Neither the cook nor the caretaker was willing to help with the care of Molos Gomm. They were far too scared of him, even in his present condition, so it was left to Tak to look after him in his remaining months.

     The young wizard was left exhausted for day after day as his former master ranted and raved day and night, threatening to injure himself or damage valuable equipment, but on those occasions when Molos Gomm confused Tak with his own master the younger man was able to gain valuable information from him. Things he had no doubt the old man would never have told him had he been in his right mind because of the power the knowledge granted. Words of command to open magically locked doors and activate powerful artefacts. The keywords to unlock encrypted spellbooks containing formulae and enchantments that were still years beyond him. The secrets of distant places and ancient times gathered over a lifetime of research and study.

     As the weeks went by, Tak found he could trigger the delusion by using certain words and phrases at the right time, words Molos Gomm's own master must have used. As a result his education progressed at a frantic pace, so that when the end finally came he was astonished to find that he was actually grief stricken. Not for the old man himself, whom he could never stop hating, but for the knowledge he was taking to the grave with him. One day, though, five months after Jack Nowl's visit to the castle, he was woken in the early morning by Trobo who told him that his former master had passed away in the night.

     "I expect Khalkedon will want to be informed," the houseman suggested when the body had been interred in the castle crypt, in the catacombs beneath the south tower, where Tak was astonished to find the crumbling remains of several other wizards. Molos Gomm's predecessors, including the man he'd frequently mistaken Tak for.

     The young wizard nodded. Yes, the rak King would certainly want to know that he had one less thrall, but after his last use of the crystal ball to look at the palace and the punishment the rak had visited upon him, he was very fearful of communicating with him again.

     It would only get worse the longer he put it off, though, so he made his way to the Divinatory, trembling every step of the way, and paused fearfully in front of the crystal ball. Molos Gomm had told him how to use it to communicate with people far away, but he'd never actually dared to try it. He was terrified of doing something to arouse Khalkedon's displeasure again, but in this case the rak was much more likely to be displeased if he didn't act. Laying his hands on the orb, therefore, he spoke the formula to activate it, summoned the spirit of the crystal and spoke the words that commanded it to act as a messenger, ending with the name of the person he wanted to speak to. Khalkedon.

     At first the crystal was filled with a bright light that obscured his vision, but then it cleared and there was the face of the rak King, the burning points of light that served it as eyes flaring with anger. "You dare disturb me in the middle of my experiments?" it roared.

     Tak shrank back from the crystal in terror, wanting to run from the room but holding himself in place with an effort of willpower.

     "Well?" demanded the rak. "What do you want?"

     "M-Molos Gomm is dead," stammered Tak, creeping back to the crystal again. "He p-passed away in his sleep last night. I thought you'd want to know."

     "In future, pass such minor items of news to my apprentice," Khalkedon commanded. "If you interrupt my experiments again with such a triviality you yourself will be participating in them. I trust I make myself clear?"

     "P-perfectly, Master," replied Tak. "Please forgive me. I had no idea what the procedure was in a situation like this."

     "Now you do!" snapped the rak, and the connection was broken.

     The crystal ball was once again filled with bright light and Tak de-activated it with a sigh of relief. He hadn't been punished! And it had worked! He'd used the crystal ball to communicate with someone! If he could talk to Khalkedon, then perhaps he could talk to Barl Hobson. Not today, though. He would need the rest of the day for his nerves to settle. Tomorrow, perhaps. Or maybe the next day.

     A wave of euphoria swept over him as he realised he could set his own agenda from now on. He was free! More or less. He wasn't free from Khalkedon, of course, but months or years seemed to go by between the times the rak King required the services of his thrall wizards. In the meantime, he was free. Really free! He could work, if he wanted, and only if he wanted. Or he could go for a walk in the mountains, or read every book in the library or just loaf around. Stay in bed all day. It gave him a strangely giddy, light headed feeling, like being drunk, and he decided to wander the corridors of the castle, taking a delicious delight in exploring all the rooms and places that Molos Gomm had forbidden him to enter.

      He was disappointed to find that most of the forbidden areas contained little of interest, though. Just more equipment and stored spell ingredients that meant little to him at his present level of knowledge. One day, though, when he was more advanced in the arts of magic, he might need this stuff, and his heart raced with excitement as he contemplated that he was now the proud owner of the accumulated possessions of generations of wizards.

     There might be all kinds of powerful magical weapons and artefacts mixed in with this stuff, he thought as he picked his way carefully through a chest full of rags, cheap jewelery, hand written notebooks and rusty metal gadgets of uncertain function. There might be things even Molos Gomm was unaware of! At the moment, though, he was unable to differentiate the treasure, if there was any, from the rubbish, so he carefully put it all back and moved on to the next room.

     There was one place he was still very reluctant to enter, or even approach, however, and that was the basement under the south tower, where the old wizard had carried out his necromancy experiments. He had no idea what was down there, but he knew he would have to find out, even if it meant just looking once and never going near the place again.

     He left it until last, until he'd explored every inch of the rest of the castle and opened every chest and cupboard to examine their contents. Eventually, though, there was nowhere left to look and he found himself standing at the head of the bare stone steps leading down into darkness. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then started down.

     The wooden door at the bottom was magically locked, but Molos Gomm had revealed the word of command to open it just a couple of days before his death or else the secret of what lay beyond might have remained unknown to Tak for years longer.

     The door opened easily, although with a piercing squeal of rusty hinges that sent a shiver of fear racing up his spine. He would have much preferred to have crept in silently, like a thief in the night. He had the uncomfortable feeling that there was something alive in there. Something powerful and evil that would resent his intrusion. He forced the feeling down with an effort. What if there is something in here? he thought as he entered. It's mine now, along with everything else. It belongs to me. Its new master has come to inspect his domain, and all had better be in good shape, or else. He giggled to himself as these thoughts ran through his head. What am I afraid of? he asked himself disdainfully. Just more dusty shelves and empty crates. That's all there'll be and you know it.

     Which was ridiculous, of course. Dusty shelves and empty crates would not have been protected by such a powerful locking spell. There had to be something important in here. Something that old Gomm really, really didn't want anyone else to know about. Curiosity drove him on and he strode forward to open the second door he saw before him.

     Unlike the first door, this one opened easily, but as it opened the reek of rotting meat hit him in the face, driving him back to the stairs gagging and retching. Something had died in there! Some kind of animal that Molos Gomm, in his growing dementia, had forgotten about and which had starved to death. Tak felt pity for the wretched beast and for the terrible way it had died, but nothing in the world could have driven him back in there until the smell had dispersed. He hurried back to the upper levels, therefore, only venturing back the next day. He took a perfumed handkerchief with him, to hold against his face to enable him to endure what remained of the fetid atmosphere.

     The room was in darkness, but Tak had also brought a glowing globe of marble with him, from the guest bedroom, which he released to float up to the high ceiling. The basement, he now saw, was a single large room to which smaller alcoves adjoined. It contained long tables covered with strange equipment and bottles of unhealthy looking liquid.

     The alcoves contained cages of dead animals. Holding the handkerchief hard against his face, Tak saw rats and mice, cats and rabbits, doves and lizards, but he also saw a number of impossible hybrid creatures, as if widely differing animals had been forced to mate producing offspring with features from both parents. A rabbit with the stubby, rudimentary wings of a bird folded against the wriggling, maggot ridden fur of its hide. A rat with the scaly head of a lizard and a cat with an extra pair of legs between those the Gods had endowed it with. The limp, boneless legs of some large amphibian.

     There were several cages full of bat-winged mice. They must be fairly common around here, thought Tak, although he'd never seen one and had had no idea that such things existed. Had Molos Gomm been a collector of strange hybrid creatures? And if so, where had he found them?

     Tak wandered among the cages discovering many more of the impossible chimeras, and as he approached one of the final alcoves he saw row upon row of bottles containing perfectly preserved newborns and foetuses in alcohol. He shuddered as he edged closer for a better look, knowing he wasn't going to like what he saw but helpless to resist his curiosity.

     His instincts were correct, and he winced with revulsion when he got his first look at the nearest. The foetus had features of at least four different animals that he could see, but they were arranged in such a chaotic, haphazard fashion that the unfortunate creature would not have lived more than a few minutes even if it had been allowed to reach full term. How had Molos Gomm happened to be present while such a monster had been conceived? And not just this one but all the others, each more horrific than the next. There could only be one explanation, and Tak felt a thrill of fascinated horror running up his spine as he contemplated it. Molos Gomm must have created them.

     His guess was confirmed when he came across a bureau covered with handwritten books and papers of notes which he examined excitedly. Now this was a real find! It would take months to read through all this! How long had Molos Gomm been at it? And why? Simple curiosity? An attempt to discover the innermost secrets of life? Or had he had some definite goal in mind? The creation of a specific kind of animal not to be found in nature? And how had he done it? What spells had he used? What procedures, potions, incantations?

     He pored over the notes, eager to find out, losing all track of the passage of time so that it was only hunger and growing fatigue that finally forced him to take a break, and when he returned to the upper levels he was astonished to find that it was well past midnight. He gulped down a hasty supper and prepared for bed, but he knew that he would be returning to his study as soon as morning came.

     This was how he was going to spend his time in the months and years ahead, he now knew, and he cursed his former master for never having revealed any of this to him. If he'd known about the animals in the basement he could have fed them and looked after them during the months of the old wizard's decline. All that work could have been preserved. Instead, Tak was now going to have to start from scratch as soon as he'd disposed of the corpses and given the whole place a good scrub and spring clean.

     He was shocked by the idea even as he was thinking it, though. Continuing Molos Gomm's experiments would be sure to increase the numbers of unfortunate foetuses in bottles, and the very idea sickened him. It fascinated him as well, though, and the fascination was stronger. Was totally irresistible, in fact.

     He saw it all as he climbed wearily into bed. Saw his future as the creator of new and ever more wonderful forms of life. He would be an artist, with life itself as his canvas...