Miranda ran over toKami. He was alive, but breathing very weakly. ‘I will survive,’ hesaid though their mind link. ‘But I will not be able to do much forsome time. How is the bear?’
‘I will survive too,’said Aquitain. ‘Can your assistant Rori lead the singing?’
‘He knows many of thesongs but is too weak to sing the more powerful ones. He can singcourage and perhaps shield the fighters but little more,’ repliedKami.
‘That is better thannothing. I am nearly out of power. I will have to be very carefulhow I use what’s left.’
‘I am sorry, SpiritLord. We have a Song of Power which I am told was used forassisting the power of Lords in bygone days, but I have never usedit and Rori is too weak.’
‘That’s all right Kami.Rest. We’ll do what we can to save your women and children.’
‘Tain, what did hemean, assisting the Lords?’ asked Miranda.
‘Their ancestors werehere when the Founts were here. I suspect that the Founts probablyoriginally taught them the songs. Each of the little people has asmall source with a small amount of power. There is a method whereseveral people can join their minds together and each contributepower from their sources to create a pool of power which one ofthem can use to fight with. It is called a mental concert. I havebeen in several, although never as the focus of the power. Isuspect their Song of Power probably creates a mental concert.However, it would be too powerful for Rori to control. So forgetabout it. It’s not the power you have, but what you do with it thatcounts.’
‘All right,’ saidMiranda. ‘I think I know how to beat the Crin. I’ve spent manyweeks with them over the years and know how they think. If you’recorrect that the mask has dominated the Taskmaster, all we need todo is defeat it, and the warriors will cease fighting and retreat.It watches from behind the fighters, directing them as to wherebest to attack their enemies; however, I think I know how to drawit out.’
‘Good, then get going.I’ll follow, but I’m a lot slower than you.’
Miranda hurried offwith Rori, the chief and about fifty village warriors. Therebellious warriors had all been bound and were now under guard byseveral of the chief’s trusted warriors.
Zephira was about toleave with Goth when Aquitain had an idea. Goth was a large metalcreation shaped in newman form. If Aquitain hitched a ride on Gothhe could travel at Goth’s normal speed, which was considerablyfaster than his own in Logicon form.
He told Zephira of hisidea and she agreed that Goth was strong enough to support hisweight, so Aquitain slithered over Goth covering him like a largeflabby body. To help, Zephira enlarged Goth to half his normal sizeagain, and held his arms in front of his body with its fingersinterlocked, forming a circle to help support the huge bulk of thebear turned Logicon slime, and they set off at a fast walking paceled by two little people bearing torches.
Miranda led themswiftly, but they hadn’t gone more than about five hundred paceswhen the ravine narrowed to ten paces wide and they confronted afull platoon of Crin, arrayed as four lines of five warriorsblocking their path. Each of the warriors held a large disc ofwoven plant material to use as a shield against the little peoples’arrows. But Miranda also knew something few others knew. Bycontinually ingesting small amounts of the poison that the littlepeople used on their arrows over a long period of time, the Crinhad cunningly developed a resistance to it.
‘Don’t shoot unlessthey attack, and then shoot for their eyes. Their bodies are verytough and angled so that arrows deflect off them,’ she said to thechief. ‘Let me try to talk them out of fighting first. They knowme, but are controlled by someone out of sight.’
Miranda moved to aboutfive paces from the first line of fighters, with her hands heldhigh in front of her.
‘Warriors of Crin youknow me. I am Princess Miranda of Argenta. Your Queen and my motherQueen Snowbelle are friends and have no grievances. The littlepeople and I need to pass. Will you step aside?’
‘No one shall pass,’said a voice in her mind.
‘Who speaks for thesewarriors?’ she said.
‘Xentos,’ was the briefreply.
‘Xentos my old friend,will you let us pass?’
‘No one shall pass,’said Xentos.
‘Queen Beatrix hasgiven you no authority to wage war on the little people. I knowthis because I talked to her after you had left. I challenge youfor leadership of the platoon,’ she said.
‘Only anotherTaskmaster can challenge,’ said Xentos.
Miranda knew thatalready, and shape changing to the form of a Taskmaster she assumedthe challenge posture of the Crin.
She had imitated aTaskmaster before on several occasions over the years, and Xentoshimself had taught her about their body language and postures. Aritual challenge could not be overlooked. It had priority over thecommands given to Xentos by the mask. The problem was that Xentoshad fought several challenges over the years and won them all.
Xentos accepted thechallenge, and the fighters parted to let him come to the front toface her. He stood opposite and several paces away facing her andassumed the posture accepting her challenge, then immediatelyattacked her mentally using his domination power. She knew that hecould both charm and dominate other creatures, but he had neverused it on her. The mental attack meant that he would not holdback. He would fight the challenge to the best of his ability whilehe was still under the control of the mask.
She felt his mentalattack coming and fended it off like an expert. All her recentpractice was coming in to play. Surprisingly, he immediatelyattacked her again, this time much more seriously, as if he hadexpected no resistance the first time. She used an active defenseand again thwarted his attack, so he launched a physical attack onher, wrapping himself around her so they ended up looking like alarge brown ball rolling around the ground, as each somehow triedto overcome the other.
While rolling around heagain attacked her mentally, hoping that the physical attack wouldlessen
