‘Your friends didn’t know that you were going to enact theDance of the Elements. It is a legendary dance. To the Elendari youplayed the Queens Lament. It is only enacted at the death of theirQueen to honour her passing. To the Llanlleans you played ChampionsReward. It is only enacted after much debate amongst the tribes tocelebrate a great victory and to the Trixies you played CrowningGlory. It is enacted to celebrate the crowning of the Queen of theTrixies.’
‘With the same music you have rudely insulted the Elendaridead Queen, lauded Miranda as a great hero without the Llanlleanagreement and chosen and crowned Miranda as Queen of the Trixieswithout consulting them. Well done. I wouldn’t have thought itpossible to have such a complete disaster. You really are an Agentof Chaos.’
‘I will see if I can find Miranda’s spirit. Bye’
Aquitain, Crysand Yllandril stood looking across an empty grassy area. OnlyDarkmantle and Prendergrass looked back.
Darkmantle andPrendergrass slowly walked over to Aquitain chatting. He noticedthat Darkmantle’s expression had changed from one of anger to oneof surprise.
‘Welcome back Your Majesty.’ said Lord Darkmantle then headdressed Crys.
‘I am again surprised at you Lord Warden. Prendergrass hasinformed me that he has read from the ancient texts that The Danceof the Elements was used in the past for the creation of powerfulmagic effects. He was unaware that it could be used forresurrection as that is a domain normally considered to bejealously guarded by the gods.’
‘That suggests that you have some divine connections yet themagic was not of a divine origin. You have shown us the mostbrilliant display of wizard magic that I have ever seen. Right infront of our very eyes you resurrected Queen Miranda without theintervention of a deity and managed an audacious insult to ourcustoms that will have everyone talking for weeks.’
‘You obviously saw the scrying globes appear. There must havebeen at least six or eight of them. You have undoubtedly alertedseveral formidable powers of your presence here. With such anostentatious display of power I wonder as to its purpose. Were youmarking your territory like a dog, perhaps sending a warning to theMentarin to stay away, perhaps telling the Lords here that you meanbusiness, or was it disguising some other effect that is not quiteso obvious.’
‘I’m sure it had its desired outcome!’ replied Aquitain usingmindspeak so that they would think it came from Crys.
‘Now tell me.’ asked Lord Darkmantle.
‘How did you manage to make almost everyone forget whathappened last night and perhaps more interesting why?’
Chapter 4 Miranda’sPain
Miranda was dozing inher body of stone hoping she wasn’t going to die. Suddenly she felta strange suffocating feeling. She had felt it before. What was it?No. No not again. She was being possessed. Not again.
‘Aquitain help.’ she shouted with her mind.
She wassuddenly wide-awake. She remembered they were in the throne room.Aquitain was her champion fighting for her to make her Queen ofMoonmist. What had gone wrong? She felt light headed as if … as ifshe was floating free. She was possessed but it felt different asif she had no body.
Seconds latershe had a blurry vision of a room and she heard voices.
‘Quickly get her into that crystal until The Dark Lord candecide what to do with her.’
She felt astrange sensation as if she was a liquid being poured into acontainer and then everything went black, absolutely and completelyblack. She listened but there was no noise, not even the sound ofher own breathing. She had no sense of touch, no feeling of hot orcold, no nothing, just her own thoughts.
So they’vecaptured me and put me in a crystal prison like Yllandril. How didthey do it? I should have had a chance to fight back. Damn themwhoever they are. I wonder who they are? Yllandril spent threeyears in a place like this. How did she do it? Aquitain got her outand he’ll get me out too. How’s he going to find me? Where am I?Help me Lady I beseech you. Help Aquitain to find me.
Miranda hadplenty of time to think, as time was almost irrelevant in a soulcrystal. She thought about the events leading up to her capture.She tried to work out where things went wrong. Could she somehowhave avoided this fate but somehow it all seemed inevitable. Onceshe had crossed paths with Aquitain everything went wrong. He wasto blame. She remembered first meeting him, the strange feeling ofattraction to him. She felt at the time it was an omen. How rightshe had been about that.
The night afterthey had helped the spirits of the dead Little People to theafterlife, placated the Chaos Cat and fought the eight ambushingsoldiers. That was the turning point; that was where he reallybegan to be important to her. He was so brave, selfless, thoughtfuland kind but at the same time so intelligent, cunning, vicious andruthless. How could the spirit of a young Newman guy be so complex?It was almost as if he were two people combined into one.
Then, when hehad defeated her mother to find out how to remove the chastitybelt, that is when Miranda had pledged herself to him. Sheremembered the time when she had power narcosis from sacrificingherself in helping him defeat the combined nemesis of the ChaosMask and Chaos Cat together. Aquitain had won but at a terriblecost to her. He had healed her body then her mind.
He had createdthe passion flower, a unique creation of love, just for her. Sheimagined the flower in her mind and could feel its sensual, lustfulbeauty stir her innermost emotions. It was tattooed to her spirit;it was one memory that would never fade, it would last beyond thegrave.
There wassomeone eavesdropping on her mind.
‘Who are you. I know you’re there.’ she thought.
‘Ah very astute.’ said the other. ‘You’re not a mind wizardbut you can feel the presence of another mind. I suspect yournuisance boyfriend has something to do with that.’
‘I wonder what your mother would think if
