‘There’s another thingRob, which we need to get clear from the start, since we’re likelyto be spending a lot of time together. I will protect you with mylife as you are my best friend, you’re my family, and that’s whatI’ve been trained to do. You might still be a virgin, but I’m not.If I want to spend the night with someone, that’s my business andnot yours. Got it?’
‘You’ve changed,’ saidRob, a little shaken by Melanie’s attitude.
‘Yes I have, Rob. I’vebeen away from the family enough now to realize what’s beenhappening. I’m expendable but you’re not. I’m expected to doanything including sleeping with our enemies to ensure your safety.They’ve been protecting you from something or someone for years.It’s more than the shape changing. I don’t know what or why as theywon’t tell me, and I have asked, although I suspect it hassomething to do with your father.’
‘Do you know what I didwhile you were with Facit learning to shape change? I checked outTina’s story about falling in love with the member of the Yithdelegation. It never happened. It was a lie. Your mother lied tous. Why I don’t know. It seems nobody other than your mother andperhaps Grandad really knows who your father is.’
Rob was shocked. ‘Areyou really sure about this Melanie? Why would mother lie tome?’
‘Why were we never toldabout your father or your shape shifting ability? What sort of aperson would name you Aquitain? It’s not a newman name.’
‘Yes I thought aboutthat myself,’ Rob replied. ‘I asked Alpha if it had any knowledgeabout the origin of the name, and it said the name was neithernewman nor Yith.
‘I also thought aboutwhat has happened and why we are here. I agree with you thatGrandad was panicked. I suspect he’s sent a message to my fathersaying that we are here. So if we sit tight my father is likely toget in touch with us and arrange a meeting.’
‘But how will you knowif it’s your real father, not someone pretending to be yourfather?’ asked Melanie.
‘Once I mind link withthem I will know,’ Rob assured her.
‘I hope so, I trulyhope so.’ Melanie sounded not at all so sure. ‘Anyhow, what haveyou learnt since you’ve been here?’ she asked.
‘Not much!’ repliedRob. ‘It’s a nice quiet little town in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Well listen to what Ifound out last night while getting drunk. This town guards the onlypermanent gateway into this world. There are no roads to anywherefrom here. They have a hundred soldiers, several journeyman wizardsand two archwizards. That’s a lot of guards for a gateway in themiddle of nowhere. They send out shipments of unknown goods throughthe gateway twice a week. These unknown goods are teleported herefrom some unknown location and stored in locked customs buildingsout of sight.’
‘No one is allowed hereby order of the Unity of Wisdom, as it is a conservation sensitivearea controlled by a Council of Druids. You and I both know thatthe Unity of Wisdom hates druids and cares nothing aboutconservation. So why would they want to help these druids? What arethey exporting? I don’t think that this place is what it seems tobe. There is something strange going on here.’
‘That’s all veryinteresting, but what’s it got to do with us?’ Rob asked. ‘We’rehere to keep out of the way, to hide while Granddad smooths thingsover. It’s about the last place anyone would expect to find us. Ithink we just act normally, keep out of trouble and enjoy ourselvesuntil my father turns up or contacts us. But first we should talkto Granddad’s friend the High Wizard, and see what he suggests wedo.’
‘Perhaps you’re right,’replied Melanie. ‘I suppose we could have a bit of a holiday whilewe’re here. Perhaps go fishing and maybe do a little hunting in thejungle.’
‘Great. Why don’t youclean up, have a bite to eat and then we’ll visit the HighWizard.’
An hour later they wereoutside the front door of High Wizard Featherdown’s tower. Thistime the wizard’s doorknob asked them to state their name andbusiness.
‘Zephira, gem merchantof Wolfram and Aquitain the Logicon to see the High Wizard ofMudrun on a social visit.’
‘Please enter,’ saidthe doorknob, and the door swung open to reveal a very small manonly as tall as Zephira’s knee, clad in brown clothes and a greenconical hat. Aquitain hadn’t seen a gnome for ages and was a littlesurprised to see one here.
‘Are you High WizardFeatherdown?’ he asked uncertainly.
‘No, follow me if youplease,’ the little fellow said in a squeaky voice as he dartedover to a golden pattern inlaid into the marble floor whichAquitain recognised immediately as a teleport circle. They followedthe gnome and stepped onto the pattern, and moments later foundthemselves in a comfortable-looking room in Featherdown’s tower.The first gnome vanished and a second gnome appeared, carrying atray with delicious looking cakes and biscuits and a jug of coolfruit juice.
They looked around theopulently appointed area. The High Wizard was obviously quitewealthy and prepared to show it. The floor was beautifully polishedhardwood, covered with the skins of exotic animals. The walls wereof white marble, and decorated with tapestries of battle scenes.One showed a wizard surrounded by a sphere of energy, hovering inthe sky above an army of newmans. He was casting fireballs at anopposing army of horrible, monstrous creatures. On the ground laythe shattered and grotesque bleeding body of the creatures’leader.
The High Wizardappeared silently behind them and stood weighing them up for a fewseconds before announcing his presence. He was a tall, slim lighttan skinned man, perhaps in his early thirties, with short brownhair and a neatly trimmed grey tinged beard. He wore a neck toankle length long-sleeved gown of maroon silk, embroidered with theimage of a red dragon that wrapped around his body. The eyes of thedragon’s head at chest height bore gems that shone with the coloursof the rainbow. On his head he had a maroon skullcap bearing acomplex symbol embroidered in gold.
He noticed bothAquitain and Zephira looking at the tapestry.
‘Nasty battle thatone,’ he said. ‘Our side lost nearly six hundred. The
