by Des Pensable
‘Quench that flame.’
The creature stepped to the throne touched the arm with one of its flaming arms and the fire extinguished. It then stepped backwards but before she could place her hand on the arm it began burning again.
This must be part of the test she thought so she placed her hand on the burning throne arm. She screamed as the flames ran up her arm and quickly spread over her entire body. The pain was excruciating but there was something wrong she wasn’t actually burning. She couldn’t smell burning flesh and her chest couldn’t be burning because she was wearing radiant armour which should protect her against fire damage.
It hit her then that the fire must be a mind magic enhanced illusion like those used to torture her. It could be controlled. She fought against the pain by imagining herself immersed in a cool mountain stream. The flames suddenly cooled to freezing. She began to shiver all over. Not that cold she thought.
She grabbed a mental image of lying in the pleasant warm water in the arms of Aquitain like when she had power narcosis. The flames warmed up to a cosy level and she had it under control.
She turned to face the people and standing between two fire creatures with flames leaping all over her body clamped her hand on the arm of the throne again and said in a loud voice.
‘I submit to testing.’
‘Very impressive Miranda.’ whispered Terrin to Aquitain who was in a mild state of shock.
‘That’s my Queen. Isn’t she amazing?’ replied Aquitain proudly.
Moments later everyone heard a great booming voice in his or her mind.
‘You are acceptable!’ said Terrin and the dragon throne’s eyelids opened revealing two large illusory golden eyes as big as dinner plates that reflected the depths of time.
‘I knew you set this up.’ said Aquitain really excited.
‘I didn’t but we might as well help Miranda out.’ replied Terrin.
A great murmur arose among the Lords and Ladies and they realized the throne was active again. What did that portend? Some were jubilant others dazed and still others worried. Many trixies came out to witness the miracle but they were confused. Who was this outsider? What was happening?
Miranda could see that while the throne had accepted her, the people were still undecided and hesitant. Perhaps she was being too aloof. She needed some of them on her side.
She saw Bellen edge to the front of the crowd. He didn’t recognize her. Then she remembered that they had never seen her real face. She dismissed the fire creatures and changed the fire glamour into the one that they would know. She became Dragonfly. The trixies suddenly realized who she was and began jumping around jubilantly.
‘It’s Dragonfly, its Dragonfly the great druid Queen.’ They shouted ignoring the dirty looks from the Lords and Ladies.
‘She’s come to save us all.’ And dozens of them all swarmed up to her kneeling down in front of her. The Lords and their ladies were mystified. No one in living memory could remember a sight like this. It worried them.
‘She was in the prison bottle. I walked right past her.’ muttered Aquitain.
Darkmantle couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Dragonfly. She had deceived him. She had walked around amongst his people, learnt his secrets and he had never suspected. She had somehow captured the hearts of the trixies. She was beautiful, amazing, talented, and wonderful, but deadly just like her mother. She could sway the people gathered here unless he acted quickly.
‘Lord Neutral, move those trixies.’ demanded Darkmantle gruffly.
‘Princess Gemelica is also a contender.’
Lord Neutral quickly moved to the trixies with two guards and asked them to move. They refused to budge waiting for Miranda to approve. She thanked them for their support and asked them to move back as the contest was not yet over. They reluctantly left and Gemelica with her favourite ‘Bird of Prey’ glamour covering her strutted towards the throne.
The moment she reached the line on the floor the four pools of metal from the statues began flowing across the floor and pooled together in front of her reforming into a large bronze cobra snake, which raised its head up in an aggressive striking pose, blocking her way.
She stopped dead in her tracks. She disliked snakes as they reminded her of her mother who revelled in them. She saw this as the spirit of her mother blocking her way to the throne. Her mother must have guessed in those last few seconds that she had been setup by Darkmantle and her daughter.
‘No mother.’ she thought, ‘neither you nor that other bitch are going to block me from my birthright.’
She pointed to the ground in front of her and her glamour slid off her body reforming in front of her as a snakebird. These were tall gangly birds with long bony legs that were the natural enemies of snakes.
‘Destroy that metal obscenity.’ she commanded and the snakebird stalked off towards the metal cobra. The snake struck at the bird but it was surprisingly agile ducking out of the way and kicking the snake on its body making a solid metallic thud.
After an entertaining couple of minutes of strikes and bone jarring kicks the bird won. It strutted back and flowed back over Gemelica’s nude body reforming the ‘Bird of Prey’ glamour.
‘That’s a neat trick.’ said Aquitain. ‘How did she do that?’
‘The glamour isn’t a glamour.’ replied Yllandril.
‘The royal family have personal guards that are particularly skillfull shape changers. They literally wear their shape changer guard as a glamour.’
Gemelica walked to the throne and the fire on the unclaimed throne arm stopped. This is too easy she thought as she reached to touch it. Instantly a snake appeared wrapped around the throne arm and its head struck out biting into her arm.
She let out a yell and pulled her arm back pulling the snake off the throne arm. It immediately wrapped itself around her arm with its jaws biting deeply into her arm. She could feel the poison flowing. Her arm was throbbing and hurting. She commanded her guard to pull it off.
The glamour flowed off her body reforming into an Elendari female who then tried to grab the snake to pull it off but her hand passed through it.
‘It’s an illusion your highness,’ shouted the guard, ‘I can’t get hold of it.’
‘Damn you mother.’ said Gemelica and totally ignoring the illusory snake walked to the throne and slammed her other hand onto the throne arm.
‘I submit to testing.’ she shouted and the snake disappeared.
‘You are acceptable!’ boomed the throne’s mindspeak voice.
‘I thought you didn’t know much about illusions.’ said Aquitain.
‘I told you I have just unlocked a lot of hidden memories. It seems that I did know how to do impressive illusions!’ replied Terrin with a chuckle.
‘How did you make the metal snake seem solid.’ asked Aquitain.
‘I formed it out of hardened air. Like an airshield and cloaked it in the snake illusion. Quite effective eh.’ replied Terrin.
Darkmantle’s faction erupted. They cheered and yelled stating that their Princess was the true Queen.
Gemelica turned to the crowd and stated, ‘I pronounce that by virtue of the fact that Lord Darkmantle holds the Queen’s Champion’s sceptre, he is Queen’s Champion and as such has precedence over the Royal Mage. He will officiate from now on.’
Llalorax quickly countered with ‘Only a Queen may name a Royal champion and you are not yet a Queen. However, you may name him your champion but the other contender also has the right to name a champion.
There was silence as the onlookers wondered whom Miranda was going to name as her champion.
‘Hello my love, I’ll be your champion.’ said Aquitain through the mindlink. Miranda was startled for a moment then concentrated on the link and saw another mind was present.
‘You sound like Aquitain but I know his spirit aura and it’s not like yours.’
‘I’ve changed a little.’ he replied and he sent an image of the passion flower.
Mira
nda went weak in the knees. She needed no more proof. She held that image and feeling sacred in her own mind.
‘I name Lord Aquitain, Warden of Moonmist as my champion.’ she announced in a regal voice.
There was absolute silence for a few moments as her statement sank in, then a buzz of excitement swept around the room. It was true. A new Warden had been chosen. The first in hundreds of years and this new Queen was claiming him as her champion.
The trixies jumped and yelled ‘Yes, Yes. Lord Aquitain the new Warden of Moonmist is our Champion.’
Darkmantle almost had a heart attack. Could it be true? Had a new Warden been appointed? Why hadn’t he been informed? But who was this Aquitain fellow. He remembered his name had cropped up a few times recently… it can’t be true.
‘That was your cue I believe.’ said Terrin into Aquitain’s mind.
‘Better make a spectacular entrance.’ and Aquitain looking through Yllandril’s eyes telekinetically floated down onto Miranda’s shoulder.
‘You called my Queen.’ He blasted out using mindspeak to everyone.
There was absolute silence for several seconds then someone began laughing. Suddenly the whole crowd began laughing. Darkmantle was quick to capitalize on the situation.
‘This is your champion? This is the Warden of Moonmist? Surely this is your dildo that you use during your fantasies?
Everyone except Miranda, Yllandril and Llalorax laughed.
‘Action speaks louder than your crude attempt at comedy.’ said Miranda. ‘Do you wish to fight my champion? Since you challenged my champion he has the right to select the weapon. Is that correct Lord Darkmantle?’
‘You are quite correct my Lady.’ replied Darkmantle.
‘You will address Queen Miranda as ‘Your Highness’ at all times Lord Darkmantle.’ demanded Llalorax acerbically.
‘My apologies, Your Highness.’ replied Darkmantle bowing deeply and sarcastically said.
‘Does your champion select pikes or great swords.’
The crowd roared with laughter.
Aquitain replied ‘The weapon will be illusion.’
Darkmantle couldn’t believe what he heard. He was considered the best illusionist in the kingdom.
‘Done.’ he replied quickly without thinking.
‘I accept. Name your terms.’
‘Your beast versus mine, winner takes all.’
‘Done.’ agreed Darkmantle suddenly realizing that he had been outsmarted. Aquitain could never have competed in a physical contest with Lord Darkmantle.
‘Damn,’ he thought, ‘that little bastard is cunning. I had better be careful.’
The arena was opened again for the contest and the room lights dimmed. The bodies of the dead Queen Aurora and the slaves had been cleared away. The atmosphere was electric. The crowd moved and stood in front of the tables and the balcony was crowded.
The room was awash with lots of bets as to the outcome. This was the best entertainment at a spring ball for years. No one was interested in eating but there was a strong call for drinks, strong drinks. The trixies were just as interested in the outcome of the contest as the others and soon swarmed out of the kitchens and elsewhere to watch, each with a small mug of strong trixie brew and big hopes for change.
Yllandril still watching from the dragon’s head noticed that in the current lighting she could now see the faint glows of the spirit auras of the members of the crowd and out of curiosity began scanned them.
Several minutes later, Aquitain faced off with Lord Darkmantle across the arena, each standing on a small hastily arranged platform slightly protruding above the top lip of the arena with a bright spot light on them. It looked quite ridiculous. Aquitain the toy crystal statue standing no taller than Lord Darkmantle’s ankle versus a giant of a man twenty times his height. But all knew that illusion was a creation of the mind not the body. They knew Darkmantle had a brilliant mind; the unknown question was how proficient was the Warden’s mind?
Darkmantle looked confident but certainly not over-confidant. Miranda was having second thoughts. What was she thinking? How could she do this to Aquitain? He was so small, so insignificant.
Through their mindlink Miranda said ‘I’m sorry Llalorax. I got carried away.’
‘Rubbish. You’ve been brilliant. I couldn’t have done better myself. We’ve bluffed them this far. Let him do his stuff. Not even the gods know what will happen here today.’
The contest that would change the future of a nation began. This is what chaos was all about. Roll the die and watch the result. Llalorax was correct, even The Lady herself watched not knowing the outcome.
Darkmantle began. At his end of the arena he created the most awesome looking wyvern that anyone had ever seen. It stood three times as high as a Newman and had the most frightful expression on its face. To Miranda it was a nightmare. It was Fen Fang reincarnated.
Aquitain responded by forming a giant brown bear that stood as tall as the wyvern but was so perfectly real in detail that onlookers could see individual hairs standing out from its body. It also had a body of hardened air like Terrin’s cobra. Miranda was so excited she couldn’t contain herself.
‘That’s my Aquitain. Now you’ll see a champion at work.’ she skited to Yllandril and Llalorax through the link.
Bellen shouted
‘It’s K’wala! It’s K’wala! He has returned!’ and all the trixies cheered and everyone else applauded. The general consensus was that this was going to be a fine contest.
Aquitain was excited and thought. ‘What a terrific way to finish the dream, Terrin is certainly an expert at his art.’
Darkmantle’s wyvern suddenly breathed out a cone of fire as if it were a dragon, completely surrounding the bear.
Aquitain had great difficulty holding the illusion, as the fire was real. The bastard! He’s augmenting the illusion with supplementary magical effects. Well two can play that game!
Immediately he created a fire shield around the hardened air core of his illusion then had the bear dancing around pretending it was showering in the flame. This brought great applause from the audience and an annoyed glare from Darkmantle.
The audience froze as the wyvern let out a blood-curdling roar and charged the bear. The trixies fled back a few paces and several Lords and Ladies turned white. The bear not to be outdone let out a brutal K’wala GROWL that froze half the Lords panicked their ladies and heartened the trixies who cheered and ran back to the edge of the arena to watch the contest.
The two illusions crunched together sending shudders like an earth tremor through the floor as if both had the weight of mighty beasts and began slugging it out. The contest was so real that some of the lesser Lords and their ladies teleported away in fear.
The real fighters stayed and relished the contest. Two mighty beasts equally matched. The imaginations of two mighty foes were belting, bashing, tearing at each other. No one knew the outcome. This was the real thing, brutal and bloodthirsty and satisfying to the primeval instincts of the Lords of Moonmist. This is how a Queen should be selected. They would respect and pay homage to the winner. The loser would be banished but not disgraced.
After several minutes it became obvious that the contest had become a stalemate. Neither illusory beast was able to overcome the other. Both contestants seemed to be equally capable, each knowing intimately how his beast fought and reacted. Darkmantle’s offense was equally balanced by Aquitain’s defence and Aquitain couldn’t seem to overbalance or get a firm grip on his foe.
Suddenly to the amazement of everyone, Queen Aurora flanked by two female guards, appeared at the throne side of the arena, near Llalorax and screamed, ‘I’ve had enough of this idiocy!’
One of her guards fired a wand at Miranda who had no time to react and was turned to stone. The other fired a wand at Aquitain. Everyone heard a piercing high sound. Aquitain felt his body begin to vibrate in resonance with the sound.
‘Damn. No time to defend.’ he thought as he instantly
created a pure heart and moved his spirit into it. His body exploded into a hail of crystal shards that clattered all over the floor of both the throne room and the arena. The small crystal heart stayed intact and dropped to the platform on which he was standing. The bear illusion instantly evaporated. The crowd was stunned, was this all part of the show?
‘This contest is over.’ stated the Queen and shouted a word of control. Immediately everyone within the building except for Darkmantle froze.
‘Sit down’ commanded the Queen and everyone except Darkmantle, Llalorax and Yllandril did.
Yllandril was shocked. It all happened so quickly. Both Aquitain and Miranda dead in seconds, then she heard Aquitain’s voice through the mindlink.
‘I’m still alive. I need a diversion to reform my body.’
‘I think I’m still alive too but I can’t see or move.’ added Miranda.
Llalorax was the first to act.
‘Your Highness, let me congratulate you on such a perfectly wonderful scheme you had everyone thinking you were dead.’
The Queen swung around facing Llalorax with a wand pointed squarely at his chest and with her back to the shattered parts of Aquitain.
‘So you have also worked out how to resist. Very smart! I have suspected for some time but you have concealed it well.’
Yllandril looked closely at the spirit aura of the Queen and noticed something odd about it immediately. It wasn’t the spirit aura of Queen Aurora; she knew the Queen’s spirit aura well as she had been the Royal Healer for years. It also appeared to have a second spirit aura associated with it.
‘Aquitain’, she said through the mindlink, ‘It’s not the real Queen, it’s a double and it’s possessed by a spirit like the one you destroyed.’
‘Stay calm, don’t do anything yet. I want them to hear more.’ replied Llalorax through the link.