‘What do you mean?’ shesaid.
‘You have never smelledanything like Logicon poo. It’s really bad, and I feel one comingon. If I mark my own body shell I reckon I’m pretty safe fromanything with a nose. You fly around above me and guide me.’
‘Well I agree the pooidea together with your body shell might work - but how can wecommunicate if I’m in the air and you’re on the ground?
‘Mind magic, Miranda.We will link our minds.’
‘No way, wizard, I’mnot letting you into my head.’
‘It doesn’t hurt and Ican’t read your mind. It’s like talking directly into each other’shead without using our mouths. I do it with my family and Zephiraall the time. My mother taught me before I was old enough to speakwith my mouth. It caused a problem, because I thought normal speechwas so primitive I didn’t want to do it. It’s also very private. Noone else can hear us.’
‘How would I get youout of my head once you got in?’
‘Simply imagine a door.Imagine yourself walking through it and closing it behind you andI’m gone. Alternatively, you can ask me to break the connection, orif you’re more than about a thousand paces away it’ll cut off.’
Miranda was undecided.Except for the mind link the plan should work. It was just that itwas a huge leap of faith to let a wizard into her head. Her motherhad spent years running them down. Telling her how evil they were.Telling her how cunning and devious they were. When she had met herfirst real male wizard she had expected him to have fangs like asnake and breathe poison. She was greatly disappointed when heseemed to be much like other men, although less physicallydeveloped and a bit more arrogant.
Aquitain was somethingelse again. He was smart and cunning but untested in a fight,although he had all but killed the giant squid. He was also totallyfearless owing to his Logicon body. That was both good and bad. Itcould make him overconfident and therefore dangerous.
‘Miranda there are justtwo of us here, you and me. We have to tame this area before youcan go. If we work together it will be a lot easier. I know youdon’t trust wizards because your mother hates them. But I am notthem. I will swear to you now and ask the Lady to bear witness. Iwill not harm you in any way. I will only use my magic to help andprotect us. Please trust me.’
She thought of what hermother had said. ‘Never trust a wizard.’ It was so hard when thatis what she had been told all her life.
‘I will trust youwizard, but if you break my trust I will kill you as quickly as Iwould kill a diseased animal.’
‘Good. May I mind linkwith you Miranda?’
‘Yes wizard, you may.’And she closed her eyes with a look of terror on her face.
Aquitain created themind link and immediately looked at her spirit aura. It was abeautiful greenish newman spirit aura, showing she was a magic userbut not that powerful. Then as he looked he noticed that parts ofit were blurred, almost as if it were hiding something. He hadnever seen anything like this before. He memorized it for hisrecords and decided that he would have to take a closer look at itsome other time.
‘Hello Miranda,’ hesaid through the mindlink. ‘What does it feel like?’
‘It is strange - it isjust like you are talking but I can feel your presence. Wait thereis someone else here too.’
‘That is my memorycrystal called Alpha. It’s like a wizard’s familiar. If you lookstraight ahead with your eyes closed you will see two lights likecandle flames. They are our spirit auras. The faint blue one isAlpha and the other is mine. You can’t see your own, but itprobably looks a bit like mine, only green.’
She opened her eyes.‘Where is this familiar. How come you never told me about it? Hasit been spying on me?’
Aquitain opened hishand and placed it in one of hers.
‘Is it a rock or justpretending to be a rock?’
‘It is an uncut emeraldworth a fortune. It contains a small part of my mind. It can see inall directions, hear, talk using mindspeak, and walk. Say ‘Hello’,Alpha.’
Alpha introduced itselfto her.
‘Hello Miranda. You’revery beautiful. I’m glad you’re here to help us. Aquitain would gethimself killed without people like you to look after him.’
‘Cut that out Alpha.You’ve been listening to Zephira too much.’
Miranda smiled. ‘Youdon’t seem to be able to win, wizard. Everyone thinks you’rehopeless.’
Alpha then grew legslike a spider and ran up her arm and sat on her shoulder. ‘It’s agood view from here. Perhaps I’ll stay with Miranda rather thanyou. I can’t see anything while I’m stuck in that box.’
‘All right, you’ve madeyour point. How about I stick you on top of my body shell, and thatway you can watch everything and talk to both Miranda and me whilewe go down to the village?
‘One more thingMiranda, we can send each other pictures of what we see, hear,smell and even feel. However, those take a little more practice.Lets just use voice at the moment. I’ll fix Alpha onto my bodyshell and we’ll get going. Remember, it’s only got a range of abouta thousand paces. If you exceed that we’ll be cut off.’
Miranda was excited.Really excited! She had never imagined that she could fly and talkto someone on the ground as if she was standing beside them.
It was unbelievablyuseful. She could circle around, spot trouble and warn him wellbefore it got anywhere near him. If something did attack him shecould land and be at his side in seconds. She couldn’t wait to goand try it out.
Chapter 16 The Cave
Several minutes laterthey were on their way. Aquitain had slithered out of his bodyshell and excreted on the back surface of the shell. It was evenmore revolting than usual, having a fishy component from the squidhe had eaten the previous day. He decided that even though Facithad said nothing
