Shield of the Ancients (Wizard Scout Missions) by Rodney Hartman

Author:Rodney Hartman [Hartman, Rodney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18 – One Way or the Other

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Richard stared at the redhead for a full ten seconds without saying a word. As he’d noted earlier, she was beautiful in an exotic sort of way with her penetrating green eyes. Her tight-fitting, brown-clothed pants and blouse only accentuated her beauty. Despite her current appearance, the memory of the silver dragon ripping off the head of the Tharg kept Richard’s left hand on the handle of his phase rod. Although he left the weapon attached to his utility belt, he made sure it was ready to draw at the first sign of the woman reverting back into a dragon. He eyed her closer, wondering whether her real form was that of the redhead standing before him or the silver dragon he’d seen mourning over the other dragon’s body. To be honest, he wasn’t sure it mattered one way or the other.

“Based upon data from your passive scan and the battle helmet’s sensors,” said Nickelo in their shared space, “I calculate a seventy-three percent probability the human form you see now is the result of a polymorph spell. Although I must confess it is a very good one. I cannot detect any obvious flaws. Uh, belay that about the polymorph spell. I have rerun my initial algorithm. The result this time is an even fifty percent probability the female form before you is an illusion, and a fifty percent probability the silver dragon you saw was the illusion.”

“How convenient on your part,” Richard snorted back. “So you’re calculating a fifty percent chance either the female form or the dragon form is the result of a polymorph spell.” Richard mentally laughed. “In other words, you don’t know any better than I do. Why don’t you just admit you can’t tell which is which and be done with it?”

“Fine,” snapped Nickelo, sounding unusually irritated. Despite being a computer, Richard knew his friend was not one who liked admitting he was ever wrong. “I do not have sufficient information to tell for sure. As you point out, I do not know. There. I said it. Does that make you happy?”

“A little,” Richard admitted. He eyed the woman again. She looked a little younger than him. “I’m guessing her age is in the low to mid-twenties.”

“Now who is afraid to admit they do not know which form is real and which is the polymorph spell?” laughed Nickelo, sounding like he’d just scored a point. “You are trying to determine her age based upon the human form you see before you. But if the woman is really the dragon under the guise of a polymorph spell, then she could be several thousand years old.”

“Whatever.”

“Are you going to answer my question?” said the woman who’d called herself Freika. “Are you the wizard scout the Oracle mentioned, or aren’t you? I’d like to know whether my sister died in vain or not.”

Richard thought back to the few times he’d met the mysterious being the inhabitants of Portalis called the Oracle. During several missions for ‘the One,’ he’d been forced to seek the Oracle’s advice.

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