We now knowthat the other dragon spirit in Alpha is Aquiveritas. The son ofGranite and the goddess Lithgala. Since Granite was still trappedwhen Alpha was traded for Zephira and Ishteth was a priest ofLithgala then it must have been Lithgala that didn’t want Alphadelivered to Astaria.
Maybe Lithgalasuspected that Aquiveritas had made a some sort of a deal withTerren and she didn’t want Aquiveritas involved.
The fact thather people have captured your home world Argenta shows that she isa serious player in whatever is happening.
‘Hmm… there’s missing pieces to the puzzle.’ thought Aquitainthen said to Miranlla.
‘It would be nice get hold of Alpha so I can question thisAquiveritas. He holds the answers to a lot of our problems but ifGranite is his father and has taken Alpha that makes itdifficult.’
When he heardabout Heteronymous and Featherdown both controlled by puppeteers helaughed. It seemed Lord Borse liked being well informed and incontrol.
When he heardthat the little people had called a Great Council to discuss theTreaty of Renewal he immediately suspected that they had a hiddenagenda but couldn’t guess what it might be.
When he heardthat the druids were growing Lizard bane to sell to the Panmagicanshis reaction was similar to his Granddad- they were mad.
He then toldher about his adventures with Ignatius the Mentarin.
‘There is a huge pool of magic essence trapped in a large areaon Moonmist that is about to break through the surface. If itsucceeds then there is likely to be a catastrophic storm like thaton Mudrun that will kill everyone there. I would guess that bothLord Borse and K’wala know about it. I’m not sure who else knowsabout it or who caused it to happen. Ignatius doesn’t believe ithappened by accident nor do I.’
He told herabout his temporary solution and the deal with the Rock elementalsbut also suspected that the Mentarin council might not accept it ifit meant they couldn’t harvest rock elementals for use in theirinventions. Consequently, it needed some more permanent solutionbut didn’t know what at this stage.
‘I’m not convinced that the Mentarin Council is fully aware ofthe threat to them and their city. It’s possible that we havediscovered a plot to destroy the Mentarin city and factory. Whowould benefit from that? The Lady, the Yith or perhaps someonedisaffected within the Mentarin hierarchy like K’wala who wants toget even.’
‘The ones who probably wouldn’t want this to happen are theLord Borse and his Mentarin, Findus and the Panmagicans. They willall lose their highly profitable trade in magicalitems.’
‘I don’t believe the Lady would wish to have the people andcreatures on Moonmist destroyed. It goes against all ourteachings.’ suggested Miranlla.
‘Wars have been started over trade in magic weapons and drugsfor centuries.’ he replied. ‘I don’t believe that there are anyinnocent gods even the Lady. However we need more pieces of thepuzzle.’
I need to knowmore about Lord Borse, K’wala, Lithgala and this god Findus thatGranddad thinks might be involved before I make any decisions aboutwhat to do next.
He didn’t tellher about the dragon procession or the 18 dragon bodies in the areaat the end of the pathway and how he believed that they were heldthere by some type of magic linked to the netherworld. This wasprobably the key to everything yet Ignatius had revealed it all. Hesuspected that only a very select few people knew about this andthey purposely wanted him to know. He was being tested again.
Aquitainthought for a few seconds and then asked.
‘Is there any fighting at the moment?’
‘No!’ said Miranlla they seem to be just waiting and watchingeach other.’ She replied.
‘They’re waiting for something to happen. It could besomething to do with this gathering of the Littlepeople.’
‘Can you go there and find out what’s happening. You said theythink that I might turn up. That sounds suspicious.’
‘I think that it’s time we went on the offensive.’ hereplied.
‘What are we going to do?’ she asked curiously.
‘Something that nobody expects that might just change the gamein our favour a little’ he said with a smile.
‘I want you to take Rori to meet Bellen and the Trixies at theQueen’s palace. Get a message to your father to occupy the palaceand get Yllandril to get a few of the old Queen’s guard back onduty to help him. I want it to appear that we have a real chance tounify the Elendari lords.’
‘Then go through the gateway there to Mudrun. When you arriveget Rori to send a message to me and fly to the teleport locationwhere we first met outside Twin Towers and wait for me toarrive.’
‘What are you going to do there’ she askedsuspiciously.
‘You’ll see. It should fun.’ he replied with agrin.
Chapter 39 Mothers andFathers
Rory wasscared. They stood on damp mossy ground just outside the Moonmistportal and it was so dark he couldn’t see Miranlla but knew she wasthere as she was singing a prayer.
She wasstartled when she felt Rori’s hand touch her leg and but quicklyrealized that he was there with her, and probably scaredwitless.
‘Where are we being at the moment Lady Miranlla?’ he asked.‘It’s being very dark here. I’m not being able to see evenyou.’
‘We are in Moonmist. This is the place your people fear. Thisis where the Llanllean spider people live.’ she replied.
‘Are you being afraid like me.’ he said as he shook infear.
‘No. Rori. I’m not afraid. You see this is my world. I wasborn here and I am a spider person but I can’t see anything either.Don’t be afraid I’m changing shape to my spider form so that I cansee better.’
‘You … you … won’t eat me will you?’ he stuttered.
Miranllachuckled. ‘Of course not Rori, I wouldn’t eat my friends. If I didI wouldn’t have any friends, would I?’
She changedshape and her Llanllean eyes adjusted to the dark. She could nowsee much more. The vegetation glowed faintly in various colours.She also saw the heat outline of a Newman female appear about 20paces to her right.
‘Well. Well. My false daughter has discovered her heritage.’said Snowbelle creating a light spell on herself and walking overto where
