Mordrin becomes obsessed with the idea of destroying the leader of all the resistance to him, and when Gervase is identified as Owen's son, Mordrin threatens to execute Julia unless he denounces his father and joins the Knights of God. After he agrees, Mordrin uses mind-altering drugs to place the post-hypnotic suggestion in Gervase's mind that he should seek out and destroy the Prior's "greatest enemy." He is then released, ostensibly to be allowed to find Julia, who has escaped from the camp. Unknown to Gervase, Mordrin needs Julia alive as well, as she is the daughter of Brigadier Clarke, the senior officer in the Coldstream Guards, the last remnant of the British Army, which has been allowed to survive for ceremonial purposes, all other units having been absorbed into the Knights. Meanwhile, Hugo plots to overthrow Mordrin and take power himself, and sends his own agents to intercept and kill Gervase.