Half a dozen of the great scarlet beetles stood within the lighted circle, watching him with cold, multi-faceted insectile eyes.
He shuddered.
As if there had been no interruption, Xaymar said: "You wonder why I let Sark go. But I had no choice. He told of a thing called a cymosynthesizer with which he could destroy our planetoid of Ulna."
"And if he lied—?"
"He did not. I looked into his brain and saw he spoke the truth as best he knew it."
"You ... looked into his brain?"
"I have that power." Xaymar's smile was cryptic, whether with dark mirth or ancient wisdom Haral could not say. "Thoughts to me are things to grasp like tools or weapons. When I focus my brain I can turn another mind inside out and drain it dry."
An uneasiness chilled Haral's spine. "You speak in jest...."
"You mean—you wish I did?" The woman laughed aloud, and the light glinted in her hair as on dark waters. "In jest, then—I looked into Sark's brain, and when I saw the things I saw, I turned him and his crewmen free."
Haral grimaced. "And he'll come back."