Tak

Experiments - Part 7

     Gannlow was eager to test the spell first thing the next morning, as soon as Tak had finished re-reading it, checking to see if it had changed. The rak was cautious enough to want to test it first, though, so he broke a small crystal carving of an unclothed couple in a passionate embrace, and watched as Tak cast the spell on it.

     The spell needed a small lump of gal tree gum as a material component, but the resin was rare and hard to get hold of. It would have taken weeks for Chilgrone to travel all the way to the groves of Daral, the only known source of the smelly, sticky substance, but fortunately the wizard in whose spellbook they'd found the Mend spell had had a small quantity of gum in one of his pouches. It had grown hard and dry, but they hoped it would still be adequate for the purpose. If it wasn't, then Chilgrone would just have to make the long journey to obtain a fresh supply and Tak and Gannlow would have no choice but to kick their heels until he got back. Tak didn't fancy the idea of that in the rak's present mood. It'll work, he told himself over and over as he prepared himself to cast the spell. It will!

     It did. The scattered fragments of the crystal statuette pulled themselves back together, and a moment later the passionate couple were once again engaged in their timeless embrace. Gannlow picked up the carving and examined it minutely.

     "I can see no remaining sign of damage," he said, turning it to look at it from one side, then another. "No chips, no cracks. No bits missing. Excellent." He put it aside and reached eagerly for one of the artifacts, placing it in front of the living wizard. "Now this. Quickly!"

     Tak cast the spell again and both wizards, the living and the undead, watched carefully for any sign that it was having any effect. There may have been some slight reduction in the corrosion covering the metallic looking casing, and a small crack on the side definitely vanished, but that was all. Nothing to get excited about. Tak wasn't disheartened, though. It was what was going on inside that was important, and that wouldn't be obvious from outside appearances. Gannlow picked it up, therefore, and tried the buttons, only one of which had previously had any effect.

     The difference was obvious and dramatic. Buttons that had previously had no effect now caused strange symbols to appear on the screen. Neat, printed writing in some long lost language. Gannlow cast a translation spell on it and gave a cry of delight. "They are instructions for the operation of this device!" he cried, and began pressing buttons with a new confidence.

     Images flickered across the screen. Disjointed and out of order, but Tak sensed that that was good. A breakthrough. The rak was now able to access any entry he wished, from any part of the diary, if it was a diary. What was more, he explained excitedly, he was able to specify a subject and look up all the entries that dealt with that subject. "A Mend spell!" he cried in delighted disbelief. "A simple Mend spell. Who would have guessed, after all our analyses and divinations had failed. You have earned your reward, most precious Tak. You have earned it ten times over!"

     Tak felt himself glowing with pleasure as the rak continued to press buttons, staring intently at the screen, but he felt his sense of guilt even more acutely than he had before. He'd come too far to back down now, though, and with any luck the rak would never find out what he was about to do.

     For now, though, they were both too engrossed with the images revealed to think about anything else. For the first time they saw the countryside beyond the city and they were struck by the alien quality of the landscape. Carefully cultivated fields stretched to the horizon. Unfamiliar crops grew in impossibly neat rows and things moved along those rows. Things that the two wizards took at first to be demons. They were made of metal and walked on spindly legs like horrible imitations of men, but instead of arms they had half a dozen tools and implements with which they hoed and weeded the loose brown earth and sprayed jets of gas on each individual plant.