"There will be no lack to volunteer for the Brotherhood!" cried the wolf's thought. He raced swiftly out of the room.
Kree went out too. Tiger, eagle and stallion remained, watching Nelson.
Nsharra's face had an aching pity on it as she looked at Nelson. And that pity awakened true fear in him.
"Nsharra, what are they going to do to me?" he asked her.
"It is the penalty of the ancients," she answered. "Long ago, from the Cavern of Creation, a Guardian brought one of their subtle instruments that he had learned from their records to operate. It has been used rarely to punish those who transgress the Brotherhood."
"But what is it?" he asked thickly. "Torture?"
"Not torture nor death," she whispered. "But worse, a—"
She broke off to hasten across the room toward her father. Kree had returned, wheeling a bulky object in front of him. Nelson felt his fear increasing. He remembered what Shan Kar had said — that the Guardian possessed a queer power of the ancients to effect terrible transformations. A power that had been used only rarely against transgressors but that had left a memory of horror in all L'Lan.
He stared at the big object Kree had brought. It was an upright man-high platinum box mounted on wheels. The only clues to whatever strange apparatus was inside it were two levers upon its face.
From opposite sides of the top of the tall box branched two heavy platinum rods. Each ended in a queerly grooved quartz disk three feet in diameter. Each of the two big disks was parallel to the floor.