‘Whatever youfeel comfortable as my love.’ she replied.
‘I think I’dlike to be a spider for a while.’ he said to see her reaction.
‘As you wish,my love.’ she replied so he changed to his spider form. She didn’tflinch but instead smiled.
‘If you’retrying to test my reactions just remember the Royal Wizard is aLlanllean like you. I’ve seen her many times in her spider form.Come to my home I’ve got a surprise for you.’ and she disappearedthrough the gateway. Aquitain followed not sure what to think.
She was waitingfor him in a poorly lit rocky passageway on the other side of thegateway. She touched his leg and they were teleported to a largerectangular room that was comfortable and homely. It was lit withseveral yellow magic globes and had hand woven autumn coloured rugson the floor and tapestries depicting jungle scenes on the wallswith pictures of animal drawings and paintings pinned to them.
At one endthere was an extensive bookshelf containing a large number ofbooks, an open cupboard cluttered with bottles, packets of herbs,roots, bark and berries; and a desk covered with maps and scrollsheld in place by several small statues of animals.
At the otherend was a wooden dining table large enough to seat twenty peopleand about a dozen chairs. The table was cluttered with all sorts ofodds and ends, some judging by the build-up of dust on them thatlooked like they had been there for a considerable time.
Aquitainchanged shape to his small Newman form, reformed his chaos matteramulet as a wizard tunic and sat on one of the lounges.
‘Would you likea hot drink?’ asked Miranda as she sat beside him.
‘A brew wouldbe nice.’ he replied looking around. ‘Now what’s thissurprise?’
‘I’ve deposedmother.’
‘I’m now Queenof Argenta or I will be soon after the ceremony and you can be myking. That will take care of one of the conditions for lifting mycursed tattoo. Then we can use a wizard’s wish to change you to aNewman. You can lift this damn curse and we’ll make love for a weeksolid.’
‘Whoa. What didyou do to your mother?’ he asked cautiously.
‘Nothing yet!You must have heard she saved me from being killed by the Druid’sCouncil. Well she was very tired by the time we returned here. Icaught her unprepared and dominated her then forced her to renounceher thrown to me. I wanted to ask you what we should do with her.You can choose her fate my love.’
Aquitain wassurprised at this news and became a little suspicious. He had nevertold Miranda about the third condition for lifting her cursedtattoo and he never taught Miranda how to use a domination poweronly how to defend against a domination attack but her mother wouldnever have known these things. He decided to play along for a whileto see what information he could get out of her before she becamesuspicious.
He sat on herlap and snuggled into her with her arms wrapped around him andkissed her on the side of the neck.
‘You’re growingsmarter and more beautiful everyday my love. You mentioned awizard’s wish. That is the most powerful power available to awizard. Wishes are also rare and quite dangerous if not properlyused. How are you to get one of those?’
‘I know ofsomeone who has a ring of wishes. We will try to convince her tolet us have one. Failing that we can try the High Wizard’s friendGranwell. I’ve heard he knows how to use the power. There must besomething that we can do for him to get him to use one on you.’
‘That soundswonderful my love. Do you think that I could question your motherabout the little people? I got the hint that there’s some type ofprophesy about them doing something in the future. I’m sure thatshe’d know all about it.
Featherdownalso caught a strange looking one wandering around in Twin Towerslast night ’
Miranda thoughtfor a few seconds then replied.
‘There’s noneed to worry about asking my mother, my love. There is a prophecyand my mother told me about it several times over the years. Itrambles on a bit but basically says that one day the greatest heroof the little people will have a child with a great heroine of thelittle people and that child will unite the little people as oneand lead them to a great victory in the Time of Chaos.’
‘That soundsinteresting.’ said Aquitain, ‘and what about this strange creaturewandering about in Twin Towers last night. I had a look at it. Itlooks like a brown scaled little person but is really ugly like aGargoyle and kind of hunched over. What do you think that couldbe?’
Miranda wasstill for a few seconds thinking and then said
‘It sounds likeit could be one of the outcasts. They look like terribly mutatedlittle people. However, it would be quite unusual to find one hereas they live in the mountains in Moonmist and rarely venture out.It would be quite strange for one of them to come to Mudrun letalone be found in Twin Towers. Perhaps it has something to do withthe Time of Chaos?’
Before he couldask her anything more the Royal Wizard appeared carrying a traywith a golden jug of brew and a pair of golden goblets.
‘Thank youAllalanllea.’ said Miranda. ‘You may go.’
‘Let’s have adrink to our future together my love.’ she said to Aquitain pouringout two goblets of brew and handing one to him.
‘Is thisAquitain the bear?’ asked Allalanllea with a curious expression onher face
‘Yes he’schanged a little.’ replied Miranda. ‘You may go Allalanllea. I wishto be alone with him.’
‘Yes YourMajesty.’ replied Allalanllea and teleported away.
Aquitainnoticed that Miranda seemed momentarily annoyed then quicklychanged her expression back to a happier disposition.
‘Tell me whyyou killed fifteen paralysed druids at the sanctuary after I diedMiranda.’ asked Aquitain.
She wasmomentarily confused then said. ‘I did it for you my love. Theykilled you so they deserved to die.’
‘How did youparalyse them all.’ he asked. ‘That would be a feat even forme.’
‘A trick Ilearned from my mother.’ she replied. ‘It doesn’t matter now. It’sfinished. It’s history. We can’t change anything. Let’s talk ofmore important things.’
‘I’d like tolearn how to do it for the next time
