Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “What?” said Urr-Urr, immediately wide-eyed awake.

  “Hit's time!” cried Ocker. “Bernard's got a red flag a-flying from the Lostgwyns.

  He's out in the Gulf of Orin, a-taking his troops ashore. I've got to take my stick and go to the Dark Continent and all kinds of places. Here. Help me put on my scrying marble.”

  Urr-Urr hurriedly finished stretching her wing and leg and hopped down from her nest to snap up the gold chain and loop it over his head. “There,” she said proudly, stepping back to see that she had it just so. “Had ravens peerage or royalty, you'd be a prince.”

  “That's nice,” said Ocker. “But when you're the highest ranking raven in all the forest, why wouldn't I be king?”

  “Because I'd be king.”

  “That's not how they do hit,” he said. “We're not children of Talking Father and Changing Woman, for one thing. But if we were, all kings have to be cock-sires. Hen- dams can't be anything but queens. That would make me king and you queen.”

  “But if there be no peerage for ravens, then I'm king because I am the right tick- tock hen with the highest nest in the entire forest, and I make the blooming rules,” she said, waddling up to nibble behind his eye. “But if you make sure you run off all my little rock slinging blue meanies and come back to me in one piece, I'll let you be king in my nest.”

  “Hoove!” he said, thrusting his head straight up as he bristled out all the feathers on his neck.

  “Better hurry,” she said.

  And with that, he grabbed up his stick and vanished.

  In the next moment, Ocker found himself catching his balance on the slate roof of Darcastle. He shook himself, straightened a flight feather or two and hopped over to a pile of leaves in the nearby gutter to hide his stick. He preened for a moment, listening to the warbling blackbirds down in the yard before pecking at his dangling scrying marble and finding Karl-Veur sitting on his lower throne to one side of First Steward Azenor.

  “Ha!” he said. “The throne room. I've been there before.” He dove off the roof at once and swooped down to find the window open, so he glided on inside and landed on the carpet before Karl-Veur.

  “Would you look at that!” said a nearby guard. “I've never seen the like. I could fetch my bow and get him, if you'd have me shooting in here.”

  “Why that's Ocker!” said Karl-Veur, waving aside the guard. “He's quite something and he's honoring us with a visit.” He got off the throne and offered his arm at once. “So Ocker. What brings 'ee here on a morning like this?”

  “I saw red in the sky,” said Ocker, stepping onto Karl-Veur's wrist.

  “He talks!” gasped the guard.

  “Why that could be an omen of some sort,” said Karl-Veur with a nod for the guard. “Let's go for a walk while you tell me what you make of it, shall we?” And he stepped out with Ocker at once.

  “Well I...” said Ocker in the echoes of Karl-Veur's riding heels in the polished stone hallway.

  “Wait 'til we get to where I'm taking you,” said Karl-Veur, raising a finger to his lips as he made a sudden turn and dashed up a small stairway, two steps at a time.

  “Actually, we've taken the long way to get here,” he said, arriving at the door to Azenor's solar.

  Cook, Cinder and young Yann-Ber looked up in surprise as they stepped in.

  “So what are your tidings?” said Karl-Veur as he set Ocker onto the back of a chair at the table.

  “The red in the sky was the flag on Captain Bernard's ship,” said Ocker. “And hit means he's going ashore to take Castle Niarg.”

  “We're ready,” said Karl-Veur.

  “Get every swyving last one of the dung-faced toute holes,” rattled Ocker as he leaped from the chair and flew out the window and back up to the gutter on the roof. He found his stick and studied his marble for some time, hunting for Queen Vorona's exact location. He swore that he could tell just where she was, but try as he might, he simply could not begin to see her. At last, he took to the air with his stick and vanished far above the rooftops.

  He appeared over a newly green countryside of rolling downs covered with scattered meadows and oak woods. “There!” he awked. “It is indeed a huge circle of giant stone posts. And there she is, a-sitting on that rock just outside the circle as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, right where she was supposed to be.”

  In spite of how frail she looked with her snow white hair, she had him spotted at once and stood up with her bow to watch him land in the dandelions before her.

  “I'd bow at your feet, Queen,” he said, taking a couple of hops closer, “but I don't have hair, so I don't begin to know how to crawl, but I do indeed respect the wisdom of your choice not to shoot me.”

  “Flattening yourself in front of me might be a right good exercise for a foul mouthed swindler,” she said with a steely eyed squint.

  “You're exactly where you're supposed to be,” he said, running his beak down a flight feather. “Why couldn't I see you in my marble?”

  “I was hidden. Or didn't that occur to you?”

  Ocker gave a head toss of gawking bewilderment. “Well what's this swyving ring of giant stone posts?”

  “It's Eglos-Derowek,” she said, sitting upon her rock again and folding her arms.

  “That's 'Oak Grove Church' in Gwaelic.”

  “You mean, 'was'...?”

  “No. It is Oak Grove...”

  “Well where's the mother swyving roof?”

  “They can't have a roof when they set fire to their enemies in the middle of the circle,” she said, putting a pinch of snuff behind her lip.

  “You certainly don't want that happening to you,” he said, going after a sudden itch in his tail feathers.

  “That's why I brought my army,” she said.

  “Where?” said Ocker, quickly glancing all about.

  “Hidden.”

  “Oh go on!” he said. “There's naught but new grass between here and the woods.

  If someone rode out here, they'd catch you before anyone could reach you. Hit ain't safe for you here.”

  “Very well,” she said without raising her voice. “Olloo, Tramman and Inney. Why don't you show your birds and yourselves to Ocker?”

  “Awk!” cried Ocker with a frantic flap of alarm at the sight of Olloo and Smorigagh and Tramman and Jeelys surrounding him and Inney and Sheshey standing protectively on either side of Vorona. “Schyt, schyt!” he panted, struggling for composure. “Your whole swyving army's hidden with wards?”

  “It's an old Elven trick,” said Vorona innocently enough. “And are you here to bring tidings that Captain Bernard's hiked his red flag?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Then thanks be unto you, bird,” she said. “Now beat it. We've got sneaking to do.” And with that she vanished.

  Ocker looked all about to find nothing but the lonely ring of stones standing in the new grass. He opened all of his feathers, closed them and leaped into the sky.

  He appeared in the air above the Lostgwyns to find her sails down, but the red flag still fluttered in the breeze. He flew down to the railing of the main deck at once. He was just starting to sort through his feathers when Arwr awoke from his nap and silently raised his ponderous head to the railing.

  Ocker suddenly pulled away from his tail feathers to go after a wing, came face to face with Arwr and tumbled off the railing with an apoplectic squawk. “You stinking erse hole!” he awked, flapping his way back up to his perch. “You dung faced swyver! I have business with Captain Bernard.”

  “Then I shall fetch him at once,” said Arwr, shooting to his feet and disappearing across the deck.

  “And you'd jolly well better...” rattled Ocker as he went back to his preening.

  “Flightless gnoff!”

  Bernard and Arwr were back in short order.

  “I've just told Karl-Veur at Darcastle and Queen Vorona just outside Jyantylesk that you have your red flag a-flying,” said Ocker. “Now what?”

/>   “Go right back,” said Bernard. “You've sent each one of them into traps.

  Someone's alerted the enemy. They're waiting ashore for me, right now. Tell them that the enemy knows they're coming...”

  “And come right back here?” said Ocker as he crouched to leap into flight.

  “Not so fast!” said Bernard. “King James and Queen Mary are aboard three ships with some of their people, on their way to the south end of the gulf to Razzorbauch's manor to join forces with the Beaks and march on Goll. I hope to Fates that after you've warned Karl-Veur and Vorona, that you can warn James and Mary in time. And the very hour you've done that, skip Loxmere and get to Queen Minuet at Peach Knob and tell her that I'll come ashore immediately after the dragoons strike the enemy all along the first mile of Tnassip Road north of the Port of Niarg at midnight.”

  Ocker stopped preening to nod quietly as he rattled out the steps to all these directions. “Got hit,” he said. “Anything else?”

  “Yea. Hurry.”

  Ocker sprang from the railing and flew out over the sparkling waves and vanished. Thinking that he might save time by not scrying, he appeared over the table in Darcastle's solar, flying the length of it to collide with young Yann-Ber before he could manage to slow down.

  Yann-Ber toppled out of his chair with his tea and his pie. “Ow!” he cried, clambering to his knees as he held his scalding shirt away from his front.

  Ocker rebounded off the far wall. “Don't waste time apologizing for being in my way, swyver,” he awked, gliding back to land on the table. “Where's Karl-Veur?”

  “I wasn't about to,” said Yann-Ber, getting to his feet as he whisked at the gooey currants and crust sticking to his breeches. “You want to see my father? I've no idea where he is, but he ought to be back directly. There's more pie. You're welcome to wait...”

  “There's no time! Tell him immediately that Spitemorta's people already knew about our rising before I ever got here, this morning.”

  “We all heard,” said Cook as she handed a piece of pie to Cinder at the far end of the table.

  “All right,” said Ocker. “Bye.” And he vanished from the room.

  He appeared at once, catching his balance atop one of the great stone pillars of Eglos-Derowek. He looked here and there as he sorted through the feathers of each wing.

  He dove off the pillar and landed on the rock Vorona had been sitting on. “Nobody,” he rattled. He pecked at his scrying marble. He could see the meadow in it. Could the glowing places be Vorona and her soldiers scattered about? “Vorona!” he awked.

  “Vorona! Vorona! Vorona!” All he heard were his echoes coming back from the trees, the wind in the grass and the lowing of a distant cow. “Damn her!”

  He studied his marble for a very long time. “Where are those three stinking ships?” he said. The southern end of the gulf was a sizable territory when he did not know exactly where they were. “There!” he cried. “They're almost where they could send boats ashore.” He was aloft with his stick at once, terrifying a flock of grackles as he overtook them and winked out of sight.

  He found himself over the waters of the gulf with the three ships below. When he began circling, looking for James or Mary or anyone at all he might recognize, he thought he saw a purple bear, lumbering about on the forecastle deck of the lead ship. “There's no earthly way I saw that,” he rattled. And when he swooped down for a look, he was certain that the main timber of the bow was carved in the likeness of a maiden in a white dress with flowing purple hair. He missed the railing in his distraction and stumbled onto the deck, gasping for breath. “Queen Mary!” he awked as she turned away from the railing of the bow in a whirl of raspberry hair and knelt before him in her snow white kirtle and collar of lace.

  “We're sailing into an ambush,” she said as she gathered him onto her wrist.

  “That's what I came to tell you!” he said, still panting.

  “You're exhausted,” she said as she gently took his stick and made it glow with a purple aura before giving it back to him. “Now. I need you to find Brude Talorg and ask him to come and slay the three hundred lancers in black tunics and red hour glass who lie in wait for us ashore.”

  Before he quite knew what was happening, Ocker found himself landing on the stone balustrade of Razzorbauch's great balcony at the foot of Urr-Urr's bluff. Talorg was outside to hear what he had to say at once.

  Talorg raised his buttox horn and blew a long note, echoing away in the gnarled and twisted trees, as naked blue men came running from every direction, brandishing their arms.

  “Hey toute hole!” cried Ocker from the balustrade. “Hey Talorg, you stinking blue swyver!”

  Talorg wheeled 'round to see.

  “Hey dung face,” said Ocker, bristling out his neck like a pine cone. “I have Madadh-Allaidh Neartmhor a-watching your blue ers, so don't you dare go getting killed, ye hear? I ain't going to let ye through the gates to the underworld.”

  “Thank 'ee Bran Hoodie,” said Talorg, kneeling before him at once with a thump of his chest.

  The moment Talorg and his warriors of Marr had marched into the echoes of the Chokewoods, Ocker appeared at the edge of Urr-Urr's nest, giving her a start. After they had clasped beaks for a moment, he said: “I don't have time,” and vanished.

  He appeared in the sky over Peach Knob and swooped down to glide in through the open kitchen door. Minuet, Razzmorten and Neron looked up in surprise from where they were seated on the benches on either side of the table as he landed on the back of the empty chair at the end. “What kind of people eat paper for dinner?” he said, seeing to his feathers at once.

  “This is a map,” said Minuet. “It's a picture of the coast of Niarg...”

  “Now wait,” said Ocker, switching to his other wing. “Is that Two-Head and his hen on the chair at the other end, still pretending to be crows the way they did years ago, back at Mount Bedd?”

  “I shall always be grateful to you, Ocker, for saving King Hebraun and me from a death from Ugleeuh's poison,” said Minuet, rising to point out places on the map. “But Hubba Hubba and Pebbles almost certainly have saved every last one of us by finding enemy troops here, here and here at Pearl Shoals, the north coast of County Dyfnaint and along Tnassip Road, while they were out flying to the Lostgwyns to tell Captain Bernard to run up the red flag...”

  “All right Two-Head,” said Ocker. “I beg your pardon. You and Pebbles are real crows...”

  “No we're not,” said Hubba Hubba, bristling at the neck. “We're the proper parrots you've not yet had the wits to acknowledge. Razzmorten has us this way for our military reconnaissance duty...”

  “And we're about to send them back to Bernard with tidings that our dragoons will strike the enemy along Tnassip Road, right after dark...” said Minuet.

  “No!” cried Ocker, thrusting himself upright with a much grander bristling of his neck. “That's old news. I've just been there. Bernard wants the dragoons to strike the enemy along the entire first mile of Tnassip Road, north of the port, right at midnight so that he can come ashore.”

  “Then that's what we shall do,” said Razzmorten, sharing nods with Neron and Minuet.

  “We're ready,” said Hubba Hubba. “Dragoons and trolls to attack the enemy north of the port at midnight.”

  “No!” cried Ocker. “Your mother swyving message might be right, but you're fools if you deliver hit. Now wait! Did you say trolls?”

  “Fools?” said Hubba Hubba.

  “If you ones fly all that way, you are,” said Ocker. “I can be there long before you haul your dung matted butt feathers up into the sky. But do you mean to tell me that you all have trolls?”

  Pebbles had a quick peek under her tail, just to be sure.

  “I just counted two hundred, seven and twenty,” said a tall black haired and completely naked troll as he stepped into the kitchen.

  “Who the ding-dong blazes are you?” cried Ocker. “You've got one whopper of an aura.”

  �
��And you're a wizard, my feathered friend,” said the troll, “or you wouldn't have seen it.”

  “Indeed, since Badhbh Catha was a goddess,” mumbled Neron.

  “Ocker, this is Thunderman Veyfnaryr,” said Minuet. “And yea. Go at once and tell Captain Bernard that three hundred dragoon and two hundred troll will attack the enemy at midnight. And come right back here.”

  Ocker gave himself a shake, sleeked down and began pecking at his scrying marble. The moment he had found the Lostgwyns, he was gone.

  Chapter 204

  “Well here we all are at Peach Knob,” said Minuet, rising from the map on the table to peer out the door at the newly shorn sheep gathering 'round the water tub in the shade of the summer kitchen for a drink. “And we know that the sun sets at eight. So how do we coordinate this midnight attack along Tnassip Road?”

  “Peredur,” said Razzmorten. “Are either of those hour glasses still up in the herbarium?”

  “Why both of them I'd reckon, sir. I can't imagine that a living soul's been through the door to your plant collection for well above thirty year.”

  “Would you mind fetching them?”

  Peredur was already on his way.

  “I shouldn't think that this exact measurement of time applies to my trollbrutes and me,” said Veyfnaryr. “For us it will simply be a matter of waiting until dark and then setting out straight south, avoiding the roads and houses. We'll stay hidden from the enemy in the trees and brush until we see the dragons in the air. As soon as the fight starts, we'll join the fray.”