by Des Pensable
Around the sides of the dance floor were three long curved banquet tables that would each hold at least a hundred Elendari. There were another dozen smaller round tables set back further from the dance floor on either side that would hold another hundred people. There were also tables on the balcony that would hold many more.
At the northern end of the room was the dragon throne. He noticed now that there were four statues, two at the front and two at the back of the throne. These looked to be made of brass or bronze. They were of Newman shape with two legs but had four arms each and animal faces. In each of the arms was either a short sword or a mace. They obviously weren’t cleaned often as they had a layer of dust on the topsides. There were also at least another twenty statues of weird beasts dotted around the room.
Both he and Bellen approached one of the statues and stopped at a red line painted on the floor about five paces from it.
‘Beware Milord. It is said that if you cross the red line it will open its eyes to watch you. If you step any closer it will come alive and attack you.’
Aquitain had seen many examples of animated statues back in Panmagica. His granddad even had a couple. They could be very nasty if you triggered them and were tough to fight but they were usually limited to guarding a specific area. So if you triggered them but got out of the area quickly you were safe. The one problem was that you were never quite sure what would trigger them. They could usually detect live creatures or people but often didn’t react to small creatures the size of rats or smaller.
‘OK Bellen’ said Aquitain. ‘I want you to step across the line then walk away back to the way we came and watch from the service doorway.’
‘Are you sure Milord?’ replied Bellen a little scared.
‘Yes. Do it. I want to watch the reaction of the statue.’
Bellen stepped over the line then quickly headed back to the safety of the doorway. The statue opened its eyes and followed him back to the doorway. A minute or two later it closed its eyes. It didn’t seem to pay attention to Aquitain at all so he stepped over the line and the eyes opened again this time looking at him. Again a couple of minutes after he stepped back the eyes closed.
‘I wonder if it senses living creatures by their spirit aura?’ thought Aquitain. So he created a pure heart shielding his spirit aura within it. This time when he stepped over the line the eyes of the statue didn’t open and with growing confidence he walked past the statue up to the dragon throne. Bellen couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The throne was a basically a lovely golden chair set in front of the chest of a full sized stone dragon statue. The dragon was unlike any Aquitain had seen in Panmagica but that in itself was not unusual, as he had seen pictures of a wide variety of weird shaped dragons. They seemed to be able to adapt to a great variety of living conditions.
The dragon’s head wore a golden crown set with gems and a cloak of gem studded golden silken cloth covered most of its stony body giving it a look of great majesty.
He ducked under the cloth and saw what he was looking for strapped around one of the stone dragon’s legs. It was a power limiter. A device used to bleed away magic essence hence limiting the amount of magic that a creature could use.
If the throne could talk into their minds it would be using mindspeak. The limiter may have been enough to stop the statue from talking. He checked the other side of the dragon throne and found another around the other front leg. He disabled both of them.
The problem was it didn’t tally with Bellen’s story of what had happened. These would have been visible to anyone who saw the throne without the cloak on, but the cloak was only put on about five years later. There must be something else as well. He searched all around the base of the throne but found nothing more then finally remembered the crown.
Fortunately being so tiny he was able to sneak up the back of the dragon throne under the golden cloak, although being so little also meant that it took him half an hour to climb up to its head. He periodically sent mindspeak messages to Bellen to assure the trixie that he was OK but he could easily imagine that the trixie was terrified of them getting caught. Finally he reached the top of the head and his objective.
The circular crown was made of real gold about a Newman pace in diameter but painted over with gold paint to make it look fake. Embedded in the crown were a number of large crystals. He mentally contacted one and was nearly overcome by the response. Most, if not all of the crystals shouted to him.
One by one he talked to them. They were all genuine powerstones, each storing a different mind wizard power. This crown was the most powerful device he had ever seen, he was sitting in a Mighty Crown of Power. So what was wrong? What was blocking the throne? He had missed something.
Aquitain carefully checked the golden crown in which the crystals were embedded looking for faults or problems. No luck. He then decided to use his crystal sight on every crystal. He started at the front and methodically worked his way around in a clockwise direction. He was in the back section when suddenly his crystal sight was blocked.
‘You’re a smart little trixie aren’t you.’ someone said using mindspeak. ‘Unfortunately too smart for my liking!’ and a bolt of lightning arced out of the crystal. Aquitain’s body absorbed it completely with no harm done.
‘You’re smarter than I gave you credit for.’ said the memcrystal.
‘Let’s see how you like it hot.’ And a ball of flame erupted on the dragon’s head enveloping Aquitain destroying his illusion, leaving him standing there as a shiny green crystal.
By this time the surprise was over. Aquitain called for a certain power crystal in the crown to release its power directly at the talking memory crystal embedded in the crown. There was a single pure high frequency musical note of considerable power and the memcrystal and one of the powerstones on either side of it shattered into a million small shards which scattered all over the place. Aquitain didn’t escape lightly either. His whole body cracked all over but fortunately held together. It would take a while but it would heal.
‘Free … free at last!’ said a voice of immense power into his head.
‘Now let’s see who has managed this great feat.’ and Aquitain felt himself lifted off the throne’s head by an invisible hand and held dangling in front of the dragonhead. Two eyes as deep as an ocean bore into him fixing him in a gaze so intense that he felt he would melt.
‘I am Aquitain, the new Warden of Moonmist.’
‘Well bless me. It’s a Warden of Moonmist. How appropriate. Tell me Lord Warden if you are a friend why do you hide your aura?’
Moments later Rat Catcher appeared and transformed into the shape of a large brown bear, mind speaking with the voice of Terrin.
‘I know you Granite. You have not earned the right to question the new Lord Warden. Return to Crystalhaven and witness the destruction you recklessly brought upon it.’
‘How dare you speak to me in that tone K’wala! I am the Lord High Protector of Crystalhaven. If you have caused any mischief there then you will answer to me!’
‘This is not Crystalhaven! This is Moonmist. Go to Crystalhaven and weep and if you wish to return then give me forewarning as I may be busy helping him to fix the mess you created here.’
‘How long have I been trapped here?’ asked Granite suddenly becoming worried.
‘Hundreds of years.’ replied Terrin.
‘By the Powers, what has happened!’ said Granite suddenly teleporting away and releasing Aquitain to drop onto the hard floor.
‘Oh no!’ yelled Terrin as Aquitain fell and shattered into a thousand pieces of green crystal and a small diamond shaped heart.
‘By the Powers, now I know why you let me do all the talking. You have no charisma, no charm, no idea how to converse with people and you’ve just destroyed my body!’ complained Aquitain.
‘What was that creature you called Granite. It was more powerful than anything I have ever seen. It felt like it could have killed us with a mere thought.�
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‘That was the spirit of Granite. He is an elemental dragon. It was his job to protect Mudrun from harm. He failed and the Great Storm was the result. He is vain and arrogant and can read our minds. Your father would not want him to do that. I was trying to protect you. Thankfully he could not see through the pure heart shield.’
‘Oh!’ replied Aquitain suddenly struck with awe.
‘Can we afford to insult elemental dragons with impunity?’
‘No. Not really I suppose. Seeing him just made me really annoyed.’ replied Terrin. ‘Anyhow it worked he’s gone and hopefully won’t return for a while. I guess we better fix this body.’
‘I’m not supposed to teach you any powers but if I happen to use a couple to repair your body and you saw how I did it then perhaps I’m not teaching you.’
‘I guess not.’ replied Aquitain suddenly very attentive.
Bellen ran up to the line in front of one of the statues. He watched the bear shape change into a small grey and black striped cat and then stared at the pieces of shattered crystal all over the floor with a very worried look on his face.
‘Hello Bellen, I am a friend of the Lord Warden. He just had a slight accident while fixing the dragon throne. He will fix himself. Watch the green crystal pieces on the ground.’ said Terrin.
His face lit up with the most glorious smile and he sank to his knees.
‘Yer’ve fixed the throne. Oh thank yer, thank yer, thank yer Lord Warden.’ he said as he waited expectantly looking at the broken crystal. Aquitain moved his vision so that he was looking though Bellen’s eyes.
There was a small surge of magic energy and a shard of green crystal lifted off its resting spot and began spinning in mid-air. Moments later hundreds of other shards including the little crystal heart flew together like a glittering cloud of dust in front of the dragon’s face. It then began to compact then reformed into a separate but cracked crystal.
There was a final pulse of energy and the cracks disappeared leaving a perfect green crystal body spinning in mid-air, which then flew up to the dragon’s head and his vision returned to his body.
‘Thank you Bellen you can get back to your duties now.’ said Aquitain and Bellen scurried off to tell his colleagues that the new Lord Warden had fixed the throne.
‘Now you try it Aquitain with the other broken crystals to get some practice.’
Aquitain felt that he knew how to do it and he did. It drew on a range of knowledge about crystals and some extra skills that he knew Terrin must have implanted. He now knew how to use the power of telekinesis, the ability to move objects with his mind.
First you selected a shard then using telekinesis you lifted it into the air and spun it. When crystals shattered for a short time after the event each shard had a memory of the parts that they were joined to.
The trick was to use each shard to call to another to join the group as if it were a part of the whole. The telekinesis then lifted the shards up and created the swirling cloud of bits. The swirling helped the small bits to find their way together. Finally when they were together you used a mend crystal power to seal the cracks. This was a variation of the mend item power widely used by magic instrument makers.
He repeated the whole process with the fragments of the broken crystal and the memcrystal from the crown and then, very pleased with himself flew them through the air into their sockets in the crown.
Terrin teleported up to the crown moved his spirit from Rat Catcher into the dragon throne and Rat Catcher teleported away.
‘This is a great place to watch the Queen’s Ball why don’t we stay here. I’ll play the part of the talking throne. There’s no urgency and perhaps we can relax after all the excitement we’ve had.’ said Terrin.
‘I guess you’re right.’ replied Aquitain. ‘I have lots to think about’ but he didn’t get the chance he suddenly went to sleep..
Several hours later Aquitain awoke and said ‘I feel different. What have you been doing?’
‘Yes sorry. When Llanlorian separated our spirits she didn’t know which memories were mine or yours so she left mine in with yours. I have been busy sorting them out and taking mine. It would be dangerous for you to know some of them.’
‘That’s a bit unfair. You might have told me in advance what you intended to do’ replied Aquitain quite annoyed.
‘Well it’s simple. When you found and released Granite the whole game changed. Your reputation has shot up again and now you are in real danger. I talked to your father and he agrees that we cannot afford to leave some of my memories in you and I must lock up and disguise others in case you get caught by one of his enemies.’
‘So I am now expendable.’ said Aquitain.
‘No you are not expendable to either me or your father. You are even more valuable to us. We will protect you as best we can. But you must realise that there are many powers that would like to take what you have. I cannot be your guardian full time. I have other duties.’
‘Have you taken the Divinity Seeds?’
‘No. You were not supposed to know about your Divinity Seed for a long time. You now have two. Nobody can take them unless they kill you first! They are your greatest danger. Nobody must know you have them. I’ve disguised them so they are not as obvious. You will need decades perhaps centuries to learn all that is within them but you do not have that luxury.’
‘You are gaining a name for yourself much too fast that endangers you.’
‘Are you expecting to fight that elemental dragon?’ asked Aquitain.
‘No. That is unlikely. He is too powerful for me. However, his appearance will create all sorts of problems some of which will affect us. It’s best to be prepared.
Chapter 30 Garden Parties
Miranda felt a lot happier after a hot meal and cup of tea. She gave Llalorax and Yllandril a quick story on what had happened to her, leaving out the special attention she had received from Prendergrass but she did tell them about the attack on the gateworld while she was possessed by the deranged spirit.
This really shocked Llalorax. He couldn’t understand why Snowbelle wasn’t there to defend it or how they had managed to get in for that matter. Yllandril was curious as to why she didn’t lose her memory when she was fed Moonmist food. Miranda told her that it was probably because she was a druid and they were immune to most poisons. She told them that she had heard that Darkmantle had something special planned for the Spring Ball. This didn’t seem to surprise either of them at all.
When she asked about Aquitain again, Llalorax said that he would try to scry him at the palace. So the three of them went and sat apprehensively in a circle around the bucket in the darkened prison cell. Miranda’s heart beat so loud she thought that they would be deafened by it as Llalorax sprinkled some powder on the water and used a scrying power. The water went misty and she saw two trixies on the edge of a large room.
‘Which one is Aquitain?’ she said with a panicky voice.
‘I suspect he’s that malformed one, disguised with a trixie illusion. The other is Bellen. I know him well.’ said Llalorax with a smile. ‘But just to be sure let me give you the ability to see through illusions for a short while.’
‘Don’t bother.’ replied Miranda and she concentrated hard and disbelieved the trixie illusion and the small green figure of Aquitain appeared.
‘By the Lady, he’s a small green statue! Why?’ she asked almost disbelieving her eyes.
‘I’ll leave that for him to explain.’ said Yllandril with a smile.
It finally hit Miranda just how small he was. He could easily fit into her pocket. A part of her was relieved that he was near and okay but another part was annoyed. In her mind she still had fresh memories of lying in the warm embrace of power narcosis enclosed by his arms.
She remembered the passion flower and blushed. She wanted more than ever to cuddle into his warm body and mindlink with him telling him about all her fears and problems so that he could make them go away. It wouldn’t be quite th
e same if he were a little crystal man the size of a child’s toy.
They watched breathlessly as he walked past the vicious looking statues guarding the throne and scouted around under the golden cloak. Llalorax told them how surprised he was that Aquitain could just walk past the guard statues without triggering them. Miranda commented that Aquitain used to make magic items so he probably knew some secret password.
At first that comment annoyed Llalorax, as it seemed like something a naïve non-magic user might say. Then when he considered it, he knew very little about magic statue construction. Maybe there was a secret password that people who built magic statues used so that they could communicate with their creations. He would have to ask Aquitain about that when he had the chance.
After watching for half an hour and seeing absolutely nothing happen Miranda was getting frustrated.
‘What’s he doing under there, is he sleeping?’
‘Have patience. If he’s as expert as you believe he’s up to something. Perhaps he’s found a hidden doorway. Maybe he’s trying to bypass a trap. Who knows?’
Moments later Yllandril pointed into the bucket.
‘Look there’s movement on the top of the throne near the dragon crown. Llalorax moved their scrying globe a little closer so they could get a better view but Aquitain was so small it was still hard to see what was happening.
‘I think he’s just checking the crown.’ said Llalorax.
‘I got a close look at it once. It’s made of stone painted with gold paint and embedded with ordinary looking crystals. Not much to look at close up but looks like gold from a distance.’
Suddenly they all jumped as a flash of lightning arced across the crown, momentarily turning the room an eerie blue colour followed closely by a tremendous bang as a ball of flame blossomed like some huge orange flower on the dragonhead. As the smoke cleared they heard a musical note of pure pitch and an explosion of glittering crystal shards, which rained all over the throne body and floor. The image in the scrying pool faded.
