Vale looked like a cornered animal for a moment, but regained his composure and bent his will upon the assembly once more. Lily gaped in surprise, seeing what she had been unable to see before, that Vale was somehow able to hold them in thrall to his will.
"Your eyes deceive you, my Lord," Vale pronounced in a way that seemed perfectly reasonable, despite the circumstances. "This creature is other than it contrives to appear. I shall now unmask it, for all of you to see. Then, shall you judge!"
Turning his attentions back to the terrified girl, he said in a voice both quiet and with an undertone of violence, "Now, witch! Let us see you as you truly are!"
Uncomprehending, thinking to forestall whatever he meant to do to her, she replied, her voice pleading, "But I am as you see me!"
"Liar!" Taking a short wand from inside his robes, he approached the girl. "What is required in the right method of persuasion!"
"Anest!" Lily cried in alarm, "Stop him! That wand-!"
"Vale!" Shouted Belloc, prompted at last by the urgency in Lily's voice to act.
But Vale ignored all but the girl. Falling to her knees in abject terror, she cried, "Please, don't! I'll tell you anything."
But Vale seemed caught up in a paroxysm of mindless brutality. The twisted short wand began to writhe as it came to life, curling and poised like a scorpion's sting. And from its tip protruded a barb that dripped poison.