Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  Vortigern went wide eyed at this. “And the mercenaries?” he said.

  “They suffered no losses at all.”

  “None?”

  “Not a one,” she said. “It does sound odd, doesn't it? But General Cunedda was taken by surprise by a very well trained army. His men fought well, but were mostly slain by the time General Coel came up from the rear and rounded up the Niargians without a single loss. That's not all. When I put Cunedda in charge of half the Niarg prisoners, he not only failed to guard them properly, he allowed himself to be surprised once again when a handful of Niarg soldiers came in the night, destroyed every last Gwaelian unicorn and escaped with all six hundred of his prisoners. His excuse to me was that he never expected Niarg to have the men to do such a thing. Now I had always heard that a commander could be forgiven for losing a battle, but never for being surprised. I had assumed that you trained your generals that way. Do you not?”

  “This is an embarrassment,” said Vortigern. “Cunedda has been an exemplary officer and has served me well for nigh onto fifteen year. But it sounds as though he'll have to be dealt with. I shall replace him at once. Send him to me. If I find him guilty of these things, I'll burn him.”

  “That is good to know, sire,” she said, studying him minutely. “However, I'm afraid that he's already dead.”

  “I see. Well if he died serving the crown, perhaps he vindicated himself.”

  “That's not what happened. I was in charge and assumed that it was my duty to deal with an incompetent who was a danger to the kingdom, so I executed him myself. I was wishing that I'd done it sooner, but Grandmother told me that I had no right to execute any of your officers, and not to be surprised if you recalled Cole and his army.”

  “Your grandmother knows what she is talking about, which is exactly what I've always appreciated about her. You may be queen of your land, but you're not queen to my men. In the end, they answer to me.”

  “Then are you recalling Coel and his soldiers?”

  Vortigern rose and planted his hands on the balustrade. “No, not this once,” he said, turning to face her. “It appears that due to some oversight or negligence on the part of my generals, your daughter has been lost, your castle destroyed and your prisoners set free. These things should not have happened. And you're a young queen. You're still making mistakes. So I'll forgive your indiscretion this one time. I can't imagine that you'd ever repeat such a thing. Right?”

  “I can see that it was rash,” she said. “I own that I've not yet mastered diplomacy.”

  “I'm afraid that there's still the matter of your daughter. Is it possible you'll have another sometime soon?”

  “King James has committed treason,” she said sharply. “There shall never be any more daughters nor...”

  “So you're offering yourself to replace the princess?”

  Spitemorta steadied herself for a moment. “Yes,” she said.

  “Good. Then we'll have the betrothal ceremony in a couple of days, before you return to Brastyr Cleth. Now,” he said, “if there's nothing else, I've a mob waiting for an audience. We can discuss anything further at supper. I'll send someone directly to see you to your apartment.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said. “And there is one more thing,” while she thought: “Ha Grandmother!”

  “Very well.”

  “The scant two hundred regulars deserted when I executed Cunedda, and I'm guessing that they're on their way here.”

  Vortigern gave a disdainful huff. “If I see them, I'll do what I can.”

  “You're known as just.”

  “I try,” he said, “though the most I can do is release their souls into the hereafter.”

  Chapter 175

  Ellsmore was a low flat grassland known throughout the world for its corned beef and its cheeses. Surrounded by Loxmere on the east, south and west, and by Far in the north, and sharing the Port of Niarg with Niarg, Ellsmore hardly needed an army. They had not been involved in any sort of war for well over a thousand years. Spitemorta's marriage to King James practically went unnoticed.

  Spitemorta was quite aware of their cheeses and sides of corned beef coming into Goll, but was so indifferent to anything else about them that she made the same mistake as her unread subjects by referring to anything within Ellsmore's borders as simply Ellsmore this or that. So it was not surprising that she referred to their only town as Ellsmore Proper. However, Ellsmore Proper's official name was Diona, and not only that, every last one of its citizens called it Dog Town. Its castle was Diona Castle.

  Coel did as he was told and surrounded Ellsmore Proper, but he did so by placing his troops just outside Ellsmore's borders. He sat in the dry grass of a low prominence west of Diona, listening to the meadowlarks and field sparrows and studying the countryside.

  “General Coel,” said Lieutenanat Pennoyer, throwing his leg over the rump of his unicorn before he had quite come to a stop. He walked up and squatted with the reins in his hand.

  “You can sit on the ground if you want,” said Coel. “We're uphill a few rod from the confounded fire ants, this time. Let your mare graze if you think she won't run off. We're still waiting. So what did you find?”

  “All sixteen scouts are back,” said Pennoyer as he let go of the reins, flung his chaw aside and pulled a timothy head. “We were beginning to wonder about Pew, but he finally showed. He's slow as a snail but he always brings in news.”

  “So how hard a target is this?”

  “They leave the gate open day and night.”

  “With how much of a guard?”

  “We never saw a single one. In fact, we'd pretty well decided that they had no army at all. I mean, they really don't need one when they feed all their neighbors and don't have anything anyone wants. Well, maybe an army could swoop in and plunder their corned beef and cheese, if ye know what I mean...”

  “No signs of an army at all?”

  “That's where Pew comes in,” he said with a twinkle in his eye as he trimmed off a piece of twist with his knife. “Would you believe he tied up a fellow, stole his clothes and went and talked to all sorts of people? He even went into a tavern and asked around. And when he was satisfied, he went back to the poor fellow he'd tied up and gave him back his clothes and paid him with a flagon o' mead out of the tavern.”

  “Well?” said Coel. “That must have been fun, but did he find out anything?”

  “Yea. Every man in the place is a soldier...”

  “What is this, little Niarg?”

  “Sort of, except that Ann, their queen, has long had a fear of drunken injuries, so they keep all their arms locked up in the armory. And they never practice because she's convinced that public arms practice encourages drunkenness. And John, their king, makes a big public show of keeping his own sword and bow locked up with everyone else's.”

  “So. If we walk in and round up some of these men for soldiers, how many do you reckon we'd come away with, out of Ellsmore Proper...?”

  “I think Dog Town is the only name they have for it...”

  “Well?”

  “Oh, five hundred at the absolute most, sir.”

  “Good. Because even that is an anchor to drag about untrained. So none of them practice, aye?”

  “Doesn't sound like it. But they like their mead and cider. I never saw so many beehives and apple trees.”

  “Sounds like they've been peaceful a long time. Too bad it's over.”

  “Sir?”

  Coel shook his head.

  “I wish the witch would show up,” said Pennoyer. “Eventually Ellsmore's going to wake up and realize we're out here. Where is she, anyway?”

  “She didn't say, but I'm guessing that she went to see Vortigern before Cunedda's men could get there and ruin things for her.”

  “She might not know what she's doing, but it looks as though she may be as sly as she is cold blooded. How do you reckon it will turn out?”

  “In her favor,” said Coel.

  “
At our expense?”

  “Could be.”

  “To the point we can't go back home?”

  “I'd say, unless she stood up for us. Of course that leaves us back here under her rule...”

  “Yes,” said Spitemorta, walking up to them through the grass with the Staff. “And you'll be under my rule should you decide to return, since I'm to be the new queen of Gwael in a few years. Do you have a problem with that, General?”

  “Aren't we on the same side?”

  “I was starting to wonder,” she said, fingering a silver pendant around her neck which Coel recognized at once as the knot of Gwael. “I've been flying all over the moors around Ellsmore Proper. I gave you orders to have your troops in place...”

  “Which I've followed to the letter. You certainly wouldn't want us waiting for you for two days in plain sight of their castle. This is as close as we can be without alarming them.”

  “Well,” she said, looking him up and down as she fumbled for her skinweler, “I shall go take out the crown as planned and you and your men follow and take out the army...”

  “Certainly,” said Coel. “But it won't work at all if we don't wait until nightfall...”

  “And you interrupted me, General. That's exactly what I was attempting to say.”

  ***

  “Right there,” said Rose, looking out from under the flat if her hand. “That's where we have to go. As you can see, the snow white cliffs are turning out to be a whole forest of limestone pillars which we could never begin to sail between, if we haven't improved since Oyster Cove.”

  “Remember when I took Edward to explore all the abandoned buildings of Dragonsport?” said Fuzz. “I had no idea about this side.”

  “You've not seen anything,” she said. “Wait until we start in.”

  “Those leaning trees on top of the pillars are spectacular,” said Olloo.

  “You can see those?” said Rose.

  “Well, I can't decide if they're oaks...”

  “My word!” said Fuzz. “Leaning oaks is indeed what they are. Derwen pwysaf is the old name. But I only know that from discussions, 'way back when I was here. But I can't see whether the vegetation on top is trees or not.”

  Before long, they had furled their sails and dropped anchor. They decided to row ashore, leaving their unicorns and their strike falcons by themselves on board, except for Olloo's bird, Baase. Rose had indeed been correct about where to go, for they found themselves rowing ashore along a broad corridor between the gigantic columns of limestone, making for the break in the sheer cliffs behind, which formed a narrow canal where teams of dragons once hauled ships inland to the lagoon and the quays of Dragonsport.

  At the quays, Baase hopped out with a splash and dashed after a lizard. They stepped out as he gobbled it down and hauled their boat ashore in a pulsing sea of cicada calls in the noonday sun and made their way past the abandoned barns and warehouses and up the blinding white dirt lane beyond, which wended up a great flat topped hill covered with leaning oaks.

  “They seldom brought in ships when we were here, so no signs of anyone didn't bother me,” said Rose, pausing to look back the way they had come. “But the only tracks up this entire lane are ours. Well. If they're not here, it's off to the Black Desert, then.”

  “I don't know,” said Fuzz. “The Black Desert is a huge wasteland.”

  “Yea, but we're going to find them.”

  “You know that? If it were any one but you a-saying such a thing, I'd not be paying attention.”

  Before long, they came to the broad hole in the ground with its great stairway, which was the entrance to the Dragon Caves. By the time they had reached the enormous fountain and statuary of dragons being driven by Razzorbauch at the bottom of the stairs, the caves seemed abandoned to everyone. The Elves begged for an explanation about the towering sculpture from Rose, and held their breaths in rapt attention as her tale echoed from the empty reaches of the vast gallery. There was not a soul.

  Soon they found themselves in Spark and Lipperella's cavern, respectfully turning over this and that of their remaining flotsam. Rose stepped into Edward and Laora's room. “Fuzz,” she said, pulling out a wooden stick from under Edward's mattress. “Look 'ee here.”

  “My word!” he said, looking it over. “That's the very sword I was not finished carving for his sixth birthday. I reckon he missed it, under the bed like that. My. Now I never once had the slightest amorous urge for Myrtlebell, as I've said many times, but Edward actually grew up as a son to me. Did I ever tell you that he was even born in my old den?”

  “Why no.”

  “Oh my. I'm no midwife. I just ran back and forth, fetching clean rags and pans of water. But it had me worried. I mean, I hadn't so much as pulled a calf nor helped an old ewe in my life, so I dashed out and found Rotundra.”

  Rose laughed out. “You didn't need her.”

  “At least I quit dropping and spilling things when she came. And I even managed to pour Myrtlebell's shot of whisky for Edward's crowning without spilling a drop. But mercy, did I ever regret it.”

  “Why?”

  “Have you any idea how many cozy little romantic suppers I ended up obliged to share with Rotundra after that?”

  “Very many?”

  “Oh my land yes. An entire eternity of them. At least two, as I remember.”

  “Aw!” laughed Rose. “Rotundra was sweet, Fuzz. But I was glad her pursuit of you ended when she became Mary the White. I mean, she's beautiful and things might have turned out different.”

  “Go on! Not after we'd met. I've actually been in love with you since we were first acquainted.”

  “Fiddlesticks! I was a child.”

  “Yea. Sixteen and heart stopping gorgeous. And I was a bear with no hair. I could only yearn. Just remember that there's a lot behind it when I tell you that you are a dream come true.”

  “I love you Fuzz,” she said giving him a dear hug. “Say. You just said something. You said that he must have missed it, you know, the sword. I don't see how he could have. It was down here, sticking half way out from under his mattress like this, see? Hey look! This paper was right here with it.”

  “Why that's a map,” he said.

  “Titled, 'New Dragon Caves!'“ she gasped. “And look. A letter to us both. He says he copied this from a map in dragon's council room. Thank the Fates the witches never found this.”

  “If Spark or any of the other adults had known Edward had this, they'd have snapped it up for just that reason.”

  “Edward undoubtedly thought that this was his only way of leaving it behind.”

  “He just isn't old enough to grasp how dangerous something like this could be,” he said. “Hey! You were right. I bet we do find them.”

  ***

  The great battle of Ellsmore Proper amounted to no more than a house to house round up of all of the men able to bear arms in Diona. The biggest bother was insuring that none these new draftees were still wearing their nightclothes. No one perished except in Diona Castle, where Spitemorta had variously incinerated or blown apart King John and Queen Ann, Princess Fannimore, the first and second stewards, the head butler and his wife and their seven children, and well above a score of maids, orderlies, cooks and scullery help, the barn owl, an aging hound and eleven cats.

  Meanwhile Coel grew irritated at having to listen to the wails of the wives and children of the new soldiers while waiting for Spitemorta to appear. “Have you taken a head count, Lieutenant?”

  “Four and twenty and seven hundred, sir,” said Pennoyer.

  “That's a lot of feeding and upkeep we have to drag about with us,” said Coel. “Has the detail finished breaking into their armory? It would be nice to actually have them fight for us if we ever get them tame.”

  “Dampnya!” cried Pennoyer, stumbling backward at the sight of Spitemorta, who suddenly appeared between Coel and him.

  “Do I hear dissatisfaction from my army again?” she said.

  “I'm afraid
so,” said Coel. “You not only startle people, you run the risk of being shot.”

  “Ha! Finally!” she thought, dancing inside at managing to ruffle him at last. “Deliberately or by accident?” she said.

  “It serves no purpose, Your Majesty.”

  “Oh but it does, General,” she said. “Since I've no plans to give it up, those who serve me shall come to be alert at all times.”

  “Well,” said Coel. “That's good then, isn't it?”

  “I think so,” she said. “Now how many of Ellsmore's soldiers were you able to spare in the engagement?”

  “We woke up above seven hundred.”

  “So we are now seven hundred stronger...” she said.

  “No,” said Pennoyer. “We gave up least a hundred of our fighting force to keep an eye on them. These soldiers are worthless...”

  “As is your bravery, Lieutenant,” she said. “I sacred you by merely appearing, didn't I? Some soldier! Jump like that again and you very well may die. Now beat it. I need to speak with the General.” She turned to Coel.

  “We move on to Far at sunrise General. When I am in the castle, I expect you to send in these new soldiers first. That way, the losses we suffer will not be any of your experienced men.”

  “They'll get slaughtered like hens hanging from a clothes line.”

  “Are they good for anything else?”

  “They're priceless to their families...”

  “That's not your concern. You have you orders.” And with that, she vanished.

  Chapter 176

  Rose, Fuzz and Karl-Veur and Olloo, Roseen and Obbree dropped anchor in Bae Ar oGoll (Lost Bay) on the southern coast of the Black Desert and went ashore, planning to return if they found the dragons and sink the Marner Medhow, so that the witches would never find it. They set out north-west on their unicorns with their strike falcons, heading straight for the Mynoedd Machlud (Sunset Mountains) in hopes of encountering the New Dragon Caves.