‘For those that havenever seen a Crin warrior they look like giant ants two paces long.They are professional fighters like you. The Barra people look likemy friend Shaman Kami of the Jeti people standing here. They arealso warriors. Both the Crin and the Barra people speak their ownlanguages, and few if any speak Mudrun common. Treat them withrespect and they will treat you the same way.
‘One other thing,Druidess Miranda will be present. She prefers to fight as a blackjungle cat. Do not shoot any black jungle cats. She is verytemperamental and is likely to rip your throat out if you do. Totransform to a jungle cat she must first be naked. If you see abeautiful naked red headed woman walking or running about, treather with the respect that you would reserve for your mother or yoursister. She is our main healer, and may save your life if you arebadly wounded.
‘Are there anyquestions?’
‘What do we do if weare burned by a fireball, Sir?’
‘You will call formedical help and we will do our best to help you as soon aspossible.
‘Lieutenant Black, Iauthorize the release of some magical equipment. Please have eachof these wizards equipped with a fire resistant battle gown, a ringof invisibility, a wand of dispel magic and two potions of healingfrom the armoury. In addition, I want each of the sergeants to beequipped with a jar of healing salve and a bracelet of retrieval ifyou have them.’
At five minutes tomidday Aquitain and his platoon were waiting beside the commercialtransporter. He was to teleport to Goth with Kami, the two wizardsand the sub-lieutenant, who would deploy the platoon’s teleportmarker after which the troops would come through in three groups ofseven at one-minute intervals.
At exactly middayAquitain and his group teleported. They arrived three paces behindGoth, who was standing in an open area. Ten paces in front of Gothstood Miranda, Zephira, Xentos, Loma and the chief of the Jetipeople. To their right were half the Crin and the Barra warriorsand women. and to their left the other half of the Crin with thirtyJeti warriors. Chantalot, Belloe, the Orc and Gaston the Great werestanding chatting ten paces behind them.
He immediatelymindlinked with Miranda and asked if all was well. She replied thatit 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’dhave to start the games without you!’
After thesub-Lieutenant had set up the teleport marker Aquitain introducedhim and the two young wizards to the others, and Miranda filledthem in on the situation as the Guards began arriving.
‘By the Powers, whatdid you say to Featherdown?’ said Zephira. ‘It looks like youbrought half the garrison with you.’
‘The High Wizard hassent a strong contingent of troops to help find and release theBarra children as he wishes the Crin, the Jeti and the Barra peopleto know that he regards them as good friends and allies,’ repliedAquitain.
Xentos replied that hewould inform the Queen of the helpful gesture, and both Loma andthe Chief of the Jeti people were quite impressed.
Kami grinned and saidthrough the mindlink. ‘I am thinking you are a cunning spirit bear,Captain Brown Bear. I am not remembering of any times when theCrin, the little peoples and the big peoples have been joiningtogether to be helping each other. This could be the starting ofchanging of many peoples’ thoughts.’
‘I hope so Kami,’replied Aquitain. ‘The future is a little uncertain at the momentand everyone needs friends at difficult times.’
Miranda decided to filleveryone in on the current situation. They were currently locatedabout a thousand paces to the east of an ancient temple to anunknown deity. She had scouted the place as an eagle about half anhour earlier and seen no signs of any people, but there were signsthat someone had been there recently. The terrain along the way wasslightly undulating old jungle, with tall trees and a thick canopyoverhead, but not too thick at ground level. They had severalgroups of scouts out around their current positions and were readyto proceed.
Aquitain mindlinkedwith Loma, sub-Lieutenant Cross, the three sergeants and Xentos.Together with the others, this was the largest group that he hadengaged in simultaneous communication with, and he found it alittle unwieldy. He decided to call the two wizards red wizard andblue wizard, and gave the three sergeants the names Alloe, Bellingand Callistos after three flowers.
After some discussionthey decided to move towards the temple in a large T-shapedformation. The little people and Crin formed the top of the T asthey were used to travelling in the jungle, and Aquitain, Zephira,Chantalot and Goth were in the centre while the Twin Tower guardsformed a central column followed by Belloe and his two men at therear. 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 thesquare shaped temple grounds. The moment Aquitain was able to get aclear view of the temple all sorts of warning signals began ringingin his head. For a start, even though the place was supposed to beunused and hundreds of years old, the grounds were in reasonablygood order, not overgrown with jungle trees and bushes. Thissuggested to him that someone had been maintaining its grounds, andthe most likely culprits were the little people.
The temple itself wasshaped like a cut gemstone. It was composed of two levels. Thebottom level was octagonal in plan, but the four opposing wallswere 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 ofthe rainbow and black and white. The second level was a squarebased white rock pyramid with a gold sphere at its apex, andsitting at each of its four corners was a large gargoylewatcher.
At ground level therewas a trapezoidal-shaped paved pathway that led to each of thetemple walls with the stairs, and in the centre of each paved areawas a symbol
