All Galen knew was that, periodically, they would switch the part of his body that they would torture, and heal damage that they had done previously.

And, at the moment, they were torturing his eyes, not his ears, and hence he could hear perfectly.

It was impossible to tell who was speaking, though.......The voices all sounded alike.......These low, menacing voices, sometimes gravelly, sometimes monotonal, sometimes distorted, sometimes clear as the notes of freedom heard when Nujel'm was liberated.......But all, somehow, sounded as though Evil had been robbed of all its complexity and distilled into a voice; though all the voices were distinctive this strange, hauntingly evil quality made them all sound the same.......

"Have you heard?" asked one?

"No."

"Some of them are meeting tonight.......I believe they are trying to rescue him."

The voices all laughed, mockingly.

"We shall be ready for them," said one voice.

Galen's face, distorted and contorted by pain and torture, was incapable of expression, but Galen's mind half-smiled, half grimaced....Leave me, he thought. Don't risk all your lives just for me.......I am insignificant.........Then another part of his mind took over, and it cried, help me.......help me...........

But alas, neither was any use..........For good, ill, or both, they were coming, though who exactly "they" would be was anyone's guess.......All Galen could do now was to pray for their victory. If they were coming anyway, no sense in all of them being condemned with him.

God, help them, please...........Don't let them end up here, with me......Help them...........