Flaith caught the man by his arm.
"The one I was captured with! Kael McCanahan, the Earther! Where is he?"
"Nobody knows! His cell is empty."
"His harp? Man, where is his harp?"
The jailer shook himself free and started down the corridor. Over his shoulder he called, "Look in the storehouse beyond the cell block. We keep all prisoners' effects in there!"
Terran! Wake to life, Kael McCanahan!
He was dead. He had thrown himself into the fiery maw of the thing that was Noorlythin. Who called him now? Who spoke these lies?
You live, Terran. You served as the catalyst that enabled us to focus our powers against Noorlythin.
Even a high school student knew that a catalyst retained its own identity during the chemical change it brought about between two substances; even such substances as were the Doyen, gods of space.
Kael opened his eyes.