by Des Pensable
After the rage she had grieved for a week, praying to the Lady for forgiveness. Years later she would have done the same thing again and thought nothing of it. For by then she had learnt that all creatures need a place to call their own, a territory, a hollow, a cave where they could feel safe and above all, a place which they would fight to the death to keep as their own.
She lit the lantern threw herself down on the slightly damp bedding and cried her heart out. She had a few days before Aquitain would be up and around. She had some time to think. She was confused, emotional and tired. More had happened in the last few days than in the past ten years. She couldn’t remember experiencing so much emotional turmoil during such a short period of time. In the last few minutes she had admitted to her mother something that she hadn’t really even accepted herself. She liked, possibly even loved, the wizard. Was it just defiance against her mother’s tyranny or was it real?
Miranda had fought the most intense battle of minds with her mother and lost, but had not felt defeated. She had battled her mother when she was dead tired with fatigue and her mother was fresh. Next time the outcome would be different. Next time Miranda would win. The curious thing was that rather than her mother becoming overbearing and crowing about her victory, she had not even mentioned it but had suggested that Aquitain might actually be able to lift the curse.
Miranda thought about the curse. It had tormented her dreams countless times in the past. Now her mother had told her that something had gone wrong. It was not as her mother had intended. It was worse. Her mother couldn’t remove it, only her potential lover could. What sort of a man would be prepared to run the gauntlet of death for her? She was scared - would Aquitain be prepared to try to lift it? Did he care enough about her? Did he feel like she felt? Would he change now that he was a bear? Would he challenge her powerful mother? What were the other conditions he would need to fulfil? Could he succeed? Did he love her?
She remembered something he had said only this morning. If the gods wanted to make changes they would get people like her and himself to do it and tempt them with something they desired, and taunt them in their dreams. She remembered the bear dream. She remembered that it was Aquitain she had seen in the bear’s eyes. He had been both happy and sad. Why was he sad? Was it that he knew he couldn’t lift the curse? Was he sad because they could only remain friends and nothing more?
Was she his prize and he her prize but they would remain forever separated by her curse? She cried again, deep heart wrenching sobs. Why was the Lady so cruel?
Chapter 22 Trouble in Twin Towers
It was late afternoon, just before dark. Jaztrix sat dominated on a log in the jungle to the west of the teleport marker near Twin Towers, wearing the Beast Mask. She had been hiding invisible in the room when Aquitain had unwrapped the mask to let it challenge Miranda. Unknown to Aquitain, it could detect any life within ten paces. It had detected Jaztrix and mentally attacked and dominated her immediately after feigning its loss to Miranda, and implanted a command in Jaztrix’s mind to follow Miranda and steal the mask at the first opportunity. It couldn’t believe its luck, as neither Aquitain nor Miranda knew the gnome was present.
The gnome had followed Miranda to Twin Towers but was unable to get close enough to steal the mask. Jaztrix was listening in as a rat when Miranda told Zephira the story, was overjoyed when she had said she would go back to Aquitain, and followed along. When the assassin had struck Aquitain down and Miranda had left without the backpack, Jaztrix had been able to steal the mask and replace it with a piece of wood of roughly the same size and shape, wrapped in the same cloth that the mask had been covered with to disguise its absence ,then leave for Twin Towers.
When Miranda had returned with her friends and resurrected Aquitain she had briefly felt to see if the mask and club were there, and feeling both, hadn’t looked any closer. Jaztrix was already in Featherdown’s tower writing her letter about quitting her apprenticeship. The mask had big plans for Jaztrix.
‘Ah. It’s so good to be free again,’ said Erastius. ‘I’ve been stuck in this damn mask without any excitement for too long. It’s time to have some fun again. Tonight we announce our presence, gnome. You and I are going to get along well until I can find someone more powerful, then maybe I’ll let you go. Then again, maybe I won’t. Ha Ha.
‘It’s time to call some cats and maybe some wild boars. That’ll make them scratch their heads. Two natural enemies working together to attack newmans. It should give rise to all sorts of crazy rumours. How delicious. Call the boars first.’
Jaztrix activated the magic in the mask to call the creatures and waited.
Nine large boars answered the summons and, using the mask, Jaz dominated them, getting them to all lie down and wait. A half an hour after dark Jaz called the cats, and over the next half hour five arrived. These were also dominated using the mask, and made to sit and wait.
About three hours after dark when most of the town’s people would be sitting around chatting, and perhaps drinking a few ales, Erastius got Jaz into action. She first moved all the boars and then the cats to within about five hundred paces of the town limit, and had them crouch at both sides of the road. Then she used a scroll to cast flight on herself and flew to where she knew the duty wizard would be stationed; and the Erastius dominated the young wizard.
The duty wizard had access to the armoury and Erastius and the wizard raided it, getting three wands that were there for defending the gateway. Erastius had Jaz select a wand of fear and stored the other two in Jaz’s backpack for later use. Erastius planned tonight as just the start of his fun. The young duty wizard was commanded to break into one of the customs stores and set it on fire. He was then to use his own magic to fend off anyone trying to put out the fire.
Erastius had Jaz fly back to the Ugly Bear Inn and turn invisible. When the building caught fire an alarm was sounded and the troops were turned out to put it out. The young wizard defended his post heroically, causing the duty guards to pull back and call the officers and more guards, a good proportion of whom had been in the Ugly Bear or the restaurants around the fountain. Many of the Inn and restaurant customers went outside to watch the spectacle, but others either stayed inside or went back in after seeing all the troops running to attend to the blaze, expecting it to be put out within a few minutes.
At Erastius’ command Jaz sneaked inside the Inn and found about fifty people listening and singing along with the Bard. He then got Jaz to create an illusion of a Yith. The illusion appeared behind the Bard and began yelling and hollering ‘Death to all newmans’. Then Erastius had Jaz shoot a charge of the Fear wand into the audience. The effect was awesome. Half the audience suddenly imagined their worst horror was in the room with them and stampeded over the top of the other half to get out.
People exploded out of the Inn from all doors and windows and went screaming off into the night or else huddled in corners, cringing with fear and crying. Erastius then had Jaz fly back to the boars and cats to talk to them. The newmans were their enemies and wanted to hurt them. The newmans were scared of them in the dark. Now was an ideal opportunity to go and hurt the newmans first. The boars all stood up and trotted down towards the town, and the cats followed behind. Erastius then had Jaz fly down to the roof of the Ugly Bear Inn to watch.
Zephira was sitting in the bar area of the Inn listening and singing along with Chantalot when the first trooper came in to alert them about the fire. She and a dozen officers and men quickly left the Inn heading for the fire, but found someone defending the building while it burned, which didn’t make much sense.
Featherdown teleported in and asked why weren’t they putting the fire out, only to be hit square in the chest by a stream of magic missiles. They had no effect on him; his normal body protections absorbed the lot of them. He immediately turned and cast a word of power to stun whoever had shot at him, then hastened over to apprehend the villain only to find that one of his own wizards was responsible. He ordered his troops
to put out the fire and teleported the stunned young wizard away to his tower to find out what had happened.
Zephira decided that the excitement was over and there were more than enough people to put out the fire, so went back to the Inn only to see people screaming and scrambling out of its every opening. Then something much worse became apparent. There were wild boars everywhere attacking people, knocking them down and goring them whilst they lay helpless on the ground. Then the cats appeared, leaping and tearing at fear-struck people. Grown men lay crying on the ground while the cats tore into them.
‘Where is Chantalot?’ she thought. While she didn’t have any armour on she was still wearing the new armour belt, given to her by her grandfather just before she came here. She removed her dagger and dropped it on the ground to prevent it being covered, activated the belt and was immediately hidden by a black cloud of mist. Seconds later she was completely covered, apart from her eyes, in black cloth-like armour. She retrieved her dagger and ran into the fray, diving onto a cat that perched atop a man, and grasping it around the neck she stabbed it in the heart.
The cat rolled over and tried to get up but fell over dead. Zephira jumped to her feet and ran towards the Inn, only to be hit from the side by a great boar. The power of the blow was immense. It knocked her several paces so that she landed awkwardly hurting her arm, but otherwise doing little damage other than winding her. The boar then attacked her, trying to gore her in the side and stomach, but the black armour resisted any damage. She started slashing back at it with her dagger and it decided that there were easier targets, and ran off after someone else.
She made it to the Inn and ran into the room to see several people lying hurt. Chantalot had been knocked unconscious in the stampede to get out. She grabbed an ice bucket and poured it over him, and he woke with a terrified look on his face, which she realized had probably been caused by her action.
‘Chantalot, it’s me, Zephira. We’re under attack by animals, but I think someone has used fear-inducing magic on the people. I’ve seen its effects before. Can you counter it?’
‘Yes, I think so,’ he said climbing to his feet.
‘Quickly then, I’ll defend you,’ and they raced outside the Inn into the mayhem. Chantalot stood in the doorway and began to sing into the night an heroic song laced strongly with magic. It had the effect of removing fear and instilling courage in all his friends, while doing the opposite for the animal attackers. Zephira stood three paces in front of him watching for anything that might attack him. A cat stopped raking some poor victim on the ground and headed for Chantalot. Zephira saw it coming and blocked its passage, so it attacked her instead.
She grabbed it with both arms as it leapt at her and she went down with its weight on top of her, as it raked her legs and lower body with its hind claws and tried to bite into her neck with its teeth. Fortunately the armour held. She hung on tightly while the two of them rolled and jostled and kicked at each other. The cat couldn’t understand why it couldn’t damage her, and began to panic. It stopped trying to injure her and tried to break away, but she held on. It dragged her several paces and finally she let go, and it ran off into the night.
She regained her feet only to be knocked over by another boar. Chantalot’s morale boosting song had finally started having an effect. Several men ran into the Inn to get weapons, and others ran off purposefully with somewhere safe in mind. The song had a second effect. It alerted the gate guards that something was wrong, and they came down to the inn clad in armour with weapons in hand. Soon there was a group of armed people attacking the boars, and one by one the injured animals broke and headed off into the night.
Quab finally turned up after all the fighting was over and guards were walking around holding lanterns in one hand and weapons in the other, looking for injured people. He was jeered by some and abused by others for not keeping the animals under control. Some of the guards were not sure what to make of Zephira. No one had ever seen full body armour like hers and several challenged her, thinking that she was an enemy. Eventually she dispelled it as it was causing too much trouble, and went inside the Inn where the injured lay; she helped Chantalot bandage wounds while Quab healed the most critically wounded.
Twenty minutes later two guards with healing ability and a crate of healing potions arrived and took charge, and the High Wizard visited the Inn to check out the damage. He was fuming. He walked over to Quab, and said:
‘It looks very much like a druid was involved here. I hope this is not Miranda’s doing. I want a full inquiry tomorrow into how dozens of cats and boars, which are known enemies, could come here and attack these townspeople. If we haven’t got ready answers we’re going to have a rebellion on our hands, and you are going to be blamed.’
Two hours later, several groups of armed guards were roaming the streets checking for animals and injured people. The toll was seven dead and thirty-four injured at that stage, but three more were dead by morning and another six were found with injuries. Chantalot took Zephira aside and thanked her for looking after him. They both had a couple of stiff drinks and discussed the situation.
‘Do you think Miranda would have done this?’ asked Chantalot. ‘She was very upset when she came here this afternoon.’
‘I don’t know her well enough, but if I was her I wouldn’t have done it. Why harm the townspeople? Surely they weren’t responsible for Aquitain’s death. Only three of us knew where Aquitain and Miranda were, and if she had a grudge then it would be those three who would pay, not innocent people. There is also the question of the fear-inducing magic. From what I’ve learnt, druids don’t use fear; only a wizard would use that type of tactic. I think a wizard was involved, perhaps together with a druid.’
A few minutes later she left Chantalot to return to her quarters for some rest, but something kept her mind quite alert. She had come to the conclusion that the attack had been made by a team of two, a druid and a wizard. Aquitain and Miranda were the only wizard and druid duo around that she knew. She couldn’t believe that it would be them, until suddenly she remembered the mask.
‘By the Powers, I’ll bet it was the mask. She didn’t have it with her when she came here and told us about Aquitain’s death, but it might have dominated her when she returned. It might have also got Aquitain and she had only been faking his death, and they both might have come here tonight under the influence of the mask. If she had come to this conclusion, she reflected, then surely Featherdown and Quab could follow the same line of reasoning.
Instead of heading to her quarters, she diverted her path to the High Wizard’s tower and met Quab.
‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ she said to him.
‘Probably,’ he said. ‘Let’s discuss it with Featherdown, but be careful what you say. I’ve never seen him so annoyed.’
**
After most of the entertainment was over Erastius had Jaz teleport him to their next destination, where he planned some more fun. They arrived at an ancient temple in the jungle, several leagues from Snowbelle’s place. Erastius had Jaz take off the mask and hold it under her arm while she walked calmly down the side of the temple, and into a cleared doorway. A few steps inside she was confronted by a Yith warrior.
‘I’m here to see High Priest Ishteth,’ she said. ‘I have a gift from the master.’
The warrior nodded and took her to another warrior, who escorted her deep within the temple. After descending several levels down into the bowels of the temple she finally arrived at a door, and after knocking was invited in.
High Priest Ishteth was an enormous greenish blue lizard-like Yith, that stood nearly three newman paces tall. He wore a loose scarlet robe held tight against his stomach by a golden belt, which designated his status. He had a large jaw filled with razor teeth, and when angry could look terrifying. However, he was normally quite even-tempered, and well-liked by his followers.
‘Ah. Jaztrix it’s very nice to see you again. I’m sorry I can’t offer you a hot drink at
the moment. It’s a bit primitive here. I don’t think anyone’s been in here since the Great Storm. My guard said that you had something from the Master for me.’
Jaz said nothing but handed the mask to Ishteth. He took it from her, looked at it, went to say something and Erastius mentally attacked him. It wasn’t a fair fight, for if it were then Ishteth would have won. Jaz cast a sphere of silence around them, this stopping the High Priest from using any prayers or calling for help; then Jaz stabbed the Yith in the leg with a potent poison that only affected reptilian creatures, weakening both his mind and his body. A moment later after a silent mental tussle he dropped, with Erastius in charge of his mind.
‘Oh what joy,’ said Erastius, ‘Jaz, you and I were such a wonderful pair and now we are a threesome. Imagine the possibilities. It’s going to be glorious.’
‘Now Ishteth get up and show me a map of the surrounding land and where the little people are. Those damned cat people had me locked up for nearly twenty years, parading me around once a month at each full moon just for their entertainment. They never used me once for anything worthwhile. It’s time for me to show them what they were missing out on. Perhaps we can create a little squabble between the tribes. Yes, that would be fun.’
Chapter 23 A Visit from Granddad
Granddad appeared at the teleport marker outside Twin Towers. Three paces behind him was Goth, his large construct. Goth was equipped with a backpack and a huge two pace long greatsword. Granddad was dressed well for the climate; he wore local clothes, sandals and a wide brimmed flat conical hat woven of palm leaves. In fact, most people would have thought that he was a local, except for one thing: locals didn’t have three pace tall black metal constructs following them around.
