~*~
Mirrin leaned back from the green mist before her and relaxed into the heavy wooden chair in which she sat. In the mist, the three children, two magical beasts, and Archipel walked through the forest. Mirrin pressed her fingers together into an arch, then held them against her lips, her eyes closing lightly. Her white hair was braided in two braids from her forehead and fastened behind her head. The rest of her long hair fell freely past her shoulders. She sat in a large war tent made of red silk backed with heavy canvas.
"They are escaping," a rough voice remarked from behind her.
Mirrin opened her black eyes and looked straight ahead.
"No," she replied coolly, "not escaping. You see, we both want the same thing: for the children to return to the portal in the Green Forest. There is no need to go after them now. Once they are closer, I shall make my move. In the meantime, get word to the scouts to keep cotton with them. We shall have no more of that cat bewitching our soldiers."
She stood then and faced the creature that waited patiently at her shoulder. It had the lean, muscular body of a man, but its head was like that of a deer, with black, twisted horns. Black tattoos swirled across its shoulders and it wore a heavy bow slung across its back. Its only clothing was a long loincloth that hung to it its knees. Its black, almond eyes were unblinking in its long, narrow face as it watched her. Despite its human body, its face was so inhuman that it was unsettling to look at. Mirrin scowled at it.
"Now," she snapped, "tell me why the army has attacked Tarah. Don't the fools understand that they will have to do it over again when we open the time portal?"
"They are creatures of chaos and destruction," the creature replied. "It is all but impossible to control them, even with the help of your magic. Still, we have punished those who have allowed this to happen."
"Good," she replied curtly. "You are dismissed."
The creature bowed to her and left. Mirrin watched him go, then returned to monitoring the progress of the children in the wood. They were stopped now, resting and eating things from the pouches that they carried. Mirrin looked at each of them carefully. They would be easy enough to deal with when the time came, but the magical beasts would prove more difficult. Still, she was confident that she could overcome them. She knew their powers, and knew they posed no challenge to her.
Bored, Mirrin strode to a corner of the tent, where a giant cage five feet tall hung from a heavy brass stand. The cage was covered by a large brown cloth. Mirrin pulled on the cloth and it fell to the ground, revealing inside the cage a giant brown eagle, its beak bound with a leather strap. Its fierce black eyes glared at Mirrin.
"Magical beasts," she scoffed. "What a disappointment to learn that you are all little better than oversized talking animals. I grow weary of your lectures. I had thought that you might be a challenge to me. Instead I find that you are weak and powerless. As for you, Aiglon, I might make you my own personal hunting falcon. It was said no cage could hold you. Look at you now."
Mirrin picked up the cloth from the ground and threw it carelessly back over the cage, listening as the eagle inside ruffled his feathers unhappily in response. Then she walked to the tent's opening and stood outside in the bright sunlight. Her bright red tent had been pitched on a hill a mile south of Tarah. She had chosen the spot carefully with the idea that when she was able to create a time rift, her army could pass through it at this spot and surprise the defenders of Tarah of the past by suddenly appearing near the walls. Then, once the siege began, she could watch the destruction of the city from an elevated vantage point without being overwhelmed by the chaos of the assault. Even at this distance, she could hear the sound of rocks hurled by catapults crashing against the Tarah of today's walls like peals of distant thunder. A plume of smoke rose from the southern end of the city, where oil-soaked darts had been set alight and fired into buildings to set them on fire. She growled with frustration at the wasted effort.
She considered her "army"--a motley collection of nightmares and ghouls summoned from the darkest corners of the land--and she felt no love for them. They were stupid, ugly brutes easily distracted by the prospect of immediate violence and looting. It required all of her magic to keep them from fighting amongst themselves all the time, and it was exhausting. They could not, like her, plan and wait for years for the moment when they could once and for all topple Devorian's king. When Tarah was finally hers, she would be rid of them and rule using only her stone army, but for now she needed them. She felt the deer-man return to her side. He was so quiet she almost did not notice.
"Send an ambush party west," she ordered. "Let it lie in wait in the Green Forest for our prey to arrive. I myself will go when our quarry is closer, for they have several more days' travel."
"It will be done," the creature said.
The creature departed once more and she was alone. Yet not entirely alone, for she sensed a presence nearby. It was a presence that she recognized. Her mouth twisted into a grimace.
"Grimkell," she said.
The name came as though pulled unwillingly from her lips. A black shape detached itself from a pool of shadows and moved closer to her. As it stepped into the light, it resolved itself into a giant black dog. Its eyes were so dark they were impossible to see in its large face.
"I shall have to reinforce my guard if intruders can slip in without detection so easily," Mirrin said with some irritation.
"With your entire army around you, still could I reach you without a single eye having spotted me," Grimkell replied.
"Your coming is unexpected," Mirrin said, changing the subject. "After our last parting I did not think you would come again."
"I have come only to warn you," Grimkell said.
He sat beside her and surveyed the plain before them. Mirrin's army of monsters flooded the field, a disorganized mass of bodies surging like waves of water against Tarah's walls. A section of the city's massive walls had caved in, and trolls swarmed over the toppled stones, pulling them away and hurling them into the field behind them. The other monsters dodged to avoid the crashing stones, but a few were crushed. None stopped to help them.
"Warn me?" Mirrin repeated, her eyebrows contracting into a frown. "What now, beast?"
"You are not as powerful as you imagine. Let go of this foolish crusade and send these monsters back to whatever dark pits from which they have crawled. The past is the past," Grimkell said in his deep, solemn voice.
"Is this what you have come to tell me?" Mirrin demanded angrily. "How dare you speak these words to me! Why have you really come? To spy? You know nothing of me. Leave Devorian, and take those other so-called 'magical beasts' with you. You have no place in this world any longer. It is mine now."
Grimkell stood and looked at her wordlessly. He was so large that standing, his head was level with her chest. Mirrin glared at him, her face crimson with anger. Her eyes shone. The magical beast said coldly, "You foolish humans. Why must we always clean up your messes? It will take a year to cleanse the land of these vile creatures you have summoned to you. Remember, when this is over, that you could have chosen to act differently. There is always a choice."
Then he turned and began to walk away. Though her eyes tried to follow, Mirrin found that she could not focus them upon the large dog. When he was almost lost in the trees, he stopped and turned his large head back to her. He remarked, "You think that you have captured Aiglon. I tell you now, no magical beast can be captured who does not wish it."
He took two more steps and vanished completely. Mirrin immediately turned and raced back to her tent. She threw open the tent's flap and looked to the corner where Aiglon's cage sat. It was as she had left it, with the brown cloth covering the cage completely. The tent was silent and undisturbed. Her confidence returning, Mirrin strode to the cage and stripped off its covering. The cage was empty. The leather tie that had held the great bird's beak shut lay loose at the bottom of the cage beside a single brown feather. Aiglon was gone. Mirrin let loose a pierci
ng scream of rage.