Aquitain hadlearned from his grandfather secret methods of memory manipulationcalled the Seven Mantras of Yith. The first two he used often andcould easily remember them. The other five were locked away in hismind and only accessible with the help of Alpha who acted as a keyto retrieve them. On this occasion he could recall the one requiredso he put himself into a state of autohypnosis and used it toforget the whole erotic experience.
He rememberedonly that he had been tricked by Shastritara but no longer had anyrecollection of the intimate details, feelings or emotionsgenerated in their liaison. It was all gone.
He could nowface Miranda without any guilt or remorse and treat Shastritara asthe scheming little elemental witch that she was. It was time for abit of thought and planning. He adjusted his posture for meditationto take into account of his new tail and slipped into a trance.
Chapter 2 Miranda’s BadDay
Miranda had just leftAquitain with the Jeti. She ran at full speed down the darkmoonlight-illuminated track beside the creek in the U-shaped gullythat had been her home all her life until a week ago. That was whenAquitain had challenged her mother Snowbelle, the nymph Queen, to amental duel and won.
That was whenAquitain had finally won her heart, her mind and her very soul butnot her body because it was protected from all males by a complexmagical tattoo that was a lethal chastity belt placed on her by theGoddess of Nature.
Woven into thetattoo’s magic was a death rune that would kill anyone physicallyjoining with her. They had joined mind to mind and had the mostblissful experience imaginable but she wanted the physicalinteraction as well. She wanted the tattoo removed.
In defeatingher mother Aquitain had learned that it could only be removed ifthree conditions were fulfilled. He had fulfilled the first butcouldn’t yet fulfil the remaining two. The second condition wasthat they had to be of the same blood. Before they couldn’t fulfilthis condition as he was the spirit of a Newman male reincarnatedin the body of a male bear.
She wasbreathing heavily by the time she reached the waterfall that hidthe entrance to the magical gateway to her mother’s domain. Sinceshe was still covered with blood, soot and dirt from the fight atQuab’s Sanctuary she stopped to cleanse herself in the cool silverycascade and gather her wits for the coming battle of wits with hermother.
Her mind wasstill in turmoil at what had happened. Twenty-two druids and awizard had despoiled the peace and tranquillity of the sanctuarywhile she, Aquitain and Quab, her druid mentor had been restingthere. The druids, normally neutral and followers of The Lady, hadsomehow been corrupted into aligning themselves with one of thereligious faiths. Murdering Aquitain as they did in the sanctuarywas a heinous crime punishable by death.
The High WizardFeatherdown had briefly helped her by magically paralysing thewhole group of murderers as they fanatically hacked and stabbedpoor Aquitain’s charred and bloody body. In her fury at finding himdead she had mercilessly executed the wizard Curbut and fifteenparalysed druids but spared one so that she might find out who wasbehind the plot. She had left that young female druid with Quab forinterrogation.
She was shockedat her own actions and couldn’t think what had driven her to killso many of her colleagues. Had her love for Aquitain somehowcorrupted her? Had she turned chaotic?
After that shehad forced Quab to use a very rare Miracle scroll and virtuallydemanded the Goddess restore Aquitain to life in a body like hersexpecting that to fulfil the second condition for lifting hercursed chastity tattoo. That was where her doubts about her ownparentage began.
The Lady hadrestored Aquitain to life not in the body of a Newman as she hadexpected but in the body of a Llanllean spider, an unusual, shapechanging creature that didn’t live on this world. This suggested toher that she might also be a Llanllean spider and perhaps one ofthe secret purposes of her magic tattoo was to stop her discoveringthat fact. She had to know if it was true and if so why her motherhad deceived her all her life.
She entered thecave under the waterfall and stood looking at a blank grey rockwall. She uttered an arcane word to open the gate to Argenta, herhome world where her mother ruled as Queen, but nothing happened.Her mother had changed the password. She knew that there was amagic sigil on the wall that allowed her mother to hear when peoplewere in the cave near the gateway.
‘Mother I wishto talk to you. It is urgent. I must know who I am.’
Nothinghappened for a minute or two then a circular series of magicalsymbols normally invisible glowed on the rock face and the areawithin the circle took on a swirling misty appearance. The gatewaywas active. Moments later Allalanllea the Queen’s Royal wizardstepped through into the cave and the gateway closed behind her,the mist again becoming solid rock.
‘Hello Miranda,your mother is absent at the moment. There are so many strangethings happening that she is sure the Time of Chaos is upon us. Sheis out learning what she can. I have been given specificinstructions to let no one into Argenta including you. However, Ihave not been told that I can’t talk to you so how may I helpyou?’
Miranda ranover to her and hugged her.
‘It’s sowonderful to see you Allalanllea. There is something I must know.Am I a Llanllean like you?’
The wizard wassilent for a few moments then replied.
‘Whatever madeyou think of something as strange as that?’
‘Is it sostrange Allalanllea? You brought me up. I have no fear of spidersor Llanlleans. Yet I have noticed that your spider shape has themost profound effect on all Newmans that see you. You have littlemercy on them if they act against you in fact you are their worstnightmare yet I know
