Test Subject

Time passed, but oh so slowly. With no-one to talk to, Fred paced restlessly round and round the cell, trying to hang on to a remnant of self-control.

Three more meals arrived. He estimated that they came about every eight hours. If that was right then, by his calculations, one more day remained until - according to Malachi - his and Astra's condition would become irreversible. Not that he believed Malachi, of course. He knew that the dragoness had lied to them about other things, and in any case dragons were always deceitful creatures. But just supposing she had been telling the truth about the time limit?

Then at last Synizn sent his thugs for him.

The men escorted Fred back into the room that resembled a wine cellar, where Synizn was sitting behind his desk, a goblet of wine in front of him. Then they left. Fred advanced to the other side of the desk. "What have you done to Astra?" he demanded truculently.

Synizn banged his fist down on the desk so hard that some wine slopped out of his goblet. "Do not push my patience too far, fox-man," he said, "or I might forget that I have need of you. Your friend will be fine, though my tests proved rather harder on her than I had anticipated. Sleep is the best thing for her. Now, sit!"

Reluctantly, Fred sat. Synizn continued: "The results of my tests on Astra were satisfactory, and from them and my other research I now understand much more about the Crystallic than I did before. But obviously I am not going to use it on myself before I am confident that I can get it to do precisely what I want. So I need a test subject. Conveniently, our interests coincide. You want to be human again, and I need to see if I can transform you. There is no point in delaying, so..."

"But what about Astra?" Fred asked.

"I will not transform her while she sleeps. Our last encounter left me with the impression that she may not want to be changed back at present. Luckily I will have no real need for a second test subject if my transformation of you goes according to plan, so I can afford to respect her wish."

"What!?" exclaimed Fred. "You're lying! How could she not want to be changed back?"

For a moment, Fred thought that Synizn was going to lose his temper, but after a pause he said: "Because I told her that I did not know what will happen to the cubs that she is carrying if she is transformed. They might not survive. That seemed to give her pause for thought."

"But suppose that she sleeps for more than another day? If what your friend Malachi told us was true, then there would no longer be any way of turning her back. You're a mage. Surely it is in your power to wake her?"

1. "Yes, I suppose I could."
2. "Not without risking doing severe damage to her health."
3. "There is no time limit. Malachi was wrong about that. She can be changed back after her cubs are born, in another six weeks or so."
4. "Perhaps I can't be bothered."
5. Meanwhile, Minestus' sister Moreau has become aware of her brother's death.
6. Meanwhile, Vincent's curiosity has led him to investigate Astra's odd disappearance from his tower. There was more to it than just his concentration being broken by her sneeze.

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