Read Online The Call of Kerberos by Jonathan Oliver - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jonathan Oliver
Tags: Science-Fiction
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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 and suddenly he was surrounded by the whispers of its brethren as the psychic barriers fell away.
... all burned... He comes... half-breed... half-breed... lost... final cycle... Brood...
Words and images crowded Querilous's mind but in the storm of sensory information he recognised a familiar phrase.
"The half-breed, what is that?"
Again the creature tried to push against his questioning. It tried to reach out to its brethren, warn them that there was an alien mind amongst them but Querilous tightened his grip and the creature howled in pain.
"I think that you'll find challenging my talents is a bad idea. Do it again and I'll boil your brain in your skull. Now, let's try again. What, or who, is the half-breed?"
Querilous could feel a ripple run through the collective minds now open to him and an image began to form. He recognised Nürn immediately. How could he forget that shabby little coastal town where he had once holidayed with his mother? There was a fishing boat approaching the harbour and the image swam to focus on the man leading the craft to shore.
Half-breed .
"Him? That man is the half-breed that is so important to you?"
Half-breed. Lost .
"Lost? How? Show me."
Again, the image in his mind began to swim and this time the sounds of screaming and the roar of fire accompanied
"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 and suddenly he was surrounded by the whispers of its brethren as the psychic barriers fell away.
... all burned... He comes... half-breed... half-breed... lost... final cycle... Brood...
Words and images crowded Querilous's mind but in the storm of sensory information he recognised a familiar phrase.
"The half-breed, what is that?"
Again the creature tried to push against his questioning. It tried to reach out to its brethren, warn them that there was an alien mind amongst them but Querilous tightened his grip and the creature howled in pain.
"I think that you'll find challenging my talents is a bad idea. Do it again and I'll boil your brain in your skull. Now, let's try again. What, or who, is the half-breed?"
Querilous could feel a ripple run through the collective minds now open to him and an image began to form. He recognised Nürn immediately. How could he forget that shabby little coastal town where he had once holidayed with his mother? There was a fishing boat approaching the harbour and the image swam to focus on the man leading the craft to shore.
Half-breed .
"Him? That man is the half-breed that is so important to you?"
Half-breed. Lost .
"Lost? How? Show me."
Again, the image in his mind began to swim and this time the sounds of screaming and the roar of fire accompanied
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