‘Any more traitors like to leave!’ asked the king and Quablooked heartbroken.
R’ptor calledout to Rori and Rori placed a dome shaped shield over the wedge andbegan singing the power song.
‘Damn. They want to fight.’ said Aquitain. ‘This will not endnicely.’
‘Aquitain this is Aquiveritas. Please place a zone of darknessbetween us and R’ptor. Miranlla change to your cat form and racethru the zone of darkness then change to your eagle form and getclose enough to touch R’ptor then dive back in the zone of darknessagain.’
‘Do it!’ he commanded.
Aquitaincreated the zone and Miranlla sped off. When she judged she wasnearly out of the zone she changed to her eagle form and was uponR’ptor in a flash, she tagged him then immediately dived back intothe zone of darkness and flew back to Aquitain’s side then changedto her Newman form.
It all happenedso quickly that it was like a blur.
‘What the damnation did she do?’ asked Heteronymous toFeatherdown.
‘I’m not sure.’ he replied.
Moments laterthe eagle broadcast.
‘We do not wish to fight. We will leave!’ And Rori droppedtheir shield and began backing his people away.
The eagle flewmidway between the two groups, landed and shape changed to a largestone dragon.
‘I am Aquiveritas, son of Granite. I hope I just saved youfrom the worst mistake in your life. You already have enoughenemies. You need the Pact of Renewal. You will find the spirit ofR’ptor in the jewel in the necklace on Miranlla’s neck. I’m told hewas once wise. He doesn’t seem that wise at the moment.’
Aquiveritasflapped his great wings and flew off into the sky.
Loopis andJacintra both thanked Aquitain for his help and bounded off intothe darkness.
Aquitain,granddad and Miranlla stood looking across the field at the druidsbut none looked back. The druid battle circle broke up and thedruids collected their gear. Quab walked across the field tothem.
‘I cannot believe what has happened. This is the saddest dayin my life. I blame neither of you. You both did what you believedwas right. I truly wish to awake in the morning and discover thatthis was a nightmare.’
‘I have been told by the king to tell you that you are nolonger welcome in Mudrun. All the ranks and privileges you had havebeen withdrawn. You have one hour to leave and if found here youwill deemed to be the enemy of the state and attacked with allavailable force. Goodbye and farewell my friends.’ And he walkedback to the druid camp with tears in his eyes.
Red wizard hadstars in his eyes. ‘She is so beautiful. I never imagined a womancould be so perfect and Aquitain, what absolute power! What a pair.I wonder if they need a court wizard?’ he thought.
By all thePowers, I hope you were right Miranlla!’ said granddad.
‘So do I granddad, so do I! Let’s return to Astaria and hopeit turns out better than here.’ She replied and they all teleportedaway.
Rori stood inthe dark at a distance.
‘I am being sorry Spirit Lord. I am being so very sorry.’ hewhispered. ‘I would be killing that snake Kami if I was beingyou.’
Quab turned tothe king and said.
‘I never imagined things could go so bad so quickly.Heteronymous you’re a fool to drive away our best friends in a timeof need. We’ll all regret this day.’
‘If you don’t like it leave.’ said the king.
‘Mudrun is my home. I’ll not leave it but I won’t be a partyto idiocy either. When you get some sense and invite Aquitain andMiranlla back I’ll return. Until then you’ll find me in my old hometerritory.’ and he teleported away.
Just asAquitain, Miranlla and Granddad were about to leave they were drawninto a mind arena by Granite.
Chapter 45 PlotRevealed
Granite stood lookingat the three of them for a few seconds and then said
‘I have never thanked a mortal before. I’m going to make anexception tonight to you three. ‘Thank you.’
‘It’s been hard for me to accept the damage my own negligencehas caused. If the Pact of Renewal had been broken tonight it couldwell have led to a war between the Panmagicans and the Yith whichcould have expanded into a war between the gods. No one would havebenefitted except the few gods who remained. The carnage and chaoscould well have been apocalyptical.’
‘We have averted one plot but there are others that have beenhatched and may yet come to pass. It has always been my job to stopthem but I have failed before and now fear failureagain.’
‘Everything that we do has a consequence. Aquitain somethingthat you have done has a very great potential to cause problems.Right at this moment you have a chance to undo it. I cannot becauseI am bound by an Oath of Neutrality.’
‘The little people had a plot involving you to produce anoffspring that had in it a divinity seed with the hopes of in timeproducing their own god. Shastritara has three eggs which sheclaims are your offspring. I don’t know whether this is true ornot. If it is true then I suspect you can see that these eggs inthe hands of the wrong people could cause massive problems in thefuture.’
‘I suggest that you put on your magic protections as you maywell have a fight on your hands and then I will teleport you towhere Shastritara is currently located and you can check theveracity of her claims.’
They withdrewfrom the mind arena and Aquitain recreated his mind link and splithis mind into two. Qin would do the manoeuvring and Qan keep uptheir defences and help Miranlla if necessary. They all put ontheir best magic protections and held hands for teleport.
Qin gave thesignal that they were ready and they were transported arriving on arocky flat area about 50 paces wide on the top of the tallest spireon the edge of the Crown of Elements.
Standing nottwenty paces away was High Priest Ishteth, two strange lookingguards, Kami and a group of a dozen other little people watchingShastritara who was dressed in the robes of a Lithgala priestess.At her feet was a wicker basket containing three eggs two of ayellowish colour and one of a deeper yellow brown hue.
Miranlla’s eyesturned
