Lodderick repairs the God-King’s sun boat spacecraft and as a reward the crew are given exalted positions in the king’s court. Lodderick and Saxon speculate that the Martians do not know how the sun boat works, and consider it magic. They conclude it was built by someone else. Nofret explains that the God-King is about to celebrate his jubilee, where he must perform a number of tasks correctly, or be put to death and replaced with a new king. Chipper accidentally blinds himself with a sunstone ankh whilst recharging some solar batteries, and Saxon devises a plan to escape during the jubilee celebrations. The God-King fails one of the tasks and dies, scuppering Saxon’s plan to escape, and the crew realise that, as exalted court officials, they too must be put to death, to serve the king in the afterlife.
