Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  Realizing that they were famished, Rose and Lukus were out of bed in a trice. Once they were full enough to be nauseated, Ugleeuh snapped her fingers and everything on the table vanished. She pulled up a chair across from Rose, and with a disdainful flick of her wrist, swept Lukus away to pin him to the wall by the slave sparrows, pecking away at scraps beneath Hubba Hubba. Boy and bird sat sullenly, glowering at the oblivious females.

  “Now that you’ve had a good night's sleep and stuffed yourself with delectables, I expect it would be a good time to test you for magical abilities,” said Ugleeuh with undisguised eagerness. “Then, we’ll know just where to begin your training.”

  “My goodness, I'm sorry,” said Rose as she stifled a huge yawn and rubbed her drooping eyes. “I really don’t know why I've been so tired since we arrived. I know I just awoke, but I must have a nap before I can possibly concentrate on any sort of lessons.” She yawned again as she stood up to return to her pallet. “Just a snooze.” She got under her covers and closed her eyes. She was asleep at once.

  Ugleeuh stared at her back and muttered something, causing Lukus momentary alarm before he was released suddenly from the wall. Lukus showed Hubba Hubba a hateful face. Hubba Hubba returned a smug look.

  “All right, Beaknose,” said Lukus. “Just how do you do that with a beak instead of a face, anyway?”

  Hubba Hubba clacked his beak and turned away.

  Lukus threw up his hands and marched to the door. “I’m going for a walk,” he said on his way past Ugleeuh. The door refused to open. “Hey!” He gave several tugs. He took a deep breath and turned to face her.

  “That’s better,” she said with a nod. “You're welcome to take a stroll outside, but under one condition.”

  “Which is?”

  “Hubba Hubba goes with you.”

  “No way! Getting away from him is why I want to go out.”

  “Thought so. But you won’t be trying to escape or anything foolish if he's with you, and he needs exercise. You said so yourself.”

  “Forget it! I’ll stay here. I wanted to go for a walk, not a crawl.”

  “I do not crawl!” croaked Hubba Hubba, as he gaped in wounded astonishment at Ugleeuh. “I walk very well. I'll have you know that I am in fact, quite light on my feet. If I went for a walk with you, boy, it's all the more likely that you'd slow us down. Not that I'd even want to take a walk with the likes of you.”

  “Really! Well let’s go then. But you'd better keep up, because I’m not going to keep stopping and waiting on you.”

  Hubba Hubba suddenly leaped from his perch to land with a lardy thud, scattering the terrified sparrows at his feet and surprising both Ugleeuh and Lukus. A little surprised himself to have survived his rash feat, he looked up at Lukus as he waddled to the door and said: “Coming?”

  “You bet,” said Lukus, following him outside. He caught the door just before it closed. “If we aren’t back before dusk,” he hollered through the crack, “you'd better hop on that warped broom of yours and come rescue your fatling pet and me.”

  Ugleeuh made no reply, but it was well that Lukus did not peek inside, because her face would have scared him.

  Rose stretched groggily and sat up when the door went shut. “Where’s Lukus?” she said, rubbing her eyes. “Wasn't he just talking?”

  “He and Hubba Hubba have gone for a walk to get a little fresh air and exercise,” said Ugleeuh, putting on a smile as smoothly as popping lime in a tea kettle gone dry.

  “Well,” said Rose as she walked sluggishly to a chair at the table. “Who’d have thought those two would be friends?”

  “I'd hardly call Lukus and Hubba Hubba friends,” said Ugleeuh. “They might be better described as rivals with adversarial flourishes.”

  “Oh, I don't think I'd go quite so far as to suggest they are enemies,” said Rose. “There are moments when they seem to get on well enough with each other.”

  “Tolerate each other, you mean?”

  “Sure.”

  “At least they don't seem to be harming each other, so shall we get on with our testing? I'm anxious to see if you have inherited my stunning abilities.”

  Rose bit her lip and nodded.

  ***

  “Lukus! Could you please stop for a moment?” cawed Hubba Hubba as he disappeared into the foliage ahead. “I'm stuck back here and I'd appreciate your helping me. Lukus! Ugleeuh's going to have your head on a platter if you leave me out here!”

  Lukus stopped short. “That stupid bird,” he muttered. “Why'd he have to come, anyway?” He turned back to help Hubba Hubba for the half dozenth time. “If Rose weren't stuck with the old witch, I'd leave his blubbery hide out here for the scavengers,” he thought. “Light on his feet. Ha!” He tramped up to Hubba Hubba. “So bird,” he said, “what now? Stubbed your toe?”

  “No,” said Hubba Hubba forlornly as he teetered, tugging at his foot, wedged amongst a crisscross of small branches held fast by a large limb. “My foot. Can't you see? It's fast.”

  “So it is,” said Lukus, as he saw an opportunity to cultivate an alliance if he was delicately careful.

  “It isn't funny, you awful snot! My foot hurts! I think it's broken.”

  “That's a pretty big limb, Hubba Hubba,” said Lukus, dropping his amusement. “It's not going to be easy for me to move it. It'll certainly hurt like thunder, even if I do manage. Maybe I ought to leave you here and go for help.”

  “Leave me here? But it might get dark before you return. Lukus! There are unfriendly things in these woods at night. Sometimes even the smallies sneak in here after dark. Please, please! Don't leave me out here all alone.”

  “I don't know. I mean, why should I even care if the smallies do get you? You've done nothing but act smug and superior, just because you're Ugleeuh's pampered familiar.”

  “Familiar? No! I'm not Ugleeuh's familiar. My word! I have no magical powers. I'm no more than her pet and her best friend. Her only friend, truth to tell. And don't you dare look at me that way! If I were Ugleeuh's familiar, I certainly wouldn't need you to help me get my foot free. By now, I'd 'ave turned you into a cockroach and squished your nasty insides out your stinky mouth and nether eye.”

  “My. How you charm your only possible rescuer. Sweet little bird.”

  “Yea? Know what I think? I think sweet little boy here is just looking for any reason at all to leave me here. You want to get rid of me. Maroon me.”

  “You think that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “You're smarter than I thought. But you just might be wrong. Ugleeuh would certainly kill me if I came back without her dearest, and Rose would be good and mad at me, too.”

  “Rose? I don't believe you.”

  “By all means, Rose. I have no idea why, but for some reason she likes you. She even thinks you're kind of cute.”

  “Did she actually say that?”

  “Maybe not in those exact words, but I do know Rose. That is what she meant. Truth is, Hubba Hubba, even I don't think you're so bad. Fat maybe, in fact definitely, and obnoxious of course, and self-centered, and a pure snob. You're those things without a single doubt, but you're sort of all right underneath all that stuff.”

  “I'll declare! What flattery. How very kind.”

  “Yea? Well, you need a measure of truth to go with your big head, to remind you that it is attached to the rest of you, which is ever so much like a walrus. By the way, how did you get your foot stuck under this limb, anyway?”

  “Walrus! You don't deserve to know! Oh, all right. It looked easier to climb over than to go around. When I tried, it just rolled over all at once and mashed those sticks across my foot. Now, please. It really hurts. Can you move it for me?”

  “Sure thing,” said Lukus as he squatted to grab the limb. “I'm going to count to three and lift. Yank out your foot and holler so I'll know you're clear, all right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Here we go. One...two...three. Out?”

  “
Yes, yes!” croaked Hubba Hubba as he stumbled backwards into a heap of feathers.

  “Great,” said Lukus as he heaved the limb aside. “That thing was a lot heavier than I figured. How's your foot? Can you wiggle your toes?”

  Hubba Hubba stared forlornly at his foot and tried wiggling each toe in turn. One was much more painful than the rest and swelling fast. “Mercy! That one really hurts. I can't begin to make it work. The rest seem only bruised, though. I think I can walk, but it's going to be slow going.”

  “Well, I don't see how it could be much slower than it's been all the way out here from the house. We weren't going to get back by dark, even before you bunged up on the log.”

  “Boy, you just have to take little jabs at me, don't you?”

  “Same as you do me. But it's just a friendly little competition. Right?”

  “Right,” said Hubba Hubba, looking very puzzled.

  “We'd better get going. If it gets too painful to walk, let me know.”

  “That would be nice of you, I guess, but I don't see how you could carry me very far, at all.”

  “I wasn't planning on carrying you. I thought we could stop and I could find some sort of twig or small branch for you to use as a splint.”

  “Oh.”

  ***

  Rose had utterly no idea where to begin in order to cast any conceivable sort of magic anything. It took nearly two hours of explaining and coaxing by Ugleeuh before she managed to will a feeble mage light to come to life in her outstretched palm. At the sight of it she gasped and yanked back her hand. Ugleeuh spent the rest of the afternoon trying everything imaginable to get more magic out of her. “Why won't you concentrate, Rose?” she said at last as her patience waned. In fact, she was vexed. “Why are you holding back? I can feel that you are. Why do you not want to tap your powers? They're your heritage, after all. You've every right to develop them to the fullest. Your wee light was nothing when you could just as easily hurl lightening bolts and change the very weather.”

  “I really have been trying all afternoon,” said Rose. “I just don't think there's much magic in me.”

  “Nope! Sorry Rose. I'm not clearly reading your thoughts, but I've been sitting here long enough that I unmistakably apprehend that you're deliberately working against what I'm trying to do for you here.”

  “No, not wholly. I was thrilled to produce that light in my bare hand, but something about it was truly weird and frightening to me. I'm not at all sure that I'm really meant to be a witch. Oh, excuse me. I'm not sure I'm meant to be a sorceress. I still don't know what I want to do with my life, just yet. Could we please stop for a while and perhaps have a bite to eat? I'm starved.”

  “Yea? Well I don't understand you,” said Ugleeuh, with an unexpected look of pain. “We're talking about power here. How could any child of mine not be positively ecstatic to find that she could be a great sorceress? Had I raised you instead of that feeble king and his dainty wife, you might've chosen to amount to something. You not only abhor magic, but the worth of its power seems utterly lost on you. When you could be the most grand and powerful sorceress since me, and when I give you that very chance, you put forth almost no effort at all. Can you explain that to me? Even raised by eunuch royalty, surely you have some grasp of the meaning of power.”

  “If you must, then certainly,” said Rose, looking Ugleeuh in the eye.

  “I'm listening.”

  “You weren't before. For all your divining and probing at my very thoughts, you seem to have missed what I was simply telling you,” she said, holding up her hand. “I told you that I wasn't sure that I wanted to learn magic at all. If I stay here with you, I suppose that I'd eventually want to learn to divine, but I don't yet know what I'll do. And, shouldn't I decide that for myself? You've not allowed me the time to think it over. Instead you've plunged ahead, not even bothering to ask me if it's something I want to do. As for power, why should I be expected to lust for it when I've been raised with it? And speaking of that, you're the very first person I've ever heard refer to my father, my foster father, as weak.”

  Ugleeuh stood up abruptly and paced about in fuming agitation. “If that's how you feel, then this lesson's over. In fact, dear, there'll be no future lessons until you wake up. At that time, I might agree to resume teaching you. For right now, the afternoon is waning and your brother, if you must, has not yet returned from his outing with my dearest. I'm setting off right now to see what's taking them so long. Can you find your own victuals this time?”

  “Of course.”

  “You lead me to wonder,” she said in a voice like gravel, as she grabbed her broom and shot away into the air from the doorway.

  “Mercy! What have I caused?” said Rose, staring after her over the trees.

  ***

  “Lukus!” cried Hubba Hubba. “I'm just not going to make it! My whole foot's swollen now. Even my leg's swelling up under the wrappings on the splint, and you can't believe how it throbs. It's not working at all. I can't take any more.”

  Lukus turned about and looked at Hubba Hubba's foot. “You're right, Birdo. Your foot's had it. It looks like some sort of black sausage. So let's see. If that doesn't work...”

  “What?” croaked Hubba Hubba in alarm. “If that doesn't work, what?”

  Lukus let out a huge breath. “Nothing really. I don't actually have any ideas. I don't reckon that anything which has occurred to me would really work. But you know when it gets dark, Ugleeuh's surely going to come searching. I'd be surprised if she weren't already cruising the skies looking for us, or at least looking for you. In fact, maybe I ought to just gather some wood to make a bonfire to get her attention.”

  “I vote for the signal fire too, if you don't mind,” he said with a sigh of relief, as he sat backward onto the ground with a leafy plump.

  “Of course I don't mind,” said Lukus. “It will give us both a chance to get off our feet for a bit. Just sit tight and I'll be back directly with the makings for a nice fire.” He bounded off to gather brush and tinder. He returned shortly and soon had a roaring fire. “Man, that's minty!” he said as he enthusiastically fed the blaze. “And I've never known any fire to crackle and pop so much.”

  “It's the peppermint oil,” said Hubba Hubba. “Ugleeuh uses it for lamps. Makes the hottest fire I know of.”

  “Wow! That smoke freezes your face and eyes and throat,” said Lukus, stepping around the fire. He stopped short at a falsetto wail, away in the timber. “What on earth was that?”

  “Mint owl. Tickles me. Good to have around.”

  “Why?”

  “They bag smallies.”

  “What do they look like?”

  “Oh, they're right good sized owls. And they're green, would you believe? Got green feathers, all striped.”

  “Aren't you afraid of them?”

  “Nay. They don't mess with birds. Rats, bats, polecats, smallies, things like that, mostly things which stray out of the Chokewoods.”

  Lukus heaved a large peppermint limb into the fire. “If Ugleeuh doesn't find us right soon,” he said, “I'll go back into the woods and see if I can find some nuts and berries for our supper. I saw some when I was gathering wood.”

  “Well why didn't you just gather them in the first place? You just made more work for yourself.”

  “Yea? Maybe. But the last time I ate berries in this woods I nearly strangled to death, so I had to think about it.”

  “You tried to eat a choke oak fruit? What kind of crazy are you? Doesn't matter, though. Things like that don't grow here anymore. This is the Peppermint Forest and it's different than the Chokewood Forest, or haven't you noticed?”

  “I could see that at once. But just what's what, I need some time to sort out. So tell me, did Ugleeuh actually create all of this?” He gave a wide wave.

  “She didn't create it so much as change it, though perhaps whether she did or not depends on just what a person considers creation to be. But, you're right if you think that all this forest
was once identical to the Chokewoods. When Ugleeuh and I first came here it was really awful. We battled with the smallies and dorchadas and other awful things every day before she was through with all of her wonderful transformations of the place.”

  “Rose and I had the idea that she made this place out of part of the Chokewoods, but I'm surprised to hear about the dorchadas actually attacking you. Rose and I saw the chief of the dorchadas and his heathens trembling with fear in front of her.”

  “You have utterly no clue at all about the kind of sadistic wrath that Ugleeuh is capable of,” said Hubba Hubba, breaking into his first laughter of the outing. “The smallies are so terrified of her now, that they'll tramp each other to death, trying to hide if they see her. Same thing with the dorchadas. Hoo-wee! She taught them! Nasty, nasty old dame!”

  “So, why were you so worried that the smallies might get you, if I left you to go for help?”

  “Do I really look like Ugleeuh to you? Had she ever worked you over once, you'd never confuse us. Besides, if the smallies got me, there'd be no trace. No feathers. No nothing. They'd have a free bit of revenge on her and she wouldn't be able to prove it at all.”

  “You got that right, Birdo. Rose and I saw them take down a deer. It just vanished before our eyes. It gave out a good dying snort, and the next moment it was gone without any sign that it had ever been.”

  “Yes, yes. I've seen it. It's been years, but I've seen it.” he said with a shudder. “Let's build up the fire some more, Lukus, just to be sure Ugleeuh doesn't miss it. Let me come with you for the wood. I hope that hearing the mint owl doesn't mean that the smallies are nearby.”

  “Yea,” said Lukus. “I think it might be good to stoke the fire a bit, at that, but I'll gather fuel where you can see me from here. You stay off that foot unless we have no other choice but to move on.” And with that, he went to picking up sticks.

  Hubba Hubba's head spun as he trembled and inched closer to the fire, hoping that whatever might be in the forest would fear the crackling flames.

  Chapter 38