Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “You mean that unless you undo your spell and release them, our unicorns will not leave the forest,” said Lukus. “Right?”

  “You’re quick, boy,” she said, “Mouthy but quick. So any escape that you're planning will need my permission, don't you know.”

  “We grew up with those unicorns,” he said. “They're thoroughbred cyflymders.”

  “I noticed, whelp. Now I've answered one of your questions, so you answer one of mine. What are you doing here? And don’t waste my time with this 'personal quest' business, because that's just dearie's clumsy dodge to keep from telling me the truth in the first place.”

  Rose shuddered. “It is indeed my personal quest,” she said. “I'm searching for my true identity, and we're here because I was told that the person who would know the answers to my questions lived here.”

  Ugleeuh tossed a wide eyed look at Hubba Hubba, who had become intensely alert at Rose's revelation.

  “Unless I be that very person, dearie, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, since I'm the only human being in all these woods.”

  “Yes I know. Hubba Hubba calls you Ugleeuh, so you're the very one I seek.”

  Ugleeuh stood up smartly and began circling the table. “So why do you think I'd know anything about you?” she said, pausing by Hubba Hubba’s perch to eye Rose up and down.

  “Good question,” said Rose, as she launched herself into a series of frantic sorties about the room. “After all, anyone with eyes could see that I couldn’t possibly be… And you couldn’t possibly be… And no way you ever could have had a… Why it’s the most absurd thing I ever heard. I really can’t believe I ever took it seriously.”

  “Rose,” said Lukus, springing from his chair to rush to her side.

  She stopped and looked at him, wide eyed as a lost puppy. “Oh Lukus, let’s go home,” she said, taking his arm. “Mother and Father have to be worried out of their minds. It was a horrible mistake coming here.”

  Lukus was speechless. All he could do was squeeze her hand.

  “You were right, Ugleeuh!” croaked Hubba Hubba. “It's she. Your daughter's come to find you.”

  Rose turned a deathly white and ran from the house, letting the door slam behind her.

  Chapter 37

  Lukus stared at the door which had just slammed behind Rose. He snapped to at once and lunged after her. Ugleeuh gave a twisting stab at the air with her finger, freezing him in his tracks. “I'll handle this one boy,” she said, streaking past him out the door into the night. “You stay here with Hubba Hubba.”

  Ugleeuh paused outside to make signs and mumble a spell before smoothing back her hair and heading decisively in the direction of her first hunch. She paused to gather her thoughts. Could Rose truly be her daughter? She smoothed her hair again and adjusted her skirts, then snapped her fingers and produced a looking glass. The full moon peeping over the bank of chocolate clouds did not give enough light to see herself well in it, but she managed to see what she wanted. She ran the palm of her hand along her cheek and across her chin. “Yes,” she murmured, “it'll do.”

  Rose was sitting against a peppermint tree and did not see her until Ugleeuh startled her by stepping on a stick. “Who are you?” she gasped.

  “Don't you know me now?” said Ugleeuh, putting herself right in front of her.

  “I’ve never seen you before, so why should I know you?”

  “Maybe you just need a closer look,” she said as she produced a mage light beside her face. “Don't I resemble someone you know?”

  Rose gasped and looked away.

  Ugleeuh clearly saw her look of abhorrence, the last reaction she had expected to get with this face. She produced her looking glass at once to see if she still wore the face she had cast upon herself. She looked exactly as she had the day she was exiled to these woods, yet Rose was much more upset by this face than by her usual appearance. “Why are you afraid of me, Rose? Who do I look like to you? Don’t you recognize me?”

  “You’re Ugleeuh, aren’t you?”

  “I'd hoped you might remember. Well, at least I'd like to ask you a few questions such as, how did the king and queen come to tell you about me and let you come seeking me when they swore an oath not to?”

  “They kept your vow, in spite of my pleas to know the truth.”

  “Then who?” said Ugleeuh with an imploring tone, astonishing Rose with her vulnerability. “No other on this earth knew of you except… Gastro? I don't see how he knew. Oh I’ll suffocate him! I’ll…”

  “I don’t know anyone named Gastro,” said Rose. “But what does it matter where I heard about you? The point is that I did and that I'm here. And it's all too true to face.”

  “Yea? Well you aren’t exactly what I'd pictured either, girlie, but it looks like we’re stuck with each other.”

  “Oh I'm sorry! That was a terrible way for me to put things, but you were the one who abandoned me.”

  “Abandoned? Made you a Princess, rather than a prisoner, I did. And you call that abandonment? Would you rather have grown up here in this fantasy forest full of sukere and foolish creatures who are thrall to its seduction? What disservice have I done you, girl? I kept you from watching your young beautiful figure grow fat, your teeth to decay, your hair turn to straw and your complexion to sallow sores. Did I keep you apart from others your own age and deny you the chance to marry and have a real life just because I needed your company? Do you appreciate any of these gifts I've given you? Do you even recognize the sacrifices I made for you, the only things I could do for you, really, if I cared one whit about you? No. You seek me out, insult me and tell me that I've abandoned you.”

  “Well, I guess I never thought of it that way, but I've not had any time to, after all. I was a princess until just now, not a witch’s daughter. I had to find out who I was, but I didn't believe seriously enough that I was your daughter to ever consider how to regard you. I've not had any time to think. Maybe you could be patient with me. This is very upsetting for both of us, I’m sure.”

  “All right,” sighed Ugleeuh, “but I’d like to get one thing straight, right now. I'm a sorceress, not a witch.”

  Rose nodded, not really understanding the difference, but her agreement seemed to appease Ugleeuh.

  “Fine,” said Ugleeuh. “I think it would do well for us to return to the cabin. Hubba Hubba must be pacing his perch by now, and your brother is also anxious, no doubt.”

  “Lukus really isn’t my brother anymore, though.”

  “He's still your brother by virtue of your having grown up with him in the same family. I'm certain he'll always consider it so. You should, too.”

  “Yea. He said the same thing on the way here, and it does feel like he truly is my brother. I just don't think things will ever be the same, now that I know who I am.”

  “Change is good. That's how you grow. You may be surprised how things work out in the end.”

  ***

  Rose took a step onto Ugleeuh's porch and paused. “What happens now?”

  “Hard to say,” said Ugleeuh. “I suggest we go in and discuss, shall we say, options.”

  “I suppose that's all we can do.”

  Ugleeuh mumbled some words as she stepped onto the porch, turning herself back into a hag. She had just stepped through the door when she heard Hubba Hubba shriek: “Oh why didn’t Ugleeuh freeze your mouth shut when she froze your feet to the floor?”

  “Yea?” shouted Lukus. “Well, if that old bat would freeze your beak shut, maybe you'd lose a few hundred pounds.”

  The sound of the closing door silenced them both to wide eyed stares.

  Ugleeuh looked keenly from bird to boy. “I trust the two of you got along while we were outside?” she said with a vague backwards wave at Rose.

  Hubba Hubba stared agape. “Of course we didn’t get on well while you two were out,” he sputtered. “The young prince here simply hates me. All he does is call me names and make fun of me. I only hope that from now on you don't
plan on leaving me alone with him.”

  “I never said anything about your dearest that wasn’t true,” said Lukus. “Look at how bowed that perch is, and it's iron, for crying in the sink. Not only that, but anything as fat as he is won't live long. And finally, even if he is a rotten, self centered, arrogant and bloated crow, I do not hate him.” He folded his arms with a resolute nod.

  “We'll sort out all of this later, if you must,” she growled. “You two are being inconvenient. For now, you'll sincerely want to maintain a truce between you.” She eyed each of them with all the warmth of a flattened eared cat and turned away.

  “Now Rose. Let’s have a seat and see what we can figure out.”

  Rose sat down heavily, as if she had given way at the knees, but she sat straight and tall and met Ugleeuh’s gaze squarely as Lukus and Hubba Hubba scrambled to hear every word of what was to come. “So what do I do?” said Rose. “The king and queen have arranged for me to wed Prince James of Loxmere, which I'm loath to do. Do I return to the palace and marry him, pretending that I'm the same sweet and obedient princess, known and loved throughout the land? Or do I stay here with you in this strange sticky, sweet world you've created? Whatever would I do here for the rest of my life? Quite frankly, unless you have better ideas than these, it all sounds awfully bleak to me.”

  Hubba Hubba leant so far forward on his perch that if Lukus hadn’t grabbed the stand, he would have tumbled off. “The girl's right, Ugleeuh,” he croaked. “This is no place for her. She may be your daughter, but she's been raised a princess and she'd never be happy here. Besides, you heard her, she's betrothed to marry this Prince of Whatevermere.”

  “Oh, my dearest Hubba Hubba,” said Ugleeuh with her grinning battlement of rotten teeth. “You're jealous.” She rose and stumped to his perch to give him a long reassuring scratch. “You mustn't think that you're about to be replaced in my affections, dear one. You'll always have a special place in my heart.”

  He sighed in in his ecstasy from her scratches.

  “There may be a few more choices available to you than you might allow, Rose,” she said, returning to the table. “Perhaps you need to stay here long enough to get to know me and to explore your magical abilities. And, you surely do have some ability, even if late blooming, considering that you're my daughter. Of course, if you really do want to marry this Prince James of... Where did you say? We may have to adjust our time accordingly.”

  “I most certainly do not want to marry the Prince of Sweet Pea...”

  “Prince Pea Slinger!” said Lukus with a snort, getting glares from both Rose and Ugleeuh.

  “Oh. Loxmere then. I guess I did hear right. Well then, perhaps you could stay here for a time and either return to the castle or start your own life as a free and independent sorceress. Such people are always very much in demand, you know.”

  “Not according to the Elves,” said Rose. “They told us that magical abilities are not only not being sought after nowadays, but that such abilities are now ridiculed and held in suspicion. They said that if things continue as they are, soon all of the new discoveries by the explorers of the new found lands will replace the demand for magic altogether.”

  “Sure. Their magic. They were discredited when they took to hiding after the great plague, but...”

  “No. Humans have already stopped believing in any magic. We knew that before we ever spoke with them. Grandfather Razzmorten is still well respected, but he does nothing openly with magic.”

  Ugleeuh was greatly taken aback by this. For the first time since Rose and Lukus's arrival, her eyes went wide with astonishment. It took her a moment to recover. “That mustn't happen!” she sputtered. “Our kind will be hunted down and butchered if it truly does. Exiled like me, at least. This is not how it was supposed to turn out. It was to be carefully controlled. It was supposed to be just the Elves…”

  “What?” cried Rose. “You knew of this? You didn't just ruin Sir Chester by turning him into a sukere weakling, you plotted with your dear uncle Razzorbauch, didn't you? The two of you set this whole monstrous disaster in motion. No wonder you were exiled to this place. Fates! How can I ever return to the castle, knowing what I know now?”

  “Careful girl,” said Ugleeuh. “My daughter you may be, but my keeper you are not. You know quite a bit, and a great portion of that is lies. Lies, Rose. Lies about my past and how you come to find me here. Gossip. Do you know what it means? Just maybe your information is one-sided, since I wasn't there to speak for myself.”

  Rose sighed and sank bonelessly into her chair. “True enough. I haven't heard your side of it. However, it's getting late and this has been a trying day. Pray, may we resume this matter in the morning, when our minds are fresh and our nerves not so frayed?”

  Ugleeuh pursed her lips as she studied her. “Very well Princess,” she said. “Until morning then. No one's heard my side of it all these years, so one night certainly won't matter, will it?” She rose stiffly from her chair, allowed Hubba Hubba to waddle from his perch onto her shoulder, and then stumped off to bed.

  The house grew silent in the candlelight as Rose sat fiddling with a stray spoon, staring at the dancing shadows along the walls. Presently, Lukus plopped into Ugleeuh's chair, finding it still warm. Though he normally found such things mildly offensive, he kept his seat, fancying himself mature for doing so.

  “So what happened out there?” he said, giving a nod at the door. “What was her excuse for giving you up? Does she still expect us to stay here and pay her back for saving us from the dorchadas? Has she made the woods all sweet and weird, or was it already that way? Unicorns. What about our unicorns? When can we go home?”

  “Slow down, Lukus. I don’t have answers to most of those questions. But I have a question for you right now.”

  “What?”

  “Did you see what she looked like before?”

  “Before what, Rose?”

  “Before she came back in. When she came out to get me she'd cast a spell on herself. Did you see her like that?”

  “Nope,” he said with a shake of his head. “She looked just as ugly as usual when she left and when she stepped back into the house. Wish I hadn't missed it. What did she look like, anyway?”

  “She looked like Spitemorta, Lukus. Or Spitemorta’s twin at the very least. And I wonder what this means? It was Spitemorta's nasty tale, remember, that sent me off on this awful fiasco in the first place. Of course, Spitemorta said she was just repeating what Myrtlebell and the others were whispering behind my back at the party, so why in all of Niarg would Ugleeuh, who thinks she is my mother, present herself to me looking like the very person who…?”

  “Whoa Rose. I can see there's no way you could possibly be joking, and I really do wish I had gotten to see her like that, but she hauled off and did one of her magic acts and stuck my feet to the floor so I couldn't move. You saw that when you got back, aye?”

  “Lukus, something about all of this just doesn’t feel right. I have no idea what, though. Could you keep your eyes open and maybe even try to get some clues from that rotten crow if you can? Before I completely accept being an evil witch’s daughter, I want to know for certain that I am.” She gave a shudder from chin to chair.

  “You can count on me,” he said, with a flourish. “I can do a right fair job of finding out things when there's a need. That’s how I found out you were sneaking out of the castle on this mad quest, after all.”

  “I do know that, Lukus,” she said, shaking her finger at him. “But you're grinning too much. You're scaring me. Do you really get how dangerous she is?”

  “Rose! I'm not stupid.”

  “Yea? But you really have to be careful, this time. And sometimes you're still a kid, O mighty peppermint sword in the woods. There's no telling what she'll do to you if she catches you spying on her. I've put you at enough risk already, dear brother, and I don't want you spending eternity as some sort of quaking cow. Well she could do it, don't you know.”

 
“You think I'm that stupid? I know that,” he said, though his grin had vanished. “I’ll be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to me, either.”

  Rose studied his face just short of making him feel self-conscious. “Good, O Peppermint Knight. Let’s get some sleep. I'm exhausted.”

  With a ritual duel of a pillow swing apiece for old time's sake, they retired to their pallets for a most welcome rest.

  ***

  They awoke to the sound of Hubba Hubba talking around mouths full of his breakfast, and at once smelt pancakes, cream cheese pastries and cinnamon buns. “Well Ugleeuh, I don’t know,” he said. “I suppose you humans can see things which are not at all obvious to mere birds. I am just a bird after all, but how can you be sure the girl is your daughter just because she says she is? Maybe she's up to something, such as blackmail, perhaps.”

  “Blackmail?” said Ugleeuh with beady eyed amusement. “Are you serious? Hubba Hubba. Now who'd dare do such a thing? You dearest, are still jealous. You think that if my daughter stays here, I'll care less for you, now don't you? Well it won't happen. You, my ebony companion, you've been my true friend all of these livelong lonely years. You know very well I’m not one to gush or carry on, so just suffice it to say that no one will ever come between us.”

  “Well that does make me feel better. But now, what about that boy? He's nothing to you, and if she's your daughter, then he's really nothing to Rose, either. Couldn’t you at least turn him into a gnat or something swattable? He does not like me in the least and picks on me every chance he gets.”

  “Patience, dearest. We'll work out something right soon to end that problem for you.”

  “Did you hear that, Rose?” whispered Lukus. “Ugleeuh's going to do something to me so I can’t torment her rotten bird.”

  “Shush Lukus! They’ll hear you. Besides, she said she’d work out something, not do something to you.”

  “Yea? Same thing, I'll bet.”

  At once, Ugleeuh stumped in and stared down at them on their pallets. “Awake then, are you? Good. You need to get up because breakfast is already on the table and not getting any hotter.”