Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  King Talorg studied Myrtlebell's face. He could plainly see that the Fainne Leis an Fhirinn Innseadh was resting dormant around her delicate neck. She had spoken true. With a deep sigh he relaxed onto his throne. He motioned the ancient one to him and they talked for a time in animated whispers.

  At last the old man nodded, then turned and removed the ring from Myrtlebell's neck and departed without a word.

  “We appreciate your honesty, Your Majesty and it shall be rewarded,” said Talorg, speaking up from where he sat. “Although you've trespassed upon my lands and must therefore remain captive, you will be confined in more agreeable quarters to await your judgment.” He nodded at Caelis and Buthut and Myrtlebell found herself being whisked away before she had a chance to recover her wits and ask him what he meant by “awaiting her judgment.” She tried to turn to call back to him and tried to slow her steps, but Caelis and Buthut wouldn't have it and shoved her along mercilessly.

  “Your audience is over, runk,” said Buthut, flinging her around straight by her elbow. “Keep moving.”

  Myrtlebell resigned herself to following willingly. She would indeed find out what was meant by her “judgment,” though she doubted it was anything to look forward to. She was marched briskly back along the same twisting corridor and flights of steps, except that they stopped at least two levels above the dungeon. Here she was shoved into an airy, comfortable looking room.

  She was astonished to find attractive furnishings, which included a feather bed, a writing desk and an upholstered chair by a cozy fireplace. “This is more of a guest room than a cell,” she said, as the heavy wooden door closed with a thud and a rattle of hardware and hasps on the outside, “That is, except for the locked door and the bars on the window.”

  Suddenly finding herself exhausted, she sank onto the chair and stared forlornly into the small fire, wondering if the little king's men had captured Edward yet.

  Chapter 66

  Fuzz was finally able to stand up without pain, though he seemed to have a streak up each leg with no feeling at all. He was examining his shredded clothing as he rubbed the back of one of his legs when Flit and Hedfan fluttered by. They settled at once at their customary roosts overhead, amidst a stir of twitters without saying a single thing to him. Indeed they gave him no more notice than they would a mop leaning against a table.

  “Hedfan! Flit!” he called. “You've returned from your mission much too quickly. What's the matter?”

  There was no response, not even a rustle amongst them.

  “Taflu?” he called, as he studied the mass of bats above.

  Taflu dropped from his roost, flipped once in the air, and landed like a moth upon the nearby table.

  “It appears, Taflu, that you are indeed the only bat left with the power of speech, though I don't quite grasp the reason. I need you to ask Hedfan and Flit what they've done with the Heart. They weren't gone nearly long enough to have delivered it to the dragons, and they did not return with it. It would be utter calamity for the sorceresses who just left here to get their evil hands on it.”

  “Should I hunt them down for you, master?” said Taflu, his red eyes glowing with keen intensity.

  “You mean the sorceresses? Fates! Whatever would you do if you caught up with them?”

  “I am a vampire bat, after all,” said Taflu, as if that were an explanation. “That's probably also why I have retained my powers of speech and the others have not.”

  “Right,” said Fuzz. “Something here escapes me altogether, Taflu. There are at least two dozen other vampire bats in this cave and they've all lost their speech.”

  “Certainly,” said Taflu, “but they aren't as old as I am. They're Ugleeuh's work. Razzorbauch was the one who fixed me. And that means I know the power of the Great Staff when the Heart is in place. The entire world is at risk. Those evil ones must not be allowed to triumph. Going after the sorceresses might be risky but nothing like the risk we would all suffer with the Heart on the Staff in their hands. It's a risk I'm afraid not to take.”

  “Then you know what I'm talking about when I mention the Heart?”

  “I was a victim, fully aware years before you ever left Niarg.”

  “Well,” said Fuzz with a nod of resolve, “let's find out what our mute friends on the ceiling did with the Heart before we go doing anything rash or dangerous. Perhaps it's simply a matter of retrieving it from wherever they dropped it. Could you could speak with them in their tongue and find out what you can, while I go through some trunks and see if there are any clothes left that Myrtlebell didn't make over for Edward?”

  “Go hunt your clothes,” said Taflu as he fluttered to the ceiling.

  “Clothes,” said Fuzz. “Never thought the day would come when I'd see anything handy about being a bear.” He stepped out of the pantry passage and heaved a sigh of dismay at the wreckage Demonica and Spitemorta had made of his home. He had to search the floor around each of his overturned trunks until he came across a faded pair of breeches from his old uniform as Captain of the Guard of Niarg, flung across the legs of an overturned chair. “Never thought I'd ever wear these again. Good enough.” He put them on at once. “Now, if I can just find a shirt and a waist...and I really need my old boots...”

  There was no shirt to be found, making him appreciate more than ever his loss of fuzz, but directly he did find first one then the other of his boots. He jubilantly kissed the second boot and stamped into the pair of them and hurried back to the pantry to see what Taflu had found. On the way, he paused long enough to grab up Edward's plaid blanket out of the jumble. “Ha!” he exclaimed, snatching it up. He cut a hole in the middle so that it would fit over his head, then tied it down with a leather whang long enough to reach around his waist.

  Satisfied that he'd finally managed to dress himself, he dashed to the passage to find Taflu anxiously pacing about on the table, waiting for him.

  “Flit and Hedfan dropped the Heart in the marsh, Fuzz. From what I could gather, they suddenly had no idea what it was they were towing through the air or where they were going with it, so they just did the natural thing. They let it go.”

  Fuzz blanched in horror. “Do you think they can remember where they dropped it well enough to show me? If the Gobblers find it there is no telling what trouble it will lead to.”

  “Absolutely, Fuzz. But I'd bet Hedfan and Flit could show us where they dropped it without much difficulty. The marsh is their insect hunting ground, so they know it extremely well. Shall we go now?”

  “The sooner the better.”

  “Good,” said Taflu as he shot to the ceiling to hover under an agitation of chattering bats.

  Directly, Fuzz and the three bats left his den and struck out for the marsh at what seemed to Fuzz to be a syrupy slow human's speed. “Something else I was better at as a bear,” he said to Taflu, who had just settled onto his shoulder. “What I really need is some kind of fast mount.”

  “I know,” said Taflu. “I know where a diatryma was bedded last night. He knows me, too. If you want, I can fly ahead and see if I can talk him into bearing you.”

  “Splendid, Taflu. But please tell Hedfan and Flit not to get out of my sight while you're gone, or I'm sure to lose them.”

  Taflu launched himself from his master's shoulder and took flight, pausing in the air only long enough to pass on instructions to Flit and Hedfan before vanishing through the canopy.

  Fuzz dared not stop and rest, even though Taflu had gone to fetch him the fastest mount he knew of. What if he couldn't find the diatryma? What if the diatryma refused?

  In spite of winding himself over and over, trying to go at the bear's pace which he was used to, he'd have to keep going. Suddenly the hair on the back of his neck prickled and he froze where he was, sniffing the air in all directions. “Fates! Yet another ursine ability that I must rue.” He strained and looked, and at once clearly saw the movement of something not quite there in the brush a couple of rods ahead. “One of Demonica's demon spies!”
he cried, as it vanished. He stared after it, hoping it was gone for good. If it found him with the Heart it would be no time until Demonica would be coming for him. He dashed ahead through the brush with more urgency than ever.

  By noon, Fuzz was stumbling with exhaustion. He knew that he couldn't keep going much longer at all, even though he could clearly sense from time to time the presence of Demonica's formless spy pacing him in the shadows. It made him shudder, and he wondered if there was anything that could harm it.

  A sudden crashing of brush gave him a terrible start just in time to see an enormous flurry of green feathers, as a diatryma sprang out of the hazel thicket just ahead and came bounding directly up to him. The diatryma gazed calmly down at him with one huge black eye as Taflu fluttered from its back to alight on his shoulder.

  “Well, I'm back Fuzz,” he gritted cheerily. “This is my old friend, Arwr. He has agreed to bear you (if you don't mind the expression) to the marsh, and I'd say from the looks of you, not any too soon.”

  “I'm so very grateful to see that you've managed, Taflu,” said Fuzz with a weary shake of his head. “And Arwr,” he said with a totter, as he turned and bowed before the towering bird, “I am truly in your debt.”

  Arwr swiftly dropped his head to address Fuzz at eye level, studying him with obsidian sincerity from both sides of his enormous ebony beak at once. “I'm right honored to serve such a noble cause,” he said in a deep, reedy boom. “We diatrymas accumulate our memories and the right vile Demonica is amongst our darkest. If she is here after the Heart, I know what it portends and I'm ready to work until she be stopped, whatever it takes.” And with that, he dropped to his keel and allowed Fuzz to mount, with Taflu still on his shoulder. “Hold tightly to my neck feathers, Fuzz,” he said, rising to his feet the moment they were seated. “You needn't be worried that you'll cause me discomfort, so long as you get a good handful. Just don't squeeze my windpipe. Very well, those two bats, then...aye, Taflu?” and with that he surged forth, zigzagging lightly through the trees at a dizzying speed.

  It took all of Fuzz's concentration to just hang on and to adjust to the speed at first, but soon he could see that Arwr was far more agile than any unicorn, sprinting between the trees without coming close to a single one of them. Somehow Arwr managed to anticipate their trunks as they came, so that he and Taflu were not thrown from side to side. Soon he could plainly see that even though he had never traveled through the woods so fast in his life, it was quite safe to not hang on tight anymore. As he relaxed, he saw that he was not being whipped by the twigs and branches of the underbrush, as he would be if he were astride a unicorn. Instead of rocking endlessly above a pounding gallop, Arwr seemed to glide, disconnected from the ground, as he kept up a steady, pat...pat...pat...pat... pat...pat...pat...over the leaves on the forest floor. “For a bird confined to the ground, he sure knows how to fly,” he thought.

  Bounding along creeks and ridges and over hogbacks, the woods flew quickly by. They were not far into the afternoon when Fuzz realized to his astonishment that they were passing through Mary's part of the woods. He wondered if she were still in her cavern with Myrtlebell and Edward, or if they had already started for the Dragon Caves. He was quite tempted to stop and see, but the need to reach the Heart before the Gobblers or Demonica's spies found it would have to come first. He said nothing as he studied the trees, watching the countryside pass by. Suddenly he recognized that they had entered the Chokewoods. “The change isn't so sudden anymore,” he thought. “In fact, there's hardly any change at all. This is Chokewood, because I know the lay of the land. I didn't even notice when we ran out of peppermint trees.” He gave a huge sigh, thinking of the changes taking place in the Peppermint. He doubted if there would be any difference at all between the Peppermint and Chokewood by the end of the year. In spite of all his years of despair from being held prisoner there, he felt a profound sadness.

  Without warning, they were ringed by a chattering carpet of vermilion, pouring round them from the feet of the trees.

  Taflu took flight.

  “Smallies!” cried Fuzz at the very moment that Arwr came to a rigid halt.

  “Ooo...ooo...oob!” boomed Arwr as he suddenly flashed the brilliant red and yellow which had been hidden in the flight feathers of his wings and tail.

  The smallies froze.

  “Oooooooff...vooov...vooob!” he boomed, snatching up the nearest smallie with his beak. With a furious swing, he dashed out its brains against the root of a choke oak, and with three violent gulps swallowed it whole as every one of his feathers stood out straight. With the sound of windy popping sheets, he flashed his fiery crimson wings as he lowered his head and glowered, snapping his beak.

  For a moment, the smallies drew back and stood transfixed in utter silence. In short order, a rustling wave spread out through their numbers and the entire hoard surged toward them.

  “Fates!” cried Fuzz. “This is it!”

  Suddenly Fuzz and Arwr were blinded by a searing white light. As they frantically fought to see again, they beheld the crumbling, smoking cinders of the hoard of smallies.

  As Fuzz gawked dumbfounded, Arwr wheeled beneath him, splaying his wings and holding up his fan of feathers on the end of his flexible tail to greet two other diatrymas, who stood in display not more than five rods away.

  “Razzmorten!” shouted Fuzz at the sight of him, sitting astride the larger of the diatrymas, with Rose on the smaller one and Lukus on some dragon he didn't know. “My word! What are you all doing here?”

  “Saving your tail, I'd say!” cried Rose. “Though I see we're too late for that.”

  “Well, I am so very grateful for your saving the tail which I no longer have, believe me,” said Fuzz, as Arwr quickly closed the distance between them.

  “We understand, Captain,” said Razzmorten grandly. “Excellent to see you. You've been sorely missed these livelong years.”

  “I'd feel more at ease addressed as Fuzz, if you've no objection. It's been a very long time since I was a captain, sir.”

  “Very well, Fuzz,” said Razzmorten. “I'm borne by the right honorable Lladdwr, here, and Rose by Ceidwad. And this is Spark's elder brother, Tors, carrying Lukus...”

  “This is Arwr,” said Fuzz, “and...Taflu seems not to be here... And you can't imagine how I've longed to see Rose and Lukus.” He could see that Lukus was still Lukus, only older, but he was taken aback to find Rose avoiding his eyes. Whatever was bothering her, there was certainly no time for it at the moment.

  “If you don't mind me asking,” he said, “how did you manage to appear here, just when I needed rescuing?”

  “We were on our way to your den, actually,” said Razzmorten. “We thought, from what young Edward told us, that you might need a bit of rescuing, but we reckoned it would be from she-devils instead of wee devils!”

  “Demonica and Spitemorta,” said Fuzz with a chuckle of exhausted recollection.

  “Oh, I most certainly had an encounter with those two. After one of the most, shall we say, hateful conversations imaginable, they rushed off after Myrtlebell and left me to slowly strangle to death on the floor of my pantry. Fortunately, Taflu... I say! I wonder where he's gotten to...?”

  “Up here, Fuzz,” called Hubba Hubba. He gave a piercing two note whistle as he and Pebbles made great sweeping circles around Taflu while he fluttered down out of the sky.

  “Hey!” cried Fuzz, peering up from under the flat of his hand. “Well, Taflu, whom you're about to meet, gnawed my bonds and saved me, but I fear I may have bungled getting the Heart of the Staff to safety.”

  “The Heart?” said Razzmorten in wide eyed astonishment, ignoring Hubba Hubba, Pebbles and Taflu as they landed on Fuzz and him. “My word! You're 'way ahead of me on this, Fuzz. Wait a minute. Now it hits me. That must be Edward's reference to

  Spitemorta wanting to know what Myrtlebell did with her 'heart.' So if she was after Myrtlebell, could that possibly mean that you've had the Heart all these years?”


  “Righty-o, said Fuzz with a nod. “Hidden in my humble pantry. I found it in my parlour wall right after I began living there and moved it to my pantry. I figured the world would have no way of knowing.”

  “My, my,” said Razzmorten with a whistle. “That sounds like Razzorbauch or Demonica herself put it there in the first place. And that must be precisely why she's here. So, if she and Spitemorta didn't find it in your den, they must have been blistering hot to find out what became of it. And poor Myrtlebell. She's likely to be under grave pressure to disclose its whereabouts.” “Myrtlebell knows nothing of the Heart. I reckoned it best for all concerned if she remained altogether ignorant about it, but what's happened? How did Spitemorta come to be demanding that Myrtlebell tell her about it?”

  “Demonica and she waylaid Myrtlebell, Edward and the White Witch as they made their way to the Dragon Caves.”

  “So, how did Mary and Myrtlebell escape those two vipers?”

  “Only young Edward escaped, I'm afraid,” said Razzmorten, shaking his head. “But get this: Spitemorta and Demonica were also taken prisoners.”

  Fuzz drew a breath.

  Razzmorten held up the flat of his hand. “They were all in the marsh, don't you know.”

  “Gobblers!” cried Fuzz.

  “Absolutely,” said Razzmorten, “only worse...”

  “Worse?”

  “Edward described these 'Gobblers' as painted all over, and that all the women were knocked unconscious.”

  “Oh, of course they would be Beaks again, with all the Peppermint turning back,” said Fuzz, looking stricken. “I do so hope they're alive. Poor little Edward. Where is he?”

  “He's safe with the dragons. We thought it best if he stayed behind.”