‘What shall we call your dolly Moonbeam?’
‘I shall name it Tigerlilly!’ said Moonbeam.
‘That’s a nice name.’ said Aquitain he then concentrated onthe doll.
‘Hello. My name is Aquitain. You are a part of me and Moonbeamand Ironwood. You are a construct. Your name is Tigerlilly. Youwill always keep your wooden body alive and safe. You will watchand listen. You will communicate with us by mindspeak. From now onyou will only receive commands from Moonbeam.’
He spoke aseries of words in high Draconic and the doll stood up inAquitain’s hand and said
‘Hello my name is Tigerlilly.’
Moments laterthere was a crash of thunder and a large grey cloud appearedoverhead that covered to sky from horizon to horizon.
‘I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN!’ said a thunderous masculinevoice.
Immediately, arainbow coloured dome appeared over the top of them protecting themfrom the great arcs of lighting that struck at them from thecloud.
‘HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE! ’ said a feminine voice charged withimmense power and the cloud dissipated and the sun shone oncemore.
‘Umm. I think I’ve trod on someone’s toes.’ said Aquitain ashe handed Tigerlilly to Moonbeam.
‘Ironwood give me two minutes to leave your dream then wakeup. Come on Rat Catcher lets go home.’ and they ran back towardsAquitain’s dream.
A thin beam oflight shone down from the sky and lit up Tigerlilly’s face and thebreeze murmured ‘Welcome to life, little one.’
Chapter 7 Granddad’sProblem
Granddad sat downacross the table from the rest of the family. Thanks for allcoming. We have a serious problem. This afternoon I received asummons to come to a special meeting of the Unity of Wisdom Counciltomorrow. It seems that they are going to review our license tomake and sell ‘official’ magic items.
I have alsobeen asked by the Chairman of the Wizard’s Guild to attend aspecial meeting tomorrow to discuss a serious problem. Now this isvery worrying since I’m the Secretary of the Guild and normally itis my job to notify the other committee members. They don’t knowwhat’s happening either. Fortunately one of my friends tipped meoff yesterday that something serious was brewing.
‘Good Heavens.’ said Melanie’s father Peter.
‘What’s going on? Why now? What have we done? They haven’tdiscovered that we’ve been trading with the Yith have they. I knewthat would get us into trouble sooner or later.’
‘Quiet Peter we all knew the risks about that. Let’s hear whatDad has to say.’ said Melanie’s mother.
‘No. Curiously enough I don’t think that’s the problem. I’vegot a bad feeling that it might have something to do with Rob. Ihaven’t heard from him, Alpha or Melanie for a few weeks now. Youremember we got a report that he was killed and turned into a bear.Well my contact on Mudrun sent me a message a few days ago sayingthat he died again and was reincarnated as some rare type ofspider.’
‘Sounds typical.’ said Peter. ‘He should have known betterthan to trust one of those druids.’
‘Anyway he told my contact that he was heading into someexotic world chasing a young woman he liked.’ saidGranddad.
‘Why couldn’t he just come home?’ said Aquitain’smother.
‘We could have arranged a wish to fix all hisproblems.’
‘True Tina but it seems he’s become much more independentsince he’s been away.’
‘Is she a spider too?’ said Peter laughing. ‘It’ll be hard toemploy them in the shop when they get back. I don’t think ourcustomers will like being served by spiders.’
‘Don’t be silly Peter.’ said Melanie’s mother.
‘We could polymorph them before they worked in theshop.’
‘Yes we could polymorph them into insect people? That would behysterical wouldn’t it? Insects by day and spiders bynight.’
‘Be serious Peter.’ said Granddad getting a littleannoyed.
‘This is not a time for jokes. I contacted a good friend ofmine who is very good at getting all sorts of confidentialinformation. He arrived in our world late yesterday and has beenchecking out his sources within the city since then. He should bearriving any time now.’
They continuedthe discussion for several more minutes until there was a knock onthe planning room door and the head guard stated that the visitorhad arrived.
‘Good, send him in will you.’ said Granddad and in flew aTraveller bug, which resembled a large brown cockroach about threefinger widths long. He landed on the table and using mindspeakcheerily said.
‘Hi everyone! Nice to see that you are all healthy and happy,unfortunately, I’m the bearer of some bad news.’
‘Hi Helix.’ said everyone.
‘You should be glad Rob’s not here. He’s been turned into aspider.’ chuckled Peter.
‘I heard about that from Granddad.’ said Helix.
‘I’m sure he’d make a fine spider. With his mental powers he’dhave no trouble charming poor little customers into his mercantileweb.’
Everyonelaughed. It was always good to see this happy little fellow andthey knew they’d hear the bad news soon enough.
‘Quiet everyone.’ said Granddad suddenly becoming seriousagain. ‘What have you found out for us Helix?’
‘Well you’ve no doubt received the summons to the Unity ofWisdom Council and the Mages’ Guild this afternoon. I couldn’t findout anything about the Mages’ meeting but I did overhear a coupleof conversations about the meeting in some of thetemples.’
‘At least three High priests in three different temples havedreamed that Rob has upset their respective Gods. They are going todemand that Granddad drags him before them and apologizesprofusely. They are also going to demand a large monetaryreparation from all of you. In default you will have your merchantlicenses revoked and all of you may be thrown in prison, exiled orworse.’
‘You’re joking.’ said Tina quite horrified.
‘What could Rob possibly have done to provoke that sort ofresponse?’
‘I’m not sure but it’s somehow tied up with something calledthe Mentarin Treaty.’ said Helix. ‘It was mentioned severaltimes.’
‘Oh. No!’ said Granddad. ‘This is serious indeed.’
‘What’s this treaty all about Dad?’ asked Tina.
‘It’s a secret trade treaty that has been in effect for ahundred years, however, in light of the seriousness of thissituation and the fact that the Unity of Wisdom Council seemslikely to
