‘Why don’t youjust use the glamour?’ thought Miranda with a quizzical look on herface.
‘You’re notvain are you? The body is only a vessel. I’m doing this to saveyour life.’
Yes she was alittle vain. She liked her attractive looks but for the present itseemed prudent to go along with this subterfuge.
‘The reason forthe two disguises is that many of the more powerful Elendari caneasily see through a glamour even a quite powerful one. So we wantto show them an ugly Newman underneath. That will dampen theirenthusiasm to inquire about you and save you from amorous advances.You will effectively become invisible to them as they only chooseto look at beautiful things.’
He moved to thecupboard again and shuffled around for a minute or two then cameout with an armful of scrolls and laid them on a cluttered table.One by one he read a small inscription on the edge of each thenfinally nodded to himself and smiled at her.
‘A verypowerful effect this one. It uses some rare ingredients. I used iton myself once. This will fool even the best of them.’
‘You mightthink that this is all rather strange. Me helping you like this.’said Prendergrass.
‘I was born inMudrun and captured there as a youth by a hunting party.Fortunately I showed some magic potential and was trained by theprevious King’s wizard. I was told he had a bet that newmanscouldn’t learn magic beyond a certain level. He pushed hard and Ilearnt lots. Eventually he started entering me in magic contestsand I kept winning. Soon nobody would bet against me. They neverconceded that I was skillfull only that I was lucky. That’s whenold Lord Darkmantle offered me a job.’
‘I came hereand have been the house wizard ever since. I was supposed toprotect him but I never saw the threat coming from within. When Ifirst saw your mother she enchanted me. I just couldn’t believe shehad any bad in her. She fooled everyone. It was only later that wefound out about her, but by then it was too late. She had killedDarkmantle’s elder brother and his father so that the current youngDarkmantle could get the title.’
He suddenlystopped and listened.
‘Darkmantle iscoming. We must do this now.’
He unrolled thescroll and quickly read it over.
‘Hold your hairback and turn a little to the left so that I can clearly see yourface.’
He began themagic almost in a whisper but as he went on his voice got louderand more forceful. The words of power began concentrating magicaround her and she could see it condensing in a pink mistsurrounding her. Suddenly her whole face became hot and seemed tomelt like toasted cheese. Using invisible hands the mage moulded anew face, rounder, plumper with a piggish like shout for a nose, adouble chin and rearranged her teeth to stick out beyond her lips.She then felt her firm breasts grow and droop. Her arms went flabbyand firm stomach became larger and rounder.
‘That shoulddo.’ he said. ‘I don’t think even Snowbelle will recognize younow.’
Miranda steppedin front of a mirror on the wall and nearly fainted when she sawherself. She would easily be the most undesirable woman in Mudrunlet alone among the Elendari. They were likely to house her withthe pigs. Then she felt another burst of magic swirl around her andas her vision cleared she had changed to look like a slimattractive Elendari maid with large green insect like eyes. Herskin had a faint metallic greenish tinge and her arms and legslooked unnaturally thin, a little like insect limbs.
‘LordDarkmantle wanted you to be called Dragonfly. I have simply placeda glamour on you to give you an appearance to match the name. Nowquickly out into my entertainment room.’
As she began tomove the wizard charmed her. She suddenly felt that the wizard wasa dear old friend that she would do anything to please. A minutelater Lord Darkmantle walked purposefully in.
‘HelloPrendergrass. What are you doing with my new employee? I thoughtthat you would have her down in the dungeon force-feeding her withfood. Oh my goodness doesn’t she look the part. Well donePrendergrass.’
‘I’m afraidyou’ve spoilt my little surprise, Milord. I wasn’t expecting you tosee her until after she left the dungeon. Would you like to see herreal face.’
Darkmantlenodded taking in the nuances of the glamour as the wizard passedhim a crystal of seeing. He took a brief look at Miranda’s uglybody noticing the glazed eyes of a charmed person and handed thecrystal back to the wizard.
‘That is quitean improvement, Prendergrass and definitely up to your usual highstandard. Carry on. I want her ready for the Queen’s ball.’
‘Yes, Milord, she’ll beready.’
Chapter 15 Featherdown’sTrap
Aquitain, Garret andthe two Elendari agents suddenly appeared on a dirt road in a gullynear several Elendari troops who were sitting on a log chatting.Aquitain quickly glanced around. There were three tents pitchedalong this side of the road. One tent contained several troopssitting in the shade the other two had their flaps closed.
On the otherside of the road was a line of Crin warriors wearing metallic leafarmour stretched along the road facing towards the newly arrivedgroup. Behind them was a single tent currently being taken down bytwo Crin warriors. Near the tent stood a Crin Enforcer and a CrinJobmaster.
Aquitain lookeddown the road and about 200 paces away saw a semicircular rock keepbuilt against the side of the mountain. There were four Newmanguards standing in front of the entrance of the keep watching them.That will be where the gateway is, he thought. He looked up theroad in the other direction but there was nothing of interest tosee.
On witnessingtheir arrival, a sergeant stood, turned towards a tent and calledout. There was a short delay and an Elendari officer came out ofthe tent and walked towards Aquitain’s group. He conversed with oneof the two agents in the Elendari language then turned to theSergeant and gave him an order. The sergeant saluted and called themen out of the tent and they started packing their equipment andpulling down the tents.
He then turnedto Garret.
‘I amLieutenant Sedgemoore. I am the
