A hand clasped tightly around his ankle, Skeetr shrieked and cried
out.  The hand was hot.  The mage was either THAT angry or was already
casting some torturous spells of fire.

Skeetr felt slumber overcoming him, quickly forgetting all of his perils
and how close he was to escape, he simply fell asleep.  The mage pulled
him from the hole.  Holding back his rage and appetite for destruction,
the mage had cast a sleep spell.  He wanted to question this boy.
Contrary to his earlier statement that Skeetr was harmless - he
concluded that Skeetr was a spy sent to infiltrate his master+s palace.
Skeetr+s mere survival of two days in this place told the mage that this
-boy- must have been casting invisibility and other spells to keep
himself hidden and unharmed.  -How else could he have avoided detection
and possibly +tamed+ the rats that infest the halls-, the mage thought
to himself.

The man brought Skeetr to a room nearby and shackled him to the wall.
He then returned to his portal-mirror and resumed his duties.  The boy
would waken in a few minutes and then he+d learn who had sent this boy
and why.

When Skeetr awoke, the mage looked over, cursed at him and left the
room.  The man had gone to relieve himself, thinking that interrogating
the boy may possibly take a long time.  On his way back to the room that
held Skeetr, he retrieved a fire prod.  -This might just come in handy-,
the mage said to himself with a laugh.