‘He openly challenged the Queen on several occasions and therehave been a number clashes between them over the years but neitherside has been able to get the upper hand. The Queen has superiornumbers and better fighters but the Hidden Court has plenty ofplaces to hide in the mountains so the situation became astalemate.
The interestingthing is that the Hidden Court is much more tolerant of people withmutations than the Queen. Consequently, most of those born withmutations sooner or later have ended up in the Hidden Courtincreasing its numbers at the cost of the Queen.’
‘It’s said that at the Queen’s spring ball all the peoplethere are naked by her decree to show to each other that they arepure and have no mutations. The situation is the opposite among theHidden Ones. The decree here is that all wear the chafra in publicto hide any mutations allowing all persons to be equal.’
Aquitainthought that this was all very interesting, but he was keen to knowmore about the Mentarin.
‘You said that you escaped from the Mentarin.’
‘Yes I did. I was one of the workers in the factory but whenthey moved me to a new area I was shocked and horrified at whatthey were doing so I spent several weeks planning an escape andwith a lot of luck and the help of Burlop, the Salamad, Iescaped.’
‘Can you tell me about Burlop and his people?’ askedMiranda.
‘Burlop is a true amphibian that can breathe water or air.They go on land but prefer to stay in or near the water. They seemto be just as intelligent as you or I but they prefer to talk usingthat strange mental talk of theirs. They are quite peaceful butseem to hate the Mentarin. They helped me to set up the safe houseswe use to help the slaves escape.’
‘I don’t know how much you know about the geography ofMoonmist but it’s shaped like a ball with various parts separatedby mountain ranges. We’re currently on the edge of what’s calledthe Mentarin plain and the mountains separating the Mentarin fromthe Elendari.’
‘On the other side of the plain is another mountain range,which separates the Mentarin from the Salamad. Burlop said thatthere was an icy sea there where his people live in underwaterdwellings. I’d like to go there sometime, but haven’t had theopportunity yet.’
‘What does the Mentarin factory make?’ askedAquitain.
‘I wondered how long it would take for you to ask me thatquestion.’ said Navarro.
‘Do you know it’s instant death for anyone to talk about thatplace. All the workers swear a blood oath to never reveal whathappens there. Unfortunately, I am bound by the oath as well and Idon’t wish to die at the moment.’
‘You said earlier tonight that you knew a little aboutmagic?’
Navarro’sturned a little white.
‘I ... err ... learned my trade in ... err ... Panmagica quitea while ago.’
‘Really. I know a few people there.’ said Aquitain. ‘Whowith?’
‘I really can’t answer that.’ he replied with a terrified lookon his face.’
‘Oh. It has something to do with the factory.’ askedAquitain.
Navarronodded.
I may be ableto fix that if you wish. It seems that you have an implantedaversion to talking about the place. If it were a blood oath youwould probably be unconscious by now.
‘You might be right. I found my blood oath sample anddestroyed it but I’m still afraid to talk about things there. Couldyou really fix this aversion?’
‘Aversions are strange things. They can cause considerablefear and stress. They are like bad habits. They are easy to startbut damn difficult to stop. I could start you on the road to fix itbut it will probably take quite a while before you arecured.’
‘How would you do it?’ asked Navarro seemingly quiteinterested.
‘Well it involves putting you under hypnosis and implanting amagical suggestion to counter the aversion.’ repliedAquitain.
‘I’ll think about it.’ he replied.
‘I know a little about the factory.’ said Gizel, ‘and Ihaven’t taken the oath. I have helped Rosanllea when she wasattempting to heal the trauma in the minds of some of the factoryworkers.’
Navarro jumpedup and ran out of the building covering his ears with his handsshouting ‘I don’t want to hear.’
Gazel smiledand said.
‘Men can be such idiots. You have given me so much hope thatwe can rid the world of the Mentarin curse. I will tell you of whatI know.’
‘The factory makes magic items of all sorts which they sell onmany worlds. They say that they can make more powerful items, morecheaply than anywhere else in all the worlds. How they do this Idon’t know. There is one other very interesting thing I heard.Several of the men spoke of it in their nightmares but would notdare speak of it when they were awake. It is guaranteed to turntheir legs to jelly. The Cadalthian. I don’t know whether it’s aperson or some object or whatever.’
‘That’s very useful information. Thank you Gizel.’ saidAquitain searching his mind for anything that sounded similar butcoming up with nothing.
‘Have you heard that name before?‘ he asked to Miranda throughtheir mind link.
‘No never.’ she replied.
‘You better not mention it to Navarro he seems really troubledabout anything to do with this factory business.’
‘You’re right aversions are nasty things. Why don’t you callhim back here again.’
‘Hmm. This Gizel is much more than she seems.’ thoughtMiranda.
Mirandaattracted Gizel’s attention and they had a few words together.
‘Tain can you mindlink Gizel and me together. I’d like to talkwith her about women’s business.’
Aquitain linkedthem together and watched their facial expressions for a couple ofminutes, lost interest and returned to his own thoughts. Mirandaand Gizel talked for more than an hour then parted amicably andMiranda lay down cuddling Tigerlilly on the bed and went tosleep.
Once Mirandawas asleep Aquitain decided to turn his mind to something that waslong overdue – Slivver.
Slivver now newmore about Miranda and Aquitain than anyone and that was far toodangerous, as they knew almost nothing about him.
He asked Gizelto lift him onto the bunk that Miranda was sleeping on and moved toa position where he could see Slivver
