‘Of courseyou’re not.’ replied Garret not believing a word Aquitain said.
‘Please let metalk with these spider people so that I can leave.’
Fortunately,Somanller and Esller were patient and friendly with Garret reducinghis fears substantially. He told them a similar tale to that ofAquitain and this seemed to please them. However, they were curiousabout Aquitain’s part in the skirmish at the Mudrun gateway asAquitain had glossed over that.
Aquitainexplained that he was employed by the High Wizard and a part of hisjob was to stop magic fights. He had merely helped to reduce thecarnage until the High Wizard had arrived to resolve the dispute.He told them the dragon was not real but an illusion produced bythe High Wizard to help to stop the fighting. The Llanlleans seemedto accept that but Garret wasn’t as convinced.
After furtherquestions the Llanlleans seemed reasonably happy that neitherGarret nor Aquitain was a threat to them and agreed that both couldleave, but strongly suggested that they at least remain until thenext morning as darkness on Moonmist was very dangerous for theinexperienced.
Somanllersuggested that Garret and Aquitain could rest in the small cavethey were currently in if they wished to stay. Garret reluctantlyagreed and was pleased to see them go. He had a lot of thinking todo.
Aquitain stayedwith Garret for a while but Garret wasn’t interested in talking sohe left to visit to the Llanlleans and he found they were mostinterested in talking with him. No one had ever heard of anyoneever being reincarnated as a Llanllean.
They had heardstories of resurrection and reincarnation of people on Mudrun butnever on Moonmist mainly owing to the fact that there were noorganized religions here and consequently neither priests nordruids that might be able to perform the magic ritualsrequired.
What reallysurprised Aquitain was that the Llanlleans all lived for hundredsof years and only had children when someone died hence childrenwere rare. He was child size so that made him very special in theireyes. Any adult from any clan would try to protect himinstinctively as children were truly treasured. His transformationto a child form of a Llanllean by The Lady now made a lot moresense.
He couldn’t sleep. Hetalked and watched for hours. It was a whole new world ofexperiences. Unfortunately the more he learnt the more questionsarose in his mind. There was something wrong here. Something theyweren’t prepared to reveal. Eventually, everyone felt tired anddrifted off to get some sleep. If it wasn’t for Garret, he couldeasily have been tempted to stay with these people for quite sometime.
Chapter 20 Slivver andAdonis
Aquitain sat wide awakein the dark in the small cave near Garret on a makeshift bed madeof soft reeds stuffed into a large bag made out of some type ofstringy bark woven into a crude cloth. It wasn’t Garret’sincredibly loud snoring that would almost wake the dead that kepthim awake. It was the dream that he had at Astaria.
He was tempted not tosleep at all. For the first time in his life he realised that hewas so vulnerable when he was asleep but he knew his body neededrest. Who knows when he would have a chance to sleep again, soreluctantly he decided he would rest but he didn’t necessarilytrust all of these Llanlleans yet either. While most were open andfriendly there were some that were not as friendly. It was possiblethat while he was a sleep they could act against him.
He moved to the cornerof the room and changed shape to Logicon slime and slid into acrack in the rock, camouflaged his exterior to look like rock andmeditated. His excited emotional state subsided and his mind becamepeaceful. He could now think logically about what had happened overthe last day before dozing off. That’s when he noticed themindlink.
There was a veryfaint, subtle and unobtrusive link to his mind, a little like thelink that existed between him and Alpha. At first he thought thatmaybe Alpha was nearby but he couldn’t feel Alpha there. Hadsomeone linked with him without his agreement? Was someone spyingon him? He tried breaking the link in the usual way and nothinghappened it was still there. He thought about it for a while thendecided he had to find out who was on the other end.
‘Hello. I know thatyou’re there. Who are you and why have you linked to me?’
He waited but therewas no answer. He asked again, but his request was still met withsilence, so he thought at length at what this meant. Maybe this wasthe hidden spirit in his body? He decided to build up a mental wallto block it off, but no sooner had he blocked out the link thanwall simply disappeared and the link was still intact.
‘That won’t work.’said a voice.
‘What!’ thoughtAquitain. ‘So I do have a passenger somewhere.’
‘Of course you do youidiot. I’m your minder. You don’t think Llanlorian would allow youto get away that easily.’
‘Are you a spirit?’asked Aquitain.
‘No guess again?’ saidthe voice.
Aquitain thought of avariety of strange possibilities.
‘By the Powers you’vegot a vivid imagination.’ said the voice. ‘Try something moremundane.’
‘You’re a psychicparasite!’
‘Bravo.’ replied thevoice.
‘Some people call usby other nasty names like puppeteers but I like to think of myselfas your closest friend. You look after me and I look after you.
Although I must admitthat you’re pretty tough. When that Ansidian person stunned you Ithought you were done so I gave you a bit of a hand. I can only doone thing and that is cause pain. So I did in the mind of thatcreature.’
‘Ah now it all makessense. thought Aquitain.
‘What’s your name?’asked Aquitain.
‘I have lots ofnames.’ replied the parasite. ‘Usually profanities in one languageor another. However, if you want to be civil, you could call meSlivver.’
‘Okay Slivver what’sthe deal. What does Llanlorian want you to do and why are youworking for her?’
‘Oh right to the pointeh. Let’s say she wants to be sure you do what she wants and I’m tohelp you and ensure you come back. As to why I’m working for her,she’s got one of those blood oaths on me as well.’
‘She also wants to getto know you better and has sent me along as an unobtrusivetravelling
