Veruchia: Dumarest of Terra #8 (Unabridged‪)‬

"I want you to protect Veruchia," Selkas said. "I will pay you well."

"Protect her from what?" Dumarest looked at the modest appointments of the kitchen. "A woman alone, of no great means and no apparent position, who could possibly want to harm her?"

"There are two heirs to a fortune and one is ambitious. Is that reason enough?"

"Perhaps, if the fortune is large enough. And if the ambitious one is sure to get the other's legacy. Is it large?"

"Very large. The entire world in fact. Veruchia stands to inherit the whole of Dradea."

Somewhere on Dradea is an assassin who will stop at nothing. But Dumarest will take the assignment - for also on Dradea lies a clue to his obsessive quest for a planet that may be only a legend... a planet called Earth.