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By Root 578 0

the room carefully out of all those available to him in the various inns. If correctly sited he claimed that the pendulum gave him insights into the world beneath the ground on which we walk. He had come to our city across the continents and oceans that separate us from his home in search of what he called "the old ones". He was not forthcoming on their nature or status, preferring instead to regale me with vaguer stories of his investigations. However, it did strike me that although he had not heard of the legendary menagerie there were some parallels in what he told me. It was interesting to note that in the legends he had heard men were not so much turned into beasts as destroyed by the work of their own hands. He told me of the slavery that he had seen in some of our neighbouring cities and I wondered what parallels he was trying to draw.

'As he spoke it was as if he was gradually going through recent events in his mind and sorting them. I found it impossible to ask him why he had been found wandering the hillsides, and had instead to gently encourage him through his recollections of the past few days. He had been charting the caves. In particular he had been — the phrase is his, if memory serves — experimenting on the glowing matter found in some of the caves. He had scraped these "mineral deposits" from the cave walls. He was clearly referring to the contents of a number of glass tubes that we found. He claimed to have a device that allows one to examine the very fabric of any created thing. I almost had to clap my hands over my ears to block out the blasphemy.

'I remained, however, eager to establish what had happened. I knew that the trial would begin in mere hours, but his story was almost finished. He spoke finally of a tunnel he had discovered. It had descended steeply and quickly, ending abruptly with a wall of rock. Some of these rocks, he claimed, had melted through intense heat. It was as if a furnace had been constructed beneath them and the rocks had started to melt like icicles before a fire.

'He postulated that these rocks had been affected by some sort of explosion. Eventually he was able to penetrate the wall of rock, for in some places the heat had made the stone brittle.

'Beyond was a chamber of unimaginable vastness. Before he could even begin to explore it further he was attacked by small creatures. He could not describe them, and spoke only of falling unconscious and waking in another tunnel.

'There he saw further signs of fire and deep marks in the rock like those made by a strong blade. He searched for a way back to the surface world, his head throbbing, his mind, he said, feeling unstable. Memories and images he had not seen floated in his vision. He was very unclear at this point, describing nothing with sufficient clarity for me to record here.

The only thing he remembers is stumbling across a golden casket, leaning against a cave wall as if thrown there by a giant. He peered inside, through a glass covering, expecting to see mummified remains or the dust of death.

'There was a creature inside. And it was moving.

'It was at that point, I believe, that his sanity left him. He was just coherent enough to show us the tunnel where he had come up again on to the surface, but of the casket there was no sight. A few hundred paces into the tunnel and the way was entirely blocked by a rock fall. Of the other tunnel, the one he had initially discovered, we could find no trace. I can only assume that this is one of many details embellished and tainted by madness.

'Commander Zaitabor spoke of the dark destroyers he had seen mentioned in an ancient heretical text, and wondered if there were any connection between the menagerie, the destroyers and the creature the scientist had seen. I said that such talk was dangerous, and my Commander soon saw the error of his ways. He began to put together what evidence there was for the man's innocence, while I worked on the facts that condemned him.

'I think we both knew, however, that the man's life was forfeit long before the trial commenced.'