‘Okay that is acceptable.’ said Featherdown.
‘No! It’s not.’ said the senior Wizard Hunter.
‘His Holiness the High Priest Kelnor suspected foul play. I amauthorized to ensure that the gate is not closed and any enemytrying to do so will be eliminated. All praise the Lord!’ and hethrew a dagger at Featherdown piercing his chest.
The glasssphere dropped to the floor and shattered. The liquid turned to gasand expanded throughout the control room. Moments later everyonepresent was dead.
Featherdown’sspirit flowed out of his body and surveyed the scene.
‘Bloody religious fanatics! They’re all the same, absolutelyno brains! Good thing I cloned a new body for myself.’ hethought.
A spiritappeared beside him.
‘The Lady has sent me here to offer you sanctuary.’ Itsaid.
‘How do I know you are a servant of the Lady?’ askedFeatherdown.
‘Heteronymous recently prayed to the Lady that she watch overyou. He also prayed for a certain weapon. Since you can no longerstop him from using it. You will soon anger several Gods and Powerswho will come looking for you. You have little time todecide.’
‘I don’t pray to any god and I am not a follower of hers. Whydoes she offer me sanctuary?’
‘You have protected her followers and they have asked her toprotect you. Is that not enough?’ replied the spirit.
‘I have a cloned body ready to accept my spirit. Why should Inot use that?’ thought Featherdown.
‘Your cloned body has been found by the enemy and is trapped.If you use it you will be immediately found and I will not be ableto help you.’ said the spirit.
‘Show me.’ said Featherdown.
Instantly theywere transported to the secret area where Featherdown had hiscloned body stored.
‘It looks okay to me. My wards are intact. Where is the trap?’he asked feeling the pull of the body.
‘Look through my eyes at its spirit aura.’ said the spirit andFeatherdown could see in his mind a second more complex auraunderneath the simple aura of his spirit keeping his cloned bodyalive.
‘What is that? Is it possessing my clone?’ heasked.
‘No. It is a psychic parasite or puppeteer. It is waiting foryour spirit to occupy the body and when that happens it will takecontrol of you and alert its master that you are present. You willsoon be found and who knows what will happen then.’ replied thespirit.
‘May I witness the destruction before I decide.’ askedFeatherdown.
The spirit wassilent for a few moments then said.
‘You may as well bear witness to your folly. You had but toremove the townspeople to safety and let the invaders try tosurvive this hostile and dangerous world but instead you havechosen to attack and destroy them. It is no accident that an armycomposed of the followers of many gods was placed in this locationwhere it may be easily annihilated. The gods will use this as anexcuse to start the war that you have been saying that you havebeen trying to stop.’ said the spirit.
‘But they attacked us first.’ said Featherdown.
‘Yes! To goad you into action and you easily defeated them.’said the spirit.
‘But I tried to convince them to go and almost succeeded.’said Featherdown.
‘Did you really expect religious zealots to retreat? You havefought them before. You knew they wouldn’t retreat and prepared aswift and lethal blow to show them how powerful you are. The godsare laughing at your folly. It is trivial to what they are planningand all they needed was some fool to start the process going.Tomorrow they will raise all those you kill today and they willreturn with a vengeance. They will have a reason to kill everyoneon Mudrun.’ replied the spirit.
‘You don’t sound like a servant of the Lady. If she is soupset with me why is she offering me sanctuary?’
‘I am R’ptor the spirit of the Little People you know as theblue-scaled ones. The Lady asked me to watch over you and I havedone so since your arrival. You have given us much hope but youhave thrown it all away with your vanity. You profess to be thedefender of this world but when did you last seek the wisdom of theLittle People, the air brothers, the water brothers or the firebrothers. Aquitain, the spirit bear forged you an alliance with theCrin and the Little People but what have you done with it?Nothing!’
‘The Lady is not upset with you. I am. She is prepared tooffer you sanctuary while you consider the errors you have made sothat sometime in the future you may help to undo the damage youhave caused today.’
R’ptorteleported them to the top of his tower where he could get aperfect view of the destruction to come. Featherdown was shocked atthe accusations of the spirit but realized it was true. He hadarrogantly and vainly believed that only he could make all thedecisions to defend this world when it was full of others that hada stake in it as well and now they would all suffer for hisstupidity. He hardly dared watch what was about to happen.
Back at thewestern teleport marker Heteronymous stood talking with Granwellwhen Quab teleported in and moved over to join them.
‘I have informed the Queen Beatrice of the Crin and Kami theShaman of the Jeti People of the attack of the Panmagicans on thedruid conclave and its outcome. They have congratulated us on ourvictory. Kami will pass on any information we give him to the otherclans of Little People.’
‘We have another problem my Lords. Queen Beatrice informed methat Queen Snowbelle has disappeared and the Kingdom of Argenta hasbeen invaded by Yith. Her spies have spotted Yith patrols aroundthe entrance to gateway to Argenta. I haven’t been there yet toconfirm that but there is no reason to doubt her.’
‘By the Lady, it’s been a strange day.’ repliedHeteronymous.
‘However, we seem to be winning. We have evacuated all thetownspeople from Twin Towers and are now about to show the invadersa taste of what’s in store for them if they persist in stayinghere.’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Quab.
‘Hehe. You’ll see soon enough. Featherdown thought of thiswhen he situated the town here. Great idea. It will demonstratethat the Lady can protect her own.’ repliedHeteronymous.
‘Where is Featherdown?’ asked Quab.
‘Unfortunately we
