As the peopleand guards arrived in groups at the western teleport marker theywere directed to travel through the jungle further to the west.Several of the guards were given weapons and asked to fan out andhelp guard the area.
MeanwhileFeatherdown on Rose the dragon flew around in circles watching andlistening to the troops sing their battle chant. The druidpretending to be Miranda changed to an eagle and was sent back tohelp with the people at the western teleport marker along withGranwell who teleported there in case they needed some magicalbackup.
Chapter 26 Arrogance andVanity
When Granwell sent hima message that the plan had worked and most of the people andguards had escaped Featherdown breathed a sigh of relief and usingmindspeak to the dragon told her she could now cause as muchdevastation as she wished but asked her to start with thecommercial teleport building. He teleported to his tower, used hisrod of greater dispel to eliminate his Aquitain form, donned hisbattledress and went down to the basement. He used his communicatorcrystal to contact Granwell.
‘How’s it going?’
‘Good.’ replied Granwell.
‘We’ve got all the townspeople and all the guards that werecaptured. Are you going to close the gateway now? Heteronymous hasarrived he wants to know whether to do his part.’
‘I’m going to try and close the gateway from the backupcontrol room but it could be hazardous if Firestorm knows about it.Tell Heteronymous to wait about 30 minutes for the gateway toclose. If it doesn’t close and I don’t return then to do his part.’replied Featherdown.
‘What’s he going to do?’ asked Granwell.
‘Don’t ask. Just use the mass teleport wand I gave you and getthe townspeople to safety. If I don’t join you, I am likely to begone for a while. Good luck my friend.’ repliedFeatherdown.
Featherdownopened a dimensional safe in the wall of his basement and took outa simple glass sphere the size of an orange made of very thinglass. The sphere was full of a colourless liquid and had a warningon the surface ‘Terratox. Do not break.’, and a picture of askull.
He held it inhis right hand and went to the teleport circle and teleported tothe backup control centre for the gateway, a small room deep insidethe rock above the gateway.
On arrival hefelt it instantly- an antimagic zone.
‘Welcome.’ said Archwizard Firestorm.
‘We got you this time.’ said Curbut. ‘I can’t believe thegreat Featherdown would be so stupid as to fall into a trap likethis.’
Featherdownlooked around. There were four wizard hunters all with weaponsdrawn, two fighters in full armour with weapons at the ready,Archwizard Firestorm and Wizard Curbut.
‘Well you have prepared me a nice reception.’ saidFeatherdown. ‘Where is High Priest Kelnor, I thought he would cometo my party.’
‘Unfortunately he is busy convincing people that they don’thave the plague.’ said Firestorm.
‘Yes Aquitain can be quite a headache but you should havelistened to him. This is a dangerous world for the uninvited.’ saidFeatherdown.
‘It will soon belong to the Unity of Wisdom.’ saidCurbut.
‘With you out of the way there will be nobody to stopus.’
‘My how little you’ve learnt since you’ve been here Curbut.This world will never belong to Panmagica or the Yith. It has evendeclared its independence from the Inter-World Druids Council. Thisis a free world now and nobody is likely to change that any timesoon. We destroyed the army sent against the druids’ conclave andare preparing right now to destroy your army here.’
‘Archwizard Firestorm I presume you are the commander of thearmy outside. As the ambassador for the Independent World of MudrunI’m offering you a chance to save your army. However, you have onlyfive minutes to make your decision or you and your army will belost.’
‘You dare to threaten me.’ scoffed Firestorm.
‘What sort of a fool are you? There are eight of us here andone of you. You cannot use magic here to fight orleave.’
‘I am here as the ambassador of Mudrun. I offer you and yourarmy the chance to escape death. But you now have four minutes todecide.’ replied Featherdown moving his hand with the glass spherein front of his chest where Firestorm could see itproperly.
‘What’s that you have?’ said Firestormsuspiciously.
‘You should recognize this sphere of liquid; you used otherslike it on a town in Helios. You killed over thirteen thousandpeople in the town until I arrived and made the wind to blow it outof the town onto your army and then it killed over two thousands ofyour troops.’
‘By the Powers, what is it?’ asked Curbut.
‘It’s a very nasty poison gas called Terratox. It was made ona world that is depleted of magic so they use chemicals forwarfare. I tried it out on the town but the clever ArchwizardFeatherdown showed us that it had disadvantages.’ repliedFirestorm.
‘He then applied to the world consortium to have the substancebanned on all worlds but they didn’t agree. So now he intends touse it against our troops. How hypocritical!’
‘I have few worries about using a poisonous gas against anarmy of religious fanatics. I will again repeat my offer. Removeyour army and nobody will be harmed. But you have only threeminutes to decide.’ replied Featherdown.
‘He’s bluffing.’ said Curbut.
‘If he drops that sphere he will kill himself as well asus.’
‘A good trade I think.’ said Featherdown, ‘eight fanatics forme!’
‘Do you think that Kelnor is likely to resurrect you again!Curbut?’
‘Okay.’ said Firestorm.
‘We’ll need to wait for a few minutes until the antimagicspell expires then I will go to High Priest Kelnor and recommend wepull back through the Gateway. How are you going to signal yourdruids to stop any attack on my army?’
‘By pulling that lever.’ replied Featherdown.
‘But that will close the gateway.’ replied Curbut.
‘How can we retreat if you close the gateway?’
‘It would give the signal for my people to temporarily stopthe attack. We would then get your people to disarm and I will openthe gate for them to pass back through. It will also give you timeto convince High Priest Kelnor that this is the right thing to do.’replied Featherdown.
‘No I won’t agree to any disarming. I will agree totemporarily close the gate while I talk to Kelnor and if he agreeswe will depart in an orderly
