‘VENGEANCE IS MINE!’ and a column of holy fire descended fromthe sky onto Shastritara and the basket of eggs.
‘NO!’ screamed Shastritara as she dived over the eggs toprotect them with her body. Her fire proof garments seemed toabsorb most of the damage.
The shamenquickly formed into a circle and began chanting.
‘Damn you!’ shouted Ishteth as he formed a dome shaped divineshield over them and Kami walked to one side and changed intoJacintra.
‘It is time we finished this!’ hissed the giant blackcat.
‘So you are finally revealed for who you are Kami. Not a snakeat all but instead a stupid cat intent on causing mischief. I wassurprised when you didn’t want the little people to break the Pactof Renewal last night.’
‘That wasn’t me. It was that idiot Granite and a friend ofhis. Regardless we gained much last night. You have no friendsanymore and soon you will have even less.’ And he hissed and wassurrounded by an aura of fear. Miranlla was frozen, paralysed withfear for a few seconds until Granddad surrounded her with an auraof courage.
Miranllaquickly covered herself in a divine shield as magic began to fly.Qan formed his body into a large bear shape and Qin charged atJacintra as holy fire from Ishteth enveloped him but Qan quicklysmothered it with his fire shield which briefly pulsed golden.Miranlla changed to her large Llanllean form then leapt atShastritara who grabbed a single egg and ran into the centre of acircle of shaman who were singing an air shield. Miranlla landedlightly and stamped down on the two remaining eggs and theysplattered over the rocky soil.
Jacintra leapedright over the charging bear and turned in a flash and was onto itsback raking it with golden claws and biting into its neck. Qinscreamed in pain but Qan blocked it out and turned the bear into anooze that went flat against the rocky ground both healing thewounds and dislodging the cat.
Qin put up acircular hardened air shield around himself as Qan reformed as asnake with a head on each end confusing the cat who could plainlysee that whichever end it attacked would leave it open to beattacked by the other head. Qin then created a dome of harded airover the cat and Qan reformed their body into a Newman with a blackblade of destruction sprouting from each hand. Qin pounced andthrust right through the air shield into the cat drawing blood. Thecat screamed and covered itself with a golden shield.
A pair of blackblades extended from the hands of each of the two strange lookingguards who suddenly sprouted wings and were covered in goldenarmour. They went invisible leapt in the air and attacked Miranllaslashing at her body with their blades but the blades failed topenetrate her divine shield.
‘Damn! Holy avengers.’ screamed Granddad. ‘Lithgala is reallyannoyed.’ He then cast a spell making the avengers visible againsurrounded by a green glow.
Miranllareformed as a Newman woman and she glowed golden for a moment andpointed a finger at each glowing avengers and it exploded. She thenturned to Ishteth her eyes sparkled and he turned to rock. Sheturned towards the circle of shaman but Shastritara and theremaining egg was gone. The shaman stopped singing and fellprostrate before her begging her forgiveness. Jacintra vanished andMiranlla’s eyes returned to normal and she looked arounddismayed.
‘What happened?’
‘By the Powers, Miranlla what have you done?’ saidQin.
‘I don’t think that was Miranlla.’ shouted Granddad. ‘Isuspect she was possessed briefly by the Lady.’
‘Damn Her !.’ shouted Qin as he withdraw the black blades andwalked over to the smashed eggs. He saw the two mangled forms ofbaby little people and he shed a tear.
‘These are mine I presume,’ he said softly.
‘I’m sorry. Shastritara deceived you,’ said Miranlla thensuddenly realizing the gravity of the situation.
‘It wasn’t me! The Lady possessed me,’ she addedquickly.
‘I don’t I like these gods very much,‘ he replied. ‘Theinnocent shouldn’t have to pay for the schemes of gods.’
He re-joinedhis divided mind and created a zone of darkness around him and hiseyes turned golden. As he expected there were two small spiritauras floating near the bodies. His spirit extended out of hishands and he scooped them up one at a time examined their auras andcalled forth their divinity seeds which were copies of his anderased them. He eliminated the zone of darkness and faced Miranllaand Granddad.
‘They can rest in peace now. Can you incinerate them pleaseGranddad.’ And he stood back while Granddad took over and turnedthe bodies to ash. Miranlla sang a lovely prayer for the departedand a single bolt of lightning struck down from the sky above andthe ash was gone.
Aquitain thenturned to Miranlla.
‘Would you have destroyed those eggs had you not beenpossessed by the Lady?’ he asked.
Miranlla waslost for words. What could she say? What did he expect her to say?This would probably be the most important thing she ever said tohim. He might hate her but she had to say it.
‘Yes my love. I would have destroyed them without pity. Theyare not of you and me. They were stolen from you. I would havedestroyed them.’ she said truthfully.
‘Good. I would expect no less from you Mandy but we still havea problem. You were possessed by the Lady who killed my offspringwithout remorse. That means that you might also be possessed by heragain and kill Tigerlilly or even me without remorse when my job isdone.’
‘You once told me that Alpha said that one day I would have tomake a choice between you and my mission. That time is now but itis not I that will have to make the choice but you. You must nowchoose to follow me or the Lady!’
‘But … that is unfair I love you both.’ she said.
‘Will you kill the Lady for me or kill me for the Lady?’ askedAquitain.
‘I take Miranlla’s side in this.’ said Granddad. ‘That isquite unfair. She has risked her life for you on many occasions.She is you most vocal champion. The Lady is on our side. K’wala isa champion of the Lady. You risk damnation from both if you forcethis issue.’
‘I have been told that Lithgala was
