by Des Pensable
He went to a birdcage in his room and opened the small door.
‘How are we today, my beautiful little friend? I have a small job for you. I want you to fly to the druid’s sanctuary and while there listen in on any conversations between Quab the druid and the druid woman called Miranda and any others. If the druid woman tells him she is leaving, then come back to me immediately.’
Rubbing his hands together he set off to see the High Wizard to find out what story the High Wizard would concoct in an attempt to cover Aquitain’s trail.
Zephira turned white when she saw Miranda and Quab coming to visit her during a class, expecting to hear bad news. She quickly dismissed the class and left with them for Quab’s sanctuary.
‘Has anything happened to him? Is he all right?’ she asked tentatively.
‘He’s quite fine,’ said Miranda. ‘Nothing’s wrong. We had a bit of an adventure yesterday, which Featherdown suggested I tell you about. There’s also a change in the plan.’ Then she said nothing more until they reached the sanctuary, saying that it was dangerous to talk in the open. Zephira knew Miranda was keeping her in suspense and was really annoyed by the time they reached the sanctuary. Miranda savoured every moment of it.
Miranda wouldn’t talk until Quab had checked the grounds and set the wards so that they could speak freely. By this time Zephira was ready to choke Miranda to death but she quickly settled down when Miranda pulled the mask and the club out of the backpack and began the story for the third time. She enjoyed saying how brave and smart Aquitain was and how Zephira would have been proud of him and how she couldn’t quite understand why Zephira thought he needed to be protected. After all, he was a true hero.
By the end of the story Zephira realized one thing. If there wasn’t anything going on between Aquitain and Miranda before, there was now. Quab also noticed it this time too, but said nothing. He just sat back thinking.
‘Merciful Lady what have I done? I should never have let those two meet, let alone agreed to them going off into the jungle together. What is Snowbelle going to do when she finds out? I think it’s time to spend a few weeks in the deep jungle checking on my animals.’
Rather than thinking of her cousin as a gallant hero, Zephira saw it in the opposite way. Miranda was exposing poor innocent Aquitain to great threats when she was supposed to be looking after him. He could have been killed several times. She would have to go back with Miranda to ensure that he was safe, especially from Miranda. However, when she suggested it, Miranda wouldn’t consider it. He was her responsibility and she wouldn’t be able to look after two people, especially not someone as soft as Zephira.
Quab quickly dived between them, as Zephira looked like she was about to explode and Miranda was quite ready to take her on. He would have dearly liked to let them at each other as he would have loved to know who would win, but thought that it would be best for both of them if he didn’t. If something was developing between her and Aquitain, Miranda would have enough trouble with her mother without fighting with his cousin as well.
‘The new plan is that Featherdown has instructed Miranda to take your cousin to a sacred druid area for safety. The Druid Council won’t think to look there and it would be a serious violation of druid law if anyone not in danger were to go there,’ said Quab.
‘Oh,’ said Zephira. ‘Why didn’t you say so before?’
‘Miranda was going to tell you but somehow got side-tracked,’ replied Quab.
Both women separated and moved to opposite corners of Quab’s cottage. He remained firmly embedded in the middle of the room between them.
‘Miranda, now that we know the story, may I suggest that you leave the druid Alicia’s remains with me and return to Aquitain, pack and leave for the sacred area as soon as you can. You can borrow my large dimension pack to hold what you wish to take. It will hold as much as five backpacks and remain just as light as when empty. I’m sure Featherdown can retrieve anything you leave behind.’
Miranda nodded and unpacked Zephira’s backpack and repacked the mask and the club into the dimension pack.
‘Thank you for the use of your backpack,’ said Miranda, but Zephira didn’t acknowledge her; instead she asked how she was going to get in contact with Aquitain when she heard from their grandfather.
‘Quab, send a message to my mother in the usual way saying that you have a special job for me that I might like. My mother will pass it on as usual thinking nothing of it, and I will return here to find out any news.’
Miranda looked at Zephira. ‘Do you want me to pass on a message from you?’
‘Yes,’ said Zephira. ‘Tell him I always knew he was a hero. He doesn’t have to prove it anymore. Just be patient until our grandfather contacts us and we can go home.’
Miranda nodded, asked Quab to take down the wards and teleported back to the hideout. She quickly checked around, changed to her cat form and prowled around sniffing for anything unusual. Finding nothing, she changed back to her newman form, collected the dimension pack and went to the hideout to greet Aquitain.
As soon as Miranda left, Curbut’s bird familiar flew straight back to tell him what she had heard. Curbut was waiting expectantly. While his familiar wasn’t much of a storyteller she told him exactly what he wanted to know. Miranda and the Logicon were working together from an underground hideout on the headland in the ruins. They had taken some treasure from the shrine, had ambushed and killed Kelnor’s men and they were about to move to another location.
That’s was all he needed. He donned his battle cloak, placed a teleport ring on his finger and two more in a pocket in his cloak. He placed a ring of invisibility on another finger and slipped his most deadly wand into a wand pocket in the cloak. If he timed this correctly he should be able to catch them in their hideout before they left. He teleported to the teleport marker near Kelnor’s underground cave, cast wizard flight on himself, turned himself invisible with his ring and flew off towards the ruins on the headland, only half a league away.
Miranda tapped out the agreed code on the hatch and went down.
‘I’m back. Wasn’t I quick!’ she yelled.
‘You’ll never guess what I’ve found?’ he yelled back, so she went down the corridor to find him crouched over a book, writing notes.
‘Let me guess. The origin of the Great Storm!’
‘No, nothing like that, I found a mind magic manual written in Yith but addressed to Aquitain.’
‘How do you know it was to you? It might have been to someone else with your name.’
‘Ha, ha. How many people on Mudrun are called Aquitain? It’s not even a Yith sounding name. Besides that, I recognise a lot of the drawings. My grandfather taught me using the same drawings. I suspect he must have a copy as well.’
‘Why didn’t he tell you about it then?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll certainly ask him when I see him. Half of the book is missing, though he might have a copy of the other half.’
‘Have you learnt anything new?’
‘No, not yet. I’m only halfway done. There appears to be some new stuff towards the end but I’m using the stuff I know at the front to help me translate the words I don’t know.’
Aquitain then realized that he hadn’t welcomed her back and dropped what he was doing and stood up.
‘I’m sorry Mandy. Welcome back.’ And he hugged Miranda and she hugged him back.
‘I’m glad to see you didn’t go out and get into trouble,’ she said with a smile.
‘Oh no. I need your protection. I wouldn’t be game to go out by myself,’ he replied.
‘Liar!’ she said. ‘If you hadn’t found the book you’d probably be back at the shrine trying to coax Jacintra back to ask her some questions about the world of the dead.’
‘Now that is a good idea,’ said Aquitain. ‘Why didn’t you say something when you had a chance yesterday?’
‘Perhaps because I was worried that she might take us for a visit to show us around. I’ve heard it�
�s damn hard to get back again,’ chuckled Miranda.
‘That’s a good reason. I forgive you. Now what happened at Twin Towers?’ he asked.
They sat down and she told him about telling the story three times, how the High Wizard was worried about them staying at the hideout, and that they should move today. She also told him that Zephira was worried about him and passed on the message she had sent.
Aquitain laughed.
‘She’s right you know. She always told me I’d be a hero one day, but I never really believed her, as I thought that I’d be stuck at the forge making magic equipment for all the other heroes. Strange how things work out, isn’t it? Do you think I have time to translate the rest of the book before we go?’
‘How long will it take?’ she asked.
‘Six to eight hours I’d say.’
‘I’d prefer it if we packed and went. I’m sure Featherdown was worried for some good reason.’
Aquitain agreed, and they began to sort out what to take and what to leave.
‘I thought that we should go to visit the cat people for a few days. They live to the east of where we are now. They need to be told what happened,’ said Miranda.
‘All right I’ll leave the travel plans to you. I’m at your disposal, lovely maiden.’
Miranda said nothing but smiled inwardly. She was really glad that Quab had made up that lie to tell Zephira. It would be unbearable to have her around. She wanted him to herself.
Curbut saw the ruins and landed nearby. He was still invisible. He cast a protection on himself and began searching for some type of entry into the hideout. He activated his ability to detect magic and continued searching. He smelt the cat urine before he saw the puddle and thought it curious, so he had a closer look and made out the edge of a hatch leading into the ground. He smiled and thought of the irony. The cats helped them yesterday and today they had given away their location. Then he hesitated. Perhaps it was a trap?
He stood for a full minute thinking of the possibilities then dismissed them. Today was going to be his lucky day. He used some magic to dampen the sound and some to make it dark. He lifted the hatch, getting cat urine all over his hands and arms in the process; then he entered and closed the hatch. He carefully dismissed the zone of silence and listened. He could hear someone talking. No, there were two of them, and one was the druid girl. His heart beat faster and his hands became sweaty. He silently crossed the room towards the corridor leading to the voices.
Miranda was ready to go. They had packed everything that Aquitain wanted to take, including all the books. She walked across the room to the entrance to the hatch corridor, waiting for Aquitain to make one last check. She smelt cat urine. She knew that both her and Aquitain had carefully avoided getting it on themselves, so there was only one conclusion to draw.
‘Tain, we have intruders,’ she said urgently and dived towards Aquitain, who was in his body shell but shuffling around in a box.’
They heard some arcane words and there was a surge of magic. Aquitain knew the words as he had heard them many times before. They were the words of power that caused mental confusion, one of the most dreaded effects of magic. Someone enchanted by this magic would do one of three things. Stand and do nothing, attack the nearest person or try to run away. It was a favourite of wizards to use in a room full of enemies. Often the confused enemies would fight each other to the death while the wizard stood idly by enjoying the spectacle.
He instantly constructed a mental block. This would most often protect him and it did this time. He spun around to face the corridor and noticed Miranda standing stationary with her eyes glazed. She had been enchanted.
‘Damn!’ he thought, but as he watched a brick wall appeared across the entrance to the corridor and Jaz materialised across the room from him.
‘I’m here to protect you. Quickly, grab Miranda and flee. The wall is only an illusion. It won’t take long for them to work it out. I’ll look after your baggage.’ And she grabbed the dimension bag and disappeared into the stonewall.
Aquitain ran to Miranda. She was wearing the teleport ring but she was confused. He had mindlinked with her so he said gently,
‘Mandy, we must teleport.’
‘Why?’ she replied.
‘There is a bad wizard here, we must teleport. Here is a picture of the marker say this word to activate the ring.’
‘I don’t want to,’ said Miranda.
Aquitain’s heart beat faster. ‘Mandy, I’ll give you a big hug and a kiss if you activate the teleport ring. Here is a picture and this is the word to say.’
‘All right, but it better be a big kiss.’
‘It will be, I guarantee it. Quickly, say the word now.’
Just as Miranda said the activation word a beam of green light penetrated the illusory wall and hit Aquitain in the centre of his cube shaped body. His body simply disappeared into a cloud of dust. His legs and his free arm clattered to the floor with a metallic ring. Alpha fell to floor and bounced once, grew legs and ran behind the water barrel. Aquitain’s powerstones, rings, gems and the crystal sphere that Whooshoo had given him and the chaos matter fell to the floor, rolled a little and became stationary. Miranda vanished as the teleport magic carried her away.
The illusory brick wall vanished as Curbut raced into the room. ‘I got you, you bastard,’ he yelled when he saw the bits of Aquitain on the floor. He used magic to see anything invisible, but found that he was alone in the living room. He removed a small backpack and stuffed one of Aquitain’s legs and the remaining arm into it. He scooped up the powerstones, the rings, gems and the crystal sphere, but ignored the ball of clay. He then searched around for any other valuables but found none.
‘Damn, the bitch must have taken it all with her,’ he said aloud.
This time Alpha recognised the voice as that of Senior Wizard Curbut.
‘You’ll pay for this Curbut. You’re as dead as Aquitain but don’t know it yet,’ thought Alpha, then broadcast a mindspeak message to Aquitain’s spirit.
‘Don’t go Aquitain. Come to me. I am Alpha, the other part of your mind. You’ll be safe with me. Come, join with me.’
Finding nothing more of interest, Curbut teleported to the marker near Kelnor’s cave and took the evidence of Aquitain’s demise to the high priest. After a brief discussion and hearty congratulations from Kelnor the senior wizard stated that he would have to return to Twin Towers before his absence was noticed and he left, deeply satisfied with himself.
Chapter 20 The Tempest Smiles
Miranda staggered around at the marker just outside Twin Towns. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t think straight. Everything was fuzzy. Nothing seemed right. After a minute or two her mind finally cleared. She looked at the ground and saw Aquitain’s metal arm. It all rushed back to her. It was unreal like an incredibly bad dream. She closed her eyes and could see it all in slow motion. She remembered warning Aquitain that there was an intruder. She remembered the smell of freshly cast magic, then everything had gone strange.
She had tried to think but her mind wouldn’t work. Aquitain had come to her and talked to her mind. He wanted her to teleport. She had not paid attention. She didn’t do what he wanted. He had always said that he would never harm her and he didn’t. She didn’t do what he had said. She had questioned him and it had cost them precious seconds. The time it takes to live or die. He tried to bribe her with a kiss. She wanted that, but it was too late. By the time she had acted he was dead. Almost totally obliterated by the horrible green beam of magic.
‘Noooo,’ she screamed with tears flooding down her face. ‘I will not let this happen! They will pay.’
She looked at her teleport ring. It had been used only once. There was another charge left. She activated the ring and arrived at the end of a U-shaped gully. She jogged down its length, a good five hundred paces, to a small waterfall and through the cascading icy water into a partially lit cave, getting thoroughly soaked in the process. It didn’t damp
en her feelings. It just fortified her determination. She spoke a word of power and a three pace wide circle of pale purple symbols appeared on the bleak dark stonewall in front of her.
She didn’t linger but instead ran headlong into the grey blur in the centre of the circle, appearing in a dark corridor and teleporting from there to a large room that could be a living room or an entertainment area, and yelled:
‘Allalanllea, Sanson to me!’
A great spider the size of a bull and an ant-like creature called a Crin, the size of a horse, answered her summons.
‘Is mother home?
‘No, princess!’ they both answered. ‘What is wrong?’
‘Good. A powerful wizard has attacked me and he has killed my friend. I desire to capture him and attend to my friend. I need cover and support. Choose one other and meet me here in the teleport room in three minutes, ready to fight.’
‘Is this wise, princess?’ asked the spider. ‘The wizard will have fled by the time we get there.’
‘No, it’s not wise, but it’s something I must do. If he is there then we will punish him immediately. If he isn’t, then I will punish him later. But I must aid my friend.’
‘As you wish Princess Miranda,’ and they teleported away to prepare.
In her own home Miranda could teleport at will. She teleported to the armoury and opened the magic locked wardrobe, selected and clothed herself with soft leather trousers and top, then picked a camouflage cloak and donned it as well. She opened a drawer on the dressing table inside the wardrobe and selected a fresh ring of teleport and a ring of invisibility and placed them on her hands. She then grabbed a couple more from the twenty available and stuffed them in a cloak pocket. She fastened a dimly glowing belt around her waist and sat down to pull on a pair of golden boots. She donned a pair of goggles, thrust two wands into her belt and grabbed an old gnarled staff from the corner of the room.
She ran into her mother’s room and took a silver pendant shaped like a flower, and hung it around her neck.
