Aquitainentered the area instantly turning back to his spider shape andraced down to Llalorax’s cell. The mage didn’t look happy sittingin the middle of the cell with no legs. Aquitain secreted a lengthof non-sticky web, secured it to Llalorax’s thorax and tried topull him out of the cell. Unfortunately he was too heavy so he wentback and shepherded the guard with the collar back to pull him.
Grumbling allthe way the guard slowly dragged Llalorax out of the cell, down thecorridor and out the cell block door. Immediately he was out thedoor Llalorax shifted his shape to that of a Newman.
‘Sorry aboutthe arms and legs, Milord. The Queen ordered us to chop themoff.’
‘That’s OK,Gwan. I know you were only doing your duty. Leave the Captain andthe others locked in the cell for the time being. He has thetendency to be a bit zealous at times and he’s likely to getsomeone hurt.’
‘I think Janstis dead, Milord.’ said the guard.
Llalorax turnedto Aquitain.
‘You killed oneof my guards. Why?’
Of all thethings that Llalorax might have said Aquitain least expectedthis.
‘It was sort ofaccidental.’ said Aquitain.
‘How did hedie?’ asked Llalorax directing his question to the guard.
‘He was bit onthe neck by this spider gnome while he was covered in web,Milord.’
‘What? Did youintend to eat him?’ said Llalorax with a severely annoyed look onhis face.
‘No.’ saidAquitain confused about what was happening.
‘He was callingfor the guards and I didn’t know what else to do.’
‘Good grief,you don’t just kill a man because he’s making a little noise. Whatsort of an upbringing did you have?’
‘He’s got acollar on me that is strangling me, Milord.’ said Gwan.
He called Gwanover had a look at it and asked Aquitain to release it so that hecould have a closer look at it. Aquitain released the collar and hepuzzled over it for a minute or two then said.
‘Ahh! So you’rea Shaper are you? Wonderful stuff this. I think I’ll have toconfiscate it,’ and promptly put it in a pocket in his robe.Aquitain could not believe what was happening.
‘I justreleased you from this prison and you abuse me and take my stuff.By all the Powers, what do you think you’re doing?’
‘I didn’t askto be released.’ said Llalorax.
‘In fact you’veruined my plan.’
‘What plan? Ifyou stay here you will probably be killed by the Queen.’
‘Possibly,’replied Llalorax, ‘And?’
‘What’s hegetting at?’ thought Aquitain suddenly.
‘This isleading somewhere.’
He quicklymentally chanted a calming mantra. He felt his heart slow down, hisanger abated. He took control and began to think of what Llaloraxmight have planned. Llalorax was a very powerful wizard he wouldhave a contingency plan. He must have known that the Queen wasbeing controlled but didn’t know who, how or why.
He was waitingfor them to make a move and they had. He didn’t worry about beingkilled. Why? Because it would release him from some type ofagreement. He probably had some type of clone for his spirit to goto once he died. Then he would be free to go after the personcontrolling the Queen.
‘I’m sorry Iruined your plan. What if the Queen decides not to kill you?’ askedAquitain.
‘Then I willhave to wait until someone lets me out.’
‘What if theQueen decides to kill me?’
‘Then I’ve nodoubt you’ll end up back in Astaria.’ replied Llalorax with asmile.
It suddenlydawned on Aquitain that Llanlorian must have contacted him.
‘I guess youwould be Llanlorian’s brother?’ said Aquitain ‘and you know allabout me.’
‘Excellent! I’msorry about the little game I was playing with you. I wanted to besure that it really was you.’ He then retrieved the silver amuletand handed it to Aquitain.
‘Very rarestuff this. Look after it. It’s worth a king’s ransom in thisworld.’
Aquitainretrieved the two powerstones held them close to the chaos matteruntil they were engulfed then reformed his leather looking collarand put it on.
‘Veryingenious.’ said Llalorax watching on. ‘I’ll have to have a wordwith my guards. They were instructed to remove everything fromprisoners no matter how innocent it looked. Anyway why don’t we goto the guard’s building and have some food, a hot drink and discusswhat we should do next.’
‘Well that wasentertaining.’ said Slivver. ‘You know I’m starting to likeyou.’
‘Don’t!’replied Aquitain. ‘I can be nasty when I have a mind to.’
‘Ha. Ha.’ laughedSlivver. ‘You even sound mean.’
Chapter 22 Chamber ofHorrors
Miranda woke suddenly.She was lying naked on a large four-poster bed in a lavishlyfurnished room. There was an Elendari woman bending over the lowerhalf of her body and she felt the warm glow of a healingeffect.
‘Oh you’reawake. My name is Serenity. I’ve healed most of the damage. You mayfeel a little discomfort for a few days then it should be okay.Then again you probably won’t remember will you.’
As Miranda satup and let the healer woman help her get dressed the nightmarereturned. Prendergrass had changed her features to look ugly. Hehad advised her to put up a fight when they tried to feed her food.She had to make it appear that she didn’t want to lose her memory.She had put up a very believable fight, as she wasn’t sure whetherthe wizard was fooling her or not.
The guards hadtried to force her to eat but she refused. They had eventuallybeaten her near unconscious, threaded a flexible tube down herthroat, forced some foul tasting swill down her throat and thentied and gagged her.
That was thefun bit, and then real nightmare started.
She foundherself spread out naked over a cold stone slab overlooked bystatue of a human with a horribly leering contorted face. Fixedabove her head was a large mirror allowing her to see her body.
Out of themouth of the statue came a cloud of mist, which drifted over to herand began whispering into her mind weird horrible disgusting thingsthat it was going to do to her. It flowed over her body then out ofit dropped large putrid maggots the size of slugs. They felt coldand slimy and they seemed to separate into two groups one headingtowards her groin and the other towards her head.
As they slowlyslithered they left slime that ate into her skin like acid. Shefelt them on her breast and her thighs.
‘No!’ shescreamed. She writhed and shook her body and tore
