Chapter 28 - Muenda Mwita Osei.
The Master, Muenda Mwita Osei had been incarcerated for just over a fortnight, his power was growing, his power was sufficient.
He rolled a small ball of blue energy between his hands and threw it against the cell door, the door disappeared, Muenda stepped out, moved swiftly to the next room, and took that door off its hinges as well.
“Come, Llewel my friend, we’re leaving.”
They walked swiftly up the corridor to the stairs, a guard appeared at the head of the stairs, alerted by the blasts. When he saw the ball of energy in Muenda’s hand, he turned tail and ran. At the top of the stairs, they apparated away. Gone.
Within minutes there were guards everywhere, the senior Wizard Guards arrived, shortly followed by Llewellyn, Flintock and Faraji.
“There he is,” one of the guards shouted at Faraji.
“Stand down!” Llewellyn barked, “this is not the Master, this is Faraji, Great Uncle to Flintock and brother to the Master.”
“Who was the guard in the master’s corridor?” Flintock asked.
A guard sheepishly stepped forward.
“He had a big ball of blue energy in his hand, I ran like hell, sorry, I know I should have held my ground.”
“No, if you had, I would have to take the news to your wife and children of your premature death. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. I’m not too sure that I would have hung around either,” Llewellyn fibbed calmly, diffusing the situation.
One of the Wizard Guards spoke up, “We can follow his astral thread and get him back if we hurry.”
“No,” said Llewellyn, “he will kill you on sight. We will handle this; we don’t want any more death.”
The three of them then disappeared, apparating back to the Elder’s rooms below the castle.
“So how did that happen Faraji? How did he regain his powers?” Llewellyn asked.
“I have visited him every day, I saw no sign of his inner aura, no spark at all, he must have kept it well hidden,” Faraji replied defensively.
“Well, it’s back now and he and the weasel Llewel have both escaped. Do we follow?” Flintock asked.
“No,” Llewellyn answered, “he will be expecting us to follow immediately. Wait two days until his guard is lowered, then we track him.”
“Well don’t leave it too long,” Faraji reminded them, “or his thread will decay.”
Forty-eight hours later, the three wizards, plus Gwen, assembled in the entrance to the dungeons. Faraji looked around, almost as if looking for a physical thread, his hands moved quickly, he looked like a mime artist, grabbing at something no one could see and then discarding it, he quickly found what he was looking for and the four of them vanished.
To their surprise, they arrived at the Wand Wood.
“He’s thinking ahead,” Llewellyn said, “he knew we wouldn’t follow immediately, so he’s brought Llewel here to get a new wand. His old wand was just oak and ruby. Let’s hope he doesn’t have any bright ideas and ask for something better.”
“Like what?” Faraji asked.
“Well, elm for wisdom for a start, if Llewel started getting wise, who knows what could happen.”
They all smiled at the thought.
“Come on, where next?” he continued.
Meanwhile, back at the dungeon, the three teenagers appeared. Glynda drew Dragon Slayer from its home slung on her back just in case it was needed quickly. Then before anyone could ask them what they were doing there, they were gone.
They too arrived at the Wand Wood.
“Why did they come here?” Jon asked, at once thinking it was a stupid question.
“To get Llewel the Loser a new wand obviously,” Tom replied.
A second later, Ren arrived with Ffanci and Bevon.
“Who invited you?” Tom said rudely.
“We could ask the same question to you three,” Bev answered, “you weren’t on the invitation either.”
“Point taken,” Tom replied, “where now?”
“Back to the quarries,” Ren answered.
“How do you know that?” Jon asked.
“Last time I checked the mirror; I was a Golden Dragon. We can not only follow astral threads; we can see where they go.” Ren wasn’t quite as good at sarcasm as Bev, but he was getting better.
‘Pop’, and all six entities reappeared in the quarries, standing next to an astonished looking Llewellyn, Faraji, Flintock and Gwen.
“I’m not going to say anything,” Llewellyn said before they even started their defence, “I should have spoken to you anyway, we probably need some back-up, especially from Glynda.”
Glynda stood there, sword in hand, “Well it was me who sort of helped capture him last time.”
“Don’t be so modest,” Gwen said, “it was all your work, good and proper, not us.”
“Now we just have to find him again,” Llewellyn added.
“If we just all follow his thread to wherever he is, it will leave us very exposed to an attack as soon as we arrive,” Faraji stated.
“He’s in a cave in a quarry about three miles from here,” Ren announced.
“How, in the Maker’s name do you know that?” Llewellyn asked.
“Did I not mention that I am a Golden Dragon. I can follow his thread to wherever he might be. But it won’t be easy, the whole complex is surrounded by incantations and dweomers, as he did in the Blue Mountain caves, it keeps shifting around, so where you enter may not be there when you try to exit.”
“What do you mean?” asked Tom.
“Do you remember, on your first encounter with the Master, then you and the seven prisoners tried to head out of the cave, you ended up walking round in a circle and found yourselves back in the cavern?”
“How do you know that? You weren’t even there,” Llewellyn asked curiously.
“No, I wasn’t, but Tom was, and everything he has known or seen, I also know and have seen.”
“What do you suggest then?” Llewellyn continued.
Basically, we have two options. We either play the waiting game and just wait until they emerge and then take action or I apparate you all into the cave and take him by surprise.”
“Pros and cons?” asked Flintock.
“I know that one,” Llewellyn answered, “The first option means an open battle much as before, so we might take him alive again, the second choice will inevitably end in either both he and Llewel losing their lives or all of us losing ours.”
“I quite like option one,” Tom said nervously.
“No, I say let’s go get him,” said Jon.
“No, I think we should wait until they make a move, don’t forget, if we do battle and Muenda is killed, Faraji and even possibly even Flintock may die also,” Llewellyn added.
“No,” Flintock interrupted, “I will not die, but I do worry about great uncle Faraji, and even a little about Muenda. He is still my great uncle; the blood of my blood.”
Faraji joined in, “Don’t worry about me, I am an old man anyway, fight or no fight, I will not be around much longer, and forget about all the blood of my blood nonsense, the man’s a danger to all, not just this group but the whole of Trymyll.”
As they were talking, Muenda appeared as if out of a mist about fifty yards from where they were standing, Llewel by his side.
“Well, if it isn’t my little group of thorns in the flesh,” Muenda said, Llewel just stood there with a sardonic smile on his grubby little face.
Muenda continued, “Although temporarily incapacitated, my powers have now fully returned, so please bow the knee, then you might not get killed.”
“Actually,” Llewellyn answered, “we will allow you both to surrender and promise you will come to no harm, our combined firepower easily out-guns both you and Llewel, mind you, most acolytes out-gun Llewel.”
Glynda stepped out in front of them, Dragon Slayer drawn and held across her chest. She began to walk towards him, as she did, Muenda let out a bolt of energy towards her, with Dragon Slayer in her hands, the spells were just absorbed. Glynda then pointed Dragon Slayer towards him, and energy erupted from the end straight towards him. He fought back with a continuous stream of raw power. As this continued, Flintock concentrated on Llewel and apparated him back to where they were standing. He grabbed Llewel’s wand and destroyed it.
Llewel whined, “That was brand new, only two days old.”
Before he could say another word Flintock head-butted him, knocking him out cold. Flintock had a remarkably hard head. Meanwhile, the battle continued between Muenda and Glynda. Llewellyn decided to join in, now there were two arcs of pure white energy colliding with the raw blue energy emitting from Muenda’s hands. Flintock, Gwen and Jon also joined the fight, it was too much for Muenda, his power was almost spent, he didn’t even have energy enough left to apparate. He dropped his hands and awaited his fate, he was expecting the onslaught to continue, he waited that split second expecting to die. What he felt was the slap of Dragon Slayer on his shoulder. He dropped to his knees as Glynda tapped again the little power he had left. Totally exhausted and drained, he fell flat on the floor face down.
“Can’t we just finish him off now?” Jon asked.
“No,” his father said, “that’s not how we do things. He must stand trial and proper justice must be seen to be done.”
They all apparated back to Blaenoraid and down into the dungeons. This time Muenda was placed in cold iron shackles, placed on both his wrists and ankles. Even if his power returned, we would be unable to use it while shackled. As further insurance, he was placed in a cold iron cage inside the cell. The badly bruised Llewel was returned to his cell.
“Put Llewel on a ration of bread and water for twenty-one days,” Llewellyn told the guard, “and put Muenda on minimum rations to keep his strength low. No protein and low carbs, he’ll be hungry as hell, but we can’t risk his strength returning. His shackles are not to be removed under any circumstances, is that understood? Also, no visitors whatsoever except for me, is that also understood?”
The guards all nodded nervously.
They all returned to Llewellyn’s lodgings where they found Tryg was preparing supper for them all.
“Thanks again to Glynda for bringing Muenda back to heel,” Llewellyn said.
“It wasn’t just me; it was a joint effort.”
“Maybe, but you had the greatest share in his recapture, so thanks again,” Llewellyn said to reinforce what he had said.
“What do we do if he escapes again?” Jon asked.
“I don’t see how he can, but if he does, we just go and find him again. With any luck, he’ll decide to move on, and leave Trymyll alone.”
“No, he won’t,” Faraji said, joining the conversation, “my brother never gives up. He will find a way out; he will find a way to repay the debt we now owe.”
“I don’t see how, even if his power returns, he could not escape while shackled and caged in cold iron,” Llewellyn retorted.
“He will, mark my words, he will,” Faraji said chillingly.