

### Good Sister,  
Bad Sister

### Carol Marrs Phipps  
&  
Tom Phipps

### Good Sister,  
Bad Sister

### Carol Marrs Phipps  
&  
Tom Phipps

Copyright © 2018 by Carol Marrs Phipps & Tom Phipps

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Good Sister, Bad Sister is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, incidents and organizations are a product of the authors' imaginations and are used fictitiously.

**Cover art by Marija Vilotijevic  
**

Our Website:

http://www.niarg.com

To my two beautiful daughters, Kim Minus and Tonya Keller, good sister, good sister

&

To the Old Man Tree and to Mom and Dad, wherever they be.

### Table of Contents

Chapter 1  
Chapter 2  
Chapter 3  
Chapter 4  
Chapter 5  
Chapter 6  
Chapter 7  
Chapter 8  
Chapter 9  
Chapter 10  
Chapter 11  
Chapter 12  
Chapter 13  
Chapter 14  
Chapter 15  
Chapter 16  
Chapter 17  
Chapter 18  
Chapter 19  
Chapter 20  
Chapter 21  
Chapter 22  
Chapter 23  
Chapter 24  
Chapter 25

Appendix

Chapter 1

"Happy birthday!" cried Wizard Razzmorten with a grand whirl of his cape, leaving a round wooden box with a gawking baby parrot sitting on the board by the cake.

"What is that thing, Father?"

"Why a popinjay, dear. They're almost impossible to come by..."

"It's all pinfeathers. You surely don't intend for it to actually be my gift, do you?"

"Well it's right young, Leeuh," he said. "When you start with them at that age, they can actually be talking to you before they're quite a year old."

"Not if I drown it first..."

"Lee-Lee!" cried her sister. "You don't mean that! What an awful way to treat your Father..."

"Oh go on! He surely knows better. Here I am, still waiting for you to serve me, and he runs up and plops down this dirty box full of muslin, fowl and green poop, right where I was expecting my cake. And by the way, dearest Minuet, just how long are you going to stand there with my saucer in your hand? It is my birthday, don't you know. And since that thing in the box is my birthday gift, I certainly get to drown it."

"Don't you dare!" said Minuet. "I'll take it if you don't want it..."

"Please!" said Razzmorten, throwing up his hands. "Let's you and I take the morning tomorrow and find you something special in the market, or if you know of something better just..."

Ugleeuh wasn't listening. "You can have the stinking popinjay, Minuet, if you give me my cake before it slides off the saucer."

"You mean it?"

"Sure sister dear. The cake now, and it's yours, but you'll still owe me."

"So how would that be, Leeuh?" said Razzmorten as he slowly sat on the bench beside her.

"What?" she said, suddenly peering sweetly at him.

"The market, dear. What do you say? "A lost look passed across her face as she hooked her raven black hair behind an ear.

"We spend the morning tomorrow and find you something."

She tapped at a tooth with her finger. "Maybe," she said, "so long as it's not something else stupid."

"Now," he said with a nod of resolution, "shall we finally have this wonderful cake that Minuet baked for your birthday supper?"

At that moment there came a knock at the open dining room door. "I regret the intrusion, sir," said the hired man, "but there's a Captain Strong here from Castle Niarg with something urgent. Shall I...?"

"By all means," said Razzmorten, yanking his napkin from his collar as he got to his feet. By the time he had turned about, the captain was in the room.

"Good evening, Karlton. So what's up at the castle?"

"A matter, sir, that needs to be discussed in private, I'm afraid."

Alarmed by the captain's haunted look, Razzmorten quickly showed him to a sitting room at the far end of the hall, leaving Minuet and Ugleeuh to eat their cake.

"I was hoping it was Razzorbauch," said Ugleeuh, licking icing from between her fingers. "At least he's capable of giving decent gifts. But it only turned out to be this rude captain..."

"Rude?" said Minuet. "I'd think something awful has happened by the look of him."

"He should have at least acknowledged us with a polite nod. We are ladies after all."

"It was urgent, Lee-Lee."

Ugleeuh curled her lip and took a bite of cake.

Down the hall, Razzmorten offered a chair to Captain Strong.

The captain shook his head. "I have saddled unicorns waiting for each of us."

"My word, what's happened?"

"King Henry has sent for you. Princess Branwen..."

"The one who's to be Prince Hebraun's betrothed?"

"Yea. Princess Branwen's retainer came yestereve with some kind of message about all that, but he arrived with a fever. This morning he awoke with two big knots on his neck, just below his jaw..."

"Fates!"

"Yes indeed. And it's all got right personal for me, you might say. I mean my own brother, Awstin, saw him to his room and now he's shaking something awful with the fever."

"So what am I to do?"

"King Henry wants you to come have a look at both of them."

Razzmorten went wide eyed. "I'm no physician. Doesn't the Throne have a couple of doctors?"

"Yes sir, and they've each declared that the retainer and Awstin have the plague."

"So why am I examining them?"

"The king says that if anyone alive would have the magic to turn the plague, it would be you, sir."

Razzmorten gave a great sigh as he removed his hat to run his fingers through his hair. "I'll go tell my girls," he said as he replaced his hat and gave a nod. Meet me at the stable."

They were underway at a canter with scarcely a word between them. Lightning winked in the towering wall of clouds to the west. By the time they reached the road, they were at a pounding gallop which they kept up the entire four miles to Castle Niarg. The rain was drenching the walls of the castle in sheets as they tramped inside the echoing hallway, flinging water. As they came to the room of Princess Branwen's retainer, they were startled at the sight of a figure wearing a leather bird mask and a full length cloak of waxed linen step out the door with a short stick and a smoldering pot of incense.

"Ah, Razzmorten," said the figure in a muffled voice, as he removed his glove to shake hands. "I'm Doctor Pryce..."

"I'm sorry, but we're not going to shake your hand," said Razzmorten, taking a step backwards. "How is the patient?"

"Just now deceased, I'm afraid," he said as he took his mask by the beak and removed it. "We were expecting you. I've a clean suit like this one, if you wish to examine him."

"I don't see the point," said Razzmorten. "We both know it's the plague. How's Awstin?"

"He's already developing large buboes behind his knees and in his armpits."

"Where is he?" said the captain.

"Still in his room, one storey down."

The captain started for the stairs at once.

"Karlton!" hollered Razzmorten. "I'm coming with you."

"I have that suit..." said Doctor Pryce.

"Just stay right where you are, if you would, Doctor," said Razzmorten, breaking into a sprint for the stairwell. A dozen steps down, he overtook the captain. "Wait!"

"I'm sorry. I must see him."

"Stop!" cried Razzmorten, pinning him against the wall. "Listen to me! If you go in there, I'm certain you'll die. He'll be too far gone to even know you're in there..."

The captain tore himself away from Razzmorten's grasp and jogged down a step.

"Damn it Karlton! Niarg needs you!"

The captain stopped short and nodded. "I'm sorry sir," he said, turning away as he blinked his wet eyes. "What do you think I should do?"

"Do I need to see the king or do you reckon I could leave here this minute? There's somewhere I'm certain I need to be."

"I can tell him it's urgent..."

"Then by all means do. But listen. Those doctors are dead men. I'm sure of it. Did you go to Awstin's bedside after he took sick?"

"No. I was sent to fetch you."

"Good! Then we both might live. Listen. Make those doctors stay where they are. Don't let anyone get within three or four rod of them. And don't let anyone touch or move any dead bodies, no matter how they might get to stinking. Got that?"

Karlton nodded, quite wide eyed.

"I'll be back before a fortnight." And with that, Razzmorten vanished down the stairs.

***

Minuet dried her hands in a wad of apron and sat down with a sigh in front of the doddering baby parrot. "You're curious, little bright eyes," she said as she carefully tried a scratch of the pin feathers on his head. "Why, you're not afraid of me at all. And all this excitement, all this hubbub. Why, nasty old Lee-lee wanted to drown you. Will you let me pick you up? Oh, you're going to! You're brave, little Hubbub. That's just what we'll call you..." She looked up with a start to find Razzmorten taking a seat beside her.

"Leeuh's not here?"

"No Father," she said as she rocked Hubbub in her arms like a wee babe. "I think she's having a bath, but she wanted me to leave the cake out. What happened at Castle Niarg? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I nearly have, something dreadful out of the vapors, anyway," he said, standing up and stepping back over the bench. "I'm sorry, but I simply can not discuss this until I've returned. I can't imagine that you'll be in any danger. You'll be safe..."

"So where are you going?"

"I'm traveling by spell, so you can see that it's urgent, but to say just where would be discussing it," he said, giving her a squeeze and a peck on the cheek. "I'd allow that I'll be back in time to take Leeuh, tomorrow, but if I'm not, don't worry if I'm gone for as much as two weeks. I'm leaving from my study. Goodbye, and say goodbye to Leeuh for me." He turned away at once and disappeared 'round the corner.

"Right," said Ugleeuh, sauntering in in her nightgown. "And the old fool isn't telling you because he doesn't trust his own birthday girl..."

"Leeuh! How can you say such a vile thing about your own father?"

"Easy, sweetheart. He's gone and you won't have the heart to tell him out of consideration for his feelings."

Minuet gave a growl of exasperation, gently put Hubbub back into his box and began pacing the kitchen. "I can't believe you, Lee-Lee. He was so excited about your birthday, and he went to so much trouble to get that bird..."

"And to think: he still couldn't do any better for my birthday than he did," she said as she plopped down in Razzmorten's seat at the head of the board and drug her finger through the icing on the cake. "But get this. Stuck up little Princess Branwen is probably dying of the plague as we speak. Isn't that great? So I still might have a chance at Hebraun after all..."

"What are you talking about? You're not royalty. You have no chance in the world..."

"Well not if Princess Branwen makes it..."

"What are you talking about? What makes you think Branwen has the plague?"

"Well her stupid retainer's got it. That's what Yum-Bum Karlton came and got the old man for. He's on his death bed with it at the castle. So wouldn't Brannew have it by now? I mean she could, couldn't she? At least one could hope..."

"That's awful! I don't care who she is, how could you ever want her dead?"

"Easy, Minny-Min. She's most inconvenient..."

"And how dare you eavesdrop! What else did you find out?"

"That I have a goody two shoes sister..."

"No! What else did you overhear?"

"Here," said Ugleeuh as she smacked her lips and pushed the platter across the board. "You need some cake. You're supposed to be celebrating my birthday."

Minuet crossed her arms with a sigh, studying her half-sister.

"Sit," said Ugleeuh. "You're hair's red enough without the rest of you being on fire."

"Plague," said Minuet, giving in and having a seat. "That's really awful. What else? Why did they get Father?"

"Why would you want to know if it's so terrible for me to eavesdrop? Aren't you too good for any of this? And why is the plague any concern of yours? Our old man's a wizard."

"You think that magic will help? Don't you know that the First Wizard died of the plague?

"Pooh, Min-Min. The Crown wants Father to stop the plague with his magic, so somebody knows it can be done. And if it's too much for our dear father, that's probably where he's gone. He's probably off to see Uncle Razzorbauch for some real magic. And if he'd taken me, maybe I'd have gotten some kind of decent birthday present."

***

Razzmorten appeared in the moonlight amongst the tall basaltic rocks of Demonica's keep on Head (or Pennvro). He clambered about with his staff, listening to the pounding surf far below as he paused here and there to feel for the presence of magical wards and protections set by Demonica. "Well, Razzorbauch's not here," he said. He removed his hat, and for a time stood with his face fixed into the breeze, feeling the air. At last he found a place amongst a tumbled colonnade of stones and went to sleep until morning.

Just before the sun, he awoke to find himself in the midst a colony of very agitated puffins. He was on his feet at once, clambering up the rocks. The towers of her castle rose behind the crown of the great barren prominence as he climbed. There was no drawbridge. Her portcullis was up, in fact it was unlikely to have been closed that night. He could definitely detect magical wards, but none laid for someone afoot. He walked right in. He found her reading a letter as she sat in her great scarlet and white chair on the dais, legs crossed, having egg in a hole and tea.

She looked up with a gasp.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good thing you explained that," she said. "I'd never have considered any morning 'good' which had you standing in the middle of it. Now how would you like for me to arrange your death?"

"Oh go on, Dee! We both know better. I'm not here to arrest you. You made that more difficult than it would ever be worth years ago. And besides, I stepped in here fully prepared to turn your head into a cinder at the first sign of trouble. I'm only here for a brief chat."

"You went to a good deal of trouble."

"Well, yes. Years ago, you told me that you knew of a tribe of heathens (as I believe you called them) who were supposed to have gotten through the plague which killed the First Wizard without any deaths at all. Do you remember anything about that?"

"Well no, dear. It's very difficult indeed to recall anything at all for the likes of you or Niarg. Does anyone there have the plague?"

"I have," said Razzmorten as though he were merely speaking of tickets in his pocketbook, and now you have it as well. So if you wish me to come back and cure you, it might be best if your memory returned."

With a yowl, the snow white cat sitting in Demonica's lap shot across the throne room and vanished. Demonica stared off into the distance for a moment. "Ngop," she said, heaving out a sigh. "The Ngop, 'way down the west coast, here. The plague simply decimated everyone throughout the continent, everyone except the Ngop. It's said that they came out of it completely untouched. Down the coast. Talk to their shaman. I think he goes by Ngerrk-ga. And talk to their chief, Dort-da."

"Ngerrk-ga!" cried Razzmorten. "I know him. He and Dort-da were the Aboriginals I once met at the Hanter Koadou. They mightn't have worn clothes, but they were well respected."

"Well, you've managed to disarm me, Razzmorten. You always did have your skilled moments. Do me a favor. If you were indeed telling the truth, would you be so kind as to return with the cure? My cat needs someone to feed her."

Chapter 2

Razzmorten appeared on a lonely beach amongst the cries of terns, just as a wave soaked his feet, sending small snails vanishing into the sand as it rushed back to sea. A beached jellyfish glistened in the mid-morning sun. He stepped away from the water and scooped up a double handful of shells to admire for a moment before squinting under his hand at the arid hills of white limestone dotted with grey shrubs which lay inland. He pulled out his scrying ball from his shoulder bag and squatted in the sand to stare into it, shaded by the brim of his pointed hat. At once he was underway through the marram grass, making straight for the hills. By the time the sun was overhead, he had crossed over three great ridges of hills. A savannah sparrow called nearby.

He paused to mop his brow and look about as he felt of the ball in his bag. "Maybe I need another peek," he said. Suddenly he held his breath. "Could that be children?"

A pebble skittered across the rocks at his feet, just as he spied a curly haired head slipping behind some rocks. He heard hushed giggling. "Hello?' he hollered.

There was dead silence.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

"Mamin!" cried a brave naked boy, prancing into view.

"Mamin! Mamin!" shouted another, "Dirdawung, mamin lamang gahan!"

"Menuny mamin mawu ga-yu-ma wutjjurrh-ma!" cried a girl, taller than the others, leaping to her feet.

Soon there were eight naked children dancing around him, just out of reach, chanting sing-song: "Ma-min...ma-min...ma-min..." After a bit of this, they took turns crying: "Mamin!" as they leaped forth to tug at his clothes and jump back as if he would bite.

"I say," cried Razzmorten, looking 'round about, "would you all be Ngop?"

The children broke out in such laughter that they could scarcely stay on their feet.

"If you all are Ngop, could you take me to Dort-da?" he said, nodding with wide eyes of encouragement.

At this, a middle-sized girl with the merriest eyes of all dashed up and began yanking and pulling on his arm.

He followed her at once. Up through the next ridge of hills they led him, pattering through the dust and rocks, until they came to a wide dusty valley. The merry eyed girl kept a relentlessly tight grip on his hand, pulling him along through the dust and shrubs as they came to scattered acacia trees with ruminating cows bedded down everywhere in the shade. He could see low domed mud huts in the thickest of the trees. At the far end of them against the rocks of a limestone bluff was a whitewashed hut, larger than all the others. They hurried with him, straight up to it. "Dort-da! Dort-da!" they shouted. And the next thing he knew, he was standing in front of the hut's triangular door without a child in sight.

As he was glancing here and there at the paintings of animals chasing each other across the breadth of the whitewash, trying to gather his thoughts, Dort-da stepped into the light, adjusting his long gourd cod piece. For a moment he looked as though he had been asleep. Suddenly he smiled. "Razzmorten!" he cried. "It's been ages since Hanter Koadou. Come inside."

Razzmorten removed his hat and followed Dort-da inside, finding that ducking was scarcely enough to navigate a triangular doorway. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. "Why, it's as cool as a cellar in here," he said.

"Sit here," said Dort-da, giving a slap to one of several fat rolls of blankets on the floor in front of a great chair made of cow bones. He sat in the chair and crossed his legs. He clapped his hands and a girl clad only in a skirt appeared with a jug of water and two large cow horns. He took the first drink and nodded at Razzmorten. "What brings you here?"

"It wasn't too many years before our meeting at Hanter Koadou that there was a great plague which swept through the Dark Continent..."

"Douar-Noz might be better," said Dort-da. "The house of Dark hadn't taken over yet."

"Certainly," said Razzmorten carefully. "So, when the plague swept through Douar-Noz, of course, it killed thousands upon untold thousands of people, including my progenitor, the First Wizard, who was visiting here at the time. It killed half the people living here as well as half the people on the Northern Continent. Well, I've just heard that when the plague came, not a single Ngop died from it. Is that true?"

"Has the plague returned after all this time to Norz-Meurzouar?"

"Yes. One and by now, maybe two have died at Castle Niarg."

"Who brought it?" said Dort-da as he studied the backs of his hands. "Do you know where it came from?"

"Far," said Razzmorten, keenly aware that Dort-da was being careful. "The one who died just before I left was a retainer of Princess Branwen of the House of Far. I have no idea how many have died there."

"I've only heard of them a time or two. Do you know if they trade with the Gwaels of Gwaremm?"

"The last I knew, the Gwaels made them uneasy..."

"We have a lot to lose Razzmorten, but you convinced me years ago at Hanter Koadou that you have a true heart. You need to see Ngerrk-ga. His dreams are strong. If he doesn't want to help you, you are not to return here until seven years after this new plague has run its course." Dort-da studied Razzmorten carefully for a moment, then clapped once more. The young woman appeared with more water. "Nu-jabing-nga," he said. "Razzmorten-ga-ndi lahan Ngerrk-ga."

Nu-jabing-nga quickly set down her jug. "Di-nya," she said, motioning to Razzmorten with a nod. "Di-nya." Waving him on, she disappeared out the door.

Razzmorten bowed to Dort-da, thanked him and hurried out into the heat and blinding light to find Nu-jabing-nga. He saw her at once, but found her even more difficult to keep up with than the children. He had to jog to catch her before she disappeared beyond the huts along the meandering path in the thorny wait-a-bit bushes that the Ngop used for fences which ran along the limestone bluff from acacia tree to acacia tree for a very long way, sticking up in the roasting heat like great parasols which gave shade to the resting cattle who languidly chewed their cuds and swished at flies, watching them pass. At last the path rose into a break in the bluff which led to an isolated mud hut, whitewashed and covered with red ochre hand prints in the shade of a pair of especially large acacias. Ngerrk-ga was out front with his back to them on his knees feeding the fire under a large kettle that he was stirring.

Nu-jabing-nga held her finger to her lips and motioned for Razzmorten to sit on the ground at Ngerrk-ga's back before grabbing her nose and dashing away, back down the path.

Ngerrk-ga went right on stirring as if no one had arrived at all, chanting quietly: "Nja-min-ah... nja-min-ah... nja-min-ah... nja-min-ah..."

"Fates forbid!" thought Razzmorten. "I hope he notices me before I pass out from the smell!"

***

Ugleeuh lay propped on her elbows in the close-cropped grass of the orchard on the hill behind their manor house, listening to a nearby oriole as she watched the men below with their bull rakes making windrows in the pungent hay. Sheep bells tinkled behind her. She gave a bored sigh and lay back to study the fluffy white clouds overhead in the deep blue sky, tracing their shapes with her finger.

"Ta, ta-taa, ta-taa..." she said as a particular cloud directly over the hay field quickly turned brooding and black. "Ta, ta-taa, ta-taa..." she said as the cloud began thoroughly pelting the field hands with huge drops of rain. "Ya-ha!" she cried, springing to her feet, furiously flinging wide her glowing fists, as a bolt of lightning connected the cloud with the big oak tree in the hayfield, blowing away a great strip of bark down its trunk. The hands ran for shelter as she squealed with delight, skipping through the grass, ending with a cartwheel.

"Lee-lee!" cried Minuet, spying Ugleeuh and tramping straight over to her. "Don't you dare pull a stunt like that!"

"What? Yesterday you were so jealous of my birthday that now you're jealous of a good cartwheel?"

"What is the matter with you, Leeuh? That's Father's hay! Look how much you soaked! And old Mister Philpot, did you see him?"

Ugleeuh nearly let slip a giggle, silencing it with a look of wounded innocence.

"You little witch! He was standing so close to the tree, you singed off his hair. I sure hope he can still hear!"

"And you're unladylike. You stamped clean across the orchard and you're still shouting. And I don't even know what you think I'm supposed to have done..."

"You know very well what you did!"

"No, I don't!"

"Father's hay...!"

"So?"

"The cloud! The Rain...!"

"Why are you jumping on me? I don't control the weather..."

"You certainly don't! You meddle with it..."

"I did not," said Ugleeuh with a sullen growl. "You're imagining everything, just like you always do, you sicky goody-goody. Besides, if I actually did do it, wouldn't I have a right to? The old man stood me up. He owed me my gift this morning, and it's 'way past noon."

"Don't try it again, Leeuh."

"Or what?" she said, grabbing up her quilt from the grass."

"Or I swear to Fates, I'll stop you!"

"I'm not listening, sweetheart." she called as she walked away through the apple trees.

***

Just as Razzmorten was thinking over how he might manage to vomit discretely, Ngerrk-ga stood up, doused the fire with a bucket of water and covered the kettle with a large wooden lid. "Razzmorten..." he said without having ever so much as glanced behind to see. He turned square about and smiled grandly. Suddenly he paused to bow his head and shake a wooden rattle in three distinct places in the air before stepping forward to shake hands. "Razzmorten. This is a wonderful day since you've come. Please sit and tell me how it is in the civilized parts of the world."

Razzmorten didn't know what to say for a moment. "Well, I'm most relieved to see you again, Ngerrk-ga, "he said, finding a rock to sit on. I'm sorry to say that I've not come to enjoy a visit, and I'm also sorry to say that things are suddenly urgent in the civilized parts of the world."

Ngerrk-ga nodded gravely. "And you've come for a cure for the rotting death plague..."

"My word! How could you possibly have known such a thing?"

"I dream well," he said, as he sauntered to the door of his hut and reached inside for a clay bottle. "I knew you were on your way. In fact I knew for a day or two before you left home, so I had time to make up some cure for you."

Razzmorten was stricken wide eyed and speechless.

"There is just one thing I have no way of knowing, yet," said Ngerrk-ga. "Are you willing to teach me your way of traveling without walking?"

"Well certainly," stammered Razzmorten, "but I'm not at all sure that I can. As far as I know, the only reason that I am able to myself is because my Human grandmother married a very powerful Elf. But I swear that I will do everything in my power to teach you."

"Well," he said as he began scratching the chin of a panting sheep that had sauntered up, "I've no Elf blood, but as you can see, I do have some skills of my own, so you might manage, if you try. Will you?"

"You have my word."

"Then hold out your hand," he said, turning aside from the sheep and pulling the stopper from the bottle. He put a drop of oil from it onto Razzmorten's finger. "Put your tongue to it."

"My! That's hot. Spicy. Why, this reminds me of an Elven spice...umm, um. Elven hyssop. They call it oregano. This wouldn't be oregano, would it?"

"I have no idea. I never heard of Elven hyssop nor oregano. I don't know all the words in the civilized places. We call it worrobobo. It means: damned hot plant. But here's one of the very plants. Have you seen it before?"

"My land!" said Razzmorten, staring at it minutely. "I'd swear it is indeed what they call oregano. It is indeed Elven hyssop."

"So you have it where you live?"

"On my continent, at least, I'm right sure. I've collected it for my herbarium in arid limestone hills there, much like the hills you have between here and the sea."

"Good," he said with a strange laugh, as he resumed scratching his sheep, "because we're not giving you any of ours. We do reserve the right to stay alive, don't you know. But since you do have the plant, I'll show you how to get the oil." He rose and led Razzmorten to a recently used contraption a short way beyond the sight of his hut, a huge kettle with a lid ending in a long pipe used to collect the condensed oil.

"Why, we'd call this a still," said Razzmorten.

"Yes," said Ngerrk-ga. "The bad woman from Head brought us that one. She tried to talk us into drinking the liquid from corn mash. You saw her on the way here."

"Razzmorten shook his head in astonishment. "So how do I use the oil?"

"Six drops under the tongue, six times a day, and a drop or two on each swelling, six times a day. And you need to give this same amount to each one handling the sick," he said as he sat back down in front of his panting sheep. "And you will come straight here when the plague is passed and show me how to travel without walking?"

"I will, I will indeed," said Razzmorten.

***

Razzmorten appeared on a stone bench in the shade of a great white trellis smothered with blooming red roses. "This is taxing," he said, closing his eyes for a moment as he propped himself on his knees. He opened his eyes and saw his staff lying in the gravel at his feet. "And these roses are simply stunning." He sniffed at one of them, picked up his staff and steadied himself. "Well here we are, in one of the gardens of the inner ward. This may be awkward, but it's quick." He hurried along a path to the first door he saw and stepped inside.

"Halt!" cried the guard from the middle of the hallway, immediately tramping forth in the echoes with his pike leveled. "Put down your staff!"

"I shall indeed, good sir," said Razzmorten, carefully stooping to lay it down.

"Who are you?" said the guard.

"Wizard Razzmorten at the service of the Crown."

"Well, I do beg your pardon, sir. We were instructed to watch for you just about anywhere, but I'm sure dumbfounded by how you turned up out there with the roses. Anyway, I'm supposed to take you straight to the king and queen."

Weary of the scuffling of its nearly grown brood, the barn owl under the ridge pole flew noiselessly to a nearby truss and peered down at what was going on below, as the guard brought Razzmorten into the throne room. Presently, the guard bowed and backed away from the wizard, leaving him standing before King Henry, Queen Helina and Leigheas, the Elven court healer for the Throne of Niarg. The king motioned for the guards to leave them in private.

"Wizard Razzmorten," said the king, the moment that the great doors went shut. "You already are acquainted with Leigheas, are you not?"

"I have been for years," he said, exchanging nods with the Elf.

"It was he whose advice I took when I summoned you to the castle upon Princess Branwen's steward showing up sick," said the King.

"Have you seen the patients?" said Razzmorten.

"No, I have not," said Leigheas. "I allowed that the patients stood a better chance of surviving if I didn't die from exposure to them, but it certainly stirred the indignation of the court doctors. They seemed not to share my urgent sense of a need to quarantine..."

"Seemed?" said Razzmorten.

"Well, perhaps they still seem..."

"This is right quick," said the king. "Is there any chance at all that you bring good news?"

"There is..."

The king paused to give the queen a quick nod as he squeezed her hand. "Then please have a seat. What did you find?"

"The very medicine which a large band of aboriginals called the Ngop used to keep themselves alive on the Dark Continent, south of Head, when the First Wizard died of the plague..."

"You surely found evidence that it works, aye?" said Leigheas, scooting the cuspidor closer to his chair with his foot before leaning aside for a spit. "I know about a number of cures without any."

"Multitudes all around died during the plague, while not one of the Ngop did more than fall ill, which I well realize is not full proof. But which I'd certainly think at least makes it a damned good gamble for us, right now."

"So do we have to trade for it?" said the King as he put his crown into his lap and rubbed his temples.

"I was given about a pint of the stuff, which I have right here," said Razzmorten as he pulled the bottle from his shoulder bag. "If we want any more, we'll have to make it ourselves." He carefully removed the stopper and fished out a drop on the blade of his penknife.

"Is that enough to cure one person?" said the Queen.

"What, the drop or the jug?"

"We've had a number of people fall ill in just the short time you've been gone," said the king as he replaced his crown and sat on the edge of his chair. "You know about Branwen's steward..."

"And Awstin Strong, I suppose..."

"No actually, or at least he was alive at noon. But both doctors are in very bad shape, along with four nurses. And we had just found out about the third guard coming down with it, right before you came in. And word getting out...hooee! It hasn't yet, but the prospect's almost as scary as the plague itself..."

"There's no way to know for sure, but this might give you some hope, Your Majesty," said Razzmorten, as he leant forward where he was sitting to pull back one finger at a time as if he were counting. "A sick person is supposed to need six drops of the oil under his tongue, six times a day for maybe a fortnight. He'll need half that much put on his swellings. And at that rate, this pint might save thirty-six people..."

"So how do you come up with another pint?"

"That's harder," said Razzmorten, standing up suddenly to begin pacing. "It takes a hundred pound of the plant to make the pint..."

"What kind of plant? Say, what's this oil called, anyway?"

"The Ngop call both worrobobo, but I learnt about it as Elven hyssop a very long time ago. The Elves call it oregano..." He looked aside to trade nods with Leigheas.

"Then who do we get it from?"

"Not from the Ngop. I had to promise that we'd come up with the plant on the Northern Continent in order for them to share the cure."

"Well, I can see that," said the King as he twirled his moustache and studied the banners on the far wall. "The Elves then, I reckon..."

Razzmorten was already shaking his head. "We could go to the big Elven apothecary in town and talk to their head herbalist, Talamh Coille Graham, but it would waste precious time, because I don't think it's ever grown in the Jutwoods."

"You're right," said Leigheas. "It's not."

"Well where, then?" said the King. "Any idea?"

"I've collected samples of it for my herbarium over the years," he said, shoving away from the back of his chair and pacing another circle. "I know of two good places. One is the chalky hills at the south end of the Gulf of Orrin, though that spot may be quite limited, and the other one is the Black Desert along the Dread Sea. I'd think that the Black Desert supply would be neigh unlimited."

"Good Grief!" said the king as he squirmed on his great chair. "The south end of the Gulf of Orrin is a good week away by ship, and the Black Desert, at least three or four weeks. Well when you return with a shipload, then what? How do you get the oil out? Do you press it?"

"You have to heat up an infusion of it in a distilling vat and catch the oil when it collects as droplets at the far end of a pipe coming off the lid of the vat."

"And what you're saying is that you'll have to try setting up such a thing before you'll know how to have it work right?"

"I saw the distillery which produced the oil I have, but I'm afraid you're right."

"That means that the oil we have here might be long gone before the next batch gets made, doesn't it?"

"I have a couple of ideas about that, if you'll give me a moment," said Razzmorten as he took his seat again. For the safety of the kingdom, this first oil needs to be limited to You, Her Majesty, Prince Hebraun..."

"Wait, wait, wait. We don't have the plague."

"No, but if you take the oil drops, you won't get it. So. You three, Captain Strong, Leigheas and me, and all of those in the castle sick this minute, and my two daughters get the oil in this jar. And everything about this wee jar of oil must be kept in strictest secrecy." He held up his hand for a moment. "The other thing to keep in mind is this. I seldom use traveling spells because they take such a huge amount out of me. I've now gone all the way to the Dark Continent and back. I think I have enough energy left to make it clean to the south end of the Gulf of Orrin and return with a hay wagon. Now if I do that, I will be spent for weeks at least, so this means that I can only make such a journey once. However, I'll surely be able to oversee the setting up of a distillery when I return. Meanwhile, you must send separate ships immediately."

"So what happens if someone else falls ill while all of this is going on?" said the queen.

"Strict hushed quarantines for any further ill," said Razzmorten, "We don't share the oil, or it jeopardizes us all. That's precisely why we must keep it utterly secret."

"That means that not one further soul must discover the plague," said the king, "particularly not within the walls of this castle." He stood up and looked at Razzmorten. "Go to Captain Strong for the wagons and supplies you'll need. He should be able to arrange for a ship to leave at once for the far shore of Orrin. We will try to find a place for a distillery inside the outer ward by the time you get back with your hay wagon." The king held out his hand. "Fates' speed, my good wizard."

Razzmorten left the throne room and raced to find Captain Strong grieving over the news that Awstin had just been found dead.
Chapter 3

Karlton stood before Captain Cadwalader Pryce on the quay in the early evening calm between sea breeze and land breeze, carefully un-wadding the wilted oregano plant which Razzmorten had brought back in his bag. Captain Pryce watched carefully with blue eyes that had reminded Karlton of a wolf from the time they had played together as children.

"That's it?" said Pryce, looking up.

Karlton nodded.

Pryce said something to a burly man who tramped a few steps down the pier, stopped rigidly and blew a whistle. For a moment, the planks thundered with bare feet as the crew of the twenty-six oar galley, Centipede, hurried down her gang way to line up on the quay. Three pelicans decided to land on pilings elsewhere. Pryce spit his chaw into his hand and flung it into the water, shifted his cutlass on his hip and strutted down his line of men. "Gentlemen!" he declared in a voice like dry leaves that everyone could hear as he paced. "We are on a secret mission to save the Crown. You will not discuss this mission with a soul beyond this crew, not with your wives, nor with your children, nor yet with the very Fates themselves until I tell you to do so, unless you want to hang for treason. Do I make myself clear?"

"Aye sir!" came the shout of many voices.

Commencing with: "Atten-tion!" Pryce introduced three officers of the Royal Guard, marching them into place in line with his own men in spite of their scarlet uniforms. "These men are part of this crew for the duration of this mission!" he cried, looking from face to face. They are along because of their knowledge of this mission, their knowledge of putting up hay and their keen marksmanship with the longbow. They outrank most of you. Don't forget it, and I promise that you'll have the pleasure of showing them how to toughen up their feet like Navy men!"

At this, a roar of cheers broke out, silencing the moment that Pryce introduced Captain Karlton Strong.

"Gentlemen," declared Karlton, "you are the pride of Niarg!"

Again there were cheers, silencing at once.

He held out the oregano plant as he started down the line. "Gentlemen, I have something for each of you to see..."

***

"Well, I'm finally here," said Razzmorten as he stepped into the kitchen and took his chair at the head of the board.

"Father!" said Minuet, getting up at once to fetch him a cup and a bowl from the shelves. "The tea's right hot. There's only been one cup out of it. Bethan left a kettle of soup for us over the coals, out in the summer kitchen. I'll be right back with it."

Ugleeuh sat at the far end of the board, ignoring Razzmorten completely except to glance up at him with a glower of contempt as he put a spot of milk into his cup and stood up to reach down the table for the pot. "So it's salsify and green onions, aye?" he said with a hoary browed squint at her and her bowl before he sat, as Minuet tramped in, waddling quickly to the table with the heavy kettle.

"Oh, but it's good," said Minuet as she filled his bowl. "She's used just the right amount of new onions and black pepper, and there was some parsley just up, but that was the very last bit of salsify in the cellar." She put the kettle aside and returned to her bowl of soup. "It's good you're back. I allowed that you'd be gone longer than this."

"Well I'm only scarcely back, since I'll be leaving first thing in the morning..."

Suddenly Ugleeuh's stool smacked the stone floor with a clatter as she threw down her napkin and stamped away from the table.

"My word, Leeuh!" said Razzmorten, blotting at the milk running down his chin. "I can't imagine what could suddenly have you so upset. It can't be the salsify running out..."

"That's obvious as can be!" she shouted, wheeling about. "You'd not forget a promise to Minny-Min. "She gets my stinking popinjay so that I can't even watch it drown, and then you go off with Captain Strong and completely forget your promise to take me to the market. You both owe me, big!" And with that, she tramped out.

"You're just awful!" cried Minuet as she threw down her napkin and stepped over the bench she was sitting on.

"Please Minuet," said Razmorten. "Just sit down and finish your supper. It'll give her time to calm down. Besides, if she must be childish, should she be able to drag us along?"

"I'm sorry," she said as she stepped back over the bench and sat down. I'm just fed up with her. "What is the matter with her, Father? She's never nice to either of us anymore, unless she wants something out of us."

Razzmorten sighed and found where to get his next spoonful of soup. "I swear," he said with the slightest shake of his head, "Demonica didn't spend any more time raising her than it took her to give birth and flee, but she still has far more influence over her than I've had in all my years raising her. And you know? Just now, she struck me more like Razzorbauch than either one of us." He looked up with a wince of a smile. "I have no business saying any of this. Let's just eat. We'll go have a talk with her when we're done."

"Your leaving first thing tomorrow?" she said, sipping from her spoon. "Is still it all hush-hush? I mean, Leeuh says the plague's in Niarg and probably Far, too."

"Fates!" said Razzmorten with a look of alarm. "She's not told anyone else, has she?"

"I can't imagine how. She's not set foot off Peach Knob, and she's such a horrid snot to the help that they'd never pass the time o' day with her." She stopped eating. "Father. The plague's really here, isn't it?"

"Oh, it is, it is. You look scared. I don't think you need to be, because I think I've actually had an impossible stroke of luck. But tell me: how in all thunderation did Leeuh find out about the plague if she's not left the place?"

"Quite simply. And it's my fault. I'm so sorry..."

"What?"

"Well she overheard you and Captain Strong before you left. I let her out of my sight because I swallowed her saying she was going to her room."

"Fiddlesticks, sweetheart!" he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "Why would anyone suspect?"

"Because it's her nature."

"Of course. Now, I'd not be upset with you, even if she did let the word out, but with what's at stake here, please tell me again. You're absolutely certain that she's not told a soul?"

"Well, not that I can possibly imagine..."

"That's good enough."

"Say. I feel mean, Father. Let's eat her cake. She's already had 'way, 'way more than us put together, and we can still leave her some..."

"Shhh!" he said, looking up at the sound of muffled barking overhead. "Was Fifi out when I got home?"

"As far as I know."

Upstairs, Ugleeuh was pacing her room in a furious huff all the while. "Hey!" she said with sudden smile and a snap of her fingers. "If they both owe me so bad, that means I get to drown the stinking popinjay, right now. My bird. Too bad." With a surge of giddy glee, she raced into the hallway, stepping right out in front of Razzmorten and Minuet, who were walking up behind.

"Oh, say Leeuh," said Razzmorten. "If you're off to have some fun in Minuet's room, we'll join you."

"My bird," she said, going on her way without turning about. "You both owe me, and you never got me a replacement, so it's still my ugly little popinjay, so I'm on my way to pull out every last pinfeather and drown it." Suddenly she sprinted for Minuet's door as if it were a game of tag.

"No!" cried Minuet with a furious slap at the air. Down the hall, her door slammed shut with a deafening bang, immediately in front of Ugleeuh. Ugleeuh froze, pieces of plaster still peppering down all about her.

"You'll not think of going anywhere near Hubub," said Minuet calmly as she folded her arms. "Will you, Lee-Lee-pooh?"

"Hubub?" said Razzmorten with a sudden toothy smile, as if none of this was going on around him. "That's perfect! And after Min-Min and Lee-Lee, it would have to be Hubba-Hubba..."

"Oh it is," said Minuet. "I've already called him that once."

Ugleeuh was still looking at the closed door.

"Ears still ringing, sweetheart?" said Minuet.

Ugleeuh jerked her gaze away from the door with the look of a flat eared cat.

"Good," said Minuet. "Now that you remember that you gave me little old Hubba-Hubba, Father wants to have a talk with us, back in the kitchen. We can even have some of your cake."

By the time Razzmorten took his seat at the head of the board in the kitchen, Minuet and Ugleeuh were already sitting on either side of his chair. "Well Ugleeuh," he said, getting her eye, "I'm keeping my promise of taking you to the market, in spite of your awful behavior this evening, just as soon as this emergency allows." He paused to shake his head at her drawing in a passionate breath. "Now I was all ready to explain my secrecy when I was called away, but since you eavesdropped and think you know all about it, I'll skip that part. But I have quite an announcement," he said, pausing to see that he had the gaze of each one of them. "In fact, I'm still finding it hard to believe that I have indeed stumbled onto a cure for the plague. It's the oil from a plant, and I'm taking the big hay wagon, a brush scythe and a pitch fork first thing tomorrow to see how big a load I can come back with. When I get back, I'll have to work night and day for a while to set up a distillery to extract the oil. There's a ship which is also leaving in the morning to bring back more."

"So there will be delays before you have this oil ready?" said Minuet.

"Oh I'm afraid so. All kinds of them. And there will undoubtedly be a lot of people who die before I get caught up..."

"You left out where you came up with this cure," said Ugleeuh.

"Maybe I am getting ahead of myself," he said. "I got it from the shaman of the Ngop tribe on the Dark Continent."

"Tribe?"

"Well, yes. That's how they're organized. They still use stone tools, as a matter of fact..."

Ugleeuh gave a snort. "No wonder you left that part out," she said. "You got a cure for the plague from a heathen witch doctor, and you expect it to work when not even the Elves nor the First Wizard nor any of the rest of the world's learned people could stop it? He was the most powerful wizard ever, and you think some stupid tribesman could actually have the answer? No wonder you forgot your promise..."

Minuet gasped at this.

Razzmorten caught her eye and shook his head. "So all knowledge comes from learned people, aye?" he said, squinting at Ugleeuh.

"You have to ask me?"

"Well certainly," he said with a thoughtful nod. "And I see that I have indeed seriously overlooked things. And what frightens me is that you might not be ready to learn from everything around you as do the truly learned minds. Well then. You'll be especially amused to learn that when the First Wizard went to Douar-Noz and died of the plague, thousands of people everywhere there were dying of it, but not one single Ngop did. Doesn't that make you curious as to why that would be?"

"So? Maybe they were so isolated that they were never exposed, or maybe they have some kind of natural born strength. Just because they didn't get the plague, doesn't mean they can cure it."

"That's quite true dear, and I'm still considering these possibilities. But the difference between you and me is that I'm not afraid to entertain the further possibility that the Ngop did find a cure. If I don't, we don't even have a gamble on a cure, since none of the learned have found one."

"I suppose not," she said, rolling her eyes with disdain, "but I'd think you'd at least have the wits to make up a small sample of the oil to try out on some of the sick before you go wasting time sending off ships."

"Well I actually don't have wits like that, particularly since we don't have the time, but you'll be delighted to know that the heathen witch doctor gave me enough of the oil that I might be able to keep you and Minuet protected until I can come up with more," he said with a twinkle in his eye as he set out two small glass vials and two glass pipettes.

"These are to put six drops under your tongues, six times a day..."

"But we don't have the plague," said Ugleeuh.

"Well, not if you take the drops."

"How will you know you have the right plants, tomorrow?"

"I compared this plant from the Dark Continent with ones in my herbarium, just before you saw me this evening," he said, pulling out a wilted stem from his bag. He suddenly put it away and stood up. "And I simply must get sleep. But if I don't see you two tomorrow, keep the drops secret at all costs." He gave a sigh of resolution and pushed away from the table. Minuet stood up and began gathering up dishes. "I caught your look, dear little sister." she said, reaching in front of Ugleeuh for a spoon. "And I don't trust it. This stuff is serious. If you dare..."

"You'll what?"

"It's obvious that you don't have any respect for him, but he does know what he's talking about..."

"Goody, goody, Minnie-Min. One of these days I'll find out the things the old man's showed you and not me. You can count on it."

Minuet watched Ugleeuh leave the table and walk out. "Looks like I'll be keeping Hubba-Hubba where I can keep an eye on him for the next few days," she thought.

Chapter 4

A phoebe had been calling for some time when Razzmorten reached the barn, leaving a trail in the dew in the feeble light. Robins were starting to sing all about as he stepped inside an open bay to find the big hay wagon sitting in the dark. He laid his staff and a brush scythe in the middle of its bed and added a scythe stone from his hip pocket with a bang which sent a pair of swallows twittering out into the new daylight. "Now where the ding-dong blazes is a fork?" he said, stepping into the feed way to feel along the manger for one. "Here."

"Father?" said Minuet, stepping into the barn, just as he clambered onto the wagon with the hay fork.

"Right here, just about to leave."

"Bethan said that you slipped out without your breakfast, so..."

"So that's why I smell something good."

"It's four egg in a hole, right off the griddle, in this cloth," she said, handing up her bundles, "and two nice big cinnamon loaves that she baked yesterday in these other two. I wanted to see you off."

"I see you're by yourself."

"Well she's not up yet, but after yesterday evening she'll be furious for a month at least."

"I guess you'll have to keep an eye on Hubub."

"I like Hubba-Hubba better. Oh, she won't be able to get my door open."

"Here punkin'," he said as he motioned for her to come have a hug. "I have to hurry."

She stood back and watched as he sat in the middle of the wagon with his tools and took out his scrying ball and stared into it for a long quiet moment.

"That limestone bluff looks good. Yeap," he said with a decisive nod, not taking his eyes off the ball. "Those hills have got the plants growing all over. Maybe we won't need to go to the Black Desert. That looks like a good spot right there." And with that, he and the wagon were gone.

The wagon rolled with a lurch and stopped. The light seemed bright. "Good. It's level," he said as he grabbed up his scythe and hopped to the ground. He planted its snath by his foot and began grinding away at the blade with his stone. He paused to look out at the blue waters of the Gulf of Orrin and the white birds flying over it below. A rock wren called. He turned and addressed the hillside with his scythe, taking down oregano plants a swing at a time. He worked as the sun climbed, pausing from time to time only to sharpen his blade or to take a swig from his water skin. By the time the sun was nearly overhead, he had taken down almost every oregano plant on the hillside.

"Well, that ought to make a wagon load when it's cured," he said. He went to the first plants he had cut and found them quite limp. "These will take all day to dry. I'll bet I can't load them until this time tomorrow." He picked up his nearly empty water bag. "And I ought to find water if I can. I can't drink salt water." He took out his scrying ball from his bag and studied it for quite a long spell. He peered at the ridge above from under his hand, and then set out for it, heading inland. At the top he saw another ridge a good way off. "The spring's just beyond that, if I was scrying carefully enough. Well, what else do I have to do?"

It was a long walk, but after crossing the second ridge he eventually came to a large freshwater spring, surrounded by cottonwoods and willows. He filled his water skin, soaked his clothes and wrung them out to put them back on wet. He sat on a rock in the shade and listened to the rattling leaves of the cottonwood above as the breeze cooled him. "Now what's that?" he said, getting up to snip off the top of a tree seedling. "That is the strangest oak I've ever seen." He looked at the cut. "Milky sap. That's no oak. My word! This thing has an enchantment. How could a single isolated plant, 'way out here be enchanted? I swear, nothing else out here is." He picked up his water bottle and set out to follow his tracks back the way he came. "At least the whole countryside seems to be covered with oregano."

It was late afternoon by the time he reached his hay wagon. He started checking his downed plants the moment he came down the hilltop, taking hands full of stems and folding them in half. "Not nearly enough of them break yet," he said at last, standing up with a sigh. "I won't get out of here until noon, tomorrow."

He put his water in the shade of the wagon and sat dangling his legs off the side of its bed as he ate one of the cinnamon loaves, listening to the rock wrens and studying the gulf. "I might be enjoying this if there wasn't such an urgent need for me to get back," he said. "Maybe I should go down there and wade along the beach until dark." He took off his hat and shoes and hopped off the wagon to jog downhill, meeting the cries of gulls before he reached the marram grass on the dunes by the water. The tide was out, leaving him a wide beach. He waded well out into the clear water and was fascinated to see a stingray race away from under a cloud of sand, fleeing his foot. He began looking all about for others. "Shit fire!" he said as he grabbed at a sudden pain in the back of his neck. He yanked out a small dart just in time to sit backward into the water and go limp. And he certainly would have drowned at once had it not been for the six indigo colored men with lemon yellow hair who came racing out to him in a fury of splashing and shouts.

***

Minuet sat in the sunshine of the upstairs sewing room, between the tall wool wheel and the loom, embroidering a sketch which she had made of her ewe and lambs grazing by the hollyhocks she had planted by the house. A breeze came and went as a vireo called from the crown of the maple just outside the window. She hummed ever so faintly, turning her hoop this way and that. Suddenly she sat upright with a gasp at the screech of a chair to return immediately to her work, determined to ignore that Ugleeuh was now sitting directly across from her. Hubba-Hubba finished preening his stubble of pinfeathers and gave himself a thorough shake, nearly losing his balance on the edge of his box of rags.

Ugleeuh champed away at the fistful of hazelnuts she had brought in with her and crossed her legs. She dangled a slipper from her toe. Hubba-Hubba hopped onto the rags in his box and peered out over the edge with one eye. Ugleeuh heaved a sigh and crossed her legs the other way as she dug at the cud in her cheek with her tongue. She popped another hazelnut into her mouth, rubbing her nose as she chewed.

"Do you actually want something?" said Minuet as she cut her thread and began hunting for another color.

"Well why else would I be sitting here?"

"Hard telling..."

"I was sitting here because you've gotten 'way too-too..."

"You could have spoken, first thing, and I would have answered," said Minuet as she threaded her needle on the first try and picked up her hoop. "But you didn't, and since I was enjoying myself before you sat down, I was hoping that you just might let me go on with it."

"No, no Minnie-Min. You're just full of yourself since your victory in our little tug o' war, aren't you?"

"Look Lee-Lee. If that's all you want, I've no time for it. Think whatever you must, but just go somewhere else and do something nice."

"Well. Since you were polite enough to ask me, I came in here to find out when Father will get back, since he never tells me anything anymore."

"I can't imagine why not," said Minuet as she turned her hoop over and cut a thread, "but in this case, you could have seen him off just as easily as I did. Besides, he told you he'd take you with him, the first chance he gets. Surely your birthday present isn't more important than saving everyone from the plague."

"I don't suppose it ever occurred to you that I might be concerned about him, did it Miss Perfect?"

"No. That would be a shock."

Ugleeuh gave a whooping sob and sprang from her chair, smacking Minuet's embroidery hoop out of her lap as she tramped across the room. "You used to be my best friend!" she wailed as she yanked open the door and wheeled about. "You used to be my champion! You were the one person in this world I could always count on and trust! Now you've turned awful and I'll never, ever forgive you!"

"I sure was, sweetheart," said Minuet to the closed door as she knelt to pick up her broken hoop, "but then I woke up to find that no matter what I did for you, every third thing you ever said was a lie."

"Do some-thing nice... do some-thing nice... just go some-where else and do some-thing nice..." said Ugleeuh in a giddy sing-song as she whirled and skipped down the hallway. At the head of the stairs she stopped short and leant out the window, straining to hear a couple of hands who were singing grandly as they rode a wagon load of timothy hay to the barn. "Oh my!" she said with a sweet little bounce as she clasped her hands under her chin. "You two are so tone deaf, I need to do something nice to each one of you. Big sister says so..." And with that, she floated down the stairs and skipped outside.

***

When Razzmorten awoke, his eyes flew wide with astonishment in spite of his having not yet recovered from the poison on the dart, for he was surrounded by a whole village of people milling about in excitement, whose entire bodies, even their faces, were covered with short dark indigo fur, except for their long shaggy manes of bright lemon-yellow hair. "Enchantments," he thought as he struggled to sit upright, immediately discovering that his wrists and ankles were bound. "These beings are enchanted in the same way that the plant I found was." He glanced at a huge kettle being heated over a fire, but gave it less notice than the butcher knives being laid out just out of his reach. "Good grief!" he said. "Could those be for me?"

Immediately every eye was upon him as the pandemonium fell silent. "Cat eyes!" he thought, regretting having spoken out. "And cat faces. Are they enchanted people, or could they possibly have been be made from the great indigo lyoth of the Dark Continent? And where did they get the iron tools?" He looked all about as the creatures went back to their energetic business.

He could see that he was surrounded by a thick forest of trees with strangely twisted trunks. "Where have they gotten me to?" he thought. "This is deep woods. Why, those trees have exactly the same leaves as that enchanted plant."

Presently, the noise all about took on the rhythm of beating drums as a particularly tall man with his hair in many braids came and stood before the cutlery. He turned solemnly about and raised his arms to the multitude. "Time to butcher!" he declared in a commanding voice in perfect modern Niarg. "Undo his wrists and ankles."

Four large men in loincloths of indigo furred skin stepped forward, ready to get a firm grip on Razzmorten at the bidding of the tall one in the yellow braids.

"I don't think they dare touch me, Tall Man," said Razzmorten.

"It speaks!" boomed Tall Man, as he halted the other four. He cocked his head to one side. "I didn't quite hear what you said, Grey Man. Maybe you could speak up."

"I said: they don't dare touch me..."

"Tall Man threw back his head in a seizure of toothy laughter. "Get on with it!" he thundered as if he had never been laughing.

The instant the nearest one of the four men grabbed Razzmorten by the neck and arm, the man's chest exploded like a bomb, flinging his head up through the treetops and his limbs sailing end over end through the multitude. The crowd froze in mortified silence, listening with bulging eyes to his entrails pelting down through the foliage all around them.

Razzmorten popped the sinews binding his wrists and ankles and stood up. "Do you understand what I'm saying, Tall Man?" he said with a fling of his wrist, making the spatters of blood down his front disappear. "I hated doing that to that fellow, but he did touch me in spite of what I told him. So. I suppose I'm free to go then?"

"It doesn't look like we can stop you," said Tall Man with a scowl as he whisked a piece of flesh off his shoulder, "but if you ever dare to come back, we'll find a way to kill you."

"And I'm afraid that the same thing will happen again," said Razzmorten. "But I promise you that it is most unlikely that I shall ever return, unless you're foolish enough to try capturing me once more." He turned and walked away into the brush, stepping carefully over the sticks and briars. When he was certain that he was not only out of sight but had not been followed, he ran until he was winded.

"It seems like it's only late afternoon, which is very strange indeed after all the things that happened during my capture," he said as he looked at the slanting shafts of sunlight coming through the canopy. "Surely the blue and yellow beasts couldn't have hauled me for league upon league. If I head straight north, I'll undoubtedly come to the Gulf of Orrin before terribly long." He paused, listening to echoes from calls like voices here and there, far away through the timber. "It keeps sounding like whispers in the trees, but when I stop I can't make out anything like that at all. One thing's certain: I don't recognize any of these bird calls. Now wait. That one did sound like it may have been a great grey owl, but I sure can't picture one of them hollering this early in the day." It also sounded to him like there had been a crunch in the leaves just a heartbeat after his final footfall, the last time he stopped, but he shook his head and went on.

"Good wizard...!" said a man with green hair, alabaster skin and pointed ears as he stepped directly into his path with a knapsack covered with leaves.

"Hoy!" cried Razzmorten, freezing in his tracks at once. "Meri Greenwood?" He steadied himself against a tree.

"By your aura I have you finally caught," said Greenwood with a flicker of fury in his emerald eyes. "You know that you can not hide that from me. Now tell me at last, wizard, where have you my lover Celeste done hid? Where did you put the Guardians of the Woods?"

"You've given me a terrible start, but aren't you indeed Meri Greenwood, Dyn Gwyrdd, as we once knew you?"

"As if you did not know..."

"Well I should of course, but I'd expect you to know me every bit as well..."

"And what deceit would you be now a-trying?"

"Well if you once knew me, I doubt that you'd think I had put the Guardians any place at all. I daresay that like most mortals, I've never so much as had the chance to meet them. Would this have something to do with my twin, Razzorbauch?"

Meri took a step forward in the leaves and looked closely at Razzmorten's eyes. He took a step back and chewed for a moment. "Now, you are Razzmorten, ain't ye?" he said, turning aside for a spit.

"Yes..."

"And you can certainly mark ye my word to be Meri Greenwood. And so you are here for to covet your brother's handiwork?"

"Do you actually mean this woods? This was the Forest Primeval? Razzorbauch didn't have nearly enough power to make such a change, the last I knew."

"Then as hit thinks me, sitting over here you will need to be before to you the rest of hit I can for to tell," said Meri as he sat on a nearby fallen tree and gave the trunk beside him a pat.

"Well these blue and yellow creatures," said Razzmorten, taking his seat, "they shot me with a dart and brought me in here unconscious, or I wouldn't be here at all..."

"Dorchadas, my good man, one of your dear brother's enchantments they be, along with smallies and other such things."

"Dorchadas? Are they indeed what they look like? Could they possibly be the giant lyoths from the Dark Continent?

"All but the great daggers for fangs they did have as cats."

"Razzorbauch never had this kind of power. Are you sure Demonica had nothing to do with this?"

"Oh, but the power he now does have," said Meri, "particularly since he not only to get his hands on the First Wizard's Great Staff was able, but indeed on the very crystal Heart of the Great Stone Tree, which the First Wizard with the Staff did use."

"So that's where the Heart came from," said Razzmorten as he stroked his beard. "And in the process, he's kidnapped the Guardians?"

"Nacea, Alvita and Celeste, who was my very lover," said Mari, looking very haunted.

"So you think he's brought them here into the part of the woods which he's changed?"

"I am sorry, but you do not quite see. Hit not just be this part of the woods. He has the whole Forest a-changed. And I must my lover for to find."

"Oh my!" said Razzmorten. A breeze chased through the leaves up in the canopy, though not a breath stirred down where they were sitting. A great grey owl wailed, far, far away through the trees, though this time, he was not entirely convinced that it was an owl at all. "I swear I'd help you if I could," but I'm in a desperate struggle to come up with a cure for the plague which is loose in Niarg and Far."

"Alack!" said Meri.

"I was cutting Elven hyssop by the southernmost part of the Gulf of Orrin when I was taken by the Dorchadas. Do you know where that would be from here?"

"I do," said Meri, springing to his feet, "and I would delighted to see ye there be, if you do not mind me for to have along."

"Why, I'd be honored," said Razzmorten as he rose and followed him at a brisk pace through the musty leaves. "Now, you've mentioned Celeste, Alvita and Nacea. Wasn't there also supposed to be a Rodon amongst the Guardians?"

"Their brother..."

"Wasn't he one of the Guardians?"

"Yep, save there be a good chance the smallies got him..."

"Smallies?"

"Oh yea. Of them I did mention. More of your brother's work. Bright red nightmares that in the woods in swarms do run..."

***

Minuet had had quite enough of Ugleeuh by supper time. It had taken much of the afternoon to repair her hoop and get her embroidery mounted again to her satisfaction. Even so, she politely dipped out a bowl of Bethan's stew for her and quietly sat across from her at the board to eat.

Ugleeuh sipped her stew without a word, stirring it from time to time and glancing up as though she were trying to think of something to say. "Did you hear that hideous loud singing the hired hands were doing, today?" she said at last.

"I suppose. I don't know about 'hideous.' I wasn't paying attention..."

"Well it was hideous, just plain more than anyone should ever have to listen to."

"That bad, aye?" said Minuet, finally looking up. "So who was this rotten songster, Enid, Nudd, Yvain or old Mister Philpot?"

"Who cares who they are," said Ugleeuh, grabbing up a napkin as she smiled around a dribbling piece of lamb.

"Philpot wasn't ugly until you scorched him with your weather..."

"Not him," she said, hiding a giggle as she blotted her chin. "No, no. The really ugly blotchy one. You know, the one with a face like some kind of red squash, the one with the awful orange hair..."

"Orange? Two of the field hands have red hair, Lee-Lee, and if you mean the freckled one, he might be ordinary, but he's not one bit ugly."

"Well his hair is orange, but maybe not ugly to you because of your red hair."

Minuet squinted at her and waited.

"Well anyway, we're done with his stupid singing. I was out picking a bouquet for you... All right. I'll bring you one sometime. I was out picking flowers, and I hear this hollering and carrying on, and the fool had run his own foot clean through with his very own pitchfork," she said, stifling her laughter with a snort. "What an idiot..."

"You caused it, didn't you?"

"How could you say that to me, Min-Min?"

"Easy. You're having 'way too much fun with this. You're not even hiding it. Were you at least good enough to heal his wound for him?"

"Heal Him?"

"Yea. They'll have to hold him down and run a red-hot wire through his foot if you didn't..."

"Of course I didn't heal him," she said, growing louder as she stood up to tramp across the floor. "He got what he deserved, passing himself off to the old man as skilled help. I dismissed him on the spot. I did us all a favor. If the world was fair, you and

Father would owe me!" And with that, she slammed the door.

Chapter 5

"Will you be coming to bed soon, Neron?" said the silver haired Elf in her nightgown as she laid her hands lightly on his shoulders from behind his chair. Shadows leaped and waved up the walls from the faint breeze stirring the candle amongst the papers on a table nearby, as cricket frogs called through the window from the edge of Lake Jutland, like a chorus of marbles endlessly stirring on a glass table top.

Neron reached up and squeezed her hand. "Your hand's hot, Nessa," he said, turning at once to peer up at her face. "I was just going over some more of these papers Faragher's been shoving at me. I didn't want to keep you awake again. Anyway, I think I can sleep tonight."

"Oh?"

"Yea. I've made up my mind."

"And?"

"And I've always thought you were queen."

"Oh quit playing. What are you going to tell Faragher?"

"You're shaking. Are you chilled or what?"

"What are you going to tell Faragher?"

"Well, he's over a thousand years old, and if he's determined for to turn the crown over to me and make me ri, I suppose it's my go. And besides, you've always been my rion," he said as he stood up without warning and scooped her up off her feet.

"Put me down, king," she said, kissing him on the neck.

"Your face is hot," he said, tramping away to the stairway. "And you are... You are indeed shaking like a leaf." He charged up the stairs, down the hall and laid her on the bed. "There's not an ember in here. I'll be right back." He dashed back downstairs, grabbed his burning candle and flew back to their apartment, lighting every candle in the room. "Now let me have a good look at you." He brushed aside her hair, kissed her forehead and looked at her carefully. As he moved out of the light to better see, a scald of white-hot dread surged through him at the sight of a great purple splotch down the side of her neck to her collar bone.

"What are you doing, King?"

"Just...don't worry, I'll be right back," he said, white lipped even in the candlelight. He gave her a light pat and vanished into the hallway. He flew down the stairs, ran down the echoing hallway and out into the moonlit garden, crunching gravel with each furious footfall. In short order he was amongst the houses of Oilean Gairdin, running frantically over the cobblestones splashed with rainbow hues from the crystal windows of the houses, until he grabbed onto a knocker at an oak door in the shadows.

"Prince Neron!" cried the little woman with a candlestick who pulled open the door. "What's happened?"

"Nessa!" he gasped, heaving for breath.

"Is she hurt?"

"Bad fever..." he panted, steadying himself against the doorway.

"Daithi!" she hollered, turning aside. "It's Prince Neron! Princess Nessa has a bad fever!"

"Queen Nessa," he said with a pant that could have been a sob.

"Come on!" cried Daithi as he burst out the door with his breeches under his nightshirt and his bag in his hand. "Let's run!"

At Nessa's bedside, Daithi made Neron stay back while he gently laid back her collar with a short stick to peer at the purple spot on her neck. He motioned for Neron to step out of the room and followed on his heels. "I am horribly sorry sir," he said, shaking his head. "She's got the plague and no mistake..."

"Oh Fates!"

"And it's worse than that. The purple spot means she's got the hepatic kind, and there's absolutely no recovery from that, sir."

Neron lunged for the door and Daithi stepped in front of him, shaking his head..

"Please," said Neron, "let me through."

"If you go in there, you'll die too."

"She's my everything. If she leaves this world, I'm going with her."

Daithi bowed his head and stepped aside.

Neron stepped inside to find that some of the candles had burnt down and gone out. He rushed quietly to their bed, taking up Nessa's dainty hand as he gently brushed aside her hair. "Oh Fates!" he thought. "She's burning up."

"What?" she said slowly, opening her heavy fevered eyes.

"I'm here, sweetheart. I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep. You need your rest."

Nessa smiled and squeezed his hand.

He pressed her hand against his cheek and closed his eyes.

"No," she said in a faint voice. "I don't want to sleep."

"But you must, dear. You're very ill and you need your strength."

"My wonderful husband. I want to spend every last moment of my life with you. I'll sleep soon enough."

Her words washed through him in an unexpected wave of fright, and he had to catch his breath for a moment before he could speak. "And I want to spend every last moment of mine with you too, love," he said. "but please, please don't give up yet. There's still a chance. I want to find Razzmorten. His magic is stronger than anyone's, but I need you to rest and do everything in your power to hang on while I find him. Will you do that for me?"

"I'll do anything for you, Neron. So I will try, but I don't want to sleep. I want to be with you. Please lie down and hold me. If I go to sleep in your arms, you can slip away and send for Razzmorten."

Neron climbed into bed at once and took her tenderly into his arms. "How's this?" he said, astonished at how positively soaked with sweat her gown and bedclothes had become. "Better?"

"Perfect, my king," she said as a chill ran through her. After a time, her shuddering subsided enough for her to pass into a deep sleep as she made Neron's neck hot with her snoring. A candle by the water pitcher burnt down into a broth of itself, sputtered and winked out. He lay there wanting to hold her forever as the urge to find Razzmorten grew on him. With a great lump in his throat, he eased out of bed, picked up his shoes and stepped into the hallway to find Daithi, sitting in a chair just outside the door.

"Did I give you a start?" said Daithi as he stood and backed away from Neron. "I reckoned I should stay. Nessa hasn't...?" He looked very uncomfortable.

"No, no. She's asleep. I'm going to send one of our sons to fetch Wizard Razzmorten. He has very strong magic."

"I've heard that, but you'll expose people, now that you've been at her bedside."

"She went to sleep in my arms."

"Exactly. You'll expose people. You'll expose your son."

"How?"

"I don't know how. People who get too close to the sick get sick. Something goes from the sick to the well, and it's not magic, it's not a spell..."

"What then?"

"I don't know. Nobody knows. But it's real and you could spread the plague to the entire kingdom."

"I can't just watch her die!" he said with a sob that he immediately wrenched away from himself. "Don't you get that if there be the tiniest chance that I can save her, I have no choice? How could I not try? Besides, a lot of people have already been near Nessa this evening. We had supper with the king and queen and our families in the dining hall, downstairs."

Daithi sat back down and covered his face with his hands. "Then, by all means, send for Wizard Razzmorten," he said. "And let's pray that he can do something unheard of. I'll stay here with Nessa until you return. But when you return, we must decide who has been exposed and how to separate the sick from the well."

He was already running down the hall. He didn't have far to go. His eldest son Orry lived in a house at the corner of the palace.

Orry was the one who pulled open the door to Neron's frantic knocking. At the look on his father's face he stepped outside at once into the calls of the cricket frogs and pulled the door closed behind him. "What on earth?"

"Nessa's got the plague."

"Surely not! It's been two hundred years..."

"I've seen enough of it. I remember it clearly. She's dying."

"Ochon!" he cried. "Can you be absolutely sure?"

"Daithi's seen her. He's even alarmed that I might be out exposing people. She has an awful fever. And when I saw the big purple blotch on her neck, I knew."

"We all ate supper with her," said Orry, running his hands through his hair as he sat down heavily upon the step. He looked up. "Are you sure she's dying?"

"I just have a hunch about Wizard Razzmorten's magic..."

"But he couldn't have been anything but a child when the First Wizard..."

"It's just a hunch."

"You're wanting me to go fetch him?"

"I want you to alert everyone in the family, everyone who was at supper. And have them keep it secret. They shouldn't be around anyone. I'm the generation with the taisteal gift. I can probably find Razzmorten with it and be back here in an hour or so." He studied Orry's face for a moment. "Look. We have to believe that we can get through this. All of Oilean Gairdin will be looking to us for hope."

"Well yes, but you almost make it sound like it's our job and not Uncle Faragher's. He's king, after all."

"He's turning the Crown over to me," he said as a nearby bullfrog joined the cricket frogs. "Please, not now. Just do this while I'm gone." And with that, he turned aside and vanished into the air.

***

"Trafferth!" muttered old white haired Peredur as he yanked tight the sash of his robe. "I'm doing ye a favor here, unless ye want to be scared clean away from the door." He glanced in the direction of the knocking as he stooped to pick up a flame on the wick of his candle before stumping the length of the house to the door. "Dod i mewn, dod i mewn," he said, fumbling to lift the latch with an empty sconce in one hand and a dribbling candle in the other. He threw open the door and looked the stranger up and down.

"Gabhaim pardun agat..." said Neron.

"Prince Neron!" said Peredur with a wide eyed gasp as he twisted the candle into the sconce at last. "Do come in! My word, I'm hardly dressed fit for a prince."

"I'm so very sorry to be bothering you in the middle of the night..."

Peredur was already shaking his head. "Razzmorten's not here," he said. "It's something terrible, isn't it?"

Neron gave a nod.

"I simply don't know where he is, Your Highness. He's like that sometimes, and I never know what to do. But I can certainly wake Mistress Dewin for you..."

"Forgive me, but please do."

Peredur's eyes got very wide at this. He thrust his sconce into Neron's hands and vanished into the blackness of the house, leaving a trail of hurried footfalls. He crept past Ugleeuh's room and knocked softly on Minuet's door. The door came open immediately, causing him to gasp and step backward.

" Peredur!" said Minuet. "I thought you were Leeuh."

"I suppose my tiptoeing woke you. I'm sorry. Prince Neron is down at the door. Something awful has happened and he wanted to see your father. I told him you'd speak with him."

"Very well. Thank you. Just go on back to bed. I'll take care of it." Minuet found Neron still dutifully holding the flickering candle. She curtsied and relieved him of it as she lit every candle in the room with a wave of her hand and saw that his face looked haunted. "The plague?" she thought. "You're trying to find Father?" she said.

"Desperately, I'm afraid. My wife may be dying."

"That's terrible! I don't know where he is."

Neron's eyes fell shut for a moment.

"Is she ill, injured?"

"I'm very sorry," said Neron, getting hold of himself. "It would be irresponsible of me to disclose that. Please. It's just that..."

"Is it the plague?"

"Oh Fates, yes!" he said, squeezing shut his eyes with a silent sob.

"Forgive me Prince Neron," she said. "I've not quite told you the truth. Please excuse me. I'll be right back." She turned at once and vanished into the hallway.

By the time he had found a chair and had taken a weary seat, she was back. "This," she said as she handed him her vial and pipette, "is oil of oregano. Put six drops under her tongue, six times a day."

"This is the very cure?" he cried, springing to his feet.

"Yes it is. Does she have buboes?"

"My dear sweet child," said Neron as he reached out, intending to give her a firm hug. "Thank the very Fates for you! Oh!" he said, stopping short and stepping back away from her. "I mustn't expose you. No. She has the hepatic kind."

"Good. Then that will give you more oil for under her tongue. Make sure she takes every last drop of it. And again, I'm sorry for my not telling you the truth. Father gave me strict orders that no one was to know his whereabouts. He's getting a hay load of oregano plants along the south shore of the Gulf of Orrin. I'll tell him that I told you, but please tell no one else."

"You have my word. Niarg has the plague, too?

"Several have died at Castle Niarg," she said with a nod. "The first death was a young courier from Far, so it's there, too."

Neron paused to shake his head grimly. "I must go," he said as he hurriedly stepped to the door and opened it. "Thank you, thank you! You've saved my whole world."

"Six drops under her tongue, six times a day..." she called after him, but he had already vanished into the night air.

"Nessa," he said softly the moment he appeared by her side, "I have the most wonderful news." He gently brushed aside her hair. Her forehead was cold. For a moment he couldn't breathe. He frantically grabbed up her cold hand and held it to his cheek as a horror of icy fire flooded his chest. "Oh...! No!" he cried out, echoing through every hall in the palace as his legs buckled and gave way.

***

Razzmorten awoke to the languid lapping of waves and the cries of gulls. "Something sure smells delicious," he said as he sat up to find that he was not only coated all the way down his back with sand, but that the high tide in the night had soaked him from the knees down. He could hear Meri Greenwood humming as he stirred something in a tin pan over the coals of a fire. He was astonished to see two places neatly set in white porcelain on a green and white chequered cloth, spread out on an absolutely dead level spot in the sand.

"I am a-pouring your tea, said Mari. "Hit the leaves of one of the five trees of paradise be. Hit will ye to waken right smart."

"Yes I see," said Razzmorten as he came and knelt before the first cup poured. "And good morning to you, Mari Greenwood. And what is this wonderful aroma?"

"Great gulf crabs boiled in salt water, kelp and leeks."

"Good heavens! Those things only come up in nets from the bottom of the deep. How did you...?"

"I while you was sleeping, my breath did a-hold," he said as he poured a mysterious sauce into a tiny cup sitting by the crab on each plate. Did the dorchadas you your knife to relieve?"

"No. I still have it, would you believe? Apparently they never looked for it."

Mari nodded at the food and they began eating at once.

"I hope you don't mind, Mari.... Mmm! This is delicious. But as soon as we finish eating, I must hurry and load my wagon and leave. Who knows how many new cases of the plague there are in Niarg."

"I wish ye well, and indeed your need of haste I do understand, but hit am I whoso in the greatest haste happen to be, for I must my beloved Celeste for to find. And if you yourself in the company of your brother do find, please for to ask where they be."

Razzmorten caught Mari's eye. "I'll not forget," he said with a shake of his head as he raised a bite of crab between his thumb and the point of his knife. "But I have never so much as begun to understand the meaning of what drives Razzorbauch."

When they had finished eating, Razzmorten helped

Mari clean the dishes in the gentle waves. Mari walked over to the green chequered cloth, picked it up by its corner and cracked it like a whip, making the fire and the flat place in the sand and every single footprint vanish. He took out his twist, bit off a fresh chaw and held out his hand.

"I won't forget to ask about Celeste," said Razzmorten as he shook hands.

Mari smiled, gave a nod and walked away into the countryside.

Razzmorten glanced uphill toward his hay wagon. When he looked back, Mari was nowhere to be seen. He gave a great sigh and trudged uphill. When he reached the wagon, he picked up his fork and spent the next hour in the hot sun loading and tramping the oregano. At last he took a seat amongst the tools he had nestled in the top of the load and sat for a moment as the breeze cooled his sweat soaked clothes. Presently, he picked up his hands and shook them as if they held reins to a team of unicorns. Immediately he was inside the bay of his barn as the frightened swallows swooped and darted out into the light of day. Somewhere up in the mow above, a pigeon was cooing as he slid down the front of his load with a bound.

"Let's see if Abracadabra's gone out to pasture, yet," he said as he stepped up into the feed way. He walked the length of the barn to find the unicorns still in their stalls, their horns waving about above the manger as they ate their morning oats. He stepped into the granary and got his saddle. He was just cinching Abracadabra's girth when Minuet's silhouette appeared in the doorway.

"You're back," she said. "Where are you going?"

"Castle Niarg," he said with a grunt as he gave a final tug. "I've decided to set up the distillery right outside the barn, so I need to see King Henry. He's fixing to have me do it somewhere in the outer ward. Leeuh's just going to have to wait for her gift. Is

Hubba Hubba in one piece?"

"He's safe in my room."

"So what calamity has she orchestrated in my absence?" he said as he led Abracadabra out into the light.

"Nothing big enough to discuss now."

"Anything else?" he said, gathering his reins and finding his stirrup.

"Prince Neron came looking for you in the middle of the night."

"Now what?" he said, settling into his saddle.

"His wife is dying of the plague, and..."

"And?"

"And the poor man was devastated," she said with her smile utterly gone, "so I gave him my vial of oil and pipette." She paused to look down at the piece of grass she was twisting in her hands. "And he wouldn't tell me what she was dying of, and I guessed the plague at once, so he gave in and told me anyway. So I felt terrible and gave in and told him where you were. It seemed like the right thing at the time, and now I feel awful. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but he promised not to tell a soul..."

"You did the right thing. I'd have made an exception for him, and I'm right proud of your choice, but it does scare me out of my wits. I'll have to get back immediately from Castle Niarg so that I can start on some oil for you. You can help me."

"Maybe we can get Leeuh to help," she said, looking as though she had let all the cows graze in the vegetable garden.

"We can always hope," he said as he turned aside and set off at a gallop. Minuet watched him standing in the saddle, pounding away down the lane. When he reached the road, she tossed aside her twisted grass and started for the hen house to find where she had set her basket of eggs.

"How can Leeuh be so confounded confident all the time?" she said as she snatched up her basket from amongst some hens taking dust baths. "Here I try my very hardest to do the right thing, and Father even says I did, but part of me still feels as though I let him down."

In the breeze way between the summer kitchen and the house, a whirl of heady air stirred her hair as she set down the eggs. "Bethan!" she said, speaking out. "Are those cinnamon buns? They smell wonderful."

Bethan appeared in the doorway of the summer kitchen. "You never know whether they're wonderful or not until you have one," she said, handing her a bun. "I've got a gob of old Doll's butter from yesterday, a-melting in that one the way you like it, honey. So what ye think?"

"Oh, mmm! It's the best thing in the whole world. I love it when you make these."

"So I don't have to throw 'em out to the hogs, and start over?"

"Fiddlesticks! What you simply must do is give me another one immediately, just like this one."

"Now, your Father's going to miss out, a-riding off full tilt like that," she said as she daubed a dessert spoon full of butter into another steaming bun. "Is he coming right back?"

"No. He's off to the castle."

"Well there's nothing there that'll beat these cinnamon buns. You just said so, yourself. And your sister? We know about her, don't we?"

"Yea, I guess we do."

"Well Min-Min, what I want to know is, if I just keep handing you ones these buttered buns, can I skip setting out breakfast inside? It would save me dishes, and I've got all kinds o' peas to pick and hull."

"Give me two more and you're off the hook. The peas are ready?"

"I should be a-picking them right now."

They looked up suddenly to the sound of the door of the house, just as Ugleeuh tramped sullenly into the summer kitchen and without a word, began snatching up buns from the rack by the oven.

"You could be good enough to ask Bethan, first..." said Minuet.

"Yea?" said Ugleeuh. "Well where has she been all this time? I've been sitting at the board in the house for an eternity, waiting for my breakfast..."

"Lee-Lee! We've been out here, eating..."

"And if Bethan had been doing her job, I would have been eating, too!"

"I'll be right in and set you a place, Mistress Leeuh..." said Bethan as Ugleeuh tramped out of the summer kitchen for the house.

"No you don't, Bethan!" said Minuet. "She already has her breakfast. She just walked out with a whole arm load of buns."

"Well, I'd best take her this butter..."

"No you don't!" said Minuet. "Here. Give me the butter. I'll go see to that little witch. I'll be out to help with the peas as soon as I'm done with her. Now, don't look so worried. I'm going to tell Father all about how she treated you." And with that, she hurried across the breeze way to the house.

"Well?" said Ugleeuh at the sight of Minuet coming in the door."

"Well, what?"

"Where is she? She's supposed to set my place for breakfast."

"She has better things to do than be ordered about by some mean spirited girl. You were awful to her! I told her to go on about her business. But even so, she insisted that I fetch you this butter."

"Well, aren't we goody-goody, this morning," she said with a glower as she batted aside the bowl of butter, flipping a dessert spoon out of it onto the table top. "Hear that, Minny-Min? Your stinking Elf's back to pester us, a-knocking on the front door."

"How would that sound to Father, Leeuh?"

"Like maybe I don't need to dance for his approval any more, the way you do..."

"Razzorbauch is at the front door and wishes to see Mistress Ugleeuh," said Peredur, suddenly stepping into the kitchen.

"Uncle Razzorbauch!" squealed Ugleeuh as she chucked her buns into the butter bowl and sprang from the bench to dash away to the door.

Minuet gave a great sigh and climbed the stairs to her room. "There's no point wasting the morning being ignored by Uncle Razzorbauch," she said. "I swear, Hubba Hubba. You seem to be listening to every word I say. Here. Let's put you on my shoulder and go down to the garden and pick peas with Bethan. You'll love peas. And while it's all peas and swearing, I'd say Ugleeuh and Uncle Razzorbauch are the original two peas in a pod."

***

"For me?" said Ugleeuh with a coy gasp as she bounced at the sight of a box tied with a red ribbon. "I knew you wouldn't forget the most important birthday of my life." She fell to untying the ribbon at once.

"I couldn't forget my favorite niece's eighteenth birthday," said Razzorbauch. "You're finally a woman, and that's not something which happens every day, is it?"

"You're the only one in my life who feels that way," she said with a look of radiant adoration.

"Still being treated the same way by your father and sister, aye?"

She gave a fierce nod.

"Father actually got me a filthy popinjay for my birthday as if I were a child who needed a pet to show responsibility for. Can you believe that? And when I was stunned that he would treat me that way, he got all mad and gave it to Minuet instead."

"I love my dear twin brother, but as much as we've always looked alike, I'd never mistreat you as he has. He has always made everyone sacrifice for his fiddly details, while he completely misses the grand scheme of things."

"I've always thought it would be wonderful if I were your daughter instead of your niece."

"So. Are you going to open that? You'll see it's no child's gift."

"Oh my!" she gasped. "A gorgeous necklace. Rubies?"

"I just knew it belonged around your lovely neck when I saw it."

"You always know just the right thing to get me," she said, fastening it on at once. "I love this. It goes perfectly with my dark hair. Don't you think?"

"Those are my very thoughts."

"Father and Minuet ate my cake as you might imagine, so I made the stupid hired lady bake me another one. You want some of it?"

"Well perhaps," he said, studying her keenly, "but I think I'd prefer to stay in here and visit with you for a bit first."

"Why yes," she said. "Is there something you wanted to talk about?"

"I was wondering if you might like a change."

"A change? What do you mean?"

"Well now that you're a grown woman, would you'd like to get out on your own and do something new with your life? I can see by how things are here that you deserve some independence."

"Like what?" she said, sitting very still to keep from going giddy with excitement.

"How about joining me in a business venture?"

"Oh maybe," she said, stifling a yawn to keep from springing up and skipping around the room, "if it's the right sort of thing." She paused long enough to actually consider. "Well I might be interested..." She fiddled with her necklace. "Except...well, you know, her."

"Her?" he said, looking lost. "Oh! Your mother?" He turned to her and caught her eye at once.

Ugleeuh was nodding.

"Oh my word! Don't worry about Demonica, dear. She'd love to get to know her only daughter."

Ugleeuh had a doubtful look. "Did she tell you that?"

"Well not in those words, but I do know her very well and she does want to get to know you."

"So why'd she abandon me in the first place?"

Razzorbauch's eyes filled with compassion as he rose and sat beside her to take up her hand. "I'm sure she'd explain every bit of that if you gave her the chance, Leeuh."

Ugleeuh stared for a spell into the sooty fireplace as if it held a flame, tapping at a tooth. "You know," she said with a nod, "I'd like to give her that very chance."

Chapter 6

"Helena," said King Henry, taking up her hand. "Look 'ee there at who's just stepped into the throne room...

"Razzmorten!" he said, speaking out in the cavernous hall.

Razzmorten halted on the runner to the dais and bowed grandly twice before crossing the length of the room to the throne.

"So," said Henry, leaning forward from the edge of his great chair. Does this mean your Elven hyssop harvest went as well as you'd expected?"

Suddenly movement dropped down the far wall, grabbing everyone's attention, as a barn owl silenced a squeaking rat, hesitated with a circular glance into the trusses above, and leaped into flight with its prize back to its nest under the ridge pole.

"Damn good owl," said Henry as Razzmorten stepped up onto the dais. "Did you get your wagon load?"

"I did indeed sire, and I'm right ready to commence with the distillery."

"Excellent! Maybe we can stop this plague before it becomes an avalanche of horrors. There've been above a dozen new cases since you left. My dear Helena was one of them."

"I'd swear that I've heard every word, sire, but the queen is sitting right beside you."

Henry threw a laugh into the echoes of the room. "I see you're not yet familiar with your own medicine," he said as he took off his crown and rubbed his eyes. A breeze passed through the hall, sending a ripple along the great banner hanging behind the thrones. "She had it when you came with the cure. She went to shaking and burning up with a fever immediately after you left. She was the very first one to try the oil. Her fever was gone by morning, but she's still rather pale."

"Why, I had no idea that it worked so quickly."

"I could see that you didn't," he said with a leftover chuckle. "Well, Leigheas said she had the mildest form, but I dare say that a one in four chance of living to tell about it isn't very mild."

"No, it isn't."

"Now do you have any idea when you might have your first batch of oil?"

"Oh my. It would only be a guess..."

"I'm sorry. I was more interested in your tidings than in your comfort. That chair right there, do have a seat."

"Thank you," said Razzmorten, sitting at once. "I'm going straight home to Peach Knob the minute we're done here and begin building a small distilling apparatus. When I get it going, I'll either improve it or build bigger ones, or what ever I need to do to produce ever more oil until this is all over. I don't know which will be the biggest problem, producing the oil or keeping ourselves in plants."

"It sounds like you have things well in hand. We'll pay the wage of anyone you wish to have help you. Captain Strong is all ready to show you a couple possible sights in the outer ward which you might use for your distillery."

"I indeed appreciate that sire, and I will take advantage of it, but it might be better if I set up the still away from the public, so if you've no objection, I'll build it at my manor. And if I do so, then I'll have all the help and materials that I need for the time being with one exception..."

"Actually that's a relief," said Henry as he smoothed back his hair and replaced his crown. "I'd worried about how to explain the still without touching off a panic. So what's the exception?"

"I'm going to start out with a big rendering kettle. I need someone out of the armory perhaps, who can make a steam tight cover with a spout for it out of sheet iron, and who can come to Peach Knob today and stay quiet about it."

"That would be Sergeant Hensnape without a doubt. You've got him. I'll have him sent to Peach Knob as soon as you leave. And I'd allow that you're right ready to get started back."

"I am, Your Majesty," said Razzmorten as he rubbed his forehead and looked up. "But there is another matter that I need to tell you about."

"And it doesn't appear that I'll like hearing it."

"No. Prince Neron came to Peach Knob in the middle of the night, last night, while I was still away, hoping beyond hope that I might have a way to cure his wife, Nessa. My daughter tells me that she's dying."

Henry smacked the arm of his chair with his fist and shot to his feet to begin pacing. "This is foul news if there ever was. We tend to forget that the Jut of Niarg, where she lies ill, is indeed in Niarg. An invading army couldn't have done a better job of picking three points to invade. Jutwoods, Castle Niarg and Far," he said, pausing to count out three fingers in front of Razzmorten. "We just found out this morning that Princess Branwen is dead and that the king himself has got it."

"Please give my condolence to Prince Hebraun."

"He only met her the one time, but an annex through the marriage wouldn't have hurt us one bit," he said, pausing with a sigh. "We're really going to need your cure with all speed."

"I'm not surprised about Far, sire. It was only a matter of time..."

"Yea. Only a matter of hours."

"Precisely," said Razzmorten as he sat, following the king's pacing. "I'm convinced that the Elves have it right when it comes to contagion, sire. So if you don't reckon me out of place for my saying so, you need to close the border to Far immediately. No one should cross going either way until both sides have this under control."

Henry sat down heavily on his great chair. He chewed on a strand of his beard as he studied the banners hanging all about the hall. "There's no choice about that, I'm sure," he said with a sigh. "We could take them some oil after we get on our feet, I suppose." He looked up suddenly. "Behind you."

Razzmorten quickly looked all about to find the owl flying to the ridge pole with another rat.

"I've never seen them inside so bad in warm weather," said Henry.

"Yea, this has been quite a year for rats."

***

Razzmorten found Minuet in the kitchen, shelling peas with Bethan. "We've got a whole mess of beets coming on, too," she said as she nodded at a large pile of them on the end of the board.

"That'll make a fine supper," he said. "Can you come outside?"

Minuet picked up her pile of un-hulled peas by the corners of her apron, ducked out of the straps and followed him out into the calls of pewees and the tinkling of sheep bells. "So what's up?" she said, squinting into the afternoon sun.

"I don't want to bother you, but I need to have a talk with all of the hired help about the distillery and the plague, and before I do, I just wanted to see if there's anything I need to know first."

"You're no bother. That's Leeuh's job," she said, giving a sudden wide-eyed gasp. "I'm sorry! That's terrible of me."

"No it's not. I had a rotten sibling too, don't you know."

"I've never ever heard you refer to Uncle Razzorbauch or to Leeuh as anything but wayward. You always said..."

"I wanted to raise you to have love, forgiveness and patience," he said as he found an overturned wash tub to sit on. "But over the years, people like that just keep getting worse until one day you're forced to wake up and see that they've turned wicked." He took off his hat and set it in the grass. "Now, I'm not calling Leeuh wicked, but I've always had my secret hopes for Razzorbauch. And when I was getting my load of oregano, I saw Dyn Gwyrdd, you know, Meri Greenwood. And if he's not mistaken, Razzorbauch has found a way to ruin every square mile of the vast Forest Primeval." He looked up at her wide eyes. "So if he has, there's no running away from the fact that Razzorbauch is indeed wicked. When did he turn wicked? I have wrung my hands watching him all my life, but I have no idea when. Maybe it's better if you do call her a 'bother' once in a while."

Minuet knelt in the grass and reached out here and there to pluck clover heads as a warbling vireo called from one of the big maples shading the house. "I think you need to know this," she said, looking up to catch his eye.

"Which one, your sister or your Uncle?"

"Uncle Razzorbauch called with a gift for Leeuh right after you left for the castle, this morning. They had quite a long visit. I left them alone, especially since Uncle Razzorbauch always ignores me anyway. I saw him leave about noon, but what seems strange to me is that Leeuh hasn't come to show off her gift, particularly since his gifts to her are always much grander than any which he would give me. I haven't even seen her, truth to tell."

Razzmorten sighed and looked around for his hat. "The chief armorer is on his way out here to help set up the still," he said as he got to his feet. "I've got to see if I can't have a place ready for him. And I must talk to all the help before he gets here. Do me a favor and see if you can find Leeuh to learn as much as you can about her visit with Razzorbauch. Would you?"

"I'm on my way."

***

Razzorbauch tramped the length of the crimson runner in Demonica's receiving room and out a side passage, muttering at her empty throne as he passed by. Down the long hallway he went, the heels of his riding boots pounding out a determined rhythm of echoes under the Gothic arches. At the bottom of the stairs he found Joran and Remont sitting on kegs on either side of a barrel, arm wrestling. Joran looked up wide eyed in time for Remont to wrench his arm flat against the barrel head.

"So what are you two doing?" said Razzorbauch with an impatient bounce on his heels.

"Why, a-guarding the prisoners for Intron Demonica," said Joran as he rocked back and forth, cradling his painful elbow in his lap.

"It takes two of you?"

"That's what she says," said Reymont, rising to stand submissively beside the barrel.

"I don't see any prisoners."

"We've got two of 'em."

"Yea," said Joran. "We had three, but one of them went to stinking..."

"So we cleaned him out good," said Reymont with a nod. "We swept up the maggots and scattered clean straw. We even piled it up deep over his stool in the corner and everything."

"Well since you're on your toes and all, have you seen her?"

"Who?"

Razzorbauch hesitated for a moment before turning smartly on his heel and starting up the stairs.

"Who?" hollered Reymont.

"Thank you, gentlemen!" he called out in the echoes as he disappeared from sight. Once more he crossed the length of the castle, hunting for Demonica.

"The very least she could do is leave word with the hired help about where she's going and when she'll be back," he said as he stepped his way up the winding staircase of his tower. At last, he reached his library. With an impatient flicking of fingers and a wave of his arm, a massive oak door rolled aside quietly into the left wall, uncovering another door which immediately rolled away into the right wall, leaving a set of heavy double doors which unlatched themselves and swung silently inward in time to reveal Demonica in the act of fitting the ruby red crystal Heart of the Staff into the Great Staff of Power. Razzorbauch's eyes went apoplectically wide as he noiselessly swept to her side like a great owl. "Demonica!" he bellowed, grabbing the Staff and her arm at the same time.

With a shriek and a lunge, she tried to wrench away.

"So this is what you do when I'm away!" he growled, clamping down on her frightfully hard. "My trust in you has been grossly misplaced, I see!"

"No! You're wrong!" she cried, jerking against his grasp. "Please, love! Let go! You're hurting me!"

"Certainly pet," he said between his teeth, "as soon as you answer me."

"What?" she said with sudden gravel in her throat. "So I'm answering to you, aye?"

"Well, just what were you doing in here by yourself with the Heart and the Staff?"

"My love! How could I mean anything by it? I missed you so much that I came in here to spend a few moments amongst the books you love. I browsed the shelves for a spell, and stumbled onto the Staff leaning against the shelf with the Heart. I wondered

how it felt to hold them, and all at once you scare me to death, shouting at me. And you're not letting go!"

"No. Not when you've left out the part about my Staff and Heart being locked away and sealed with spells inside that glass fronted book case which I see standing open right yonder."

"What's the matter with you!" she growled as if she had flattened ears. "Of course I overhear your spells. I'm with you all the time. How would I know you didn't want me in here? Why would I ever expect that out of you? This is my keep after all!"

"Right!" he said, flattening her across the top of his library table as he pressed the Heart to the side of her throat. "And for absolutely no reason under the shining sun, I'm all mean and terrible..."

"Let me up! Hey! That thing burns!"

"Oh you have no idea," he said as the Heart began giving off a faint flute-like hum. "It could cause you more pain than you've ever felt in your life. Just don't be stupid. So. What was it that you were doing with the Heart and Staff without asking?"

"You're burning me!"

"Won't leave a mark, dear. The more you fight, the worse it'll get. So, what were you doing?"

"I told you...! Aaaa!"

"No you didn't."

"All right, all right!" she wailed, turning white. "I went to a lot of trouble to learn your spells any time you didn't think I was watching. And I decided to come in through all the doors and spells in order to try out the Heart and Staff since you were gone. I had a right to, because I was the one who got it out of the Niarg Treasury in the first place. Just for you. I even had to marry your stupid brother. And you refused to let me try it, even once. Not even once," Suddenly she was heaving with sobs.

Razzorbauch jerked away the Heart in disgust, shoving her off the table onto the stone floor, where she cried out in shocked anguish. "This is about power, sweetheart," he growled. And with that, he stepped smartly out the triple door, followed by three thundering slams.

***

"Lee-Lee?" said Minuet as she pecked on her door. She waited and knocked again. "Leeuh?" She hesitated a moment more and then turned about to leave. Before she had managed to take a step, the latch behind her clicked and the door swung wide. There was Ugleeuh sitting up in bed looking cross, as though she had just been asleep. "You look far too awake to be sitting under the covers like that," she said as she stepped inside.

Without warning, the door slammed shut behind her, giving her a start. Ugleeuh laughed uproariously, suddenly going completely silent in the midst of it, as if she had never uttered a sound.

"Games like this are why Father hasn't taught you very much, Lee-Lee. You're 'way too awake to have been sleeping. What are you hiding?"

"Oh woof, woof, big sister," said Ugleeuh. "Did you come in here and wake me up just to be my keeper?"

"No. I wondered what Uncle Razzorbauch gave you."

Ugleeuh hesitated for a fleeting moment, as if she were not quite sure she was hearing right. "A fabulous ruby necklace, if you must!" she said with a sudden bounce as she flung aside her covers and scurried to her dresser. She put on the necklace at once and turned for Minuet to see. "So what do you think? Isn't it the most wonderful gift you've ever seen?"

"Oh it is. And it looks lovely on you."

"It is perfect, isn't it Min-Min?" she said, startling Minuet with a grand smile. She removed the necklace and carefully put it away, then suddenly turned on her with a look of suspicion. "You never just come to my room any more. You didn't want to see my present. Why did you come?"

"I did so. You've always shown off your gifts from Uncle Razzorbauch, and Father and I were wondering if you'd been disappointed this year."

"Poop! I don't believe it."

"You silly goose! You mean the world to us, even if you do frustrate us."

"My...!" she said, knocked wordless for a moment. "Very well then. Go tell Father I've finally got a birthday present. Bye." She squatted at once and pulled out a half packed bag from under her bed. "Oh. And tell him I'll be away for a bit."

"Away?" said Minuet as she spied a strange scrying ball in her sister's bag. "Away where?"

"Aw! Poor woof, woof. Your awful little sister outgrew you. I'm all grown up now, remember? I'm not a prisoner here. Bye."

"Aren't you forgetting the plague? Travel out and about is dangerous right now."

"Nope! Not where I'm going," she said as she put her necklace box into her bag and took out the scrying ball. She sat on the edge of her bed with her bag in her lap and peered into the ball as it began glowing with swirling colors. "You look like a fool with your ugly mouth open like that. Ta-ta!" And with that she vanished.

Chapter 7

Ugleeuh suddenly sat down hard on one of the flagstone balconies of Razzorbauch's keep, unknown miles away from the edge of her bed. Struggling with the urge to vomit as she got to her feet, she saw that his castle was near the top of a great prominence overlooking a vast sea of twisted trees. "Why would Uncle Razzorbauch ever have a place in the midst of this ugly wilderness?" she thought as she looked about. "This can't be Head. It couldn't be Demonica's because he said that his spell would take me to his keep." Presently she looked behind her and saw him, leaning on the stone balustrade at the far end of the balcony. She drew a sudden breath to speak out, but stayed quiet instead at the sight of him lost in his thoughts as he stared out across the endless woods. "Better not bother him," she thought as she put her scrying ball into her bag and set it upon the balcony. She looked all around at the great building as she stood, swinging her arms in the mid-morning breeze, coming up the slopes. It certainly made the manor house at Peach Knob seem humble. She had never seen something so large as this castle made entirely of coal black limestone. There were great sinister gargoyles above each of the many gables. She gave a shudder at the unexpected sight of a raven perched atop the nearest one, studying her keenly with one eye.

"Why Leeuh!" cried Razzorbauch, suddenly seeing her.

She wheeled about with a start to look up at him with wide eyes.

"Oh my word! I certainly didn't mean to frighten you," he said, holding out his arms for a hug. "Come sit with me over here. The view is breathtaking." He motioned to a stone bench overlooking a gap in the balustrade. "Did you just get here?"

Ugleeuh nodded as she took her seat.

Razzorbauch sat beside her and looked out over the woods for a moment. A rock wren gave a ringing call from somewhere nearby in the breeze. "So how did my dear brother take it when you told him you were coming?"

"Father? I'd reckon my departure was a big relief. I mean he never wanted me in the first place. So what else would it be but a relief?"

"So you just left without telling him?"

"Well I told Minuet to tell him. I didn't see the need to tell her where to, though. I mean, isn't it enough that they get to be glad I'm gone?"

"They no doubt deserve it, Leeuh, but I'd allow that neither one of them is happy that you're gone."

"Really?" she scoffed, not wanting to sound interested.

"Really," said Razzorbauch. "You can count on it."

For a moment she was speechless. "Too bad, then," she said, looking strangely serene. "They earned it. I certainly don't care."

"Well then," he said, planting his hands on his knees. "Why don't we go inside and see what the cook has fixed while we discuss our new partnership? And in the morning, I can take you to see where I plan to put our sukere plantation. How would that be?"

"Good, I suppose," she said, chewing her lip, "except that I thought I was going to meet my mother. I thought this was going to be her castle at Head on the Dark Continent. It isn't, is it? Where is this?"

Razzorbauch paused to look out over the trees once more. "We don't really have a name for it yet," he said, heaving a sigh. "It used to be a wasteland known as the Forest Primeval until I improved it." He started for the balcony door. "So Demonica. I guess we'll see her first thing in the morning, then. We had something of a difference of opinion, but it's nothing to worry about. It's settled. We shall see her before I take you to the plantation."

Just before stepping inside, Ugleeuh looked up to see the raven take flight. The raven flew in in great sweeping circles, rising far up into the clouds as he considered what he had seen. "This is good," he said, winging ever higher. "The stinking wicche will pay well for this. Knowledge of Razzorbauch's disloyal tryst is worth a great deal. And she's really looking for him to do something if she went to the trouble to give me the magic of a hedge wizard and to teach me a traveling spell just to fetch her every fiddly little tiding." He went silent for a spell as he ceased his flapping, circling ever higher on a swelling updraft. "And hit pissen me some deal that her spell won't take me anywhere but Head. The least she could have done was give me some kind of scrying ball so I could make the spell deliver me right to the mark instead of having to fly up and down the whole swyving coast each time to find her rotten keep. Say!" he croaked. "That's hit! She'll pay me a jolly scrying ball for my tidbit, or she'll get nothing." And with that, he took a triumphant plunge into a plummeting series of barrel rolls and corkscrew spirals.

Straight down he went, faster and faster until with a furious swoop, he leveled out to speed along just above the trees. "Yea! No fiddly trinkets this time. And she'd better give me my usual roast beast... Whoa! What's this?" he said as he sailed by three people and something else, huddled on the ground. He flew slowly back and landed quietly in a nearby tree for a look. "Ha!" he thought at the sight of the three stunningly beautiful green haired women. "I know them. Those Fairies are the Guardians of the Woods. They escaped Razzorbauch. He'd pay right well to know where they are. And that giant man-faced rat, maybe he'd roast him for me as part of the payment." He gave a quiet giddy rattle.

"Fie!" cried the great rat. "Hit would only been fair you all for to let me know where we are going..."

The raven hopped down a few branches to listen.

"Fair!" cried one of the women. "Rodon, you are a traitor to your own ken. How dare you to speak of fair!"

"I know which one she is," thought the raven. "She's Celeste. Oh, oh, oh! And she's Meri Greenwood's lover. Now, he'd give me a handsome payment to know where they are, too." He zipped his beak down a flight feather in each wing, gave himself a quick fluffy shake and sleeked down to listen.

"Oh just go on and tell him," said another of the Fairies. "He will to see when we there to get, anyway. And if he knows, maybe we will not to him have to listen."

"Very well. We to the Jutwoods are off then," said Celeste.

"Oh good!" said Rodon, anxiously twisting his tail in his hands. "Sanctuary with the Elves. And we can to free me from this here rat curse for to ask them..."

"Have do, but I won't not ye for to help!" said the third woman. "You can as you be to remain as far as I care."

"Nor will I," said the other one. "You deserve what Razzobauch to ye done. And if forever that way you spend, you shall not never begin to make up for the evil you did to the Forest and each one of us."

"Being a rat does not come neigh to what you deserve," said Celeste.

"I told you Razzorbauch did make me, Celeste!" shouted Rodon, stringing spittle onto his furry jowls. "He into his service forced me! He tormented me! I know I should have died, but I did not. Have you no mercy?"

"Not for your lies on top of your deeds!"

Rodon jerked as if he had been slapped, and immediately turned his back to them to heave and fume.

"Ha! Profits!" croaked the raven, springing into flight. "I will indeed sell twice their whereabouts. And since I know just where they're going, I can easily take the time to see Demonica before I do." Well out of sight of the Fairies, he began the incantations to a spell as he flew. Suddenly he vanished from the grey sky over the gnarled trees to find himself hundreds of leagues away, high in the air above the coast of Penvro, which everyone referred to as Head. He circled about for a time, trying to decide which way to fly in order to reach the great rock called Forbidden Island, where Demonica had her keep.

The sun had passed its zenith some time ago as he settled onto a great white limestone harpy which served as a drain for the roof on the front wall of Demonica's keep. He gave each wing a snap and spent the next hour preening himself and studying the castle and its grounds below with first one eye and then the other. At last, he sprang into flight and swooped to a window ledge below, where he pecked loudly at the purple glass.

"Ocker!" cried Demonica as she threw open the sash. "Where have you been? I was expecting you hours ago."

Ocker lunged into the room and swooped to the back of a chair at a table to begin an aloof preening of one wing.

"Well?" she said, planting her fists on her hips. "What did you find?"

He hesitated for a glance at her before switching over to sort through the feathers of his other wing.

"I said, what did you find? I want an answer."

He looked up at last and gave himself a thorough shake, flinging dander into the light of the window. "Yea?" he said. "And I want payment. This is going to be worth something extra to you."

"Well I've had the cooks fix you a whole leg o' lamb..."

"And I'll have to have that as part of my payment, but it's worth more to you this time, 'way more..."

"What? How could it be worth any more with you this late?"

"You made me late."

"Right," she said as she rolled her eyes and took a seat across the table from him. "And just how'd I manage to do that?"

"Do you...?" he said as he hopped onto the table top to skip right up to her and look her squarely in the eye. "Do you have any idea at all about how long I've been flying up and down the coast of Head hunting for your stupid keep? You insist that I come by traveling spell and tell you what I've seen, but you won't so much as give me a scrying ball to see where I'm going."

"Scrying ball?" she said with a laugh. "You can't carry a scrying ball."

"I can if it's the size of a pigeon's egg. But never mind," he said, crouching in order to take flight." I've got paying customers..."

"Ocker!" she cried. "Stop! I have a scrying ball half the size of a hen's egg, if it will do ye. I don't like to use it because it's hard to see things in, but you can have it if you'll tell me your tidings."

"Get it then," he said, taking a distracted peck at a dark spot on the table top.

"I'll have the lamb sent up while I'm at it," she said as she disappeared into the hallway. She was back in short order. "Here it is," she said as she set the pearly green marble before him. "So what extra sort of thing is Razzorbauch up to, anyway?"

Ocker pecked here and there at the marble as it rolled about between his feet. "I want to see this thing work first," he said.

Demonica raised her eyebrows with a sigh. "You've got magic, now," she said. "Put your foot on it at first, I should think, and then tell it what you want to see."

He grabbed onto it as he gave a steadying snap of his wings. "Show me Urr-Urr," he said.

"What on earth is an err-err?" she said with a look of amusement.

"Urr-Urr's my wife," he rattled. "And she's not one bit funny. She's on the nest, up in the rocks above Razzorbauch's castle... Ha! There she is! This thing works." And with that, he sprang into the air."

"Hey!" cried Demonica.

"I'll be right back," he awked as he vanished out the window. He flew up to the roof and buried the scrying marble in a damp wad of leaves at the end of a gutter and flew back down through the window to find Demonica pacing in agitation. "Now just what...?" she said, stopping short at the sound of his wings.

"Nothing that you need to know about, Demonica."

"Well fine. Now what about Razzorbauch?"

Ocker settled himself once again on the back of his chair. "Now what about my lamb roast?" he said with a snap of each wing.

It's on its way up. What about Razzorbauch?"

"As soon as I have a little roast. Hit's tiring business, flying up and down the coast of Head, don't ye know."

"You're a mean spirited bird."

"Yea? And you're a wicche, suster..."

Demonica threw back her head and laughed.

Presently, a pewter cover was being yanked away from a steaming roast on the table by a hired woman. Ocker hopped onto the table and trotted up to the platter, gobbling up a pinch of meat.

Demonica sat at the table with a sigh and crossed her arms. "Now," she said. "You have your roast. What's this bigger than usual thing about Razzorbauch?"

Ocker looked at her with sparkling black eyes and twisted off another piece of lamb.

Demonica heaved a bigger sigh and reached out for a piece of roast.

Ocker immediately bit her, leaving a smarting red V on her knuckle.

"Hey!" she cried. "You're a right foul natured one for pay before work!"

"And you're a stinking queinte," he said, pausing to smack his dirty beak. "Haven't you heard of remuneration before goods?"

"I could turn you into a grease spot."

"Except that you're smarter than that. We have a deal going, my dame."

Demonica sat back and watched him eat for quite some time. At last he was slowing down. "You remember Razzorbauch, right?" she said.

"You remember manners, right?" he said, wiping his beak on the edge of the platter. "I mean, don't you know how to conduct yourself around a high ranking raven eating his payment?" He suddenly thrust himself up as tall as he could manage, making all of the feathers on his neck bristle out like a pine cone.

"I'm learning. Now what about Razzorbauch?"

"Well then," he said, relaxing into a normal posture, "he's back at his keep, but he's not alone."

"Not alone? He has his hired help."

"Yea, but he also has his company," he said as he hopped back up onto his chair and began preening. "Now I wasn't close enough to get her name..."

"Her? He has a woman at his keep?"

"What else would I mean by 'not alone?'"

"What does she look like?"

"What does it matter? You humans all look alike."

"A scrying ball and a leg o' lamb are worth 'way more than that," she said as she gave an angry bat at the air, flinging shut the open window across the room. "Now. What did you say she looked like?"

"Look. I was protecting your swyving feelings, all right? Aren't you paying me to look out for your interests? The wench has dark hair like yours, but some deal longer. She has big dark eyes. And she's perhaps an inch or two taller than you, ten or fifteen pounds lighter and a lot younger than you, too. Now are you happy?"

"Quite," she said with a voice of ice.

"Well, before you hurry off to murder the pair of them, would you please open the window for me?"

She gave a distracted wave at the air behind her, making the sash unlatch on its own and swing in.

Ocker flew to the sill, lunged out into the air and flew to the roof. He dug his scrying marble out of the leaves, turning it over and over with his foot. "Show me Urr-Urr," he said. He stared at the marble's swirling colors for a moment, then studied the horizon across the ocean to the west. He leaped into the air and flew with the marble clutched tightly in his foot until he was but a speck with wings which suddenly vanished.

Chapter 8

Ocker appeared high up in the air over his nest on the rock ledge, far above Razzorbauch's keep. At the sight of Urr-Urr, he began croaking.

Urr-Urr immediately answered with loud pairs of tick-tocks, springing from her nest to meet him for a rollicking reunion in the air. At the sight of her coming, Ocker did a neat back flip, and

the pair of them flew to the nest, wing tip to wing tip, in a grand pas de deux. Urr-Urr carefully settled back upon her five eggs in time for Ocker to disgorge a great wad of roast lamb.

"Cooked!" she said as she tossed her head about in great lunging gulps. "This is unbelievably delicious. You've made

a sale to a human again, haven't you?"

"Oh, I did really well this time. Not only did the old queinte pay me with a leg o' lamb, but she actually gave me a scrying ball."

"You mean Demonica?"

"Yea."

"But isn't a scrying ball that big round thing we see Razzorbauch staring into? How will you ever get hit home?"

"Look," he said with a peck at his foot, as he carefully nestled his marble into the sticks of the nest. "Here hit is. And I've seen you in hit twice already."

"Hit's a beautiful trinket," she said, pecking at it here and there, "but what good is hit? You already know what I look like."

"'Tain't just a trinket," he said, adding a couple of delicate pecks of his own, "hit's a proper tool. Her turning me into a hedge wizard and showing me a spell allows me to pop clean across the ocean to Head and back, but I can't see where I'm going. I had to spend all morning flying up and down the coast of Head to find her keep. Now, this scrying ball lets me navigate. I just now popped out in the sky, right overhead, don't you know. This'll save me all kinds of time for you and the eggs."

"Or for more deals."

"Certainly. For more profit."

"Well that sounds good. But you've been gone for quite a spell, and I'm still famished, even with a crop-full of lamb. Could you sit your turn while I go have a hunt?"

"Have do."

Urr-Urr preened the feathers down one side of his neck for a moment, then stood and dove off the nest into the air. Ocker settled carefully onto their five speckled black glossy green eggs and was soon fast asleep.

***

The rooster flapped to the floor of the chicken house in the faint light of dawn to ruffle up and shake himself before sauntering to the water crock. He dipped in his beak and tossed back his head. A phoebe and a wood thrush called outside.

Upstairs in her room, Minuet stood up in her nightgown and nearly fell. "Whoa!" she said, sitting back down on the edge of the bed to catch herself. "And I've soaked my bedclothes with sweat. I can't imagine." She stood up slowly and traded her wet gown for a robe as she glanced at Hubba Hubba. "You want something to eat, don't you? I'll go see."

"Good Morning, Min-Min," said Bethan at the sight of her, coming into the kitchen. "Are you looking for something for the popinjay?"

"I always am, first thing."

"Well now, I've got just the thing," she said with a flourish amidst her dance from the flour bin to the breadboard. "I just came in from the garden with that mess of peas on the board. A few pods full would be just about right, wouldn't it?"

"You're chipper, this morning," said Minuet as she sorted through the peas on the table. "Must be because Leeuh's gone."

"My word, Min-Min!" said Bethan, going wide-eyed. "Why, I'd never..."

"I know. You'd never say anything bad about Leeuh, no matter how ugly she'd been to you. And I'm sorry I set you up for that one. I was just thinking out loud."

"Well yes, but..."

"She was just plain awful before she left," said Minuet as she gave Bethan a sudden hug.

"Well, it has been peaceful..." she said, leaning back to give a careful squint at Minuet's unusually white complexion.

"I'll be right back for breakfast," said Minuet as she headed for the door with her peas. "Maybe I'll eat with Father."

"I doubt it. He had a cup o' tea and sailed right out with some of yesterday's cinnamon buns to work on the still out at the barn."

"Well, I'll eat with you, then."

"Fresh buns and grits, or do you want me to scramble some eggs to go with the grits, instead?"

"Buns."

"They'll be ready."

***

Urr-Urr had been perched on the edge of the nest all night when Ocker awoke.

"You're back," he said with a yawn as he stretched a foot back under one wing. "My word! It's morning."

"Well, I know how much you go without sleep."

"I have to. He who snoozes, loses."

"So you say. And I love your enthusiasm, but you look like you're getting ready to take off again. Are you leaving this early?"

"I'm afraid so. I've got to see Razzorbauch and then I need to find Merri Greenwood."

"Is he still hunting for his lost lover?"

"He is, and that's just hit. I've found her. She's with her sisters. So you know hit will be worth some deal to him."

"Should be," she said, reaching under him for some delicate pecks at her eggs as he stood up. "But now, wouldn't Razzorbauch part with something neigh as good for the same bit of news? After all, those sisters made a fool of him by escaping."

Ocker sorted through the feathers of one wing. "Oh, he would indeed," he said, "so I'm selling my news to each one of them. Hit makes no difference to me who gets the sisters and the rat."

"Rat?"

"Well, I want the rat. Hit's as big as Razzorbauch himself and traveling right along with them. I don't care who roasts him for us."

"Sounds delicious," she said, clasping his beak. "Good luck."

Ocker replied with a quick nibble of the feathers beneath her eye, grabbed up his scrying marble and lunged out into the air below the nest. Down, down he swooped until he landed on the roof of Razzorbauch's keep. He hopped across a few rows of tiles and hid his marble in a gutter and then flew to his favorite gargoyle overlooking the grand balcony. "Ha!" he rattled. "There's the rotten old swyver, now." He flew down to land on the limestone balustrade at once, hopping along the length of it until he stood right in front of him.

"Ocker!" said Razzorbbauch. "Where'd you come from? If you've some information to sell me, make it quick. I'm busy."

"Yea?" he said with a snap of each wing. "Well I'm busy too, so if you don't have the time to learn the whereabouts of the three Fairy queintes who got away from you, then I've got other customers, like maybe Meri Greenwood. Good bye!" And with that he sprang into the air.

"Hey!" cried Razzorbauch. "Get down here! You know very well that I have the time for that kind of news."

"Fine," he croaked, hovering eye to eye with Razzorbauch before landing again on the balustrade, "but I'll have my payment first, as usual."

"Of course. What do you want this time?"

"You wouldn't have had me stay if this wasn't important to you," said Ocker, looking at him with one keen black eye, "so you've already admitted that hit's worth something special..."

"I've no time for games, bird. What do you want?"

Ocker found something under one wing needing attention. Immediately he needed to check under the other wing. "Well," he said, ruffling up at last and giving himself a good shake, "There's a big rat, traveling with the sisters. I'd take him, sent up to my nest, perfectly roasted."

"That big rat, my conniving friend, happens to be a Fairy. He's Rodon, their brother, and I have my own plans for him. And besides, you don't want to eat a Fairy."

"Why not? You obviously don't want them running around loose, so why not roast one of them and know that he'll never escape?"

"It's out of the question."

"Yea?" said Ocker, standing up straight as his neck bristled out like a pine cone. "Well, Urr-Urr is all set for giant rat. She's got the best nest site and the largest territory in the whole forest and I always make sure she gets what she wants."

"We certainly wouldn't want to offend her station, would we...?"

"You swyving hole! If that was a smug remark, you can find your own Fairies..."

"Look, Ocker. If giant rat is your requirement, I can fix you up. It just won't be a Fairy. What do you say?"

"Here I stand."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Let me see this rat you're talking about."

Razzorbauch sighed and closed his eyes, slowly turning this way and that toward the palace proper. Suddenly, he lashed out with a furious fling of his arm, and a rat came flying over the wall, squealing in terror to land at their feet, instantly tethered to the balustrade.

"No deal!" croaked Ocker. "I could catch rats like that all day long," He crouched, ready to spring into flight.

"I'm not done," said Razzorbauch as he picked up his staff from the nearby stone bench. He pointed it at the rat, shooting out a brilliant lavender discharge. Instantly the rat was twice as big as before.

"You pissen me, Razzorbauch," rattled Ocker. "That's 'way smaller than the rat I want, and you know it. Last week Urr-Urr and I shared a muskrat bigger than that with some wolves."

"And you insult me, O patient one," said Razzorbauch as he reached inside his robe and withdrew a fine leather pouch.

"What's that?" said Ocker, studying him with one eye.

"I don't pull this out in front of just anyone," he said as he slipped out a brilliant red crystal in the shape of a heart. He picked up his Staff and snapped the crystal into the end of it. At once it began throbbing with a ruby light. When he shook it at the rat, the blinding flash engulfed the rat and made Ocker jump into the air and settle back onto the balustrade. At once they made out an enormous rat amongst the red spots before their eyes, frantically snuffling, scratching and jerking this way and that against its tether.

"Well now," said Razzorbauch, cradling in his hands the Staff with the still glowing Heart. "You say roasted. With or without hair?"

"I've not had anything cooked with hair. Everything else we eat has it. Let's try that."

"With hair it is, then. Gutted?"

"I always wondered why humans throw away the good part."

"Cooked innards it is," said Razzorbauch as he shook his Heart at the rat. The rat collapsed sizzling onto the balcony.

"You want us dining down here?" said Ocker.

"Razzorbauch rolled his eyes, nodded and fixed a ruby beam on the steaming rat for a moment before wheeling about with a heave, shining the beam up the bluff face to deposit the carcass right beside a very startled Urr-Urr on her nest. "There. How's that?"

"Well," said Ocker, giving himself a shake and sleeking down. "Your Fairies are on their way to the Jutwoods to take up sanctuary with the Elves. And Ratman has some sort of curse he wants them to remove..."

"Yea. I know about it."

"Well, the queintes think he deserves it, and... Oh yea. They're only traveling by night and they're afraid to use any magic except for shields to keep you from scrying them."

"Good. Where did you see them?"

"Maybe ten league south-east of here."

"That close, aye? When?"

"Two days ago."

"Two days ago! That rat was a lot of trouble."

"Hey!" said Ocker, bristling at once. "I was busy. I have a lot of clients to take care of. I went to a lot of trouble of my own, here. If you weren't such a stinking hole, you'd be grateful."

"I'm grateful, all right. But if I don't find the Fairies..."

"Then up your hairy erse, swyver!" cried Ocker, springing into the air. "I've always made good for you. You're the one who can't keep track of your Fairies." And with that, he flew up and out of sight.

When Razzorbauch left, he swooped down to get his scrying marble and to have a look in it for Meri Greenwood.

***

Ugleeuh was thrilled with the guest quarters her uncle Razzorbauch had given her. Instead of a mere room such as hers at Peach Knob, she had an apartment, a whole suite of opulently appointed rooms, as if she were some sort of royalty. She threw back her covers and sat up. "The looking glass," she said, staring at the full length Gothic mirror which stood near a wardrobe across the room. She had never in her life seen a flat piece of glass larger than a saucer, let alone something so huge that she could stand in front of it and see herself from head to toe. She sprang from the bed, dropping her nightgown and flinging it aside with her toe as she rushed to the wardrobe to try on a crimson kirtle with a plastron fronted surcoat in front of the mirror. She scurried over to the casket on the nearby dressing table, took out her new rubies and dashed back to the mirror, holding them up to her neck to see. "Much too-too."

The moment the dress dropped to her ankles, she was back at the wardrobe pulling out a black silk kirtle with a low off the shoulder neckline. She stood in front of the mirror for a moment, shifting and tugging, at last looking up to see. "Ha! Blazing rubies over midnight black. Perfect." She hurried to the window and unlatched the sash. She hesitated for a moment to study the shadow cast by the peg on the sill before returning to the mirror. "I hope Uncle Razzorbauch isn't as distracted as he seemed last night," she said as she brushed out her raven tresses. "I wonder if he resents taking me to see Demonica."

Ugleeuh found him waiting for her on the balcony, staring out over his vast forest of twisted trees. He turned at once at a scuff of grit under her slipper and smiled grandly. "You are simply gorgeous, my dear," he said with a bow of his head as he gestured to a table spread with linen. "Your mother will be stunned to see the woman you turned out to be."

"Do you really think so?" she said as she took her seat.

"What else could I think?" he said, looking up at the sound of a door. "Here's breakfast. They're on their toes this morning."

Soon they were enjoying toad in a hole and tea in the glorious sunshine, as the breeze stirred their hair and rippled along the skirt of the tablecloth. Now and then a rock wren called far up the slopes.

Ugleeuh wasn't listening. She was distracted by thoughts of a mother she had never seen, and she was just realizing that for all the trees, she had not heard any birds singing in this place other than the wren and a raven or two.

Razzorbauch saw that she had finished eating. He licked his knife and put it away. He took out his scrying ball and stared into it for a moment. "You'll want to take my hand," he said as he stood up. In the next instant they were hundreds of leagues away, steadying their balance in his library in the great tower of Demonica's keep, just off the shore of Head.

"Mmmp!" said Ugleeuh as she blanched and clamped her hands over her mouth.

"In time, it won't do that to you," he said, reaching out to steady her. "I suppose the breakfast was a bit heavy for someone new to traveling spells."

"You sure read a lot," she said, looking all about. At the sound of cooing, she glanced up to see a pigeon pouting and strutting over the droppings on the glass sky light in the roof.

"I have a collection, you might say. In fact, I have collections everywhere I've been, though I don't have very many books at the forest yet."

"Are they all about magic?"

"Some are. Let's find your mother," he said, showing her to the triple doors.

Demonica was not in her throne room, but they found her just behind it, in her "retiring room," as she called it, a library in the castle's rambling solar. She looked up from her ledger and put down her pen. "Is the young woman who I reckon she be?" she said as if she were asking what routine thing was on a tray fetched in by a servant.

"How could I possibly answer that?" said Razzorbauch. "I don't know what you're thinking, and you could even be playing some sort of game."

"So here we go," she said, closing her inkwell and sitting back in her chair, "playing your game, if I'm not mistaken. Has he told you the rules of the game yet, dear?"

Ugleeuh turned to Razzorbauch and said nothing.

"Surely you could put away your having been thwarted for your very daughter who has come all the way from Niarg to meet you," he said.

"She has no interest in me," said Ugleeuh. "This was a mistake. Take me back."

"I'd rather you stayed, dear," said Demonica, closing her ledger and standing up, "though I can't imagine why you'd ever go to the trouble to see me. However, he could leave right now, if it were up to me."

"Why would you think that?" said Ugleeuh.

"I'm sure Razzmorten has quite poisoned your opinion of me after all these years."

"Well, he said you never wanted a child by him. Is that true?"

"By itself. I certainly did not want his child, but when I saw you, I changed my mind."

"So why did you leave me when you left him?"

"Because he wouldn't let me take you with me, dear."

"Yea? So why'd you name me Ugleeuh? That doesn't sound like wanting me very much."

"Ever wonder why he let you keep such a name? Guess who really named you."

"You didn't?"

"Of course not. It was your contemptible half-sister."

"No! You told Minuet I was ugly. And when she insisted that I was beautiful, you gave me my name and refused to nurse me."

"He raised you with that story?" said Demonica in wide-eyed indignation. "I named you Leeuh. Minuet kept calling you 'Ugly Leeuh.' It seems that it got contracted once I was gone."

Ugleeuh turned to Razzorbauch.

"I wasn't there," he said, raising his hands, "but it does indeed sound like the very things you were telling me about them when you came to work with me."

"It's always hard for children to reject the stories that they've been raised with," said Demonica. "There was a midwife. Maybe you should ask her."

"Marie Allen?"

"That might have been it. If you know her, ask her."

"She died strangely the night I was born, but I never paid attention to the stories."

"Well then, you'll just have to choose whose story you want to believe, dear."

"Yes," said Ugleeuh. "So it seems."

Razzorbauch and Demonica shared a look.

"So," he said, suddenly turning to Ugleeuh. "Shall we go on to the plantation? It looks like you and Demonica have reached an impasse."

"Oh I think the plantation would be grand," she said, smiling at the sudden vexed look in Demonica's eyes.

"Very good," he said, catching every bit of this as he took her hand. "Farewell, Demonica." And with that, they were gone.

***

Sergeant Hensnape beat the shank of the last rivet into a shiny mushroom and stood up with his hammer and punch. "There's your lid, sir," he said with a nod of proper completion. "I think that lip makes a snug fit on your kettle all the way around. I'd allow that you'll have to pack it with oakum before you put it on and clamp it down." He squatted again and turned the lid right side up. "Now, I've made an elbow here in the top which makes a tight fit on this ten foot tin pipe. And with the lid on, the pipe will slope down as it goes away from the kettle."

"Do you have oakum?" said Razzmorten, pushing back his hat to scratch his head.

"Got all you need in a box on my wagon. And I got four screw clamps."

"Good. Then there's no reason why I can't set up my kettle right now, is there?"

"I don't see why not. And once you get started, I'm going to make a run to the armory for more tin. I took the liberty of sending Thump to the foundry before light. He's to try to come back with two more kettles like these two and two that are four times the size. I don't see any reason why I can't make lids just as tight for ones that big."

"Excellent," said Razzmorten, suddenly turning aside to find Minuet standing quietly at his elbow.

"Good morning Father. The tinsmith sure knows how to make racket. I don't think there's one bird left singing on Peach Knob."

"Begging your pardon, Miss Dewin," said Hensnape, grandly sweeping off his leather cap with a bow, "but I'm not a tinsmith. I'm Sergeant Hensnape, Royal Armourer at your service. Now thunder's heavenly, if ye know what I mean, and I'd reckon it's the birds' reverence as gets them quiet."

"Pleased to meet you and your providential hammer, Sergeant Hensnape," said Minuet with a curtsey before turning to Razzmorten. "I'm sorry I wasn't out here earlier to help."

"I peeped in when you didn't answer my knock, right before light, but you were quite sound asleep."

"I think I must be sleeping more soundly with Leeuh gone."

Razzmorten looked up from under his hoary eyebrows with a wide eyed nod and turned aside to help Hensnape heave an iron kettle into a ring stand.

"Is there anything I can do, now that I'm here?" she said.

"Well, I'm going to need a good fire going under each of these two kettles," he said, standing up to look about. "But first, maybe you could put twenty gallon of water from the well by the summer kitchen into this one. I'll put an armload or two of the Elven hyssop in the water and make a good strong tea. Then, I'll have you dip out the tea into this other kettle and we'll fasten on the lid the good sergeant here was making his heavenly sounds on. When it starts to boil, we hope the oregano oil is driven off as a vapor that will form droplets in the pipe and run off into some kind of collection vessel which I've yet to find." At the unexpected sight of Minuet making a deep curtsey, he turned square about to find a courtly Elf standing behind him. "Why Prince Neron! Good morning."

"Morning it be," said Neron, bowing his head as a wren began singing, "but I've yet to see the good in it. When I returned to Oilean Gairdin with the cure Minuet so graciously gave me, my dear Nessa was dead and gone forever..." His eyes brimmed over at once. Suddenly he squeezed them shut as he struggled to silence an unexpected sob. "Forgive me," he said as Razzmorten and Minuet took up his hands. "It's the first I've ever had to make that announcement. I never expected that it would be so horribly hard to do." He fell silent again as he drew in a great shuddering breath. "Well," he said at last. "When I left her bedside, I realized that I had a fever. I wanted to lie down beside her and go with her, but Faragher turned the crown over to me, would you believe? The realm is really going to need me with all this happening, so I started taking Minuet's cure. It makes me feel guilty and lonely, but I did."

"You bear too much grief to look well," said Razzmorten, "but you don't look sick in the least."

"I'm not. I'm simply astounded by how fast the cure works. Our physician and Ori, my eldest, are already dead and the entire royal family has been exposed. It's so fast. We have no idea yet about how many others have fallen ill. There's going to be utter pandemonium. Would you let me help you with your work here so that we might save all our people?"

"I can use all the help I can get," said Razzmorten without hesitation. "and you can have two thirds of the first batch of oil we get."

"Splendid! But what about Niarg?"

"The plague is confined entirely to the castle for the moment, so far as I know. And since your numbers are unknown, you're getting more oil is probably the best way for us to protect ourselves. We'll divide up subsequent batches according to how it goes."

Suddenly Minuet gave way and collapsed. Neron grabbed her just in time to ease her onto the ground. Razzmorten knelt beside her at once. "Oh no!" he said as he felt her forehead. "She's burning up. And look at these swellings on her neck."

***

Ugleeuh looked down at her ash blackened shoes and at the greyed skirts of her black silk kirtle. Ash and the smell of fire were everywhere, particularly with it having not rained since Razzorbauch set fire to the forest on his plantation land. "I should have worn a wimple," she thought as she held her hair away from her face in the breeze. "I hate wimples. The only one I have goes with that awful dress back at Peach Knob." She gazed out at the burnt off land, rolling away in gentle swags and swells, practically as far as the eye could see in all directions. There were no insects, frogs nor birds to be heard at all except for some ravens in the air, a good distance off, croaking before circling down to a charred and bloated deer.

"So Leeuh," said Razzorbauch as he took in a grand breath of air. "What do you think of our little venture, so far?"

"It's so vast," she said, turning to him with a bounce. "Thousands upon thousands of acres, hidden entirely in these forbidding woods."

"Yes. I've put out quite a bit of effort on the forbidding part. I want this plantation to be protected. The most common tree here now has an irresistibly attractive fruit that should cause certain death. And I've transformed the great indigo lyoth of the jungles of the Dark Continent into a tribe of beings who hunt people. In time, no one will ever blunder onto our land. But my dear, what do you make of the project?"

"Well...if there's really a market, how would we not make a fortune?"

"You have doubts about a market?"

"Arguments rage in Niarg, Uncle Razzorbauch. Some amongst the young and well to do think it's marvelous, but there are a lot who call it the sweet of the very Pitmaster himself. I'm not sure that merchants there will even consider buying it."

"Fools. Honey trader lies. They call sukere a swindle in place of honey because it threatens their trade. They tell everyone that those eating it become obsessed with the Pitmaster's wiles because they fear for their purses."

"It causes no obsessions, then? Those who eat it don't become thralls?"

"There's not a shred of proof that it's harmful in any way, dear. In fact, sukere gives one a sense of well-being. The more you use, the better you feel. Why, you've only to stop eating it to be reminded of how unhealthy you must have been before you first used it."

"More of Father's being an old fool. I've never tasted it."

"Oh, but you have. Remember the cherry tarts at supper?"

"They were wonderful, Uncle Razzorbauch. It sounds like people need to give sukere a fair trial before making up their minds."

"Absolutely, dear."

"Well why couldn't you, or we, just give them some to try? Just at first, don't you know."

Razzorbauch went wide eyed. "My dear, you're a thundering prodigy. I believe you've just launched our little business venture. I knew having you along was going to work well."

"Thank you, Uncle Razzorbauch," she said with another bounce. It's wonderful having someone who actually likes my ideas for once."

"I know what you mean, dear. I've always been the bane of the family, just as you seem to be, don't you know."

"We do have that in common, don't we?"

"Without a doubt, dear," said Razzorbauch, suddenly looking about. "But just now, if you don't mind, we need to return to my keep so that I can be off for a spell to attend to a thing or two."

"I don't mind," she said. "In fact, I usually don't get up so early in the mornings and I'd like to catch a nap."

Razzorbauch already had out his scrying ball.
Chapter 9

Ocker rolled his scrying marble around in the in the leaves in the tile gutter, pecking at it here and there as he stared into it. "Well tordes in the very feathers ye sit on!" he rattled. "Meri Greenwood's clean to the mountains, just this side of the Valley of

Illusions. This'll take all day just to get there." He grabbed up his marble and sprang into the heavens. He could see Urr-Urr below as he rose, tugging eagerly at the roast rat. He gave four great rasping awks.

She looked up at once and tick-tocked loudly before leaping into the air to join him in a spiraling climb to the clouds. "The rat is wonderful," she said, arriving at his wing-tip. "Can't you come down for a bite with me?"

"I've got 'way too far to go," he said.

"Did you find Dyn Gwyrdd in your little ball?"

"Yea. And he's in the Illusion Mountains, almost to the Valley of Illusions. I won't get back until tomorrow evening. I sure wish you could come with me."

"Eggs, dear."

"I know," he said, suddenly flying upside down beneath her and grabbing one of her feet. For a moment they dropped into a plummeting tumble, clasping beaks. And just as suddenly they parted ways as Ocker winged away to find the green haired Fairy.

The cloudless sky made good flying, but it was unusually warm. Just after noon he spied a pair of ravens in a clearing below, feeding on a deer with some wolves. He circled widely for some time until the ravens left. "Hit's their deer," he said as they flew out of sight. "And those can't be anything but their stupid wolves." He swooped to the ground, hid his scrying marble under a leaf and skipped along in the grass, just out of reach, as he nipped at first one wolf tail then another. Soon he was perched on an antler amongst them, warily pecking and twisting as he removed an eye. Presently, he flew off with it and ate it well away from them, beside his marble. He wiped his beak in the grass and uncovered the marble. "Show me Meri Greenwood," he said. At once, he was back in the air.

"Damn his swyving toute!" he said. "This is one long way to have to fly. I sure wish I could use Demonica's spell." It was indeed a very long way to fly, so that by the end of the afternoon, when he first saw the peaks of the Illusion Mountains, he knew that he was going to ask Meri Greenwood to alter her spell.

As the shadows were growing long, Ocker buried his marble before flying to the whispering branches of a tall spruce to study a green haired man picking up sticks on the ground below. Titmice and chickadees called nearby, hidden by the boughs. Ocker shook himself and sorted through the feathers of each wing while he kept an eye on the man. "That's Greenwood, all right," he thought.

Without warning, Meri Greenwood stood up and looked straight at him. "Hoy, Ocker!" he hollered. "Ain't eighteen rod a pretty far piece for to visit?"

Ocker was so startled by this that he had to flap his way into the air to hide his having lost his grip on his perch. "Damn him!" he rattled as he swooped down to a tree much closer.

"Do you not trust me?" said Meri.

"Not much," said Ocker. "Do you trust me?"

"I trust you to be the shrewdest thing I know of with feathers, but if you want to do business, you are going to have to come down here with me," said Meri as he squatted at once and patted the ground.

"Business hit is," said Ocker, landing on the carpet of needles before him, "but your flattery won't lessen my price. I have information dear to you."

"Celeste!" cried Meri. "Where is she? She my whole life do be."

"Then she's worth my price..."

"Well what is hit?"

"I've had some especially valuable tidings to sell, lately," said Ocker as he ran his beak down a flight feather with a silky zip. "And one of my customers came to consider my services so indispensable that she gave me the powers of a hedge wizard and taught me a traveling spell to get me quickly to her castle to keep her up on matters of keen interest to her..."

"Demonica?"

Ocker stopped short, quite wide eyed at this. "How could you possibly figure that out?"

"Two and two make Demonica. But now, I interrupted your tale."

Ocker felt very exposed. "Well, the traveling spell only takes me to her keep and back," he said, bristling up like a pine cone and sleeking down. "And hit took me all day to fly here..."

"I can not never her spell for to change, nor can I change the magic of any Elf or Human," said Meri, falling silent to eye him with his keen emerald eyes for so long that Ocker nearly sprang into the air in a panic. Suddenly Greenwood rose and went to his knapsack, pulling out a small polished stick. "But I this here do have..."

"A stick?" cried Ocker. "You must not think me as shrewd as you were saying."

"Some of my trees the magic fire from any one can to store," said Meri, holding out the stick. "This be one of Longbark's twigs. She be the eldest being in the Forest Ancient and has magic and she very wise do be. This here twig a good deal of fire does store. Maybe you can yourself a way to change Demonica's spell to divine, if you first a quantity of your magic fire in the twig to store. So will you take the twig?"

This was not nearly certain enough to suit Ocker, but there was an unmistakable desperation in Meri's tone that made him snatch away the twig at once and stand on it. "Celeste and her sisters and that swyving rat brother of theirs are seeking sanctuary with the Elves in the Jutwoods," he said with a snap of first one wing and then the other. "They were camped about ten league south-east of my nest two days ago."

"Rat brother? They a brother do have, but he's not no rat."

"Yea? Well he is now. Somebody got him good. He's all rat except for his face, and he's counting on the Elves undoing his curse, though the three quientes... I mean three ladies, hope they don't manage."

"How could you possibly know something like unto that?"

"I listen from the treetops," said Ocker as he took a couple of careful pecks at his new stick. "I heard them say hit, that's how. Say. How about the hindquarters off one of those squirrels you have draped across that log?"

"They are both yours," said Meri, grabbing up his bag. He set off at once into the timber and ran through the deepening shadows until he reached a mossy glade. Across the glade he came to a large ring of mushrooms. As a whip-poor-will gave its first call of the evening, he stepped into the ring and disappeared up to his knees in the moss before jogging down out of sight, vanishing altogether.

***

"The Pitmaster take you Ocker, if I don't find those Fairies soon!" cried Razzorbauch as he hurtled along over the tree tops, sitting astride his Great Staff. "I should've brought you with me. If I don't see them before dark, it's going to be hopeless with no moon." Just as he circled back for a pass going the other way, he caught sight of something under an overhang at the bottom of a bluff face. "There!" he murmured into the rushing air. He halted at once and settled silently to the ground to tiptoe through the leaves until he was standing at their backs like a phantom as they busied themselves at placing kindling and tinder for a fire.

Rodon looked up and gasped at Razzorbauch pointing the Staff at them. "Alack!" he cried in time to be frozen mute, wide eyed and rigidly still with his sisters in a sparkling lavender light.

"Got ye now, haven't I?" said Razzorbauch between his teeth as he thrust himself at their motionless faces of terror. "Look at what you've made me do. I was merely going to keep you out of the woods by casting a ward, but you had to be fools and try to escape." He paced about, flinging his arms as he rose to a shout. "Now, I have no choice but to put you in permanent exile, far away in the Pitmaster's Kettles. You're going to live forever as ugly hags, imprisoned by wards beneath the crater of Mount Bedd Chwiorydd

Tair!"

He fell silent as he withdrew his crystal Heart and fumbled with it, fitting it into its socket in the end of the Staff. At once it began flashing with a ruby light. "So Dyn Gwyrdd will never know you, Celeste," he said with a chuckle, "even if he ever does find you. And you'll have your trees, too. I'm sending them right away, even if it kills them." And with that, he thrust the end of the Staff at the Fairies like a pitchfork, making them vanish in its brilliant red light.

"And now for you, Longbark," he said as he withdrew his scrying ball to stare into its swirling colors and to begin mumbling an incantation. Immediately he was half way across the twisted forest, standing before the wise old oak and her stand of offspring.

"You and your seed will mock me no more with your resistance," he said, holding out the Heart as it sang out in a shrill hum from its socket on the Staff (which happened to be one of Longbark's very branches). "You'll spend the rest of your days in the earth of Mt.

Bedd with your troublesome Fairies." The Heart shot out a flood of ruby light, which he aimed at the trees. The trees creaked and groaned in the light, like the timbers of a ship in a gale. Razzorbauch suddenly yanked away the light from the trees to point it toward Mount Bedd beyond the horizon. With a pounding boom that shook the earth, Longbark and her trees shot out of sight into the heavens, throwing him flat onto his back to be pelted by a hail of dirt which fell from the sky for some moments. "By Fates!" he bellowed through the sod in his beard. "I must be a god!"

***

Minuet awoke to the sound of distant thunder and the roar of heavy rain, coming straight down. "Roses," she murmured. She slowly turned this way and that and saw that the room was filled with vases of them. "Mmmm! I love roses." At once, a warm hand smelling of lye soap and lardy pie dough was against her forehead.

"Oh, honey dew drop!" said Bethan, hugging her with her great flabby arms, soft as feathers. "Your fever's broke. We're going to have you with us, after all." She gave a small quake that Minuet could tell was a sob, which she hid by clearing her throat."

"All these roses..." said Minuet.

"I knew they were your favorite. And when your fever just hung on and hung on, and you didn't seem to know anything when we woke you to give you your drops..." Suddenly she gave a whoop of a sob and stood there sniffling and daubing at her eyes before going on: "I didn't know what to do but just keep fetching in roses. The bushes are just loaded."

"They're wonderful, Bethan. Someday I'm going name a girl Rose."

A stroke of lightning in the garden shook the house with a deafening tumble of thunder, making the rain suddenly fall harder. Here came something climbing and walking up the sheets. "Hubba Hubba!" said Minuet. "Where did you come from?"

Hubba Hubba paused here and there, giving her a good one eyed inspection.

"How long did I have a fever?"

"Oh, a good two days. There was a while we didn't think the drops were working with you, so your father doubled the dose. And that didn't seem to be doing it ether, so he tripled it. Did you know that you're a-taking three times what you're supposed to? And that Elf healer from the castle allowed that you'd be dead before the first morning without the oil. And your little popinjay here has been real sober, the whole time."

"My. Well, I do feel better, but I don't quite feel like sitting up yet."

"There's your father," she said, nodding at the doorway. "Saves me from going to find him." She was on her feet at once, meeting him as he came in. "Glorious news, sir. Her fever's broke."

Razzmorten took off his dripping hat and went straight to Minuet's bedside, taking up her hand. "How do you feel?"

"Just shaky weak. I've not even tried to sit up."

"Well don't," he said, producing a bottle and a pipette. "You can't afford to tire and have this monster come back on you. Here. Eighteen drops under your tongue."

"You move, my little knight," she said, gently pushing aside Hubba Hubba.

"Oh, you've got him knighted, have you?" said Razzmorten as he leant over with a pipette full of oregano oil.

"Only knight I'll ever get."

"Fiddlesticks! You'd be a prize for royalty, let alone some knight. I suppose you're too modest to notice how you turn young men's heads."

"Ugleeuh's the one who worries about that," she said, closing her eyes for a moment as Hubba Hubba settled himself on her pillow. "Say. How's the still? How's Castle Niarg?"

"The distilleries work wonderfully," he said as he carefully inspected her neck and jaw before taking a seat beside her bed. "We have two now. The trouble is that we're completely out of oregano hay. There's nothing to do but wait for Captain Pryce to arrive with his shipload. Of course you got the very first bottle Neron and I produced. And I still don't know if we had to triple the dose for you because our stuff was weaker than Ngerrk-ga's, or whether you were hit unusually hard or were sick longer than typical before we noticed. Anyway, Neron took most of the first lot back to the Jutwoods. His other son and his entire family were down with the plague when he arrived. Thank the Fates that he got there when he did."

"Thank the Fates and you, Father."

"Me? Had it not been for Ngerrk-ga, we'd all be dead by now. And much as I hate to say it, Demonica actually saved us in spite of herself, since she was the one who told me about Ngerrk-ga."

"Demonica? No wonder you didn't want Leeuh to know where you were going."

"Well, not in the hurry I was in. Anyway, Neron will be back any time to help with Pryce's shipload."

"How's it going at the castle?"

"Oh! I almost forgot," he said as he shaped the brim of his wet hat. "Prince Hebraun was here and took the oil which didn't go to the Elves. He said the plague is out spreading like wildfire. So it probably has got well beyond us already.

There's already been one riot."

For a long moment no one spoke as they listened to the steady downpour. From somewhere near the house a veery sang. Minuet studied the timbers in the ceiling. "So, Prince Hebraun came here himself, did he?" she said at last. "It's a good thing Lee-Lee wasn't here."

"Why would that be good? I mean, other than her general behavior."

"Oh, she's got designs on him now that his fiancé is dead, as if she had some kind of access to him. It might have been embarrassing. She really made me think she was serious about it."

"I can't imagine it," said Razzmorten.

"No, but apparently Leeuh can."

"Well, good thing she wasn't here, indeed," he said as he rose and kissed her on the forehead. "I could come back later with supper and we could eat together, if you like."

"Oh, I'd like that, even if I just watch you eat."

***

Ocker returned to his nest just before noon to find Urr-Urr asleep on the eggs. He quietly landed on the ledge nearby, nestled his marble in a crack and covered it with a rock before turning to his stick. "I wonder if this works anything like Razzorbauch's staff?" he thought as he pecked at it here and there.

Down the ledge, a sunny yellow cabbage butterfly alighted at the edge of a puddle left by the rain to slowly pump its wings as it drank. Ocker spied it at once. He carefully scooted his stick this way and that until he had it pointed at the butterfly. "Turn red, you little torde," he thought as he stepped back. Nothing happened. "That pissen me right smart!" he rattled as he hopped onto the stick. "That little swyver needs to turn red!"

Without warning, a crackle of lavender light shot from his beak to the butterfly, giving him a terrible start, as the butterfly went crimson and fluttered madly away into the air.

"Ocker?" said Urr-Urr, blinking awake in the bright light to find him still dancing about in alarm. "What on earth?"

"There it goes!" he cried.

"What goes?"

"That red butterfly! Never mind. Hit's gone. I used the twig but hit didn't turn the butterfly red, I did!"

"You're not red."

"No! I stood on the twig and turned a butterfly red. Meri Greenwood traded me that stick which might work like Razzorbauch'e staff, but his staff shoots fire. When I stood on the stick, my beak shot fire. My ears still ring. He gave hit to me so that I could use Demonica's spell to go anywhere, but I have no idea whether I can make hit work for that or not."

"Maybe you could ask Demonica or Razzorbauch," she said, stretching her foot back under a wing.

"Fates forbid!" said Ocker as he ruffled up and gave himself a shake. "I don't want either one of them knowing that I have hit. I may have some real power here, and I don't want to risk what they might do. I just want to make my travels quicker to give me time for more deals."

"And to help with the eggs when they hatch," she said as she began nibbling at the feathers about his ear.

"That too."

"So tell me more about Dyn Gwyrdd," she said. "He gave you the stick. Didn't he tell you something about it?"

"Not much. Hit stores up magic fire and hit came off some tree called Longbark, but he was in a real hurry to go find his lover. But you know, I almost feel bad about telling Razzorbauch before I told him."

"Why's that? I thought you didn't care who found the Fairies."

"Well I don't, I suppose," he said as he turned away from the wind rushing up the rock face. "But he said Celeste was his whole life, don't you know. And I know how that is. I can't even think about what it would be like to lose you, Urr-Urr." He hopped onto the nest, and with a delicate peck at each of the eggs, he settled onto them for his turn.

Urr-Urr sat right beside him and they held each other's beaks for a very long time.

Chapter 10

"I hate you!" cried Ugleeuh as she tramped the length of the great hall of Razzorbauch's palace, pounding out echoes from its Gothic arches in her spool heeled slippers. "Leave me here to take a nap. Ha! Just like your wooden headed brother. Some vital contribution you think I make! It's already well into the second day. It's almost supper. It'll be the second supper I've had to eat by myself." She stumped out of the hall, straight through a sitting room, stepping aside as she went to yank a cloth from under a vase on an end table. "Uh-oh!" she said as the vase smashed onto the stone floor. "Must have been the stupid hired help."

At the far end of the room she veered into a matching table as she passed. When its vase merely toppled onto its side, she came right back and threw it onto the floor. "Too bad, Uncle Razzorbauch! That's what you get when you're not here to keep an eye on things." That wasn't quite good enough. She marched into the next room, looking for something else.

"I absolutely hate this place! Your promises stink. You not only abandon me here, you never showed me around. Not once! I've been in each one of these awful rooms at least seven times, while you... Oh good!" she said, stopping short before a marble bust. "Idiot gnoff!" she cried, giving its stone pedestal a good shove. It rocked to and fro with a couple of deep thumps. She looked up at the bust for a moment. "Oh, maybe not. That might be bad. He'd know it wasn't just some careless hired lady." She gave a great sigh and went out onto the balcony.

"I just hate it here," she said as she leant against the balustrade. "I even miss Minny-Min. I could at least talk to her when she wasn't being too goody-goody." She stared out over the great twisted woods. There was a breeze, but the sounds in the trees were far off moans and whispers. A great grey owl wailed.

"There you are," said Razzorbauch from just behind her.

Ugleeuh wheeled about with a gasp.

"Is everything all right?" he said with a smile that came and went.

"Why of course, Uncle Razzorbauch," she said, as if she'd just come in from a sunny game of croquet. "That's a silly question. Is something the matter?"

"Oh, no. I was just wondering. The help was going on about your being agitated, is all."

"Oh, pooh!" she said with a smile to hide her splash of alarm. "That's ridiculous."

"Oh, I knew it was," he said, studying her face. "Oh, here they come now. We're having supper out here, since it's so nice. We're having roast hog, if you don't mind that."

"Pork roast would be wonderful," she said, wondering what had become of her shrill demands for lamb, as she watched them set up the trestles and board.

Soon they were seated. "So," said Razzorbauch, as he sliced off a generous piece of roast and put it onto her plate, "any further thoughts about getting sukere started in Niarg alongside all the Elven honey merchants? How many people would even try the free sukere sample you suggest, when they have such unbelievably high regard for anything produced by the Elves?"

"Some would," she said with a wise nod, as she grabbed at a piece of steaming bread and licked her fingers. "I think a right fair number of them would welcome not having to buy honey or anything else from that pompous lot. I think they'd even welcome a few well-placed smudges on the snooty Elven image."

"My word, dear," he said with a sudden grin of glee as he rubbed his hands and took some bread. "And how do you suggest we go about this smudging?"

Ugleeuh's eyes sparkled with their own look of glee. "Right now's perfect," she said as she leant forward. "As I've said, the plague has come to Niarg."

***

"Idiots!" cried King Henry as he took off his crown and rubbed his forehead. "Fates almighty!" He replaced his crown and looked up at Prince Hebraun and Captain Strong. "Who in the name of the Pitmaster himself and all his coal shoveling goblins started such a rumor?"

"Somebody out in the town," said Strong, looking down to study the helm in his hands. "Pretty well had to be, but it was out and all over the place by the time we got wind of it. Anyone could have started it."

"Well we just need this!" said Henry, banging the arm of his great chair with the meat of his fist. "The Elves aren't just citizens. They've got more knowledge and skills than anyone else to help out with this mess. And right when we need them the most, the witless amongst us rise up accuse them of starting the plague." He leant back with a sigh as a huff of breeze sent ripples across the banner behind him, lazily clacking its rod against the stone wall. He drummed his fingers for a moment. "So where's Leigheas, anyway?"

"Packing, I'd reckon," said Hebraun, trading a glance with Strong. "Or clean gone already, would be more like it."

"He has to be gone," said Strong. "The fifth, sixth and seventh Elves were lynched on different streets, this morning."

"I already knew about them," said Henry. "But Leigheas. He was worth ten times all of Niarg's doctors put together."

"And Razzmorten..." said Hebraun.

"What? Razzmorten? They're a-saying he's caused Humans to die needlessly by giving oil to the Elves, right? I've already heard that one, and until you came in just now, I thought that was the reason for the lynchings..."

"No," said Hebraun. "Now they're saying that he's using the oil to steal the very souls of the sick."

Henry rolled his eyes with another great sigh. He twisted a spike in the hairs on his chin as the banner rod tapped the wall. "Well," he said, with a squint at Hebraun, "that certainly beats the bugs a-fighting, all right, and I'm not just about to discuss it with anyone yet, but that just might be the one part of this mess which could be fixed."

***

"Green," said Razzmorten as he gave a peach a fling into the grass and backed away from the tree to study the fruit on its branches. "I don't think there'll be a ripe peach out here in any of these trees until the end of next week. They're really loaded, though." He stared out across the rolling orchard for a moment, listening to the tinkling of sheep bells and the meandering babble of the catbirds.

"I've been well enough to help you with the still for a good two weeks..." said Minuet, looking up from her bracelet of clover heads as the breeze stirred her hair.

"I am listening," he said as he went back to peering up into the branches. "I've just been too busy to come out here with all the uproar."

"Well you have lots of help, and I've begun feeling guilty about not helping out in Niarg, particularly with them being shorthanded with all of the sick."

"My dear Minuet," he said as he gave her his arm, "you can't imagine the good it does me knowing that I have at least one daughter with a heart big enough to worry about the welfare of others, but you're undoubtedly helping far more people right here at the distillery than you possibly could, going from bed to bed."

"I know you're concerned about me, especially since I was so sick myself, but I'm fine now. Besides, what better way to silence those ugly rumors about the Elves and us than for me to help tend the sick? Surely they'll see that we're helping them."

Razzmorten stopped short and turned to face her. "You have a right good plan, dear, except for one very serious omission," he said as he took a wide-eyed bite of timothy stem. "You have utterly no idea at all about the terrifying pandemonium in a town stricken with the plague..."

"I thought I had. I've had the plague myself. I know what it's like, and I've listened quite carefully to what people have been saying. I've been talking to Bethan about it, and she'll go with me."

"Then you truly have no idea at all. It's far too dangerous..."

"But aren't I safe if I have my powers?"

"Absolutely not!" he said, sweeping off his hat. "My dear, if you used them to get out of a tight spot, you'd undo every bit of oregano administering and pan carrying that everyone has done so far. You'd be a witch in the eyes of nearly everyone in Niarg. You'd be proving their worst fears. What you'd need is a bodyguard, some proven swordsman at the very least, if you were so foolhardy as to go."

"Then can't you get a bodyguard for Bethan and me?"

"You may not be grasping what I'm trying to tell you," he said as he began a slow amble toward the summer kitchen. "You've grown up and had all your tutoring right here at Peach Knob. So thanks to my teaching and to the influence of the Elves, you think of the plague as a disease, an unknown part of the natural world which you almost certainly catch from the sick by being too close to them. This is an Elven idea. And it escapes most Humans, even the doctors. Most Humans think of the plague as some sort of curse or Pitborne magic. And when the plague is about, they are hysterically terrified of anyone who has chanced to be pointed out as a caster of spells. There have already been lynchings in Niarg. Have you heard?"

"I heard them talking about one, just this morning. I wasn't listening carefully, but I didn't really connect it with the plague."

"Well, you can't expect for word to get around that the Elves have deliberately caused the plague without some kind of reaction, particularly when everyone is just plain terrified," he said with a sigh as he put his hat back on and offered his arm again. "Do you have any idea what it would do to me if something happened to you, particularly if it was due to my negligence?"

Minuet blinked and swallowed before taking his arm.

"My dear young lady. I can't imagine being happy with your going into that place, but just to be fair, let's go find Bethan. I'll at least hear out the two of you."

A brilliant black and orange oriole landed in the crown of a walnut and began a medley of whistling to match his colors. Minuet hiked her skirt with her free hand to step across the stickery pig weed with her bare feet. As they came round the corner of the summer kitchen, a sleek rat came out the door and vanished behind the rain barrel. "Did you see that rat?" she said, stepping into the doorway. "Broad daylight and everything."

"What rat, Min-Min?" said Bethan as she dropped her knife into her pan of beets and water and dried her hands.

"One dashed out just as we came in."

"It's just the kind of year it is," said Razzmorten, as he took a seat on the bench at the board near Bethan's pan of beets. He fished out a beet, sliced off a piece with his knife and took a bite. "Well now, what do you make of Minuet's determination for to go right into the thick of things in Niarg?"

"Well sir, she's pretty neigh talked me into going with her, she has. Of course I'd not think of it without your leave."

"You weren't born yet when the last plague came through here..." he said. "Oh! Of course not. What am I thinking! That was two hundred years ago. So there's no way you'd ever have seen what it does to a town full of people, is there?"

"I've heard enough of this town full of people," she said with sudden fierceness. "And I don't care one bit for what they're a- doing! They're a-saying you're in league with the Elves."

"I am."

"Yea. But they say the Elves started the plague and that you're a-helping them right along. And they have no right to tarnish the good name of Dewin. They say that when your oil is used, people only get back their health by giving up their souls..."

Razzmorten reached up and took her hand. "My dear Bethan," He said. "I treasure your fierce loyalty. I wouldn't pay so much attention to those rumors. Inside Fates' Hospital for the Sick, we're curing as many people as we have the oil to cure. Most of the people in the castle proper are already well. When things calm down, everyone will see what we've done."

"Father, wouldn't it help if people saw us tending the sick in the hospital?" said Minuet. "I mean, isn't it safe inside the place?"

"Of course. It would have to help," he said as he cut another slice of beet and ate it. "But I don't know whether it's safe for you two or not, even with an armed escort..."

"I've got my knife, sir."

"When did you start carrying that dirk?"

"The minute I saw that there might be folks I need to stick with it. I've had it on me for two or three days. And I swear: nobody will harm your daughter without me sticking them first!"

"Well," he said as he gave his knees a clap with his hands, "Prince Hebraun should be here this evening for this last batch of oil. I'll see what he thinks."

Just before dark, Hebraun did indeed call to pick up two gallons of oil. "One armed guard?" he said to Razzmorten as he shifted his sword and crossed his arms. "Maybe inside Fates' Hospital, but I wouldn't have any less than four good men to get them there and back. If they're determined to wait on the sick, I'll send 'round Sergeant Bernard and four or five others of his choosing in the morning."

***

"Uncle Razzorbauch, look!" said Ugleeuh in a hush as she reached across the table to touch his arm. "There are Min-Min and Bethan, on their way out with that soldier. They looked right at us and didn't notice. They've been in here the whole time. What would they be doing here?"

"Have you forgotten our glamouries?" he said with twinkling eyes as he caught a dribble of soup down his chin with his spoon. "I can't imagine how she'd recognize a bald headed pardoner and a blond sister."

Ugleeuh held out a lock of her hair and stuck out her tongue at it.

"And as for why they're in the Silver Dragon, didn't you see their yellow sashes? They've almost certainly taken up nursing, across the road in Fates' Hospital, a sign of desperation at Peach Knob, don't you reckon?"

"I love this!" she said, smiling into her goblet of mead. "Everyone's getting what he had coming. The Elves are fleeing and we're going to make a killing when everything settles down."

"This pardoner glamourie isn't half bad either as an impromptu stunt during a plague," said Razzorbauch with a huff that flung a fleck of his stew onto her sleeve. "All these fools running up to fall onto their knees and shove money at me. Bought us a good supper, anyway. But this is just beggary. We've got bigger fish to fry..."

"Dragon fish?"

"Yeap," he said, yanking his napkin from his collar and grabbing up her hand. "We're off to the Mammvro, right in the middle of the Dark Continent. It'll be awkward for a moment, but Minuet and your hired woman are gone..."

"Why?"

"I've no choice but to drop these glamouries before I can cast a traveling spell."

"Oh."

"Ready?"

At once, the room about them fell to a dead hush. As the diners grew wide eyed, straining to be certain of a wizard and a raven haired woman where the pardoner and the blond were supposed to be, the unexpected pair vanished altogether.

***

"You keep pecking at that thing, Ocker," said Urr-Urr. "Are you actually seeing things in hit?"

"Yea. But hit hardly matters which way I have hit turned. Things look the same from every angle."

"Well, I certainly don't see anything from here," she said with a snap of each wing.

"You wouldn't. You don't have any magic at all..."

"Thanks!"

"You know what I mean. Demonica put a spell on me, not you."

"I'm just teasing. What have you been looking at?"

"Oh, this and that," he said, fluffing up and sleeking down. "Just places I could think of, here and there, hoping to find some tidbit to sell. What's strange is that I thought I'd have a peek at Longbark, you know, the tree where my stick came from, and all I saw was an enormous hole in the ground. Meri Greenwood might be interested, but I think I'll avoid him. And just now, I thought I'd have a look at where Razzorbauch's land reaches the Gulf of Orin, and I'm not sure what I'm a-seeing. Hit looks like Razzorbauch has a whole swiving swarm of soldiers clearing brush. Now why on earth would he need that kind of help?"

Urr-Urr stood up without warning and peered at the eggs beneath her. "Ocker!" she cried. "I don't know about Razzorbauch, but I know what kind of help I'm going to need. Our first egg's pipped!"

"You've got two of 'em," cried Ocker. "They're hatching!" And with that, the pair of them dove into the air off their ledge, making a frenzied circling flight for the highest reaches of the heavens, until far above the clouds, they broke into a tumbling frolic, plummeting down, down through the blue afternoon sky, until at last they returned to their nest in a grand glide, wing tip to wing tip.

"There's the third one!" cried Ocker.

Urr-Urr hopped astraddle her clutch. "No Ocker," she said, pecking at them delicately. "Every single one's got a hole. They're all hatching." She settled herself onto them at once.

Ocker sat on the edge of the nest and nibbled at the feathers on her cheek and down her neck. "You know," he said as he peered off the ledge at the roof of Razzorbauch's keep, far below, "I ought to see if the old swyver and his new mistress are back yet. Who knows when they'll show me something Demonica would pay for. I won't spend all afternoon at hit."

"At least you might find out something about his staff."

"Righty-o. I'll have my eyes open," he said as he stood up and gave himself a thorough shake. "And I might even dare to ask him a thing or two, but that rotten old toute could be the very death of me if he figured out that I had my own stick."

"Well you be careful," she said as she rose to check an egg that was tickling her before settling back down. "Hit might be a lot of work to kill him if I had to take time off from our brood to do hit."

Ocker leant against her and nibbled at her beak for a moment before standing up abruptly to leap into flight, plunging down the bluff face and swooping to a landing on his customary gargoyle on Razzorbauch's roof. He gave himself a thorough shake and sorted through the feathers of one wing. He had just switched to the other wing when Razzorbauch and Ugleeuh appeared on the balcony below.

"Why this is your keep!" said Ugleeuh. "I expected the Dark Continent. Aren't we on a dragon hunt?"

"We most certainly are, my dear," said Razzorbauch, ushering her to the stone bench by the balustrade, "but we do need to prepare ourselves a bit before we go on."

"Aren't you taking me with you?"

"Of course I am. There happens to be a small matter we need to discuss first, however."

"Yea," thought Ocker, as he leant out over the balcony, "and maybe I need to relay hit to Demonica. She'd pay right smart to keep up with these small matters you share with your new queinte, you swyving old lecher." Suddenly he slipped, flapping his wings to regain his footing, leaving his heart racing for fear he had been seen.

"You're going to tell me how dangerous it will be, aren't you?" said Ugleeuh, not noticing Ocker. "Well, Father's told me all about dragons, for one thing. And for another, I see no point of worrying when you're more powerful than a whole herd of them..."

"You're quite right, dear," he said with a serious look.

"In fact, I had no intentions at all about bringing up any sort of dangers. That is, unless you consider your mother dangerous. And I, for one, consider Demonica far less dangerous if she's well rested. I was wanting to suggest that we stop by Head on our way to pick her up first thing in the morning."

Ocker nearly lost his footing all over again. "No wonder this young queinte looks so much like Demonica!" he thought. "The old whore'd pay right smart to find out about Razzorbauch's affair with her very own daughter."

Ugleeuh was on her feet at once. "Demonica?" she sputtered as she came to rest against the balustrade. "I'm afraid I wasn't expecting her to do anything with us, after her awful reception. She certainly had no use for me." A breeze rattled the leaves in the nearby trees. She rubbed her bare arms and turned about to face him.

"I think I can put you at ease, dear," said Razzorbauch. "The problem was my timing. She was still smoldering over a spat of ours when we showed up. She merely took it out on both of us. She regrets her behavior. She'd like to put things to rights..."

"She told you that?"

"Well I've not seen her, but she did say once that she wanted to get to know you. My word. She certainly could teach you things my far-sighted brother refused to."

"I find that hard to believe. She was..."

"Fiddlesticks. She's forever keeping everyone around her guessing. It's her way of controlling people."

"Even you?"

"She tries it," said Razzorbauch. "Demonica is Demonica. Let this maneuver of hers pass and you'll find that you two have things in common..."

"Indeed!" thought Ocker as Razzorbauch continued: "But for now, I think she could be quite a help with the dragons."

Ugleeuh crossed her arms and tapped at a tooth. "Well," she said with a thoughtful sigh, "I might have enjoyed it, had she been civil..."

"And she will be, dear. Just give her the time she needs."

"Speaking of time, do you think there'd be time for a bath before supper? I think I might go inside."

"Supper will be ready whenever you are, dear," he said, giving her hand a squeeze before turning away to plant his hands upon the stone rail. The breeze stirred his grey hair. He studied an owl sunning itself on a dead limb at the edge of the woods. "All right Ocker," he said, drumming his fingers as he spoke out, "come on down here."

Ocker was startled by this. After a moment's shocked silence, he took flight and swooped down to the balustrade beside Razzorbauch.

"So, bird. Were you up there spying on me, or do you have tidings to sell?"

Ocker was still not over his start from being discovered, and worse yet, he had nothing to sell. He opened up his feathers like a pine cone and sleeked down. "I know a good deal of interesting things," he said, "but I can't imagine some swyving harlot like you wanting to hear news about himself."

"What are you up to?"

"Spying."

"What?"

"Yea. I was overhearing all kinds of things you'd be fool enough to pay for to find out about yourself. You pissen me off right smart!"

"Do you have anything or not?"

"Hit's worth one of your little hogs, if I do..."

"I don't raise hogs..."

"One of your peccaries, damn it!" rattled Ocker as he sprang into the air to hover before Razzorbauch's face. "Hit was a whole drift o' peccaries a-rooting just down the hill that I was a-watching from up where you were convinced I was a-spying on you. You may not raise them, but they run all through your woods. Cook me one, hair and all, if you want my news."

Razzorbauch was already leaning over the balustrade, peering for several long moments into the woods at the foot of the hill. Suddenly he grabbed up his staff, jabbing it in the direction of a trotting hog, far away at the edge of the woods, to heave it out of the distance onto the balcony like a dollop of hay, where it lay, sizzling and steaming. "Now," he said, "up by your nest?" And with that, he went at the peccary with his staff to fling it far up the bluff face to Urr-Urr's ledge. "So. What's your bit of news?"

Ocker still hadn't thought of any news. He stood on the balustrade, sorting through his feathers. "If I had a staff like that, hit would sure be easy, feeding our new brood," he said. "How did you make hit do all that?"

"Magic. And you need to know a few spells for unusual things. And it helps to store up some of your magic in it before trying anything big. Now what do you have to tell me?"

"But if you put your magic into your stick, doesn't hit make you weak?"

"Not if you know what you're doing," said Razzorbauch. "Now, are you trying to swindle me? What's this news I just paid for, bird?"

Ocker preened madly at the feathers in one wing. Suddenly, something in the other wing needed preening just as urgently.

"Well?" said Razzorbauch.

Ocker gave a furious shake. "You don't need your soldiers clearing brush, right?" he said. "I can't imagine you wanting them wasting your time. I mean, you surely want them doing something else when you could clear every bit of the brush south of the Gulf of Orrin with a wave of your stick..."

"Now where did you see them?"

"Right south of the gulf. Right near the limestone caves and that forest of leaning oaks. You surely don't want to pay for their time just to have them clear brush."

Razzorbauch knitted his brow with a look that made Ocker shudder. "No bird," he said, "I most certainly do not."

Chapter 11

"Well then," said Razzorbauch as he appeared with Ugleeuh and Demonica amongst a handful of stela pines in the blinding light of a brick red landscape, sparkling with flashes of reflected sun. "Here we are on the tallest of the Fire Domes in the Mammvro."

Ugleeuh dropped to her haunches and swallowed hard, struggling not to vomit from the traveling spell. "Sure is bright," she said, squinting through one eye as she propped herself to keep from toppling. "How could they ever call this the Dark Continent?"

"The House of Dark, dear," said Demonica. "Their empire now takes in the entire continent, though I do own respectable parts of it, such as the Mammvro, here."

"I've never so much as imagined such a red countryside," said Ugleeuh as she picked up a piece of the glassy red obsidian which littered the ground. "It's the most stunning sight I've ever seen, even if it does leave spots before my eyes, but it's so desolate. There's nothing here but these gnarled old trees. What good is owning any of it?"

"Oh, minerals, dragons. And that rainbow hued rock you're holding makes nice jewelry. I should have worn some this morning. Now those old trees might need some respect, dear. My stone grinders and I sawed up one to burn, once. We kept losing track, counting the rings, but that chunk of wood couldn't have been a day less than three thousand years old."

A shadow passed over them. Ugleeuh looked up with a start to see a deep green dragon with a turquoise crest, the size of a cow, gliding majestically for a row of openings into lava tubes running up the nearby dome. "It's a bird with teeth!" she cried, springing to her feet to shade her eyes. "And I swear I saw claws in its wings..."

"You did, dear," said Demonica. "And I trust you realize that this is one of the very dragons that we came for..."

"I knew what it was."

Demonica was not listening. "Here comes another," she said, touching Razzorbauch's arm.

"Good," he said, "I knew that this was the place, but until the first one swooped in, I hadn't quite spotted their caves. I was a bit further down, the time before. I spent all day, and I allowed that there was above two hundred dragon a-coming and going. That ought to suit my needs..."

"Yes," said Demonica. "They should suit us quite nicely."

"What if it saw us?" said Ugleeuh.

"I doubt if it did," said Demonica. "Had it seen us, it would be trying to set us alight, this minute. The pines hid us. That's why I changed into this terrible green kirtle before we left Head."

"Can you make out the cottonwoods in the wash below their caves?" said Razzorbauch as he hefted something heavy in his shoulder bag.

Demonica saw where he pointed and looked up with a nod, squinting in the sunlight. "This side of their stand of sukere canna running up the wash?"

"Right there," he said. "Take Ugleeuh and go down there by spell and take cover, so the beasts won't see you. Each time one runs out, either take off his feathers or knock him out. I found an entrance, too small for them to get through, up near the top of their dome. I've got five pound of fiery nightshade. I'm going to smoke them out..."

"I thought I was going with you, Uncle Razzorbauch..." said Ugleeuh.

"Three or four good sized dragons and my staff and I will be utterly exhausted, my dear," said Demonica.

"I'll be right down," he said, holding his staff against hers. "In the meantime, here." Both staves glowed for a moment with a purple aura. "There. That will do a few more."

"Uncle Razzorbauch. I thought..."

"Yes," he said, suddenly looking her way. "I guess you have no staff. You might as well come with me. Take my hand."

In the next moment, Ugleeuh found herself tottering in the sliding talus of the neighboring volcanic peak, far above the dragon caves, listening to the calls of a gorge wren as she watched Razzmorten searching about in the rubble of pumice and obsidian.

"Here's the hole," he said.

Ugleeuh hurried over on hands and knees in spite of her nausea and peered in just as he heaved in his sack of fiery nightshade.

"Stand back!" he shouted.

Ugleeuh scuttled away backward like a crab.

The instant the sack hit bottom, he turned it to a glowing cinder with his Staff, sealing in its roiling column of acrid white smoke with a thundering smashing of rock which sent a shower of fragments skittering away down the mountainside.

"I don't trust her, Uncle Razzorbauch," said Ugleeuh as she stood and whisked at her skirts. "I thought this was our undertaking..."

"It is..."

"But she's in on it."

"Well no one who knows her ever really trusts her," he said, "but this whole thing with the dragons was her idea in the first place. And these are her dragons, after all. And when we get to the coast with the beasts, it will be her ships that haul them across the sea to the plantation. Now. Ready?"

"I guess. I still feel like throwing up."

"Then let's not make it any worse," he said, setting his staff to hover in the air and stepping across it. "Let's fly. Just get on behind."

"Fly?" said Ugleeuh as she hiked her dress and stepped over.

"Hang on as tight as you can," he said as they sprang into the air over the slopes to shoot ferociously down the mountainside.

Ugleeuh wailed out for half the distance in spite of what she may have wanted, just in time to stumble smartly into Razzorbauch's back as she fought to find her footing on the solid ground in front of Demonica.

"I've not seen a one, yet," said Demonica to Razzorbauch as she gave an impatient head to toe glance at Ugleeuh.

"You will," he said.

At that very moment, an echoing bellow from the caves got their attention in time for them to see a dozen dragons charging out abreast into the open air, blinded by the stinging fiery nightshade fumes, snorting and gasping, flapping their wings and stumbling about.

"Keep them blind!" shouted Razzorbauch as he ran toward the dragons with his staff leveled. "Don't let them spit flames! Freeze any that try to fly!"

Demonica set to work at once, hurling crackling lavender bolts from her staff into the faces of beast after beast as they thundered from the caves, while Razzorbauch sent out a pounding hail of flashes from his, causing the plumage to fall free from the dragons' wings and bodies in cascading bundles and wads, as the terrified animals flapped themselves to nakedness, and the air filled with the stench of singeing feathers. More and more came in a frantic rush for fresh air only to be undressed in their bewildered frenzy, until at last the wash in front of the caves was filled with a milling herd of better than two hundred naked dragons, fenced in by a corralling spell cast by Demonica.

Razzorbauch climbed a large red rock to stand above their heads. "Peoc'h!" he roared, addressing them in Headlandish. "Silence!"

At once, the only sounds to be heard were the rattling of cottonwood leaves and the nearby calls of laughing quail. As he stood there counting them, a young male who happened to be outside of Demonica's spell, was carefully inching away. Suddenly he broke into a run for the caves. Razzorbauch jerked his staff aloft at the sight of him, shooting him with a brilliant beam of ruby light from the Heart in its end, blowing him apart with a thundering concussion which left a hole in the ground big enough to bury several dragons, as a peppering of dirt and flecks of flesh rained down through the leaves of the cottonwoods.

"N'eus ket tu da," said Razzorbauch, speaking out over the hushed herd. "There's no way to. There's no way anyone else could possibly break away and run. But you see what would happen if he could. From this moment on, for as long as you live, you are each my chattel. Now. I'm going to walk to the sea and you're going to follow me. It will be a few days to get there and a few more to wait for ships which will take you to my plantation." He paused to look over their numbers for a moment before clambering down from his rock. "Poent eo mont kuit!" he cried with a wave of his staff. "It's time to leave!" And with that, he began walking.

The dragon multitude formed a lumbering queue as they followed, utterly beaten, as Demonica set out in their wake with her staff. Ugleeuh picked up one of the great green feathers littering the ground, every bit as long as she was tall and was astonished at how very light it was. "My!" she said. "These are light as a feather."

"One does expect that with feathers, dear," said Demonica.

Ugleeuh thought it would make quite a souvenir, but tossed it aside at the thought of the long walk ahead. "So," she said, catching up. "'Mammvro.' Wouldn't that be Headlandish for 'Motherland?'"

"It is. It's the dragon word for it, really. I call it that because of the dragons. The rest of the continent calls these the Red Lands or the Red Desert..."

"Dragon word? They can talk?"

"Every bit as well as we can..."

"If they can do that, could they have been the ones who planted all those hills of sorghum up and down the wash?"

"Oh, they most certainly did, dear. But that's not sorghum, it's sukere canna, and I'm astonished that you're not already acquainted with..." Without warning, Demonica turned with a gasp to face a feathered meteor of fury plunging straight for her from the sky, opening its jaws as it came. Immediately she fired a bolt from her staff into the dragon's face to stop its flame as it pounced onto her shoulders, yanking her into the sky by the cloth of her kirtle to kick and fling about with her staff as she passed low over the heads of the naked herd. Suddenly she lost hold of the staff. "Razzorbauch!" she screamed as it pitched end over end into the dragons.

Razzorbauch wheeled about with his staff to point the Heart, just in time for her dress to tear free, flinging her through the crown of a bushy juniper to bounce and roll to a stop in the coarse red sand. As the dragon churned about to see where she had gotten to, Razzorbauch shot a searing ruby bolt from the Heart, igniting the beast in a pounding flash that streaked out crimson in all directions, falling from the sky in sizzling ribbons of flame to tumble away over the sand as smoking cinders.

***

The Yellow Rose Tavern was a huge three and a half storey wattle and daub house that had only been standing for three years, just down the street from Fates' Hospital for the Sick and the Silver Dragon. Its upper storeys overhung the first floor nearly to the middle of the alleys on all sides. Minuet and Bethan rented a long room at the top under the roof in front, which opened onto a balcony far above the street between two great crucks under the gable, and which also peeped out from a tiny window under a thick blanket of thatch in the roof itself. They always ate breakfast and supper downstairs, but they usually ate their dinner at the Silver Dragon, since it was next to the hospital.

"So what was the reason Sergeant Bernard brought us down here to the inn?" said Bethan as she addressed her collards with bread and knife. "I didn't quite catch what he was saying."

"He didn't say much," said Minuet. "I guess that there was some sort of uproar at the Silver Dragon right after we left, yesterday. He thought we'd be safer down here."

"Well, where'd he go?"

"He said he'd be right outside if we needed him," said Minuet as she looked out across the tables under the low rows of timbers in the ceiling. "Is this all they're bringing out for us to eat?"

"Probably. There do be pieces of ham in it. It's just the taverner and his wife. Both cooks fled the plague, this morning."

"I wondered why she was the one waiting on us," said Minuet as she pressed a wad of collards onto her bread. "In here, you'd hardly think there was a plague. Everybody's just eating peacefully."

"They do be, but I wouldn't be surprised if the taverner's wife is more talkative when things are normal. She hardly spoke. I'd allow that she's a little afraid of every soul who walks in here. It's a wonder they haven't shooed us out and flown the coop."

"No doubt..."

Across the room, the front door slammed shut. "There's the witch!" shouted the woman who stepped inside, silencing everyone at the tables.

Minuet dropped her bread onto her plate and turned about on her chair in alarm.

"Martha please!" said the man coming in on her heels. "You've had too much to drink. Please think! She's been wonderful to the kids..."

"You doubt me, Sammy boy?" she cried, wheeling 'round and planting her feet. "I saw what I saw..."

"We all saw the pardoner and the flax haired wench..." he said as he grabbed her wrist.

Martha immediately yanked out of his grasp. "Then you're blind as well as thick!" she shouted, nearly stumbling as she forced her way between the tables. "Had ye seen past your nose, you'd 'ave seen it was that wizard in league with the very Elf devils who caused the plague in the first place. It was none other than Wizard Razzmorten himself and his witch daughter, Ugleeuh!" She staggered back a step with a glance about at her audience of wide-eyed diners. "No wonder he came to town as a pardoner. He knew they'd be run out if people recognized him." Suddenly she took a tramp toward Minuet. "In fact, maybe it's time something was done about that entire family. Everyone knows they practice the dark arts."

Minuet shot to her feet. "Shame on you!" she shouted. "If it weren't for my father, the queen herself would be dead this minute! Scores of people have caught the plague and are alive right now because of him...!"

"Yea!" she barked, peppering Minuet's face with flecks of spit. "Like all the pointy eared foreigners who caused it!"

"Foreigners! How can you say such a thing! They were here a thousand years ago, before there ever was a Niarg..."

"A threat to us the whole time , Missy!" cried Martha, smiling with her hateful piggy eyes as an angry drone stirred through the diners.

"A threat?" cried Minuet, turning to the crowd. "How many of you are alive today because you were healed by the Elves? How many of you would have died in childbirth had it not been for them? How is it wrong to keep them alive alongside us?"

Bethan could see that the grumbling diners were not making kind replies. She saw her moment at once and quietly slipped out to summon Sergeant Bernard.

"And as for you, Martha Benton," said Minuet, "how come you call me a witch when only yesterday you said I was like unto an angel?"

"I didn't know the truth!" she shouted for all to hear. "You held me under an enchantment and used your dark magicks on my dear children. For all we know, you've left us changelings under your spell!"

"That's a lie, Martha! I used no magicks! Your children are still your children. And they're going to live a long life, too, thanks to my father's drops which I've been giving them every four hours!"

"Yea? And we'd never have let you get away with that, had we only known!"

Minuet was stunned, standing there alone. "I've no time for this," she stammered, turning to leave as diners began pushing back their chairs throughout the room. "We've got drops to give and bedpans to haul. Come on, Bethan..."

"So where's your hired woman, witch?" shouted Martha, blocking Minuet's escape as the entire dining room crowded around. "Could it be that we're onto the truth and she didn't want to hang alongside you for your sorceries?"

"If I were a witch," cried Minuet, standing her ground before the huge woman, "why have I not struck you down with a curse by now?"

Martha dropped her jaw at this and grabbed herself by the throat to sit down on the floor with a heavy plump and topple onto her side like a sack of corn. The crowd stepped back with wide-eyed gasps.

"Good show Martha!" cried Minuet. "But the only thing wrong with you is your vicious demeanor!"

"You killed my wife!" shouted Sam, falling to his knees beside her as shouts of "Rope! Rope!" erupted from the crowd.

"She's no more dead than I am!" cried Minuet.

"How do we know you're alive?" shouted Sam.

"Yea!" hollered someone. "Hang her and burn her!"

"Rope! Rope! Rope!" chanted the crowd, as two huge men grabbed her and threw her against the wall to pummel her face and break her wrist, causing her to black out and fall to the floor, where they began kicking her at once.

"Stop!" bellowed Sergeant Bernard as he flung open the door, sword drawn.

Bethan came in right on his heels, elbowing her way through the crowd in a fury. "My baby girl!" she shrieked as she grabbed one of the kicking men by the hair on the back of his head, yanking him off balance onto the floor.

"Why you old sow!" cried the other man as he wheeled and kicked Bethan in the thigh, knocking her onto the floor.

"My baby!" she cried as she flew to her feet to rip open his belly with her dirk.

The man on the floor rose to his knees, drawing his sword in time for Bernard to take off his head with a whistling swing of his saber. By now the room had fallen to a hush as Minuet and Bethan's other four bodyguards entered with swords drawn, followed by a dozen other royal guardsmen.

Bethan knelt over Minuet, sobbing and smoothing her hair from her face.

"Seize that man trying to hide the rope!" shouted Bernard.

There was a brief scuffle as murmurs began stirring.

"Silence!" roared Bernard, punctuating the quiet which followed with the sound of his heels on the boards of the floor as he paced. "I am placing under arrest every one of you on this side of the room, from the man with the rope, clean to the wall, except for Mistress Dewin and Bethan..."

"Why not the witch?" said Sam as he knelt by Martha. "If she's not killed my wife, she at least has a spell on her."

Bernard motioned to one of the guardsmen with a nod and whispered something in his ear. "We will hold you in the castle jail until you appear before the King's Bench," he said, continuing his speech as the guardsman slipped outside.

"What about the witch?" cried Sam as the guardsman returned with a hunting crop and handed it to Bernard.

Bernard made no reply as he took the crop and walked calmly over to Martha, smacking her rump with a furious whistling crack, causing her to jerk away with a yodeling shriek, tumbling up onto her knees wide eyed as she dearly held her behind.

"I'm right glad to see that you'll be awake for your hearing, dear," he said as he handed the hunting crop back to the guardsman.

***

Minuet awoke in the shadows of early evening to the calls of a robin and the cries of nighthawks swooping after insects outside the window of her room. "Leigheas!" she said. "Is this Oilean Gairdin? It's certainly not Peach Knob." She gave a small moan at her first attempt to adjust her position.

"No my dear," he said, stepping quietly to her bedside at once. "This is Fates' Hospital..."

"Then this is one of the private rooms," she said as she began discovering that she was quite thoroughly bandaged. "But why are you here? I thought..."

"Your father came to Oilean Gairdin and got me, otherwise..."

"What happened to me? I knew about my arm, but I'm bandaged all over."

"The barbarians in the Yellow Rose got you down and broke six of your ribs after they broke your arm," he said as he pulled back her sheets and carefully checked over his work. "You must have passed out at once. I understand it was two of them that did most of this."

Bethan was there at once, smoothing her hair as Razzmorten came to her bedside and carefully squeezed her hand.

"I've brought a good quantity of slainte ollmhor," said Leigheas. "It should control your pain, but you'll be right stove up for some time. They very nearly killed you."

"This is my fault," said Razzmorten. "I'm so very sorry..."

"Father! How could you possibly be at fault?"

"It was I who told you not to use your powers to protect yourself..."

"But that only made sense."

"Oh indeed, but we almost lost you. You are one brave young lady."

"Not really," she said. "It's easy to be brave when you're unconscious."

Razzmorten kissed her forehead and turned to Leigheas. "How long can you stay?"

"I'll stay until tomorrow morning, but I do indeed want that armed escort out of here. This is no place for an Elf. She's no longer in any danger."

"Very well. I'll see that you have it. How soon do you think she could testify?"

"Testify?" said Minuet.

"As soon as she feels like walking the distance," said Leigheas.

"Before the King's Bench?" said Minuet. "Against the pair who did this to me?"

"Not now, honey," said Bethan. "Sergeant Bernard took the head off one of them..."

"And Bethan got the other one," said Razzmorten.

"Bethan!" said Minuet.

"Pinked his dirty old belly with that knife I've been a carrying. They just got word to us he'd died on the jailhouse floor. And I'm pleased! That curse nearly took my little girl," she said with a whoop as she broke into sobs. She daubed at her eyes. "Now, don't you worry. When you testify, I'll be a-testifying right alongside ye."

"But why? If they're dead, why would we do that?"

"Well, the others," said Razzmorten. "They were going to hang you and burn your body."

"You mean Martha? Martha and Sam Benton?"

"Well, they weren't the only ones. Somebody else already had a rope by the time the guards got in there..."

"But the children!" said Minuet. "If I testify, Martha and Sam will hang, won't they?"

"They have to stop all the lynchings," said Razzmorten. "Do you realize how many innocent people have already been killed? And Martha and Sam would have you dead by this very hour if Bernard and Bethan hadn't got there when they did."

"But poor little Polly and Sarah! They're just now getting better. What will they do for parents? That was awful of Martha, but I forgive her."

"We have to testify, honey," said Bethan. "I know it's hard, and you've got a big heart, but think of all the innocent people we'll be saving."

"I think we need to allow this young lady her rest," said Leigheas.

"I reckon the other thing King Henry wants her to do can wait," thought Razzmorten as he picked up his hat from the pile of linen by the bed.

And in short order, everyone had murmured parting words and were gone. Minuet gave a great sigh, listening to the whisper calls of the robins as she studied the ceiling in the failing light, trying to think of the innocent people she'd be saving.

Chapter 12

"How was your fried barley grits, sir?" said Bethan as she watched Razzmorten put away his knife and scoot back from their table in the common room of the Yellow Rose Inn.

"Just right for my lank spot," he said, "but nothing like yours. You brown up yours just right."

"You're easy to work for, sir," she said as she wiped her mouth. "Say! Here come Sergeant Bernard and Captain Pryce. Now what's the matter with them?"

"Razzmorten?" said Bernard as he came to the table, struggling to get control of a face full of glee.

"Now what the blazes is going on with him?" said Razzmorten, turning about in his chair to stare across the room at Pryce. "Why's he staying clear over there?"

"Because we're ever so convinced that he stinks too much to be polite..." wheezed Bernard as he broke into a roar of laughter.

"Now what's this?" said Razzmorten, not knowing quite what to grin for.

Bernard steadied himself against a chair as he fought for composure. "The old dame..." Once again he was laughing. "The old dame upstairs got him with a bucket of slop on the way in."

Razzmorten waved at Pryce, who looked up with a sheepish nod from picking and whisking at his uniform and came over to the table.

"You don't look so bad," said Razzmorten. "Well... You do have some carrot peelings in your hair. And actually you do stink to high Heaven, but you know it will wash out. So. What can we do for you gentlemen? Actually, do you suppose we could talk outside? I think the people at the nearby tables would really appreciate it. Let me pay for this and we'll be right out."

Razzmorten and Bethan stepped out under the sign of the Yellow Rose to find Pryce and Bernard watching an old sow and three young shoats champing down rotten melons and cabbage heads from a splatter in the street. "Is that where she got you?" he said with a nod at the hogs.

"I'm afraid so, sir," said Pryce.

"Look at that rat!" said Bethan. "I declare, dashing out amongst the hogs in broad daylight."

"So what were you wanting to see me about?" said Razzmorten. "Is this more bad news?"

"Well I hope not," said Pryce. "Now, before we left for the first shipload of Elven hyssop, didn't I hear you mention something about more of it growing a good way further down the coast?"

"A good long way further, clean down to Arfordir yn Gwahardd, the Forbidden Coast, separating the Black Desert from Mor Dannedd, the Sea of Teeth. Why? Have you cut all of the oregano that you can find?"

"We might possibly have another shipload, but it will take some time, a-scouring the hillsides," said Pryce, still picking wee peelings out of his hair, "maybe twice as long."

"Well then, that's not good news. We've been sitting idle a day or two between each shipload already, and longer will simply mean lives. And a trip down to the Forbidden Coast like as not will mean rough seas. The very moment you set sail for your last load, you need to send at least three ships, if not four, on their way down to the Forbidden Coast to even resume the rate of oil production which we've had. Go see the king this minute. We've not been producing oil fast enough as it is. We're going to lose lives over this. Bells of the very Pit! Ask him for eight ships. We'll build more stills."

"We're on our way," said Pryce with a nod as he and Bernard set off down the street, scattering the hogs. He stopped short and turned about. "Say! How hard is that Forbidden Coast hyssop to find once we get there?"

"It's all up and down the hills facing the sea."

Captain Pryce gave a smart salute and turned on his heel.

"Well," said Razzmorten to Bethan as the old sow and the shoats returned to the last scraps of slop, "shall we look in on Minuet?"

They found her dressed and wearing her yellow nurse's sash, pacing about her room. "There you are," she said at the sight of them. "My beating has left me a bit timid, I'm afraid, or I'd be administering drops and hauling bedpans this minute. I just feel safer somehow, waiting for you Bethan."

Bethan was wide eyed at once. "Land o' Niarg, honey! Have you had too much Elven ginseng? You still have your arm bound to a splint."

"Well I have had some, but there's work to be done, and there's more of it if I run down."

"I don't know about work," said Razzmorten as he removed his hat and motioned for her to have a seat on her bed.

"But Father, all I hear when I lie here in bed is the moans of the sick in the common room. The plague can't be going away on its own. They need us."

"Perhaps," he said as he sat down beside her. He paused to smooth a dent out of the crown of his hat as a dove called outside the window. "King Henry feels that it might be dangerous for you and Bethan to be working in the hospital, just now..."

"King Henry?"

"He's given it some thought and we both think it best that you go back home for a good long rest after you and Bethan testify, before you even think about any more working at Fate's..."

"My word, Father! What would the king be doing, worrying about my welfare?"

"I don't mean to be rude, Bethan, but would you mind letting me have a word or two alone with Minuet?"

"Oh not at all," she said, stumping out at once.

"What's happened?" said Minuet. "Why all the drama?"

Razzmorten studied the backs of his hands, listening to the doves outside. He drew a breath as he took up her hand and turned to face her. "King Henry wants you to marry Prince Hebraun."

Minuet's jaw dropped in wide-eyed shock. "King Henry wants me...?"

Razzmorten nodded.

"You've never been one to tease..."

"No, I don't tease people."

"King Henry told you that he wants me...me to marry Prince Hebraun?"

Razzmorten nodded.

"Well that is a shock! And you really haven't made that up?"

"Fiddlesticks. That's your sister's game."

"Oh I am sorry, Father! I do know better, but we're not royalty. We're not even gentry. The only important sort of lineage we have is Elven. We might be marginally well off, maybe, but..."

"None of that has any bearing on anything, dear. Henry wants you to marry Hebraun because he thinks our magic would be good for the Crown. He also thinks your marriage into his house would help the frightened citizenry to see that our cure is not black magic nor any sort of magic at all, and has been healing people right along. Besides, he's grateful that the queen's well after her bout with the plague and he's been looking for a way to reward me."

"How will marrying Hebraun reward you, Father? I thought you enjoyed having me at Peach Knob."

"Oh my!" he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "You're the Fates' own gift to me and having you with me has been my greatest joy. If you were to stay with me the rest of my life, I'd never tire of your company. You must understand that."

"I do," she said as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I've always known that."

"I'm to be 'Wizard of the Crown.' Henry even wants me to move into the tower of Castle Niarg."

"But what about Peach Knob?"

"Oh, we'd never let go of that, but I don't have to be there every minute to run it."

"Sounds like you've practically accepted the king's offer," said Minuet as she slipped off the bed and went to the window. A robin flew to the apple tree below and began singing.

"Well," said Razzmorten after studying her for a moment, "speaking only for myself, I can't imagine not considering it. And as far as the two of us are concerned, it's some opportunity, indeed. It would remain safe for us to practice magic... Oh dear! You don't look enthused. I would never force you to marry, in spite of what opportunities there might be in it for me. If you're uncomfortable with any part of this you must tell me."

Minuet whisked at the dust and dead flies on the sill. "Well, what about Prince Hebraun? Would he want to marry a commoner?"

Razzmorten rose and went to Minuet at once. "My dear," he said with a soft chuckle, gently turning her about by the shoulders, "Henry got the idea from Hebraun."

"Hebraun told the king he wanted to marry me?"

"He didn't say that, I don't think, but every time Hebraun's been to Peach Knob for oil, he keeps going on and on about you being the most gorgeous young woman he's ever seen, bright and poised, don't you know. And he seems to think that you might possibly feel the same way about him."

"Prince Hebraun said that?" she gasped. "He thinks I'm interested in him? What about Leeuh?"

"Now I'm lost. What about Leeuh?"

"Don't you remember me telling you about her having designs on Prince Hebraun? She might even think she's in love with him."

"Mercy!" said Razzmorten, staring out the window.

"Well she's quite infatuated with him, at the very least. If I marry him, she'll hate me forever."

"Remember (and I can't imagine how you couldn't) that I once promised that I'd let you choose whom you marry? I told you that my gift to you was that you could marry for love. Well, this might be it, don't you know. So do you really want your sister to ruin it for you? If you let her, do you really fancy that she'll be grateful to you for your sacrifice? And I'll bet you two whole crowns that if you don't marry him, he won't marry her, either."

"Maybe you should just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."

"Shame on you! That would completely undo my gift to you. This is your decision."

"I know. And I love you for it, too, Father. So when must we give King Henry his answer?"

"He wants to announce the betrothal before the trial."

"My word! That would almost convict them without our testimony."

"Sure would," he said, "but they are guilty, don't you know. And you, my dear, are not."

Minuet stared out into the crown of the apple tree for a very long time before turning away from the window. "Father," she said, throwing her arms around him, "tell King Henry I'll marry his son."

***

"Ocker," said Urr-Urr as she shared her last tidbit of meat with her squirming brood, "I'm exhausted. These pink mouths are running me ragged."

Ocker opened his eyes where he sat on the ledge by their nest, shook his toasty warm feathers and thrust out a foot under one wing.

"I don't know what's happened to the wolves, now that Razzorbauch's come here," she said, "but you have to hunt forever to find any to make a kill for you. I usually can't find a wolf anywhere, nor any trace of a kill they've made. Hit's just been old rabbits all morning. Now, I rather like the maggots and sexton beetles myself, but these rabbits are really old, and the pink mouths just won't keep their meat down very well if it has too much of a metallic taste."

"I'll see what I can do," said Ocker as he sprang into the air with his stick tight in his talons. He climbed in great sweeping circles until at last he began a long slow glide out over the woods, well beyond Razzorbauch's great keep, where he soared for a good long while, riding the updraughts. "Peccaries!" he awked at last. "A whole swyving drift of them." At once he dove into the woods far below, where he landed on the low horizontal limb of one of

Razzorbauch's twisted trees to perch with one foot on his stick, quietly studying the rooting herd of hogs. "There's a good one," he thought, pointing himself like a compass needle as a lavender bolt of fire shot from his beak to the hog with a deafening pop. The peccary collapsed sizzling into the leaves as the heard scattered in terror, woofing and belching.

"Dampne hit!" he rattled, shaking his ringing ears. He swooped at once from the limb to the carcass, set his stick in the leaves and began yanking at bites of steaming meat to take back to his brood. Suddenly he stopped short. He was certain he was being watched, but for the life of him he saw no one at all. He dropped his meat, fluffed up and sleeked down.

"Well good morning!" came a voice from an altogether different place than he had expected, giving him a frightful start in spite of his already being alert.

Ocker trotted to his stick and hopped on. "A deal's a deal!" he awked, feathers bristling.

"And a deal hit was," said Meri with a flicker of emerald eyes, as he sat up out of a deep blanket of leaves."

"Yea?" said Ocker, gripping his stick. "Then what are you doing here? I thought you were off to find Celeste."

"Oh I was indeed, but Razzorbauch first did get there."

"Yea? How could you possibly know hit was him?"

"When I got there, a lingering signature there was. Actually, hit was his signature which unto me where Celeste and them had been did tell."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I am about a wee trace of magic left behind where Razzorbauch cast his spells a-talking."

"So now that you've seen me use my stick, would you know my signature?"

"Oh, better than by your face I do you recognize."

Ocker had an urgent need to preen the feathers in one of his wings. "So what are you doing here?" he said, switching to the other wing. "I can't imagine that you came here to see how I was doing with my stick."

"Not at all. I did not think you would be able anything at all with your stick to do."

"What? You thought you gave me an ordinary stick?"

"Oh no. I knew Longbark's twig hit was, but as hit thought to me, you had no skill for to use hit."

"That was stupid. I told you that Demonica gave me the power of a hedge wizard."

"Indeed," said Meri with a wide-eyed nod. "And that be the very reason your magic I did doubt."

"You thought she lied to me?"

"I know she lied unto you, for no one with magic can ever unto one who has none give magical powers."

"Yea?" said Ocker with a saucy snap of each wing. "So how'd I just now cook this hog?"

"Shrewd you may be," said Merri with a shake of his twinkling eyes, "but you no match in the least for Demonica do be. She saw you a-coming and your services got for nothing. She that you did not know about your own magic could see, so she merely to give you some did pretend."

"You mean I had my powers all along?"

"Is that not what I just said?"

"That stinking quiente! She played me for a fool!"

"Those your words do be."

"You pissen me right smart! Here you thought I had no powers at all and you gave me a magic stick anyway. How's that any different than Demonica?"

"And how any different does hit be than your telling both Razzorbauch and me where Celeste and her kin were?"

Ocker stumbled backward across his stick, landing in a heap of feathers, flapping into the air in a swirl of leaves to land properly on his feet. "What makes you so swyving sure I told Razzorbauch?" he awked.

"Oh, just the watching of you. You very easy to read can be, as sly you may be."

"You trapped me!"

"You the trap did set," said Meri with a shrug..

"All right, green toute!" shouted Ocker, growing immediately quiet at the sound of his own words. "If you didn't come for my stick, what are you here for?"

"To know where Razzorbauch be."

"His keep is up the hill yonder, through the trees, as I can't believe you don't already know..."

"I'm not after him now," said Meri, studying Ocker keenly. "And for you I have a deal. Find Celeste, Alvita, Nacea and Rodon, and you how to use your stick I'll show. Now. A hungry brood you have to feed, my dear enterprising raven. Good day." And with that, Meri Greenwood vanished into the brush.

Chapter 13

The room crackled, flickering lavender a moment before the deafening boom of thunder which made Minuet and Bethan jump. "It's raining in," said Minuet.

"Oh I'll mop it," said Bethan. "It's not soaking anything but the floor. I've got to have the light to see to your hair."

"We're five storeys up," said Minuet as she squirmed on her stool in the steady roar of the rain. It was still difficult for her to sit still with her injured ribs, even with them tightly wrapped. "It makes me plain giddy to look out the window. I'd just as soon not have to close a sash. When we were upstairs in Father's apartment, I looked out and nearly reeled. I had to back away from the window and sit down. I can't believe his top floor is seven whole storeys above the ground."

"Now I've never been this far up in my life, but I can't imagine you'd any nearer topple out than down on the ground," said Bethan around the hairpin in her mouth, "but you need to sit still. I'm a-trying to braid, here." She tied the plait and tucked it behind Minuet's ear and delicately ran her brush down her cascade of fiery tresses to well below the top of her stool. She carefully wiggled seven wee rosebuds and seven pearl headed pins into the plaits along Minuet's hairline and stood back with a cluck of her tongue. "Oh honey dew drop! You're the prettiest thing I ever saw, and there's not a prince alive who'd disagree. Here," she said, holding out a looking glass. "Have 'ee a look."

"My word!" said Minuet as she stood and carefully peered into the mirror. "That's me?"

"Nothing but you and your pretty yellow kirtle and coathardie with its sleeves a-hanging nearly to the floor. You look just like a princess. And no one can see the bandage on your arm."

"Well I do see why Father sent away the ladies-in-waiting. You certainly do know what you're doing..."

"Have I spoilt something?"

"Not in the least. It's just that I look so very much like a princess, that I wonder if I might not seem a bit pretentious to some, don't you know. I am a commoner, after all, just a farm girl. Do you think I might look like I'm putting on airs?"

"Well not to me. You've always been my princess..."

"And you've been a dear mother to me," said Minuet with a sniffle as she gave Bethan a sudden hug. "And my very best friend..."

"And do I look like I'm putting on airs?" said Razzmorten, appearing behind them like a phantom in the noise of the rain.

Minuet gave a gasp and wheeled about to see. "Why no," she said, looking him up and down in his purple robes and jeweled belt. "You're about to be made Wizard of the Realm."

"And you're about to be made princess," he said. "Besides, Prince Hebraun thinks that you're the most gorgeous young lady in all of Niarg (and he's right, of course), so I'd say that you can get away with looking like a princess all you want."

"Fiddlesticks! You have to say that. You're my doting father who looks so handsome himself, that he'll be mobbed by all the spinsters at court."

"Nay!" he said, throwing his head back with a laugh. "Not a soul will notice, for every eye in the place will be on you."

"Keep slathering on the butter, Father, and directly you'll have me as vain as Leeuh," she said, as a shift in the wind began drenching the room, sending Bethan in a rush to close the sashes.

"Poop, dear," he said as he sat on the stool she had been using. "In all your years, I've yet to see something go to your head. But speaking of what you make of things, now that you've had a day in the tower here, what do you make of your new apartment?

"Oh, it's right fancy I guess."

"Well they won't mind in the least if you change things around any way you want."

"I know that," she said, pacing back and forth. "It's just not home."

"It certainly will be when you're married. Maybe not here in the tower, but this castle will be home."

"I know," she said as she stopped short and took up his hand. "But until then, if no one minds, once this banquet and horrible trial are done, I'd like to go home and savor my last days at Peach."

Suddenly there was a knock. Minuet opened the door to a page boy who hesitated, looking her over from head to toe.

"I've been sent to remind the Wizard Razzmorten and the Mistress Dewin, that it's four o' clock and that the guests have arrived..." Suddenly he went wide eyed. "Could you be the very Mistress Dewin?"

"I am..."

"I do beg your pardon!" he said, bowing immediately. "I..."

"Didn't expect the mistress herself to be answering the door with the help on her knees, mopping the floor, aye?" said Bethan from across the room as she stumped to her feet. "But don't you worry, boy. These folks are salt of the earth to work for."

"Well then," said Razzmorten, "it's time."

"Oh Bethan," said Minuet. "I wish you could come..."

"Mercy, girl!" said Bethan. "That would be something. A commoner not only betroths royalty, but brings her hired help to the party like an equal. Now shoo! Both of you. You'll be late."

The rumbling storm gave way to the clatter of stony echoes as Razzmorten and Minuet trotted down the stairs inside the curve of the tower wall, her kirtle gliding over the steps behind her. At the bottom they followed a narrow passage to the castle proper.

When they came to the corridor to the great hall where the banquet was being held, Minuet hiked her skirts in order to make time. "We're not that late," said Razzmorten. "You probably don't want to be out of breath when we get there."

With a nod and a heave of her breast, Minuet dropped her skirts and took his arm again, but they still made their way in too much of a hurry for conversation. At the far end of the corridor, the sounds of the great hall reached out to meet them with a roiling murmur of the guests and the occasional screech of a chair.

"Now you're not nervous, are you?" said Razzmorten as they reached the vestibule.

"Why? Do I look terrified or something?"

"Oh, not enough for a stranger to notice, but you're digging your fingers into my arm."

"Mercy!" she said, letting go at once. "That's a good start on the evening."

"You're worrying too much, dear," he said, whispering into her ear. "The whole castle will be completely mesmerized by you. And before you know it, the evening with be over."

"Well my gut's in knots. They probably already know about me. What if all the nobles in here hate me...?"

"The right honorable Wizard Razzmorten Dewin and his daughter, the Mistress Minuet Dewin," crowed the doorman at the sight of them entering the hall.

"I don't know about mesmerized, Father," said Minuet from the side of her mouth, "but every single eye in the place is looking right at us."

"Why, I can't imagine anything less," he said with a nod, as he led her through the parting crowd to the great table that nearly ran the length of the enormous room which was hung throughout with bright banners from the trusses overhead. At the far end of it, he stopped before the beaming Prince Hebraun himself, who bowed and offered her his arm.

Minuet caught the look in his eye and went quite breathless. "Fates!' she thought. "Here I am, positively scarlet for everyone to see!"

Presently the king and queen took their places at the head of the table. Hebraun and Minuet sat to the king's right as Razzmorten was seated across the table to the queen's left. By the time the last guests were being seated down at the far end, a score of great silver bowls of newly ripened pears and peaches were brought to the table, followed by grapes and cottage cheese, honey and steaming bread made from wheat scarcely shocked and threshed when the plague first appeared.

Hebraun strung honey over his bread and licked his fingers, eagerly turning to Minuet with things to say which she kept missing altogether for trying to steal glances at him.

Minuet looked up to see two orderlies scurrying her way on either side of a platter, bearing a huge steaming roast hog. "Forgive us!" cried one. "Here we come!"

At once she and Hebraun sprang to their feet, pulling aside their chairs to make room. Once the orderlies had mopped up after their burden, bowed and departed, they returned to their seats sharing giggles.

"This is Hebraun's hog, Minuet," said Queen Helena, leaning over. "He shot it only yesterday morning, up in the woods. It put up quite a fight, I believe."

Minuet nodded demurely and blushed, turning quickly to Hebraun. "This is yours?"

He nodded.

"It smells wonderful."

"I'm delighted. I shot it for you. I wanted to impress you. I want it to be the best roast you ever ate."

Minuet touched his arm and stole an even better look at him. She could see that he truly meant it. She could also see that he was indeed the most handsome and dashing young man she had ever seen. She had actually known this from the beginning, but she had never dared to think about it. The pork was good. She made certain that she ate it to show her appreciation, but she wasn't interested in eating at all. The orderlies brought quail and squab, speckled gravy, aspic and pickled eggs, carrots, rhubarb and bowls of tender beans. She was now feeling much more at ease and felt free to look at him more and more. Could this be a dream?

Presently, King Henry set his crown upon the corner of the table and rose to peck at his goblet with his spoon. The table fell silent at once. "We've got wonderful pies a-coming," he said with kindly eyes as he looked from face to face down the table, "all made with the first blackberries and the very first apples of the season. I had the first bite of each for supper, last night, and they've had to keep steering me out of the kitchen ever since..."

The guests interrupted appreciatively with their laughter.

"You all have to be wondering how we could possibly have a banquet in the midst of all the sorrow and despair the Kingdom is suffering from the plague. There are missing faces at this table which I find difficult to bear. But in the midst of this we have found substantial hope," he said, turning to Razzmorten. "As you must know by now, Wizard Razzmorten has found the cure for the horrible plague. He and his lovely daughter and a good number of brave souls have been working day and night for these past weeks to produce this cure and to distribute it to as many people as possible. It takes time to make, and they have a long way to go to get the cure to everyone who needs it, but they are indeed gaining ground.

"The plague first struck here in the castle. My dearest Queen Helena came down with it in its first days. And by the Fates' good fortune, she was the very first patient to receive Wizard Razzmorten's cure. And here she sits, feisty as ever she be. Think of it my friends! The plague has stalked the world claiming untold numbers since the beginning of time, and no one could stop it until now. It may be that the next time it comes, no one will die at all! What we all owe this good wizard is more than I can imagine. However, we do the best we can. On this occasion, I pronounce him Wizard to the Throne of Niarg in honor of his great service."

The great hall broke into a roar of applause and shouts of appreciation as King Henry nodded to one and all. Presently he motioned for Razzmorten to stand.

"This is very generous of you, my king," he said as he pushed back his chair and stood, "for at the last count, it seems that we've only managed... We've only managed..." He paused to raise the crook of his finger to his mouth as he cleared his throat to begin again. "At last count we've only spared three hundred, four and thirty souls, while some number well above that have perished, waiting for our cure. But we've sent more ships than ever, clear down to Arfordir yn Gwahardd this time, and I promise you all that I will not rest until no one further dies." With a quick nod, he suddenly took his seat.

A thundering applause rose to the vault of the ceiling as the diners shot to their feet.

"And that's three hundred, four and thirty souls including our very queen, who are alive as we speak because of Razzmorten Dewin, Wizard to the Throne of Niarg," said Henry, rising to his feet again as the hall got quiet.

Again there was exuberant applause with shouts of: "Here! Here!" Henry was still standing, so presently they began taking their seats.

"You must be very proud of him," said Hebraun in the dying applause as he leant into Minuet's ear.

"Oh, I am..." she said.

"And I've another announcement," said Henry as the room fell silent, "and right joyous it be." He paused, smiling, as he looked from face to face down the length of the great board. "Wizard Razzmorten has not only given the kingdom his cure, but he is giving the House of Niarg another priceless gift. And priceless she is. To begin with, she very well could be the most beautiful young woman in the entire kingdom. And I do believe you all must think so too, if watching your reaction to the sight of her when she came in was any clue. She is simply stunning as well as being heir to Razzmorten's talents. I wish to announce the betrothal of Hebraun, Prince of Niarg to Minuet Dewin of Peach Knob, daughter of Razzmorten Dewin, Wizard of Niarg. The House of Niarg is fortunate indeed."

Somewhere along the table, gasps punctuated the stunned hesitation before the eruption of applause as Henry motioned for Hebraun and Minuet to stand. They rose hand in hand, bringing the ovation to a crescendo with their bow and curtsey.

After the pies were served and eaten and Minuet and Hebraun had made it all 'round the hall more than once making introductions, they stepped out onto the balcony, overlooking the great rose garden. A mockingbird was busy calling from the growing shadows.

"I know about this garden," said Minuet as the fragrant breeze from the roses stirred her hair. "Wasn't it here before the castle itself?"

"So they say," said Hebraun as he ambled up to stand with her before the stone balustrade. "The story they all tell is that Queen Caron, you know, the first queen of Niarg, had King Howell build the first wooden castle around this spot because of the garden. No one knows how all the roses got here. Elves might have started them for all we know."

"That's where Bethan says these in my hair came from. She went out and cut them before she put up my hair."

"Your housekeeper at Peach Knob?"

"She's wonderful. She did most of the raising of me. She's really the nearest thing to a mother I've ever had."

"I don't believe that I saw her this evening, that is if I really know who she be."

"I'm afraid I'm lost. We are talking about my father's hired woman, aren't we?"

"Well yes. But if she raised you and if she's as dear to you as your very mother would be..."

"Of course she's dear to me. I do indeed love her as if she were my own mother..."

"Then it's a shame she's not here," he said, giving the balustrade a smack with his hand as he looked out over the roses. "Let's see that she's invited to the wedding. I shall make certain."

Minuet was stunned. "That would be wonderful."

"Speaking of 'wonderful,' this is wonderful," he said, turning to her. "It's a dream come true that you agreed to this betrothal. I admired you the first time I ever saw you. I hope you don't regret anything."

Minuet looked into his eyes for the first time and felt strangely comfortable. "I have no regrets at all, but I do have a reservation."

Hebraun suddenly bore a look of panic. "My word," he said, "what would that be?"

"Well, the people of Niarg have always had nothing but the best of things to say about the royal family. What's it going to do to the House of Niarg if you marry a commoner?"

"Enrich it," he said heaving a great sigh of relief. "My dear future wife, you are a treasure."

Presently they looked down at where her hand had come to rest on his. "May I?" he said, taking up her hand.

Minuet gave a nod of delight as he pressed it to his lips and closed his eyes. "I knew the very first time I saw you," he said, gently squeezing her hand as he let go, "that if ever I could choose the woman in my life it would be you."

"But I must have looked like death when Father introduced us. It was my first day on my feet after my brush with the plague."

"That wasn't when."

"You have me at a disadvantage. I can't imagine an earlier time."

"It might have been two years ago. Your father had you with him when he had an audience with Mother and Father. I think it had to do with your sister and the weather."

"Oh."

"I didn't think you saw me. And later that very day when they told me that I was to marry Princess Branwen of Far, you can't imagine how depressed I was. No. You might have felt feeble when your father introduced us, but my hopes flew into the heavens. There's more magic about you than all the skills you may have learnt from him. You're blushing. I've gone too far with this. I want you to be comfortable when you're with me..."

"No. I suppose I'm just..."

"No Minuet, I'm letting my hopes run wild, and I'm embarrassing you with them. I really apologize. But speaking of my getting carried away with my hopes, there is something which I must know."

"You're not embarrassing me. What?"

"When I was at Peach Knob, driven to enchantment by you, I thought I caught a look in your eye that said that you felt the same about me. Was I just delirious?"

Minuet looked into his anxious eyes. "Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "You nearly took my breath away. I was trying not to let you see..."

"I was trying not to let you see," he said with a chuckle. "Branwen had passed away, but I was resigned to being shackled to another princess. But you, why would you...?"

"My sister had designs on you..."

"Your sister? Ugleeuh, isn't it?"

"Oh, I knew that there was no hope in it for her. I knew she was just dreaming. She and I are commoners. I couldn't begin to imagine there being a chance for either one of us."

"Well there certainly couldn't have been for her," he said as he turned back into the evening breeze to look out over the garden. "I didn't know that there was for you either, for that matter. But I had you on my mind every waking minute, and I couldn't keep from talking about you. You had me delirious. And to my utter astonishment, Father paid attention and arranged our engagement. Now as for your sister, she's called the weather witch. I know that's mean, but that's how she's known at court. She's beautiful of course, but nothing like you, and there's a darkness about her. Her pranks are unsettling. She's someone I'd avoid, actually. I can't imagine talking about her all over the place."

"Do you really mean that about Bethan?" she said, brushing his arm. "I mean about inviting her. I think it's wonderful that you would, but will the king and queen approve? Wouldn't something like this cause a stir?"

"Mother and Father are getting what they want. They may have arranged my marriage to Branwen, but they seem to be delighted that things are turning out this way, especially since I have a much better chance at what I've always wanted..."

"And what's that?"

"Mother and Father may have had an arranged marriage, but they are very close, so I grew up wanting to marry my best friend. I've always wanted my wife to be my lover and constant companion," he said, suddenly turning to her. "Could we be so lucky? Do you reckon that there's a chance that we...?"

Minuet was already nodding. "Oh I do. I just feel it..."

Suddenly Hebraun had her by both hands, pressing them to his lips as he squeezed shut his eyes. "Then let's make it that way," he said as he gently let down her arms. "Look. If Bethan has always been your mother, then she'll soon be my mother-in-law.

Mother and Father will see it that way. There'll be nothing wrong with her being queen mother after they've passed away. Oh there'll undoubtedly be some court snots huffing over it, but all they've got is peerage. The House of Niarg has peerage and power. And when we allow commoners to participate, we'll always have the power.

"Now come on, new best friend," he said with an exuberant squeeze of her hands.

"Let's tell somebody inside and then take the long way down to the rose garden."

***

"We're going out the front, aren't we?" said Minuet as she loped down the steps, hanging onto Hebraun's arm.

"Well this is the long way, as I said, with the rose garden clear in the back inner ward," he said, taking her by the hand. "I just wanted to show you where I used to play in the stable, yonder.

Minuet hiked her skirt with her other hand and followed, nearly at a jog as they scattered chickens on their way to roost. Hebraun threw wide a door and led her through the straw so that she would not step in the unicorn manure. Far overhead, a pigeon cooed. He came to a stall and opened the gate. "It's getting dark enough in here, it's hard to see," he said.

"Hebraun!" she gasped as they squatted to scratch two baby unicorns, bedded down in the fresh straw. "They're darling."

"They're out of Father's mare march streiciwr brenhinol," he said, scratching the neck of one of them. "The stud was his great march streiciwr brenhinol stallion, which is easily the largest war unicorn in the kingdom."

"Oh! They always have that wonderful smell when they're newborn."

"Well, I claim this one, the little stallion. I call him Vindicator. What are you going to name your little mare?"

"My little mare? Oh Hebraun, thank you! I love to ride. How did you know?"

"The Fates knew. I've never seen them foal so late in the year. They foaled just for our betrothal. So what will you call her?"

"I'm thinking. How about Virtue? You're little Virtue, then," she said hugging the foal. She took his hand and squeezed it. It felt so good being with him.

He returned her grasp and stood. "It's too dark to see. I'd best show you the rose garden before it grows late." He showed her through the stable door to stand outside while he fiddled with fastening up the gate.

She looked up at the rising moon, huge and romantic beyond anything she had ever dared to think about. She idly glanced aside at a hay wain parked by the stable. Suddenly a wave of horror washed through her. "Aah!" she cried.

"Minuet!" said Hebraun as he came up to her. "What's wrong?"

Suddenly the wain was hitched to a donkey, standing in blinding sunlight. "Oh no!" she croaked, frozen wide eyed where she stood, watching a noose being forced over the head of a little Elf boy, standing on the back of the wain before his wailing parents, struggling and jerking with everything they had against the vicious grasp of a mob. "No!" she cried at the sight of Sam Benton climbing onto the cart and taking up the reins. "You hateful idiot!"

"Minuet!" cried Hebraun. "What's happening to you?"

Sam shook the reins, leaving the child wiggling and swinging, his parents wailing out in great stabs of despair.

"No! No!" cried Minuet, dropping to her knees in sobs at the sight of Martha Benton running at the little boy's mother to lunge and spit in her face as the mob forced the father into the bed of the wain.

Hebraun grabbed her up and ran around the corner of the stable, straight to the door to the back ward, to set her down in the black shadows. "Minuet!" he shouted in lowered tones. "Are you all right?"

"Oh Hebraun, I'm so, so sorry!" she said as she ran an eye down the back of her hand. "Now I've ruined everything."

"Ruined what? What on earth happened?"

"You'll never want me now," she sobbed as she rose to her feet, whisking dead grass and leaves off her kirtle.

"Why would you ever think that?" he said as he gently guided her through the doorway into the back ward.

"Antesight. Why would you ever want someone who had spells of antesight?"

"What's antesight?"

"A kind of vision," she said, drawing in a shaky breath. "That old hay wain by the stable, I just now saw it in bright daylight being used to hang a poor little Elf boy in front of his momma..."

"Wow! Sergeant Bernard confiscated it and brought it here. It was used to hang three Elves, and one of them was a little boy. You saw that?"

"I sure didn't want to," she said with a sob. "And right in front of you."

"I always considered visions to show the future."

"Well, antesight is all in the past. I see some place or thing where something terrible happened, and suddenly I'm seeing how it all was. I hate these spells! They don't happen very often, but I have absolutely no control over them, and now they've probably made me lose you." And with that she was sobbing again.

Suddenly she was in his arms. "Oh, you're so very wrong about that," he said as he gently smoothed her hair. "You have my heart in your hands. How would I ever run away without my heart? Besides, what you just saw is probably important to Sergeant Bernard. Now let's take this path around to the rose garden." He took her hand and started walking.

Presently they rounded the corner of the castle proper into a heady bouquet of roses and the endless calls of the mockingbird, singing away in the moonlight. Without warning, Minuet planted her feet and threw her arms around him.

Chapter 14

Ugleeuh stood at the railing of the Trident, her raven hair afly in the morning breeze as she watched a boy with a slop bucket, flinging fish heads at the hovering terns. The nineteen other ships trailing behind them against the rising sun reminded her that this was without a doubt the grandest affair which she had ever been part of. An uninvited thought of Demonica suddenly made her part seem small indeed and she turned away at once, holding her hair out of her eyes to study the approaching shore.

"So," said Razzorbauch as he slid his hand along the rail, coming to a stop right behind her. "What do you make of it?"

"What?" she said, turning about for a quick glance up at him. "Those cliffs? A moment ago they were the color of the sunrise. They're sure white."

"They're limestone."

"Well, they look strange. They look like a forest of giant pillars and not cliffs at all."

"You're right about pillars," he said. "There is indeed a forest of huge limestone arches and columns rising up out of the water, but they stand right in front of a wall of cliffs. And they also hide an inlet. It's going to be known as Dragonsport by the time we're shipping sukere. Now, is something the matter?"

"No," she said, turning away from him to face the terns, still hovering beyond the railing, looking for fish heads. "Whatever do you see in Demonica, anyway? She's just a thorn in your side."

"Oh fiddlesticks!" said Razzorbauch, throwing his head back with a laugh. "She's no thorn in my side. Maybe she's a whole thorn bush, but she's not sticking in my side."

Ugleeuh kicked a stray fish head off the deck with a flick of her toe, stepping back with a shudder as a tern swooped out of sight beneath the hull and back into view with the head in its beak as it flew away. "So when do we go back to Niarg and really do something with our sukere business?" she said, making a face as she wiped the toe of her slipper against a coil of rope.

"You mean sell the stuff?"

"Of course. When do we get rich?"

Razzorbauch threw back his head for another laugh.

"What?" said Ugleeuh. "What did I say?"

"Not a thing. You just get that same look in your eye as your mother when you talk about wealth."

Ugleeuh turned her back on him again.

"Now what?"

"Had I known she'd be along for all the fun, I might not have left Peach Knob."

Razzorbauch rolled his eyes and stepped in front of her. "I guess I was just dead wrong," he said as he gently patted her shoulder. "Now here I had the idea that you not only wanted to get to know her, but that you thought your father was altogether awful for keeping you away from her."

"Well maybe he knew what he was doing."

"My word! How could that be?"

"She can't be trusted, Uncle Razzorbauch. You've almost said as much yourself. She'd take this sukere business clean away from us if she had the chance."

"Well sure," he said "In the blink of an eye, if she could. But she can't get rid of me, and she stands to make quite a tidy sum by leaving things alone. Don't forget that these ships are hers (except for the two which belong to Captain Jockford). And don't forget that the dragons were hers."

"Well even if she has helped here and there, it could have been a mistake falling in love with someone like her."

"Love!" he said, running his hand back and forth over a splinter in the railing. "It never came up. Power doesn't have anything to do with it. She has what I want and I have what she wants. But for now, you want her gone. Just remember that she'll go back to Head in a day or two. She doesn't want to bother with the plantation. That's our job. And she has no interest in trade with Niarg. That's also our job. She'll be around for a share of the profits, and if you let me deal with her, you can avoid her altogether if you want."

"We're starting to get close. Are those trees?"

"Up on top of the pillars? Yep. Grass and trees, just like on top of the cliffs."

"What's the matter with them? They look like they're all leaning inland."

"They are. They're supposed to. They're called 'leaning oaks,'" he said, giving the railing a pat. "Well enjoy yourself, Leeuh. I've got to go speak with Captain Jockford. There are things I need to get started."

Ugleeuh turned away to watch how the ship was being steered toward the towering limestone pillars which stood knocking asunder the incoming waves. She was beginning to get glimpses of the coast line at the foot of the cliffs as the cries of gulls echoed in the rocks above. Presently the decks came alive with the pounding of bare feet as sailors scurried into the rigging. Soon the shore drew back from the coast line. The ship turned sharply inland, just as she made out a break in the cliffs of the great bluff. As they steered into the break, the crew drew in the sails and cast anchor. The break formed a channel at the bottom of its sheer rock walls which opened into a broad lagoon beyond. Ugleeuh could see that shelves had been dug out of the rock walls, just above the high tide mark. Shouts echoed from the rocks as planks were run out to the shelves from each side of the ship. Suddenly Razzorbauch appeared out of the hold astride the largest dragon, leading the other five largest dragons of the 201 they had captured. Before long they were shuffling along, next to the limestone walls, towing the ship, three single file on each side of the channel on the paths just above the limp beds of kelp exposed by the tide. As the channel opened into the lagoon, the anchor was cast and the dragons unhitched and led back along the channel to tow the next ship.

By the middle of the afternoon, all twenty ships rested in the lagoon. At a command from Razzorbauch, planks were run down from all of the ships and soon, two hundred dragons lumbered and splashed through the shallows onto the shore. "Peoc'h!" roared Razzorbauch from the back of his dragon. "Silence!"

The dragons cowered at once. Remembering their long trek across the Mammvro to the sea, they hurriedly formed a long queue and followed after him as he rode through a grove of leaning oaks for the tall hillside of white rocks beyond the lagoon which tumbled down from between two great white bluffs.

Ugleeuh found herself standing in a pulsing sea of cicada calls. "And he hasn't said one thing to me, the whole time we've spent coming ashore," she thought as she watched him rise in lurches as his dragon clambered over the first rocks of the hillside.

"He didn't say a word, but he undoubtedly intends for us to bring up the rear," said Demonica, appearing from nowhere behind her, giving her a start.

Ugleeuh turned about with a frown. "Undoubtedly," she said.

"You could do much better than merely tagging along after him, dear," said Demonica as she began walking.

"Oh?"

"I've not seen you use your powers, the whole time we've been herding dragons."

"There's not been much opportunity."

"There's not been much he's shown you, is there?"

Ugleeuh kept walking.

Demonica paused to listen to the cicadas. "Well, there just might be hope for you, dear," she said. "You do have powers. You're endowed well enough that I could teach you some serious magic if you wanted to learn. Razzorbauch might not have the time."

"I do, but how would you have the time?"

"I'll be going back to my keep as soon as we get these dragons settled. You could come with me."

"But Uncle Razzorbauch and I have to set up our business contacts in Niarg."

"Of course dear. But you actually have to have sukere to sell before you'll need to do much of that."

"Uncle Razzorbauch still might need me for something. I'd at least have to discuss it with him."

"By all means, dear, if in fact you actually do want to develop your powers."

"In fact I actually can't wait until you leave," thought Ugleeuh as both of them fell silent with the effort of the climb to the top.

Soon they found themselves atop the bluffs, walking through hot white dust and sparse grass in the endless buzzing of the cicadas as they passed through groves of leaning oaks strung across a flat plain. Jays called. Ahead stood Razzorbauch with the four largest dragons while the last dragons of the queue disappeared, clambering one by one into the huge opening of an enormous sink hole. "I have an errand," he said with a nod, as he took off his hat to run his fingers through his sweaty hair and replace his hat. "There are entrances to these caves all over the countryside, but I've cast spells at every one I could find to keep them in with wards. Just stay up here and keep an eye on things until I get back."

"You'll be back in maybe a half an hour, right?" said Demonica.

"Probably no more than a couple of days," he said.

"And you want us to stay up here?"

"Absolutely."

"Just how are we to eat, dear heart?"

"You know traveling spells," he said as he gave a lunge, throwing his leg over the largest dragon. "You can take turns going to the kitchen in my keep." He turned his mount away from them at once. "Poent eo mont kuit," he said to his dragons, and the four of them vanished into the leaning oaks.

***

Razzorbauch headed straight north-west at once, making his way through grove after grove of leaning oak trees on the dry table flat highland, inland from the bluffs. In spite of the clumsy appearance caused by their nakedness, the dragons seemed to be making much better time than unicorns might. By evening, the table lands were giving way to broken country with frequent ravines, fissures and deep sink holes as well as steep sided hollows, created by the collapse of huge caverns.

"Pelec'h ez eus dour?" said his mount, rumbling beneath him in Headlandish which meant: "Where is there some water?"

"Are you thirsty, Thunderhead?"

"I drank back at the lagoon, but it wasn't enough."

"How about the rest of you?" said Razzorbauch. "How about you, Torn?"

Torn had to catch his breath. "I'm exhausted," he said. "And I'm about to die of thirst."

Razzorbauch halted Thunderhead. "We have to cross a stream somewhere ahead, "he said, taking off his hat. "But meanwhile, we have to get as far as we can before the light fails. We don't want to fall down some sink hole or gaping crevasse. Let's go."

Scrubby pines had replaced the leaning oaks some time ago, and their going had become very difficult indeed. They no sooner had climbed out of one steep sided dell than they were forced to negotiate a deep gorge, careful all the while not to tumble into some unseen sink hole in the shadows like a huge open well. Chip-fell-out-o'-white-oaks called here and there all over an otherwise silent countryside. The moon shined at their backs, half full and white. In spite of its light, it was impossible to see well enough to be safe without Razzorbauch lighting their way with a brilliant light from the end of his staff. At last they heard the thundering of a rushing stream at the bottom of the next gorge. After a difficult climb down to it, and a long drink and a brief rest, they made their way up the far side of the gorge. They continued their way for the rest of the night until just before light, they came out on a prominence overlooking the southernmost shore of the Gulf of Orrin. There, Razzorbauch cast protective wards to prevent the dragons from getting into mischief, and the five of them collapsed onto the dirt for a deep short sleep.

The sun was well into the sky when Razzorbauch awoke with a gasp to find his dragons squatted on their keels asleep. Thunderhead gave an eye watering yawn as he thrust out his arm and leg on one side in a rending stretch. "So master," he said politely with snap of each elbow, as the others began stirring, "what do you have for us today?"

"See that ship down yonder in the water?" said Razzorbauch as he smoothed the dents out of his hat. "We're going to pay it a visit. Those sailors up in the hills, 'way beyond will probably never reach us before we're long gone."

"I'm all ready, master," said Thunderhead as he turned to sort through flight feathers he no longer had, only to give his head an irritated shake. "If you don't mind though, do take care getting on. I've gotten rather burnt, lying here in the sun. No feathers, don't you know."

Soon they were walking along the water's edge, scattering the sandpipers after snails, as they came upon the newly built pier, running out to the ship. A hay wain had just been run aboard, and a pair of sailors were pitching forks of oregano into the hold. One of them stopped and gave a big wave. "Hoy!" he hollered. "Razzmorten! What kind of beast are you riding? Come to see the Elven hyssop?"

Razzorbauch gave a wave and a big nod from the back of Thunderhead as he came.

"Just what kind of chickens are those, Razzmorten?" cried the other sailor, as the four dragons started up the plank.

"Mean ones," said Razzorbauch with a grin. Suddenly Thunderhead and Torn belched out bright plumes of flame, setting alight the load of oregano on the wain.

"Hey!" shouted one of the sailors. Razzerbauch aimed the Great Staff, blowing apart the sailor's head with a concussion that threw the other sailor into the water off the far side of the ship, as the dragons rushed to the hold, setting alight everything below. As three sailors boiled out of the hold to run across the deck with their clothes in flames, he blew them to pieces in deafening reports that crackled and echoed from the hills around. Guards posted near the ship began shooting arrows only to be set off like bombs.

Flames leaped from the decks and up the rigging as Razzorbauch and the dragons left the ship. Thunderhead paused, settling onto his keel to allow Razzorbauch to climb on. "That staff of yours is frightening," he said as he got to his feet. "With all the fury it has, why did you need us along?"

Razzorbauch settled himself and spent a moment cutting off a nice piece of twist. "Well my good dragon," he said after a short but thoughtful chew, "I just needed to see how you'd do."

***

Demonica sat on a particularly bent leaning oak, peering into the swirling colors of the scrying ball which she held between her knees.

"Are you looking for Uncle Razzorbauch?" said Ugleeuh.

"Well it is boring up here, dear, unless there's something earth shaking I've overlooked," said Demonica. "There. Oh mercy! Now what would be the point of that?"

"What?" said Ugleeuh, rushing up to thrust her face at the ball.

"He's set alight a whole shipload of Elven hyssop."

"Ha!" said Ugleeuh, dancing with glee through the white dust. "That'll fix the idiots in Niarg. That'll make them like the Elves."

"I'm glad to see your boundless delight, dear," said Demonica as she raised her eyebrows from the scrying ball, "but just how much money are you going to make with your customers dead of the plague?"

Chapter 15

"At last!" said Razzorbauch as he and Ugleeuh appeared on the balcony of his keep. "It's good to be home. I can hardly wait for a hot bath and a good meal. How about you, Leeuh?"

"Yea," she said without looking at him, "I can hardly wait." She hurried to the door.

"Well then, I'll..." he said at her heels.

She paused, turning to face him as she lifted the latch. "I'm exhausted," she said. And she stepped inside at once and closed the door after her.

"Well yes..." he said, blinking his wide eyes as he stood outside.

Ugleeuh tramped the length of the hall and climbed the stairs to her apartment to slam the door behind her and sit on her bed with a bounce. She stood right back up, giving a grating squeal as she ripped open the front of her dress with a furious yank. "It was so much simpler at Peach Knob!" she cried, changing to growling murmurs at once. "At least there, no one really expected me to be civil all the time." She ripped her dress the rest of the way down the front. "Here though, I can't breathe for fear of upsetting the last person in the world who really cares about me." She lunged at the bell pull, wrenching it down with all her might. Not good enough. She did it again and again. At last the cord broke, collapsing into a pile at the head of her bed.

"Mistress?" said the wide-eyed maid, carefully opening the door.

"Damn!" mumbled Ugleeuh as she turned away, struggling to close up the front of her dress.

"Is something wrong?"

"Not one bit!"

"I do beg your pardon. Is there something you need?"

"Hot water. Fix my bath. And be quick! I don't want to be left waiting."

She had just stepped out of her torn dress when the maid and two boys scurried in with a kettle of scalding water apiece. "Idiots!" she muttered as she raced to hide behind a wardrobe. She had just found something to put around her when they dashed back in with more water.

"Get out!" she cried. She glowered at the door as it went shut, and tested the water with her toe. It wasn't such a bad bath after all. There was a nice new chunk of soap, and she even found fresh towels within reach. She was no longer mumbling by the time she stepped out and dried off, but she still didn't care what she wore. She took the first dress she came to in her wardrobe. "If I'm lucky, Uncle Razzorbauch has already eaten. I'll just get something from the kitchen."

At the kitchen, two fat cooks steered her out at once. "Your uncle is waiting to have supper with you, out on the balcony," they said.

"Well good!" said Razzorbauch, standing up at the sight of her to pull back her chair. "I was hoping that you were joining me. You were so worn out when we got home. It's so much nicer to eat with someone than having to eat alone. Don't you agree?"

"Absolutely," she said with a flicker of smile as she sat. "My bath brought me back to life, so I thought if I hurried, we could sup as usual."

Razzorbauch rang his bell and soon they were eating roast duck and cabbage. They ate in silence, listening to the first owl, far away in the timber. After some time, Razzorbauch eyed her curiously and said: "So. Now that you've had some time to get to know your mother, do you have a better opinion of her?"

Ugleeuh drained her cup and set it in it's saucer with a click. "You want the truth?" she said.

"My word. You and I don't keep secrets from each other."

"Yea, but I'm supposed to like her, right?"

"We had hoped, didn't we?"

"Well I don't. I don't like her one bit. I'd never trust her. And she acts like she thinks she's the most powerful sorceress who ever lived."

Razzorbauch put down his knife. "She is the most powerful sorceress who ever lived, my dear," he said as he leant forward.

"But you led me to believe that her power isn't nearly what yours is."

"I'm not a sorceress..."

"Very well. She's powerful. But I still don't like her."

"Well, even Demonica knew that you might never be able to accept her since she left you as a baby and never tried to see you."

"Yea? Well even if none of that ever happened, I still wouldn't like her. I think she's awful. And she doesn't like me any better. But I do think she tried to tolerate me just to please you. And she even offered to teach me to use my powers."

"Did she? And what did you tell her?"

"I told her I'd like to learn, but that I had to find out if you needed me to do anything for you, first."

"Splendid! Then we should be sending you."

"But Uncle Razzorbauch, shouldn't we be setting up trade with Niarg? And couldn't I learn about my powers from you?"

"You could," he said as he put away his knife and scooted back his chair. "But it would be best for both of us if you learnt as much as you can from Demonica. We've got time. There won't be any sukere to harvest for over a year. By then, the plague will have run its course and people will be wanting sweets with no Elves around to raise bees.

"I could help you train the dragons," she said as she chucked her napkin into the broth on her plate. "You're more powerful. Couldn't you teach me instead?"

"You really don't like her, do you?"

"Not one bit."

"Well. I'm afraid we simply need this, my dear," he said with a wide-eyed nod. "She's willing to teach you now, and she might refuse any time, later on. Besides, she's mastered endless things altogether unique to her. Once you've learnt them, I can add to them. And surely, in time you'll be glad that you were taught by your own mother."

"I suppose..."

"Then we should take you to Head in the morning, don't you think?"

***

The mockingbird leaped into the air under the bright half moon and circled back to his perch in the apple tree, singing out his purple martin medley, as Minuet and Hebraun strolled arm in arm through the rose garden.

"This is my favorite part of the entire palace," said Minuet as she patted his arm. "I could spend hours here."

"With me, I hope," said Hebraun. "You've made it my favorite, too."

"Oh!" she said with a happy bounce. "You'll always be invited along."

"But with the trial over, I reckon it'll be some time before our next walk," he said with a sigh. "You and Razzmorten are still going home to Peach Knob until the plague is over, aye?"

"Yea," she said. "Bethan and I wanted to return to Fates Hospital to continue nursing, but both our fathers fear for our safety. And I wanted some time to say farewell to Peach Knob while I look forward to our wedding. I expect I'll be helping with the still."

Hebraun stopped short. "You and Bethan have done more to fight the plague than anyone but Razzmorten himself," he said, taking her by both hands. "And you'd be safe at Peach Knob, but it'll be terribly lonely here without you, selfish as I may sound."

"Oh Hebraun, I'll miss you too," she said, putting her arms around him.

"You reckon I could come courting?"

"It would be awful if you didn't."

Without warning, they were kissing.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" he said, drawing back wide eyed. "This is much too soon. I didn't think."

"I was doing it too, and it was wonderful," she said, giving him a tight squeeze.

"Just think about what we look forward to."

"I'd best take you back to the tower before Razzmorten comes looking..."

"He wouldn't," she said, taking his hands again. "He's very impressed with you. But we do need to leave for Peach Knob at daylight." The mockingbird suddenly changed from whip-poor-will to a long spell of jay. "He's soon to be my husband!" she thought. "Only yesterday he was a stranger, but now he seems like I've been close to him to all my life."

They started down the path, crunching gravel, as the mockingbird made a sortie into the air with the calls of a quail.

Minuet and Hebraun found Razzmorten and Bethan sitting at a table by the open window, studying large sheets of printed paper in the light of a dozen candles, sending shadows waving and dancing up the walls with each delicate gust of breeze.

"These broadsheets are tacked up all over Niarg," said Razzmorten, standing up with one of them. "Captain Strong brought them up here."

"What are they about?" said Minuet.

"Oh, speculation on when the plague will end, the death toll, who's fallen ill and who's recovered," he said. "And the trial. And the upcoming hanging." He paused, watching her pick up one of the broadsheets. "And that one's about you."

"'With Princess Branwen from the Plague be Dead, Prince Hebraun Engageth a Mistress to Wed!'" said Minuet, reading aloud. "'With the princess just lately in her coffin and cold, and while the plague still rageth, the Throne on this very eve hath celebrated with a banquet announcing the Prince's betrothal to a commoner, Mistress Minuet Dewin, daughter of the Wizard Razzmorten Dewin of Peach Knob Manor, who, at the very same banquet was appointed Wizard to the Crown!'" She looked up wide eyed. "I scarcely know what to make of this."

"Had I only thought about it, I would have braced you for this kind of thing," said Hebraun as he looked over her shoulder. "They print papers like this about the House of Niarg all the time. It's only the printer's version. You learn to ignore it."

"I see," she said, carefully spreading out the paper on the table and picking up another. "Nothing's ever been done to curb this?"

"Oh we wouldn't. Rhyddid Llais is who he is, He's only printing the truth as he sees it. He goes astray all the time, but you can't imagine how the ordinary man would hate us if we did anything to silence him. He gladly prints things for us all the time. We just learn to pay no heed to his tasteless embarrassments."

"Then that's just what we'll do," she said.

"In spite of how the paper might be taken, your betrothal seems very popular with the people of Niarg, according to Captain Strong," said Razzmorten, smiling at each of them. "There's already talk that Hebraun will be the 'people's king' someday."

"Well," said Hebraun. "High expectations. But with the help of my beautiful queen, I might actually manage to live up to them."

Minuet squeezed his arm and leant her head against his shoulder.

***

Minuet closed her bag and paused to listen to the wrens down in the inner ward and to the bawling of cattle just outside town, just as the great bell of Argentowre rang out. "Five o' clock," she said, "and it's still dark. I guess the summer's slipping away." She thought of Hebraun. "Too bad I already told him goodbye..."

At a knock, Bethan hurried to open the door.

"Ready?" said Razzmorten as he stepped in.

"I just now closed my bag," said Minuet.

"Here. I'll take it," he said, grabbing it off her bed. "My. I see that you've lived here long enough to acquire possessions."

"Hebraun's given me a whole string of keepsakes to treasure."

"This has turned out as well as anyone would ever imagine, hasn't it?" he said as he looked about for something to carry with his other hand.

"Oh, it has. "Way better, actually. Hebraun is simply wonderful. Though, to be buried in this windfall of good fortune while everyone else is suffering makes me feel guilty."

"You've had your share of grief, dear. How about no mother and then Demonica for a step mother? And you had to live through the plague itself..."

"Yea? But thanks to you I did live through it," she said, "so I'm actually lucky. In fact thanks to you and Bethan, none of those terrible things you mention were really so terrible after all. And speaking of Bethan, Hebraun's going to see that she's invited to our wedding. He says that since she's been a mother to me, that's how she'll be treated. Isn't that wonderful?"

Bethan dropped her folded clothes onto the bed and looked up in stunned disbelief as Minuet ran to her with a hug.

Razzmorten smiled as the old lady returned the hug with red watery eyes. "Hebraun's right," he thought. "With Minuet as queen, he just might be the people's king."

***

Peredur stood on the front step with Hubba Hubba, watching Minuet's coach come up the lane under the midmorning sun. When Minuet stepped out, Hubba Hubba flew right up to her.

"Father! Bethan!" she cried as she held out her wrist. "Hubba Hubba's flying!"

Hubba Hubba gave a shrill two note whistle and strutted right up to her shoulder. "I know what you're talking about!" he said.

Chapter 16

Minuet slid the loop up the polished picket on the gate to the chicken lot and paused to see the sun rising through the trees beyond the clouds of fog in the meadow, laced over with spider gossamer sparkling with dew. It was going to be a hot day. Pewees called. She stepped around the pigweed, hooked open the door of the chicken house and watched the hens hop off the step in pairs to scurry away and scratch at things in the grass. "Now where's old Biddy-Butt?" she said. "She's usually the first one out." She stepped in and found her without her head, stretched out by the water crock. "Oh no! Poor old Biddy-Butt." She picked up her carcass, cold and flat on one side and stepped outside.

"What got your hen?" came a voice.

Minuet looked up with a start to see a gangling young man smiling at the end of his long neck. "I'm not sure," she said, holding up Biddy Butt for him to see.

"Polecat I'd say," he said. "They eat off the head the first night. Hit'll be back tonight to eat some more. Have 'ee any traps?"

"I was going to tie her to that post by the door of the hen house and put three traquenards all about her."

"That might do hit," he said. "Would you happen to be Wizard Razzmorten's daughter?"

"Yes," she said. "I'm Minuet Dewin."

"Gastro at your service," he said, bowing his head. "My father was Gastron."

"The great wizard?"

"Yea, except he's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear..."

"Oh, that was ages ago, but hit is why I happen to be here."

"Oh?"

"Well I'd be studying under him right now, if he were around. So do you reckon Razzmorten would consider me?"

"Consider you what?"

"Oh to be his assistant, or especially his apprentice. I could help with the plague right now, don't you know."

Minuet heaved the dead hen up onto the chicken house roof for the time being, so the other hens would not eat her. "Well then," she said, wiping her hands on her apron. "He's right yonder. I'll show you."

Razzmorten stood up from scrubbing the cover of one of the stills to watch them approach as nearby swallows swooped and dove after flies. He rubbed his forehead with his wrist, plunked his sponge into a bucket and rinsed off his hands.

"Father," said Minuet. "This is Gastro, son of the late Wizard Gastron and he's come all the way from Ashmore to see you."

"Well I'll declare," said Razzmorten as he shook his hand. "I can see that he is, dear. You're pretty much how I remember Gastron himself, way back, Gastro. He used to live right on the edge of Ashfork in a big old house overlooking the countryside.

Ashwind, wasn't it?"

"I still have the house."

"Well I was getting ready for some tea. Why don't we go inside and you can tell me what brings you all this long way from Ashmore."

Soon they were sitting down at the board as Bethan brought in a pot from the summer kitchen. "Y'all want some grits?" she said. "It's still breakfast as far as I can tell."

Gastro and Razzmorten shook their heads.

"Hit's nice here, sir," said Gastro, reaching for the milk.

"Thank you. It's home. I grew up here. It's been a good place to raise the girls."

"You have another daughter, then?"

"I have, but she's away at the moment," said Razzmorten, looking him up and down. "So, what brings you to Peach Knob?"

"I wondered if you needed help curing the plague. I mean, word's gotten all over the whole countryside about you and the plague..."

"What? That I'm curing folks in exchange for their souls?"

"That's not the word in Ashfork," said Gastro with a fleeting look of alarm.

"Oh, I beg your pardon. We've just been drug through a bit of that sort of talk going around Niarg."

"There's a lot of work to making the oil, right? Well, I'd like to offer my services, and once the pestilence is past, perhaps you'd take me as an apprentice. That's what I'm really after."

Razzmorten set down his cup and froze with his tongue in his cheek as he studied something across the room from under his hoary brows.

"Sir? Did I say something...?"

"What? Oh, not at all. I was merely thrown off by your request."

"How's that?"

"Well I'd expect you to work under my brother Razzorbauch, since he was your father's apprentice."

"Then I don't know how to begin to discuss this with you," said Gastro. "With me wanting to be your apprentice, I'd never just come here and tell you..."

"Tell me what? That my brother's a stinker? Did he steal Gastron's staff? Is that how he came by it?"

Gastro was on his feet at once, pacing in tight circles. "There's nothing for hit," he said, stopping short to plant his hands on the table, "I have to tell you..."

"I'm listening."

"Razzorbauch did indeed steal my father's staff. I knew about hit the day hit happened," he said, pacing another circle. "But hit's worse than that because that day was the very day he also poisoned him."

"You know that for a fact? Did you tell the authorities?"

"I tried time and again, but I was six years old, and no one would take me seriously. The constabulary was convinced that I was too young to give any sort of credible testimony."

"So what happened?"

"I always wanted to grow up to be a wizard, so Father used to let me watch what he did all the time. I was there when he mixed potions and cast spells. And I spent hours watching him training Razzorbauch. When Razzorbauch reached the end of his training, he gave Father a bottle of some kind of wine in appreciation. Could have been mead for all I know. He poured out two glasses. I watched him do hit. I asked for some and was sent outside instead. And that was the very last time I ever saw my father alive.

"When I came back in, I found him dead on the floor. Razzorbauch was gone, and so was the bottle of wine and the goblets and the Great Staff. Indeed, he vanished altogether that day. The last I ever saw him was when I was sent out of the room. And since he was almost continually around from the time he became Father's apprentice, his absence seems remarkable. But since I never saw the wine being poisoned and since there was no trace of either the goblets or the wine, I was dismissed out of hand and that was that.

"Well, I know what I saw, sir. But I didn't come here to make an issue of your brother. I'm very sorry hit came up. You can't imagine how I hope I haven't spoilt my chances of being your apprentice. I've been interested in you practically since Father's death. I'm determined to learn from the best, which would be you, sir, if you be willing." Gastro took his seat with a sigh of resignation.

Razzmorten studied him for a moment. A phoebe called somewhere out by the summer kitchen. "Truth to tell," he said as his eyes settled on a fly walking up to a drop of milk to rub its feet together before drinking, "I've not given the slightest thought to taking on an apprentice." He glanced up at a flicker of despair in Gastro's face and returned to watching the fly before going on. "But if you've even a particle of your father's abilities, I'd be a fool not to teach you. I've no idea what we still face with this plague. You're welcome to help here until it's entirely gone, but until then I'd not be able to begin your training in earnest. Can you accept that?"

"My word, sir!" he said. "I'm at your service."

***

Ocker and Urr-Urr's littlest chick closed her pink mouth over the last pinch of roast as Ocker hopped off the nest onto the rock ledge. "There's no more deer without us flying all the way back to the carcass," he said as he wiped his beak and gave himself a thorough shake. "Even with my magic stick, this brood is the most work yet."

"Wolf stick," said Urr-Urr.

"Wolf stick?"

"Yea," she said with a snap of each wing. "That stick makes you wolf and raven. But even with hit and both of us flying back and forth, hit's work." She walked up to him and began nibbling his ear feathers. "You've just been at this too long. Go see Demonica."

"You must have magic," he said, fluffing up and sleeking down. "You always know just what I'm thinking or feeling."

"Pooh! Years and years with you, that's all. No magic in that."

"If I have magic, why not you?"

"Not when you're the only raven I ever heard tell of having hit. Now, go see Demonica."

Ocker preened her cheek feathers and held her by the beak for a moment before skipping a two footed trot all the way down the ledge to where he had hidden his stick and scrying marble. He pecked at the marble, rolling it about over the grey and orange lichens as it swirled with colors. At last he saw the image of Demonica's keep. He snatched up the marble and his stick and sprang off the ledge into the air, muttering the verses of the traveling spell.

He winced with the sudden change in light as he found himself soaring high above Demonica's keep on Forbidden Island, or Arabat Enez as she called it, just off the coast of Head. He swooped down through a twittering of chimney swifts to the roof to hide his things before dropping to the sill of the window below, where he usually found her. He pecked at the purple glass and waited. She was a very long time coming. Suddenly the sashes swung in with a rush that toppled him inside to glide to the back of a chair at the table. "You sure took your swyving time," he said, running his beak down a flight feather.

"I was buttering my egg-in-a-hole," she said, going back to her chair.

"What? This?" he said, hopping onto the table at once to spear out the yolk from the white in her bread.

"Hey!" she cried, swinging her arm out across the table top. "You not only interrupt my breakfast, you ruin it!"

"So what?" he said, flapping his wings enough times to settle back onto the chair. "I want you to..."

"Now look! You knocked my flowers into the syrup, fowl!"

"So? Stop waving your swyving arms, then. Besides, I want you to do something for me..."

"What, then?"

"I want you to make hit so that I can travel anywhere I want by spell, instead of just to here and back," he said as he wiped off his beak and gave himself a thorough shake.

"For what? What's your news?"

"I already gave hit to you when you when you said you gave me the powers of a swyving hedge wizard..."

"So you suddenly think I should pay you twice, aye?"

"Listen, queinte!" he squawked, thrusting himself up to bristle like a pine cone. "I've learnt from a right true source that magic powers can't be given. You're either born with them, or you're not. And I was, so you knew hit when you tricked me."

"I'll pay you well for the name of who told you."

"That's right generous," he said, suddenly going after something amongst his tail feathers. "But that name's not for sale, my dear maistresse, so just save your generosity for my request..."

"I'll pay you better than he paid you..."

"Hey!" he said, pointing himself at her as if he were about to fly into her face. Do I get my traveling spell that you've owed me all along, or not?"

Demonica studied Ocker for a moment with a squint that sent a scald of fear through him. "Well," she said as she picked up her cup for a sip, "Here's your traveling spell. When you decide where you wish to go, check your scrying marble to make sure it's safe and then recite the very same spell which you've been using all along. Just declare your new destination instead of saying, 'Demonica's keep.'"

"You stinking queinte!" he awked, bristling up from head to tail. "You pissen me right smart! Here you up and do hit to me again."

"What?" said Demonica with a gasp of innocence. "Have I failed to give you what you asked for?"

Ocker hopped onto the table to grab up an egg-in-a-hole and spill the salt cellar before flapping to the window sill.

"You knocked the flowers into the milk, this time!" she cried as she rushed to set the vase upright.

"Yea?" he awked. "Well your tricks stink, witch. Play hit straight from now on or my business goes elsewhere!" And with that, he dove out the window and flew to the roof. After a few moments of gobbling down egg-in-a-hole and rolling his marble about, he vanished from sight to reappear right at the edge of his nest.

Urr-Urr bristled up at the sudden sight of him and popped her beak. "Are you the toute or the very stinking netherhole himself?" she awked, giving herself a convulsive shake. "Please! From now on, reappear out there in the air somewhere." She looked at his wide eyes of bewilderment and began nibbling at his ear.

"I'm really sorry..." he said as he preened the feathers of her neck.

"Hit's good you're back," she said. "Razzorbauch and his mistress just now vanished into thin air, right in front of the stone bench, down on the balcony. By snippets of things I could hear them a-saying, I'd allow that they were on their way to Demonica's."

"Good thing I got out of there..."

"Did she give you the traveling spell?"

"No, but now I can use hit to go anywhere I want..."

***

"Well," said Demonica as she studied Ugleeuh up and down, the moment Razzorbauch departed. "I never imagined that you'd take me seriously."

"Why not?," said Ugleeuh. "You certainly owe me."

"And why would you ever imagine that?"

Ugleeuh drew in an angry breath.

"You might..." said Demonica, causing Ugleeuh to hold it. "You might not want to sully me with more of what you've already told me, my dear. I couldn't possibly owe you a thing, particularly since my lessons are mine to give as I see fit. You certainly wouldn't want me to make you go away..."

Ugleeuh gave a wide-eyed swallow in spite of her defiant resolve.

"Would you?" said Demonica.

"No Mother, I would not," said Ugleeuh, hating the sound of her very own words.

Demonica slowly walked around Ugleeuh where she stood, disdainfully studying this and that about her person. "Well then dear," she said as she paused to whisk away a piece of lint from Ugleeuh's kirtle, "the very first thing you need to learn if ever you become a sorceress is how to keep your feelings hidden, while you quietly read the feelings of those around you." She flicked away another piece of lint. "And you're just cooking, sweetheart. A blind man could read your antipathy."

"You're entirely..." said Ugleeuh as Demonica patted her under the chin, freezing her throat.

"You needn't trouble yourself with deceptions, dear," said Demonica as if she were telling a guest not to bother with the dirty dishes. "I've felt your hatred from the moment we met. No matter. We don't need your adoration. Never have. But if you want to know how to use your magic, you shall follow my instruction to the very letter. So. Nod your head if you agree."

Ugleeuh threw open her mouth without so much as a squeak and promptly turned red with fury. "I'll kill you!" she thought.

Demonica gave a disdainful wave at Ugleeuh's throat and began walking for the doorway.

"She's going on to other things!" thought Ugleeuh. "Mother!" she said, speaking out in the echoes. "I agree. I'll do what you say."

"Very well then," said Demonica, turning smoothly about, "but mind you, I allow people one mistake, and you've just made yours. Now. Show me what you've learnt from your father."

"I have nothing to show..."

"Are you still fighting me?"

"No!" said Ugleeuh with a face of alarm. "He refused to show me things..."

"Ah yes. How well I remember his many rewards. Have you managed to teach yourself anything?"

Ugleeuh nodded smugly.

"Show me."

Ugleeuh went to the open window and triumphantly flung up her fists at the fluffy white clouds. Demonica sauntered over to the window to watch them gather themselves into a rumbling thunderhead. "My word," she said. "We really do have a lot of work to do."

Chapter 17

Ugleeuh took a spoonful of raspberries and milk and made a face. "Mother," she said. "They brought this up with honey strung all over it, and there's not a grain of sukere out on the table at all. Why would you ever let your kitchen use honey when you invested your dragons in our sukere business? Fates! You're even putting honey in your tea."

Demonica raised an eyebrow as she licked her fingertips. "You're not serious, I hope," she said, pausing to string more honey onto her raspberries. "Oh, but I see by your looks that you must be indeed..."

"Of course I am. That big dollop of honey on your berries is disgusting. It's Elvish for one thing. And it's too sweet and it doesn't have that..."

"That what? That singular satisfaction for your craving? I thought I saw your fingers trembling when you grabbed up your spoon."

"Pooh! Its sweetness happens to be perfect, is all. It gives you energy, a feeling of well-being and..."

"And your uncle Razzorbauch let you eat it without giving you any warning at all about its dangers," said Demonica, squinting as she studied Ugleeuh's puffy eyes. "By all means sell all the sukere you can possibly manage, but never touch the stuff yourself. Did he tell you about sukee?"

"Sukee?"

"Well then, I see he didn't," she said, swallowing and wiping her mouth for a sip of tea. "I wouldn't bring it to anyone's attention, either, at least not until my trade in sukere was fairly well established. Sukee's mean stuff. The Gwaels have a serious problem with it. It makes cider, wine and mead seem like child's play. Instead of getting drunkards every so often, as one does with those sorts of spirits, sukee drinking becomes a lifelong habit in short order for practically every fool who drinks it. And sukee drinkers don't live but half as long as everyone else..."

"This is terrible and everything," said Ugleeuh, "but what does this have to do with sukere?"

"Are you looking for something?"

"Well I'd like some sukere for my berries..."

"You're not following this, are you?"

"When it makes sense."

"Sukee is fermented from sukere, dear, if you're demanding clarity," said Demonica as she spooned out the last of her berries and paused to drink the milk from her bowl. "And sukere comes from the sukere cana plant, in case that might have gotten by you."

"It has not."

"Well that's good. Your uncle Razzorbauch thought about starting with sukee but decided against it on the grounds that people would be slower to recognize what was causing the damage if they were eating sukere in their food instead. Sukee would be rather more obvious, being drunk by itself. He thought it had a better chance of being spotted as a poison before his market was established. And both are poison, indeed. Once you've eaten sukere, you're driven to continue eating it, which is what makes it such a good business opportunity."

"I don't believe you," said Ugleeuh as she plunked her spoon into her uneaten raspberries. "If sukere were dangerous, Uncle Razzorbauch never would have encouraged me to use it."

"Oh I'm surprised myself, dear," said Demonica. "Perhaps his use for you is rather different than either of us might have imagined."

Ugleeuh shoved her bowl away, spilling it. "You're jealous!" she shouted. "You don't want to share Uncle Razzorbauch's attention with me, so you're trying to ruin everything! You're ugly! No wonder Father kept me away from you!" And with that, she shot to her feet, toppling her chair as she wheeled about to leave.

"Well stop then," murmured Demonica, freezing her mid-stride with a flick of her fingers. She rose with a sigh and ambled around the table to stand in front of her. "Your stubborn conviction that I've nothing but ill will for you is simply wrong," she said, brushing a lock of hair out of Ugleeuh's eyes. She snapped her fingers, suddenly releasing her. "Come along, dear. I've something to show you to let you know that I've been thinking of you."

Demonica was nearly to the doorway before Ugleeuh overcame her wariness enough to follow her. She chased her echoes down the stone corridors, hurrying after glimpses of her red kirtle vanishing over the tops of steps and around corners. She lost sight of her winding down into a deep stairwell to the dank bottom, where there was the clank of an iron latch and the slow squeal of hinges. A rush of warm putrid air rose to meet her before she reached the last steps. Just beyond the doorway at the bottom she found Demonica addressing a couple of bristly faced turnkeys who had been sitting across from one another over their card game and flagons of mead on a barrel head. She was surprised to find the small room well-lit by a large grated window near the ceiling. She could hear the cries of gulls and the pounding of surf.

"My word, gentlemen," said Demonica as she gestured for them to be seated. "One would think that you were alarmed at the very sight of me."

"Why no," said the first one as he settled onto his nail keg."

"But I did indeed startle you, didn't I Joran?" she said to the one still standing. "By all means, sit."

"You did, sort of," said Joran as he nervously straddled his keg. "We just thought you might think we were drinking mead on guard."

"Well I know you'd never do that," she said. "You and Remont would sit there and drink vinegar before you'd even think of having mead on the job."

"Oh, we certainly would, Mistress," he said, sharing a panicky glance with Remont.

"Keep your seats. As long as you don't forget your duties, I have no problem with your card game," she said, stepping aside into a dark passage as she motioned for Ugleeuh to follow. "We go down this corridor, here." As soon as they were several steps into the tunnel, she set a brilliant white mage light to hovering above the palm of her hand, to light their way.

"So you're going to convince me of your good will by locking me in here?" said Ugleeuh as she splashed into the water in the middle of the floor which ran the length of the tunnel. "What's this wet, all up my legs?"

"Sewage, dear. It trickles out of the cells. You want to stay out of it..."

"Yuck! You think locking me in..."

"Leeuh, Leeuh," said Demonica, turning aside to send their shadows racing along the walls. "I see that Razzmorten did more damage than I ever guessed. You might make it so that I have to freeze your mouth, but I'm not about to lock you away in this dungeon. Just be patient and follow behind me."

Meanwhile, Joran picked up his flagon and leant across the barrel. "That was close, don't you think?" he whispered.

"Oh, my!" said Remont, shaking his head as he picked up his drink. "A fellow never knows what she might do." And with that, both of them tossed back their heads for a good long drink.

"Gaah!" gargled out Joran, soaking the front of his shirt.

Remont banged down his flagon in a seizure of coughing. "What is this?" he gasped.

"Vinegar!" cried Joran with a frothy howl, pivoting aside for an urgent vomit.

Demonica came to the last cell in the row and rapped the padlock against its great iron hasp like a knocker, whereupon it fell open as if she had a key. "O Ma-dog?" she sang out as if she were merely the lady next door. "I've someone you might want to se-e."

"See?" he said, stiffly getting up onto his knees like a straw-matted lion. "How would I do that, blinded out of the blackness by your light? Get out of here, or at least kill me quick."

"Quick? I can't imagine being abrupt with my own guests," she said as she looked him over. "I wouldn't just walk out on you either. I thought you'd like the chance to speak with my own flesh and blood. Madog, this is my daughter, Ugleeuh Dewin."

Madog threw open his squinted eyes for a look at Ugleeuh and squeezed them shut at once, shaking his head.

"You!" gasped Ugleeuh.

"Perfect," said Demonica. "You do know each other. And this leads me to an important question, Leeuh. Just how did you come up with the kitten you had Madog deliver to Princess Branwen as a gift from Prince Hebraun?"

"What does that matter?"

"Quite a bit, truth to tell. I'll need to hear what you have to say before I can clear everything up for you. When you sent the kitten with Madog, what did you have to do first?"

"I had to find a young girl with a high fever and bloody diarrhea and pains in her right lower belly and in her joints. But it was tedious and took forever because she had to have a pet kitten. Not only that, but the kitten had to have lice and I had put a spell on myself before I ever touched it. So when I finally found a nine year old girl with those symptoms and a lousy pet, I took her stupid kitty. Then I put it in a basket lined with linen, and with a tight lid, and said a long incantation..."

"Good," said Demonica. "This is pretty complicated for you to come up with by yourself. Did someone instruct you? Where'd you get the spell?"

"Oh, from an old book of Father's. He called it a grimoire and went to a lot of trouble to keep it hidden from me..."

"Forbidden Spells and Forgotten Curses and Charms?" said Demonica, as if it suddenly was a map to treasure.

"Something like that. It was in the handwriting of some Cathal person..."

"Cathal of Head. He was my father, dear, your very grandfather. Do you have it?"

"No. I was right careful to put it back exactly as it was."

Demonica didn't appear to listening for a moment. "Well," she said as she snapped to. "I'm afraid it was mine in the first place. Father gave it to me on his deathbed. Razzmorten, bless his heart, hid it from me because it made him nervous. So what were you trying to do to Branwen with it, dear?"

"I just wanted to make her sick for a while..."

Suddenly Madog had Ugleeuh by the wrist. "Right!" he shouted, tottering on his knees as Ugleeuh jerked and wrenched against his grasp. "You said she'd be the only one sick! But you knew better, didn't you? You started the very plague that killed her and rages even now! They need to cut out your bowels and quarter you in front of everyone in Far and Niarg together!"

Ugleeuh yanked free to give him a furious slap, splashing crackling blue flame across his eyes, sending him rolling in the straw on the floor, howling with pain.

"You hauled the stupid cat all the way to Far!" she cried. "You gave it to her!"

"What?" he woofed into the straw. "Like I was the one who killed her? You told me she'd only be sick for two days."

"She was."

"Yea," he said, rolling onto his back. "And dead on the third. You knew damned well what you were doing."

"Just how is showing me this fool supposed to convince me of your good will, Mother?"

"My word, dear," said Demonica with a gasp. "You're not grasping this? You've not pictured your popularity in Niarg with him running lose? He was as shrill as can be when he came here demanding that I stop your plague. Aren't you glad that I detained him? Besides, wouldn't you enjoy some entertainment?"

"Entertainment?"

"I consider him yours, dear. My favor. What do you want to do with him?"

"Let him die. What else?"

"Well, exactly how he dies is quite important, wouldn't you think?" said Demonica. "It has the ring of legal propriety, for one thing. Besides, how he dies is your call, and there are alternatives. For example, I happen to have a very well equipped torture chamber here in the dungeon which has been neglected lately. Why have his death be bland? I find taking apart a stinker piece by piece to be a lively experience."

"You're actually serious, aren't you?"

"Oh my dear, I take the torture of my prisoners most seriously."

Ugleeuh glanced at Madog to find him watching her. He caught her eye and she quickly looked away.

"She hasn't the courage, Demonica," said Madog. "That's why she had me deliver the kitty. Look at her. You can see it in her face. That's why she wants me to stay in here and turn to dust. So I'll make it easy. Turn me lose and I'll never breathe a word to anyone about the plague."

"I didn't force you, Madog. You owed me for the charm which made Crysten fall hopelessly in love with you. She even married you. Did you expect not to pay up? I nearly got caught going through Father's library to make that stupid charm for you."

"Whooee! What a sacrifice!" cried Madog, tossing a double handful of dusty straw into the air like confetti. "You think a plague killing countless people is a fair trade for any of that?"

"No," she said. "That's why Mother's going to help me cut you to pieces."

Madog covered his face with a whimper and toppled into the straw.

"So when shall we commence this entertainment, Mother?"

"Why, it's your call dear."

***

Demonica's keep had two great towers at opposite ends of the front wall of the castle proper. One of them housed Razzorbauch's great library. The other one served as her private lookout over the vast Orin Ocean to the far off horizons in three directions. In good weather she was fond of having supper on its uppermost storey under a tile roof held aloft by open Gothic arches on all sides. On this particular evening, she and Ugleeuh sat across from each other in their crimson dresses, listening to the booming of the surf as the breeze ran ripples along the skirt of their linen tablecloth. She forked two more steaming slices of duck roast onto her plate of sour cabbage from the duck's cavity and looked up at Ugleeuh. "Is something the matter, dear?" she said as she licked her fingertips.

"How do you eat like that after...?" said Ugleeuh, waving aside her own comment with a shake of her head. "Oh, never mind."

"You don't find that a good torture session increases your appetite?"

"Well, Minuet and Bethan were the one who always dressed the chickens..."

Well. You do look right peaked, now that you call my attention to it, dear. Do Minuet and Bethan lose their appetites for chicken on the days they cut up fryers?"

"Well no..."

"Of course not. They've learnt that what's in the skillet is important enough that gory feathers are of no consequence at all. And the blood on a torture table doesn't matter, either. What counts is that heady sense of power. Madog was on his way to see to your undoing. Now Leeuh, surely you're not about to tell me that the mess in the dungeon overshadowed the orchestration of his deserving end, are you?"

"No Mother," she said with an especially pale swallow. "I rather enjoyed myself. It's quite something how long he lasted..."

"And that's the entertaining part," she said with a happy wave of her knife. "What good would it be if he died first thing?"

"I did enjoy myself, Mother," she said as she picked up her bread to butter. "Could you pass the duck? I'd like some cabbage and some more bird."

"Splendid," she said, picking up the platter. "I believe your appetite is better already."

"Oh it is. And I did have fun. But what does torture have to do with sorcery?"

"Oh, not so much with sorcery as it has to do with power. One must enjoy power in order to wield it."

"So now that we're relaxed and powerful, when will you teach me to be a sorceress?"

"Well sorcery does include power," said Demonica as she spread some cabbage onto her bread. "But no more today, dear. Let's just talk and get to know each other."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Well, what did Princess Branwen do to make you go to all that trouble to get rid of her?"

Ugleeuh laughed, rocking back and forth to swallow. "Not a thing," she said. "She was just in the way."

"Of what?"

"She was betrothed to Prince Hebraun."

"So?"

"So I've my own plans for Hebraun, if you must," said Ugleeuh with a sullen toss of her raven mane.

"Why you look vexed. I'm only curious about you."

"Yea? Well it would be easier to take, had you any curiosity about me while I was growing up," she said, glaring as she wiped her mouth. "So here you be after skipping my life entirely up to now, pushing at me for a cozy little chat. My appetite's gone. I'm going to bed." And with that, she threw her napkin onto her plate and stood up.

"Touchy, are we?" said Demonica as Ugleeuh reached the stairs.

Ugleeuh slowed as her back stiffened, taking the first step down.

***

The receiving room in Demonica's keep looked like a throne room belonging to any royal sovereign. It was as cavernous as any great hall in a castle. It even had an elevated dais with a carpeted runner which ran from the arched doorway to the feet of a great chair sitting before the banners cascading down the far wall. What was unusual was that everything in the room was snow white: the carpet, the walls, the trusses overhead, all of the furniture and the banners, and the cat. Only the runner and the drapes and the cushions on the chairs were deep scarlet, as was her kirtle on most days.

Today, Demonica was dressed in black as she paced about in front of Ugleeuh, who sat sullenly on a stool in the middle of the room, listening to the cold rain streaking the leaded purple glass windows. "I hate to be blunt, dear," she said, abruptly planting her feet, "but your mind is wandering. If you're to master any of this, you'll simply have to pay attention."

Across the room, a log in one of the fireplaces gave an echoing pop. "Yea?" said Ugleeuh, looking up. "Well you'll have to keep my interest. I've been here a month and we just do the same stupid things over and over."

"You hadn't the faintest idea how to cast an illusion or glamour when you came..."

"Big deal, mother. I want to turn people into bugs or rocks with a wave of my hand."

"That is indeed where we're going with this, dear. But you'll have to perfect the elementary details before..."

"You put me to sleep. I need to get back to Niarg in time to see that the king and queen marry Hebraun to me instead of to some stupid princess. So if you're not going to teach me what I need to know first, I'm leaving."

"Well then. Say hello to your father for me, dear."

Ugleeuh looked stunned for a moment before suddenly seeing how it all was. She lunged off her stool and gave a furious slap to a delicate terra cotta vase that Demonica had just managed to turn to solid stone. With a howl of pain through her clenched teeth, she tramped into the corridor cradling her hand as she made straight for her room.

She was cramming her nightgown into a satchel on her bed when there came a knock on her door. "Beat it, witch!" she shouted.

Slowly the door came open just enough for a hired girl to stick her head in. "Pardon me, Mistress Dewin," she said, "but Mistress Demonica sent me to see to your packing."

"Good!" she shouted as she picked up her mirror with a furious fling, bouncing it off the girl's head to shatter in the hallway behind her. "You can start with my looking glass."

The door slammed shut at once.

Ugleeuh finished cramming her things into her two satchels and slung them onto her shoulder. She took up her new staff, called up an image of Peach Knob in her scrying ball and recited her traveling spell. When she decided to shift her bags to her other shoulder, she found herself in her room at Peach Knob. Suddenly she was reeling dizzy, steadying herself by the bedpost to keep from vomiting. Soon it was passing. She pitched her things onto her bed and dashed into the hallway to find her family.

Ugleeuh came to Razzmorten's door and opened it. A pungent smell of old paper whirled through the room on a rush of air from the window, bright with yellow maple leaves. "Oh, he's busy with his stupid still," she said. She skipped down the hallway to Minuet's room and peered in. "No Minny-Min," she said, clasping her hands together. "She's off somewhere, busy at being just too, too." She stopped short at the sight of Hubba Hubba on his perch by the bed. "But the stinking popinjay's sure here."

Hubba Hubba went skinny as she crossed the room.

"Hold still, popinjay," she said as she crept up to the perch. "It's high time we drowned you, don't you think?"

He stood upright with wide orange eyes, leaning back away from her as she drew near. The moment she grabbed for him, he bit the web of her hand and flew away into the hallway, screaming: "Minuet! Minuet! Minuet!"

"I'm not done with you, stinker!" shouted Ugleeuh as she grabbed her bleeding hand. "How about spending eternity as a crow?"

Suddenly Minuet stepped into the doorway, out of breath.

"Minny-Min!" cried Ugleeuh, as if she'd just stepped out of a coach. "I'm home!"

Chapter 18

Minuet stood inside the doorway catching her breath, as a whir of wings flew 'round the corner from the hallway. She held up her finger to collect the landing flurry of feathers without taking her eyes off Ugleeuh.

"Minuet!" shrieked Hubba Hubba between pants. "Bad bear witch!"

"Well you certainly excited Hubba Hubba, Leeuh," said Minuet. "What happened? Did Uncle Razzorbauch disappoint you, or did you disappoint him?"

"Bad!" growled Hubba Hubba.

"No, no sweetness," said Ugleeuh with a pampered tone. "You disappoint me. You failed as big sister. I've tried and tried so hard as little sister, but you're just too, too."

"Bad witch!" growled Hubba Hubba.

"Do you really expect a warm welcome after the way you left? You didn't even tell Father."

"Right!" she scoffed as she brushed passed Minuet on her way to the door. "As if I owed him. He's hardly been a father. What would he care? Always trying to make me to fit the goody-goody mould, just like big sister. He's the one who owes me."

"Do you hear what you're saying?"

Ugleeuh stopped suddenly, turning about in the doorway for a moment. "I know what I can do to him, Minny-Min," she said with a buoyant gasp. "I'll go tell him I'm going to be here for a good long while." And with that, she vanished into the hallway."

"Ha, ha!" cried Hubba Hubba as Minuet returned him to his perch. "I bit her good. Bad bear witch."

"Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta..." sang Ugleeuh as she skipped the length of the hallway. "Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta..." She hiked her skirts and skipped down the broad stairway. "Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta..." She gave a leap, "Whee!" and skipped merrily into the middle of the parlour, "Pretty raven princess... Ta ta-ta, ta-ta..." Suddenly she stopped short, agape and wide eyed amongst an equally startled Razzmorten, Bethan, Gastro... and Prince Hebraun. "There you are," she said in a wee voice as she dropped her skirts and steadied herself against a three legged chair. And before anyone had the wits to speak, she gave a tottering curtsey.

"Mistress Dewin," said Hebraun with the faintest hint of a twinkle in his eye as he rose at once to take her hand and give a gracious bow.

"If you're amused," she thought as she took a seat, "you'll owe me after we're wed."

"I see that I've arrived at the wrong time," he said, turning to Razzmorten. "I'll call 'round again tomorrow at this time, if it's not too soon."

"Of course," said Razzmorten, rising at once, "We'd be delighted. I'll tell Minuet."

"Please convey my adoration to her," said Hebraun. "I am indeed looking forward to tomorrow." And with that, he stepped out.

Gastro rose at once and bowed to Ugleeuh. "I'm right pleased to meet you, Mistress Dewin," he said in his deep voice. "I'm Gastro, son of the late Wizard Gastron, at your service."

Ugleeuh stayed seated, staring at him for a moment as if he were a toad, and then ignored him altogether.

Gastro shifted from foot to foot briefly, looking as though he would like very much to say something, but instead shared a glance with Razzmorten and scurried out of the parlour to his room. By his eye, Ugleeuh was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and the mere thought of her made his heart race. On the other hand, he would discover that she was also the most outrageously rude and demeaning woman he had ever met. Merely the treatment she had just given him was enough to make his heart ache.

"Why didn't you stop Hebraun, Father?" said Ugleeuh, while Gastro's footsteps still echoed in the hallway. "I wanted to talk to him. Who knows when I'll get to again."

"Then you weren't paying attention, I'm afraid," said Razzmorten, "since we just now arranged for his return tomorrow."

Bethan rose and stepped quietly out of the parlour with a deep breath and a wide-eyed look for Minuet, who was just coming in.

"You'll soon have all sorts of opportunity, Leeuh," said Minuet as she took a chair beside Ugleeuh, "for the day this horrible plague is over, Prince Hebraun and I are to be wed."

Ugleeuh shot to her feet with her fists in the air. "You back stabbing witch!" she shrieked.

"Ugleeuh!" boomed Razzmorten, stepping in to block her pounce. "That will be quite enough."

"I'm no longer a child at your beck and call, old man," she snarled as she tried to step around him.

"Then you'll stop acting like one and have a seat so that we can discuss this like the adult you say you are," he said, stepping in front of her again. "Either that, or you can go back to wherever it is that you've been all this time."

Ugleeuh hesitated, looking as though she had been slapped.

"This is still my house, Leeuh," he said. "And if you're in my house, you'll be fit for my house, or you'll go elsewhere."

"You'd actually throw out your own flesh and blood, wouldn't you?"

"Absolutely, if you force me. So you need to decide this minute, how it's going to be."

After a last hateful glance at Minuet, Ugleeuh took a seat with a deep stiff sigh. She stared away into the distance while Razzmorten drug up a chair. "I can't believe you're engaged to Prince Hebraun, Minny-Min," she said, the moment he was seated.

"King Henry rewarded me for curing the plague," he said, "by making me wizard to the crown and sealing it with a betrothal between his house and mine."

"And had I been here, it would have been me instead of her," she said quietly. Suddenly she brightened up. "Father! It's not too late. Just tell King Henry that you really wanted to marry me, but I was gone. But now I'm back, so you want to trade. He'll understand."

Minuet dropped her jaw in shock.

"No, Leeuh," said Razzmorten with a shake of his head. The betrothal was strictly for Minuet. Hebraun was already taken with her and would have no other before I ever heard about it."

"How could anyone choose her?" she said. "Everyone knows I'm the beautiful one. There must be some mistake. Hebraun must have thought that I was already spoken for..."

Minuet and Razzmorten exchanged an astonished look in spite of sitting right in front of her.

"Well it's true!" shouted Ugleeuh.

Minuet was on her feet at once. "Excuse me Father, but I've never heard such ranting conceit, even from her. Must I stay?"

Razzmorten sighed and shook his head, as Minuet pecked him on the cheek and hurried out.

"Well," said Ugleeuh, standing up to watch her go. "She always was jealous of me, but I thought she'd know by now that she could never compete with me."

Razzmorten looked up at her wearily. "Leeuh, you simply go too far and you've probably driven a wedge between you and your sister that will never be mended," he said.

"If you came home merely to sew strife and discord, then I'm sorry, but you're no longer welcome in this house."

Ugleeuh worked her jaw. "You don't mean that," she said at last.

"Oh but I do, Leeuh. And before you say another word, you should go to your room and think about whether you can live in this household. We expect kindness and respect here. Minuet has spent her life caring for you and trying to help you face the world with no mother. Now, you thank her by trying to steal away her happiness. Prince Hebraun and Minuet are in love, Leeuh. You can't change that, so accept it and move on with your life. If you try to take Hebraun, it will only cause heartache and strife for

everyone." Razzmorten looked down at the backs of his hands for a moment. When he looked up, she was nowhere in sight, but he could hear her angry footfalls, going down the hall to her room, upstairs. With a weary sigh, he rose and went to the kitchen to see if Bethan had any hot water in the teakettle.

***

Ugleeuh ripped the bolster from her bed with a grating screech and flung it at her pitcher and basin, smashing them in a racing sheet of water across the floor. "You goody-goody vamp!" she shouted as she grabbed up a pillow to hurl it at the vase on her tea table, missing it altogether. That would never do. She ran at the table, hoping to kick the vase, but kicked the corner of the table instead, sitting down hard on the floor with a howl to rock to and fro, cradling her ankle. "You back stabbing strumpet!" she snarled as she shot to her feet to fling the tea table upside down with a bug-eyed heave that crushed the vase. "And Father!" she cried, kicking the legs out from under a chair. "Doddering fool! Weakling! Mother might throw me out, but him?" She stopped short and sat on her bed with a bounce and stared out the window at the rattling yellow leaves, listening to the cries of jays. "So, what's he doing?" she murmured as she began brushing her hair. "Ha! It's all a setup to shame me into mending my ways, that's what. All right. So be it. I'll play along until I figure out what to do about Minny-Min." She stopped brushing and gave a thoughtful nod. "Actually, this stupid betrothal has Hebraun coming here," she thought, "and that will give me access to him away from Castle Niarg. I wondered how I was going to manage to do that. This may just work out, after all. When he can have me, why would he ever want Minny-Butt?" She rolled over with a secret little giggle and drummed the bed with her fists. "Oh, I know exactly what to do."

***

When Minuet was a little girl, Razzmorten amused himself by building a whitewashed lath lattice-work arch in the grape arbor which held a broad swing. The first summer that the vines shaded the swing, Bethan brought her out to sit with her and shell peas. "Oh honey dewdrop," she said, giving her a little squeeze, "someday a wonderful prince will come to court you in this swing."

Minuet raked her bare feet through the cool dust under the swing passing back and forth, as she listened to the breezy whistles of sparrows scratching in the fallen leaves. "How in the world did she know, Hubba Hubba?" she said. "Hebraun sat with me, right here, the very last time he came."

Hubba steadied himself on her apron as he fluffed up and sorted through the feathers of one of his wings.

"Oh, Hubba Hubba. Why did Ugleeuh have to choose now to return and spoil everything?"

"Minuet?"

Minuet looked up with a start and planted her feet in the dust. "Oh Gastro!"

"Minuet?" he said, "You reckon I could speak with you for a bit?"

"There's that feed bucket," she said with a nod.

"Thanks," he said, turning the bucket over and having a seat.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," he said, looking away across the barn lot through the pigweed to where a rooster and three old hens were taking dust baths. "Would you mind telling me a bit about your gorgeous sister?"

"Ugleeuh?" she said, puzzled until it occurred to her that he had missed their altercation, earlier.

"Bad!" rattled Hubba-Hubba.

"Very well, what would you like to know?"

"Well," he stammered, "she is very beautiful..."

Minuet took a deep, discrete breath.

"And so, I reckon hit's no use, but would she be betrothed or courting? I mean, hit's none of my business, but she... I mean she makes me... I mean..."

"Oh Gastro, you always mean well. And as far as Leeuh goes, the last I knew, she wasn't involved with a soul. But she's been gone for much of the summer, and..."

"Well, could you find out for me, then? Hit would be so much easier if I knew."

"Sure. But there's a chance she mightn't be interested in courting, at all."

"Oh, I'll certainly abide by her wishes."

"I'll go see her right now," she said, "But it may take me a few days, if you know what I mean..."

"Bad!" said Hubba Hubba.

"Thank you ever so much," he said with a courteous bob as he left.

Minuet watched him hurry away through the grapes. "Oh mercy, but he's really asking for it," she said, seeing him click his heels, the moment he thought he was out of sight. "What's the matter with me? He had no way of knowing her designs on Hebraun, and I just played along with him as though I were as innocent as he was. Well, I reckon I deserve to march right up to her room and see her."

"Bad witch!" growled Hubba Hubba with a flash of his orange eyes.

"Don't worry, bird. I'm putting you back on your perch first thing, the minute we go inside."

When Minuet reached Ugleeuh's door, she raised her hand to knock and hesitated, listening to the crash of things being thrown about in her room. Her knocks were of no avail, even when she pounded. When at last she pushed open the door and peered in, she found Ugleeuh in the sudden quiet, kneeling in the middle of her bed, clad only in her underwear.

"Why Minny-Min," she said, smiling cherubically in the midst of her disarray. "You're the last person I expected to see. Does this mean you really missed me after all? Or did you come to apologize for stealing the only man I've ever loved?"

Minuet turned on her heel to walk right back out and down the hall, which echoed with the ringing of Ugleeuh's laughter until the door slammed shut.

Ugleeuh leant back against her closed door and laughed until tears ran from her eyes. "Just you wait Minny-Min," she said. "You're going to be sorry you ever heard of Hebraun. Now who was that young oaf in the parlour? Gastro? That was it. And I'm certain that I quite caught his eye. So if Missy Too-Too and the old man think I'm suddenly interested in someone besides Hebraun, they'll be too stupid to get what I'm really up to. So. Let's go see what Bethan knows about this Gastro."

Chapter 19

Robins scolded in the growing shadows of the rose garden beneath the balcony, as a little girl held her breath and carefully tickled the red crown feathers offered by the newly fledged parrot. "Mamma!" she gasped, drawing back with dancing eyes. "She likes me." She clapped her hands with a bounce of her curls of tow. "See? She's still holding out her head feathers. Can I hold her now?"

"Of course," said Minuet. "Just hold out your finger as I showed you, Rose, and wait for Pebbles to step on."

Rose nodded and held out her finger, giving Minuet and Hebraun each a very solemn look before offering it to Pebbles, who carefully stepped on.

"Very good," said Minuet with a glance at the door. "Bethan's here, I see. It's time to let her get you ready for bed."

"Can I put Pebbles on her perch, Mamma?"

"As long as you're real easy, sweetheart."

Rose crept to the perch with all of the sober reserve of some great ceremony. Pebbles looked quickly here and there at her feet, not knowing quite what was expected as they arrived.

"A bird is not posed to be dilatory in a castle," said Rose as Pebbles took an uncertain step onto the perch. "You have to set an essample."

Minuet looked up to share her amusement and found that the butler already had Hebraun's attention. "Now go straightaway with Bethan, Rose," she said. "We'll be along directly to tuck you in."

"What is it, Jerome?" said Hebraun. "It's not Mother is it?"

"No sire, it's the queen's sister. And the way she showed up, I'm not sure what to say."

"You mean Ugleeuh?" said Minuet.

"Oh, it certainly is," he said. "She's at the door, late as it be, demanding an immediate audience on the grounds that she's your sister."

"Very well," she said, "see her in."

Jerome gave a nod and hurried out.

"I hope we don't regret this," she said, taking Hebraun by the waist as he sauntered out onto the balcony to wait. "I hope that she doesn't make you regret having ever..."

"Remember our first walk down there?" he said as he propped his arms on the balustrade and breathed in the fragrant air.

Minuet gave him a squeeze and put her head against his shoulder. "And look," she said. "The moon's going to come up full, just the way it did then..."

"Your Majesties," said Jerome, appearing at the doorway of the balcony," Ugleeuh is waiting in the antechamber."

Minuet had scarcely stepped back inside, when Ugleeuh swept into the room in a flourish of red satin as she tossed her shawl at Jerome and made a grand curtsy. "You've not done that before me in your life, Leeuh," she said, staring agape, "except at play when we were little..."

"Oh Minny-Min," she said as she shoved a basket of red roses at her. "You can't believe how happy I am to be home at last. I've really missed you and Father. Tell me you've missed me, too."

Minuet stood there utterly speechless. "What on earth has happened to her?" she thought as she took the roses.

"You've missed me, haven't you Minny-Min?" she said with a flicker of the face of dejection Minuet had not seen since they were girls.

"Could she possibly have mended her ways?" thought Minuet. She politely smelt of the roses before handing them away to Jerome. "Of course I've missed you," she said. "But please, have a chair and tell us where and how you've been."

"I couldn't begin to tell you everything that's happened in the last five years, in just one visit," said Ugleeuh with a pleasant smile as she took her seat. "But I'm sure we'll be seeing lots and lots of each other now that I've returned, especially since I'm moving into the tower with Father. Won't that be wonderful? We might even be able to spend time together like we used to."

Minuet and Hebraun shared a look. "Leeuh, if you move into the tower with Father, we'll certainly be able to spend occasional time together, but mind you that Hebraun and I have the duties of the throne. We even have our own family," she said with an adoring look at him, as she squeezed his hand.

"You have a baby? I'd love to hold him."

"She has changed!" thought Minuet as she said: "Actually we have a daughter and she's three years old."

"Three!" said Ugleeuh, oddly flustered. "My, you two didn't... Well, I'd say five years has indeed gotten away from us, hasn't it?"

Minuet gave a careful nod.

"Well then, Min-Min," said Ugleeuh, scooting forward in her chair. "Where is this niece I've never seen?"

"In bed, I'm afraid."

"Already? Well, I suppose I should come back sometime and see if it's possible to see her then."

"Well yes, but I would hope you'd make it sometime right away, and earlier in the day, of course."

"As if that would be different," thought Ugleeuh. "Oh. Of course," she said as if suddenly getting her bearings. "Another time, then."

"So," said Minuet, glancing about at the pair of maids who had stepped in to light candles, "what have you been doing all these years since you left home, Leeuh? Without one word from you, Father and I feared that something awful had happened."

"Really!" said Ugleeuh with more of a scoff than she had intended. "Really?" she said, correcting her tone. "It's a wonder you cared at all after my horrible behavior and treatment of you both for all that long time before I left. I was afraid that when I returned, you'd want nothing more to do with me." She was starting to have fun with this. In spite of her slip, Minuet already looked convinced, though Hebraun was still unreadable.

"Anyway," she said, "as you and Father probably guessed, I went back to Uncle Razzorbauch's keep. I'm his primary business partner in his sukere venture, don't you know."

"Of course we didn't know that, Leeuh. How could we?"

"I didn't tell you about the sukere business the first time I came back from Razzorbauch's keep?"

"No," said Minuet. "And I would certainly have remembered something like that."

"I thought I'd told you. Anyway, he has a vast sukere plantation and I'm his primary business partner."

"He has other partners, then?" said Minuet.

"Well yes," said Ugleeuh with a look of distaste. "One. Demonica. She has a minor interest in the business."

"Demonica! So you've met her, then?"

"Oh yea. But she's not important, Minny-Min. She's just as awful as you and Father always said she was. And before you ask, I despise her."

"I'm sorry," said Minuet, leaning over to touch Ugleeuh's knee. "I wish you'd never had to see how vile she is, Leeuh."

"It's nice that you mean that, Min-Min, but Father would probably say that if I finally discovered how truly foul and rotten she was, then perhaps meeting her was the best thing, after all. At least now I can forget about her."

"So," said Minuet with a smile, "my little sister's finally grown up."

"It's nice having you think so," said Ugleeuh. "Ha!" she thought as she fought to sit calmly on her chair. "Got you, Too-Too."

"So, you have a sukere plantation. Just what is sukere?"

"Oh, Minny-Min! It's a sweetener and it puts honey to shame. Why, once I get it started in Niarg, honey will be a thing of the past. It's sweeter and cheaper than honey, you don't have the bother of bees, and it plain eliminates Elves..." she said, trailing off at the sight of Hebraun, wrinkling his brow at her reference to Elves. "I mean, anyone who really wants to pay the high price for Elf honey will certainly be welcome to do so. But Sukere will let people choose for once how they sweeten their food. What could be more fair than that?"

"Nothing, so far as I can see, Leeuh," said Minuet. "At least, not if sukere's all you say it is. Now if you don't mind, I've a couple of questions I'd like you to answer, and then any other catching up we do will have to be put off for another visit. Hebraun and I have a trying day tomorrow and we need to retire."

"Very well, what?"

"Well, Gastro was away for some time, seeing to his affairs in Ashmore," she said as she idly picked at the arm of her chair. "He returned long enough for it to become obvious to anyone who saw him mooning around after you that he was in love with you. Then he disappeared at the same time you did. A lot of people thought the two of you went off together. Is there any truth to that rumor?"

Ugleeuh had spent a good deal of time deciding just how to answer this very question before she ever returned to Niarg. "Actually, Gastro and I did leave together," she said as she primly folded her hands in her lap. "I'll admit my feelings for him weren't what his were for me, but he said it didn't matter. He was convinced that I'd come to love him in time. I wasn't so sure, but when he pointed out that people in arranged marriages often fall in love, I allowed that he might be right. But it didn't turn out that way. Once we got away from Niarg, he changed. He became hotly jealous if I even spoke to another man, and he began pressing me for vows of my love, as if how I felt was an obligation after all. Well surely you can understand then, that at the first chance I got to be rid of him I took it. I haven't seen the man since. I thought he'd end up here. I guess not. It's been years. I'm surprised you even asked about him."

"I was just curious," said Minuet. "He spent the summer with us while you were gone. He was a nice fellow. Father thought he showed promise."

"So big sister, you had another question?"

"Yea," she said as she folded her arms, "What did you do to Hubba Hubba?"

Ugleeuh quickly looked down at her hands. "You're going to owe a good one for forcing me to be sweetie-sweet through all this," Minny-Butt, she thought.

"Answer me!" snapped Minuet.

"I'm sorry, Minuet," said Ugleeuh in a hoarse whisper. "I was so angry at you. You were so perfect and Father was always throwing your example up to me. I just wanted to make you hurt like I hurt."

"You drowned him, didn't you?" said Minuet in a voice, cold as ice.

"Well, I thought about it," said Ugleeuh as a shudder surged through her that she had not expected, "but then I had a better idea. I decided to change him into something more fun like a rock. I figured that once Gastro and I were far enough away, I could send your stupid pet back to you with a note saying that he no longer amused me. And if you knew the rock was actually Hubba Hubba, I assumed that you'd keep it forever in hopes that someday you could get me to change him back. In the meantime, there he'd be, reminding you of how I finally got my revenge on you and Father for giving him to me for my birthday in the first place.

"Now don't look at me like that, Minny-Min. I never did really do it. Gastro thought I might regret it someday, so I turned the stupid thing loose. We weren't really that far from Niarg. He should've just flown right back here. I guess he didn't make it."

"I guess he didn't," said Minuet as she rose from her chair. "At least you told me. And at least I can now hope that he's alive and well."

"I'm sure that he is, Min-Min," said Ugleeuh as she stood to leave. Minuet was not sure. She nodded, but neither smiled nor suggested a time to continue their reunion.

After Rose had been put to bed, Minuet spent some time setting protective wards all about Pebbles's cage and room. "I'll not let her get anywhere near," she said. "Not ever."

"So," said Hebraun as she climbed into bed. "Do you believe the things your sister had to say this evening?"

Minuet took so long to answer that Hebraun thought she was asleep. Just as he closed his eyes, she said: "You can't imagine how I want to believe her, Hebraun. But try as I might, there's no way that I can."

***

The sun had just set as a score of angry crows settled into the crown of a great burr oak in the middle of a Niarg hayfield, each one furiously shouting: "Caw, caw, caw, caw!" and making lunges and passes at the solitary crow on the long branch.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Can't you see that I'm a crow?"

"Caw, caw! caw! caw!" shouted one, nearly knocking him off the branch as it flew by.

"You too!" he cried. "Beat it! Go back where you came from!"

"Caw, caw, caw!" shouted a particularly loud one as it landed a short way down the branch and began hopping toward him.

"Go boil your head!" he hollered. "Ugleeuh! Ugleeuh! Where are you? Have you forgotten me in this horrible tree? Don't you care that I'm about to be murdered?"

Suddenly the loud crow turned to a flaming cinder and toppled from the branch in a roiling plume of lavender smoke, sending the tree full of hostile crows into the air in a panic.

"My dearest Hubba Hubba," said Ugleeuh as she appeared astride the branch beside him. "Have you gotten yourself all worked up in my absence?"

"Ugleeuh!" cried Hubba Hubba as he flew to her shoulder. "Where were you? It's getting dark. I thought your awful sister or maybe the king did something you and you weren't ever coming back."

"Everything's going exactly as planned, dearest," she said as she stroked his ebony feathers. "You need to have more faith in me my love."

"I have Ugleeuh, but you've not had to wait all this time out here on this stupid limb. I'm dying from starvation, here. Let's go home."

"Patience, my sweet. I'm going to need a lot more than just a few hours to set up all I've planned."

"How much time are we talking about here?"

"Quite a bit, truth to tell, but you won't starve," she said as she produced a gooey cinnamon cake, crumbling with sukere crystals on the outside.

Hubba Hubba was deliriously pecking at it before she ever had it unwrapped. "Here are two more," she said, nestling them against the crotch of the limb.

Hubba Hubba pecked up the biggest crumbs from the first cake and made a lunge for the two cakes across Ugleeuh's lap.

Ugleeuh stopped him.

"Hey! I'm still drooling here."

"You might want to wait. It'll be a long time before I'm back." she said, pointing at the castle tower through the branches. "I'll be right up there."

"We're not going home?"

"You'll roost right here."

"But the crows would have murdered me..."

"I've set wards. Any that come back will end up as smoking cinders."

"But it's dark! What about owls? I hear owls right now."

"They'll also end up as cinders."

"I'd hope."

"I'm sorry but you simply can't come with me, dearest. You'll be safe in this tree. When it's light, I can even look out and see you from up there."

"When it's light? But that means you'll be up there in the daytime, too..."

"That's why you stay out of the cakes."

"And I'll be down here, staying out of the stinking cakes," he said as she vanished.

Chapter 20

The daylight under the ridgepole flickered dark for the moment it took a barn owl to land in the owl hole with a vole, step across her empty nest and glide down to her three young on the first truss. She tugged and pulled and tore off its head for the first fledgling, while echoes rose from Razzmorten's riding heels as he walked into the cavernous dining hall along the length of the great board far below.

"Good morning, Father," said Minuet as he pulled back his chair with a screech.

"I'm surprised you're not having breakfast in your tower with Leeuh this morning."

"Well, I had expected as much myself," he said with a nod at Hebraun as he sat across the table from her. "But she was already up and gone when I got up. And would you believe that she made her bed?"

"Leeuh?" said Minuet. "My. That is a change."

"Or so she might be having us believe."

"You doubt her sincerity?"

"Well, let's just say that she has a lot of years to live down... Did you pick cherries this morning?" he said, looking up at one of the orderlies who was setting out piping hot bowls of barley grits.

"Yes sir," said the orderly. "They're on their way. And with any luck, we'll have the first pies of the year before you ones get up from the table."

"Biscuits and peas picked at sunrise," said Hebraun, grinning hugely as he briskly rubbed his hands together. "This is a good morning."

"What do you make of her business venture, Father?" said Minuet, pulling open a steaming biscuit and setting it down quickly.

"Leeuh has a business venture?" he said. "I've not heard a word about it."

"She told us about it when we saw her, last night," she said as she buttered her bread.

"So what is it?"

"It's called sukere. She says it beats honey..."

"Razzorbauch!" he said, shooting to his feet to begin pacing about as everyone fell silent. "He began talking about sukere when Demonica took him to see King Vortigern in Gwael several years ago, though I figured if he ever did raise the stuff, he'd make sukee from it. He came to me five years ago trying to talk me into going into the sukere trade with him. When I refused, he tried to turn me into a dragon. I turned the spell back on him, turning him into one, and I added a spell of my own to keep him that way. It was his dragons which burnt the Elven hyssop ship on the south shore of the Gulf of Orrin, not long before that, by the way. I had the idea that trapping him in his own spell would keep him out of mischief, but with everything going on at the time, I plain forgot about it.

What a mistake!" He paced about in agitation for a moment before returning to his chair and pushing aside his bowl.

"You must not, under any circumstance, allow sukere in Niarg," he said. "That stuff's poison. People don't die from it right away. They become horribly dependent on it and spend the rest of their short lives denying it until it finally kills them."

"Leeuh said that sukere's better for people than honey," said Minuet. "And she seemed so convinced of this, that her sukere claim was the only thing she told us which really seemed believable."

Razzmorten set his spectacles on the table and pulled at the bridge of his nose. "Then I'd say Razzorbauch was never good enough to tell her the truth about it, for one thing. And for another, she has undoubtedly been an addict for a few years, now. That would explain why she's developed those bags under her eyes. Didn't you notice? But if Razzorbauch's spent any time around her as the dragon I turned him into, I can't picture her as being anything resembling innocent."

"So," she said. "She's undoubtedly got her baggy eyes from the sukere. And she stands a very good chance of being deeply involved with some evil design involving sukere with Razzorbauch and Demonica." She leant aside to see to Rose. "Oh sweetheart.

You've got cherries all down your front."

"They still taste good that way, Mamma. See? Here's a really good one."

"I'll take care of her," said Bethan. "You've got things to discuss."

"Mamma? When Grandma Bethan gets me cleaned up, can she take me to show Real Grandma how I can sit on Mystique?"

"You just got your new unicorn, dear. I want to be there with you until you've had some real experience riding."

"I understand," said Rose as Bethan led her away. "Grandma? You'll have to learn to be patient. Mamma's just being a queen like you used to be."

Razzmorten was far too distracted to smile after Rose. "You can't imagine the damage it will do if the people of Niarg get to using that stuff," he said, sharing a serious look with Hebraun and Minuet. "There's going to have to be a law against it."

"This may be a problem," said Hebraun, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. "The minute we're rash enough to begin telling the people of Niarg what they're forbidden to eat, they'll hotly demand the right to eat it and hate me as a tyrant at the same time. I'm afraid that the only kind of law which would ever work is one passed by the people themselves. They'll have be the ones to forbid it. All we can do is tell them all about sukere before they ever see it and have them vote on it."

"By all means, before they ever see it," said Razzmorten. "Particularly if Razzorbauch's still a dragon, it may be Ugleeuh's very job to get the people of Niarg trapped by the stuff before we have the time to warn them."

"Then we shall commence spreading the word this very day," said Hebraun as he pushed back his chair.

***

During the time Gastro was supposedly away at Ashmore seeing to his affairs, he managed to find his way to the Chokewoods and steal the Great Staff from Razzorbauch. When he returned to Peach Knob, Ugleeuh married him in secret, leaving with him at once for the Chokewoods. There, he built her a barn, a chicken house and a tiny wattle and daub cottage at the far end of the forest from Razzorbauch's keep, using the Great Staff. The moment Ugleeuh got her hands on the Staff, she got rid of him by turning him into a sea serpent, condemned to spending the rest of his days patrolling the coast of the Chokewoods. And it was there in her "cabin" that she and Hubba Hubba spent the next five years with the Great Staff, hidden as a broom, right under Razzorbauch's nose.

"I'm so glad you decided to bring me back home this morning, Ugleeuh," said Hubba Hubba, his beak white with sukere powder as he pecked at a sweet roll. "I know you set wards all about that awful oak, but there was no way I could sleep with a pair of great horned owls working that hayfield all night. They got a rabbit right by the tree. It screamed something awful the whole time I watched them tearing it to pieces." He paused to bristle out all over and give himself a thorough shake. "Now you aren't getting ready to run off again, are you? You wouldn't want me to starve, would you?"

"Now dearest, I am leaving directly," she said as she gave him a thorough scratch, "but I'll be back in plenty of time for supper."

"Where is it this time? Razzorbauch's?"

"No. I've a great deal more to do in Niarg."

"Well, it's always someplace. What am I to do while you're gone? Hey, don't look at me like that. I get lonely."

"Be patient, my sweet. It won't be forever. Don't you want us to have a business?"

Hubba Hubba gave a two-footed trot across the corner of the table, like the crow that he now was, and flew to his perch. "Of course I do," he said as he settled himself with a crow-like snap of each wing before commencing a lumbering stroll up and down the length of his perch, like the parrot he could not remember having ever been. "I just miss you, is all. I'd rather be here than waiting in that tree, but why does your stupid father not like crows, anyway? I am your pet. I ought to be able to stay in the tower with you."

"I know dearest," she said as she scratched his head and chin, "but soon I'll be done in Niarg and I'll be back here for as long as we like..."

Suddenly there was a knock, but before Ugleeuh had time to answer, the door came open and Razorback stuck in his head. "Good Morning Leeuh," he rumbled, unable to come all the way in because of his size.

Ugleeuh snapped up her broom in a panic and set it inside the pantry. "Uncle Razzorbauch!" she said. "I mean Razorback. You gave me quite a start..."

"That's the first I've heard you call me that in all these livelong years that I've been trapped by your father's spell. There was no harm done just now, and I know that I surprised you, but it could be disastrous if you were ever to forget in front of the dragons."

"I'll be careful," she said. "I was just about to go by your keep on my way back to Father's tower to let you know what kind of progress I've been making in Niarg. It's a wonder we didn't miss each other. You haven't been here since Gastro built the place."

"And you owe me plenty for barging in here and giving me such a scare, old fool," she thought. "If you saw the Staff, it would be playing for keeps, wouldn't it?"

"Well, it's good I caught you then. I have a certain house guest."

"Demonica?"

Razorback nodded.

Ugleeuh made a face.

"You know, you could be living opulently in my keep. Somebody besides the hired help needs to use it. I've told you this over and over."

"Well, my late husband did build this place, don't you know. And I'm not completely alone. I've got my crow here, for company," she said as she gave Hubba Hubba another scratch.

"About as trustworthy as Ocker, no doubt."

"So why've you done business with him all these years?"

"Because he always knows exactly what's going on in the Chokewoods before anyone else and his information is always exactly correct..."

"For a price," said Ugleeuh.

"Indeed," said Razorback. "What does your bird charge you?"

As if to demonstrate, Hubba Hubba gave her a nip on the arm and held out his ruffled crown for another scratch.

"Everything my dearest can manage, as you can plainly see," she said, giving Hubba Hubba the scratch he wanted.

***

Captain Strong hurried the length of the green carpet runner as it mounted the dais in the throne room and ran to the feet of Hebraun and Minuet's great chairs. He bowed, handed them each a large printed broadsheet summarizing the evils of sukere and stood at parade rest, listening to the tinkling of bells outside the window as Minuet's sheep grazed the inner ward.

Minuet set aside her embroidery hoop as she took the paper. "Sukere Canna's Sweet Peril to One and All..." she said, reading aloud the headline.

"A fine white and granular powder..." said Hebraun, reading the next lines. "Next to honey its sweetness be louder... The strength of its call shall make thee a thrall... Whilst its purveyor's purse grows the prouder..."

On they read, falling silent as their eyes darted over the lines. "Excellent," said Hebraun, looking up. "And I'm right pleased you've announced the date when all the towns throughout Niarg gather to vote on the matter. I clean forgot to have you include it."

"Yes," said Minuet. "And I'm sure Father will agree that you've mentioned everything. And this is right quick. Have you already one sheet of this news for each household throughout the land?"

"The printer said he reckoned they'd have it by noon, maybe," said Strong. "It's going to make above three wagon load of that nice paper."

"And you wrote this?" said Minuet, looking up to catch his eye.

"Such as it is, Your Majesty," he said, looking quickly at the toes of his boots to hide his obvious pride in it."

"Well, you write as well as the stories I've heard you tell," she said.

"Try to have everyone moving by twelve bell of Argentowre," said Hebraun, "or one bell at the latest, criers and paper carriers at the same time. And don't forget about Jutland and Oilean Gairdin. Let's not forget that the Elves are citizens of Niarg, even if we've hardly seen them since the plague, except when they deliver honey."

"I shall see to it, Your Majesty," said Captain Strong. "But before I go, might I ask a question and possibly make a request?"

"By all Means," said Hebraun.

"Did Gastro indeed go away with Ugleeuh five years ago?"

"That's what Ugleeuh just told us. But she said they parted ways and she doesn't have any idea where he went."

"Well, Gastro and I were childhood friends. Years ago I used to sound like him and everyone else in Ashmore and Goll. He's kind of got me worried, if you know what I mean. I'd like to find out what happened to him."

"We thought he was a nice fellow ourselves," said Hebraun as he glanced at Minuet. "We wondered if he ended up in Ash Fork, but that doesn't explain why he never came back here."

"That's what worries me," said Karlton. "So do you reckon I could have your leave for to take broadsheets to Ashfork?"

"No problem. We'll even give you some time off with pay, if you need it. Just tell Bernard he's taking over for you."

Captain Strong bowed, turned on his heel and started out.

"Tell Gastro to come and see us, if you find him," called out Hebraun. "You hear?"

Strong halted, nodded, saluted and went on his way.

***

"Father, I'm back!" sang out Ugleeuh as she closed the door of his tower apartment. "I've had such an incredible day."

Razzmorten jumped up from his manuscript and hurried in to see what on earth he must not have heard right.

"I've been 'round to all sorts of mongers and merchants, offering them my opportunity and practically everyone was eager to listen."

Razzmorten drew back a chair for her across from his manuscript. "That seldom happens," he said as he sat back down where he had been. "And does your opportunity have anything to do with your uncle Razzorbauch and sukere, my dear?"

"Minny-Min told you," she said as she took her seat. "Here I was looking forward to being the one to tell you. But no matter. I'm much too happy and excited to be upset. Isn't it wonderful? I know you and Min-Min always doubted that I could ever do anything other than cause mischief. But here I am, setting up a respectable business in Niarg. I'll bet you never expected that." She reached across the table to pat his hand and silenced her giggle at the sight of him. "Now what? I thought you'd finally be proud of me."

Razzmorten was stunned as much by her effervescence as by the seriousness of her business with sukere. "I see why everyone thinks she's sincere about this," he thought. "I hate doing this, Leeuh," he said with a sigh, "but I can see that Razzorbauch has misled you about sukere..."

"I never thought you'd sound just like Demonica," she said with a gasp of shock.

"But if you think sukere's dangerous the way she does, you just don't know enough about it, yet..."

Razzmorten drew a breath.

"Nope!" she said, throwing up her hands. "Don't even try to tell me. I've been eating sukere for above five years now and I'm the healthiest I've ever been. Now, do I really look poisoned to you? Of course not, because sukere's safe as safe can be. Uncle

Razzorbauch told me how that lie about sukere got started by the jealous honey mongers. So you're all worked up about nothing." She sprang from her chair with a huge smile and gave him a peck on the cheek, leaving him wide eyed and speechless. "Now, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I've a very important engagement with a distinguished gentleman, and I must hurry down to my rooms and change so I won't be late." She paused at the door. "You still approve of Elves, don't you?"

"Why yes, but..."

With an impish smile, she vanished out the door.

Chapter 21

Ugleeuh appeared on the gravel path in the thicket of hollyhocks, just inside the white picket gate to the house of the Elven court herbalist, Talamh Coille Graham. She put her scrying ball into her bag and took out a looking glass. "My word..." she said, peering into it this way and that, "too many hours." She stood there for a moment, mouthing the verses of something inaudible amongst the endless calls of the cricket frogs. She looked into the mirror again to be certain that her glamourie had hidden the bags under her eyes. "Good," she said. She started up the path to the door with the dainty staff Demonica had given her. She knocked and stood surrounded by a forest of tinkling crystals, dangling in the dancing splashes of rainbow light.

"Leeuh!" said Talamh, the moment the door opened. "You look positively stunning."

"Yes, I would have to," she thought with a knowing twinkle in her eye as she offered him her hand.

He embraced her at once and stepped back for another look at her. "Come in, come in," he said. "I'll tell Liadan you're here, though I think she's already started supper." He led her up a cramped spiral staircase and out onto a balcony overlooking Jutland Lake, alive with the sounds of cricket frogs like a vast sea of grating marbles, where he set her at a table spread with linen. "I've finally got my apothecary completely moved into the castle here at Oilean Gairdin," he said as he took his seat.

"Well that's wonderful, dear," said Ugleeuh with a toss of her long black hair, "but it's also kind of a shame, don't you think? I mean, I think your king's being silly, withdrawing from all the places where Humans live. Surely they've gotten over blaming Elves for the plague. Here I've been hoping you'd re-establish your apothecary at Niarg Castle. It would simplify things for us."

"Well yes. But we could hardly be expected to get business going again where everyone insisted on treating us like lepers. I've told you about having people in Niarg make hex signs in the air and look the other way as they pass on the sidewalk. After a while, having an Elven presence in Niarg simply stops being worth it."

"I know," said Ugleeuh as if she were pouting for baby kittens.

"Leeuh, when we met last year, and it was all but certain that King Neron and the Elders would vote to withdraw to the Jutwoods, you said that traveling by spell to see me would be no problem for you. Is that still how it is?"

"Of course, silly. But you surely see how easy it would be for us with both of us at Niarg Castle. And my father still approves of Elves. He told me so this evening, right before I came here."

"You told Razzmorten about us? I thought you wanted to wait for a bit."

"Oh, we are waiting," she said with a clever wink. "I said that I was off to see a distinguished gentleman and asked him if he still approved of Elves. He said he certainly did. So the groundwork's been laid, and I expect I'll be telling him about us right soon. Meanwhile, I don't want to waste one moment of our precious time together talking about my family, darling. You understand that, don't you?"

"Of course I do," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "And I hear Liadan coming up the stairs with our supper."

***

Razzmorten peeped into Ugleeuh's room and found her bed made once again. "Well Fifi," he said, squatting and clapping his hands at the dog, "You get to have me along to show off your magnificent stool, and I get to have breakfast in the dining hall.

Let's go."

Fifi wagged her tail and raced to his heels to keep up. They were out the portcullis and into the street in no time as hogs raced to be the first at the fresh splatters of slop in the early light. As Razzmorten watched her scurry ahead, snuffling at spots hither and yon, he saw Leeuh on her way toward them with a large piece of paper in her hand. "Oh mercy!" he said, "Trouble's a-coming and I'd rather deal with it in the tower than out in the street."

At once, Fifi was at his heels. "Woov-woov!" she cried, dutifully dashing off to scatter a circle of hogs. She was back again in no time, trotting alongside.

Ugleeuh was quick in spite of their pace. She caught them right outside the tower door. "Have you seen this rubbish?" she said, waving one of Captain Strong's broadsheets. "These lies are out where everyone under the sun can read them."

"No," he said, looking at her carefully. "I've not seen a broadsheet like that for a week or two. Why not come up and have breakfast with me and tell me why that one has you so upset."

Ugleeuh looked at him for a moment as though she did not understand a thing he had said, then nodded and followed him up the tower steps to his kitchen, where she paced about in distraction until he had spooned out two bowls of grits.

He studied her as she smoothed out the paper by her bowl, staring at it as she sampled her first spoonful. "What happened to the bags under her eyes, I wonder?" he thought. "And I can't begin to imagine her being this calm."

Ugleeuh made a face and took out a leather pouch from a pannier in her kirtle. She shook out a small mound of sukere and stirred it into her grits before taking another bite.

"Here," she said, tossing the bag across the table. "You want some of this on your grits, Father. You just don't know it yet."

Razzmorten shook his head as he reached for the pouch.

"Try it," she said.

He picked it up and handed it to her.

"It's your loss, but you'll figure it out," she said, pausing to make short work of her grits. "Now..." She hesitated, scraping out the last streaks of grits. "Now. What I don't understand is that I was certain that Minny-Min and Hebraun had never heard of sukere before. But only two days after I see them, I find these broadsheets, printed by the crown, warning of the dangers of sukere use and calling for the people to assemble in a fortnight and declare before all whether sukere should be banned from the country." She wadded up the broadsheet and threw it across the room, where Fifi chased it to a stop.

It was a moment before Razzmorten managed to say anything. The fact that she was treating him like a confidante, rather than like someone about to stand in her way had him a bit thrown off. "You're quite right, Leeuh," he said at last. "Hebraun and Minuet had no idea at all what sukere was beyond what you told them. On the other hand, I'm afraid I know exactly what it is and I had no choice but to tell them about the dangers of allowing it to be sold here. I told them what I knew about it, particularly about what happened to the people of Gwael when they began using it. Hebraun and Minuet wisely chose to tell the people of Niarg about sukere and to let them decide whether or not they want the stuff to be sold. "And that really is quite fair, my dear. They might even let you sell it. And you're free to continue telling everyone about it until the vote. But if they decide to ban sukere in

Niarg, you'll have to take your business out of the country or risk what ever they decide to do to people who sell it."

"You needn't look worried, Father," she said as she rose with the straps of her satchel over her shoulder. "You can't help not knowing any better. It's all the Elven lies. I hope I can get the people around here to see through them. Stinking Elves."

"Stinking Elves? Didn't you see an Elf, last night?"

"You've not finished your grits, Father. They'd taste entirely better if I left you some sukere," she said, holding out her pouch. "Change your mind?"

Razzmorten shook his stunned expression. "Your loss," she said as she stepped out the door.

***

Ugleeuh spent a long morning traipsing across Niarg, passing out sukere samples and trying to undo the damage caused by the broadsheets. A few merchants were inclined to accept her samples, but none of them would consider trade agreements until they knew what the sukere law would be. Occasional non-merchants also accepted samples, but were noticeably wary about doing so. Unlike the willing curiosity they showed when she came, most people were flatly refusing to have anything to do with what they were now calling 'her pranks.' At last, she decided to find Razorback and let him know what was coming to pass.

She wondered if he would blame her for this setback. He had been very unreasonable when she warned him not to seek Razzmorten's cooperation. He had even acted as though it was somehow her fault when he returned trapped as a dragon by Razzmorten's spell.

She found a quiet alley and took out her scrying ball under the shade of a redhaw tree across the fence from some old hens, bathing in the dust. "Fiddlesticks!" she said. "He's with the dragons. I'll just go to his cave and wait for him. There's no point staying here." And with that she vanished, terrifying the chickens.

The next she knew, she was catching her balance just inside the mouth of Razorback's cave. A pewee called. A breeze rattled the leaves of the choke oaks shading the cave. "Well, at least I'm the one who knows about this place, and not Mother," she said, looking about.

There were tables and shelves with books, a fireplace, a nicely polished board and cupboards, all neat and tidy, but no chairs and no bed. "It's nice that he's as utterly mad about things being clean and tidy as he was as a human. At least I don't mind taking a nap on one of his straw pallets." She popped a caked piece of sukere from her pouch into her mouth, lay down and was asleep at once.

"Leeuh!" rumbled a massive presence. "I'm delighted, but why are you sleeping in my cave?"

Ugleeuh sat up with a gasp. "Is it late?"

"Right nigh supper. Should I hunt you something? I could roast a peccary in a flash. Or if you don't have time, I do have a huge crock of pickled voles I just got from the dragons, though I'd allow you've not developed a taste for them. Or, should I just fetch something from the kitchen at my keep?"

"My," she said, scrambling to her knees. "No. Please don't bother. Minuet and Hebraun are expecting me for supper."

"I see," he said as he settled ponderously onto his keel and rolled to one side with a rushing sigh like a bathing elephant. "Well, if you're sure then. So what's going on?"

"We've had a setback, or worse."

"Or worse?"

Ugleeeuh could not bring herself to look right at him as she told him about the broadsheet and her fruitless morning. "So now," she said, sneaking a glance at him,

"Father and Queen Minny-Min are forcing us wait for the idiots of Niarg to decide whether to allow sukere in the country at all."

Razorback gave a terrible roar that echoed away through the Chokewoods, as he shot out of the cave, crashing and galloping through the brush.

Ugleeuh sat back in the straw, panting from her awful fright. The cave was certainly a tight space for a furious dragon.

Razorback appeared on the bluff overlooking Peach Knob. "I deserved this place as much as you, dear brother," he said, huffing and snorting flickers of blue flame in his nostrils. "I grew up here, too. Ha! Haycocks and shocks of early wheat. Let's fix that." And with that, he thundered down out of the woods into the open, setting alight every single haycock, as redwing blackbirds dove and scolded from above. By the time he had gotten to the wheat, the hired hands were sticking arrows into the thick hide all up and down his back, shouting and daring to come closer, arrow by arrow. Soon every shock and sheaf were burning. "Hey, let's try Granddad's peaches!" he boomed, scattering the hands in wails of terror as he doubled back on them and galloped for the orchard.

He trotted up to a tree and bathed its trunk in blue and yellow flames, making its bark smoke and pop. "Much too wet," he rumbled. "So here's a spell to make the stems burn like pitch." Soon every peach tree was on fire. He looked up to see the hands hollering and running toward him again, pausing here and there to loose arrows as they came. With a bellowing peal of laughter, he vanished.

He appeared on the balcony of Demonica's receiving room and roared. He roared again and waited, watching a skua chase a handful of puffins down the rocky cliff to catch one of them in the air over the water below.

"All right what..." said Demonica, suddenly yanking open the double doors behind him, "do you mean by your beastly clamor?"

"My beloved..."

"Has the prolonged thralldom in your current form affected your reasoning?" she said as she seated herself on a stone bench before the balustrade. "You made me leave a young lady strapped to the table downstairs."

"Your tongue is a whip, my love."

"That's good to know," she said.

"I came because I thought you liked being kept up with news about your enterprises."

She folded her arms and studied the arrows sticking out of him.

He turned about once and settled onto his keel with a sigh. "Razzmorten has been interfering with Leeuh's getting the merchants interested in sukere," he said.

"That's your job if I'm not mistaken, my ponderous one," she said as she fiddled with the pleat of her kirtle where it crossed her knee. "Didn't I provide the dragons? Didn't I get you the sacks of seed?"

"Razzmorten could certainly capsize our market..."

"He's not the bloomin' king."

"No, he's King Hebraun's father-in-law and court wizard. And he's convinced Hebraun that sukere's dangerous enough to distribute broadsheets about it to the entire country. He's going to have the public decide by a show of arms whether to ban it or not.

And I've just come from giving Razzmorten a little incentive to accept the sukere trade in Niarg."

"How did you do that?"

"I burnt all of his hay and wheat at Peach Knob," he said, lunging to his feet in triumph to turn a circle and lie down again. "And I also set fire to every single one of his peach and apple trees. I made sure that his hired hands knew it was me. And if Niarg forbids sukere, I won't stop until all their fields are in flames."

"Oh that's wonderful, dear," she said, crossing her legs the other way. "Something nice for Razzmorten. Of course you realize that he'll probably kill you for your efforts if you keep going, don't you?"

"Why?" rumbled Razorback with a smoky snort.

"Why? You mean some part of this is beyond your huge grasp? Correct me if I'm mistaken, dear, but the last I knew, you'd misplaced your Great Staff in the woods, somewhere between my dragons and your keep. Now, I realize that you still have the Heart, but without the Staff, just how could you ever use it? Just what will you do if he ever comes after you? It is his very doing which keeps you in this form, isn't it?"

"That has nothing to do with it. We're twins, in case you've forgotten, and after years with the Heart and the Staff, I'm afraid I have the advantage. There's no point in his sending anyone else. No one else would be the threat he would be. But he's no match, no match at all. If he comes after me, Niarg will have to give in."

"It seems you have it all worked out dear, though in my ignorance I do wonder what would happen if he changes you back. He wouldn't need to be a dragon slayer then."

"No, just a brother killer, and he simply doesn't have what it takes."

Demonica's eyes darted quickly over his great bulk, arrows and all. "If you say so, dear," she said.

***

A vesper sparrow called from a cherry tree in the hedge by the road as clouds in the west pointed their glowing bellies after the vanished sun. A unicorn rider galloped by, standing in the stirrups in the failing light as he vanished down the hill beyond, carrying the sound of hooves after him. A whip-poor-will was calling from the jut of woods at the top of the next rise. It grew loud as the rider hammered by, and then faded into the distance behind him. Cows bawled.

There were starting to be houses by the way, and soon he was pounding the road with a clatter that echoed as he wound between houses which now crowded together. The portcullis was still up when he came to the castle. No one stepped out in front of him, so he rode hard for the inner gate and across the inner ward. Tying up his unicorn with frantic fingers, he ran for the tower door and up the gently winding steps, stumbling here and there in the dark as he climbed. At last, he steadied himself against a door six storeys up and pounded. "Nudd!" said Razzmorten, opening the door with wide eyes. "What's wrong? Come in."

Nudd bobbed and heaved, struggling to say something with his dry mouth. "There's been a fire..." he gasped.

"What? The house? One of the barns?"

Nudd shook his head. "The last hay cutting," he panted. "Every haycock in the field..."

"On fire?"

"One big dragon, at least the size of an elephant, and not a feather on him. He burnt the hay and every shock of wheat we had standing..."

"Was anyone hurt?"

Nudd shook his head.

"Were any of the buildings...?"

Nudd shook his head. "He burnt every last tree in the orchard," he said, "And we tried everything we dared. When he vanished, he had better than half our arrows sticking in him, and he scared the daylights out of us. Made our very hair stand up..."

"Vanished? How do you mean?"

"Right into thin air, a-laughing as he went. It was as scary as when he was bellowing at us, if you know what I mean. And he actually said 'Granddad's peaches.' I heard him!"

"Razzorbauch!" said Razzmorten, walking a tight circle with his hands behind his head. "Nothing's happened to Enid and Yvain, right?"

"They were scared as I was. They're a-standing guard at the Knob, right now. We could sure use some help. We're all ready for him if he comes back, but if he does, he could do neigh anything with us he wants, in spite of our bows. What we need is Sir Chester to tilt the beast, if he'd come. He's jousting champion. He's got more nerve than anyone."

"I would guess it's safe to go home," he said, hurrying to get his staff and hat. "I'd expect the dragon's done all he's going to for now. I'm glad you came. I've got to tell Minuet and King Hebraun this minute, but I'll be down at Peach Knob for a look around in the morning." He trotted down the stairs with Nudd and out under the stars in the inner ward, where he saw him off before hurrying to find Hebraun and Minuet. He found them in their apartment, sometime after Rose had gone to bed.

"How would you know that it was Uncle Razzorbauch?" said Minuet.

"The hands heard him say 'Granddad's peaches,'" said Razzmorten as he took a chair. "I'm afraid that leaves no question."

"So do you suppose he's finally getting back at you for trapping him in that dragon spell which he meant for you?"

"Why wait until now? I'd allow that Ugleeuh has shown him a broadsheet. I'd guess that he wants to let me know that a law against sukere is going to be right dangerous for the people who pass it. And I expect that he even knows that I was the very one who told you about the hazards of sukere. I told Ugleeuh that I was when I saw her this morning, so it may be a choice of whether he burns crops all over Niarg, or whether he comes back to burn down Peach Knob."

"No!" said Minuet.

"Well, I'd bet he goes after everybody's crops," he said with a glance at Hebraun. "After all, if everybody passes a law, then he's going to make sure that everybody's sorry it happened."

"So then what?"

"Well, we stop him. And to hear Nudd tell it, he and the hands are jumping up and down certain that they want the dashing jousting champion, Sir Chester, to help defend Peach Knob. So if all of Niarg wants rid of Razzorbauch, I'll bet we hear about him again."

"And if the citizens of Niarg don't want a law against sukere?" said Hebraun as he idly held the back of Minuet's hand against his cheek.

"Yea," said Minuet. "You suppose Razzorbauch would back off?"

"Fates forbid!" said Razzmorten. "Don't even think it. You need to see the condition Gwael's in from sukere."

"Well then your spell," said Minuet. "What about that?"

Razzmorten went silent, stroking his beard as he stared at the drapes by the balcony doors, lifting gently into the room with the ebb and swell of the fragrant spring breeze. "That might be an idea," he said at last. "What do you think, Hebraun?"

"What? You mean take away his dragon spell? I'm listening. You're the one with the powers."

"Well, I don't think that there's any choice but for me to go and find him."

***

Sir Chester was a very popular figure in Niarg. The son and grandson of legendary heroes in battle, he was granted the largest fief in the kingdom when he was knighted by King Henry. He quickly became a celebrity for his consistently victorious jousts and widely envied for his charismatic gestures before the ladies. He was so highly regarded in fact, that the king was willing to accept a substantial amount of shield money from him in exchange for his freedom from the obligation to go to war, the only such arrangement ever made in the entire history of Niarg. Thus freed from duty, he spent his days living in the garrison tower above the back outer ward and staying in practice for his endless victories at the jousts.

Ugleeuh was nearly bowled over by a page, running down the stairs of Sir Chester's tower while she was on her way up to his door in the middle of the morning, the day after her visit to Razorback's cave. "Here's your five pounds of sukere," she said, handing Sir Chester a sack as she took the chair he offered. "This makes you the first person in Niarg to actually buy some of our sukere, which is most fitting since you appear to be Niarg's man of the hour, this morning."

"And how is that, this early in the day?" he said as he tramped about the clutter of saddles and tack and pieces of armor in the small room.

"I just came from the Silver Dragon," she said as she followed his movements. "I was going to have some breakfast, but there was quite a crowd. And I was shocked to see two of my father's very own hired hands there, all worked up about how a dragon burnt his orchard and fields, yesterday evening. The people in the crowd were afraid that the dragon might set alight other places, too. They're all convinced that you'd be the one to kill him if he comes back."

Sir Chester stopped pacing and looked at her. "Yea," he said. "I just now got word." He took a deep tense breath as he ran his hand back over his head "So. How much do you want for it?"

"This is something of a milestone for us. Besides, you're a public figure. There's absolutely no charge. Be glad you've got some before the lying Elves make it illegal."

"Lying Elves?"

"Absolutely. You saw the broadsheet, right? It was their lies, every bit of it."

"Why would they do something like that? Old King Henry used to think Elves were above reproach."

"Sukere's better than their honey. They're just out for themselves. They doctored him with their honey and he's dead, isn't he?"

"Well I simply love sukere," he said as he took a seat in front of her, "but I can't believe that they did anything foul to King Henry. Oh! I'm sorry, but I clean forgot to offer you any tea. Would you honor me by having a cup with me?"

"I'd love that, but I have a very busy afternoon ahead," she said with a warm smile.

"You have your sukere and I need to be on my way."

Ugleeuh went straight to Razzmorten's tower.

"Leeuh!" said Razzmorten with a look of relief, the moment she stepped inside. "I've been searching all over for you."

"I said supper. This is 'way ahead of that."

"With all of the excitement over the fire at Peach Knob, I was afraid you might have gone there."

"I can take care of myself."

"Certainly, but I'd allow that you knew that the dragon was your Uncle Razzorbauch," he said as he watched her toss her gloves onto the tea table before having a seat in front of it.

"I hope you don't think I had anything to do with it," she said as she smoothed her dress. "I'm no Minny-Min, but I love you and Peach Knob and Niarg, and I honestly knew nothing about any of this. I would have told you. I'd have told Minny-Min. He's awful. I loved our peaches. And I don't see how he ever expects people to want sukere after this. He's just thrown away all my hard work for him."

"So! Just keep me in the dark about your plans for setting fires because you don't trust me, will you Uncle Razzorbauch?," she thought. "You really owe me now."

Razzmorten looked up at the sound of her sniffle to see her eyes brimming with tears. He took a deep wide-eyed breath. "If all of that's true, Leeuh, then you can undo some of Razzorbauch's damage by helping me keep him from doing more."

"I'll do anything you need to help," she said as she daubed at her eyes.

Razzmorten sat beside her and took up her hand. "I need you to go to Razzorbauch and tell him that I need to meet with him. I have an offer from the crown that I'm sure he'll find most acceptable."

"You really do owe me now, Uncle Razzorbauch," she thought.

"Leeuh?" said Razzmorten.

"Sorry, Father, I'm exhausted from running all over Niarg for days and days. What were you were saying?"

"Will you do it? Will you go to Razzorbauch with my message and arrange a meeting with him for me?"

"Of course. When would you like for me to go, and when would you like to meet with him?

"Well, as tired you are, how about noon tomorrow? And have him meet me at noon the next day?"

"Noon and noon it is," she said.

And Razzmorten wondered for a moment if this stranger was indeed his daughter.

Chapter 22

At the very moment that the great bell in Argentowre struck twelve, Ugleeuh vanished from Razzmorten's open window where she had been standing with her scrying ball and dainty staff. Razzmorten went to the window and stared out over the countryside. Not too far away, the blacksmith hammered on something large. One of Minuet's wethers bleated as it ran, trying to find the rest of the sheep which had just been turned into the rose garden. "Leeuh, Leeuh," he said. "All of the hours and years of dismaying trouble you were, convincing me at last that you had utterly no conscience at all." He turned away from the window and hung the teakettle on the crane in the fireplace, found a plate and buttered a biscuit. "Just what am I to make of your good behavior?"

He opened a kettle with a cold joint of mutton, which had Fifi's attention at once. "So where is she?" He tossed a string of meat to Fifi, and took the kettle to the board. He ate his bread and the meat off the joint. By the time he gave the bone to Fifi, the teakettle was boiling furiously. He found the teapot and lid and stopped short.

"Leeuh!" he said as she appeared on the far side of the board. "I was beginning to worry."

"What for?" she said with an amused look. He gave her a quick squeeze.

"And what's that for?" she said.

He shook his head.

She looked dumbfounded for a moment. "Well," she said, "It's all arranged. Uncle Razzorbauch will meet you at Peach Knob at noon tomorrow. He said that he'll kill the next hired hand who sticks him with an arrow."

"Oh my," he said. "Say. Are you going to be here for supper?"

"I hadn't thought about it."

"Tell me what you'd like. I want to fix you something special. Will you be here?"

"Cherry cobbler," she said, "except, will you consider using two pans? Make one with honey for you, if you're still afraid of sukere, and let me put sukere in the other one. Please?"

Razzmorten hesitated. "Oh, I'll most certainly make mine with honey," he said. Ugleeuh gave a bounce and kissed him on the cheek.

***

Noon the next day was a very long time coming for Razzmorten. At last, the time arrived for him to lean his staff against his shoulder and stare into his scrying ball.

"Do you want me to come with you?" said Ugleeuh.

"No need. I expect I'll be back directly."

"And if you aren't?"

"Then it'll all be up to Hebraun and Minuet to decide what happens next." And with that, he vanished.

"As you say, old fool," she said when he was gone. "And I can't wait to see how all this turns out."

Razzmorten appeared on the edge of the orchard, glanced about briefly and hurried into the house, where all of the hired help were sitting down to dinner. "There's going to be some excitement outside in a moment, and I want you all to stay inside no matter what... Oh my, peas and baby taters," he said, snapping up a steaming potato and popping it into his mouth. " I'll be back in, the moment it's over." And with that, he dashed back outside. Just beyond the corner of the summer kitchen, he saw Razorback appear amidst the smoldering stumps of the peach trees.

Razorback saw him at once. "Had you not meddled with my business, dear brother," he said with a smoky rumble, "you'd have had a fine crop of peaches and apples this year."

"And now you'll never taste a single peach," said Razzmorten.

Razorback threw back his head and laughed. "Still worried about everyone's moral choices, I see," he thundered. "So you hope to talk me out of burning more of Niarg's crops, aye?"

"I would say there's not much point of going to the trouble, now."

"What's wrong brother?" he said with a toothy grin of glee. "Have the good citizens of Niarg already developed a taste for sukere?"

With no warning at all, Razzmorten leveled his staff, making Razorback throb with a blinding white aura.

Razorback reared up with a wave of his arms, throwing off the aura and flinging Razzmorten's staff end over end, far out into the fields. "Idiot!" he roared. "You think I wasn't ready for that? You can't change me back, and you can't keep sukere out of Niarg!" And with a mighty roar of laughter that echoed from bluffs above, he vanished, leaving a smell in the air like red-hot iron.

"Oh he fell for it, he fell for it," said Razzmorten as he picked up his hat from the weeds and started out across the scorched hayfield to find his staff.

"Wasn't that the very demon that set us alight?" said Nudd the moment Razzmorten came through the kitchen door.

"Yeap. And I can't imagine he'll bother us for a week or two," he said, holding up his hands. "Now there's no way I can answer questions, but I'll be back in a couple of days." He went to the board, grabbed up a couple more potatoes and stepped outside.

Beyond the first barn, he took out his scrying ball and was gone.

He found Ugleeuh napping in a chair when he appeared in his tower. "I'm back," he said, giving her shoulder a gentle shake.

"Good," she said, sitting up at once. "You're alive. Is Uncle Razzorbauch?"

"Quite. As Razorback. The only thing I did was buy time until Niarg decides."

"And if they decide to forbid sukere?"

"Then I expect his dragons will be burning the whole countryside with him."

"What about Sir Chester? Isn't he supposed to slay Razorback?"

"That's what they say," he said as he took a chair across from her, "but why don't we wait until Niarg makes its decision to worry about it?"

Ugleeuh yawned and stood up. "Well, I reckon you'll be going to see Hebraun and Minny-Min," she said as she picked up her satchel, "so I'd better go convince everyone in town to choose sukere on the big day so Razorback won't have to burn anything."

***

On Midsummer's Day (which was still called Canol Haf), the people of Niarg began crowding into the outer ward of the castle with their longbows and swords the moment the portcullis was raised. Before long, the outer ward was quite full and a huge crowd began gathering outside the front gate and soon backed up into the streets of the town. Many brought wives and older children with them, but in spite of it being the longest day of the year, and therefore a customary day of celebration, they idled about in respectful quiet, visiting and waiting for the great bell of Argentowre to strike ten. They were taking their having a say in the governing of the Kingdom of Niarg very seriously.

"That's some gathering," said Minuet as she turned away from where she had been peeping out of the drapes of the throne room. "It looks like it must be every single person within riding distance." She came and sat beside Hebraun in her great chair. "This surely will go well. Father says that Leeuh has been having very little luck, ever since the broadsheets went out. But you know what? According to him, she's still being a good sport about it all. I never thought I'd see it. She may be on the wrong side of things over this, but I'm proud of her... Say. What would happen if Razorback shows up?"

"We're all here and armed," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "I can't imagine him doing it. His game is to burn things where there aren't very many people about."

"Here comes Karlton," she said.

Captain Strong strode in quickly and bowed. "It's right neigh ten bell," he said. "Everything's ready, including the tally takers."

"Where are we going to be?" said Minuet.

"Oh, there's no choice with this big crowd," said Captain Strong. "You're going to be up on the wall walk of the outer curtain by the front gate so they can see you from the streets as well as from the outer ward."

"Are you going to be up there with us, Father?" said Minuet as Razzmorten came quietly up behind Captain Strong."

"I just talked Leeuh out of going up there with you, so I'm staying down in the outer ward with her."

"Listen!" said Minuet as she reached for Hebraun's arm. "There's Argentowre."

They started at once down the long green carpet for the door.

Shouts stirred through the crowd outside until a hush fell over them with the sounding of the great contrabass serpent horn up on the wall walk, which bellowed on deeply without letup until Hebraun and Minuet reached the stair of the outer curtain and began to climb. The moment they reached the wall walk, the crowd became a roaring sea of cheers that was soon was chanting: "He-braun...! He-braun...! He-braun...! He-braun...!" as they thrust their bows and swords at the sky in time.

Hebraun raised his arms and the crowd fell silent. "Citizens of Niarg!" he cried. "We have called you here for your wise consent. The crown needs your judgment. Something new walks amongst us, a granular powder so sweet and beguiling and so very powerful that we need you all to decide just what the law of the land is to be in its regard. "You all have seen the broadsheet about sukere. Sukere is that sweet granular powder. It is said to be sweeter and better tasting than even honey. In fact, once you begin eating it, you never want to be without it again. In fact, you become anxious and frantic if you ever have to do without it. Very soon you discover that you can't do without it, and you spend the remainder of your short life, willing to pay anything you must, in order to keep a supply for yourself. And as the years go by, your teeth rot, your bones break, your breath grows rotten and your skin furrowed, sallow and wrinkled.

"Across the great Orrin Ocean to the eastern half of the Eastern Continent lies the once great land of Gwael. And great it once was, until the sukere trade began..."

"Spreading it on a bit thick, aye what?" said Ugleeuh quietly as she found Razzmorten in the crowd.

"I was just looking for you," he said as his eyes darted over her face for the signs of anger or resentment which seemed not to be there. "Thick? Oh, he wants to make sure they know what they're getting into if they should commence trading sukere here."

Ugleeuh was not listening. She was staring at Hebraun who still looked impossibly attractive to her. "You'll pay for stealing him, Minny-Min," she thought. "And so will you, King Hebraun. You two owe me big!" She smoothed the turmoil from her face and turned back to Razzmorten. "He's the most popular king Niarg's ever had," she said. "Look at the hold he has on those people. It just seems unfair that he doesn't give both sides."

"Now did you give both sides when you went all over Niarg arguing that the sukere trade should be allowed?"

"That's entirely different."

"Oh?"

"He's supposed to give both sides," she said as she slipped her arm through his. "I'm selling sukere. I don't have to. But you want to know what really bothers me? I just hope that when they forbid the sukere, Sir Chester really can slay Razorback."

"I would never have guessed that you'd ever say that, Leeuh."

"Yea? Well me neither, but think of the destruction if Sir Chester fails. And in spite of what people might guess, I love Niarg and I don't want to see its crops burnt and people starve..."

Razzmorten patted her on the arm and pointed at Hebraun.

"All those in favor of allowing sukere into Niarg raise arms!" cried Hebraun.

An uncertain sword or two and perhaps a score of longbows were raised throughout the great multitude.

A look of fury flickered across Ugleeuh's face to be caught by an accidental glimpse from Captain Strong, but was altogether gone when Razzmorten turned to see how she was taking matters.

"All those who would have the law of the land forbid sukere raise arms!" cried Hebraun.

With a roar that swept through the great hoard like a gale, virtually every one of the sabres, claymores, longbows and pikes shot to the sky, as the cries became a chant: "No...! No...! No...! No...!" that went on for a very long time.

Razzmorten was surprised to see Ugleeuh smiling as she tried to get his attention over the chanting.

"Farce!" she hollered. "Hungry! I said: tower! I'm going to fix us dinner!" And with that she vanished into the crowd.

A good while later, after the crowd began to disperse, Razzmorten climbed the steps of his tower to discover when he opened the door that Ugleeuh was indeed fixing dinner. "It smells wonderful!" he called out.

"Thank you, Father," she said, stumping up to the board with a steaming kettle. "It's ready. Come see what you think of my lamb stew and barley muffins."

"This is indeed a wonderful surprise, dear," he said as he sat down to his bowl of stew and took a bite of the piping hot bread. "I never knew what an accomplished cook you were."

"It's the least I could do after running off and leaving you alone over and over, the past few weeks," she said. "Now, did anything happen after I came up here? A recount, maybe?"

"You're not serious."

"Not that I'll admit. So they didn't change their minds, aye?"

"Well, we're expecting pigeons in from places like Ashmore, over the next four or five days, but don't get your hopes up." He set down his spoon and looked at her. "You know, I'm impressed with how you're handling this, Leeuh. You'd have been impossible to live with, back home."

"Don't remind me. Why should I be upset? It wouldn't change anything. What worries me is what Uncle Razzorbauch will do when he finds out."

"Everyone's worried about that."

"Do you think that Sir Chester will manage to slay him?"

"I've no idea, but if Razzorbauch burns the crops, someone will have to do it or a lot of people will starve this winter."

"But don't we have grain stored?"

"Not enough to see Niarg through a whole winter."

"Couldn't Niarg could buy some?" she said.

"We can't begin to count on that," he said as he slid his spoon under a nice piece of lamb.

"Then someone simply has to kill Uncle Razzorbauch," she said with a look of conviction that Razzmorten still didn't expect at all.

Chapter 23

"You're always leaving," said Hubba Hubba as he slowly walked along the length of his perch. "And you'll leave today, too, because you don't really like me anymore."

"Oh go on!" said Ugleeuh as she picked up her dainty staff and scrying ball. "Of course I like you. You're my very dearest. Just be patient a bit longer and directly I'll finish up in Niarg and not leave you again for who knows how long. I promise. I'll even be back this evening and fix you something with lots of sukere."

"Righty-o..." he said with a bristly head, as he wiggled his beak into his breast feathers, watching her mumble her spell and vanish. "But I see that you went anyway."

She appeared in Razorback's cave to find him gone. "You're as convenient as ever," she said, casting about for paper, quill and ink. She knelt at the board and wrote:

Dearest Uncle Razzorbauch,

The overwhelming number of people in the town of Niarg voted to outlaw sukere. Not all of the pigeons are returned yet from the outlying districts, but it doesn't matter how they vote, since the biggest number in the kingdom have already decided to forbid our wonderful sweet.

They owe us!

Hoping that you bring the miserable lot of them to their knees,

Your devoted niece,

Leeuh

"And you still owe me, Uncle Razzorbauch," she said as she peered into the swirling colors of her scrying ball.

She caught her balance by the bed in her room in Razzmorten's tower. She put her ball and staff onto the bed and stepped out onto the landing to find Razzmorten coming up the stairs. "You're out early, Father," she said.

Razzmorten offered her his arm and continued climbing the stair. "The last pigeon is in the cote," he said as he opened the door to his flat. "Ash Fork has voted with the rest of Niarg, so it's now the law of the land. Sukere is forbidden in the Kingdom of Niarg. Sir Chester's been told and everyone's preparing for Razorback as we speak."

Ugleeuh sat down at the board and watched him sit across from her. "But how could Uncle Razzorbauch know that the vote's in?"

"Since you're not telling him, I have no idea. However, he did grow up here and he knows how things work."

"But there never was a vote on anything until Hebraun came to the throne."

Razzmorten shook his head. "Well, everyone's getting ready, anyway."

"I certainly hope Sir Chester manages. Then life can get back to normal."

He looked at her for a moment, marveling at her reasonableness. "Oh mercy yes," he said as he grabbed up her hand and squeezed it. "Have you eaten yet? If we hurry, we can still have breakfast with Hebraun and Minuet."

"That sounds great, Father, but I hope they're having something that doesn't need to be sweetened. They won't want me using sukere."

"I can't imagine that you'd dare. Hebraun is very straight about things, and he takes the will of the people quite seriously. It wouldn't be fair to ask him to make exceptions, particularly in front of others. If you take it in there, don't get caught. In fact, please don't take it with you. Just eat some before we go. Look 'ee here. I'll even look the other way if you give me your word that you'll give it up."

"Father! I can't do that," she said with a sincere look. "but would you, if I promise to try?"

"If you refuse to be angry about my reminders."

With a sudden giggle of glee, she took out her pouch and gobbled down a huge chunk of sukere.

They found Hebraun and Minuet already well into a breakfast of boiled eggs and hot rye bread. As Razzmorten seated her, Ugleeuh saw Bethan leading out a striking and immaculately polite little tow-headed girl. "That's their little shit," she thought, as an orderly rushed to the board with plates and another bowl of boiled eggs. "Too bad, little shit!"

"The quiet is beginning to vex me," said Hebraun as he folded half an egg into a fat slice of bread. "If he's coming, I wish he'd do it."

Ugleeuh saw Minuet put an adoring hand on Hebraun's arm. "Oh wonderful Too-Too!" she thought. "Soon you and he will have no more worries at all. And neither will I."

"Everyone in Niarg wants it over with," said Razzmorten as he took a pinch from the salt cellar.

"Perhaps if we talk about something else, the time will pass more quickly," said Ugleeuh, as everyone looked up.

"Good idea," said Hebraun.

Ugleeuh was surprised at how very good his approval made her feel. "It always works," she said. "So what else is going on that might be of interest?"

Hebraun and Minuet shared a puzzled look.

"Drop dead, Minny-Min!" thought Ugleeuh. "You always horn your way in and take it away from me. Isn't it enough that you stole him?"

"Well," said Minuet as she squeezed Hebraun's arm, "this must be the time we're supposed to announce that Hebraun and I are going to have another baby."

"That's wonderful," said Razzmorten. "I'm going to be grandfather twice over."

"Yes," said Ugleeuh. "My congratulations to both of you. Perhaps this time you'll get a little prince to go along with your little princess," as she thought: "Aw! Too bad again."

"Thank you Leeuh," said Minuet. "A little prince would be right nice, but Hebraun and I will be just as pleased with another little princess."

"Oh don't worry, Too-Too," thought Ugleeuh. "You'll never see it."

"See?" she said. "Talking about something else is just the thing, isn't it? So what else is going on with the pair of you?"

"Oh, just our wedding anniversary in three more days, and Hebraun and I are looking forward to a dinner by ourselves to celebrate," said Minuet. "Fates only know we're overdue for a few hours to ourselves."

"You two certainly do deserve it after all the things which have happened lately. I hope this problem with the stinking dragon is..." she said, suddenly going wide eyed at the sound of Razorback's roar from the outer ward.

"He took the bait!" cried Hebraun as he bolted from his chair. "Minuet! You and Leeuh stay inside."

"Be careful," she said softly. "Our children need their father."

"Don't worry, I will," he said as he squeezed her hand and hurried out with Razzmorten.

"Ha!" thought Ugleeuh with a serene look. "You need to worry about your little blond brat being an orphan altogether!" "Come on Min," she said as she took her by the hand. "We can watch from Father's tower and be quite safe at the same time."

Another great roar rang out through the castle. Hebraun ran sword in hand with Razzmorten down the corridors and out the front door to a stair climbing the inner curtain to a short passage leading to the wall walk of the outer curtain. "There he is," he said

quietly as he stepped out onto the walk, crowded shoulder to shoulder with archers, all the way around the top of the wall with their bows trained on Razorback, down in the outer ward, huffing and snorting wisps of smoke, pacing and turning warily this way and that.

"Sire," said Captain Strong, appearing at Hebraun's elbow. "We've dropped the portcullis, but it's ready to go back up at my signal."

Hebraun gave a quick nod over his shoulder and stepped to the edge of the wall walk. "Hoy! Razzorbauch!" he cried, his voice echoing within the battlements.

Razorback wheeled about and picked him out at once. "You!" he roared. "You, the one who dares address me! Might you be King Hebraun?"

"At your service!"

"Ha!" he roared. "So where's your armor?"

"We have no argument with you, if you go home and leave us be!"

Razorback reared up, throwing back his head to bellow out a volley of laughter before dropping to his feet again. "You!" he roared. "You're a liar!" He paused to turn a complete circle. "What about all of the longbows trained on me? And how can you possibly have no argument with me when you outlawed my very enterprise?"

"The people of Niarg merely refuse to have sukere in their lives..."

"Liar!" thundered Razorback. "You've tricked them! You've deceived them into thinking they don't want sukere! So until they speak for themselves, until they demand the freedom to have sukere, I will burn every crop and field! I will burn...!"

"Loose!" cried Hebraun.

Immediately Razorback reared up, bristling with arrows.

"Now, Karlton!" hollered Hebraun.

Razorback ran at the wall, bellowing and roaring as he huffed and spewed great plumes of flame at the archers on the wall walk, catching some of them alight to plummet to the ground in balls of flame. With a clanking and rattle of chain, the portcullis went up and Sir Chester galloped in on his white unicorn, draped with a rippling scarlet caparison, charging right for Razorback.

With a deafening roar, Razorback wheeled and dropped onto all fours, coming straight for him, blowing flames. Sir Chester dodged at once, circling wide and returning at a furious gallop for another charge, when he dropped his lance with a clatter to bounce away across the dusty ground. Razorback drenched Sir Chester and his mount with a roiling corona of angry flames. The Unicorn screamed and bucked, throwing off Sir Chester to roll to a stop by his lance and burn to a cinder.

Razorback sprang to his full height and roared at the sky: "Niarg will burn!" And with that, he vanished.

Hebraun gave orders to his officers to meet in the throne room in an hour and dashed into the castle to find Minuet. He found her on her way down the stairs with Ugleeuh on her heels as he neared the top storey of Razzmorten's tower.

She grabbed him in a fierce embrace, nearly knocking him over. "I was so scared!" she cried. "The way Razorback was burning soldiers, I thought you and Father would die at any moment. Please don't do that again."

Though Razzmorten had just caught up with Hebraun, he heard every word. "Minuet," he said, struggling to catch his breath, "surely you know that you can't ask that from a sovereign responsible for his kingdom."

Minuet looked away at once in crushed embarrassment as Hebraun gently steered her back into his arms for another hug.

Ugleeuh covered her gloat with another look of smooth serenity. "Ha, Minny Too-Too!" she thought.

At that moment, Captain Strong came up the stairs bearing a leather pouch. "Razzmorten and Mistress Dewin, this is indeed awkward," he said, struggling to catch his breath, "but could you please step back into your flat while I speak with Their Majesties?"

"Let's just go to the throne room," said Hebraun.

Razzmorten and Ugleeuh stepped inside at once. "How odd," said Razzmorten the moment the door clicked shut. "Do reckon his serious matter had to do with that pouch he had?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ugleeuh. "That pouch is full of sukere."

"Yours?"

"Sir Chester's," she said, shaking her head. "He was my first customer."

"Sir Chester bought sukere from you?"

"Well I gave it to him. I just said he was my first customer, but that was before the first vote. There was nothing wrong with that, right? You said, didn't you?"

"Can you prove it was before? Did anyone see you give it to him?"

"No. But it was before."

"Well, I'll support you on this if it goes before the King's Bench, so long as you're certain that no one will ever find out otherwise."

"King's Bench? That's crazy!"

"Let's just fix a nice dinner," he said, giving her a little hug. "Hebraun's a good king and a very clear-headed fellow. I expect he'll consider that Sir Chester's sukere was his own affair and nothing will come of this at all."

The moment they had reached the throne room, Hebraun drug up a tea table and a three-legged chair and placed them before the two thrones. "All right, Karlton," he said as he sat. "Show us what's in the bag. This is all about what's in the bag, right?"

"Yea," said Captain Strong. "But before I do, you need to know it's not so much the bag as the stink it's already causing."

"You mean to tell me that enough people know about that bag for there to be a stink, yet Niarg is better off without my very family knowing about it? What the blazes is going on?"

Karlton shook out the bag onto the tea table.

"That stuff's sukere, isn't it?" said Hebraun.

"Yeap," said Strong. "This was amongst the few things that weren't burnt with Sir Chester. And the big stink started with everyone a-watching him drop his lance right in front of Razorback. A whole lot of those people have watched him perform flawlessly through countless jousts. Never a mistake, ever. And at least three score of them were standing about, looking straight at me when I picked up this bag and poured it out into my hand."

"And?"

"And they not only blame Mistress Dewin, they want to see her in the pillory before the day's over. Word's already out everywhere."

"Even if she gave it or sold it to him before there ever was a law?"

"She did in their favorite jouster, and they want her in the pillory. They have no use for details. They want to throw things."

Hebraun gave a great sigh and ran his hand over his face. "Well, we're much obliged for your being quick," he said with a glance at Minuet. "I want guards around Razzmorten's tower immediately, and I want them kept there night and day."

Chapter 24

"It's open!" cried Talamh Coille Graham, looking up from his mortar and pestle at the knock at his door. "Just keep grinding those, Birlinn." He rose to find out whom he'd just let in, stooping and dodging the hanging bunches of plants as he went. "Leeuh! My love. This is entirely unexpected. Why didn't you send word so I could've been ready for you?"

"Surprise is always exciting, of course," she said with sparkling dark eyes.

"Well," he said, wiping his hands on his dirty apron. "Splendid. I can't begin to keep my mind off you when you're gone. And this is the first you've actually seen the apothecary, isn't it?"

"Yes it is," she said, offering her hand. "I hate to tell you this, but I'm here on business." She drew him into an embrace and stepped back to look up into his eyes. "My father sends me, believe it or not."

"Razzmorten?"

"Who else, silly?"

"Well I'm right surprised, is all. I'd not expect that he'd ask for your help or for mine either, for that matter. He's been dealing exclusively with Neron since we withdrew from Niarg."

"He needs my help this time. He's tied up, trying to help the crown figure out how to slay the dragon which just killed our most renowned jouster, and is out burning the countryside. Meanwhile, Niarg is infested with vermin worse than the rats we had during the plague, which he thinks is being caused by someone's magic. He's convinced he needs the preparation of a plant only found here in the Jutwoods. And since he knows that Neron doesn't especially trust me (at least not enough to be quick about it), he advised me to come straight to you."

"So what's the herb?"

"Nimh bitsie."

His eyes grew round at this. "I see. And how much does he want?"

"Not much. As near to two ounces as you can make it."

"Hoo-wee! That's a huge lot of nimh bitsie, love. An eighth ounce would wipe out an army. I know that there's some made up, but it's been a good while. Just let me go see what I can find." He turned and vanished behind swaying bunches of herbs.

"Sir," said Birlin, catching him as he went by. "I'm finishing up, just now."

"Good then," said Talamh. "I'm thinking that I might like some extra privacy with my lady. Go find that young lady of yours. You can have the rest of the day off with pay."

"Hey! Thank you ever so much," he said, taking off his apron at once.

In one of the storage rooms, Talamh fumbled impatiently for keys, then opened a heavy trunk against the back wall. "Drat! The ledger. There'll have to be an entry made, in spite of how awkward." He quickly found a vial and a graduated cylinder and measured out two ounces of jet black liquid, nearly taking the entire quantity. He fitted the vial's ground glass stopper, wired it down and dipped it in a pot of hot wax. At last, he sped forth from the room to find Ugleeuh, patiently waiting.

"So," he said, clearing his throat, "I hate to go on about this, but I simply have to make a ledger entry, back there. The crown keeps strict track of this stuff."

"Oh bother," she said, softly rubbing the back of his hand, "couldn't you do that later? I have no choice but to get right back, so we have almost no time for us."

Talamh hesitated, but when Ugleeuh gave him a pleading look and a provocative smile, he gave in, set the vial on a nearby shelf and turned back for an embrace.

Without warning, she flung up her fists, discharging a lavender flame from each of them into his eye sockets with a deafening pop, turning him into a smoking cinder. At once she stepped past him and grabbed the vial from the shelf. As she did so, she blew at his face as though she were extinguishing a candle. His head collapsed in a cascade of ash. "Get your arms down!" she snapped as she knocked their outstretched remains onto the floor. "You were the one who owed me, Talamh Coille." She stood back with her hands on her hips. "You're the only one who ever really listened to me, though. Well, I don't suppose anyone else ever will." She heaved a sigh of detached resolution, then took up her staff and scrying ball, mumbled her spell and vanished.

Hubba Hubba lumbered to the end of his perch, threw his tail over it and lumbered his way back. With no warning at all, Ugleeuh was standing right next to him. He gave an apoplectic gasp, missed his next step altogether and tumbled to the floor. "Hey!" he cawed, backing away from her in a ruffled heap. "Don't do that!"

"Dearest," she said. "I only wanted to let you know that I was home."

Hubba Hubba gave himself a thorough shake and lunged into a half dozen flaps up to his perch. "Yea?" he said, zipping his beak down a flight feather. "Well, I've been starving this whole time and you haven't been home at all."

"But I'm home early..."

"Yea? Well, I've been lonely longer than that. And did you see how weak I was, getting up on my perch? Well I nearly never made it, as if you cared or something. It's your fault I fell. And look. You could feed me instead of just standing there. And you could tell me where you've been forever."

"Calm down dearest," she said as she began scratching him around the back of his head. "I'm wrapping up my business in Niarg. After tomorrow I'll be done there. Isn't that worth a little trouble on your part?"

"As if I cared," he said, biting her on the knuckle with a sudden clack of his beak. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"You think I'm going to scratch you with you leaving red marks on me?"

"Are you really going to stay home?"

"After tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'll be here until tomorrow morning."

"Oh you are, then. Really? Well. You can fix me cherry cobbler with lots and lots of sukere and apple pie with lots and lots of sukere, as long as you give me a scratch, first."

***

"I hate to rush you," said Hebraun, stepping in the door of Razzmorten's tower flat. "They just brought in this fellow who was horribly burnt. He died as he was talking to me. Razorback's not above ten mile out of town, beyond South Cross, burning field and farm with a half dozen of his slave dragons. So how about that sword you said you were working with? What do you think?"

"I've got it in here," said Razzmorten as he turned on his heel and led him into a cramped library where a pair of pigeons took flight from the sill of the open window. He cleared away a jumbled pile of papers and a leather bound volume open to a water color of an herb with purple flowers. He retrieved a long wooden box from amongst the book shelves and set it on the table.

"Why that's a big old claymore," said Hebraun as he reached for it. "May I?"

"Certainly. You'll have to pick it up before you can use it."

"That thing's six foot long. Quite a handful. Where'd it come from?"

"Neron," said Razzmorten, idly studying the length of it in Hebraun's hands. "Its name is Scolteyder, or Cleaver. It's right neigh a thousand years old. It was used in the great Marooderyn Imshee massacre which ran the Elves out of the Eternal Mountains on the Eastern Continent, back when they first came here. It belonged to Asmund, who meant a great deal to Neron back then, and it carried a right smart amount of really old magic on its own. It had as much wallop to it as a respectable wizard's staff before I ever did anything to it."

"It's beautiful," said Hebraun as he set the blade back into the box," but I've always used a saber. I can't imagine being very dangerous with it without a lot of practice."

"You seem to be forgetting what we talked about. Have you figured out a ruse to throw off Razorback's concentration? You'll need it to get close enough and to have a moment to throw Scolteyder..."

"Throw? Did you say throw?"

"Take it by the pommel and throw it overhand as hard as you can possibly manage..."

"But it will go end over end. What if the blooming pommel hits first?"

"No, no. That's what I've done. It straightens out immediately and flies point first. The point always goes exactly where you look. And it hits like the hammer of Thor."

"So how much practice do you reckon...?"

"None, really," said Razzmorten. "That is, you don't need to practice in order to hit the mark with a killing blow. The sword does that. But you do need to be able to keep your concentration on the spot you want to hit while the blade's in flight. And I suppose you'll need to practice drawing it quickly without fumbling, since you've always carried a saber and aren't used to drawing over your shoulder."

"Could you go see Minuet?" said Hebraun as he buckled on the huge scabbard. "She's been very brave, but she's really scared and upset."

In short order, he was jogging down the tower stairs, thinking all this over as he paused here and there to draw the big claymore with great whistling swings. He hurried into the back outer ward over the crunching gravel, as a catbird called and whistled from the shade of the plum trees. At last, he broke into a run for the armory where a pair of wide-eyed squires helped him into his cuirass, which he kept to breastplate and back plate only. And though he also donned a gorget, skirt of tasses and tuille, he wore no helm and no armor over his arms and legs at all.

The moment his claymore was strapped back in place, Vindicator, his great white stallion march streiciwr brenhinol unicorn was brought to him, saddled and draped with a caparison bearing full regalia, but wearing no armor. He found his stirrup, mounted, fit the long ash lance into its socket and galloped out the front gate, past the astonished onlookers who watched him ride away for South Cross with no escort in sight, his long brown hair afly in the morning sun.

A few miles south of South Cross, he saw the first white smoke rising from a field of wheat in the distance. From there, it was a long and tiring ride before he was at last able to make out a lone dragon, setting fire to a row of wheat shocks. He came to a stop and shifted his weight in the saddle as a meadowlark called from a nearby post. "Now where do you reckon the other dragons are?" he said as he patted Vindicator's neck. "Well, wherever they be, that one's Razorback and no mistake." He took his lance from its socket and nestled it under his arm. "Get up, then." And they were off at a canter, down the lane and across the ditch into the smoldering wheat field.

Just as they crested a rise in the field, Razorback saw them and roared with laughter. "It's the liar!" he boomed, puffing out wisps of smoke. "Hoy, King Liar! Over here!"

"We can see you!" hollered Hebraun as he halted Vindicator.

"I wondered! From here you look every bit as stupid as you did up on the wall walk! Where's your army? Oh Fates! You're going to try the same idiotic stunts as your jouster!"

"If I can!" cried Hebraun as he came a bit closer and stopped again.

"This is astounding," said Razorback with a smoky chuckle as he reared onto his hindquarters. "I'll even let you go out yonder a dozen rod or so and have a run at me. Go on."

Hebraun galloped out between two rows of shocks that were still in various stages of burning and tumbling apart, where he turned about and stopped. "Here we go, old boy," he said, giving Vindicator a pat. "Let's go right for him. Get up!"

Vindicator charged right toward Razorback, gathering speed as he came. As they neared, Razorback drew in a great breath and dropped onto all fours, ready to spew out a fatal blast of flame. At the unexpected sight of Hebraun dropping his lance into the wheat stubble, Razorback reared up again and threw back his head with a roar of laughter just in time for Hebraun to fling Scolteyder with every last fiber and sinew he had.

Truly awake from its thousand year sleep, the great claymore flew like an angry bolt from the lofty mountain, cleaving Razorback's breastbone to the hilt with a boom like the bursting of a great bladder. Razorback was on his side at once, kicking and flinging blood as he threw his head from side to side against the smoldering wheat stubble.

Hebraun came forward on Vindicator and dismounted. Vindicator nickered.

Razorback was coughing and gurgling, but maybe chuckling here and there as Hebraun squatted beside him. "Think you've won, King Liar?"

"Looks that way," said Hebraun.

"It would to a fool," said Razorback, growing still for a very long moment before drawing in a rattling breath and continuing: "Sukere's on its way to Niarg whether you want it or not. Your own children will eat it in front of you as you lie helpless on your deathbed."

Hebraun watched his silence for a long spell, then rose to his feet and tugged on Scolteyder. With a whistle and a shake of his head, he drew his dirk, dropped to his haunches and began to carve.

***

Ugleeuh held out her looking glass the length of her arm, trying to see as much of herself as she could. "Damn this!" she cried as she flung the mirror across the room to smash on a corner of the table by Hubba Hubba's perch.

"Ugleeuh!" he cawed, leaping into a tight circling flight through the room and back to his perch where he crouched, skinny and panting. "That mirror lied," he said, pausing to pant some more. "You're without a doubt the handsomest human that this humble crow knows about. It deserved to smash."

"Oh dearest," she said with a spreading smile. "I'm glad you see it. But I'm afraid that's not the issue, here."

"No?" he said, giving his feathers a thorough shake. "I'll help if you tell me." He ran his beak down a flight feather.

"There's nothing you can do, dearest. What I need is a full-length mirror like the one in my room at Uncle Razzorbauch's keep, and I've not yet learnt the spell for one."

"How about your traveling spell?"

"Traveling spell?" she said, struck dumb by the stray idea. "Traveling spell!" She grabbed up her scrying ball and dainty staff at once. "Thank you, thank you, dearest."

Suddenly she was gone.

A maid in Ugleeuh's room at Razzorbauch's keep gasped and dropped her armload of folded linen at the sudden sight of her. "Mistress Dewin!" she said. "Razzorbauch didn't warn... Razzorbauch didn't tell us that you would be arriving today."

"Oh?" said Ugleeuh. "Then why are you in here with fresh linen? Is it merely a means to be in here, checking for things to pocket?"

"Mercy no, Mistress! I'm paid well enough. He ordered me to see to your apartment regularly. He wanted it ready for you at all times."

"Well!" she thought, flattered by the idea of his consideration for her, in spite of her conviction that he owed her. "Very well," she said as if the woman stank of rotten fish. "See to the linen and go. Once I've gone, you can come back in."

The poor maid curtsied, gathered up her folded linen and vanished to the sound of Ugleeuh's laughter.

"Now," said Ugleeuh as she slipped her scrying ball and staff into her kirtle under her cape to vanish by virtue of a glamourie that she had cast upon herself. She walked up to her uncle Razzorbauch's magnificent mirror, turning this way and that. "No..." She flung aside her cape and looked again, here and there. "Nope. No one will ever know that I have them without an intimate search. And no one will dare do such a thing to the king's sister in law, not even Captain Strong." Presently, she produced her ball and staff and winked out amidst her own laughter.

"What's so funny?" said Hubba Hubba, startled as always by her sudden appearance.

"You, dearest," she said with a subsiding chuckle.

"Thanks," he said with a snap of each wing. "You're so skilled at making me feel special."

"Aw," she said, giving him a scratch at once.

"Uh, did you see how beautiful you look?"

"I certainly did, thanks to my wonderful, wonderful dearest. And now, I'm ready to go back to..."

"Right!" he said, turning his back to her at once. "Abandon your wonderful, wonderful dearest for however long is convenient for ever so important you."

"I'm coming right back," she said innocently enough, as she felt of her vial of nimh bitsie and her hidden ball and staff.

"Nope!" he said, taking a hop away from her on his perch.

"I am, too. I'll be back in no time, and then we shall celebrate, celebrate, celebrate."

"I'm not listening..." he said as she mumbled something and vanished. "'Cause their ain't no stinking point." He gave each wing a snap and wiggled his beak into his breast feathers. "Bad!"

"Well, here we are," she said as she began at once, looking about in her tower bedroom. "Now where are those lovely rose crystal goblets which Talamh Coille gave me?" She dug through the chest at the foot of her bed. "Ha! Here they are, still wrapped in velvet. They don't need a thing more." She looked into her scrying ball and appeared in the dining hall with the goblets. She gave a furtive glance about the empty hall. There was only a pair of hounds, lolling about on the cool stone floor. "Damn!" she said, suddenly ducking out of sight when she saw the two guards standing at the door. She propped her elbow on the seat of a chair and peered into her scrying ball to see what was going on in the kitchen. "That has to be their food on that table," she thought as she felt of her vial of nimh bitsie. "Well, no one seems to be looking." Suddenly she was standing by the very table in the kitchen, right by the fat cook she hadn't seen, who was arranging dainties on a silver tray.

"Oh!" screeched the cook, flinging up her hands as a steaming toad-in-the-hole plopped onto the floor. She wheeled about with her red lardy face. "Now look 'ee here, missy-poo, that was the king and queen's dainties!"

"I do beg your pardon," said Ugleeuh. "I'm rather late getting here, you see..."

"Why Mistress Dewin, I beg yours!"

"And you certainly have it, dear," she said as she pulled back the velvet on one of the goblets. "Have a look at these."

"Why they're lovely as snowflakes," she gasped from behind her hand.

"Is that the tray which they'll see brought to the table?"

"The very one."

"May I have a moment to arrange them just so, for when the tray first arrives at the table? And will you be certain that they're told who brought the goblets?"

"Why, you ones go right ahead," she said with a nod as she wiped her hands on her apron. "I'll make sure they're told, and I'll be back directly."

Ugleeuh chucked the goblets between the roast and the aspic. "Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta," she hummed under her breath as she wiggled the stopper from her vial. "Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta..." glig, glig, glig... went the vial. "Lit-tle bit-ty drop-lets... Ta, ta-ta, ta-ta..."

In short order, the food was thoroughly peppered with the glistening coal black drops which vanished at once into everything. She stoppered her wee bottle and looked into her scrying ball.

Immediately she found herself doubled up under the low sideboard table in the dining hall. One of the hounds looked up at her for a moment and lost interest, laying his head back down on the cool floor. It was quite cramped under the sideboard, but she did have a good view of a table on the balcony. "Good," she said.

Presently she heard voices echoing in the huge room, then giggles. "That's Min-Min!" thought Ugleeuh. She strained and shifted about in vain to see them from where she sat. She sat breathlessly still and listened. They were coming her way.

"Oh, I love you more than words can tell," said Hebraun as he and Minuet halted with a passionate embrace.

A white-hot fire of fury swept through Ugleeuh, burning behind the throbbing veins in her neck. "Oh good!" she thought as they went onto the balcony. "This, I can't wait to see."

"Ungh!" went Ugleeuh, seething and fairly bouncing on her cramped hipbones when she saw that Hebraun and Minuet were sitting somewhere completely out of sight.

"Did you hear something?" said one of the guards, as the pair of them stepped inside the doorway for a brief look about.

"There's no way I can possibly get to my scrying ball," she thought. "There's nothing for it then, but to just sit here."

"Goblets from Leeuh," said Minuet, marveling at what she and Hebraun were unwrapping. "They're beautiful. They must be Elven, don't you think?"

The orderly set out the last of the dishes, bowed and went back to the kitchen.

Hebraun spooned out a nice bowl of turnip greens for each of them. Minuet folded a fat steaming string of them into a piece of bread.

"No!" croaked a huge raven, flying into her face, knocking her bowl off the table and sending her knife spinning across the stones.

"Hey!" shouted Hebraun, springing to his feet with a wave of his arms as Minuet shot backwards in her chair to stand up, shaking the great splatter of hot greens from the skirts of her dress.

The raven hovered over the table for a moment.

Hebraun flung a stoneware lid at him.

"That pissen me right smart, swyver!" shouted the bird as he dodged the lid and flew up higher to vanish over the top of the castle.

"What was that?" said Minuet as she drug up a dry chair and sat again before her place at the table.

"One bad natured raven," said Hebraun as he slowly took his seat. "But it's the only one I ever heard talk..."

"Then you've not seen much, King Boy," said the bird as he swooped down onto middle of the table to step about, carefully avoiding the food.

Hebraun loved any sort of toad-in-a-hole. He reached for the nearest one in spite of the excitement.

"Drop that, you swyving fool!" shouted the raven. "That shite's poison!"

Hebraun wrinkled his brow in dumbfounded amusement and raised the morsel to his mouth.

The raven flew right at his face. "Drop hit, King Boy!" shouted the bird, leaving great red scratches all up Hebraun's brow.

Hebraun waved his arms about and toppled over backwards in his chair.

"Hebraun!" shouted Minuet, springing to her feet and rushing around the table to help him up.

"Good!" cried the raven from somewhere overhead. "Good! Good!"

Hebraun and Minuet studied the sky from under their hands, trying to see, just as the bird swooped down to land on the table again.

Minuet reached out to a mint leaf that garnished the aspic.

"Don't touch the mother swyving food, Queen-o," shouted the raven. "Hit's poison! Hey, queinte! I said hit's poison!"

"Poison?" she said, suddenly catching on. "How do you know?"

"That's what Neron said..."

"Neron?" said Hebraun. "Just who are you?"

"Ocker I be, top raven in the Forest," he said, suddenly thrusting himself to his full height and bristling out his neck like a duster. "Whoop-ooo! Ocker I be."

"How do you know Neron?" said Minuet.

"Pissen on Neron. I'll tell ye later," said Ocker, leaping into the air to settle back onto the table. "You need to know that Demonica's rotten spawn murdered Talamh Coille Graham, took his poison and came straightaway to kill you ones. She's a swyving wicche. I've watched her."

"I'll be right back," said Hebraun, stepping to the doorway. "Guards!" he hollered.

They came running at once. "Sire?" said the first one, as Ugleeuh thrashed about in a desperate struggle to get at her scrying ball and staff, giving her head a vicious whack on the bottom of the sideboard. Everyone saw her at once.

"Seize her!" shouted Hebraun. "Get Captain Strong. Now!"

"She's a wicche," said Ocker. "We all need to be in there, a-watching her."

"There's a pair of barn owls in there," said Minuet.

"Poop!" said Ocker. "I hunt with owls, sometimes. Come on, Queen-o." And with that, he swooped through the door.

Minuet sat back down with a rattling sniffle and daubed at her eyes.

Presently, Ocker flew back out, followed by Hebraun, Captain Strong and a young private who had the stray hounds in tethers.

"Hit's poison," rattled Ocker as he settled onto the table.

Captain Strong gave Ocker a look of astonishment and set the platter of lamb and aspic on the floor as the hounds yanked tight against their tethers to gobble it down. After a half dozen noisy swallows apiece, first one then the other dog lifted his head and stood statue still for a moment, before collapsing utterly stone dead.

"Get her to the dungeon," hollered Captain Strong. "Has anyone got word to Razzmorten, yet?"

"How did Neron come to send you, Ocker?" said Hebraun.

"He and I do business," said Ocker as he snapped first one wing and then the other. "When the wicche burnt up Graham, he had an emergency, so he sent me. He'll be on his way here directly. Say. Did you see that Queen-o's been crying?"

Hebraun looked up at once to see Minuet shake her head with a fierce look at Ocker as she sat up rod straight. He walked over to her with a look of concern.

Suddenly she threw her arms around him, burying her face in his shirt with a whooping sob. "I've loved her since she was just a baby," she wailed. "I had such high hopes..."

After some time, Hebraun and Minuet sat side by side on the balustrade. "Ocker," said Hebraun, "We owe you our very lives."

"Good," said Ocker as he gave himself a shake and a snap of each wing. "I allowed hit was something. You know, I always get paid for my services, and hit almost never has been this far, and I've not never saved any lives before..."

Chapter 25

Ugleeuh sat on her straw pallet and stared through the iron bars at the two guards stationed outside her cell. She would stare at one of them until he became agitated and then she would do the same to the other one. Because of her insolent nature, it managed

to amuse her while she waited for a break in their endless watch over her. As long as they stayed in front of her cell looking right at her, she had no chance to use her traveling spell to escape. They even kept the area lit with candles and watched her at night. "When I get out of this revolting hole, all three shifts of you are going to pay. You owe me. You all owe me," she muttered.

At last she lay down and closed her eyes. "There has to be a way to get rid of those two toads," she thought. She couldn't put a spell on them because Razzmorten had put wards on the front of her cell to keep her from doing that very thing. The guards were not about enter her cell, either. At first, they slid her food and two pitchers of water a day through the small grate in the bottom of her door. When she discovered that the food and water were drugged, she cut her drinking down to the smallest amount that she could stand, right before she slept, and quit eating altogether.

"What if I tell them I'm ready to eat and then choke on my food?" she thought. "Fiddlesticks! Every prisoner ever in this place has probably tried that one. And they've undoubtedly done it so often that if some fool really did choke, he'd die because the guards would think he was faking." Suddenly she sat up. "So what if I am faking? I just need to keep it up. Sooner or later they'll wonder if I'm dead. And when they do, I'll scorch them like I did Talamh Coille. This might even be fun!"

"Hey Dung Beetle!" she barked. "I'll take your rotten food now."

"What?" said Dung Beetle. "Are you singing to me, witch?"

"I'd rather sing into a gong pit," she said. "It's cleaner, has better breath and 'way more wit."

The other guard laughed out at this, nearly toppling from his empty keg.

Dung Beetle gave him a resentful look. "Yea?" he said, "Well good for you. The feed's coming by, directly. We'll have them dip out a cup for our dear privy pit lover. We'll even have them fetch it from under the privy itself, just for you sweetheart."

"Thanks, handsome," she said as she went back to her game of staring, and waited for quite some time. At last it arrived. She was very hungry, but saw at once that she would have to be a good deal hungrier if she were actually to eat something like this. She set to work at once, making smacking noises, suddenly changing to choking, hacking and gurgling as she dropped her spoon and tin cup into the straw and toppled onto her side, wheezing and thrashing about, struggling to draw a breath. The moment she knew that she had their undivided attention, she lay dead still.

"The witch is choking to death!" said Keg Rider.

"Idiot!" said Dung Beetle. "That's just an act. The minute we open the door, she'll jump up and turn us into toads."

"Into what?"

"See?" said Dung Beetle. "She knows better. She's dead still, now."

"Fool!" said Keg Rider, on his feet at once, frantically sorting through his keys.

"That witch is the queen's sister and Wizard Razzmorten's daughter. What will the king say when he finds out we watched her strangle to death? Fates! Which one's the stinking key?"

Suddenly the latch clicked and the door swung open. Keg Rider and Dung Beetle stepped inside like two hunters tiptoeing over fallen leaves.

With no warning at all, Ugleeuh shot to her feet, turning her cell blinding lavender with bolts crackling from each fist into the eyes of the guards until they turned to glowing cinders and tumbled into the straw, setting it alight.

"Someone will put it out," she said as she produced her staff and ball beside the leaping flames.

"What happened?" said Hubba Hubba at the sight of her, as he took flight from the shelves of the open cupboard and swooped to his perch.

"The house!" cried Ugleeuh. "You've dumped every drawer and gotten into everything."

"Not the larder," rattled Hubba Hubba. "What did you do, forget and come home?"

"You make me sorry I did!" she shouted.

Hubba Hubba turned directly about on his perch with a hop and held his beak in the air.

Ugleeuh stumped right over to him. "Damn you!" she screamed.

Hubba Hubba stayed right where he was, but she could see that he was panting in rigid terror.

"Oh dearest!" she said as she tried to give him a scratch, "I'm so, so sorry."

Hubba Hubba popped his beak at her and hopped down the perch. When she tried again, he hopped a quick about face, turning his back on her.

"Oh dearest," she said. "Please forgive me. I'm just not myself. I'm starving and miserable, too. Let me make something gooey with sukere and we can fill our bellies together."

Hubba Hubba said nothing and kept his back to her.

She studied him for a moment and began making cherry cobbler, speeding up everything with her staff. Even so, it was quite a while before the cobbler was ready. When it was done, Hubba Hubba had not yet uttered a sound, making her very anxious indeed.

"Here we are, dearest," she said as she set everything on the table. Let's eat." She had a seat.

Hubba Hubba sat right where he was.

"Well? I'm eating."

This was too much for him to resist, as hungry as he was, so he left his perch, and with a couple of pumps of his wings, glided to the table. Soon he was eating, but had nothing to say.

Ugleeuh had never seen him silent for so long. "How does it taste, dearest?"

"What took you so long?" he rattled, making certain that his back was turned toward her.

"I've been in Niarg," she said in a tone he had never heard before.

He smacked his beak and looked up. "And?"

"In the dungeon at Niarg Castle."

"Dungeon! The stinking king and queen locked you up?"

Ughleeuh nodded.

"But why?"

"They were afraid I might change people's minds about sukere."

"But isn't the queen your sister?"

"Half-sister."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Make them pay, of course."

"Good," said Hubba Hubba, gobbling down another beak full.

"You say that dearest, but do you realize that I'll have to go back to Niarg to do such a thing?"

"It's a matter of honor," he said with a smack of his gooey beak. "Just leave some food this time, will ye? And maybe the larder door open, just to be safe."

"Dearest, I think I'll stay with you for a few days before I go back. I need time to get my strength back, and in spite of what you say, I've missed you terribly. Minny-Min and Hebraun will still be there, celebrating having gotten rid of me. Besides, I need a little time to figure out the best way to make them pay for all the horrible things they've put me through."

***

The fresh smell of rain surged through the throne room, sending ripples along the great banners, as their rods clacked against the wall. Razzmorten, Minuet and Hebraun stopped talking as the room turned pink, making them jump with a ferocious crash of thunder. It began raining much harder.

"Here comes Karlton, now," said Razzmorten, shifting about on his stool.

Captain Strong removed his helm and gave an abbreviated bow.

"You're soaked," said Hebraun.

"I should have dried off," said Strong. "You want me off your carpets?"

Minuet and Hebraun shook their heads and smiled at the same time. "What did you find?" said Hebraun.

"We've combed everywhere," he said, stepping back from the wet spots where he had just been standing. We've been over every foot of the castle, inside the outer curtain. And we've been all over Niarg town. She's gone."

"Was there any particular damage in the dungeon?" said Hebraun, casting his eyes aloft at another nearby crash of thunder.

"The straw was burnt to ashes in half the cells before they got the fire put out. And you won't have to bother with convening the Bench for the pickpocket. He burnt up. And we're getting more certain all the time that the ashes in Mistress Dewin's cell are her guards."

"I haven't figured out how she did it," said Razzmorten as he smoothed the dents out of his hat. "She undoubtedly incinerated her guards, causing the fire. I wasn't aware that she could do that with her bare hands, but I have no idea what she learnt to do in the five years I never saw her. But her vanishing clean away must have required her scrying ball and her staff. She might have had them hidden in the dining hall."

"Uncle Razzorbauch taught her that in our parlour at Peach Knob, when the plague was in full force," said Minuet as she drew tight a fresh piece of linen between two embroidery hoops.

"Well, she's gotten right good at it, I'm afraid," said Razzmorten. "And it's urgent that we figure out where she's gone. I can only think of two places, either Demonica's or Razzorbach's keep."

"Will you try to scry to find out, Father?"

"Yeap," he said, standing up at once. "I'm off to my tower. I'll be back immediately when I find something. I can see that she's gotten powerful enough that this is most urgent."

Outside the throne room Razzmorten stepped into the shadows with his staff and produced his scrying ball. With a few mumbled words, he appeared in his tower library with Fifi barking and dashing in circles around his feet. He quieted her at once and sat before his ball at the table. "Demonica and Razzorbauch would both have strong wards against scrying their keeps," he said as the wind slammed shut one of the shutters. "His would be gone, of course." He studied his ball for quite a spell. "I can't see anything on top of her rock at Head. Now let's see... I can see every one of his hired help. They're going to wonder where their pay is, one of these days. Nope. No Leeuh."

He leant back in his chair with his hands behind his head, studying the cobwebs overhead. "Now let's see. Meri Greenwood made it sound like Razzorbauch took over every bit of the Forest Primeval. That's quite a bit of territory. Chokewoods, I think they're starting to call it. Maybe she's off in another part of it."

Suddenly he shot to his feet, knocking his chair onto its back. "Got her!" He grabbed up his ball and looked for the dark corner outside the throne room and began mumbling, leaving Fifi in the library by herself, barking. He stepped around the corner into the throne room and quietly walked up the carpet, mindful that Hebraun and Minuet were discussing something.

"I know you swore never to use your powers for as long as you're on the throne," said Hebraun as he took up her hand, "but you surely realize I'd never have asked you to make such a vow. And you surely know that you could break your vow anytime without looking bad to me."

"To be ready for Ugleeuh?" she said, setting aside her embroidery hoop. "I think I'll keep my vow. I'll not only never worry the people of Niarg over my resemblance to Leeuh, I'll not be suffering from the nightmare of antesight. That alone is worth keeping my vow. Should my evil sister steal away all of my peace of mind?"

"Of course not, love," he said as he raised her hand to his cheek. "I shall say no more. I just want you to know that either way, you'll always have my support."

"I always knew that," she said as she kissed him on the cheek. Suddenly she looked up. "How long have you been standing there, Father?"

Razzmorten shook his head with a wave of his hand. "I've found Leeuh," he said. "She's 'way off by herself in a wee cottage in Razzorbauch's Chokewoods with a crow. She must've gone the whole way and gotten herself a witch's familiar. But with her lifelong enchantment with grandeur, I can't imagine her cabin."

"Can you set wards around the cabin to keep her there, Father?"

"Yea, But she'd starve to death. She needs more territory than that. She'll have to be there for the rest of her life, don't you know, or else we'll have to kill her."

"I think having to help strike down Razzorbauch was quite enough punishment for you," said Hebraun. "Can you cast enough wards to take in all of Razzorbauch's lands? That ought to do it."

"I'll be drained for some time to come, but I can do it," he said with a look of grateful relief. "But that kind of spell would only hold Leeuh within the Chokewoods. Anyone else could come and go as they pleased."

"Well, Ughleeuh's the only one we're worried about," said Hebraun.

"And we need to worry," said Razzmorten. "If I don't go to the Chokewoods right now, she could kill both of you before I get back."

"Then go," said Hebraun and Minuet at once.

Razzmorten produced his scrying ball where he stood and recited his spell, winking out before their eyes. He steadied himself under a canopy of gnarled and twisted choke oaks, just out of sight of Ugleeuh's cottage. "I'll set temporary wards to hold her here while I cast the permanent ones around the whole forest," he said. By evening he knew that Ugleeuh would never leave the Chokewood Forest, and with the very last of his strength, he returned to his tower, ate a hearty meal of mutton stew and brown bread and tumbled into bed for a day and a night.

He awoke hungry enough to stuff himself on cold stew and bread and went to find Hebraun and Minuet. When Bethan opened the door, Rose raced up and threw her arms around his legs. "Grandfather!" she cried with a wide-eyed bounce. He smiled down at the precious child and nodded at Hebraun and Minuet in answer to the look in their eyes.

***

"I shall not be long dearest," said Ugleeuh as she stood by Hubba Hubba's perch with her scrying ball and dainty staff. "I'll be back the very moment I'm done with King No-No and Queen Too-Too." She recited her traveling spell and waited. With an irritated flash of her eyes, she recited it again. Nothing. She blinked in shock and looked at Hubba Hubba.

"Did you forget something?" he said -with his own look of surprise.

A searing rush of fear swept through Ugleeuh. She stumped to the corner of the room and grabbed up the Great Staff, still disguised as a broom.

"You've decided to stay here and sweep?" said Hubba Hubba.

"No!"

Hubba Hubba opened all of his feathers as he drew a breath and quickly smoothed them flat.

Out she went with the broom, slamming the door behind her. She set the broom to hover in the air, threw her leg over it and sat. "Take me to Castle Niarg," she said. "Now." And with that, she and the broom shot away over the treetops, making her reel with prickles under her scalp. Slowly she worked up the nerve to look down to see the treetops flying away into the distance behind her as the strangely chilled air roared by her ears. "Shit fire!" she cried, bouncing on the broom. "Wooo-Hooo!"

She began taking account of what she was seeing below her. She could see the grey-green Chokewoods stretching out unbroken for leagues in all directions, except for the fields of expansive sukere plantation to the east. Other kinds of trees were just now showing up on the horizon. Without warning, she found herself hovering in the air over the last of the choke oak trees. "Oh no!" she said as she wrenched herself this way and that for a look. "Oh no!" She saw the prominence of a bluff rearing up through the trees some way back. "Staff. Take me back to that big rock, yonder."

The broom flew immediately through the icy air to the top of the bluff and set her down gently in the hot sunshine. She listened for a long time to the echoes of the far off moans and sighs in the Chokewoods as the butterflies in her stomach faded away. At last, she stood up as she took a deep breath, set the broom in the air and stepped astride it. "Take me to Niarg Castle," she said.

The broom shot away at once into the cold air. This time, she scarcely dared breathe. Soon she felt warm air as she hovered dead still in the sky. "No!" she wailed, throwing back her head to the heavens as she beat her fists on the broom handle. "No! No! No!" She gasped for breath between her sobs until she was able to beg to be set on the ground. She took a deep and quivering breath and ran in the direction of Niarg. Suddenly she couldn't move her legs. She gasped and backed away. She ran sobbing back to where the broom lay on the ground. She grabbed it up, pointing it toward Niarg. "Down wards!" she commanded. "Down...! Please?" She ran at the barrier again and fell to the ground. "Please, oh please," she begged of the centipedes and leaves.

Late that afternoon, she settled down in front of her cabin with her broom and walked inside. "Dearest," she said. "Let's go flying together. We have our very own empire to explore."

Appendix

Dramatis Personæ

Abracadabra - Razmorten's stud cyflymder unicorn

Asmund - Elf who died fighting Trolls in the Eternal Mountains, just before the Elves moved to the Northern Continent. His magical claymore, Scolteyder, was given to Neron and in turn to Razzmorten, who enhanced it so that King Hebraun was able to slay Razorback with it.

Bailitheoir Cailli (Jutish Elven) - Ugleeuh

Bernard - Captain of Niarg's Royal Guard (a sergeant prior to Captain Strong's disappearance

Bethan - Razzmorten's hired lady, who raised Minuet and Ugleeuh, known to Princess Rose as Grandma Bethan

Birlinn - apprentice to Talamh Coille Graham

Branwen, Princess of Far - princess who was Prince Hebraun's first betrothed, who died of the great plague

Centipede - twenty-six oar galley, the first ship sent to the south end of the Gulf of Orrin to get oregano

Chester - (Sir Chester) dragon slayer knight, weakened by sukere and killed by Razorback

Demonica - Ugleeuh's mother, Spitemorta's grandmother, sorceress and behind the scenes power figure on the Dark Continent

Dewin - (wizard in Old Niarg) wizard Razmorten's last name, and Ugleeuh and Minuet's maiden name as well

Dung Beetle - Ugleeuh's name for one of her guards

Dyn Gwyrdd - see Mari Greenwood

Fifi - Razzmorten's dog, his life-long companion due to enchantment

First Wizard - created the Heart and the Great Staff

Gastro - son of Gastron, was an apprentice to wizard Razzmorten, married Ugleeuh and was turned into a sea serpent by her

Gastron - Gastro's father, had Razzorbauch as an apprentice. Razzorbauch poisoned Gastron and took the Great Staff of Power.

Graham, Talamh Coille - court herbalist and apothecarist at Oilean Gairdin, murdered by Ugleeuh

Grandma Bethan - see Bethan. Princess Rose's reference to Bethan

Greenwood - see Meri Greenwood

Guardians of the Woods - three old Fairies: Celeste, Nacea and Alvita

Gwyrdd - see Meri Greenwood

Hebraun - King (Brenin) of Niarg, Rose's father

Helina - Queen of Niarg, wife of King Henry and mother of Prince Hebraun

Henry - King of Niarg, husband of Queen Helina and father of Prince Hebraun

Hensnape, Sergeant - Niarg royal armorer (who made suits of armor) who helped Razzmorten set up his oregano distillery

Hubba Hubba - Minuet's double yellow headed Amazon parrot, stolen and turned into a crow by Ugleeuh

Jerome - head butler at the great hall of Castle Niarg

Karlton - Biggand Karlton Strong, known as "Fuzz," former Captain Strong (Sir Karlton Strong) of the Niarg Royal Guard

Keg Rider - Ugleeuh's name for one of her guards

Leeuh - Talamh Coille Graham's pet name for Ugleeuh

Leigheas - Elf healer driven from Niarg by the citizens during the great plague. He healed Minuet.

Liadan - (grey lady) Talamh Coille Graham's hired lady

Llais, Rhyddid - (Freedom Voice) a printer who routinely posted broadsheets of news all over Niarg during the last days of the reign of King Henry (Hebraun's father)

Longbark - the name of the Fairies' sage old oak, an everwaking oak, wide awake oak or derwin hollol effro, Quercus claudo-ilex R.

Madog (Old Niarg) - the courier who delivered the plague infected kitten to Princess Branwen for Ugleeuh and who was tortured to death by Ugleeuh and Demonica

Meri Greenwood - (Dyn Gwyrdd in Old Niarg Standard) fiancé of Celeste, the Fairy who knew the whereabouts of Calon Fforydd, the Heart of the Forests, which the First Wizard chiseled out and stole to turn into the Heart of the Staff

Min-Min - childhood nickname of Minuet Dewin (See Minuet)

Minuet - Queen (Brenhines) of Niarg, wife of Hebraun, mother of Rose and Lukus, called "Min-Min" and "Minny-Min" by her sister, Ugleeuh

Mystique - Rose's cyflymder unicorn

Nacea - a Fairy, one of the Three Sisters, incessantly knits

Neron - Ri (King) of the Jutland Elves, husband of Nessa, father of Oísín, Illiam and Orry, great-grandfather of Soraya, Danneth, Strom and Jarund

Nessa - King Neron's wife, lost to the great plague

Ocker - cock raven with magical powers who lived with his mate, Urr-Urr, above Razzorbauch's Keep

Pebbles - Minuet's green cheeked Amazon parrot, Hubba Hubba's mate

Penn-kurun - (Thunderhead) huge naked dragon, turned to stone by Lukus

Peredur - the butler at Peach Knob

Philpott - gaffer hired hand at Peach Knob, nearly deafened by Ugleeuh's lightening

Pitmaster - equivalent of the Devil

Pryce, Captain Cadwalader - a royal Niargian naval captain at the time of the great plague

Razorback - a naked dragon divined from Razzorbauch to control the sukere slave dragons (later refered to as the dragon clan). He was accidentally divined from himself and kept that way, when he attempted to cast a spell on his brother Razzmorten. Razorback led the Dragon Clan and was killed by King Hebraun.

Razzmorten - Razzmorten Dewin, a good wizard, father of Queen Minuet, brother of Razzorbauch

Razzorbauch - an evil wizard, twin brother of Razzmorten who murdered Gastron, created the Chokewoods and the Fudge Volcano and while burning Niarg's crops was killed by King Hebraun

Real Grandma - Princess Rose's reference to Queen Helina

Rodon - a Fairy, brother to Alvita, Nacea and Celeste. He was turned into a giant rat (all but his face) by Razzorbauch using the Heart of the Staff at the same time that he used the Heart and Staff to confine him and his three sisters to Mount Bedd.

Rory - Elf boy who was bitten by a Strah cobra, brother of Creena

Rose - Princess (Tywysoges) of Niarg, daughter of Hebraun and Minuet

Scolteyder - the magical claymore of Asmund, an Elf who died fighting Trolls in the Eternal Mountains, just before the Elves moved to the Northern Continent. Scolteyder was given to Neron and in turn to Razzmorten, who enhanced it so that King Hebraun was able to slay Razorback with it.

Strong, Biggand - Fuzz's name as Captain of the Royal Guard of Niarg, along with the name Karlton

Talamh Coille Graham - Elven court Herbalist and lover and victim of Ugleeuh

Thump - Sergeant Hensnape's hired man

Thunderhead - (Penn-kurun) huge naked dragon, turned to stone by Lukus

Torn - hostile naked dragon ranger, killed by the grogs

Tors - Torch, naked dragon, Spark's elder brother

Trident \- the privateer owned by Demonica and captained by Jockford which sailed with Razzorbauch, Ugleeuh and her from the Mammvro on the Eastern Continent with nineteen other ships carrying 201 dragons to what would become Dragon's Port.

Ugleeuh - the Collector Witch, Bailitheoir Cailli, Carlin Cruinnich, Demonica's daughter, Spitemorta's mother, Minuet's half sister

Urr-Urr - hen raven who was Ocker's mate

Vindicator - King Hebraun's white stallion march streiciwr brenhinol unicorn

Virtue - Queen Minuet's mare march streiciwr brenhinol unicorn, twin to Vindicator

Vortigern - (Overking) the King of Gwael

Wiz - Hubba Hubba's name for Wizard Razzmorten

Gazetteer

Arabat Enez - Forbidden Island, Demonica's keep

Arfordir ynºGwahardd - Forbidden Coast, the coast separating the Black Desert from Môr Dannedd, the Sea of Teeth

Argent Abbey - a great abbey next to Niarg Castle

Argentowre - a great tower at the front corner of Argent Abbey with a huge bell to ring the hour

Ash Fork - village in Niarg, burnt to the ground by Brutus of Goll, just north of the Gold River and just south of southern tip of the Ash Mountains

Ashmore - a flat scrubland used for grazing, north and north- west of Ash Fork, Where Hebraun first engaged the Golls

Ashwind - Gastron's manor house on the edge of Ash Fork

Baile Gairdin - (Garden Village) (Balley Garey in later times) the original village

Bedd - abreviated name for Bedd Chwiorydd Tair, which see

Bedd Chwiorydd Tair - Tomb of the Three Sisters (Towmb of þe Three Susters), an extinct volcano with two craters in the southern Pitmaster's Kettles, with a hot spring and an extensive system of lava tubes, especially a very large one connecting the two craters. So named for three fairy sisters imprisoned there with their traitorous brother by Razzorbauch, using the Heart of the Staff

Black Desert - vast black sand desert, west of the Chokewood Forest and north of the Dread Sea

Caisleán Oilean Gairdin - the royal castle of Oilean Gairdin proper

Castle Niarg - north of the Port of Niarg

Chokewood Forest - (Chokewoods) south of Goll and Cyclopsia. Was created by the wizard Razzorbauch when he used the Heart and the Great Staff to permanently change all of the forest's black and red oaks (Quercus) to chokeoaks (Pseudoquercus horridus R.)

Chokewoods - see Chokewood Forest

Dark Continent - Tywyllwch (Old Niarg Standard), Dorchadas (Jutish Elven), Brastyr Tewl (Gwaelic), Mooar-Rheynn Dorraghey (Gwaelic Elven), Douar-Noz (Headlandish), Mòr-Thìr Dorch (Goblish-Beakish)

Dorchadas - (Darkness) see Dark Continent

Douar Benniget Mountains - (Cemetery Mountains) a mountain chain running from Head (Pennvro) south- south-east, past the east edge of the Fire Domes to the south shores of the Dark Continent

Douar-Noz - (Darkland) see Dark Continent

Dragon Caves - a limestone cavern system claimed by the Dragon Clan, inland from Dragonsport on the Orin Ocean, immediately south of Pirate Isle, saddling a break in the Dragon Mountain chain, interrupting the folding and faulting of the mountain chain proper with a landscape of sinks and collapsed caverns, also referred to as mountains.

Dragon Mountains - the name of the mountains on the Northern Continent which run north into the Orin ocean, forming the Pirate Isle Archipelago. During the last ice age of 14,000 to 10,000 years ago, known as the Loxmere Glaciation, the sea level dropped, receding from the Gulf of Orin, leaving a vast Alpine basin that connected the mountains of the archipelago to the mainland.

Dragonsport - abandoned sukere shipping port on the Orin Ocean, south of Pirate Isle and south of the Gulf of Orin, adjacent to the Dragon Caves

Dread Sea - the ocean south of the Black Desert on the Northern Continent

Eastern Continent - Lobhadh (Jutish Elven), Gwael (Old Niarg Standard), Gwaremm (Headlandish), Yn Cheer My Hiar (Gwaelic Elven), Brastyr Howldrehevel (Gwaelic), Fearann Ear (Goblish-Beakish), Fafnafaf (trollish)

Enchanted Land - a part of Goll and Cyclopsia that includes the Enchanted Mountains, Fairy Valley, the Fairy Mountains and the Valley of Illusions

Enchanted Mountains - part of the Enchanted Land, west of Fairy Valley

Eternal Mountains - Sleityn Beayn, western mountains of the Eastern Continent

Far - small kingdom near the Port of Niarg, bordered by Niarg on the north, west and East, by Loxmere on the south-west and by Elsmore on the south-east

Fates' Hospital for the Sick - the hospital which Minuet and Bethan worked in, across the road from the Silver Dragon and down the road from the Yellow Rose Tavern

Fire Domes - extinct red obsidian volcanoes making up the western flank of the southern Douar Benniget Mountains, along the eastern Mammvro region, the ancestral home of the dragons in the south-western Dark Continent

Forbidden Coast - see Arfordir ynºGwahardd

Forbidden Island - Arabat Enez, Demonica's keep

Forest Primeval - (Forest Primycies) the vast virgin oak forest that once covered all of the Fairy Valley and all of what was turned into the Chokewood Forest by Razorbauch.

Forest Primycies - (Forest First Fruits) Meri Greenwood's reference to the Forest Primeval

Fudge Volcano - (Chocolate Volcano, so called by the dragons) a volcano in the Peppermint Forest of the Chokewoods, created by Razzorbauch to feed his captive dragons

Gulf of Orin - (Gwlff of Orin) see Dragon Mountains

Gwael - see Eastern Continent

Gwaremm - see Eastern Continent

Gwlff of Orin - see Gulf of Orin

Hanter Koadou - territory to which the Cias are confined

Head - Pennvro

Headland - Pennvro

Homeland, the - (the Mammvro) the dragons' reference to their place of origin on the Dark Continent

Illusion Mountains - a small chain of mountains running north and south, just east of the Valley of Illusions.

Jutland - see Jut of Niarg

Jutland Lake - surrounds the island castle of Oilean Gairdin

Jut of Niarg - Jutland, southern arm of Niarg, lying between Goll on the south, Bratin Brute on the south-east and Loxmere on the north

Jutwoods - the vast woods covering most of the Jut of Niarg

Lake Jutland - the lake surrounding the island of Oilean Gairdin

Lobhadh - see Eastern Continent

Mammvro (the) - (the Homeland) the primaeval home of the dragons on the Dark Continent, also known as the Red Lands or the Red Desert.

Marshmallow Marshes - see Gobbler Marshes

Môr Dannedd - Sea of Teeth, the waters south of the Northern Continent

Mount Bedd - see Bedd Chwiorydd Tair

Niarg - a country that extends indefinitely north into the Great Boreal Reaches in the east, with Lardshire and Boneshire forming its northern borders in the west. In the west it extends to the Great Barrier Mountains at the eastern edge of the Great Wilderlands. It extends to Goll in the south, Bratin Brute in the south-east and to the Orin Ocean on the north and the Gulf of Orin on the south of its coast in the east. It land locks the kingdoms of Loxmere, Far and Ellsmore on their north west and south

Niarg - the town surrounding Niarg Castle, occasionally referred to as Niarg Proper

Niarg Bay - bay off the Orin Ocean coast of Niarg, into which the Shallow Sand River empties at the Port of Niarg

Niarg Castle - north of the Port of Niarg

Northern Continent - Brastyr Cleth (Gwaelic), Deatalamh (Jutish Elven), Glan Da (Old Niarg Standard), Gnyrjan ntu Afajoy (Plenty to Eat) (Trollish), Mooar-Rheynn Twoaie (Gwaelic Elven), Norz-Douar-Bras (North Big Land) (Headlandish), Norz-Meurzouar (Headlandish), Mòr-Thìr Tuathach (Goblish-Beakish)

Norz-Douar-Bras - (North Big Land) see Northern Continent

Norz-Meurzouar - see Northern Continent

Oilean Gairdin - crystal village of the Jutland Elves on the shore of Lake Jutland plus Oilean Gairdin proper in Lake Jutland

Oilean Gairdin (proper) - garden isle of the royal castle of the Jutland Elves in the midst of Lake Jutland

Orin Ocean - the Ocean lying between the Northern Continent and the Eastern Continent

Peach Knob - Dewin family farm, country home of Razzmorten, Minuet and Ugleeuh

Pennvro - Head, Headland

Pirate Isle - see Dragon Mountains

Pitmaster's Basin - land between the Great barrier Mountains and the Ash Mountains, including the Pitmaster's Kettles

Pitmaster's Kettles - a volcanic field following a huge fault running the length of the huge Pitmaster's Basin, from Gold Lake in the south to Cauldron Lake in the north, between the Great Barrier Mountains and the Ash Mountains

Port of Niarg - south of Castle Niarg on the east end of Niarg Bay at the mouth of the Shallow Sand River

Red Desert - see Mammvro

Red Lands - see Mammvro

Silver Dragon - tavern across the street from Fates' Hospital, where Minuet and Bethan ate dinner

Sleityn Beayn - see Eternal Mountains

Tomb of the Three Sisters - (Towmb of þe Three Susters), see Bedd Chwiorydd Tair

Tywyllwch - see Dark Continent

Valley of Illusions - south of the Cyclops Plateaus in Cyclopsia

Yellow Rose Tavern - down the street from Fates' Hospital. Minuet and Bethan stayed there while working at the hospital.

General Glossary

Foreign or Archaic Words into Niarg Standard Words

aderyn n. m. (Old Niarg Standard) - bird

adar n. m (Old Niarg Standard) - birds

adar drwg n. (Old Niarg Standard) - bad birds

adar gwir n. (Old Niarg Standard) - true birds

adar taranus n. (Old Niarg Standard) - thunderbirds

Alacke! (Archaic Modern Niarg) - Alack!

arabat a. (Headlandish) - forbidden

Bailitheoir Cailli (Jutish Elven) - Collector Witch

bedd n. (Old Niarg Standard) \- tomb

bodhrán n. m. (Jutish Elven) \- an open backed, shallow drum with a 16"-18" head

cyflymder n. m. (Old Niarg Standard) - speed, a breed of fast unicorn

derwin hollol effro n. (Old Niarg Standard) - (everwaking oaks, wide awake oaks) Quercus claudo-ilex R.

derwen pwysaf n. (Old Niarg Standard) - leaning oaks, Quercus recumbens R., a scrubby, evergreen oak, living in alkaline soils along warm costal uplands where they grow, bending away from the prevailing winds.

dewin n. m. (Old Niarg Standard) - wizard

dong n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - dung

Dorchadas n. m. (Jutish Elven) - lyoths given human form by an enchantment of the wizard Razzorbauch

Dúlish (Jutish Elven and Old Gwaelic Elven) - Douglas, a short legged breed of Jutish Elven unicorn, sharing a common ancestor with the Gwaelic Elven Doolish unicorn.

Elves, Elven pl. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - Elves

enez (Headlandish) - island

ers n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - rump

ga-ndi (Ngop) - take

glamourie n. (Northern English) - magical enchantment (in our usage of the term)

gnoff n. (Niarg Standard) (Archaic Modern Niarg) - lout, churl, boor

hanter a. (Headlandish) - mid, half

hit (Archaic Modern Niarg) - it

hole n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - ass hole

hoore n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - whore

intron n., f. (Headlandish) \- lady, madam, Mrs.

koadou n. m. (Headlandish) - woods

lahan (Ngop) - place

lahan Ngerrk-ga (Ngop) - Ngerrk-ga's place

léan air! (Jutish Elven) - shit!

nimh n. f. (Jutish Elven) - poison

nimh bitsi (Jutish Elven) - death weed (bitch poison)

Nu-jabing-nga (Ngop) - serving woman

Pelec'h ez eus dour? (Headlandish) - Where is there some water?

Peoc'h! (Headlandish) - Silence!

pisse n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - urine

pissen v. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - piss

Poent eo mont kuit. (Headlandish) - It's time to leave.

queinte n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - pudendum

Razzmorten-ga-ndi (Ngop) - take Razzmorten

Razzmorten-ga-ndi lahan Ngerrk-ga (Ngop) - take Razzmorten to Ngerrk-ga's place

rhyddid n. m. (Old Niarg Standard) - freedom

ri n. m. (Jutish Elven) - king

shrewe n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - wicked person, rascal

sláinte ollmhór n. (Juttish Elven) - giant wellness plant or Elven ginseng, Aquilaria peloroicosum N. (see Elven genseng)

strumpet (Archaic Modern Niarg) - prostitute

sukee n. (Niarg Standard) - a fermented drink made from sukere that chemically alters the brain, causing one to be much less inhibited and to become highly suggestible. It is particularly insidious since inebriation is not followed by a hangover, and high concentrations of its unique alcohol are not toxic to its fermenting yeast, allowing extremely potent brews to develop without the need for distillation.

sukere n. & a. (Niarg Standard) - original meaning: sugar - very similar to sugar in appearance, taste and use, though its effects on one who eats it are more extreme. Its addiction, at once subtle and powerful, begins immediately.

suster (Archaic Modern Niarg) - sister

swiven v. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - copulate

swyving a. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - fucking

taisteal (Jutish Elven or Old Gwaelic Elven) - travel or magical instantaneous travel

talamh coille (Jutish Elven) - woodland

toute n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - buttocks

Tywyllwch (Old Niarg Standard) - Dark Continent

Wailaway! (Archaic Modern Niarg) - Alas!

wenche n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - wench, loose woman, servant girl

wicche n. (Archaic Modern Niarg) - witch

wicches (Archaic Modern Niarg) - witches

wikked (Archaic Modern Niarg) - wicked

worrobobo (Ngop) - Elven hyssop, also called oregano

Niarg Standard Words into Foreign or Archaic Words

(& Technical Terms Defined)

Age of Beasts, the - the era after the Greatest Burning (Mwyaf Fawr Llosg)

Age of Birds, the - the era before the Greatest Burning (Mwyaf Fawr Llosg)

Alas! - Wailaway! (Archaic Modern Niarg)

anteconflagrarian times - the Age of Birds

antesight - the gift of being able to see events as they occurred before the present in the place where one is standing.

ass hole - hole n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

bad birds - adar drwg n. (Old Niarg Standard)

bird - aderyn n. m. (Old Niarg Standard)

bitch - bitseach n. f., bitsi a. (Jutish Elven)

blue maidenhair - Ginkgo cyanophyllum R. is a twenty to sixty foot tall broad leaved evergreen gymnosperm with chalky blue-green leaves, living on the mountain tops up to the tree line of the Eternal Mountains of the Eastern Continent. It is amongst the oldest living things, with some trees having been found with over 16,000 annual rings. The wood is so dense that trees felled next to water have been known to sink as though their trunks were made of stone. The dried leaves, which are drunk as a tea by the Elves, contain ginkeine, an alkaloid complex which includes caffeine and other phytochemicals, some of which may induce DNA repair.

board, table - bord (Archaic Modern Niarg)

buttocks - toute n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

caparison - a great draping saddle cloth, often bearing regalia, covering the entire back of a jousting unicorn (and sometimes the head and neck as well), hanging to within a foot or two of the ground

chip-fell-out-o'-white-oak - Caprimulgus carolinensis R., a nightjar of the rocky uplands and swamps of the southern two thirds of the Northern Continent, except for the Wilderlands where they never occur. They are particularly numerous in the upland karst topography of the Dragon Caves area south of the Gulf of Orrin. They are nocturnal, live exclusively on insects caught on the wing and lay eggs on the leaves on the ground. Some say that their whip-poor-will like call, which is only heard after dark, sounds like: "Chip fell out o' white oak. Twixt hell and white oak."

choke oak - Pseudoquercus horridus R.

Chokewood Forest - also called Chokeoods - originally an oak forest. Magically altered by the evil wizard Razzorbauch by using the Heart and the Great Staff to permanently change red oaks and black oaks (Quercus) to choke oaks (Pseudoquercus horridus R.) to serve as a vast plantation for enslaved dragons from the Dark Continent.

churl - gnoff n. (Niarg Standard) (Archaic Modern Niarg)

claymore - two handed sword

copulate - swiven v. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

cuirass - an item of plate armor consisting of breastplate and back plate

dainty staff - a light duty staff given to Ugleeuh during her training by Demonica

Dark Continent - Dorchadas - (Jutish Elven)

Dark Continent - Douar-Noz (Darkland) (Headlandish)

Dark Continent - Tywyllwch - (Old Niarg Standard)

Douglas - Dúlish (Jutish Elven and Old Gwaelic Elven), a breed of short legged unicorn sharing common ancestry with the Gwaelic Elven Doolish.

dragon - Harpi tyrannus. R., a relative of Archaeopteryx and Deinonychus, which survived the Mwyaf Fawr Llosg or Greatest Burning, traditionally classified as an Adar Drwg ("bad bird" in Old Niarg Standard) by such Niarg naturalists as Razzmorten Dewin. An eight to twenty foot long (six to thirteen foot tall) feathered flying Jurassic bird with teeth, fingered claws on the wrists of its wings and a long un-fused (non-pygostylic) bony tail, which developed the ability to produce, store and ignite large volumes of methane gas that enabled it to toast and make palatable the naturally occurring sukere cana in its original habitat on the Dark Continent.

Dragons were rendered featherless when they were captured and taken to the Northern Continent by Razzorbauch and Demonica.

drum, shallow, open backed with a 16"-18" head, played with a double-headed stick - bodhrán n. m. (Jutish Elven)

dung - dong n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

Elven ginseng - slainte ollmhor or giant wellness plant (dyrgnyfngnyrr to the trolls), Aquilaria peloroicosum N. discovered by the Elven king, Neron on the Eastern Continert and used where dramatic recoveries are imperative.

Elven hyssop, also called oregano - worrobobo (Ngop)

Elven maturation rate - 240 Elven years (Soraya's age @ fall of Oilean G.) divided by 17 Human years (Soraya's human equivalent maturity@fall of Oilean G.) times the age of the Human in question equals his maturity in Elven years

Elves - Elves, Elven pl. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

Elves - Homo sapiens ginkgoliberiensis R., a race of humans indigenous to the Maidenhair Woods of the Eternal Mountains of the Eastern Continent, characterized by ivory colored skin, eyes with various colors of irises highlighted with opalescent flashes and sparkles, pointed ears and hair which is either silky absolute black, absolute black with varying degrees of iridescence or metallic shades of silvery grey, gold or copper or an almost phosphorescent matte rust red. They are highly intuitive and are attuned to their natural surroundings and are predisposed to magical skills. They have life spans scores of times as long as those of the rest of mankind.

everwaking oak - Quercus claudo-ilex R., derwin hollol effro (Old Niarg Standard) (wide awake oak)

Fairies - Homo sapiens viridihirsutensis R. a race of humans indigenous to the primeval oak forests of Fairy Valley and to the lands which became the Chokewoods under Razzorbauch's enchantment, characterized by alabaster- white skin, eyes with emerald green irises, pointed ears and brilliant green hair that has metallic iridescence in sunlight and which develops bright yellow streaks with advancing age much as the hair of other races turns grey or white. They are, like their Elven cousins, highly intuitive and predisposed to magical abilities. However, their attunement with their surroundings far exceeds that of the Elves and has become a specialized involvement with the green world, particularly with oak trees. Barring accidents, they are immortal.

Fatherland - Mammvro n. (Headlandish) (dragon reference to their homeland on the Dark Continent)

fiery nightshade - Solanum igneus R., a foot tall annual herbaceous nettle of the dry washes of the Northern Continent's Black Desert, with inch diameter red tomato-like fruits which are enveloped by tomateo-like husks. The fruits contain such concentrations of oxalic acid that prolonged exposure to the pulp of such fruits will blister the hands of those foolish enough to handle it unprotected. In the past few years, it has begun showing up as a weed in vegetable gardens around the town of Niarg, well up the coast from the Black Desert.

forbidden - arabat a. (Headlandish)

freedom - rhyddid n. m. (Old Niarg Standard)

fringed maidenhair - Ginkgo fimbriflabella R., is a deciduous gymnosperm that lives in waste and burnt over areas

where woods meets grassland. It seldom grows taller than 35 to forty feet. Its leaves are deeply lobed with closely spaced fingers, scarcely broader than one mm, giving the tree its name. Its wood is almost white and very soft, and it seldom lives more than 65 to 75 years. Along with plums, crabapples and hawthorns, it is amongst the first woody species of trees to invade after a section of forest is completely burnt off by fire.

fucking - swyving a. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

furlong - 220 yards, 1/8th mile

glamourie - a spell that changes the appearance of the one upon whom the spell is cast

gong pit - privy pit

gorget - a collar of fine chain mail

gorge wren - Catherpes obscurus R., a rusty grey-brown wren on the higher elevations of the arid Fire Domes and southern Douar Benniget Mountains of the south west Dark Continent, with a plaintive descending whistle

Greatest Burning, the - Mwyaf Fawr Llosg n. (Old Niarg Standard)

Human - Homo sapiens sapiens R., in our usage is a race and therefore is capitalized, just as one would Indian or White. Here, human, which means Homo sapiens R., includes such races as Human and Elf and Fairy.

It's time to leave. - Poent eo mont kuit. (Headlandish)

king - ri n. m. (Jutish Elven)

lady, madam, Mrs. - intron n., f. (Headlandish)

scaled laughing quail - Callipepla risor R. is easily recognized by its distinctive black top knot plume and totally black plumage. It is commonly found in flocks in the dry washes of the Black Desert of the Northern Continent, feeding on grass seeds and giving it's whoo-whoop-wheeo! call.

Dark Continent laughing quail - Callipepla gambelii R., is

easily recognized by its distinctive black top knot plume, black face and chestnut crown. It has a scaled belly and a grey neck and back. It is commonly found in flocks in the dry washes of the Mammvro of the Dark Continent, feeding on grass seeds and giving it's ka- KAA-ka! call.

leaning oaks - derwen pwysaf n. (Old Niarg Standard), Quercus recumbens R., a scrubby evergreen oak, living in alkaline soils along warm costal uplands, where they grow bending away from the prevailing winds.

lecher - lecchour n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

lechery - leccherye n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

lewd fellow - harlot n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

lewdness, indecency - harlotrye a. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

lyoth - Smilodon iubalutehirsutima R. (also, giant lyoth, great indigo lyoth) is a machairodontine cat species, which at 250 to 450 pounds is smaller than its cousin, the tawny lyoth, S. populator, of the Great Barrier Mountains of the Northern Continent. It stands about 46" to 38" high at the shoulders. It lives in the deep shadows of the mountainous rainforests of the Dark Continent, where it ambushes by dropping out of the lower branches of large trees and ripping out the throat of its prey with its 5" to 6" long flat serrated canine sabres. After failing to find the legendary tawny lyoth, the wizard Razzorbauch introduced the giant lyoth to the Northern Continent, only to transmogrify the introduced individuals to Dorchadas.

magic - magyk (Archaic Modern Niarg)

magick - archaic spelling used here to mean specifically: a healing spell or conjuration

magicks - archaic spelling used here to mean specifically: an assemblage of healing spells or conjurations

maidenhair tree - Ginkgo biloba ingentissima R. (The Sacred Maidenhair of Oilean Gairdin is a G. biloba ingentissima) are broad leaved deciduous gymnosperms. These are the tallest living trees on earth with mature specimens towering from 375 to over 400 feet. The largest individual known, living near the bottom of the slopes of the Pitmaster Gorge in the

Maidenhair Woods, measures 427 feet and is estimated to be well over 7000 years old. They are indigenous to the Maidenhair Woods of the western Eastern Continent where they are the dominant tree, forming the canopies in the deep valleys and steep slopes of the Eternal Mountains up to about 6500 feet. They are amongst the oldest living things on earth with some trees having nearly 10,000 annual rings, though the record for age is held by the very much smaller blue maidenhair, Ginkgo cyanophyllum R., of the mountain tops and tree line.

mistress, lover, romantic love - paramour n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

Mrs., lady, madam - intron n., f. (Headlandish)

Ngerrk-ga's place - lahan Ngerrk-ga (Ngop)

Ngop - a tribe of aboriginals down the west coast of the Dark Continent from Head who first used oregano oil to cure the plague.

oregano, also called Elven hyssop- worrobobo (Ngop)

pelvis, breadth of - haunche-boon n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

piss - pissen v. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

Pitmaster - (the) Devil

place - lahan (Ngop)

plague - Yersinia pestis R., unleashed by Ugleeuh Dewin when she caused a gene substitution by casting a spell on a sample of Yersinia enterocolitica R. collected from the fleas on a kitten belonging to a nine year old girl who was suffering from fever, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and joint pain

poison - nimh n. f. (Jutish Elven)

prostitute - strumpet (Archaic Modern Niarg)

pudendum - queinte n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

queen - rion n. f. (Jutish Elven)

red maidenhair - Ginkgo erythrofolium R. is a deciduous

broadleaved gymnosperm living throughout the Maidenhair Woods in the Eternal Mountains of the Eastern Continent where it overwhelmingly predominates at elevations below 8000 feet. It ranges in height from sixty to ninety feet, the taller trees occurring in low places. It has the interesting

ability to thrive under the canopy of the maidenhair trees, Ginko biloba ingentissima R. where the two species overlap. The red bottom surfaces of its leaves are thought to enable it to thrive in low light conditions. Its dried leaves bear alkaloids, which when chewed by the Elves like tobacco, steadies their nerves.

rod - (perch, pole) 5 1/2yds. (16 1/2 ft.)

royal striker horse - march streiciwr brenhinol (Old Niarg Standard)

rump - ers n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

scrying ball - scrying globe, scrying crystal (essentially a crystal ball); a ball usable only by the magically gifted to view people or places at distances whose locations are already known (see skinweler, above)

serving woman - Nu-jabing-nga (Ngop)

shit - cac n. (Jutish Elven)

shit - cachu n., v. (Old Niarg Standard)

shit, excrement - kaoc'h (Headlandish)

shit - keck (of animal, only) (Gwaelic Elven)

shit! - léan air! (Jutish Elven)

shivering owl - Otus asio-ploratus R.

Silence! - Peoc'h! (Headlandish)

silver maidenhair - Ginko genetrex-argenteus R. also called "mother tree" by the Fairies and Gwaelic Elves, its leaves and stems are covered with a silver colored cuticle, hence its name. It lives in symbiotic association with the mycelia of Fairy ring mushrooms, and whilst its leaves, stems, fruit, bark and roots are each said to have potent medicinal properties, the tree's great rarity has prevented substantial empirical study.

stella pine - Pinus aristata R., pines of the mountain ridges of the western Dark Continent above 3000 feet which reach great ages, with some individuals having been found with more than five thousand annular rings. Gnarled and scrubby in appearance, they seldom exceed to twelve feet in height.

take - ga-ndi (Ngop)

take Razzmorten - Razzmorten-ga-ndi (Ngop)

take Razzmorten to Ngerrk-ga's place - Razzmorten-ga-ndi lahan Ngerrk-ga (Ngop)

There's no way to. - N'eus ket tu da. (Headlandish)

thunderbirds - adar taranus n. (Old Niarg Standard)

tomb - bedd n. (Old Niarg Standard)

traquenard - a spring trap of wood and steel the forerunner of the steel trap

travel or magical instantaneous travel - taisteal (Jutish Elven or Old Gwaelic Elven)

true birds - adar gwir n. (Old Niarg Standard)

turd - toord (Archaic Modern Niarg)

urine - pisse n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

vamp - a tart, a young woman who lures men

wain - a two wheeled cart, chiefly for farm use

waist - derivative abbreviation of early 16th to middle 17th century use of 'waistcoat,' a light jacket with or without sleeves

ward (Niarg Standard) - invisible magical protective shield

wench, loose woman, servant girl - wenche n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

whang - 16th century Borderland word for thong, still in use in Appalachia

Where is there some water? - Pelec'h ez eus dour? (Headlandish)

whore - hoore n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

wicked person, rascal - shrewe n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

wide awake oak - everwaking oak Quercus claudo-ilex R.

witch - wicche n. (Archaic Modern Niarg)

witches - wicches (Archaic Modern Niarg)

wizard - dewin n. m. (Old Niarg Standard)wizard - draidoir (Jutish Elven)
