As they walked, Saturn and Seskip fell a little behind the eager and enthusiastic Zanda, and Saturn was able to whisper low without the younger proctor hearing. "You know, I could forget what I saw back there. I heard the rak's voice myself, while passing by in the corridor outside, my sensitivity to such things being greater than yours. I almost accepted his offer myself, so I have some sympathy for you. One little slip in a lifetime of faithful service. If it was up to me I would give you another chance."

     "And what would you want in return?" asked Seskip, hardly daring to hope.

     "Your testimony that I had a legitimate reason for being here. You could tell the Director that I wasn't after the secret of immortality after all. I'm here on an important mission. A vital mission. No time to explain and all that. I saw a chance and I had to take it while I could. We'd both be heroes. A chance to leave our mistakes behind us. What do you say?"

     Seskip licked his lips with a dry tongue. "It would have to be a very, very good reason. The Director would be unlikely to believe it."

     "He will believe it if you tell him. I might be lying to save my skin, but you are the Head Proctor. Trustworthy and incorruptible."

     Seskip tensed up at the sneer in his voice. "Or I could just kill you," he countered. "My guilty secret goes to the grave with you."

     "You forget that they'll read your mind when you return, to see if you've stumbled across the secret of immortality. Do you have the skill to hide the truth from a mind probe? I do. I am stating the simple truth when I say that there is no human being in the world who knows more about telepathy than I do. I can help you conceal your guilt. I can make the mind probe see whatever I want it to see. Take your chances on your own if you like. My fate will be easier to bear knowing that you'll be sharing it."

     Seskip was silent for a few moments. He toyed with the idea of killing Saturn and Zanda and going back to the rak, but now that he was back in his right mind he recoiled in horror at the very thought. To kill a loyal proctor who was bravely doing his duty! He had fallen, yes, but he would not fall that far. Besides, now that he was thinking clearly again, he doubted very much that the rak would keep its promise to him. He would very likely suffer a fate much worse than simple demagestration. No, he only had one option and he knew it, but it was still several more moments before he could bring himself to speak the words.

     "Zanda, go on ahead. There are matters Saturn and I must discuss in private."

     "Master?" said the proctor in confusion.

     "Go on " snapped Seskip impatiently. "We will catch you up."

     "Yes, master," said the younger man, and he hurried off down the corridor, leaving the two older men alone.

☆☆☆

     Thomas tensed anxiously as he watched the image of the ring in the scrying mirror. The radiance of escaping magic had reached its peak and was now beginning to fade. That meant that there could be very little time left before the spells powering it failed, and there was still no sign of the proctors. "Come on," he muttered, as if he could speed them on by willpower alone. "Come on. Where are you?"

     "Maybe they've all been captured," suggested Prup Chull. "Breaking people out of a magic proof prison guarded by wizards can't be easy."

     "Yeah," agreed the wizard unhappily, "but Seskip's the Head Proctor. That's got to give him an edge."

     He stood and began pacing up and down, the nervous energy that filled him needing an outlet in some kind of physical activity. "I can't stand waiting. Never could. I want something to happen before I burst! Even if it's only the ring failing, leaving them stranded back there. At least that would be an end to the waiting."

     "Hey!" said Timothy, pointing at the mirror. "Look!"

     They all looked and saw four figures clustered around the ring, grabbing hold of the connecting rope to pull themselves across to the ship.

     "It's them!" cried Thomas in relief. He jumped from his chair and ran from the room, eager to be at the airlock to welcome them back.

     Timothy Birch, Prup Chull and Tana Antallan remained staring at the mirror, though. "Isn't that Saturn?" asked the cleric in confusion.

     "So it does appear, my good friend," agreed the shae.

     "He doesn't look like a prisoner to me. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was the one in charge."

     The shae and the moon trog had to admit that that was indeed the way it appeared. "Doubtless it will all be explained," said Prup Chull thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "If we are patient and wait, the truth will be revealed."

     In that, though, he was wrong.

☆☆☆

     Thomas reached the airlock just as the inner door was opening to admit the returning wizards.

     Seskip was the first to step across the sill, followed by Saturn who, to his amazement, showed no sign of being a prisoner. Indeed, he was no sooner aboard than he began giving orders as if nothing had happened. "We will return to Kronos immediately," he said to Seskip. "Upon arrival, you and I will return to Lexandria to brief the Director. He must be wondering what in the world is going on."

     "Undoubtedly," agreed the Head Proctor, the ghost of a smile looking out of place on his unsettlingly reptilian face. "And may I apologise once again for almost ruining your mission. You must see how it looked to us, though."

     "I understand," said Saturn magnanimously. "Since no harm was done I am willing to forget the incident, but perhaps next time you could simply trust me."

     "I have learned a valuable lesson," said Seskip, inclining his head meekly.

     "Masters?" said Thomas, glancing from one to the other of the two older wizards in confusion.

     They both turned to stare at him. "Master Gown," said Saturn, fixing him with his single eye. "Why are you not on the bridge?"

     "I, er, I just, that is..."

     He looked to Seskip for an explanation, but the Head Proctor paid him no attention and strode off down the corridor, followed by Zanda and Landar Bewt. As he passed him by, Zanda momentarily caught Thomas's eye and shrugged helplessly, a gesture that said that he didn't know what was going on either and wasn't ever likely to find out. The affairs of senior wizards were no business of mere mortals, and it was dangerous in the extreme for juniors to meddle where they weren't wanted.

     Saturn paused, though, and stared at the younger wizard. "Well?" he asked impatiently.

     "I, er, just wanted to welcome you back aboard," said Thomas, almost bursting with frustration and curiosity. Wanting desperately to ask what was going on but not quite daring to.

     "Well you've done that," snapped the elder wizard. "Now be about your duties."

     "Yes, master," replied Thomas and he walked away, his head spinning. Saturn hadn't been after the secret of immortality after all? He'd been on some kind of mission? But why had he dashed off in secret without a word to anyone? It had really looked as if he'd been up to no good. It had been so obvious that no-one had ever considered any other possibility. What else could possibly have been so urgent, though?

     He shook his head miserably, hating the likelihood that he would never know the truth of it, but that was life. He just had to get used to it.

☆☆☆

     Saturn watched in satisfaction as the younger wizard left. How easy it had been to make him acknowledge his authority again as if nothing had happened, and all it had taken was a refusal to explain. If you simply act as if you've got a reason, he contemplated, nine times out of ten you don't actually have to give it. The Director would demand an explanation, of course, but he already had the germ of an idea and with Seskip backing him up he would be able to make him believe it.

     Funny the way things worked out, he mused as he strolled back to his quarters. It was a shame about the books, of course, buried somewhere in the rubble of the Tower of Lexandros, but he'd had a chance to skim through them in the library and he'd come across a couple of interesting clues that he intended to follow up. Maybe the secret of immortality could still be his.

     He allowed a faint smile to crease his leathery face. It had been a profitable venture, especially if he could find out what the rak had offered Seskip. Maybe he could take a quick peek inside his mind while armouring it against the Director's mental scrutiny. The Head Proctor had a weakness, and if he could find out what it was he would be able to put an end to his ambitions once and for all.

☆☆☆

     "It's going," said Timothy, watching the image of the ring in the scrying mirror.

     Thomas leaned forward in his seat to get a better look. The stars visible through the hole in the centre of the ring were rippling, as if seen through a thin sheet of water, a sign that the magics powering it were growing unstable. It would only be minutes now. Half an hour at most.

     "Better back us away a little," he advised. "When it fails, the remaining magic is likely to be released all at once."

     Tana Antallan nodded and gave the necessary instructions to his fellow shae in the chamber above, and a moment later distance grew between the ring and the Ship of Space. It seemed they were retreating just in time. The stars in the centre of the ring were now rippling with greater vigour, eventually boiling with activity, each star turning into streaks of light, all indistinguishable from each other.

     A moment later it was over. Thomas felt a jolt of icy cold as a pulse of explosively released randomised magic passed through him, and then the stars in the centre of the ring were still once more. The stars of their own sky. The connection with the Agglemonian era had been severed for ever.

     "Well, that's it," said Thomas with relief. "All over. And now I suppose we'd better be getting back to Kronos. I've disobeyed Saturn enough already by delaying this long."

     Tana nodded again and gave the orders.