The Rossem Project

The Saboteur - Part 3

     "I think he was a clay man," said Edward half an hour later as they sat sipping Lydian tea in the room that had once served as the prison guard's common room.

     Each of the buildings in the research area had an area set aside for rest and relaxation, and many of them had dormitories as well, as many of the high level spells that were routinely cast there could leave a wizard needing several days of bed rest afterwards, too exhausted even to make his way back to his own rooms. Thomas had heard of wizards who hadn't left the buildings in which they worked for years, who had all their meals brought to them and slept in their own laboratories. There was even a story of one wizard, Old Marley, who'd deliberately sealed himself up in a basement years before in order not to be disturbed and who was still working away down there, all alone. His hair white and straggly and his beard tucked over his shoulder to keep it out of the way. Muttering and giggling to himself as he toyed with magics so powerful that the slightest mistake could blow the whole valley to the judgement of the Gods.

     "No way," said Tassley, though. "No clay man would dare come here. He'd be spotted in an instant! They can copy our outward appearance and even some of our memories and personality, but they can't copy our ability to cast spells."

     "No-one saw this chap cast a spell," pointed out Edward. "And if everyone thinks they wouldn't dare come here, no-one would be looking out for them. It would be easy for one to slip in unnoticed."

     "I don't believe it," said Tassley, though. "And it doesn't explain why he was barefoot. In all the stories of clay men I've heard, they could change size and build and have no trouble finding clothes to fit them, including shoes. One story I heard says that the magic that allows their body to change shape also changes their clothing to match. Not that I've ever seen a clay man, I admit."

     "I've seen clay men," said Thomas. "We had a clay man in our group once, unknown to us until we stumbled across the body of the person it was impersonating. The creature had stolen its victim's clothes, so apparently they can only copy their victims' bodies, not their clothing as well."

     "There, you see? You see?" cried Edward triumphantly. "It could have been a clay man! It must have entered in the form of a junior wizard, a small one so as to be as inconspicuous as possible, but when it reached the lab it wanted to be as big as possible, so it could cause as much damage as possible, and it had to take off its clothing to grow. It just put on a lab robe to cover its modesty."

     "I don't think clay men have modesty," replied Thomas. "And why didn't it just come in as a big person to begin with? Then it wouldn't have needed to undress."

     "A small person attracts less notice. It didn't want to attract attention to itself."

     "Then where are the clothes it took off?"

     "It could have hidden them somewhere, perhaps."

     "Where?"

     "I don't know, but it explains perfectly how it got out of the storeroom. Did you count how many proctors went in to search for it? I bet you anything you like that one more proctor came out of that room than went into it. That room contains proctor uniforms, as well as all kinds of clothing. It could easily have dressed as a proctor and then mingled with the others, pretending to search for itself."

     "That's the stupidest idea I ever heard in my life!" cried Tassley. "You think the proctors wouldn't notice another proctor suddenly appearing out of nowhere? They're not stupid you know."

     "Proctors are as capable of being fooled by a clever opponent as anyone. They were concentrating all their attention on finding a fugitive. A scared, panicking saboteur. If they suddenly noticed another proctor amongst them, they might just have assumed that he'd arrived later and entered after them."