Tak

Experiments - Part 4

     Dinner was one of the finest meals he'd ever had, and was only marred by his having the huge dining chamber all to himself, except for the butler who brought and took away the remains of all five courses. He would have liked to have had someone to talk with over the meal, but the servants kept to their own quarters whenever their duties allowed. Chilgrone excused himself by saying he had experiments that demanded his attention and the rak himself, of course, didn't need to eat at all.

     Tak had thought he might have made an appearance anyway, to get to know his new assistant as quickly as possible, but as one course of exquisitely prepared food followed another and the undead head of the house failed to make an appearance Tak began to wonder whether seeing a living man eating and enjoying his food might be an unbearable reminder of the fleshly pleasures he'd had to forgo. That was something else he would do well to remember, he thought to himself as he polished off the last of the delicately flavoured baby frogs cooked in yellow shellfish oil. Don't ever in his presence mention sex, food, drink or the beauty of the sunlit countryside. None of the things that living humans take pleasure in and that are now denied Gannlow forever. If he really is a young rak, maybe transformed less than ten years ago, he may still be coming to terms with his new condition, and the reminder of what he's given up might drive him into rages of frustration.

     In fact, he needn't have worried. When he did finally meet him the next morning, while he was roaming the mansion at random admiring the expensive furnishings and the rare works of art, the rak seemed to be very well adjusted and contented with himself. He was wearing flowing black robes that covered his whole body, much like those worn by Khalkedon, and like the lord of Domandropolis the younger rak wore a metal mask over his face and leather gloves on his hands, probably so as not to terrify the staff, although they had to have known the kind of creature they were working for. He'd gone to a great deal of trouble to make himself appear as normal as possible, but as soon as the formality of introductions was completed he took off his mask and gloves and tossed them onto a nearby chair, where they smoked with the cold.

     "No pretence between us," he stated matter of factly, the glowing points of light that served him as eyes flickering above the rictus grin of his stretched, mummified face. "You know what kind of creature I am. How do you feel about working for a creature usually portrayed as monstrously evil?"

     "If you're monstrously evil I haven't seen any evidence of it so far," replied Tak, "and your money's as good as anyone's."

     The rak laughed with pleasure, a horrible rattling sound, and the aura of cold that surrounded him washed over the living wizard, making him gasp with shock as if he'd just fallen into icy water.

     "I wish everyone was as sensible as you," said Gannlow. "It's endlessly tiresome how many people judge me for what I am instead of who I am. Not that I let it bother me, of course. It's just a measure of their ignorance, and why should I care for the opinions of people who'll be dust in a few short centuries?"

     He speaks as though he's already a thousand years old, thought Tak in amusement, but he'd caught the undercurrents in his manner of speaking that confirmed the youth of the creature standing before him. He wondered how old he'd been when he'd made the change. The awful gamble that had a fifty, fifty chance of destroying him completely. Fifty years old, perhaps? Sixty? If so, that meant he might still be younger than some living humans.

     That knowledge did much to dispel most of the remaining superstitious fear he'd been feeling in the presence of this creature. He was not dealing with someone vastly more powerful than himself. Gannlow was his superior in the magical arts, of course, but so would have been a living wizard of that age and experience. The fact that the rak was an undead creature meant that he had some supernatural powers at his command, but nothing that couldn't be duplicated by magical spells. It just meant he would have to be careful in his dealings with him. No, the main reason raks were so feared was because they could 'live' for hundreds of years, during which they could advance their magical powers far beyond the scope of short lived mortals, and although Gannlow might become that powerful one day, he wasn't yet. Tak felt himself growing more confident that he could accomplish what he'd come here to do. All he had to do was keep his eyes open. Watch and learn.