‘What are you up to?’ whispered Darkmantle.
‘They respect power don’t they then let’s show them somepower.’ he replied.
Aquitain stoodthere like a magnificent golden warrior with great golden bladeextending from her hand.
‘No.’ said a voice into their minds.
‘As Warden of Moonmist I cannot allow it.’
The littlecrystal Warden flew over towards the fifty or more warriors andturned to face Aquitain and Darkmantle.
‘Why do you side with these stupid men.’ asked Aquitainloudly.
‘Because we came here to protect them not slaughter them.’said the little crystal Warden.’
One of theguardian constructs finally crashed through a wall and came towardsAquitain and Darkmantle.
She turned,lengthened the golden spirit blade and swept it through the body ofthe construct while whispering a word of command. The iron monstershuddered to a halt and fell immobile.
The troops werestunned. Nobody would have believed anyone could kill a guardianconstruct so easily.
‘Wow that blade is awesome!’ whispered Darkmantle.
‘It is unfair to wield the Sword of Astaria against thesehonest soldiers.’ said Aquitain in the Warden’s voice. ‘Only a veryfew of them are possessed by evil Mentarin.’
‘Then let them hand over the possessed ones and I will sparethe rest.’ said Aquitain in a booming voice.
‘But they do not know which are possessed.’ said the littleWarden.
‘I do.’ said Aquitain and as she pointed at each of them aghostly illusion appeared around them.
‘So it’s true you can see us.’ said a Mentarin to Aquitainusing mindspeak. ‘but you can’t harm us.’ said another with asnigger.
‘You can kill our host but we will just move on to anotherbody.’ said the third.
‘Come and find out.’ said Aquitain waving the three possessedsoldiers forward with a smile.
One suddenlycharged at her and feinted to dodge her defence and trust his swordat her stomach. She deftly sidestepped and swept the golden spiritsword through the soldiers steel armour as if it wasn’t therecleaving the spirit possessing him in two.
The soldiergave a sound like he’d been gutted, dropped to his knees, releasedhis weapon and screamed.
‘I’m free! It’s gone. The thing possessing me is gone.’ Helooked up to Aquitain and shouted.
‘Thank you my Lady! Thank you!’
The rest of thesoldiers were shocked. Was the Mistress of Astaria and the LordWarden correct? Were some of them possessed with strangespirits?
The other twopossessed soldiers attacked, charging forward with their shieldstrying to overbear Aquitain. She made a single horizontal stroke atwaist level. The blade extended out two paces and passed throughswords shields, armour and chests as if they weren’t there. Bothwarriors grunted as if in pain and fell forward onto the ground ather feet, then as if awakened from the dead, climbed to theirknees, threw their weapons to the ground and thanked the Princessfor freeing them.
That was enoughfor the rest of them. Weapons dropped to the ground everywhere.Some dropped to their knees. Soon all the rest dropped to theirknees with their heads bowed.
Darkmantle’sknees began to shake as he felt the overpowering feeling that heshould also kneel before this golden heroine then he heard Aquitainsay into his mind.
‘Quickly Darkmantle get your wyverns to drop the two Lordsdown in front of them so that I can clear them of possession and wemight yet win the day.’
Darkmantlecalled the wyverns holding the Lords and directed them to droptheir prey at his feet. Aquitain stepped forward and sliced throughthem with the sword fashioned from her spirit, killing the Mentarinspirit creatures possessing them. Both Lords knelt before Aquitainand thanked her profusely for freeing them and swore allegiance andeverlasting loyalty to her.
Aquitain bidthem stand.
‘There are warriors from three houses here. Where is the thirdLord?’ asked Darkmantle.
As if on cue agiant brutish Lord wearing full black armour with a helmet shapedlike a grinning skull strode forward out of the darkness followedby at least thirty armed men.
‘Are you looking for another Lord to kowtow before youtonight? You are nothing but a fake and impostor. We all know thatAstaria has been captured and sacked. You are Lord and Princess ofnothing; at the best a meagre illusionist.’
‘Careful, Lady Warden.’ whispered Darkmantle. ‘This one is abeast and will not be convinced as easily as theothers.’
A hidden smallfemale mage wearing a long dark scarlet robe faintly rippling withpower stepped out from behind the brash Lord and triggered a Rod ofGreater Dispel at Aquitain.
‘Let’s see who you really are.’ she cackled but nothinghappened.
Aquitainobliged by changing her shape to that of a black divine avengerwearing black armour, her two blades equalized in size and becameblack and formed a skull shaped hood over her head.
‘Well you have unmasked me. You can see me in all my glory. Iam Death. I have tried to restrain myself from killing you all. Ifyou have a wish to die tell me now and I will obligeyou.’
‘You are nothing but a minor witch and I will eat your livertonight. Roast them!’ said the huge Lord to his wizard.
The femalewizard obliged by casting a fireball at Aquitain. People everywheredived for cover.
‘I’ve got it,’ yelled Aquitain and they stood their ground asAquitain using telekinesis redirected the fireball upwards where itburst forming giant orange balloon lighting up the ground with aneerie yellowish glow. The wizard sent two more fireballs in rapidsuccession and the same happened.
‘I am a minor Illusionist am I?’ shouted Aquitain pointing herarm towards the female. She used telekinesis to grab the legs ofthe wizard and flip her upside down. The wizard’s gown felldownwards covering her head and blocking her vision. Aquitain spunher like a top to disorient her then quickly dragged her upsidedown to a position two paces from her feet and let her fall in aheap onto the ground.
Darkmantlemoved a few paces to Aquitain’s left expecting more magic.
‘You were warned!’ shouted Aquitain and as the wizard womanrolled to the kneeling position in front of her chanting. A blackblade blurred and the wizard woman’s head fell to the ground. Thewizard’s chanting was cut off in mid-sentence as blood spurted allover both Aquitain and Darkmantle. The wizard’s head seemed toraise itself off the ground and flew to Aquitain’s left hand andshe held it high in the air.
‘Come and get my liver if you want to eat it!’
