‘I havemodified the curse a little. When the pure heart shield is activeyour spirit aura will be hidden from all except you. You also havepowerful new knowledge within you. Use it wisely or it will be yourundoing.’
There was amagnificent explosion of light and moments later the golden glow,the music, the swirling procession of magical creatures and thetruth radiants all vanished leaving him standing in the frying panin the darkness as if nothing had happened. He stood therewondering if it was all a dream or an hallucination.
The door on thecrypt opened with a loud metallic scraping sound that bled off intothe darkness. Llalorax came striding out with an expression ofexcitement on his face.
‘That wasmagnificent! You have been honoured beyond imagination andthoroughly deserve it! The last time that ceremony was enacted washundreds of years ago. Good grief, Are you OK? You don’t look toowell. In fact you look like a lifeless statue. You haven’t gone anddied have you?’
Aquitainsuddenly realized that Llalorax couldn’t detect whether he wasalive or not while the pure heart shield surrounded his body thatwould effectively make him invisible to people searching for himusing aura vision. He quickly dispelled the heart and his spiritwas again visible.
‘No. I’m alive.I was just having a mental break.’ said Aquitain usingmindspeak.
‘Thankgoodness. You had me worried for a moment. That was quite animpressive light show. It’s bound to attract unwanted visitorssoon. We’d better get going.’
‘No I need sometime to myself to think about things. You go back I’ll be back in alittle while.
‘Okay but don’tstay here too long.’ replied Llalorax and he left.
Aquitaindecided he would have to think seriously about this pure heartbusiness. People were playing games with him again. They expectedhim to do great deeds like on Mudrun but here nobody would rememberthem. What benefit was being a hero if no one knew about it?
SuddenlyGlammer reappeared. ‘Oh what luck, you’re still here. I’ve got anice job for you.’
‘Oh. No. I knew therewould be a catch. What do you want me to do?’ asked Aquitain.
Chapter 27 TerrorTactics
‘I think I know how youmight find out where your friend Miranda is located.’ saidGlammer.
‘Really andwhat do I have to do for this information.’
‘You need toward an area from discovery. ‘she replied
‘Who for?’ heasked.
‘For theMoonmist Collective of course!’
‘There arethose that might discover them and they do not wish that. You willbe required to ward the area and then forget that you did. As areward they will search for your friend Miranda and tell you whereshe is located. They might also tell you about the Warden’s Towerif you ask them.’
‘Are theirother Wardens?’ asked Aquitain a little surprised.
‘No you are theonly one at the moment but there have been two others.’
‘And theWarden’s Tower was where they lived?’
‘Yes.’ shereplied.
Aquitainthought about it for a minute or two. Glammer was a mastermanipulator. She had helped him escape twice, had him honoured bythe Collective and now was offering other enticements. She waspowerful but very cunning. She wanted him to do something special.Something that he could do that she couldn’t. She seemed to want tohelp him and there was only one way to find out.
‘Okay you havea deal. Take me there.’
Glammer smiledand they appeared in a cave about ten paces across and highsomewhere on Moonmist lit by the light given off from hundreds ofcrystals protruding from the walls and ceiling of the cave. Hestood amazed. He hummed and the crystals hummed back. They weresinging crystals like those used in translators and other magicalitems. It was a crystal singers dream to find this many raw singingcrystals in one place. Collectively if sold on the market theywould make anyone extremely wealthy.
Then he had afeeling of almost being crushed by the weight of minds here.
‘Congratulations and welcome Warden, you have the distinction ofbeing only the second living sentient creature to stand here in athousand years. We are the Moonmist Collective. We are thecollective mind of all those that have perished on Moonmist andbeen unable to pass beyond.’
‘We know muchof what is happening on Moonmist. You seek a young woman by thename of Miranda. She is the daughter of the nymph Queen known asSnowbelle. She is currently alive and well. Normally we just watchthe folly of the living and don’t interfere. However, we havebecome aware of two problems that are likely to occur in the nearfuture that could be catastrophic. One involves us directly and onewhich involves all living creatures on this world.’
‘The probleminvolving us is that we are fixed in a remote part of a cave systemthat extends some several thousand of your paces down to the edgeof a frozen sea. These crystals allow us to communicate with eachother and hence have become our home. Without these crystals wewould mentally deteriorate, our identities and the knowledge of athousand years would be lost and we would be nothing but mindlessspirit sacks blowing in the cold wind.’
‘Further downthe cave are many large feral Llanlleans and further down again area species of sentient aquatic reptilian people who live in the caveat the sea end. They have been fighting each other for many years.Unfortunately the lizards have discovered patches of crystals likethose here and began trading them to others on this world. They arealso using the crystals as weapons. They are slowly but surelyexploring the caves, killing the Llanlleans and working their waytowards us.’
‘At theircurrent rate they could be here within a year. We want you to setup wards to keep them away.’
‘That might bepossible.’ replied Aquitain using mindspeak.
‘What about thesecond problem involving all the living creatures?’
‘We cannot helpyou with that as it may be one of the reasons why you are here. Tohelp you would jeopardize our existence. It is sufficient that youare aware that there is a problem.’ replied the Collective.
‘So you areafraid of upsetting some Power that may have a vested interest incausing a catastrophe here. This gets so frustrating at times.Everybody tells me a small part of the whole and I have to blunderalong triggering events that can be lethal. Okay I’ll
