Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Shh!” whispered Ariel, stopping everyone in the hall to cast a spell of silence on their feet. On they ran to the stairwell. It was simply too dark for Razzmorten to see. He halted everyone on the first steps, set a mage light to hovering in the air and motioned for Neron to lead the way with him while Minuet followed behind. At the top of each flight of stairs, Razzmorten and Neron would cautiously raise their heads above the next floor to look down the hall either way. At the third floor, Neron spotted two guards and managed to turn them to ashes with no noise at all, except for the clatter of a helm tumbling onto the floor. At the fourth, he and Razzmorten incinerated five more guards with no more uproar than the loud smack of a falling pike.

  The fifth floor wavered with pale candlelight. Razzmorten snuffed out the mage light at once as he and Neron eased up the last steps. Without warning, Neron pounded down three steps on his hip the moment Razzmorten sprang to the top, losing his hat to a crossbow bolt as he turned to tumbling cinders the dozen guards coming right for him. In the next reeling moment, he heard a sputtering gasp down the steps behind him and snapped to. He trotted right down to where Neron lay, trying to sit up with a crossbow bolt clean through his chest.

  “Grandfather!” whimpered Ariel as Daniel knelt beside him in wide-eyed shock.

  “Silence!” coughed Neron. “Her bower's the next storey up... Her guards will hear... Help me up...”

  “You hush!” whispered Minuet. “You need to lie still...”

  Razzmorten knelt for a careful look. “He certainly does,” he said, looking up at Minuet. “We're off to Peach Knob. Fates' speed, ye hear? And get that witch!” And with that, he laid his hand on Neron and the two of them vanished.

  They were stunned at first, standing up from where Neron and Razzmorten had been. He had lost a frightful amount of blood. Minuet grabbed up Daniel and Ariel's hands for a squeeze and a deep breath for all before they eased their way up the steps to where Razzmorten had left his assailants as scattered piles of ash and armor in the candlelight. Daniel stopped short, studying the next flight of stairs leading to utter blackness.

  “Her bower's right up there,” whispered Ariel. “And it's nothing but glamouries and wards upon wards. It makes my hair stand on end. And no sign of her...”

  “Except that the whole hallway's a trap,” said Daniel.

  “You can count on it,” said Minuet.

  They crept onto the steps, staves ready. They were not about to use a mage light, but it was the longest climb up a stair that any of them were ever to remember. At the top they grew toward the floor.

  The instant they were far enough above the top step to make good targets, the entire hallway went blinding bright. A crossbow bolt glanced off the shoulder of Minuet's hauberk, one nipped off a piece of Daniel's ear and Ariel set alight a pair of guards with a searing green bolt from her staff. Eleven others were taking aim as Daniel and Minuet turned them to glowing columns of smoke, roiling to the ceiling. Suddenly everything was black.

  When Minuet turned loose a mage light in the hall, there was not one door to be seen, only the dark gallery at one end. “I just felt something,” she said. “I've got to see what it is. Don't wait for me.” And with that, she disappeared into the gallery.

  Chapter 206

  Neron was as pale and white in the wavering candlelight as the linens on the bed where he lay at Peach Knob. Razzmorten had removed the crossbow bolt, but for all of his power and all that he knew, he was in a panic. He laid his hands upon the great Elf and began yet another healing spell with silent dry lips.

  Neron brushed at Razzmorten's wrist, too spent to push his hand aside. “We both know that I'm beyond...” he said, no longer able to find him with his eyes. “Please... Just talk with me, one last time...”

  “No! There'll be plenty more times.”

  “Please...” he said, mustering himself to say more.

  “What would you like to talk about?”

  “Will you see that Illiam is crowned, once the empire has fallen?”

  “Of course, but...”

  Neron could not quite manage to shake his head.

  “I will see to that. You have my word.”

  “I should like to be buried at Oilean Gairdin, even though the trolls live there...” said Neron, taking some time to find the strength to go on. “But tell Illiam it would be better for us to live someplace else. We've made peace with Veyfnaryr and his clan. He's my friend. Let them live there. Too many horrors to ever go back...”

  “I shall tell him, and I'll make certain that Oisin and his family know,” said Razzmorten before falling silent as he waited for a reply, listening to the sounds of a cricket and a chewing mouse. He could hear a screech owl, somewhere out in the orchard.

  After a very long silence, Neron drew a breath. “I'll not say goodbye, old friend,” he said. “I'm right certain we shall meet again... Oh Nessa...”

  Razzmortain felt a white-hot pang of alarm at this. “Yes,” he hastened to say, as if he could keep him alive by talking. “I've no doubt that we shall...” Suddenly he saw that everything had quite stopped short. “Ri Neron Cuchulainn, my very best friend.” And with that, he covered his face with his hands.

  ***

  When Daniel and Ariel woke for supper back at Peach Knob, it was already getting dark in Gwael, where Vorona and Olloo stood in the grass a few miles east of Eglos-Derowek, looking out over the bodies of the slain, as Coileach and Smorigagh yanked and tugged at their kills in the failing light.

  “It's a damned waste, even if the lot of them be naught but a mess of moal- hushtagh,” said Vorona with her bow still strung, her blood streaked white hair a-flying in the breeze.

  “Caorach a leanas amadan, as we used to say,” said Olloo. “Sheep following a fool.”

  Vorona shook her head as she dug for a pinch of snuff.

  “Look 'ee yonder,” he said with a nod. “Inney and Tramman and both their birds made it. And she looks like she's seen a ghost...”

  “She's seen more'n any damned ghost.”

  “We've found nine and thirty austringas and two and forty birds slain,” said Tramman with a solemn nod as he planted his feet before them. “And if any of the enemy lived, it's only because they fled.”

  Vorona closed an eye and raised her chin as she settled her snuff. Inney wiped off her claymore, sheathed it and quietly gave her a hug.

  “You should've seen Inney. She was one fierce...” said Tramman, stopping short as Vorona shook a sudden frown.

  “Queen Vorona,” said Colonel Coel as he suddenly appeared out of the dark to remove his helm and kneel before her. “Your people fought splendidly,” he said as he rose. “Nay. Your people saved us. Your shawkyn spooghey, your strike falcons really demoralized the steward's forces...”

  “You're welcome,” said Vorona. “I pray it wasn't all for naught.”

  “How could it be for naught?” said Coel.

  “Do you seriously think we'll be free in the morning if they don't also bring down the witch on Mooar-Rheynn Dorraghey and Mooar-Rheynn Twoaie?” she said.

  “The Dark and Northern continents?” he said. “I see your point. But until we hear differently, let's enjoy our glory.”

  Vorona felt a shudder pass through Inney. “All right,” she said, drawing in a breath. “I'm pleased that this battle is over and won.”

  “If all rulers were like you, there'd be no battles. I pray that Gwael finds a ruler like unto you.”

  “Yea?” she said. “I'm still holding you to slaying every last troll on the continent.”

  “Excepting the women and children, of course...”

  “C'red ayns niurin ta shen?” she said. “What the Pit is that? And let them rise up again? Those curses have butchered and eaten our women and children for above two thousand year! So now that we've done our part, Colonel, don’t tell me that you ones ain't got what it takes to do yours.”

  “We're not about to let you down,” said Coel.

  “Good,” she said wi
th a steely-eyed nod. “Now, if we're to be celebrating victory until morning, have your men taken the steward yet?”

  “I allowed that morning would be soon enough to deal with him. None of his men survived to tell him.”

  “What kind of glorious victory is that?” she snapped. “He needs to cac a bristi!”

  “All right,” said Colonel Coel with gracious nod and a clap of his hands. “Let's go get him.”

  ***

  “We've got the right hallway,” said Ariel in a hushed voice. “That entire wall is one big glamourie...”

  “And according to the floor plans, the door to her parlour should be right here.” said Daniel. “Yea. Here it is...”

  “Don't,” said Ariel. “That ward outside the glamourie will undoubtedly alert her if you stick your hand through it.”

  “She has to know already.”

  “Yea, but we're 'way better off if we go in together,” she said as she started down the hall. “The door to her bathing room ought to be right yonder. “I'll go down and we'll try the latches at the same time.”

  Daniel waited until she found the door. When she nodded, he reached through at least two wards and a glamourie and found the latch and also found that it was free to turn. He gave a big nod to Ariel.

  The latch to the bathing room was fast. Ariel waited for Daniel look again and shook her head. She used a spell to unlock it and silence the hinges. She looked down the hall, nodded and they each stepped inside. With a scald of alarm she found that some spell of Spitemorta's was keeping her invisibility spell from working and the sound of her slippers on the tile floor meant that her spell of silence had been undone as well.

  Daniel did not notice that any of his protections had been undone. The parlour was carpeted, so he walked quietly into Spitemorta's bedroom where she lay propped up on bolster and pillows, looking into her skinweler. He raised his staff.

  “Hello fool,” she said to his image in her ball, the instant that Sergeant Lagasek gave a huff to his blowpipe.

  Daniel grabbed at the dart in his neck and collapsed.

  Lagasek stepped from behind his curtain to have a look in time for Ariel to set him off like a bomb, flinging Spitemorta's bedside chair across the tea table.

  “Wrong one dear,” said Demonica, carefully stepping across some of Lagasek's gore. “And after all the years you've practiced...”

  “You're Demonica?” said Ariel.

  “What?” cried Spitemorta, flinging aside her covers and standing up. “You see her?”

  Ariel jabbed her staff at Demonica, setting her off with a deafening concussion, plastering Spitemorta with her entrails and throwing Spitemorta back onto the bed with a bounce as it spattered the entire room with flecks and bits.

  “Abby!” shrieked Spitemorta, scrambling to the edge of the bed. “Help me! Get her!”

  Abaddon stepped from behind the screen with the Heart and Staff.

  “Fates no Abby!” wailed Ariel as she fell to her knees. “Just do it! Do it!” she sobbed. “I don't want to live anymore!”

  “Now Abby!” screamed Spitemorta, shooting to her feet.

  Abaddon gave a sudden thrust with the Heart and Staff, shooting out a bolt of flame that turned Spitemorta's head into a blinding ruby coal.

  With a sudden ring of steel, Minuet was there. “You took the love of my life!” she bellowed, coming down with Hebraun's claymore in a whistling fury that cleaved open Spitemorta's entire front as she fell back onto the bed.

  Minuet was on her at once with her gauntlets and boot, rending wide her ribs, slicing out her pumping heart and racing across the room to smash open the balcony doors. “Su-ey!” she yodeled out, hurling down a lightning ball onto the sleeping belted argent hogs below.

  With woofs and belches of alarm they were on their feet, squealing and racing about their pen. “For Hebraun!” roared Minuet, flinging down Spitemorta's heart to splat amongst them on the mud. And with a guttural baritone squeal, the largest sow shoved aside the others with her muddy snout and champed up the heart.

  Abaddon dropped the Heart and Staff onto the floor and knelt beside Ariel. “I'm so, so sorry!” he murmured as he gently drew her into his arms with his fingertips. “I'm sorry I had to scare you out of your wits...”

  “But why? You told me that you had every confidence in Daniel and me.”

  “Yea,” he said. “In you two. But I also knew her. And I wanted to spare you from the thing you feared more than killing her.”

  “What?”

  “You thought I'd hate you for it.”

  With a rattling sniffle, she hugged him back. “I love you Abby!” she hooted into the ruffles of his shirt.

  “Forever!” he said, drawing back to look at her with tears welling up in his eyes.

  And with that, she kissed him soundly.

  ***

  Fires set by the dragons erupted everywhere up and down the coast, lighting silhouettes of the empire soldiers all about, leaping and swinging swords in the moonless night and running in terror from the fire-spewing dragons who swooped out of the blackness, bearing deadly dragoons with longbows. Nor was there safety in the dark, for trolls see as well as owls, and they tramped about, smashing skulls in the shadows, following after Veyfnaryr as he turned the enemy's weapons red hot, igniting them in their hands. The beach was no place to flee either, now that Bernard's men had long come ashore with their longbows, and the enemy bodies were piling up.

  Obbree knew that the captain must be protected for the safety of all, so he stayed by Bernard's side with his claymore, directing the bloody dance of his four strike falcons as they ran down soldier after soldier, leaping and ripping them open as they fell. “Why aren't we getting through?” he shouted.

  “They keep coming from up and down the beach!” cried Bernard as he shouldered his bow and drew his sword.

  Far above, they had already seen as much. Edward and Laora passed by Sulacha and Mwg in flight. Laora wheeled about and caught up with Mwg. “We have it opened up ahead of Bernard's line!” hollered Edward.

  “Not until we shut them off up and down the coast!” shouted Sulacha. And he and Mwg dove at once for a target they had already picked out.

  “Down there,” said Edward as he nocked an arrow. “The soldier on the white unicorn has to be an officer.”

  “That one or that one?” she said, pausing her flapping to point.

  “Why not both?”

  And with that, she was falling toward the beach like a rock, sweeping open her wings at the last moment to hurtle toward the unicorns, mere yards above the sand, swelling up with a breath as she came, belching out a fierce whoosh of engulfing flame the very instant Edward planted his arrow below the rider's helm. And with three great pumping flaps, she shot back aloft. Edward readied his next arrow and they swooped back down to catch the other rider as he galloped away in panic.

  ***

  Sulacha and Mwg's target was Captain Perran. His unicorn threw him, bucking and running away in flames, leaving him to roll into the shadows with a deep gash on his hauberk from Sulacha's arrow. “That's the end of poor Margh!” he grunted as he rose onto his elbows. “And only the very Fates know where my sword is. So, if all that I have left is this stupid bag, I'd better use it.” He took it off his shoulder at once and rolled a skinweler out into his lap. “Show me General Coel.”

  Coel looked up at a flash in his ball and rose from his chair to pick it up.

  “General Coel?”

  “Is this Captain Perran? I can scarcely make out your face...”

  “I can scarcely see my hands...”

  “What tidings, Captain?”

  “This is utter madness! We were lying in wait, expecting them and they still managed to take us by surprise. They fell on us with dragons from the sky. And a host of trolls. And as we were fighting them, the ones in ships came ashore with longbows and strike falcons and some much larger terror bird I've never heard tell. The archers shoot every bit like old Niarg. And the dragons still
come. One just now set afire my mount.

  They're going to get through, if they haven't by now. We need help...!”

  “I'm on my way,” said Coel. “But mind you, it's possible that I won't come if the empress stops me.” He put the skinweler back on the table, put a towel over it and looked up to catch Elise's look of alarm.

  Elise quickly turned away.

  “Sergeant,” said Coel as he found his hat. “Guard Dora and Elise with your life until I return, in spite of long it might take.”

  Sergeant March thumped his chest in salute as Coel hurried out and trotted down the long wooden stair. By the time he reached the street he was running. Dogs barked several streets away as his riding heels smacked out echoes down the alley. He thumped onto the drawbridge, under the portcullis, sprinted across the inner and outer wards and bounded up the steps to the main door. Inside, there was not a guard to be seen. By the time he had reached the third and fourth floors, he was seeing pikes and scattered pieces of armor in the hallways. On the sixth floor, he had to step across crossbows, helms and empty hauberks in order to reach Spitemorta's bower. He pecked on the door as he stepped inside. “Your Omnipotence?” he called. He did hear something, but he saw at once that it was only the drapes flapping lazily by the balcony as he crossed the parlour.

  “Now why would there be furniture turned over?” he thought.

  “Fates Almighty!” he whispered at the sight of blood and bits of flesh thrown everywhere. “Is that Spitemorta?” he said, stepping carefully up to her headless corpse lying in a wad of bloody linen. “It is!” He backed away and quietly walked out. By the time he had reached the stairway, he was running. And he was still running when he sprang onto the bottom steps of Pilar Paleys.

  “March!” he barked, throwing the door wide. “Ready the troops! Full armor. We march at once to Tnassip Road on the Beach.”

  March thumped his chest. “Should I see to anything for Dora and Elise?”

  “Yea. Pick out any two men you want to come back up here and stand guard with you.”

  With another thump, March was on his way.