Call of Kerberos: Twilight of Kerberos, The - Jonathan Oliver Page 0,21

proposing is not going to be some jolly boy's outing, it is going to be your deaths. Firstly you have the Final Faith on your tail and, secondly, even if you do manage to make it beyond Twilight those sea demons are going to tear you apart."

"I would have to agree with my wife." Silus said. "This expedition, everything about it, sounds preposterous."

"Ah, but you have yet to see our unique ship." Dunsany said. "Did you know that it can actually sail under water?"

"For that matter I too have yet to see this ship." Father Maylan said. "In fact, we just have the words of yourself and Kelos regarding the pedigree of the Llothriall."

"It better be as good as you say," Ioannis said. "For every day that we sit here talking about plans and theorising we are losing money."

"If you're going to sail away from all these problems, then you better have something that is nothing short of spectacular." Katya said.

"In that case - and to forestall further argument - I suggest that we all make a visit to the Llothriall." Dunsany said. "Katya, can I persuade you to come along?"

Katya's gaze still burned with anger, but eventually she nodded and it was she who was the first to follow him as they left the house.

Querilous Fitch looked up from his notes as they brought the prisoner into the room. This time the thing did not fight against its restraints as it was bound into the chair. Its head lolled against its chest and the pitch black of its eyes had faded to a dark, milky grey.

"Good God! How much sedative did you give it?" Fitch asked one of the warders.

"Not enough. Bloody thing near tore off Mitchell's arm when we went to fetch it. Took three of us to hold it down while we administered the needlereed. Ask me, the creature should be in chains twenty-four seven."

"Yes, well it's a good thing that the treatment of the prisoner isn't down to you then is it? I don't think that you realise the importance of the Chadassa to the Anointed Lord. You may go now, if I need you I'll call."

The guards left the room and Querilous turned up the lamps before wheeling his tray of instruments to the side of the restraining chair.

After its outburst of a few days earlier the creature had been stubbornly uncommunicative. However, in that time - and through his various techniques and manipulations - Querilous had learnt a great deal.

The Chadassa male currently in his custody was hundreds of years old and one of a race of many, although it was nowhere near as populous as that of the humans who dominated Twilight. The creature's natural habitat was the sea, though it could survive on land for short periods, which went some way to explaining why the Chadassa's attack on Turnitia a few months previously had been brief.

Through Querilous's sorcery he had managed to open a psychic link between the creature and its brethren beneath the waves. Now his questioning could touch not just on the knowledge of their prisoner but the knowledge of all the Chadassa. All without them being able to detect the human mind amongst them.

Sometimes, Querilous thought, I am quite quite brilliant.

He extracted a small measure of fluid from a vial and injected it into the creature with a needlereed.

Slowly, its eyes began to darken and its head rose from its chest. Querilous doused the creature with salt-water as it regained consciousness. Crouching before it he then looked for any sign of recognition, but the thing stared at him just as blankly as before.

"Oh, you can remain as coy as you like, but you'll find it very difficult to escape my touch this time."

Fitch pulled the creature's head back and tightened a strap around it. He checked that the restraint was secure before running his hands over the dark, scaled scalp. Where he had cut the spines from the creature's skull they had started to grow back and as Querilous filed down the stubs, the thing in the chair let out a low growl.

"Ah, it makes a sound! Good to know that you're still with us. Now, just relax, this won't take long at all."

Querilous's fingers sank through the scalp of the creature and into its mind. He felt it try to fight back but, this time, the Chadassa was no match for Fitch. Hearing the repetitions of an ancient mantra in his mind, Querilous pushed through the creature's resistance