Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “You stink like wet feathers,” he said, returning her hug and pushing away. “Why not fly on to the mountains when we get home and just do it? But what about Eflamm?”

  “What about him? If he loves me like he keeps telling me, he'll be happy to wait.”

  “I'm not sure it really works that way,” he said, grabbing up a mussel shell and flinging it out across the surf. “I mean, what if it doesn't? You'll be 'way better off, but you'll be hurting really bad and it'll hurt me too because there won't be one fiddly little thing I can do for you.”

  “Oh yes there will. And you'll already be doing it, too. You'll be there for me, just the way we always have been, Edward.”

  Without warning, he lunged for her fluffy wet neck with the same hug he used when they were little. And they toppled over sideways, giggling in the hot black sand.

  Chapter 194

  The underground stream which rushed from the mouth of the cavern just below Daniel and Ariel's cave and down the length of the great basalt hollow, thundered endlessly into the sink at the bottom, keeping the fronds of the surrounding grove of parasol palmettos glistening wet with mist. It was here twenty years earlier, where Lukus and Soraya planted the cutting of the great maidenhair tree which Neron had rescued from Oilean Gairdin during the great troll attack. The canopy of parisol fronds made a very deep shade, broken only by scattered spots of sunlight heating the sand below. Ariel and Abaddon often came here at sunset to a stone bench far enough away from the thrumming of the tumbling water to be able to talk quietly and listen to the poorwills.

  “So what’s she like?” said Ariel as she wriggled her foot into the cool sand.

  “Teeuh?” said Abaddon, dropping his twig and staring off at the distant barking of a burrowing owl before giving a shrug and picking it up again. “Oh, she’s quite nice, actually. And I suppose she’s even pretty...”

  “Suppose? Daniel says that she’s the most gorgeous creature he’s ever seen.”

  “Creature indeed,” he said, not looking up. “Moth wings, green hair and teeth like that fish on the beach which bit little Clodagh all up and down her leg...”

  “Abby! Are you being fair?”

  “Probably not,” he said, staring away at the owl.

  Ariel saw the look on his face, took up his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “Daniel’s probably right,” he said with a sigh, “even with her teeth. And everybody says so. I know that. She just looks like It.”

  “It?”

  “You know. Spitemorta, my awful mother. ‘It’ is the only name I can stand to call her, any more.”

  “I can’t remember the last time...”

  “Maybe I can say ‘Spitemorta,’ if I must,” he said in gravelly tones, “but it makes me want to spit. And ’Mother‘? I just can’t say it. ’It’ is all in the world she deserves from the likes of me. Well, even with Teeuh being a Fairy with wings and strange teeth, and even with her not really being my sister, but a completely different person made from her parts, there are moments when I look right at her and it’s nothing but Spitemorta a- looking back.”

  “But you say she’s nice. Surely you’ll get over it with a little time.”

  “Yea? Well maybe I could. You may be right. But you know, I used to think that she loved me. She was kind of far off at times when I would have given anything for her to be closer, but I was certain that she loved me, especially since she had different degrees of hatred for everyone else in the world. I even commenced making appeals to the Pitmaster, a-trying to become as mean as she was, so that perhaps she’d spend more time with me. And I thought she loved me, every blooming step of the way up to Mount Bedd and every single day I was there, until at last I had to face the fact that she had not even once tried to find me and didn’t give a tinker’s damn where I was. I mean, why would I mean anything to her with a pair of twins on the way?”

  Ariel’s eyes brimmed with tears as she scooted closer to him. “Oh my beloved prince,” she said, putting her arms around him. “And the pain you’ve born all these live- long years. You shall always have my heart, long, long after all the stars have gone out and fallen from the sky forever.”

  Abaddon grabbed her into a hug of his own and held onto her for a long spell as a breeze came and went, stirring the crinkling fronds overhead. “And burden it’s been,” he said, suddenly pulling away. “But you are the one who has taught me the meaning of love. And I need you. I mean, the very hope in my future is you. That’s why your killing Spitemorta scares me to death.”

  Ariel drew a breath.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Shh. Please. I know it’s taken me a damn long time, but I finally have spine enough to have every confidence in you and Daniel. And I can be quite confident in you and scared to death at the same time, don't you know.”

  “I wasn't expecting this,” she said, drawing back to study him, “but I can see that you truly have. And you know? That leaves me with my problem.”

  “Your problem? I thought I was your problem.”

  “Why no. Not now,” she said with a sigh, as she nestled her head on his collarbone.

  “Well?”

  Ariel sighed again and sat up. “I worry about this all the time,” she said. “What's it going to do to you? I mean, what's it going to do to us when I kill It...?”

  “I thought you were listening to me, Ariel.”

  “Every single word...”

  “Yea, but I thought you understood why I can't stomach calling her my mother...”

  “I do. I really do. But she's your mother. When I kill your mother, how are you going to feel...?”

  “You know, there were moments I actually envied Teeuh because her real mother is that damned old tree. And the only way I can have her kind of self respect is to either have a tree for a mother or no mother at all. Don't you see? You kill that witch, and suddenly I'll be free to hold up my head. You kill her and come home to me and I'll be happier than I've ever been in my life. Please! Kill her and come be my wife.” And with that, he grabbed her into his arms and held her as they listened to the fronds in the canopy and plaintive calls of the poorwills.

  “You know that story Blodwen has told for years about Nasteuh's twin brother being a troll kid so ugly that Spitemorta killed him at the sight of him?” she said, sitting up at once.

  “Sure.”

  “Did you hear Grandfather Neron tell about finding him alive after all and king of the trolls, a-living at Oilean Gairdin?”

  “Yea. When he introduced me to Teeuh.”

  “And when are you going to introduce her to me?”

  “Any time you want. Just say when.”

  “Tomorr...” she said, ending in a squeak at a “Boo!” out of the shadows.

  “Ha!” cried Daniel. “Gave you two lovebirds a start, what?”

  “No!” chorused Ariel and Abaddon.

  “So you both jumped just to show me what sudden surprise looks like, aye?”

  “Right,” said Ariel. “We merely realize how badly you need lessons on how to treat people. Now what are you out here for?”

  “Grandfather Neron wants to start our training at the first light o' day, tomorrow.

  Bye!” And with that, he dashed away into the blackness.

  “Shit!” said Ariel.

  “I'll declare,” said Abaddon. “For all your boundless and utterly flawless lady-like poise, you certainly do have your moments.”

  Ariel slapped his arm at once and silenced him with an immediate kiss.

  ***

  The sun was already hot in the bright morning sky as General Coel and his yeoman steward, Sergeant March, sauntered up to the hitching rail in front of Tafarn Coch, dressed as drovers. “Well it appears we've plenty of time,” said Coel, glancing at the sun as he threw his leg across the rump of his unicorn. “And if anyone presses you, we're here from Niarg Town by way of Shacknasty Manor, back on the Ashmore.”

  “And we've come all this way, a-looking for breeding stock,” sai
d March as he tied up his mount.

  “I'm surprised to find this many people in here this early in the day,” said Coel as he stepped inside. “I see a table yonder.”

  They had just gotten seated when a waitress appeared. “We've got fried hominy grits and all kinds of eggs, boiled or pickled,” she said as she set down a pot of tea and cups. “And theah's always cold beef roast. So what's ye need?”

  “Directions to either Squire Gyr Gwartheg's or to Mistress Cenfiant Da's place,” said Coel. “We're after cattle. Of course I'd have some grits and three pickled eggs while you're a-thinking.”

  “Mistress Da's got purebred kettle golds,” she said, “She's closer, but it's still quite a long way. See that fellow in the corner? He can tell you how to go. I'll let him know when I get over to his table.”

  The man from the corner table soon appeared with his glass of red ale and raw egg. “Wy Gen at your service,” he said, holding out his hand. And with a nod and a belch into his fist, he had a seat and began at once with a slurred and impossibly complicated string of directions to Cenfiant Da's manor.

  March gave a squint at an old fat man in a white apron who was stepping in through a door behind the bar to plant a skinweler wrapped in a towel on the counter with a thump that briefly silenced the room. “Is that Beli?” he said with a nod at the bar.

  Coel turned to see.

  “Half past nine,” said Beli, speaking out. “Anyone care to care to look at the omnipotent empress?”

  “Tell the witch she can look at my omnipotent nether eye!” cried Wy Gen, waving his glass of slippery egg yolk and quaffing it down as the room erupted with jeers and laughter.

  “All right,” said Beli as he scooped up the ball and set it out of sight. “None o' her then.” He had just sunk four dirty glasses into his tub of soapy water and was running his rag in circles down the counter when he looked up to see Cole with his hands on the bar.

  “What do you need, good sir?”

  “Are you Mister Beli?” said Coel.

  “Most of the time...”

  “Well what I need, you'd probably rather discuss in private.”

  “Nope,” said Beli as he parked his rag and looked Cole squarely in the eye. “No offence, but my lifetime of experience with strangers demands that you do a good enough job of telling me who you are that I believe you, first.”

  “Fair enough. I'm Coel, general in command of all of Empress Spitemorta's armies.”

  Beli looked him in the eye for moment before giving a quick nod and turning square about to open the storage room door. When he lifted the latch, Coel could see that his hands were trembling. He stepped inside, threw open a shutter and set a couple of small kegs on end, offering one of them to Coel and sitting down heavily on the other one. “So what is it that you need, good sir?”

  “The empress has not been a-seeing you in your skinweler when she gives her ten o' clock address, just lately...”

  “Ten? She's been giving one just before half past nine.”

  “Well that one. Your time must be different. She only gives the one. But you haven't been watching, have you?”

  “Why no,” said Beli with a wide eyed shake of his jowls. “Hit's been just like today. They're tired of her. They used to practically push and shove for a chance to get in front of the ball for a glimpse of her, but after her soldiers went to taking away all our unicorns and livestock, they've had all they want of her.”

  “They're not allowed to get tired of her, I'm afraid. And by her law, their degree of insolence is treason, don't you know. That's death, plain and simple.”

  “And you're going to execute them?”

  “That's the law...”

  “All of them?”

  “Most of them...”

  “Then hit's my fault!” cried Belli as he shot to his feet with a totter. “They have families! Sweethearts and little kids! I could have shushed them. Punish me, sir. Please let them go!”

  “All right,” said Coel with a nod.

  “I'll miss my poor wife,” said Beli with a sob as his knees gave 'way and plopped him back down on the keg.

  “Then you'll want to get this straight the first time. Right?”

  “Before I die, then...”

  Coel rose from his keg and squatted before him. “You're going to have that damned ball uncovered and out on your bar every single day without fail whenever the empress talks. Ye hear?”

  Beli gave a bewildered nod.

  “And if anyone in this entire tavern utters any sort of disrespect, you are to whack him right smart with a stick or a switch, in plain view of your ball, for each sound that comes from his mouth.”

  “And then I die?”

  “Not unless you go back to leaving your ball covered.”

  “You mean I get to have supper with my wife?”

  “As long as you do what I just now told you.”

  “Oh thank you!” he said, heaving out a whooping sob. He grabbed his apron to his face. “Sorry sir! I'm so sorry sir.”

  Coel gave Beli's shoulder a pat as he rose, stepped out and went back to his table.

  “Time to go,” he said to March.

  Wy Gen took a happy sip off the top of his new pint with two raw eggs in the bottom. “Shall I see you ones to Cenfiant Da's and introduce ye?” he said.

  “No need,” said Coel, shaking his hand before leaving the table. “But we're much obliged for your directions.”

  “I swear it's hardly past ten right now,” said March, glancing at the sun as he stepped outside and untied his unicorn.

  “It gets early as you go west,” said Coel as he backed his mount away from the rail and found his stirrup. “I have no idea why, but I've seen it more than once when Spitemorta was using her ball to reach Jyantylesk.”

  It was a fine morning to be riding out of Goldtown in the high dry air of the foothills of the Pitmaster's Kettles, listening to the croaks of the ravens from up the slopes, as the road meandered between the tinkling bells of the flocks of sheep grazing the great common.

  Coel shifted on his saddle to study March for a moment. “Well why don't you just say it, Sergeant?” he said.

  “Well, you're the general and I'm just a sergeant. You've only just lately made me yeoman steward, and I wouldn't want to presume...”

  “Fiddlesticks! What is it?”

  “Pret' near that whole tavern committed treason, didn't they? How are we ever to round them up? I mean, it's not like we had a whole company with us. And aren't the nearest soldiers clean away to the far side of Ashmore?”

  “Yeap. Treason. But now this Wy Gen, for all the dried egg on the bristles of his filthy chin, he went quite a bit out of his way to tell us just how to go, all the way to Mistress Da's, even if we weren't one bit interested. And he even offered to take us the entire distance to introduce us, just so we'd get a good price. You really want him dead?”

  “No sir, but Spitemorta...”

  “Now Beli had this hateful little shit sneak in and grab his stone ball off the bar and run off with it. And it took above a week and a half to find him...”

  “Is that what Beli told you when you stepped out with him? But what about this morning...?”

  “Well that's when you and I caught the little curse and got the ball back. And now that we've hung him by the neck out in front of the tavern, Beli and all of Goldtown are free to watch her morning addresses, the same as they always did...”

  “But they're not supposed to get away with that kind of...”

  “No. Not any more than we can leave her service.”

  “But if she finds out...”

  “Which she won't, Sergeant, since the truth on it shall remain between you and me, leaving us just a wee bit freer than we were yesterday. Aye?”

  “Yes sir!” said March with a nod of unexpected triumph. And on they rode, following the bobbing horns of their unicorns, sitting just a bit straighter in their saddles.

  Chapter 195

  Urr-Urr was sitting on her
nest when Ocker walked up, gave himself a good shake and sleeked down. “Hit's right nice to come back here after all this time and find that you're still the highest ranking raven in the entire forest, isn't hit?” he said, pecking at teensy things here and there amongst the nest's new sticks. “I mean, here we are and no one has even tried to take your spot here on the best lookout in the entire Chokewoods...”

  “Well no one took my nest, but everything I see from hit is supposed to be my territory,” she said with a petulant snap of each wing. “Right?”

  “Well isn't hit?” said Ocker, stopping short to peer out at the vista.

  “How could hit be?” she said, standing up and pointing herself at Razzorbauch's keep at the foot of the bluff. “Just how is this truly mine with all of these little blue runts running about? Hit was bad enough with Razzorbauch a-coming in and making all of the trees go gnarly, but at least hit was just him and his hired help. But these little varmints are all over the place, and they throw rocks.”

  “None of them have managed to fling any clean up here, have they?”

  “Well no. But can't you get rid of them? You're magical, and you've got your stick.”

  Ocker could see that she needed immediate preening. “That might be kind of hard to do,” he said as he began nibbling at the feathers behind her eye. “They're here because Spitemorta doesn't seem to know anything about Razzorbauch's estate. They've been making raids on Goll because she destroyed Caistealbeak and every last house and barn across the entire Beakmoore, right after she killed both of Ru Talorg's kids. And if I go down there a-getting into meanness, they just might make a point of climbing all the way up here to throw things worse than rocks.”

  “That keep down there is mine. Surely with your magic...”

  “I can manage the magic to cook hogs and to travel by spell to make deals, but that's...” he said. “Now wait. Edward. That was the deal he and I made which got me the chain. I told him where to find Edward. So when they do, I think he said that they're all going to go off somewhere and have a big old succession, maybe all the way back to the Kingdom of Marr. Hit was going to be a big enough deal that hit didn't sound like he would ever come back and be king after hit was all over. That just might get rid of them.