Abruptly, Baldar stopped beside the table and crashed his fist down onto the polished wood. Garin cringed at the noisy thud ringing through the room.
"Garin!!" Baldar bellowed. The young man winced and crept even closer to the wall, trying to melt into the stone. "You useless little slut!" Baldar was in a mood of calling Garin even more unflattery names but the frightened young man readily gave up. "Yes, Sire", he whispered, while he slowly got up and left the imaginary safety of his corner. Baldar eyed him intensely. "Can you, at last, prove that it was worth my while to save you from the orphanage and raise you like I did?" Baldar's voice was teasing, but in a treacherous way. Garin slightly bowed his head. His lips were trembling with fear. "I hope I can please you. I have been born to do as you wish." His words were hardly more than a sigh.
"Not me, you fool!" Baldar snapped. "Her" � in the blink of an eye his booming voice dropped to an icy whisper. "Seduce her. Try to find out whatever she knows about her fate. And-" he added even more acid to his words, "-if you are a really good boy, you will bring her to me!" With his strangely oval-shaped head, Baldar gestured towards the Seeing Stone where, amidst the intricate whirls of a mysterious mist, the face of a plain but pretty girl was just fading away.
