After a further tenminutes he was escorted into a large hemispherical chamber, aboutthirty paces across, with a glazed tile floor and four massivestone pillars. The chamber was lit with globes of soft yellow magiclight and had four equally spaced arched doors. The floor wascovered with woven rugs depicting animals and there were severaltables around the perimeter, but no chairs.
In the centre of thechamber was a large Crin with a massive lower body. Her upper halfrested on a sort of lounge chair. This was Queen Beatrix. Thischamber was the royal multifunction room. It was her bedroom, hermeeting room, her throne room, her council room and the room inwhich she produced the countless offspring for the colony. She wasmother to everyone.
Aquitain surveyed theroom. There were at least twenty Crin present, several enforcers,several Jobmasters and a dozen very tough looking fighters,possibly royal guards. Everyone had its steely gaze fixed onAquitain.
‘Welcome,’ saidBeatrix. ‘We have been following your tour through our city withXentos with interest through our city mind. You are a veryinquisitive person, and quite observant. Many of my Enforcers andJobmasters are not happy with your having such free access to ourcity. They see you as a threat. However, we have a peace treatywith Queen Snowbelle, and as a friend of her daughter we areprepared to consider you friendly. She hasn’t said much about you,so perhaps you could tell us a little about yourself?’
Aquitain was surprised.If Miranda’s mother was a Queen then Miranda was a princess.Somehow, everyone including Miranda had forgotten to tell him thatsmall fact. On thinking back, he now understood why Miranda hadbeen prepared to stand up to and criticise both the High Wizard andQuab the senior Druid in the region, just prior to leaving TwinTowers.
It also explained whyboth Featherdown and Quab were worried about her going into thejungle to protect Aquitain. It seemed ludicrous to send a princessto protect a person who was virtually a stranger. Yet that is whathad happened, so something very strange must be going on.
While many might havepaled a little standing in a royal court in front of a Queen andher entourage, Aquitain was a picture of confidence. Hisgrandfather knew and had entertained the wealthy and powerful allhis life. Aquitain himself had met royalty before and was generallyunimpressed. He viewed them as spoilt and arrogant, and believedthat, contrary to their claims to be interested in the welfare oftheir subjects, they were more interested in themselves and thewealthy elite they surrounded themselves with, who helped them tomaintain their power. However, as a merchant he had learnt to bediplomatic, so he kept his views to himself.
‘I am Aquitain ofPanmagica, Your Highness, I am a mind wizard and grandson of themost powerful mind wizard in Panmagica, Arch Mind Sol Theolaur. Irecently inherited the ability to shape change, and have come toMudrun on an educational visit to improve my shape changing skills.I was staying with the High Wizard who was a friend of mygrandfather when Princess Miranda offered to help me learn some newshapes. Unfortunately, my family has been involved in somepolitical intrigue, and an assassin somehow managed to find me andmurder me yesterday. Fortunately, Princess Miranda offered me a newlife through reincarnation; I accepted and my spirit now occupiesthe new body that stands before you.’
‘That explains whyMiranda was so furious yesterday. She could hardly wait to leaveand presumably to track down and bring your assassin to justice,’said the Queen.
Aquitain was suddenlyworried. He hoped that she wouldn’t try to do that alone.Regardless of how good her opinion of her own abilities was, shewouldn’t be a match for a good wizard.
‘Did she mention whereshe might be going, Your Highness?’
‘No, but knowing howheadstrong she can be, we were sure that there would be troublewherever she went.’
‘Damn!’ thoughtAquitain. ‘She’s supposed to be looking after me, not runningaround picking fights with everyone. Perhaps she was right to feelworried by my presence. I seem to be causing her to run amok. Maybethere is something in this Agent of Chaos stuff the big cat wastalking about.’
The Queen told Aquitainthat Miranda had briefly mentioned that he had met Whooshoo, andasked him to tell her about it. He related the story but receivedlittle reaction to it, from either the Queen or her retinue. Shethen asked him to tell her about the death of the little catpeople. He told her the story, but could see from the reaction ofthe others in her court that they were very unsettled when hementioned the part about Jacintra appearing.
After he had finishedthe story the Queen and her court were quiet for some time, as ifthey were discussing what he had said over the city mindlink.Eventually after several minutes, the Queen again resumed theconversation.
‘Since you are astranger here you probably don’t realise the significance of whatyou have told us. The Crin are a very pragmatic people. We prideourselves on our ordered society. We worry mainly about thepresent, plan well for the future and care little about gods andprophecy. However, three years ago we had a visit from a druid whoprophesised a time when chaos would walk freely upon the land. Itwould bring death and destruction and great upheaval to allMudrun.
‘What you have told usfrightens us greatly, as I have heard many legends and lore.Jacintra, the Mother of Cats has another name, the Cat Lord ofChaos. If what you have said is true, the Lord of Chaos has walkedupon this land! Who knows what will happen next!’
Aquitain was suddenlyafraid. What was happening? He suddenly felt as if he had beendragged into something big. He remembered that Jacintra had made acomment that he had thought odd at the time. The Cat Lord had saidthat she sensed some scheme at work, which suggested that she wasnot previously aware of it. That in turn suggested that a higherauthority was manipulating events, a deity
