by Des Pensable
‘It could be dangerous, My Lord. He has killed two handlers recently.’
‘Just do it, Huntmaster and bring back plenty of fodder for the games otherwise you may be one of the attractions.’
‘I will set up the hunt immediately, my Lord. Do you wish to talk to the hunters before they leave?’
‘No, I have other things to attend to.’ replied Lord Darkmantle thinking of what he would like to do to the persons involved in releasing his animals last night. That is of course, if and when he caught them.
‘Excellent, Huntmaster, I’m looking forward to your report when you return. You may go.’
**
Aquitain slipped on one of the teleport rings given to him by Featherdown. He recalled the image of the cave under the waterfall in that beautiful little gully on the edge of the Misty Mountains where he had first met Miranda’s mother Queen Snowbelle the nymph, and moments later he appeared there close enough to the waterfall to get wet from its spray.
He stood still carefully scanning the darkness, listening carefully and sniffing the air as if to detect the scent of any creatures nearby. Remembering that his sight was better in his spider form he changed to it. He discovered his hearing and scent abilities were also more acute. Llanlleans were obviously well suited to hunting in dimly lit places.
He felt like hunting something and eating it. This new body had new demands. He felt aggressive and restless but also patient. At first this seemed contradictory but then when he thought about it perhaps it wasn’t.
When a predator was hungry he would be more aggressive and restless but he had to be patient otherwise his prey might be alerted too soon and escape. He decided to try out his new legs by climbing up the side of the gully, a mere two hundred paces almost vertically straight up. It was sheer exhilaration. With eight legs the job was trivial. He could climb up the gully wall faster than he could run as a Newman along the gully floor. He turned and scurried headfirst down again.
At the bottom he reluctantly changed back to his little person form. He had business to conduct first. Later he might try out his spider form again and see if he could actually catch something. He wondered how he ate things in his spider form, as he didn’t seem to have a mouth like other animals. In a strange sort of way it was exciting.
He wondered if Miranda could change into a spider like him. What would it be like to make love to her as a spider he wondered? Then concluded it might be dangerous, as he had heard that many spiders eat their mates. Perhaps it was a useful thing that she wore that lethal chastity belt.
He mentally chanted a Mantra of Calming to help focus his mind on the coming mental battle with Snowbelle. He created a Tower of Will for mental protection in case she wanted to fight again and walked under the waterfall into cave housing the gateway to her realm. An owl flew into the cave, landed silently on a large rock and turned to face him.
‘Who are you and what do you want it?’ it said using mindspeak.
‘I am Aquitain the mind wizard. I’ve come to find Miranda and talk to Queen Snowbelle.’
‘I think the Queen is absent at the moment but you may be able to talk to Princess Miranda. Wait here.’ and the owl flew off.
Five minutes later a gateway formed in the grey stonewall and out came Miranda. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him.
‘Aquitain is that you?’
‘Yes Mandy. As you can see The Lady has played another trick on us. I can be a spider, a little person, a Newman child, a small slime or a cuddly little bear cub. What would prefer?’
‘Whatever you feel comfortable as my love.’ she replied.
‘I think I’d like to be a spider for a while.’ he said to see her reaction.
‘As you wish, my love.’ she replied so he changed to his spider form. She didn’t flinch but instead smiled.
‘If you’re trying to test my reactions just remember the Royal Wizard is a Llanllean like you. I’ve seen her many times in her spider form. Come to my home I’ve got a surprise for you.’ and she disappeared through the gateway. Aquitain followed not sure what to think.
She was waiting for him in a poorly lit rocky passageway on the other side of the gateway. She touched his leg and they were teleported to a large rectangular room that was comfortable and homely. It was lit with several yellow magic globes and had hand woven autumn coloured rugs on the floor and tapestries depicting jungle scenes on the walls with pictures of animal drawings and paintings pinned to them.
At one end there was an extensive bookshelf containing a large number of books, an open cupboard cluttered with bottles, packets of herbs, roots, bark and berries; and a desk covered with maps and scrolls held in place by several small statues of animals.
At the other end was a wooden dining table large enough to seat twenty people and about a dozen chairs. The table was cluttered with all sorts of odds and ends, some judging by the build-up of dust on them that looked like they had been there for a considerable time.
Aquitain changed shape to his small Newman form, reformed his chaos matter amulet as a wizard tunic and sat on one of the lounges.
‘Would you like a hot drink?’ asked Miranda as she sat beside him.
‘A brew would be nice.’ he replied looking around. ‘Now what’s this surprise?’
‘I’ve deposed mother.’
‘I’m now Queen of Argenta or I will be soon after the ceremony and you can be my king. That will take care of one of the conditions for lifting my cursed tattoo. Then we can use a wizard’s wish to change you to a Newman. You can lift this damn curse and we’ll make love for a week solid.’
‘Whoa. What did you do to your mother?’ he asked cautiously.
‘Nothing yet! You must have heard she saved me from being killed by the Druid’s Council. Well she was very tired by the time we returned here. I caught her unprepared and dominated her then forced her to renounce her thrown to me. I wanted to ask you what we should do with her. You can choose her fate my love.’
Aquitain was surprised at this news and became a little suspicious. He had never told Miranda about the third condition for lifting her cursed tattoo and he never taught Miranda how to use a domination power only how to defend against a domination attack but her mother would never have known these things. He decided to play along for a while to see what information he could get out of her before she became suspicious.
He sat on her lap and snuggled into her with her arms wrapped around him and kissed her on the side of the neck.
‘You’re growing smarter and more beautiful everyday my love. You mentioned a wizard’s wish. That is the most powerful power available to a wizard. Wishes are also rare and quite dangerous if not properly used. How are you to get one of those?’
‘I know of someone who has a ring of wishes. We will try to convince her to let us have one. Failing that we can try the High Wizard’s friend Granwell. I’ve heard he knows how to use the power. There must be something that we can do for him to get him to use one on you.’
‘That sounds wonderful my love. Do you think that I could question your mother about the little people? I got the hint that there’s some type of prophesy about them doing something in the future. I’m sure that she’d know all about it.
Featherdown also caught a strange looking one wandering around in Twin Towers last night ’
Miranda thought for a few seconds then replied.
‘There’s no need to worry about asking my mother, my love. There is a prophecy and my mother told me about it several times over the years. It rambles on a bit but basically says that one day the greatest hero of the little people will have a child with a great heroine of the little people and that child will unite the little people as one and lead them to a great victory in the Time of Chaos.’
‘That sounds interesting.’ said Aquitain, ‘and what about this strange creature wandering about in Twin Towers last night. I had a look at it. It looks like a brown scaled little person but is really ugly like a Gargoyle and kind of hun
ched over. What do you think that could be?’
Miranda was still for a few seconds thinking and then said
‘It sounds like it could be one of the outcasts. They look like terribly mutated little people. However, it would be quite unusual to find one here as they live in the mountains in Moonmist and rarely venture out. It would be quite strange for one of them to come to Mudrun let alone be found in Twin Towers. Perhaps it has something to do with the Time of Chaos?’
Before he could ask her anything more the Royal Wizard appeared carrying a tray with a golden jug of brew and a pair of golden goblets.
‘Thank you Allalanllea.’ said Miranda. ‘You may go.’
‘Let’s have a drink to our future together my love.’ she said to Aquitain pouring out two goblets of brew and handing one to him.
‘Is this Aquitain the bear?’ asked Allalanllea with a curious expression on her face
‘Yes he’s changed a little.’ replied Miranda. ‘You may go Allalanllea. I wish to be alone with him.’
‘Yes Your Majesty.’ replied Allalanllea and teleported away.
Aquitain noticed that Miranda seemed momentarily annoyed then quickly changed her expression back to a happier disposition.
‘Tell me why you killed fifteen paralysed druids at the sanctuary after I died Miranda.’ asked Aquitain.
She was momentarily confused then said. ‘I did it for you my love. They killed you so they deserved to die.’
‘How did you paralyse them all.’ he asked. ‘That would be a feat even for me.’
‘A trick I learned from my mother.’ she replied. ‘It doesn’t matter now. It’s finished. It’s history. We can’t change anything. Let’s talk of more important things.’
‘I’d like to learn how to do it for the next time we have a run in with a lot of druids.’ said Aquitain persistently.
‘It’s secret druid lore. I’m afraid I can’t tell you.’ she said mildly annoyed.
‘I told you the secret mind wizard lore that helped you overcome your mother. Why can’t you tell me your secret lore my love.’ asked Aquitain.
‘Don’t push me Aquitain. My mother was always pushing and prodding me to do things that I didn’t want to do. I love you but I won’t have you forcing me to do things that are not right. I won’t go against The Lady’s rules. I won’t reveal her secrets.’
Suddenly a second Miranda appeared with Allalanllea beside her.
‘Hello mother. Hello Tain. I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you at the Jeti village. I had problems first with the new High Druid and then with my mother who seemed to want to keep me locked up for some reason. Now I can see why.’
Aquitain gave the hand signal to mindlink and only the second Miranda responded so he linked with her and saw that her spirit aura had the same characteristics as he remembered but had gone orange in colour, as Featherdown had noted.
‘What is a passion flower?’ he asked through the link.
‘The greatest gift I have ever been given. Your love.’ she replied. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t escape. She had me locked up. Allalanllea released me when she saw you were here.’
‘Won’t that cause a lot of trouble between her and your mother?’ he asked.
‘Yes. She’ll have to leave with us, as it would be too dangerous to stay. She has been my one true friend all my life. She couldn’t bear seeing my mother destroy you knowing how much you mean to me. It is her parting present to us.’
Aquitain was about to say that he already knew that her mother was pretending to be Miranda and suspected that her mother knew that he knew who she was. It was a nasty mind game perhaps to see how smart he was or even to test Allalanllea’s loyalty.
This time the Queen had won. Allalanllea had sided with Miranda and was therefore no longer trustworthy. He decided to not reveal that he knew the Queen had been pretending to be Miranda.
Queen Snowbelle changed back to her own nymph form and laughed. ‘Well that was fun wasn’t it? Who knows what would have happened if my little plot wasn’t revealed by one of my most trusted servants.’ she said sarcastically while looking at Allalanllea.
‘You went too far this time Snowbelle.’ said Allalanllea.
‘I’ve seen how you kill wizards and I won’t be a party to you destroying your daughter’s future. She is too precious to me. We are leaving and I hope you won’t try to stop us as I know your every weakness and I will not hesitate to exploit them. Don’t bother to call the guards as I have already dealt with them.’
‘So the traitor finally reveals herself.’ replied Snowbelle bitterly.
‘I won’t stop you leaving. In fact I’m glad to be rid of you. But know that I won’t forget this act of betrayal. You had better be watching carefully over your shoulder for one day I will appear and you will regret this day a thousand times over.’
‘I very much doubt it. You’ve changed from the person I first came to serve. You’ve become much too bitter and twisted and dare I say chaotic. I would have left much earlier had it not been for fear of what you might do to Miranda.’ replied Allalanllea.
‘What about you, my precious daughter? I saved your life a couple of days ago and you repay me by conspiring with traitors?’
‘Don’t go on mother. You probably only saved me so that you could get back at Aquitain in some way for defeating you in your mind battle with him. You still don’t get it do you? I love him and I’m going to be with him regardless of what you want.’
‘Don’t you want to be Queen of Argenta one of these days? Will you forsake that for him?’ asked the Queen.
‘Yes I will.’ she said defiantly.
‘Then how do you expect to have him remove the tattoo?’ asked the Queen.
‘What do you mean?’ replied Miranda.
The Queen was momentarily confused then laughed. ‘He hasn’t told you the third condition for lifting the tattoo, has he?’
‘No. He said he would tell me when I needed to know.’ replied Miranda.
‘Then he had been doubly deceiving you.’ said the Queen. ‘And that is not surprising for a wizard.’
Aquitain realized that he might be in trouble here. She was very cocky. He suspected that she might know about what had happened at the Jeti village the previous night. It wouldn’t be surprising if she had spies there. He would have to be very careful.
‘I have never deceived you Miranda.’ he said forcefully.
‘Then why didn’t you tell her that the tattoo could only be lifted by the hands of a king?’
‘What!’ exclaimed Miranda, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’
‘I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you coveting your mother’s throne. I told you I’m searching for my father. He is or was a king of a realm in Yith territory but was exiled. If I can reclaim his lands I will have my own throne to offer you? I was saving it as a surprise.’
‘Then you’re a prince.’ said Miranda. ‘See mother we don’t need your throne.’
‘Ha talking about reclaiming a kingdom is a lot harder than doing it. It could take a lifetime and all that time you will be sitting around waiting for him to remove your tattoo while he’s out sleeping with any female that meets his fancy.’
‘You wouldn’t do that would you Aquitain?’ said Miranda with a trusting look on her face.
‘I would not knowingly do it my love but if I wasn’t careful and was drugged into believing someone else was you then I might be deceived into sleeping with someone else.’
‘Mother, you didn’t?’
‘No, Miranda I didn’t but it seems your boyfriend has a liking for little reptilian females. It must be the clatter of the scales or perhaps the hissing as he copulates with them.’
‘Aquitain you couldn’t. You wouldn’t ?’
‘Unfortunately your mother is correct. I did. I was drugged with a potion and thought that I was making love to you.’ he said.
‘The age-old excuse for depravity; I was drugged and didn’t know what I was doing; A typical excuse for a
wizard. They will use any excuse or any trick to get a woman to lie with them and then deny any knowledge of any wrong doing. That’s the creature that you love Miranda.’
‘Stop it mother I want to hear what Aquitain has to say.’
‘I offer no excuse Miranda. I was tricked into sleeping with Shastritara. I thought it was you. When I discovered that it wasn’t you I purged all memory of it from my mind. It happened but I can remember nothing at all about it. I only wish to remember what we did and will do when the time comes. I have always said that I will never knowingly do you any harm. That is my word and my bond.’
‘How could this female little person get up enough courage to do something like this and why would she want to do it?’ asked Miranda trying to comprehend what had happened.
‘As to the question of courage she is the last of the Salamander tribe of red scaled little people who are known to be fearless. She is known as the Most Fearless. Kami told me her tribe was wiped out at the order of the Druids Council, as they would not bow down to druid rule. I suspect her courage comes partially from her tribal background and partially from desperation.
As to why, your mother answered that question. There is a prophesy that the little people’s greatest hero will have a child with their greatest female heroine and that child will lead them to victory in some future battle. They consider me their greatest hero and Shastritara believes that she is the heroine. She wants me to make eggs with her in a month’s time when she becomes fertile.’
Miranda thought carefully for a few seconds.
‘I know you. You are a merchant at heart. They have made you an offer that they think you won’t be able to refuse. What did they offer?’
Aquitain smiled.
‘You are learning Mandy. Yes, they made me an offer to tell me all their secret lore about the Great Storm and the Founts of Wisdom. The price is that I have to make eggs with Shastritara when she becomes fertile.’
‘And what have you decided to do?’ she asked hesitantly.
‘I have already answered that question. I will not knowingly hurt you Mandy. I will not bargain my seed for their knowledge.’ he replied.
