by Des Pensable
The living room was large, but the air was cool and smelled of mildew. The floor was dusty but not damp. The walls were hewn from solid rock, with the finish much smoother than that in the other rooms. Its colour was a dirty white, suggesting that at one time it might have been coated with white wash. There was a blocked fireplace in the centre of one of the walls, and a large water barrel only a quarter full stood next to it. Two lamps hung from the ceiling on fine chains that were linked to ropes running over small pullies attached to the ceiling, allowing them to be raised and lowered.
There was sack bedding containing straw against the wall for about four people, and a pile of grey woollen military style blankets nearby. The bedding he had drawn out last night for Miranda and himself lay dishevelled in the middle of the room near all the gear that they had brought with them. This was not exactly a suite like that he was used to back in the mansion, but circumstances had changed and he tried to look at things optimistically. He was alive and accompanied by a beautiful woman. What more could a young man want? Then he grinned and erased the thought.
He would be content with learning to fly, translating the Yith scrolls and making Miranda something useful. But first he needed to get this place better set up. Lights first and then he might get some timber and make them a table and chairs. He had the tools and the skill, so why not make them a bit more comfortable - there was no guessing how long he might be here.
First he replaced the two lanterns with light balls. They were much more efficient, giving off no smell and increased light. In fact, he had made them with three intensity settings for the customer who had ordered them. They were a bit more expensive but much more useful. He hung another in the hatch room and the fourth in the corridor between the hatch room and the living room.
Next he transformed into a Logicon, and taking Alpha with him and using Alpha‘s sight he climbed up the chimney of the fireplace. It went up to ceiling height then travelled parallel to the floor for several paces, where it was blocked by rocks that had caved in. He returned and then went down the drain. The taste of the rock was familiar. It was limestone. Immediately he wondered if there were caves below. There were always caves in limestone rock.
He slithered down the drain and discovered that there was another cave-in blocking the drain, but that the water had found an alternate way down. He slithered downwards for at least two hundred paces and eventually found the cave. It wasn’t big being only about four paces across, but it was at sea level and there was salt water at the bottom. He considered whether he should continue, but remembered that Miranda didn’t know where he was, so returned to the living room.
‘Where have you been, wizard? You worried me. I thought you might have gone wandering. You must not go outside unless you are with me.’
Aquitain changed to his newman form. ‘I’m sorry. I was exploring the drains. There’s a cave below. What’s wrong?’
‘We have some problems,’ she said. ‘One I know about and can sort out, but the others. I am at a loss.’
‘Miranda, wizards specialize in sorting out problems. Sit and tell me about them.’
‘No, these are druid problems wizard. I will sort them out.’
‘Miranda, these are my problems as well. They are both our problems until you leave, then I must know how to deal with them myself.’
‘Very well wizard, the cat I fought last night is a female, a strong female with a large territory. We are in her territory and she will not like that.’
‘Can’t you talk to her and tell her that we will only be here for a short time?’
‘Normally that might be the case. However, I have already fought with her and she is in heat. It would be easier to talk to a rock.’
‘So what can we do?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I will mark out a small territory around the ruins. That may keep her away so that we can walk above with relative safety.’
‘What do you mean, mark out a territory?’
‘You are so naive at times, wizard. I will go around and piss on everything. That’s how you mark a territory.’ she said.
‘Oh. I get your drift. They are very sensitive to other cat’s smells.’
‘Yes and there will be only two reactions. She will avoid the area or try to kill me.’
‘Oh. Well, what about the other problems?’
‘That is where I am at a loss. There are too many cats for the food available. It happens at times. Sometimes there is plenty of food for the prey and they produce many offspring; then there is plenty of food for the predators and they increase in numbers until there is not enough food. They die of starvation, kill each other or leave the area, allowing the numbers of prey to increase and start the cycle again.’
‘So what’s the problem?’ Aquitain asked. ‘They’re at the end of the predator cycle.’
‘Maybe and maybe not. This doesn’t look like the sort of area that would be conducive to that sort of cycle. There is something wrong here. The jungle feels wrong. It feels like there is something malign out there. I have never felt anything like it before. It scares me, and believe me when a druid is scared all the animals are scared. They don’t act normally and they don’t talk. They attack or run. It is very dangerous in the jungle out there at the moment.
‘There is also another problem. There is a ruined little people village down there. There are signs that they were here as recently as one to two weeks ago. But something has attacked the village and presumably driven them away.’
‘Perhaps the cats have attacked them?’
‘That is unlikely wizard. It was a Jacintra village. They worship Jacintra, the Jungle Cat spirit. They would not attack the cats, nor vice versa.’
‘Then we have only two problems, since the third is related to the second. Whatever cleared out the village must also be unsettling the cats. We need to go down to the village and search for clues,’ suggested Aquitain.
‘I can’t allow that, wizard. If a cat attacked it would rip you to sheds in seconds. I wouldn’t be able to save you.’
‘Miranda. There are two of us and we have better minds than cats. I’m not totally useless, regardless of what my cousin seems to think. If I wear my Logicon body shell down there I’m like a tortoise. As long as I keep my head in no cat will harm me, and if I shit on the outside no cat will come within a hundred paces.’
‘What do you mean?’ she said.
‘You have never smelled anything like Logicon poo. It’s really bad, and I feel one coming on. If I mark my own body shell I reckon I’m pretty safe from anything with a nose. You fly around above me and guide me.’
‘Well I agree the poo idea together with your body shell might work - but how can we communicate if I’m in the air and you’re on the ground?
‘Mind magic, Miranda. We will link our minds.’
‘No way, wizard, I’m not letting you into my head.’
‘It doesn’t hurt and I can’t read your mind. It’s like talking directly into each other’s head without using our mouths. I do it with my family and Zephira all the time. My mother taught me before I was old enough to speak with my mouth. It caused a problem, because I thought normal speech was so primitive I didn’t want to do it. It’s also very private. No one else can hear us.’
‘How would I get you out of my head once you got in?’
‘Simply imagine a door. Imagine yourself walking through it and closing it behind you and I’m gone. Alternatively, you can ask me to break the connection, or if you’re more than about a thousand paces away it’ll cut off.’
Miranda was undecided. Except for the mind link the plan should work. It was just that it was a huge leap of faith to let a wizard into her head. Her mother had spent years running them down. Telling her how evil they were. Telling her how cunning and devious they were. When she had met her first real male wizard she had expected him to have fangs like a snake and breathe poison. She was greatly disappointed when he seemed to be much like other men, although less physically developed
and a bit more arrogant.
Aquitain was something else again. He was smart and cunning but untested in a fight, although he had all but killed the giant squid. He was also totally fearless owing to his Logicon body. That was both good and bad. It could make him overconfident and therefore dangerous.
‘Miranda there are just two of us here, you and me. We have to tame this area before you can go. If we work together it will be a lot easier. I know you don’t trust wizards because your mother hates them. But I am not them. I will swear to you now and ask the Lady to bear witness. I will not harm you in any way. I will only use my magic to help and protect us. Please trust me.’
She thought of what her mother had said. ‘Never trust a wizard.’ It was so hard when that is what she had been told all her life.
‘I will trust you wizard, but if you break my trust I will kill you as quickly as I would kill a diseased animal.’
‘Good. May I mind link with you Miranda?’
‘Yes wizard, you may.’ And she closed her eyes with a look of terror on her face.
Aquitain created the mind link and immediately looked at her spirit aura. It was a beautiful greenish newman spirit aura, showing she was a magic user but not that powerful. Then as he looked he noticed that parts of it were blurred, almost as if it were hiding something. He had never seen anything like this before. He memorized it for his records and decided that he would have to take a closer look at it some other time.
‘Hello Miranda,’ he said through the mindlink. ‘What does it feel like?’
‘It is strange - it is just like you are talking but I can feel your presence. Wait there is someone else here too.’
‘That is my memory crystal called Alpha. It’s like a wizard’s familiar. If you look straight ahead with your eyes closed you will see two lights like candle flames. They are our spirit auras. The faint blue one is Alpha and the other is mine. You can’t see your own, but it probably looks a bit like mine, only green.’
She opened her eyes. ‘Where is this familiar. How come you never told me about it? Has it been spying on me?’
Aquitain opened his hand and placed it in one of hers.
‘Is it a rock or just pretending to be a rock?’
‘It is an uncut emerald worth a fortune. It contains a small part of my mind. It can see in all directions, hear, talk using mindspeak, and walk. Say ‘Hello’, Alpha.’
Alpha introduced itself to her.
‘Hello Miranda. You’re very beautiful. I’m glad you’re here to help us. Aquitain would get himself killed without people like you to look after him.’
‘Cut that out Alpha. You’ve been listening to Zephira too much.’
Miranda smiled. ‘You don’t seem to be able to win, wizard. Everyone thinks you’re hopeless.’
Alpha then grew legs like a spider and ran up her arm and sat on her shoulder. ‘It’s a good view from here. Perhaps I’ll stay with Miranda rather than you. I can’t see anything while I’m stuck in that box.’
‘All right, you’ve made your point. How about I stick you on top of my body shell, and that way you can watch everything and talk to both Miranda and me while we go down to the village?
‘One more thing Miranda, we can send each other pictures of what we see, hear, smell and even feel. However, those take a little more practice. Lets just use voice at the moment. I’ll fix Alpha onto my body shell and we’ll get going. Remember, it’s only got a range of about a thousand paces. If you exceed that we’ll be cut off.’
Miranda was excited. Really excited! She had never imagined that she could fly and talk to someone on the ground as if she was standing beside them.
It was unbelievably useful. She could circle around, spot trouble and warn him well before it got anywhere near him. If something did attack him she could land and be at his side in seconds. She couldn’t wait to go and try it out.
Chapter 16 The Cave
Several minutes later they were on their way. Aquitain had slithered out of his body shell and excreted on the back surface of the shell. It was even more revolting than usual, having a fishy component from the squid he had eaten the previous day. He decided that even though Facit had said nothing about it, the Logicon excretion mechanism must be a defensive weapon, like that of a skunk. Miranda flew in circles fifty to a hundred paces above him and talked.
Such was her excitement that she told him about everything she could see. She guided him almost every step of the way down an old zigzagging path to the beach below. Every now and again he said ‘Thanks Miranda,’ just so she knew he was still there.
From the beach it was only a five-minute walk to the ruined village. Scattered among the palm trees and fruit trees were the burnt out remains of huts made from local materials. He could see that they had been burnt out recently, since the ashes looked fresh. It was now his turn to describe what he saw to Miranda flying above.
‘These huts look like they were burnt out recently. There are no weeds or plants growing in amongst the ashes. Wait, here’s a torch. This looks like a military torch like those back at Twin Towers. I’ll bring it with me so that you can have a look later.’ He picked it up and continued walking.
‘This looks like a large communal building of some sort. There are some small baked clay pots and bowls amongst the ashes. I haven’t seen any bones yet. Here are more clay bowls and some clay spoons; some bits of rope and woven cane on the ground; some large newman footprints here in the ashes. They’re heading towards the back of the village. Keep a keen watch, Alpha.
‘I’m heading towards the rear of the village area. There are a lot of small footprints in the area, all going towards the rear of the village. They don’t look like small newman footprints. Close your eyes and make sure you don’t crash. I’m going to send you an image of the footprints. +
‘By the Lady, is that how you see things? It isn’t very clear.’
‘Logicons don’t have very good vision. Why do you think I keep changing to my newman form? It’s not to look pretty. It’s so I can see properly.’
‘Oh, so you want to get a better look at me do you?’
‘Perhaps, or maybe it’s so I don’t scare you.’
‘Ha. That’ll be the day. I’m much more used to being with creatures than newmans.’
‘Do you think of me as a creature or a newman?’
‘That’s not a fair question, wizard. There is a path up ahead of you. I noticed earlier this morning that it goes up a rise for several hundred paces, then there is a shrine to Jacintra the Lord of cats. It was near there that I felt uneasy. Be careful, wizard.’
Aquitain kept walking until he reached the path. It was quite wide and well-worn as if it was often used.
‘It looks like the answer to the mystery lies up ahead. All the footprints led to this track. I’ll keep going up to that shrine you saw.’
‘Are you sure, wizard? I’m feeling a little uneasy about this.’
‘I’m sure, Miranda. We need to get to the bottom of this. If I was in my newman body I’d be quite excited by now,’ he said, but Miranda said nothing.
He walked up the track. The sun shone down. It was a beautiful day, but silent. He suddenly realized that there were none of the normal jungle noises. It was a little unreal and to a newman it would be very unsettling, but he was in a Logicon body. It didn’t cause any undue alarm. How do Logicons survive, he wondered. If they have no fear they must do stupid things and get wiped out. Was this a stupid thing that he was doing?
He reached the top of a rise and was surprised by the sight that greeted him. There was a circular gully with high walls all round, about a hundred paces across. The ground in the gully was flat like a table and covered only with a course brown grass, which in places reached knee high. Facing the track was a large cave perhaps ten paces wide and five high, opening into the hillside. The curious thing was that the cave resembled the open mouth of a cat, complete with white stalactites hanging down from the ceiling of the cave ent
rance and two cat eyes painted on the rock above the cave.
The ground around the entrance to the cave was a bright red brown colour, and blackened as if there had been a recent fire just outside it. He strode across the grass towards the shrine entrance. There was absolute silence and no breeze, but the air felt cool. Miranda was circling around in tight circles above him.
‘You’re right Miranda, there’s a really weird feeling down here and it’s emanating from the shrine.’
As he approached the mouth of the shrine he smelt it.
‘Something’s died in there. There’s a really strong stench of death coming from the entrance.’ He walked closer still and felt a strong feeling of grief and fear. Had he been in his newman body he would have been running away at this stage. He stood considering what to do. He could back off and not find out what the problem was, or confront it head on. Sometimes the only substance to fear was the fear itself. He was a mind wizard he knew fear was a weapon but also a defence. Which one was it here?
He retreated back to the centre of the clearing and slithered out of his body shell to reform as a newman. Miranda screamed at him through the mind link.
‘Have you gone mad, wizard? What are you doing?’
‘I’m going in to find out what’s happened.’
‘Don’t be a fool wizard, I can feel it from here. There’s something very evil in that cave.’
‘Perhaps and perhaps not. There are evil things and evil deeds and there is magic. It’s time to find out which one we are dealing with,’ and he pulled out a small bag of powerstones and tipped them out on his body shell. Next he got out the ball of chaos matter, closed his eyes and reformed it into the shape of a golden headband. He then sorted through the powerstones and one at a time held each stone against the body of the band and watched the metal flow around and grip it, then placed the band on his head. Finally, he detached Alpha, asked it to grow legs, and placed it in his hair on top of his head.
