‘This is whereI became involved. His druid wife heard of the secret affair andwas very upset. Darkmantle’s house wizard asked Llalorax if I wouldcome and talk to her, as she was very strong willed, magicallyquite powerful and he was afraid for Darkmantle. I met her andgained her confidence. She said Darkmantle heard voices and she wasworried about his sanity. I suggested a mindlink to check her outfirst and that’s where the problem started.’
‘I found outshe was pregnant and the baby was half Elendari as might beexpected. I mistakenly thought her story about Darkmantle hearingvoices was imaginary and took no further action. She subsequentlyran off not long after the child was born.’
‘What I didn’trealize was that Darkmantle really was hearing voices. I was calledin to examine him about three years ago. The voices he heard wasfrom that malign spirit you destroyed. It had somehow without hisknowledge managed to invade his body but kept out of sight. It hadbeen making subtle suggestions to him all along.’
‘I suspect thatSindel had unknowingly brought it here. It had possessed her andsuggested she leave Mudrun and seek out the Elendari. Through herit had corrupted young Darkmantle into eliminating his brother andprobably his father. When he had control of the estate it hadpossessed him. I know this because it left him and possessedme.’
‘It took me tothe crypt area and from there I became a renegade. It began raidingsettlements belonging to some of the weaker Lords. They complainedto the Queen but she wouldn’t listen. Eventually it moved me intothe soul crystal and I heard no more. However, Llalorax has filledme in on what happened next.
While in mybody, it kept raiding larger and larger villages and committingterrible atrocities that the Queen had to take notice. Eventually,it must have possessed someone else and left my body behind asevidence that the Llanlleans were involved. When the Queen and theother Lords’ saw that it was my body confidence in Llalorax fell.They probably felt he was somehow involved and began to distrusthim.’
‘Furtherattacks leaving behind other Llanllean bodies has eroded theirconfidence in him and our people to the present point where he hasbeen imprisoned and our people are being outlawed. All this nowmakes the Queen and the kingdom vulnerable. Llalorax is afraid theywill strike at the Queen at the ball in two days’ time.Unfortunately, he is bound by a geas to abide by the Queen’s willthat she has placed him here. He cannot leave except under the mostextraordinary circumstances. Consequently, it is up to us to saveher and expose the traitors.’
‘That’s greatYllandril but how do you expect to do that?’ asked Aquitain verydoubtful about the whole idea of saving the Queen that hadimprisoned him and had had his legs cut off.
‘Well I washoping that you would go to the palace and check out what’shappening while I learn to walk properly and see if I can help thispoor Dragonfly girl. Then I’ll join you at the ball and we’ll watchwhat happens. If the Queen gets into danger we’ll call Llalorax andhe’ll come and rescue her. He’s still the Queen’s guardian you knowand if she’s in danger that will override any command from her tostay away.’
Aquitainthought about it for a little while. It might actually work. Itwould also give him a chance to find out where Miranda and Zephirawere. Somebody knew and they were likely to be at the ball. Whoknows Miranda and Zephira might even turn up at the ball aswell.
‘How would Iget around the palace without being seen?’ he asked.
‘That’s easy.We’ll disguise you as a trixie. There are hundreds of them at thepalace. They do all the work there. They’ll be busy everywherepreparing for the ball. No one will notice an extra one wanderingaround. Besides the trixies swore a pact with the last Warden ofMoonmist. They will undoubtedly help you.’
‘Tell me aboutthe last Warden.’ asked Aquitain.
‘The lastWarden of Moonmist was created in a time of trouble over ninehundred years ago. His name was Granite and he defeated a greatchaotic creature that plagued the land at the time.’ statedLlalorax.
‘What sort ofcreature was it?’ asked Aquitain.
‘That’s thecurious thing.’ replied Llalorax.
‘We don’t know.All the records were destroyed or have disappeared. No one seems toknow or care for that matter. You see after he fixed the problem,Granite established the dragon throne to arbitrate problems andensure that only just people became kings or queens thendisappeared. The throne served us well until about fifty years agowhen it suddenly stopped communicating on the eve of a SpringBall.’
’Both my kinand the trixies had a pact with the Warden to serve the throne. TheLlanlleans were to be the royal guardians and the trixies the royalservants. In return, the throne would protect and ensure that boththe Llanlleans and Trixies were treated as equals and left inpeace.’
‘That is why Ihave served as the Royal wizard for the past twenty-two years andmy sister Llanlorian has served as guardian of the first gate.Anllelis, another Llanllean, was guardian of the second gate untilkilled by the rebel Snowbelle and Yllandril was the royal healeruntil she became a rebel. The situation has deteriorated sincethen. Few trust me or other Llanlleans anymore and the Trixies aretreated abominably.’
Aquitain wasgetting a bad feeling about all this. What did they expect him todo? He wasn’t a great fighter. He’d hardly inspire the Trixies togreat deeds looking like a toy statue.
‘Don’t youthink I’m a bit small to pass for a trixie? They’re at least fourtimes as big as I am.’ stated Aquitain.
‘What about anillusion?’ suggested Llalorax. ‘The magic is so strong illusionsare almost real on Moonmist. There will be a lot of wizardfamiliars around. They often dress like pixies for a bit of fun. Soyou would appear to be a familiar pretending to be a trixie ifanyone sees through your disguise.’
‘But then
