by Des Pensable
‘Well you have prepared me a nice reception.’ said Featherdown. ‘Where is High Priest Kelnor, I thought he would come to my party.’
‘Unfortunately he is busy convincing people that they don’t have the plague.’ said Firestorm.
‘Yes Aquitain can be quite a headache but you should have listened to him. This is a dangerous world for the uninvited.’ said Featherdown.
‘It will soon belong to the Unity of Wisdom.’ said Curbut.
‘With you out of the way there will be nobody to stop us.’
‘My how little you’ve learnt since you’ve been here Curbut. This world will never belong to Panmagica or the Yith. It has even declared its independence from the Inter-World Druids Council. This is a free world now and nobody is likely to change that any time soon. We destroyed the army sent against the druids’ conclave and are preparing right now to destroy your army here.’
‘Archwizard Firestorm I presume you are the commander of the army outside. As the ambassador for the Independent World of Mudrun I’m offering you a chance to save your army. However, you have only five minutes to make your decision or you and your army will be lost.’
‘You dare to threaten me.’ scoffed Firestorm.
‘What sort of a fool are you? There are eight of us here and one of you. You cannot use magic here to fight or leave.’
‘I am here as the ambassador of Mudrun. I offer you and your army the chance to escape death. But you now have four minutes to decide.’ replied Featherdown moving his hand with the glass sphere in front of his chest where Firestorm could see it properly.
‘What’s that you have?’ said Firestorm suspiciously.
‘You should recognize this sphere of liquid; you used others like it on a town in Helios. You killed over thirteen thousand people in the town until I arrived and made the wind to blow it out of the town onto your army and then it killed over two thousands of your troops.’
‘By the Powers, what is it?’ asked Curbut.
‘It’s a very nasty poison gas called Terratox. It was made on a world that is depleted of magic so they use chemicals for warfare. I tried it out on the town but the clever Archwizard Featherdown showed us that it had disadvantages.’ replied Firestorm.
‘He then applied to the world consortium to have the substance banned on all worlds but they didn’t agree. So now he intends to use it against our troops. How hypocritical!’
‘I have few worries about using a poisonous gas against an army of religious fanatics. I will again repeat my offer. Remove your army and nobody will be harmed. But you have only three minutes to decide.’ replied Featherdown.
‘He’s bluffing.’ said Curbut.
‘If he drops that sphere he will kill himself as well as us.’
‘A good trade I think.’ said Featherdown, ‘eight fanatics for me!’
‘Do you think that Kelnor is likely to resurrect you again! Curbut?’
‘Okay.’ said Firestorm.
‘We’ll need to wait for a few minutes until the antimagic spell expires then I will go to High Priest Kelnor and recommend we pull back through the Gateway. How are you going to signal your druids to stop any attack on my army?’
‘By pulling that lever.’ replied Featherdown.
‘But that will close the gateway.’ replied Curbut.
‘How can we retreat if you close the gateway?’
‘It would give the signal for my people to temporarily stop the attack. We would then get your people to disarm and I will open the gate for them to pass back through. It will also give you time to convince High Priest Kelnor that this is the right thing to do.’ replied Featherdown.
‘No I won’t agree to any disarming. I will agree to temporarily close the gate while I talk to Kelnor and if he agrees we will depart in an orderly fashion.’ said Firestorm.
‘Okay that is acceptable.’ said Featherdown.
‘No! It’s not.’ said the senior Wizard Hunter.
‘His Holiness the High Priest Kelnor suspected foul play. I am authorized to ensure that the gate is not closed and any enemy trying to do so will be eliminated. All praise the Lord!’ and he threw a dagger at Featherdown piercing his chest.
The glass sphere dropped to the floor and shattered. The liquid turned to gas and expanded throughout the control room. Moments later everyone present was dead.
Featherdown’s spirit flowed out of his body and surveyed the scene.
‘Bloody religious fanatics! They’re all the same, absolutely no brains! Good thing I cloned a new body for myself.’ he thought.
A spirit appeared beside him.
‘The Lady has sent me here to offer you sanctuary.’ It said.
‘How do I know you are a servant of the Lady?’ asked Featherdown.
‘Heteronymous recently prayed to the Lady that she watch over you. He also prayed for a certain weapon. Since you can no longer stop him from using it. You will soon anger several Gods and Powers who will come looking for you. You have little time to decide.’
‘I don’t pray to any god and I am not a follower of hers. Why does she offer me sanctuary?’
‘You have protected her followers and they have asked her to protect you. Is that not enough?’ replied the spirit.
‘I have a cloned body ready to accept my spirit. Why should I not use that?’ thought Featherdown.
‘Your cloned body has been found by the enemy and is trapped. If you use it you will be immediately found and I will not be able to help you.’ said the spirit.
‘Show me.’ said Featherdown.
Instantly they were transported to the secret area where Featherdown had his cloned body stored.
‘It looks okay to me. My wards are intact. Where is the trap?’ he asked feeling the pull of the body.
‘Look through my eyes at its spirit aura.’ said the spirit and Featherdown could see in his mind a second more complex aura underneath the simple aura of his spirit keeping his cloned body alive.
‘What is that? Is it possessing my clone?’ he asked.
‘No. It is a psychic parasite or puppeteer. It is waiting for your spirit to occupy the body and when that happens it will take control of you and alert its master that you are present. You will soon be found and who knows what will happen then.’ replied the spirit.
‘May I witness the destruction before I decide.’ asked Featherdown.
The spirit was silent for a few moments then said.
‘You may as well bear witness to your folly. You had but to remove the townspeople to safety and let the invaders try to survive this hostile and dangerous world but instead you have chosen to attack and destroy them. It is no accident that an army composed of the followers of many gods was placed in this location where it may be easily annihilated. The gods will use this as an excuse to start the war that you have been saying that you have been trying to stop.’ said the spirit.
‘But they attacked us first.’ said Featherdown.
‘Yes! To goad you into action and you easily defeated them.’ said the spirit.
‘But I tried to convince them to go and almost succeeded.’ said Featherdown.
‘Did you really expect religious zealots to retreat? You have fought them before. You knew they wouldn’t retreat and prepared a swift and lethal blow to show them how powerful you are. The gods are laughing at your folly. It is trivial to what they are planning and all they needed was some fool to start the process going. Tomorrow they will raise all those you kill today and they will return with a vengeance. They will have a reason to kill everyone on Mudrun.’ replied the spirit.
‘You don’t sound like a servant of the Lady. If she is so upset with me why is she offering me sanctuary?’
‘I am R’ptor the spirit of the Little People you know as the blue-scaled ones. The Lady asked me to watch over you and I have done so since your arrival. You have given us much hope but you have thrown it all away with your vanity. You profess to be the defender of this world but when did you last seek the wisdom of t
he Little People, the air brothers, the water brothers or the fire brothers. Aquitain, the spirit bear forged you an alliance with the Crin and the Little People but what have you done with it? Nothing!’
‘The Lady is not upset with you. I am. She is prepared to offer you sanctuary while you consider the errors you have made so that sometime in the future you may help to undo the damage you have caused today.’
R’ptor teleported them to the top of his tower where he could get a perfect view of the destruction to come. Featherdown was shocked at the accusations of the spirit but realized it was true. He had arrogantly and vainly believed that only he could make all the decisions to defend this world when it was full of others that had a stake in it as well and now they would all suffer for his stupidity. He hardly dared watch what was about to happen.
Back at the western teleport marker Heteronymous stood talking with Granwell when Quab teleported in and moved over to join them.
‘I have informed the Queen Beatrice of the Crin and Kami the Shaman of the Jeti People of the attack of the Panmagicans on the druid conclave and its outcome. They have congratulated us on our victory. Kami will pass on any information we give him to the other clans of Little People.’
‘We have another problem my Lords. Queen Beatrice informed me that Queen Snowbelle has disappeared and the Kingdom of Argenta has been invaded by Yith. Her spies have spotted Yith patrols around the entrance to gateway to Argenta. I haven’t been there yet to confirm that but there is no reason to doubt her.’
‘By the Lady, it’s been a strange day.’ replied Heteronymous.
‘However, we seem to be winning. We have evacuated all the townspeople from Twin Towers and are now about to show the invaders a taste of what’s in store for them if they persist in staying here.’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Quab.
‘Hehe. You’ll see soon enough. Featherdown thought of this when he situated the town here. Great idea. It will demonstrate that the Lady can protect her own.’ replied Heteronymous.
‘Where is Featherdown?’ asked Quab.
‘Unfortunately we don’t know.’ replied Granwell.
‘He told me that if he didn’t show in fifteen minutes then Heteronymous would know what to do. It’s already been half an hour.’
‘Can you change shape to a flying horse Quab. How would you like to bear me up into the sky so that I can show the Lady’s displeasure.’ asked Heteronymous. ‘You’ll also get a good view as well.’
‘I’d be honoured, My Lord.’ replied Quab.
‘Let’s do this! Alert all the druids to take to the air please.’ he said to a nearby druid assistant who dashed off with the message.
Quab changed shape to a beautiful white flying horse and took to the air bearing the old High Druid.
‘Take me a league out to sea please Quab.’ Shouted Heteronymous.
Quab flew out wondering what Heteronymous had in mind. Some type of storm he presumed. Heteronymous loved attacking with ice and lightning. Perhaps he was going to create a tornado as well. That would certainly be spectacular but he was starting to have some misgivings about this. They had saved all the townspeople. Why attack the invaders now?
The dragon had burned the commercial teleporter building as well as most of the buildings down and harassed the army for a while before leaving. They had no ships and it would be foolish to send an army over the water anyway. The invaders would soon discover that the jungle was unforgiving and without the help of druids, extremely dangerous. If necessary a few druids could harass them and make life unbearable until they left.
‘What was Featherdown thinking? What had he asked Heteronymous to do and why?’ Quab asked himself.
Heteronymous asked Quab to hover over the sea and began chanting. It was the longest and most powerful spell that Quab had ever heard. The smell of magic surrounded them, the sky began to darken, lightning crackled and the wind began to stir. Heteronymous chanted on. He called for the immense power of the sea to rise up and strike!
‘By the Lady!’ thought Quab.
‘He’s creating a tsunami! He’ll totally destroy the Unity of Wisdom army in one go. That’ll have huge repercussions. All the gods will want vengeance. Featherdown has gone mad. If the Time of Chaos is not yet upon us then this could start it.’
The gods watched in great anticipation.
Quab dove straight down towards the sea. Heteronymous was still chanting when they hit the water and went under. The chanting stopped and the power forming the tsunami dissipated.. Quab changed to his Newman form and swam to the surface. Heteronymous first changed form to a seal and then back to his Newman form as he surfaced near Quab.
‘By the Lady! Have you gone mad Quab!’ yelled Heteronymous.
‘No. You and Featherdown have. I hope I’ve just stopped the start of the Time of Chaos!’
‘By the Ever Loving Grace of the Lady! There is sanity left in this world yet!’ yelled R’ptor the Air Spirit.
‘Your friend Quab has saved you. You will not need the sanctuary of the Lady now. Go to your cloned body and accept your fate.’
Moments later Featherdown felt his spirit flow into his cloned body and he woke up.
‘Welcome, to your new body Archwizard Featherdown.’ said a voice into his mind.
‘You are very lucky I was chosen for this mission. My name is Slivver and I bring news of Aquitain and Miranda.’
Chapter 27 Return to Astaria
On passing through the gateway from the Elendari palace, Miranda with scimitar in hand, Yllandril on her shoulder and Aquitain dangling from the mind clay necklace found herself standing at the end of a dark tunnel. The magically enhanced scimitar gave out a weak purple glow, enough to see that the tunnel had a perfect circular cross section. Aquitain used his power to control light to amplify the brightness and change the colour of the light emanating from the scimitar blade to a bright white and it immediately became apparent that the tunnel wall was completely coated with small grey hexagonal tiles.
‘Place me on the ground please Miranda.’ said Aquitain and she did wondering what he was up to.
He looked closely at the tiles and used his crystal vision to examine them and the mortar between them.
‘These tiles would explain why we couldn’t find the other pathways when I was in Astaria before. They are used in Panmagica to block magic from passing through. They would effectively stop anyone from another part of Astaria teleporting or even scrying into here and vice versa.’
He looked on the wall behind them and saw that a portion of the wall was covered in larger black tiles and these held the magical runes that formed the permanent gateway.
‘These tiles would have cost a small fortune. Someone went to a lot of trouble and expense to build this tunnel. I wonder why?’
‘Let’s find out.’ said Miranda picking him up and attaching him to her necklace as she strode off down the tunnel. They walked about 200 paces and Miranda suddenly stopped.
‘I ... I think that there’s something ahead, just out of sight.’ she said. ‘I can feel it. It’s cold and horrible.’
Moments later a long, thin finger of blackness shot out of the darkness ahead and touched her on the forehead. Miranda screamed and ran back towards the gateway in terror, dropping her scimitar as she did. It fell clattering on the tile floor with a loud metallic ring that echoed back and forth in the tunnel. She didn’t stop until she had passed through the gate, and reached the wall opposite the gate in the Palace. She stood with her back to the wall looking terrified at the gate and breathing heavily.
After a couple of minutes, Aquitain finally managed to sooth her enough mentally, to find out what had happened.
‘It was horrible. It touched me and I was suddenly in a nightmare that I had when I was small where a black shadow-like thing would chase me, threatening to do terrible things to me. In my dreams I could always outrun it but the thought of it catching me has always terrified me.’ replied Miranda.
‘I
was afraid of this. It seems that one of our enemies has some ability to manipulate both dreams and the dream world. Granddad sent messages though dreams and I heard he could do other stuff as well. I didn’t get into your dream by accident the other night, Katarina helped me to get there, expecting that I would find a way to find you and get past Ironwood’s protective ward. Someone else followed me past the ward then attacked both of us. Fortunately we won, but it won’t be as easy next time as they won’t invite me along.’ said Aquitain.
‘You’ve probably been safe at Darkmantle’s Hold as it’s protected by dead magic rock. If you sleep outside a dead magic or antimagic field they’ll probably attack you in your dreams again and the outcome might not be as good. I’m safe inside this crystal body as I don’t need to sleep and I’m immune to most magic anyway.’
‘Even if you’re right, what’s this got to do with the creature that just attacked me.’ said Miranda a little confused.
‘They haven’t been able to attack either of us because we have been shielded. So our enemy has created or recruited some creature that can tap into your unconscious mind and use your own nightmares against you while you’re awake.’ said Aquitain.
‘They knew that we would come looking for Bellen so they set up that creature to stop us.’
‘Well it worked. I’m not going in there again until you clear it out.’ said Miranda.
‘If it was that easy Yllandril and I’d do it right now, but I suspect that it’s both magic resistant and physically tough. While it can’t hurt either Yllandril or me magically, it can probably pound us both into dust and we’re too small and weak to harm it. On the other hand you’re physically tough enough to beat it but it knows your weak spot.’
‘So how do we beat it!’ asked Miranda.
‘No wait! Let me guess. You’ve got some cunning scheme where you’re going to break the rules again, haven’t you. You’re going to create a rift in space/time and suck it back into its own dimension and upset the god of dreamland or something just as bad.
