Motioning the other two inside, Von stepped back. The admiral came in first and stood along the wall nearest Vorr. The lich came in only after peering inside carefully, then motioning the general away from the door. Once all were inside, Von reached over to shut the door.

"Wait!" hissed the lich, hands out suddenly, pointing with pale white finger bones at both admiral and general. "Cursed you will both be if any tricks you try! In any circumstance, escape I shall, and wild my unhappiness will be! This clearly you understand?"

General Vorr briefly considered ways to call the lich's bluff and dismember it. He hated undead things and he hated this whole meeting, and the lich's paranoia was making it worse. He did not worry so much for his own safety, but having the scro promote another admiral would be time-wasting and bothersome, especially after he had spent the last few years getting used to this admiral's quirks.

"I understand," said Vorr, gently closing the door, "but wild our unhappiness will be if more threats you utter. I am not known for my patience. You would do best to start discussing your reasons for wanting to see us."

"Which involved gaining some great treasure, as I believe you mentioned," said the admiral smoothly, his arms folded across his robed chest. The admiral's steel chest protector did not show beneath the thick black fabric, the general noted. Nor did the admiral's weapons show at all in their leg sheaths. Good; it was better for the general's weapons to draw the lich's attention. If worse came to worst, the admiral might even be able to lend a sword in the fight, though his skills at diplomacy were a dozen times better than his meager sword-fighting techniques.

The lich's finger bones curled, and its arms fell toward its sides. "Greater than your brains can dream the treasure is," the lich said hoarsely. "Beyond my grasp it is, and dislike that I do. Dreamed of this treasure I have, long dreamed I have, and within my grasp it will one day fall. An army I need, and found it is. If in this treasure you are pleased, me will you serve to gain it?"

"We are not for hire, Skarkesh," said the admiral, raising a hand to scratch at his broad snout. "We have our own mission to perform, and we are deeply involved in it. You may have missed the signs, but we are at war."

"Yes, yes," hissed the lich, waving its arms in dismissal. "A war nice is, with toys of ships and a thousand toys of soldiers. Yes, it nice is. But nicer it is with bigger toys, and nicest with biggest toy of all ships. To find this biggest toy I wish, and the key now in this very sphere is. Knowledge of this big toy, the Spelljammer, you have?"

Neither general nor admiral spoke in reply. "Well?" hissed the lich more loudly. The carrion smell was noticeably stronger. "Of the Spelljammer you know? Or beyond your reasoning powers does it lie?"

"The Spelljammer" said Admiral Halker carefully, "is a mythical spelljamming ship the size of a small world. It's supposed to be shaped like a manta ray. Its coming is said to be an evil portent, as it brings destruction and chaos in its wake. No one can destroy it or command it, not even a god. It drives its captains insane. That's what the myths say."

"Mythical it is not!" the lich said heatedly. "Across centuries have I chased it, and for its secrets a thousand foes dead now are. Its secret buried in a sunless asteroid two years ago I found. The key to its power in a block of ice was frozen, and my lordservants, my umber hulks, to free it without harm could not." The lich's eyes glowed more brightly now. "Then! Then my captain-servant the block from me stole, he into black wildspace flew, coward thieving spew of lowest slave meat!" The lich was nearly screaming, its body shaking with rage. "Coward the block of ice from me stole, and chase him and kill him I did, but gone the block was. It lost had been, its worth unknown, to a reigar cow!"

For perhaps half a minute the lich rocked, then the shaking slowed quickly and stopped. "A reigar cow the cloak had stolen," it rasped tonelessly, pulling its hands back from the table to fall at its sides again. "Away in her ship, the Penumbra, she flew, by I and my servants pursued. She through the void we chased, and then…"

The lich broke off. Vorr heard a scratching sound and noticed that the lich was rubbing its finger bones together, over and over. He glanced at Admiral Halker, who appeared calm but watched the lich with narrow eyes.

"Then…" prompted the admiral.

The lich looked up and stared at them with cold light before it spoke, so quietly that Vorr had trouble hearing it dearly. "Then my servants… to kill me tried. Poison they tried. Hard I fought before escaping them. My little masters a yrthni ma'adi wanted, but gone then I was, and they a new one chose, no doubt. Gone I was… but back now I am. Different now I am, too. Better, you see." The lich raised its hands and spread its fingers, peering at them as if it had not seen them before. It looked up at the two who faced it, raising its hands to the ceiling. "Better, yes, better the cloak to find again, and it to wear and the Spelljammer to control!"

General Vorr understood almost nothing of the lich's last remarks. Every muscle in him was tensed to attack. It would be a snap. He would have to break out through the door to slay the umber hulks next to avoid losing his ogres to them, but the door wouldn't withstand more than one blow. If that ogre he'd sent away returned in the next few minutes with the company of ogre and scro reinforcements that the general had requested on the preprinted card, the fight would go a lot better. Admiral Halker wasn't the best judge of fighting strength, and Vorr was used to doubling the admiral's estimates of the size of the marine force required to accomplish any particular mission.

"I'm having some trouble following what you are saying," said the admiral quietly. "You say that you found some sort of cape or cloak that will allow you to control the Spelljammer- this nonmythical, mightiest of all ships-but one of your servants stole it. You chased down the servant and killed him, but a reigar had stolen it by then, and your other servants tried to murder you after that. You've since… well, changed into your current form, and now you want us to help you find and seize this cloak from the reigar."

The lich had watched the admiral intently as he spoke. "Little trouble with my words you have had," it said at last, "but reigar the cloak has not. My not-servants to slay her did succeed, but the cloak missing has been, by a human stolen away. This human I know where is. Clever he is, as all not-servants now not-alive are. With other ships and companions this human travels, ahead of me always. Now in this sphere he rests, on the Rock of Bral on this sphere's far side. Of this body you know?"

"It's an asteroid city of mixed population," said the admiral easily. "We have it charted. It's of no interest to us. Our quarrel is with but this one small world."

"Good news that is. With me you will serve then, this cloak to find?"

The admiral frowned with annoyance. "I think we've said that we are not for hire, Skarkesh. Besides that, you're implying that you, not we, will gain this treasure, tie cloak. Just what could we gain from following you?"

The lich said nothing for a while. General Vorr fidgeted, the strain of waiting to attack beginning to eat at him.

"The universe," said the lich.

There was a pause.

"I'm sorry?" said the admiral, leaning more closely.

"The universe," repeated the lich. "The benefit you as my servants would gain. Need you I will, when the cloak is to be found, and need you I will, when the Spelljammer later is found. Need you I will, when the universe beneath the wings of the Spelljammer is held, and all the worlds in existence mine will be. Need you I will, my riches to count and share."