The guardholding the trixie swore, released one of the trixie’s legs to pullout his own dagger and in doing so lowered the trixie withinstriking range of his own body. The little fellow didn’t waste theopportunity and punched the guard as hard as he could in the groin.The guard gave a scream dropped the trixie on his head and fell tohis knees clutching his injured parts. The trixie nimbly stood upbowed to Miranda and scrambled into a hole at the base of the mazewall.
Miranda heardfootsteps running down the path. She gave Yllandril a hurriedinstruction to hang on, waved at the maze wall to cancel theentangle magic and then promptly walked through the five pace thickhedge wall to the other side without being scratched by the thorns.Yllandril was astounded.
‘How did you dothat? The thorn bush actually parted in front of you and closed upbehind.’
Mirandagrinned.
‘There are somesecrets that druids don’t divulge.’ and said no more as she walkedup the path breathing in the beautiful scented air and stoppingoccasionally to have a closer look at one of the glowing flowers.Yllandril acted like a tour guide. She gave Miranda a runningdescription of every flower and discussed the features of the maze,the clothes of the couples they passed and anything else that cameinto her mind as she guided her towards the main pathway.
Once on themain walkway through the maze she came upon much more traffic.Young singles hurried along with expectant faces on the way to asecret meeting, couples slowly walking along arm-in-arm withblissful expressions lost in each other’s company and groups offour or six strolling along chatting and laughing. Occasionallysomeone gawked at Miranda and her pet spider but most acted as ifshe was invisible.
Further alongthe path she came to a long narrow table standing against one ofthe moonbeam lit maze walls. On it were a selection of drinks,sweets and fruits many of which Miranda had never seen. Shelingered for a couple of minutes trying little pieces of everythingthen noticed someone coming around the corner twenty paces away whoshe didn’t want to meet. It was Lord Darkmantle. She quickly duckedstraight into the center of the thorn bush wall and stoppedstill.
Using themindlink she explained to Yllandril that she had seen LordDarkmantle and asked her to listen in to the conversation. Theywaited for a minute or two until Darkmantle’s group of six walkedup to the table. He offered them all refreshments as if he hadpersonally paid for them and stood chatting.
Yllandrildidn’t translate word for word but told Miranda the gist of theconversation. The young Lord asked what Darkmantle thought aboutthe magic being cast in the throne room. Darkmantle said that theQueen’s people had examined the scene and found nothing damaged.They put it down to a prank by some young fellow trying to impresshis friends or some young woman.
Another Lordsaid that he heard that the trixies were singing for the first timein over forty years. He wondered what it meant. Darkmantle saidthat they were happy, as there was to be a special announcement atthe Ball. Another asked whether it was true that he had capturedthe rebel’s gateworld. This surprised a couple of them. Darkmantlesaid they would get answers to that question at the Spring Ball.Then the group moved on and Yllandril couldn’t hear anymore.
‘Well it seemsDarkmantle has all the answers. Doesn’t it?’ whisperedYllandril.
‘He certainlyseems very confident. He’s got something planned for sure. I wonderwhat the special announcement is going to be?’
Miranda stoodthinking deeply about the implications of what Darkmantle had saidwhen felt something touch her leg. She glanced down and saw twotrixies standing beside her, looking up. One pointed at the thornbush, which was leaning away from her and said something, whichYllandril translated as
‘How do youtell the thorn bushes to let you pass?’
Miranda askedYllandril to tell them that the thorn bushes were her friends anddidn’t wish to impede her way. This obviously impressed them. Theythen asked why she was standing in the middle of their pathway. Shelooked down and saw a narrow trixie sized pathway passing throughthe middle of the maze wall. Yllandril told them that they werelooking for Bellen. So the trixies told her to follow them and offthey went. Miranda had to walk crouched over more to keep sight ofthem rather than worry about the thorn bush as it always partedwherever she went and closed behind her.
After about tenminutes of walking the thorn bush wall ended at a stone wall withdoorway into the palace. Miranda ducked to enter into the passagebut was stopped by three trixies wearing leather armour andcarrying trixie size swords.
‘We wish to seeBellen.’ commanded Yllandril. ‘Why do you bar our way?’
One answered.‘Bellen is busy. State your name and business and we will seewhether he wishes to see you or not.’
‘We areYllandril and Dragonfly. We are friends of Bellen and wish todiscuss certain matters about the ball with him.’
One of thetrixie guards left while the other two barred the way.
‘This is verystrange.’ whispered Yllandril
‘I’ve neverseen trixies dressed for a fight at the palace. They obviouslythink something is going to happen at the Ball.’
A minute or twolater the guard returned with another trixie who asked them tofollow quickly which was difficult for Miranda as the height of thepassageway was lower than her shoulders. She had to run alongcrouched over. She briefly considered changing into a cat or dogbut thought that might scare them so she kept to her Newmanform.
As she ran downthe corridor she could hear a commotion ahead. She came to anintersection and turned the corner to see a large group of twentyor more trixies with their backs to her mainly armed with pots,pans or small cooking knives using a large over turned table toblock the corridor. The edges of the table were scarred by clawmarks and missing chunks. On the other side was something ferociousgrowling and butting against the table moving it closer to theintersection.
It didn’t takemuch imagination what would happen then. It would be able to getaround the makeshift wall and amongst the trixies. Miranda quicklyknelt down and started to sing a
