Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “I don't know what you're talking about,” said Abaddon as he trotted ahead, then paused to pull his sweater over his head before catching up again. “You didn't tell me who Longbark is. Who is he?”

  “She. And you'll find out,” said Lance as he knelt beside a babbling stream running along one side of the lava tube. “I suppose you've noticed that there are two kinds of water in here by now?”

  “No...”

  “By that I mean hot and cold. You were throwing rocks into some of the hot water, this morning. This stream is ice cold and good to drink, even if it does have fish in it...”

  “What fish?” said Abaddon, forgetting to be sullen as he squatted beside Lance and peered into the water.

  “Blind fish. Look there's one. There's another...”

  “What do you mean, 'blind fish?”

  “Just what it sounds like. They can't see. They don't have any color and they don't have any eyes. There are two kinds in here that we know about. There's a kind of carp and a blind catfish. There's one, right there.”

  “He's white! And he's got whiskers. Is that why he's a catfish?”

  “Oh, I suppose. And, you can find blind white crayfish once in a while...”

  “You've drunk the water with all those things in it?”

  “Yea. And so have you. You had a big cup of it this morning.”

  “Ugh! I hate this place!”

  “We'd better keep up,” said Lance as he stood up. “They're not only out of sight, I can't hear them.”

  “Hey,” said Abaddon after a few steps, as he grabbed up something off the floor of the lava tube. “What kind of rocks are these? Are they gems?”

  “Sort of, but they're not worth anything. Garnets. They're all over. Have you seen the green rocks, yet?”

  “You mean like this?” he said, forgetting himself as he enthusiastically pulled a stone from his pocket.

  “Yea. Peridot. It's a kind of chrysolite. Where'd you find a nice piece like that?”

  “In my room...”

  “You mean in my room.”

  “I wasn't in your room, stupid.”

  “You found that chunk of peridot in my trunk with my dirk, didn't you?”

  “I wasn't in your room!”

  “What earthly kind of fool do you take me for, Abby?” said Lance as he stepped in front of Abaddon, stopping him and then quickly planting his foot with another big step when he tried to go around him. “I know as well as you where you got my knife, and so does everyone else. Why would you even think you could deny it? And that piece of peridot was a favorite of mine. I remember it right well. I'm not sure exactly where my mothers had it in my room, but I'm certain that's where you got it...”

  “A! Ther yit be,” said Celeste, stepping into view from around the bend, just ahead. “We ywondred what wolden be ykepyng yunc.”

  Abaddon watched her approach with an engaging smile. Celeste returned his smile wholeheartedly.

  Lance rolled his eyes at this, but at once realized that she undoubtedly saw the boy's beguiling ruse for what it was. “We were having lessons in blind fish,” he said, “but we're on our way now.”

  Celeste turned and started hurriedly ahead again, followed closely by Lance and Abaddon. The lava tube was quite dark in places and nearly as bright as daylight in others, depending upon how much glow lichen there happened to be.

  “What's that?” said Abaddon, stopping to point at drawings in white and red ochre on the wall, partly covered over by the lichen. “Did Lance do that when he lived here?” He tentatively ran his fingers along the stick figures of men brandishing spears and chasing a pair of deer, one with antlers.

  “Na. They be fer moore yere of eld...”

  “Who did then?”

  “Auncyen oones, long deed and ygon.”

  “Did you know them when you were a little girl?” he said, jogging here and there to stay alongside her.

  “Na,” she said with an amused glint in her eye, not slowing her pace in the least down the long gentle slope. “They ydoon hem drawynges long, long byforn my tyme.”

  Presently the passage was straight for a very long way, allowing them to get glimpses of Alvita and Nacea, far ahead, as they passed through sections well lit with glow lichen.

  Abaddon was surprised to find himself winded, trying to keep up with Celeste and talk at the same time. “What's all this stuff hanging down from the ceiling?” he said, the moment he found himself walking beside Lance.

  “Tree roots. It means we're nearly there...”

  “Why?”

  “Well, the roots come in through the cracks where the tunnel is near enough to the surface for them to reach all the way in,” he said as he paused to look at a handful of the dangling roots. “Look 'ee here. They're full of interesting little creatures. See this little white cricket...?”

  “What are these pink fuzzy things?”

  “Fluffy pink toes. Some kind of spider. I don't know what their real name is, but I used to keep them in jars. Don't handle them with your bare hands. Their bites will leave sore places for weeks...”

  “That's a stupid name. I hate spiders, anyway. And what kind of idiot keeps them in jars?”

  Lance gave a great sigh. “Let's try to catch up.”

  “And I'm not going to be here long enough to get so bored and stupid that I end up putting them in jars, anyway,” said Abaddon, as he kicked at a rock.

  “Oh, that remains to be seen, I think.”

  “What's that awful stench?”

  “That would be the bat dung...”

  “Bat dung?”

  “Yea. Over by the walls. You're walking in it. Those of us who are really stupid stay out of it...”

  “Ugh!” he said, stepping across to the middle to scrape his boots and follow behind Lance. “Where are the bats?”

  “Someplace 'way south I suppose. They're always gone in the winter.”

  Suddenly the floor of the tunnel was a tumbling mass of solidified ropes of lava, and it was getting bright with daylight ahead. Abaddon trotted out into the brilliant sunlight to find himself in a broad volcanic crater, better than a half mile across, rimmed all around with snow under a cloudless deep blue sky. There waited Celeste, nearly a score of rods away in the oak grove, bare-headed, her waist length emerald green hair iridescent in the sun, flanked by Alvita and Nacea whose hair was completely hidden by snow white wimples, caps and veils.

  “This looks like some sort of farm,” said Abaddon, looking this way and that.

  “It is,” said Lance, “and that shed yonder, through the trees, is where they've got Sheba and Stepper quartered.”

  “Why's it so warm out here in the dead of winter? Have the witches cast a spell on this kettle?”

  “How can you demand that we call you 'Your Highness' when you persist in being so bloomin' disrespectful to everyone around you?”

  “I'm Prince and you all are criminals...”

  “O, Lance!” called Celeste, just as he was about to turn Abaddon over his knee. “Come! Bringest thou hym to the oke treen anon! Heere awaiteth Longbark!”

  “I guess the whole point is that it'll take far more than a good spanking to fix him,” he thought as he looked up to see Celeste beckoning to them from in front of a great broad evergreen oak. “They're waiting,” he said. “Let's go, Abby. Longbark is that tree they're standing in front of.”

  “But that's a tree,” said Abaddon, going wide-eyed and stopping in his tracks after only a few steps.

  “Yea. That's what I just said. So let's go.”

  “But that's crazy! How do you meet a tree?”

  “You're about to find out.”

  Abaddon went quite speechless as he studied the looming tree, only looking down here and there as he stepped along behind Lance in the thick dry grass.

  Like some spreading burr oak in a pasture, Longbark was scarcely fifty feet tall with great long horizontal limbs reaching out from a trunk that was better than twelve feet thick above the buttressing
roots.

  “But Lance, it's got its leaves in the middle of winter.”

  “Some kinds of oak are like that. The mothers told me that evergreen oaks used to be right common in the Forest Primeval...”

  “Lance!” he whispered frantically. “They're mad! They're crazy! They're petting it like it was a dog or a cow or something.”

  “You'll see,” said Lance with a grin and a shake of his head as he took him by the hand and led him forth to stand before Celeste.

  “Ther be no thyng heere at al for to fere, yonge Abaddon,” said Celeste with a kindly smile. “This beth Longbark, and she the moost eld of yere and wyseste beynge a-lyve in Glan Da ybe. Hit nis ne evene possible hir for to harme thee in the leste.” She took him by the hand and drew him up to a branch that stuck down from a limb low enough for him to walk up to. “Come. Takest hold of this heere lowe braunche and lette hir thee yfele.”

  “Why, this is frightening him,” thought Lance, as Abaddon turned to him with wide eyes. “You can manage all right, Abby,” he said with a smile and a nod of reassurance. “Celeste would never, ever do anything to hurt you, and that old tree won't even give you a rash.” He watched Abaddon give in and reach for the branch. “Ah, for all his meanness, he's just a little boy after all,” he thought.

  “So what?” said Abaddon with his customary brashness. “It's just a plain ol' stupid tree...”

  “Juste myndest that thou halt fast for a tyme if thou wouldest,” said Celeste as she keenly eyed the branch.

  Without warning, Abaddon felt as though someone who did not approve was looking all through him. At the very same time, each glossy green leaf in turn folded shut like a book, as its respective petiole went utterly limp, collapsing like a row of dominoes, all the way up and all the way down the branch away from his hand, except for the leaves on one small twig, which remained open and up.

  “Not fair!” he shouted. “That was no fun at all!” He yanked off a twig with a loud snap, flung it at Lance, picked up a stone the size of a grapefruit and heaved it at Longbark to bounce off with a deep resonant thud. “It's just a stupid ol' tree! Why are you idiots all staring at me? You think you're smart? You're going to die for trying to make a fool of me by having me touch it! It's just a dumb stupid tree!” With that, he dashed away through the weeds and vanished into the lava tube.

  “I guess I'll go grab him,” said Lance, springing forth. “We'll be back, directly...”

  “Wait, Lance!” hollered Celeste. “Ther nis no poynt! Hee can not nowher ga, and hee wolden out heere a vexynge distourbaunce ybe. We need with Longbark for to speken, and quyet hit most ybe. Thou needist with us for to sytte.”

  Lance jogged right back. “But, Mothers, Longbark has never spoken with me. Wouldn't it be better for me to keep Abaddon out of mischief while the three of you find out what she has to say?”

  “Na,” said Celeste. “Longbark spekith to thos who konnen heere. Perchaunce now thou kanst if with us thou sittest and as weo do soo doeth. And if thou trewly to heere hir wysshest, in tyme thou certeynly shal.”

  “Truly?” said Lance with wonder in his voice. He had always been awed by their speaking with the trees.

  Celeste and Alvita took his hands as Nacea took Celeste's other hand and all of them stood in silence for a very long spell, facing Longbark's trunk. Presently, Celeste bowed her head as she rested the palm of her hand on her bark. Lance also rested his hand against her trunk the moment he saw Alvita and Nacea doing likewise. Celeste slowly kneeled, dragging her hand down the trunk, followed by the rest of them.

  There they stayed for a very long time. Once in a while one of the mothers would rest her forehead against the trunk.

  “Na i drio ateb eich cwestiwn...” said Celeste in Old Niarg, and then fell silent for a very, very long time. Much later, Lance heard her say: “Bydd angen cywiro'r camgymeriadau...”

  For a much longer spell all was silent. Lance noticed that his legs, which had fallen asleep long ago, felt that they had somehow taken root into the earth and it felt quite good. Suddenly he was aware that a kindly and comforting presence had been within him for some time. One by one, various perplexing matters that had been taxing him were resolved and set aside at last. Far, far away he could hear Celeste murmuring: “Oes gynnoch chi rywbeth arbennig mewn golwg?” and after a long while: “Oedd y syniad ynun da, neu a fedrwch chi feddwl am un gwell?”

  He had felt chilly for quite some time and was suddenly aware of Celeste taking him by the hand and slowly rising with him as he struggled to get onto his feet. Still holding hands, the four of them made their way without a word through the weeds back to the lava tube. Lance had the queer sensation that the sun was in the wrong place. “I swear it seems earlier than when we brought Abby out here,” he said, just before they entered the tunnel.

  “Wel, thou canst righte certeyn be that hit trewly lattir than hit was erlyer ybe,” said Nacea.

  “Longbark is so profoundly wise and understanding,” he said as he paused to have a last bewildered look at the sun.

  Celeste, Alvita and Nacea each nodded at him.

  “Now, lat ech of us consideren what hath reveled unto us been betwixe now and whan to bed Abaddon goeth, “said Celeste. “Of hit we shal speken whan a-slepe hee beth.”

  “It might even be wise to have Rodon stand guard outside Abaddon's grotto to be certain he stays put once he's sent off to bed this evening, don't you think Mother?” he said to Celeste. “I suppose you know that I caught him eavesdropping just outside the kitchen when I left to go to bed?”

  “Yis,” said Celeste with twinkling eyes. “Quyt a litel skulker, aynt hee?”

  Lance rolled his eyes.

  “A! And nat so verray different than the last smal boye we ykneu,” said Celeste, sharing a wink with Alvita and Nacea.

  “Surely I was never as bad as Abaddon.”

  “Oonly tyme wol tellen, Lancet,” said Nacea with a sober look as Celeste and Alvita laughed out a good snort apiece.

  “My! I've certainly not been called that in a good while.”

  They fell silent the entire way back up the lava tube, each lost in recollections of the long meeting with Longbark.

  Just as they were reaching the big grotto, Rodon suddenly appeared. “O! Ther ye al be!” he said breathlessly, rearing up on his haunches and grabbing up his tail to distractedly twist and fidget with it as he talked. “The boye rennyng wilde al over the place ybe and hath evere sithence yistyr day yben. Hee evene was a vexynge messe whan Ich hym hise breke-fast juste now yfed...”

  “But he had breakfast with us before we left...” said Lance.

  “Wel, yistyr day,” said Rodon as he gave Lance a very odd look. “And hee hath ben takynge swich a wikked delit in refusyng to seyn ony-thyng atte al aboute yow that Ich was stertynge to wonder if hee hadde yfound a way to doeth in yow al...”

  “But...that was this morning, Rodon...”

  “Na, Beggynge thy pardon Lance, but that was yistyr day morwnynge. Myn word! What ever have ye ben do?”

  “Talking to Longbark,” said Alvita.

  “Wel that certeynly hit doeth tellen,” said Rodon with a huge sigh, “but yow hadden me ywyried out of myn wittes.”

  “That means we were with Longbark all night,” said Lance.

  “Wel, moore than that,” said Celeste, “almoost a ful day and a nyght...”

  “I'm stunned.”

  “And thou looke hit, derre boye,” said Nacea.

  “Wel,” said Rodon with a conclusive sigh. “This a grete releef ybe, so Ich wol juste make haste on bakke and tak the litel felawe in hand...if Ich konne hym to fynde.”

  “That's all right, Rodon,” said Lance, as he started for the big grotto. “I'll talk to the little monster.”

  “That boye a badde oon ybe, righte ynough,” said Rodon, turning back to Celeste, Alvita and Nacea. “Ich truste hee wol soon to been on hise way?”

  “Whoso be thou to jugge a nothere, Rodon?” said Celeste.

  “Ich m
ay have som verray byg mistakes in myn lyve ymaad, Celeste, but Ich konne certeynly see whan som oon a badde apple ybe.”

  “And thou certeynly Razzorbauch over loked,” said Nacea.

  “Wollen yow never letteth ga?”

  “Ich avyse that thou to lat ga,” said Alvita. “Celeste, Nacea and Ich haven mochel to considere bifore evenyng.”

  Rodon dropped his gaze for a moment then turned aside onto all fours and scuttled out of sight.

  “Yis, Ich thynke Lance righte ybe,” said Celeste. “Rodon sholde to nyght over younge Abaddon stant watch whilom we speken togidre. And not juste for Abaddones sake.”

  And with that the three of them set out for the big grotto to see how Lance and Abaddon were doing.

  Chapter 109

  “Land ho!” cried out the boatswain from far up in the rigging and billowing sails. “Dark's Cove, Head, dead ahead!”

  Rose, Fuzz and Yann-Ber stopped at once to gaze out from under their hands across the bright blue waves, hunting for a glimpse of the Dark Continent.

  “I don't see anything...” said Rose.

  “I don't either,” said Fuzz. “The waves are in the way with the wind picking up, but he sure can from up there, so we will directly.”

  “Right there! Good ol' Douar-Noz,” said Yann-Ber. “So I reckon it's time to go below and get ready. With this wind, we'll scarcely have time to pack.”

  “Oh,” she said. “I forgot all about doing that.” She looked at Fuzz and then reached out to give Yann-Ber a reassuring pat on the arm.

  Yann-Ber gave a quick nod and a tiny smile as he turned quickly away to go below.

  Rose sighed as she stepped into their berth. She went to her great trunk, standing on end, and sorted through her dresses. Amongst them was the most beautiful embroidered silk dress which she had ever owned except for her wedding gown, and though it had once delighted her, she had grown to dislike it. After her quest to the Peppermint Forest and especially after her father's death, she no longer cared about exquisite finery or displaying herself as a princess. Nevertheless, the occasion ahead demanded that she do just that for Niarg and for Yann-Ber. She found her emerald teardrop necklace which Minuet had given her for her sixteenth birthday and Fuzz's wedding gift of matching emerald earrings. She closed their dainty rosewood casket and held it to her breast for a moment before nestling it into a deep corner of her trunk. She brushed and fastened up her long gold tresses, finishing by placing a slim gold circlet upon her head.