She thought toherself, I should kiss him on the nose, so she did. Then shethought. Now, I’ll strangle him. She moved her hands to his throatthen her mind and her hands froze.
‘What’shappening?’ she asked with a hint of fear.
‘I just madetwo mental suggestions to you to illustrate a point. The first wasto kiss me on the nose and the second was to strangle me. The firstyou did without question as it was natural and normal to do. Thesecond was not, so your mind questioned it and stopped it fromhappening.’
‘This morningbefore I went to your mother’s place I visited Featherdown. He wasvery upset that you had killed so many of your own defencelesscolleagues. He said that Quab is heartbroken and is seekingatonement for not guiding you properly.’
‘I wasn’t happyabout it either although I can understand your predicament. But itdidn’t seem like you so Featherdown and I visited the sanctuarywhere the fight took place and did what’s called a magic residueanalysis. When you’ve practiced magic for a long time you can smellthe type of magic that was used in a location. There was strongpriest magic there. I was killed not by Curbut’s wizard magic butby a very powerful blast of lawful priestly fire cast on me by apriest.’
‘But I didn’tsee any priest there.’ exclaimed Miranda.
‘I would havedefinitely killed him first and felt no guilt, as it would havebeen a profanity for a priest to attack a druid in a sanctuary ofThe Lady.’
‘Exactly mypoint!’ said Aquitain.
‘We think thatthe priest remained invisible possibly with the help of a ring ofinvisibility. He or she saw Featherdown arrive and paralyse yourdruid colleagues. No priest would be silly enough to take on anArch Wizard so he kept quiet and watched. When Featherdown left youalone, you examined my body and found me dead. You were mentallydistressed and the priest slipped a suggestion into your mind tokill your colleagues. You did it without question and then onlylater when you calmed down you realized what you had done and feltguilty about it.’
‘But why woulda priest do a thing like that? They’re supposed to help and healpeople not harm them.’ said Miranda quite alarmed.
‘To further thecause of his or her deity I would suspect. Priests will do anythingin the name of their deity. Won’t you? It is relatively common inPanmagica for priests to use suggestions on their flock tomanipulate and control them and to be honest they’re damn hard todetect and block. Suggestions are excellent when somebody’s mind isconfused or distressed or simply too busy to question a strangethought. A smart wizard or priest can use them to great advantagein combat situations.’
‘For example ifyou broadcast a suggestion to your enemy that they are losing andhad better retreat you can dramatically reduce their morale.Alternatively, by suggesting to your allies that they are winningyou can increase their morale and change the outcome of a battle.The trick is to do it when their minds are occupied with otherproblems. If you do it when their minds are not busy then they candetect it and unless the suggestion is beneficial and normal likethe kiss on the nose they may reject it.’
‘But that’shorrible! Have you ever done it to me?’ asked Miranda.
‘Other than thetwo examples just now, no. The reason I have brought this up is toconvince you that both Featherdown and I are of the opinion thatthe priest tricked you into killing your colleagues. It won’tchange what happened but it might lessen your guilt and perhapsmake you less susceptible in the future.’
Miranda satthinking for a minute or two while Aquitain lay in her arms lookinginto her eyes. Eventually she said.
‘I don’t thinkI would like this city of Panmagica. It seems to me that with allthe charms, dominations and suggestions that half the people mustbe controlled by the other half.’
‘No I suspectthat it’s worse than that. My grandfather thinks that about eightout of every ten are controlled or affected in some way by thereligious faiths while the remaining two are mainly controlled bytheir own greed for gold. The religious faiths and merchants arealways fighting for control of the Council of Unity, which governsthe city, but the infighting amongst the faiths themselves forbelievers is where the most intense battles occur.’
‘Every coupleof months there are fights in the streets between priests orfollowers of one faith or another. Priests are known to hireassassins to murder their seniors or rivals so that they can risemore quickly within their hierarchies. Occasionally a temple of onefaith is sacked or raised by another. One thing is for sure anypriest that rises to the top is both tough and cunning. A priestgame enough to come to Mudrun illegally won’t blink at falselyincriminating you or worry about the deaths of your druidcolleagues.’
‘By The Lady Inever realized how lucky I am to be here in the jungle. I’d muchrather face fangs and claws or fly in howling gales than be foreverdefending my mind against intruders. How did you survive?’
‘My familysurvived by each trusting and watching over the other. I also hadAlpha to watch over me while I slept and to watch my back when Ileft the protection of our mansion or shop. If the Time of Chaoshas really arrived you are now my only protection and I yours. Wemust trust each other absolutely or we will not survive the comingstruggle.’
‘Then there isno time to waste. We must exchange our pledges.’
Aquitain satbolt upright.
‘You want toexchange pledges with me? What if I cannot remove the tattoo? Wewill never physically join and never be able to have children.’
‘If that occursthen it is the will of The Lady, however, I have faith in Her andin you my love. I know that She will guide us and you will find theway. Besides we can still make love mind to mind.’
‘I am not aprince, Mandy. I don’t know what my father is or does.
