Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Did they hurt you?” she said with a blush, reaching for the milk.

  “I beg your pardon, everyone,” said Edward, rising to his feet as he set down his cup and grabbed up a pair of tarts. “We simply have things that must be done. Now you're still coming round for supper, the day after tomorrow?”

  Herio nodded.

  “I didn't know that,” said Laora, looking up, surprised.

  “We asked him,” said Edward, glancing all about.

  “Of course, supper,” said Laora, giving herself a shake as she stood. “I just didn't know that we were busy, is all.”

  “You're leaving?” said Lily.

  Edward rolled his eyes and avoided looking at Lily, as Laora bid everyone good evening.

  “I'll be 'round to see your new place,” called Lily, too late for a reply.

  “You've not gone to see them yet?” said Avel.

  Lily shook her head. “There's simply not been time.”

  “Not with everything that's going on,” said Avel with a knowing squint.

  “Well that leaves us tea and tarts,” said Herio with a wink at Rose as he grabbed up another pie and licked his fingers.

  Rose sighed and shook her head.

  “So Herio,” said Lily. “Tell us about the giants...”

  “And speaking of time,” said Avel, “I should go on and meet Ariel, Abby and Daniel in the Grand Vault for supper. Do I tell them you're coming?”

  “After all those smelly giants, you've earned all the prickly pear pies you can eat,” said Rose. “I thank the Fates you lived through it all.”

  Herio gave Rose a wide-eyed nod, trying to swallow his mouthful.

  “Well?” said Avel.

  “I'm going to be here for a spell,” said Herio. “You all just go on and have your supper. I mean, Lily, what would you say to my calling 'round in the morning, and telling you all about it then?”

  “I'd love it!” she said with more delight than she had intended to let out.

  “Wonderful. And you can tell me about your and Avel's flying trials with Captain Bernard.”

  “Thank you Herio,” she said, standing up at once. “I'll see you in the morning then.”

  “Flying trials, dear?” said Rose, but Lily and Avel were leaving in too much of a rush to hear.

  Lily and Avel hurried down a lava tunnel scarcely broad enough to allow them to walk abreast as Fuzz's bats let go of their roosts in a stirring chatter at their passage, fluttering in the air behind them.

  “Well dearie-do, you've got your date with Herio,” said Avel. “Are you surprised?”

  “I swear,” said Lily. “It was a bolt out of the blue. All I could do was stammer. I still haven't got my breath.”

  “And blush...” said Avel, helpfully.

  “And it's probably nothing for him but time out to entertain his little niece for his dear adopted sister.”

  “And right plain to see that it was altogether more than that for you.”

  “Am I that easy to read?”

  “Yeap. Almost as easy to read as Edward. He loves Laora and always has, right enough, but he's so mad about you that he can't begin to cope with being in the same room with you two at the same time. That's why they were suddenly too 'busy' to stay.”

  “My! I scarcely noticed that they left. But I am starting to see. And I've no idea what to do about it. Here's the stairway.”

  ***

  Lily's apartment was three obsidian chambers, the largest of which was her bedroom, open to the sky with an atrium made by a fallen rock that made a neat dressing table, where she sat this morning, brushing and patting at her reddish-gold hair which fairly glowed in the light from above. Swallows twittered in and out, looking for a place to nest between the wisteria vines which she could just tiptoe and touch. She could hear a bawdy cactus wren outside. She set down her brush, stood, smoothed her agave flax skirt and tugged at her hanging sleeves. She looked at herself this way and that with a precious fragment of looking glass that had made it all the way from Niarg by way of the Dark Continent to be recovered from the sea on the shores of the land of the Gwaelic Elves and thence all the long way to these very vaults.

  “But I'm still plain as can be,” she sighed. “Why was I not born as lovely as Arial?”

  “I was sorry that I walked in on you without thinking,” said Rose, folding her arms, “but now that I hear the likes of that, I'm right glad I'm here to set ye straight.

  Shame on you! The only thing you lack is the pointed ears, and I can't imagine her picking up her brush without envying you. I raised you to be modest, but you are indeed a beautiful young lady.

  “Now Cuir is off somewhere, too far away to hear the bell, is why I'm up here to let you know about breakfast. We'll be waiting.” And with that she stepped back out and vanished into the echoes of her footsteps down the tunnel.

  Lily hurried to redo a thing or two before rushing after and found Rose and Fuzz sitting at the board, patiently waiting.

  “Well, don't you look lovely this morning,” said Rose as if it were for Fuzz's benefit. “Is this for some occasion that we've forgotten?”

  “Thank you,” said Lily, taking her seat at the board. “You've been calling me 'young lady' for long enough now that I thought I'd best try it out.”

  “You've been trying out a number of things lately, dear,” said Rose as she took a couple of egg-in-the-hole and passed the platter to Lily. “Flying trials with Captain Bernard?”

  “Flying trials?” said Fuzz, licking honey off his fingertips. “Why, you look like you've gotten ready for a suitor.”

  “Fiddlesticks!” said Lily as if he were being preposterous, only to have her cheeks turn red.

  Fuzz studied her.

  “I surely would've said something if I had that in mind, wouldn't I?”

  “I'd have thought so,” he said, studying the bite he was about to take. “But I also imagined that you'd have at least troubled to mention the flying trial before making arrangements. Bernard would never have agreed unless he thought you had...”

  “I was going to tell you... You've been all upset about Edward and Laora, and I just thought that...”

  “Upset?” said Fuzz.

  “Well sure you've been upset. That's why you're giving me three times the guidance, all at once...” she said in a rush as Fuzz and Rose exchanged wide-eyed looks.

  “Everyone's noticed. And I was going to tell you right after we qualified. First thing. I mean, we could easily fail, and I wouldn't want to get you all upset for nothing...”

  “That was kind of you,” said Fuzz.

  “I thought so,” said Lily.

  “But don't you think we're interested in what's important to you?” said Rose.

  “I don't mean to be terrible, Mother, but it is three times as easy to see, now that Edward and Laora are gone.”

  “Very well,” said Rose. “You were trying to be thoughtful, but don't you think that telling us first would have been less startling? And we know that you'd never think of being sly, but not telling us just might accidentally look that way, if things weren't right.”

  “Especially since we were the last to find out,” said Fuzz. “So what are these trials for? What sort of perils are you and Avel planning on getting into?”

  “Courier. You know, messages and things.”

  Fuzz drew in a great breath through his nose. “Well it's good to know,” he said, looking at Rose. “Do you object?”

  Rose shook her head as she put her hand on Lily's arm as if to speak, just in time for Cuir to come walking in.

  “So who is this suitor?” said Fuzz.

  “Herio's here, mistress,” said Cuir.

  “Oh!” said Lily, turning beet red at once.

  The moment Lily and Herio were on their way to the garden and well beyond hearing, Fuzz pulled his napkin from his collar and leant back in his chair, swallowing his last bit of egg-in-the-hole. “I'm confused,” he said. “Now that was just plain old Herio, your adopted b
rother, her uncle. But reading her makes him look like the suitor...”

  “Fiddlesticks!” said Rose. “Herio's always been her favorite. And he and Sulacha are going to be setting out for the Gwaelic Elves, all the way across the salt sea, as soon as Neron and them get back...”

  “Yea? She was awfully pretty for something like that...”

  “Of course.”

  “I mean really pretty, like you were when you stole my heart...”

  “But I didn't even know to dress up for you until long after...”

  “Then this is bad. And they're not even real uncle and niece. And you're still just pretty all over the place. Will you come give me a hug?”

  Chapter 189

  Daniel and Ariel were brought up to have the most circumspect virtue and modesty. Even if they were to become the most powerful in the world amongst the magically endowed, they were never allowed to show it. It is not at all surprising then, that they kept many games and amusements to themselves. They routinely played a kind of invisible tag as they traveled by spell back and forth across the broad basin of obsidian sands between Spring 'n' Drain and Razzmorten's great sink-hole “tower” at the Vaults of Niarg. Today, they arrived outside the Vaults playing a rough game of “spell jousting,” with Ariel getting there in time to knock Daniel a good fifty rods wide of where he meant to appear.

  “Damn!” he cried, tumbling out of the air onto his hands and knees in the sand.

  “How'd you get here first?” He was on his feet at once, swatting his hat against his leg as he hurried over to where she stood. Suddenly he stopped short to watch a streak of lightning branch out across the heavens before a black shelf of lowering clouds. “What did you do to the sky?”

  “Nothing!”

  “Fiddlesticks!” he cried. “Here it comes!” And with that, they raced uphill for a gaping lava tube in time to be overtaken and thoroughly soaked by the arrival of a pelting wall of rain before they managed to get inside.

  “How long's it been?” she said, catching her breath as she squeezed water from her hair.

  “Since the last rain?” he said, studying the deluge which was already tumbling in torrents down the folds in the hillside. “I was just thinking. I'd allow it's been every bit of the seven years they say it's supposed to be between rains, even if you did cause it...”

  “I did not! And you know it. But I could sure feel the spirit of it in the air, right when we were spell jousting. I wondered why on earth it was so bloomin' hard to heave you off to one side.”

  “Maybe you thought so, but you sure sent me a-sprawling. You command a right smart amount of power these days, sister dear,” he said, pausing to squint at her face. “All right. What's the matter?”

  Ariel shook her head.

  “Oh yes there is. I know my dear sister. What is it? Abaddon's poisoning your well again? What's he saying this time? The Prophecy's just an old wives' tale, or what?”

  “He is not!” she said, biting her thumbnail as she looked out into the rain.

  Daniel folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

  “Very well. He found out that the Prophecy actually came from the Fire Sprites of the Eastern Continent and not the Elves at all, so he's begun using that.”

  “He's crazy.”

  “Yea...” she said as a crash of thunder made both of them jump. “About me, he is.

  The thought of losing me is starting to tear him up.”

  “Damn him!”

  “He doesn't want anything to happen to you either, while you're being all hard on him...”

  “Hard on him?” he said, flinging a rock out into the storm. “Shit fire! I don't care if you do have a heart bond. You keep listening to his drivel and you'll lose what it takes at the last minute and get both of us killed.”

  “I will not! No way! Not with everything Grandfather's taught us over the years...”

  “Now that's giving me credit...” said Razzmorten from right behind them.

  “Grandfather!” she gasped. “How long have you been there?”

  “You mean how much did I hear?” he said, lunging out with a proper brown spit for the storm. “I heard enough to know that your taking this particular time to worry about your heart bond may be putting you in peril. I mean, if you're daring to think of anything but the task ahead, then I may well have been remiss in my teaching...”

  “Peril! What earthly peril could there be when neither witch has so much as flown across the desert within our lifetimes?”

  Razzmorten stepped into her gaze and gently patted her cheek. “Then I have indeed been remiss,” he said, “And Neron will return any day now.”

  ***

  Herio and Lily had nearly reached the agave rose garden when the lava tube went blinding pink with a deafening thunderclap.

  “My word!” gasped Lily. “A storm?”

  “Has to be,” said Herio. “I smell rain.” He took her by the hand and led her on to the mouth of the cavern, where they sat on a rope of ancient lava and watched the rain drenching the hills in sheets and racing the length of the garden in an angry flood of black water.

  “You think we've lost our radishes?” she said after a time.

  “You can count on it.”

  “The air feels wonderful, but I really hate losing our vegetables.”

  “With a supply of water always coming up out of the caves, I reckon we don't need it so much as we used to need the rains back home. The way I grew up, I was always a-looking forward to the rains, even if we had a wet year.”

  “Well I do like the way it blooms,” she said in a hurry to sound agreeable. “I was little the last time, but I remember the fields and fields and carpets upon carpets of brilliant flowers everywhere ye looked for a good week, I think.”

  I forget you spent your whole life in the middle of the desert,” he said. “I must sound like some old moss-back, a-remembering how things were, once upon a time.”

  “Oh no!” she said with a wide-eyed gasp. “I don't think you sound old...”

  Herio caught her look of alarm. “Fiddlesticks!” he said, hiding his amusement.

  “You never gave me that idea. Hit's not like I have my grandchildren crawling all over my lap, yet.”

  “So you're expecting...?”

  “What, now?”

  “Grandchildren. Of yours, someday, then?”

  “Mercy! Well I'd have to meet the right lady, don't you know.”

  “Maybe you have,” she said with her heart pounding at being so bold.

  Herio leant beyond his knees to give a thoughtful scratch at the cinders with a length of twig. “Nay,” he said with a shake of his head. “There's not a soul in my life like that. And I've always had the notion that I'd know the very moment there was. Does that make sense?”

  It did of course, but nodding simply crushed her whole day. Her face felt hot as she riveted her gaze to her hands, even if a stray gust of wind was sprinkling her.

  “And how about you?” she heard him say. “You must have Fuzz and Rose fit to be tied with all the young fellows after you.”

  “I have no suitors. The young men just seem, well, young.”

  Herio paused politely to nod and consider and returned to scratching in the cinders until he might think of something better to say.

  Lily heard herself ask him about his ordeal with the giants. At least she asked. He had quite a lot to tell her, but she scarcely kept any of it straight while the driving rain spent the morning, stripping the blossoms from the forest of agave spikes.

  “Well maybe they all will need some time,” she suddenly heard him say, as he held out his hand to help her up, “but while you're waiting for them to grow up, just remember how lucky I am that my favorite niece is the prettiest young princess I ever saw.”

  ***

  Neron awoke in the waning light to the endless calls of cricket frogs along the banks of Jutland Lake and sat up.

  “Are we thinking about making our escape, sire?” said Sulacha. “We've been here w
ith the trolls long enough that you're starting to keep hours like one. And after rolling about on the floor all day, it's no wonder that you wake up a-looking like a troll.”

  “Well that's encouraging,” said Neron with an eye-watering yawn.

  “Well I'd think so,” said Olloo, “seeing as how they're still letting us wake up.”

  Obbree threw back his head, heaving a toothless wheeze and slapped his knee.

  “And since they still are,” said Olloo, “shouldn't we be getting out of here?”

  Neron gave a rending stretch. “Have I been talking in my sleep?” he said.

  “Well it wasn't the deliveries from your mouth that had our attention, sire,” said Sulacha. “Perhaps you said something while we were out getting air. Why?”

  Neron frowned. “You all were asleep when I got back here, or you'd already know, but Veyfnaryr says he's letting us go.”

  “Without eating us?” said Obbree.

  “So what made him decide to?” said Olloo.

  “There's a danger that the witches will find us, now that Spitemorta has been here, and they're determined for to kill every last Elf left in the world. And he's starting to consider me his friend.”

  Obbree gave his head a shake of wonder and thoughtfully trimmed a fresh chaw from his twist, as nearby, the first bullfrog of the year added his carboniferous grindings to the glassy grating of the cricket frogs. It was not long until Badharan came looking for Neron.

  At the sight of them coming into the library, Veyfnaryr sat up and closed Razzmorten's Compendium. “Badharan,” he said, giving the chair across from him a shove with his big toe, “have 'ee a seat.”

  “Me?” said Badharan, stopping short.

  Veyfnaryr nodded at the chair. “We need to discuss what's next for you.”

  “My word! Have I displeased you in some way?”

  “Not once in all the time you've been here. But Spitemorta and Demonica certainly have. And they're going to keep coming back, demanding that every Elf we see be struck down on sight. And you, my faithful one, are more like family than help, so I'm sending you away to safety with King Neron.”

  “But Thunderman! Surely I can hide...”

  Veyfnaryr was shaking his head.