“Do you think it's safe, Fuzz?” said Rose. “Demonica and Spitemorta have surely figured that if we're not in the marsh, we must be in the woods.”
“Well, we're nearly impossible to spot in here. Anyway, what kind of choice do we have under these circumstances?”
Rose met his eyes and for a moment went speechless. She reached up and put her hand on his cheek. “It seems we never do, doesn't it?”
Fuzz brushed aside her hair as he lost himself in her clear blue eyes. “So it seems,” he whispered hoarsely.
Chapter 74
Spitemorta squatted in front of the big rock where she and Demonica had tortured Itis, impatiently snapping off pieces of twig and flinging them about. A pewee called from a shady place high up in a nearby tree. Blue and green tailed carrion flies buzzed around in the windless air and crawled on Itis's blood on the rock in the hot sun of early afternoon. She stood up with a pent up huff and cast aside the last piece of stick. She felt hateful. Another Beak to butcher wouldn't be half bad. There sat Demonica, lounging against a nearby choke oak. “How can you just sit there?” said Spitemorta. “We ought to be going after that ci hithau Myrtlebell ourselves instead of waiting here all day for your pet bogeys to find them.”
Demonica lifted her chin and studied Spitemorta. “The Cias are hardly bogeys, dear,” she said as an eyebrow came up. “They are most convenient. I need not do a thing but sit here and relax while they hunt down Myrtletart and company. They are simply the most efficient trackers I've ever worked with. Hounds and falcons aren't even close. Now, just sit down and rest. You'll have all the excitement you want soon enough.”
“Pooh!”
“Pooh?”
“Yea, pooh! I don't trust them.”
“And just why's that, dear?”
“You can sit on them up to a point, Demonica. Then you've either got to back off or kill them. Ride them too long and they'll turn on you. Look at Devi. First thing you know, they'll all turn on you. Maybe that's why they're not back right now.”
“You're wrong, of course,” said Demonica, “but since you simply must tire me with this, what do you suggest? Fly over the woods endlessly trying to get a glimpse of them through the tops of the trees? In case you haven't noticed by now, dear, there are very few places in either the Peppermint or in the Chokewoods where daylight finds its way to the forest floor in more than mere patches here and there.”
“Very well, not from above, then,” said Spitemorta, as she snapped off a sapling and yanked it away from its clinging strip of bark. “But we need to do something. We could go back to the bear's den and get Nightshade and Gwenole so we could track them on the ground.”
“You're right. And by the time we caught up with them they'd have taken the Heart and sailed back to Niarg. And believe me, dear, the Heart will be far more difficult to get from the treasury in Niarg than from anybody out here. And don't forget I actually did that very thing, once.”
“So you've told me with endless obsession, Grandmother,” said Spitemorta thrusting a blistering sneer.
“Well sweetheart, perhaps it's a mistake, helping you get the Heart for the Staff. Maybe it's a bad idea, teaching you how to use the Staff or even your piddly skills. It just might be time for me to go home and let you do things your way.”
“How dramatic. Your undeserving granddaughter fails to appreciate you deeply enough.”
Demonica stood and brushed the leaves from the back of her dragon singed kirtle. She calmly straightened her skirts and withdrew her small scrying globe. She stared into its murky depths and made signs in the air.
Spitemorta instantly felt white hot panic. If Demonica left, she would never command the power she had been picturing for herself. She might not even be able to find someone to teach her how to fully use her own powers, let alone the Great Staff. And she had secretly come to yearn passionately for the Heart, all the time she had continued her game of doubting her grandmother. The globe now swirled with color, and she knew her time had run out. “Grandmother!” she cried. “Wait!”
Demonica looked up with icy eyes, then returned to her globe as she began chanting a traveling spell.
“Oh please, Grandmother!” cried Spitemorta, as she rushed forth holding out her trembling arms. “I'm so sorry! I'm so very, very sorry!”
“You always are dear, until the next time. One shouldn't want to strangle her own granddaughter. I came offering you a chance to rule the world, but you treat me as though I have delusions. If you think I won't get fed up, it is you with the delusions.” She turned back to reciting her traveling spell.
“Grandmother, please!” she wailed, dropping to her knees. “I know I have a sharp tongue and say things I shouldn't! I know I've never been a nice person! But I swear to you: I will try! Please, please don't leave!”
“I'll say! You're the ugliest little rip I've ever had stuck to the sole of my shoe. You're so stinking rotten that I thought for a moment you had what it took to rule the world.” She slipped her scrying crystal back into her skirts, but her face stayed hard. “You take an idiotic risk, kicking at me. You know nothing about the extent of my toleration.”
Spitemorta gaped at Demonica. What was tolerant about her? “All right,” she thought, “she's baiting me. She's waiting for a cutting remark so she can get even.” She nodded with all the respectful seriousness she could muster. “Yes, Grandmother,” she said. “As you say.”
“Good,” said Demonica. “That could be a start. Now, let's use the Staff to dry and tan the Beak hide, shall we? The usual way takes days and days and the Cias could return at any time.”
“Good idea, Grandmother,” said Spitemorta. And she turned right to the task.
***
Devi awoke inside Razzmorten's head with a jolt of bewildered alarm. He searched frantically for the wizard's being only to discover it studying him with calm interest from its rightful location. “What have you done to me?” he said from a recess off to one side.
“Why, nothing,” said Razzmorten. “You fell asleep and I merely resumed my rightful place. You are, after all, the intruder here.”
“You lie, old man. Cias do not sleep. You ousted me with your wizardry.”
“Believe what you wish,” said Razzmorten. “It won't change the fact that you did indeed fall asleep. You are, after all, inside a human body that has been through a great trauma and is exhausted. If you're in control of it, you'll be exhausted as well and you'll need the sleep it needs. And you used up what little strength I'd managed to rebuild with that little stunt you pulled.”
“What stunt?”
“Piloting me around, up on my feet, when I would otherwise have been asleep trying to regain my strength. The strength to run the comatose body of an old man has to come from somewhere. You are a Cia and have no body. You have no physical strength to run a body, either. That strength has to come from the body you take over. That's why you die if the body you're in dies, or did you know that?”
“I think...”
“So, if you take over me and use up my strength, you get tired and you fall asleep.”
Devi was dismayed. He had little choice but to believe Razzmorten's claims.”Looks like I only have two choices,” he thought. “I could either take over again when he's asleep, or I could leave his body and take control of one in better shape.”
“Grandfather,” said Rose, as she gently shook his shoulder. “I've brought you some soup. It'll help you get your strength back.”
“Grandfather?” she said, becoming alarmed as she shook him again.
“What's the matter, Rose?” said Fuzz.
“He seems to have slipped back into his coma, Fuzz. He's not responding at all.”
“Well, he's out,” said Fuzz. “but I've no idea at all what that means. Let's ask Ceidwad.” They found her just outside, talking to Hubba Hubba and Pebbles.
“So, is the Wiz getting more like himself again?” said Hubba Hubba. “All right. I see it. You two are upset. What's wrong?”
“My! You give me more credit than I'm due,” said Ceidwad, wide eyed. “As I've said, I'm no healer. I do remember what I've seen, but I've not been through this with a human before. Why don't I try to read his mind again? And remember, I can read Mary's again, too, and she is a knowledgeable healer. Of course, that's only with your leave.”
“By all means do it now,” said Rose as she looked at Fuzz. “If you think it best, then we'll bring Grandfather out here right now. I hope it works.”
“Please fetch him,” said Ceidwad. “I'm ready.”
High up on the face of the bluff, Oana listened carefully to what was going on below. “Mael,” she said, “what do you make of that?”
“Curious and unclear,” he replied. “We'll need more information to understand. What I'd like to know is why Devi's not back. Shouldn't he have the mistress's information by now?”
“That's what I think. Should we go into the cave to find out?”
“No,” said Mael. “'Way too dangerous with the diatrymas, parrots and that nosey bat. If it were just the humans, we'd sneak right by, but with these others, I don't think so.”
“Should we report to the mistress?”
“Maybe, but not yet, Oana. I'm not at all anxious to return empty handed. I don't think either one of us would enjoy an experience like Devi's, when he displeased the mistress.”
“Well no, but how could she torture us? We haven't possessed bodies, after all.”
“What if she cast us into a body against our will?”
“If she could,” said Oana, “why hasn't she done so before? I'll bet she's wanted to. How about when we refused to enter someone's mind to get information? She was furious.”
“True,” said Mael, “but that was before she had Spitemorta and the Great Staff.”
“But she's had them for a while and she still hasn't forced us to possess anyone.”
“She hasn't needed to. She's had Devi. He was most willing, don't you know.”
“So let's watch a while longer,” said Oana. “Perhaps Devi will come out soon and it will be his problem to deal with her.”
“I'm certainly for that.”
***
“So, old man,” said Devi, “what's to keep me from taking control of you when you go to sleep, just as you did me?”
“Not a thing,” said Razzmorten, “except you'll have to figure out how to stay awake when I don't.”
“You managed it.”
“Well now, so I did,” said Razzmorten. “Of course I'm a wizard, don't you know.”
“He's toying with me, thought Devi. It would be better to get out and take the body of one of the others. It will be no trick then to take the Heart from him when he's asleep. Let him keep his wizard skills. I won't need them with the Heart, and even less after I have the Great Staff.” He made ready to go out the top of Razzmorten's skull, but the sound of voices stopped him short.
“I'm afraid so, Lukus,” said Rose. “and we think Ceidwad should read Grandfather's mind again.”
“I do too. Fuzz and I will bring him right out.”
Suddenly Razzmorten was moving.
“He's getting heavy,” said Lukus, trying to lighten the seriousness of the moment.
“Well, I suppose he is for someone who's all bones,” said Fuzz. “But if he stays asleep for days and days, he's going to get lighter.”
Devi was trapped. If he fled now, even the humans would see. It would ruin everything. And out in the open, Oana and Mael would see him leave and know he had disobeyed Demonica. On the other hand, he had no idea if he could block the mind reading with Razzmorten back in control, but it was his best chance of avoiding discovery. He had no choice. It was too late for anything else. “Oh no, here she is,” he thought as he brought all his power to bear on keeping her from entering Razzmorten's head. Suddenly he felt Ceidwad's awesome presence join with the wizard's consciousness.
He had failed. He would be discovered. “Will she drag me out with her when she leaves?” he thought, as he trembled at the prospect of it. “Oana and Mael will waste no time telling Demonica if she does. This time she'll really get me.”
Suddenly Ceidwad was gone.
“Hey, I'm still in here, he thought. Maybe this will still work, after all.” He looked at Razzmorten. Razzmorten looked quietly back. Devi's confidence wavered. “He ought to be upset that I'm still here,” he thought.
Razzmorten continued gazing calmly at Devi.
“You've lost, old man,” said Devi. “No one can help you now.”
Razzmorten just kept looking.
“That's your game, aye?” said Devi. “Fine. I can do that too. Sooner or later you'll tire, and then you're mine.”
“It might be best to leave him be for a while,” said Ceidwad. “We just keep moving him.”
“Certainly,” said Rose, with an uneasy look. “What did you find?”
“Very little, I'm afraid,” said Ceidwad with an odd look of urgency. “Just give me a moment, if you don't mind. I need to sit here and sort out some things.”
Everyone came and sat before her except for Tors, who still slept soundly away. At last she paused to look at each of them in turn before speaking. “Razzmorten is possessed,” she said.
“Possessed!” cried Rose and Lukus at once.
“Yes, by something that calls itself Devi,” she said. “Razzmorten tells me it's one of Demonica's Cias.”
“That rotten witch!” cried Rose. “I should've known that Grandfather would never behave the way he did if something like that hadn't happened.”
“The question is,” said Fuzz, “what can we do about it?”
“Nothing,” said Ceidwad, as a chorus of exclamations burst forth from everyone.
At the top of the bluff, a screech owl gave a tremulous wail from a choke oak overlooking the Peppermint Forest in the light of the waxing moon.
“This is an unexpected development,” said Mael.
“It most certainly is!” said Oana. “Should we alert the mistress, now?”
“I don't like the idea, just yet.”
“Why?”
“She will be so livid at Devi's errantry that She'll lash out at whomever's in reach.”
“Us.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“So if we wait, don't you think that'll make it worse?”
“Sure, but that's only if she knows we're holding out with the news, which she has no way of knowing.”
“Got ye.”
***
Spitemorta rolled up her Beak hide and tied it to a strap that she slipped across her shoulder before turning to Demonica. “You know, Grandmother, I've grown right fond of Beakish woad blue. It would make a dandy pair of riding boots for me, or even a vest and belt for me instead of for James.”
“Well then dear,” said Demonica with disdainful squint, “since we appear to have time on our hands, maybe you'd like to go take out the rest of the Beak army that King Talorg sent after us? Imagine what you could do with all those skins. An entire new wardrobe, perhaps?”
“Don't be facetious, Grandmother.”
“Is that what I'm being?” she said with a tight sweet smile.
“No, of course not,” said Spitemorta as she thought better of the venomous remark she had ready. “No, it's just that sitting here, waiting for the Cias has me on edge.”
“Yes actually, it does me, too. The Cias have been gone far longer than I ever expected,” said Demonica as she stood and looked away into the woods where she had watched them go. “I can't imagine what's happened, but Razzmorten has always been full of unexpected surprises.”
“So, what do we do, Grandmother?” she said, looking down at her feet to hide her gloat.
“Flying over the woods is probably futile. Have you enough control of the Staff by now to actually fly at speed through the forest, rather than over it?”
“Of cour
se,” said Spitemorta. “It will slow us down, but, it will be 'way faster than they are. Just say the word, Grandmother.”
“If Razzmorten has harmed any of my Cias he will pay dearly,” said Demonica, drawing an eye closed without winking. “Of course, I've boundless numbers of things to settle with my once dear husband. Don't forget that you must not, under any circumstance, kill him. That's a pleasure I reserve for no one but myself.”
Chapter 75
Yann-Ber awoke in the guest room next to the one occupied by young Edward. As he stretched, he thought about all that had happened to him since he left Head. As he stopped to listen to the first sounds echoing hither and yon throughout the sprawling cavern, the dragonet rabble came to life with a sudden roil of cheeps and peeps, and he knew it was time to be up and about his business. He paused to give an appreciative pat to the most comfortable feather bed he had ever slept in, except for perhaps, the one at Castle Niarg. He had certainly not expected such luxuries from the dragons, particularly when they did not use beds themselves. “Dragons might be animals,” he said, “but I sure know of a good lot of humans who are far less civilized than they.”
He dressed as quickly as his enduring pustules would allow and tiptoed past Edward's alcove, down the dragon-sized passage and out into the huge grotto with the nursery to find Spark and Lipperella rushing about, trying to quiet the hungry brood with feed.
“You're finally up,” said Edward with a grin as he popped from behind Spark and dropped a huge chunk of raw sukere into a gaping gullet. The dragonet clamped shut to swallow and at once sprang open to strain and beg as though he hadn't been fed before at all. “This takes a while, Yann-Ber,” said Edward with shining enthusiasm, as he stood back with his hands on his hips.
Spark looked at Edward as he shook his head with a grin for Yann-Ber, while Lipperella gave a demure nod, but neither one paused at his task to do so.
“You, my fine young, Flame, are entirely too greedy,” said Edward, as he wagged his fingers and rolled his eyes at his flapping fuzzy customer. “You'll just have to wait your turn or get your own.” He vanished and reappeared with a huge chunk for a quieter baby he called Laora, cooing and making eyes at her as he dumped it in. She was his favorite.
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