by Des Pensable
Everything seemed to work well until the barkeeper walked over and without asking filled his mug with ale then held out his hand presumably asking for some coppers in gnomish. He didn’t have any gnomish coin nor did he understand what the barkeeper was saying. He just nodded and tried to hand the barkeeper the mug but the barkeeper didn’t want it, he wanted coin.
It started getting ugly. The barkeeper raised his voice demanding payment and customers started looking around at Aquitain. Chantalot couldn’t quite tell which gnome was Aquitain but guessed the one the barkeeper was shouting at would be him. He changed the tune to something more rollicking but the customers seemed more amused at the situation of this poor fellow that refused to pay the barkeeper.
Just then Rumple walked in. He looked at Chantalot singing then looked around for Aquitain and not seeing him looked at the gnome with the new gnome hat bailed up by the barkeeper and immediately realized what was happening.
‘There you are Binzel! I thought I’d find you here. You left your coin pouch in my shop. Let me have an ale with you. Barkeep, get me a fresh mug and a full jug I’m shouting. The barkeep nodded and left. Rumple pulled up a stool waited for the barkeeper to bring the jug, poured himself a full mug and swallowed it down in a single gulp.
He waited for the attention to turn back to Chantalot then whispered.
‘You look pretty convincing but it might be an idea to learn gnomish and have some coin on you if you plan to do something like this again.’
Aquitain nodded and mindspoke to Rumple.
‘Yeah that was a close call.’
Rumple was a little surprised at first then said.
‘I might have known. You’re that bloody mind wizard that was running around as a bear causing all sorts of problems back on Mudrun.’
He looked Aquitain up and down and then chuckled.
‘Fancy an outsider trying to trick gnomes. It’s usually the other way around. Then again you have got a fine eye for detail.’
He filled his mug again and topped up Aquitain’s and said.
‘Anyhow let’s enjoy the show. I haven’t heard Chantalot for quite a while.’
A couple of hours later, as Chantalot and Aquitain staggered back to the teleport circle Aquitain said.
‘That was lucky that Rumple turned up when he did.’
‘I doubt it was luck.’ replied Chantalot. ‘He would have had us followed as soon as we left his shop. He’s a very suspicious fellow. He would have been intrigued by you and tipped off shortly after you changed to your gnome form. He came to see what you were up to. Fortunately he’s a old friend of Featherdown.’
A group of several young gnomes came racing down the road shouting and laughing with an older gnome chasing them waving a walking stick.
‘This place certainly seems alive and happy.’
‘Alive yes, happy no.’ replied Chantalot. ‘There’s too many gnomes here for the size of the place. They all live a long time and there’s not enough work for them to do here, so the young are bored and have been causing trouble. Some want to break away and form a new colony, but they don’t know where to go. Featherdown has been looking around for a suitable place but hasn’t found one yet.’
‘Why don’t they just enlarge the current place?’ asked Aquitain.
Chantalot just smiled.
‘No, that would not be possible, and sorry I can’t tell you why.’
Aquitain teleported back thinking ‘What a wonderful little town. I wonder why they want to keep it so much of a secret.’
Chapter 10 Fen Fang Fate
As Miranda flew in her eagle form towards the location of the potential gateway she had a feeling of foreboding. She was annoyed that the shaman had suggested that she get assistance, but on thinking about it, he was probably right.
If there was a gate and it was open then it would be protected and the guards would not be happy to see her. They would have to eliminate her to maintain the secrecy of the gate and that meant a fight and she didn’t particularly like fights.
She decided to fly over the area and sneak back on the ground as a jeti. She had been a jeti so many times that it felt almost as normal to her as a Newman.
After about half an hour flying she came to the area described by the shaman. There were rolling hills all around. The gateway was in a hollow through which a small stream ran. There was a clearing to the east and it was to the left of a weird shaped hilltop.
‘There‘s the clearing.’ she thought with growing excitement.
She looked carefully to see if she could see anyone there, but it was deserted. She flew over the stream where the gate was supposed to be, but owing to the thick tree cover she couldn’t see anything. She would have to check it out on foot.
She flew a few hundred paces further on, then landed, changed to a jeti, and headed back to the hollow. She moved cautiously keeping to the shadows, watching vigilantly, periodically stopping to listen and smell the air but detected nothing out of the ordinary. She carefully crept up the rise overlooking the hollow in which the stream was located. Still nothing! Maybe there was nothing there.
The problem with jeti vision was that it was in black and white not colour like Newman vision. If something was standing still it was very hard to see until it moved. She decided to change back to her Newman form and immediately used her ring of camouflage, to allow her blend into the background.
The sounds in the forest around her were muted. There was something wrong but she couldn’t see it.
‘I’m going to need a diversion.’ she thought.
She moved back over the crest of the hill and sang an old familiar prayer that would bring a small animal to her aid. A small jungle cat answered her summons. She sang another prayer allowing her to talk to it then asked it to go and prowl around the stream over the rise. It charged off to do her bidding and she went back to the top of the rise to see what would happen but nothing happened.
She was certain that something was there but what? She decided that it was time to find out. Best be careful she thought, so turned her skin tough and resistant like the bark of a weathered old tree.
Keeping hidden behind bushes and trees she slowly and carefully worked her way down the side of the hill. When she got about three-quarters of the way down, she could see that there was a gateway in the rock face across the stream from her and it was open. Twenty paces from the stream she saw a couple of weapons lying on the ground next to a cloak. Further over, she saw a wide brimmed hat and a boot.
Curiosity got the better of her. She carefully moved down to the weapons, there was fresh blood on the blades. She went across to the boot. There was a foot still in it and fresh damp blood all over the ground. There must have been a fight here within the last half an hour. Around dawn by the look of it, and it looked like a Newman judging by the hat, boot and weapons and he was eaten almost completely.
‘The situation was hazardous. Is it still around?’ she thought looking furtively around but nothing stirred.
‘Maybe it’s gone through the gateway.’ she thought hopefully.
‘Well I better get on with it, the quicker the better.’
She hurriedly crossed the shallow stream, halted about five paces from the swirling blurry area that was the gateway and pulled out of her bag a small magical device that her mother had given to her a couple of years ago. It was a small cube made of silver that fitted snuggly in the palm of her hand.
Three of the faces had pictures inscribed on them and the opposite sides had embedded gemstones. One face had a small circular door with a picture of an eye inscribed on it. A second face had a triangle shaped door with a bell inscribed on it and the third face had a circle with a cross through it. Each door was hinged on one side and had a tiny catch enabling it to be opened.
Each of the powers could be used once per week.
She opened the circular door with the eye. On the inside of the door was a word in the language the mages used. Glued underneath was a little scrap of par
chment pronouncing the word in the druid secret language. She spoke the word whilst looking at the gate and waited. She felt a small surge of magic and the embedded gem glowed as the gate revealed its purpose and its origin. It went directly to Moonmist.
The use of a keyword and a small sacrifice of blood opened it when required. Recently eighteen had come through to this side and only twelve had returned so far. The gate closes in approximately two hours.
‘Well at least one won’t be returning.’ she thought to herself as she remembered the blood on the other side of the stream.
She quickly looked around and seeing no one smiled to herself as she thought.
‘Looks like a few of them are going to have to take the long way around.’
She closed the circular door and opened the square door, read the trigger word and said it aloud.
There was a surge of magic and the gateway blinked out. Now there was nothing but a blank wall of stone in front of her. She put the cube away, turned and started to cross the stream when she heard the sound of snapping twigs on the ledge about five paces above the rock face where the gate had been.
She turned quickly and saw a slight movement that broke the camouflage pattern on a dragon’s head looking down at her about fifteen paces away. She concentrated then saw a tail with a stinger attached, hovering over its back. It stood over twice her height and looked like it weighed as much as a bear. The blood drained from her face.
‘Well that explains the missing body.’ she thought.
‘Now this could be nasty. I wonder why it waited for me to close the gate.’ and then had a quick look around to see if there were any others.
She had seen wyverns before and knew a lot about them but had never faced one before. They looked like a cross between a dragon and a scorpion and were supposed to be pretty stupid. They stood on two clawed legs like a giant bird of prey and behaved like one in many respects. They preferred to drop down from the sky like a bird of prey, grab an animal, sting it with their poison tail, carry it up into the sky then drop it on a rocky hilltop. If its poison didn’t kill the animal the fall would, and the wyvern could then eat its prey with a clear view all around to watch for any threats. They were also quite clumsy on the ground.
Fen Fang looked down at the Newman woman. She was unarmed and wore no armour. She was difficult to see as she blended into the background like him but he could detect her with his other senses as well. He was still hungry even after eating the handler. He had waited for her to close the gateway. This way he could stay in this world with lots of lovely food and freedom. The Lord couldn’t punish him for not returning. They would never know that he ate the handler. Now if she would just run, he could swoop down and grab her, then fly up and drop her further up the hillside for a snack.
Miranda quickly reviewed her tactics. She had to get near a large tree, that way it couldn’t attack from the air. If it had to fight on the ground she would have the advantage.’
She checked her rings. One was a feather fall ring that could be activated if she dropped from any height. She normally wore that when she flew as an eagle, just in case anything ever went wrong. It would allow her to drift down to the ground without harm. The other was her chameleon ring that allowed her to use its camouflage effect twice per day. She had already used it once and it was still active. She must be hard to see but was certainly not invisible. The wyvern would have a very sensitive sense of smell and sharp hearing. It could detect her using those, even if it couldn’t see her that well.
Keeping her eyes locked on its eyes, she slowly backed away. It could see where she was by the water flowing around her legs in the stream. As soon as she got to the other bank she would be harder to see. The creature would have to move soon or she would get away.
‘It’s a shame my magic won’t work on these dragon kin.’ she thought. ‘I don’t really want to harm it. Unfortunately, it probably only sees me as breakfast. If I can get it onto the ground, I might be able to outrun it and if I can get far enough ahead to shift into an eagle shape, it will have no chance to catch me.’
She glanced quickly backwards to get her orientation. The edge of the stream was only two paces away. She looked back at the wyvern as it launched at her. Very carefully, she watched its decent and at the last moment she dived to the side. There were only fractions of a second in it, but with her camouflage magic making her a difficult target and her sudden movement the wyvern missed.
It growled like an annoyed bear and flapped its huge wings to bring itself to a halt on the ground. It landed awkwardly and spun around to find her.
Miranda shifted to her cat form and was off and sprinting up the hill darting amongst the small trees and scattered bushes. She knew it would be slower uphill for the beast with all that weight to carry and the small bushes and scattered trees would make it difficult to follow.
She got to the crest of the hill, stopped and turned beside the trunk of a large tree to see how the wyvern was progressing. It had dropped well behind and was snorting and puffing.
‘Ha ha.’ she thought. ‘I can easily get away from here.’
She felt a sharp sting in her rear and looked around to see what had caused it. ‘Oh no.’ she thought. ‘A dart!’
She shifted back to her Newman form and pulled it out but it was too late. She was getting dizzy then fell over unconscious.
Several minutes later, Miranda regained consciousness. She was still groggy and her mouth and throat felt wrong. Her hands and legs were tightly bound. She was gagged with a leather band around her head holding a cloth crammed into her mouth. She lay on her side near the stream at the bottom of the hollow and groaned but it sounded wrong.
Looking around she saw the carcass of the Wyvern with torn wings and sporting the shafts of several arrows a few paces away and next to it two large dead Elendari hunting dogs. Someone from behind her spoke to her in Mudrun common.
She rolled over and saw the Huntmaster squatting, looking at her. He was dressed in black leather with a camouflage cloak draped over his shoulder. He wore a fancy silver hilted short sword and a quiver of arrows. There was a nicely crafted longbow and dart tube on the ground near his knee. He continued sorting through the contents of Miranda’s bag.
Miranda tried to speak to him but only a gurgle came out and she suddenly realized what was wrong. The Huntmaster chuckled and said.
‘Sorry. You know its standard practice with wizard and druid prisoners. Cut out their tongues and break their fingers. I’ll add your pretty tongue to my collection. That will make seven now.’
Miranda tried to move her fingers and pain shot through her hands. She tried to scream but it came out a hollow gurgling sound.
‘Careful, don’t try to talk.’ he said. ‘You’ll cause your tongue stump to bleed and you might drown in your own blood. That wouldn’t be useful to either of us. I need you alive. That bloody wyvern killed and ate another one of my Newman handlers.’
Then he laughed.
‘It’s unfortunate for you that you were able to kill it before I could stop you. The boss is not going to be very happy about that. It was his favourite.’
Miranda wondered what he was talking about. She couldn’t remember killing the wyvern. Maybe it was the poison on the dart. He knew what he was doing as there were very few poisons that would affect her. Then she remembered the arrows in it. Damn him! He was going to blame her for its death and she couldn’t talk to defend herself.
He finished rummaging through her bag, replaced the contents and placed her bag inside his. He Nodded approvingly as if he was happy with the his new loot and then he set about removing his arrows from the dead wyvern. He slashed it around the head with his sword and then using a scroll to cast a fiery magic effect that severely charred its head and body.
‘That should do.’ he muttered to himself and returned to Miranda.
‘If you’ve tried to shape change you’ve already discovered you can’t. I have a charm on you to stop it. Neat trick I learnt
from the old Huntmaster before me. He had nineteen tongues in his collection but I don’t reckon they were all magic users. He told me about druids not needing their tongues or fingers to shape change.’
‘Anyhow, we need to get moving. Since you’ve closed my gateway I’ll have to take you through the Southern Gateway. I’ll have to learn how to use my new portal-closing cube. I’ll bet it will open portals as well but now is not the time to experiment with it.’
‘I’m going to cover your head with this hood and put a noose around your neck then cut your leg bindings. If you try to run the noose will pull tight and choke you. So be a nice girl and make it easy on yourself. Do what I say. Maybe the boss will have your tongue healed. You never know. He likes pretty girls, for a while at least. Ha ha.’
Miranda was becoming panicky. Where was he taking her? He mentioned the Southern Gateway. If he was taking her there maybe he was going to take her to Moonmist. No! If she went there Aquitain would never be able to find her. Even worse, people that ate food there lost their memories. Time was different there too. In one day on Moonmist five days passed on Mudrun.
The Huntmaster helped her stand, and while holding her arm slipped on a ring, spoke a trigger word and they teleported to a spot near the Southern Gateway. She was paralysed with fear how could she escape?
Chapter 11 Tactical Games
When Chantalot and Aquitain returned to Granwell’s tower, the archwizard was still absent. So Aquitain asked him to inform Featherdown that he and Miranda were back at work again checking out some of the strange problems on Mudrun and would report back to him as soon as they had some firm answers.
‘You’ve changed a lot since you came here.’ said Chantalot chuckling. ‘You’re starting to sound like a serious hero type.’
‘Yes in Panmagica I used to be an easy going Newman bachelor with few real problems. Now I’m a shape shifting Llanllean Wizard Captain with a princess as my chosen and playing games with the gods.’
‘Oh! That is a little different I guess. I’ll let you get on with it then. You don’t mind if I draft a few lyrics about it all, do you?’ asked Chantalot hopefully.