Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Spitemorta!” thundered Gastro. “Who gave her such an odious name as that?”

  “Why, I don't know,” said Rose, feeling the rumble of his voice through the sand at her feet. “Is it objectionable?”

  “Are you aware that 'Spitemorta' means, 'hate one's own mother' in the old tongue? Why would anyone saddle a child with such a cursed name?”

  “It seems terrible Gastro. Perhaps Ugleeuh would tell you, when you see her next. Though she might not cooperate well, considering the name her mother gave her. Maybe she gave her own daughter a cross to bear like her own out of resentment.”

  Gastro went dead silent, as the waves lapped the jetty. “Of course,” he suddenly rumbled. “Forgive me, Princess. I certainly don't mean to imply that you're in any way responsible. Please, is there anything else you could tell me about my daughter?”

  “Spitemorta is very beautiful and exceptionally intelligent,” she said, biting her lip.

  “She must look like her mother then,” said Gastro with a gleam of pleasure in his huge dark eyes.

  Rose nodded. “As I said, I don't really know your daughter well. I've only seen her at functions of state and that sort of thing, don't you know. Considering the distance between Niarg and Goll, we never developed any kind of friendship much beyond nodding acquaintance, I'm afraid.”

  “Of course. I understand. Thank you for telling me what you could.”

  Rose hoped Gastro didn't see the flood of relief which swept over her.

  “I don't know what I can possibly do to help you, Karlton,” he said with a sigh of wind chasing down a tunnel. “You know that I'm irrevocably bound to patrol this coastline forever. If I were to leave, the fudge volcano would erupt catastrophically. The destruction and loss of life would be terrible, and my responsibility. I can't go beyond these shores, so please don't ask it of me. If there were anything else I could do to help you, I'd most gladly do so.”

  “Gastro,” said Fuzz gently, “please picture the destruction and loss of life on the continent if Ugleeuh escapes the forest, and then compare it to that caused here by the volcano's eruption. And by all means, please remember that it was Ugleeuh herself who bound you by that curse and therefore, the responsibility ultimately lies with her, not you.”

  “Oh, there's no way to know that for certain, Karlton,” he said, shaking his ponderous head. “In fact, Ugleeuh might even consider her freedom so precious after this long solitude, that she'll simply decide to live and let live. The one thing that is certain is that if I abandon my post, the volcano will indeed erupt. I'm sorry Karlton, but I can't knowingly cause such devastation.

  Rose and Lukus shared a look of despair at the very moment Spark and Lipperella looked up to see something large come swooping out of the sky. Before either of them could draw a breath, Ugleeuh herself planted her feet between Gastro and Fuzz to sit astride her hovering broom, grinning at the horrified company. “I suggest you remain where you are,” she said calmly, as everyone backed away from her. “There's not a one of you that I'd mind seeing shredded into pieces which I could fling to the sharks.”

  “Lipperella, Spark and I would make an impressive pile of meat for the sharks,” said Fuzz, 'but don't try to terrorize Rose and Lukus. We all know that your only chance to get out of here lies with trading them in good shape for your pardon.”

  Ugleeuh threw back her head and erupted with cackling laughter. “Aww! I'm so terribly sorry to spoil things, Fuzzy, but I just might have a very workable back-up plan,” she said. “And in that case, the stinking brats would have little reason to remain alive, and you would have positively none.”

  “Ugleeuh,” rumbled Gastro. “We have a daughter! Why is it that you never told me this?”

  “Do my ears deceive me,” she said, “or has the giant slug finally learnt of his paternity?” “Daughter by you! A pure accident, believe me. And make no mistake about it: if I'd had the slightest inkling that a child could've been conceived in our brief time together, you'd have become what you are all the sooner. In fact, I should've killed you for getting me with child, you simpering fool.”

  Gastro opened his mouth to reply just as Hubba Hubba and the sparrows, having given up finding Ugleeuh and on their way back to Niarg, caught his eye from aloft. Seeing his distraction, everyone turned to the sky for a look.

  “My word!” said Lipperella. “That's the oddest thing...”

  “Not to us!” cried Rose. “Lukus and I hitched up that rig all summer!”

  “Hubba Hubba!” cried Ugleeuh. “My dearest is back!”

  “Hubba Hubba?” snorted Spark. “That bloated sack of fat and feathers couldn't begin to fly by himself. That one up there doesn't need the sparrows.”

  “An imposter!” growled Ugleeuh. “Probably sent by their stinking majesties to spy on me. I'll fix that.” She grabbed her broomstick from under her and fired a bolt of lavender from the end of it at Hubba Hubba and sparrows.

  Rose gasped and grabbed Lukus by the arm. “Its her broom!” she whispered “That ratty old broom is the very Staff of Power she stole from Gastro.” Everyone else was watching her use her broom as well, particularly Gastro, who was now staring at it with enormous eyes.

  The sparrows had been expecting all manner of dangerous maneuver from their old mistress, the whole long way from Niarg. The instant she raised her broom, they jerked Hubba Hubba aside, letting Ugleeuh's shot fly wide. “Hey!” chirped Tweet. “Shout, Hubba Hubba, or we're dead!”

  Ugleeuh lowered her broom expecting to see a falling cinder. “What stinking mischief is this?” she cried.

  “Ugleeuh! Ugleeuh! Ugleeuh! Ugleeuh!” cawed Hubba Hubba.

  “Hubba Hubba!” she squealed. “It is you! What have they done to you? Those dung martens in Niarg have starved you to skin and bones.” She parked her broom in the air and waved both arms like a bouncing lass at the sight of a returning sailor.

  “All right,” rattled Hubba Hubba. “Here goes. I hope this works. We sure don't want to be sweet and sour birds for supper. Hey, don't forget: at the first sign of anything wrong, you boys slip the harness and beat it back to Niarg. Got it? And hey! Thanks for saving my life.” All three sparrows nodded. In the next moment, they were landing at Ugleeuh's feet.

  “Ugleeuh!” stammered Hubba Hubba. “My pouch! They've sent a note in my pouch! You must read it before you do anything!”

  Ugleeuh tightened her mouth as though she had pulled its drawstring. She took out the parchment and stood up to read it. Everyone watched as the grey in her face went purple.

  ***

  Spitemorta sucked in a deep breath and squeezed shut her eyes to cope with her dizziness. Ugleeuh had told her that this was a side effect that would quit bothering her once she got better at traveling by spell. She opened her eyes and looked about the cottage for her mother, catching herself as another wave of dizziness washed over her. Since Ugleeuh was nowhere to be seen, she made herself visible and had a closer look at the place. She found nothing of particular interest, including any clue at all to where she had gone. Ugleeuh angered her. The very idea of her sending her back to Goll without explanation, as if she were some sort of spoilt child. “Well, I'm finding out,” she fumed. “If this business of hers has the power to free her from this forest, then it's really something. If she hasn't been able to escape for better than seventeen years, then she owes me the power of the secret that gets her out.”

  She gave a sly grin and had a disdainful glance about. “And I'm going to be there to see how you do it, Mother,” she said with a haughty toss of her head. “If you think you can simply buy me off with piddly spells and parlour tricks, think again. You want all the powerful stuff for yourself. Wrong again, Mother. I'll have it all when I'm done with you. Just see if I don't. And I will too, 'cause you owe me big.

  “Well, the spell works by thinking of a place to go to, or by thinking of who you want to find. I've tried the first, now I'll try the second,” she said, as she made herself invisible. At once she made traveli
ng signs and declared: “I want to be where Ugleeuh is, this minute.”

  She was ever so dizzy this time, as she stumbled onto the sand of the jetty a few rods from a gathering under a dead tree which took her very much aback: a gargantuan sea monster, a bear, two dragons, a crow and three sparrows tethered together, and incredibly, Rose and Lukus. “Fates!” she thought, mindful to stay invisible as well as silent. “That's Mother. I knew that she was using a glamourie on herself when I saw her before, but my!” She caught her balance and crept closer.

  Ugleeuh was unfastening Hubba Hubba from the sparrows. “Do you know what this missive says, Hubba Hubba?” she said, looking him straight in the eye.

  “Yes. As a matter of fact I do,” he said with a gulp, “but I sure hope you don't think I had anything to do with it. Though, if you stop and think about it, we could use it to our advantage.”

  “I'd like to know how. I hate parrots.”

  Hubba Hubba felt hopeless, but the thought of Pebbles made him go on. “I want to be a crow,” he said, “but this parrot business would only be temporary.”

  “Temporary? How?”

  “Well all right,” he said, swinging his tail to the other side of her arm. “Why don't you send me back as a parrot, and I'll keep my eyes open for everything I see which could help us when you get out? I escape, you turn me back into a crow, and we use whatever we have on them to our advantage.”

  “Or possibly, my sweet, you could stay at the castle indefinitely as a spy,” she said with a glint in her eye. “That could be very useful. Of course, that means Rose and Lukus will have to have a fatal accident on their way home. Can't have them giving away our plan.”

  Spitemorta gasped. “No Mother! I have my own plans for Prince Lukus,” she thought, as she lost control of her invisibility spell. Hubba Hubba sqawked and shrank back against Ugleeuh, who turned rigid with anger. Everyone drew a breath and stepped back. Gastro knew at once who this intruder had to be. He thrust forward at once, shoving his serpentine neck as far as it would go across the sand of the jetty to better see this girl.

  “You're a dead witch!” shrieked Ugleeuh. “How dare you follow me here to spy on me! Such insolence will be punished!”

  Gastro lunged at Ugleeuh with a roar that made the very grains of sand dance along the jetty. Hubba Hubba tumbled aside with a squawk, landing in a heap of feathers on the sand. Ugleeuh grabbed her broomstick before Gastro's jaws could close over her, and blasted out a lavender bolt, charring the inside of his mouth. He bellowed in anguish, rearing up in writhing kinks. But to Ugleeuh's utter shock, down at her he came. His tongue was gone, but he still had his teeth. Then it was she who roared. She thrust forth her staff as it belched out a howling whirl of murderous lavender, enshrouding the bolting leviathan as he cooked and popped. “Gastro!” screamed Fuzz, but Gastro was well beyond hearing. Gastro collapsed back into the water, like a great felled tree, crumbling into sizzling cinders.

  Rose and Lukus ran to Fuzz in terror. With eyes of glowing fury, Ugleeuh wheeled 'round to face Spitemorta. “That was your father, by the way,” she said with a mad cackle. “What did you think of him girlie?” she shrieked, as she thrust the Staff at her.

  “No Mother! Please!” wailed Spitemorta, throwing up her hands to protect her face. “I meant no disrespect! I never...!”

  Ugleeuh replied with a chilling scream, ending with the retching choking gasping sounds of someone struggling to breathe. Someone being strangled. Someone with an eight foot long constrictor which dropped from the dead limb above to coil 'round her neck and squeeze! Ugleeuh's eyes bulged as her windpipe collapsed, her green face turning a shade of purple beyond that of her wildest rages, as her blue tongue filled her drooling leather mouth. She futilely thrashed about against the serpent's patient, merciless wrenching. Her hands groped, jerked and waved in the air, hopelessly grabbing for her her fallen broomstick. Her head was on fire as her chest heaved for air that would not come. Spitemorta approached. Of course. She'd save her from this horror. She used the last of her strength to thrust her arm out to point to her broom.

  Spitemorta nodded and quickly grabbed up the broom before anyone else had the wits to do it. She smiled at Ugleeuh's frantic bulging eyes. Ugleeuh waved and jerked her arms in a last flourish of frenzied aimlessness. Spitemorta smiled sweetly. “You never taught me how to use it,” she said with a shrug. “But don't worry, I'll take it with me and fiddle with it 'til I have it figured out. I'm quite sure I'll do right well. After all, I'm your daughter.”

  Ugleeuh stared with eyes that ceased to see. The sight revolted Spitemorta. She lunged at Ugleeuh and spat, jumping back away from her. Remembering she wasn't alone, she looked up to see everyone staring at her, utterly paralyzed.

  Shot 'n' Stop slowly unwound himself, easing down onto the sand.

  “Well,” said Spitemorta, suddenly altogether composed. “It's really been engaging. Sorry I can't stay and visit, but I've pressing duties back in Goll. I expect I'll see you in Niarg for your wedding, Rose.” And with that, she turned aside, made signs in the air and vanished with the Staff of Power.

  Chapter 53

  Shot 'n' Stop slid smoothly over to where everyone still stood, huddled in shock. He drew himself into a coil and fluidly rose out of it to meet Fuzz's eyes. “Sspring and Ssweet Cheekss have been avenged,” he said, sinking back to the ground to slither away.

  “Wait Shot 'n' Stop!” cried Fuzz, suddenly seeing what was going on.

  Shot 'n' Stop waited politely as Fuzz caught up.

  “Thank you, Shot 'n' Stop. Without you, we'd all be dead right now. How can we ever repay you?”

  “You've alwayss done thingsses for me,” he said. “Your friendsship iss all I'd ever want.”

  “You'll most assuredly always have that,” said Fuzz, as Rose, Lukus, Spark, and Lipperella nodded and bobbed.

  “Then, I'm right well rewarded,” he said, as he turned aside and set off into a flowing zigzag.

  “Shot 'n' Stop!” said Fuzz. “Won't you please stay and visit a spell?”

  Once more Shot 'n' Stop drew round into a coil and rose with fluid courtesy. “Another time, if you all don't mind, Futhz. Sspring and Ssweet Cheekss'ss familiesses need me with them.”

  “By all means,” said Fuzz solemnly. “Hey, Shot 'n' Stop! Thanks again for our very lives!”

  Shot 'n' Stop gave a single bob with his head and vanished along the length of the jetty.

  Rose and Lukus were still pale. Spark wiped his brow with a trembly hand and scratched around in his bag for a comforting lump of chocolate. Lipperella sat down with a plump in the sand, drew out her file and went to work on her nails. Fuzz drew in a deep tremulous breath and heaved a huge sigh. “Violent and awful as Ugleeuh's death was, I just can't make myself reckon it to be any more than just what she deserved,” he thought, as he stared out across the water to where Gastro's cinders fell. “I pray I've not become so hardened and bitter from all my years in the forest that...”

  “Fuzz,” said Rose. “Ugleeuh's dead, so why are you still a bear?”

  Fuzz looked startled, opening and closing his mouth with no words.

  “Well isn't it so,” she said, looking up into his sad brown eyes, “that the spell of a sorceress vanishes with her death? I think that's what Grandfather Razzmorten told me.”

  “That's right, Rose,” squawked Hubba Hubba, shaking sand from his feathers. “Razzmorten told me the same thing.” He cocked his head at Fuzz. “So what exactly are you supposed to be if you ain't really a bear...?” He stopped short to look at the dead silent stares he had from everyone.

  “So, you really are a parrot!” snarled Lukus. “And a stinking traitor.”

  “Wow! Parrot!” said Hubba Hubba, thrusting himself upright to bristle out as his pupils shrank to pinpoints. “Oh, my,” he quacked, suddenly seeing how it all was. “Of course. No way that Lukus or anybody would... Or even could...because how would you know that Razzmorten and I cooked...” What would they do to him? His heart poun
ded so hard that he gave a couple of passionate feathered flops and fainted.

  When he awoke some time later, he found the sparrows staring anxiously down at him where he lay, in the shade made by everyone's packs stacked together with pieces of dead tree limb.

  “Rose!” chirped Tweet. “He's coming around.”

  Hubba Hubba shrank back into the shadows as much as he could. “I can't believe it,” he thought. “You turned on me. You were my chums.” He was the very picture of wounded betrayal, as Rose knelt down beside the hovering turncoats.

  “Its all right, Hubba Hubba” she cooed. “Your three slaves have explained everything. Just relax and get your bearings. You're completely safe. No one will harm you.”

  “Really?” he said, with shake and a quick check of the feathers in one wing. “Well, Rose, you got it all wrong, see? These boys ain't my slaves, they're my chums.”

  Rose laughed and held out her hand.

  “Hey, hey!” said Hubba Hubba, stepping about in jaunty, pigeon toed circles in the sand before stepping onto her outstretched finger. “Thank 'ee, thank 'ee. Hey, light as a feather, what. Wasn't all that long ago that it took everything you had to give me a lift.”

  Rose put him on her shoulder and walked over to the others, the sparrows fluttering after.

  “Glad you're back with us, Hubba Hubba,” said Lukus. “Sorry I misunderstood.”

  “No problem, Lukus. Hey, I was wonderin'. I don't know what you ones are going to do, but since I can fly right well these days, maybe you'd like it if I flew back to the castle and sent help. Ugleeuh's 'keep out' spells are going to be gone, and you sure wouldn't have to go all the way back through the Chokewoods and stuff,” he said, looking from Lukus to Fuzz and back again.

  “I don't know what everyone else thinks, Hubba Hubba, but I think that sounds great,” said Lukus. “They'll probably come and get us by ship. That ought to take eight or nine days if the weather's right. How long will it take for you to fly to the castle from here?”