Bishop Edmund Loris was aware that many would regard what he was about to do as treason. He did not. As bishop and priest, he was duty-bound to root out evil and corruption. And the source of corruption lay inthe devil's brood called the Deryni.

They must be eradicated- every last one of them. And though Loris' mind recoiled at the thought of raising hand against an anointed king- Kelson, whom he himself had crowned- the thought of not acting against a servant of Darkness on the throne repelled him more.

For the sake of every soul in Gwynedd, the Deryni heresy must be stamped out- and Edmund Loris would use whatever means necessary to accomplish that end.