Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Oh go on,” said Ash, licking chocolate off her fingers. “He's plain mad about you. I've never known him not to be spending all his time mooning over you. Can you imagine what it would be like for him with you gone all these weeks, right before your big challenge? If it were me, I'd go flying up and down the beach hour after hour myself...”

  “Yea, but he promised...”

  “What? To call on your folks? Why would he do that? You've told me before about this chilly distance between your father and him...”

  “But why would he promise me...?”

  “Did he?” she said, going after an itch in the feathers on her back. “I'll bet you told him to do it and all he did was merely be polite about it. You're like that and he's really like that...”

  “But I told him...”

  “Exactly. And he was all nice about it, wasn't he?”

  “Oh, all right. I suppose he was...”

  “You just need a hug, girl,” she said, grabbing her into her feathery arms and giving her a squeeze. “Now calm down. You be the luckiest thing. I wish like hot blazes out the nose that I had a dragon boy after me like that. Mmm-mmm! Now just go home, go to bed and dream about him.”

  And that's exactly what she did.

  ***

  Ariel was squatted at the hearth early in the morning, browning a half dozen muffins between the griddle and the salamander when she heard someone coming in. She set aside the salamander and picked the muffins off the hot griddle to put into her bowl and cover with a tea towel. One of them was Daniel.

  “Look 'ee here at this foul thing I found on the garden path, outside,” he said.

  Ariel turned about to see. “Abby!” she cried, setting down her muffins and rushing 'round the board to a whirling hug in his arms, not quite kissing because Lukus was sitting right there. They stood back and looked at each other as Abaddon grinned and whisked the flour from her hands off the back of his neck. She lunged at him with another mighty squeeze.

  “Have 'ee a seat, Abaddon,” said Soraya. “I've got the centers out of these muffin slices. Here be the eggs, Ariel. Fry up the egg in a hole while I slice some potatoes to go with the fish we boned last night. You'd like some catfish, wouldn't ye, Abby?”

  “Oh I most surely would,” he said, not taking his eyes off Ariel as he took his place at the board.

  It was a nice long breakfast with everyone talking happily about Daniel and Ariel's stay at Mount Bedd, about what it was like to have their new staves, about how strange it was to be in communion with a gnarled old oak tree and about how utterly striking Celeste and Teeuh were, and how the youthful looking but most ancient Meri would go running about, leaping for joy. Suddenly Ariel sprang up and grabbed Abaddon by the hand to pull him stumbling away from breakfast and out into the garden where she gave him the kiss she had wanted to give him the whole time.

  “Oh my, how I've missed you,” said Abby, pulling away to look at her.

  “And I you,” she said, giving him another quick kiss. “In fact I came home expecting for you to be waiting for me at the door and went to pieces when you weren't.

  For a moment, I thought you were avoiding me.”

  “My word! How could you even think such a thing? You're my whole world.”

  “I had it in my head that you were going to be calling 'round to see my folks, so I got carried away.”

  “Which I'm sorry to say I never did. I just don't have enough to say to your dad to be able to just sit there and talk to him. So I got to putting it off. And then I started flying the coast more and more to keep from feeling bad all the time, missing you. Am I forgiven?”

  “Of course, but I'm the one who actually went to pieces, and I'm sorry.”

  Abaddon looked away through the trees. “So,” he said, tapping on a tooth.

  “Speaking of that, I reckon you and Daniel are waiting for your moment to go serve the Prophecy, aye?”

  “Our moment shall be determined by others,” she said as she put her arms about him, “but we truly want it behind us. And I do hate the thought of being away from you again.”

  “But once it's over,” he said, “we'll never be apart again.”

  “Oh I promise,” she said as she took his hand and sauntered with him down the length of the basalt hollow to their stone bench in the palmettos beyond the sink, where they sat and spooned until he had to leave for another patrol.

  Ariel was still sitting there when Ash sneaked slowly out of the shadows to suddenly giggle her way up to the bench. “Hey pooper,” said Ash, all grinning teeth, as she plopped down beside her. “Almost caught you sparking.” Suddenly she stopped short and drew back to look at her. “Something's not right, girl. What is it?”

  “That's just it,” said Ariel, looking out through the leaves. “Something's not right, and I just can't begin to put my finger on it.”

  ***

  Blue Eye had taken to sleeping in Howlie Box ever since the arrival of freezing weather. And now that it was dark, he was awake. He found his skillet in its special place at the back of the cave and sniffed it carefully on both sides before taking it outside, where he squatted and reverently set it on the very same rocks Philpott had used. He gave a frosty sigh as he studied the full moon above the rocky divide. The two little dead eye people had stopped bringing sheep to fry well before the bluebirds flew away.

  Someone was coming up the slope. He was on his feet at once to put away the skillet and step back outside. It was Always Along. He would have been surprised had it been anyone else, and he knew that she had been up for some time, since the straw beside him was stone cold when he stirred in his sleep. Here she came at a run.

  She was already shaking her hands and frantically working her fingers as she jogged to a halt. “Strange little dead eye people sneak and hide in the thicket and peek at our little sheep dead eye people.” She paused to give him a quick hug before going back to making signs with her hands. “They're going to kill our little sheep people. And I know where they're camped.”

  Blue Eye sniffed the inside of Always Along's wrist before pressing her hand to his cheek and closing his eyes. And with that, he took her by the hand and they hurried away into the darkness.

  ***

  Captain Anaoc and nineteen of his men had just finished their second week-long sortie into the Black Desert from their ship off the coast, where they had found nothing but shifting obsidian sand dunes for as far as the eye could see and had bivouacked on a prominence atop a sheer rock face hundreds of feet above a dry wash on the east side of the divide, not far from Howlie Box, to wait for the return of a party sent to scout the divide to the south. He had just decided to lie down by his fire and go to sleep when the scouts returned.

  “All right,” said Anaoc as Corporal Tethion sat a-straddle of a rock with his bowl of stew. “Now that everyone's gotten settled, start over. You said that you all found somebody down the divide. Right?”

  “It looked like it was a good deal more than just somebody, sir,” said Tethion as he caught a dribble with his chin. “I mean, haven't there been rumors all along about the lost army? You know, there being another half of Queen Minuet's army hidden 'way out somewhere. Well I think...”

  Suddenly everyone froze in wide-eyed silence at the sound of a hair-raising howl beyond the divide.

  “What in all thunderation was that?” said Tethion.

  Anaoc held his finger to his lips and shook his head.

  They all sat deathly silent for a very long time, straining to hear another wail until Anaoc straightened out a leg and cleared his throat.

  “I swear that was the very banshee gourvlyth himself!” said a wide-eyed soldier at Tethion's elbow.

  When it seemed that there were going to be no further calls in the dark, Anaoc bid Tethion resume his telling of what they had found down the divide, about the great number of soldiers, the unicorns and cattle and flocks of sheep. By the time the cold white moon was overhead, everyone except for the two guards posted on the divide were
fast asleep in their blankets. The fires were merely coals. Nothing stirred in the frigid air under the stars except for the twitter of a sparrow frightened from its bush into the night.

  Twelve towering phantoms were now standing amongst the sleeping soldiers.

  Suddenly there were plummeting cries of terror down the face of the cliff, as howlies heaved bundle after blanketed bundle over the edge, like hurried sacks of corn. Now there were shouts and cries all 'round as blades glinted in the moonlight. Blue Eye gave a whirl, heaving a swordsman over the edge with each arm in time to be run clean through from behind by a third. Always Along was there at once, flinging her arms with bellow after bellow of anguish and rage as Blue Eye fell to his knees.

  ***

  On the first day of the new year, Padrig, lord chancellor of the dragons, called to order an urgent session of the Committee of Prophetic Strategy of the Extended Council, around the great circular table in the Vault of the Circle. Gathered there with him were Spark, Lipperella and Kadeg, the diatrymas, Lladdwr, Ceidwad and Arwr, the Humans, King James and Queen Mary the White with Lance, Sir Llewyrch, Sir Owain and Sir Aeron, Queen Minuet and Razzmorten with Rose and Fuzz (Sir Karlton Strong), Herio and Flame, Hubba Hubba and Captain Bernard and the Elves, Ri Neron, Lukus, Soraya, Daniel and Ariel and Sulacha and Mwg. Edward was given a seat in honorary attendance, representing Ru Talorg. Bedivere made certain that enough apples and pickled quail eggs were sent from the tavern kitchen next door for everyone (especially Hero Boy). Hubba Hubba fanned his tail and ran his beak along the polished oak of the great table in the warm din of voices filling the great cavern.

  Padrig rose and pecked his brass goblet, hushing the hall as Hubba Hubba flew across the table to land between Minuet and Razzmorten. “We have ominous tidings from the Pastures,” he said, looking at the faces 'round the table, “and Prince Herio and Sulacha have just returned from the Eastern Continent and bear news which undoubtedly needs immediate consideration. So Captain Bernard, could you tell us what has happened?”

  Bernard stood and addressed the committee. “A few days ago, four rangers wearing the black tunic and red hour glass of Spitemorta's army wandered into camp and turned themselves over to us. According to them, the night before, they were bivouacked with sixteen others, just north of us atop a great cliff, over the divide. When everyone was sound asleep, maybe a dozen giants sneaked in amongst them and commenced heaving sleeping soldiers off the cliff. The soldiers slew at least five of the giants before the others ran off...”

  “No!” said Herio. “Sorry, Captain.”

  “That's quite all right. I'd allow that you fed mutton to some of the slain.

  Anyway, the four rangers came straight down to our camp because as they said, they reckoned that there was no way to avoid making camp at least twice between the divide and their ship, which is undoubtedly still anchored just off the west coast. And they said that they chose to turn themselves over to us, rather than risk getting caught in their sleep by the howlies...”

  “So she thinks she's found us,” said James. “Have you questioned the rangers?”

  “They insist that they were not sent to hunt for anyone at all, but merely to explore. So we have no way of knowing whether she's looking for us or not. They insist that they don't want to go back, but of course there's no way of trusting a thing like that.”

  James was shaking his head. “So it's suddenly prudent that we make our move,” he said as Razzmorten and Neron caught each other's eye.

  Bernard shifted his sword and took his seat.

  “And what tidings bringst thou, Prince Herio?” said Padrig. “How soon could forces be brought to bear on the Eastern and Dark continents?”

  “I have no idea beyond Karl-Veur departing for Dark's Castle and the Elves working feverishly at drilling their strike falcons,” said Herio as he rose to his feet, “but I do believe that we can count on seven and twenty ships arriving in Bae Ar Goll by the last day of winter.”

  “Nay,” said James, shaking his head again. “Spitemorta has no curiosity at all. If she's sent soldiers, she thinks she's found us.”

  Chapter 200

  Spitemorta was still lying in, even though it had been nearly three months since Pandora's birth. She seemed to be enjoying keeping the entire world waiting, though there were signs of her growing boredom. She had always envied musicians who could play instruments, though she had neither the temperament nor the inclination to practice any of them. “Ha!” she said one day, suddenly sitting up in bed. “I've got the Heart.” And with that, she set about smashing two lutes, a harp, a gittern, a beautiful fiddle and a bass viol before she was about to accept that the Heart would not make them tune themselves at her command. When the serving boy showed up with a tray of dainties, carefully stepping about the splinters and tangles of strings of the viol on the carpet, he made the mistake of proudly claiming that he not only could tune the hurdy-gurdy but also the hammer dulcimer.

  This morning, when he showed up with breakfast, she had a very nice hurdy- gurdy and hammer dulcimer waiting for him on a second low table. At her bidding, he gave a very sober swallow and set to work tuning the hurdy-gurdy and then the dulcimer.

  “Can't you tune it?” she said through her champs of egg in a hole.

  “It's nearly there,” he said.

  “Here,” she said, screeching her chair over to the other table and pulling the dulcimer away from him. She picked up the pair of sticks and began drumming away at the strings. “That's awful! You don't have it tuned right.”

  “I'm 'way closer than you are,” he said with merry eyes before his smile fell.

  Spitemorta grabbed up the Staff.

  “Oh please!” he said, falling to his knees.

  “All right,” she said calmly enough. And she slapped his face with a pop that echoed from the farthest pillars of the hall. “Now get back to work!” she shouted, heaving the dulcimer to bounce along after him as he wheeled about.

  As his echoes died away, she pulled her chair over to the hurdy-gurdy and unfastened the Heart from the Staff as she had a seat. “This is going to work,” she said as she closed her eyes and began mumbling a very long musician's spell. The Heart began humming faintly and glowing in her hand. She held it to the side of her head and continued the recitation of her spell. “Now then.”

  She set aside the Heart and gave a couple of wailing cranks on the hurdy-gurdy.

  “Ah!” she said. “That sounds good.” She picked up the noter and tried sliding it up and down a pair of strings as she cranked.

  “Fates!” said someone, walking by the doorway. “What's that horrible noise?”

  With a grating squeal, Spitemorta shot to her feet, smashed the hurdy-gurdy on the corner of the table and flung the Heart across the hall to land with a trill of muffled pings down the carpet. “No!” she gasped at the sight of what she had done. The instant she dashed toward it, the Heart gave a blinding red flash, sending up a curl of smoke from the carpet. With that, she stopped short and slowly walked the rest of the way, the Heart throbbing brightly with each of her steps. It gave an especially bright flash when she reached for it, so she picked it up out of the ashes of the carpet with a fireplace shovel an took it to her bower.

  She carefully set down the Heart and shovel on the corner of the hearth nearest to her dressing table. “The mirror's good,” she said as she sat down before it, unpinned her hair and picked up her brush. “Maybe I had to go through a half dozen glaziers first, but that's a damned good mirror. And Pandora might not be half bad either, if I didn't have to listen to her and her singing cow. The daughter of the first empress of the entire world needs her own bower. That's what. I'm moving her down to the far end of the hall.” She noticed from the corner of her eye that the Heart was no longer glowing. “Well.” She rose and went to the window to check the shadow cast by the peg on the sill. “Almost time.”

  She hurried back to her stool, pausing by the hearth to reach for the Heart, which gave a sudden red flash,
making her jerk away with a gasp. She gave a shudder and picked up the Staff to cast a glamourie upon herself of being perfectly groomed and dressed.

  Since the sun was warm on the sill, she pulled aside the heavy drapes and opened the doors to the balcony. “My,” she said. “It's just like spring. I'll give my skinweler address out here.” A bee whined by overhead as she stepped out into the sunlight. A dove called. And there was a giggle down in the garden.

  “Cow bitch!” she hissed at the sight of the wet-nurse standing before Coel, who was sitting on the bench below, bouncing the wee Pandora who was happily cooing and waving her arms. “I'll not have my general making that kind of spectacle with the help...”

  “And what kind of spectacle would that be on this glorious morning?” said Demonica, suddenly appearing with her arms propped on the balustrade. “My, but you look vexed, dear. Surely you're not jealous of your general enjoying a moment with your daughter and her most attractive wet-nurse, are you?”

  “I am not! It's only a matter of conduct. He can do anything he pleases so long as he isn't seen with my daughter, fraternizing with the service.”

  “I see. Actually I fail to see any witnesses to his behavior at all. I'll just leave you to your address, then. Oh yes. Your ball is still inside,” she said as she vanished.

  Spitemorta paused for a last look at Coel, gave a huff of contempt and turned on her heel for the door.

  “I thought so,” said Demonica, appearing in the doorway. “Your general, your wet-nurse and your daughter. Want my solution?”

  “No!” shouted Spitemorta as she slammed shut the double doors.

  “My word!” said Coel, looking up at once. “Was that Spitemorta?”

  “I wouldn't worry,” said the wet-nurse. “She's forever talking to herself. And she's always angry.”

  “You're not frightened by her?”

  “Not if I always do what she says. And I always do.”

  “My, Elise! You must be the only one of the entire castle service with that to say.”

  “There be times I think that I must have some sort of strange power, as if she dare not lose me. If she gets all witchy, I just stay to myself and sing a lot. Did she have some kind of trouble keeping fresh maids for her other children?”