Agents of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  He quickly ran across to the wall and felt it. Sure enough the walls were made of glass. Glammer appeared beside him and said

  ‘Will your collar help get us out of this?’

  If spiders could laugh he would have. He had no idea how to get out of a dimension bottle from the inside. It probably wasn’t possible. He changed shape to his gnome form.

  ‘Did you know we were in a bottle?’

  ‘Yes. We’re in Llalorax’s prison bottle. He made it a few years ago. He said no one would ever get out. Can you get us out?’

  ‘I doubt it.’ replied Aquitain ‘We could be stuck here for a long time but before we start worrying about that, how many guards are left?’

  ‘Just the one and he’s locked himself in the store where all the food is kept.’

  ‘I’ll bet he’s scared stiff of spiders. He probably thinks we want to eat him. He won’t come out easily. Maybe we can charm him out.’ said Aquitain.

  Aquitain changed to an attractive female gnome form and walked to the store standing back about five paces from the door.

  ‘Why don’t you come out?’ he said in a pleasant feminine voice. ‘I won’t hurt you.’

  ‘No way.’ replied the voice inside the store. ‘You’re not gonna eat me. I’m staying here.’

  ‘I’m not a spider I’m a gnome.’

  ‘You might look like a little female gnome but I know you’re a spider trying to trick me and I’m not coming out.’ repeated the guard.

  That was exactly what Aquitain wanted to hear. The guard was peeking through the keyhole at him. He concentrated carefully then cast a charm effect at the keyhole, waited a minute then said.

  ‘Come on out I won’t hurt you. I’m just a little gnome. Your friends need your help. I’m not strong like you.’

  The door opened and the guard stepped out, his eyes glazed. ‘How can I help you little gnome?’

  ‘If you send him in the cellblock the charm will disappear.’ whispered Glammer currently invisible and flying near his right ear.

  ‘She’s quite right,’ thought Aquitain. ‘But I need him to open Llalorax’s cell door.’ Then he thought of a way to do it. He slipped off his leather collar and it turned to silver.

  ‘Put on this amulet and it will protect you from Llalorax if he’s annoyed with you.’

  ‘Why thank you.’ replied the guard as he put it on. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘I want you to push the lever that open Llalorax’s door then go and move your friends into the cell with the door open.’ said Aquitain.

  The guard walked into the cellblock and immediately the charm effect evaporated. He stopped dead turned around and said.

  ‘You little bitch. You tricked me into coming into here. You must have put a charm on me. What makes you think I’ll let out Llalorax? I think I’ll rather come out and beat you to a pulp.’ yelled the guard angrily as he grabbed a mace from a weapon rack and darted out. Aquitain ran back a few paces and concentrated on the silver amulet around the guard’s neck willing it to constrict.

  ‘I don’t think that would be your best move.’ suggested Aquitain as the silver amulet around the guard’s neck suddenly tightened. The guard gripped it and tried to pull it off but it only tightened more. Eventually, the guard’s face went red and he fell to his knees nodding acceptance.

  Aquitain mentally eased the amulet’s constriction around the guard’s neck and a minute or two later after regaining his breath he reluctantly re-entered the cell block and pushed the lever to unlock Llalorax’s cell then went to move the officer and other guard into the cell.

  Aquitain entered the area instantly turning back to his spider shape and raced down to Llalorax’s cell. The mage didn’t look happy sitting in the middle of the cell with no legs. Aquitain secreted a length of non-sticky web, secured it to Llalorax’s thorax and tried to pull him out of the cell. Unfortunately he was too heavy so he went back and shepherded the guard with the collar back to pull him.

  Grumbling all the way the guard slowly dragged Llalorax out of the cell, down the corridor and out the cell block door. Immediately he was out the door Llalorax shifted his shape to that of a Newman.

  ‘Sorry about the arms and legs, Milord. The Queen ordered us to chop them off.’

  ‘That’s OK, Gwan. I know you were only doing your duty. Leave the Captain and the others locked in the cell for the time being. He has the tendency to be a bit zealous at times and he’s likely to get someone hurt.’

  ‘I think Janst is dead, Milord.’ said the guard.

  Llalorax turned to Aquitain.

  ‘You killed one of my guards. Why?’

  Of all the things that Llalorax might have said Aquitain least expected this.

  ‘It was sort of accidental.’ said Aquitain.

  ‘How did he die?’ asked Llalorax directing his question to the guard.

  ‘He was bit on the neck by this spider gnome while he was covered in web, Milord.’

  ‘What? Did you intend to eat him?’ said Llalorax with a severely annoyed look on his face.

  ‘No.’ said Aquitain confused about what was happening.

  ‘He was calling for the guards and I didn’t know what else to do.’

  ‘Good grief, you don’t just kill a man because he’s making a little noise. What sort of an upbringing did you have?’

  ‘He’s got a collar on me that is strangling me, Milord.’ said Gwan.

  He called Gwan over had a look at it and asked Aquitain to release it so that he could have a closer look at it. Aquitain released the collar and he puzzled over it for a minute or two then said.

  ‘Ahh! So you’re a Shaper are you? Wonderful stuff this. I think I’ll have to confiscate it,’ and promptly put it in a pocket in his robe. Aquitain could not believe what was happening.

  ‘I just released you from this prison and you abuse me and take my stuff. By all the Powers, what do you think you’re doing?’

  ‘I didn’t ask to be released.’ said Llalorax.

  ‘In fact you’ve ruined my plan.’

  ‘What plan? If you stay here you will probably be killed by the Queen.’

  ‘Possibly,’ replied Llalorax, ‘And?’

  ‘What’s he getting at?’ thought Aquitain suddenly.

  ‘This is leading somewhere.’

  He quickly mentally chanted a calming mantra. He felt his heart slow down, his anger abated. He took control and began to think of what Llalorax might have planned. Llalorax was a very powerful wizard he would have a contingency plan. He must have known that the Queen was being controlled but didn’t know who, how or why.

  He was waiting for them to make a move and they had. He didn’t worry about being killed. Why? Because it would release him from some type of agreement. He probably had some type of clone for his spirit to go to once he died. Then he would be free to go after the person controlling the Queen.

  ‘I’m sorry I ruined your plan. What if the Queen decides not to kill you?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘Then I will have to wait until someone lets me out.’

  ‘What if the Queen decides to kill me?’

  ‘Then I’ve no doubt you’ll end up back in Astaria.’ replied Llalorax with a smile.

  It suddenly dawned on Aquitain that Llanlorian must have contacted him.

  ‘I guess you would be Llanlorian’s brother?’ said Aquitain ‘and you know all about me.’

  ‘Excellent! I’m sorry about the little game I was playing with you. I wanted to be sure that it really was you.’ He then retrieved the silver amulet and handed it to Aquitain.

  ‘Very rare stuff this. Look after it. It’s worth a king’s ransom in this world.’

  Aquitain retrieved the two powerstones held them close to the chaos matter until they were engulfed then reformed his leather looking collar and put it on.

  ‘Very ingenious.’ said Llalorax watching on. ‘I’ll have to have a word with my guards. They were instructed to remove everything from prisoners no matter how inno
cent it looked. Anyway why don’t we go to the guard’s building and have some food, a hot drink and discuss what we should do next.’

  ‘Well that was entertaining.’ said Slivver. ‘You know I’m starting to like you.’

  ‘Don’t!’ replied Aquitain. ‘I can be nasty when I have a mind to.’

  ‘Ha. Ha.’ laughed Slivver. ‘You even sound mean.’

  Chapter 22 Chamber of Horrors

  Miranda woke suddenly. She was lying naked on a large four-poster bed in a lavishly furnished room. There was an Elendari woman bending over the lower half of her body and she felt the warm glow of a healing effect.

  ‘Oh you’re awake. My name is Serenity. I’ve healed most of the damage. You may feel a little discomfort for a few days then it should be okay. Then again you probably won’t remember will you.’

  As Miranda sat up and let the healer woman help her get dressed the nightmare returned. Prendergrass had changed her features to look ugly. He had advised her to put up a fight when they tried to feed her food. She had to make it appear that she didn’t want to lose her memory. She had put up a very believable fight, as she wasn’t sure whether the wizard was fooling her or not.

  The guards had tried to force her to eat but she refused. They had eventually beaten her near unconscious, threaded a flexible tube down her throat, forced some foul tasting swill down her throat and then tied and gagged her.

  That was the fun bit, and then real nightmare started.

  She found herself spread out naked over a cold stone slab overlooked by statue of a human with a horribly leering contorted face. Fixed above her head was a large mirror allowing her to see her body.

  Out of the mouth of the statue came a cloud of mist, which drifted over to her and began whispering into her mind weird horrible disgusting things that it was going to do to her. It flowed over her body then out of it dropped large putrid maggots the size of slugs. They felt cold and slimy and they seemed to separate into two groups one heading towards her groin and the other towards her head.

  As they slowly slithered they left slime that ate into her skin like acid. She felt them on her breast and her thighs.

  ‘No!’ she screamed. She writhed and shook her body and tore against the restraints at her wrists and ankles but it didn’t stop their progress. She prayed to the Lady for help and her tattoo glowed silver and all of the maggots below her navel vanished in a puff of silver smoke.

  A bulge appeared in her navel and it formed the shape of a bird’s egg then it cracked open and out came a silver chicken, which began darting around attacking and swallowing the maggots. The remaining maggots suddenly turned into mist and it formed around her head again whispering obscenities into her ears and laughing in a horribly deranged way.

  The mist floated over her body and this time hundreds of small red fire ants fell out of it onto her body and began stinging and biting her. Each sting or bite felt like a small drop of molten metal burning into her skin. She screamed and writhed and pulled against the restraints but they didn’t yield.

  The silver chicken started pecking at them but they swarmed over it completely covering it stinging and biting at it. It reformed as a silver egg, which cracked open and out climbed a small silver spiny anteater, which rapidly grew, to the size of a small cat.

  It squatted on her stomach shooting out its long warm sticky tongue sweeping up the fire ants and swallowing them by the dozen. As the ants began to thin out it licked her skin soothing the irritation of the bites. The remaining ants suddenly evaporated reforming into a mist above her and it rained small spiders onto her body and the anteater.

  The spiders landing on the anteater ran around and over it releasing sticky web as they ran and soon it was bound up tight. The ones landing on her bit into her skin injecting a dark poison that formed black oozing blisters which itched like crazy. She screamed in pain at each bite.

  The anteater shrunk in size and reformed as a silver egg, it cracked open and out of it came a small silver gecko lizard. It immediately began shooting out its sticky tongue at spiders, pulling them back into its mouth and swallowing them. Spiders jumped onto it and tried to bite into it but its tough skin was immune to their bites and their poison. They tried to spin web around it but when its tongue touched any web, the web evaporated and it kept munching on spiders.

  Once there was only a few left the remainder evaporated again reforming the mist above her body and dozens of little black snakes the size of her fingers fell out of it. The snakes slithered over her body and merged into a larger black snake coiled on her chest, which stared malevolently at the gecko. Suddenly it struck and to her horror the gecko was swallowed whole. It turned and looked her in the eyes and then darted towards her groin. The tattoo glowed and the snake burst into silver fire and evaporated back into mist.

  The mist reformed into a deranged leering face like that of the statue. It floated down next to her ear and whispered.

  ‘How delicioussss. I was only expecting a day or two of entertainment. With you I might get a full week but first we need to remove that nasty tattoo don’t we. Then we might have some real fun don’t you think. Hehehehe. Watch the spider bites.’ And the cloud of mist flew back into the mouth of the statue.

  She lay there in a dazed horror looking into the mirror watching the itching black blisters on her face and the rest of her body wondering what more could possibly happen. The blisters began moving like they had something in them trying to get out. She desperately wanted to scratch them but her arms were retrained.

  She saw a blister burst on her face and out crawled an insect. It looked like a small black wasp. It crawled over to her nose climbed on it and turned looking into her eyes. She went cross-eyed trying to see it then shook her head and blew air at it trying to dislodge it from her nose.

  Other blisters burst open all over her body and out of each crawled a small black wasp, which stood fluttering its black wings. Five minutes later when all the wasps had emerged they took flight buzzing around her head and formed the leering mad face of her tormentor, which whispered.

  ‘You have three days then it will hatch and we shall take great delight in your screams.’

  The cloud of wasps merged into one large wasp with white bands around its abdomen. Her mother had scared her with tales about these when she was a child. It was a Bog Wasp, one of the most feared creatures on Moonmist. It was a magical creature that hunted all the large creatures on Moonmist including the Elendari, Llanlleans and Trixies.

  It paralysed its victims and injected an egg into them. It then guarded the victim while the egg hatched and the emerging grub ate the victim alive eventually emerging from the victim’s body as full-grown wasp.

  The wasp flew down onto her chest, strutted casually down to her navel turned to face her and thrust a long needle like tube extending from its abdomen through her navel into her intestinal cavity. She saw a slight bulge move down the tube from the wasp as it deposited an egg inside of her. It withdrew the tube, took flight and evaporated. Then she passed out.

  They awoke her two or three times forcing her to swallow some of the swill through the tube and then subjected her to the madness of the leering statue. Each time she called on the Lady the tattoo seemed to protect her from the worst of the depredations of the misty whisperer.

  Suddenly she realized she was really awake and she was afraid. Had she forgotten anything? No it all seemed clear as day. She could still remember her mother, Aquitain and last night. It was horrible. She wanted to forget last night. Maybe this was part of the treatment. Abuse her, heal her and then repeat the treatment over and over again until she really wanted to forget it all. Then they would graciously help her lose it. It made sense.’

  She remembered how once years ago she had wanted her mother to bring her here. She wanted to meet the Elendari people. Her mother had told her of how horrible they were and pleaded with her never to come here. She had now met them and these were supposed to be the nice ones. Merciful Lady! ‘What wer
e the bad ones like?

  Moments later Prendergrass walked in.

  ‘Good you’re awake and I presume that Serenity has done a exceptional job and healed you up nicely. If you’re in any pain I can get her back again.’

  ‘I can’t believe you.’ she said bitterly.

  ‘I’ve been tortured half to death with countless things that creep and crawl and bite all night and you act as if I’ve sprained an ankle or something similar.’

  ‘An excellent recovery.’ replied the wizard.

  ‘You might like to know that one of the guards tried to force himself on you last night against my instructions and your hidden tattoo killed him. I don’t think they’ll try that again. Many women would be total mental wrecks at this stage. I’d have to wipe their memories or they’d go mad. You are obviously made of sterner stuff. I’m pleased. Do you think that you can survive another night?’

  ‘What? You must be joking?’ replied Miranda appalled at the thought.

  ‘No, I’m quite serious.’ said Prendergrass.

  ‘You are a druidess. We know from past experience that your type is tough and resistant to creepy crawlies. You probably consider them your mindless little friends and don’t blame them for last night’s discomfort. You showed that you have no phobias about them at all. Unfortunately, you have not convinced the guards that you are about to crack.’

  ‘You must last another night, pretend to go mad and you’re safe. If you like I can block out the memory of last night but you will still have all the rest of your memory. Tonight I can give you a drug that will confuse your senses and dull the pain if you wish.’

  ‘How about you unblock my shape change ability release me and let me make a run for it instead.’

  ‘No, I cannot do that. You might try to hurt Lord Darkmantle and I cannot knowingly allow that. I am doing more for you than I have ever done for anyone else. Please trust me.’

  The word ‘knowingly’ stood out in the conversation to Miranda. He could not knowingly allow her to do something that might harm the Lord.