The house Duke Placedo, the summer house, as Annika was later to learn, was an impressive place. It reared up before them atop a hill, surrounded on all sides by groves of orange trees and carefully tended grape vines. Peasants toiled both in the orchards and tending herds or large creatures with thick wooly pelts with which Annika was not familiar. There was no central village as these were serfs of the estate rather than town folk, though there was a wine press and a water mill as well as several other communal outbuildings mostly clustered along a small stream that wound its way down to the bay the house overlooked. The house itself was surrounded by a wall of worked stone, though the wall was somewhat lower on the hill than the house so as not to obstruct its view of the scenic bay beyond, the structure itself was of warm stone with many wings, each ending in a large rounded turret and roofed with tile of a glazed terracotta. Annika didn't doubt that the house was defensible, being located on a hill that formed a slight promontory overlooking the bay and approachable only via a long winding track paved with stone. Generations of horses had worn a slight declivity in the track  that made it feel narrower than it was, though attacking enemies trying to run up hill towards the walls would have found the place narrow enough in truth. 

Cleo his guard somewhat lowered, appeared to be talking enthusiastically about hawking with Orion, a topic in which Orion was either interested or at least knowledgeable enough to fake interest for the Hazat's benefit. None of Cleo's companions appeared to be taking much of an interest in their strange guests, other than to occasionally glare at Ragnar who kept a look of haughty contempt on his brutish features. Only one of them appeared to be of Cleo's rank, a younger cousin from what Annika had overheard and he appeared to be keeping his distance from the new comers. The others were probably minor nobility, the kind of hangers own who inevitably attached themselves to their betters.

"Why don't you want them to know who you are?" Annika asked Filenia as they approached the gates of the wall. The gates were made of iron wood and sported a massive symbol of House Hazat. The stone towers flanking it were low and ancient in construction, though the stubby barrels of automatic machine guns projecting from the loopholes suggested that they had their uses in modern times also.

"None of your business priest," Filenia hissed in arrogant disgust at having been addressed by a lowly member of the clergy.

"Ah but it is my business, as Sir Pentecost's confessor it is my business to shield his soul from unwholesome influences, which might include you," she responded calmly. Filenia's face darkened with rage but she obviously didn't want to risk a scene here an now.

"I will speak to Sir Orion about it and not his lap dog," she snapped, walking away from the priestess before Annika could press her with further questions.