by Des Pensable
‘I didn’t think you believed in the gods,’ said Miranda.
‘I don’t believe in that particular sequence of events. It’s too neat and too much in favour of the people that run the temples. It doesn’t fit in with a lot of the things I’ve observed. For example, it says that animals don’t have spirits. Many people in Panmagica would believe that slime creatures like Logicons were animals if they saw them outside their metal body shells, yet I swapped spirits with one. Anyway this is not a good time to discuss religion. What about the treasure - shall we look for it or run from the threatening danger?’
‘Your creation story differs a little from mine. In the druid’s story both the animals and plants also have spirits, however, you’re right about this not being a good time to discuss such things. Let’s go for the treasure, and then I’ll make you a nice dinner; and I might even think about the second.’
‘Good then, let’s get to it. I’m hungry already,’ replied Aquitain, feeling at last that she was responding to him. Yes, she was beginning to like him. He was sure of that and he was amazed at her, just simply amazed. How could he have been so lucky to find such a wonderful, exciting, resourceful woman that didn’t see him as a monster? Logically he started calculating the odds. Hmm. It didn’t add up, but he didn’t care at the moment. Maybe he would have to think more about this some time.
**
Half a league away Wizard Fental reported to High Priest Kelnor.
‘I flew down to the cat shrine as you requested, Your Holiness. The gully in which the cat shrine is located was clouded by fog. The column of smoke we observed rose out of the fog. I flew through the smoke and it smelt like burning bodies, so I assume that someone was incinerating the bodies of those within the shrine. I circled around for a few minutes and the smoke ceased. I decided to wait a little longer and the fog suddenly cleared. I flew down close to the entrance to the shrine and found that the terrible feeling of fear that was present is now gone. I suspect someone has exorcised the place, and they may still be in there. Oh, there was one more thing. There seems to be a Logicon body shell in the centre of the clearing.’
‘A Logicon! By the Gods, it could be that renegade bastard that we’ve got the Archon looking for. If we can catch him ourselves we won’t have to pay that damned Archon. Sergeant, gather six men for a skirmish and report here for teleport in five minutes.’
‘Priest Percival, you have the honour of leading this group. It’s time you did more than sell pox cures to the local prostitutes. Hide the men at the bottom of the track to the rear of the village until Wizard Fental reports. Wizard Fental, fly back and watch to see if anyone comes out of the shrine, then report on what you see to Priest Percival and the sergeant. If they head down the track ambush them. Capture them alive if possible, but if they resist you have my permission to kill them. If they don’t come out within half an hour take the men and investigate the shrine.’
‘Yes, Your Holiness,’ said both Percival and Fental together.
Chapter 18 The ambush.
Aquitain asked Alpha to go outside the entrance to the shrine and keep watch while he searched for the treasure and Miranda attended to the dead druid. He retrieved his ball of chaos matter and reformed it into a chunky necklace and placed it around his neck. He used his power to detect magic and carefully scanned the space, and on seeing nothing obvious slowly walked around, carefully examining the walls and any alcoves for signs of doors or passageways.
Miranda hurried over to the dead druid. The body was badly decomposed but she recognised it from a necklace and other items it wore as belonging to a female druid whom she had met several times. She gathered the woman’s material possessions into a straw basket and laid them to one side. She then stood and sang a prayer for the woman, and finally another beseeching the Lady to take her spirit to a better place. A column of flame descended upon the druid woman’s body and burnt it to ashes in seconds. Miranda looked around for some cloth and collected the ashes into the cloth, tied it into a package and placed it in the basket with the rest of the woman’s possessions.
Aquitain continued his examination of the walls until he had worked his way right around the whole interior of the cave, but found nothing.
‘I was sure that there must be a passage, a secret doorway or hole out of here to some special place where they hide their treasures, but there doesn’t seem to be anything magical or otherwise at floor level that I can find. What is the trick? How have they disguised it?’ he said, more to himself than to Miranda.
‘Maybe its buried under the floor,’ she offered.
‘Perhaps and perhaps not,’ he said and moving to the centre of the room looked around for any clues.
‘I’m a little person, I can’t fly, I can’t use magic, I’m primitive but not stupid, I like cats because ... they protect me.’ And his gaze stopped on the large face of the cat painted on the wall; he noticed that just below the jaw of the image there was a stone ledge about three paces up from floor level. He visually followed the ledge around the room until he spotted what he was looking for, a place where someone small could climb onto the ledge.
‘I think I’ve got it,’ he said, shape changed to his Logicon form and slithered up the wall to the cat face, reformed to his newman form standing on the ledge, and examined the painting of the mouth closely. There was a faint gap around the edge of the mouth. He looked carefully and saw a minute depression, pushed it and a small doorway through the mouth of the painting opened into darkness beyond.
‘Behold, a passageway to a treasure trove,’ he said to Miranda with a cheesy smile.
‘Where you a thief back in Panmagica? You seem to be well versed in thief skills,’ Miranda noted helpfully.
‘No, but a wizard artificer learns many useful skills with tools, observation and logic that would come in handy to a thief. In this case, logic has won.’ He created light on himself, changed to his snake form and slithered into the hole. Behind the entrance was a corridor, just high enough for one of the little cat people, that went on for several paces and ended in three identical doors, one to the front and one on either side. All of the doors had doorknobs.
‘Oh this isn’t good,’ he thought. ‘One real door and two traps, but which is which?’ He looked above him and saw that the block of rock over him could drop onto him crushing him. ‘Perhaps three trapped doors,’ he muttered to himself, and made his way back along the corridor seeking clues. Just inside the entrance he found a hole halfway up the wall with scratch marks around it.
‘Did the little people shaman wear an amulet, Miranda?’
‘Yes he wore a cat’s claw like the Cat Mother,’ she replied. ‘Why?’
‘That is the answer I wanted.’ And he changed into his Logicon form, slithered out of the tunnel onto the floor then reformed to his newman shape and told her about the trap. ‘I think the hole in the wall is a keyhole, and the key is likely to be a cat’s claw. Let’s search around and see if we can find one. There must be one in a cat shrine somewhere.’ But surprisingly, they found there wasn’t.
‘Miranda, can you shape change to your cat form for me?’
‘Why?’ asked Miranda.
‘I need a key and your claws are the right size and shape.’
‘Do you expect me to let you rip a claw out of my foot?’
‘No. I expect you to trust me,’ he said with a smile.
‘Why is it that you are always saying that to me?
‘Why am I always expected to trust you, wizard?’
‘Because that’s what friends do, Mandy!’
‘Don’t call me Mandy! That is reserved for friends!’ she said. ‘Who said we’re friends anyway, wizard?’
‘You did when you pleaded for my life with the Cat Mother. Are you saying now that a virtuous druid woman like yourself would lie to the Cat Mother?’
‘You are a bastard to use my own words against me, wizard. Next time I will disclaim all knowledge of you. See how you fare then.’
�
�Come on Mandy, be a good girl, change to cat form!’ he said.
‘Don’t you dare call me a girl. I’m older than you by many years,’ she said indignantly.
‘How old are you then?’ he asked.
‘I’m … older than you and I don’t intend to tell you,’ she said. ‘You should know it’s rude to ask a woman’s age.’ And she shape changed to her cat form.
She sat in front of him with her tail waving behind her, looking annoyed. He went to pick up her paw and she hissed at him, displaying her large canine teeth. He backed away a little.
‘Come on, Miranda. I’m sorry if I upset you, but I only want to see the shape of your claws so that I can make a key the correct shape with my chaos matter.’
She sat there for half a minute observing his impatience, then raised a paw for him to see. He examined her claws and shaped a part of his chunky necklace to look like a claw. She changed back to her newman form with a smirk on her face and laughed.
‘I scared you for a moment, didn’t I, wizard? You should have seen the look on your face.’
Miranda was beginning to enjoy the word and mind play with Aquitain, and she was determined to give as good as she got.
He looked at her with a sad expression on his face, shook his head and walked to the wall where the tunnel was located.
‘What?’ she said. ‘Why are you looking like that?’
‘I feel sad, Mandy. I was hoping when the Cat Mother made you a cat friend I was going to be wrong.’
‘Wrong about what?’ she asked a little worried.
‘Well I remember reading about spirit animals and they’re all chaotic. When she made you a cat friend it meant that you’d become chaotic like her. I can see that you’re already changing. You’ll be a chaotic druid?’
Miranda suddenly became serious.
‘Don’t joke about that, wizard. The Cat Mother has already stated that you are an Agent of Chaos. If that is true I am going against all my principles just being with you. I am a preserver; my job is to maintain the balance that chaos tries to destroy.’
‘But what if there is too much order or the balance is poorly struck, perhaps then it is your job to be chaotic and reset the balance more evenly.’
‘How can there be too much order in the world?’
‘Easily! What if everyone went to bed at nine and woke at five, what if everyone ate only what was good for them, what if everyone was nice to each other, what if no one got drunk, what if everyone paid their taxes and no one was ever robbed. What if the wind blew the same each day, and it only rained gently. What if the clouds were all shaped like circles and people all looked the same. That would be too much order. The people would all be bored to death. Life is passionate and chaotic. If I am an Agent of Chaos then I am an agent that favours life.’
Miranda was getting annoyed with him again. Why did a lot of the things he said make sense? His ramblings must be affecting her. She would have to leave him soon, or he might corrupt her.
‘I think you are an agent that talks too much. Why don’t you go and get our treasure before we have uninvited guests?’
‘That is a good idea,’ he said and, changing shape to a Logicon he slithered up the wall and into the tunnel in the cat’s mouth. He shape changed to his newman form and slid his chaos matter cat claw into the hole in the wall, and heard a click at the end of the corridor. He crawled down the passage and found the door ahead of him opening into a room about three paces square with a two pace high ceiling. He climbed in and was amazed by what he saw, a small chest containing gold and gemstones, a dark wooden club with a golden head shaped like a cat’s paw, and a dozen leather-bound books.
He examined the books first. They were all written in the Yith script like his manual. He next examined the cat’s paw club. It lay horizontal to the floor on a pair of hooks embedded in the stonewall. He grabbed it by its handle and lifted it off its hooks and suddenly it turned red hot. So he dropped it to the floor, swearing and mentally blocking the pain before healing his hand with his self-healing power.
As he looked up from his hand he noticed a panel open in the wall above where the club had been located. Behind the panel was a golden mask shaped like a cat’s face. There was something about the mask that caught his attention, almost as if it were looking at him and weighing him up. Suddenly he felt an attack on his mind and he slammed in a mind block. The mask had tried to dominate his mind, but had failed.
‘So what have we here? A sentient mask hiding in a treasure room,’ he said. ‘What is your name, mask?’
‘I am called Jacintra’s Image by the stupid small ones,’ said the mask.
‘Yet the small ones knew how to control you. Perhaps they weren’t so stupid,’ replied Aquitain.
‘You have beaten me in the battle of wills Master. I am yours to control. I have some wonderful powers. I can make you rich and famous. I can make any woman you fancy yours. Wear me, feel my power. We will be good friends,’ said the mask.
‘Do I look that stupid? I can see why you are hidden away in here. You are much too dangerous to be let loose. I’m sorry mask, you’re out of luck. You have nothing I desire. However, I will take you and find you a safe home where you can’t get up to any mischief.’
He took the books out first, and asked Miranda to find some cloth that he could wrap the mask in. Miranda was excited with the books but very concerned about the club and mask.
‘These are religious artefacts that belong to the cat people. We can’t take them; they are not ours.’
‘There are no cat people left, and the Cat Mother said we could take the treasure. Besides I can’t leave the mask here. It’s too dangerous.’
‘No, I’m sure she said a treasure, not all the treasures. Besides there are still cat people left. They are the Jeti people, the Jungle Cat people.’
‘What, where are they?’ asked Aquitain, a bit confused.
‘The main Jeti people tribe grew too big, and so split up about twenty years ago. These were the people that left. The main tribe is about fifty leagues from here.’
‘Well that’s the answer! We take all the items and when we work out which belongs to us and which belongs to them, we give them theirs,’ suggested Aquitain.
‘But how do we work out which one the Cat Mother meant us to take?’
‘I don’t know all the answers, Miranda. We’ll have to examine them all carefully and logically determine which is of the most benefit to us, and which is better for them. It may be they don’t want the mask.’
‘Do we consult them before or after we decide?’
‘We’ll have to think about it,’ said Aquitain.
‘When?’
‘By the Powers Miranda you can be annoying!’
‘I’m a cat friend and a servant of the Lady. It’s my responsibility to look after their interests.’
‘All right, we take everything to the cat people and let them decide what we should keep. How about that?’
‘That sounds much fairer,’ said Miranda. ‘I agree with that course of action.’
‘Good, now come in here with me and pick up the club.’
‘Why don’t you pick it up?’
‘Because it doesn’t like me, Mandy,’ said Aquitain. ‘I suspect that it’s part of what’s known as a power pair. Both the mask and the club each have some special ability built into them. Usually holding both reveals extra abilities, making both more powerful. Both the mask and the club attacked me, so I can’t use them. If you can pick it up you can use the club. Perhaps later we can see if you can use the mask as well.’
‘Perhaps they attacked you because we shouldn’t move them?’ said Miranda.
‘That’s true, but knowing their power I can’t in all conscience leave them here to be found by some fool accidentally discovering how to get in here.’
‘It’s surprising to find that wizards have consciences, however, you are probably right in this case. I’ll come and pick it up. It probably appreciates purity and virtu
e.’
Aquitain said nothing. He knew she was just trying to get even for some of his comments. He went back to the room with a piece of cloth and wrapped the mask securely before allowing Miranda to enter. She had no trouble picking up the club; it seemed to accept her without complaint. He decided that he would have to examine the club and mask later to find out exactly what they did, and why they didn’t like him.
Since the gold was too heavy they decided to leave that and get it at some later stage, but Aquitain couldn’t resist a handful of gemstones, which he swallowed. As they left the secret chamber and closed it, Alpha alerted them to a potential problem.
‘Excuse me Aquitain,’ said Alpha. ‘A jungle cat is coming towards the shrine entrance. It has now stopped and is sitting down.’
‘I’ll go. Time to try out my new status as cat friend,’ said Miranda, moving to the shrine entrance. The Jeti saw her but made no aggressive moves, so she went out to it and prayed for her ability to talk with animals.
‘Hail brother, what brings you here?’ asked Miranda.
‘Hail cat friend, the Cat Mother asked me to keep watch for you. There are newman people waiting at the bottom of the track. They smell like the ones who hunted the little cat people.’
‘How many of these newman people are there?’
‘More than my claws on one paw but less than on two.’
‘Wizard, the cat has brought us news that there is a group of six to ten people waiting at the bottom of the track. He thinks they are the ones that killed the little people here in the shrine,’ said Miranda through their mindlink.
‘Ask him whether they came from the jungle or the sea.’
‘He said they suddenly appeared from nowhere,’ replied Miranda.
‘Good they teleported in, and landed at the bottom of the track, therefore they know we’re here. There’ll be eight of them as each teleport ring can carry four. They must have someone watching us to see what we do. Alpha, is there anything in the sky?’
‘There is a single eagle flying around above us,’ replied Alpha.
