‘Where are you going tostay?’ he asked.
‘I’ll stay at Quab’s asI normally do. Those hammocks on his veranda are very comfortable,and I have free run in the sanctuary.’
‘Is Quab your ... er... partner?’ he asked suddenly.
‘No. He’s my mentor andfriend. We work together. That’s all. Why do you ask?’
‘I just wanted to besure that he wouldn’t be upset at us spending so much timetogether.’
‘What about your womanfriend Zephira? Will she mind you spending so much time with a wildnaked druid woman?’
‘Zephira and I arecousins and best of friends, but that is as far as it goes.However, she might get a bit jealous,’ he replied with a smile.
‘Look why don’t youcome back to my workshop tonight and we’ll work on modelling mybody shape using the chaos matter. I also want to teach yousomething in return.’
‘I suppose I could comearound for a while,’ she said. ‘But I might do a little flyingfirst to loosen up my muscles.’
‘Good,’ he said, andmentally reformed their shelter into its normal ball shape. Shestood and stretched and turned into a sea eagle, headed into thebreeze and spread her wings. A short run and a hop later she wasoff the ground and into the air. A group of sea birds scattered,squawking raucously as she flew off out over the sea.
‘What a woman,’ hethought, as he headed up the sand hill towards his body shell. Shecircled around and watched him from a distance as he changed shapeto a Logicon and slithered into the body shell. Moments later hedisappeared, and reappeared at the front of Featherdown’s tower tomeet Zephira coming out.
‘Where have you been?I’ve been looking for you all the afternoon. You shouldn’t go outwithout telling Alpha where you are. We’ve got a problem.’
Aquitain gave the handsignal for a mindlink and she nodded, then they went into the towerand down to his workshop where he came out of his body shell,changed to a human, and used the chaos matter to form a robe aroundhimself.
‘Chantalot the bardcame around this morning especially to see me. I could seeimmediately that he had a problem. After a lot of coaxing hefinally admitted that he was Featherdown’s brother and had beenasked by Featherdown to get close to me so that they could find outabout you. I was furious. If he hadn’t been so apologetic I couldhave killed him. He didn’t go to some town in the north of Mudrunbut went to Panmagica instead, to check up on us.
‘Facit is dead. Yourbody was destroyed in the city incinerator. I’m so sorry Rob. I’vebeen such a fool. I was sent here to protect you and I’ve made lovewith the enemy instead,’ and she burst out crying and hugged himclosely.
If he had been anythingother than a Logicon this might have been a huge emotional blow,but it wasn’t. He just moved on.
‘Why hasn’t Granddadcontacted us? I can’t believe that this could happen without himtelling us.’
‘I don’t know Rob, butthere’s more. It seems that Quab went to see the High Druid askingabout Alin Amber’s whereabouts, and he exploded. He knew about us.He wanted to know why we aren’t under arrest. He has sent a note tothe Unity of Wisdom about us. We have three days at the most beforewe can expect a visit from them, most likely with an archon.’
‘Damn,’ said Aquitain,‘I don’t think that will be enough time to learn to fly.’
He told her then abouthis eavesdropping the previous night. Zephira was quite annoyedwith him for not trusting her.
‘Melanie, I’ve alwaystrusted you with my life, but that doesn’t mean I trust yourboyfriends.’
She cried some more andapologised again, and then there was a knock at the door. He openedit to find Miranda dressed in her druid robe. He could see that shehad been crying.
‘Come in, come in,’ hesaid, opening the door wide.
‘What are you doinghere, bitch!’ exclaimed Zephira.
Aquitain wasshocked.
‘This bitch has a nymphfor a mother that tortures wizards with sex until they die. Whatare you here for? Recruiting more wizards for mummy?’ said Zephirasarcastically.
‘Zephira, Miranda ishere at my request. I don’t give a damn what her mother does ordoesn’t do. She is a friend of mine and unless you get a civiltongue in your mouth leave immediately. I’ll not have you runningher down in my presence.’
Zephira was shocked.Robbie had never spoken to her like that!
Miranda stood thereproudly and spoke in a quiet voice.
‘What she has said istrue. My mother is a nymph. She was once the most powerful newmandruidess in Mudrun, but died in a battle and was reincarnated bythe Lady as a nymph when I was a mere babe. She hates male wizardswith a vengeance, and makes them suffer a death by extreme sexualactivity, as is the way of all nymphs, but she was a good mother tome and still is. I am not my mother and you are mistaken if youjudge me as anything but a devout and chaste priestess of theLady.’
The two women glared ateach other as Aquitain glared at Zephira, who reluctantlyapologized, easing the tension a little.
‘What’s wrong?’ askedAquitain.
‘Quab came back early.After you left I was flying back to the beach and I saw him. He wasthere watching us while we were there. He came to the wrongconclusions. I landed to talk to him. He was most unpleasant,accusing me of base things and we had a dispute, which I will notdiscuss further, but he did say something of importance. The DruidCouncil has ordered that you be taken into custody and delivered tothem for interrogation. You must leave. I will not be a party tothis idiocy, you deserve more than that.’
‘You slept with herdidn’t you!’ said Zephira. ‘You bitch, you seduced him!’ shescreamed.
Aquitain looked at herand there was a surge of magic - her mouth moved but nothing cameout. He had used magic against his cousin for the first time intheir lives.
‘We seem to have heardthis conversation before, Zephira. Last time it was me that wasamiss. This time it is your turn cousin. I will sleep with whoeverI choose and it is none of your business. On this occasion nothinghappened and nor could
