by Des Pensable
‘So you’ve found the goodies have you? I wondered how long it would take.’
‘I was actually looking for the construct control bracelets.’ said Aquitain.
‘The constructs look like they need to be both maintained and worked. If you don’t use them frequently, parts of them freeze up. The two Iron constructs are rusted and in a poor state. It’ll be lucky if they can walk. The stone constructs are probably frozen solid. Their rocky bodies crystallize up if they’re not exercised. They’ll need some sonic massaging. The brass ones don’t seem too bad but they probably couldn’t do any fine work until checked over.
‘I wondered what all those bracelets were for.’ she said. ‘Wait just a moment.’
A minute later she returned with a box of bracelets and handed it to Aquitain. He looked in and saw dozens of mind control bracelets. He tipped the bracelets out on the floor and picked out the construct bracelets from amongst them. The others were for controlling slaves.
Now it became clearer. The people who lived here before were under mind control. A powerful mind wizard had lived here, with his slaves. If so there would be some other interesting features and goodies lying about the place that probably even Llanlorian didn’t know about. He decided to keep that information to himself.
‘The other bracelets are all inactive.’ he said. ‘You can melt them down for their silver value if you ever need money which I doubt after looking around here.’
Llanlorian smiled. ‘Money is not a problem but getting reliable and trustworthy labour is.’ she said.
‘Unfortunately, no one wants to work for a giant spider.’
‘Mmm ..’ thought Aquitain. ‘Maybe I could help there as well but for the moment I’ll keep quiet.’
‘We still have a few minutes before our meeting my Liege. I would like to check out the constructs if I might.’
‘By all means, Aquitain, I’ll see you in a few minutes.’ She replied and then she disappeared.
Aquitain teleported to the Street of Statues. Having been there just a few minutes ago, he had a clear image of where he wanted to go and went. Asterix arrived shortly thereafter.
‘Bloody well trying to run the place already.’ he mumbled.
‘No. I’m not interested in running the place Asterix. You can do that. I am interested to know that if I go to sleep here, I will wake up again. The security around here is terrible.’
‘We haven’t had anyone try to break in since I’ve been here.’ said Asterix. ‘Her Ladyship makes sure of that.’
‘And who watches while she sleeps?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I dunno. Maybe she doesn’t sleep or maybe Rat Catcher keeps watch.’
‘Asterix, if she sleeps then we’re vulnerable. If I can get these constructs working, we’ll all be a lot less vulnerable. Have you got any paint? I need some red and blue.’
Asterix disappeared for a couple of minutes then came back with two pots of paint and a couple of brushes. Aquitain painted a red dot on the front and back of one each of the iron, stone and brass constructs then blue dots on the others.
‘That’s so we know which is which; now for the bracelets.’
He tried each in turn to find out which belonged to which construct and marked them accordingly.
‘Now let’s find out the damage.’ he said as he clipped on the two brass construct bracelets, one on each wrist.
‘If you use the bracelets, use them one at a time until you get used to it otherwise you’ll have trouble.’
Aquitain ordered them to walk and the two brass constructs walked without too much difficulty. They started slowly and made some metallic grinding sounds at first but then got quieter as they walked along. He took them up to the corner and directed them to march down the main street.
Returning to Asterix he took off the bracelets and said.
‘I’ve got them patrolling back and forth up the main street. They won’t hurt anyone unless they are attacked or someone tries to stop them. I’m surprised that they are working so well. Are you sure nobody’s used them for a long time?’
Asterix seemed sure.
He then clipped on the iron construct bracelets and ordered them to step forwards. With great strain and horrible grinding metallic sounds they slowly managed to step forward. He then ordered them to step forwards and then backwards continually. They did this ever so slowly at first but slightly faster each time. With each step flakes of rust dropped to the ground. These, he could believe hadn’t been used for ages.
When he tried the stone constructs they didn’t respond. Their stony bodies had crystallized too much. He asked Asterix whether he had anyway of creating magic sound. Asterix disappeared and returned with a wand of sound burst. After fiddling with it for a while they finally got it to work and blasted the stone constructs with about ten bursts directing them to various parts of the body especially the arms and legs. After that Aquitain tried again. This time the stone constructs could walk and move their arms, slowly at first then with more gusto.
He called the brass constructs back and got them doing pushups. Moved the stone constructs to patrolling the main street and went back to the iron ones. The steps forward and backward had limbered them up quite a lot. He then got them walking in circles around him. Asterix was amazed with all this and eventually wanted to try one. Aquitain gave him a brass construct bracelet, showed him how to control it, and told him the usual set of safety rules. After all, these were potentially dangerous, almost mindless machines. Asterix couldn’t wait to put it to work.
‘Can they teleport?’ he asked.
‘I’d guess so.’ said Aquitain. ‘Let’s try it.’ He was wearing the iron construct bracelets when the thought came to him that he should have asked them to see if they had names.
Aquitain took off one bracelet so that there was no chance of confusion and using mindspeak asked, ‘What is your name?’
The construct replied, ‘Iron worker two, master.’
Then thinking back on the fact that maybe the previous owner was a mind wizard Aquitain said ‘and what is your other name.’ The construct replied. ‘I am called Pestilence, master.’
‘Pestilence, follow me five paces behind.’ he said and teleported a hundred paces up the road. Pestilence appeared behind him. He then teleported back again with the same instruction and the iron construct followed.
Asterix excitedly listened how to do it and then immediately disappeared with one of the brass constructs. While he was gone Aquitain tried what he had been waiting to do but didn’t want Asterix to see.
He took off the bracelet and commanded Pestilence to follow him five paces behind and it did. He then went back and found out the second name of all the other constructs except the one the one being used by Asterix. It was then time for the meeting with Llanlorian.
Aquitain was permanently mindlinked with all creatures that had a mind inside this world, so it was easy just to ask her using mindspeak where to meet her. When he arrived in the library area where he had met her before, she had a hot cup of brew and some cake waiting.
‘This is when I find out the bad news.’ he thought.
‘What does she want me to do?’
‘My, you are busy aren’t you?’ said Llanlorian with a pleasant smile.
‘You’ve already made more changes here than we’ve seen for the last ten years. I’ll have to send you away before the changes overwhelm us.’ she said after sipping some hot brew.
‘I’m going to tell you a story. You may have heard parts before but I’m sure mine will be a little different. It might explain some of the things you know and give insight to things that you haven’t yet discovered. However, first the answers to some of the questions that must be puzzling you.’
‘Can you harm me? The answer is no. However, you should find this out yourself. There is a dagger on the table. Get it and try and stab or cut me with it and then try to use you magic against me.’
Aquitain took the dagger and a vicious change came over him.
He was going to kill the bitch. There was a mental struggle for a few seconds and he was back in control again.
He tried to stab her and then tried to use a mental power against her. In each case as soon as he tried he had an excruciating pain in his head.
‘The Oath of Fealty that you swore, forbids you to harm me in any way either consciously or unconsciously. It can only be lifted by me removing it or either of us dying.’
‘Why did I give you free rein to go anywhere on this world?’ asked Llanlorian.
‘The answer to that question is that I believe this world, Astaria, our world, your world now, is in danger and you can help me defend it. I know you will too, as no one would let his or her world be destroyed without a fight. The more you know it the more you’ll love it. It is a part of us and we are a part of it.’
Llanlorian was beginning to really impress Aquitain. She was cool, calm and seemed to have answers for everything. She was also right about one thing, he was feeling attached to this place already and he guessed that the longer he stayed the more it would entice him to fight for it. Strange that.
‘Now for the story.’ she said.
‘If you think of any more questions ask me at the end.’ And she began.
‘There once was a very pretty druid woman called Sindel who was very ambitious, arrogant and vain. She became powerful in her own world, Mudrun, but was unhappy because she wanted more than her world could offer. She met an ambitious Elendari man from Moonmist and fell in love with him. She went to live with him in Moonmist and helped him gain fame, fortune and power.’
‘Unfortunately, when he gained these things, he liked them so much he decided he wanted more. He wanted to be a part of the Royal family, perhaps even be the king. But to do this he would have to leave her behind. He neglected her. She was isolated from her own kind and grew sad, lonely and bitter. One day she met one of her own kind and had an affair with him and got pregnant. When she discovered she was pregnant she decided to flee back to Mudrun.’
‘Being very secretive, she planned a way to get back to her home world through a gate world like this one. The moment her baby was born she fled along with a Llanllean wizard who was to be the child’s nanny. The gatekeeper was a friend of her husband who had been asked not to let her pass. There was a fight she managed to kill the gatekeeper but during the fight she was killed but the nanny and child survived.
Fortunately for Sindel, shortly after the fight a druid sought passage through the gateway. The quick thinking nanny convinced the druid to reincarnate her to reunite her with her baby. The druid agreed but to their surprise The Lady reincarnated Sindel as the nymph who now calls herself Snowbelle. Rather than flee back to Mudrun Snowbelle decided to make the gateworld hers. Together with the nanny they got rid of anyone in the gateworld that objected and she asked the Queen of the Crin for help to hold it.’
‘Her Moonmist husband, a fellow by the name of Wyvern Darkmantle was unhappy when he found out as it was going to ruin his plans. The King of the Elendari was also very unhappy because he owned the gateworld. The King had some way of entering the gateworld and together with Darkmantle and a small number of troops led an attack on it but they didn’t realize that Snowbelle had many Crin there to help her defend it. The attack failed and the King was killed. Darkmantle and some of the troops managed to escape back to Moonmist.’
‘The Queen was very upset at the loss of both her husband and the gateworld. Needless to say she blamed Darkmantle and he lost all influence within the court. After that everyone decided to leave Snowbelle alone until they could work out a way to defeat her, which up to now they never have. She raised her child in the gateworld and later her daughter became the druid, whom you know as Miranda. She now spends most of her time waiting and watching for a new attack. That was about 100 years ago Mudrun time.’
‘Are you saying that Miranda is 100 years old?’ asked Aquitain interrupting Llanlorian’s tale.
‘It depends on whose time you are working by. Her gateworld Argenta is adjusted to Moonmist time as we are. While 100 years have passed on Mudrun her body has only aged 20. She spent most of her time on Argenta as her mother was worried about her safety. Only in the last few Mudrun years has her mother allowed her to roam freely in Mudrun so from an experience point of view she’s probably more like a mid-20 year old. Now that you are a citizen of Astaria your body will age at the same rate as hers, if that is what concerns you.’
‘Now may I continue the story?’ she said pointedly and Aquitain nodded thinking of the implications of his slow aging.
‘After losing the gateworld, and influence in the court, Darkmantle’s ambitions were severely curbed for a while. Now it appears he has turned to some Yith for help. He has also built up his forces with many captured Newmans. Nobody knows his plans for sure, however, some have suggested he plans to recapture Snowbelle’s gateworld. This would help him regain significant influence with the Queen.’
‘I am not so sure that his ambitions lie with only Argenta. If he could control another less well-guarded, gate world, our world Astaria, then he could also gain a lot of power and influence, as it is the only operational gateway to Mudrun. The question is which gateworld if any is he after?’
‘Do you understand what I am saying?’ asked Llanlorian.
‘Yes, my liege,‘ said Aquitain. ‘It seems that I’m the white knight in a fairy tale. I’ve got to go and rescue princess Miranda and fight the brutish stepfather to make sure that he doesn’t steal either Queen Snowbelle’s castle or ours.’
‘Well I suppose you could put it that way.’ said Llanlorian.
‘However, considering that you’re a little spiderling and not exactly a white knight I wouldn’t go looking for a fight but rather use stealth and cunning and try to get others to do the fighting for you. Also since Snowbelle is well setup to defend her castle, I think you should concentrate on ensuring that you find out if they’re after ours, and if they are, we’ll have to try to find a way to stop them.’
‘In short, find out what Lord Darkmantle’s up to, who his Yith friends are, and ruin their plans if it involves us. Incidentally, you might have it in mind to rescue Miranda. You should carefully consider that her capture might be a part of a plan by Snowbelle to find out what Darkmantle’s planning. Rescuing her may actually upset Snowbelle’s plan. On the other hand, she may really need rescuing.’
‘Great! When and where do I start, my Liege.’ asked Aquitain.
‘Well the Queen is giving a ball in two weeks’ time and Lord Darkmantle will be there as he always attends them. Now Miranda has been caught by one of his hunters, so unless he decides to take her to see the Queen, she’ll probably be well guarded in his dungeon. Perhaps she is being tortured at this very moment. I don’t know where Snowbelle is or what her plans are.’
‘There was a troop of Elendari soldiers escorting a Newman through the gateway just before I entered. Do you know what happened to them, my liege?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Hmm … as I recall they waited for perhaps two hours outside the Moonmist entrance then left after some commotion.’ She replied. ‘Now you’ll probably want to get moving if you are to save Miranda.’
‘You seem to have a lot of faith in me, my liege.’
‘I’ve got faith that you want to save Miranda and since now you have a safe haven to use as a base you will undoubtedly return. We both win.’ she said with a smile.
‘Here are some goodies to help you. An earring of understanding it will allow you to communicate to most people on Moonmist. This second item is a ring of invisibility and lastly an Astarian signet ring. Here is a list of several teleport marker locations. Memorize them and destroy the list. I suggest you go to the Llanllean enclave at the top of the list first. They are relatives of mine. Show them the signet ring.’
‘Now go and save Miranda and Astaria. Good luck my little spiderling.’
Aquitain sent a message to Asterix. ‘I’m going to Moonmist for a while. Be sure to exerc
ise the constructs. I’ll be back soon.’
‘Take care.’ said Asterix. ‘I’d hate to spend another hundred Mudrun years talking to myself.’
‘How extraordinary! I’ve just been made a citizen of a ghost town and given some magic items to help me on my way.’ thought Aquitain as he turned invisible and teleported to Moonmist exit.
‘Guardian, can you hear me?’ asked Aquitain.
There was a surge of warding magic and Aquitain heard the guardian’s voice.
‘It is not safe to talk to me aloud. Your father has accepted you as his son. You are now marked as his son. Your father’s friends will know you and help but know that your father’s enemies will also know you and may try to kill you.’
‘Is Llanlorian truly one of his friends?’
‘Perhaps.’ replied the guardian cautiously. ‘We are involved in a game where deception runs very deep. Nobody is completely trustworthy.’
‘Well how do I know who are his friends and who are his enemies!’ replied Aquitain a little annoyed.’
‘Your father’s enemies won’t try to kill you if they think that you might do something that will benefit them. You have been trained to please. So just do what you think is right.’
‘What do you mean I’ve been trained to please?’ asked Aquitain a little upset at that statement.
‘Aquitain, you’re a smart fellow. I’ve known you all your life. Don’t be so stupid!’ said the guardian.
Aquitain was surprised at this and finally chuckled.
‘Okay. I concede if you’ve known me all my life you probably know how I’m thinking now but I don’t have to like it.’
‘I’m sorry guardian. I guess you’re right when I think about it. I am trained to please. I suspect you had a lot to do with it. I will tell you now that I’m not happy that I’ve been manipulated by you and probably others but for the moment I have no choice other than to accept it.’
‘Now that is what I was hoping that you would say!’ said the guardian with a chuckle. ‘Now go and find Miranda. I like her too you know.’
