please, while I give our guests a brief tour of the
dungeon?"

"Of course," Odeon replied. The two left, and Cortin turned back to
the Imperials.

"I was making an assumption perhaps I shouldn't," she said. "It's your
choice to accompany us or not, Lieutenant DarElwyn."

The Sandeman bowed. "I would be honored to do so, Excellency."

Something in his tone made Medart glance at him, then do a quick
surface scan. Cortin's unconscious Talent had done its job; the
warrior was thoroughly in love with the High King's Inquisitor. That,
Medart thought, was a complication he didn't need--but it was also one
he couldn't do anything about, so disregard it for now. Just make a
point of getting hold of DeLayne as soon as he could find a reasonable
excuse to be alone.

"Let's go, then." Cortin led them outside and to the rear of the
Lodge, where a cave-like entrance led underground. Above it was
carved, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

"Dante's Inferno," Medart commented. "I take it, then, that this is
the prisoners' entrance?"

"Right," Cortin agreed. "It isn't really Hell, of course, but it is
the anteroom to it for most. A few escape that by repentance, but they
still have to pay the worldly penalty for their crimes. What happens
after that is between them and God; all I can do is administer the
Sacraments and finish my work. If it's an interrogation, though, I'll
kill one who repents as soon as he's given me any information he has."

"You don't even try to save them?" Medart asked.

"Their bodies, no," Cortin said, leading them down the stairs. "I told
you, I get the stubborn ones. By the time I break them, forcing them
to live longer than necessary would be a torment even Cortin the Bitch
doesn't care to inflict."

At the end of a short passage, she unlocked a massive door and gestured
them through, into a dimly-lit corridor with doors along both sides,
some with small lights turned on above them. "These are the holding
cells, under constant monitoring from the Detention Center and periodic
monitoring by my people. Troops from the Center take care of the
prisoners, then remove bodies when Lt. Bain and I are done. Or our
colleagues, who're free to use any suites we aren't, if they have an
overflow."

Halfway down the passage, she unlocked another door. The corridor this
one led to was wider and brightly lit, much like a hospital corridor;
she led them straight across, to a door marked "Int