‘So the mind wizardtaught you a trick has he? Well aren’t you smart? You won’t keep melocked away forever. One day someone will make a mistake and thenit’ll be my turn to have some fun,’ said the mask.
Miranda was thrilledand felt so proud of herself.
‘That mistake won’t bemade by me, mask. You’re going back to the cat people. I’m surethey’ll keep you out of mischief for a while.’
Aquitain felt anothersurge of magic from the mask and by reflex blocked his mind, butnothing happened. He asked Miranda whether it had attacked heragain and she said that it hadn’t. He wondered what it was up tofor a few moments and then wrapped it in the cloth again and stowedit away. Miranda came over and hugged him. ‘Thank you Tain, you area true friend.’
‘And so are you, Mandy.I will not knowingly let you come to harm.’
‘Nor I you, Tain,’ shesaid. ‘Do you think it would work against my mother?’
‘Perhaps not. If she isexperienced in using this magic then she will persist, attackingcontinuously until she gets a hold or you tire. The way I taughtyou is the general way taught to wizards and other magic users.However, I have been taught many advanced and some secrettechniques, one of which might defeat your mother, as she would notbe expecting resistance.’
‘Please teach me,’ shesaid.
‘I’ll teach you, but becautious and only use it as a last resort. If you defeat her withthis knowledge you will injure her pride, and she will probablyreact badly.’
‘That wouldn’t be new.She is as unpredictable as the weather and I’ve weathered many ofher storms,’ replied Miranda.
Aquitain was not surethat this was a good idea but couldn’t deny her knowledge thatmight protect her. So he explained that what she had learnt alreadywas known as a passive defence and that there were also activedefences. Instead of imagining her mind as a ball being grasped bya hand, she could imagine her mind being a jungle cat and theattacking hand to be a creature she disliked. That way her cat mindcould attack the creature, forcing it to withdraw.
When she was ready heimagined her mind as a white sphere and attacked it with a horriddistorted clawed hand, she defended by turning her mind into asleek black cat and forcing his attacking hand to the shape of adog and attacked it with glee, expecting him to flee; but hedidn’t. He forced her cat shape to become a rabbit, then his dogshape attacked the rabbit. Her rabbit mind stood its ground andreformed as a jungle cat attacking the dog. He reformed his dog asa jungle cat as well, and the two cats fought. They hissed andjumped and slashed at each other with razor claws, until at last hecalled off the attack and his cat withdrew.
Miranda staggeredbackwards and fell down on the bedding exhausted. Then after a fewseconds, she jumped back to her feet with a huge smile on herface.
‘That was unbelievable.It was so real. I was a cat and fighting for my life and I beatyou,’ she laughed.
‘You did very well.Just remember you were able to force me to withdraw by fighting onyour terms not mine. When I fought as a cat your greater experiencewon out. However, had I fought as a dragon your cat may not havefared so well.’
She hugged him againand whispered,
‘I seem to be sayingthank you a lot.’
They lingered in eachother’s embrace for a short while, till finally Aquitain suggestedthat she take Zephira’s backpack as it would hide everything fromsight and allow her to bring back some good food when she returned.She could also then teach him to fly.
‘I’ll not only teachyou to fly, but we will hunt as cats hunt and share our killtogether. You’ll find that an adventure as exciting as any,’ shesaid.
They stowed the wrappedmask and the club together with the other evidence in the backpack.Miranda donned her robe from the leg bag, shouldered the backpack,hugged him, said she would see him in a couple of days andteleported using his teleport ring, as he wanted to examine the newone before using it.
Aquitain was nowtotally alone for the first time in his life in a jungle wildernessfifty leagues from the nearest help. ‘Time to tidy up and perhapsdo a little reading for a change,’ he thought but no matter what hedid his thoughts kept wandering back to Miranda. Eventually hefound the single torn page that Featherdown had given him justbefore he left Twin Towers; reading it he was totally surprised atwhat it said.
This is a manual forguidance in the arts of mind magic for my son Aquitain. It shouldbe given to him on his sixteenth birthday or when deemedappropriate. Signed A.G.
He quickly found theYith half book with the front page missing and saw that the tornpage given to him by Featherdown was the missing front page. It washis own book from his father, in his father’s own handwriting.Everything else vanished from his mind. He had to translate thebook right now. He lowered one of the light balls closer to theground and sat on the floor, and using an upturned box as a tablehe went to work on it.
**
Miranda teleported tothe marker outside Twin Towers and then took the back way throughthe jungle to Quab’s sanctuary. Fortunately he was there and verypleased to see her, but he still felt guilty about theiraltercation a couple of days earlier.
When she told him thestory about the previous day he could hardly believe it, althoughthe evidence she brought with her removed all his doubts. He wasvery concerned as to how the High Druid was likely to react, sincea druid helping an alien to avoid capture was a serious offence. Hedecided that they should talk to the High Wizard first to see whathe had to say. So they both went off to see him.
Featherdown listenedcarefully to the story, asked a number of questions to clarifysmall points and examined the evidence she had brought with her,but gave no indications as to what he was thinking. At theconclusion of her
