He saw himself aspotentially being a statesman, a hero, a power to be reckoned with,yet right now he was just a man with compassion and love forothers. He wanted her to see the compassionate man. He rememberedhow when she had faltered with fear outside the cave she hadgrabbed his hand. The feeling of her hand in his as they approachedthe cave was electric. Logicons weren’t supposed to feel emotionsbut just touching her sent his mind into a spin.
Then he remembered shehad let him into her mind. That must have been hard. Her mother hadtried to corrupt her mind about wizards yet she had trusted him.How should he interpret that? Was she just being pragmatic or wasshe really starting to trust him? And if she trusted him would shestart to like him? Women were so bloody difficult to work out.
Perhaps the Logiconswere better off after all. Then again, they must have some type ofsexual relationships, otherwise there would be no Logicons. Facithad made no mention of male and female Logicons. Maybe there wasonly one type, and periodically they all had mad orgies resultingin bits of them splitting off giving rise to young Logicons. Maybethey didn’t even need to do that. Perhaps if he ate too much a partof his body would split off and he would be a mother. By thePowers, he had to get a newman body back again!
Miranda came back intothe living room munching biscuits, had a drink of water then satdown on the bedding.
‘I think we should havea rest and then discuss a plan early tomorrow morning.’ She laydown, covered herself with a blanket and tried to sleep, but sleepdidn’t come for an hour or more as her mind was too busy.
Aquitain wasn’t tiredat all but he needed rest to regenerate his source, so he thoughtabout the problem at the cave. Why had the six jungle cats alljoined together and attacked them? From what Miranda had said aboutthem they were mostly solitary, each having its own huntingterritory. What would bring them all together? Was it some type ofbond with the little people? She said the little people worshippedanimal spirits. What exactly was an animal spirit? In fact, whatexactly were the little people? Why were there always morequestions than answers?
Miranda dreamed she wasstanding among the little people again. A great brown bear walkedup and stood beside her. She reached over and stroked its back. Itsfur felt rich and luxurious to touch. She said something to it andit turned and looked into her eyes. She quickly looked away. Theimage faded and she saw herself climb onto the bear’s back. Shecould feel its powerful muscles bulge under her legs. She couldfeel its strength and knew it would fight for her. She leant overand cuddled it around the neck and it whispered her name. Thisimage faded and another took its place. Her heart beat faster.
The bear lay sunbakingon the sand beside a pool. She teased it a little, trying to get itto have a swim. Then suddenly she shape changed into a female bearjust like it, waggled her rear end at it and tore off into thewater; it roared and stood up to chase her. But it held back as iftrying to resist, and she turned around and went back to it totease it some more, and muzzle to muzzle she looked into its eyesand saw who it was.
‘No,’ she woke upsweating. ‘I mustn’t. I wouldn’t. I can’t.’
She looked over atAquitain who was still sitting in the corner as a pool of goo.
‘Are you awake,wizard?’
‘Yes. I have beenthinking about our plan for later today,’ said Aquitain, usingmindspeak relayed by Alpha.
‘What is a bearwizard?’
‘Is it a question or ariddle?’
‘A question!’
‘I don’t know,’ repliedAquitain.
‘Are you playing withmy mind?’
‘No. I have alreadytold you. You have nothing to fear from me. I will do nothingwithout your permission and nothing that will harm you. Issomething wrong?’
‘I don’t know. I willhave to think about it.’ And she lay down again, and after a whilea dreamless sleep came.
Chapter 17 Jacintra
About an hour beforedawn Miranda awoke and had a drink, then came to sit beside him.‘Are you awake, wizard?’
Aquitain changed to hisnewman form and said:
‘I’ve spent a lot oftime thinking about the situation in the cave. There’s somethingwe’re missing. The cats are behaving wrong. You said they arenormally solitary, and yet they band together now when everyone isdead. Something is influencing them.’
‘I’ve been concernedabout that too,’ said Miranda. ‘They would normally be controlledby the Shaman. Perhaps he’s alive, saw us and thought we were withthe others that killed his people.’
‘I suppose that’spossible, but you saw nobody from the air.’
‘That’s true, but I waslooking at the cats. If someone was hiding in the bushes or usingmagic I wouldn’t have seen them,’ Miranda explained.
‘The other thing wasthat we were there for some time before they came, and they allcame more or less together. I think someone must have observed usand sent out some type of call.’
‘It’s possible, but howwould they do it without us hearing?’ replied Miranda.
‘What if whoever’scalling them has a mindlink with the cats. Ours is limited to abouta thousand paces but by expending more power I could probablyincrease its range. However, to double our range I would have touse four times the power, and to triple it I would need nine timesthe power.’
‘I think that you’regetting a bit carried away. Who cares if someone is calling them orhow they do it? If they turn up then we’re in trouble again.’
‘Yes but we may be inmore trouble than we know. If someone is calling them from severalthousand paces away, then that someone is very powerful.’
‘So, what do you wantto do - call it off?’ asked Miranda.
‘No. First we try toget into the cave without being seen, and then we do this job asquickly as possible, then get out fast. We also need
