The Wyvern's Spur

by Kate Novak

  “All right. I’ve been stuck here for hours,” Cat amended her story with annoyance. “I’m starving just the same. You wouldn’t happen to have brought food, would you?”

  Giogi stared at Cat with considerable perplexity as he reached inside the picnic basket and produced a cheese sandwich.

  “Wonderful,” Cat said, snatching it out of Giogi’s hand. She unwrapped it halfway, sniffed at it once, shrugged, and took a large bite.

  Olive stared at the nobleman in amazement. Don’t you realize she’s got to be the thief who stole the spur? Olive berated Giogi mentally. How can you stand there calmly feeding her cheese sandwiches? “I don’t understand,” Giogi said. “Uncle Drone said I wouldn’t find the thief or the spur down here.”

  Olive huffed, wishing she could tell Giogi, Shake this woman down for the spur and turn her over to Lord Sudacar. Uncle Drone’s made a mistake.

  Cat held up her finger, chewed faster, and swallowed. Then she said with a grin, “Your uncle was right. You didn’t find the thief or the spur.”

  “What are you doing in the catacombs if you aren’t the thief?” Giogi demanded.

  Cat took another large bite, chewed, and swallowed before answering. “Wishing I were the thief. You see, my master sent me here after the spur, but when I got up to your stupid family crypt, the thing was gone. Someone else took it. The door from the crypt to the upper mausoleum was locked, so I had to come back through the catacombs, and, like I said, some idiot—that’d be your uncle—blocked the stupid door to the outside.”

  “He’s not my uncle, really,” Giogi said. “He’s, well, he was my grandfather’s cousin, so that makes him my first cousin twice removed. We all call him uncle, though, because he’s so very old.” The young noble frowned suddenly. “You have a lot of nerve, you know, admitting you came to steal my family’s most precious heirloom, and then insulting my relatives to boot.”

  “Well, I didn’t steal your heirloom, now did I?” Cat pointed out defensively. “And if your uncle knew the thief with the spur wasn’t in the catacombs, it was pretty idiotic to seal me up in here, wasn’t it?” she asked before popping the remainder of the sandwich in her mouth.

  “Uncle Drone is a sweet, gentle old man,” Giogi declared with indignation.

  “If you say so,” Cat mumbled with her mouth still full. When she’d managed to swallow, she asked, “Do you have anything to wash this sandwich down?”

  “There’s tea,” Giogi offered. He began reaching into the picnic basket for the tea jug but stopped short upon noting the disgusted look on Cat’s face.

  “Would you prefer water?” the nobleman asked.

  “Haven’t you got anything stronger?” the sorceress asked with a sly grin.

  Feeling rather odd, Giogi drew a silver hip flask from his back pocket and held it out. He’d never offered hard liquor to a woman before. “It’s Rivengut,” he warned. “Quite strong. Would you like me to water it down for you?”

  Cat took the flask, unscrewed the lid, and took a long swallow. “No, thank you,” she said with a cheerful smile. “It’s just right.”

  Giogi blinked twice in astonishment, then he shook himself mentally. “Why did your master send you after the spur?” he asked.

  Cat shrugged. “I have no idea. I just follow his orders. One doesn’t ask men like Flattery to explain themselves. It’s a good way to get oneself killed.”

  “But you could have been killed, anyway. The catacombs are full of dangerous creatures, and the guardian is supposed to slay anyone in the crypt who isn’t a Wyvernspur. Did you really go into the crypt?”

  “How else could I know the spur was missing? I never saw hide nor hair of any guardian. Are you sure your guardian’s not a myth your family uses to frighten would-be thieves?”

  Giogi shook his head. “She’s not,” he insisted. “If she didn’t kill you, that must mean you’re a Wyvernspur. We’ve always suspected there were missing members. What branch of the family are you from?”

  “I’m a mage, not a family historian,” Cat said with a sniff.

  You’re too proud to admit that you don’t know, aren’t you, girl? Olive thought slyly. You think you’re an orphan, just like Alias and Jade. Somehow, though, the guardian must have realized that you’re connected to the Nameless Bard, who is a Wyvernspur.

  “If your master, this Flattery person,” Giogi said, “told you that the guardian wouldn’t bother you, then he must have known you were a Wyvernspur.”

  Cat’s brow furrowed with some thought. She looked down at her hands, as if to examine them for proof. “You could be right,” she admitted softly.

  Giogi lifted the mage’s chin so that her eyes met his own. “Why do you serve him if he sends you out to steal for him?”

  “I was just beginning to wonder about that myself,” Cat said, smiling weakly.

  Giogi dropped his hand from the mage’s chin to her shoulder. “You should leave his service,” he advised.

  “I may have to,” Cat said, lowering her green eyes again. So softly that Giogi could barely hear her, she whispered, “Flattery will be furious with me for failing my mission.”

  “Don’t go back to him,” the noble suggested, giving her shoulder a friendly squeeze.

  “I wouldn’t,” Cat said, looking up at Giogi through her long red eyelashes, “except—” Cat looked down and hesitated. Then, as if she could barely contain her misery, she looked back up at Giogi and burst out, “except I have nowhere else to go, and he’s sure to find me, and when he does he’ll be even angrier that I tried to leave.” Her voice quavered slightly with fear.

  Bravo! Olive thought cynically. Excellent performance.

  “I see,” Giogi said solemnly.

  Don’t be a fool, Giogi, Olive thought.

  “I shall offer you my protection, then,” Giogi said.

  What a sap, Olive thought, shaking her burro head.

  “That’s very kind of you, Master Giogioni, but I can’t accept your offer. Flattery is a very powerful mage with a violent temper. I don’t dare risk your life as well.”

  Think about it, Giogi, Olive pleaded silently. She’s just vying for your sympathy, old boy. Make it backfire. Accept her refusal. You don’t really want to interfere with the business of powerful mages with violent tempers.

  “I insist,” Giogi replied staunchly.

  I knew he’d say that, Olive thought.

  “After all, you saved my life. You must come with me,” Giogi continued. “Uncle Drone is a powerful mage, too. He can help protect you. He’ll probably want to know all about this Flattery, anyway.”

  Olive pricked up her ears. Giogi might consider his Uncle Drone a sweet, gentle old man, but if he was a powerful mage, he was another suspect for the man who’d disintegrated Jade. Except, according to Giogi, he was very old. Wizards could disguise their age, though, Olive knew.

  “I should accompany you out now, before Steele sees you,” Giogi said. “He’s my second cousin. He’ll think you’re the real thief, because Uncle Drone told him the thief was down here.”

  “That really won’t be necessary—” Cat began, but she was interrupted by a crash.

  “What was that?” Giogi asked.

  “They’re your catacombs. You tell me,” Cat challenged.

  From the same direction as the crash came a blood-curdling scream. A human scream.

  “Steele!” Giogi exclaimed. “You wait here with Birdie,” he ordered Cat. He drew his foil and ran off in the direction of the scream.

  Steele’s Rescue

  Olive took only a moment to consider her options. On one hand, she was sure she didn’t want to run into whatever had made Steele scream that way. On the other hand, if whatever it was happened to swallow Steele and Giogi, she was stuck in the catacombs—as a burro—with Cat, possibly for the rest of her life, as short as that might be.

  Not an amusing prospect, Olive thought. I have to keep the boy from doing something rash. She trotted down the corridor after the shrinkin
g light of the finder’s stone.

  There was another scream, and Giogi dashed down a narrow side passage to follow it. The ceiling was lower there, and he had to stoop as he ran. Shrill cries of anger and laughter echoed down the hall. The nobleman slowed. There were no further cries from his cousin. The laughter had a sinister tone, which chilled Giogi to the marrow. He stopped.

  Olive bumped into the nobleman. He gasped and whirled around. “Birdie, you naughty girl. You were supposed to wait with Mistress Cat.”

  Cat drew up behind the burro. “What is it?” she asked.

  “You should have stayed with the burro. It could be very dangerous,” Giogi chided.

  “I am with the burro,” Cat pointed out. If it’s dangerous, why don’t we leave?” she asked.

  “That was Steele. He’s my family. I have to help him.”

  “But if you don’t come back, I’ll never get out of here. I’ll die down here,” Cat said. Her lower lip quivered.

  What she said, only without the dramatic touches, Olive thought.

  “If Steele and I don’t come back, my Cousin Freffie will come down looking for us. If you wait in the crypt for him, he’ll let you out.”

  Cat frowned with displeasure. Olive thought, She doesn’t want to take a chance on Freffie. He might not fall for her story as easily as Giogi did.

  “I’m not leaving you,” Cat insisted.

  Giogi sighed with defeat. “Then you’d better stay behind me,” he stated, holding an authoritative finger up to her nose. He turned about and crept down the passage.

  The corridor turned, and there Giogi halted, peering around the edge. Cat stopped behind him and peeked out from behind his back.

  The passage opened into a larger chamber ten feet farther down. Inside the room, a tangle of white-horned, black-scaled creatures smaller than halflings jumped up and down on a massive mahogany tabletop. The monsters wore nothing but raggedy red shifts with belts of rope and dagger sheaths.

  The table rocked on the splintered stumps that had once been its legs, and on a prone human body. Protruding from beneath the table were Steele’s head and shoulders; the rest of him was pinned by the tabletop and the weight of the creatures swarming on top of it. A moan escaped Steele’s lips and his head lolled to one side. From Steele’s stillness and closed eyes, though, Giogi guessed his cousin was mercifully unconscious.

  “Kobolds,” Cat said with scorn. “Just a few stupid kobolds.”

  Giogi counted at least twenty, which ranked slightly higher than a few, in his estimation, but he kept his growing sense of alarm in check. He could hardly convince Cat that he could protect her from her master, he realized, if he cringed from a battle with kobolds.

  “Right. You wait here,” he ordered. “And I mean right here.” Having laid down the law, Giogi plunged into the room, foil drawn in his right hand, finder’s stone raised high in his left, shouting an inarticulate battle cry.

  “What does he think he’s doing?” Cat muttered.

  Proving himself, obviously, Olive thought.

  “Idiot,” Cat said, pulling something out of one of her robe pockets. As Cat dangled it in front of her, Olive got a closer look at it: a finger bone. Cat began chanting softly. Motes of light began to sparkle about the bone.

  The burro pulled back quickly. Don’t want to get in the way of a spell that involves anyone’s finger bone, Olive decided.

  Oblivious to the magic being cast behind him, Giogi rushed to his cousin’s side. The kobolds, alarmed by the sudden loud intrusion and the finder’s stone light, scattered before him.

  Their surprise gave way to rage, however, when they realized they were beset with only a single foe armed with nothing but an oversized skewer. With cruel smiles on their muzzles, the kobolds drew sharp daggers, which glittered in the light of Giogi’s stone. The beasts began encroaching on him in groups of three or four, snarling like dogs set to bait a bull.

  Assuming a combat stance, Giogi pivoted about his left foot, lunging with his foil in the direction of any kobold who came within range.

  Back in the corridor, Cat ceased her chanting and the bone she held crumbled to dust. Suddenly, the kobolds surrounding Giogi fell back in terror. Impressed with the effect his prowess seemed to have had on the creatures, Giogi jabbed his foil a few times in their direction to test their reaction. The kobolds cowered like whipped dogs.

  The nobleman didn’t have the heart to skewer any of them. Keeping a wary eye on the little monsters, he bent over to examine his cousin. Steele’s breathing was shallow and his face pale.

  Cat padded into the room, smiling with pleasure at the effect her scare spell had on them. The creatures trembled at her gaze. Olive stood watching from the shadows near the room’s entrance. According to common adventurer lore, pack animals were seen as a delicacy among kobolds and other underground races. She didn’t want to take the chance that the sight of dinner on the hoof would prick up the monsters’ courage.

  “I thought I told you to stay put,” Giogi whispered to the mage.

  “They won’t hurt me with you to protect me,” Cat insisted. When she looked down at Steele, she gasped softly. “This is your cousin?” she asked.

  “Yes. Why?” Giogi asked.

  “Nothing,” Cat said, shaking her head.

  “Well, now that you’re here, I suppose you can help,” Giogi said with a sigh. “Take these,” he ordered, handing Cat his foil and the finder’s stone so he could use both hands to lift the table off Steele. He strained under the weight, unable to shift the massive piece of furniture.

  “How did they move this thing on top of him in the first place?” Giogi gasped, sweat beading on his forehead.

  “Look up,” Cat suggested, holding the finder’s stone over her head so he could get a better look. A great length of rope ran from the table to a pulley mounted in the ceiling twenty feet above, to a second pulley at the edge of the room, and finally to a spool controlled by a winch.

  “Keep an eye on them,” he ordered Cat. He crossed the room to examine the winch. Whimpering kobolds backed away from him. It took him a minute to find and operate the toggle that engaged the spool’s gears. He cranked the rope taut, then began lifting the great table off the floor. Even with the ingenious machine, it was hard work. Sweat trickled down the sides of Giogi’s face by the time he’d raised the table a few inches.

  “That should be enough,” Cat said, peering under the table at Steele’s body.

  Giogi returned to her side and slid Steele clear of the crushing weight. “I wonder how these little monsters managed to get this table in here,” Giogi said aloud. “I think it used to be in the anteroom beneath the crypt.”

  “No doubt they bribed something bigger to do it for them,” Cat guessed. “So, unless you want to meet whatever that thing is, I suggest we leave now.”

  “Good idea,” Giogi agreed. “Just as soon as Steele recovers. I need to fetch a healing potion from Birdie’s pack.”

  Cat placed a slender hand on Giogi’s sleeve. In a soft but urgent voice she said, “If you bring him around now, he’ll see me down here. Didn’t you say he’ll think I’m the thief?”

  Giogi nodded. “Yes. He’ll make a tremendous fuss, too. Steele can be quite vicious when he has his heart set on something, as he does on the spur. I’ll have to carry him.”

  “But that will slow us down awfully,” Cat argued. “Why don’t you load him on the burro and wait until we’re back out in the graveyard before you use your potion?”

  Oh, no, you don’t, Olive thought from her hiding place in the shadows.

  “Birdie’s got a full load, and even if I unpacked her, Steele would weigh too much for her.”

  Cat gave an annoyed sniff. “I might be able to manage a spell to handle him,” she offered.

  Handing Giogi his weapon and the finder’s stone, she drew a vial of silver liquid and unstoppered it. Murmuring a chant, she tilted the vial so a drop of the liquid fell from it. Just before it reached the ground, the dropl
et spread out into a shimmering disk, rose three feet, and hovered there. “We can lay him on that,” Cat said.

  “Are you sure it will hold him?” Giogi asked.

  “Hurry” Cat whispered, putting away the vial, “before the kobolds begin to lose their fear of you.”

  Even before Giogi looked back at the little monsters cowering in the cavern, some of them had begun making muttering, discontented sounds. He lifted Steel up and laid him on the disk. It held the wounded man off the ground without sinking. Cat headed slowly for the doorway. The disk and its cargo followed her.

  Giogi followed, too, walking backward, his weapon at the ready. If the kobolds attacked en masse, he was sure he would not be able to hold them off.

  Suddenly, one of the grimy creatures stepped from around the table and began shouting angrily. Its weapon was sheathed, but its tone was hostile. Cat stopped by the entrance and turned around. The disk hovered beside her. She listened with some interest to what the creature had to say.

  Giogi backed into the mage. “Do you know what he’s gibbering?” he asked in a whisper.

  “She says,” Cat explained, “that it’s not fair. Your cousin captured and tortured her, but she hasn’t had her chance to give as well as she got.”

  Aghast, Giogi asked, “Why would Steele do such a thing?”

  Cat made a series of hissing and growling noises, which Giogi could not begin to comprehend. The belligerent kobold answered in kind.

  “To find out about the spur and the thief,” Cat explained. “She convinced him to follow her into this booby trap.”

  “Can you tell her I will take him away so he can’t hurt any of them again?”

  Cat spoke again in the tongue the kobolds understood. The lead kobold growled and chittered some more, and Cat snarled back at it. The gaze of both, human woman and kobold female, locked onto one another with a long, menacing glare.

  After a minute, the staring contest ended. The kobold looked down, spat on the ground in Cat’s direction, and ran off into the darkness. The other kobolds followed.

  “She would have preferred that you left him here. I think you spoiled their fun,” Cat said with a wry smile.