by Des Pensable
To the royal couple he was an ideal choice. He was a powerful wizard, a devoted protector and neutral in politics. As a Llanllean he was essentially incorruptible, as he had taken the job to ensure lasting protection and peace for his people. To Snowbelle it meant she had access to information and could discretely come and go as she pleased.
‘I have a feeling that my ex-husband’s up to something bad at the ball in two weeks, but nobody seems to have any idea what it is. Do you know anything?’ asked Snowbelle.
‘Always straight to the point, no, I don’t. He seems to be behaving himself lately. He’s very keen on getting Gemelica, the Queen’s daughter to move in with him. She’ll keep him out of mischief for a while. You’re not jealous are you?’
‘Ha. That’d be the day. Any feelings I had for him left when I died. I’ve been told he has been associating with Yith. Is there any truth in this?’
‘I’ve heard similar rumours but there is no proof. If he is, he’s been very discrete.’ replied Llalorax.
‘I’m afraid that we’re both going to have to wait until he shows his hand. You can stay here for a while, if you like. I’m not expecting any excitement for a week until the guests start arriving.’
‘Thank you for the offer but no.’ replied Snowbelle. ‘I’ll keep poking around until I can find out something.’
‘Well make sure you stay well clear of the ball. You know the rules. If you show up I’ll have to oppose you.’ said the wizard.
‘Yes, yes I’m aware of that. As long as Wyvern and the Queen have no plans to interfere with me, they can play all the games they like.’ replied Snowbelle as she walked towards the door. ‘Have a nice ball.’
The Llanllean wizard waved a farewell then returned to viewing the scrying pool.
‘Now this is interesting.’ he muttered to himself.
**
Miranda limped down the hallway painfully dragging one bleeding leg she had hurt when tripping over a sharp rock. Her wrists were bound so tight she couldn’t feel her hands and the gag was hurting her mouth. The hood over her head was disorienting but she could hear what was going on around her well enough.
The Huntmaster had some type of pass allowing him to travel through the gateway. He had simply shown it and dragged Miranda through into Moonmist.
What shocked her was no one had asked to see her face. They just accepted that she was a runaway slave. No one had asked how she had got through the gate into Mudrun from Moonmist in the first place.
They had teleported to his Lord’s manor and now he was taking her to see Lord Darkmantle. Her mother had mentioned this name several times, he was a really nasty character and she knew she was in deep trouble.
Lord Darkmantle was seated on a lush leather chair behind a desk covered with scrolls. By the look of the expression on his face he wasn’t at all happy.
‘Good day, Milord.’ said the Huntmaster.
‘I have some bad news to report. During the hunt a bear mortally wounded one mount, causing the hunter to return to the gate on foot. I waited for him for some time after the deadline for them to return then ventured off in the direction he had gone to try and find signs of him. I found his dead mount but not him so I returned to the gate.
Unfortunately, it seems that while I was away the hunter returned by an alternate route and Fen Fang took a fancy to him and ate him. When I returned to the gateway I found a Newman druid woman had attacked and killed Fen Fang. I also came too late to stop her from closing the gate. The favorable news is that I managed to ambush and capture her and have brought her back for your judgment.’
‘Fen Fang was killed you say. Damnation! Doesn’t anything go to plan around here.’ complained Darkmantle.
‘Believe me woman; you’re going to pay dearly for your interference in my affairs. My ex-wife Snowbelle probably had something to do with this. You bloody druids think that you own Mudrun. Well soon your people are going to be in for a big surprise.’
‘Chain her in a warded cell in the dungeon. Tell them to tattoo a charm against shape shifting on her. Get her leg fixed up. I don’t want her to die on me yet. I’ll be down to see her in a few minutes. Well done, Huntmaster. You may go now.’
As Miranda left, the comment that Snowbelle was Darkmantle’s ex-wife shocked Miranda much more than any thought of isolation or torture. Her mother had never told her about this. This was important, why had her mother never told her that she was married to an Elendari lord. True, her mother had said that she had spent some time in Moonmist and how disappointed she was with it.
She had come here with great expectations of noble Elendari and discovered the brutal reality that to the Elendari, Newmans were considered nothing more than animals. So her mother had left and met her father elsewhere and later he had vanished. There was obviously much more to the story than she knew and she would have to find out.
Ishteth, the Yith priest who had captured Zephira appeared across the room from Darkmantle after she had left.
‘How ironic and what a stroke of luck Darkmantle. A druid that can kill a wyvern could be very useful if she was to forget who she is.’
‘Yes Ishteth, I agree. It’s unlikely to be coincidental that my ex-wife let all the animals escape last night and this druid woman closed my gate and killed my favourite wyvern this morning. She is suspicious that something is about to happen and will probably try to provoke me until she finds out.
‘The Choosing should keep her out of your way until after the Ball.’ said Ishteth with a serpentine smile
‘Perhaps... She’s as cunning as a Mudrun rat. I’ve spent years trying to catch her and she’s damn dangerous if she gets cornered. She’s already killed more than a dozen of my best men. If she can avoid the Choosing then she could still be a problem.’
‘Do you expect she would turn up at the Queen’s ball?’ asked Ishteth.
‘Quite possibly, but she would be extremely wary as even she would be concerned about taking on the Queen’s pet magician and all the guards.’
Lord Darkmantle thought for a couple of moments and smiled.
‘Now that gives me an idea. This druid woman would make excellent bait for a trap. Maybe we can finally catch the bitch. That would give us a backup plan to recapture her gateworld. Yes. It could make a most entertaining night.’
‘You had better disappear for a little while Ishteth, I’m going to organize a change in our druid captive to make her a little more useful.’
He pulled out a small glowing glassy sphere and sent a message to his house wizard to attend him and sat pondering the best way to trap Snowbelle.
A few minutes later, Prendergrass, the house wizard appeared in the room.
‘You called Milord?’
‘The Huntmaster has captured a Newman druid woman that is likely to be employed by my bitch ex-wife. Now I’d like you to change her identity. I don’t want a complete memory erase, as that would probably ruin her druid skills, which could be useful.’
‘How about we feed her some food and drink to get her to forget where she came from, erase the last few weeks, replace it with a story something like the druids kicked her out because she liked the Elendari. She came here and we felt sorry for her and took her in a few days ago. Now she’s working hard to show us how useful she is. Yesterday she had a fight with a druid woman who was trying to steal our animals and she got knocked out and wounded in the leg but she’s OK now. Give her a new name.’
He thought for a few moments then said.
‘I know we’ll call her Dragonfly. That sounds like a druid name. Can you do that before the Queen’s ball as I would like to take her along?’
‘I think that should be possible Milord. Her new memories won’t be perfect but as long as they’re not tested too seriously they should hold.’
‘Good, then get to it. You’ll find her in the dungeon.’
Prendergrass teleported himself to the dungeon, he had been there a lot lately. The young Lord Darkmantle was a bit overly zealous in im
prisoning people as far as the wizard was concerned. He had been house wizard for nearly fifty years, most of the time with Wyvern’s father whom he had admired and respected.
He was sad when old Lord Darkmantle died and suspicious about the strange illness that killed him. Both Wyvern’s older brother and father died unusual deaths in a short period of a few months after he married the Newman druid woman.
Many on the estate were highly suspicious that the deaths were not natural but with the long life spans of the Elendari, they all knew that it was not uncommon for sons or daughters to use foul means to get control of the family estate. None said anything. Life simply went on.
Miranda was taken to a healer who healed her leg, her hands and tongue then to the dungeon antechamber where she had a tattoo inscribed on her back that would block her from shape changing. She was then stripped naked, except for her hood, given a scant robe and chained to the wall of a small room constructed to block the use of magic within. Deprived of her magic and shape change abilities Miranda was helpless.
‘What a mess.’ she thought. ‘It serves me right. My stupidity and arrogance has really landed me in the fire this time. I wonder what delights they’ve got planned. I hope they don’t find out I’m Snowbelle’s daughter. Who was my father anyway? Mother’s always kept quiet about that. I wonder what Aquitain will do when he finds out I’m missing?’
A few minutes later, the door was opened and an old wizard and a couple of the dungeon guards walked in. He asked the guards to leave him and attend their duties then casually walked over to Miranda.
‘Hello there, my name is Prendergrass. I’m going to remove your hood so that we can get to know each other. I hope you’re as pretty as the last one. Now she really put up a fight. It took me considerable effort to tame her.’
Regardless of the rising fear she felt, Miranda held still as she wanted to get rid of the hood. It was such an indignity. Hunters put hoods on wild animals to pacify them. They were treating her as if she was an animal. Darkmantle hadn’t even bothered to look his captive in the face. She was worth less than his wyvern. Now this bastard wanted to see her face. He probably wanted to gloat as she screamed under the pain of his torture.
Prendergrass carefully removed the hood cutting away some of Miranda’s fiery hair caught in the hastily tied knot which held the hood in place. He was getting old. His hands weren’t as steady as they used to be and lately he was starting to feel a little guilty about how Darkmantle was treating Newman captives from Mudrun.
Ever since his Newman druidess wife had run out on him Darkmantle had become obsessed with Mudrun. The young Lord felt that she had made him the laughing stock of all the other Elendari Lords. He wanted Mudrun Newmans to suffer. He wanted vengeance on her and all her kind for the indignity she had placed upon him. It had unbalanced him. He was turning dark and that was bad for all those in his employment including Prendergrass.
As the hood slid off, Miranda’s eye’s tried to compensate for the new lighting conditions. She saw the old mage stagger back a few steps, the colour drained from his face and he looked at her as though she was some type of hideous monster. She wondered what could have caused such a reaction.
‘Has anyone other than the young Huntmaster seen you child.’ he said, then hastily walked over to the small barred window in the cell door to see if anyone was watching.
Satisfied that they were alone he came back for a closer look. He pulled her straggling hair back and peered at her face.
‘Remarkable!’ ‘Tell me quickly, has anyone seen your face?’
‘No.’ nodded Miranda a little confused.
‘Why? What’s so important about my face?’ she thought.
The old wizard looked a little thoughtful for a moment then said
‘Of course, you’ve probably never seen your mother’s face have you.’
‘You have only known Snowbelle as your mother.’ and he pulled out a locket that was held on a fine silver chain around his neck. He opened the locket and thrust it in her face for her to see. It was a small picture of Miranda.
‘This is a picture of your mother when she lived here. You look almost identical to her. I should know. I saw her every day for almost three years and had many discussions with her before her sudden departure.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ thought Miranda. ‘This is some type of trick, some nasty sadistic joke that you’re trying to pull on me.’
‘I’ve always been afraid of the fateful day when you’d follow in your mother’s footsteps, lured by the physical beauty of the Elendari only to discover the truth that they are hideous, heartless monsters on the inside.’ said the wizard.
‘I can tell you quite categorically that almost anyone here will recognize your face immediately and if Darkmantle were to know about you he will surely torture you to death in the most excruciating and painful way he can devise as a way of getting back at Snowbelle for the humiliation she caused him.’
‘But why would you care about me?’ thought Miranda her mind suddenly realizing that this old wizard might be telling the truth and if so she could find out many answers to questions her mother would not answer.
‘Not now,’ said the wizard as if reading her thoughts.
‘I’ll tell you more later. We have to change your appearance or you’re dead. I’m going to replace the hood and take you to my place. I’ll get that tongue healed too so that you can speak. The new Huntmaster is always cutting out tongues. The bastard thinks he’s in some type of competition with the old Huntmaster.’
Prendergrass carefully replaced the hood and called for the guards to release her in his care. Once outside the dead magic area, he teleported the two of them to his rooms. He led her through a doorway set behind a bookcase into a secret room where he took off her hood again. The first thing that Miranda saw was a large painting of herself or more correctly her mother dressed in beautiful clothes seated on a chair the size of a throne. To her left was the picture of a Lord dressed as if for a coronation.
‘That, my dear is a picture of your mother when Lord Darkmantle assumed his father’s title after his father’s untimely death. It would have been a much more joyous occasion except for the fact that everyone believed that your mother had poisoned old Lord Darkmantle.’
Miranda nodded. ‘So what he was saying was true,’ she thought as she looked at the painting.
‘Oh I can assure you she would poison him and probably did.’ said Prendergrass as he walked over to an old wooden cupboard and withdrew some small items from a drawer.
‘She really seemed to love Darkmantle.’
‘Here’s your mother’s hairbrush and these are a pair of small booties that your mother knitted for you out of nymph hair. She never did tell me why and it was rather ironic that when she died The Lady reincarnated her as a nymph.’
Even with a tongue Miranda would have been speechless. This wizard knew her real mother before she had died and obviously had great admiration for her. What else could he tell her?
‘It is imperative that we change your appearance for both our sakes. I wish to cast some very powerful polymorph magic on you that will alter your appearance semi permanently. It will also heal your tongue at the same time. That way no healer will get a look at your face. Later, when the time is right I’ll change you back again.’
‘Now are you willing to trust me?’
‘Yes.’ nodded Miranda a little frightened but with little choice.
‘Good. Now I’m going to make you look like an ugly hag, then I’m going to cast a glamour over the top to make you look more like a pretty Elendari maiden.’
‘Why don’t you just use the glamour?’ thought Miranda with a quizzical look on her face.
‘You’re not vain are you? The body is only a vessel. I’m doing this to save your life.’
Yes she was a little vain. She liked her attractive looks but for the present it seemed prudent to go along with this subterfuge.
‘The reason for the two disg
uises is that many of the more powerful Elendari can easily see through a glamour even a quite powerful one. So we want to show them an ugly Newman underneath. That will dampen their enthusiasm to inquire about you and save you from amorous advances. You will effectively become invisible to them as they only choose to look at beautiful things.’
He moved to the cupboard again and shuffled around for a minute or two then came out with an armful of scrolls and laid them on a cluttered table. One by one he read a small inscription on the edge of each then finally nodded to himself and smiled at her.
‘A very powerful effect this one. It uses some rare ingredients. I used it on myself once. This will fool even the best of them.’
‘You might think that this is all rather strange. Me helping you like this.’ said Prendergrass.
‘I was born in Mudrun and captured there as a youth by a hunting party. Fortunately I showed some magic potential and was trained by the previous King’s wizard. I was told he had a bet that newmans couldn’t learn magic beyond a certain level. He pushed hard and I learnt lots. Eventually he started entering me in magic contests and I kept winning. Soon nobody would bet against me. They never conceded that I was skillfull only that I was lucky. That’s when old Lord Darkmantle offered me a job.’
‘I came here and have been the house wizard ever since. I was supposed to protect him but I never saw the threat coming from within. When I first saw your mother she enchanted me. I just couldn’t believe she had any bad in her. She fooled everyone. It was only later that we found out about her, but by then it was too late. She had killed Darkmantle’s elder brother and his father so that the current young Darkmantle could get the title.’
He suddenly stopped and listened.
‘Darkmantle is coming. We must do this now.’
He unrolled the scroll and quickly read it over.
‘Hold your hair back and turn a little to the left so that I can clearly see your face.’
