‘What’s up?’said Yllandril. ‘Are you afraid that he might see what’s happeningwithin our beautiful Elendari society? Trixies don’t seem to growas tall as they once did. In the last fifty years they’ve beengetting smaller and many are malformed. No one seems to know why.They’ve also split into factions. Many believe that the pact withthe previous Warden of Moonmist has failed and they are beingunjustly punished for some misdeed. Some have even gone to join theHidden ones. However, there are still many that serve thethrone.’
‘It is not onlythe Trixies; a lot of the other magical creatures seem to bechanging as well. Some are growing larger; some species are havingmainly male offspring, others mainly female. It’s almost as ifthere was some type of curse on the land. I was investigating someof the problems before the chaotic spirit possessed me. It’sunlikely to have improved in my absence.’
Aquitainthought about what had happened. Llanlorian knew that something waswrong but not what it was. Llanlorian was interested in what he wasdoing and had provided a minder in the form of Slivver. TheMoonmist Collective had tipped him off that something catastrophicwas likely to happen soon and had hired Glammer to look after him.They had made him their new Warden of Moonmist. Was there reallysome type of curse on the land that the Moonmist Collective waspowerless to fix?’
‘OK. I’ll do itbut let’s see the magic items that you’ve found first.’ he saidhoping that some of his teleport rings would be amongst them.
Llalorax agreedand he walked over to the corner of the room and returned with acloth sack and poured the items onto the table. All of Aquitain’sitems were there except for his betrothal rings and his rings ofteleport. There were several other rings, some bracers, a couple ofmagic daggers, a translation crystal, a small pair of golden wingsand some potions.
‘You haven’tseen a golden mask that looks a bit like a cat face by chance andtwo rings, one of emerald and one of ruby.’ said Aquitain.
‘Er .. I mighthave seen the mask but not the rings.’ replied Llalorax and hewalked over and removed it from a drawer. ‘Is this it?’
Aquitain couldhardly believe his eyes. He touched it and contacted itmentally.
‘Hello again.’it replied.
‘You’re the onethat threatened to destroy me.’
‘Yes,’ repliedAquitain, ‘but you can rest easy for a while. I don’t intend todestroy you now.’
‘What are youdoing?’ asked Llalorax watching curiously.
‘The mask wasmade by a mind wizard. It can understand mindspeak commands andanswer simple questions about itself. It was used to cause a lot oftrouble on Mudrun. I have the feeling that it was bait to get methere, although I’m not sure why.’
He then askedthe mask the question he should have asked before.
‘Who madeyou?’
‘Sol Theolaurmade me.’ replied the mask.
‘And when didyou last communicate with him?’
‘When I waslast used to dominate some beasts.’
‘Was it beforeor after I last talked to you?’
‘It was beforewe talked.’
‘Do you contacthim every time you are used?’
‘Yes.’ said themask. ’If I have enough charge.’
‘How do youcommunicate with him?’
‘A Sending atlocal midnight.’
‘That’s myGranddad.’ thought Aquitain.
‘The cunningold fox! He just has to know what’s happening all the time. Nowonder he knew where to send me to find the mask. He just waitedfor a sending then scried the mask’s location. He even gets a fixon the local time. He must be getting a bit worried by now as ithasn’t been used since we were on Mudrun. He won’t know where weare. Ha. That’ll annoy him. No wonder no one’s showed up to rescueus yet.’
‘What is itsaying?’ asked Llalorax.
‘It seems thatit subtly tracks the user informing my Grandfather when and whereit’s being used. However it hasn’t told him that it’s on Moonmistyet.’
‘What are yougoing to do with it? ’
‘Take it back Iguess. Although not until after I sort out the currentsituation.’
After checkingthe magic items, Aquitain decided take the ring of illusion. Hecould create an image of a Trixie around himself without using anyof his own power, which might be needed later.
A little later,Llalorax and Yllandril helped him create a reasonable illusion of aTrixie and teleported him to the palace with the name of a trixiehe should meet.
**
Miranda sat onthe grass outside the wooden hut. She was disoriented. It was aterrible nightmare. She had just been released from the malignspirit’s prison cage and led to this place by a kindly old Elendariman that had the bearing of a wizard.
She was stillhaunted by the illusion the spirit had shown her of her own handschoking the little girl to death. Her home had been invaded andlooted by Darkmantle’s people. They had captured, maimed or killedmany people and creatures that had been her friends.
Where was hermother? Had she been killed? No, that’s not possible. She had beenwaylaid or tricked somehow into staying away while they attacked.She had to save the survivors or she could never live withherself.
Yllandril usedher healing magic to put Miranda to sleep. The girl was exhaustedand needed rest above all. Later she might have to look into hermind to see what damage the possession had done.
Miranda vaguelynoticed that a stone spider was minding her for the wizard. Ittalked into her mind. She was safe now. Soothing thoughts. Rest.Sleep. You are safe. She dozed off and awoke several hours laterlying on the grass with a blanket over her.
She felt restedand considerably fresher but the terrible thoughts of thedestruction of her home hovered in the back of her mind. She had toatone for what she had done. Darkmantle had to pay. She wantedvengeance. She sat and meditated for the first time since theHuntmaster had captured her. She needed her strength and magic backfor what she had to do.
Yllandril spenthours practicing controlling her legs and working on orienting hernew vision. She discovered something special about her new vision.By carefully filtering the light entering her body using theability Aquitain had taught her, when she looked at people shecould faintly see their spirit auras. She had heard that a fewmaster healers after a lifetime of work had claimed to be able todo this.
It wasexciting. She was
