The Rings of Salammis

Salammis - Part 5

     It was Seskip himself who arrived a couple of hours later, with three burly proctors who stared at Thomas as if he were the one who'd committed the crime. After demanding to know whether Saturn had returned, he told Thomas to tell him everything that had happened since leaving Kronos, leaving out nothing, no matter how trivial it might appear.

     Thomas did so, stammering badly under the Head Proctor's piercing gaze. He half expected to be accused of some crime himself, and to his shame he found himself repeating over and over again that he'd had no idea what the elder wizard had in mind. He didn't seem to be able to stop himself.

     "What do we do?" one of the proctors asked the Head Proctor when he'd finally finished.

     "Our first priority is to ensure that he does not take the secret of immortality back to Tharia," Seskip replied. "The ship's teleportation chamber has been disabled, therefore, until we have the situation under control. We will wait until dawn tomorrow. If he returns during that time we will place him under arrest, destroy any books or papers he brings with him and erase the secret from his mind with amnesia spells. If he has not returned, however, we will have to go look for him."

     "You mean, go through the ring?" the proctor asked apprehensively.

     "Yes. We cannot leave him at large back there. He may be captured by an Immortal Wizard and his knowledge of the future used to terrible effect. In order not to compound the risk, each of us who goes back will be hypnotically conditioned to lose all knowledge of our time if captured." He turned to Thomas. "You can teleport, can you not?"

     "Y-yes," stammered Thomas, his heart in his throat. He knew with dreadful certainty what was coming.

     "Good. You will be coming with us. We will need another wizard able to teleport in case anything happens to me. If I am captured or killed, it will be your responsibility to bring the party back. There are soldiers on board, are there not?"

     "Yes, proctor. Three of them."

     "Good. We may need protection against more mundane dangers. Ideally, I would have preferred more than three..."

     "We can bring as many as we need up from the valley," suggested one of the junior proctors.

     "Unfortunately, we cannot," replied the Head Proctor. "This ship is under quarantine until the situation is resolved. No-one comes or goes from Tharia. It is down to those of us now aboard this ship to deal with the matter. Give me the Coronet of Farspeaking, I must confer with the Director. The rest of you go back to whatever you were doing, but make sure you are available in case I have need of you."

☆☆☆

     The inner doors of three of the ship's airlocks were opened, making it impossible for anyone to get in that way, and the three proctors stood guard by the fourth, ready to apprehend Saturn if he tried to sneak aboard that way. Seskip toured the ship, familiarising himself with its layout, and spent a couple of hours examining the dead ring in the hanger deck. He cast a couple of spells on it, refusing to explain what they were, and looked disappointed when they had no obvious effect.

     He went out onto the walkway, with Thomas to help him get about without gravity, and they found an invisible rope tied to the railing, its other end drifting in empty space. Seskip's face went dark with anger as he gathered it up in his hands, proof that Saturn had indeed gone through the ring after having turned himself invisible to avoid being seen in the bridge's scrying mirror. The Head Proctor then returned to the bridge and sat in Saturn's chair, staring silently at the image of the ring in the mirror.