by Des Pensable
‘Where are they?’ he shouted.
‘They are gone My Lord. That was Queen Snowbelle. Had we resisted we would all be dead. She threatened us with war.’
‘Damn her! That was an act of war. She will pay for that.’ he shouted.
‘Perhaps we should discuss this later after we have had a chance to look at things in a more reasonable light.’ said one of the councillors. The others agreed, the meeting was closed and the councillors left leaving the High Druid standing alone. After they had left the building he smiled to himself and thought
‘Well that was rather successful. For a while I was worried that no one was going to show up to rescue her; now for the next part of the plan.’
Chapter 3 The Suggestion
Three dark clad figures crouched in the shadow cast by the bright moon beside a barn, two looking forward, and one checking behind. Nothing but their eyes and faint puffs of vapor from their breath were visible.
About a hundred paces away, up a slight rise and on the other side of a tall stonewall was one of the two wizard towers in this small town. It was early morning about two hours before dawn. It had been raining, the air was fresh, the townspeople were all asleep and the two guard dogs nearby lay in magic induced sleep still tethered to their chains where they dropped.
‘Can you detect it from here?’ whispered Jaztrix the gnome.
The second member of the group, the stout average sized Newman held a ring in front of him, pointed at the tower and slowly moved it from the base of the tower to the top scanning for something. He suddenly stopped and with an excited whisper said ‘Yes it’s there. About halfway up.’
‘Good,’ replied Alin Amber, the tall Elendari looking male as he turned to the gnome. ‘You go and get it, we’ll wait here.’
‘Are you sure that this is the right thing to do?’ asked Jaztrix.
‘Yes we must still follow the plan. It is a little off track but this should help to correct things.’
‘I hope that you’re right!’ said Jaztrix as she slipped a ring on her finger and activated its power. She lifted off the ground and flew straight to the tower, about halfway up to where the Newman had indicated. She invoked another power and merged into the tower wall. A minute or so later, she came out through the wall and flew down to her companions with a sceptre wrapped in a silken cloth.
‘We’re fortunate that the High Wizard didn’t lock it in his safe room. I don’t know how to get in there.’
She unwrapped it and showed it to the Newman. ‘Is this it?’ she asked in an excited tone.
The Newman took hold of the exquisite gem-studded sceptre made of precious metals, examined it carefully then pushed a gem recessed into its shaft and the sceptre elongated into a spear. He pushed a second gem and it shortened to form a sword, a third gem returned to its sceptre shape and he said. ‘Yes. This is it. Beautiful isn’t it?’
Alin Amber spoke a word of stunning and the Newman froze like a statue completely paralysed but still able to see and hear. The sceptre dropped to the ground with a dull thud. Alin pulled out a knife and cut half the small finger off the Newman’s left hand wrapped it in clean cloth stowed it in his pocket and began chanting more arcane words in high Draconic. There was a surge of magic, the Newman was covered with a dull green glow as he changed shape, shrank to a half of his former height and his skin went tough and stony like that of a gargoyle.
‘By the Powers he looks ugly.’ said Jaztrix.
‘You will remember nothing of tonight.’ said Alin Amber and chanted a further complex string high Draconic and the Newman’s memory went blank and his vision went strange.
Alin Amber picked up the sceptre placed it in a dimension bag and then and Jaztrix disappeared into the night leaving the alien looking creature where he was.
The countryside looked strange and dangerous. He was confused.
‘How did I get here?’ he thought. The paralysis faded and he could walk again. He wandered along the edge of the building and found a doorway into a barn. Inside were the weirdest looking animals he had ever seen. He heard someone coming. He hid behind a bucket. Why were the buckets so large here? In came the ugliest, most malign looking creature he had ever seen holding a lamp. He was terrified.
The creature checked the other creatures, looked around but didn’t see him then left. He didn’t know what to do. Everything looked so unfamiliar. Maybe he could hide in here for a while. Watch what happened and then decide what to do. Why couldn’t he remember how he got here? In fact, who was he?
**
The following evening was one of those beautiful spring nights, warm with a gentle breeze, causing a slight rustle in the trees. The moon was nearly full, the perfume of the flowers around the little cottages on the edge of the village of Twin Towers wafted around the village.
The usual laughter and singing from the Ugly Bear inn was absent instead there was serious civic meeting in progress. Several pairs of guards kept vigil walking the streets. Some small water elementals chased each other around the fountain splashing water here and there.
Aquitain in the form of a purple-scaled little person wearing a small pack on his back fashioned out of chaos matter appeared just outside High Wizard Featherdown’s tower. He walked to the door and tried to gain entry but found the door locked and the password had been changed.
The doorknob stated that the wizard was not home and could the caller please inquire about his whereabouts at the Ugly Bear Inn. He was tired, not feeling sociable and not overly keen at wandering into the inn, as he was unsure as to how popular strangers were in the town at the moment. He had an aversion to visiting Quab, the town’s druid at the Sanctuary on the edge of town as he had died there a few days ago so he sat down resigned to waiting.
A hidden pair of eyes watched him for a couple of minutes then slipped off to the inn. A few minutes later, High Wizard Featherdown dressed in a simple brown tunic, left the inn and walked towards the tower. As he approached Aquitain noticed the deep purple glow of his eyes. The wizard was wary and alert as if expecting someone. He stepped into the moonlight where he was clearly visible and the wizard tensed a little.
‘Hello, what can I do for you?’ asked the wizard.
‘Hello Featherdown, it’s me Aquitain.’
The High Wizard asked him a couple of questions to verify his identity and then relaxed a little.
‘By the Powers, you’ve shrunk. Come in, come in. Are you hungry, I can get the inn to provide some food if you like?’
‘No.’ replied Aquitain, ‘but thanks for the offer. You’ve changed the password on your door.’
‘Yes I will be changing it daily from now on considering what’s been happening.’ replied Featherdown. ‘Come inside.’ and he whispered a password and the door opened. They entered, walked to a teleport circle and were transported to the entertainment room, a large circular room containing several lounges sitting on lush purple carpet.
‘Take a seat while I call for some hot tea.’ he said and disappeared.
Aquitain remembered the first time he had been here as an emotionless untested Logicon. The awesomely beautiful tapestry on the wall showing heroic Newman warriors locked in battle with horrible monsters had only been of technical interest to him then.
Now it came alive. He had emotions again and they had been thoroughly tested in the last couple of days. Now the scenes truly captured his imagination. He could hear the yells, war cries, guttural growls, metal crashing on metal, shouts and curses. He could almost feel the hot flashes of fire and smell the magic in the air. His mind was filled with horrible piecing screams, acrid smells of burning flesh, sweat, blood, steaming entrails, fear and exhilaration.
Aquitain tore his mind away from the vision in the tapestry.
‘Damn. I’ll have to be more careful.’ he thought. ‘The tapestry has some sort of compulsion magic on it to enhance the senses and feelings of the viewer.’ He blanked his mind and mentally chanted the mantra of calming to calm his now turbulent
feelings.
The wizard returned with a steaming mug of hot brew and sat opposite him with a somewhat serious expression on his face.
‘You just arrived at a propitious time. I had a meeting with worried towns people and we were having difficulties. I closed the meeting and told them we would resume again tomorrow night after they had given more thought to my proposals. I suppose you don’t know what’s happened in the last couple of days and have come here to find out?’
‘That’s it completely. I know I died and Miranda had me reincarnated again and left me with the Jeti to recover. She told Shaman Kami that she would be back soon but never came back. So here I am to find her.’
‘Strange you ended up a little person this time. Why did Miranda want you to be a little person?’
‘You mean why did The Lady want me to be a little person? I don’t know but I’m not only a little person. Don’t panic when you see my alternate form.’ and he changed to his spider form.
Featherdown cast a magical protection on himself more by reflex than thought then said.
‘By the Powers, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect this. What sort of spider are you?’
Aquitain changed to his small child Newman form with a big grin.
‘I could have bet money that you’d react like that. I’m a shape-changing spider called a Llanllean. We have two alternate forms, a spider form and a little people form. I can switch between the two almost instantly and can stay in either form indefinitely without expending any power from my source. As you can see I am still restricted by dimensional stability. I can’t shape change to something with more or less body mass like an adult Newman.’
‘By the Powers, had I known how much trouble you’d cause when you originally came here, I would never have allowed you to stay. Perhaps The Lady is showing you as you really are. One form that looks so bloody innocent and the other, a monster.’ said Featherdown with a troubled expression on his face.
‘What’s wrong!’ asked Aquitain immediately suspecting the worst. ‘What’s happened?’
Let me tell you a story.’ said Featherdown.
‘Before I came here I was a mercenary war wizard but rather than sell my services to those with the greatest gold, I sold myself to the poor, the innocent and the oppressed. I was very successful, too successful it seems, as I upset many powerful rulers and became branded as a rogue wizard. I was hounded from world to world for two years until one day your grandfather told me about the job here and helped me get it. I was forever grateful to him and as time passed and he asked me to look the other way as his agents came and went I did. They never caused any problems or broke any laws so I ignored them.’
‘One day three years ago one of his agents known as Alin Amber called into the inn while I was there and shape changed into a Yith. He told me a story that I found hard to believe at the time. He told about the Great Storm on Mudrun and revealed that if the problem that caused it was not rectified it would cause more cataclysms on Mudrun. He said that in the near future a person was coming that held promise to solve the problem. However, when that person tried to repair the problem, it was likely to upset the gods as they had a stake in the outcome. I was asked to help that person succeed and that person seems to be you.’
‘Every day since then I’ve worried about what might happen. I’ve worried about how many innocent people were going to lose their lives in what appears to be shaping up as a massive idiotic power struggle. I’ve worried that my involvement might contribute more deaths than if I stayed out of it. I’m now more worried than ever considering what’s happened in the last couple of days.’
‘Considering that you’re a war wizard you seem rather sensitive about people dying.’ quipped Aquitain wondering where this was leading.
‘I’ve seen more death and destruction than you can imagine. I’ve caused the death of thousands and I’ve died myself three times. Last time when I was dead, just before I was resurrected a voice asked me while I was in spirit form why I should be given my life back as I would only cause more innocents to die. I replied that I only tried to fight for just causes and it cost lives to save lives. My answer must have been acceptable as you see me here and now.’
‘However, I’ve thought about that quite a lot. One of the reasons that I came to Mudrun was that I wanted to do something constructive with my remaining life and over the last few years I believed that I had. I now feel like a fool. I think that your grandfather only helped me get the job here expecting me to jump to your aid after you caused chaos everywhere. Why should I help you kill more innocents?’
‘You’ll have to give me a bit more information to work on Your Excellency. I’m not aware of causing the deaths of large numbers of innocents. A few died during the attack on the temple but they all volunteered to help.’
‘I’m not talking about them.’ said Featherdown testily. ‘I’m talking about all the druids you and your princess slaughtered in the sanctuary. Is this how it is going to be? The two of you simply kill anything or anyone that gets in your way?’
‘I’m still not sure what you’re talking about. There were too many of them. I held them off long enough for Miranda to escape. I didn’t last long after that. Some of them turned to bears and blocked my exit. I was badly burned by that blue fire. It was incredibly painful and I lost consciousness.’
‘When I drifted out of my body I couldn’t see much as it was dark. There were just lots of crazy druids running around screaming and then it all went quiet. I drifted away thinking about my life since this happened last time. Then suddenly wham I’m back in a new body and Miranda teleported me away. I didn’t even know what I was until the next day.’
‘Well let me fill in the gaps.’ said Featherdown sounding angry. ‘Your princess left the sanctuary and came to me for help. I went over there and paralysed them expecting Miranda to flee with your body and perhaps resurrect you elsewhere but I was wrong. When she found that you were dead she went crazy and executed all the paralysed druids except one. Quab was knocked out during the fight and awoke to find her torturing a young female druid, the only one left alive. He managed to save her from Miranda but unfortunately she escaped not long after Miranda resurrected you.’
‘I suspect the one that escaped alerted the Druid’s Council and they sent another group after Miranda and caught her near her mother’s place. They put her on trial and found her guilty of murdering the druids in the sanctuary and sentenced her to death only to have her mother arrive and take her away before the sentence could be carried out. Another two druids and several guards were killed during that attack.’
‘The Council is now wasting time trying to work out a way to get back at Queen Snowbelle rather than worry about the other problems. They want me to lead an attack on Queen Snowbelle to bring Miranda back for execution. They also want me to attack the Crin City in retribution for the Crin helping Snowbelle attack the Druid’s Council. How many innocents are likely to be killed during those operations?’
Aquitain was dismayed. ‘I can’t work out why Miranda would kill all those druids. Are you sure she did it?’
‘Yes. I saw her do it. After I paralysed them I left and came back here and watched what happened in a scrying pool. I was shocked. If I wanted them dead I would have killed them myself but they were innocent. They were just obeying their orders.’
‘Wait a moment.’ said Aquitain.
‘You expected Miranda to teleport away with my body. She couldn’t. We would have teleported as soon as they attacked as the wards were down but our teleport rings were depleted. We had planned to use the commercial teleporter but couldn’t get to it. I suspect that after you paralysed them and left she was worried that they would all suddenly become unparalysed and attack her. Quab was still unconscious. She probably suspected that they would burn me and disperse my ashes so that it would be difficult to resurrect me. Consequently she couldn’t leave and had no other course of action but to kill them.’
‘Why couldn’t she just
tie them up, or hamstring them or anything but kill them all?’ argued Featherdown.
‘How long was your paralysis magic going to last? How long would it take to find rope and cut it into lengths and bind fifteen druids? How long would it take to gag them so they couldn’t use their druid powers? Would binding them and gagging them stop them from shape changing? She knows the full capabilities of druids. Many were more powerful or more experienced than her. You had deserted her. What were her options?’
Featherdown considered what Aquitain had said for a minute or two and then said with a sad expression on his face.
‘Perhaps you are right. If I loved someone with the intensity that she seems to love you maybe I would have done the same thing. It seems that I might be responsible for causing this whole problem by trying to keep out of it. If I had stayed there and helped her then the druids would still be alive and all the subsequent events wouldn’t have happened.’
‘I’m sorry. I’ve been an old fool afraid to make a choice. We are both in this game the gods are playing and I should have realized that whether we act or choose not to act there would be consequences either way. It’s time I took a more active role in what is about to happen. Innocents will die regardless.’
‘We will have ample time to cry for them and ourselves at the end assuming we are one of those lucky enough to survive. I will back you with all the resources I have at my disposal while I can, however, that may not be much longer as the new High Druid is a not a pleasant or forgiving fellow. I’m sure he’d like to replace me as soon as he can get someone to fill my shoes.’
‘Let’s go and visit Queen Snowbelle, that’s where we’ll find Miranda. I’ll help you with her mother. She’s a dangerous bitch but I always suspected that I’d have to take her on one day. It might as well be now. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that I’m sure she doesn’t know about.’
