The further away from the castle she rode, the more people she was starting to see, but nowhere did she see the numbers of people which she was used to seeing. “There,” she said, peering out at the houses from under her hand. “Tafarn Bonheddig, 'way yonder. It has a third storey balcony on its front. I'll make my address there.” And with that, she gave Nightshade's flanks a kick.
Nightshade slowed to a canter as Tafarn Bonheddig loomed before them, a huge whitewashed wattle and daub affair with a neatly trimmed thatch roof. A blond haired young man on a bench in front sat up straight at their approach.
“You!” hollered Spitemorta as Nightshade clopped to a halt. “Hey!”
The young fellow set aside his carving and got to his feet.
“Come here!”
“Good Morning my lady,” he said with a nod as he crossed his arms and squinted.
“Just who are you?” she said, as if he were some sort of toad.
“Awst I be, at your service,” he said with another nod and a spit. “And you?”
“Your queen, knave.”
Awst grinned with a heave, as if he were going to laugh, but sobered as he gave her fine armor, staff and crystal a closer look.
“I'll need you to stable Nightshade here,” she said, dismounting with her panniers and thrusting her reins at him. “Take care that he's well fed and groomed. Come find me when you're done. Is that clear?”
“I don't work at the...” he said with a wide-eyed swallow as he took the reins. “Well forgive me for asking, but where will I find you after I've quartered your mount?”
“I am Queen Spitemorta,” she said with a hateful look.
Poor Awst went quite white for a moment, working his speechless mouth before quickly ducking aside to go 'round to the stable in back.
A very heavy set hired woman came out the front door with a rug to shake and watched him go.
“I want that balcony and the room right behind it, this minute” said Spitemorta, stepping right up to her. “I don't have time to waste.”
“My word!” said the woman, “The balcony does indeed go with the whole upstairs, but hit be all rented out...”
“Then you go right up there and shoo them out...”
“But Mister Tucker be the landlord,” stammered the woman, shaking her jowls. “I can't...”
At this, Spitemorta leveled the Staff at her, setting off her head like a petard, with a concussion that blew open the door behind her.
Tucker appeared at once in the doorway in his white apron and dropped his truncheon with a gasp at the sight of the corpse of his hired woman.
“She committed treason against the crown, if you must,” said Spitemorta as if she were merely discussing her rug wetting poodle. “Your queen came in great need of the immediate use of your top floor to serve the people of Goll and she was...slow.”
“I'm on my way!” cried Tucker, wheeling about to knock over a chair on his way to the stairs. “The top storey will be yours in two shakes!”
Spitemorta ambled inside to wait as she hid her bubbling glee behind her sooty face of stern disdain. Up the stairwell she could hear scooting furniture and some angry shouts and tramping about. She gave a bounce or two on her heels and fidgeted. At last she climbed the stairs to find Tucker scurrying her way with all the linen gathered into a great wad.
“I'm not quite...” he said.
“Stay out,” she said.
“But I can...”
“Just stay out.”
She threw her panniers onto the bed's naked mattress and paused to use the Staff and Heart to cover up with a glamourie of herself freshly bathed and wearing a black silk kirtle with grey lace before picking up her skinweler and stepping onto the balcony. A pin set into the rail of the balustrade cast a shadow showing that it was between ten 'o clock and half past ten. “Damn!” she said. “Well, it'll do. I've been this late a time or two.” She looked out over the houses of Castlegoll. Somewhere a few streets away, a dog was barking. An orchard oriole landed in a nearby maple and began scolding. There was hardly a soul to be seen, and certainly none of them were expecting any sort of address from the balcony of Tafarn Bonheddig.
“Of course,” she said, stepping back in at once. “What was I thinking?” She sat with a bounce on the edge of the bed as her skinweler began swirling with colors. Presently, she began the briefest delivery she had ever given: “Loyal citizens of Goll, I beg your pardons for being late. However today is not just another morrow, but a grand new day. Our new armies have made a just and triumphant retaliation for the vile and despicable destruction of Castle Goll. When the sun rose this morning, we smote Castle Niarg to ruin. We smote Castle Niarg to the ground! There will be no more burnt fields of sukere. We are now the new kingdom of Niarg-Loxmere-Goll!” After a piously emotional plea for the citizens to find her beautiful daughter and her nurse, she ended her address. “Ignorant sheep,” she said. She picked up the Staff and Heart and peered into the skinweler again. “Show me where General Coel has gotten to.” At the sight of him aboard his ship with his men, she recited her traveling spell, suddenly vanishing out of her squashed place in the fluffy down mattress.
***
The sudden cries of a tern directly overhead woke Rose. She opened her eyes to see a tiny hermit crab dragging a striped whelk shell toward her face through the white sand and found herself warm and snug against Fuzz under a silky feather-light Elven quilt. “I've never felt so wonderful in my life, waking up next to you,” she thought as she gently put her arm across him, “even if I've never been so stiff and sore.”
“Mmmp?” he said, rolling onto his back. “Rose?” He grabbed up her hand and kissed it as he opened his eyes.
“Fuzz, look at this little creature,” she said, holding the crab over his face.
“Augh!” he said, sitting up at once to grind his fists into his eyes. “My word, that salty sand stings.”
“Oh no! I'm so sorry.”
“Fiddlesticks!” he said, wincing and blinking as he grabbed her into a hug. “You can put sand in my eyes any ol' day you want, just as long as I get to wake up beside you.”
“You can't imagine how relieved I am to see the pair of you together this morning,” said Karl-Veur, coming up behind them with a strange Elf.
“Oh yes I can,” said Rose, looking up with delight. “Can you imagine our having to tell Yuna that we'd lost you? And here we are, putting you at Demonica's mercy at the very least. Did you just get here?”
“We've been here since just after you two fell asleep, last night,” he said. “Rose, this is Obbree.”
Obbree gave a shy bow and a toothless smile.
“Obbree's an austringa, just like Tramman and me,” said Inney, rushing over from where she and Tramman were fixing breakfast. “He's bondmates with Aalid. Aalid's the shawk spoogh 'way down the beach, hunting crabs.” And with that, she dashed back to the fire.
“And Rose,” said Karl-Veur, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze, “You sound a bit like Yann-Ber at times. Please remember that this is entirely my doing. This risk with Demonica I gladly take for the House of Dark and for the House of Niarg.”
“Well there may be nothing come of it anyway,” said Fuzz as he got to his feet and stared out over the water, “depending on just how marooned we happen to be.”
“Why are we marooned?” said Rose as Fuzz helped her up. “Gwael is on the east coast, right? How far is that?”
Obbree nodded then immediately shook his head.
“I don't know about Gwael,” said Fuzz. “I suppose we need to keep it in mind...”
“They have the only ports, right?” said Rose, “so what's the problem?”
“Maybe Demonica herself,” said Karl-Veur. “King Vortigern and Demonica have a connection that comes up frequently when dealing with either one of them. If we leave here by one of their ports, it will take some wary planning at the very least. Right, Fuzz?”
“Sounds like you know more than I do, but I was aware of Dem
onica having some sort of connection in Gwael which went back to the Razzorbauch days. If she and Spitemorta are trying to start a war with Niarg, I don't know where that would put us when we try to get passage on a ship.”
“You'll at least need breakfast first,” said Tramman as he tapped on the lip of the pan he was stirring.
“Inney,” said Rose, “just what is that tasty aroma?”
“Wild rice and a big mess of crabs.”
“If you're considering following the coast to Gwael from here, I wouldn't,” said Tramman. “You'd at least need preparations you won't have, and going by way of Balley Cheerey is almost as close. And besides, I know some elders who'd give an argid mooar to trade tales with you ones. And you're more than quite welcome to come.”
Fuzz, Rose and Karl-Veur traded looks. “If we're not too much of a burden, we'd certainly appreciate being able to tag along,” said Fuzz.
Obbree smiled grandly at this and at once gave a little sprint across the sand, ending in a cartwheel.
“We're going to gather blister kelp all day today before we start,” said Tramman as he began ladling out rice and crabs and handing the bowls to Inney, “and that'll mean that the unicorns will be fully laden, so we'll have to walk.”
“So what is blister kelp?” said Rose as she sampled the steaming broth in her bowl.
“A kind of sea weed,” said Tramman, turning his face into the early sea breeze as he sat in the sand with his own bowl. “'Famlagh' is our name for things like that.”
“Seems like the Jutish Elven name for sea weed might be 'feamainn,'“ said Fuzz.
“And what do you do with it?” said Rose.
“We make a salve out of it which is good for sunburns and cuts and even some kinds of spider bites,” said Tramman. “The plants anchor themselves to the bottom and stay upright in the water with blisters or floats that look like big grapes which are full of slime. We'll gather the grapes into big sacks and make the salve out of the slime when we get back. You certainly don't need to help, but...”
“We most certainly will,” said Rose in a tone that laid the matter to rest.
“Then we'll be wading the shore, up to our knees a-picking the grapes until the tide comes in just before noon, and then again when it goes out early this evening, if we need to. We'll probably be done by mid-morning, truth to tell, so we could actually be well into the Strah by dark....”
“Hey!” cried Inney, “You promised one more night at the beach.”
“So I did...if all our company is in agreement.”
There were nods all around.
They spent the morning, knee deep in the beds of kelp as snow white gulls hovered and dove for fish and squadrons of pelicans patrolled the shore. They had indeed completely stuffed their sacks by the time the noon tide had come in. They spent the afternoon wandering the beach and enjoying each other's company before having a supper of more crabs and rice.
They had their unicorns completely laden and packed before the first light. With the first rusty calls of the seaside sparrows as the sky turned deep blue, they wended between tussocks of marram grass into a landscape of sandburs and rolling sand dunes with Tramman, Obbree and Karl-Veur leading the way while Rose, Fuzz and Inney followed a rod or two behind. After tramping a good long way with no talking, Rose paused to shift her pack and to study the horizon.
“Young ladies were never meant to be pack animals, Rose,” said Fuzz. “I could take your bag for a bit.”
“And I suppose old bespelled bears are,” she said with her eyes dancing.
“Absolutely!” said Fuzz. “Going to find Gastro. That is indeed what it reminds me of, too.”
“What are you two talking about?” said Inney.
“We were once in a place like this when Fuzz was a bear,” said Rose, stopping short to share wide-eyed looks with Fuzz at what she had just said.”
“You were a bear?” said Inney. “Mister Fuzz! You're not a skin walker, are you?”
“You mean, could I change myself into a bear? Not at all. I could not begin to do something like that, even if I had forever and seven days. I was trapped as a bear with no hair until the witch who did it to me was killed and her evil faded away some years later.”
Everyone ahead had turned about to listen. “She must've been one powerful witch if it took so long for all of her magic to fade,” said Tramman.
“She was powerful, all right,” said Fuzz, “and made all the more so by having in her possession what we know as the Great Staff of Power. Your long lost brethren once called it Bata Millteanach. And it's a very long tale that I can see needs to be told when we get to Balley Cheerey.”
“That's a story I can't wait to hear,” said Tramman, turning square about in the sand. “Let’s get on to Balley Cheerey.” And with that, the party resumed their tramp through the sand.
As the sun rose, the sand became unbearably hot, and since Rose, Fuzz and Karl- Veur had lost their shoes in the sea when the ship sank, they were forced to make emergency footwear out of a ripped kelp sack and strips of the skirt of Rose's kirtle. By the time the sun was high enough for the sand to blister bare feet, they were underway again, listening to the endless calls of cicadas.
Grass was now covering most of the sand. Dickcissels called from the taller tussocks. Redwing blackbirds scolded from the air above their heads. “When the grass is all taller than we are, we'll finally be in the Strah,” said Tramman. “Keep your eyes open for snakes.”
As Rose studied a particularly tall bunch of grass, she stumbled across a mound of sticks and grass. “Fuzz!” she cried, “Look! Huge eggs. The size of a baby's head. Fuzz! This one's hatched.” At once all three strike falcons dashed through the grass to peer closely at what she had found. “Are these strike falcon eggs, Inney?”
“Yea,” she said, picking up an egg. “These aren't suppose to be out here, are they Tramman?”
“Not at all,” he said, letting go of his handful of reins to pick up an egg with both hands, “We thought we'd shot the last wild one maybe seven hundred years ago.”
“What's wrong with wild ones?” said Rose. “What would happen if I picked up this one just hatched?”
“She'll be your bond mate, if you want one,” said Tramman. “And wild ones? Really, really dangerous. They can take you out with one slashing kick. See Obbree a-stringing his bow? That's what I'm going to do right now.”
“So what do I do if I want a bond mate?”
“Take her with you. Inney'll tell you what to do,” he said as he strung his bow. “Fuzz? Take my sword. I see Karl-Veur has Obbree's. And everybody pick up an egg. Put it inside your shirt. We have to go. Now! Those parents could show up and kill someone in the blink of an eye. Somebody will have to come all the way back down here and hunt them down and kill them.”
Chapter 148
Spitemorta appeared without warning on the poop deck of the Flying Maiden, still sitting upright on something no longer there at all and fell backward at once in a clatter of staff and armor, her skinweler rolling off the deck like a shot to plunge into the open hold below, striking a crewman with a thud which made him bellow out in pain. She rolled onto her hands at once, reeling as she rose in a stumble for the railing to heave out a shaft of vomit at the water. “Aaangh!” she brayed, steadying herself with a white knuckled grip on the rail as terns swooped and dove after the last peppering bits to hit the water.
General Coel turned aside where he stood talking to Captain Jockford to look her up and down.
Spitemorta clamped shut her eyes and swallowed, her wild black hair afly in the breeze.
“My!” he said, snapping to with a bow. “We might not have been expecting you until we reached Castle Goll, but you did indeed get everyone's attention.”
Spitemorta glared from her soot blackened face.
“Anaoc!” he called out to a man below. “Who got hit by the stone ball?”
“Ryd, sir!” cried Anaoc, squinting up into the light. “Hollered out when it hit him,
and went limp as a noodle! He's out cold!”
“Did you find the ball?”
“Aye!”
“Well fetch it up to my cabin!” He handed the Staff and Heart to Spitemorta, gave her his arm and led her to his quarter where he set her on the edge of his bed and without a word, brought her a clean cloth, a basin and a pitcher of fresh water before having a seat at the table to wait for her to recover. Presently he rose to a peck on his door and returned to the table with her skinweler.
“I was looking out over the water and didn't see you fly in,” he said, suddenly rising again to hand her the ball as an afterthought, “but was it your landing that made you sick?”
“That might not be something you want to ask a queen,” she said with sudden sweetness as she tired of the washcloth and plunked it into the basin. “Now. Turn away until I tell you.”
Coel gave a fleeting puzzled expression as he nodded and turned his back to her.
“All right General,” she said almost immediately, as she set the Staff and Heart aside. “You can turn around.”
Cole turned about and stopped short at the sight of her, freshly bathed and immaculately groomed, dressed in a black velvet kirtle trimmed with grey lace, her armor neatly stacked at the end of the bed. He carefully took his seat at the table and sat quietly for a moment before he spoke. “So I take it something happened in Goll,” he said as he studied her, “or did you not make it all the way there?”
“Something happened?” she scoffed, scooting forward where she sat. “And whose idea was it to leave the gonne powder at Castle Goll?”
“Why yours as I recall, Your Majesty. You said we'd not need it along to bring down Castle Niarg. And I thought you and Demonica did indeed manage a thorough job of...”
“I should say it did, General!” she said with an explosive flare of her own, calming at once. “Your gonne powder managed to take down every single timber and tile of Castle Goll...”
“So...” said Coel with a wide-eyed nod as he folded his arms, “sharp customers, these Niarg folks. They weren't just ready for our strike at Niarg Castle, they used it as a chance to return the favor. You know, when you told us to leave the powder, I wondered how wise it was to take all the men with us. You and Demonica never thought about Niarg having a spy at Castle Goll, did you?”
Heart of the Staff - Complete Series Page 159