by Des Pensable
Miranda was thinking about what Zephira had told them as well. It confirmed her thoughts. The Lady was using both herself and Aquitain for some higher purpose. It was not necessary to know the details, but just to trust in the goddess.
After Zephira had used the Second Mantra of Yith to forget what had just transpired, Aquitain brought Miranda and Alpha back into the mindlink and they discussed what to do about the mask. Aquitain was concerned about where it might go next, and thought that both the Crin city and the Jeti village were logical targets. Miranda was worried that it might have already attacked the Crin city and caused problems there. She wished to fly there and find out. If it hadn’t attacked yet, she could warn them. If it had, then they would know the Jeti village was the next likely candidate before it moved on somewhere else.
They decided that they had better tell the others about what was happening, as they were all at risk and all had a right to know about it. So Miranda called together Loma, Kami, Belloe and Chantalot to fill them in on what was happening.
After hearing the story about the mask and Aquitain’s translation of the message from the Barra people’s ancestors, the reactions were predictable; they panicked. Loma was worried that the mask might return and attack his people again. Kami was worried that his village would be next. Belloe wanted to return to Turtlehaven to warn the people there, and Chantalot suggested that they teleport back to Twin Towers and let his brother Featherdown decide what to do.
A gruff growl from Aquitain quickly brought order, or perhaps more precisely, a kind of respectful fear.
‘The reason that Miranda told you about the mask and what we believe might happen is so that we can do something about it, here and now. Not panic, run away or hope to hide. It’s true that we’re not sure where it will strike next, but there are only a small number of possibilities. We have a chance to catch it and stop it if we work together.’
‘I’ve bin in a skirmish with a Thunder Lizard once,’ said Belloe. ‘It killed several of me men without workin up a sweat. We couldna harm the beastie. Its bloody hide be too thick. If this mask of the cat people can change to a Thunder Lizard, then I doubt all of us together be able to stop it.’
‘I will stop it, as it is not truly a Thunder Lizard.’ replied Aquitain. ‘But I need help because it will not attack by itself. It will use other animals as well. I need you to occupy them while I deal with it.’
‘I’ll not be a party to this madness,’ Belloe said. ‘If you be a spirit bear as yer claim ter be then yer can do what yer like. It’s us poor bastards that’ll be beastie food. You have no control over us. I’m leavin and takin me people with me. If Zephira and the bard want to stay then that be their business.’
Aquitain had dealt with many rough traders back in Panmagica and he knew the secret to a successful outcome in any business deal was the right price. Belloe and his group were tough fighters and would significantly improve the odds of success if they could be convinced to help. Their leaving would also be a blow to the morale of the remaining group.
‘Belloe, I’ll be honest with you,’ said Aquitain solely to Belloe’s mind. ‘I’m not a spirit bear. I’m a Wizard Captain in the Mudrun Defence Force. Miranda and I were sent here by the High Wizard of Mudrun to help the Jeti people get this mask nuisance under control. We could use your help and I am willing to pay for it in gold. Mercenary rates on top of what Zephira is already paying you. Alternatively, I could impound your boat for military purposes and you could sit around for weeks waiting for another to arrive, or slog your way back through the jungle with a Thunder Lizard wandering around out there somewhere.’
Belloe was quiet for a few seconds, then he turned to Loma. ‘I be sorry Loma. I forgets meself that you people be me good friends fer years and I not be running out on me friends. The spirit bear here has the right of it. We should be sticking together and helping him get rid of the beastie. Me and me boys will stay and fight with yer.’
None of the others could believe what they had just heard. In one breath Belloe had been going to run, and in the next the complete opposite. Miranda and Zephira both looked at Aquitain. ‘What did you say to him?’ asked Zephira curiously through their mindlink.
‘He’s a businessman. I just made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.’
‘Oh. More gold I suppose,’ said Zephira. ‘I already worked out that side of his nature. The real question will be, will he really fight when to time comes?’
Miranda thanked Belloe for his noble gesture and accepted his offer to stay and help, as did Loma. She then outlined the plan they had worked out earlier. She would fly to the Crin city to alert the Crin or find out the worst, then return to the Barra village. Aquitain would teleport Kami back to the Jeti village so that they could be ready in case of an attack. The rest would barricade off a defensible part of the Barra village and wait. If necessary, they could evacuate the women and children from the village using Belloe’s boat.
The communication problem between the three groups had been solved by some interesting revelations from Miranda. The druids knew that the various tribal groups of little people had some means of communication between them. She was not sure how they did it but knew they could. She also knew that on occasions Queen Beatrix had communicated directly with her mother in the gully, so the Crin could also send long distance messages if they wished.
Belloe asked the question, ‘How are yer going to know where this mask beastie causes trouble?’
‘Let me worry about that,’ she said. ‘But you will know.’
‘Ah. Bloody druid hoohaa I’ll bet. All right I’ll tell me boys to git ready for some action.’ And he left.
Miranda then asked if she could have a word with Kami alone and told him she knew they could normally communicate between the villages, but was unsure whether they could still do it now that the Barra shaman was dead.
‘Ah. Miranda. I am thinking you are a cunning one,’ said Kami. ‘Jacintra has chosen a good friend for us. It is the shamans that ask the spirits to carry messages to other shamans. The Barra people here no longer have a shaman,, so they cannot hear the spirit messages. However, if someone were to be on friendly terms with the Barra people’s wand, then perhaps that wand might be telling them the spirit’s message.’
‘Did you hear that?’ said Miranda to Aquitain through their mindlink. ‘The druid Council has wondered for years how the little people communicated. They suspected they used some sort of dream sending. They’re using wands.’
‘No. I think the Council was right. I think Kami knows how powerful the Omen wand is. He’s guessing that it can receive the message and he may well be right. I’ll ask it.’ Moments later Aquitain knew the answer. Yes the wand could receive the messages from the spirits if required, so they had a workable plan. Miranda wasted no time, she said she would be back soon, changed to her sea eagle form, told Aquitain not to get into any fights without her, and flew off.
Aquitain decided that the best person to communicate with the wand was Alpha, so left it with Zephira and teleported Kami back to his Jeti village. Rori the shaman’s assistant was waiting with a folded loincloth in his arms for Miranda, and seemed a little disappointed that she didn’t show. However, he was pleased to see the spirit bear back again. Rori’s status in the village had elevated substantially since his ride on the spirit bear’s back. He was now even treated with some deference by adults who had previously ignored him.
Kami left Aquitain in Rori’s hands while he had a meeting with the village elders to tell them of the possible threat to the village posed by the mask. Rori had not wasted the morning; he had badgered the villagers into providing food for the bear, and soon villagers swarmed around the bear with bowls of food of all sorts. Aquitain didn’t complain - he was happy to please these little cat people by scoffing down everything brought to him. He now had a good idea what bears liked to eat: everything, and plenty of it.
After an hour Kami returned and he wasn’t happy. He told Aquitain the village e
lders had found it hard to accept the concept of the Image of Jacintra turning against them. It was as if Jacintra himself was turning against them and they blamed Kami, as he was their spiritual advisor. They were now worried that the presence of the spirit bear in their village had upset Jacintra, and wanted Kami to ask Aquitain to leave. Kami of course said he had the final say whether Aquitain had to go or not and he wished him to stay, and apologized for the short-sighted attitude of the village elders.
As the afternoon slowly progressed Aquitain decided that the best thing to do on a full stomach was to sleep while Kami meditated, and Rori dutifully kept away the inquisitive villagers explaining that the bear and the shaman were gaining mental strength for a big spiritual fight soon to come. He might have been just making up a story that sounded reasonable, but he couldn’t have been more correct.
About an hour before dark Kami woke Aquitain with news from the spirits. Miranda had visited the Crin city and talked to the Crin queen and discovered that the druid Alin Amber had visited the city the previous night and stolen a powerful magical weapon that had been left in Queen Beatrix’s care by Snowbelle.
Queen Beatrix had a report from one of her scouts of some type of activity at an ancient ruined temple in the jungle just outside her territory, and had dispatched a platoon of Crin in the morning to check it out, as Alin Amber had been seen heading in that direction. This afternoon the Queen had suddenly lost contact with her platoon, and was deeply concerned that something had happened to them. Miranda suggested that they check out the temple tomorrow, as it might be where the mask was hiding.
Aquitain was immediately worried. All his mental alarms were going off. It was just too much of a coincidence that Alin Amber would even be in the area, let alone steal a dangerous weapon from the Crin and lead them to an ancient ruin. He was involved somehow. Was he trying to point out where the mask was hiding? Maybe the mask had dominated him and sent him to get the weapon. What sort of weapon were they up against? Why had Snowbelle given it to the Crin to keep safe? Some strong mischief was afoot.
The situation was deteriorating quickly. He had to find and stop the mask before it gathered too many powerful creatures around itself. Otherwise, chaos really would reign. He suspected that the mask had only one teleport ring and was limited to the teleport markers that the gnome could recall. However, once the mask accumulated more teleport rings and learned more marker codes the damn thing would move all over the place and it would be really difficult to catch it.
He was also concerned about the platoon of Crin warriors. They would be a formidable fighting force but he learnt from his brief stay with the Crin that they had a weakness. They could easily be taken out of action if the leader of the group was dominated. If the mask had dominated the taskmaster controlling the troop, then the warriors would be fighting for the mask, which was not a good prospect.
He asked Kami how long it would take to get to the temple on foot, and the old shaman replied that it would take two days walking for little people, but perhaps only one day for newmans as they had bigger legs, and maybe half a day for Crin as they had more legs. That meant that if the mask had dominated the Crin platoon, then the earliest they could arrive would be a little after midnight.
The mask had already shown that it was impatient to cause trouble. It had attacked Twin Towers within a day of getting loose, and then the Barra village two days later. The question was whether it would get more fun out of attacking the Crin city with Crin fighters, or attacking the Jeti with Crin fighters. The Jeti was the logical answer, as they would be unprepared for an attack and they would blame Queen Beatrix, in the same way that the mask hoped that the Barra would blame the Jeti for being attacked by cats.
Aquitain sat for several minutes thinking about the situation and finally came to the conclusion that an attack on the Jeti village was highly likely, and asked Kami to get Miranda to teleport here with Zephira and Goth. The others should stay on alert and send a message through Alpha if any problem occurred.
Kami went into a trance singing powerful magical words of praise to the spirits, and ten minutes later Miranda, Zephira and Goth arrived near Kami’s hut with weapons drawn and ready to fight.
‘Where’s the trouble?’ asked Zephira.
‘There’s none yet. I think it will be some time after midnight in the early hours of the morning,’ replied Aquitain.
‘How do you know that?’ asked Zephira.
‘It’s a hunch,’ Aquitain said.
‘A hunch! You had us scared to death. We expected to walk into a fight and you’re lying around here stuffing your face,’ Zephira stormed. The noise attracted several Jeti villagers, who bolted for the headman’s hut when they saw Goth, Miranda and Zephira standing in front of the bear with weapons drawn.
‘Quickly, put those weapons away and sit Goth down. There is a little tension between the village elders and Kami. I think the elders are worried that Kami might be getting too much kudos out of me being here, and don’t fully understand the threat,’ said Aquitain.
Five minutes later the village headman, the elders and about a hundred adults turned up to face Kami. They were scared, worried and angry. The chief and elders demanded that Aquitain and the others leave immediately, as they didn’t want any trouble. Kami was not intimidated in the least. He stood and faced the lot of them with Rori one-step behind him looking rather pale, and began singing a song of courage.
Quickly it was taken up by a dozen people in the crowd, and half a minute later everyone was singing. After a couple of minutes he stopped, and the crowd, feeling much better, listened. He explained in no uncertain terms that they could not avoid trouble. It was coming, and they could join together and fight it, or be wiped out like the Jeti village on the coast or the Barra two days earlier. Miranda was here to honour the Druid’s Council pledge to help in times of trouble. The bear and the others were not obligated in any way, but had volunteered to help.
When the situation was stated in the simple terms of fight or die, the Jeti people were quite decisive; they would fight, and the confrontation broke up with the people returning to their huts to prepare. The chief and the elders conceded that the people were prepared to fight, so invited Kami, Miranda, and Aquitain to a Council of War. Aquitain mindlinked with Zephira and had her and Rori look at the village from a defensive point of view before coming to the meeting.
Chapter 32 The Trap
The Jeti village was located in a saddle in the foothills to the north of the continent and rested in a pass between jungle to the south and the edge of the sea a league to the north. It was roughly circular, and protected on the east and west by steep ground. The north and south were walled off with thorn bush a three pace thick, and high impenetrable hedge-like bush covered with long sharp spikes. In the middle of each of the thorn bush barriers was a three pace wide gap, guarded on either side by a pole bearing a carved wooden cat’s head painted black with long white bared fangs and fiery eyes.
On the jungle side the ground dropped away in a steep slope and had been cleared and covered with a coarse grass for about two hundred paces from the thorn bush barrier to the edge of the jungle, giving good visibility down the hill. A zigzag shaped path wound down the hillside to the edge of the jungle. Anyone attacking the village would have to mount their assault up a steep hillside, most likely along the zigzag pathway, and be subject to missile fire from above. The northern side was just as steep, but much narrower, and was half taken up by the fast moving stream that flowed down the western side.
The Council of War was held in the centre of the village. The chief, the elders, Kami, Aquitain, Miranda and Zephira sat in a circle facing each other while behind them sat the rest of the villagers. Aquitain’s huge bulk alone took up about a quarter of the circle. He noticed that all the children and many of the females had disappeared. The chief stood up and walked around in the centre of the circle and told them that, while they were unused to fighting, he expected that if they all fought courageousl
y they would win, and then handed the centre over to Kami.
Kami explained that Jacintra’s Image had escaped the custody of the Jeti people on the coast and was causing problems. It had attacked a large big people village on the east coast, killing many, and two days ago had used cats to attack the Barra people on the river in order to falsely blame the Jeti people. At this there was an outcry from many of the villagers. He told them that the spirits had warned the bear that the mischievous mask was intending to visit them and cause problems. It was their duty to stop it and restore order. They agreed unanimously.
There began much talking and confidence boosting, then they sang a song of courage and strength. When it was time to discuss fighting tactics they asked the bear to comment. Surprisingly he declined, but suggested that Zephira discuss how she thought the mask would attack. His mind was elsewhere. It was something that Zephira had said to him after inspecting the village’s excellent defences. She had said it didn’t make sense that the village was located here. They must be protecting something.
He did what he should have done when he first came here. He used his eyes and examined the little people. The large majority of the Jeti people were different to the majority of the Barra people. The Jeti were a little shorter and more robust. They also had purple scales on their bodies rather than the green of the Barra people. Among the villagers here were a few with the blue-greenish scales, and a few that had more reddish purple scales, which he concluded might belong to another tribe.
Each villager wore a disc shaped polished black stone amulet with the face of a cat carved into its surface. The chief wore a black rock carved in the shape of a cat’s face, and the shaman a four finger wide disc similar to those of the villagers, but with a Jeti claw on either side made of black rock. The black rock was the common theme. It began to make sense. He guessed that they lived here to protect the black rock mine. That’s where the missing children and women would be. He would have to have a closer look at the black rock when he had a chance. He would bet that it had some magical property.