‘Well it’ssimple. When you found and released Granite the whole game changed.Your reputation has shot up again and now you are in real danger. Italked to your father and he agrees that we cannot afford to leavesome of my memories in you and I must lock up and disguise othersin case you get caught by one of his enemies.’
‘So I am nowexpendable.’ said Aquitain.
‘No you are notexpendable to either me or your father. You are even more valuableto us. We will protect you as best we can. But you must realisethat there are many powers that would like to take what you have. Icannot be your guardian full time. I have other duties.’
‘Have you takenthe Divinity Seeds?’
‘No. You werenot supposed to know about your Divinity Seed for a long time. Younow have two. Nobody can take them unless they kill you first! Theyare your greatest danger. Nobody must know you have them. I’vedisguised them so they are not as obvious. You will need decadesperhaps centuries to learn all that is within them but you do nothave that luxury.’
‘You aregaining a name for yourself much too fast that endangers you.’
‘Are youexpecting to fight that elemental dragon?’ asked Aquitain.
‘No. That is unlikely.He is too powerful for me. However, his appearance will create allsorts of problems some of which will affect us. It’s best to beprepared.
Chapter 30 GardenParties
Miranda felt a lothappier after a hot meal and cup of tea. She gave Llalorax andYllandril a quick story on what had happened to her, leaving outthe special attention she had received from Prendergrass but shedid tell them about the attack on the gateworld while she waspossessed by the deranged spirit.
This reallyshocked Llalorax. He couldn’t understand why Snowbelle wasn’t thereto defend it or how they had managed to get in for that matter.Yllandril was curious as to why she didn’t lose her memory when shewas fed Moonmist food. Miranda told her that it was probablybecause she was a druid and they were immune to most poisons. Shetold them that she had heard that Darkmantle had something specialplanned for the Spring Ball. This didn’t seem to surprise either ofthem at all.
When she askedabout Aquitain again, Llalorax said that he would try to scry himat the palace. So the three of them went and sat apprehensively ina circle around the bucket in the darkened prison cell. Miranda’sheart beat so loud she thought that they would be deafened by it asLlalorax sprinkled some powder on the water and used a scryingpower. The water went misty and she saw two trixies on the edge ofa large room.
‘Which one isAquitain?’ she said with a panicky voice.
‘I suspect he’sthat malformed one, disguised with a trixie illusion. The other isBellen. I know him well.’ said Llalorax with a smile. ‘But just tobe sure let me give you the ability to see through illusions for ashort while.’
‘Don’t bother.’replied Miranda and she concentrated hard and disbelieved thetrixie illusion and the small green figure of Aquitainappeared.
‘By the Lady,he’s a small green statue! Why?’ she asked almost disbelieving hereyes.
‘I’ll leavethat for him to explain.’ said Yllandril with a smile.
It finally hitMiranda just how small he was. He could easily fit into her pocket.A part of her was relieved that he was near and okay but anotherpart was annoyed. In her mind she still had fresh memories of lyingin the warm embrace of power narcosis enclosed by his arms.
She rememberedthe passion flower and blushed. She wanted more than ever to cuddleinto his warm body and mindlink with him telling him about all herfears and problems so that he could make them go away. It wouldn’tbe quite the same if he were a little crystal man the size of achild’s toy.
They watchedbreathlessly as he walked past the vicious looking statues guardingthe throne and scouted around under the golden cloak. Llalorax toldthem how surprised he was that Aquitain could just walk past theguard statues without triggering them. Miranda commented thatAquitain used to make magic items so he probably knew some secretpassword.
At first thatcomment annoyed Llalorax, as it seemed like something a naïvenon-magic user might say. Then when he considered it, he knew verylittle about magic statue construction. Maybe there was a secretpassword that people who built magic statues used so that theycould communicate with their creations. He would have to askAquitain about that when he had the chance.
After watchingfor half an hour and seeing absolutely nothing happen Miranda wasgetting frustrated.
‘What’s hedoing under there, is he sleeping?’
‘Have patience.If he’s as expert as you believe he’s up to something. Perhaps he’sfound a hidden doorway. Maybe he’s trying to bypass a trap. Whoknows?’
Moments laterYllandril pointed into the bucket.
‘Look there’smovement on the top of the throne near the dragon crown. Llaloraxmoved their scrying globe a little closer so they could get abetter view but Aquitain was so small it was still hard to see whatwas happening.
‘I think he’sjust checking the crown.’ said Llalorax.
‘I got a closelook at it once. It’s made of stone painted with gold paint andembedded with ordinary looking crystals. Not much to look at closeup but looks like gold from a distance.’
Suddenly theyall jumped as a flash of lightning arced across the crown,momentarily turning the room an eerie blue colour followed closelyby a tremendous bang as a ball of flame blossomed like some hugeorange flower on the dragonhead. As the smoke cleared they heard amusical note of pure pitch and an explosion of glittering crystalshards, which rained all over the throne body and floor. The imagein the scrying pool faded.
‘Whathappened?’ asked Miranda excitedly.
‘Damn. Thescrying globe’s been spotted and dispelled by someone.’ repliedLlalorax.
‘But whathappened to Aquitain?’ shouted Miranda thinking about the explosionof crystal she had seen.
‘I don’t know.’said Llalorax. ‘but if he was killed I’m sure we would feel it. Ican’t believe the passing of a Warden of Moonmist would gounmarked. I’ll try to get him again.’
He tried acouple of times but couldn’t scry in the throne room at all. It wasbeing blocked. So he tried to scry for Bellen. This time he hadmore success. The trixie was in
