‘By the Powers, it’squiet. I think we’ve won this round at least,’ he said aloud, andit suddenly dawned on the others that he was right. There was aneerie quiet all around the temple but no fighting. Rori started theBarra singing a victory song and almost immediately everyone feltlike they were heroes. Smiles broke out everywhere and cheers rangout from the Town Guards nearby.
Aquitain now had toface the problem of all field commanders for the first time. He hadlost a lot of his troops, yet they had not freed any Barrachildren. What if the Yith killed the children out of spite? Whatwould he have really accomplished? It weighed heavily on him. Hedidn’t really like this job at all, but someone had to do it.
Miranda flew down andshape changed to her newman form, covered with sweat. She donnedher spider silk robe, and stood on his right side with her armdraped over his shoulder. The Orc stood on the left of the bearwith Goth’s sword resting over his shoulder, drinking in the glory.The bear had chosen him to help heal his arm, and had also chosenhim as a fighting companion. He had earned his position besideT’Kwala, and he wasn’t going to back off for anyone.
‘I found blue wizardabout five hundred paces to the west; he was hit by a charge fromthe fear wand whilst invisible, and ran blindly in terror for mostof the fight,’ Miranda told him through their mindlink.
‘He is a bitdisoriented and making his way back here. I don’t know where redwizard, is but Gastan is okay. He fought for ages with the flyingYith wizard, but in the end the Yith teleported away with neitherof them having harmed each other. From what I can see, we’ve beenbadly mauled while they have only lost one wizard.’
‘Well done and thankyou Orc,’ said Aquitain suddenly. ‘Keep that sword safe until Ineed it again. Return to your other companions and help defend thatside of the temple.’
‘Me thanks you LordT’Kwala,’ said the Orc.
‘Me blade is yours!’And he hurried off back to join Gaston and Thorin with a big, wideugly grin. He couldn’t remember a time when he had more fun, and tobe given the sword to mind by T’Kwala himself was the greatesthonour imaginable. He now had a new direction in life, to fight forthe chaos bear, and the gods would pity anyone that got in the wayof the Orc with T’Kwala’s sword.
The red wizard appearedlooking rather pale, and saluted.
‘I’m sorry CaptainBear. I was caught in a blast of that damned fear wand. I have anew pet hate. Those damn wands should be banned. I’ve never been soscared in all my life.’
‘Be thankful it wasn’tthe fireball wand or you wouldn’t be standing here. Be moreobservant, invisibility won’t protect you from area effects. Try toout-think the opponent and you might just live to an old age,’advised Aquitain, repeating what he had heard his grandfathersaying to another young wizard who had survived his first magicfight.
‘Thank you for theadvice, Captain, and please accept my congratulations on yourdefeat of the Thunder lizard, Sir. I only wish I was here to seeit,’ said the young wizard.
‘It was a team effort.All here were involved, and all here deserve the credit. We beatit, not I,’ said Aquitain. ‘And it’s not over yet. They may stillattack us some more, so return to your station and remainalert.
‘Yes sir,’ said theyoung wizard, who saluted and left.
‘You’re starting tosound like a military commander,’ said Miranda.
‘I’m only mimicking mygrandfather,’ he told her. ‘Now he is a real commander. When hegives a command no one dares contradict him. Then again I supposehe is very powerful magically as well. No one wants to spend timeas a frog.’
‘You’re joking. Aren’tyou?’ she said. ‘My mother told me stories about wizards turningpeople to frogs but I didn’t believe her.’
‘No I’m quite serious,’said Aquitain. ‘Granddad had a fountain and fish pool out on oneside of the mansion and if a servant was caught stealing or doingsomething bad he would turn them into a fish or a frog and put theminto the pool for a few days. If they didn’t get eaten by the localbirds he returned them to their newman form and they were modelservants from then onwards.’
‘I don’t believe you,’she said with a chuckle, but still had a worried look on her face.She didn’t quite know whether he was joking or not. If he was stilla Logicon she would have believed him, but now he was a bear shewasn’t so sure.
‘I wonder where Zephirais?’ she said offhandedly.
Aquitain quickly lookedto where the Crin had dragged her stunned body and saw she wasmissing. He called to Xentos asking about her, but got the reply hedidn’t want to hear. As soon as she had regained her senses she hadteleported away.
‘Damn,’ he said toMiranda, ‘I disabled Zephira and the Crin had her captured, but shemanaged to escape while everyone was watching the fight with theThunder Lizard. Somehow this all doesn’t seem to make sense. Whatare the Yith really after? They’ve only been playing with us. Ifthat flying Yith wizard had been using the fireball wand they couldhave wiped out more than half our forces and the wizard they lostwas more by bad luck than design. Why did they reveal theirpresence at all? Why not just teleport away. That way we wouldn’thave known that any Yith were involved at all.
‘I’m beginning to thinkthat this whole show was set up as a part of Alin Amber’s prophesy.They’re trying to make it happen, and this is just another part ofthe plan. You heard what Quab said about what he and Featherdownheard in the inn. All those chaotic events could easily have beencaused by half a dozen Yith druids intent on causing mischief. Allour troops here will spread the word when they get back about whathappened here, and it will grow in the telling to become a majorbattle where hundreds were killed on both sides.
‘All the people, thenewmans in the towns, the little people and the Crin will want toknow why these things are happening, and the story of
