‘Well, I think I knowwhere some of the answers will be.’ said Aquitain. ‘They’ll be withour friends the little people. They were here before the GreatStorm and somehow managed to survive it. They have a connectionwith the temples. Someone taught them their songs and gave themtheir magical urns. Someone gave the Jeti their amulet and theBarra that wand. The other tribes will probably also have magicartefacts given to them by someone.’
‘I’ll bet they havesome stories passed down from their ancestors as to what startedthe Great Storm, and possibly what happened to the Founts,’Aquitain continued. ‘Did you know they are some type of elemental?I thought with their shape and their scales that they werereptilian.’
Quab and Miranda saidnothing.
‘So you druids haveknown that all along and kept it to yourselves,’ said Aquitain. ‘Ican’t help wondering why elementals would have animal spirittotems?’
‘I’m sorry, we don’tknow anything about that,’ said Quab. ‘All we know is that theoriginal Druid Council made some type of arrangement with them tohelp rebuild this world, and they have done their part.’
‘We’ve been invitedback to the Jeti village for celebrations tonight. Perhaps you cansqueeze some information out of Kami,’ said Miranda. ‘The onlyproblem will be getting there. I think all of our teleport ringjourneys have been used up for the day.’
‘That’s no longer aproblem.’ said Aquitain and he told them how Featherdown had givenhim a permission scroll to allow him to use the military teleporterto travel for business purposes.
They discussed a rangeof topics up until just on sunset, when they decided to finish upto allow Miranda and Aquitain to visit the Jeti. Just as they stoodup and stretched, the wards suddenly went down.
‘That’s strange,’ saidQuab, ‘I haven’t cut off the wards yet.’
Aquitain was the firstto respond.
‘Quickly, cast someprotection on yourselves,’ he shouted as he hardened his skin andlooked about. Miranda sang a protective prayer and her skin wentbrown and wrinkly as she urgently looked around.
‘No one would dareattack us here,’ said Quab unbelievingly. ‘This is asanctuary!’
At least twenty druidsappeared from all directions. Most held weapons glowing with bluefire, and none other than Wizard Curbut accompanied them.
‘That’s him, that bearis Aquitain the chaos bear. The murderer from Panmagica. If heresists, kill him,’ yelled the druid leader. Curbut cast aconfusion effect at them. Aquitain immediately put up a mentalblock, successfully avoiding its effects. Miranda, recognising thewords from the last time it was cast at her in their undergroundhideout, dived to the side and rolled, also succeeding in escapingthe confusion; but Quab, who couldn’t understand why his fellowdruids would attack someone in his sanctuary, was affected by theconfusion magic and stood befuddled until a young druid knocked himunconscious with a club blow to the head.
‘Miranda, there’s toomany of them,’ yelled Aquitain through their mindlink. ‘Make a runfor it! I’ll meet you at the Jeti village.’
He then turned towardsthe thickest group of them and discharged a mind blast. Five druidsstopped in their tracks and fell rigidly to the ground.
‘He’s resisting,’yelled Curbut. ‘Kill him!’ then began singing a prayer. Four of thedruids shape changed into bears. Aquitain used his power to controlthe light and suddenly the whole area for twenty paces around himwent totally dark. He darted several paces to the left as a bluelightning bolt sizzled across the ground near him. The darkness wasimmediately dispelled by more than one of the druids and he couldhear several druids chanting so he created a zone of silence forseveral paces around himself. That blocked the closer druids fromusing offensive prayers, but those further away wereunaffected.
He ran towards a groupof three young druids, hoping that the others wouldn’t castdangerous magic effects at him as they might hurt their own people,but he was wrong. A huge column of blue fire dropped out of the skyand hit not only him but the other three as well. The pain wasincredible. His whole body was on fire. He was blinded. His fur andthe layer of fat under the skin melted like butter and ran down thesides of his body. His back muscles charred and steamed. The bodiesof the three young druids exploded, showering him with steamingburning body parts.
He gave out a terribleprimeval psychic scream as he expended all the power of his sourcein one mighty blast. Several of the young druids fell dead, severalothers were knocked unconscious, the druid’s leader was stunned,but somehow two of the more senior druids who had turned to bearsand Curbut survived the mental assault, shaken but unharmed. Theyran to him and began mauling him or clubbing him with their blueflame covered staffs and curved swords.
Miranda had turned intoa jungle cat and sprinted straight at several of them, then at thelast moment changed direction and charged between two and was offinto the jungle. They didn’t bother chasing her, and after she hadrun a few hundred paces without being followed she realised thatthey only wanted Aquitain and she had run out on him. He neededhelp, so she changed to her eagle form and flew immediately toFeatherdown’s tower, landed on his doorstep and screamed forhelp.
Within seconds heappeared. ‘What’s up?’ he shouted.
‘Dozens of rebel druidsand Curbut are attacking Aquitain and Quab in the sanctuary rightnow,’ she screamed.
‘What!’ he yelled, thensaid a few arcane words. He was suddenly covered with his old wornleather battle gown and a black glowing staff appeared in hishands. He cast a protection on himself and teleported away. Heappeared in the sanctuary twenty paces from a blackened charredbear lying in a patch of blackened ground surrounded by Curbut,four bears and two druids, all pounding or slashing at it withtheir blue flame covered weapons or claws.
‘Stop thatimmediately!’ he commanded.
‘Get lost, wizard,’shouted the group’s leader. ‘This is druid business.’
Curbut spun aroundholding a religious symbol in his hand and spoke a word of power. Abeam of blue light shot out of the symbol and hit Featherdown onthe chest. A circular region of his battle gown over his chestturned black and began smouldering with a blue flame. He grittedhis teeth at the pain, reached behind the collar of the gown, andbringing forth a pinch of diamond dust blew it forward, thenquickly said a
