The Rings of Salammis

Salammis - Part 2

    "So there are three bayta rings," said Timothy when the elder wizard had rejoined the others on the bridge. "The dud one in the hanger deck, that one out there, and its invisible twin floating near to where we found the dud."

     "Four rings," corrected Thomas, still wearing the Helm of Farsensing. "The dud must also have a twin somewhere."

     "Pardon me for correcting a wizard," said Prup Chull hesitantly, "but the invisible twin can't be anywhere near here. It must be far, far away for the stars to look different through it." He waved a hastily drawn starmap at him, showing the stars as seen through the ring. Some of the stars had been marked in two places. Where they should have been and where they in fact were. The differences were small but measurable, and each displacement was in a different direction. That was the really puzzling thing.

     "I looked through the ring," Saturn said testily. "I saw Tharia, the moons, the suns..."

     "Another world identical to ours, perhaps," suggested Thomas, but he didn't sound convinced.

     Rin Wellin, meanwhile, was staring at Prup's star chart with a furrowed brow. "May I see that, my friend?" he asked. The moon trog handed it across.

     "This is very strange," the shae said, staring at the chart. "You know, of course, that the stars are not fixed in place. That they move slowly past each other over the course of centuries."

     The blank look on Saturn's face told the others that he hadn't known that, but no-one would argue about stars with a shae. They would only be revealing their own ignorance. The stars were sacred to the shae folk, they'd been staring adoringly up at them for thousands of years. "What about it?" he simply said therefore.

     "My friend, about a thousand years ago the stars were in the positions shown in this chart."

     A heavy silence fell as the shae's words sank in. At first they were all too stunned to speak, and then they were afraid to speak in case they sounded stupid. It was Prup Chull who finally found his tongue. "What are you saying?" he ventured hesitantly.

     "I am not saying anything," Rin Wellin said impassively, meeting the moon trog's eyes without blinking. "I was merely making an observation."

     Prup had opened his mouth to say what he thought of that when Timothy gave a cry and pointed at the scrying mirror. They all stared, Thomas lifting the visor of the Helm of Farsensing to see, and they all gasped in shock, even Saturn. The mirror still showed the ring, tumbling and drifting into the distance, but now it showed something else. A human figure standing in the hole like a child in a huge tyre swing. Saturn gave a word of command in a trembling voice and the image was instantly magnified.

     It was a man, apparently in his middle years. Bearded and wearing a long grey robe that hung as if pulled by gravity and rippling slightly as if blown by a light breeze. He was staring at them, right at them as if he could see them, and his eyes burned with an intensity that froze them all to the spot.

     With an effort Thomas managed to tear his gaze away to look at Saturn and was shocked to the very core of his being to see the state of terror his master was in. His face was as white as a sheet and his jaw was working soundlessly as if waiting impatiently for his brain to get its act in order and send it something to say. All of a sudden he looked ten years older. Thomas had always seen Saturn as a giant of strength and security in his pride and arrogance. If the appearance of this strange man could shock him this badly...

     "My fault," Saturn finally managed to whisper. "My pride, my greed. Gods, what have we unleashed on the world?"

     "What do you mean?" demanded Timothy shakily, infected by the wizard's fear. "Who is that?"