The Rings of Salammis

Closure - Part 5

     The room was a laboratory, the workplace of a necromancer. A very powerful one by the look of the place. Possibly the head of necromancy himself. Who would that have been? Seskip wondered. If he was exactly a thousand years in the past it would be Theron Wardok, a man of fearsome reputation and most definitely a man to be avoided. Seskip knew that he ought to creep out of there, making every effort to cover up all trace of his intrusion, but instead he closed the door behind him and stepped further in.

     Books and racks of glassware covered all four walls, and a long table in the centre of the room contained a complicated apparatus of glassware and tubing through which noxious looking fluids dripped and bubbled. There was a sickly smell filling the air, something acrid that he very strongly did not want to identify, and when he touched a workbench it had a damp, sticky feel to it that made him rub his fingers on his robes in distaste. The only light came from a solitary glowing globe of marble floating near the ceiling which left most of the room in sinister shadows.

     No, that wasn't true, he realised. There was another source of light. Something sitting on a bench on the other side of the room that pulsed an unhealthy dull orange like a diseased heart. He felt himself drawn to it, and knew immediately that this was what had brought him here. The thing had some kind of life of its own. A horrid kind of sentience. He knew instinctively that it was wicked and evil and revulsion filled him at the thought of getting any closer. It took all his willpower, but with an effort he broke its hold over him and staggered back towards the door.

     "Wait!" said a voice in his head. A kind of telepathy but unlike any other he'd ever experienced. There was no sense that there was any kind of living mind behind it. It was cold and dead. The kind of thought that might ooze through the putrifying brain of a corpse as it lay rotting in its grave. Fear stabbed through his heart like a spear of ice. Undead! A rak!

     "Yes, I am a rak," confirmed the voice. "Captured by Theron Wardok and imprisoned in my own ark. He torments me daily, trying to force from me the secrets I hold. Free me, and you will be well rewarded."

     Free him, and his first act will be to kill me, thought Seskip in amusement, but before he could take another step his head was filled with images of fantastic wealth. Chests overflowing with gold. Jewels and gemstones spilling from gilded boxes or set in necklaces, coronets and brooches. Jewelery of all description sparkling and gleaming amongst mountainous piles of coins. Wealth to buy a kingdom. Wealth that even the Emperor himself would envy.

     "Free me," whispered the rak teasingly, "and all this shall be yours."

      Seskip knew that it had to be an exaggeration. The rak couldn't possibly have accumulated so much even over several centuries, but he didn't doubt the creature had a sizable treasure trove stashed away somewhere, even a small part of which would make him a wealthy man. For a moment he was tempted. Magic was an expensive art and he could rarely afford all the equipment and material components he would have liked. With the wealth this rak could offer, though... He shook his head, dismissing the notion and offended by the suggestion that the Head Proctor of Lexandria University could be bought like a corrupt border guard.

     He managed another step before a new image invaded his head. Women. Dozens of the most beautiful and desirable women ever to grace the dreams of men. Naked, or dressed only in the scantiest, flimsiest scraps of silk. Flaunting themselves at him, offering themselves to him. Full, firm breasts were thrust into his face. A pair of girls, barely into pubescence, kissed and stroked each other’s bodies while glancing longingly at him. A black girl rubbed oil into her own skin making it glisten and shine while moaning his name with desperate desire.

Seskip felt his body responding. He found himself longing to feel the softness of that skin for himself. He'd had little experience with women. They'd always found his faintly reptilian appearance repulsive and offputting, but this... If the rak could really offer him the free use of a harem like this...