‘Some type ofcontingency magic I would guess.’ suggested Featherdown.
‘Contingencyeffects usually teleport the person away to some place of safetywhen activated and only then if the person is badly damaged. Ifcutting his tongue out didn’t activate the contingency magic thenit must have been something later. Being near fatally stabbed byMiranda certainly would have activated it but then he wouldn’t havebeen able to take the druid prisoner with him.’
Aquitainthought about the possibilities for a minute.
‘Have youconsidered that there might have been someone else there thatstayed out of sight. Why send twenty-three people with six teleportrings when you can just as easily send twenty-four. The druids hadtheir weapons burning with blue flame. I was burnt badly by acolumn of blue divine flame. I’ll bet that there was a priestthere.’
‘It’s possibleI suppose.’ replied Featherdown with a thoughtful look on hisface.
‘Curbutattacked me with a holy symbol and I assumed that he must have beenresponsible for the blue flame on the weapons. But if you wereattacked by divine fire then it is certainly more likely that therewas a priest there. That person might also have released theprisoner and helped Curbut escape or even removed Curbut’s body andresurrected him elsewhere.’
‘By the Powers,it’s useful to have someone else here that can think. Let’s go downto the sanctuary and sniff around a little and see if we can detectany divine magic residues. I can easily tell the difference betweendruid and priestly magic.’
UsingFeatherdown’s teleport circle they visited the sanctuary arrivingin the dark just outside Quab’s empty cottage. Featherdown walkedaround a little then stopped.
‘I think it wasabout here where I was standing.’ then he created a small yellowflame on one of his fingers and used it as a torch to examine theground.’
‘Yes here itis. I dropped a marble to mark my location for a trick I sometimespull on opposing wizards.’ He bent down collected the marble,extinguished the flame and stood remembering his part in thefight.
‘I stood hereand asked them to cease fighting. Your body was over theresurrounded by several druids still attacking it. Curbut stood overthere watching. After I spoke someone rudely told me to get lostand Curbut swung around and attacked me with a holy symbol. Istopped time for a few seconds. I examined everyone’s spirit aurasthen using a power that disabled them all. Miranda arrived and Ileft.’
Featherdownstood for a few moments then continued.
‘Do you knowwhat was really strange? Normally people’s spirit auras have acolour indicating their leaning towards benevolence or malevolence,order or chaos. The spirit auras of all the druids appeared brightblue indicating order and untainted by malign influences.’
‘Miranda, Quaband I were all dull orange indicating a leaning towards chaos butyour spirit aura was floating outside your body and was the puregreen of absolute neutrality. I would have guessed that you of allpeople would have been chaotic.’
Aquitainrecalled the image of Miranda’s spirit aura that he had rememberedwhen she first allowed him to mindlink with her. It was a beautifulgreen colour. If Featherdown was right she had become more chaoticas she spent time with him. That wasn’t surprising but why shouldhe have a neutral spirit aura if everyone believed that he was anAgent of Chaos? He would have to think about that when he had achance.
Both he andFeatherdown examined the ground where Curbut had stood. There waslarge black patch indicating a pool of blood that had soaked intothe ground.
‘If this isCurbut’s blood there’s so much here I’d say he would have died orbeen damn close to it.’ said Featherdown. ‘It’s certainlyconsistent with him being beheaded by Miranda as she claimed at hertrial.’
They thenlooked at the large circle of burnt ground where Aquitain had beenkilled. One sniff told both of them that powerful divine magic hadbeen used there.
‘No doubt aboutit. That is the smell of divine fire.’ said Featherdown. ‘There wasa priest here. The bastard! Curbut probably made him invisible andhe watched as they were all killed then when Miranda and Quabweren’t watching he removed Curbut’s body and resurrected him togive evidence against her at the trial.’
‘I wonder whathappened to Quab’s prisoner. If she’s still alive we might be ableto find out from her what happened. Mmm. I’ll look into that butfirst I’ll have to find Quab. He was so upset about Miranda killingall those druids and using the Miracle scroll that he left to spendtime in the wilderness to find peace and atone for some perceivedguilt in not providing proper spiritual guidance to her.’
‘This creates anew problem.’ said Aquitain.
‘Why didn’t thepriest stop Miranda from killing all the druids? We would normallyexpect a priest to try and stop unnecessary killings unless he hadsome other motive. Maybe he wanted her to kill them so that shewould have a case against her. Maybe he even put the suggestioninto her mind. Alternatively a mind wizard or even a powerfulwizard could put a suggestion of that type in her mind.’ andAquitain looked thoughtfully at Featherdown.
Featherdownrealized that Aquitain was thinking that he could have put thesuggestion in her mind.
‘Don’t eventhink it Aquitain. I might have been a fool for not making up mymind to help sooner but I’ve never been a traitor to a friend and Iclass both Miranda and you as friends.’
‘Then when willyou do something about it!’ said Aquitain. ‘We obviously have apowerful and dangerous priest loose in Mudrun and yoursecond-in-command Wizard Curbut is in league with him. The bastardhas killed me twice now. I won’t wait around to be killed again byhim! My power has increased substantially since last we talked. Dosomething about him or I will.’
‘I do not takekindly to threats even from friends.’ replied Featherdownforcefully.
‘I do not takekindly being killed twice in your backyard!’ said Aquitain just asforcefully.
‘For that I amtruly sorry. I will make it my highest priority to find this priestand bring that bastard Curbut to justice. I say again I consideryour grandfather as a staunch friend. I am not happy that he haschosen to stir up trouble in my backyard but I will support him andyou in your quest.’
Aquitaindecided to give Featherdown the benefit of
