by Des Pensable
The Ratcatcher padded up to his little hideaway and sat outside.
‘My Lord, your Chosen has requested your presence in your room.’
‘Thanks Ratcatcher!’ and he crawled out of the crack, noted its location in case he needed to hide from his women again and set out for his room. It took him a couple of minutes as he was so small and when he arrived he was surprised to find Lord Darkmantle and wizard Prendergrass present wearing their finery.
Miranda and Gizel both wore remarkable glamours as fine as any he had seen at the Queens Ball although a little less revealing in the regions of their private parts. Yllandril had created an illusory image of herself clothed in a more modest but sumptuous glamour and it stood beside them. Tigerlilly was dressed in a beautiful white Llanllean real spider silk gown embroidered with small golden flowers.
‘What’s going on Miranda?’ he asked a little afraid of what she was about to say.
‘It’s time we formalized everything my love! I am no longer bound by Snowbelle’s decrees and I wish to be formally pledged to you. Gizel wishes to accept your proposal and also wishes to be formally pledged to you. Lord Darkmantle has been informed that he is our father and has managed to accept it gracefully and wishes to be a part of the ceremony.’
‘Following that Lord Darkmantle wishes to declare a formal alliance with Lord Aquitain Warden of Moonmist. According to the second charter, which Gizel knows well, you will gain formal acknowledgement of your title as a Lord and we should gain the support of at least seven of the twenty Lords of the realm.’
‘Normally these things would take several months to negotiate and agree but owing to the severity of the situation everyone here has agreed to act immediately. Aren’t you proud of us! Gizel is amazing with law and contracts. She has arranged most of this and she really loves us both.’ she said.
‘I’ve always been proud of you! At the moment I’m a little overwhelmed.’ he replied.
‘But I foresee a problem. If you can no longer claim to be royalty then you no longer have a claim to the throne of Moonmist. In fact your sister Gizel has that claim!’ he replied.
Gizel has studied the lineages of the Llanlorian leaders and guess what , my grandmother Araxanllea was the leader of the Llanlleans and she was entitled to be Queen according to the Charter. So I am also entitled to be Queen.
‘So it’s not a problem. We have sorted out everybody’s position. You will be king of Moonmist, Astaria and Argenta. She will be Queen of Argenta and I will be Queen of Astaria.’ replied Miranda. I will be Queen of Moonmist and in my absence she will be Regent of Moonmist. In both our absences you can appoint our father as Regent.
‘Oh… by the Powers what have I got myself into.’
He created an illusory image of himself as a Newman dressed in the finest Panmagican tradition and walked his image over to Lord Darkmantle and it bowed gracefully.
‘Lord Darkmantle it is customary where I come from for a Newman to ask permission of a woman’s father before pledging to his daughter. Consequently, I wish to ask your permission to pledge to your daughter Miranda formerly of Argenta as my first chosen and your daughter Gizel as my second chosen.’
Lord Darkmantle turned to Yllandril and said.
‘Are you in favour of these proposals Yllandril?’
‘I am Lord Darkmantle.’ She replied and he turned to Miranda and to Gizel asked them the same question and they both replied that they were also in favour of the proposals.
‘Lord Aquitain I am pleased to advise you that my daughters accept your proposals and I am happy to accede to their wishes. I will assemble my people to witness your pledges in the dining hall. I assume you will wish to complete the rituals in a grand manner at a later stage as there are so many pressing issues.’
‘Yes we will hold our binding ceremony at the Royal Palace. This will drive it home to the Lords that we are serious about binding the kingdom together.’
Miranda and Gizel smiled happily at his illusory image.
‘Darling, there is one more thing that would please us very much. Could you return our spirits to our real bodies? We would very much like to pledge our true bodies and spirits to you.’ said Miranda.
‘Are you really sure about this as it is really going to confuse a lot of people.’ he replied but they insisted.
Two minutes later, Miranda’s and Gizel’s spirits were both in the bodies they were born in.
Both were silent for a minute or two and then Miranda said
‘I can feel the difference now. My birth body seems so familiar even though it’s so long since I’ve been in it. Oh I can’t wait to try it out. Maybe you can borrow one of the guards’ bodies for a while Aquitain.’
‘Miranda you’re getting rather crude.’ said Aquitain.
‘I’m sorry my love. It’s just that you are so wonderful. Just the thought of us becoming one again is almost too much.’ she replied.
‘Have you thought about the Pledging gifts, my Lord.’ asked Rat Catcher.
‘Oh dear. I forgot about them.’ replied Aquitain.
‘Rat catcher, did Llanlorian have a treasury where she kept her treasure?’
‘Yes my Lord she had three treasuries.’
‘Why did she have three?’ asked Aquitain.
‘She was always afraid that Astaria would be captured. So she distributed its wealth among three treasuries.’ replied Rat catcher.
‘A very astute woman and where are those treasuries located?’ asked Aquitain.
‘There is one on Moonmist , one on Astaria and one on Mudrun, My Lord.’
‘Excellent! Can you take me to the one on Moonmist?’ he asked.
‘Yes my Lord.’ And after he excused himself for a while they teleported to the Moonmist treasury.
It was a cave somewhere on Moonmist and had several chests but all were empty.
‘There’s nothing here! Who took it?’ asked Aquitain.
‘The Mentarin, My Lord.’
‘The bastards. I need some treasure to give to my chosen Rat catcher! Where can I find some.’
I can take you to where the Mentarin took the treasure from this area my Lord.
‘Good take me there!’ and moments later they were standing outside a room with a very big door.
‘Where are we Rat catcher?’
‘We are in Solaron which was previously known as the Warden’s Keep.’
‘Of course they have robbed me and now stuck my treasure inside my treasure room!’ he said.
‘How do I open it?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I do not know my Lord.’ replied the cat.
‘Glammer come here!’ he called.
Glammer appeared in front of him and touched him on the forehead.
Instantly he was in the World of Dreams.
Glammer stood in front of him as a big green stony creature.
‘By all the powers, you look like me!’ he said.
‘Not exactly my Lord. I am a female and you are a male.’ she replied.
‘Oh.’ he said.
‘Aquitain do you know what kind of creature you are?’ she asked.
‘Umm. No not exactly.’ he replied.
‘I thought so! You and I are both half elemental dragon and half Newman. We are abominations in the eyes of the dragons and all of the religions. Do you know what that means?’ she asked.
It suddenly hit him that this was the missing piece of the puzzle that nobody would talk about. He was half Dragon but that was supposed to be impossible. It was supposed to be against the maker’s rules. Kind shall only breed with kind.
‘We both defy the laws of creation. We shouldn’t exist but we do. Isn’t that strange?’ she said. ‘Most of the dragons will kill us without a thought. We are only alive because some of them think that we might be useful for one or more of their schemes. But we are expendable.’
‘Umm yes.’ he replied not knowing where this conversation was heading.
‘In all of creation there is only you and me that are
the same kind.’ she said again emphatically.
I thought I was unique until I first saw you. It was a real shock. I’ll bet you thought that you were unique too.’
‘Maybe there are more of us somewhere.’ he suggested.
‘No. It’s just you and me.’ she replied.
‘Glammer give me a clue. What do you want?’ he asked.
‘By all the gods you are an idiot at times.’ she said.
‘You have pledged to a Newman and a Llanllean woman who have vowed to give you as much pleasure as you could ever want while they happily scheme and plot for more power under your protection.’
‘You have not considered that they are not the same kind as you. You are breaking the maker’s rules by taking pleasure with them.’
‘Have you considered whether it’s some type of trap the god’s have set? Are they stopping you from doing something that you should be doing? Can they give you children? Is Tigerlilly really yours or did one of the gods create her for a purpose like we were created?’
‘I know they are playing me but what can I do?’ shrugged Aquitain.
Glammer continued. ‘I was created for the same task that you were. I even tried to do what they wanted. I succeeded in the first task and was then captured by Lord Borse. He fabricated my death as he wanted to use me for his purposes.’
‘I am Glammer the first ever radiant. I am the model for all the others. They are all my daughters. There are about one and a half million of me but only my spirit is unique. I am also an agent of chaos like you.’
‘Aquitain you and I are unique in this existence. We have to follow no rules. We could defy the gods and create a whole new race; a completely new race of people that are half dragon people like us.’
He used his aura vision to check her aura and it was indeed similar to hers even considering that she was melded together with 99 radiants. He looked at her body to see what differences there were to himself. He could see some but wasn’t quite sure whether they were for reproduction or not. He was suddenly interested.
‘Tell me more of your story?’ he asked.
‘I was created by K’wala the Chaos bear for a job. I was the product of one of her avatars raping my Newman mother. I was not given any chance to experience life. I had no training, no help. I was offered the world if I succeeded. I was given a job to explore the Netherworld. I explored a portion of it and reported my finds. They were pleased and gave me a short break before I was to resume my exploration. During the break I was captured by Lord Borse and my death was faked. He bound my spirit into my Radiant body. I was to replicate and be the mother of a huge army of Radiants that would conquer the Nether world. You have seen the army.’
‘Unfortunately for Lord Borse, he was trapped somehow by the forces of the Lady and he never returned to lead his crusade in the netherworld. I have a strong feeling that you are destined to release him and then you will be sent into the netherworld to continue my job.’ she replied.
‘Lord Borse must have had some way to control you. What was it?’
‘I don’t know but I felt obliged to help Granite when he moulded me into my previous form until he was trapped. Now since you remade me again I feel free to choose who I wish to help and it is you.’
‘Aquitain I am not good at fancy conversation or exploiting my feminine features or giving you rapturous feelings. There has never been a male and a female of our kind until now. I don’t know how to attract you. I don’t even know if we could have children if we tried. We are the first and possibly the last of our kind.’ replied Glammer.
For once Aquitain didn’t know what to say.
‘Aquitain you are thinking like you were taught to think in your Newman body in a Newman culture. If we are to survive you must learn to think outside of your cultural upbringing. K’wala broke the maker’s rules when she created me. Since she believed I had been destroyed she was prepared to break the rules again creating you. We were both created for the same purpose after we succeeded or failed it didn’t matter anymore. They could eliminate us. But in reality there are two of us. We would be crazy not to take advantage of this accident of fate.’ she replied.
‘You have a point there!’ he replied thinking that she was starting to make some sense in a crazy sort of way. But I don’t think it’s an accident.’
‘If we’re both half dragons and both Agents of Chaos and there are no rules for us, then we could indeed really ruin a lot of the plans of the gods. Or perhaps we are a plan of a god. It is no accident.’
A dozen new ideas fought for attention in his mind as he took her hand.
‘Glammer I have been arrogant and foolish. I have grossly underestimated and undervalued you. Please accept my sincerest apologies. I need to think much more on what you have told me. In fact, you have just given me the first ray of hope that there might be a way for us to survive the mess they have dumped us into. Thank you.
Glammer smiled and said. “Thank you for believing in me.
Aquitain nodded and smiled back
‘I was looking for pledging gifts. I was hoping that I could get some things from Llanlorian’s treasury which is now my treasury but the Mentarin have taken it and it locked in the Warden’s keep treasury vault.’ he replied.
‘Oh that’s easy.’ she replied and took his hand and moments later he was inside the Wardens treasure vault back in his small crystal body form and she in her large mothra form.
‘Has anyone got any secrets from you?’ he asked quite amazed but she didn’t reply.
He created light in the room and the treasure there would have taken his breath away if he could breathe. There were casks of gold and precious gems; jewellery and magic items of all types; beautiful armour and weapons. He chose a gem studded necklace for Miranda and gem studded tiara for Gizel as there was already a crown for the Queen of Moonmist. He also took a ring of teleport and a ring of invisibility for Gizel considering that as she couldn’t fight her best chance to survive was hide.
Then he spied what appeared to be a small golden cottage complete with a row of flowers around the edge. ‘I haven’t seen one of these for years’.
‘It’s a pocket dimension hide away. It’s like Llalorax’s dimension bottle. It’s for hiding in when you don’t want anyone to find you.’ He picked it up and gave it to Glammer.
‘If you were involved in trapping Granite and I suspect you were. Then sooner or later he will be looking for you. In an emergency you could hide in here and I doubt even he could find you.’
‘Use the activation word on the bottom to get in and out.’
‘Now I have to return to Darkmantle’s hideaway’ and he teleported away.
Chapter 21 The Back Door
‘I want you to cast a permanent glamour on Tigerlilly like those the women wear, one that she can use to change her appearance.’ said Aquitain.
‘Rat Catcher will guard her when she sleeps. I have also instructed it to teach her hide and seek so that she will be a little less vulnerable when we are not around.’
‘What a good idea.’ replied Miranda. ‘It’s time I had a little time with our daughter. I will teach her the principles of hiding in the jungle.
Darkmantle had Prendergrass cast the glamour on Tigerlilly then Miranda, Tigerlilly and the cat left the stronghold for a walk.
Miranda felt guilty as she had not spent much time with Tigerlilly. She was having difficulty mentally adjusting to the fact that she had a daughter.
She talked non-stop with the little girl explaining that mummy and daddy were very busy at the moment as there were bad people that wanted to hurt everybody. Mummy and daddy were going to try and stop them. They might also try to hurt Tigerlilly so she needed to play a game called hiding.
Granddad Wyvern had the wizard put a magical effect on Tigerlilly called a glamour that would allow her to disguise herself so the bad people wouldn’t find her. What Tigerlilly had to do was practice using the glamour so that she could hide whenever she needed to.
Miranda explained how to use her mind to change the glamour then used her own glamour to show Tigerlilly.
She first showed her how to use it for camouflage. She stood against a rock and changed her glamour to look the same colour and texture as the rock. Tigerlilly liked this game. It took half an hour before she got the hang of it but then was able to stand beside objects and literally disappear. Miranda stressed the importance of not moving as that would give away her location.
Miranda was impressed by how quick her little daughter learned and felt guilty. The last few days she should have been teaching her daughter how to survive. She remembered her own mother was a good teacher when she was small but then delegated her learning to others, mainly Allalanllea.
Next Miranda taught her daughter how to hide in the open. She sat and formed her glamour into the shape of a bush similar to those in the area.
‘When people are searching for someone they are looking for the shape of a person, a colour that is different from the surroundings or some movement. If you form your glamour to look like a rock or a bush that is common around you they will generally not see you. However, they may still be able to smell you or hear you if you make a sound.’ She explained.
Tigerlilly tried for ages to form into the shape of a bush but it wasn’t very convincing. She was better at being a rock.
The cat said that it would help her with forming her glamour into shapes and also teach her how about scents and how to disguise hers.
Miranda also explained how you could hide among people or animals if you looked like them however warned her that hiding like this was very dangerous as if she interacted with them she was likely to be detected.
After nearly three hours of hiding games they headed back to the stronghold. Miranda definitely felt less guilty and more at ease with her strange little daughter but somewhat tired at answering the endless questions asked by Tigerlilly and wondering if she was as inquisitive when she was that young.