Back in Caemlyn
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 17918
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At the same moment that Lord Rodney nervously launches into his
explanation to Fred's
parents, several hundred miles
away in Caemlyn "King" Emry is pacing impatiently up and down in his
chamber. His daughter
is supposed magically to contact him every day to report on progress, and
her latest
report is well overdue. Eventually he comes to a decision, and calls for
his court
mage, Blondin. Blodin is at least as good a mage as Exotica, but Emry
does not trust
him as much as he does his daughter, which is why he was not sent on the
mission.
(Not that Emry would trust even his daughter were it not
for his effectively holding her mother hostage, for all that she is his
wife and queen.)
"The Princess has not made her latest daily report, and I fear that something may have gone wrong," Emry tells Blondin when he arrives. "Please try to contact her, and then if you fail in that see if you can contact either Sir Thiortin or Sir Guy. I want to find out what is going on." "Sire, I shall need some personal possession of anyone who I am to attempt to contact, to act as a conduit," Blondin says. "Here's a mirror that Exotica gave me and through which she contacts me. For the other two, go to each of their chambers. I am sure you can get a comb of theirs or something." Blondin takes the mirror and concentrates on it. After a couple of minutes he looks up. "Nothing!" he says. "Either - and I'm sorry to say this, Sire - the Princess is dead or else she is blocking me." Emry frowns. "You'd better see what you can do about contacting the other two then," he says. "I want you to report back to me within the hour." Blondin leaves Emry's presence, hoping he will be able to come back with some good news. Emry does not react well to bad news, and Blondin knows that if he should come back with no news at all then he will get the blame. He ponders making up a report if he can't get through to either Thiortin or Guy, but he knows that to do that would be very risky. Should he be caught out in a lie, he would probably lose his head. He fails to contact Sir Thiortin. Either the man is dead, or he is too much of an unimaginative clod for contacting him magically to be possible. He has better luck with Sir Guy, though, who has a shocking story to tell. It seems that the dragon of the Southern Caves has betrayed the king and abducted his daughter. Sir Guy has only a demoralised rump of his force left, though a few more men may straggle back over the next few hours. Sir Thiortin and the men he took with him to the nearby village have not returned and are well overdue. Given all this, it is clear that the intended mission to Thunderclap is no longer possible, and Sir Guy will soon begin the long return journey to Caemlyn.
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JH
12/1/2001 1:23:33 PM
Extending Enabled
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