by Des Pensable
‘Do you men know who I am?’ asked Aquitain using mindspeak.
‘Yes Sir,’ said one sergeant. ‘You are Wizard Captain Brown Bear, Sir.’
He looked at the sergeant and saw he was the one from the road block.
‘Correct and why am I called that?’ There was silence, so he changed to his bear form.
‘Because you are also a bear. Sir,’ said the same sergeant.
‘Correct. I normally fight as a bear, which means I don’t want a crossbow bolt in my rear end. I am also a mind wizard, which means besides tearing people to pieces and eating parts that appeal to me. I can get into their minds and do nasty things. I will be in mental communication at all times with sub-Lieutenant Cross and your three sergeants. Follow their commands quickly and completely and I will have no complaints.’
Two new wizards came running around the corner with sub-Lieutenant Cross, passing the two paralysed wizards and coming to a halt beside the sub-Lieutenant, who stood five paces in front of the bear. Aquitain used his power to detect magic and looked critically at the way the young wizards were equipped.
‘Lieutenant Black I was informed that three wands were stolen from the armoury the night the town was attacked. Have any of them been found?’
‘No Sir,’ he replied.
‘In a skirmish last night I captured the person who attacked your town and have him locked up. He also attacked the Barra tribe of little people and killed more than seventy of them, and captured a lot of their children. I have been informed of where the children are being held, but do not know how many hostiles are with them. The mission today will be to clear the area of any hostile resistance and retrieve the Barra tribe children alive and unharmed.
‘No wands were used or found at the skirmish last night, so we must assume that they may be where we are going today. The wands were able to allow the user to cast multiple magical effects that would induce a state of fear, paralysis or create fireballs. I will review their effects for your benefit.
‘A charge from the wand of fear will affect a circular area about ten paces wide. Most people inside that area will feel like their worst nightmare is about to attack them. They will run away, cower in terror, and in some cases pass out cold. If you witness this, then you will yell out loudly ‘Fear Attack’ and your file number. Magical fear can be dispelled, and we will try to dispel it as quickly as possible.
‘A charge from a paralysis wand will cause about half the people within a circular area five paces across to freeze as if their muscles had suddenly ceased to work. If they are moving they will fall over. If they are stationary they will stay locked in that position for a minute or two. If you witness this in anyone near you, yell ‘Paralysis Attack’ and your file number. Paralysis can be dispelled and we will try to dispel it as quickly as possible.
‘A charge from the fireball wand will affect a circular area about ten paces wide. It will badly burn any exposed flesh. If you see a fireball coming in your direction dive for the ground, cover your head and hold your breath until after the fire has passed. If fireballs are used, spread out. Wizards are trained to shoot fireballs for maximum effect. That means they will shoot at people clumped close together. After the fireball has exploded try to locate where the fireball came from, tell your friends and shoot a bolt in that direction, as the wizard may be invisible and standing there watching you.
‘If any other magic is used, then either myself or these two wizards will try to dispel it or eliminate its source. You will protect your wizards from any physical attack, and they will try to protect you from magical attacks. You will not be fighting alone. We have allies. There will be some newman mercenaries, a platoon of Crin fighters and a group of Barra tribe little people. Examine them carefully before we move into the area of interest so that you can recognize them. I don’t want any harmed accidentally.
‘For those that have never seen a Crin warrior they look like giant ants two paces long. They are professional fighters like you. The Barra people look like my friend Shaman Kami of the Jeti people standing here. They are also warriors. Both the Crin and the Barra people speak their own languages, and few if any speak Mudrun common. Treat them with respect and they will treat you the same way.
‘One other thing, Druidess Miranda will be present. She prefers to fight as a black jungle cat. Do not shoot any black jungle cats. She is very temperamental and is likely to rip your throat out if you do. To transform to a jungle cat she must first be naked. If you see a beautiful naked red headed woman walking or running about, treat her with the respect that you would reserve for your mother or your sister. She is our main healer, and may save your life if you are badly wounded.
‘Are there any questions?’
‘What do we do if we are burned by a fireball, Sir?’
‘You will call for medical help and we will do our best to help you as soon as possible.
‘Lieutenant Black, I authorize the release of some magical equipment. Please have each of these wizards equipped with a fire resistant battle gown, a ring of invisibility, a wand of dispel magic and two potions of healing from the armoury. In addition, I want each of the sergeants to be equipped with a jar of healing salve and a bracelet of retrieval if you have them.’
At five minutes to midday Aquitain and his platoon were waiting beside the commercial transporter. He was to teleport to Goth with Kami, the two wizards and the sub-lieutenant, who would deploy the platoon’s teleport marker after which the troops would come through in three groups of seven at one-minute intervals.
At exactly midday Aquitain and his group teleported. They arrived three paces behind Goth, who was standing in an open area. Ten paces in front of Goth stood Miranda, Zephira, Xentos, Loma and the chief of the Jeti people. To their right were half the Crin and the Barra warriors and women. and to their left the other half of the Crin with thirty Jeti warriors. Chantalot, Belloe, the Orc and Gaston the Great were standing chatting ten paces behind them.
He immediately mindlinked with Miranda and asked if all was well. She replied that it was now and hurried over to give him a hug.
‘Welcome to the party,’ said Zephira, giving the sign to mindlink.
‘We thought that we’d have to start the games without you!’
After the sub-Lieutenant had set up the teleport marker Aquitain introduced him and the two young wizards to the others, and Miranda filled them in on the situation as the Guards began arriving.
‘By the Powers, what did you say to Featherdown?’ said Zephira. ‘It looks like you brought half the garrison with you.’
‘The High Wizard has sent a strong contingent of troops to help find and release the Barra children as he wishes the Crin, the Jeti and the Barra people to know that he regards them as good friends and allies,’ replied Aquitain.
Xentos replied that he would inform the Queen of the helpful gesture, and both Loma and the Chief of the Jeti people were quite impressed.
Kami grinned and said through the mindlink. ‘I am thinking you are a cunning spirit bear, Captain Brown Bear. I am not remembering of any times when the Crin, the little peoples and the big peoples have been joining together to be helping each other. This could be the starting of changing of many peoples’ thoughts.’
‘I hope so Kami,’ replied Aquitain. ‘The future is a little uncertain at the moment and everyone needs friends at difficult times.’
Miranda decided to fill everyone in on the current situation. They were currently located about a thousand paces to the east of an ancient temple to an unknown deity. She had scouted the place as an eagle about half an hour earlier and seen no signs of any people, but there were signs that someone had been there recently. The terrain along the way was slightly undulating old jungle, with tall trees and a thick canopy overhead, but not too thick at ground level. They had several groups of scouts out around their current positions and were ready to proceed.
Aquitain mindlinked with Loma, sub-Lieutenant Cross, the three sergeants and Xentos. Together wit
h the others, this was the largest group that he had engaged in simultaneous communication with, and he found it a little unwieldy. He decided to call the two wizards red wizard and blue wizard, and gave the three sergeants the names Alloe, Belling and Callistos after three flowers.
After some discussion they decided to move towards the temple in a large T-shaped formation. The little people and Crin formed the top of the T as they were used to travelling in the jungle, and Aquitain, Zephira, Chantalot and Goth were in the centre while the Twin Tower guards formed a central column followed by Belloe and his two men at the rear. Miranda circled as an eagle overhead just below the canopy, watching all around.
Perhaps fortunately, they ran into no problems on the short trip to the edge of the square shaped temple grounds. The moment Aquitain was able to get a clear view of the temple all sorts of warning signals began ringing in his head. For a start, even though the place was supposed to be unused and hundreds of years old, the grounds were in reasonably good order, not overgrown with jungle trees and bushes. This suggested to him that someone had been maintaining its grounds, and the most likely culprits were the little people.
The temple itself was shaped like a cut gemstone. It was composed of two levels. The bottom level was octagonal in plan, but the four opposing walls were trapezoidal in shape and formed stairways to the second level. The other four opposing walls were triangular in shape and flat. Each of the eight walls was a different colour, the six colours of the rainbow and black and white. The second level was a square based white rock pyramid with a gold sphere at its apex, and sitting at each of its four corners was a large gargoyle watcher.
At ground level there was a trapezoidal-shaped paved pathway that led to each of the temple walls with the stairs, and in the centre of each paved area was a symbol representing the four elements. In each of the corners of the square shaped grounds between the paved areas was a fountain dedicated to one of the four elements. They were all operating.
The water fountain had a stream of water bubbling out the top of a sphere- shaped rock an arm span wide, that splashed noisily into a circular trough below. The fire fountain was made from rock that had been carved in the shape of a torch, and fire was burning at its apex. The stone fountain was the shape of a pyramid, and floating above its apex was a stone sphere. The wind fountain was a set of metal wind chimes, which were tapping together eerily since there was no breeze to drive them.
He used his power to detect magic and saw that the whole temple structure was glowing with it. Kami was the first to say something.
‘I am not liking this, Spirit Lord. The temple should not be looking like this. I have seen it many times in my life, and it is never looking like this.’
‘Let me guess, the four stone creatures and the gold sphere on the top are new and the fountains are working.’
‘You would be guessing correctly; and also the doorways in the walls beside the stairs are being gone.’
Aquitain quickly sent a warning to Miranda not to fly too close to the structure. She replied that she had already decided that, as it had changed since she had seen it an hour earlier. He next sent out a message to everyone that no one should enter the grounds of the temple under any circumstances, until he gave the order.
He told them that whoever was in the temple must have activated some sort of magic defence system, and they would have to work out how to turn it off before they entered. As if to prove him correct a parrot from the jungle flew over the temple, and a thunderous bolt of lightning shot out of the golden sphere at the apex of the pyramid and obliterated the poor bird, rocking the surrounding countryside with its huge boom. No one doubted that he was correct, but no one offered any suggestions as to how to get in either.
Chapter 36 Preparing for a Siege
Aquitain divided his troops into four groups and had them block the four pathways into the temple. The Crin blocked the western path; the Alloe file of his Twin Tower guards with the Barra people blocked the northern path; the Belling file of his guards with half of the Jeti warriors blocked the southern path, while the remainder stayed with Aquitain and Miranda at the eastern path. He had all groups position themselves a hundred paces back from the entrances to the temple and clear any obscuring vegetation.
When everyone had taken up their positions he changed shape to his giant newman form and walked to the edge of the temple grounds, and examined the geometrical shapes inherent in the temple design along with the structure of the grounds. He didn’t know a great deal about religions, but he had seen a lot of religious buildings in Panmagica; none looked like this one.
Zephira and Chantalot came and stood beside him looking at the strange structure.
‘You’ve seen a few temples in Panmagica and elsewhere. What do you make of this one, Zephira?’
‘I’m not sure cousin. It doesn’t look like a place that you would come to pray to a god. It exudes power. It almost looks as if it’s here as a show of force rather than the other temples I’ve seen, which tend to give a feeling of peace and tranquillity. Another thing, I’ve never heard of a temple with a magical defence system capable of harming people. You might expect temples to use some magical alarm system but not an offensive system like this one.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ replied Aquitain. ‘The only official deity on Mudrun is the Lady, and this is definitely not a temple to her. This temple predates the Great Storm, and I’ll bet that it had something to do with the Founts of Wisdom.
‘Chantalot you’ve been around the world talking to all sorts of people. Are there many temples like this one, and if so what’s generally known about them?’
‘There might be more but I’ve only seen the one at Templegate. It looks similar to this one. It’s generally off limits to the public by order of the Druid’s Council. The people think the Council’s worried that someone might set up a religion in competition to the Lady. The curious thing is that the local little people are thought to be looking after it, even though they’re not supposed to be allowed near it. People think they used to worship some god there, but no one knows for sure since the little people say nothing.’
Miranda dropped out of the sky and shape changed to her newman form, clothed herself in her spider silk robe and joined them. Through their mindlink he asked her what she could tell him about the temple.
‘The policy is that no one is allowed to occupy or hold any ceremonies at or near the temple. I had to report any incursions to my supervisor who was Quab, and he was supposed to report it to the Druid Council. The Jeti look after the place, although they have never admitted to it and avoid talking about it. My mother told me that they were forced to make some sort of deal with the Druid’s Council about the temples when the druids first came here a couple of hundred years ago, but that agreement is secret. She would know, as she was the High Druid of Mudrun before I was born. Maybe Kami will tell us something.’
‘Perhaps, but he is likely to have sworn some type of oath not to tell; however, maybe we can get him to talk indirectly,’ and he and Miranda walked back to Kami.
As Aquitain was thinking how best to approach Kami, an eagle circled around them, flew in and landed then shape changed. It was Quab. He looked at the temple and the small army around it and finally said,
‘I might have guessed. It fits in with everything else that’s happened. I come on behalf of the High Wizard. May we have a word in private Captain Brown Bear, and you too as well Princess Miranda?’ and they walked off a distance.
‘What’s the problem Quab?’ asked Aquitain.
‘It’s happening Aquitain. Chaotic things are happening everywhere. Featherdown is beside himself with worry. He doesn’t know what to do, and when he found out that you had walked in and commandeered a quarter of his garrison he very nearly exploded.’
‘I was told that you and Featherdown were at Curbut’s trial, and we needed to act immediately,’ Aquitain explained.
‘I can see,’ said Quab. ‘Trouble seems to follow you where
ver you go, and now it’s spreading elsewhere as well. I was invited to attend the Council meeting this morning, which was held to discuss the trial. From the very start it was a fight between the High Druid and others on the Council opposed to the trial. For some unknown reason, two of the Council members who are friends of the High Druid did not attend the meeting, and the High Druid was outvoted. The trial was cancelled and Curbut released. Featherdown was furious, so we went to the inn for a few ales and there we started to hear all sorts of stories.
‘The dragon turtle at Dragon Haven went wild yesterday, sinking all the fishing boats and destroying the docks. Several people were killed and another dozen injured. There was also a series of fires in buildings. The grain store burned down leaving the town short of grain. The northern farms were attacked by a plague of locusts a few days ago, which destroyed the harvest for this year. A mysterious disease has been killing domestic animals in the northwest and seems to be spreading.
‘In Templegate the water supply was poisoned with dead animals. The little people were blamed, and some group attacked the local tribe and there were several killed. The survivors have gone into hiding in the hills. Several druids have been reported missing. One of the buildings at the Templegate garrison caught fire last night, and three people were killed in an explosion while fighting the fire. Animals are going wild and attacking their owners. Food is going sour. Strange sounds have been heard at night in some locations. Some farmers have been murdered in their beds by animals. The list goes on.’
‘By the Powers Quab, I don’t like the sound of this. I can’t believe that the mask has been involved in all of those things, although it was probably involved in the massacre of the Barra people. Anyway, we’ve captured it and it won’t be causing any more problems. But I do remember that Queen Beatrix told me that she was told by Alin Amber that once the Chaos Lord was seen running around then chaos would follow. Miranda and I have seen him twice now. I fought with a manifestation of him last night near the Jeti village, and he said he wouldn’t be stopped. He might be behind some of the problems, but I wouldn’t rule out other causes as well. There seems to be a concerted effort to make us believe that Alin Amber’s prophecy is coming true.’
