‘It’s secretdruid lore. I’m afraid I can’t tell you.’ she said mildlyannoyed.
‘I told you thesecret mind wizard lore that helped you overcome your mother. Whycan’t you tell me your secret lore my love.’ asked Aquitain.
‘Don’t push meAquitain. My mother was always pushing and prodding me to do thingsthat I didn’t want to do. I love you but I won’t have you forcingme to do things that are not right. I won’t go against The Lady’srules. I won’t reveal her secrets.’
Suddenly asecond Miranda appeared with Allalanllea beside her.
‘Hello mother.Hello Tain. I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you at the Jeti village. Ihad problems first with the new High Druid and then with my motherwho seemed to want to keep me locked up for some reason. Now I cansee why.’
Aquitain gavethe hand signal to mindlink and only the second Miranda respondedso he linked with her and saw that her spirit aura had the samecharacteristics as he remembered but had gone orange in colour, asFeatherdown had noted.
‘What is apassion flower?’ he asked through the link.
‘The greatestgift I have ever been given. Your love.’ she replied. ‘I’m sorry Icouldn’t escape. She had me locked up. Allalanllea released me whenshe saw you were here.’
‘Won’t thatcause a lot of trouble between her and your mother?’ he asked.
‘Yes. She’llhave to leave with us, as it would be too dangerous to stay. Shehas been my one true friend all my life. She couldn’t bear seeingmy mother destroy you knowing how much you mean to me. It is herparting present to us.’
Aquitain wasabout to say that he already knew that her mother was pretending tobe Miranda and suspected that her mother knew that he knew who shewas. It was a nasty mind game perhaps to see how smart he was oreven to test Allalanllea’s loyalty.
This time theQueen had won. Allalanllea had sided with Miranda and was thereforeno longer trustworthy. He decided to not reveal that he knew theQueen had been pretending to be Miranda.
Queen Snowbellechanged back to her own nymph form and laughed. ‘Well that was funwasn’t it? Who knows what would have happened if my little plotwasn’t revealed by one of my most trusted servants.’ she saidsarcastically while looking at Allalanllea.
‘You went toofar this time Snowbelle.’ said Allalanllea.
‘I’ve seen howyou kill wizards and I won’t be a party to you destroying yourdaughter’s future. She is too precious to me. We are leaving and Ihope you won’t try to stop us as I know your every weakness and Iwill not hesitate to exploit them. Don’t bother to call the guardsas I have already dealt with them.’
‘So the traitorfinally reveals herself.’ replied Snowbelle bitterly.
‘I won’t stopyou leaving. In fact I’m glad to be rid of you. But know that Iwon’t forget this act of betrayal. You had better be watchingcarefully over your shoulder for one day I will appear and you willregret this day a thousand times over.’
‘I very muchdoubt it. You’ve changed from the person I first came to serve.You’ve become much too bitter and twisted and dare I say chaotic. Iwould have left much earlier had it not been for fear of what youmight do to Miranda.’ replied Allalanllea.
‘What aboutyou, my precious daughter? I saved your life a couple of days agoand you repay me by conspiring with traitors?’
‘Don’t go onmother. You probably only saved me so that you could get back atAquitain in some way for defeating you in your mind battle withhim. You still don’t get it do you? I love him and I’m going to bewith him regardless of what you want.’
‘Don’t you wantto be Queen of Argenta one of these days? Will you forsake that forhim?’ asked the Queen.
‘Yes I will.’she said defiantly.
‘Then how doyou expect to have him remove the tattoo?’ asked the Queen.
‘What do youmean?’ replied Miranda.
The Queen wasmomentarily confused then laughed. ‘He hasn’t told you the thirdcondition for lifting the tattoo, has he?’
‘No. He said hewould tell me when I needed to know.’ replied Miranda.
‘Then he hadbeen doubly deceiving you.’ said the Queen. ‘And that is notsurprising for a wizard.’
Aquitainrealized that he might be in trouble here. She was very cocky. Hesuspected that she might know about what had happened at the Jetivillage the previous night. It wouldn’t be surprising if she hadspies there. He would have to be very careful.
‘I have neverdeceived you Miranda.’ he said forcefully.
‘Then whydidn’t you tell her that the tattoo could only be lifted by thehands of a king?’
‘What!’exclaimed Miranda, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that?’
‘I didn’t tellyou because I didn’t want you coveting your mother’s throne. I toldyou I’m searching for my father. He is or was a king of a realm inYith territory but was exiled. If I can reclaim his lands I willhave my own throne to offer you? I was saving it as asurprise.’
‘Then you’re aprince.’ said Miranda. ‘See mother we don’t need your throne.’
‘Ha talkingabout reclaiming a kingdom is a lot harder than doing it. It couldtake a lifetime and all that time you will be sitting aroundwaiting for him to remove your tattoo while he’s out sleeping withany female that meets his fancy.’
‘You wouldn’tdo that would you Aquitain?’ said Miranda with a trusting look onher face.
‘I would notknowingly do it my love but if I wasn’t careful and was druggedinto believing someone else was you then I might be deceived intosleeping with someone else.’
‘Mother, youdidn’t?’
‘No, Miranda Ididn’t but it seems your boyfriend has a liking for littlereptilian females. It must be the clatter of the scales or perhapsthe hissing as he copulates with them.’
‘Aquitain youcouldn’t. You wouldn’t ?’
‘Unfortunatelyyour mother is correct. I did. I was drugged with a potion andthought that I was making love to you.’ he said.
‘The age-oldexcuse for depravity; I was drugged and didn’t know what I wasdoing; A typical excuse for a wizard. They will use any excuse orany trick to get a woman to lie with them and then deny anyknowledge of any wrong doing. That’s the creature that you loveMiranda.’
‘Stop it motherI want to
