Heart of the Staff - Complete Series

by Carol Marrs Phipps

  “Loose!” bellowed Joran. A score of men near the scaffold fell like dominoes. By the time Caradog's men began looking up at the windows, another volley of bolts flew, and another score fell. Caradog's men were pointing at the windows and shouting as Joran's squad rushed onto the catwalk and loosed a volley and then another.

  “Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” cried Joran as his men on the ground rushed into the garden.

  “Halt!” roared an officer on the scaffolding, holding a cutlass to Azenor's throat.

  “Halt!” he roared even louder as a hush fell over the crowd. Now everyone could plainly see a soldier with a blade at the throat of each one of the prisoners. “Loose one more and I will cut off his head!” came the cry into the new quiet. “Who speaks for you scoundrels?”

  Joran stepped into the open with his sword. “I'm sorry, but we have none!” he shouted as he planted his feet. “I believe that it is you, Lieutenant Ellis, who speak for the scoundrels. And since the punishment for scoundrelry in the Dark Empire is death, you might secure leniency by the prudent act of releasing unto us your prisoners...”

  “Ha!” cried Ellis. “We demand parley!”

  “Demand?” cried Joran. “A demand from one who commits buggery with witches?”

  “Parley!” roared Ellis. “Or one of these prisoners dies!”

  “Name your terms.”

  “Safe passage to Niarg. One of Her Omnipotence's ships is anchored in the harbor. Allow everyone here to board and we'll release the four traitors.”

  “Where?”

  “On the ship's gangplank.”

  “Deal!” cried Joran. “Though I say only if, the ship's captain agrees...”

  “You might regret taking too long!”

  “You chose the position, Ellis!” cried Joran as he quickly turned to the sergeant standing at his elbow. “Quick,” he said in a low voice. “I need six good men. I need three to see in haste if there is indeed a Niarg ship at the quays with a captain willing to take them. And the other three are to go to the dungeon and ask if the dragons are safely locked up.”

  After a frightfully long half hour, kicking at the gravel in the garden path with the toe of his boot as he studied flies of all sorts gathering in profusion on the pork no one was eating, Joran got a yes from both places. “Ellis!” he said, speaking out. “The H.O.S.

  Sea Duck will allow you to board as soon as we raise the garden portcullis and march you all there.”

  Though it seemed forever, Lieutenant Ellis and his men and Azenor, Karl-Veur, Yann-Ber and Argan were all aboard with crossbows pointing across the railing as the H.O.S. Sea Duck weighed anchor.

  “I knew they'd get away with it, if it's not out of place for me to say so,” said one of Joran's sergeants.

  “So did I,” said Joran as he watched Azenor, Karl-Veur, Yann-Ber and Argan being tied to the masts. “Let's go see that the dragons are released.”

  The H.O.S. Sea Duck was not yet to the horizon as Cinder and Cook began circling it, setting alight her sails and rigging above the shouts and cries of the men below. As all hands were drawing up water in a mad panic, the two dragons took turns boarding and cutting free the four prisoners.

  Joran walked Yuna to the quay where she jumped and squealed, clapping her hands as Cinder and Cook swooped in to land with their double loads. And she had dancing hugs and tears of joy for everyone.

  Azenor sat rubbing his bruised and bristly face when he stopped short. “Ha!” he said, smacking the arm of his throne. “Let's have a grand hog roast in the garden with every jug of last year's mead. But this time, I want the portcullis up so everyone can see when I bestow a knighthood upon Lieutenant Joran.”

  Chapter 208

  It was just growing light in the east as Ariel, Abaddon and Daniel set out for the orchard at Peach Knob. Minuet stood at the kitchen door, watching them disappear into the dark trees as she remembered her sheep and chickens all those years ago and Hebraun, the first time he came to see just her.

  They thoroughly soaked their feet, making paths through the dew in the grass under the peach trees. They passed by the big spring up the hill, shrill with the calls of peepers and chorus frogs. They came at last to the top of the hogback overlooking the barns. A woodpecker hammered a dead limb. Presently the sun showed its blinding sliver of red through the trees beyond the fields. Ariel and Daniel stood in silence, letting go pinches of pollen into the air. And as the cardinals on the hillside sang in the new daylight, Ariel and Abaddon went hand in hand, following Daniel down the hill to the house.

  Beyond the summer kitchen, Razzmorten handed the Heart and Staff to Ariel. She studied her scrying ball for a moment, took Abaddon and Daniel firmly by the hand and vanished.

  They found themselves standing right in front of Meri Greenwood and Teeuh who were waiting joyously for them under Longbark's great spreading limbs. Meri did a backward handspring, dashing back to a fouette and then a spreading of his arms with a reverence bow.

  “You were expecting us!” gasped Ariel.

  “Certeynly,” said Meri.

  “But I didn't see you in my scrying ball.”

  “That ben thanne and this be now,” he said with a laugh.

  Ariel hesitated, then held out the Heart and Staff to Teeuh.

  “Arne thise the verray tooles of power which to cawse thise lyve-longe yere of grief was usedyn?” said Teeuh.

  “They are,” said Ariel. “And I am so very relieved that you're taking them.”

  Teeuh studied the Heart and Staff from end to end as she slowly opened and closed her wings. Without warning, she planted the small end of the Staff on the ground with a thump that shot a ruby bolt of light from the Heart into the heavens with a thundering boom that smote Ariel, Abaddon and Daniel onto the ground to roll about, holding their ears as it shook the ground with its roar for some minutes. Suddenly the great red light was gone, its echoes rolling away past the walls of the crater into the forests down the flanks of Mount Bed and on for miles into the countryside.

  “What was that?” said Abaddon as he sat up.

  “That ther in the Herte and Staf ben al the evyl stoored by the Ffirst Wysard and by Razzorbauch,” said Teeuh.

  “The Heart!” said Ariel. “It's not red.”

  “Clene as babelynge mounteyn water,” said Meri.

  “So its power is gone?” said Abaddon.

  “Nat atte al,” said Teeuh, squinting at the crystal. Suddenly she looked up at the sound of giggles as three stunningly beautiful green haired women came running through the grass. “O Mammas!” she cried as she leaped high into the air and fluttered back down.

  “Ye aren now al so praty, praty!” She pumped her wings, bounced and clapped her hands as Celeste threw her arms about Meri and the pair of them whirled away to tumble into the grass in a fit of mirth as Alvita and Nacea hiked their skirts and danced a giddy hornpipe.

  “A!” cried Celeste, throwing her arms wide as she got to her feet. “Lok eow atte Abby. Thou art al ygrowen.” And she, Alvita and Nacea crowded 'round him, nearly toppling him with their hugs.

  “So!” he said, planting his feet and stopping short. “Now that you all have more beauty than I can tell, can ye still bake your apple pies so well?”

  “Now ther beth oure Abby!” cried Alvita. “Perchaunce hee sholde to the kycchyn comen and sene.”

  “Whoa!” cried Abaddon, stopping short at the sight of a right handsome young man, tramping their way through the grass. “Rodon! Is that you?”

  “Hit am Ich,” said Rodon with a deep and courtly bow. “And Ich am sory to seye so tooken with gle ben Ich that Ich chaumped doun the pye which ben kolynge.”

  “I'll pare the apples,” said Abaddon.

  “Thanne hast to the kycchyn,” cried Alvita, with an arabesque sweep of her arm, “for Abby hise pye most haven!”

  ***

  Just before the warm dawn of the first of May, James and Mary and their five hundred, five and twenty Gollian soldiers and Talorg and his fifteen hundred
Beak warriors appeared and quietly bivouacked in the waving grass just beyond Henheath Crown, out of the sight of Castlegoll. Gollmore wolves still howled in the distance as larks took to the air with their twittering. James strayed out into the grass as the multitude was getting settled.

  “Where are you wandering off to?” said Mary, catching up with him.

  “I'm sorry,” said James. “Had I realized that I was going on a walk, I would've invited you along. Right about here is the first place I even dared to imagine that I was going to escape Spitemorta. Owain, Lewrich and Aeron had me in this little wain, pounding along behind a donkey...”

  “She should be dead, by now,” she said, taking his arm.

  “If they got her...”

  “They did,” she said, nodding at the sound of hooves. “Who's this coming yonder?”

  “I hope to Fates they did,” he said. “Now that looks like three drovers.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Their unicorns have bobbed horns so that they can rope calves.”

  “Hoy!” called a drover as they slowed to a walk. “Is that a hoard of Beaks, bedded down yonder?”

  “What if it is?” said James.

  “Beaks!” cried another drover, wheeling about with his unicorn.

  “Hey!” cried James. “Wait! Hey wait!”

  “You'd better have a damned good reason why we should!” cried the first drover, who was now half turned about.

  “We are not on a raid!” cried James. “And we might even buy cattle!”

  “That's hard to believe,” said the first.

  “Now look 'ee here,” said James. “I'm King James of Loxmere-Goll, here with aid from the Kingdom of Marr to free Goll from the witch's army...”

  “That's even harder to believe, since King James died in the dungeon of the old castle a good score year ago.”

  “Having trouble, King James?” cried Owain as he, Llewyrch and Aeron suddenly appeared with bows ready amidst a convergence of pounding hooves.

  “These drovers are having trouble believing me,” said James.

  “King James always tells the truth,” said Aeron.

  “Why thank you, Sir Aeron...” said James.

  “Aeron?” said a drover. “Some other Aeron. No way Bran's brother would ever be knighted.”

  “Does Bran still work at the stable?” said Aeron. And with this, it was not long until the drovers were convinced and on their way.

  “That was a close call,” said James as they ambled back to the bivouac. “Had you all not appeared, they could very well have warned Spitemorta's army.”

  “What was all that, out there?” said Talorg, coming out to meet them.

  “They were drovers for the Buwcharglwydd cow lords, here to see if you all were Beaks,” said James. “It's a good thing we convinced them that you aren't after another hundred head of cattle, or they'd be warning the wrong people, right now. As it turned out, some of the drovers may be back to fight alongside us, and I offered to buy another hundred head.”

  “When do we attack?” said Talorg. “My men are up for it right now. How about yours?”

  “My!” said James. “After marching for a day and a night, they could use some rest.”

  “Fine,” said Talorg. “But after all that time, we risk being found out by the enemy and losing our taking them by surprise. And surprise is everything.”

  “Hit'll be rough anyway,” said Owain with a spit. “If Neron and them were right, theah could be two or three times as many of them as us.”

  “I'm ready for a fight myself,” said Talorg, smacking his hand with his fist. “But if we can wait around long enough for them to get back, I've got Chisholm and MeqqWirp scouting to find out how many.”

  “Too bad Llewyrch, Aeron and I couldn't get inside to stir things up right before we attack,” said Owain. “The ones building the castle would be Golls instead of Gwaels.”

  “That would be utter madness,” said James. “There'd be no way you'd ever survive that.”

  “But hit might be enough to put you back on the throne...”

  “I need you alive,” said James.

  “I can cast a spell so that no one would ever see you,” said Mary, “and I can also silence your unicorns' hooves. But you'd need to go in when they have the gates open.”

  “Yea?” said Talorg. “And that means a wait, which increases the chance of us losing our surprise.”

  “I can fix that, too,” said Mary. “I can cast a ward to hide all of us so well that I'll need to wait outside so that Chisholm and MeqqWirp can find us. I just won't be able to keep us hidden when we attack.”

  “So what about sunrise, tomorrow?” said James.

  “Done!” said Talorg.

  ***

  Chisholm and MeqqWirp returned early in the evening to report that the outer curtain of the new castle was done except for a five rod gap left open to aid the construction of the inner curtain and the castle proper, inside. Golls were indeed the ones doing the construction under the armed supervision of Spitemorta's soldiers, who appeared to be a superior force by better than two to one. When the first larks took to the air with their twitters, hinting that sunrise was on its way, Mary cast her spell on Owain, Llewyrch and Aeron. “Not one living soul will be able to see you,” she said. “It will also silence your unicorns' hooves. But you need to have your plans well reckoned by the time you get there, for the moment Owain draws his sword from his scabbard even part way, the spell will be gone like unto the flame of a snuffed candle. When that happens, I shall know at once and we will launch our attack. Mark well that the spell will not hide your talking. May the Fates be with you.” And with that, the three of them vanished. All that could be seen as they made their way across Gollmoor was the grass being flattened by their walking unicorns (if one only knew to look), but they certainly could be heard over the calls of the meadowlarks as they debated how they should go about revealing themselves, once they were inside the castle curtain.

  When they arrived at the castle, there were only four guards on duty at the gap in the curtain and nowhere else. They rode noiselessly inside, dismounted and quickly shot all four guards. Not a soul saw them appear when Owain drew his sword. They immediately commenced bellowing out orders, and in spite of the bewilderment of the construction workers, they had the gap barricaded in short order.

  Mary found James and Talorg squatted with sticks, deep in discussion. “They've shed their spell,” she said.

  James and Talorg sprang up and began shouting orders at once. As James was preparing to give the order to march, Mary strung her bow and shouldered her quiver.

  She looked up to find horror in his eyes at the sight of her getting ready. She set aside her bow and went up to him at once. “I'll be right here,” she said as she threw her arms around him. “Just come back to me in one piece.”

  Their timing was perfect. Spitemorta's soldiers had just surrounded the curtain when James's men and the Beaks stormed Castlegoll. The Beaks laid into the enemy with astounding fury. James's men took formidable advantage of their surprise as well. And thanks to twenty years of Minuet's monthly arms practice, James managed to bring down an enemy soldier for each one of his arrows. Just as he had loosed his last one and had drawn his sword to find himself hopelessly surrounded, his assailants suddenly fled in terror as a great raspberry colored bear came galloping after them with a roar.

  “Mary!” he cried. And she was nowhere to be found. A blade whooshed by his face. When he wheeled 'round to find that his attacker had utterly lost track of him, he easily ran him through. As he was thinking that she must have made him invisible, he found himself surrounded by enemy soldiers once more. And again, the great purple bear came a-bounding, snarling and frothing at the mouth.

  Suddenly a great hue and cry arose as dragons swooped into sight above Castlegoll. James could make out riders. “Herio!” he cried. “And Sulacha! And who's this? An empire soldier with a white flag? Is that their general?” And as a hush f
ell over the walls and stacks of new stone and over the bloodied cobblestones of the streets, he recognized many of the dragons and also saw Minuet, Razzmorten and Edward.

  A flock of pigeons took flight from a nearby tavern as General Coel dismounted and planted the flag of surrender before the silent crowd. Minuet stood beside him with her fiery red hair a-fly over her mirror polished armor as she sought out pairs of eyes throughout the crowd. “This war is done!” she bellowed. “Spitemorta is dead!” She paused, beckoning for James to stand beside her. “And King James has returned to set you free!”

  At once a thundering roar of cheers broke out as the pigeons took flight from the building they had just landed on. “James,” said Minuet, shaking a pinch of his bloody sleeve. “Abbey is the one who slew Spitemorta. We're right proud of him.”

  “My word!” he said, looking agape. “How?”

  “King...! King...! King...! King...!” roared the crowd.

  James raised his arms and the crowd quickly fell silent. “Hit was you, my wonderful people, who freed me from Spitemorta's dungeon!” he cried. “And you shall help me rule...!”

  The crowd erupted with a roar of applause that took some time to die away.

  “You have a new queen,” he declared, speaking out again. “You will love her. I certainly do, but I know not where she's gotten to...”

  Suddenly there was a great stir of murmurs as Mary appeared out of the multitude with her raspberry hair and snow-white kirtle, bearing two fiddle cases.

  “And she's the best damned fiddler there ever was...!” he cried.

  “Play Queen's Head!” shouted someone.

  “Queen's Head...! Queen's Head...! Queen's Head...!” roared the crowd.

  “See you at Abbey and Ariel's wedding,” said Minuet with a nod at each of them.

  And as Mary plucked a note and raised her fiddle to her chest, the dragons leaped into flight for Peach Knob.

  ***

  James did indeed buy a hundred head of steers from the Buwcharglwyddi for the Beaks of Marr who stayed in Castlegoll to bury the dead while he and Mary and Lance, Owain, Llewyrch and Aeron were flown back to the Vaults of Loxmere-Goll at the New Dragon Caves by six fire heads. At the same time, Herio, Sulacha, four and ninety fire heads, all of Bernard's men who sailed to Niarg, the diatrymas and Veyfnaryr's trollbrutes agreed to stay and help General Coel and his mercenaries clean up the battlefield at Tnassip Road while Minuet, Razzmorten, Daniel, Hubba Hubba and Pebbles and the Mob and the rest of the fire heads and dragoons returned to the New Dragon Caves.