The test chamber was a six foot cube with a single door on one side, which was covered on all sides by layer upon layer of thick lead plating. Inside it had, until recently, been almost completely filled with shelves large enough to hold several dozen cages of lab animals and items of magical measuring equipment, with only a small space in the middle where a man could stand while loading, unloading or rearranging the cages. Now, though, all of that had been stripped out to create a single open space with iron handholds welded onto the walls, floor and the ceiling. The entire structure had then been rendered transparent by means of a magic spell cast by Pondar Walton himself while Thomas, Karem and Edward watched in fascination. They were there to help attach it to a teleportation chamber the size of a small house, an operation similar to the hitching of a thirty foot caravan to a reliant robin.

"Are you sure it'll be able to carry that much weight?" asked Thomas doubtfully. "The levitation spells are only so powerful, after all."

"That is not your concern," replied Pondar gruffly, trying to conceal his own doubts on that score. "Be ready to cast the weld spell when I tell you to."

Thomas looked down at the scroll in his hands; a cracked and yellowing roll of paper on which the words of the magic spell were written in an ornate, stylised form that seemed to writhe and crawl as if trying to avoid his eyes, as if they didn't want to be read. The only reason Thomas could read them at all was that he'd cast an intellectus spell on it a few minutes before. Magic scrolls came in two varieties, one of which was deliberately designed to be read by anyone, even mundanes, but this was an example of the second type; intended solely for the use of the wizard who'd created it, several centuries before. Scrolls of this kind were notoriously hard for anyone else to read. It was almost as if they had a life and an intelligence of their own, and Thomas had only managed to do it with Pondar's help.

The weld spell was officially a mid level spell, but it tended towards the upper limit of that category and many wizards treated it as though it were high level, just to be on the safe side. It was the second most powerful spell that Thomas had ever attempted to cast, second only to the teleport spell. Unfortunately it was not a spell that was often used, as conventional, non-magical welding techniques were usually just as good and didn't need the rare and expensive material components that the spell needed. It was so rarely used, in fact, that no living wizard had bothered to learn it, and so Pondar had had to dip into the University's considerable stockpile of scrolls and potions to obtain a copy.

Only a spell would do in this case, as attempting to weld the teleportation chamber to the test chamber in the conventional way, by the partial melting of their structures, might upset the magics of both devices. That was how the original teleportation chamber had been destroyed, after all. The danger was that the magics of the weld spell might have the same effect, and the precautions against this happening were the reason for this spell's sophistication and complexity. If it were simply a matter of sticking two boxes together a simple glue spell would have done, but when both the objects to be joined contained powerful magics of their own you entered a whole new level of complexity.

"Now remember," Pondar said to Karem and Edward. "I will be the one doing most of the hard work of lifting the test chamber and carrying it over. Your job is just to hold it steady and prevent it from tilting over. Are you clear on that?"

"Yes, master," said Edward, and Karem nodded, looking offended that he thought they needed telling twice.

"Are you ready?" Pondar asked Thomas. Thomas confirmed that he was.

"Very well," said the senior wizard, raising his hands. "I'm going to start lifting. Here we go." He spoke the magic words, activating the latent levitation spell, and the test chamber began to float slowly into the air.

Despite what he'd said, most of Pondar's work involved preventing the test chamber from shooting up into the air, as it had been designed to, and making it hover close to the ground. The chamber fought for altitude, slipping sideways like an orange pip squeezed between thumb and forefinger, and Edward and Karem had to concentrate hard to hold it in place. Working together, the three wizards carefully maneuvered the chamber up over the teleportation chamber and then lowered it so that it sat on it.

Pondar deactivated the levitation spell, and the teleportation chamber creaked alarmingly as it accepted nearly forty tons of lead plating. The three junior wizards backed away fearfully, expecting the test chamber to crush through the teleportation chamber's roof at any moment, releasing the magic of both chambers explosively, but Pondar confidently stood his ground, glaring at his subordinates in contempt. "Thomas Gown," he said condescendingly. "The weld spell, if you will."

Thomas gulped and cautiously stepped back into spellcasting range. He lifted the scroll, scanning his eyes rapidly across the almost unreadable lettering, and spoke the words out loud, his whole body tingling as the magic passed through it. The lettering on the scroll flared and disappeared, and another flare lit up the narrow gap between the two chambers; a sparkling blue light that caused the lead of the test chamber and the steel of the teleportation chamber to flow and merge, becoming one so gently and easily that the magics of the two chambers were not disturbed. Or at least, that was the theory. Barely had the glow faded than Pondar snapped his fingers at another junior wizard who was standing nearby, and the young man dashed forwards with a ladder that he stood up against the side of the two joined chambers.

Pondar climbed the ladder with great dignity, and silently examined the weld between the two chambers for a few moments. Then he descended and beckoned Thomas forward. "Go have a look," he commanded, indicating the ladder. "Go see what you've done."

Thomas glanced apprehensively at Edward and Karem, and then began to climb, wondering what he'd find at the top. Had the spell gone wrong? Was Pondar angry with him for wasting one of the University's valuable scrolls? I did everything right! he thought defensively. I pronounced every word correctly! Didn't I? Did I get something wrong?

When he reached the top of the ladder, though, he was immensely relieved to find that the two chambers were now merged seamlessly, and that only the different colouration of the lead and the steel now told where the one stopped and the other began. It was as if they'd always been part of the same object. The spell had worked perfectly, and he grinned with pleasure as he descended again. "How will they separate them again when they get to Kronos?" he asked.

"The weld spell leaves a residue of randomised magic that a separate spell can find and follow," replied Pondar. "And now, all that's left to do is lift it again to make sure the weld is secure. Everyone will stand well back. The test chamber will be lifting the full weight of the teleportation chamber, and if anything tears or gives way there'll be an explosive release of magic."

The three junior wizards dutifully backed well away and crouched behind a thick wall of solid lead, one side of which was crusted and pockmarked by violent energies. Magical research was a dangerous business, and the graphic reminder of this sent a shiver down their spines.

"I wonder if that moon trog had the slightest idea the risk he was taking when he turned a burner cable on a teleportation chamber?" mused Edward. "I wonder what happened to him? Is he still alive, and if so, what does he look like now?"

"With any luck he was transformed into a hideous, deformed creature as a warning to all mundanes not to meddle with magical artifacts," replied Karem, his scowl making the scar on his face writhe like a lizard. "It's what he deserves, a thousand times over."

They fell silent as Pondar joined them, and they crouched down close to the ground. A mirror allowed them to see what the joined chambers were doing without, hopefully, putting them at any risk, and they studied it closely. The senior wizard spoke the word of command and they all tensed apprehensively.

There was a groan of tortured metal, and then the joined structures began to rise slowly from the ground. There was no need to control the test chamber's ascent this time. The teleportation chamber acted as ballast and the joined structure rose at a slow, sedate pace as gently as a soap bubble. Pondar left them floating there for a couple of minutes, to make sure the two structures were solidly joined, and then allowed them to settle back to the ground, nodding to himself in satisfaction. The others relaxed in relief, and Thomas realised he was covered in cold sweat and that his hands had been clenched tightly enough to make all his tendons ache.

"Everything appears to be in satisfactory condition," said Pondar, standing. "Our part of the job is done."

He then led his three assistants back to the Yolanda-Whitemay memorial building while another team of wizards moved in to complete the test chamber's modifications.