Ishteth peered aroundto the front of Zephira and smiled when he saw Alpha. He grabbed itand popped it into a bag, then called to his wizard who opened atemporary gateway. They all passed through the gate except forIshteth, who stood behind Zephira. He smiled and said ‘It’s beennice doing business with you, bear,’ then darted through the gate,leaving Zephira standing there with glassy eyes.
‘You did it!’ saidMiranda. ‘You saved both Zephira and the children.’ And everyonecheered. ‘I thought that he mightn’t go through with the deal whenhe found out about the mask, but he did. Thank the Lady that’sover.’
‘Yes and I told Alphato command the mask to destruct after they left. With luck theexplosion will kill them all. Alpha is fairly robust and shouldsurvive the explosion. I’ll get Granddad to scry for it and we’llknow where their base is, or at least where they went to.’
‘What if they wereworking with Alin Amber or your father?’
‘It’ll teach them notto play games with us, won’t it?’
‘That’s a bit harshisn’t it?’ she said.
‘We lost twenty dead. Iwould call that a bit harsh wouldn’t you?’ he replied.
‘I suppose you’reright. This certainly isn’t a game for the faint heartedanymore.’
He asked Gaston to usethe dispel magic wand on Zephira to remove the binding effect onher. Gaston used the wand and they all stared in disbelief. Thewoman they thought was Zephira shrunk and transformed into one ofthe female Barra people. Life returned to her eyes, she recognizedLoma, smiled and ran over to him.
‘By the Powers, whathave I done?’ said Aquitain. ‘They’ve taken Zephira with them. IfAlpha orders the mask to destruct it may kill Zephira. Ishteth andI have outsmarted each other!’
‘Alpha isn’t silly. Itwill realize Zephira’s there and not destroy the mask,’ suggestedMiranda.
‘If it had known aboutZephira then it would have said something. I’ve probably killedher. I just can’t believe it. How stupid can I be? I should haveguessed that they would pull some dirty trick,’ and he sat downsadly to analyse where he had gone wrong.
Miranda moved the groupout of the temple, leaving Aquitain to have some time alone. Thechildren had already been taken out, and when the group emergedthere were cheers from all the fighters.
‘Where is the spiritbear?’ asked Kami.
‘He wishes to be alonefor a while. The cost to save the children has been great. Hegrieves for the people lost. He has also lost a part of his lifeforce and his only cousin, the woman fighter called Zephira. Heblames himself for losing them all. The hostiles are gone. You maytake your warriors and your injured back to your village. We willjoin you when he has had time to think.’
‘No. We shall wait. Aleader who sheds tears for his dead is a great leader. We willshare his pain,’ and he led the Jeti in singing a sad song to mourntheir lost comrades. Rori joined in with the Barra people and allwho were present felt the pain and sorrow. Even the toughest of theTown Guards had tears in their eyes and the younger ones criedopenly. The Crin fighters who normally felt nothing at the loss ofa comrade were sad for the first time in their lives. It was astrange alien feeling for them and one that they wouldn’t soonforget.
One of the young TwinTowers wizards approached Miranda, as she was about to return toAquitain.
‘Excuse me PrincessMiranda. I cast a language magic effect on myself to comprehendwhat the little people were talking about. They are calling CaptainBrown Bear by the name Aquitain. Is he the same Aquitain that was aLogicon at Twin Towers? We thought that he was dead.’
Miranda thought for afew moments and concluded that there was little chance of keepinghis identity secret now.
‘Aquitain the Logiconwas killed by an assassin a few days ago and the Lady in her wisdomgranted him a new life and a new body as a bear. The little peopleknow him as Aquitain the spirit bear.’
‘Him T’Kwala, him theChaos Bear,’ said the Orc who was standing nearby with Goth’s greatsword resting on his shoulder.
‘Him wants be known asAquitain on this world.’
‘I am thinking he isbeing correct,’ said Kami.
‘It will be taking mesix weeks to be growing a new leg. I was watching the spirit bearhaving his arm being chopped off by the great metal creature. Thespirit bear was turning and looking at it and it became frozen withfear. Then I was observing that the Orc was picking up his arm offthe ground and handing it to the spirit bear. The spirit bear wasnot worrying but putting his arm back on again and went running offto be fighting the great lizard.’
The Orc nodded. ‘Thattrue! Only T’Kwala could do that. Him catches stone creatures fromair for me to kill. Then him knocks down big lizard for me to kill.Lizard afraid of T’Kwala and escape by magic.’
Xentos who wasobviously listening nearby said using mindspeak, ‘That is true. MyCrin warriors could not harm the lizard as it was protected bymagic. I saw Aquitain pull down the great lizard so the Orc couldharm it with that great sword. It was badly damaged and fled forits life. I smelt its fear.’
The young wizardthanked them all and ran back to the guards to tell them what hehad heard. Miranda was somewhat surprised as well. She had helpedhim dispose of the gargoyles but wasn’t present for the otherthings. She was a little baffled about how he could replace hisarm, but wasn’t surprised about his tackling the Thunder Lizard.She felt so proud of him again and decided that he had had enoughtime to himself so she returned to the temple to get him.
She found him slumpedon the ground in deep contemplation.
‘A wise bear once toldme that we can only deal with the problems we know about, theothers have to wait. I will help you search for Alpha and Zephira,but at the moment your army awaits Captain Brown Bear. They won’tleave until you tell them to go. You have accomplished much
