They were in the center of the cleared space. All the cryptic mechanisms he had seen in the Tomb were here, the great flat crystal wheel, the squat looped metal rods, the others, all glittering in the dim light.
Carse’s heart leaped and settled to a heavy pounding. “Good,” he said. “The time is short—take them aboard the barge, that I may return to Sark at once.”
“Certainly, Lord,” said Hishah. “But will you not inspect them first to make sure that all is well. Our ignorant handling…”
Carse strode to the weapons and made a show of examining them. Then he nodded.
“No damage has been done. And now—”
Hishah broke in, unctuously courteous. “Before you go, will you not explain the workings of these instruments? Your children were always hungry for knowledge.”
“There is no time for that,” Carse said angrily. “Also, you are as you say—children. You could not comprehend.”
“Can it be, Lord,” asked Hishah very softly, “that you yourself do not comprehend?”
There was a moment of utter stillness. The icy certainty of doom took Carse in its grip. He saw now that the ranks of the Dhuvians had closed in behind him, barring all hope of escape.
Within the circle Garach and Ywain and Boghaz stood with him. There was shocked amazement on Garach’s face and the Valkisian sagged with the weight of horror that had come as no surprise to him. Ywain alone was not amazed, or horrified. She looked at Carse with the eyes of a woman who fears but in a different way. It came to Carse that she feared for him, that she did not want him to die.