Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  Tramman fell silent.

  “So what about the Dark Continent?” said Karl-Veur.

  “I was hoping that you had some idea,” said Olloo. “But wouldn't it merely be a matter of telling your father when to switch sides without warning?”

  “I have no idea,” said Karl-Veur, drawing in a great breath. “No idea at all.”

  “Grayse?” said Vorona. “Could you fetch me that old book? I want to study the old Fire Sprite prophesy again.”

  Chapter 196

  The scrub jay in the leaves overhead gave its first call of the day. Ariel and Daniel awoke soaked and dripping with dew in the light before sunrise and sat up out of the deep moss, astonished to find themselves under the mother tree, clothed only in silver maidenhair leaves. They could hear Meri Greenwood chanting nearby. They rose at once and found him facing the Great Barrier Mountains. Suddenly a brilliant stab of sunlight from the low saddle in the peaks made them wince. Other jays began calling.

  “Plese knele,” said Meri, not taking his gaze from the rising sun, “whilom Ich to the Gyvere of Al Lyve my thankes to yiven. Corne pollen be the preyer whiche us to walke in bewtee alowes.” He took out his bag and offered pinches of it into the air before the blinding light.

  Without warning, he turned about and began giving them a thorough dusting. “In the byginnynge,” he said, digging out pinch after pinch, “Talkyng Fader nerely loste Chaungyng Womman to the cheitur Raveyne. Atte laste, Talkyng Fader was able hir to fre by entysynge Raveyne to flynge the moone and the sterres in to the blak skye. And Chaungyng Womman, whoso the mooder of everych oon ybe, hir selve kevered with dewe dide fynden. And the hummynge-brid hir how to gaderen corne pollen and walke the pollen pathe didde shewen.”

  Ariel and Daniel blinked their wide eyes, having utterly no idea what to say, so it was certainly easy for them not to be accidentally rude.

  Meri had a little pouch for each of them. “This bethe yelow corne pollen for thee, Ariel,” he said. “And this be whyte corne pollen for thee, Daniel.”

  “Thank you,” said Daniel. “But what is this for?”

  “Tak yunc thise to the ende with yunc, so that yit wol savfly hoom to retournen,” said Meri. “And now if yit wol with me to comen, Ich this fynal thyng un-to yunc have to techen.”

  They stepped through the moss of the Fairy ring and followed him down the great stairway to the streets of Gerddi Teg, where farmers were already setting out melons and baskets of tomatoes, beans and new potatoes on their tables while chickens and hogs ran out to the freshly dumped slop. The bell in Gerdditowre gave seven grand chimes. An old Fairy and his collie were bringing his flock of yearling wethers and ewes into market.

  Ariel and Daniel hurried to keep up with Meri as they followed him out the far side of town. Presently he stepped through a gap in the hedge, waving for them to follow.

  “But Meri,” said Daniel. “You've been telling us all along that the Fairy paths are not for Elves nor Humans.”

  “And in dede they are nat,” said Meri, giving his head a toss at the path and continuing to wave them on, “save that hit am Ich yleding yunc. A Ffairye konnen thee doun oon to taken, so long as thou art pur of herte. But hit alwey a cerious matere ybe, dost thou nat knowe, and thou certeynly woldest nat nevere beth alowed doun a pathe in ordere som oon for to assaile.”

  “By the Fairies? They wouldn't allow one?”

  “No. By the pathes hem selven.”

  “Now wait,” said Ariel as she stepped through the hedge to hurry after him. “Is travel down the paths the same thing as aredig?”

  “Nat atte al,” said Meri. “But if thou yevest wher thou wysshest to ga, whan on to a pathe thou stapen, the pathe wol take thee ther everych bit as fast as aredig.”

  “And if you don't give your destination?”

  “Thanne thou kanst juste to walke and walke clene to the ende, for al the pathe careth, evene if hit taketh wykes. And sithence yit arne nat no Ffairyes, ther beth a fer more cerious matere thanne that to beren in mynde.”

  “Such as?”

  “If thou daryst a Ffairye pathe to travayle by thy selve, thou wolt beth a Ffairye for good.”

  “Even if you made a mistake a-taking it?” said Ariel.

  “Doynge so certeynly wolde ben a mistaken way, inlesse thou hast alwey wanted a Ffairye to buen,” said Meri. “Lok thee atte Oisin and Doona. Oisin thurgh the ryng of musserounes with Doona dide stapen, her lyve for to savyn and coom yronnen hard ynough to brostyn hise herte. 'And wold hee to done hit agayne?' weo axed. 'O yis hee wolde,' hee seyde, 'a thousent, thousynd tymes over.'“

  “Could a troll become a Fairy this way?” said Daniel.

  “O mercy no! Never eny kynd of beest...”

  “Not even Veyfnaryr?” said Ariel. “The way Grandfather spoke of him, I'd allow that he's at least pure of heart.”

  “Ich see,” said Meri. “No oon yknoweth if hee be beest or humayne. Ayther way, Ich been to delyver yunc heere for soper.”

  “Supper!” cried Ariel and Daniel. And they saw at once that the cottage ahead was indeed Oisin and Doona's.

  “But how is this possible?” said Ariel. “We only awoke long enough ago to get here.”

  “That be righte,” said Meri. “And Ich shal yunc in the morwnynge to seen.”

  “Are you going to Mount Bedd with us, then?” said Ariel. “We brought a couple of extra dragons.”

  Meri gave an immediate nod and grin of glee as he whirled away with an explosive cartwheel and three successive handsprings, leaving Ariel and Daniel slapping their knees in laughter.

  ***

  Thanks to the glow lichen covering the great cavern vaults, any sort of evening or night was simply not possible in Gerddi Teg. Yet with there never being the slightest change in the light, when sunset came to the arid edge of the piney North Woods of the Wilderlands upstairs, the twittering of the thousands of oil birds died away to be replaced by the eerie soprano whistles of the aeolian owls as they spent the brightly lit night gliding about over the meadows, hunting for voles. And in spite of having lived here for better than a millennium, Doona still felt better closing the shutters at the first calls of the owls.

  She was pulling them shut on the rasping of the guineas finding roosts on the fence outside, when Neron traded looks with Ariel and Daniel, pulled the napkin from his collar and scooted back his chair with a nice apple. “That was a wonderful supper Doona,” he said, drawing a chorus of yeas and nods from the five dragons at Doona's end of the board, in spite of her having never heard of such a thing as pickled voles. “You cook like my dear Nessa once did.”

  “Why thank you,” said Doona. “But it was Renny who made every one of the honey cakes you ate.”

  “My word, but those were good!” said Neron, turning to Renny with wide eyes.

  “Someday you'll have a young fellow happy as a barrow-hog in a muddy melon patch.”

  “I'm only a hundred, twenty and seven, Grandfather,” said Renny with her crimson ears as she looked down at her apron.

  “Aw sweetheart! I'm simply so proud of my pretty granddaughter that I just forgot all about your feelings,” he boomed, grabbing her into a sideways hug. “But my word, you really will be the cook by the time ye marry.”

  Renny gave a gracious smile but still could not quite look up.

  “Well,” he said turning to Ariel and Daniel. “It's on to Mount Bedd first thing tomorrow then, aye? Meri told me that he'd just showed you the last thing he was a-going to...”

  “How?” said Daniel. “I mean when?”

  “Why, he was over here for quite a spell, just before noon...”

  “But we were on our way over here with him, exactly then. Had to be...”

  “That's what I understood at the time,” said Neron with a perfectly straight face and a bite of apple. “And he was a-telling me that you two match the most skilled Fairies he's ever known. And now that's quite something indeed, since you're the only Elves ever to learn his magic at all, let alone master i
t. Though it does sound as though you're still a bit bewildered by his paths.”

  “Well I can't imagine there being any of them anywhere we'd find Spitemorta,” said Ariel as she set down her bowl of salsify soup and wiped her mouth. “We're only going to be there long enough to get our staves, right?”

  “Yea, but not for so short a spell that we risk being rude. Are you anxious to see Abby, or are you anxious to see the witch?”

  “Both,” she said, reaching for a paring knife for her apple. “Daniel and I both want to get it over so bad that it's kind of numbed us for anything else. But we're counting on some time at home first. I need to see Abby just to feel square with things, don't you know.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Grandfather?” said Aden, having shyly waited for the moment to speak.

  Neron turned to him with an encouraging nod.

  “Grandfather, Renny and I were wondering if we might go with you all to Mount Bedd Chwiorydd Tair since Meri Dyn Gwyrdd would be going, and we could return here with him and thereby not be a burden unto you all, especially since we're old enough to warrant our being ever so good, and especially since we think it right important to meet the very first Fairy of all time to have giant moth wings. You brought an extra dragon.

  And Brand said that he would be right pleased to bear us.”

  “Well,” said Neron, giving him a serious look, “That sounds...”

  “And the only Fairy with a rat tail would be exceptional to behold...” said Renny.

  Neron burst out with a laugh and a snort. “Why I'd certainly say so,” he said, catching the slobber almost to his chin. “We would be delighted to have you ones along if your mother and father agree.”

  “And if my big girl can mind her effusive candor,” said Doona as she reached for the first of the dirty dishes.

  “And if Meri Greenwood agrees,” said Oisin, pausing for a brown spit into the fireplace. “And if you two shut up the chickens and go straight to bed without another word.”

  “My word!” said Daniel as he sprang to his feet without warning and rushed to the door. “That simply can't be rain. But it is! How can it possibly rain from the cavern roof?”

  “Then it's raining outside,” said Oisin.

  “You mean all the way upstairs and out through the Fairy ring? Clear outdoors where the wax nut pines are?”

  Oisin grinned, nodded and spit into the fire.

  “So how on earth does it come through all the earth and layers of rock?”

  “Same way you come through the moss in the Fairy ring. But since the drops of rain be tears of joy from the Fates, and the most magical and life giving of all things indeed, they fall freely through anything they need to.”

  ***

  The passing breeze rattled the leaves in Longbark's crown like a great soft sigh of resolution. Celeste patted her trunk and rose to her feet.

  “Mamma Celeste!” hollered Teeuh from somewhere 'way off, up in the blue sky.

  Celeste turned aside to listen, glanced down at herself and stopped short with a gasp at her supple hands and beautiful figure.

  “Mamma Celeste!” cried Teeuh, fluttering down with a bound to close her wings over her back. “Mamma!” she heaved, catching her breath. “Up in the aire! Dragounes with Meri Greenwood ycomen. O Mamma, Mamma! Thou art praty.”

  And there stood Meri. Suddenly he had Celeste in his arms, whirling 'round and 'round with her in the knee high grass as Teeuh squealed and bounced, clapping her hands. He set her down at arms length to look at her and immediately grabbed her to his breast and held her for the longest time.

  Renny and Aden were clambering off of Brand, who gave himself a ruffling shake at once. Neron, Ariel and Daniel were already on the ground stretching their legs, surrounded by their dragons, fluffing up and sorting through their feathers.

  “And you my dear must be Teeuh,” said a dragon as he took up her dainty hand and kissed it. “I am Blaise Sparkson at your service. I bore Meri Greenwood here from Gerddi Teg. And this is my sister, Ash Lipperelladottir.” And with Ash's deep feather fanning curtsey, there were introductions all 'round.

  “Ariel and Daniel,” said Celeste, still holding Meri by the hand, “weo han no tyme to losen. Ich moste shewe thee un-to Longbark atte oones. And Meri. Woldestow and Teeuh seen everych oon to the kycchyn? Teeuh, woldestow seest that they places to slepen doon haven as wel? Weo a day or tweye ycomen in-syde mowen shal be.”

  “And weo the ratte gete to seen, thanne?” said Renny.

  “Thou shalt soon to seen that Fader Rodon oonly a ratte on the out-syde ybe,” said Teeuh, taking her by the hand. “And hee be wondreful.”

  “If you all don't mind,” said Blaise, “we dragons spied lots of fleshy fire mountain agave on the slopes below, when we flew in. They're supposed to be part of our ancient diet. They used to roast them with dragon's fire. We've never had any. Do you mind if we join you ones later?”

  When Celeste knelt before Longbark with Ariel and Daniel, the great old tree would have none of her kneeling before her when Celeste's heart had been longing for Meri all these twenty years and seven days, and sent her away at once to be with him.

  And as Longbark's leaves rustled with a new breeze and the murmurs of the vireo, Ariel and Daniel fell into a very deep trance.

  A day or two it was. And when Ariel awoke in her bed, she had difficulty even remembering coming inside after she and Daniel had finished communing with Longbark. She didn't feel at all rested in spite of having gone to bed while it was still light outside. She had long known Abaddon's story about growing up under Spitemorta's influence, but when Longbark traced the dark evil which he had brought to Mount Bed from Razzorbauch and Demonica down through Ugleeuh and Spitemorta to Abaddon himself, it struck her with a scald of alarm that made no sense at all to her. Why would it ever be important? And not only that, she had never given the slightest thought to what was to be done with the Heart and the Staff, for she had never considered anything beyond destroying Spitemorta. Now she found herself upset by the impression that there was no power on earth great enough to destroy them. Why must their task include this? How would such tools ever be hidden and made safe from the world? She gave a great sigh as she threw aside her covers and sat on the edge of the bed. “So why didn’t you just tell me what to do with them, Longbark?”

  “Hey!” called Daniel from just outside.

  “I'm dressed.”

  “And rumpled looking,” he said as he walked in. “And I swear I heard you talking to someone. And white catfish. Did you know that you have all kinds of white catfish swimming up and down the ditch outside your door?”

  “Yea? Well I was talking to Longbark...”

  “You can do that from here?”

  “No. But I reckon I'm beginning to think about what comes next, don't you know.”

  “Well breakfast comes next. That's why I was sent here to tell you.”

  Ariel rolled her eyes.

  “Well you ought to be pleased, because then we get our staves.”

  “Good! Then we'll be on our way home.”

  “Nope. We'll be here for a mess of days. We've got all kinds of Fairies we're supposed to visit with. And we're supposed to work with the staves for a bit, too, and spend a lot more time with Longbark...”

  “All right,” she said with a great sigh as she stood up. “Wait outside while I change my clothes. Then you'll have to show me to breakfast.”

  Chapter 197

  Shortly after the Extended Council began convening in the Circle, it was decreed that the first Sunday of each month was to be Games and Contests Day in honor of the late King Hebraun, to be presided over by Queen Minuet in the desert just beyond Spark and Lipperella's door. Everyone, be they dragons, diatrymas, Elves or the Humans of Loxmere, Goll or Niarg itself would participate for the strength and safety of all, with aerial jousting now being included with the various traditional longbow and sword competitions. And the joust was a hair-raising event indeed, with the
fallen having to be caught in nets as they tumbled from the sky.

  Marquees and awnings had to be in place everywhere before the sun rose in order for the black sand not to be too hot for the archers and spectators to sit upon and for the protection of board upon board on trestles, piled with a bounty of food.

  The two coronary chairs of Niarg were brought to the prominence overlooking the kite field and set between standards of Hebraun's colors, fluttering in the dry hot breeze. At ten o' clock there was a sudden fanfare of trumpets and bagpipes that fell silent the moment Minuet in her mirror polished armor rose to her feet with her longbow. “For Hebraun!” she cried, wild red hair a-fly, as she drew her bow to loose an arrow that arched through the air to strike the heart of a target a hundred and sixty yard away, setting off a stamping pandemonium of cheers, and the games began.

  “Where have you been, you poop?” said Lily as Avel appeared out of the crowd.

  “I thought your going to find some pickled voles was only going to take a moment.

  You've almost missed the commencement of the jousts. It's your brothers against the Fireheads, after all.”

  “Well it wasn't the voles,” said Avel, sticking out her tongue, “not when the stupid fire heads brought them. Not only do they have maggots in the eye sockets instead of pimentos, but worse than that, they pour chocolate sauce all over them. Besides, they use field mice instead of real voles. Laora was already there having some of them. And you would've wanted to hear what she had to say even more than I did.”

  “About the voles?”

  “Hey!” she said, suddenly gathering her into a huddle as if she had a secret.

  “Edward has agreed to become the next king of Marr. Can you imagine Edward all naked and smeared blue?”

  “No, actually. The Beaks were all turned into little round marshmallow sucking Gobblers by Spitemorta's mother, ages ago. Mom and Uncle Lucus were even held captive by them, so she ought to know.”