‘You talk tough for apathetic spirit in a metal casket. They probably stuck you in therebecause you were unable to raise a flag and wouldn’t know what todo with it if you could. All your experience comes from stealingother people’s life experiences. I pity you,’ said Miranda.
‘I was speaking to thebear, not you druid bitch,’ said Erastius.
‘The bear speaksthrough me,’ said Miranda.
Moments later, the bearchanged to the form of a naked twenty-year-old newman male thatlooked remarkably like Aquitain. He called Miranda to toss him apair of bracers, and he attached them to his forearms and activatedthe arcane discs.
‘All right Erastius;lets see what you’ve got. I’m naked except for my bracers. Do yourworst.’
‘Ha. You want me todestroy you so that you become a martyr and I cannot use you in myplans,’ said Erastius.
‘No. I want to show theJeti people how pathetic you are. I want to show them what a trueSpirit Lord is like. Do your worst.’
All the little peoplestopped singing to watch, which was not a good idea, since anyspells missing the bear were likely to hit them. However, they werefascinated.
‘Divide into two groupsand move to the side, lest you be hit by magic,’ said a voice intheir minds, and they followed its instructions. Some thought thatit must be the Chaos Lord, others the spirit bear. It didn’t matteras it made sense, so they obeyed.
Erastius was annoyed.This arrogant upstart was just too much to tolerate. He had Jaztrixcreate an illusory Cat Lord, and then she shape changed back to hergnome form within the illusion. This way she could cast a few ofher wizard attacks at the bear now pretending to be a newman. Thiswould be fun. He would be humiliated, but not killed.
On Erastius’s ordersJaz cast a lightning bolt, not full power but enough to reallyhurt. The naked newman casually reflected the lightning bolt backand hit two cats, which died when their hearts stopped.
‘Sorry, I meant todirect that back at you but got the direction a little wrong,’ saidthe naked newman.
Erastius was annoyedand instructed Jaz to send a fireball. As the fireball left thegnome’s hand, the naked newman crouched down and the two bracersshields formed an umbrella shaped dome over him, completelyprotecting him from any damage.
‘Thanks for warming upthe night a bit. It’s a bit chilly without my clothes,’ said thenewman.
‘You want chilly doyou?’ yelled Erastius, and a burst of freezing air was cast at thenaked newman; but again he used the shield to avoid any damage.
‘A nice cool breeze.Very stimulating on a warm night,’ said the newman.
Next a stream of magicmissiles was directed at the newman but they all dissipated in theshields.
‘That’s a very fineshield you have,’ said Erastius, ‘but no shield can block allmagic.’ And he had Jaz cast a blight word that would cause ahorrible debilitating sickness.
Aquitain, still in theform of a Logicon slime who was sliding up the centre of the areavacated by the little people, heard the words.
‘It’s a blight wordZephira,’ he said urgently through their mindlink.
‘I know. Granddadtaught me about them,’ she replied.
Blight words wererelated to death words and were peculiar in that they didn’t usethe normal draconic vocabulary, but the horrid forbidden languageof some chaotic god. The words were difficult to pronounce and ithurt the ears just to hear them, even if they didn’t cause theirmalevolent intent.
Zephira, pretending tobe Aquitain, chanted a word of purity, the counter to a blightword, and absolutely nothing happened. She remained unaffected andErastius stood amazed.
‘How do you expect toharm a spirit bear with a blight?’ said the naked newman.
‘But ... you’re not aspirit bear,’ said Erastius, ‘You’re a newman.’
‘No. You’ve got itwrong. I’m the spirit bear called Aquitain. I’m here to protect theJeti people from a nuisance called the Image of Jacintra.’
Jaz raced forwardwearing the mask, allowing Erastius to attack Zephira with apowerful domination attack, and Zephira wilted but held him at bay.He was right - the shield couldn’t protect her from everything. Asustained mental attack just might break her defenses.
‘You’re not the bear.You’re a fake,’ said Erastius, just as Aquitain got close enoughfor a mental attack.
‘You’re correct,’ saidAquitain and launched his domination attack on Jaztrix.
The attack succeeded,and Jaztrix’s mind was his for a moment. ‘Take off the mask,’ hecommanded, and Jaztrix tried to comply with his wishes but she wasoverwhelmed by a counter domination attack by Erastius.Simultaneously, Aquitain was attacked mentally by the Chaos LordJacintra herself.
‘So we meet again,’said Jacintra. ‘You will do my bidding and we will have suchfun.’
‘Not likely,’ saidAquitain, and mentally retreated to his mental Tower of Will.Jacintra followed him as a huge cat and battered at the door of histower.
Moments later he heardErastius say, ‘We have him my Lord. He will not escape you thistime.’
‘Shut up and help meattack him. We have not got him yet,’ said the Chaos Lord.
Aquitain was shocked.He had got it wrong. The Crin Xentos had told him that bothErastius and the Chaos Lord had attacked him, and he had believedthe Crin to be wrong. He now knew better, and would have to pay theprice for this bad mistake. He could hold out for a while, butinevitably they would breach his Tower of Will and the Chaos Lordwould overcome him.
‘What’s happening?’asked Miranda suddenly. ‘Both of you have stopped moving.’
‘I got it wrongMiranda. The Chaos Lord is somehow exerting her power through themask. I’m trapped. I haven’t enough power to defeat them. It’s timeto run. Leave me Miranda. Escape with Zephira while you can. We’velost this battle. I love you. Forgive me. I’ll see you on the otherside.’
Miranda refused toaccept defeat and shouted to Rori, ‘Lord Aquitain needs power now.Sing the Power song!’
‘But I can’t, DruidessMiranda. Kami doesn’t think I can take the power yet.’
‘Then give me the powerand I will pass it to him,’ she replied.
‘As you wish, Druidess.Hold my hand.’ And he began singing for power.
The power song had notbeen sung in a
