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which made everything look grey and grainy and even more frightening.
The smell was that of a sewer under an abattoir. Stuck to the wall were dead,
living-dead and still living things. One of them - one of the latter category,
thankfully - was 974 Praf. Underneath 974 Praf, dwarfing her, were the
recently attached and now drained-looking carcasses of two falficores, their
wings and talons hanging loosely. Alongside the Interpreter was the even
bigger body of a raptor scout.
974 Praf didn't look too bad; she appeared perched, wings neatly folded, feet
drawn up. The creature hanging by her side, whose body was nearly the size
of Uagen's and whose wings were easily fifteen metres from tip to tip, looked
limp and - if not dead - near death. Its eyes were half closed, its huge beaked
head was slumped across its chest, its wings looked pinned to the in-curving
wall of the chamber, and its legs hung slackly.
What looked like a root or cable led from the back of its skull and into the
wall. Where the cable entered its head, something like blood had leaked out,
soaking its dark, scaly skin. The creature trembled suddenly and let out a low
moan.
'The raptor scout's report on the fellow-creature below is not sufficient,' the
dirigible behemothaur Yoleus said through 974 Praf. 'The captured falficores
knew less still; only that there was a recent rumour of food below. Your
report might be sufficient.' Uagen swallowed. 'Umm.' He stared at the raptor
scout. It had not been tortured or really mistreated, by the locally prevailing
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standards, but whatever had happened to it didn't look very pleasant. It had
been dispatched to reconnoitre the shape that Uagen and 974 Praf had seen
when they'd gone after the falling glyph stylo.
The raptor scout had dived into the depths, escorted by the rest of its wing. It
had landed on what was apparently another dirigible behemothaur, but one
which had been injured or damaged, which had possibly lost its way and
probably lost its mind. It had investigated inside a little, then it had rushed as
fast as it could back to Yoleus, who had listened to its report and then
concluded that the creature was not articulate enough to explain properly
what it had seen - the raptor scout had not even been able to determine the
identity of the other behemothaur - and so had decided to look directly into
its memories by burrowing in with a direct link between its mind and Yoleus'
own - whatever and wherever that was.
There was nothing all that unusual about this, or even anything cruel; the
raptor scout was, in a sense, a part of the dirigible behemothaur and would
have had no sense of having had interests or even an existence separate from
the vast creature; probably it would have been proud that the information it
was carrying was of such importance that Yoleus wanted to look at it directly.
Nevertheless, to Uagen it still looked like some poor wretch chained to a wall
in a torture chamber after the torturer had extracted what he wanted. The
creature moaned again.
'Umm. Yes,' Uagen said. 'Ah. I would be able to make this report, umm.
Verbally, wouldn't I?'
'Yes,' the dirigible behemothaur said through 974 Praf.
Uagen felt just a little relief.
Then the Interpreter sat back against the wall behind her. She blinked a few
times and then said, 'Hmm.'
'What?' Uagen said, suddenly conscious of a funny taste in his mouth. He was
aware that he was fingering the necklace his aunt Silder had given him. He
put his hands down by his sides. They were shaking.
'Yes.'
'Yes what?'
'There would also be ... '
'What? What?' He was aware that his voice was more of a yelp, now.
'Your glyph tablet.'
'What?'
'The glyph tablet that belongs to you. If it might be used for the recording of
the impressions you have, that would be of use to me.'
'Ha! The tablet! Yes! Yes, of course! Yes!'
'Then you will go and are so agreed.'
'Oh. Umm. Well, yes, I suppose. That is-'
'I release the fifth-order Decider of the 11th Foliage Gleaner Troupe which is
now Interpreter 974 Praf.' There was a sound like a noisy kiss, and 974 Praf
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