‘I will examinethe site. I have a magic item that will tell me whether it is agateway and hopefully where it goes. If a gateway is there, I willseal it. If there is no gateway there, we will have to look a bitdeeper to find out where your bad spirits are coming from. I mayneed your help for that.’
Buluk thankedand left her to allow her to rest and mentally prepare for the taskahead. After a few minutes meditation where she prayed to thegoddess for success in the coming venture, she sought Buluk fordirections to the area then changed shape to a sea eagle and flewoff.
**
Just before dawn, theair was moist and the jungle was alive with birdcalls. An annoyedHuntmaster was standing in a relatively clear patch of jungle neara small creek.
On the otherside of the creek was a rock face embedded with magic runes and anopen gateway. He had given the four hunting teams specificinstructions to be back by dawn. Three had come back with a usefulquantity of animals, a couple of cats, a black bear, two wolves anda large python.
It was a prettymixed bag, but it might keep Lord Darkmantle happy. He had aninsatiable appetite for animals for fighting games and experiments.Most thought it had something to do with the druid woman he used tobe married to. The man had become mentally unstable after she lefthim. They felt he was punishing the animals as a way of gettingback at his wife who loved them. The Lord was now mixing with theYith lizard people who had an unknown agenda and the Huntmasterfelt that it was bound to lead to great trouble.
Just as thefirst rays of the sun penetrated the canopy trees, attacking theleaf litter on the ground with countless shafts of golden light, hesaw Fen Fang the wyvern, land in the small clearing just over thehill from the gate. He had given the ill-tempered creature an hourto find some food and hoped that it had fed well otherwise it wouldbe in a fouler mood than normal and that was bad enough.
He had recentlylost two Newman handlers to it. That made three altogether. Itshould have been killed after the first handler was eaten. It wasacting like it could do whatever it wanted. That was definitely notacceptable behaviour. They had to be kept under strict control atall times. His father, the old Huntmaster had taught him that andthe previous Lord Darkmantle knew that. The current Lord Darkmantleobviously didn’t care and it was costing lives.
Fen Fang hadcaught a small boar but was still hungry. It had come back at theallotted time but wasn’t happy about being ordered around by thenew Huntmaster. He always ordered the animals around. He alwayswanted control. The new Lord Darkmantle was much more lax. Fen Fangcould get away with a lot under the new Lord. He liked the new Lordas he sometimes came down and fed him animals and occasionallypeople when no one was looking. Maybe if he caught the Huntmasteroff guard he could eat him, then his troubles would be over. Nowthat was a nice thought.
Chapter 8 The TrixieOutcast
Aquitain and Allalanllea teleported up from thecave below the town to Featherdown’s door then went straight acrossto the Conjurer’s tower and knocked on the door until they got someattention. A gnome escorted them up to the wizard. They foundGranwell seated on a lounge in ostentatious pyjamas eatingbreakfast off a tray.
When he sawAllalanllea he put down the tray, stood up, clicked a finger andwas instantly clothed in his wizard gown. He bowed to Allalanlleaand walked over to her and shook her hand. Aquitain noticed thesecret handshake of one wizard to another. As he had heard no soundAquitain assumed that Allalanllea had talked to Granwell usingmindspeak.
‘Welcomemadam,’ said Granwell charmingly.
‘I am honoured.Featherdown has spoken respectfully of you. How may I helpyou?’
‘Thank you,’said Allalanllea. ‘Aquitain has asked me to examine the creatureyou have trapped so that I may determine whether it is fromMoonmist.’
‘Of course,Madam, we shall examine it right away; please follow me.’
Aquitain wassurprised at how willing Granwell was to please Allalanllea.
They teleportedto the summoning room and Granwell gestured to the creature in thegolden cage.
‘It has theappearance of an outcast trixie from Moonmist.’ said Allalanllea.She spoke to it in Elendarin the main language on Moonmist but itignored her. She tried a couple of other languages but still got noresponse.
‘Strange.’ sheremarked.
‘One of thetownspeople caught it.’ said Granwell. ‘Benton the blacksmith Ithink. It was hiding in his barn. He alerted Chantalot and hebought it to me.’
‘Did it haveanything on it when it was caught?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I don’t thinkso. Chantalot would have told me about anything like that.’
The creaturewas confused it didn’t seem to care whether they were there or not.Aquitain and Allalanllea walked around it, looking into its eyes.It looked nasty but its eyes were glazed over. He was sure it waseither magically charmed or drugged.
‘Have youdrugged or confused this creature,’ asked Aquitain.
‘Of coursenot!’ said Granwell. ‘How could I expect it to talk if it’sdrugged?’
‘I shall haveto go.’ said Allalanllea.
‘Time ispressing. The creature is definitely a trixie from Moonmist. Theyare believed to be related to the little people here on Mudrun. Whythey appear to be related is a subject of much speculation onMoonmist. There are many others that do not have the malformed faceand look much more like brown-scaled little people. I agree itappears drugged or confused. I would leave it for a day and if itis still confused then try to dispel any deleterious magic fromit.’
They teleportedback to the front door and after Granwell had agreed to allowAquitain further access to the Moonmist trixie outcast they tooktheir leave of Granwell.
‘Well I must gonow.’ repeated Allalanllea.
‘I will getback to Moonmist one way or another. I hope you find out why theoutcast trixie was here. I dare say we shall meet again soon.Please look after Miranda; she is very precious to me,’ and sheteleported away.
Aquitainthought about Allalanllea for a minute or two then decided toinvestigate
