‘Will that do your Majesty?’ he inquired.
‘Yes.’ replied Aquitain and she used her power to create asphere of hardened air around the small aura trappingit.
‘Show yourself.’ She said looking at the invisibleTrixie.
Prendergrassimmediately caught on and raced out of the room quickly returningwith another scroll.
‘Good thing I keep a scroll for every occasion.’ he said thenused a power revealing the Trixie trapped in the sphere ofair.
Aquitain wassurprised, it was Bellen, but his eyes were glazed over as if hewas charmed.
‘He looks charmed. Can you dispel it please Prendergrass?’asked Aquitain.
Prendergrasslooked for direction from Darkmantle afraid that he may be about toupset some scheme of his employer but Darkmantle didn’t seemworried.
‘You heard Her Majesty, dispel that charm spell I want to knowwhat’s going on here.’
Prendergrassnodded and dispelled the charm and Bellen’s eyes regained theirnormal appearance. He looked around as if unaware of hissurroundings and saw Aquitain, Darkmantle and Prendergrass alllooking at him with serious expressions on their faces. His firstreflex was to flee but when he tried to teleport nothinghappened.
‘You can’t leave this room Bellen, it is sealed. Someone hascharmed you to eavesdrop on us. I won’t hurt you but you must tellme what you remember after leaving the remembrance ceremony forQueen Miranda tonight.’ commanded Aquitain.
‘I … err. um… left after the ceremony and the … um … book, itcalled to me.’
‘What book?’ asked Aquitain.
‘The one we gets all our magic from.’ repliedBellen.
‘So the book called you and then what?’ askedAquitain.
‘I don’t remember.’ replied Bellen meekly.
‘You’re lying.’ shouted Darkmantle angrily.
‘No.’ said Aquitain. ‘He may not know anything after he wascharmed.’
‘Does the book talk to you often.’
‘Yes. It wants to know everything that happens around thepalace.’
‘And what does it give you in return?’ askedAquitain.
‘It gives us any magic we wants.’ replied Bellen.
‘How does it do that?’ asked Prendergrass suddenlycurious.
‘I poke this wand into the back of the book. I tells it what Iwant and when I pulls it out the wand will do it.’ saidBellen.
‘Remarkable.’ replied Prendergrass.
‘Very cunning.’ added Darkmantle.
‘And very dangerous.’ added Aquitain. ‘It’s a fountain ofunending magic as long as you give it information. It sounds likewe have found one of the ways the Mentarin keep up to date onwhat’s happening. It charms Trixies into eavesdropping on theElendari and then gets them to tell it what they heard. Itpresumably then passes the information onto our enemy.’
‘What do you wish to do with this knowledge Darkmantle?’ askedAquitain.
‘I’m not sure. What does the Lord Warden think we should do?’asked Darkmantle looking at Crys.
‘You may find this a little confusing but I am the Warden ofMoonmist.’ said Aquitain. ‘The spirit of Miranda was stolen fromher stoned body by the Mentarin last night and I believe that it isbeing held captive by our enemy. I moved my spirit from the smallcrystalline construct into her body to save it fromdying.’
Both Darkmantleand Prendergrass were shocked.
‘But how?’ asked Darkmantle. ‘Are you a Mentarin?’
‘No. I am a mind wizard from another world with some specialgifts.’ replied Aquitain.
‘I was made a Warden by your world when I agreed to help findout what was going wrong. It’s your choice now to either help orhinder me. What is it to be?’
‘We’ll help you of course, won’t we Prendergrass?’ repliedDarkmantle but Prendergrass said nothing and turned pale. Aquitainnoticed and said
‘You haven’t answered me Prendergrass.’
He lookedawfully uncomfortable then ran for the door. Aquitain quicklyhardened a wall of air in front of the door stopping him frompassing through. He spun around and cast a bolt of lightning atAquitain. Darkmantle dived for cover. Fortunately Miranda’s armourabsorbed the bolt.
Aquitain usedhis power to control sound and garbled Prendergrass’s next spelland the next again. Prendergrass knew he was beaten as he couldn’tescape and he couldn’t fight. He backed against the wall and slidslowly down to the sitting position and began to sob.
‘I’m sorry. This is all my fault.’ He blabbered.
‘What are you talking about?’ snapped Darkmantle as he jumpedto his feet and walked over to Prendergrass.
‘Miranda is my daughter.’ said Prendergrass not game enough tolook Darkmantle in the face.
‘That’s rubbish.’ said Darkmantle. ‘Sindel didn’t like you.She knew you lusted after her but wouldn’t go near you but she didfeel sorry for that Newman slave we caught in Mudrun. It washim.’
‘There was no slave. I used a powerful spell to change myshape to that of the slave. No one could detect it. Even shecouldn’t with all her magic.’ said Prendergrass.
‘Well you must be dead now.’ said Darkmantle.
‘Because I caught him trying to get through Llanlorian’s gateand had him killed and his body burnt to ash while Iwatched.’
‘That’s impossible.’ replied Prendergrass.
‘The slave didn’t exist. It was me.’
‘Perhaps you are both wrong.’ suggested Aquitain.
‘Lord Darkmantle, you said to me last night that the evilMentarin Schlum had been tormenting you for years. Perhaps this wasanother way to torment you. Did it ever possess you? Could it havechanged your memories? Perhaps Miranda isn’t Prendergrass’s or thisother slave’s daughter. Maybe she is really yourdaughter.’
Darkmantle wasshocked by the thought. He staggered over to the chair and sat downthinking deeply.
‘Yes, yes it’s possible I suppose.’ he said then pulled hisboot and stocking off and pointed to his small toe.
‘All my family have a toe like this. If Miranda is my daughtershe should have one like it.’
Aquitainthought for a few moments. She had seen most of Miranda’s body backon Mudrun but couldn’t remember having a close look at her littletoe. However, she knew that Miranda’s toe was going to look thesame. She sat down and pulled off her boot. Both Prendergrass andBellen came over to have a look. The toes were the same andDarkmantle was elated.
‘You’re my daughter.’ he shouted excitedly. ‘I’ve beendeceived all these years. I hated your mother for what she did andyet deep down I still love her.’ and he hugged into Aquitain withtears streaming down his face.
‘Calm down a bit Lord Darkmantle, I might look like yourdaughter but I’m actually someone else. Your daughter’s spirit isstill held by the Mentarin. Perhaps that’s why they captured her inthe first place
