Darkmantle looked atthe crowd. They all knew what would happen if anyone approached thethrone. There was excitement in the air.
‘Okay.’ repliedDarkmantle with a cunning smile.
‘Have it your way. Isuggest Her Majesty, Queen Miranda goes first.’
Miranda nodded.
‘I accept. I will gofirst.’
Llalorax ordered thearena closed and the wooden floor slowly slid out of its housingand covered the arena to the excited chatter of the crowd. Whenclosed Llalorax gave Miranda a nod and she started to walk to thethrone then remembered that the bronze statutes would probably tryto stop her. She went to the line on the floor and stepped over.The eyes of the front two statues opened. She took another step andthe statues turned to face her. One more step and they wouldprobably charge.
‘This should beinteresting.’ said Terrin to Aquitain using mindspeak.
‘You must not help heror she will be disqualified.’
Aquitain was nervous.I hope she knows what she’s doing he thought as he heard somescratching behind his back. He diverted his sight to the rear andnoticed two spider legs appear at the rear side of the crown thatwere soon followed by the rest of Yllandril.
‘So there you are.What’s been keeping you? We watched you for hours and were worriedthat something must have happened to you.’
‘It did, but I’ll haveto tell you later. Are you mindlinked with Miranda andLlalorax?’
‘Of course, I’ll linkyou in.’ replied Yllandril then joined Aquitain to watch thespectacle.
Miranda hesitated andthought damn them they’re all waiting to see me fight four animatedstatues. Well they’re not going to get the opportunity this time.She banged the staff loudly on the floor, the noise reverberatedthrough the hall and heightened the tension. There was absolutequiet as everyone held their breath in apprehension.
Miranda sang a fewdruidic words and two monstrous great creatures of fire appeared infront of her.
‘Protect me.’ Shecommanded in druidic as she strode forward to the throne. The twoclosest bronze statues raised their four weapons and stiffly butquickly moved with metallic footsteps ringing on the stone floor toattack her. The two great fire elementals stepped forward andblocked their approach so the statues attacked the fire creatures,which in turn simply wrapped themselves around their metalattackers.
Each statue got hotterand soon began to glow a cherry red colour as they struggled tobreak free until suddenly they simply sagged, melting into a poolof flaming red metal on the floor. The remaining two statues becameactive and quickly attacked the fire creatures but the result wasthe same. A brief struggle and two more pools of hot metal.
Miranda stood in frontof the throne flanked by the two fire creatures. She was an awesomesight with the flame reflecting off her golden armour and glowingcloak. Even Darkmantle couldn’t help being impressed. She was aboutto place her hand upon an arm of the throne when both throne armsburst into fire. At first she thought that it must be an illusionbut when she moved her hand to touch the arm of the throne shecould feel the intense heat. She turned to one of the firecreatures and pointing to one arm of the throne she said.
‘Quench thatflame.’
The creature steppedto the throne touched the arm with one of its flaming arms and thefire extinguished. It then stepped backwards but before she couldplace her hand on the arm it began burning again.
This must be part ofthe test she thought so she placed her hand on the burning thronearm. She screamed as the flames ran up her arm and quickly spreadover her entire body. The pain was excruciating but there wassomething wrong she wasn’t actually burning. She couldn’t smellburning flesh and her chest couldn’t be burning because she waswearing radiant armour which should protect her against firedamage.
It hit her then thatthe fire must be a mind magic enhanced illusion like those used totorture her. It could be controlled. She fought against the pain byimagining herself immersed in a cool mountain stream. The flamessuddenly cooled to freezing. She began to shiver all over. Not thatcold she thought.
She grabbed a mentalimage of lying in the pleasant warm water in the arms of Aquitainlike when she had power narcosis. The flames warmed up to a cosylevel and she had it under control.
She turned to face thepeople and standing between two fire creatures with flames leapingall over her body clamped her hand on the arm of the throne againand said in a loud voice.
‘I submit totesting.’
‘Very impressiveMiranda.’ whispered Terrin to Aquitain who was in a mild state ofshock.
‘That’s my Queen.Isn’t she amazing?’ replied Aquitain proudly.
Moments later everyoneheard a great booming voice in his or her mind.
‘You are acceptable!’said Terrin and the dragon throne’s eyelids opened revealing twolarge illusory golden eyes as big as dinner plates that reflectedthe depths of time.
‘I knew you set thisup.’ said Aquitain really excited.
‘I didn’t but we mightas well help Miranda out.’ replied Terrin.
A great murmur aroseamong the Lords and Ladies and they realized the throne was activeagain. What did that portend? Some were jubilant others dazed andstill others worried. Many trixies came out to witness the miraclebut they were confused. Who was this outsider? What washappening?
Miranda could see thatwhile the throne had accepted her, the people were still undecidedand hesitant. Perhaps she was being too aloof. She needed some ofthem on her side.
She saw Bellen edge tothe front of the crowd. He didn’t recognize her. Then sheremembered that they had never seen her real face. She dismissedthe fire creatures and changed the fire glamour into the one thatthey would know. She became Dragonfly. The trixies suddenlyrealized who she was and began jumping around jubilantly.
‘It’s Dragonfly, itsDragonfly the great druid Queen.’ They shouted ignoring the dirtylooks from the Lords and Ladies.
‘She’s come to save usall.’ And dozens of them all swarmed up to her kneeling down infront of her. The Lords and their ladies were mystified. No one inliving memory could remember a sight like this. It worriedthem.
‘She was in the prisonbottle. I walked right past her.’ muttered Aquitain.
Darkmantle couldn’tbelieve his eyes. It was Dragonfly. She had deceived him. She hadwalked around amongst his people, learnt his secrets and he hadnever suspected. She had
