by Des Pensable
When Quab was happy with the wards he came to the hut and suggested that they sit out in the open to ensure that they could see whether there were any creatures nearby who might want to eavesdrop. Aquitain agreed and packed the rod and scroll away into his new dimension pouch and joined Miranda and Quab seated on the grass in the late afternoon sunlight.
‘I’ve just visited mother but found out that she’s away investigating some strange occurrences in Moonmist. She seems to have forgiven me a little. She has allowed Allalanllea the court wizard to talk to me. Mother believes that Alin Amber’s prophesy has come true and the Time of Chaos has begun.’
‘The Lady have mercy on us!’ said Quab.
‘If she believes it then everyone else soon will. The Time of Chaos predicts wars between the gods, with all sentients forced by them to take sides. I truly hope that she’s wrong.’
‘Where is Moonmist?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Oh. You probably wouldn’t have heard about that place,’ said Miranda. ‘It’s another world that is magically connected to Mudrun. Some people call it the Fairie World because some of the creatures there look a bit like some of the mythical creatures in ancient stories. Mother said it’s a really dark and terrible place and that I should never go there. The main people there are called the Elendari and they are really horrible. That’s where mother was turned into a nymph.’
‘How do you mean it’s magically connected?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Mother told me that years ago. I’m not really sure. It’s got something to do with the gateways. This world is permanently connected to my home world Argenta through a gateway, and Argenta is permanently connected to Moonmist through a gateway. There are also other permanent gateways connecting the two worlds. Every month the gateways between Mudrun and Moonmist open, and sometimes Moonmist creatures come through and cause trouble here. The hound that I was chasing when we first met was from there.’
‘Miranda, you shouldn’t be telling him this. It’s secret druid business,’ said Quab.
‘He’s employed by the High Wizard now Quab, and he’s a citizen of this world as well,' she replied defensively. 'He had to find out sooner or later. Some of those problems worrying Featherdown right now might have come from there. I’ll bet mother has gone there to find out.’
‘I suppose that you’re right,’ he said.
‘The gateways have always worried the Druid’s Council ever since they were discovered not long after the druids first came here. After some troublesome problems with Elendari they tried to close them but found that they couldn’t, so they constantly monitor what comes through. Officially they don’t exist, but I’ve heard that we conduct some trade through one or two of them.’
‘By the Powers this world is intriguing,’ said Aquitain. ‘At first it looks like a rugged primitive world of jungle and simple creatures. But everywhere you go you discover hidden surprises, weird creatures, ancient magic and amazing secrets. I’ll bet that if the two worlds are tied together the other world has got something to do with the disappearance of the Founts of Wisdom, and the Time of Chaos if it’s truly begun.’
‘Mother has never said anything about that. At least nothing that I can remember, but you might be right,’ said Miranda.
‘Well, I think I know where some of the answers will be.’ said Aquitain. ‘They’ll be with our friends the little people. They were here before the Great Storm and somehow managed to survive it. They have a connection with the temples. Someone taught them their songs and gave them their magical urns. Someone gave the Jeti their amulet and the Barra that wand. The other tribes will probably also have magic artefacts given to them by someone.’
‘I’ll bet they have some stories passed down from their ancestors as to what started the Great Storm, and possibly what happened to the Founts,’ Aquitain continued. ‘Did you know they are some type of elemental? I thought with their shape and their scales that they were reptilian.’
Quab and Miranda said nothing.
‘So you druids have known that all along and kept it to yourselves,’ said Aquitain. ‘I can’t help wondering why elementals would have animal spirit totems?’
‘I’m sorry, we don’t know anything about that,’ said Quab. ‘All we know is that the original Druid Council made some type of arrangement with them to help rebuild this world, and they have done their part.’
‘We’ve been invited back to the Jeti village for celebrations tonight. Perhaps you can squeeze some information out of Kami,’ said Miranda. ‘The only problem will be getting there. I think all of our teleport ring journeys have been used up for the day.’
‘That’s no longer a problem.’ said Aquitain and he told them how Featherdown had given him a permission scroll to allow him to use the military teleporter to travel for business purposes.
They discussed a range of topics up until just on sunset, when they decided to finish up to allow Miranda and Aquitain to visit the Jeti. Just as they stood up and stretched, the wards suddenly went down.
‘That’s strange,’ said Quab, ‘I haven’t cut off the wards yet.’
Aquitain was the first to respond.
‘Quickly, cast some protection on yourselves,’ he shouted as he hardened his skin and looked about. Miranda sang a protective prayer and her skin went brown and wrinkly as she urgently looked around.
‘No one would dare attack us here,’ said Quab unbelievingly. ‘This is a sanctuary!’
At least twenty druids appeared from all directions. Most held weapons glowing with blue fire, and none other than Wizard Curbut accompanied them.
‘That’s him, that bear is Aquitain the chaos bear. The murderer from Panmagica. If he resists, kill him,’ yelled the druid leader. Curbut cast a confusion effect at them. Aquitain immediately put up a mental block, successfully avoiding its effects. Miranda, recognising the words from the last time it was cast at her in their underground hideout, dived to the side and rolled, also succeeding in escaping the confusion; but Quab, who couldn’t understand why his fellow druids would attack someone in his sanctuary, was affected by the confusion magic and stood befuddled until a young druid knocked him unconscious with a club blow to the head.
‘Miranda, there’s too many of them,’ yelled Aquitain through their mindlink. ‘Make a run for it! I’ll meet you at the Jeti village.’
He then turned towards the thickest group of them and discharged a mind blast. Five druids stopped in their tracks and fell rigidly to the ground.
‘He’s resisting,’ yelled Curbut. ‘Kill him!’ then began singing a prayer. Four of the druids shape changed into bears. Aquitain used his power to control the light and suddenly the whole area for twenty paces around him went totally dark. He darted several paces to the left as a blue lightning bolt sizzled across the ground near him. The darkness was immediately dispelled by more than one of the druids and he could hear several druids chanting so he created a zone of silence for several paces around himself. That blocked the closer druids from using offensive prayers, but those further away were unaffected.
He ran towards a group of three young druids, hoping that the others wouldn’t cast dangerous magic effects at him as they might hurt their own people, but he was wrong. A huge column of blue fire dropped out of the sky and hit not only him but the other three as well. The pain was incredible. His whole body was on fire. He was blinded. His fur and the layer of fat under the skin melted like butter and ran down the sides of his body. His back muscles charred and steamed. The bodies of the three young druids exploded, showering him with steaming burning body parts.
He gave out a terrible primeval psychic scream as he expended all the power of his source in one mighty blast. Several of the young druids fell dead, several others were knocked unconscious, the druid’s leader was stunned, but somehow two of the more senior druids who had turned to bears and Curbut survived the mental assault, shaken but unharmed. They ran to him and began mauling him or clubbing him with their blue flame covered staffs and curved swords
.
Miranda had turned into a jungle cat and sprinted straight at several of them, then at the last moment changed direction and charged between two and was off into the jungle. They didn’t bother chasing her, and after she had run a few hundred paces without being followed she realised that they only wanted Aquitain and she had run out on him. He needed help, so she changed to her eagle form and flew immediately to Featherdown’s tower, landed on his doorstep and screamed for help.
Within seconds he appeared. ‘What’s up?’ he shouted.
‘Dozens of rebel druids and Curbut are attacking Aquitain and Quab in the sanctuary right now,’ she screamed.
‘What!’ he yelled, then said a few arcane words. He was suddenly covered with his old worn leather battle gown and a black glowing staff appeared in his hands. He cast a protection on himself and teleported away. He appeared in the sanctuary twenty paces from a blackened charred bear lying in a patch of blackened ground surrounded by Curbut, four bears and two druids, all pounding or slashing at it with their blue flame covered weapons or claws.
‘Stop that immediately!’ he commanded.
‘Get lost, wizard,’ shouted the group’s leader. ‘This is druid business.’
Curbut spun around holding a religious symbol in his hand and spoke a word of power. A beam of blue light shot out of the symbol and hit Featherdown on the chest. A circular region of his battle gown over his chest turned black and began smouldering with a blue flame. He gritted his teeth at the pain, reached behind the collar of the gown, and bringing forth a pinch of diamond dust blew it forward, then quickly said a strange and powerful word.
Time seemed to stop. He mumbled arcane words and his eyes took on a golden glow and he viewed the spirit auras of all those around him. Every one of the spirit auras of the druids had a strong blue colour, whilst Aquitain’s body had no spirit aura but floating a pace above it was a green spirit aura. He pulled out his dagger and looked at the glow of his own spirit aura reflecting off the blade. It was orange.
He reached into his gown and pulled a small packet of red powder from one of the many small pockets there, and a marble from another. He glanced down and dropped the marble near his feet and then quickly moved to stand in front of Curbut, and blew the red powder into Curbut’s eyes; then he strode back to his marble, turned and carefully said a word of power, and waited a few moments thinking about the red powder.
It was powdered chili. An old wizard friend had told him about it ages ago. It temporarily blinded and burnt the victim’s eyes. It couldn’t be dispelled or healed using magic. The victim could only wash it out and wait ten minutes for the effect to wear off, and usually by that time any magic fight was over.
Time seemed to begin again. Curbut was suddenly blinded with the most intense burning pain in his eyes and was totally unable to do anything but scream. The word of power suddenly cut off the scream as all hearing it were paralysed.
‘You are all under arrest for attacking the High Wizard, desecrating a sanctuary and a dozen other reasons,’ then walked over to Curbut pulled out a knife, forced Curbut’s mouth open and cut his tongue out. ‘You won’t be using verbal magic for a while.’
Miranda arrived in eagle form, landed a few paces away, changed to her newman form, raced to Aquitain and immediately sang a healing prayer over him; then she checked the pulse in his neck to see if he was still alive.
‘Nooooo!’ she screamed. ‘They’ve murdered him!’ and she leant down and picked up a scimitar, only to drop it quickly when it burnt her hand.
‘It’s started Miranda. The Time of Chaos has started. I never guessed what Alin Amber meant when he said that all sentient people would have to choose which side they were on. He meant they would have to choose between order or chaos. I never thought I would ever choose chaos but I have, and so have you. The weapon burnt you because it was designed to cause extra damage to chaotic people and creatures. You will need to find a chaotic weapon.’
He turned to the paralysed bears, assuming one of them was their leader and said. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry but this is druid business,’ and vanished as Miranda fished around in Aquitain’s leg pouch, pulling out the rod. She pushed a button on its side and it turned into a scimitar with an orange flaming blade. She pushed another button and it transformed into a short spear with an orange burning blade and smiling, plunged it into the heart of the nearest rigid bear.
Five minutes later Quab regained consciousness and staggered to his feet and was shocked by the sight. Around him lay twenty-one dead druids and wizard Curbut, half of them headless. A naked blood and soot covered Miranda stood holding the hair of the only druid left alive, a young female that was now on her knees pleading for mercy as Miranda asked her who was behind the attack.
‘May the Lady have mercy on you Miranda. You’ve killed them all!’
Miranda looked up at Quab and said,
‘It is the law. If you had not been unconscious you would have done the same. They desecrated the sanctuary and killed Aquitain. I saved this one to interrogate and bear witness to the fury of the Lady.’
‘There has been enough killing here, Miranda. Let her go. Let Featherdown interrogate her. You are too personally involved,’ Quab told her firmly.
‘Perhaps you’re right. I have more important things to do.’ And she pushed the woman to the ground and held her there with her foot on the woman’s head while she removed a small vial of buff coloured powder from her leg pouch. She grazed the woman’s arm with the spear tip causing blood to flow, then sprinkled some of the powder on the wound. The woman’s eyes bulged and she went rigid.’
‘What did you do to her?’ asked Quab fearing the worst.
‘Don’t worry it’s a strong poison used by the little people on their spears and arrows. It’s one of the few poisons that will work on druids. She’ll sleep for a few hours and then we can interrogate her properly. In the mean time I want you to do something for me, Quab.’
‘Anything Miranda, just name it,’ he replied, a little afraid of what she was thinking.
Miranda stood up and felt around the back legs of Aquitain’s body until she found the hidden leg bag again and removed it. She opened the pouch and pulled out the scroll. ‘I want you to sing for this miracle. I want him back again.’
‘That really belongs to the High Druid. I’m not sure I can cast it properly,’ said Quab.
She looked at him with feral threat in her eyes and commanded using words of immense power ‘Do it NOW, Quab!’
He looked at the dead druids scattered all around him and decided not to argue.
‘All right! All right. Let’s set up a circle of torches around us so that I can see properly since it’s getting dark. I don’t want to make a mistake in pronouncing the words.’
They dragged away their prisoner and several of the bodies and set up the circle of torches. Featherdown had placed guards near the entrances to the sanctuary with orders to let no one in. He stood invisible on the roof of Quab’s cottage and watched silently. Quab collected two scrolls from inside his cottage and cast them. The first conjured three bears, which he commanded to patrol the grounds and chase away any intruders. The second scroll created a thick fog throughout the grounds of the sanctuary.
Finally he brought a small table and two lamps out of the cottage and stood them beside Aquitain’s body to hold and illuminate the scroll.
‘Are you sure you want to do this Miranda? The prayer in this scroll will demand an audience with the Goddess Lithgala. It will demand she fulfil your wish. She may not like it and might react badly. The Lady may be unhappy as well.’
‘I don’t care whether they’re upset or not as long as they agree,’ said Miranda.
‘I didn’t hear that Miranda. I know that you’re upset. Please don’t repeat it,’ said Quab, and he started to pray to the Lady. Miranda also prayed.
‘Write down exactly what you want me to request of Lithgala. Make it clear, explicit and as unambiguous as possible so that there c
an be no mistake.’
Miranda got some parchment and a pen from Quab’s cottage and spent several minutes working out the exact words she wanted him to say, then gave it to him. He read it but didn’t comment.
‘All right, here we go,’ he said, and started singing the words of the scroll.
The sky covered with cloud and lightning bolts crisscrossed it from horizon to horizon. The fog in the sanctuary glowed with a greenish light and Featherdown found himself involuntarily teleported back to his tower. Twenty-one lightning bolts shot down from the sky and turned the bodies of the dead druids to ash and a gentle breeze dispersed the ash. Quab sang Miranda’s request to the goddess and they waited.
After a few seconds Aquitain’s body turned green and became a cloud of green mist, then it reformed into a much smaller body. There was a tremendous roll of thunder and Aquitain opened his six eyes, but was very disoriented.
‘By the Powers, I think I’m alive again,’ he said using mindspeak.
Miranda looked at him in shock. ‘Why has she done this Quab? she asked. ‘I just wanted him to be the same as me. I just wanted to be really able to love him.’
‘Why has Lithgala made him a spider?’ said Quab astounded. ‘I have no idea! In fact I have never seen this type of spider on Mudrun.’
Miranda looked at him closely.
‘He’s a Llanllean like Allalanllea, my mother’s wizard. They are a type of shape changer that only live on Moonmist. They have two forms, a spider form and a newman form and can change at will between the two. When Allalanllea changes shape to her newman woman form you would never know that she’s not a newman.’
‘That is very peculiar then,’ said Quab.
‘The rule for reincarnation is that the person is only ever changed to a species that lives on a world. Why then would she change him to a species that doesn’t live here? Then again, we didn’t ask for the Lady to reincarnate him. We asked her for a miracle. She has done that, but in her wisdom has changed him to something strange. Perhaps we will have to wait to find out why.’
