The Ruling Lord Aurum has brought you this,' said his father's voice.

The mass of his body swung round and Carnelian could see the hand held out in the firelight. He approached it. On the palm there was something like a hole. He reached out and took it. It was hard and warm. A ring of iron. A blood-ring that entitled him to cast votes in the elections of the Masters. He turned it in the firelight. Around the band's edge were the raised glyphs for his names and the spots and bars of numbers.

'He was given it by the Wise who had it set aside for you.' He gave his son a tender look that Carnelian did not see. The ring had him wholly in its spell. Its symbols were in mirrored form so that it could be used as a seal with both ink and wax. The eleven numbers confirmed the fractional tainting of his blood. He knew that it should be put on the smallest finger of the right hand. As the right hand signified the world of light so its smallest finger signified purity. It was too big.

There is no time for proper ritual. Even the preliminaries take many days. But there is much that is not essential. It is the Examination and the Rite of Blood that are the very nub and core of it.'

Carnelian looked up warmly at his father, then froze when he saw Aurum's face floating beyond his father's shoulder. Turning round he saw that Vennel was there too, his pupils the merest spots, and Jaspar with his idolic smile. Carnelian felt betrayed, as if his father had led him into an ambush.

Suth saw the change come across his son's face and said quickly, 'Witnesses are essential.'

The Masters circled Carnelian like sleek predators.

'Shall we begin?' said Aurum. His voice reverberated round the chamber. 'Lord Jaspar, it might please you to read the rings.'

Jaspar gave a little bow and accepted something from Aurum's hand.

The blood-rings of the Lord Suth and of his Lady wife, now long expired,' said Aurum. He turned to Vennel. 'Perhaps, my Lord, you would care to read the scars.'

'My hands do not have the seeing of the Wise.'

'Nevertheless, my Lord, we wish to be certain of impartiality, is that not so?'

'Oh, very well!'

Vennel began to move round behind Carnelian who, alarmed, turned to keep the Master in sight.

'Keep still, my son,' his father said.

Carnelian stopped turning and felt Vennel come up behind him.

The robe must be opened for your taint scars to be read as proof of your parentage.'

Carnelian fought a grimace as he felt the robe begin to slip off as Vennel undid the hooks down his back. He hunched his shoulders so that the robe would not fall to the ground.

'Exquisite,' he heard Jaspar say.

He closed his eyes. His perception was all in the skin of his back. He could not suppress a shudder when he felt Vennel's hands on him. Fingers sliding down the right of his spine, feeling the bumps and ridges that had been put there by the Wise at his birth, with a scarring comb.

'Zero, zero… three, aaah…' Vennel was reading out his father's blood-taint, 'fifteen, ahhm… nineteen, another fifteen.. . ten… two, no, three, now two, a final ten.'

'Is that what is inscribed on Lord Suth's ring?' asked Aurum.

'Exactly,' said Jaspar.

Carnelian felt the fingers lift away. He waited, grimacing. Vermel's hand was there again, to the left of his spine.

'Zero, zero, zero, two, one… three… nineteen, aaah… nine, six… teen, aaah… seventeen and a final… ten.'

The eleven fractions of his mother's taint. 'Confirmed,' said Jaspar. 'You can do the boy up, Vennel.' 'I certainly shall not. Am I now to become a body slave?'

'I will do it, my Lords,' said Suth.

Carnelian's shoulder was squeezed and the robe quickly hooked up. He turned and glared at the other Masters. Vennel was rubbing his hands as if he had touched something unclean. Jaspar was smiling. Aurum was as impassive as marble.

The Rite of Blood,' he said.

He came towards him until Carnelian was enveloped in his odour of lilies. He held out a vast leaf of a hand. An oval bowl lay along the palm, of jade so thin it might have been water.

This is the edge of the night,' intoned his father. Carnelian saw that his left hand held a razor of obsidian like a mussel shell. It sliced into the palm of his other hand. The cut beaded blood all along its length. The bowl in Aurum's hand was there to catch each drop.

Thou art my son, dewed from my flesh, Chosen. The ichor of the Two will burn thy veins; the same that once gushed from the Turtle's rending.' His father dipped his finger in the bowl. 'With this fire I anoint thee. In the names of He-whose-face-is-spiralling-jade.' He daubed a vertical stroke upon Carnelian's forehead. 'In the unspoken names of He-whose-face-is-the-mirror-in-the-night.' Dipping his finger once more, his father applied a second stroke beside the first.

Then Aurum's hand offered Carnelian the bowl. He stared at it, not knowing what it was he was supposed to do.

'Drink now thy father's blood that its fire might ignite thine to its own… fierce… burning,' said Aurum.

When Carnelian took the bowl he could not avoid touching the Master's stone skin. He looked up at his face. It seemed fashioned from dead bone with only two points of living light. Carnelian resisted its menace and drained the bowl with a single gulp, grimacing at the metal taste.

'On this day thou art come of age,' his father said.

Truly thou art chosen a Lord of the Hidden Land,' the others chanted, then they glimmered away like a tide on a moonless night leaving Carnelian angry, amazed, uneasy that he was now fully one of them.

'Soon the fire will begin its burning in your veins,' sang Vennel.

'Some days it will course like naphtha in a flame-pipe,' Aurum growled.

'It is one of the myriad burdens that we bear,' said Jaspar.

The price that must be paid for near divinity,' said Aurum. .'Nothing is without cost,' said Vennel.

Suth allowed his hand to brush Carnelian's. 'Yet, for many years, I have felt no burning.'

'How so?' said Vennel, his eyes frost.

Suth shrugged. 'Perhaps so far from its source its vigour fades.'

'Perhaps,' said Aurum. 'Perhaps.'

Tell me, my Lord Suth…' said Vennel.

Suth raised his eyebrows.

'Why did you have us perform this ritual here and now?'

'My son was past his time, and we had the ring here…'

'Aaah, the ring. My Lord Aurum was so thoughtful to remember to bring the ring. But still, are you sure that the Wise will consider it valid?'

The ritual had my Lords as witness,' said Suth.

'Are we qualified?'

'Our journey will be perilous. The awakening of his blood might afford my son some protection.'

Vermel nodded sagely. 'I see. And I suppose this coming of age could have nothing to do with the fact that the Lord Carnelian is now entitled to cast his twenty votes.'

'I do not entirely comprehend your meaning, my Lord.'

'My meaning, Great Lord, is that with your son and one other of us,' he glanced at Aurum, 'you can henceforth determine every decision that we make in formal conclave.'

That presupposes that my son will always choose to vote with me.'

'My Lord,' Carnelian said. His stomach knotted when his father turned towards him. 'My Lord, this conflict is unnecessary since I have decided that I shall stay with our household and follow after. It is for the best. I could be nothing but an encumbrance to you.'

His father's face hardened. He turned to the others. 'Great Lords, it would seem that I have need to talk with my son. It would be unforgivable that we should presume so much upon your patience, my Lords, as to expect you to stand by while we resolve a matter internal to our House. The baran is ready now. If the wind be not against us we shall depart on the morrow. I am sure my Lords must have numerous arrangements to make.'