“Ego vos invoco,” Bezděchovský continued, lifting up the boline, “et invocando vos conjure, per eum cui obediunt omnes creaturae, et per hoc nomen ineffabile, Tetragrammaton Jehovah, in quo est plasmatum omne saeculum, quo audito elementu corruunt, ar concutitur, mare retrograditur, ignis extinguitur, terra tremit, omnesque exercitus Coelestium, Terrestrium et Infernorum tremunt et turbantur! Venite, venite, quid tardatis? Imperat vobis Rex regum! Titeip, Azia, Hyn, Jen, Minosel, Achadan, Vay, Ey, Haa, Eye, Exe, El, El, Va, Vaa, Yaaaaa!”

The mage’s voice rose as the spells were uttered, reaching higher and higher registers, until it became almost a wailing, an inhuman, unnatural keening. The air vibrated perceptibly, the candles sparked and dimmed. Suddenly there was a smell of wild animals, the stench of decay and lion’s urine. The darkness that filled the chamber thickened, took on shapes and swelled like a cumulus. Something moved inside the cumulus, brimmed over, writhed like an eel in a sack, like a tangle of vipers. Reynevan saw bloodshot eyes suddenly flash in the tangle, saw dreadful toothy jaws snap, saw monstrous physiognomies looming. His amazement quickly changed into panic. Not just out of fear of that nightmarish monstrousness, but also at the thought that Samson might indeed have something to do with it.

But Jan Bezděchovský of Bezděchov was a powerful mage and had everything in hand. Under the force of his spell, plaster fell from the ceiling and the candle flames turned red and then blue. A roar and boom reverberated and the macabre tangle hardened into a sphere as black as anthracite whose surface appeared to absorb all light. After the next spell, the sphere vanished with a hiss. Samson Honeypot, lying on the table, stiffened and trembled, then went limp and lay motionless.

“By Cratares,” said Bezděchovský. “By Capitel! I summon you, O Creature! Say who you are. Plainly and without lies, say who and what you are!”

Samson’s body trembled powerfully again.

“Verum, sine mendacio, certum et verissimum,” he said in a somewhat altered voice. “Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda Miracula Rei Unius.”

Radim Tvrdík, who was sitting beside Reynevan, gasped aloud and Štěpán of Drahotuše swore under his breath.

“That is the Emerald Tablet,” he explained in a whisper, seeing Reynevan’s enquiring expression. “He is speaking the words of Hermes Trismegistus. As though… As though—”

“As though he were mocking us.” Jošt Dun completed his sentence in a whisper.

“By Alpharoz!” Jan Bezděchovský raised his hands. “By Bedrimubal! Per signum Domini Tau! Who are you? Speak! Where is the truth?”