‘By the Lady, what areyou trying to do?’ asked Quab.
‘I thought I waschanging to a smaller newman, but I have the body mass of my bearform.’
‘I doesn’t matter Isuppose. However, you’ll draw a bit more attention to yourself thisway.’
‘It’s the best I can doat the moment,’ said Aquitain. ‘Bear or giant, take your pick.’
‘Can you change yourfacial features a little, bigger nose, grey eyes, granite grey skinand add more hair all over, then you’ll pass for a southerngiant.’
Aquitain made thechanges and Quab nodded, so they set off for Featherdown’s Towerwith the dimension bag in the palm of his huge hand. The guards lethim pass without a question. No one in their right mind, other thanperhaps a wizard, would want to stop a giant. They weren’t thatstupid.
As they were walkingalong, Aquitain saw the humorous side of his new body. The Ladymust be laughing. He had expected to be able to shape change to amore normal sized newman form. Curiously, Miranda hadn’t asked himto change yet, so maybe she was worried that he might suddenly getamorous and that it could be dangerous with her cursed tattoo. Whenshe saw his new form she was going to get really annoyed. Hisequipment was functional now, but their size differences made anythought of physical interaction impossible, regardless of thetattoo.
He attracted someattention, more curiosity than fear, from the town’s people, butnone seemed to recognise him. When he arrived at the tower thegnome had to step outside to see how big he was before returningwith Featherdown.
‘Who’s your friendQuab?’ asked the High Wizard.
‘Hello, YourExcellency, don’t you recognize me?’ Aquitain greeted him in ahuge, deep booming voice.
‘Err ... should I?’ hesaid searching through his memory for giants that he knew.
Moments later shape thegiant changed to a bear and Featherdown stepped back a couple ofpaces.
‘By the Powers, it’syou isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Come in. You should be able to fit in now.What’s the problem, can’t you shrink to a more normal size?’
‘No. It seems that theLady has a sense of humour. I’m large and it seems I’m stayinglarge for a while. I’m also hungry all the time. I hope you’ve gotsomething to eat. I’m starving,’ said Aquitain.
‘What do bears eat?’asked Featherdown.
‘Anything, cats, dogs,squid, any spare prisoners, a bag of grain or whatever. I’m notfussy.’
‘You’re not eatingpeople are you?’ said Featherdown seriously. ‘That’s against ourlaws.’
‘No. That was a joke,Your Excellency. I’m not a humourless Logicon anymore.’
‘Oh. All right then.You’d better be careful with jokes like that. You look like youmight eat people.’ And they teleported up to the entertainmentroom. ‘Normally I’d offer you a chair, but I think you’d break itor perhaps eat it. Perhaps a mat on the floor.’
‘That will do nicely,’Aquitain replied as Featherdown asked one of his gnomes to get acouple of buckets of grain and a bucket of beer.
Featherdown and Quabsat down with a cup of tea waiting for Aquitain to finish thebeer.
‘You’ve got no idea howgood that tasted,’ said Aquitain, as he licked the last bit out ofthe bucket. ‘I’ve gone from a slime that likes everythingrevolting, to a brute with an appetite for anything, and lots ofit. Quite a change, I can tell you.’
‘You seem to be copingall right,’ said Quab.
‘That’s the strangething, Quab. Miranda thought that I’d take a week to get over thechange but all I needed was a good night’s sleep and every thing’sjust like I’ve lived in this body all my life, although I’m stillgetting used to my new senses. My eyesight is as good as anewman’s, and my sense of smell is almost as good as a Logicon’s.My hearing is better than a newman’s but not sensitive to groundvibrations as it was when I was a Logicon. All in all a goodtrade.’
‘Why did you comeback?’ asked Featherdown cautiously.
‘Two reasons. Firstlyto warn you about the mask, it’s been stolen. However, I’ve got afeeling that you’ve already discovered that; and secondly to dealwith the person that killed me.’
‘We think it wasJaztrix that both stole the mask and killed you,’ said Quab.
Aquitain sat andthought for a minute and then said., ‘You could be right about Jazstealing the mask. She was there with us all along wasn’t she? Sheworked out how to hide by masking her scent somehow. Miranda and Iuncovered the mask thinking we were alone, and it either charmed ordominated her. In fact, now I remember. I felt the mask use somemagic just before I put it away, and couldn’t work out what itdid.
‘However, I don’tbelieve that it was Jaz that killed me. Miranda detected someone inthe hallway and warned me. The intruder cast confusion magic thataffected Miranda but not me. Jaz appeared and put a brick wallillusion across the doorway to help us escape. Miranda and I triedto teleport and I was killed by a disintegration beam, by a wizardwearing a battle gown, with the scent of cat’s piss on hisbody.’
‘Are you sure it wasn’tJaztrix? Things would have been a little hazy just before and afteryou died,’ said Featherdown.
‘No. When I wasreincarnated, my new bear sense of smell was very sensitive. Icould smell the residue from the different magic effects that hadbeen used. I could also remember the smell of a wizard’s battlegown. I’ve made and repaired many of the damn things. I alsoclearly remember the cat’s urine. There was a pool of it outsidethe hideaway. Someone stepped in it before sneaking in using anillusion effect that conferred invisibility, in order to stayhidden.’
‘It was Curbut,’ saidAlpha aloud. ‘I heard him speak when he entered the room. He alsotook Aquitain’s powerstones and the air elemental globe that he wasgiven by Whooshoo.’
‘What! Curbut!’exclaimed Featherdown jumping to his feet. ‘How would he have knownwhere to go? Why would he want to do it? I don’t particularly likethe man, but to accuse him of murdering Aquitain is very seriousindeed.’
‘It’s no secret that hedidn’t like Aquitain,’ said Quab. ‘You must have heard therumours.’
‘Curbut is a spy forthe Druid Council sent to keep a watch on what happens here. Theimplication is that he tipped them off that Aquitain was here andthey gave him an order to kill Aquitain.
