The Girl and the Guardian

  ‘Has the Vapáglim been found yet?’ said the mind of Rakmad to the new captain of Baldrock fortress, Nathragh.

  ‘No, Your Emptiness, it is not here. My men have searched every cave and cleft of the accursed rock.’

  ‘What of mindwebs?’

  ‘We have found none.’

  ‘Keep searching. Search too for the Silver mines in the east. The Guardians who remain must not be allowed to make any more Mindshields. You are dismissed.’

  ‘Your will be done, my Master in the Void!’

  Rakmad pondered a while. Then he entered the trance state, and searched the Dreamweb until he reached the mind of Phagrapag, master Inquisitor of the Dark Labyrinth, initiate of the inner circle of warrior-monks of the Void.

  ‘Hail, brother in the Void,’ croaked Phagrapag.

  ‘What news from the mind of the disciple of Taniar the Traitor, the prisoner Hillgard? Has he confessed that the Vapáglim was in his possession? Or that he gave it to the accursed Korman?’

  ‘Since he learned that the “Keeper” was you, my brother, his mind has closed very strongly to us. But, behind the deceits of his mind, which still resists our despair-probes, I read that he did give it to the rebel Korman. There is some hope in his thoughts concerning the hour before he was captured.’

  ‘Very well. When the Vapáglim is used, we will know where the accursed rebel is.’

  ‘And the Dark Entities will too?’

  ‘Indeed, my brother. The Vapáglim use the very power of the Void. He may meet the Dark Entities sooner than any of us! The accursed golden mist, or the silver, will not hide him then!’ He made a dry rattle in his sinewy throat which could have been a laugh. ‘Keep probing the prisoner. He cannot hide his mind from us forever. He will crack!’

  Then Rakmad settled back in his thorn-seat with a sigh of pleasure-in-pain, and the Mother Thorn, sinking into his flesh, fed him. ‘And where the traitor Korman is, the so-called Kortana will also be skulking,’ he thought with satisfaction.