by Des Pensable
He sat on the warm golden sand and became lost in a trance-like state as he absorbed the unfamiliar sights, the sounds and the ambience of the place. He had read books about the sea but none of them did it justice. Zephira removed her sandals and went paddling in the water running back and forth like an excited child as the waves ebbed and flowed peacefully.
Small groups of grey and white sea birds crouched in the sand with beaks pointing out into the cool breeze blowing in from over the water. They watched her suspiciously and darted quickly away if she ventured too close. Eventually she came back and joined him, not talking, just sitting, watching and wondering what the future would bring as the sun slowly dropped over the horizon behind them and the shadows began to lengthen.
When it became so dark that they could hardly see, Zephira suggested that they go back to the inn for some food and drink. Aquitain didn’t fancy inn food and was not keen on the attention he was likely to get, so he suggested that he’d go for a walk whilst Zephira had a meal and he’d meet her later in their room. She was a little concerned about him being out alone but too hungry to worry, so she let him go. After all what sort of trouble could a walking metal box get into in a town this size?
He decided that he’d go for a walk back the way they had come earlier in the day. He had a feeling that Miranda the druid girl might still be there, and felt like talking to her. She was a shape changer like him, so he felt a kind of kinship with her. The night was beautifully warm, the moon had risen and he could hear lots of strange jungle noises. He had no idea what sort of creatures made any of the sounds but it didn’t worry him. Logicons didn’t have any emotions so he wasn’t apprehensive or worried, but he was a little excited and wondered whether that counted as an emotion.
Today he had left his previous life behind. He wasn’t Rob anymore; he wasn’t even a newman any more. The exotic smells and the darkness were starting to affect him. He could feel an urge to leave his body shell and go hunting. He knew that if he were a newman, shape changed to look like a Logicon, there would be no way that he would feel like he did now. The Logicon body was exerting a strong effect on his mind.
He concentrated on walking and watching where he was going. The moonlight was bright but the shadows hid uneven changes in the ground that caused him to stumble occasionally as if he were drunk.
The track passed by the last farm building and headed toward the jungle, which looked like a solid wall of darkness. He could hear his metal footsteps crunching along the ground. If he had been a newman he knew his heart would be racing by now.
Darkness, strange sounds, alien territory was the stuff that terrified newmans but he felt no fear at all, just an elevated feeling of anticipation. He thought about this while he walked along and concluded that it must be related to the Logicons' ancestry.
They had poor vision, but an excellent sense of smell and could hear vibrations through the ground. They had no specific organs to attack but weren’t defenceless either, since they could spit horrible acidic goo that burnt exposed flesh on contact. Perhaps they were night hunters. If so, it would make sense that they would have no fear in a dark jungle environment.
The track reached the edge of the jungle and continued on into it, toward the pile of stones that marked the place of their arrival. He slowed to half his normal walking pace, as it was darker and more difficult to judge his footing. Suddenly there was a growl and the scraping, crunching sound of a creature running towards him from behind. He went to turn but it leapt, landing on top of him, clawing and biting at his body shell and overbalancing him forward. He fell with his face towards the ground. The creature clawed and chewed at his shell but to no avail. He was like a tortoise. There was nothing edible outside his shell.
Moments later he heard a thump as if two bodies hit and a winded yelp, growls, and then two bodies struggling on the ground only a few paces from him. Leaves crackled and twigs broke. He propped himself up with his metal arms, then stood up and looked around. There were creatures rolling around only a few paces away but it was too dark to see them properly, so he tapped into his source and his whole exterior body shell surface lit up like a lantern, casting a yellow campfire-like glow over the area for several paces around him.
Lying across the top of a large dog-like creature and holding it down with its jaws clamped on its throat was a black jungle cat with its eyes reflecting back at him like large golden orbs. The haggard brown hound gave a final reflexive jerk and stopped struggling. The cat held onto the throat of its victim for another half minute looking directly at Aquitain, then released its prey. Ignoring him, it ripped open the chest cavity of its victim and began eating the liver and heart of the dead beast while he watched. After it finished, it sat licking its lips and began cleaning off any blood on its claws while watching him watch it.
‘I guess you wonder why I’m here. I thought you’d still be around here somewhere. I was thinking about you this afternoon while sitting on the beach.
I was wondering why you were waiting around up here. It wasn’t to meet us, so I guessed you were waiting for someone or something else, and since it’s your job to look after animals it must have been an animal. That dog-like creature I suspect. It must have been very hungry to attack me and I dare say it got quite a surprise when it found out my exterior was made of metal. Do you always eat your kills?’
The cat just sat there looking at him and he began to feel a little uncomfortable. Perhaps this wasn’t Miranda the druid girl after all. Maybe it was another wild jungle cat having a meal.
‘All right, if you don’t want to talk I’ll leave.’ He had turned to go when he heard a female voice behind him.
‘Aren’t you scared of walking around in the jungle at night? Most newmans are.’
He turned back to see Miranda the druid woman from earlier in the afternoon, standing where the cat had been.
‘No. My species originated in fetid swamps on a faraway world. They hunted at night and the other creatures feared them.’
‘Are you hungry?’ she asked. ‘You can share some of my kill.’
‘It does smell rather nice,’ he ventured, and then couldn’t believe what he had said. If he were still Rob he would probably have been sick at the thought, but he wasn’t. He was now Aquitain the Logicon, and they ate all sorts of things, especially putrid, rotten, stinking and smelly things. That’s why the fresh offal of the animal smelt so appetising.
‘Help yourself!’ she offered, so he did. He ripped out the strong-smelling intestines and stuffed them into his body case mouth opening. It had a delicious, wild and exotic flavour. His body inside the shell had no mouth but simply wrapped around the still writhing warm intestinal tract and absorbed it internally into a bubble, where it would be digested over the next few hours.
‘Do you eat newmans?’ she asked.
‘Not generally,’ he said. ‘They wouldn’t like it. Do you eat them?’
She smiled. ‘No, it’s generally against the rules, and besides there’s no need. There’s plenty of food out here if you know where to look and how to catch it.’
‘Were you hunting that dog creature for food?’
‘No, it was a favour for druid friend who’s busy on another job. It’s an Elendari hunting hound used by illegal hunters. They left it behind in a hurry to get away and it doesn’t belong in the jungle around here. It attacked one of the farmer’s domestic animals three days ago and I thought that it would return either tonight or tomorrow night.’
‘What is it like to change into a big cat?’
‘I guess it must seem strange to you, but I’ve been doing it for so long now that it’s just another part of me. If I need to hunt or fight I become a cat. If I need to travel any distance, I become an eagle. That’s what druids do.’
‘Can you talk to the animals?’ Aquitain inquired with interest.
‘Yes but not in the normal way, for that we use magic given to us by the Lady. We sing a prayer and can talk into their minds and then read their re
sponse, partly from their mental attitude and partly from their bodily response. It takes a lot of practice to do it well.’
‘Who is the Lady?’
Miranda chuckled. ‘The Lady of the Jungle is the mother of all things. She is the Goddess of Nature. The Supreme Being that cares for and nurtures all creatures great and small. Our abilities to shape change, talk to the animals, heal and care for them are all derived from her. Don’t you have gods where you come from?’
‘Yes but I’ve never taken much of an interest in them,’ replied Aquitain. ‘The ones I know about don’t seem that benevolent.’
‘Are you a wizard?’
‘I guess the light on me is a bit of a giveaway isn’t it? Yes I’m a sort of a wizard, but more of an artisan and merchant.’
‘So why are you here? This can be a dangerous place, even for powerful wizards.’
‘To visit High Wizard Featherdown and talk to the druid Alin Amber.’
‘Hmm ... well I hope you enjoy your visit. I’ll have to go. I’ve done my job here. I have to return to my home range.’
‘Where’s that?’ he asked.
‘A very long way from here.’
‘Are you really a female or are you a male pretending to be one?’ asked Aquitain curiously.
‘That’s a very personal question,’ she replied. ‘You may have heard some strange things about druids, but I can assure you we are very ethical people. No druid that I know will willingly deceive people as to their gender unless it is for a very important reason. I am truly a female newman and proud of it!’
“I’m also quite surprised that a metal box would be interested in my gender. I can’t even imagine a concept of male and female metal boxes.’
‘Well I’m a creature that lives in a metal shell and uses it for protection in a similar fashion to a tortoise. I am a male, and do appreciate the difference between male and female newmans. You are by any standards an exceptionally beautiful example of a female newman, but I am more interested in your shape changing ability at the moment.’ said Aquitain.
‘I would like to ask you some questions about how you think and feel when you’re in animal form. It would help me to understand your method of shape changing.’
‘I’ve heard that wizards are very curious about many things. They are also dangerous and heartless wielders of power, ready to misuse their knowledge for ill gains and use their magic to force people to their will. Why should I disclose any druid knowledge to a wizard that hides his true nature and intent in a metal box?’ She replied.
I’m going!’ and she changed back to her jungle cat form and quickly merged with the shadows.’
‘Do you really have to go?’ he shouted plaintively into the darkness, ‘I’m not the type of wizard that covets power and uses his magic for selfish purposes, and I’d really like to hear more about you.’
Miranda stood in cat form in the darkness about twenty paces away, watching Aquitain. Her mother hated wizards with a vengeance and as a consequence Miranda was very wary of them. Perhaps she should have talked with him a little more, to try to gauge whether he really was a threat. He didn’t seem aggressive, just inquisitive. She wondered why he would want to know how it felt to be in animal form. She honestly didn’t know, as her cat form was a part of her nature now, and it just seemed to her as normal as her newman or eagle forms.
Aquitain waited for five minutes but she didn’t return, so feeling a little disappointed he cancelled the light, waited a couple of minutes until his night vision returned, and headed back to the town.
When he finally arrived, he found the communal room in the inn was crowded with people, mainly newmans, singing raucous songs to the sounds of an entertainer playing a lute-like local string instrument. He spotted Zephira sitting chatting with a group, mug in hand, and rather than join in he stole up the flight of stairs to his room to contemplate the day’s events.
Meanwhile back in Panmagica High Priest Kelnor knelt down and carefully examined the body of the dead initiate.
‘You say the girl described the attacker that did this as looking like some type of female holy avenger. Do you believe her story?’
‘Yes, Your Holiness. We have her in the dungeon at the moment. You may interrogate her at your convenience,’ his assistant replied.
‘Hmm. A holy avenger would use a special weapon and normally decapitate the victim. Their weapons have a certain divine smell about them and leave traces of divine magic in the wound. This initiate has used his own dagger. I think this is the work of an assassin who convinced the initiate to terminate his own life. Dam mind magic I’ll warrant. There have been several similar deaths over the last couple of years. I recall now that some of the other victims were people abusing prostitutes. There may be a connection here.’
‘How did the assassin get into and leave our building undetected? Was the assassin following the girl to protect her, or was the assassin already here for some other reason? There are questions to be answered. Tell the priest in charge of security that I wish to see him in my office.
‘Let the girl go. Tell her we have prayed to our god to provide a holy avenger to protect her and her colleagues. The avenger will even strike down our own priests if they abuse the women. Tell her they will get greater protection if they join our faith, but it will cost them 10% of their earnings. Tell her also that if they join they will get a 20% discount on pox cures.
‘Invite the Council’s High Wizard over for a chat. I think we had better start looking for this assassin before he or she becomes more of a nuisance. Perhaps we should scry on the girl’s activities.
‘Dispose of the body in the Council’s incinerator. He was only an initiate, and hasn’t earned the right to be raised from the dead. We’ll use him as an example to our initiates to be more devout. That is all.’
‘Yes, Your Holiness.’
Chapter 6 High Wizard Featherdown
Aquitain was sitting in a corner of the room still wide-awake well after midnight, when Zephira staggered along the narrow hallway to their room. She had someone with her who was trying to persuade her to let him come into the room with her, but she steadfastly refused, and after a gallant effort he conceded defeat and left. She opened the door and fell into the room giggling.
‘Have a good walk?’ she gasped. ‘By the Powers this place is much livelier than I expected. The people seem bloody nice and very inquisitive about you.’ She crawled over to the bed, rolled onto it, and instantly fell asleep.
‘Great protection you are!’ he exclaimed, but she didn’t hear.
He slithered out of the body shell and shape changed to his male newman body form, turned off the lantern and pranced around the room like a caged tiger. When would he get his own newman body back? This body was alien and it concerned him. He could almost feel himself changing, becoming more an alien and less a newman. It had one good effect; he didn’t seem to get as angry as easily as before. When he was surprised by the archon back at the mansion the anger had been triggered, but since then he had been free of it. What did that mean? Was it somehow related to the other talent that his father wouldn’t tell his grandfather about?’
Several hours later, well after dawn, Zephira awoke. ‘By the Powers they have a good strong brew here.’
‘Who was that person that wanted to join you?’ he asked.
‘Just a randy bard that wanted to get into my pants.’
‘Melanie, what would have happened if I’d needed you last night?’
‘Ha. You would have solved the problem Logicon style, by talking your assailant to death.’
‘I’m serious, Melanie,’ Aquitain said, trying his best to get annoyed.
‘You’re not jealous are you?’ she asked.
‘Listen carefully Rob. I got drunk last night because what has happened just doesn’t make sense. I needed to work it out in my mind. I’m not brilliant like you. No matter how you look at it, Granddad wouldn’t have abandoned us on a remote world unless there was a very good reas
on. He was scared. I never thought I would ever see Granddad scared, but he was yesterday. Maybe in your new body you didn’t see it, but I did. I think we’re in real trouble. I just hope that bloody great archon thing doesn’t find us. I don’t think I could beat it in a fight.’
‘There’s another thing Rob, which we need to get clear from the start, since we’re likely to be spending a lot of time together. I will protect you with my life as you are my best friend, you’re my family, and that’s what I’ve been trained to do. You might still be a virgin, but I’m not. If I want to spend the night with someone, that’s my business and not yours. Got it?’
‘You’ve changed,’ said Rob, a little shaken by Melanie’s attitude.
‘Yes I have, Rob. I’ve been away from the family enough now to realize what’s been happening. I’m expendable but you’re not. I’m expected to do anything including sleeping with our enemies to ensure your safety. They’ve been protecting you from something or someone for years. It’s more than the shape changing. I don’t know what or why as they won’t tell me, and I have asked, although I suspect it has something to do with your father.’
‘Do you know what I did while you were with Facit learning to shape change? I checked out Tina’s story about falling in love with the member of the Yith delegation. It never happened. It was a lie. Your mother lied to us. Why I don’t know. It seems nobody other than your mother and perhaps Grandad really knows who your father is.’
Rob was shocked. ‘Are you really sure about this Melanie? Why would mother lie to me?’
‘Why were we never told about your father or your shape shifting ability? What sort of a person would name you Aquitain? It’s not a newman name.’
‘Yes I thought about that myself,’ Rob replied. ‘I asked Alpha if it had any knowledge about the origin of the name, and it said the name was neither newman nor Yith.
