‘Do we eatNewmans?’
‘Gracious no.’replied Esller with a laugh.
‘We don’t eatanything that can be an alternate shape and that includes Elendariand little people. It would be like cannibalism if we did andthat’s against all our principles. Animals and Newmans may eattheir own kind but we don’t.’
‘Thankgoodness,’ thought Aquitain,
‘I might belike them but it would still be hard to tuck into a meal of someyoung Elendari maiden or guy for that matter.’
‘What does that… collar do?’ asked Barinll.
It wassomething in the way that Barinll hesitantly asked the questionthat suddenly put Aquitain on the alert. Most children wouldn’t askabout a scrappy leather looking collar. This young Llanllean knewit was magical but not what it did. Then he realized.
‘How stupid ofme.’ he thought, ‘this is probably a part of the interrogation.’They had heard his story then conveniently went away to discuss itwhile the children talked with the dangerous shape shifting spidergnome that had just defeated a giant snake creature with magic andcunning.
‘I wouldn’texpose my children to a potential danger like me.’ he thought.
‘They wouldn’teither. Therefore they’re not children but adults, possibly theleaders of the group pretending to be children.’
Esller noticedhis hesitation and said
‘You don’t haveto tell us about your collar if you don’t want to.’
‘If I don’ttell you about it you will be more concerned than if I do.’ repliedAquitain.
‘It’s anadjustable collar that can be used to hold gem stones that areimbued with powers that are mainly for use if I get into trouble.Now that you know all about me why did you send your people to getGarret?’
Barinll startedsaying that the adults didn’t tell them why they were interested inGarret when Esller said
‘So you’vewoken up to our little trick. What gave us away?’
‘I didn’t atfirst but it was your own nature. When the magic fight began, youtwo didn’t run for cover but stayed in front of some of the adults.If you were children they would have protected you in the same wayas they protected me. You are important members of the groupperhaps magic users shrunk down to child size for the benefit ofGarret and myself. I hope you’ve discovered that Garret and I meanno harm and pose no threat to you.’
‘Very astute.’replied Esller.
‘Well, first Ishould thank you for not using any dangerous magic here. I was justabout to stop that idiot creature from casting in here when you didit so neatly with that power that caused him to garble hiswords.’
‘Who was thatcreature?’ asked Aquitain.
‘We have knownAnsidian for some time. He claims to be some sort of holy warriorof the goddess Lithgala. He came here yesterday but was behavingstrangely. He convinced us that a Llanllean was coming from Mudrunthat posed a great danger to us. We should help him capture it andhe would purge it of its danger. We were interested in what he wasup to, so we played along and kidnapped Garret but soon found outthat he was not the one. You were his target. The problem is thatwe still don’t know what Ansidian was planning.’
‘Are you goingto release Garret and me? We need to visit the Queen to find outwhy she’s interested in Garret. My thought is that she might wanthim to verify that the stolen sceptre is in fact the trueChampion’s sceptre.’
‘Yes it isquite possible that it is something like that. If it were suddenlyto appear at the ball it might cause some problems.’
‘What sort ofproblems?’ asked Aquitain curiously.
‘I cannotdiscuss that. We have contacted Llanlorian and she has verifiedthat she sent you here but that does not mean we trust you. Recentevents have made it difficult to trust anyone. Some of us don’teven trust Llanlorian.’ she replied.
‘Your story isinteresting and no doubt a part of the whole, but there are stillmany missing pieces to the puzzle. We are interested in talking toGarret as he seems to be important to the Queen. However, he seemsunusually alarmed with us. Since you are a friend perhaps you couldcalm him a little. I would like to wake him up and talk with himnow.’
‘Many newmansare born with an irrational fear of spiders causing them to panicat the sight of a small one the size of my finger nail.’ saidAquitain.
‘He may be oneof them. If so one my size would have a profound effect on him letalone one of an adult Llanllean size. I would suggest that you turnto your alternate form and only you and I are present with allothers out of sight otherwise he will be so scared you won’t get asingle word out of him.’
‘You are quiteright. He does seem unusually fearful of us.’ agreed Esller and sheand Barinll left for a discussion with the other members of theirgroup.
Fortunatelythey decided to try Aquitain’s suggestion. They removed Garret to asmall cave away from the main one and only Esller and Somanller,both in Elendari form remained to question Garret. Aquitain changedto his gnome form and woke up Garret who was immediatelyapprehensive. Aquitain assured him that they were all friendly, buthe was suspicious. He wanted to know how Aquitain managed to findhim so easily then wouldn’t believe that the gatekeeper had toldhim where to go.
SuddenlyAquitain’s patience seemed to snap. He turned to a very nastylooking purple little person with big teeth. He grabbed Garretaround the collar slapped him on the face and using mindspeaksaid.
‘Listen hereyou little worm. I’m not the nice little gnome all the time. I canbe very nasty. There was some type of holy warrior here who wantsme dead. He started a fight and I managed to beat him. He willprobably try again. The point is they were after me not you. Tellthem what they want to know and we can leave and see theQueen!’
Of course thatwas a lie, as Aquitain didn’t know yet whether they would beallowed to leave. Garret was again afraid and wondered what he hadgot himself into but quickly agreed to talk to the spiders if theydidn’t look like spiders.
Aquitainchanged back to his pleasant looking gnome form and said. ‘I’msorry Garret … I…I don’t know what came over me. I’m not
