Aquitain rose andwalked with Miranda through the deserted corridors and up thestairs to the daylight. When they appeared the fighters all cheeredand he was treated with an unusual sight. The newmans, the Crin andlittle people all stood side by side and began to chant ‘Aquitain!Aquitain!’
‘How strange this wouldappear to anyone watching,’ he thought. ‘Newmans, giant ants andlittle lizards all cheering a bear that brought death to theirranks. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined thishappening.’
He stood uprighttowering above them, waited for them to quieten down and, usingmindspeak, addressed them.
‘We have all fought adifficult and tricky battle today and come out the victors. Each ofyou fought heroically. I thank you all. We have all suffered, wehave all lost friends, but we have achieved our goal. We havefought together and saved the lives of twenty Barra children. Thisfight will not be forgotten but will be long remembered as thefirst time the Crin, the little people and the newmans joinedtogether for a common and just cause. I suspect it won’t be thelast time. Go back to your homes, grieve for the dead, butcelebrate our victory today. Princess Miranda and I will join youlater.’
Everyone cheered andbegan chanting 'Aquitain! Aquitain!' again, but he had nothing moreto say. Xentos called his Crin fighters together, and after a briefchat with Miranda marched them away carrying their wounded. Kamiwas picked up by a group of Jeti warriors and they left afterinviting Aquitain and Miranda to the Jeti Village for acelebration. Loma introduced and welcomed Rori and the seventeennew Barra warriors to the rest of the Barra people and theirchildren. Then, after thanking Aquitain and Miranda several moretimes invited them to a celebration at the Barra village. Belloe,Gaston and the Orc decided to go with Loma leaving Chantalot,looking quite forlorn, by himself.
‘I just can’t believewe lost Zephira,’ he said. ‘I feel so sorry for you Aquitain. Iloved her. She was so beautiful, so courageous and so wonderful. Ijust can’t believe it.’
‘We will find her.’said Miranda. ‘That is a promise. You should go back to the townwith the guards. Tell Featherdown what has happened and we’ll visithim later.’
Aquitain addressed theTown Guards again, thanking them for their heroic effort, andgiving the orders for them to return to Twin Towers and have a fewbeers. They used their bracelets of retrieval to teleport back tothe barracks in groups of four. They couldn’t wait to tell one andall about the battle and their part in its success. Ten minuteslater everyone except Miranda and Aquitain was gone.
‘What do you think weshould do now?’ asked Miranda. ‘It’ll be three or four hours beforethe little people get back to their villages. Perhaps we should goand talk to Featherdown.’
‘No Mandy, there’sstill too many unresolved questions.’
‘What do you mean?’ sheasked.
‘This whole defencewasn’t right. It was done to impress people that don’t know muchabout magic. Let me explain. The temple was charged with an immenseamount of power but didn’t put up a shield, and it only workedwithin the bounds of the temple. That was ridiculous. There wasenough power for the temple defences to reach at least five hundredpaces beyond the temple grounds. Can you imagine designing a templelike this without a shield and what about internal defences? Whyweren’t they used?'
‘I don’t know, perhapsthey’re not working any more, or the Yith didn’t know how to workthem.’
‘Reasonable answers,but worth checking, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Why? Will it bringZephira back?’
‘No, but it might giveus a clue as to why they were here in the first place and why andperhaps even where they took her and Alpha.’
‘They wouldn’t bestupid enough to leave that type of information around.’
‘Who said they werestupid?. Perhaps they took Alpha and Zephira so that we wouldfollow them? If that’s the case then they may have left us a clue.That’s what I want to check out. The answer will probably be in theonly place we haven’t found yet, the defence control room. Look atthe temple now and tell me where you would put it.’
Miranda was surprisedat what Tain had said. Sometimes they just didn’t think on the samelevel, then again he was a mind wizard and they seemed to thinkdifferently from everyone else.
‘I guess I would putthe control room where it had a view. Somewhere near the top of thepyramid. Just below the golden ball that has now disappeared.’
‘Very good Mandy.That’s where I would put it and that’s where it will be. The onlyquestion is how do we get into it? I suspect that they have ateleport circle that transports people to the control room, butthat could be hidden anywhere. The one problem with having a remoteroom up there is that it needs ventilation, otherwise people inthere would suffocate. So if we can find the ventilation vents wecan get in.’
‘Tain, would you mindvery much if I left you to explore this place by yourself? I have afew questions about the little people and this temple, and I thinkmy mother might have some answers.’
‘Do you think that shewill talk to you?’ asked Aquitain curiously.
‘I’m sure she will. Sheis always sticking her nose in everyone’s business. She won’t beable to resist finding out what happened here, and it will give mea good opportunity to trade some information. Where and when shouldwe meet?’
They agreed to meet atQuab’s sanctuary in about four hours' time. Miranda intended to flyas an eagle to her mother’s place to conserve the teleport ring. Itwould also give her a chance to unwind from all the stresses of theday. She gave him a hug, told him how much she loved him, wishedhim luck, changed to her eagle form and flew off. He changed to hisgiant newman form and went exploring around the temple.
It took him about anhour to examine the outside of the temple and find what he wasafter: the rainwater drainage system. He figured that the best wayto hide the air vents to the control room was by putting theminside the rainwater drainage system. So after mentally mapping thedrains he changed to his Logicon form and slithered
