by Des Pensable
He began the magic almost in a whisper but as he went on his voice got louder and more forceful. The words of power began concentrating magic around her and she could see it condensing in a pink mist surrounding her. Suddenly her whole face became hot and seemed to melt like toasted cheese. Using invisible hands the mage moulded a new face, rounder, plumper with a piggish like shout for a nose, a double chin and rearranged her teeth to stick out beyond her lips. She then felt her firm breasts grow and droop. Her arms went flabby and firm stomach became larger and rounder.
‘That should do.’ he said. ‘I don’t think even Snowbelle will recognize you now.’
Miranda stepped in front of a mirror on the wall and nearly fainted when she saw herself. She would easily be the most undesirable woman in Mudrun let alone among the Elendari. They were likely to house her with the pigs. Then she felt another burst of magic swirl around her and as her vision cleared she had changed to look like a slim attractive Elendari maid with large green insect like eyes. Her skin had a faint metallic greenish tinge and her arms and legs looked unnaturally thin, a little like insect limbs.
‘Lord Darkmantle wanted you to be called Dragonfly. I have simply placed a glamour on you to give you an appearance to match the name. Now quickly out into my entertainment room.’
As she began to move the wizard charmed her. She suddenly felt that the wizard was a dear old friend that she would do anything to please. A minute later Lord Darkmantle walked purposefully in.
‘Hello Prendergrass. What are you doing with my new employee? I thought that you would have her down in the dungeon force-feeding her with food. Oh my goodness doesn’t she look the part. Well done Prendergrass.’
‘I’m afraid you’ve spoilt my little surprise, Milord. I wasn’t expecting you to see her until after she left the dungeon. Would you like to see her real face.’
Darkmantle nodded taking in the nuances of the glamour as the wizard passed him a crystal of seeing. He took a brief look at Miranda’s ugly body noticing the glazed eyes of a charmed person and handed the crystal back to the wizard.
‘That is quite an improvement, Prendergrass and definitely up to your usual high standard. Carry on. I want her ready for the Queen’s ball.’
‘Yes, Milord, she’ll be ready.’
Chapter 15 Featherdown’s Trap
Aquitain, Garret and the two Elendari agents suddenly appeared on a dirt road in a gully near several Elendari troops who were sitting on a log chatting. Aquitain quickly glanced around. There were three tents pitched along this side of the road. One tent contained several troops sitting in the shade the other two had their flaps closed.
On the other side of the road was a line of Crin warriors wearing metallic leaf armour stretched along the road facing towards the newly arrived group. Behind them was a single tent currently being taken down by two Crin warriors. Near the tent stood a Crin Enforcer and a Crin Jobmaster.
Aquitain looked down the road and about 200 paces away saw a semicircular rock keep built against the side of the mountain. There were four Newman guards standing in front of the entrance of the keep watching them. That will be where the gateway is, he thought. He looked up the road in the other direction but there was nothing of interest to see.
On witnessing their arrival, a sergeant stood, turned towards a tent and called out. There was a short delay and an Elendari officer came out of the tent and walked towards Aquitain’s group. He conversed with one of the two agents in the Elendari language then turned to the Sergeant and gave him an order. The sergeant saluted and called the men out of the tent and they started packing their equipment and pulling down the tents.
He then turned to Garret.
‘I am Lieutenant Sedgemoore. I am the officer in charge of this escort detail. I am afraid I have only been authorized to take Master Garret to visit the Queen. Owing to the high cost of traversing the gateway you will have to leave your assistant here.’
‘I’m not leaving him behind.’ said Garret huffily. ‘I won’t go unless he accompanies me.’
One of the agents who had teleported Aquitain and Garret to their current location spoke to the officer in Elendari and they walked a few paces aside to discuss the situation.
‘By the powers,’ muttered Garret. ‘They’re bloody well arguing over who should pay your toll through the gateway.’
Aquitain chuckled then suddenly lost his smile as two druids and a wizard appeared about fifty paces away between them and the gateway. Then moments later another group of four druids appeared, all were dressed in battle armour. They immediately spread out in a V shaped formation, three druids on either side of the wizard and faced towards Garret and Aquitain.
All the Crin and Elendari stopped what they were doing and faced the threatening formation. The wizard levitated ten paces off the ground and hovering in mid-air spoke with a commanding voice.
‘All Elendari will move to the gate and depart immediately. If you do not move you will be considered enemy combatants and dealt with accordingly.’
Anger surged in Aquitain as he recognized the wizard who had killed him twice recently. It was Curbut.
The Elendari Officer immediately gave orders to his troops to form a column then turned to the wizard and said.
‘We are a peaceful escort group. This is neutral territory. My mission is to escort this Newman and this gnome assistant through the gate.’
‘I have no interest in you or them so take them.’ shouted Curbut. ‘Get moving. I’m only interested in these Crin rebels.’
The Elendari officer motioned to Aquitain and Garret to come with them and started marching his troops in a column down the centre of the road. Garret and Aquitain joined the rear of the column. They would pass right underneath Curbut. It was quite obvious that he had not recognized Aquitain.
Behind the column of Elendari troops the Crin spread out into a loose staggered formation to minimize damage from magical area effects and faced Curbut. Enforcer Sanson moved into the centre of the formation but Jobmaster Xentos vanished. It was obvious to all that there would shortly be a battle.
Aquitain’s anger rose to a fury. He wasn’t going to let Curbut slaughter the Crin but he had to be cautious. Only seven had teleported in. Why not eight. Were they using the same tactic as they had when they attacked him and Miranda at Quab’s sanctuary? Was there an invisible priest amongst them as well? He would soon find out.
As the column of Elendari rapidly marched under the floating Curbut towards the safety of the keep Aquitain sent a mindspeak message to Garret.
‘Keep going and don’t look back until you reach safety.’
Aquitain stopped about five paces in front of Curbut and stood looking up at him. As the column of Elendari rapidly retreated to the keep, the tension mounted and all eyes turned to the solitary gnome.
Curbut looked down and was about to speak when Aquitain hit him with the most powerful domination attack that he could deliver. It swept through all the mental defences of Curbut and rendered him helpless, totally under Aquitain’s control.
‘Hello Curbut it’s me Aquitain.’ he whispered menacingly into Curbut’s mind.
‘I’m not happy with you but rather than just killing you I think you should help me a little first.’
He then built a dome shaped air shield over himself and asked where the priest was. Curbut turned and pointed at a spot twenty paces to the right and rear.
The druids were unsure what to do. They were presumably waiting on Curbut’s command but none came.
‘Dispel the priest’s invisibility Curbut,’ commanded Aquitain just before he was struck with a powerful domination attack from the priest. He blocked it successfully as the priest became visible.
‘Attack you idiots! yelled the priest.
‘Stop! Hold the attack!’ yelled Curbut at Aquitain’s command.
The druids were confused. A column of blue fire landed in top of Aquitain but was completely blocked by the dome of the air shield. Aquitain rebuilt the ai
r shield dome. Two of the druids began chanting prayers to the Lady and pointed at the Crin. The heavens opened up as large chunks of ice as big as melons fell from the sky amongst the Crin. The Crin caught in the ice storm rolled themselves into balls with their metal armour facing upwards, attempting to minimize any damage.
The Crin closest to the druids charged at them. Some of the druids conjured jungle cats and bears that appeared out of nowhere and attacked the nearest Crin. Four of the seven druids changed shape to become huge bears that then charged into the fray.
Aquitain commanded Curbut to cast a lightning bolt at the priest. Thunder echoed across the gully as a blinding flash of blue light accompanying a bolt of electrical energy crackled from Curbut to the priest causing a cascade of sparks all around him but did no damage at all. The priest was wearing some type of magic protection against electrical damage.
The priest retaliated by pointing at Aquitain and shouting a holy word of smiting asking his god to punish Aquitain.
A blinding flash of golden light tore through the air shield as if it wasn’t present and Aquitain felt his body go rigid and his eyes became blinded to the world around him.
Immediately he felt somebody or something take over control of his body and he could see again.
‘You idiot! Are you trying to get us killed again?’ It said into his mind.
There was a huge crack against the air shield as if something had hit it. His body spun around his vision changed to see creatures cloaked in invisibility and he saw a hovering Newman-like winged creature wearing golden chain armour with a huge great sword swing down on his airshield again. Crash!
The air shield collapsed and whoever was controlling him used the power in his source to immediately rebuild it. The winged assailant pointed at the air shield, it glowed golden and vanished as the creature raised the enormous sword over its head once more to smite him.
He felt himself use an incredibly powerful mental blast and the creature was stunned and fell rigid to the ground. He saw a long arcane sword-like blade extend from his right hand as he dashed over to it. The blade swept down decapitating the winged assailant. The creature’s head rolled on the ground and he could see the incredulous look on its face. It couldn’t understand what had happed as it turned to mist and evaporated.
He felt himself swing around to face Curbut and create another air shield dome over his body. It then commanded the wizard to cast a fireball at the priest.
Curbut complied. A small sphere of fire left his right hand bound for the priest. It hit the ground near him and exploded into a huge ball of flame twenty paces across. The edge of the fireball burnt the hair on some of the fighting animals and Crin but when it cleared the priest stood his ground unaffected.
This time the priest cast magic at Curbut and all sound of the battle disappeared from Aquitain’s hearing. One of the druids who had transformed into a giant bear charged over to him and began silently smashing at Aquitain’s air shield.
‘Oh this is bad!’ he thought.
Moments later he got a mindspeak message from the Crin Enforcer Sanson.
‘Gnome, are you in trouble?’
A voice from inside him answered using mindspeak that he knew the Crin would hear.
‘I am Aquitain. I have control of the wizard but you must help control the priest or we are lost.’
There was a noticeable increase in activity amongst the Crin as if their morale had increased markedly just hearing his name.
His controller replenished the air shield and commanded Curbut using mindspeak to use an acid attack on the priest but then realized that Curbut couldn’t comply as the priest had created a zone of silence that covered both him and Curbut. The wizard’s magic was now useless as Curbut needed to talk to invoke his magic.
He saw himself point at Curbut with the arcane blade and a power he didn’t know was released. He saw Curbut’s eyes roll back in his head and his facial expression changed as if he was as if he was in great pain. Then Curbut slumped as if he was unconscious.
Two Crin warriors broke off their fights and leapt through the air landing on the giant bear attacking Aquitain’s air shield. They bit deeply into its flesh with great sickle-like mandibles and rammed their poisonous stingers through the bear’s thick hide into its back muscles. It screamed in pain, bucked and spun in circles trying to dislodge its attackers.
Another bear attacked his air shield. He felt himself use the power to dominate it. It spun around and charged at the priest. The priest quickly used a word of stunning and it froze in its tracks before it reached him.
On seeing this Sanson realized that he would have to take out the priest as Aquitain had said or they might perish. He leapt ten paces through the air and on landing, charged at the priest. On seeing him coming, the priest simply teleported to the other side of the battleground some 150 paces away and began using more magic.
‘Dam that priest!’ said the voice in his head to Aquitain as his body swung around to see where the priest had gone. There were Crin and bears and jungle cats all locked in physical combat spread all over an area 100 paces wide. Aquitain could see that the numbers of Crin were thinning. They were losing the fight.
‘Who are you?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Shut up!’ said the voice.
His controller used the power to control light and a circular area for twenty paces radius around the centre of the battle went dark like a moonless night. Most of the animals had perfect day vision but relied on other senses at night while the Crin had perfect vision night or day. The fighting continued but the darkness now favoured the Crin who were at home in dark unlit tunnels.
The Newman priest was also unable to determine how the fight was going so he tried to create light to overcome Aquitain’s darkness. It worked for a few seconds until Aquitain’s controller quenched it and it went dark again.
In the brief few seconds of light Sanson got his bearings on the location of the priest and leapt and bounded across the field of fighting to get at him. Unfortunately, the priest spotted Sanson coming and teleported back to where he had been at the start. Aquitain’s controller tried the mental attack that it had used on Curbut but the priest blocked it.
‘That priest is dam sharp.’ said the voice in his head. ‘You keep our shield up while I try something different.’
Aquitain suddenly felt as though he had some control over his body but he did as directed. He kept the air shield up. His controller tried other mental attacks but the priest seemed warded somehow against them. He had obviously done his homework and was aware of what mind wizards could do. The priest for his part tried several magical attacks on Aquitain and seemed just as frustrated as Aquitain’s controller as none could get through the air shield.
No one seemed to be able to get the advantage in the fight. It raged all around, Crin fighting animals. The superior armour, both natural and metal of the Crin was offset by the slight excess in number of conjured animals and sheer brutal strength of the druid bears. Magic took second place to strength, courage and stamina.
Suddenly, a huge red dragon appeared midway between the battleground and the keep.
‘CEASE FIGHTING!’ it commanded in a voice that held terrible power.
A word of power was directed at the priest who froze instantly and a sleek beam of green light targeted Curbut. There was a puff of dust and Curbut ceased to exist. Total control of his body returned to Aquitain as he watched the small cloud of white dust that used to be Curbut float to the ground.
The huge dragon took several steps towards the melee, each jarring the ground and making a sound like distant thunder. It let out a deep vicious terrifying throaty roar. The conjured animals all fled in fear. The fighting stopped immediately. Aquitain was not sure what was happening but it seemed to be on their side.
The dragon changed shape to the body of the current High Druid.
‘Cease ALL Fighting NOW!’ he commanded again.
‘Druids return to your base NOW! I will atte
nd to this situation.’
The zone of darkness dissipated. The Crin regrouped and the druids carefully retreated, changed shape to their Newman forms and teleported away. Some looked disappointed as they probably considered they would have won the day but they were not about to argue with the new High Druid. He was very demanding and very temperamental.
Aquitain looked across the field. At least half the Crin were dead and most of the rest were injured. Some were still paralysed. Quab appeared and ran to the nearest wounded Crin and started healing them.
Both Sanson and the High Druid exchanged a few words and then the high druid changed shape to a naked Featherdown. He spoke a few words of magic and was instantly clothed in his battle leathers. He walked over to the paralysed priest, pried open his jaws and cut out his tongue with a small sharp knife. He removed the rings off the priest’s fingers checked for other magic items, removed them also then placed some iron manacles around his wrists and legs. He then strolled over to Aquitain.
‘To have survived this battle unharmed you are obviously more skilled and capable than you have led me to believe. I told you I would get Curbut. I am a man of my word. He is now dust. Are you content? We have also captured a priest who the new High Druid said was just our imagination. I shall enjoy seeing him squirm and we might find out a bit more about what’s happening.’
‘I didn’t know that you could turn into a dragon.’ said Aquitain quite impressed.
‘It was just an illusion.’ replied Featherdown.
‘It looked pretty real to me.’ replied Aquitain.
‘Ah. That’s the mark of an expert illusionist.’ chuckled Featherdown and winked.
‘Thank you for your help.’ said Sanson using mindspeak.
‘I’m sorry you lost so many warriors I did what I could to help.’ replied Aquitain using mindspeak.
‘I am honoured and a little surprised that you chose to help us since we fight under the banner of Queen Snowbelle.’ said Sanson.
‘Even though there might be tension between Princess Miranda and her mother that does not mean that she would abandon her people in a time of need. The princess would expect me to aid you. I also had a personal quarrel with their wizard leader and that priest.’ replied Aquitain.
