‘I promised the CatMother to bring them to justice; however, I didn’t expect it tohappen so soon. I say we maul them!’
‘Good. Well, I have aplan. See what you think.’ And he outlined it to her.
‘It might work, but Idon’t like your part in it. It’s too dangerous,’ she said.
‘It’s Featherdown’sphilosophy and he’s still alive to champion it. Deception winsbattles.’
‘All right, we’ll giveit a go, but if anything goes wrong run for the jungle and hide.I’ll find you,’ said Miranda.
Miranda first talkedwith the cat and then prayed the chameleon prayer that allowed herto blend into the background. Aquitain stacked her with their lootand she teleported back to the hideout. It took her two trips totake it down through the hatch and store it in their living room,but she worked as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Aquitain wasbusy.
He first filled a largebox with odds and ends and put a lid on it, then asked Alpha tocome inside the shrine and placed it on his head. He carried thebox out to his body shell with the cat accompanying him.Fortunately it had rained during the night and the Logicon poo hadbeen washed off the body shell and had soaked into the ground,making it more pleasant to be near. Alpha watched the eagle. Heplaced Alpha on top of his body shell, changed shape to his Logiconform and slithered in. Next he picked up the box and walked to thetop of the track, where he put the box down and went back to theshrine as if he had forgotten something. The cat sat casually bythe box as if patiently waiting.
After a couple ofminutes he returned to the box, placed something in it, picked itup and started off down the track. It was about seven hundred pacesdown to the bottom of the hill. After a couple of hundred paces hestopped where he could be seen from the bottom of the track, putdown the box and farewelled the cat, which headed off down the sideof the hill and into the jungle. At this stage the eagle curved offdown to the village area and disappeared.
‘Good,’ he thought.‘They’ve taken the bait.’
He picked up the boxand slowly headed downhill another hundred paces, where he was outof sight from the bottom and found Miranda waiting, camouflaged. Hecreated a new mindlink between them, as the previous one had cutout owing to her moving out of range.
‘They’re down there. Ican smell them,’ she said. ‘I called for help from the cats andthree more have answered. That makes six of us and eight ofthem.’
‘Will they fight?’ heasked.
‘Yes. They like yourplan. They are moving into position. Take the teleport ring in caseyou need it. Good luck wizard, and please be careful. May the Ladywatch over us.’ And she flashed off down the side of the hill tojoin the other cats.
‘This is very risky,Aquitain,’ said Alpha suddenly. ‘You are taking risks to impressMiranda and she is taking risks to impress you. You are bothbecoming reckless.’
Aquitain was quitesurprised at this comment from Alpha. He had often asked forAlpha’s opinion but he couldn’t remember Alpha giving it when itwas unsolicited.
‘They are my risks totake, and I will decide whether to take them. Do your job and watchmy back.’
He picked up the boxand started off down the track again for another hundred paces andwhen in view of the bottom suddenly tripped over, dropping the boxand spilling some of the contents. As he slowly and carefullyrepacked the contents into the box, Miranda contacted him.
‘Wizard, we are inposition about two hundred paces behind and to your right of thebottom of the track at the rear of the village. We await yoursignal.’
‘Good,’ thoughtAquitain. ‘Let’s see how well deception works.’
He picked up the boxagain and began walking down the track. He estimated that he hadabout three hundred paces to go to reach the bottom. Arrows had anaccurate range of perhaps a hundred paces, and most wizard magiccloser to fifty paces or less. He looked for a place where therewas some cover about a hundred and fifty paces from the bottom, andsaw a drainage depression in the track on the left side.
When he reached thetarget spot he was sure that all eyes would be on him and probablyanticipating what he might have in the box. Suddenly the box lit upbrightly. He stopped and dropped it on the ground, and ran back afew paces and knelt down beside the drainage ditch, as if worriedthat something bad was about to happen. He slithered out of hisbody shell and changed to his new cat form, crouching out ofsight.
He used his powers tocontrol light and sounds and the box began changing colours, thengave off some small popping and banging sounds. This should havetheir undivided attention, he thought. He thickened his skin, tooka deep breath and ran down the track. In two or three seconds hewas at the bottom. There were yells and arrows flying everywhere.He used his power to control light and the whole area for twentypaces around him went pitch black. That was the signal for the catsto move in. Miranda and four other jungle cats came tearing acrossthe ground into the darkness.
Any advantages theambushers had would now be negated. The cats were used to huntingat night using scent and sound more than sight, and their nightvision was much more sensitive than newman vision anyway. Therewere shouts all around for light. Aquitain heard a wizard casting alight effect, and immediately it was cast there was a brief flashof light and Aquitain quenched it and ran several paces back up theroad.
There were voices allaround.
‘It’s on the track!’someone yelled.
‘We need light!’ yelledanother.
In the darkness therewere cat howls everywhere, and one scream then another as two menwent down with cats at their throats. Terror reigned. Newmansscreamed and scurried, tripped over, crawled and cried. Thesergeant called for his newmans to draw their swords and fight.
‘We need light! Priest,give us light!’ commanded the sergeant.
The priest was morescared than he had ever been in his life. He fell to his hands andknees and crawled as fast as
