While trying to protect a deserter who offered to name her father's murderers, Tessa is forced to reveal the hiding place of a young Indian shaman trying to retrieve a gold mask stolen from his father's burial site. The Queen of Swords manages to rescue both men, but the deserter decides it would be more profitable to reveal the Queen's identity to Colonel Montoya rather than provide Tessa with the information she has already paid for.
—David Bassler