‘Miranda and I aregoing, and Zephira will be our contact as you suggested,’ saidAquitain.
The High Wizard lookedat Miranda thoughtfully, and said ‘May I have a talk with you inprivate, Miranda?’
She nodded, and theywalked outside.
‘Would your motherapprove of this situation? She is likely to be extremely upset withyou spending time with a young newman wizard, and may cause a greatdeal of trouble.’
‘I am well aware ofwhat my mother might or might not do. I have lived with her all mylife. What I do is no concern of yours.’
‘You may endangerAquitain. That is my concern. As you rightly pointed out, he is thegrandson of one of my friends. Your mother could crush him like anant beneath her heel if she finds out, or even worse, take him backto her lair.’
‘And if I don’t helphim he could die just as easily. The part of the jungle where youare sending him is a dangerous place for the unwary.’
‘Perhaps, but thelevels of danger are quite different.’
‘Not in my eyes,wizard! I have made my decision and I will stand by it.’ And shewent back to Aquitain and Zephira and picked up the two sacks.
‘Are you coming?’
Aquitain was back inhis body shell with a box under each arm and Zephira had herbackpack stuffed with equipment. They proceeded up to the groundlevel and stood on the teleport circle embedded in the floor.Featherdown examined a piece of paper, they all touched hands, andwere gone in a surge of magic as he carefully enunciated somearcane words.
They appeared on asmall flat grassy knoll on top of a headland overlooking the sea.They could hear the sound of the waves somewhere below them, buttheir surroundings were too dark to see much, as the moon had notyet risen.
‘I can smell cat,’ saidMiranda. ‘There is one close by. If we stay together it shouldn’tbother us.’
Aquitain created lighton himself and lit up the area like a lantern.
‘Good,’ saidFeatherdown, ‘I remember the way now,’ and he set off into thedarkness. Aquitain quickly followed the High Wizard, and the twowomen followed him. They walked about fifty paces and came to somebroken brickwork. Featherdown followed it around to the right, anddown into a hollow that was heavily overgrown with bushes. Hepushed some of the overgrowth aside, and asked Aquitain to comecloser so that he could see a little better.
‘Aha. Here it is,’ hemuttered to himself and pushed a brick inwards, then leant againstthe wall so that a section of it opened inwards. They all followedhim down a dark corridor, and into a room perhaps eight pacessquare.
‘Here we are, theliving room I call it. Drop your stuff here and explore around.It’s actually the basement area of an ancient Yith villa, I wouldsay. The top areas are just ruins now, but it must have beenimpressive at one time. There is a room made of dead magic rock,which they probably used as a prison cell, and several other smallrooms that were cells or storage areas. I have placed a stack offood supplies and some lantern oil in one of them, and there’s somebedding material against the wall here. Other than what’s in thisroom, that’s about it.
‘It was never intendedfor continual occupation just as a temporary hideout in casesomething unexpected happened.’
‘Like us turning up,High Wizard?’ inquired Zephira.
‘Er ... yes. You knowthe old saying, always be prepared! That’s why I’m still alive,while most of my contemporaries are dead. There is another entranceup some stairs to a hatch. It’s locked from this side, that’s whywe came in by the emergency exit. I would suggest you come and gousing the hatch normally, and only use the emergency exit as aquick way out if there is trouble.’
‘Why should we expecttrouble?’ asked Miranda suspiciously. ‘Nobody knows we arehere.’
‘As I was saying,always be prepared; it’s a good motto if you wish to stay alive.Now we shall have to get going. Come along Zephira.’ And he walkedoff down the corridor to the emergency exit. Aquitain moved to acorner of the room and slithered out of his shell, reforming intohis newman shape. He hugged Zephira and walked down the corridorholding her hand tightly.
‘It should only be acouple more weeks and Granddad will have the charges on youdropped,’ she said optimistically. ‘I’ll come back in a couple ofdays, or as soon as I hear anything.’
‘No, don’t come here,’said Aquitain quickly. ‘I’ll arrange a meeting place and let youknow about it. Be careful. I don’t want to lose my only cousin inthe world.’ They hugged again and then heard a yell outside. Theyraced to the entrance but could see nothing. Miranda had heard ittoo. She shape shifted to a jungle cat and came tearing down thecorridor, shot out between the two of them, and went sprinting upthe side of the hollow.
Featherdown was rollingaround on the ground with something on top of him. Miranda wentstraight at them, leaping onto it and knocking it off the HighWizard. Aquitain and Zephira came racing up the side of the hollowto see Featherdown regaining his feet and creating light onhimself.
On the ground rollingand tearing at each other were two black jungle cats. Suddenly onebroke off and ran into the darkness. The other stood breathingheavily a moment before it transformed into Miranda and walked overto the High Wizard.
‘What were you sayingabout levels of danger wizard?’
‘I have been known tobe wrong,’ he said.
‘You’ve been injured,’said Zephira suddenly to Miranda.
‘It’s nothing. I’ve hadworse,’ she replied, and sang a healing prayer touching her side,then another on her left leg. ‘Are you injured wizard?’
‘No I’m not Miranda,but thanks for asking. I always wear protections when I’m in thejungle at night.’
‘Come Zephira, hold myhand,’ said Featherdown, and they were gone.
Miranda stood in thedarkness holding her side.
‘Are you all right?’asked Aquitain.
‘Yes. I’m just a littleconcerned. That shouldn’t have happened. It’s rare for those junglecats to attack a newman. I’ll find out what’s going on tomorrow.Let’s have a look at your new home and unpack your gear.’ And theyreturned to the living room, closing off the emergency exit.
Aquitain’s body shelllying in the corner of the living room
