doctor,’ said Walid, ‘if I’m going to keep the Empire safe from this threat, you’re going to have to tell me what it is. I need to know everything you know about it.’

‘I can’t tell you,’ said the Doctor. ‘Not precisely.’

‘Doctor,’ said Walid again. ‘I need to know everything you know about it.’

The Time Lord looked up from the fern he’d been examining.

Professor Martinique was standing a little way down the path, hands clasped in front of him, his face perfectly blank.

‘Good grief,’ said the Doctor.

Walid was looking at him with amusement. ‘You look surprised, Doctor.’

The Time Lord shrugged in irritation. ‘I didn’t think you’d be so unsubtle.’

Walid shrugged. ‘I’m the Emperor now,’ he said. ‘I can do whatever I like.’ He consulted his DataStream. ‘The conjunction occurs in ten minutes,’ he told Martinique. ‘You’d better hurry.’

Chris knew the routine: he expected a dungeon and fists and needles. Instead, they led him through the maze, two guards behind him and two in front, the hedges high on either side.

Funny, this wasn’t half