‘Okay,’ saidAquitain and removed the scarf from around his neck to reveal hisgolden collar then mentally reshaped it to look like a necklacewith a spider pendant dangling from it. ‘How about this?’
‘That’ll donicely. My that’s a nice collar where did you get it.’ askedGranwell suddenly interested.
‘I made it.’replied Aquitain with a proud look on his face.
‘Aren’t you aclever spider … gnome or whatever!’ said Granwell as he started towalk away.
‘Don’t you wantto know what we’ve found out about the creature you have in thecage?’ asked Chantalot.
‘Oh, Yes ...the creature.’ said Granwell. ‘Very well, tell me what you havefound out.’
Aquitainexplained about mind linking with the trixie and discovering thatit appeared to be a Newman that had some polymorphic transformationon it that confused and scared him. Granwell thought for a minuteor two then said
‘I seem torecall hearing that some Elendari wizards like to use dual effectsto torment their enemies. They would transform a creature intosomething that was completely opposite to its normal character andthen inflict an effect onto it that would alter the victim’sperception of what they saw. This not only made everything they sawappear alien but would make friends seem like enemies and the like.I’m sure that would cause a bit of fear and confusion.’
‘Wait here.I’ll get my rod of dispelling and we’ll soon find out.’
A few minuteslater they removed the creature from the cage and it coweredagainst the wall. Granwell used the magic from the rod ofdispelling on it and it transformed into a Newman cowering againstthe wall. Moments later, the man’s confusion cleared and he stoodup and said.
‘What am Idoing here and who are you?’
‘My name isGranwell. I am a wizard. You are in my tower in the town of TwinTowers. I have just removed a rather nasty transformation from you.Please tell me your name and the last things that you canremember.’
Chantalotnudged Aquitain and said.
‘Why don’t youtry out that new lie detector thingy that you got?’
‘Will you twokeep quiet.‘ grumbled Granwell. ‘I’m trying to find out what’sgoing on here.’
‘Okay,’ repliedAquitain, ‘Do you mind if I use a lie detector?’
‘If you must.’said Granwell impatiently.
Aquitain pulledout the eye of perception and fixed it to his forehead. He wasquite excited. He had tried other similar devices before but notone like this.
‘Lord Granwell,I have heard of you by reputation. Thank you for transforming meback to Newman again. My name is Garret Axegrinder. I’m a wizardand instrument maker from Templegate. I have a shop there. We makeand repair minor magic items and by contract more powerful oneswith the help of local mages. I have had several dealings withRiebrand the Blue. You might know of him. Last thing I can rememberwas giving my cat some warm milk, as one of those cold autumnbreezes had been blowing all day and it looked like we were in foran early winter.’
Aquitain noddedhis head. What the fellow had said was true.
‘Yes ... I’veheard of Riebrand. Do you know it’s now Spring.’ said Granwell.
‘What?’ gaspedGarret, ‘You can’t be serious? You’re trying to fool me. I couldn’tforget, half a year.’
Granwell askedhim a few questions and these revealed that he had indeed lost thememory of the last six months. Aquitain showed him the ring ofobject location and asked whether he recognized it. He looked at itfor a minute as if trying to remember then said.
‘No. I’ve neverseen it before.’
‘Wrong!’interrupted Aquitain. ‘You’re lying to us. Now tell us thetruth.’
The man lookedworried and asked to be told what happened first.
Granwellreplied, ‘It’s simple, someone stole a sceptre of lordly mightright out of a wizard tower here and I think you know or at leastknew who, but it seems they may have erased some of yourmemory.’
‘Damnation.‘cursed the man.
‘I thought thatthat wretched thing would cause me trouble sooner or later. Itseems to be cursed although we’ve never been able to detect one onit. My granddaddy made it and the problems it causes keeps hauntingour family. My daddy made the ring of detection when he lasthandled it. I guess he guessed we would be asked to find it oneday. I had the ring locked away in my safe.’
‘It appearsthat someone knew you had a ring to find the sceptre and broughtyou here to use it.’ said Aquitain.
‘And since theyturned you into a Moonmist outcast, and few people other than thosein Moonmist know about them, it suggests that they could have comefrom there.’
Granwellcontinued. ‘It seems that your condition was a warning to us not tocome after them. Otherwise they might just as well have killedyou.’
There wassomething odd about this whole situation thought Aquitain and thisstimulated a whole train of thought.
Miranda hadsaid that her mother had taken it as a trophy from someoneattacking her little kingdom. Then for some reason her mother hadgiven it to the Crin. Then Alin Amber had stolen it off the Crinand left it for Aquitain to find.
If Alin Amberhad returned after Aquitain had found and taken it he would haveknown that Aquitain had it. If he knew that Aquitain had died inthe attack on the sanctuary then there was a reasonable chance thatMiranda, Quab or Featherdown would have it. So they brought thering here to find out who had it. So why did they steal it againand leave a clue as to where they were taking it. The answer seemedalmost too obvious.
He was supposedto follow the sceptre and it was leading him to Moonmist. Thequestion was how did Alin Amber know that there was a ring thatwould locate the sceptre?
‘Did you tellanyone that you had a ring that could locate the sceptre?’ askedAquitain.
‘No. My daddymay have told some people but he died a few years back.’ repliedGarret.
It was thenthat Aquitain noticed that Garret had lost part of his littlefinger on the left hand. That was the clue that Aquitain needed.Someone had wiped his recent memory so that he really didn’t knowwhat had happened. They had cut off and taken a part of his fingerso that he could be resurrected if he somehow got killed while inthe horrible creature shape. They didn’t want him to die as hestill had more to do.
This wasprobably
