Agents of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  ‘No need, I’ve already met her. We have an arrangement not to kill each other.’ said Aquitain.

  ‘You have? By the Powers, you’re a deceptive little fellow but then again I know what you’re likely to say. You’re a mind wizard. I’ve heard your grandfather say it several times.’

  ‘I’d like to find out more about what happened the night I was killed. Did you examine the scene and account for all the magic released? Have you a list of all the weapons, items rings and such like found at the site.’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘I must admit I didn’t do a magic residue analysis as I’ve been so busy but Quab did collect all the equipment and magical items found and I have a list somewhere. I’ll get it.’ and he disappeared for several minutes returning with a scroll.

  Aquitain worked his way through the list with the trained eye of a merchant having worked in a magical equipment shop for the best part of his life. He had been involved in outfitting many groups and knew exactly what they would need.

  ‘This list suggests that there were twenty-two druids plus the wizard Curbut making twenty-three persons involved in the attack. At four persons per teleport ring that would require six teleport rings but only five were found.’ said Aquitain.

  ‘The prisoner that escaped probably used one.’ replied Featherdown.

  ‘That surprises me. Miranda is very thorough in a practical sense. If she had captured a female prisoner I’ve no doubt she would have removed all rings off her so that she couldn’t escape.’ suggested Aquitain.

  ‘I suppose you’re right. All the druids are pretty practical. It comes from spending so much time alone in the jungle.’

  ‘But if Miranda had it then how did the prisoner escape?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘It must have been Curbut. He gave evidence against Miranda at her trial. He must have released the prisoner while Miranda and Quab were resurrecting you.’

  ‘What! You mean Curbut is still alive? I would have thought Miranda would have killed him if she killed anyone as she knew that he was the assassin that killed me the first time.’

  ‘Yes I tend to agree but obviously in the dark she overlooked him somehow and he probably went invisible and later released the prisoner.’ suggested Featherdown.

  ‘Forgive me, but that seems unlikely if he was invisible he could have easily overcome Miranda and Quab.’

  ‘Not after I had cut his tongue out.’ offered Featherdown with a smile. ‘I have it pickled in a bottle, sort of a trophy. I’ve got a few of them from other wizards I’ve defeated and a few ears as well.’

  ‘Oh.’ replied Aquitain. ‘Well then he definitely wouldn’t be using any magic powers or items like wands or rings. How would he have gone invisible?’

  ‘Some type of contingency magic I would guess.’ suggested Featherdown.

  ‘Contingency effects usually teleport the person away to some place of safety when activated and only then if the person is badly damaged. If cutting his tongue out didn’t activate the contingency magic then it must have been something later. Being near fatally stabbed by Miranda certainly would have activated it but then he wouldn’t have been able to take the druid prisoner with him.’

  Aquitain thought about the possibilities for a minute.

  ‘Have you considered that there might have been someone else there that stayed out of sight. Why send twenty-three people with six teleport rings when you can just as easily send twenty-four. The druids had their weapons burning with blue flame. I was burnt badly by a column of blue divine flame. I’ll bet that there was a priest there.’

  ‘It’s possible I suppose.’ replied Featherdown with a thoughtful look on his face.

  ‘Curbut attacked me with a holy symbol and I assumed that he must have been responsible for the blue flame on the weapons. But if you were attacked by divine fire then it is certainly more likely that there was a priest there. That person might also have released the prisoner and helped Curbut escape or even removed Curbut’s body and resurrected him elsewhere.’

  ‘By the Powers, it’s useful to have someone else here that can think. Let’s go down to the sanctuary and sniff around a little and see if we can detect any divine magic residues. I can easily tell the difference between druid and priestly magic.’

  Using Featherdown’s teleport circle they visited the sanctuary arriving in the dark just outside Quab’s empty cottage. Featherdown walked around a little then stopped.

  ‘I think it was about here where I was standing.’ then he created a small yellow flame on one of his fingers and used it as a torch to examine the ground.’

  ‘Yes here it is. I dropped a marble to mark my location for a trick I sometimes pull on opposing wizards.’ He bent down collected the marble, extinguished the flame and stood remembering his part in the fight.

  ‘I stood here and asked them to cease fighting. Your body was over there surrounded by several druids still attacking it. Curbut stood over there watching. After I spoke someone rudely told me to get lost and Curbut swung around and attacked me with a holy symbol. I stopped time for a few seconds. I examined everyone’s spirit auras then using a power that disabled them all. Miranda arrived and I left.’

  Featherdown stood for a few moments then continued.

  ‘Do you know what was really strange? Normally people’s spirit auras have a colour indicating their leaning towards benevolence or malevolence, order or chaos. The spirit auras of all the druids appeared bright blue indicating order and untainted by malign influences.’

  ‘Miranda, Quab and I were all dull orange indicating a leaning towards chaos but your spirit aura was floating outside your body and was the pure green of absolute neutrality. I would have guessed that you of all people would have been chaotic.’

  Aquitain recalled the image of Miranda’s spirit aura that he had remembered when she first allowed him to mindlink with her. It was a beautiful green colour. If Featherdown was right she had become more chaotic as she spent time with him. That wasn’t surprising but why should he have a neutral spirit aura if everyone believed that he was an Agent of Chaos? He would have to think about that when he had a chance.

  Both he and Featherdown examined the ground where Curbut had stood. There was large black patch indicating a pool of blood that had soaked into the ground.

  ‘If this is Curbut’s blood there’s so much here I’d say he would have died or been damn close to it.’ said Featherdown. ‘It’s certainly consistent with him being beheaded by Miranda as she claimed at her trial.’

  They then looked at the large circle of burnt ground where Aquitain had been killed. One sniff told both of them that powerful divine magic had been used there.

  ‘No doubt about it. That is the smell of divine fire.’ said Featherdown. ‘There was a priest here. The bastard! Curbut probably made him invisible and he watched as they were all killed then when Miranda and Quab weren’t watching he removed Curbut’s body and resurrected him to give evidence against her at the trial.’

  ‘I wonder what happened to Quab’s prisoner. If she’s still alive we might be able to find out from her what happened. Mmm. I’ll look into that but first I’ll have to find Quab. He was so upset about Miranda killing all those druids and using the Miracle scroll that he left to spend time in the wilderness to find peace and atone for some perceived guilt in not providing proper spiritual guidance to her.’

  ‘This creates a new problem.’ said Aquitain.

  ‘Why didn’t the priest stop Miranda from killing all the druids? We would normally expect a priest to try and stop unnecessary killings unless he had some other motive. Maybe he wanted her to kill them so that she would have a case against her. Maybe he even put the suggestion into her mind. Alternatively a mind wizard or even a powerful wizard could put a suggestion of that type in her mind.’ and Aquitain looked thoughtfully at Featherdown.

  Featherdown realized that Aquitain was thinking that he could have put the suggestion in her mind.

  ‘Don’t even think it Aquitain. I might h
ave been a fool for not making up my mind to help sooner but I’ve never been a traitor to a friend and I class both Miranda and you as friends.’

  ‘Then when will you do something about it!’ said Aquitain. ‘We obviously have a powerful and dangerous priest loose in Mudrun and your second-in-command Wizard Curbut is in league with him. The bastard has killed me twice now. I won’t wait around to be killed again by him! My power has increased substantially since last we talked. Do something about him or I will.’

  ‘I do not take kindly to threats even from friends.’ replied Featherdown forcefully.

  ‘I do not take kindly being killed twice in your backyard!’ said Aquitain just as forcefully.

  ‘For that I am truly sorry. I will make it my highest priority to find this priest and bring that bastard Curbut to justice. I say again I consider your grandfather as a staunch friend. I am not happy that he has chosen to stir up trouble in my backyard but I will support him and you in your quest.’

  Aquitain decided to give Featherdown the benefit of the doubt. If the High Wizard wanted Aquitain dead he didn’t need to employ others to do it. He could do it himself and never be brought to account.

  ‘You’re right, friends are hard to come by in difficult times and it seems those are upon us. I would much rather have you as a friend than an enemy but I also can’t have this bastard Curbut killing me all the time.’ said Aquitain in a conciliatory tone.

  ‘I give you my solemn pledge right now. He will not get the opportunity to do it again.’ replied Featherdown with great conviction.

  ‘Good.’ said Aquitain. ‘Do you think that I could borrow some of those teleport rings. I need to do a bit of traveling.’

  ‘Not a problem.’ replied Featherdown. ‘You can have all five of the rings we captured off the dead druids.’ They returned to the tower and five minutes later Featherdown handed Aquitain a small leather bag containing the rings.

  ‘In collecting these for you I realized that I have some bad news for you. After you were reincarnated and Miranda took you away Quab searched the area for weapons and magic items and found your magic sceptre. He gave it to me for safekeeping but I didn’t lock it away securely. I didn’t think anyone would know that I had it. Last night it disappeared. I thought at first that you might have come here and taken it, as you knew how to get in. That’s why I changed the tower entry password.’

  ‘By the Powers’ said Aquitain angrily ‘Are you saying it’s been stolen right from under your nose!’

  ‘Yes unfortunately that is what has happened. I don’t know who did it or even how they did it without setting off my alarms but we did manage to catch a strange creature in the town this morning that may have been involved. My esteemed colleague Granwell currently has it imprisoned and is interrogating it as he is more adept at conversing with strange types of creatures than me.’

  ‘What type of creature are we talking about?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘An offworlder as far as I can make out; it vaguely resembles one of the little people but is brown and has a hideous look about it.’

  ‘Can I see it. I might be able to recognize it. All manner of strange creatures turned up at Panmagica all the time.’ said Aquitain.

  ‘Of course! I’ll contact Granwell to see if he’s in and we’ll go over there and have a look at it.

  Featherdown and Aquitain moved to the teleport circle on the floor and with a word they were standing in a similar entertaining area in the conjurer’s tower. Archwizard Granwell was shorter than Featherdown and had a weasely look about his face. He was dressed in a fancy conjurer’s gown inlaid with gold, precious gems and pearls. Featherdown wore a simple gown that anyone of the villagers might feel comfortable in. To see them together, one looked like a prince and the other a pauper, but both exuded confidence and power.

  Granwell’s lounge area was richly decorated with rugs and tapestries woven with exotic wools, silver and gold thread. They depicted rare and exotic creatures most of which Aquitain had never seen. He also had statues of all sizes scattered around the room, from as small as a Newman finger to larger than Newman size. Several looked almost as if they were real creatures but close examination showed that they were made of various types of coloured rock.

  ‘Well, what’s so urgent that it couldn’t wait until morning?’ queried Granwell looking rather tired.

  ‘I’d like to introduce my shape changing friend Captain Aquitain who you’ve heard a lot about recently. He’s no longer a bear but has been a reincarnated as a rather strange creature. He’s interested in examining the creature we captured this morning.’

  ‘Looks like some spoilt child to me?’ replied Granwell grumpily.

  ‘Show him Aquitain.’ said Featherdown so Aquitain shape changed into his new spider form.

  Granwell didn’t seem a bit concerned. He had conjured so many weird looking beasts over the years that nothing seemed to worry him anymore. He walked around Aquitain looking from all angles and muttered

  ‘Very interesting, I haven’t seen one of these in the flesh before, only in a book. You’re a ‘thanthean’, I’d say. I remember it because they spell it in a funny way. It’s spelt ‘llanllean’ but the ‘ll’ is pronounced ‘th’.’

  ‘Those colourful patterns on your abdomen are supposed to indicate family, rank and possibly even your emotional state. Those legs are designed for jumping, have you tried them yet and can you spin a web? Do you know if your bite is poisonous?’

  ‘I’ve tried jumping, I can jump a huge distance, but I haven’t tried spinning a web, I don’t know how and as yet I haven’t bitten anyone to see if I’m poisonous.’ replied Aquitain eagerly using mindspeak as he couldn’t talk vocally in his spider shape.

  ‘I wouldn’t go around showing people your spider form. I suspect they’ll have trouble accepting it. It’s interesting that The Lady reincarnated you as a Llanllean.’

  ‘The golden rule as I understand it is that you can only be reincarnated as a creature that lives in your world. I’m not aware of any Llanlleans living in Mudrun but it’s a big place. Perhaps there is a colony of them somewhere. It would be worth finding out where other members of your new species live and visit them so that you can find out a bit more about yourself. The Druid’s Council would know where they are.’

  ‘That might be a bit difficult.’ stated Aquitain. ‘I don’t think they would be very cooperative at the moment.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right. Now do you want to see this creature we caught?’

  ‘Yes.’ replied Aquitain changing back to his child like Newman form as they followed Granwell to the teleport pattern on the floor. Seconds later they were transported to a starkly furnished grey tiled room with no windows somewhere within his tower.

  The room was lit by several magic globes, which were attached to the walls. It had a large red pentagram inlaid into the white tiled floor, a workbench littered with various conjuring items, a rack containing wands and a large golden birdcage containing the creature.

  It was about the same size as a little person and covered in brown scales but its head and body was terribly malformed giving it a grotesque almost gargoyle appearance. It looked back with a sneer but he could see that it was actually quite terrified of them. It crouched down in the cage trying to keep as far away from them as possible and refused to say anything.

  ‘I’m not quite sure what it is.’ said Granwell.’ but I know the Druid’s Council has recorded a couple of them sneaking through the gateway from the Fairy world.

  ‘They called them dark trixies. I’m not so sure. It has nothing in common with the trixies that I’ve seen on other worlds and hasn’t got the stink of a horror spawn. It’s more like a terribly malformed little person.’

  Aquitain looked at its hands and feet they were much like his when in his little person form. Its scales were like his scales but that’s where the resemblance stopped. Regardless of this he had to agree with Granwell. It did look like a terribly malformed brown little person
and this got him thinking.

  Shastritara had told him the browns had disappeared about the time of the Great Storm. Were they somehow affected by the Storm, perhaps mutated or malformed? Did they migrate to the Fairy world? Did someone move them there? Were some of them trying to get back? He had to find out more. Only one person could answer his questions and that was Queen Snowbelle, but would she?

  ‘I might be able to find out a little about this creature.’ said Aquitain suddenly. ‘I’ll be back in the morning.’ and he left the tower without giving away any of his thoughts.

  Chapter 4 Trouble With Snowbelle

  Lord Wyvern Darkmantle looked up from his heavily cluttered writing desk as he heard the knock on the door of his study. ‘Enter’ he said sternly.

  In walked a blonde haired Elendari man dressed in dark well-worn leather. ‘You requested my presence, Milord.’

  ‘Yes, Huntmaster, that debacle, last night where a number of my animals were lost, has left me in an awkward position. We need more animals for the experiments and some for the games in two weeks’ time, so I have arranged to have our secret gate to Mudrun opened tonight for a period of several hours.’

  ‘I want you to take a hunting party out and round up as many animals as you can. If you happen across any newmans bring them as well. I promised entertainment and we will have it.’

  ‘May I speak freely, Milord?’

  ‘Yes, what is it?’

  ‘We’ve hunted through that gateway the last two full moons and the game in the area is getting scarce. If we keep using that gateway them druids will learn of it and cause problems.’

  ‘I don’t care a rat’s curse about the druids. If they interfere then kill them or better still bring them here and they can provide us a little entertainment.’

  ‘That may provoke a response from a certain lady, Milord.’

  ‘I hope so. It’s about time I got my hands on that bitch. Anyway, after Queen Aurora’s Ball in two weeks, if all goes as planned, the game will be quite different,’ said Lord Darkmantle ‘and take Fen Fang to guard the gate.’