Chapter 4: Lankko's Secret

Later that night, Lankko dragged his steps over the stone floor of the corridor of his dungeons as the effects of the copious amount of wine he had consumed slightly affected his balance. He clung onto Mira when they stepped over the threshold as he almost stumbled to the floor.

"Careful, my sweet, you'll hurt yourself," said Mira, holding Lankko steady.

"I'm fine," said Lankko, steadying himself. "Let me show you the chamber."

They entered a dark chamber used for questioning prisoners and Lankko smiled proudly as he showed Mira around.

"So this is the famous torture chamber!" exclaimed Mira. "Just how many prisoners have you had here?"

"Shh! Don't call it torture chamber. I'd rather call it the questioning room. Makes it less painful to the ears."

Mira looked around the dark room lit only by two torches pinned to the far wall. "So, how many prisoners have you questioned here?" She asked, emphasizing the word 'questioned'.

"Let me tell you a secret," began Lankko. "I don't really do much of the questioning. Most of the time it's Jad Enzir who delights in doing it. On other occasions, I have my soldiers do it."

"Why?" asked Mira. "I thought that's what your red sash means. Isn't that supposed to represent blood? That's why you wear it, don't you?" Mira touched Lankko's sash and pulled it gently.

"Let me tell you another secret," Lankko chuckled, pulling back his sash from Mira's grasp. "Red is my favorite color," he whispered.

"Oh, red is my favorite color too!" exclaimed Mira, her face a mask of excitement as she grabbed Lankko's wrist. Then, she wrinkled her nose in disgust as she smelled something bad. "What's that awful smell?" she asked.

"Sorry about that," said Lankko, breathing the air with disgust. "I told the cleaner to clean in here, but he always finds a reason not to. Sometimes the cat would come in and do some of her nasty stuff." As if on cue, a mouse squeaked loudly and ran under a wooden apparatus at the center of the room pursued by a black cat.

"There goes little Enzir!" said Lankko.

"You call your cat after your master?" asked Mira.

"Oh, no. I wouldn't call her that. The cat's name is Sooty," said Lankko. "Go get Enzir, Sooty! Make him pay for it!" Lankko called to the cat who ran out of the chamber after the mouse. Then, Lankko turned to Mira, his thumb pointing towards the door. "I do hope she gets that mouse. That dirty little Enzir always wreaks havoc when he comes in here." Lankko chuckled at his own joke.

Mira went to the wooden apparatus and seemed to admire it like it was a sculpture. Lankko walked towards her. "Do you like it?"

"This is something else," said Mira as she ran her hand over the apparatus. "Did you make it yourself?" she turned to Lankko.

Lankko blinked his eyes and stuttered, "Y-yes. I designed it."

"Oh, you're so creative, Lankko! Just where do you get your ideas?" asked Mira. "It's like a work of art."

"Wait till you see this." Lankko then pulled some levers and the different parts of the apparatus shifted and transformed. "Can you see what this is?"

Mira looked at the apparatus and held her head at different angles, trying to imagine what Lankko wanted her to see.

Lankko tapped the seat and the wooden beam and said, "It's a caribou! These are the antlers." Lankko touched the thick beam. "And this is the saddle, where the prisoner sits."

Mira looked confused, then simply said, "It's just that I haven't seen a caribou. They must have really large antlers."

"Yes, they do," said Lankko enthusiastically. "And you place a saddle on their backs and you hold the reins like this." He pulled the ropes and pretended to steer the caribou. "I told Jad Enzir about it and he nicknamed it 'Karbo'. You know, shortened form of caribou. Isn't it amazing?" Lankko's eyes glowed.

"You nicknamed your torture device?" Mira asked sarcastically.

"Questioning device!" Lankko raised a finger at Mira who looked away.

Mira saw two bags hanging on a nearby shelf and was surprised that they were moving. Curious, she walked towards it and realized that its contents were alive.

"Those are fire ants, my love. Don't touch them. Their stings are extremely painful. I kept them there to dry." Lankko ran towards Mira who was still looking at the bags. "Have you seen fire ants before? Do you want to see them?"

Mira clasped her hands tightly until her knuckles turned white. She took a step backward and looked away. "No, I've seen them before," she said softly.

"Jad Enzir wants to use them during questioning. His father found them very effective on prisoners." Lankko paused when he saw that Mira was silent. "Let me show you something more interesting. Just wait here." Lankko walked towards a cabinet at the far wall, leaving Mira standing in front of the bags with the fire ants.

Mira looked at Lankko who was still getting something from the cabinet and then she took a wooden rod from the shelf. She then poked the bags, crushing its contents. Mira was still holding the rod when Lankko turned to her direction holding a box woven from bamboo strips. Immediately, she hid the rod behind her.

"Look at these little creatures, my love," said Lankko, showing Mira the open box. "I placed them inside this special box to let the air in."

Mira looked inside and found slug-like creatures squirming inside.

"Slugs?" she asked. "They look like slugs to me."

"But they're more than slugs, my dear. I call them psylugs – one of my latest creations. I named them myself," Lankko said proudly.

The creatures did look larger than normal garden slugs, Mira thought, but she could not understand what it was the Lankko made proud about them.

"They don't look much now, but when they attach to a prisoner, they glow in such beautiful colors. I intend to show this to Jad Enzir tomorrow. These wonderful creatures can make any of the prisoners tell the truth. And what's even more remarkable, the prisoners themselves wouldn't have any memory of what happened, that they had confessed the truth."

"Must be quite a sight when you use them," remarked Mira flatly.

"Yes. You should see them in action. Tomorrow, when they bring a prisoner in, I will let you watch," Lankko said. "But not in this room," he added. Lankko closed the box and went back to the cabinet at the far wall. Mira took out the rod she was still holding and returned it to where she found it.

"Now, come with me," Lankko said when he got back. He and Mira then went out of the chamber and locked the door before going to the adjacent room.

"This is the observation room." Lankko declared as he led Mira inside the smaller room. He sat on one of the comfortable seats next to the wall. "You see these holes on the wall?" He raised a curtain and showed round viewing holes through which he looked.

Mira sat next to Lankko and kneeled on the seats so that she can also look through the round hole. She had a good view of the Karbo and the whole chamber which they had just left.

"Pretty neat, right? This is where you can watch the proceedings and see my psylugs in action." Lankko sat comfortably on the soft cushions and stared at Mira as she looked inside the viewing hole. "Now, my dear, what else should we do tonight?" He touched Mira's hair.

"How did you create those psylugs?" asked Mira, pulling back her hair from Lankko's hand.

Lankko shifted in his seat. "How did I create the psylugs?" Lankko repeated as he looked at Mira's hair.

"You must be a genius to be able to do all these you showed me," Mira rose from her seat. "Oh, I love a creative genius!"

Lankko looked almost embarrassed with Mira's declaration of admiration. "Let me show you something else," he said. "But you must never tell anyone about it."

"What is it?" said Mira. "You're making me so excited." She jumped up and down.

Lankko led Mira through a flight of stairs and several locked doors before finally arriving at an antechamber.  Lankko then took out his set of keys and opened the massive doors made of heavy wood. When they got inside, Mira was amazed at what she saw. Her gaze, however, focused on a large circular glass filled with glowing liquid placed on a platform high above the room. She looked closely and saw that the light was coming from a round object immersed within – a blue pearl.