by Des Pensable
Aquitain thought for a minute, and then said ‘We can go and hide or we can maul them a little. Which would you prefer, Miranda?’
‘I promised the Cat Mother to bring them to justice; however, I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I say we maul them!’
‘Good. Well, I have a plan. See what you think.’ And he outlined it to her.
‘It might work, but I don’t like your part in it. It’s too dangerous,’ she said.
‘It’s Featherdown’s philosophy and he’s still alive to champion it. Deception wins battles.’
‘All right, we’ll give it a go, but if anything goes wrong run for the jungle and hide. I’ll find you,’ said Miranda.
Miranda first talked with the cat and then prayed the chameleon prayer that allowed her to blend into the background. Aquitain stacked her with their loot and she teleported back to the hideout. It took her two trips to take it down through the hatch and store it in their living room, but she worked as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Aquitain was busy.
He first filled a large box with odds and ends and put a lid on it, then asked Alpha to come inside the shrine and placed it on his head. He carried the box out to his body shell with the cat accompanying him. Fortunately it had rained during the night and the Logicon poo had been washed off the body shell and had soaked into the ground, making it more pleasant to be near. Alpha watched the eagle. He placed Alpha on top of his body shell, changed shape to his Logicon form and slithered in. Next he picked up the box and walked to the top of the track, where he put the box down and went back to the shrine as if he had forgotten something. The cat sat casually by the box as if patiently waiting.
After a couple of minutes he returned to the box, placed something in it, picked it up and started off down the track. It was about seven hundred paces down to the bottom of the hill. After a couple of hundred paces he stopped where he could be seen from the bottom of the track, put down the box and farewelled the cat, which headed off down the side of the hill and into the jungle. At this stage the eagle curved off down to the village area and disappeared.
‘Good,’ he thought. ‘They’ve taken the bait.’
He picked up the box and slowly headed downhill another hundred paces, where he was out of sight from the bottom and found Miranda waiting, camouflaged. He created a new mindlink between them, as the previous one had cut out owing to her moving out of range.
‘They’re down there. I can smell them,’ she said. ‘I called for help from the cats and three more have answered. That makes six of us and eight of them.’
‘Will they fight?’ he asked.
‘Yes. They like your plan. They are moving into position. Take the teleport ring in case you need it. Good luck wizard, and please be careful. May the Lady watch over us.’ And she flashed off down the side of the hill to join the other cats.
‘This is very risky, Aquitain,’ said Alpha suddenly. ‘You are taking risks to impress Miranda and she is taking risks to impress you. You are both becoming reckless.’
Aquitain was quite surprised at this comment from Alpha. He had often asked for Alpha’s opinion but he couldn’t remember Alpha giving it when it was unsolicited.
‘They are my risks to take, and I will decide whether to take them. Do your job and watch my back.’
He picked up the box and started off down the track again for another hundred paces and when in view of the bottom suddenly tripped over, dropping the box and spilling some of the contents. As he slowly and carefully repacked the contents into the box, Miranda contacted him.
‘Wizard, we are in position about two hundred paces behind and to your right of the bottom of the track at the rear of the village. We await your signal.’
‘Good,’ thought Aquitain. ‘Let’s see how well deception works.’
He picked up the box again and began walking down the track. He estimated that he had about three hundred paces to go to reach the bottom. Arrows had an accurate range of perhaps a hundred paces, and most wizard magic closer to fifty paces or less. He looked for a place where there was some cover about a hundred and fifty paces from the bottom, and saw a drainage depression in the track on the left side.
When he reached the target spot he was sure that all eyes would be on him and probably anticipating what he might have in the box. Suddenly the box lit up brightly. He stopped and dropped it on the ground, and ran back a few paces and knelt down beside the drainage ditch, as if worried that something bad was about to happen. He slithered out of his body shell and changed to his new cat form, crouching out of sight.
He used his powers to control light and sounds and the box began changing colours, then gave off some small popping and banging sounds. This should have their undivided attention, he thought. He thickened his skin, took a deep breath and ran down the track. In two or three seconds he was at the bottom. There were yells and arrows flying everywhere. He used his power to control light and the whole area for twenty paces around him went pitch black. That was the signal for the cats to move in. Miranda and four other jungle cats came tearing across the ground into the darkness.
Any advantages the ambushers had would now be negated. The cats were used to hunting at night using scent and sound more than sight, and their night vision was much more sensitive than newman vision anyway. There were shouts all around for light. Aquitain heard a wizard casting a light effect, and immediately it was cast there was a brief flash of light and Aquitain quenched it and ran several paces back up the road.
There were voices all around.
‘It’s on the track!’ someone yelled.
‘We need light!’ yelled another.
In the darkness there were cat howls everywhere, and one scream then another as two men went down with cats at their throats. Terror reigned. Newmans screamed and scurried, tripped over, crawled and cried. The sergeant called for his newmans to draw their swords and fight.
‘We need light! Priest, give us light!’ commanded the sergeant.
The priest was more scared than he had ever been in his life. He fell to his hands and knees and crawled as fast as he could, until miraculously he crawled out of the darkness and into light. The screams were terrible and there were cats grunting, growing and roaring amongst them. Aquitain adjusted the darkness until he could just see, giving the cats better vision but not helping the men. Then he saw the wizard cowering against a tree trunk, pulling out a magic wand from under his cloak.
‘By the Powers,’ he thought. ‘If it is a fireball wand it could kill everyone, friend and foe alike.’ So he charged at the young wizard, leaping to knock the man over. He succeeded, but the wand went off all the same. It was a wand of light. As Aquitain tore into the wizard’s throat and tasted and smelt the warm blood spurting all over his face, the bestial anger tried to take over. He fought, but it was a titanic struggle of will. He had to do something but he couldn’t quite remember what!
Suddenly there was bright light and all, newman and cat alike, were momentarily blinded. There were three dead men on the ground and two more struggling with cats on top of them, but three remained standing with swords in hand. The priest was on his knees twenty paces from the skirmish, praying. There was a surge of magic and the newmans’ morale rocketed. They seemed to find new courage, while the cats became hesitant and fearful.
Miranda was on top of one of the newmans. He had his chain mail covered arm jammed in her mouth and was holding her off from his throat. She quickly looked around, expecting Aquitain to make it dark again, but it wasn’t happening. When she had talked to the cats they were reluctant to attack newman, as they were afraid of them and generally left them alone. She had convinced them that they had the advantage in the dark and they had agreed. They would fight in the dark, but were reluctant to do so in the light. If the light stayed on they could all break and run.
‘Wizard, we need darkness!’ she shouted through their mindlink. Slowly it registered that was what he had to do. Make darkness.
‘Tell me again,’ h
e shouted back.
‘He’s dazed or something,’ she thought. Then it occurred to her he might be fighting the anger that came to him. He might be battling himself.
‘Wizard, the darkness, please use it now. Make it dark!’
‘Yes, we need darkness,’ he thought, and he made it dark again. He pushed back the anger that blocked the thoughts and took control again.
He saw the cats take heart. Growls and howls filled the darkness. He joined them, but this time when he growled he boosted it with his power to control sound. The sound was utterly terrible and caused instant panic amongst the soldiers. They dropped their weapons and ran. Even the sergeant ran and the cats chased them, leaping on their backs, bringing them down and biting through the back of their necks with their flashing fangs.
Miranda leapt off her victim, digging her claws into his stomach and ripping it open as she sprang off him. She headed for the place she had last seen the priest. Why was there a priest here? The Druid’s Council had banned them from Mudrun. If she could catch him then they might find out what was happening. She shot out of the zone of darkness like an arrow, but was momentarily blinded by the bright light. She must have been a little disoriented in the darkness. She came out to the left of him, about twenty-five paces away.
He saw her looking around and fixing her gaze on him. His heart froze. He knew she was after him. She sprinted at him intending to knock him over, but he activated his teleport ring and vanished moments before she reached him. ‘Damn!’ she thought, ‘the bastard will bring more, but it will take a couple of minutes. We must finish the fight and run.’
A minute later the fight was over. Aquitain eliminated the zone of darkness and the extent of the fight was visible, with seven dead Newmans covered with blood. They had put up a good struggle because they had all been wearing military issue chain mail, but without any markings to know for whom they fought. Two of the cats were badly cut, so Miranda changed to her newman form and healed them. The others all had minor cuts and scrapes but were otherwise relatively unharmed. She bid them farewell and they all disappeared into the surrounding jungle.
Aquitain changed back to his newman form just as Miranda asked him what had happened.
‘I’m sorry Miranda. I’ve never killed a newman before. I lost control. The beast urge came over me and if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have been able to remember what to do. Thank you. You saved us all.’
‘Let’s not talk now, wizard. Quickly, search the bodies for any identification and let’s go. These are military people that shouldn’t be here. A priest got away. He’ll probably be back any moment with more troops.’
They searched the soldier’s bodies but found nothing of interest. The sergeant wore a military issue cloak of camouflage, which Miranda took. On the young wizard Aquitain found a teleport ring, a wand of light and a wizard magic formula book. They quickly raced up the track to Aquitain’s body shell, he shape changed to his Logicon form and slithered in, and Miranda used their teleport ring to transport them to the hideout. They quickly entered and at last breathed a sigh of relief.
Aquitain went into the living room, shed his body shell and changed to his newman form. Miranda came racing over to him and grabbed his arm and began dancing around.
‘We did it, wizard! We did it! We did stuff of legends that only heroes do. My heart’s on fire, my minds amazed! I feel so wonderful!’ she shouted, and began whirling around the room.
‘Thank you for saving my life Miranda,’ said Aquitain. ‘You did it twice. Once when you courageously begged for my life from your knees with Jacintra. I will never forget that, and when your wisdom helped me overcome the mental confusion during the fight with the cats. I could have got us killed.’
‘Then we are even, wizard, for you saved my life twice as well. Once when I foolishly turned my back on that bitch cat and you courageously took the brunt of the attack, and secondly when I faltered with the ritual of the urn. You used your brilliant mind and knowledge to miraculously work it out. It was there that I could have got us both killed. We are even and we have won. You have made a hero of me, and I of you.
‘We will feast and I will sing you songs that druids sing on these occasions. Oh. I feel ecstatic.’ and she threw herself down on the mattress and spread out her arms and legs in a lusty pose that would have stopped Aquitain’s heart if he had had one. There in front of him was a true hero’s feast and he could only look. His mind was melting, but his body felt nothing.
‘I’m sorry Miranda. I’m no good to you.’
She suddenly realized what he had said and adopted a much more chaste pose, and began chanting a prayer to regain control then sat up, unwilling to meet his eyes.
By the Powers, she was beautiful. If he had been in his old newman body he would have been unable to resist the temptation.
She fetched a bucket of water and his shirt and used them to wash the blood off her body. Five minutes later she was finished and she went back and sat down.
‘Please come and sit with me,’ she said. ‘I’m truly sorry for what happened a few minutes ago. I ... I was momentarily overcome with passion. I am totally unused to the emotions generated by the occasion today. My life is generally much more mundane and restrained. Like you I am dangerous to be with if I lose control to passion. I’ve been cursed by my mother! You can detect magic. Use it on me, wizard.’
Aquitain used his power to see the purple glow of magic. His eyes glowed momentarily and changed hue and as he looked over her naked body he gasped. From Miranda’s navel to her knees was an intricate tattoo that looked much like a purple vine covering her skin.
‘It is a chastity binding, but one more complex than I’ve ever seen. May I take a closer look?’ and he kneeled before her closely, examining the tattoo.
‘By the Powers, there is a lethal word fashioned here that would cause death to anyone that was to join with you and one or perhaps two other linked effects that I can’t work out,’ he said.
‘Now you understand why I might seem cold at times. I am as lethal as my mother. She had this binding placed upon me when I was very young. It was to protect me from evil men she said, but now it protects me from all men. She alone holds the key to its removal and refuses to remove it until she is happy with the man I choose. But I cannot win; any man I choose will be seduced to death by her.’
‘By the Powers, then we are both the same,’ said Aquitain. ‘Neither of us can use our bodies, only our minds. We are safe with each other.’
‘I like being with you, wizard. The more we’re together the more I like it. What we have done together today would be truly heroic in any story. You make me feel really alive and so excited, but also worried and scared. I have always been conservative, but you entice me to take risks. I am a preserver sworn to maintain the balance, but you are tempting me to change the balance. I am a servant of the Lady, but you tempt her fate. I feel as though I should go, but I want stay. I’m sorry if I sound a bit emotional.’
‘I like being with you too Miranda. I want you to stay and I want us to be good friends. I would really like that. We seem to be two pieces of the same puzzle. I know you are worried about me being an Agent of Chaos, but I honestly don’t see myself that way. I have no fervent desire to change things, burn forests or overthrow kings. I don’t see what we did today as overly heroic. Others in our shoes might have done the same. That’s what druids and wizards do.’
‘Perhaps in the world you came from, but not in mine. Things are much more ordinary here.’
‘Then perhaps it needs changing!’ said Aquitain.
‘That’s not for us to decide. That’s for the gods to decide.’
‘I don’t see any gods running around trying to change the world. It seems to me that if they want changes made then they would do it through people like us. They’re not going to come along and say please Miranda and Aquitain change the world. They’re more likely to tempt us with cunning rewards and haunt our dreams.’
What he sa
id was so true, thought Miranda, and she remembered the bear dream. Was the Lady giving her a warning or showing her the way? Never mind, it was in the future, as he couldn’t change into a bear and neither could she.
‘The Druid Council needs to know about what’s happened here, and the sooner the better. The problem is, they’re after you. If I suddenly appear and tell them they’ll want to come here to get you, or they’ll send the Archon here, or they’ll forbid me from coming back, or something just as bad.’
‘Mandy, tonight let’s just pretend that we’re heroes. Let’s just eat and be merry and worry about tomorrow when it comes. We’ve got a choice of salt beef and hard biscuits, or salt fish and hard biscuits. Which would you prefer?
‘What a choice,’ she said with a laugh, ‘It’ll be hard to decide. I’d rather just get drunk.’
‘So would I Mandy, so would I, but this bloody Logicon body won’t get drunk either. I’ve got to get a new body. There’s got to be more in life than raiding cesspits for a feast. Sometimes I wonder what Logicons do for fun.’
Chapter 19 Fate Steps In
Half a league north of the hideout in an underground cave High Priest Kelnor was furious at the loss of seven men.
‘Please explain to me, Priest Percival, how you were in charge of a group of seven good men, including a wizard and an experienced sergeant who was my cousin, and how they all died but you didn’t? They were ripped to shreds and yet you have no marks on your body.’
‘Our Lord must have looked after me, Your Holiness.’
‘Rubbish. You ran like a coward and hid while the animals massacred your troops. Our Lord gave you magic to defend our cause and bring death and destruction to our enemies but you were too cowardly to use it. I know your type; you spread the pox to prostitutes and then sell them pox cures. Yet when it comes to fighting you hide like the weakest dog in a pack.
‘If it wasn’t for the fact that I have had to pay for the costs of resurrecting my cousin and we are now short of men, I’d have you flogged to death. You are hereby demoted to junior priest. You will pay half of your salary and any loot gained for the next two years to me to cover the cost of resurrecting my cousin, and you will have one testicle burnt off. Any further displays of cowardice and you will lose the other one and your life as well.
