‘Wait!’ he thought. ‘There’s a fireball. He he. Looks likeChantalot has decided to buy us some time. I hope he’s careful. Ibetter get moving.’
Featherdowncrossed the room to his communicator and called Granwell. A fewseconds later Granwell replied.
‘Is that you Featherdown. It’s about time. We need to getmoving they’ve already got a lot of troops through that gateway.I’m just wondering why they haven’t sabotaged our towersyet?’
‘They must be afraid that our towers will harm some of theirpeople if they fall. We’ve evacuated all the townspeople from theinn but a lot are missing. I’m betting they will be in the gatewaybuilding as hostages against an attack there.’ repliedFeatherdown
‘I would leave your tower quickly. The teleport marker to thewest is in our hands. You might like to help our defences there. Iwant to evacuate all the people I can before we do any real damage.Make sure you have a communication stone with you.’ saidFeatherdown.
‘Hehe. I haven’t had a good fight for ages. I think I can getus a real dragon if we need one. That should prove exciting. Okay.I’ll go to the west and watch over the teleport marker.’ repliedGranwell.
Featherdown ranover and looked down at the line of his young wizards. They wereall dead, decapitated by the fighters behind them.
‘Dam. I hate wars.’ he said aloud to himself then quicklyteleported to a secret marker hidden under the ground near thegateway building. He quietly moved along a narrow tunnel climbedsome stairs and looked out a peephole overlooking the gatewayentrance. It was open and a steady stream of traffic was movingacross the steel bridge from the gateway to the exit door. All themissing townspeople were in the pit below the bridge.
The bridge wasdesigned with hinges on the sides. By pulling a lever it wouldsplit down the middle and the two sides would swing downwards andstop against the sidewalls of the pit and the gateway would beclosed. Anything on the bridge would fall into the pit and betrapped there. The pit was lined with dead magic rock so that itwould make magic use in the pit useless.
Guards fromabove could shoot into the pit and if necessary the pit could befilled with water to drown any creatures down there. The people inthe pit knew that if anyone tried to attack the gateway buildingtheir fate was sealed.
He could hearangry shouts, then a voice nearby that brought back memories.
‘I didn’t think he would surrender Kelnor. Are you happy now?He’s managed to save half his town’s people that were in the Inn.He’s probably guessed we’ve got the rest of his people in here. Iknow him. He’s a weasely bastard. However, while we’re in here hecan’t do much and the supplies keep coming through.’
‘We’ve just killed his mages surely that’ll make him cooperatea little.’ said Kelnor.
‘Mm. I don’t know.’ replied Firestorm. ‘It would just make memore annoyed. However, we still have his guards. He’ll know theywill be next.’
‘He worries about the townspeople.’ said Curbut.
‘I’ve heard him. This is his town and he knows if he attacksus here we will flood the chamber below and they will all drown. Hecan’t possibly get them out.’
‘The longer he’s out there the more chance my wizard hunterswill get him.’ said Kelnor.
‘Dam. They’ve got wizard hunters!’ thought Featherdown.‘Granwell won’t be expecting them.’
‘Care to make a small wager Kelnor. I’ll bet my wizards findhim before your wizard hunters.’ said Firestorm.
‘You know my temple is against gambling. We only bet on surewinners and my augury didn’t reveal what was likely to happen.’replied Kelnor.
‘That means the gods aren’t sure either.’ said Firestorm. ‘Ilike it that way. It adds a bit of excitement don’t youthink.’
‘No.’ said Kelnor. ‘I would prefer it more clearcut.’
Featherdowndecided he had to act quickly if there were wizard hunters around.These were half priest half wizards trained to capture and killwizards. They used all sorts of magic protections on their bodies,stayed invisible most of the time, were equipped with greaterdispel rods and were trained for close combat with poisoneddaggers. No wizard was safe when they were around.
Just before hewas about to leave he heard something that caught hisattention.
‘I hope that Agent of Chaos shows up. I’d like to kill himagain.’ said Curbut. ‘I’ve already killed him a few times. Sooneror later he has to run out of lives. I think it’s that bitch girlfriend of his bringing him back. If we can kill her it could end afew of our problems.’
‘I have given strict orders that neither he nor his girlfriendare to be harmed and that applies to you too Curbut. He is not tobe harmed. Do you understand?’ said Firestorm.
‘Why?’ asked Curbut obviously annoyed.
‘That is none of your business. If you attempt to harm them inany way then you will answer to me. Understand?’ replied Firestormbut Curbut didn’t reply.
Chapter 25 Run DragonRun
After hearing thatAquitain and Miranda were not to be harmed Featherdown had an idea.He carefully replaced the peephole overlooking the gateway andretraced his steps far enough away so nobody would detect the useof magic. He teleported back to his tower raced to the teleportcircle and teleported down to his basement and quickly searchedaround for what he wanted, an old wire birdcage that stood wastehigh. He checked it carefully to see if its base was solid enoughthen teleported back upstairs and went to his room and stood infront of the mirror.
He pulled out asmall compendium of useful powers from a pocket in his battle gownand paged through it until he found the power he wanted. The bookcontained a multitude of powers that he used only occasionally.
He removed hisclothes and he cast a powerful permanent polymorph on himself. Henow looked like a young Newman. He looked for another spell andcreated a powerful glamour like they often used in Moonmist onhimself and formed it into a loin cloth. Lastly, he used a simpleglamour power on the birdcage making it look like a shiny newgolden cage.
He renewed hispower to see invisible, used a shape change power grabbed the cageand teleported to the western teleport marker and quickly lookedaround. There were a few townspeople there and an invisiblePanmagican
