The Rings of Salammis

Veglia - Part 3

     "So what's the situation?" demanded Saturn.

     He and Seskip Tonn were in the upper guardroom, near the top of the long, twisting flight of steps that led down to the prison cells. Seskip had decided to put the prisoners in the magic proof cells anyway, just as a precaution, just in case the felisian theory should still turn out to be wrong and they were somehow able to cast spells. The Head Proctor wasn't going to take any chance of losing his prisoners. Not after it had taken so long to get them.

     He didn't rise from the chair, merely turned his disturbingly reptilian face to regard the new arrival. "They have amazingly disciplined minds. Our ESP spells have revealed little so far, beyond the fact that there are indeed more of them still out there. They appear to have entered some kind of meditative trance in which they can fix their minds on a single thought to the exclusion of all else. A deeper scan ought to deal with that, however. We'll lay their minds open like rats on a dissecting table."

     "You've tried enchanting them, I take it."

     "Water off a duck's back. No effect whatsoever. Someone'll make a name for themselves figuring out how they do that."

     "I want to see them. See how they react to a good old fashioned interrogation. It works for mundanes. It may work for us."

     "The mundanes don't have access to mindsifters. We have no need for such primitive methods."

     "I still want to see them. I put my faith in my own eyes."

     Seskip shrugged and stood. "As you wish." He muttered a few words that temporarily nullified the sentry spells on the stairwell and led the way down.

     "What did the physical examination reveal?" Saturn asked as they made their way down the steep, slippery stone steps. They had to go slowly or risk slipping and falling down the central shaft, an embarrassing prospect even when one had the security of levitation and autumnleaf spells. The stairs had been made deliberately treacherous to slow down prisoners trying to escape, and even with all their protective spells a wizard could still twist an ankle on them.

     "They're of the same race as our corpse. Completely carnivorous digestive tract, penis barb, etcetera. I don't know if they belong to the same race as Gown's friend Naomi but they have some decidedly feline features to their anatomy. They have excellent night vision, for instance. A high upper hearing range, very good balance..."

     "How did you determine that?"

     "Turned the floor of their cell red hot, except for a raised strip an inch wide. They showed every sign of being able to stay on it indefinitely, like a cat on a fence. Physically, they're superior to us in almost every measurable way."

     "Almost?"

     "They seem to have poor colour vision. I'll need to do more tests to confirm that."

     The sentry spells snapped back into operation automatically as they reached the bottom of the stairs and passed the lower guard post. The proctor on duty looked up briefly as they passed, then returned to his spellbook. A casual visitor might have thought him lax, maybe even incompetent in his complacency for not making sure of their identity, but as soon as they rounded the corner and passed out of sight he triggered a dormant farspeaking spell to inform Seskip that he'd just seen him go past. If he hadn't been the real Seskip, the real one would now be aware that an intruder had broken in, and anyone capable of getting this far wouldn't have been stopped by a single middling good wizard anyway. The intruder would find that getting out was a good deal more difficult than getting in had been.