“Keep going!” the farmer snarled at himself, whispering the words through clenched teeth. He thought of Amdar, scowling at his weak son, remembering the disappointment so clearly etched in his father’s face. The grim memory stiffened Teldin’s resolve; he would not fail this time. He would meet every one of his dead father’s expectations. Painfully, slowly, the trembling yeoman moved forward, fingers following the wall. He desperately tried not to think about the smell, the blood, the scarred tables, the “human meat,” as the neogi had called him. Scratching the metallic surface, the farmer finally touched something different. Fingers eagerly caressed the surface until it was cleat that it was the hinge of the door. There was almost a sense of hopes that the joints might offer some chance of escape.
It was while he was probing the door that Teldin heard faint voices from the other side. He pressed his ear to the metal and strained to make out what was being said.
" …human I found and brought. My property he is. Tattoo him I will!” snarled the first voice. Teldin could only guess that the speaker was his neogi captor. While he magically understood their speech, the nuances were still beyond him. The words were distinctive enough, though.
“Overmaster you defy, M’phei. Human meat overmaster claims until found is the cloak.” Although not raised, the second voice spoke with clear menace. “Here cloak is, overmaster believes. A giff with gnomes, reports say. A giff went with human, groundlings said.”
“If my meat overmaster wants, in pit overmaster I will meet,” M’phei promised. “Human meat and cloak who will get we will see. If cloak I have, benefit greatly my friends do. This world with cloak the overmaster could enslave."
There was a long pause. The second voice started speaking, softer than before, as if the speaker were walking around. " …loudly you speak not. Nearby overmaster is."
The first voice spoke again, louder and stronger than before. “Growing old overmaster is. Another yrthni ma‘adi in fleet may be soon.” Teldin barely understood the meaning of the word yrthni ma‘adi. The literal translation- which the cloak imparted?-was “great old master.”
"…cloak find?” The words were drawn out, tempting.
“Ah, cloak. Key human meat is and give it up meat will.” Even without understanding nuances, there was no mistaking the triumphant gloat in the neogi’s voice.
Teldin unconsciously touched his hand to his throat. The silver chain and clasp were still there. Feeling the back of his neck, the cloak still was little more than a strip of cloth, and the whole thing felt like no more than a necklace or amulet. The farmer wondered what would happen if he just gave up the cloak-if he could get it off. Could he convince the neogi to let him go? Teldin refocused his thoughts on listening for more.
“Discuss I will not until…" Teldin had no idea what the two voices were now debating, but it did not matter, since the voices trailed off. The captive kept his ear pressed to the door, but there was no more.
Slowly the farmer let his body slide to the floor, his long limbs slowly folding underneath him. Part of his spirit sank into despair. The neogi’s meanings seemed clear; Teldin could not imagine any other “human meat” on board the black ship. Apparently the creatures knew about the cloak. Indeed, it seemed they knew more about its purpose than he ever imagined. The neogi wanted it desperately, enough to trail him halfway across a continent and slaughter untold numbers of innocents. Now that the creatures had him, Teldin had few doubts about the extremes to which they would go to attain their goal. The farmer thought of the Penumbra, Liam, Vandoorm, and the-gods-knew-how-many gnomes. How many more had the neogi killed searching for the cloak? Teldin tried not to consider the bloody responsibility that rested on his shoulders, but he failed to drive the thought from his conscience. For a moment, the human’s thoughts sank to resignation, surrender, and sacrifice to prevent more death.
Still, there was a small spark of promise that kept Teldin from utter despair. Apparently, while they had him, the neogi did not know their human prisoner wore the cloak. That, the farmer guessed was all that kept him alive. Teldin squatted against the door and tried once more at the clasp, hoping to get it unfastened. With it off, his numbed mind rationalized, he would be free from its burden and the neogi might even let him go.
As he fumbled with the chain, the face of the dying alien came into his mind. The spelljammer captain had perished rather than surrender to the neogi. She had taken an entire ship and her crew to their deaths, taken them by choice. How many more had died to keep it from the neogi’s grasping little hands? Teldin wondered. Could he give up, or would surrendering now be a betrayal of the captain and perhaps others, even his father? Worse still, the neogi had hinted that the cloak could enslave whole planets. Howmany untold innocents would be killed then? Almost sadly, he realized the cloak could not be given away, at least not to them. It felt as if Amdar and hundreds of others all had spectral eyes trained on him, a lone human captive in a shipful of the enemy.
A thumping vibration came through the floor. Alerted, Teldin pressed close to the door and listened. Without light, there was no distraction from his sense of hearing, and the human discovered this sense was more acute than he suspected. Through the wall, the thumps ended in clicks, and Teldin guessed they were the footfalls of the huge lordservants, the beetle-headed umber hulks. “Door open," a voice hissed. Futilely trying to hide, Teldin scrambled backward in the dark, until he cracked his head against the edge of a table. The prison door swung open and light from a lantern streamed through the doorway, blinding the dazed farmer, who could only sit blinking at the glare. Silhouetted in the door was a pair of umber hulks, while behind and between them was a small neogi, holding a lantern high. Farther back were more of its kind, twisting to catch sight of their prey. Lantern light glinted off the lordservants’ mandibles and the neogi’s yellow eyes.
“Lordservants meat grab, kill not,” ordered the neogi. The two umber hulks leisurely rumbled forward, confident in their own might. Teldin avoided the gaze of their multifaceted outer eyes, focusing instead on the small, beady pair at the center of each of their broad faces. Nonetheless, the farmer could not help but glance at the strange orbs, and the minute he did his mind felt fogged and confused, like the time he’d gotten sunstroke working in the fields. It was a struggle to think, to act, but his mind would not obey, and the lordservants were on him before he could even formulate a thought. Seizing the human roughly, clawed hands gouged skin and the beasts slammed their victim onto a table, then ruthlessly pinioned his arms and legs. Shoulder joints strained as one of the lordservants pressed Teldin’s arms backwards over the edge of the table.
“Me lift up,” rasped a sinister voice. From out of Teldin’s sight, a third lordservant mutely hoisted a neogi to where the human could see the creature, a ball of flesh and legs gently cradled in the monster’s arms. The little body was tattooed with brilliant designs of red and gold, marking it clearly as different from the creature who had captured Teldin. The neogi twisted its neck about and looked over its prisoner’s scraped, cut, and bleeding body. The creature’s eyes gleamed with feral hunger.
“Cloak you know where is,” the neogi intoned with leisurely sibilance, its fanged maw barely inches from the farmer’s face. The words were a statement, not a question. The neogi tipped its serpentine head toward one of the lordservants. Already crushing Teldin’s wrists, the umber hulk pressed down on the human’s spread-eagled arms. The yeoman heard his shoulder joints creak while his vision dimmed, tunneling down until he could see only his tormenter’s black-gummed, gleaming teeth. The pain roared in his head-for seconds or minutes, Teldin did not know. Then, gradually, the pressure subsided. “Cloak you tell where is,” the leering eel face promised. “But not yet. First play I must.” It smiled, or at least showed its teeth, in a gruesome mockery of friendship, and then signaled the lordservant once again.