He removed thecrystal and dropped it on the stony ground then crushed it with theironclad hilt of his staff. The aura vanished and the argumentationand fighting among the druids began to subside.
The High druidwith a small retinue of half a dozen druids came from behind thebuilding and spotted Featherdown standing by the destroyed unicornstatue.
‘How dare you come here uninvited and desecrate our fountain.’he shouted. ‘Arrest that wizard he will pay for this graveinsult.’
‘Wait.’ said Quab.
‘I invited them here as is my right. They found a magiccrystal that was emanating some type of aura of disunity which wascausing the fighting.’
‘What a load of utter rubbish, I don’t believe a word of it.’said the High Druid in a shrill voice.
‘Arrest them all. Put them in chains. It was them causing thedisunity.’
Several druidsbegan moving towards Chantalot and several more towardsFeatherdown. The High Druid smiled with glee and Helix activatedhis aura vision to check their spirit auras and looked at the HighDruid whose expression immediately changed.
‘So there is more than one troublemaker here.’ he said toHelix using mindspeak.
He raised anarm and a small red fireball shot skywards, he laughed loudly,disappeared and then all hell broke loose. Fireballs began rainingdown from the sky onto the druids below. There were screamseverywhere and the druids scattered and began placing fireprotection on themselves and looking furtively at the sky to seewhere the fire was coming from.
No sooner hadthey protected themselves against fire than it began to rain largechunks of unusually cold jagged ice, which clubbed them and causedinstant frost burn. Then the area was blanketed in a thick yellowgreen acid fog, which burnt exposed skin, caused holes in theirrobes and pitted any metal around. This was followed by massivebursts of chain lightning, which leapt between the coughing druidsshocking, and stunning their already burnt, smashed and dazedbodies.
Many of theyounger ones died. Others who were badly damaged, teleported away.A few of the older and tougher ones refused to run. They stooddefiantly within spheres of elemental protection.
This wasFeatherdown’s chosen profession. He knew the tactics. He knew howto survive in battle and above all he knew how to kill with magic.Before the first fireball had hit the ground he had yelled toChantalot to flee and had teleported himself five hundred pacesstraight up into the sky. As he started to fall down again heactivated the ring on his left hand giving him the ability to fly.He slowed his decent and cast a spell allowing him to see invisiblecreatures and looked around below.
There wereseven or eight Newmans flying around about hundred paces below him.Each of them was invisible to the normal eye and busily castingdeath and destruction on the druids below. They all woredistinctive tabards.
‘Damn.’ he thought.
‘What are Panmagican wizards doing here?’
‘Hello, Featherdown.’ came a mindspeak voice within hishead.
‘I managed to create a mindlink between us before youteleported. Chantalot has left as you instructed but I decided tostay. Where are you now?’
‘I’m in the sky Helix.’ said Featherdown.
‘There are several invisible wizards wearing Panmagicancolours up here as well.’ then he had an idea. ‘Can you controllight?’
‘Yes.’ said Helix.
‘Good. Create the biggest zone of darkness around you that youcan and don’t look up.’
Moments later afield of darkness a hundred paces across sprung up and Featherdowncast what appeared to be a fireball down towards the zone. To thePanmagican wizards it was easily mistaken as coming from one oftheir colleagues. Some noticed that it looked a little differenthaving blue tinge rather than the healthy orange-yellow glow.Before it reached the zone of darkness it exploded not with heatbut with a brilliant burst of light, instantly blinding seven ofthe eight Yith wizards and also unfortunately, several druidsoutside the zone of darkness.
Immediately,the bombardment from above stopped, giving the druids some respite.Featherdown now ignored the wizards below. If these were militarywizards and this looked like a text book military ambush then theywould all teleport away to some aid station where they could gettheir blindness fixed then they would come back.
‘What’s next.’ he thought.
‘Ground troops of course!’ and he began searching the groundaround the camp. He noticed some birds fly off the ground to thesouth. He flew a little in that direction watching carefully, andsaw what he was looking for, small flashes of light coming offdrawn weapons. There were troops about four hundred paces from thedruid camp, all wearing camouflage spells.
‘Helix, there are ground troops coming in a few hundred pacesto the south. They are well camouflaged so I can’t tell exactly howmany. I would expect others closing in from the other directions.Tell the druids. Where is the High Druid?’
‘I don’t ...’ said Helix but the communication was cut off asFeatherdown felt a surge of dispelling magic around him and hebegan to fall like a stone. He quickly used a power he keptspecifically for this occasion. It slowed his fall allowing him tofloat down gracefully like a feather. He then activated his righthand ring and went invisible.
Helix feltFeatherdown drop out of the mindlink.
‘That’s unfortunate.’ he thought then he eliminated the zoneof darkness and broadcast a mindspeak message in alldirections.
‘Attention druids, Archmage Featherdown has temporarilyneutralized most of the attacking Panmagican Wizards above. He hasspotted ground troops approaching from all sides. He suggests yougrab an injured colleague and bring them to the central ovalbuilding, then to form a defensive ring around the area. Beware thenew High Druid is an enemy in disguise.’
‘Quab came running towards the main buildingyelling.
‘Helix, where are you?’
Helix guidedhim close then said ‘What’s up.’
‘They won’t believe you as they don’t recognize yourvoice.’
‘Repeat what I say.’ and he gave the instructions in thesecret druid language. This got action. Druids came in from alldirections, most carrying a badly injured or unconscious colleague.Several
