He instantlyconstructed a mental block. This would most often protect him andit did this time. He spun around to face the corridor and noticedMiranda standing stationary with her eyes glazed. She had beenenchanted.
‘Damn!’ he thought, butas he watched a brick wall appeared across the entrance to thecorridor and Jaz materialised across the room from him.
‘I’m here to protectyou. Quickly, grab Miranda and flee. The wall is only an illusion.It won’t take long for them to work it out. I’ll look after yourbaggage.’ And she grabbed the dimension bag and disappeared intothe stonewall.
Aquitain ran toMiranda. She was wearing the teleport ring but she was confused. Hehad mindlinked with her so he said gently,
‘Mandy, we mustteleport.’
‘Why?’ she replied.
‘There is a bad wizardhere, we must teleport. Here is a picture of the marker say thisword to activate the ring.’
‘I don’t want to,’ saidMiranda.
Aquitain’s heart beatfaster. ‘Mandy, I’ll give you a big hug and a kiss if you activatethe teleport ring. Here is a picture and this is the word tosay.’
‘All right, but itbetter be a big kiss.’
‘It will be, Iguarantee it. Quickly, say the word now.’
Just as Miranda saidthe activation word a beam of green light penetrated the illusorywall and hit Aquitain in the centre of his cube shaped body. Hisbody simply disappeared into a cloud of dust. His legs and his freearm clattered to the floor with a metallic ring. Alpha fell tofloor and bounced once, grew legs and ran behind the water barrel.Aquitain’s powerstones, rings, gems and the crystal sphere thatWhooshoo had given him and the chaos matter fell to the floor,rolled a little and became stationary. Miranda vanished as theteleport magic carried her away.
The illusory brick wallvanished as Curbut raced into the room. ‘I got you, you bastard,’he yelled when he saw the bits of Aquitain on the floor. He usedmagic to see anything invisible, but found that he was alone in theliving room. He removed a small backpack and stuffed one ofAquitain’s legs and the remaining arm into it. He scooped up thepowerstones, the rings, gems and the crystal sphere, but ignoredthe ball of clay. He then searched around for any other valuablesbut found none.
‘Damn, the bitch musthave taken it all with her,’ he said aloud.
This time Alpharecognised the voice as that of Senior Wizard Curbut.
‘You’ll pay for thisCurbut. You’re as dead as Aquitain but don’t know it yet,’ thoughtAlpha, then broadcast a mindspeak message to Aquitain’s spirit.
‘Don’t go Aquitain.Come to me. I am Alpha, the other part of your mind. You’ll be safewith me. Come, join with me.’
Finding nothing more ofinterest, Curbut teleported to the marker near Kelnor’s cave andtook the evidence of Aquitain’s demise to the high priest. After abrief discussion and hearty congratulations from Kelnor the seniorwizard stated that he would have to return to Twin Towers beforehis absence was noticed and he left, deeply satisfied withhimself.
Chapter 20 The TempestSmiles
Miranda staggeredaround at the marker just outside Twin Towns. She couldn’tunderstand why she couldn’t think straight. Everything was fuzzy.Nothing seemed right. After a minute or two her mind finallycleared. She looked at the ground and saw Aquitain’s metal arm. Itall rushed back to her. It was unreal like an incredibly bad dream.She closed her eyes and could see it all in slow motion. Sheremembered warning Aquitain that there was an intruder. Sheremembered the smell of freshly cast magic, then everything hadgone strange.
She had tried to thinkbut her mind wouldn’t work. Aquitain had come to her and talked toher mind. He wanted her to teleport. She had not paid attention.She didn’t do what he wanted. He had always said that he wouldnever harm her and he didn’t. She didn’t do what he had said. Shehad questioned him and it had cost them precious seconds. The timeit takes to live or die. He tried to bribe her with a kiss. Shewanted that, but it was too late. By the time she had acted he wasdead. Almost totally obliterated by the horrible green beam ofmagic.
‘Noooo,’ she screamedwith tears flooding down her face. ‘I will not let this happen!They will pay.’
She looked at herteleport ring. It had been used only once. There was another chargeleft. She activated the ring and arrived at the end of a U-shapedgully. She jogged down its length, a good five hundred paces, to asmall waterfall and through the cascading icy water into apartially lit cave, getting thoroughly soaked in the process. Itdidn’t dampen her feelings. It just fortified her determination.She spoke a word of power and a three pace wide circle of palepurple symbols appeared on the bleak dark stonewall in front ofher.
She didn’t linger butinstead ran headlong into the grey blur in the centre of thecircle, appearing in a dark corridor and teleporting from there toa large room that could be a living room or an entertainment area,and yelled:
‘Allalanllea, Sanson tome!’
A great spider the sizeof a bull and an ant-like creature called a Crin, the size of ahorse, answered her summons.
‘Is mother home?
‘No, princess!’ theyboth answered. ‘What is wrong?’
‘Good. A powerfulwizard has attacked me and he has killed my friend. I desire tocapture him and attend to my friend. I need cover and support.Choose one other and meet me here in the teleport room in threeminutes, ready to fight.’
‘Is this wise,princess?’ asked the spider. ‘The wizard will have fled by the timewe get there.’
‘No, it’s not wise, butit’s something I must do. If he is there then we will punish himimmediately. If he isn’t, then I will punish him later. But I mustaid my friend.’
‘As you wish PrincessMiranda,’ and they teleported away to prepare.
In her own home Mirandacould teleport at will. She teleported to the armoury and openedthe magic locked wardrobe, selected and clothed herself with softleather trousers and top, then picked a camouflage cloak and donnedit as well. She
