Heteronymouswaited five minutes until all the druids present had gatheredaround. He congratulated them on their success, heaping praise ontheir strength and courage. They all sang a victory song togetherand cheered. Then he told them how the Inter-World Druid Councilwanted them all to retreat from the world and hand it over to thePanmagicans so that they wouldn’t get hurt in any fight that brokeout between the Panmagicans and the Yith.
This broughtcalls of derision. Druids felt outraged. Many had been here half alifetime or more. They just said outright they were not going. Thiswas their home and they would not leave. Then Heteronymous toldthem he agreed with them he wasn’t going to leave either. He toldthem he was prepared to disobey the Council and declare Mudrunindependent of the Council if they wished and called for a vote. Itwas unanimous. Mudrun was now an independent world run by the DruidCouncil of Mudrun.
‘This is incredible.’ said Quab.
‘Now you know why he’s the High Druid.’ repliedFeatherdown.
‘I think that it’s time to close the gate in Twin Towerspermanently.’
They quicklycalled a Council of War and discussed strategy and tactics. It wasquickly agreed that they had to permanently close the Twin Towersgateway if they had any chance at all of being independent.Featherdown told them he had a contingency plan to close the gatedown if other defences failed. He also told them that the towndefence plan called for all citizens in Twin Towers to go to theUgly Bear Inn and wait for instructions from him. They would bethere right now waiting for him.
He needed adiversion to get them and the guards out safely and then he couldclose the gateway.
‘I need some druids who are familiar with the game called RunDragon Run.’ he said.
Several druidsvolunteered to help Featherdown and the rest decided to help theHigh Druid reincarnate as many of the dead druids as possible. Theland would be full of druids in animal disguise eager to causetrouble to any offworlders looking for it. Then the druids would goand inform any druids not present of what had happened and returnto their normal area of responsibility and await news from HighDruid Heteronymous.
Quab had aspecial job. He had to go to visit the Crin, the Little People andQueen Snowbelle and inform them about the new status of Mudrun.
Featherdowngathered all his gateway strike team of seven experienced druidsitching for a fight and explained what they had to do. If anythingwent wrong it would be because they wanted to fight rather thanjust rescue the townspeople and guards. Featherdown’s main worrywas the locations of his brother Chantalot and friend Granwell.
The firstproblem was to get into the town without being detected. They couldteleport to one of half a dozen teleport markers in and around twinTowers. Many would be known by Curbut and guarded or watched butthere was one he had placed a long time ago just for thissituation. It was in Chantalot’s room in the Ugly Bear Inn.
Featherdown andthree druids formed for teleport, vanished and reappeared inChantalot’s room.
‘What’s kept you?’ said an invisible Chantalot.
‘We’ve all been waiting for ages. Some of the town’s peoplewould have left if it wasn’t for the Panmagican guards on thedoor.’
‘Precisely as I expected.’ replied Featherdown lifting thelarge rug off the floor to reveal a teleport circle.
‘Now let’s deal with the guards and get the people up here andsend them to Templegate in groups of six. We’ll take the guards andyou make sure the people all get away. There’s four more druidscoming shortly and they will head off to create a diversion at thecommercial teleport centre.’
‘Where is Granwell?’ asked Featherdown a littleworried.
‘Oh he’s moving some valuables from his tower. He said he’llbe ready when you are.’ replied Chantalot with a grin.
‘Dam I asked him to move everything a week ago. He neverlistens. He just goes on as if nothing ever happens.’ grumbledFeatherdown.
Featherdownused a power the enable him to see invisible then another to turninvisible and went to the stairs. Sitting on the stairway was aninvisible wizard with a fireball wand. He counted the guards hecould see inside and looked out the window to see how many aroundoutside. There were four inside the Inn near the back door andanother eight including a wizard outside the front door. He lookedup and down the street and saw group of four guards at eachintersection. He returned to Chantalot’s room and found the secondgroup of four druids had arrived.
He quicklydiscussed the plan and the second group stripped off their robesand shape changed into a mother cat and her three little kittensthen set off down the hall to the stairs. Mother cat jumped downthe stairs to the people milling below and was patted by them. Thenthe three little kittens came bouncing and falling down the stairsafter mum. Everyone’s attention was focused on the cat and herkittens when the wizard on the stairs suddenly felt uneasy. Hecould hear no sound. Moments later he had a wire garrotte aroundhis neck and his wand fell harmlessly and noiselessly on thecarpeted steps.
For those notlooking at the cat and kittens they might have noticed the head ofthe young enemy mage roll down the steps and stop at the bottom.They also saw Featherdown appear over the headless body on thestairs with his finger over his mouth indicating that they shouldbe quiet. He held a wand in one hand and moved down the stairs.When out of the zone of silence and in range he fired the wand ofparalyse at the group of four guards watching the cats and they allfroze. The cats moved over to the guards changed form to druidsknocked down a guard each, stripped the clothes off them, gaggedand tied them securely
