But oblivion didn’t last nearly long enough. He was dragged back to wakefulness by a drenching splash of cold water that made him gasp and choke. His eyes opened to a chamber now lit by glowing braziers full of coals. Borik took in the gaggle of grots, now joined by several more freakish creatures. Spider-like clusters of eyes stared at him pitilessly. Weird fungal bat-things fluttered back and forth over pointed black hoods. Something in a huge, grotesque mask cocked its head as it stared at him.

Borik’s peripheral vision was tinged with shimmering colours, warped shades of burned crimson and lurid green and sour blue that flickered in and out every time he moved his head. He coughed again, then froze in horror as he looked down at himself. Borik couldn’t see his chest, only his arms and legs strapped into the chair’s restraints. They were dotted with dozens of bulbous, flesh-coloured toadstools that glowed from within with a mottled light. He felt sick to his stomach as he realised some of the growths had sprouted tufts of body hair the same colour as his. They were fungi, but they were formed from his flesh. He could feel them now as part of him, pulsating, quivering. Borik couldn’t help himself, his gorge rose and he retched dryly. All it achieved was to spill another cloud of glowing spores across his body, and he felt misery and madness threaten. What grotesque thing was he becoming?

‘Don’t have to stay that way,’ said a familiar voice, full of mock pity. Borik turned his head to see Skragrott stalk around the chair. The grot reached out a claw and flicked one of the toadstools, which wobbled flabbily. Borik felt it as though Skragrott had poked him in the arm, and just managed to keep down another ­retching heave.

‘I don’t think he’s so funny now, is he?’ sneered Skragrott.

His grot attendants probably couldn’t understand his words, Borik thought, but they surely caught his meaning as they all sniggered and hissed.

‘I can stop it, and I can turn yooz back,’ said Skragrott, who had halted next to one of the burning braziers. ‘I got power over da ’shrooms, see? But first you got to tell me what I want to know. Who you workin’ for? Why woz you running off, and where to? What d’you know about my plan?’

Borik shook his head and groaned. ‘I don’t know anything. I came here…’ he stopped to spit out a mouthful of spores, trying desperately to avoid his flesh as he did so. ‘I came here alone and I’m leaving the same way.’

Skragrott shook his head and pinched the bridge of his long, hooked nose.