Sleeping Beauty

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 15095

As Fred followed Ringroot, he observed him carefully. As far as he could tell, Ringroot was unchanged from two days ago. Of course, Ringroot had already been a demifox, so that proved little. If what Malachi had told Astra and himself was true, though, then the result if a human were to be infected would be very different. He wondered whether Ringroot had gone ahead with his planned experiment after himself being bitten.

There was another matter of even greater concern to him, of course. What had Ringroot done with - or to - Astra? What was the significance of the flash of light that Fred had seen from his staff? He hoped that it was Astra that he was being taken to see now, and that he would find her unharmed.

But the room that Ringroot led him into did not contain Astra. Instead, to Fred's surprise it contained a human - a bald middle-aged man with piercing blue eyes. "This is the mage Arkas," Ringroot said. "Though I myself am a shaman, something like the Crystallic is beyond my competence, so we decided to call in outside advice. However, finding an honest mage in Walants is almost an impossibility. Arkas is the nearest trustworthy mage I know of, but he lives one day's journey from here, which is why it took two days for us to send him a message and for him to get here. We are grateful to him for coming." "Not at all," Arkas said. "Your message was sufficiently intriguing that I would have willingly travelled a much longer distance."

He turned to speak to Fred. "Ringroot has summarised your story for me," he said. "But perhaps you would be good enough to repeat it in your own words for my benefit?" "Not until I get the answers to a few questions," Fred replied, turning to Ringroot. "Why isn't Astra here? What have you done to her?"

Ringroot scowled. "I've done a great deal less to her than she deserved. I merely used my staff to send her to sleep, and she has been kept asleep ever since. It was either that, or to chain and muzzle her as one would a dangerous dog. But fortunately for her, and for you, it would appear that she does not carry lycanthropy after all. I have shown no symptoms, and nor has the man to whom we gave some of her blood. Which makes what happened to you after coupling with her very puzzling, of course. That's something that I'm hoping that Arkas may be able to throw some light on, as his knowledge of dragons and their magicks is much greater than my own."

That Astra (and presumably himself as well) was not a lycanthrope was very welcome, if surprising, news for Fred. "When will Astra awaken?" he asked. "Time is getting short for us if we are not to be permanently left as demifoxes." Though he had the uncomfortable thought that, if Malachi had been wrong about their being lycanthropes, perhaps she had also been wrong in saying that the Crystallic could cure them.

  1. "She will waken when I choose," was all the reply that Fred got from Ringroot.

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JH

1/27/2001 11:44:34 AM

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