© 2025 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

Nick and Octavia settle into a peaceful life on Black Mountain, but other people on Black Mountain aren't interested in peace. There was something under Black Mountain that was more precious than peace, and they wanted everyone else off of Black Mountain. They started with Nick and Octavia and then the new Elf village of Irla Stein Anore. Only Octavia stood between the rogue dwarves and the occupants of Hay-on-Wægn county.

Gods Save the Queen

Book 2 - Part 3, Warrior Duchess

Chapter 20 - A Mirror to the Future

Almost-nine-year-old Octavia NLNY (No Last Name Yet) sat at her desk at the Temple of Saehrimnir Orphanage for Exceptional Girls. She was in her room, a room she shared with Brynhildur, an ice-cold bitch from Hofvogur in Elbreshowth on the Moor. Octavia was supposed to be hard at work learning the Vespil language. Vespil is a language used only in Vespil, where it gives the speakers an unearned feeling of moral superiority over non-speakers of Vespil. It's also used to talk behind people's backs. "Elle a de beaux nichons" is a favorite of Vespil-speaking men. Octavia couldn't wait until she heard that whispered behind her back. She looked in the mirror on her desk and wondered when that would be.

She glanced over her shoulder at Brynhildur, who was at her own desk brushing her hair. Two hundred strokes on her long, bright blond mane every night. She wasn't paying attention, so Octavia tried a spell she had heard being discussed in a lecture hall at the Temple University of Mystic Arts, which is in the same building as the Temple Prep School for Exceptional Young Ladies. She muttered the spell under her breath and looked in the mirror again. At first she could see herself, then the image changed and soon instead of seeing herself, she saw the entrance to the main library from the Temple itself. She was looking in her mirror, but the image reflected was from a mirror mounted in the university library. But it wasn't what was happening now. Now was three in the afternoon, the library she was seeing was dark, like it was night.

As she studied the image, a young god appeared from the temple. He was very tall, but to an eight-going-on-nine-year-old girl, all men are very tall. He was wearing the finery presented to him by King Uric II. Threadbare though it was, it radiated that something that royals seem to have when they're dressed up.

He wore a red and green tartan kilt, which was ultra cool. As far as Octavia was concerned, all men should wear kilts. (It was the tartan of the Wægn Duchy but Octavia didn't know that) He carried a sheathed sword on the left hip and a matching long dagger on the right (gifts from the King of Barrtou, a way of saying "Thank you for saving the entire world" without the sentiment costing too much) his tunic was covered by a leather and rough spun wool sash with a badge of the Office of the Dominus, Tyrant of Torwin-Armistad, another thanks for saving everything which clearly cost nothing.

He wore a slouch hat with huge dingaroo fangs tucked in a crockelgator hide hatband, the right side of the brim pinned up with the Black Mountain badge of Queen Elinor's elite guard featured a bright red tail plume from a Bovukan Roc, a huge bird of prey, and a cork from a wine bottle dangled from a string from the edge of the brim signifying membership in the Elite Bush Wizards of Bovuka. But that was just stuff. The man was, in young Octavia's estimation, worthy! He was handsome to the point of being cute, with a close-cropped beard that featured a bare streak down his cheek signifying a battle scar, and a crockelgator hide eyepatch over his left eye.

This man was able to radiate the current buzzword in school, "worthy" in unprecedented amounts. "Worthy" was a term that rocketed through The Temple of Saehrimnir Prep School for Exceptional Young Ladies, mowing down all other adjectives in its wake. "Worthy" could not be defined or quantified, especially for a pre-teen, but it exists, and in this case, applies. What is Worthy? Worthy defies description, yet the girls of The Temple of Saehrimnir Prep School for Exceptional Young Ladies know that some people have it, while most people don't. This walking cause of aching nipples personified the definition of worthy.

Then a woman followed him out of the temple into the library, and she was even more worthy! Long flowing brunette hair and she too wore the kilt in the tartan of the Duchy of Wægn showing off long perfect legs. She also wore the sash of Torwin-Armistad. What made her even more worthy was that she was armed! She carried a rapier on the left hip, and a musket on her right hip. Her hat was similar to the man's slouch hat, but hers was black, with the same badge of Queen Elinor's Black Mountain Elite Guard. She lacked the Bovuka cork and the (so worthy) eyepatch, but her hat was decorated with a tail plume from the Great Bovukan Roc, but hers was brilliant green. Together, their plumes personified the colors of the tartan of the Wægn Duchy. It took young Octavia a long minute to recognize the woman.

"That's me!" squealed Octavia.

"Vas?" demanded Brynhildur, and she stormed over to Octavia's side of the room to see what Octavia was up to. "Vas ist los?"

"That's me!" hissed Octavia as if the woman on the other side of the mirror could hear her... because she could.

"Nien," hissed Brynhildur. "She could not be you, look at das titten."

She was right; the woman had big boobs. The man she was with was out of sight returning a book, and the woman came up to the mirror in the library to adjust her makeup... then she saw. It's impossible; those on the other side can't see through this spell.

Octavia smiled a thousand-megawatt smile and leaned over and blew her younger self a kiss then said, "Hi Brunny!" a nickname Octavia used for Brynhildur. Older Octavia's greeting made Brynhildur gasp in shock.

"Is that our Prince Charming?" young Octavia asked in a whisper.

"Close, he's a Duke..." then older Octavia put her hand on her tummy and added, "... and the father of our baby!"

Young Octavia's eyes grew enormous as dinner plates, and certain parts of herself melted when the Duke entered the picture and smiled at her... he could see her too! He tipped the brim of his hat at her, and young Octavia along with a young Brynhildur drew a shuddering breath. Then he pointed at her book and said, "Étudiez dur, rendez-nous fiers." (Study hard, make us proud.)

"Oh, oui Monsieur," she sighed as her older self and her future Duke swept out of the library followed by a full-grown wolf who said, "Hey toots!" to her as he walked by, but that wasn't possible because dogs can't talk.

"Was that you?" gasped Brynhildur.

"It was," crooned Octavia.

"That was your future husband?"

"I want lots of children," said Octavia with a happy sigh.

<><><><><>

"That was the first time I did any magic of consequence," said Octavia. "I used a mirror to reflect on the events of the future." Nick and Octavia were waiting at the main entrance to the Temple for a coach to take them to the Diplomat's Ball.

"That was you in your dormitory room?" asked Nick.

"Yes, me and my roommate Brynhildur."

"Where is she now?"

"She's married to a second prince in Wädensdris," said Octavia.

"And you were married to a king. You win." said Nick.

"I was top in my class, but no. Brunny has two sons, the eldest has a potential to become king. She wins."

Nick and Octavia waited at the main entrance to the Temple until their coach pulled up and the coachman opened the door for them. "Yer grace," he said as he held an umbrella for Octavia. Nick followed behind her, and as the coachman closed the door, Pepin hopped in before the door was shut. All three were soaked from the rain, but the coachman left towels in the coach for them to dry off with.

"Pepin, don't shake!" groused Nick as he rubbed down Pepin with a towel.

"I thought you weren't coming," said Octavia as she wiped the mud off of her riding boots.

"You had mentioned the B-word, and I said, "Not me," but when it started to rain it became a moot point." Pepin rolled over on his back and let Nick dry off his tummy. This was the best part of drying off.

"B word?" asked Octavia.

"Bath," said Nick, "we've always had a problem with the B word."

"You know we're going to have children," said Octavia. "They love giving dogs a bath."

"Please tell me you're only having one litter," groaned Pepin from under the seat box.

It was a short ride from the Unseen University to the Dominus' palace, and luckily there was a covered entrance, so they weren't soaked by the rain again. "Tonight, I need you to stay by my side at all times," hissed Nick.

"So, I can be a good puppy? Should I have a pink rhinestone collar?"

"No, you are my familiar, a force to be reckoned with, too dangerous to be allowed to get too close to the unworthy."

"Dangerous, I like that," said Pepin as they stood at the top of a grand staircase overlooking the lavish reception that the Dominus was hosting. The reception happened twice a year, and the late summer reception was always the one to be seen at for the Kodu's "brightest and best." The Dominus used this as an occasion to watch the interactions between the "movers and shakers" of the Edux continent, who is avoiding whom, and who is surreptitiously passing information to whom else.

"I don't want to be here," whispered Nick out of the side of his mouth.

"Our king sent us to represent Uduithia," Octavia reminded him. "Smile, nod your head, don't talk, and avoid the seafood."

Sighing in defeat, he handed a card to the herald, who read the card and said, "Your grace, this last..."

"If you can't read it please find someone who can help you with the big words," said Nick with what he hoped was a snotty, arrogant tone of voice. His youth was wasted here, in the gutter, watching the nobs and fops in their finery coming and going. He survived by eating their trash and hiding under their grand carriages just to get out of the rain. He wanted to slap every one of them.

The herald looked at the card Nick had given him and tried not to vomit. He started with a normal tone of voice. "His grace..."

Octavia slammed the butt of her wizard's staff, Virga, into his foot and growled in an unearthly-sounding voice, "LOUDLY! Or you'll never walk again!"

"HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF WÆGN AND WIZARD TO THE COURT OF UDUITHIA, LADY OCTAVIA STEIN, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS GRACE, SIR NICHOLAS STEIN, THE DUKE OF WÆGN, SLAYER OF GODS, SAVIOR OF KODU, AND WITCH OF THE SEVENTH OUTPOURING, AND HIS FAMILIAR, PEPIN, THE WONDER WOLF."

"See? That wasn't so hard." Octavia smiled sweetly as they descended into a crowd of people who were surprised by the herald's outburst. As they descended the stairs, she whispered to Nick, "I always wanted to do this."

"Do what? Go to a stuffy gathering with two hundred people that hate you?"

"No, this!" She waved her hand and cast a defensive spell over the building. "Unhappy kitchen and wait staff tend to spit on the food they're serving."

Suddenly, servers throughout the room dropped their trays in horror, as the canapes and appetizers that they were serving suddenly started to react. All food items that someone in the kitchen or ballroom staff had spit on started to turn green and dissolve into a disgusting ichor. Shrieks and shouts of horror filled the room as the food that was spit upon dissolved in the hands of the guests and, in a few cases, their mouths. "Just a little defensive spell," giggled Octavia sweetly.

Smiling at the uproar they caused, Nick and Octavia descended into the chaos, fighting back their grins of triumph. Above the fray, the Dominus Orazio Laurita and his secretary Stuart la Fountaine watched the mayhem below. "Interesting choice for the guest list," said Stuart.

The Dominus merely allowed a wisp of a smile to cross his lips. "I like them, do be sure to invite them more often."

"I didn't invite them, I thought you did."

"Mister la Fountain, find me the guest list," The Dominus's voice was still as smooth as oil, but just as deadly if you are not paying attention.

Down among the movers and shakers of Torwin-Armistad, Nick and Octavia smiled and moved like clipper ships on a glass sea, nodding and greeting people they didn't know and cared less about. A man in a very expensive tuxedo came up and apologized, "I am sorry but our service for this evening was obviously delivered to some other function and we received..."

"Please, stop with the excuses," said Octavia softly. "I did all that."

"YOU?"

Nick nodded and smiled happily. "She's really a wizard."

Octavia smiled and said, "I just cast a minor spell to show your guests what food your kitchen staff and wait staff spit on."

"I refuse to believe my staff would ever do such a thing."

"How about..." Octavia thought for a moment, then a huge grin spread across her face. "How about if I turn the skin of everyone who spit on the food you paid for, purple."

While the man sputtered and continued to make excuses, Octavia waved her hand, and suddenly screaming could be heard from the kitchen. Pans and trays clattered and clanged as they were dropped by screaming employees. "You best go check that out," said Nick. Then he held his arm up for Octavia to take, and he led her to someone else that needed deflating.

Dominus Laurita studied the guest list and then watched Nick and Octavia at their first public outing in Torwin-Armistad. They moved through the crowd, smiling politely, while women recoiled in terror from Pepin. (To be fair, he was growling and showing his teeth to see who would scream.) "It appears that our magical friends were a last minute addition, it's almost as if somebody wanted them off of their mountain for the evening."

<><><><><>

Orazio Laurita was right; plans were coming to fruition and somebody needed Nick and Octavia elsewhere. Rifty Peregrine thought that the duke was a mind reader... or there was a spy. The thought angered him to no end until he had a visitor from an old retainer, Reiseth Chaincoat. "We've got a spy," said Rifty to Reinseth over a bottle of Old Mudder's Finest Poteen.

"You got a foin crew," slurred Reiseth. "All of them are underhanded to a dwarf. Not a spy among 'em, except for the ones yer blackmailing and they're too scared to talk."

"So what is it? Is Stein a mind reader?"

Reiseth Chaincoat just shook his head sadly. "Clearly ye didn't study up for this assignment."

"What do you mean?"

The ancient dwarf took a swig from the jug and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Why do ye think they call him Godslayer?"

Rifty shrugged. "He's disruptive in church?"

"He slayed a god ye damn dolt!"

"That's impossible," said Rifty with a laugh.

"That's impossible for a human, and a dwarf, and an elf... but is it impossible for a dingaroo?"

"A what? There's no such thing!"

"Aye, there is lad. In the far off land of Bovuka they roam the plains in packs."

"There's no such place as Bovuka!" said Rifty with a laugh.

"You can listen and learn or I can leave now," said Reiseth Chaincoat.

"Ok, what do you have to say."

"The dingaroo is not the most fearsome beast in the land of Bovuka, but one did attack Nick. He was on the run; he was being chased by entire armies. He was the king's guard for the King of Breaze and when the king was killed, he grabbed the queen and ran. Somehow he ended up in Bovuka being attacked by a Dingaroo. He survived but he ever forgot. Months later he was face to face with the mad god Zeddicus defendin' his lady love. When all seemed lost he suddenly turned into a dingaroo and went crazy on Zeddicus. He dam near clawed the god in half, then he took the swords given to him by the king and jammed one in the god's heart and the other in the god's brain. For the first time a human killed a god and all the other gods took notice."

"So, he can turn into a dingerey-do? How does he do that?"

"Dingaroo, yes. No one knows how he does it. Some say his woman gives him the power. Some say the goddess Saatus gave him the power because she was angry at Zeddicus. He's known to turn into a dragon, he likes to turn into big cats, Snow Cross Mountain Lions. What he really likes to become is a Black Eagle."

The black eagle! Rifty remembered their first day when that idiot Groin shot a black eagle. Was that the duke? Nick was walking around favoring one arm, and then they didn't see him again for a while. Now that Rifty Peregrine knew the duke could take the form of an animal, like an eagle during the day, or an owl at night, he was able to see everything they did. It was no wonder that this dig was going so slow. The dwarf paced back and forth every night, wondering how the Duke always seemed to know what his plans were. Rifty was totally clueless until Reiseth told him the tale of how Nick saved the disc by calling on some unknown magical powers and took the shape of a strange animal and ripped open a god's body.

Rifty became a paranoid freak. Eagles, owls, deer, cougars, squirrels, sparrows, they all became his enemies. He was once worried about spies, but now he realized it was magical surveillance by a male witch. He had to outwit the duke. Unfortunately for Rifty Peregrine, he's not capable of doing that.

Unfortunately, Rifty was wrong about everything. After being told by the king to stay on his own side of the mountain, Nick obeyed the king and left it up to spies on the north side of the mountain to keep him informed. Rifty was so focused on the potential of Nick taking the shape of an animal that he ignored the spies who didn't even bother to hide their activities.

Silver and Wayne Metsker were making pretty good money operating the Monday/Thursday ox trains; several farmers took turns with the Tuesday/Friday ox trains. They'd take a train of eight oxen pulling four wagons from Elm Springs to the Black Mountain mine site. While the dwarves were offloading the supplies for the mine, Silver would strike up a conversation, and the conversation would last while the dwarves loaded up the coal and other items. How's the dig going? Is the strike going to last longer? Is the food good? Is there anything else they need? Sometimes they had a sack or two of gemstones.

Meanwhile, Wayne would talk to Rifty to see if there was anything that needed to be ordered for the mine. Wayne acted concerned over Rifty's troubles, and Rifty opened up to him, talking about his worries and problems. When the wagons were loaded, Wayne and Silver would head back to Elm Springs. Silver Metsker was a beautiful woman, and the dwarves loved to talk to her; they didn't hold back. On the way back to Elm Springs, she and Wayne would write down everything the dwarves said and give that information to Nick when they returned to the village. It was all in the open, and Rifty never noticed.

The only thing Rifty didn't talk to the ox train crews about was Operation Eagle Drop.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 21 - Eagle Drop

Rifty was persistent. His plan, Eagle Drop, went as unnoticed as possible, but those in the know "knew" that Rifty was planning to set off his plan on the north side of Black Mountain. They were wrong. Rifty was both stupid and desperate, a bad combination. As soon as his team was trained, he sent them to the south side of the mountain, followed eventually by Horatio Tinsmith, the young wizard who engineered the plan.

The team crept to the pre-selected meadow, an opening in the trees near the plot farmed by Eric MacClenny and his wife Lala. The Eagle Drop team of dwarves spent long hours sneaking under the trees, through canyons, around lakes, and scaling cliffs to hike from the Black Mountain Mine on the north side of the mountain to the meadow unnoticed. Once there, they went to work. Lookouts were posted and an intricate system of signals was set up for the lookouts, who would creep up to the MacClenny Farm and make sure that the farmworkers didn't notice the dwarves.

The duke and duchess were gone for the evening; the Peregrine and Aegir Mining Company pulled a lot of political strings and called in many favors to get Nick and Octavia occupied so the dwarves could move in the open. They worked as fast as any dwarf has ever worked in the high meadow on the south side of the mountain, where they would meet up with the young wizard Horatio Tinsmith.

They dug several deep foxholes to hide the ammunition and the shooters. They hauled the loose dirt away from the meadow and scattered it under the trees of the forest, and covered the loose dirt with leaves so it wouldn't be seen. Using nets, they built covers over the foxholes and covered the nets with leaves. They dug a pit big enough to hide the "Catch Team" -- a team of trained and skilled dwarves. They hid, waiting eagerly for the eagle to fall.

In her foxhole, the top shooter, the number one dwarf with a crossbow, prayed and wept. Eryri Brawnkin prayed continuously to Livi, the god of Lost Hope. He was a minor god, assuredly, but he existed, and he heard her fervent prayers. In that damp, lonely foxhole, Livi responded to the sorrowful dwarf maiden. "Beloved Eryri, whence springs thy ceaseless supplication?"

"My husband," she said as the tears flowed. Wasn't he paying attention? "My husband Dradduc and my son Tuzmas. I haven't heard from them for nearly a year!" she wept so hard that her stomach hurt.

"Seek ye the sylvan sanctuary, the Temple of the Woods with utmost alacrity. There communion with the divine awaits."

"Yes, my lord." She made up her mind. As soon as the sun came up, she would leave. She would walk down to Elm Springs and worship at the Temple of the Woods, where the gods would speak to her.

<><><><><>

Horatio Tinsmith was nearly asleep on horseback as he followed the road that went around Black Mountain and crossed over Shrieking Bitch Pass on the east side of the mountain, he was trailing an ox train that was hauling coal and salt from the Black Mountain Mine to Elm Springs then on to Waleston, the capital of Uduithia. (Shrieking Bitch Pass was named by an explorer who was kept awake nights by the howling of the coyotes)

The young wizard grinned as the sun started to come up while he rode into the pre-selected mountain meadow - perfect timing! He came to a halt in the middle of the field, hopped off the horse, then took a stake and a wooden mallet from the saddle bag and set the stake in the ground with a few hearty whacks with the mallet and tied the horse to the stake. Several paces away, he lay down, opened a book to read, mostly to keep from falling asleep.

The hidden dwarves saw Horatio tie down his horse and lay down looking like he was thrown, so they let the wizard Horatio Tinsmith know it was time to start. "Ready," a dwarf called out.

In the middle of the meadow was a pile of leaves. Horatio pointed his staff at the leaf pile, and clouds of smoke oozed from the pile without burning the leaves. Hopefully, this would attract the attention they needed.

<><><><><>

A few miles to the west, on the south face of Black Mountain, the new demi-giant laborers Bertie and Dexter were finishing their morning chores. They still hadn't decided if this concept of working for a living was working out for them, but they were having fun with the chickens and the ducks searching for eggs. Bertie had carried a bucket of milk to the cold cellar, a bit of the most amazing magic he had ever seen.

One side of the cellar under the duke's cottage was cold, not freezing, but cool enough to store vegetables and meat. The other side of the cellar was freezing. In there hung sides of beef and venison for future consumption. Large shanks of meat wrapped in butcher's paper awaited thawing and the grill fire. And this frozen bounty was generously shared with the five demi-giants who worked the duke's farms.

Climbing out of the cold cellar was when he saw clouds forming to the east... but they weren't clouds, they reached down to touch the base of the mountain. "What the hell is that?" muttered Dexter, who saw the clouds as well.

"That's fire," said Bertie.

"That can't be fire, fire is orange and yellow."

"That's smoke from a fire." Sometimes it was a pain being the smart one of the team, thought Bertie.

"Can't be. If it were smoke from a fire you'd be telling the duchess by now," said Dexter. Sometimes it was a pain being the smart one on the team. They argued back and forth until they reached the cottage door and banged on it. "Yer grace! We think there's a fire!"

Nick was at the door pulling on his kilt in a very short moment. "Where is it... holy crap." In the distance was a column of pure white smoke rising straight up into the clear blue sky. "Ok, I'll get Octavia's Ralli cart out of the shed, you guys go get rakes and shovels."

"Right!" Soon they had the equipment needed, but neither knew how to connect the cart to a horse. As they were puzzling out the belts, Bertie eventually said, "Yer grace, this is a bit of a mute point not havin' a horse and all... just sayin'."

"That's a moot point," said Nick, who was pulling the cart up next to the front porch of the cottage.

"Like I said."

Just then Octavia stepped out of the cottage with her leather riding cape covering her gingham dress and said, "No one drives my Ralli cart but me."

Dex and Bertie turned back to the Ralli cart and instead of Nick standing between the traces, there was a horse. They looked at each other and shrugged, then Octavia showed them how to buckle all the straps. As the horse was readied, Octavia put two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle that echoed off the mountains. The whistle was answered by another whistle from up where Hugues, Alfie, and Carl were cutting firewood. The answering whistle also included the barking of Pepin.

"Ok, let's go," said Octavia, and she climbed up on the cart. Dexter sat next to her, and Bertie sat on the back looking backwards. With a flick of the reins, they were headed toward the column of smoke. "What's the horses name?" asked Dex. Dexter didn't particularly like horses, but he was entranced with the idea that he could speak to royalty. The Duchess was just two steps down from queen!

"I call him Honey," said Octavia as they came up to the edge of their property line. "Get the gate, will you?" Bertie hopped down and opened the gate that left just enough clearance for the Ralli cart to get through, then they were on Eric MacClenny's property and back on the chase. "Nobody gets hurt," said Octavia. "If the fire gets out of control we let it go and cut fire lines ahead of the fire."

"Yes ma'am," said Bertie, who turned around and was kneeling on the back of the cart looking forward.

They got as close to the smoke as they could. There were several hundred yards of forest between them and the smoke, but the Ralli cart couldn't make it through the woods. "I suppose we walk from here," said Octavia.

Bertie and Dexter hopped off the cart and collected up the shovels and rakes, then turned just in time to see the horse become Nick. "Stay here, I'm going to go take a look."

"Cor!" gasped Dexter and Bertie.

"What's up boss?" asked Pepin, who dashed up to the Ralli cart. "Hugues, Alfie and Carl are following but they're as slow as..." and Pepin let it drop there under the glare from Octavia.

"Blimey!" gasped Dexter and Bertie.

Nick and Octavia conversed silently as their lips met. "That smoke isn't spreading and the forest is dry here. This fire should be bigger," said Nick as he took Octavia into his arms.

"Don't. Please don't," she was pleading with him. Something was wrong; this column of smoke just wasn't right. "Send Dex and Bertie."

"I can't trust them yet, and neither can you. I'm just going to take a quick peek and be right back."

"Marlon needs you to come back to us," she said out loud as their lips parted and their eyes drank in the sight of each other. Then Nick crouched, kissed her tummy and ran toward the fire. Suddenly he was the symbol of the kingdom and the symbol of his duchy, the Uduithia Black Eagle.

Dex and Bertie gasped as Nick flew off, an eagle with black plumage, talons, and beak. The only other color was the gold ring around his right eye, his solid gold left eye, and the silver key-shaped mark on his crest. He gained altitude with powerful beats of his wings, then he turned back and flew a figure eight over Octavia, and the words he spoke to her the first time they made love came back to her mind...

"This is the figure eight, the sign of perfection, the sign of Octavia, the sign of my love for you. It's the symbol of infinity, which is the length of time I will love you."

"I love you too!" Octavia cried, and she waved, then Nick turned north still clawing for altitude with each stroke of his wings. Trying to keep her husband in sight, Octavia backed away from the tree line so she could see him. She also noticed Dexter and Bertie staring open-mouthed at Nick's retreating image.

"What, you guys never see a bird before?" asked Pepin, who paced nervously by the Ralli cart.

"I heard that the duke could do that too," said Bertie, who decided to ignore the fact that it was a dog talking to him.

"Seriously?" asked Pepin. "Nick is the duke."

"He can't be no royal," said Dexter, who had years of knowledge and experience when it came to royals, mostly from standing in their courtrooms. "He's too... real. He's one of the guys."

"Of course, he's real. Nick and I grew up together on Barrel Street in Armistad," said Pepin.

"Bertie and I come from the Tubes," said Dexter. "I was brought up on Shankly Street."

"Knacker's Yard Lane," said Bertie. "Poor Bertie" thought Pepin.

Knacker's Yard Lane was just a couple of blocks from the slaughterhouses, downwind and downhill. The gutters on Knacker's Yard Lane ran red from gore and ichor, and the air was filled with the stench and the shrieks of the animals being slaughtered. Young Bertie was allowed to come home after his mother finished servicing her afternoon customers, and he would be covered in blood, because as a child he spent his day playing in the gutters that were filled with cattle and pigs' blood.

Octavia was shaking. She felt that something was wrong, horribly wrong. She placed her hand on her tummy and concentrated on remaining calm. She whispered to the baby in her womb, "it's ok Marlon, daddy will be right back."

Above them, Nick was still fighting for altitude, then when he decided he was high enough to remain safe. Then he locked his wings and started gliding toward the smoke. He was studying the fire, the eyes of the eagle were incredible, he could see every detail from the altitude he was at, and he could see that it wasn't a fire, there were no flames coming from that pile of leaves, just smoke, and not far from the leaf pile was a horse standing in the meadow, his rider nearby on the ground, clearly the guy needed help. Nick circled trying to determine if the guy was hurt, then he noticed that the horse was staked out and the guy was looking up at Nick smiling and... OH SHIT!

Back at the Ralli cart, Octavia felt rather than heard Nick's shout of surprise, and she cried out in anguish. Pepin dove toward the distant column of smoke, but Bertie shouted, "STOP!" With a shocked whimper, Pepin stopped. "Stay with the Duchess!" ordered Bertie, and he ran toward the smoke followed by Dexter.

Nick saw dwarves pour out from under what appeared to be a bush, their crossbows loaded and firing up at him. He was concentrating so much on the guy on the ground, who he thought was injured, that he didn't notice the fake bushes covering the holes filled with dwarves. Shit Shit Shit Shit SHIT! What do I do? What do I do?

"Honey what's wrong?" Octavia sounded like she was next to Nick. They can communicate wordlessly, magically, across any distance. Even a continent apart, they're always together.

"Get off the mountain!" came his reply. "Go to the castle!"

"What? NO!" and Octavia began weeping and pacing in front of the Ralli cart.

That was enough for Pepin. As a winded Hugues, Alfie and Carl arrived, and Pepin ordered, "Protect the duchess!" and with a blood-curdling snarl he dashed off into the trees.

Nick saw a pair of crossbow bolts come up at him, and he panicked. What do I do? The only thing that came to mind was, "Let the eagle fly." When he changes bodies, the psyche of the animal he's inhabiting exists, like Agness sharing the body of an owl, the difference being that while Aunt Agness is "sharing" an existing animal's body, Nick is the animal. Powerful magic, ancient, long forgotten magic, makes him the animal of his choice, and the animal is all there, waiting for Nick to give it permission to act.

Now with the eagle in charge, the eagle's superior nervous system slowed the bolts coming up at him; the eagle easily avoided the first bolt then turned and dove to gain speed to avoid the second bolt. He heard a pop behind him followed by another pop. The sky was filling with little white clouds from the magically enhanced crossbow bolts, and although Nick didn't know what those little clouds were, he and his eagle agreed to avoid them; they had to be bad.

He had speed now, and the trees were still far below; it was time. "Comin' home baby!" he called to Octavia, and the eagle strained to get out of there. Another bolt zipped past him, and again the eagle turned to avoid a second bolt that zipped up in front of him.

Far below Nick, Eryri Brawnkin raised her crossbow and calculated. She adjusted her aim for the eagle's speed and direction. She led the eagle until her training told her, "Now!" and she squeezed the trigger. The bolt soared straight and true and headed for Nick.

The eagle knew that the bolt wasn't going to hit it; it was going to shoot up in front of the eagle; the bird felt safe... Then there was a pop and the bolt created a cloud of powder that the eagle flew through and immediately Nick realized that was a mistake. The powder burned the eagle's nostrils; it created a flavor in the eagle's mouth that tasted of metal and magic, and Nick realized that he wasn't going home. He made one last call out to Octavia...

"Façade... my baby, I'm sorry..."

Back where Octavia was standing, all four were watching Nick the eagle circling over the forest when suddenly the eagle started jinking about as the sky filled with white puffs and suddenly the eagle fell out of the sky. Octavia started shrieking, "NICK!"

Deep in the forest, Pepin gave an unearthly howl, which was answered by other wolves... help was coming.

Nick was still falling from the sky when Hugues shouted, "Carl, grab an axe and follow me. Alfie, stay with the duchess. If anything happens to the duchess I will chop pieces off of you that can never be sewn back on." He started through the trees, following Pepin's cries. "Carl! MOVE!" Demi-giants are not known to be sprinters; they'll run long distances at an easy jog, but now they were dashing through the woods, mowing down saplings in their way.

Below the eagle the young wizard Horatio Tinsmith was shouting orders at the dwarves directing their fire, they had to get it right because if they miss they're not going to get another shot, the Peregrine and Aegir Mining Company will be bankrupt by the end of the month and the duke will kick them out of his duchy, if he lets them live. Then the miracle happened.

"Got 'im!" cried a dwarf. "She got 'im!"

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Chapter 22 - Aftermath

As if in a dream, Horatio watched the eagle twist into an impossible turn just as a bolt exploded in its path. The eagle flew through the cloud, and it never leveled out. Its wings furled, and the mighty raptor began its plunge to the ground. "Great shot!" cried Horatio as he and five dwarves got under the falling eagle with a blanket. "Who fired that?"

"It was Eryri!" someone cried, and a few more cries of "Aye! It were Eryri Brawnkin!" were heard among the shooters.

Horatio had more to worry about at the moment. The eagle came soaring down through the tree branches and the young wizard was afraid that they would lose sight of it and not catch it, or it would bounce off a branch and careen away from the blanket they held open, but luck continued with him and the eagle landed in the middle of the blanket.

It was heavier than they expected, but other than being semiconscious and dazed, it appeared to be in perfect health. The glossy black plumage was undamaged from its plunge through the tree branches.

Horatio could feel its heartbeat and labored breathing when he put his hand on the eagle's breast.

"Let me see," said Eryri Brawnkin as she muscled her way through the surrounding crowd.

"Congratulations Dwarf Brawnkin," said Horatio in his snotty Torwin accent, "you bring honor to your clan!" and he handed Eryri a one-ki coin, the monetary equivalent of a Torwin-Armistad one-dollar coin for the Xuantang Empire. The main difference between the two coins is that the Torwin-Armistad dollar coin contains the equivalent amount of gold as a pint of seawater; the ki contains four ounces of 99.999% pure gold. Eryri could start her own mining company with that coin... but more important is the return of her family. Then she looked at the eagle, and she saw sorrow in the eagle's golden eye.

Eryri now felt ashamed for bringing down the eagle. She turned the heavy coin over and over in her hand, looking for a way out of this insanity, but a voice that no one else noticed demanded that she stay. Eryri looked again at the eagle, and it was fighting against the magical drug that dropped it from the sky. Do it! Fight against it! Eryri was silently cheering the eagle on.

Two dwarves now held the eagle as it fought its way out of unconsciousness. Many dwarves that looked at the eagle remarked on the odd key shaped tuft of silver plumage on the eagles breast, and if the sun caught his feathers just right, there was a ring of deep, rich mahogany feathers around his neck that looked like a collar to hold the key. But what amazed the dwarves most was that the eagle's left eye was solid gold. Horatio Tinsmith wasn't amazed at the silver key and the golden eye; all that mattered to him was that Eagle Drop was a success so far. He was amazed that the eagle was fighting against the mana-induced sleep. Now comes the part that the eagle is going to hate. "Get the silk!" he cried.

Dwarves disdain silk, so soft and smooth to the touch - disgusting! A dwarf likes to feel the leather-bound grip of a warhammer, or the splintered wooden grip of an old pickaxe. However, a brave dwarf brought forth a length of silk, and Horatio wrapped the silk around the eagle's body, holding its wings against its sides. Then he pulled a pair of crimpers from his pack and a C-ring of bright purple metal. "Hold him tight, he's probably going to hate this."

"Tell Façade Incognito that I love her," said a sorrowful voice in Eryri's head.

"We got him," said a dwarf, and with a quick squeeze of the crimpers, the eagle had a bright purple ring loosely fitted to its right leg. The eagle was no longer able to fight. The ring on his leg took away his ability to battle off the magic-enabled drugs, and it merely let out a long crow of despair and slumped into a drug-induced slumber. Moments later, a feminine shriek from downhill echoed through the forest. It was a shocking echo of the eagle's groan of surrender.

"What does that ring do?" asked a concerned Eryri Brawnkin.

"It's made of shonyx, some people call it red iron. It's a metal with strong mana consumptive properties, it is actually an inhibitor, absorbing all local free and quantified mana particles," said Horatio as he eased the bound eagle into a pack. He hoped that his explanation was both thoroughly complex and incomprehensible and that the tone of his voice communicated the fact that if you asked any more questions, then you were stupid beyond contempt and would be ignored.

"The eagle is magic." It wasn't a question. Eryri knew that mana was the basic unit of magic, so any word that starts with "mana" is referring to magic.

"Let's go!" shouted Horatio, ignoring Eryri. "Take only what you need, get back to the mine!" He had the eagle in a ventilated backpack and was already on horseback.

"Should we break up the cross bows?"

"Don't waste time! Just go!" He should have added, leave no dwarf behind, don't give the duchess reason to have them all executed, but he believed they understood that. Of course, he was wrong, and he will pay for that oversight. Horatio spurred his horse and rode off as the dwarves made their preparations to leave. They threw their boxes of crossbow bolts and crossbows into the pit and dropped the netting, which did a good job of covering the pit, all the while Eryri Brawnkin stared at the gold piece in her hand.

"He was the duke," gasped Eryri. "We just captured a member of the king's court... they can hang us for this."

"We caught a bird that some bird fancier wanted, he called it the Golden Dragon," said a dwarf who was pulling on his backpack.

"Probably because of its eye," said another dwarf.

"An' it was an asshole," growled another.

"NO!" cried Eryri. She heard the shouting of men approaching. Some were yelling, "Stop!" Another was yelling "Bark!" Eryri realized she needed to tell somebody; she must let them know, and she ran towards the sounds. As she ran, she felt a sharp, intense pain in her back and heard a pop. She fell and was unconscious before she hit the ground, but she remembered a metallic taste in her mouth.

"What the hell is wrong with Eryri?" demanded a Dwarf as they fired bolt after bolt through the trees at the sounds approaching from the pastureland below them. Eventually, the shouting stopped. "At least that idiot stopped yelling 'Bark,'" sighed Grendel as he tossed his crossbow into the pit, and his partner Hunfrid did the same. They pulled on their packs and headed up the mountain back to the mine.

<><><><><>

Octavia was in communication with Nick when he flew into that dust cloud from the crossbow bolt that popped below him. She remembered watching through his eyes the world losing focus, but she still felt him and encouraged him, and she felt his struggle as he fought off the sleep that was overwhelming him and she felt his fight as he was getting stronger, she felt someone else encouraging him, then she felt depression and sorrow and their connection was lost. When she returned to the world, it was just her and Alfie and her screams fading into silence. Nick's constant presence in the back of her mind was gone, and it felt like her right arm was cut off. "Where's Pepin and Dexter," she sadly asked Alfie.

"Don't know yer grace. They went silent." Alfie was staring through the trees, trying to see what had happened to the only friend he ever had.

As they suffered through an aching case of indecision, Octavia's neighbor Eric MacClenny came up riding his old mule. "I heard some noise and saw smoke, and I thought there might be trouble. Is everything all right, ma'am?"

"Nick is missing," said Octavia. Eric saw that her eyes were all swollen and puffy from crying. "We sent the guys to look for him and there's nothing..."

Eric, the fine old gentleman that he is, climbed off his mule and said, "saddle up yer grace, let's go looking for your men."

As they got near the upper meadow, Octavia noticed a tinge of magic in the air, that metallic, slightly greasy feel that let you know that someone was using up a lot of magical energy. Of course, she was using it a lot too. Rather than her riding the mule, they connected her Ralli cart to Dave, Eric MacClenny's mule, and were heading up to the upper meadow, and the trees were moving out of their way with Octavia's magical insistence. She was searching with her eyes and her mind for any sign of Nick or Pepin when Bertie cried, "I found Dexter!"

Octavia hopped down from the cart and dashed over to Dexter and found that he was knocked out by some form of sleeping powder, probably Doctor Skidwell's Magic Sleep Potion. Doctor Skidwell's Magic Sleep Potion had nothing to do with magic; that was just an advertising gimmick. The sleeping powder was sold as a practical joke in Torwin-Armistad and other cities where virtue is a negotiable commodity. But this was fortified with a spell of some kind that was carried on a second powder. Octavia leaned over Dexter and searched with her mind, looking for the mana particles that were keeping the sleep potion active in his body. The thaum, also called mana, is the basic unit of magic. Think of it as a magic atom. They are made up of any number of telltale sub-particles, and that is what she was looking for, the sub-particles that made up the spell that wouldn't release the sleeping powder.

It took a while, but she found it. Her suspicion was right, the gas they inhaled was a mixture of two powders, one was a slightly magical sleeping powder, the other was a basic talcum powder that carried a spell that kept the sleeping powder active until a wizard who knew the spell carried in the harmless talcum powder came to release the locking spell.

Shortly Dexter's eyes fluttered open, and he saw an angel looking down on him... no, not an angel, angels aren't that pretty. "What happened?" he groaned as he tried to sit up.

"You were hit with a magically boosted party trick. It was just cheap knockout powder that's kept active by a first level magic spell." It took her a while to find it because she was looking for a complex solution. In the end, it was two party gags tied to each other. This was something a "butt nugget" (A first year wizarding student) would do.

Octavia realized that she had to find Pepin. Pepin was Nick's true and only friend; they considered each other as brothers, actually. "Dexter, where's the wolf? Where did Pepin go?"

"I don't know, he was way ahead of me, he said he had a dwarf."

"He had a dwarf?"

"I didn't understand it either," said Dex as he got to his feet. His head was spinning, and a headache was starting, but he's experienced worse, generally every Saturday morning. "Up that way, he said he found a dwarf and suddenly someone started shooting at us and I fell down." He led the way uphill to the area he thought he had seen Pepin, and after a little searching, they noticed somebody further uphill.

When Octavia got there, she found a humanoid lying face down in the soft forest floor, which was all pine needles, a crossbow bolt protruding from the dwarf's back. Next to the dwarf lay Pepin. "Oh, no" groaned Octavia. "I can't tell if he's breathing..." She gently placed her hands on the wolf, gently touching the furry body. She had to save him, this most improbable creature. He was her only connection to Nick; she couldn't lose both.

She glanced up and, leaning against a tree, saw Droul, the god of death, waiting his turn to reach out to Pepin. "No!" demanded Octavia. "You're not getting him."

"THAT SEEMS TO BE A PATTERN WITH YOU, YOUR HUSBAND AND MYSELF," said the god of death as he lazily inspected the edge of his impossibly sharp scythe.

"Is my husband on your schedule?" she asked as she leaned down and put her ear to Pepin's muzzle to hear if he was breathing.

"EVERYONE IS ALWAYS ON MY SCHEDULE," said Droul as he faded away.

Hugues and Carl came staggering out of the woods, able to shake off the knockout powder by themselves. They joined Alfie, Dex and Bertie and they watched as Octavia touched the wolf here and there, what she was doing was finding the noxious gas in his body, breaking the bond with the magic spell that was keeping it active, and expelling the trick knockout gas from Pepin's lungs. With every portion she found, she began to worry about what this did to Nick. Being in a bird's body, he wasn't quite as resilient as Pepin, whose body was used to sucking up the toxic fumes of Torwin-Armistad.

"I need my staff," groaned the shaken wizard, and she reached out with her mind. Virga sat forgotten in an oliphant's foot umbrella stand. It sprang to attention and leapt out of the umbrella stand as the front door opened a bit. Virga floated out the front door then launched off the front porch and shot like a rocket over the fields, pastures, then trees to where Octavia waited. It sliced through the tree branches; the snapping and breaking of boughs announced the passage of the wizard's staff. Octavia reached behind her, and Virga slipped into Octavia's open hand. Then Octavia rose and lowered the end of Virga until it nearly touched Pepin. There was a snap, and a little spark jumped from Virga to Pepin, who jumped and yelled, "BARK!"

Laughing and crying at the same time, Octavia knelt and hugged the wolf whom she refuses to accept as a brother-in-law, but she still loves him. "Damn it princess," he growled, "I was just taking a nap."

"Naptime is over, we have to find Nick."

At the same time, Eric was poking around the small mountain meadow. By following the footprints and the trampled-over grass, he discovered the dwarves' pit, which was full of crossbows, crossbow bolts, and cases of canned rat meat. He showed his findings to Octavia as she arrived. "Looks like enough to equip a small army," she gasped.

"If we have dwarves crawling over this mountain, that's exactly what you're going to need, your grace."

<><><><><>

The chilled side of the cellar of their cottage, which was once filled mostly with cans, jars, sleds, snowshoes, and other impossible to fathom items. They were impossible to fathom for Octavia, who had never experienced a winter in the Snow Cross Mountains. Now the cellar also contained the items the dwarves left behind, swords, large daggers, crossbows, boxes of bolts, both pointed and gas, and cases of canned rat meat and several flat rocks that Pepin tried to convince Octavia were Dwarf Bread, and an unconscious female dwarf.

"Where is Nick? He should have been back by now," sighed Octavia as she leaned over the dazed dwarf, inspecting her to make sure she was alive. "Last time he was gone he was back by now." Ever since Octavia had returned home, she acted like she was no longer in touch with reality. She spent her time wandering around the empty cottage looking for Nick, sitting in the basement staring at the unconscious dwarf, or lying on her empty bed weeping.

"You know princess, for a genius level wizard, you can be really dumb," said Pepin.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"What I mean is if you unfreeze that dwarf she may answer all your questions."

"What if..." This is where Octavia got stuck every time.

"What if she says something you don't want to hear?" asked Pepin. When Octavia fumbled for an answer, Pepin said, "You haven't given her that chance."

"Ok," she groaned. How will she tell this dwarf that she's been stored in the basement with the canned goods for days? She laid the dwarf down on the dirt floor and began searching its body for the thaum-enhanced particles of knockout powder.

"Is this how you did it in your sorority?" asked Pepin with a snicker.

"NO," Octavia almost screamed. Knock-out powder was a hazard of sorority life in Torwin-Armistad schools, but you could always fight it and cure yourself... unless the guy who knocked you out was cute... "This jerk put a lock on this when he boosted it with a spell. The maker of the spell is the only one that can unlock it, so I have to pick the lock."

"Hugues and Carl shook it off by themselves," Pepin remarked.

"They didn't get a full whiff of the powder. The knockout powder is lighter, separated on the wind and traveled farther than the powder with the magic boost," said Octavia as she concentrated on the dwarf. "When you were shot the bolt went off right in front of your big nose, you got a full breath of this poison."

"Where did you learn all this medical magic? Did they teach it to you at the wizard school?"

"There is no medical magic," said Octavia as she used medical magic to awaken the dwarf.

"You used medical magic when you took the crossbow bolt out of her lung."

"There's no such thing as medical magic," insisted Octavia.

"Tell that to the Dwarf you saved."

The dwarf coughed a few times and looked at Octavia. "Am I in prison?"

Octavia acted stoic for a long time as she and the dwarf sat facing each other on the dirt floor, the only light in the cellar a single candle. "Should you be?" Pepin asked.

"Yes," gasped the dwarf. "I was just trying to save my husband and my son, but when the eagle spoke to me I knew... when I heard the humans coming I ran to them and then... then I woke up here."

"What were you saving your husband and son from?"

"The manager, that bastard, Rifty Peregrine, he said he had my husband, my boy and if I didn't shoot the eagle he would kill them."

"He has your family?"

"Yes, that's why I'm here... he blackmailed most of us into working for him... I just want my boys back..." inside her heart the Dwarf was screaming, "please, not a widow."

"What did the eagle tell you?" asked Pepin. He was looking at Octavia's ice-cold countenance rather than the dwarf, who was on the verge of a breakdown. She was shuddering, trying to maintain composure but tears flowed from her eyes.

"It was just a bird! I saw it come down and they caught it... I tried to leave but he asked me to stay... I was leaving but I heard a voice in my head, this voice said "Stay," so gentle. He didn't blame me... I held him in my hands, and I looked in his eye and I could see he was fighting the drugs... I'm sorry, I didn't know... he was just a bird! I tried to encourage him and he was getting stronger, and... I'm so sorry... I didn't realize..." and the dwarf broke down in tears. "They told me it was just a bird!" she wailed, which caused Octavia to feel sorry for the little dwarf to some extent.

"Did he say anything else?"

It took a long time for the dwarf to get her voice back. She wept and shook and began hitting herself, screaming, "I didn't know! I didn't know!" Eventually she gasped, "he saw the purple ring and he realized he had lost. I think he was going to cry." This is where Octavia's icy demeanor began to crack. She was sure that the purple ring was shonyx. Nick wouldn't have known; he's received no real magical training, but he would have felt it as it got close to him.

"Did he say anything else?" Pepin demanded.

"He looked at me, and I'll never forget the words he said, it's like he burned them in my heart for eternity. He said, 'Tell Façade Incognito that I love her.'"

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Chapter 23 - Declaration of War

After crying in each other's arms for an hour, Octavia led Eryri upstairs for a bath and a fresh change of clothes. It seemed that talking about their men helped Octavia get over the shock of her loss. Eryri and her husband had been married over thirty years, which seemed an eternity to Octavia, but to dwarves that was still early in their relationship. Her husband, Dradduc Brawnkin, and her son, Tuzmas, were like two gravel pips in an aggregate pit, which is the same as saying 'two peas in a pod,' but dwarves don't like peas. Her boys were idealists with their heads in the ground, always planning to open a new shaft for themselves, not looking for a big payout but maybe enough to keep their family and a few friends in business.

As they talked and nibbled sandwiches, the first food Octavia or Eryri had eaten in days, a messenger candle lit in the cottage. "Someone is in the temple waiting for me," said Octavia. "Let's go, it's on our way."

Octavia Stein and Eryri Brawnkin stepped out of the cottage, and it was surrounded by worried-looking men, demi-giants, and elves. Eryri gasped and hid behind Octavia. "Are they here for me?"

When she said that, a tiny man, barely taller than the pepper that he carried, climbed onto the porch and sat the pepper in a huge collection of vegetables. "Ach! I hope they're here for the harvest my lady!" said the garden gnome. "This is the biggest yield we've seen since Nana Peacock were here."

Octavia started making introductions. "Eryri, this is Mister Highgrower, our chief gardener, you already know Hugues, Alfie, Bertie, Carl, and Dexter. Hugues fought with Nick at the Battle of Tähelepanek Point along with the leader of our elf community, Vesstan Aedi. That's Vesstan's wife, Seldanna of the Rofir. This is Sean Fahy, head of the Palace Guard. What are you doing here Sean? Don't you have a king to guard."

Sean bowed deeply and said, "His majesty has sent a guard to keep you safe until the duke returns."

Octavia sighed and then handed out orders. "Hugues, you and your crew keep the farm operating and safe. Vesstan, your priority is with Seldanna. However, if someone would like to keep an eye on the Black Mountain Mine, that's fine with me. Any dwarves from that mine found on this side of the mountain need to be retained for questioning. Hold them and notify the king. Sean, shall we go?"

Soon they were headed down Nana's driveway to the temple. Eryri's hair was cleaned, brushed, and allowed to hang over her shoulders, something that dwarves disdain but dwarven women love. She was dressed in clean boots, coveralls, a canvas jacket and a polished mining helmet, with a pickaxe on her shoulder. Octavia wore her enchantress robes, weapons belt with musket on her left hip, rapier on her right, dagger at her back, riding boots, leather cloak and her Bovukan bush hat with roc plume. Eryri was the picture of a hardworking dwarf. Octavia exuded sex appeal, but her manner suggested to all men, "This isn't for you." They were two women out to fight to get their men back.

Their bodyguard, a wolf, didn't add to the image, nor did their designer purses, but they were out for trouble.

At the temple, Octavia found Bruce Buckner, head librarian at the University of Cloacina in Bovuka. He had a small stack of vellum that needed to be enchanted so it could retain a spell, but the look in her eye told him it would not happen. "Did you light the candle Bruce?"

"Aye, that I did..." He saw the look of surrender in her eyes; the fire in her eyes that he fell in love with seeing was gone. "Aw, wot's wrong girl?"

"Nick is gone, someone took him and I can't feel him," she fought desperately to hold the tears back. "I can always feel him, but not since he was captured."

Bruce looked a bit confused. Octavia led them into Grandpa's office, where the ghost of Grigeor de la Montesquieu sat napping. Octavia reached behind Grandpa's desk and opened the top drawer and looked, then said, "His key's not here. That means he's still alive, but I can't feel him."

The temple keys that Nick and Octavia wear on ribbons around their necks belong to them and mark them as Bishops of the Temple, and if they die, the keys return to the drawer until the next Bishop claims them. "In Bovuka we say where there's life, there's hope, and ol' Nick still has life." He put his hands on Octavia's shoulders and tried to get her to look into his playful eyes. "We need to give him the hope he needs, right?"

"I know," groaned Octavia.

"You don't sound hopeful. Work on it." Bruce smiled at her, trying to get her to cheer up, but it didn't work. "I'll go get some a' the fellas and we'll meet back at your cottage, we'll throw some sausage on the barbie and... where are you off to?"

"Elbreshowth on the Moor."

"Elbreshowth! That's four days by coach!" cried Eryri.

"Trust us," said Bruce, as Octavia led them back out into the main temple. Just then, Tervis, god of health, appeared before Octavia and bowed low.

"Hark, beloved Lady! By decree of the celestial host, both great and small, Bishop Nicholas is sought. Should he grace a temple's threshold, know that divine wrath shall be unleashed upon his abductors, a perpetual immolation until his sacred person is restored to Our embrace."

"Perpetual immolation?" asked Octavia. The thought of the guilty dwarves burning in hellfire perpetually appealed to her. "I like the idea but I think we should hold them for the king and allow him to decide what to do with them. If he says you can do the immolation, then they're all yours."

"We, the celestial host, attend thy divine command, O Radiant One." Then Tervis placed his hand on Octavia's stomach and said, "The scion of the future, whom thou gestates, doth require a vessel of strength. Replenish thyself with sustenance and repose, for his destiny is intertwined with thine own well-being."

It seems like everyone has advice for the expectant mother, and no one is afraid of giving her their advice. Even the gods were pestering her. "I will, I will," groaned Octavia. "Is it safe to temple hop while pregnant? Will the child be affected?"

"Await, O cherished of Mine..." then there was celestial murmuring, as if gods from all over Kodu were talking together in the next room. Gods argued and complained, and their voices rose and fell. Then suddenly, Saehrimnir was there in the temple, crouching down because the ceiling was too low for him. Eryri squeaked in shock and clung to Octavia.

"Relax, it's just my dad," whispered Octavia, but that didn't calm Eryri down in the least.

"It was not within the tapestry of thy fate that offspring should spring forth from thy being!" roared Saehrimnir. He didn't sound happy at all.

"Fate is something that Saatus has command over, not you," said Octavia. She was terrified that he would strike her down for being insolent, but fate be damned, she was going to have Nick's child.

"Daughter, how dare you address a deity in such a manner?" demanded Saehrimnir.

Then, in the babble of celestial voices, she heard the familiar voice of Saatus cry, "Speak thus to him, Daughter of Light!"

"Father, it sounds like Mother has allowed me to have children. I need to travel so I can find my husband, I need to know if traveling through the temple portals will harm my child, or would you rather my son be born in the hold of a fishing vessel?"

Saehrimnir rumbled and sputtered, then finally said, "I shall safeguard my descendants through the sacred gateways, yet no more than a dozen shall pass!"

"That's a good size litter," said Pepin.

"Twelve?" gasped Eryri.

"I will try to keep it below twelve, father." Then Octavia turned to Eryri and explained how the temples were linked on a metaphysical level. "Something to do with a quantum, or something like that," said Octavia as she led Eryri to the four columns in the main room. Octavia was still explaining the rules of temple hopping to Eryri when they stepped between the columns in the Temple of the Woods and stepped out into the Temple of Snupp.

Eryri gasped for air, and she and Octavia sat down on a bench. Octavia felt the normal exhaustion that temple hopping without a tunnel causes. However, she also felt something in her womb... something protecting Marlon...

"Is that god really your father?" asked Eryri. "I thought gods stopped sleeping with humans three millennia ago." Gods impregnating humans are thought to be the reason for the rise of dwarves, elves, werewolves, vampires, trolls and more. Or the elves could have been the mother race and birthed humans.

"We just say he's our father," said Octavia. "Kind of an absent adoptive father. But break one of his rules, and he's right there..."

"We... meaning you and the girls from your school?" asked Eryri.

"We... meaning me and Nick," said Octavia. "I know what it sounds like, don't even bring that up!" she was quiet for a moment then she asked, "The eagle, when he said he loved Façade Incognito... did it sound like he knew what he was saying? Or was it just babbling and making noises?"

"I heard him whisper those words in my mind," said Eryri. "He truly loves Façade Incognito."

Octavia was still weeping when they were interrupted by Snupp himself with, "My lady, Madam von Reichenbach awaits you in her study," said the wolf god, then he barked a few times at Pepin, who barked in response.

"I got the directions," said Pepin, and they left the temple for the dark, dank atmosphere of Elbreshowth on the Moor. They were in a town made completely of damp stone, the same color as the cobblestones. It was dark and foggy, and the gas streetlamps were lit even though it was midday. As they walked down the street, shutters slammed closed over windows.

"You are so brave," said Eryri. "If I were you all I'd want to do is lay down on my bed and cry."

"That is all I want to do," said Octavia sadly. "But I have the future Duke of Wægn inside me and I owe it to him to find his father." That caused Eryri to whimper and cling to Octavia's arm. "We'll get your men back," said Octavia. "We'll get them back and we'll get Nick back and we'll kick Rifty and his pirates off my mountain and you and Dradduc can run the dig and tunnel up anything you want."

Pepin led them to a huge dark house that sat behind a tall stone wall. The house had several spires on the roof reaching to the cloudy sky. There were lights in two windows of the building as they approached, and the light went out in one window as Octavia knocked on the door.

The door opened, and a small man, shorter than Eryri, who only stands three feet tall, met them at the door. "We're here to see..."

"Follow... me..." said the short man slowly in an impossibly deep, gravelly voice. He turned around and led them through a dark gothic mansion filled with suits of armor lining the hallways and heads of bizarre animals on the walls.

He finally led them into Lady von Reichenbach's personal library, where he said, "Please wait here." He turned and walked to the wall, where there was a small doorway that opened as he approached. He did an about-face and stepped backwards into the tiny alcove, and the door closed and they were alone in the spooky library/study.

"Are you sure this is the right place Pepin?" asked Octavia.

Pepin sat at her side and said, "Wait for it..."

Immediately, there came a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder outside. "Good eeeevning," said a short, pale, balding man with a bad comb-over and a hump on his back. He appeared there as their eyes recovered from the flash of lightning. "I am Lady Lucretia Vladimíra von Reichenbach's manservant Vlad. How may I therve you thith evening?" said Vlad, his pronounced lisp especially juicy. Vlad prides himself on being a self-made man and is happy to serve the lady of the house in any way she desires... ANY way.

"We're here to see Samrel and to use your Flash station." She handed Vlad a sheet of paper and said, "Can you send this?"

"Yeth mithtreth," said Vlad with an exceptional slobber. "If you could wait here I will anounth you. Who may I thay ith with you?"

"Eryri Brawnkin," said Octavia. "Her husband and son are being held hostage by the Peregrine and Aegir Mining Company."

"Yeth Mithtreth," and with a bow, Vlad left the room.

After Vlad left, Eryri turned to Octavia and said, "Where are we?"

"We're in Elbreshowth and this is the castle of Lady Lucretia Vladimíra von Reichenbach." Seeing the worried look on Eryri's face, Octavia quickly added, "Don't worry, she's actually quite nice. We met her in the library of the Temple of Bet ha-Kise back in the spring."

The reassurance fell on deaf ears. In a land full of strange wonders, Lady Lucretia stands out. She is the only person on the disc that is both a vampire and a werewolf. Nick once fearlessly asked her how she decides to attack her prey, what makes her choose between werewolf or vampire when attacking.

Lady Lucretia said, "That depends on if I'm peckish or thirsty."

Worried that Octavia got her into deeper trouble than she expected, Eryri asked, "Who are we here to see?"

"The Flash is my primary reason; this is the quickest Flash access we have." By Flash she was referring to the continent-spanning system of semaphore towers that transmit messages. With semaphore towers relaying messages from one station to the next, a message can be transmitted in minutes rather than weeks. It was simple technology, but its unique application was breathtaking.

"And I must see Samrel, I have a message for him that must be delivered in person," said Octavia, and when she saw that Eryri didn't seem to understand, she said, "Samrel Oakenarmour."

"The king?" Eryri nearly shrieked, "You're on first name basis with the king of all dwarves?"

"Uh huh," nodded Octavia, "he's very nice, you'll like him."

Eryri was now fully panicking. Human kings don't bother her because none of them actually rule dwarves; they hire dwarves. But Samrel Oakenarmour! It's said that he's exotic in dress, but a mastermind at politics.

"I'm going to curtsey when I speak to him today," continued Octavia.

"Why? I thought you were buddies."

"After what he hears what I say he may want to cut my head off. If I am kneeling it will make it easier for the both of us."

The King of All Dwarvendom, Samrel Oakenarmour, and his host, Lady Lucretia Vladimíra von Reichenbach, swept into the room, and as Eryri bowed, Octavia spread her gingham skirt in a deep curtsey. "Octavia! Rise! We are friends and allies!"

"Possibly not after what I have to say, your highness," said Octavia without raising her eyes.

"Stand and speak, friend," boomed the king of the dwarves.

Octavia slowly stood, and finally, her eyes met Samrel's eyes. She took a deep, shaky breath and let fire with both barrels. "The Duke of Wægn has been abducted by agents of the Peregrine and Aegir Mining Conglomerate; I am now ruler of the Duchy of Wægn. All lands and mineshafts under contract to dwarves in the Duchy of Wægn I hereby claim, I lay claim to all people and equipment that was under your rule and will hold them until I am satisfied with the return of the Duke. If anyone disputes my decision I will use whatever means available to convince them otherwise."

Samrel stared at Octavia and Eryri wide-eyed, not believing what he had just heard... his friend Octavia had just declared war on the dwarves! "Is this true? How can you prove such charges?"

"I have spoken with an integral member of the team that kidnapped the Duke."

"Who would do such a thing?" the king demanded loudly.

"I did," said Eryri in a tiny voice.

"Your majesty," said Octavia quickly. "I am satisfied that she was forced into this, Rifty Peregrine and his confederates are holding her husband and son hostage until she complies. I have absolved her of all responsibility; she risked their lives coming to me and I wasted so much time..."

"What is their names?" demanded the king.

"Her husband Dradduc Brawnkin and her son is Tuzmas Brawnkin," said Octavia as she held her trembling friend.

King Samrel Oakenarmour's jaw clenched, then he relaxed and softly patted Eryri's shoulder, then said, "walk with me." He led Eryri into Lady Lucretia's mansion while Lady Lucretia led Octavia back to the temple of Snupp.

"What's going on?" asked Octavia, but Lady Lucretia gave Octavia the librarian's salute, a finger pressed to the lips requesting silence.

Octavia watched Lady Lucretia Vladimíra von Reichenbach walk from behind with jealousy. Lady Lucretia was tall and slender with well-defined breasts, waist, and hips, a tall, slim hourglass. Her black dress fit her like a second skin. Her plunging neckline never showed any more skin than she wanted it to. If Octavia tried to wear a dress like that, she would show the world what an enchantress looks like in many places. "Just my ass weighs more than she does," Octavia mumbled.

"Pardon?"

Octavia had forgotten how perfect a werewolf's hearing was. Might as well be honest. "Just complaining about how perfect your ass is compared to mine."

"Zare are prices to pay for ziss fikure, one uf zem is schpending centuries vishing I looked more like you."

"Seriously?" Octavia always thought she looked fat and undesirable, that she was only attracting men because her tits were big. She never understood the power of an hourglass figure. Octavia was never fat; she just thought she was. She had a delightful, sculpted figure and radiated the image of a sexy young woman who knows what she wants.

"Mine Liebchen, so innocent!" The vampire turned on Octavia and whirled her around, then pulled the curvaceous duchess back against her tall, slim figure, and her hands began running all over Octavia's body. "Zis body I voult kill for! So lush! Zo smooth!" she cupped Octavia's large round breasts and shook them. "Zeez booobs I voult schqueez all nacht long! I woult never exit zee schower! Ziss ist ze body zat men vant!" Then she sighed sadly and said, "unt I haf zee body zat vomen vant. Zo borink." She pinched Octavia's nipples, and Octavia yelped at the sudden sensation.

"Sorry Liebchen, chust playing. I did not intend to cause pain."

"It's ok, I'm a bit sensitive. Nick and I... we're... expecting our first."

"Oh! I am zo zorry! I dit not realize. Haf you told anyone yet?"

"No, not before we tell the king." Just then, they turned the last corner and, as they entered the temple of Snupp, who nodded at them in welcome. They stepped through the pillars and hopped to the Temple of the Woods in Elm Springs, where Octavia found that the temple was filled with Bruces. Overcome with gratitude, Octavia ran up to Bruce Dinkum, a librarian at Cloacina Temple University, and threw her arms around him. "Thank you," she gasped. "What are you all doing here?"

"Don't thank me Sheila," said Bruce. "the boys heard that Nick had been Nicked and came to help. We couldn't hold em' back."

All of their friends from Bovuka wore their slouch hats with colorful plumes and with the brim on the right side pinned up with their badge of rank. They also wore camouflaged robes, and all were carrying some form of weapon. It was scary thinking of a lecturer in magical sciences carrying a weapon.

"I don't know what to say," gasped Octavia, her eyes filling with tears.

"Then don't say anything, just give us a hug."

As Octavia hugged Bruce, Pepin put his front paws on the desk and peered into the desk drawer. He saw what looked like the ghost of a key fading away. He could only guess what that meant, and he didn't want to think about it. He looked again, and there was no key in the drawer, meaning that Nick was still alive.

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Chapter 24 - Confrontations

After several days of rowing assisted by a favorable following gust, Bughac Orebeard and his sinking rowboat were blown ashore by the gale force winds onto a pebble beach. The winds coming off the ocean were so strong that they blew his rowboat to pieces the moment he climbed out of it. A gust of wind blew him inland, tumbling head over heels until he collapsed behind a huge sheltering rock. Grateful to be on dry land, Buggy rolled over to kiss the ground when he noticed he wasn't alone behind the rock. He was there in the company of a dead soldier.

The dwarf didn't recognize the armor; it was vastly different armor than what he was used to seeing. It was made of two-inch square plates of gold that were wired together with gold wire. It looked flexible and comfortable as armor goes, but probably pretty heavy. Each gold plate was half an inch thick. One plate off this corpse would buy him a deep shaft mine and hire a damn good crew. He decided that since the soldier was dead, he should try it on.

Even though he was not a doctor and he really wasn't familiar with the human vascular system, Buggy was able to determine that the soldier was dead by the way that the soldier's head was several feet away from his body. The fact that the armor was occupied by a skeleton was also a dead giveaway. The tunic piece of the armor hung down to Buggy's ankles, which worked out well for Buggy. He checked the armor for any weapons he could take, and he found a slightly usable dagger. Slightly usable because the dagger was composed of a soft metal that would be turned away by the cheapest armor. However, since the dagger was made of gold, Buggy found it impossible to put down.

Sticking the knife in his belt, he turned inland and began walking on shaking legs; he needed some food, anything, even rat, anything except cabbage. Just thinking of cabbage made Buggy nauseous, which helped with the hunger pangs that were clawing at him. He walked through the strange foreign land, and the farmland that he saw was unique to his eyes. The fields were small, and surrounding the fields were raised paths, like the farmers didn't want to get their boots dirty walking in the fields. Buggy had never seen rice paddies, and these were drained and dry. The rice straw was burned off, and the paddies were ready for flooding and planting, but this area was in the depths of a drought.

As darkness set in, Buggy found a small farm that appeared to be abandoned, and inside the single-room hut he found four skeletons armored in gold, dead at a game of cards. The dwarf collected the gold daggers and the gold poker chips, but one skeleton appeared to be an officer; his uniform had aluminum decorations and he carried a tin dagger. That was quite odd, and Buggy kept telling himself that this was something important, something that he should pay attention to, but the gold was calling him. "Ignore those rumors Buggy, we want to go home with you!" whispered the gold daggers and coins.

Along one wall were several enormous clay pots sealed with a form of paper that was glued to the mouth of the clay pot. Some pots sloshed, so he figured they were wine or vinegar; the others didn't, so maybe they're food? He's heard of the dreaded shekim, something made of cabbage and was supposedly buried underground until it rotted. He wasn't sure what came after the rotting... cooking? Eating? He wasn't sure. The only rotted food that dwarves ate was a delicacy - Råddent fermenteret routeman, which was a takeoff on the Aleut tradition of fermented fish. The dwarf delicacy was called Fronesbgor by dwarven families, fermented rat meat. It's a huge Yuletide favorite served on the evening of Ivy Seventh, Yuletide Eve. On that night, Maz Dracus, the god of charity (who is the only dwarven god) slides down the mineshaft bringing Yule presents to all good little boy and girl dwarves.

He sliced open the paper seal, and a pungent odor filled the hut, and what paint that remained on the walls began to peel off. Buggy sniffed the stench that was so raucous you could actually see it and thought, "not bad at all." Memories of Yuletide feasts in the mines with his parents came flooding back, the tureen of Fronesbgor the centerpiece on the table, and to celebrate the holiday, four candles were lit, flooding the room with light. He stuck his gold dagger in the pot and came out with a quivering lump of opaque goo that looked as appetizing as it smelled. Fearing the worst, Buggy took a bite, and then another, and another, and another. It was incredible! Every bit as putrid as rotting rat flesh could possibly be, and just as delicious!

This was his first filling meal since he had left the mines of Lenzstätten. He ate with relish, savoring every delicious, decaying bite. Even when the human sat down next to him, he didn't run off in horror; Buggy didn't want to be hungry in the afterlife. The painfully average-looking human speared a lump of the offal, then sniffed it and took a bite. "Definitely an acquired taste," he said.

"'s dlishus!" said Buggy around a mouthful of the gelatinous blob. "What is it?"

"It's called shekim, even the people who make it, save it for times of famine, which around here come quite often, they dread eating it but it was once cabbage. I was betting the dwarves would love it. It looks like I was right." With his mouth full of faux-rat, Buggy could only nod in agreement.

"You know, if you survive the next few weeks you stand to make a lot of money setting up trade agreements between the Xuantang Empire and the Dwarves for this stuff."

Buggy felt his blood turn to ice. Xuantang Empire? He thought about it; he found gold being used for cheap items, daggers for low-ranking soldiers, poker chips, low-denomination coins, while tin and aluminum were used for more precious items like ceremonial daggers and badges of rank. Gold was as common as tin in the Xuantang Empire; lighter elements like tin and aluminum were rare. Everyone outside of the Xuantang Empire realized that there was a famine going on in Xuantang, that the people were turning to cannibalism and that his body might end up feeding a politician. "How is the duke doing?" Buggy asked, hoping to change the direction of the conversation.

"Not well I'm sad to say."

As Buggy's world began to implode, he turned to speak to the assassin, but the man whose face Buggy could not describe was gone. Outside the windows of the hut, there were people moving around out there, and the clanking of their armor was not a good sign for the dwarf.

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After Octavia returned to Elm Springs, a message arrived to report to the king, but Octavia and Pepin were already en route to the castle. Lady Lucretia Vladimíra von Reichenbach has a carriage at her disposal in most kingdoms, so before leaving for Elm Springs via the Temple of Snupp, she called for her carriage at Uduithia to wait for her at Elm Springs. Octavia tearfully thanked all the Bovukan ranchers and temple educators for coming (most were named Bruce) then she climbed into Lady Lucretia's coach with blacked-out windows and they raced up Breeders Peak road toward the castle at breakneck speed.

Octavia was terrified of what her king would say; she had declared war without telling him. She intends to attack a group of dwarves! Uduithia hasn't seen war for hundreds of years, she's been the Duchess of Wægn for a few months, she's left in command of the Duchy and the first thing she does is declare war. "He's going to cut my head off."

"Nonsense," said Lady von Reichenbach. "He vill unterschtant, und if he does not, zee kveen vill, und schee vill inform him uf vut it means to be a voman whose heart vas rrripped out. Ein voman whose only comfort is the chilt in her vomb."

"What if he doesn't?"

"Zen... you tell me. You are zee enchantress... Ah! Exzelent! Ve are here!"

Somehow Lady von Reichenbach's team made the four-hour ride in under two hours. They climbed down from the coach under the portcullis of the castle, and the coachman was pouring water over the smoking axles and brakes while the groom was cooling off the steaming horses. Harold Lorechestershire met Octavia and Lady Lucretia at the portcullis and ushered them in as Pepin dove off the driver's seat and raced to catch up with them.

Harold led them through several long, dark corridors and up ancient spiral staircases. Staircases so ancient the steps were extremely worn in the center, making them look like they were sagging. Octavia and Lady Lucretia found themselves in a small room next to the king's reading room. It appeared to be set up for teaching lessons to the royal children; luckily, the table they were sitting around was set up for adults.

"Our children were supposed to start lessons this week," started King Uric sadly. "When the duke did not show up I sent a rider to Elm Springs and the god of health, Tervis himself, informed my messenger that Sir Nicholas was..." He stopped to catch his emotions; he almost wept with anger. A member of his court was abducted, and worse, a friend is missing. Of course, this means war! But Uric was not sure if his army was capable of war.

Even though Octavia was sure she had no more tears, she was close to weeping herself. King Uric was the only person who called him Nicholas. Nick is his actual first name, but the king uses Nicholas out of affection. Soldiering on, the king sighed. "The Dwarven King Samrel Oakenarmour sent me a flash informing me of your intentions, but he would like to know of any changes since... you learned... about Madam Eryri..." The king was wondering how Octavia felt about Eryri losing her family, but Octavia didn't seem to understand. "Lady Lucretia?"

Lucretia shook her head from side to side and then finally said, "She doesn't know."

"What," Octavia looked confused. "What don't I know?"

"Octavia darlink," said Lady Lucretia, turning her chair to face Octavia, and she took Octavia's hands in hers. "Your friend Eryri Brawnkin... her husband Dradduc Brawnkin unt her schon Tuzmas Brawnkin... zey vere kilt in a mine tunnel collapse seven veeks ago."

"How is that... When Rifty Peregrine grabbed them he must have... I don't understand," Octavia said finally.

"Rifty never had zem darling. He vas given notification of zer demise but he tolt Eryri zat zey were beink held und if schee vished to see zem again schee vould obey his orders. Ven ve left Elbreshowth ze king vas informink Eryri of zer deathz as we left."

"Oh no... Eryri... poor Eryri..." and Octavia found she did have tears left. She cried for her friend for a long time. Queen Elinor held the weeping duchess and wondered what kind of heart this woman must have, that she would weep for the dwarf that captured her husband. When Octavia finally pulled herself together, she found herself looking out a castle window that faced Black Mountain, the mighty peak that was bare of life on the top mile of elevation. It seemed to call to her; the mountain was telling her they were ready for each other now.

Then she sat in icy stillness with Pepin's head on her lap, and as she stroked the fur of Nick's best friend she realized now that Pepin was her brother-in-law. She looked at the king and queen and said, "I need to get to work."

"Follow me," said King Uric, and he led an angry Octavia into the throne room. The king's advisors and staff waited anxiously; rumors of a royal being kidnapped were running rampant through the capital town. When the king entered the room, people started demanding answers, shouting questions and acting disrespectfully which shocked Octavia. Nick had mentioned their disrespectful behavior, and he said he was going to fix it somehow. The king raised a hand, and silence descended on the throne room, but the damage was done. Octavia retreated within herself, and she cut these crazy people out of her stream of thought. All she wanted was to snuggle in front of a warm fire with Nick and Pepin and watch the calendar tick down to the day that Nick would deliver their son. But since she can't do that, she needs to fight to get that back.

Outside her head, the king was trying to explain why things had advanced to this point. His advisors were arguing and shouting and finally Octavia screamed, "STOP IT!" and silence fell on the courtroom. Shaking with anger, she snarled at the stunned men, who suddenly could not speak. "This is how it was at the end, before Zeddicus used spineless traitors to collapse the government. That is why the kingdom of Breaze no longer exists. Not because of a war, that came later, but because of nasty, childish bastards like you! While I am wizard this kingdom will not collapse like Breaze and if I have to teach you some manners I will... and you will not like it." She was shaking with anger at these selfish, petty men. "For the next month, when addressing the king you will raise your hand and you will be able to speak only when he calls on you. If you don't like it. I am sure the king will entertain your resignation. Your majesty?"

From that point on the meeting fell into resigned order. Men were only able to speak when the king called on them, and when the king said, "thank you," their ability to speak had ended. Some acted like children when they grew impatient when the king didn't call on them quickly enough. They jumped up and down, waving their hands. One threw a wadded-up sheet of paper at the king, and he was dragged off to the dungeon. "I'm sorry, but this kingdom is in a state of war, if you cannot act like adults you will be trained by Sergeant Stan or Mr. Marose," said the king with a stately growl. Sergeant Stan was the jailer. He's been guarding the dungeon for over four hundred years. Even he doesn't remember what his last name was. Mister Marose was the court inquisitor. "Yes, General Carnarvon?"

"Your majesty, we are in a state of war because of the reckless antics of the court wizard!" The old man in a military uniform grabbed Octavia by the arm and said, "This is all your fault."

Something clicked in her mind, something that Nick had talked about doing; it centered around this wizened old man who did not earn her respect. "Who gave you permission to touch me?" The words boomed and echoed through the high, drafty ceilings of the throne room. When the old soldier didn't release her arm, she asked again, "Is this what you do? Stalk the palace and grab innocent women like your army grabs the women of Wægn?" Her voice echoed in the castle like thunder, terrifying everyone in the room. The old general tried to let go, but his hand would not release from her arm, and this time she shrieked in terror, "UNHAND ME!" and she pulled out a sixteen-inch short sword from under her cloak.

"Lord General Carnarvon! Release her!" boomed the king.

"I'm sorry your highness, but I must protect my baby!" cried Octavia, and she raised the blade to strike and at the same time she released the magic hold she held on the general. He let go of her arm and fell back wordlessly, gasping and looking at his hand like it was a strange animal.

She touched on a sad part of Uduithia history that was kept from the king's ears, but the tales of the women of Elm Springs reached her ears. She grabbed the throat edge of his breastplate armor and pointed the dagger at his throat. Then she cried out, "had you been protecting the women of the Duchy of Wægn instead of using us as unpaid whores every time you marched your army through our streets you may not have had such a hard time letting go of my body. We are not your sporting girls!" The point of the blade touched his bobbing Adam's apple as she cried, "The next time a woman of the Duchy of Wægn is raped by a member of your army, you have just declared war on us and We Will Respond."

"General Carnarvon! Are these accusations true? Is my army merely a pack of rapists?"

"Of course, not sire, this woman is obviously mad... aack!" The point of Octavia's blade pressed harder against his throat.

The throne room was silent except for some uncomfortable muttering in the background, then one voice called out, "Aye, it is true."

"Aunt... uh Agness?" gasped the king. This was Agness Dempsy, the senior witch throughout the Snow Cross Mountains and possibly all of Kodu and a subject of his (so much as she would allow). "Were you...?" The unasked question hung in the air as heavy as a Snow Cross mountain lion and twice as deadly.

Agness rose to her full height, which was impressive for a woman of her years. Slim and straight as a rail, the years didn't lay heavily on her shoulders; they wouldn't dare. Agness wore her decades as badges of honor and her wrinkles as stripes of rank. "No, I was not touched, there were a pair of men that tried, and they ended their days in a pond believing they were tadpoles."

Beside Agness rose Ezzy Fahy, short, dumpy with a face like a friendly potato, but today she wore a scowl. "When our Shawn declared to join the army, he returned with stories of their "recruitin' tactics." Oi tol 'im "Shawn," oi says, "You join the palace guard and not that band of rapists," and he's been with the palace guard ever since and is a better man for it."

King Uric was shocked; his army was recruiting rapists. He looked over at the head guard, Shawn Fahy, and asked, "Trooper Fahy, is this true?"

Shawn snapped to attention. His armor, polished to a high gloss that reflected beams of light around the courtroom. "Yes sire. General Carnarvon told my class that rape was a recruiting tool and a reward for a job well done."

King Uric turned to his most trusted advisor, his queen. Surely she would know what to think of this situation, but when he turned to her, she was staring at her hands in her lap, wishing it would all go away, trying not to allow memories of an act of rape that shattered her faith in men for years to return.

Rage boiled in the normally thoughtful king, but this is the hard part about kinging, dealing with bad people. "Private Sidwell?"

"Yes sire!" cried an eager young guard. Sloan Sidwell was new and barely experienced, but he was big and strong and painfully honest. He reminded King Uric of an overeager Felicity Warforge from the Torwin-Armistad city guard.

"Private Sidwell, escort Mister Carnarvon to the detention center then notify Mister Morose and let the royal investigator know that I want answers."

When given a task to find information, the Royal Investigator uses everything at his disposal to find the information the king asked for, including opening up the detainee and seeing if the information was hidden inside of him somewhere.

The king continued, "If Mister Carnarvon does not arrive at Mister Morose's office mostly or at least partially alive, please lock yourself up there." The King then turned to Shawn Fahy. "Sergeant Fahy, you are assigned to Duchess Stein, see to it that she wants for nothing." Then he looked at the witches in attendance. "Nanny Fahy?"

"Yes yer kingliness?"

"Ezzie, the County of Hay-on-Wægn is without their witch, I know you are retired but could you help for a short while?

"Yes, yer lordfulness."

"And you Agness Dempsy, could you act as an advisor to the Duchess? She has another mission to complete."

"Yes your highness," said Agness Dempsy primly. It was the first time a king had ever asked her for any assistance. He was going to learn the hard way that this would not happen again... but for now the girl needed help. The girl in the cute gingham dress had a grip of the general's breastplate with her left hand, and her razor-sharp blade was in her right hand; the tip of the blade was at the former general's throat. "Come girl, we have work to do." Octavia looked at Agness with a questioning look. "Let go of the general and let's go."

Octavia released the General's breastplate and slowly sheathed her blade. "It's what Nick wanted to do."

"Yes, and you acquitted your girls nicely, Nick will be sad he missed this, now let go of the general," but Octavia just looked at Agness. "With your mind girl, let go with your mind." Octavia nodded, and the former general slumped to the floor. As young Sidwell dragged the twitching former general to the rack, Octavia stepped up to the King and sadly quiet queen.

"I'm not sorry that I did that, but I needed to do it while Nick is still alive. I don't think I could have done it otherwise," said Octavia. "If it please the king, could you with hold your judgment on me until after the baby is born?"

"My judgement is complete and I find your actions justified... I completely understand. Right now, Queen Elinor and I need to find a quiet space." The king was heartbroken, all these years together, and she never told him about her abuse at the hands of the army... his army. "Let us hope our next meeting is under better circumstances."

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Chapter 25 - The Battle of Irla Stein Anore

Vesstan Aedi finished discussing the issues of feeding a large group of people with Hugues Du Gouey. It seemed that every hour more men from far away were pouring onto Nick and Octavia's farm, ready to fight for Nick and Octavia. More and more tents were popping up on the sheep pasture next to the pond that Nick and Octavia loved to go swimming in. The sheep weren't happy about it, and several (rightly) worried that they would end up on a spit over a cook fire.

"This Army is going to need a general, my friend," said Vesstan.

Hugues patted his old combat partner Vesstan on the shoulder. "Not this time, partner. You have a woman and a child to worry about. Squabbling with Buggy was one thing, but I don't trust those little freaks on the other side," said Hugues, gesturing to the north where the 'little freaks' he referred to were digging a mine. "I wouldn't doubt one bit if they wanted to re-start the Dwarf/Elf wars of the twenty-two hundreds."

"That was twelve hundred years ago," pointed out Vesstan.

"You know what they say, the only thing long on a dwarf is his memory." The old partners chuckled. A dwarf can hold a grudge for generations, while demi-giants will be willing to let bygones be bygones halfway through the fight.

Just then a pretty young woman came up to Hugues and asked, "Is this were we sign up to fight?" She was small and cute, and she wore a uniform that Hugues recognized. It was dark blue with chrome silver piping, buttons, and badges. Where had he seen that before? He noticed that she was armed with a short sword, a dagger, and a nightstick. Her uniform jacket featured a bright silver badge, similar to the badges worn by the Torwin-Armistad City Guard. On her left shoulder was embroidered a Narcissus, also known as the poet's daffodil.

"Not now little girl," rumbled Hugues. He gets that question a dozen times an hour, and he's got chores to do. He needs to finish the bunkhouse before winter sets in. The next dope that comes asking that question gets chores of their own to do.

"Hey, lumpy! I was there at Tähelepanek Point too, so don't give me none of your li---" the slim girl was courageous, but she shut up when her commanding officer called for her.

"Private Schultze!" called a tall, slim man in a matching blue and silver uniform.

"What's this? You guys trying to resurrect the Breazean Royal Guard?" said Vesstan with a laugh. The Breazean Royal Guard's uniform was similar to what they wore.

"Yes," said Corporal Preston Prescott. He turned around and whistled sharply, and out of the woods came ten mounted royal guardsmen. Lieutenant Claus Hillingham led the troop as they came to a halt before Hugues and Vesstan.

"Our lady is going to be happy to see you," said Hugues with a loud laugh. "She wants a horse so badly!"

The Wægn Highway Guard wore uniforms that were based on the uniforms of the Breazean Royal Mounted Guard and the Breazean Palace Guard. The silver piping, badges, and buttons glittered in the sunlight, causing Vesstan to say, "That silver must take some polishing to remain so shiny."

"It's not silver," said Lieutenant Hillingham, and he leaned over in the saddle. "It's mithril/steel."

"The gods be praised," gasped Vesstan. All elves have a passionate love of mithril, but when combined with steel, it produces a metal called Tadithilli in Metsa Keel, the language of the forest elves, but everyone, including the elves, just call it mithril/steel. "May I touch it."

"Sure, just don't keep any," chuckled the Lieutenant, and Vesstan reached up to touch a button on his sleeve.

"It is mithril! It tingles!" Only to elves does the touch of Mithril tingle. It's said to make trolls nauseous.

"The duke has two mithril/steel cutlasses hanging over his fireplace," said Vesstan's wife Seldanna. "When the duchess returns she may let you lift one."

Meanwhile, Preston Prescott was giving orders to the troopers: "Dismount! Lead your mount to yonder pasture and walk them around the perimeter." The troopers did what they were told and were cooling off their horses in the "mule yard," a fenced-in pasture where Teddi and Kaleb spent most of their time awaiting their call to duty. "I don't know about tack yet," called out Preston. "Private Schultze and I will see if there's room in the barn."

"Like in the hayloft?" called out trooper Laurel Wilson, causing the soldiers to laugh. The love affair between Preston and Annabelle was the worst-kept secret in all of Uduithia, and the lovers were constantly teased by their teammates. However, they followed their duke's instructions and set up a police force system at the railhead in Slate Bottom Creek. They would soon move the newly arrived mounted police down there.

Troopers Laurel Wilson and Derrick Faithworthy had returned to Breaze to assist in the rebuilding and found the new government to be as corrupt, if not more corrupt than the government that led to the collapse of Breaze. They chased the regiment across the continent of Edux and finally caught them as they neared Uduithia and rejoined their unit. They got whatever horses and tack they could. Their horses were good steeds but did not match the chestnut brown that Octavia loved. Derrick's horse was light tan with a white spot on her right hip, and Laurel's horse was white with a few scattered medium brown splotches.

A squeal of childish laughter rang through the air, and all eyes turned to the sound. There in a nearby field was an enormous stack of hay, dried in the sun and ready to be put up for the winter to feed the livestock. Next to it was Dexter. The former thief demi-giant had three elf children hopping up and down next to him, all begging to be next. Finally, Dexter reached down and grabbed one of the children and tossed her into the air. She squealed with delight as she flew through the air and landed on the haystack. Then the child rolled down out of the hay and joined her brother and sister.

It was a warm early autumn afternoon. In two weeks would be the harvest festivals throughout Uduithia, and nobody wanted to get this over with more than the five Demi-giants of the Duke's plantation. All five have fallen in love with farm life, and their crops, although planted late, were incredible. Nick had told them it wouldn't do for the new Duke to be taking prizes away from the farmers of his land. "Pardon?" asked Alfie

Nick took Alfie to the side and softly said, "All this land from Slate Bottom Creek west to the line at Penrose, it's all mine. The king gave it to me, in return I collect the taxes and keep the farmers in the fields, and when needed I gather up young men and we march off to war. We want those farmers to be happy. The happier they are, the better they produce crops and livestock. In return we will run out and help them every chance we get."

"So... they are all working for you?"

"Yeah, you can look at it like that. It's called the feudal system and done properly it works. The minute that the people think we're better than they are because we have control over everything, is the minute they will turn on us."

"I wanted to go to the autumn festivals," groaned Alfie.

"You can go, but we'll not participate in any contests... especially the pie eating contests!"

"Awww..."

Alfie was thinking back on his first real lesson in geopolitics when a scream was heard. "Elen síla! Elen síla!" It was a cry for help in Ühine Keel, the common language of the elves.

"What is that?" demanded Alfie as he looked around for the source of the shout.

There was a loud, sharp whistle followed by "TROOPERS UP!" shouted Lieutenant Claus Hillingham, and the troopers that were walking their mounts practically sprang into their saddles. Preston and Annabelle were already dashing across the field.

"Truncheon!" ordered Preston as the first of the mounted troopers leaped over the wooden pasture fence. Annabell drew her nightstick, which she had named "Convincer," and was dashing across the field at blinding speed. She wriggled out of her uniform jacket as she ran and tossed it to Dexter as she flashed past. She ran so fast it was obvious that the mounted troopers wouldn't catch her.

"Get those kids back to the barn!" Preston shouted to Dexter as he ran past the big demi-giant. Dexter scooped up all three kids and jogged back to the barn when the source of the call for help appeared from the trees at the side of the open pasture. Two elven women, both carrying babies and each with a toddler in her arms, ran out of the forest along with a half dozen small elflings, all running in terror. Behind them was a swarm of dwarves. They would grab an elf child and start beating it.

Annabelle was on them with a shriek of anger. Truncheon swinging, she got between the dwarfs and the remaining elven woman. Outraged dwarves stopped pummeling the children and attacked Annabelle, who howled with the joy of the hunt as the dwarves came at her. The elves saw a small woman, an easy target... they didn't notice her teeth becoming sharp and pointed and her ears beginning to change shape. She was swinging a nightstick as the dwarves came at her with short swords.

"Bitch! The elves have a dog fighting for them?" snarled a dwarf, who raised his sword high to bring down a killing blow. Raising the sword like that left his entire midsection open for a solid kick in the groin. He crumpled, but his partners had Annabelle surrounded. She never slowed down; by the time Preston got there, she had three dwarves knocked unconscious and the remaining three realizing that life as they knew it was going to come to an abrupt change.

Half a dozen horses swung in and in one pass all six dwarves were knocked unconscious. As the horsemen tied up the dwarves, Lieutenant Hillingham called, "Who drew a sword? Anyone?"

"I did," mumbled a dwarf into the grass as he was being tied up.

"No one? We defeated these six child molesters with sticks?" The Hay-on-Wægn Highway Guard was feeling proud.

By this time, men were pouring across the fields to see what had happened. A mule-drawn farm cart pulled up with sweet old Ezzy Fahy on the tailgate, her bag of medicines at the ready. "Who here needs a witch?" she called out cheerfully. Then she saw the children. "Oh... oh my," she struggled off the cart and began checking on the injured children. "It's all right dearie; the mean dwarf is never going to do this again... Mister Stan down in the deep dungeon is going to have a lot of friends. You just watch and see..." Some of the injuries to these poor elven children were horrific, and with every bandage she applied, for every bone she splinted, her anger grew.

Vesstan and his wife Seldanna were trying to get the panicked elven women to tell them what the problem was, but neither spoke Torwin, and that's what Vesstan spoke most often. Both terrified dwarven women were both fluent in Ühine Keel, the common Elvish language, and in Mägede Keel, the language of the mountain elves, or High Elvish, but it's considered a dead language. Vesstan and Seldanna were most fluent in Metsa Keel, the language of the forest elves, or "Enzaron." But the one thing they said clearly was "Irla Stein Anore" -- the name of the village they were building. In Torwin, it means "The Village that Stein made Possible."

"Irla! Irla! Irla Stein Anore!"

"The village?"

"Nai! Irla! Naugrim i irla!" said the panicked woman.

"Ok, nai mean yes... irla is village... What's a naugrim?"

"NAUGRIM!" shouted the woman, pointing at a battered dwarf that was trying to get up."

"Naugrim means, dwarf?" said Vesstan.

"Hell yeah," said Annabelle as she clubbed the recovering dwarf in the back of the head with her truncheon. "Even I knew that."

"Dwarves are attacking the village!" shouted Vesstan. He jumped up and prepared to head back to his village. "Seldanna, my love, stay here with the children. I will blow the Horn of Aiya when I am sure the danger is past." He was about to leave when she grasped his hand and pulled him close. They looked into each other's eyes and repeated their mission:

"The three people become one and walk the path of ash and shadow."

With a kiss, he was gone. As the elf jogged off, Seldanna fought back the tears. She knelt next to Ezzy and said, "How can I help Mother?"

"Bless you dear, go in the barn and find flat pieces of wood like this. They broke so many bones on these babies." The old witch was struggling with a toddler elf in pain and with her tears at the same time.

As she passed the troopers, Lieutenant Hillingham was speaking with his First Sergeant, Dante Fletcher. The lieutenant saw Seldanna and said, "Ma'am, where did Vesstan go?"

"Our village, it's under attack. He's trying to stop the attack."

The lieutenant swore under his breath and then shouted, "Troopers! Mount Up! First Sergeant, hoist the colors! We're heading out!"

It's been days since the mounted troopers had had a rest, but they were needed. Sergeant Fletcher shouted, "Guidon OUT!"

"Corporal Prescott, you and Private Schultze commandeer the duke's mules and farm wagon and follow us. Bring plenty of rope," ordered Lieutenant Hillingham. "Mister Du Gouey, can you and your associates follow the path the elves took through the woods and see if there's anyone left behind? Don't forget, they'll be small, scared children."

"Yes sir," said Hugues.

"I'll go with you," said Lala MacClenny. She always wanted grandchildren, but life never blessed her with any.

Soon the troop had caught up with Vesstan, and he swung up behind Sara McLeod, who was carrying the guidon. Behind them came the farm wagon to haul captured dwarves. "I'm not missing out on the fun," growled Hugues. "Bertie, follow me," and he plowed his way through the forest, following the path that the terrified elf maidens and children followed. Behind Hugues and Bertie were Lala and the other three demi-giants moving carefully, looking for injured and hiding elflings.

"Come out little ones!" called Lala. "I have fresh picked snap beans!"

"Elves like raw snap beans?" asked Dexter.

"Don't you?"

<><><><><>

"I'm not missing out on this one," groused Annabelle.

"Stay in the wagon," warned Prescott. They followed the troop along the cobblestone road that Octavia uncovered. The road led them into the woods, then they turned left onto a narrow cobblestone road. The road took them over a deep ravine on an amazing arch bridge. Preston was leaning over the edge of the wagon watching the wheels. There was a low stone barrier on each side of the bridge, and the wagon wheels had about three inches of play between the two barriers. Up ahead was the smoke from burning elf houses.

"This is still in the wagon, isn't it?" asked Annabelle.

Preston looked, and she was standing up on the back of Teddi the mule. "Annabelle..." She was gone before he could say a word to stop her. She leapt off Teddi the moment he stepped off the bridge, and she dashed into the fray.

It was horrible. Ten humans and maybe twenty exhausted elves were battling an unknown number of dwarves. The new homes that the elves built were burning, and elven women and children were hiding in the forest. Annabelle had seen a dwarf dragging an old elven man into the brush by the hair, an ancient old fellow, some lucky elf's grandfather or great-grandfather. He struggled against the dwarf, and the dwarf decided he had had enough and pulled out his knife. As the knife plunged into the old elf's chest, visions of the grandfather she lost flooded Annabelle's head, and she attacked.

Private Annabelle Schultze never drew her weapon nor her billy-club; that was unappealing. The bloodlust was on her, and she was all claws and fangs, slashing wildly, barking, biting. The dwarf's screams of terror filled the air. When she was able to speak, all that came out was, "You bastard! You little bastard!"

"Call her off! Dear gods call her off!" shrieked the dwarf. He tried to crawl away, but Annabelle pulled him back, the terrified dwarf's fingers clawing the ground, trying to get away. Next to her, Preston was bandaging the older elves' more serious wounds. Luckily, the knife missed his heart, but it punctured one of his four lungs.

"For god's sake help me!" shrieked the dwarf as he tried to push Anabelle's snapping jaws away.

"Sorry," said Preston. "You called down the whirlwind, now you reap the thunder." Then Preston scooped up the old elf. "Let's get you up off the dirt Gaffer,"

"Thank you, son. May Saatus cast her blessings on you," wheezed the old elf.

The dwarf shrieked again, "No! Not there! Not there! For gods sakes NOOOOOO...."

"The goddess of fate? I think she already did," said Preston as he laid the elf on the back of the farm wagon. "Keep an eye on these mules, I had to borrow them."

"Aye," chuckled the old elf. "I can do that."

Just then, Laurel Wilson shrieked in horror as she was pulled off her mount. Annabelle heard her friend's cries and left the half-dead dwarf and dove into the battle. Now she had her Billy club out and was swinging fiercely, breaking arms, snapping swords. Quickly, the tide turned, and the dwarves realized that their fight was lost. They started backing away, but when they did that, five angry demi-giants emerged from the brush behind them. Hugues du Gouey found two dead babies, and he was in a fighting mood. "I'LL FUCKING RIP THEM IN HALF!" he roared and, with one hand, he picked up a dwarf and threw him thirty feet.

Hugues, Alfie, and Bertie roared and chased after the dwarves, who ran to the mounted humans for protection. "You won't let those monsters kill us, will you?"

"Give me my duke back," shouted Lieutenant Hillingham as Carl and Dexter led about half a dozen injured female elves out of the woods.

"I don't know who you're talking about!" screamed the terrified dwarf.

In ten more minutes, it was over. Of the twenty elf houses they built, seven were burned down, several more damaged, fifteen elves injured, and two adults and two infants were killed. They had nearly thirty dwarves, but many more slipped away. "Alfie, Carl, you've been over there at the mine, follow them, see where they're going," said Hugues. "Don't engage, just track them. We'll be a couple of days behind you."

"Roger!" The elves gave the two demi-giants each a blanket and a sack of fruit and vegetables to eat on the way, and Alfie and Carl, Nick's very first employees, slipped off into the forest.

The elves then turned to the dwarves that didn't run off. "How long can you hold them?" asked Vesstan. "We can get a lock-up built in a couple of days."

Lieutenant Hillingham looked at Corporal Preston Prescott, who was comforting Annabelle. When she returned to normal, she had an emotional letdown and had been weeping ever since. "Corporal Prescott has been here the longest; he understands Uduithian law best."

Vesstan turned to the exhausted trooper, who said, "The duke is the law; I don't think he'd allow his authority to be usurped."

"But he's gone," said Trooper Haid.

"Then, we err on the side of caution and turn them over to the king."

"Why would we want to do that?" demanded Vesstan.

"Because you can't enforce a death penalty, you're just a village court. The duke can't enforce a death penalty; he's just the county court. Even a prince can't enforce a death penalty, but the king can," said Preston.

Hugues nodded in agreement. "We tie these little fuckers up and dump them on the king and Bob's your uncle, the hangman is making overtime!"

That evening, two wagonloads of dwarves escorted by ten mounted troopers rolled through the portcullis of Waelmore Castle. "What do we have here?" asked Sean Fahy, captain of the guard.

"Thirty scruffy little bastards that took it upon themselves to attack a peaceful settlement of elves. They killed four elves and..."

"Two! We only killed two."

Trooper Arto Iivonen rode up next to the tied-up dwarf and slapped him so hard his ears rang for hours. "How many times to we have to tell you uncivilized animals? Babies are people!"

"Bring them in," said Sean. He sent a guard for help, and they escorted the 30 dwarves down several flights of stairs. The dwarves were shocked that their jailer was a skeleton wearing a helmet and breastplate armor, but Stan was all business. The dwarves were scared, but they were able to hide it until an unearthly scream of agony echoed through the dungeon.

"What is that?" demanded a dwarf.

Stan slowly turned to him and gave him one of those grins only an empty skull can give. "That is General Carnarvon."

"Who is that? Which army?"

"Our army, of course. He fell afoul with the king and now he's being questioned."

More screams of mortal agony filled the dungeon. "Ye gods, what are they asking him?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'LL TALK!" shrieked a Dwarf. "IT WAS RIFTY!!! HE FORCED US!!!"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 26 - The Gathering

"Why do you like it down in the dungeon so much, old friend?" asked Octavia.

"Because, young friend, it's always the same temperature down here. It's never too cold nor is it ever too warm. It's always a bit chilly but it's a manageable temperature. If I need it warmer, merely a lump of coal or two on the brazier warms the room nicely."

"You are in the mountains now old friend," said Octavia. "According to my husband it gets quite cold up here starting very soon."

"Have you heard from Sir Nicholas?"

"That's not his name."

"The king says it is," said the Wizard Izhar with an air of superiority.

"I have heard nothing, not a clue, not a hint, no ransom demand, nothing. All I know for sure is that he was abducted by a butt nugget and a bunch of dwarves on Black Mountain. I am going to find them and force them off my mountain!" snarled Octavia. "They attacked my friends village yesterday and killed four elves."

Izhar mumbled something, and a vision of the wrecked village appeared to float in the air in the center of the room. Octavia watched as sad elves, many wearing bandages, cleared the ruin of a cottage they had just completed building the week before. Elves too injured to work scoured the fire wreckage for nails to use in the new cottage they were readying lumber for. She watched in surprise as Ezzie Fahy and her son Conor walked through the village, followed by a cloud of happy elf children. Many wore their broken arms in slings.

"That must be the second battle," muttered Izhar.

"What is the second battle?" asked Octavia.

"You - you're going back to Black Mountain; you're going to walk up to the head of the mine and ask him politely to give you Sir Nicholas back. When he refuses you're going to say, 'Sorry to bother you old chap,' and walk away peacefully."

"I don't think it's going to work like that," said Octavia as she turned her attention to a terrarium. She took a spider from the wall and dropped it in the terrarium and watched as two plants fought over the spider that she had dropped in there.

"Exactly. When you arrive at the mine at the head of your army, it will precipitate the second of three battles."

"Any chance you're going to explain what you mean, oh mentor of mine?"

"Ach! Come here little one." He led her to a rough wooden door on the wall behind them. The door had a doorknob on each side, left, right, top, and bottom. He opened the door with the right doorknob, and it swung to the left, revealing a large, brightly lit library. Octavia realized that was the library at the University in Torwin-Armistad. "No, not in there," mumbled the wizard, and he closed the door. "Wrong doorknob..." and he opened it with the left doorknob.

The door swung open to the right, and now behind the door was a dark library. It was lit with crystals that cast a dim purple glow. Many books were chained to the shelves and were straining against the chains, and there at the head librarian's desk was a large ape. The ape looked up in surprise and said, "Ook!"

"Ooops, sorry old fellow," said Izhar, and he closed the door.

"What was that?" demanded Octavia.

"Oh, nothing, they were studying up for finals. You know how it is. Now where was the temple rubbing? Ah yes!" He grabbed the top edge of the door and pulled the top forward, laying the door down flat on the ground. Then he turned the right-hand doorknob and lifted the knob, and the door opened to reveal a flight of stairs going down. "There we are, be a good girl and grab a torch, would you?"

Octavia grabbed a torch, and they headed down into the lower level of Izhar's laboratory. "Here! That's where I hung it!"

There on the wall was a temple rubbing. It's common practice for wizards to take a large sheet of paper and hang it on a temple inscription and then rub the paper with a pencil, it transfers the inscription to the paper. "When your friend Mister Vesstan discovered a cave temple in the worksite of Irla Stein Anore, your hubby asked me to study the inscriptions."

"And?"

"And... I did." Izhar stood there smiling, quite proud of himself.

"What did you find?" demanded Octavia. Her patience was becoming short.

Izhar began to read. "Ornamora lahingud... Esitlenud Attrix Xyslin, saatus jumalanna sel päeval, Celestique 14, Kodu aastal 109..." He pointed with a wand to the words as he read. Izhar was one of the few wizards who still used an old-fashioned wand.

"Wait, whoa, whoa, hang on," demanded Octavia. "Master Izhar, let's pretend for a moment that I don't read a language that's been dead for a thousand years."

"Oh, this language has been dead for nearly three thousand years. It was quite a challenge to translate it," said Izhar proudly.

"Well... what does it say, in modern Torwin?"

Izhar looked disappointed. "Oh... read it yourself!" He waved his wand, and the translation appeared in glowing letters floating in front of the temple rubbing.

The Three Battles of Ornamora

Given by Attrix Xyslin, goddess of destiny, unto Palun Täname

on this day, Celestique 14 in the year of 109 on the new calendar.

Thrice shall steel be lifted upon the shoulders of Ornamora.

Once may a manor be surrendered to the dark.

Once may a mountain be lost to the limitless creue.

Once may a realm's þeoden be lost to the tongues of men.

Let the blade be raised in the name of the Magnus.

Let the blade be raised in the name of the Heretoga.

Let the blade be raised in the name of the Cyning.

The strife shall be red and without pity.

Yet of these shadows, only one shall claim its due.

And in that claiming, a seat shall stand empty.

"We think this temple is the temple of the minor goddess Attrix," said Izhar. "That makes this an archeological find of significant proportions."

"ONE OH NINE?" gasped Octavia. "This carving is thirty three hundred years old?"

"Yes, Three thousand three hundred, twenty two years ago. Three, three, two, two - a mystic number."

"It is not," insisted Octavia.

"True, but it looks like it should be mystic," said Izhar. "I thought it was the oldest temple on the Edux continent, but King Uric assured me that many things in Waleston and Teurnia predate the current calendar."

The current calendar started at the end of a horrific war that left most civilizations on Kodu in ruins and most of the population dead. This was the dawn of the human race, sprouting up among elves, dwarves, trolls and other species. It is said that humans were the result of gods mating with elves. "Once may a manor be surrendered... she predicts a house being lost?" asked Octavia.

"It's a simple prophesy," said the old wizard. "The first line clearly says there will be three battles on Ornamora, Black Mountain. The next three lines describe the result of a loss in the battle. First a manor which could be a house, estate, or small community."

"Like a village of elves?"

"Exactly. If this was what was prophesied, the village wasn't lost, so we move on to the next line. The next line talks about losing a mountain. You are the only person that I know of that could possibly lose a mountain." Octavia suddenly felt terrified. All of this, abducing Nick, attacking the elves, it was all to get complete control of Oromorna -- Black Mountain. "The third line talks about a battle on Oromorna that could cost some nation their king."

"A þeoden is a king?" asked Octavia.

"The first king of man back in the year ninety seven was Theoden, it's the same word. Kings have been called þeoden for centuries until they began to take individual names."

"What are the next three lines?" demanded Octavia.

"They're just calling men to ready themselves for battle. A magnus is a term for mayor, a Heretoga is a commander, and a Cyning is a king... Attrix is saying a king will die if the village is saved and the mountain is not lost."

"No, this isn't now, this could have happened three thousand years ago... this could happen in a hundred years... my husband is out there somewhere! Where is he?" demanded Octavia.

"He's out there... he's alive," said Izhar.

"Where?" implored Octavia.

Izhar led her back up the stairs toward his main laboratory, but the stairs kept going up. They became a tight spiral staircase, and it was ancient. The stairs were worn and crumbling, and Octavia was nervous about a riser collapsing as they climbed. Octavia could sense they were in a tower, and it was swaying in the wind. Finally, the staircase ended with them stepping into an observation room at the top of a tower above the castle. They were in the southeast tower overlooking the town of Waleston, and they could see over the edge of the ridge that surrounds the castle and the town.

Izhar stood at a gun-slit window and murmured an incantation under his breath. A reddish cloud formed in front of him, and it became an eagle sitting sadly on a perch. Now and then the eagle bit at its leg. "This is His Grace," said Izhar. "He's still alive, but he's helpless, trapped in this body. He's waiting for you to rescue him."

Octavia reached out to the vision of the eagle and it faded, but before it was gone she said, "King be damned, I will not lose our mountain!"

<><><><><>

After delivering the dwarf prisoners, Eric and Lala MacClenny and the drivers of the second wagon, Preston Prescott and Annabelle Schultze, spent the night in the castle. They wanted to leave the next morning, but Harold Lorchester, the king's herald, asked them to wait until dark. The king had cargo to carry back to the duke's cottage, and he wanted it transported at night.

As the sun set, Eric and Lala helped Preston couple Teddi and Kaleb to the wagon. "I hate these stupid animals; they fought me the entire time yesterday at the village and coming up here."

"The problem is clearly you," chuckled Eric. "Kaleb is one of the most intelligent mules on Kodu. He was a gift to Nick and Octavia from the goddess Saatus."

"Then why is he fighting me?"

"Maybe he doesn't like the way you tell him to turn, stop, and start," said Lala.

"Tell him?"

"I tried to tell him," said Annabelle in a sing-song voice. She was lying in the back of Nick's wagon.

"Mules are highly intelligent. If you don't tell them what you want, they'll think you're stupid," said Eric as Preston led Teddi in front of the wagon. "Tell him 'hay-yup.'"

Preston felt stupid, but he said, "Teddi, hay-yup," And the mule slowly moved back into position so Preston could put the straps and buckles on him.

"I think they're still mad at you," said Lala. She started petting Kaleb and said, "He won't do it again, sweetie."

"What? What did I do?" asked a befuddled Preston.

"You almost ran over your mules!" shouted Annabelle from her place in the wagon. "I tried to tell you but you're all puffed up being a hostler and wouldn't listen."

"When you go downhill, you have to ride the brakes. You want the mules to always be pulling the wagon," said Eric. "Never push your mules."

"But that will wear out the brakes," said Preston as he backed Kaleb into position.

"Brakes are cheaper and easier to replace than a mule. That's why there's an extra set of brake pads in the seat box." As Eric said that, Annabelle leaned over the seat back, lifted the seat pad and reached in the box. She pulled out two complete sets of brake pads and waved them around.

"The little rich girl knows mules," said Annabelle as she put the brake pads back and slumped back down.

"I think you best settle that," said Lala softly.

Eric checked his mules, Sally and Darla, while Annabelle hopped down and checked the buckles, belts and collar on Teddi and Kaleb, pointing out each buckle that Preston didn't have tight enough, or too loose. Then she climbed up onto the wagon seat and crossed her arms and looked off to the side. "Do you want to drive?" asked Preston.

"No. I'm just a GIRL. I don't know anything."

"Annabelle, I'm sorry, please teach me how to drive a wagon properly."

"Then watch." She hopped down and pulled an apple out of her coat pocket and broke it in half. She gave half to Teddi and whispered something to Teddi that sounded unintelligible to Preston. She did the same with Kaleb. She whispered as the mule munched his apple.

"What was that?" asked Preston as he fixed oil lamps to the wagon.

Annabelle climbed up into the wagon and stood at the seat, holding the reins. "I told them not to worry, if something evil jumps out at us I'm going to throw you at the beast and we'll run away."

"You did not."

Annabelle gestured to the mules. "Ask them if you don't believe me."

They followed Eric and Lala up to the castle and paused in the portcullis as several crates were loaded in the MacClenny's wagon, then Eric pulled forward and Annabelle pulled into the portcullis. A guard held the mules while Annabelle set the brake and several laborers loaded large crates in the back of the wagon. At the last moment, a woman wrapped in a blanket climbed into the wagon and sat in a corner. She had the blanket pulled over her head.

Eric and Lala pulled out, and Annabelle stood at the seat and gave the reins a gentle flick. "Teddi, Kaleb, come up, come up girls." The two mules pulled, and soon the heavy load was moving.

"Annabelle, take the lead," said the woman in the back, and before they left the castle grounds, Eric's mules stopped and let Teddi and Kaleb take the lead. As they passed Eric and Lala, the woman threw back her blanket, revealing Octavia's sullen face. "Do not worry about the dark," said Octavia to Eric. "The mules can see."

As they headed out of Waleston and passed under the last streetlamp, their oil lamps blew out, leaving them in the dark, semi-moonless night. Only Rahn, the small red moon, was in the sky, but somehow that was more than enough light for the mules and Annabelle thanks to a spell that Octavia sat weaving from the back of the wagon.

The mules worked hard up the side of Breeders Peak, and at the top there was a wide flat area that the overland carriages used to allow their animals to rest. They pulled up and stopped, and Annabelle ordered Preston to set the brake. She hopped down and whispered to the mules and fed them an apple that she ripped in half with her bare hands.

Meanwhile, Octavia stood at the edge of the mountain looking down. Kuu, the largest moon, would soon rise, and it would flood the valley below them in light. They had to get off this mountain and onto Nana Peacock's drive before Kuu was fully up. "I'm going to check the mountain for bandits," said Octavia, and she climbed up on a crate. With a flash and a cloud of smoke, her dress dropped to the top of the crate, and she became a large crow. The bird flew off, and Annabelle ordered Preston and Eric to keep their backs to the wagon.

"Why?" asked Preston.

"When the duke flies off, his clothing goes with him. The duchess does it differently."

"Like what?" asked Preston.

"That's all you need to know," said Annabelle. It was a completely different thing between them. When Nick becomes an animal, he just becomes an animal, simple as that. For Octavia, there's a flash of magic being expended, a cloud of smoke announcing the event, and her clothes stay behind. Nick becomes the animal, clothes and all.

Being raised in a werewolf and vampire led household, Annabelle knew a lot about magic, but she's never seen anyone as powerful as Octavia. Nick has magic too, but not nearly as much as Octavia, and his is completely different. It's a magic from over five thousand years ago, when magic was the lifeblood of many races that no longer existed.

Soon the crow returned and became Octavia. Lala helped the duchess get her dress back on as Annabelle kept Preston and Eric's attention focused on her off to the side of the wagon. "There's nobody on the mountain at the moment but I did see bandits moving toward the road. If we get off the mountain before the bandits are set up, I can handle them."

They made their way down the mountain faster than Annabelle wanted, but when the Duchess says "faster" you go faster. With the duchess weaving her spell, Annabelle and the four mules could see as if it was broad daylight. Preston, Eric, and Lala had to put up with the faint reddish moonlight from Rahn. Preston was the "brake man" and Annabelle was a chatterbox of commands. "Teddi, Kaleb, gee... brake on... more brake... Teddi, Kaleb, haw... less brake... brake off..." and on and on down the mountain but they made awesome time for two heavily loaded mule-drawn wagons.

"How can you see so well?" asked Preston. He could barely see Teddi and Kaleb's ears as they scanned ahead for threats. Annabelle whirled at him, and he saw that her normally green eyes were glowing softly.

"You humans think you're so marvelous," she snarled.

"Annabelle, calm down," said Octavia from the back of the wagon. "You were human once too."

"What?" gasped Preston. "I don't understand."

"I was human like you," said Annabelle. She was looking ahead at the road, which was leveling out nearing the bottom of the ridgeback. "I was young... an older cousin and I were playing... I thought we were playing but he wanted something more and he bit me." She shrugged and said, "That's all there is to it. Human one day, wolfling the next... I don't miss it...." She looked off into the distance, hating herself.

They were quiet as they came off Breeders Peak and made the turn onto Nana Peacock's Drive. As they were covered by the dense forests on both sides of the wagons, Kuu peered above the horizon and flooded the land with its silvery light. On Nana Peacock's Drive, they were in the shadow of the trees, and well hidden. When they emerged from the trees at Octavia's farm, Octavia gasped in shock. There were people and tents everywhere. Her concerned neighbors turned into an army of invasion.

"Halt, who goes there?" demanded a guard in blue and silver. He was almost invisible in the night's gloom.

"Corporal Preston and Private Schultze," said Annabelle. "We escort the duchess and bring provision from the king."

"Advance quietly, men are sleeping, most trekked in yesterday from all over Uduithia."

"Aye trooper, thank you." The two wagons creaked and groaned under their loads until they reached the barn. Octavia hopped down and helped Annabelle and Preston free Kaleb and Teddi from their buckles and belts, and the four mules joined the horses in the pasture. They were huddled together for warmth and mutual defense, and the four mules fit right into the equine love-fest.

Octavia, Annabelle and Preston stepped into the cottage and found it full of sleeping troopers. One man jumped up, and gasped, "Duchess!"

"Go back to sleep Captain."

"Lieutenant, ma'am."

"It's Captain, and if we can talk again with the duke it will be major. Get some sleep, I want to meet with leadership at sunrise."

"Yes your grace!" said Captain Hillingham, and he went out to find the men that would best fill the role of leadership and let them know the duchess was back and wanted to meet with them.

She crept upstairs and found people were sleeping in the room that Nana said would be a nursery. She wriggled out of her dress and climbed into bed and found she wasn't alone. Wayne and Silver Metsker's son Trei was as spread out as a three-year-old can be in a large bed. "Aunty Occ," he mumbled and went back to sleep, quickly followed by Octavia.

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Chapter 27 - On the March

The Black Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn began to assemble days ago. They gathered around the pond at Nana Partridge's cottage; rows of small tents popped up, and local farmers donated produce and livestock to feed the troops. Librarians and professors from Bovuka and the Temple of Saehrimnir University of Mystic Arts manned the Temple of the Woods constantly, so it didn't need to be locked up, and support poured through. Blokes from Bovuka "Lookin' for a right fight" and men from local farms and businesses were trailing into camp in twos and fours. None had any military experience except the blokes from Bovuka, who always seemed ready to pick a fight.

When the sun started to come up, Octavia found herself in a cottage full of men willing to fight to the death to get the duke back, which broke her heart. She didn't want anyone to get hurt, but she knew it would happen. The morning started with an argument. "Vesstan, no. No elves on this mission. It will turn into a revenge fight. I want this to be an end, not an escalation. Enough elves were hurt in the fighting in your village. No more."

"I don't think that's quite fair," said Leomaris Autumnfall, head of security for the King of Teurnia and probably the most handsome elf Octavia had ever met. "I've been friends with Duke Montesquieu for years."

"That's not his name anymore," insisted Octavia.

"That's what it was when I met him," said Vesstan.

"There has to be an old friends exception," said Hugues. "I can't go into a fight without by ol' buddy."

That's when Octavia saw a familiar face, and she realized that this was getting out of hand. "Sean Fahy, what are you doing here?"

"The king gave me and a few of the boys leave to come help."

"Here, try this," said Annabelle. "It's what soldiers use to settle their nerves." She handed Octavia a steaming mug of a bitter beverage.

"What is this?"

"Coffee, it will calm you."

Octavia could feel the coffee settling in and begin to raise hell with her nerves. "Ok, here's the roles," said Octavia, hoping the end the squabbles. "Leomaris, you've been in the military longer than anyone; you are my commanding general. Captain Hillingham, you and your men will be my personal security. I intend to lead from the front, so make sure your horses are rested and get your men kitted out armor that the king provided. My colonels will be Vesstan Aedi, Hugues du Gouey, and Sean Fahy. I want you to figure out who will lead who outside and pick your men accordingly..."

Just then, there was a loud shout from outside the cottage. "MISSUS OCTAVIA! WE WANT A WORD WITH YOU!" It was Feeney MacTavish and the men of Creel Springs who were standing on the lawn. The commanding officers that Octavia just appointed followed her out onto the front porch.

Octavia stood on the porch and saw the usual suspects: Feeney and Linda MacTavish, Tiernan and Sorcha Brighid, Homlette and Ophilia d'Marhk, Trei and Coleene Metsker, the boys, all the merchants from Elm Springs. "Keep it down guys." She didn't want to wake Ezzy Fahy, who was sleeping on a cot in the future nursery, but Ezzy was up; she and Agness Dempsy had tea made and their bags packed. Octavia pulled her robe around her and stood on the porch with Pepin and her wizard's staff, Virga. "What do we want Feeney?" Octavia sighed.

"We heard you are going out for Nick today," said Linda, Feeney's wife. "We want to go with."

"No."

"WHY NOT?" demanded Feeney.

"Because it's going to be very dangerous. I'm supposed to protect you, all of you, and I can't do that AND let you put yourselves into harm's way. Let me fight the battles, you take care of the home front."

"YOU'RE GOING TO LET THE LITTLE GUYS GO!" roared Feeney.

"I want him on my team," whispered Hugues to Vesstan.

"What little guys?" asked Octavia, who realized that according to Feeney, everyone is a little guy.

"THESE GUYS," and the crowd parted and standing in the pre-dawn gloom, Octavia saw over a dozen dwarfs outfitted for battle and standing out front with her shield emblazoned with Octavia's favorite flower, the Poet's Daffodil, was Eryri Brawnkin. She had trimmed her beard short and was wearing eye makeup, but she was the same dwarf that Octavia shared tragedies with.

"King Samrel Oakenarmour wishes to send his best," said Eryri.

"But instead, he sent us!" called out a dwarf in the back, causing the dozen or so dwarves to start laughing.

"We are all escapees from the Black Mountain dig," said Eryri as she hugged Octavia. "we all have a reason to want justice on the north side of your mountain."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." said Octavia. "I should have been there for you."

"Now we need to get going or you may suffer the same fate," warned Eryri.

Octavia turned to her colonels. "Fifteen men each, no more. Send the rest home. Go gather your troops."

"Ma'am, they have over two hundred dwarves waiting for us at the mine."

Octavia glared at her colonels. "You have forty five men, I have ten mounted soldiers and ten combat dwarves, and two wagon loads of special weapons, against a cave full of criminals. I think that's fair." She turned on her heel and stepped into her cottage. She drew a deep, shuddering breath and then whispered, "Forgive me my love," She took the sword known as The Queen's Blade from above the fireplace and strapped it to her belt beneath her brush-colored robes. It was time to go...

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As the sun came up, Octavia's army assembled on the southwestern side of Black Mountain, a remote and heavily wooded area that had seen scant exploration except for her and Nick's hikes. Not since the wars of the Second Age of Elvenkind had an army assembled on Oromorna. Octavia led the way. She and Agness flew low over the forests, spotting the road that was built two millennia ago, then returned to their troops to lead them. "General Autumnfall, let's move out!"

"Army! Move out!" and the Black Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn headed out. Octavia led the Hay-on-Wægn Highway Guard, followed by a dozen dwarves aching for payback. Following were the three colonels: Shawn Fahy representing the kingdom, Hugues Du Gouey representing Nick's friends and employees, and Vesstan Aedi representing the men (and elves) of Elm Springs. Agness flew along as Octavia's mentor, and Pepin scouted ahead, looking for the distinct odor of a dwarf that's been in the mine too long. Following were two wagons filled with food, first aid equipment, and items that the Rifty Peregrine's dwarves left behind. Ezzy Fahy rode on the tailgate of the trailing wagon, ready to administer first aid.

The Army made exceptional time as they hiked, because a road appeared before Octavia as they moved through the dense forest. Ancient paving stones rose through the soil and, when necessary, trees stepped aside to become a solid six foot wide road. As the army passed, the trees leaned in and gave cover for their passage. The only time they had to halt for the road to construct itself was for the occasional bridge that needed reinforcement and here and there a side route was rebuilt for future exploration. Octavia also built a new road that ended at Horner's Lake, where families picnicked in the summer and large blocks of ice were cut in the late winter for Elm Springs use. Several other side roads further up the mountain led to beautiful mountain lakes or hot springs that Agness and Octavia had found as they scouted the road last week.

The west side of the mountain was wilder, more difficult to travel than the east side of the mountain, which is why Octavia chose this side, she didn't expect scouts from Peregrine and Aegir Mining to be looking for them, and she was right. The road that appeared before them didn't seem to care about the rough countryside. Stone bridges, tunnels, cuts, fills -- whatever it took to make the travel easy for the army appeared before them. The road had waited over two thousand years for this moment. Hidden under forest debris, it rose out of its burial for Octavia's army to use. Wonders of nature were revealed to the army, incredible waterfalls, glaciers, and amazing in the distance they saw abandoned fortresses and castles from long-forgotten races and civilizations poking up through the trees.

"Ma'am, a message passed up from Colonel Vesstan's unit," called a rider.

"What is the message?" sighed Octavia, fearing the worst.

"It's from Allyn Evans, are you familiar with him?"

Allyn was the new Ferrier in town. "Yes, what is the message?"

"He would like to know if next year on the night of the Summer Stardance, if he brings Miss Moyra McCrory for a picnic and to see the stardance could you make sure they're not interrupted?"

Laughter roared up and down the line, and Octavia blushed remembering what she and Nick were doing for the summer stardance. She finally responded, "If we find the duke I may be a bit busy." That caused even more laughter. Actually, their son should be two months old around that time.

They stopped for a midday break and relaxed in a sweet-smelling pine forest. The three colonels gathered with the command staff, Leomaris, Eryri, Lieutenant Hillingham, Agness and Octavia. "We should have a cartographer here with us," sighed Leomaris Autumnfall. "The vestiges of elven history are amazing."

"From what I've seen, this mountain was divided into quarters," said Octavia. "I believe Elves were populating the northeast and southwest quarters and dwarves were populating the northwest and southeast quarters."

"You are correct, duchess," said Vesstan. "That is why we built our village in the southwest quarter of Oromorna. There is evidence of a city in that quarter. You saw the rubbings that Izhar took in the temple of Attrix, did you not?"

"Why would they arrange life on the mountain like that?" asked Octavia.

"Unity," grumbled Agness.

"Aye," added Josel Flintbelt, an elder dwarf who assigned himself to be Eryri's bodyguard. "Everyone knows that. Our forefathers were brothers and couldn't bare separation. Elves and dwarves, total opposites and indispensable partners."

"He's right," sighed Vesstan, then he chuckled. "Once I'm done uniting elvenkind, I'll reunite us with our brothers." He nudged Eryri, who nodded sadly.

"Then why are they digging in the northeast?" asked Leomaris.

"Because Rifty Peregrine is stupid," said Eryri. "He knew for a fact that the southeast corner of the mountain historically was dwarf property. That's why he attacked the duke in the southeast corner. He clearly figured that half the mountain meant two conjoined quarters. He knew the Orb was buried deep in the north."

"So it's in the northwest?" asked Octavia.

Josel nodded. "He's incredibly stupid," added Josel. "The orb is buried deep. That's all we know for sure, but deep to a mountain dwarf is a completely different thing to modern mining dwarves. To us today deep means down, to ancient mountain dwarves it meant IN."

"So why did he attack Irla Stein Anore?" said Octavia. "He attacked babies!"

Eryri looked like she was going to cry. "He wants the entire mountain. It's rich in coal, salt, gemstones, iron... The agreement he signed with the duke would have made him a rich dwarf..." She gritted her teeth and snarled. "I intend to make him a dead dwarf!"

"Come here," and Octavia pulled Eryri onto her lap and leaned back against a tree trunk. They looked like a mother and child, if you could ignore the fact that the child was old enough to be Octavia's mother. "Let's just do it right and hand the guilty over to the king."

They were quiet for a while, then Josel said, "'tis beautiful here above ground. Should forest dwarves be restored, I'd like to be one."

"Forest dwarves?" asked Agness. "Now I've heard everything."

"'tis true mother Agness," said Vesstan. "Our dwarf brothers joined us in shepherding the elk and deer, clearing fire breaks, maintaining ponds." He shook his head sadly. "How do men say it? The good old days?"

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By the end of the day, Octavia's army of liberation crossed under Broken Heart Pass, a low pass through the Snow Cross Mountain so remote it was only discovered a few decades ago but it was so steep that the ancient road didn't go over the pass, it followed a half mile long tunnel under the pass. The tunnel was clean and dry, but as they emerged, they found that the tunnel mouth was ancient. A statue of an elf male and female stood on one side of the entrance, and a statue of a dwarf male and female on the other side... but there were marked differences. This statue showed an elf female who was vastly different from any elf Octavia or Vesstan had ever seen. She was built more like Octavia, with large breasts, a narrow waist and round hips. An elf female is slim and athletic with small breasts and narrow hips. There were words engraved above the tunnel entrance, but Octavia didn't recognize the language. Izhar will have to look at this.

There were statues on the other side of the tunnel, but they were overgrown. Octavia vowed to clean that up someday. It was obvious that Broken Heart Pass hadn't recently been discovered; it was recently rediscovered.

They were on the downhill side of the pass, and less and less of the road looked new. Agness nodded in appreciation. The girl was wiser than she expected; she wasn't expending energy on creating a new road; she was reclaiming an ancient existing road, but where is her power coming from?

Coming up to the last section as they descended toward the mine, the road wove back and forth across the west face of the mountain. At night while the army rested, Octavia flew at treetop level through the pines to avoid notice from those on the ground to scout the situation at the Black Mountain mine. A flashing light alerted her that something was up... they now have a Flash tower!

The last reports she got from Halldór Ditchfather and his partner Marcasite were that Peregrine and Aegir Mining were on the verge of financial collapse. But that was weeks ago, and this is a fully functioning operation. Sacks of gemstones were set aside for grading, and tons of coal were piled up in bins, including the precious anthracite that Nick had spoken about. The "black diamonds" gleamed in the faint starlight, and she saw evidence that this coal wasn't being sent to Creel Springs or Uduithia Town, it was being hauled to barges on the Gjorgiev river and being taken downriver to Steil Thein or Torwin-Armistad.

She was worried sick that Alfie and Carl were okay. There were far more dwarfs here than allowed by the agreement Nick set up. Octavia returned to the encampment and found Agness and Pepin waiting for her. The rest of her army was gone. "Where did they go?" she asked, terrified that her help was gone.

"It started to rain so they moved deeper into the forest and found a cave," said Agness, leading the way. They soon came to a cave entrance, and deeper in they found the entire army reclining on stone furniture in a beautifully carved dwarven conference room.

"Duchess!" cried Eryri, "come see what we found!"

"That's got to be thousands of years old!" gasped Octavia.

"Look at this," said a Bovukan bloke named Bruce. He showed Octavia a handful of small, round balls. "They call 'em battle biscuits. A pouch full of these and a sling and you can take out a pack of dingaroo before they know you're there."

"Do you have anyone with a sling?" asked Octavia.

"Yess mum, we all carry a sling. Ya never know what's going to try to kill ya back in Bovuka."

"Ok, rest up!" called out Octavia. "Tomorrow is one last march then we take back what is ours!" Her army was shocked. For many of them, it was the first time they'd heard Octavia speak since they'd left Elm Springs. "Is there a problem Bertie?"

"No, yer grace, we just thought you wanted to stay and look for something, the dwarves say that this is Rkund Keep."

"Rkund...!" Octavia dropped to the smooth, polished rock floor of the keep and placed her hands flat on the cold stones and she searched with her mind... "My gods...," she gasped.

Agness bent over Octavia worried. "Are you well?"

"Close your eyes and listen... I'll share with you..."

Agness stood over Octavia and closed her eyes, and soon she was with Octavia, traveling through tunnels, halls, galleries, all of them still illuminated a full millennium after the last foot touched the floors in this cavern. Libraries filled with books unread for centuries, art unseen by human eyes until now, workshops with complex projects sitting on workbenches waiting for completion. "Where is that?" gasped Agness.

"Above us... about seven levels... this mountain was home to thousands!"

"Is that g..." Agness was about to ask about the bright shining metal that so much was decorated with, but Octavia stopped her.

"No. Don't even think what is in these tunnels, not with those locusts ravaging the far side of this mountain."

Soon in her mind was a map of the underground warren that extended for miles deep beneath and above them, and in the deepest, most hidden vault her prize awaited her. It's still here, and Rifty Peregrine is nowhere near it. For the first time in weeks, she smiled. There's no way that those bastards can win now. She's going to leave it right where it is, safe, secure, and far out of dwarven hands. "Time for that later." She stood and dusted off her robes. "First things first."

"Such as?" asked Captain Hillingham.

"Command meeting, colonels over here. Captain, there's a meadow with sweet grass on the other side of the road. Walk and feed your horses and lodge them in this cave tonight."

"Yes ma'am."

Once the highway guardsmen left, Octavia laid out her plan to her colonels. "Find your best crossbowmen, we're going Dwarf hunting."

"Is that what you want to do?" asked Leomaris Autumnfall.

"We have a wagon load of crossbows and bolts, I'm sure Madam Eryri would be happy to teach us how these bolts work," said Octavia as she glared at the elf.

"Dwarves or not, I can't condone hunting down someone because of their race," said a shocked elf.

"THEY DID IT TO MY HUSBAND!" Octavia nearly screeched. Her words echoed down the empty halls of the Rkund Hold for a long time.

"I'm the one that shot him," said Eryri. "The bolts are non-toxic, it's what you do after the target is dropped is where the toxin lies." The dwarf looked at the polished floors of the mysterious cave, fighting back the tears. "They left me unconscious to starve to death... Duchess Octavia saved me, the dwarf that shot her husband and she saved me... Yeah, I want to shoot them."

"I was there also," said Josel Flintbelt. "Kindness would be wasted on those animals. I've never been so appalled to be a dwarf."

"I don't understand," said Leomaris, now shocked that he had a dwarf commander eager to open fire on unsuspecting miners.

"It's a magically boosted party gag," said Octavia. "At the base of it is a knock-out drug that college boys use on sorority girls to insure that their sexual hunt is successful. It's mostly harmless, a healthy adult can fight off the effects easily enough, but it's been boosted with a magic spell that makes it unbeatable and will leave you knocked out until the crafter of the spell releases you from it."

"Do not worry, General Autumnfall," said Eryri. "The crossbow will be dwarf on dwarf fighting, like it was the day the duke was taken. This time the duke is coming home with us." She got up and walked over to where the dwarves were relaxing to brief them on the upcoming plan.

"Is the maker of this magical spell available to release the fallen from it's grip?" asked Leomaris.

"No. But I can release them, so if you worry about their lives that much I suppose you'll have to make sure I don't die," snarled Octavia. She was getting sick of this elf worrying about the health and well-being of the people who kidnapped his best friend over the health and well-being of his best friend... supposedly.

"You seem angry with me duchess. I'm trying to insure the proper treatment of your king's subjects," said Leomaris.

"They're not my King's subjects, they're my husband's subjects," said Octavia. "They haven't applied for Uduithian citizenship, so by the charter of the throne of Uduithia, they're Nick's problem. Nick is their sovereign while on Uduithian soil." Octavia walked over to Leomaris the way that his queen Rania Haldir would walk, hips swinging, eyes heavily lidded with passion. She crouched down in front of Leomaris. "Would you like to see how they honor their duke?"

"I... what do you mean?"

She put her hands on the sides of his head and squeezed his temples, then leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. He twisted and tried to get away, but suddenly he saw it... His vision was filled with an eagle, a Black Eagle, the proud bird of Uduithia and the Snow Cross Mountains. It was in a room that was filled with red tapestry or drapes; he couldn't decide. The eagle sat on a perch like a parrot or some lesser bird. A golden chain was attached to its leg, but the bird wasn't clawing at that leg; it could easily bite through the light gold chain. It was gnawing at a glowing purple ring on its other leg... no; it wasn't gnawing at the ring; it was gnawing at its own leg; it was trying to chew its own leg off.

"That ring is preventing him from returning to human form," hissed Octavia. "He took the form of an eagle to investigate what we thought was a forest fire, then he dropped down in altitude because there was a person lying on the ground and he was landing to heal him. That's when the dwarves jumped out of holes and opened fire at him... for the crime of caring about his people!"

She fell back, and Leomaris sat gasping, shaken by what he saw. "They're going to pay mister Teurnian Security Elf, and if you don't want to help me collect, then be gone with you and take your high and mighty ideals with you. I have men in my army and we have work to do."

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Chapter 28 - Combat

It was the night of a double new moon. Both Kuu and Rahn were mere slivers in the night sky, but their rings shone bright silver, and Rahn's double ring was clear to the naked eye. It was cold in the mountain air, their breath visible, but Octavia's forces were ready to strike. Eryri's dwarven crossbowmen were in position, and anytime a sentinel or guard drew too close to Octavia's position, there would be a twang of a crossbow firing and the pop of a gas filled crossbow bolt releasing its noxious party trick and another dwarf or two slumped to the ground. They waited five minutes for the gas to drift off, then they pulled the unconscious body back behind their line, took everything but the dwarf's clothing, and left them in a bunch where Octavia could 'heal' them after the fight.

Octavia wanted to find out why the intelligence reports they were getting suddenly stopped, so they crept through the forest and reached the edge of the woods, but there was no cabin. They had built a cabin for Alfie and Carl. When the demi-giants returned to the farm, the cabin became Halldor's office among the trees. When it was first built, their cabin was far back in the woods; but now it's in the center of a field of tree stumps. The edge of the forest had been driven back because Peregrine and Aegir Mining had been illegally stripping the land of trees ever since Nick was captured.

Octavia whispered, "Broom" to her staff Virga, and it grew broom bristles. Octavia held it level near the ground, then climbed on it and lay flat on her levitating broom. She was wearing one of Nick's "Bush colored" robes that he got in Bovuka, as were all the Bruces in her army. She floated inches off the ground and made her way to the cabin by pulling at the tree stumps. Several nerve-wracking minutes later, she stopped behind Alfie and Carl's office, the wooden shed that they had built months ago to monitor the dwarves. Quietly, she crept up to the front door and found that the door had been locked with a huge padlock. She crept over to the window and whispered, "Alfie? Carl?"

"Is that you m' lady? We have Halldór in here, we think he's dying."

"Ok stand over by the door, I'm coming in." Alfie and Carl moved next to the door and waited for her to open it, but instead they saw the gleam of a sword slice through the back wall and draw straight down like a hot knife through warm butter. Two more cuts were made silently, and a door-size section of the back wall silently lay down on the forest floor.

Alfie and Carl, or as Octavia thought, the remains of Alfie and Carl, came out of the reeking cabin carrying the gruesomely injured Halldór Ditchfather in a blanket between them. The dwarves had beaten Alfie and Carl severely, then locked them up with no food and very little water and left them to die, but Halldór had it worse. They treated him mercilessly for weeks. "Where's Marcasite?" asked Octavia.

"They killed him," gasped Halldór, "they chopped him to pieces." Then, the old dwarf began weeping for his friend.

"It was awful," groaned Carl. "They chopped him up like he were some animal."

Leomaris suddenly felt Octavia shouting in his head, "Get over here!" The elf crept through the sea of stumps until he reached the cabin. "This is how these dwarves treat my men," Octavia hissed in Leomaris's ear. "The remains of Mister Jabir Marcasite are piled up behind the cabin."

Leomaris studied the injured demi-giants, the dying dwarf, and he began to shake. "No," he whispered. "I've been a fighting elf my entire life. I fought at Tähelepanek Point against a god gone mad, but never... never..." The elf warrior was shuddering with anger. When they started out, this was a squabble that needed adult supervision to settle... he came along to settle an argument... now he saw how low these dwarves had sunk. "Peregrine and Aegir Mining will be stopped, my lady." He unsheathed his mithril/steel blade, a sword that Nick, when he was known as Pommeraie de la Montesquieu, had presented him when Leomaris was placed in charge of Palace Security in Termagant's Bane, the chateau capital of Teurnia. The sword was engraved with one word in ancient Mägede Keel, or "high elvish." It simply said "Munidor" - which meant a brother by blood.

They were soon surrounded by dwarves and blokes of the Black Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn, who fought hard against the shock and revulsion that overwhelmed them. How could dwarves or men do this to someone?

"Someone take them to Missus Fahy, then get back in place," snapped Leomaris. "And do not forget what you are seeing."

"Yes sir!" It took most of the army to carry the demi-giants, but they disappeared back in the trees. Pepin stepped up next to Octavia and crouched in a fighting stance.

"Pepin, I need you to guard Missus Fahy with every fang in your mouth," said Leomaris.

"Negative. I guard my sister."

Octavia looked at Leomaris and shrugged. Pepin is very obedient when it suits him. "I need a couple of crossbowmen to cover me."

Soon Octavia was flying silently through the mining camp. She clung to Pepin tightly, and he pulled her along as he trotted through the sea of tree stumps. Occasionally a crossbow bolt would fly past her and strike a building or piece of equipment and go off, showering a hidden sentry with magically enhanced Doctor Skidwell's Magic Sleep Potion. She floated up to the Flash tower and stood. Then she rapped her knuckles on the counter and cleared her throat.

"I got a few messages that need to be sent now," said Pepin. The goblin at the Flash handles turned and saw what appeared to be a masked musketeer and a wolf with his forepaws on his counter. He sent a quick BRB to his friend and smiled.

"How can I help you?"

"I have three messages that need to go ASAP," growled Pepin.

"As you can see, I'm already sending..."

"You're shooting the shit with your buddy in Fort Woosiad down in the grand Duchy of Tolmark. These messages are Priority Apex from the court wizard of the King of Uduithia."

"I answer to Mister Rifty Peregrine of the Peregrine and Aegir Mining company and I don't have to..." started the goblin. Goblins are actually dwarves but a smaller race of dwarves. Like their larger dwarven brothers, they can be sweet-talked.

"You could be answering to King Uric's buddy Mister Morose of the slice 'em and dice 'em school of interrogation if you don't send these messages," said Octavia. Her voice was low, firm, and impossible not to obey. Pepin had to fight the urge to send the messages himself.

The goblin's attitude changed quickly. Mr. Morose has a reputation that is known far and wide. "Let me see those messages... first one to General Sir Ned Sinclair Darby copied to Chief Inspector Felicity Warforge, Message as follows: Agent Marcasite murdered, Agent Ditchfather critically wounded, search for suspects underway, that one is good... next message is to... Samrel Oakenarmour... Message as follows: Peregrine and Aegir Mining... violation of contract... all assets seized... company officers wanted in connection... human trafficing... trafficking is spelled with a K... that one is good... last message... to King Uric of Uduithia, message as follows: search for missing duke continues... battle starts now."

"Could you tell me when that last one gets sent?" asked Octavia. "The timing is terribly important."

"Ok... this second message is a long one... just about there..." the Flash shutters banged and flashed their messages as the sun peered above the far horizon. "It has been sent!" proudly announced the goblin.

Octavia drew her musket and fired a flare into the air, signifying the battle of Black Mountain had begun. Then she patted her hand on the counter, and Pepin hopped up onto the counter. The enormous wolf leaned in and snarled at the goblin. "Shut it down; this station is now property of the Duchy of Wægn."

"This station is here by contract with the Peregrine and Aegir Mining company," said the goblin firmly, standing on his stool, hands on hips, totally oblivious to the sounds of battle now filling the air.

"That contract is canceled," snarled Pepin. "You may want to find a place to hide." Pepin jumped off the countertop and disappeared into the pre-dawn gloom as the sounds of battle grew louder.

The battle at the mouth of the mine was fast and furious. The human slingers from Bovuka fired volley after volley of the rounded rocks called Battle Biscuits into the dwarves trying to defend the entrance of the mine, knocking the dwarves over like bowling pins. The dwarves who got out matched their short swords against humans with full-size swords, and they threw their short swords down and surrendered.

Dwarves were piled up by the side of the coal storage bin, and many more that were knocked out by the sleeping gas equipped crossbow bolts were being dragged into a pile.

Finally, Octavia stood in front of the sealed mine entrance and used the voice she used in the throne room when she revealed the army's recruitment tactics. "SEND OUT RIFTY PEREGRINE NOW!" Her words boomed and rattled through the mine, penetrating its deepest shafts. All who heard put their tools down and listened for the outcome.

Behind the closed door at the mine entrance, Octavia could hear laughter and then, "Why don't you come in and get him princess?"

Octavia pointed to her crossbow dwarves, then held up two fingers, indicating she wanted two shots fired into the mine. When the crossbows were cocked and loaded, she drew her rapier and held it in front of her. Soon it began to glow, first red, then orange, then yellow. Once it was the color she wanted, Octavia stepped up to the metal door over the mine entrance and sliced it open like it was made of warm butter. The dwarves inside the mine tried to hold the door in place, but it fell outward, and when that happened, the crossbows fired.

In moments the outer mine entrance was devoid of conscious dwarves and the blokes and dwarves of the Black Mountain Army of the Duchy of Wægn dragged the unconscious dwarves out of the mine and tied their wrists and laid them out alongside the road between the mine entrance and the river dock.

Tied up at the dock was an empty collier, a barge used to haul coal. As they hauled the unconscious dwarves out, Agness Dempsy moved among the tied dwarves, making sure they could breathe and that their wrist restraints were not too tight. "What is she doing here?" Eryri asked Octavia.

"She's my conscience," sighed the lonely duchess. "She's here so I don't kill every one of these greedy pickaxe lickers." She looked about her. So many people were here because of her, and she's so lonely that she wanted to cry. Ever since the day she watched Nick fall from the sky, she's felt horribly alone. She can't have this baby by herself; she just can't do it...

"We found him your grace!" cried Wayne Metsker, and immediately Octavia snapped out of her morose musing and thought Wayne was referring to Nick, but he and a Bruce from Bovuka dragged a struggling Rifty Peregrine out of the mine. Another dwarf gave Octavia a scrap of paper, and she thanked him with a hug before turning to Rifty. "Mister Peregrine, we have one hundred thirty five of your people above ground; they're either unconscious or tied up, and in the mine we have twenty six unconscious, that's one hundred sixty one. How many more do you have here?"

Rifty glared at her. His eye was starting to swell. "Wayne, what happened to Mister Peregrine? His eye is swelling."

"He fell, ma'am," lied Wayne. "We were walking up out of the mine and he musta stepped on a loose shoelace."

"Oh, that sounds painful, I hope that swelling doesn't become a liability to the way you answer our questions Mister Peregrine."

Rifty simply glared at her.

"Let's play another game. This is my friend Eryri Brawnkin, her husband is Dradduc Brawnkin, and her son is Tuzmas Brawnkin. You told Eryri that you had Eric and Lars and were holding them securely until she helped catch an exceptionally notorious eagle for you, which she did. Here is our question, you got your eagle, where is Eric and Lars?"

Rifty looked very nervous; he was sweating profusely. "They're... they're safe and waiting for her at Lenzstätten."

"That, I'm afraid, is the wrong answer," said Octavia with an angry growl, and she continued, "Rifty, the correct answer was they died in a tunnel collapse in the Glory Pit. Eryri, he's all yours."

With a shriek of anger, Eryri began punching, kicking, and hitting Rifty. Her cries of sorrow and longing echoed through the mountain valley, as did the sound of fist hitting flesh and boot hitting ribs. "He may not live," said Agness.

"I promised her five minutes, let her have them... this is dwarven law."

"I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve it, but if she kills him, you have no way to find your husband."

"I can heal him back up so she can start kicking him again," said the duchess without a trace of emotion in her voice. The look that Octavia gave Agness let the witch know that she would heal him just to injure him over and over until her anger finally vented out. Agness realized that Octavia was angry enough to cause the dwarf enough torment to have him begging for death.

"What are you looking at?" shrieked Eryri at Rifty, "Look at me while I'm trying to kill you!"

Octavia turned around and saw that Rifty kept looking over to the river. The worn old collier was tied up along the shore waiting for its next load, and Octavia noticed another barge slowly working upriver, and it appeared to be covered with dwarves in battle armor. "Folks!" Octavia called. "We got company!"

As the barge pulled up alongside the collier, the watch on the collier decided to get out of the sun as the sun rose higher in the early autumn sky. The watch, Rednar Royson, a wizened old dwarf, was a veteran of dozens of skirmishes with other dwarven clans, and also trolls, gnolls, goblins, banshees, and werewolves. Keeping an eye on an empty old barge was easy money, and he was glad for the rest. Waving to the barge master of the dwarf-covered barge, Rednar went down to the hold where he had a third of a nearly acceptable cigar hidden in the ribs of the hold.

Rednar chuckled. The human barge-master of the old collier did not allow smoking on his old barge at any time. Foolish human, scoffed Rednar as he sank his teeth into the soggy stub of his cigar. It's coal! It's not like it's going to catch fire; coal takes a good hot flame to get its own combustion started. Rednar patted his pockets looking for his box of matches. His eyes burned from the ultra-fine coal dust floating in the air down in the hold of the old barge. As soon as he finds a match, he can get this stub lit and head up on deck and go sit in the shade of a tree.

"IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?" asked a voice that was ancient when the universe was young.

Rednar found a glass jar with a dozen strike-anywhere matches in it. He unscrewed the lid and selected a match. "What they don't know won't hurt 'em. I didn't catch your name."

"I PREFER TO BE CALLED INEVITABLE."

The dwarf lit the match with an educated flick of his thumbnail, and in the match's flare Rednar saw the black hood and the two unblinking eyes of Droul, god of Death, in the light. It didn't concern him, however, because the free-floating coal dust caught fire immediately and the blast blew the upper deck of the collier over fifty feet in the air. The bank of the river reflected the lateral blast wave back into the new barge that had just pulled up alongside the collier, and the blast shoved the new barge out into the middle of the river, scattering dwarves in heavy armor throughout the Gjorgiev River.

The dwarves that were below deck on the new barge scrambled up onto the upper deck and started pulling their flailing buddies back onto the barge. Even though most dwarves cannot swim, this was a dangerous move because the upper deck of the old collier came roaring back down out of the sky end on and hit the new barge amidships and sliced it cleanly in half. At its deepest, the Gjorgiev River is five feet, and it would have been comical except at their tallest a dwarf is four feet and they cannot swim, and most were in full combat armor.

"MEN!" shouted Leomaris. "GO GET THEM! NOBODY DIES!"

The men of Octavia's army laid down their arms, raced to the river, and began plucking drowning dwarves out of the deeper water. The dwarf contingent of Octavia's army began hustling the rescued dwarves to the mine entrance where they could change into dry miners' coveralls. Soon sixty of the seventy-five dwarves were rescued, ten drowned, and five were last seen clinging to scraps of lumber being swept downstream.

"My turn," said Octavia as she approached Rifty. The dwarf struggled against his ropes, but he wasn't going anywhere. "Where is my husband?"

"I don't know."

Octavia placed the butt of her staff, Virga, on Rifty's stomach. There was a snap of magical discharge, and Rifty shrieked in agony. "I'll ask again," said Octavia as Rifty's cries of torment abated. "Where is the father of my child?"

Rifty made a huge mistake and scoffed, then said, "How can we be sure that the duke IS the father of..." Octavia placed the butt of Virga on Rifty's testicles and gave him another shock. Rifty's screams of pain echoed off the mountain and rang in the ears of everyone in the area. Even in the deepest depths of the mine, he could be heard. Above ground, everyone who possessed testicles winced in sympathy of Rifty's agony.

Octavia straightened and said cheerily, "there, all the damage I caused is healed, you're as good as new, you may have to go through puberty again but you're healed."

"The... the pain..." gasped Rifty through another wave of nausea-inducing pain.

"Oh, I didn't take the pain away, I left it as a reminder. Now you'll always remember that when someone asks a question it's less painful to answer it politely. Now, shall we try that again?" She placed the butt end of her staff over his heart. "Where is my husband?"

"F-f-fuck you." There was a snap and blinding pain, and through the worst agony Rifty could imagine, he saw a figure in black robes looking at his agony. "Are you here to collect me?" he asked.

"OH NO, I'M HERE TO SEE A MASTER AT WORK. SHE IS QUITE INCREDIBLE," said the god of Death.

"Incredible?"

"SHE WILL BRING YOU HERE TO THE EDGE AND SNATCH YOU BACK OVER AND OVER... I NEVER TIRE OF WATCHING."

Rifty was still screaming in pain when he recovered consciousness. "I don't know, I swear, I don't know..." With that, he started to cry.

"Maybe you just forgot," said Octavia. Her voice was neutral, devoid of any emotion. With a gesture of her hand, the mine entrance suddenly sealed closed. In a moment it was healed over, and any hint of mining activity was gone. "If it comes to mind I might remember how to release your people."

"You can't! There's almost two hundred more..."

"Two hundred?" shrieked Octavia. "Your contract allowed thirty." She pointed to the dwarves that were tied up. "There's one hundred sixty one! You have almost four hundred dwarves working here?"

"You can't!" gasped Rifty, but Octavia wasn't listening to him, she clung to her staff with both hands, knuckles white from the grip that she used, her eyes closed and she was muttering silently, calling out to Nick wherever he was, "I'm coming for you darling."

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Chapter 29 - Octavia's Tower

Deep beneath Black Mountain, something moved. Rock was displaced as the object rose and moved upwards. The mountain stopped fighting against it and moved out of its way as it rose, faster and faster. Solid rock pulled aside to let the magical orb go past, and with an explosion of dust and rock fragments, the sphere came into the light for the first time in over two thousand years. Now it flew inexorably toward Octavia, nothing standing in its way. Several unfortunate trees were shattered into shards as the sphere hit them at the ten-foot mark, shearing off the upper thirty feet until it gently came to rest in Octavia's outstretched hand.

"This is what you were looking for, but it was miles away on the west end of the prominence in the Rkund Hold." Octavia examined the Orb of Jørn. It was fascinating. It was like an eyeball made of onyx for the iris, lapis lazuli for the pupil, and ivory for the body of the eyeball. It floated and turned freely inside a sphere made of the purest crystal. She felt the power in the Orb of Jørn as it looked around, trying to determine where it was.

"That's what this whole blue was about?" asked Bruce Kendall, unelected leader of the blokes from 'Way Over' as the natives like to call Bovuka.

"This is supposed to give magical powers to the dwarves, but it doesn't work for them," Octavia handed the Orb of Jørn to Eryri, who turned it over and over in her hands, but nothing happened. She shrugged and handed it back.

"It's pretty, maybe Horatio would have liked it."

"Who is Horatio?" asked Octavia.

"He's the young wizard Mr. Peregrine hired," said Eryri as she pointed toward Rifty.

Octavia pointed the Orb of Jørn at Rifty and concentrated on the name Horatio, and soon the Orb of Jørn began ripping the memories out of Rifty's psyche. "A butt nugget? You SOLD my husband to a student wizard?" Octavia screamed at Rifty.

"He told me he graduated," said Rifty.

"You bastard," hissed Octavia as she placed the Orb of Jørn on top of her staff. "How does that feel?"

"I like it!" said Virga silently. "I can see!"

"Show him," said Octavia, "show him what he did to Eryri and me," and she lowered her staff and gently tapped Rifty's head with the Orb of Jørn. Immediately Rifty curled up in agony, shivering, weeping, and muttering, "I'm sorry," over and over.

Agness was shocked at the sudden change in Rifty Peregrine. He was weeping inconsolably and wouldn't let anyone near him. "What did you do to him?" demanded Agness. Her voice was a hiss that anyone in the Snow Cross Mountains knew was a dire warning, but Octavia didn't seem to care.

"I gave him the agony that he's put Eryri and I through," said Octavia. "He's experiencing the agony of a woman whose husband and son were killed. He's experiencing the sorrow of a young pregnant bride whose husband was taken from her."

"Duchess... males are not able to deal with sorrow that intense," said Agness. "They can barely survive a favorite dog passing away."

Octavia tightened her grip on her staff. "Let's go look for Horatio Tinsmith," and Virga started to rise, taking Octavia with her.

Oh no, this was worse than expected, Agness said to herself. She hopped on her broom, but it was old and it was slow, and she was left hovering nearly motionless about three feet off the ground, but it sped up. Soon she was gaining altitude and catching up with Octavia. "Where are you going?" demanded Agness as she pulled up to Octavia.

"My tower."

Agness's worst fears were proven correct. An enchantress is not a female wizard because there is no such thing; an enchantress is a source of magic. Wizards and witches use the magic that exists on Kodu to perform spells. To do this, they use mana that they had stored up, or earned, and sometimes they use free-floating thaum particles. But an enchantress is a source of magic; there is nearly nothing she can't do, which explains Octavia's sudden expertise in a kitchen, crafting meals when the stove was never lit and cleaning laundry without using things like laundry soap, water, and a washboard.

Octavia ignored Agness all the way up to the peak of Black Mountain, where they landed on Octavia's little round wall that Nick could not get near. "What is this?" demanded Agness.

"This is my tower," said Octavia. Her voice was different; it was self-assured, strong, commanding... well, her voice always was those things except around Nick. When he was there, she spoke with a delightful lilt of love and passion mixed in, but now her voice was much more self-assured, strong, and commanding. Octavia was planning to escalate this skirmish into a shooting war.

"You know what towers are for don't you?" demanded Agness. In the history of magical life on Kodu, towers were always for wars. The last remaining Sourcerer's tower on Kodu was the Tower of Divine Fools on the campus of the University of Saehrimnir, but this! An entire mountain is her sourcerers tower. There's almost no place on Kodu she couldn't attack from here.

"They're for being up high so I can find my husband," said Octavia as she stood Virga on the ground. Virga wandered around a little bit and then found a hole cut in the stone floor and set herself in it nice and snug and began looking. The Orb of Jørn began sweeping side to side, and now Virga could see the entire world from here, even the portions beyond the curve of Kodu. "Let's find the University," said Octavia.

Agness grasped the staff; she had planned to yank it out of the hole it was set in and throw it down the mountain, but suddenly she could see what Virga and Octavia could see. She saw a lot that once contained a castle but now was merely a pile of broken stone. Octavia was looking at this lot fondly. Is this where children played their childhood games? "Why are we looking at an empty lot?"

"That's where Nick and I met," said Octavia as she sniffed away tears of nostalgia. She looked at the lot that once contained Mariseau Castle, and Nick commanded the castle guard. She remembered sitting and watching him work so hard, not knowing the intellect that was hiding under that black mop of hair of his... of burning with jealousy when she saw the tiny, inexpensive engagement ring on Ziska Thornhammer's finger... of horrific heartache catching Ziska in bed with King Alfrich... not for herself but for Nick... the feeling of being in his strong arms for the first time, of being so excited when she sat nude in a boat with him...

Before she started crying, the scene shifted to a library where an older man was teaching a young girl to read Klatchian. "That's the Viceroy and me in the library..."

"How long ago was this?"

"Twenty years ago... I was a month old when the orphanage took me in, and Viceroy Tidor Dhukonn always cared for me." Agness nodded, but she remained silent. The scene changed to a spacious office filled with hunting and fishing trophies.

"This is the viceroy's office," said Octavia cheerfully. Tidor Dhukonn had a tiny hook in a small vice and was tying bits of fur and feathers to it to resemble well-known insects. "Viceroy!" she called. "It's me, Façade. I am looking for a student named Horacio Tinsmith."

"Tinsmith you say?" said Tidor. "What did he do now?" Without looking up or waiting for an answer, Tidor shouted, "BURSAR!" When his assistant entered his office, the university viceroy demanded, "Find me everything we have on Horacio Tinsmith." Then without looking up he said, "Be right with you Mr. Incognito."

"He calls you Façade Incognito?" asked Agness.

"Oh yes, It's the name I used when I sneaked into lectures out of sheer boredom. I was in the girls school learning to be a second wife but I preferred wizardry. That's the name on my diploma."

"But he doesn't seem to notice you're not there."

"In my position dear lady, you speak with quite a few individuals who are not all here. Most of them are faculty." Tidor gave a few harrumph-type laughs, then the bursar came in and handed Viceroy Dhukonn a folder. "Ah yes, Horatio Tinsmith... difficult lad... we had him here two years ago, didn't finish his first semester." After a few harrumphs, he handed the folder back to the bursar.

"What happened?"

"He... he had discipline problems. It appears that he attempted to use wizarding to influence local politics. The dominus expelled him from the city of Torwin-Armistad wearing naught but feathers and a bit of tar. He is currently a student at the Temple of Bet ha-Kise University in Chelmsford."

"Thank you Viceroy." The scene changed at dizzying speed, and they were looking at the Temple of Bet ha-Kise University in Chelmsford, Steil Thein, from above. As Octavia and Virga searched the college grounds, the mountain seemed to get taller; the stone wall they were standing behind was rising with them. Agness let go of Octavia's staff and realized that they were indeed going higher; the mountain was extending them upwards.

Down in the river valley, Octavia's Army looked up and saw a red sphere engulfing the mountaintop, from the tree line to far beyond the peak. "What is that?" Bruce asked Eryri.

"I think Octavia is angry."

The sphere changed colors, from red to orange to yellow, then white. That's when the ground began to shake and a shrieking bellow filled the air, then with a roar the ball leapt into the air rising higher and higher, then it shot off to the northeast followed by a crack of thunder.

"What the hell is that Sheila doing?" asked a Bruce.

"I think she just took a shot at Steil Thein."

In the quad of the Temple of Bet ha-Kise College of Wizardry, the ground began to shake. Students crossing from class to class looked up. It was just the start of the semester, and this is happening already? In the sky, a white streak came at them from the far Snow Cross Mountains. As it sailed to them, the students could see, far away atop an enormous mountain, a giant red ball was forming. The sky roared as the white ball descended, aiming right at the college, growing closer and closer to the campus. Then with a silent explosion it hit the main gate to the college and covered it in some form of cement which covered the gate and flowed between the sections, oozed into the hinges and slithered under the gate, then the cement hardened so quickly a sickening crunch could be heard from the hinges. The gate was sealed; there was no way in or out of the school, and a second ball was on its way. It was almost at the college when the thundering report from its launch could be heard.

This ball hit the head of the statue of Viceroy Henry Meece, the first, and current, Viceroy of the Temple of Bet ha-Kise College, and drove the statue into the ground like a tent stake in muddy soil. All that remained of the statue above ground was the right arm of Archchancellor Henry Meece, which was holding a book to the heavens. Now, it looked as if it was carrying a cafeteria tray. As the students and faculty who saw that display of high-end magic applauded, a voice was heard being emitted by every building. The audio response was perfect, wide frequency response, low distortion, and sound quality that would bring tears to the eyes of any audiophile. "Bring me Horacio Tinsmith!"

"Who?" asked the majority of the students. But the third-year students knew him well. Braggart, drunkard, and suddenly he's got pockets full of money. Tinsmith was dragged out of his room where he was enjoying another drunken stupor and hauled by several underclassmen to the remnants of the statue of the Archchancellor. He was tied to the exposed arm of Archchancellor Henry's statue, then his classmates backed away, laughing and drinking expensive coffee from paper cups.

"Where is the eagle?"

Dazed and trying to come up with a wise-ass response that would get himself killed, Horacio shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and was about to say...

"DO NOT say "What Eagle?" Who did you sell the eagle to?" To punctuate the words that were threatening to puncture his ear drums the buildings shook for a full minute after the voice stopped, which impressed Horacio's fellow students.

"Whoa dude!"

"Somebody is pissed at you!"

"Uhhh... Xuantang..."

"You sold a member of the Royal Court of Uduithia to the Xuantang Empire?"

This suddenly got very real. The underclassmen stopped hassling their classmate and started looking for a safe basement to hide in. "Yes?" said Horacio.

"How did you transport the eagle to Xuantang?"

"Temple hop," said Horacio. "They built a temple in the throne room and..."

This time the shot from the mountain so far away was a beam that moved so fast they couldn't detect its speed. It wasn't moving at the speed of light; light was slow and sloggy compared to this. This was fast, almost instantaneous fast. It pierced the roof of the temple and removed a column. And that was it. No thunder, no lightning, no pronouncement of doom or dire circumstances. A marble tower disappeared and left no clue behind about how it expired.

<><><><><>

Eryri and Octavia's army watched from the shore of the river in horror as the peak of the mountain grew like a collapsible telescope being extended, then the mountain waited, breathing nervously. Then, a sphere of light starting at the extended peak grew larger and larger, engulfing the top of the mountain down to the tree line. A piercing shriek filled the air, and the ground shook, then with an ear-splitting roar the ball of light flew off into the distance, shrieking and rending the atmosphere as it soared, arching down and landing they knew not where.

"What was that?" gasped a Bruce.

Before they recovered from the marvel, the ground began shaking again, and again a loud, shrieking banshee wail filled the air. The assembled crowd at the base of the mountain looked up and saw the mountain was covered with a white-hot ball of light down to the tree line and with an ear splitting roar the mountain released another tremendous blast and another sphere of light traveled off into the distance.

For a long moment the mountain was silent, and all Eryri could wonder was, "What the hells is she doing up there?"

"It's gunna blow again!" cried one of the Bovukans, but this time the sphere only engulphed the top of the extended shaft, and with a shriek it was gone.

"What the hells is she doing?" Eryri finally shouted.

One of the Bruces looked up at her and said, "She's looking for her man."

Soon the entire army of the Duchy of Wægn was chanting, "'TAVIA! 'TAVIA! 'TAVIA!"

Up on the peak, Agness was not impressed by the power exhibited by Octavia and her mountain redoubt; what she was impressed with was Octavia's display of self-control. She could have turned that whiny little drunk that sold her husband into a greasy stain on the quad, but what she left was a sniveling brat chained to the remnants of a statue. "What did that do?" asked Agness as she watched the last shot hit the temple roof.

"I vaporized a column in the temple and closed off Bet ha-Kise Temple College of Wizardry's access to temple hopping," said Octavia, but she was no longer worried about Steil Thein. Bet ha-Kise Temple College will figure out their problems eventually, but they're going to have to cut another gate through their wall somewhere else. The gate she cemented shut will never open again, and access to temple hopping will need the approval of two major gods, and the temple will have to be rededicated to a new god. Good luck getting that done. And they're going to have to consider long and hard before they erect another statue on that campus.

That was no longer her worry. She was busy scanning the Xuantang Empire.

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Buggy Orebeard was thrown to the ground in a simple yet at the same time lavish throne room. Red silk curtains hung on every wall, and all furnishings and fixtures were solid gold. The low ceilings were mirrors, and the marble floor was polished to a mirror finish, and it was dizzying to try to determine what was real and what was reflection. In the far corner was a huge and expansive temple where several armed guards stood watch. Unauthorized temple worship must be at an all-time high.

To his left was a large perch, which contained one Lancre Black Eagle. The Lancre Black is normally a very regal-looking raptor, with glossy plumage, a sharp beak with a hook at the end, and always an intelligent look about it. This one looked scrawny and undernourished. One leg was chained to the perch; the other leg had a strange purple metal band on its ankle. As he watched the bird, it would occasionally start gnawing on its leg, not the one with the chain, but the leg with the purple band.

"Looks like we both come here to die, eh fellow?" said Buggy sadly. The eagle ignored him; it was busy gnawing at its leg.

"What are you?" came a disgusted child's voice.

Buggy slowly turned and saw a throne, a gold and red silk seat fashioned after a folding stool but much larger and more elaborate. Lounging on the throne was a young child dressed in pajamas. Next to the throne was a small, skinny man wearing golden robes and a hat that looked like a golden board lying flat on his head with golden screens hanging down from all four sides of the board, hanging down to shoulder length.

The screens on the man's hat didn't accomplish much, and to be honest, they looked quite stupid. But the Emperor designed the hat when he was six and ordered his assistant to wear it. The skinny man, the eunuch Lung Mist, was a pragmatic man, and he realized that it's best to wear a stupid hat and look stupid than to not have a head to set the hat on and look... shorter.

"I am a dwarf," said Buggy.

"There's no such thing as dwarves," said the child.

"I get that a lot," replied Buggy.

"Dwarves come from fairytales. That shall be your name, Fairy Tale." The child laughed at his own wit. "Speak your name dwarf... while you still have a tongue to speak with."

"Fairy Tale, sire."

"Very good, the Fairy Tale is capable of learning. Do you like dragons?" asked the child on the throne.

"I find them entertaining," said Buggy. He was thinking of the swamp dragons that flutter about the swamps and mires that circle Torwin-Armistad. They fight and jockey for territory and can be quite humorous in their tussling. Even the way they occasionally explode was entertaining.

Swamp Dragons, also known as Common Dragons, grow to two feet in length and have a wingspan anywhere from four inches to four feet as some species have purely ornamental wings. It is said that rich old women adopt them as pets and rich old men use them as cigar lighters. Xuantang Dragons, when they existed, were an entirely different breed of animal. Buggy remembered that Nick had a thing for Xuantang Dragons and said that he wanted to change into one someday. "Stick to cats," Buggy had told him.

"And what do you think of my dragon?" asked the child emperor, pointing at the eagle.

Buggy looked at the eagle, who looked back at him. He saw the golden left eye and the tuft of feathers that looked like a silver key and remembered the golden-eyed friend and battle partner who wore a silver key on a ribbon around his neck. The eagle suddenly began squawking and screeching at Buggy. "You have an amazing dragon, your eminence."

"Very well, I shall add you to my menagerie and you shall teach my dragon how to return to his original shape. As you can see, my dragon thinks that he's a bird."

The eagle and the dwarf looked at each other for a long moment, then Buggy said, "I would be honored, sire."

"And what do dwarves eat?" asked the emperor.

"Our needs are simple, your highness. We can survive quite well on Shekim and beer."

For several days, Buggy tried to calm the eagle, and while he could eat himself senseless on the dwarven nirvana Shekim, the despondent eagle refused to eat. "Please sire!" pleaded Buggy, holding a piece of raw rabbit to the eagle's beak. "The duchess, I know she's looking for you; I can feel it."

And the odd thing about it was that he could feel it. Several times a day he felt a wave pass over him. The feeling of a frustrated searcher danced at the edges of his senses. And he knew the duke felt it too; whenever the feeling passed over him, the eagle began biting at its leg, not the leg with the chain, but the leg with the purple band. It didn't make any sense to Buggy; why would the eagle try to bite off that leg and not the leg with the chain?

"How is my dragon today?" asked the emperor.

"I found a way to get him to eat," said Buggy. "I hold a spoonful of Shekim to his nose and when he opens his mouth in revulsion I put some meat in his beak."

"Does he spit it out?"

"No, I don't think eagles... I mean dragons, I don't think dragons can spit." Then Buggy prostrated himself before the child emperor. "Sire, maybe if I removed that purple ring from his leg he could return to his form as a dragon. It looks to be magical."

The child emperor thought for a long time. It looked like the old eunuch was silently encouraging the emperor to agree. Finally, the child emperor stood to make an official proclamation.. "I find the purple ring to be... pretty. The ring stays. Come with me Lung Mist. There are beheadings to watch and I can't miss the opening number..."

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Chapter 30 - The New Emperor

As the search of the Xuantang Empire wore on, Octavia became more and more frustrated. Agness tried to distract her with talk of "Hands-on learning" which was far superior to book learning, which was filled with nonsense like jometery and stronomy and the like. Agness hated the idea of obtaining knowledge from books. "Now when you gave that Rifty dwarf your pain instead of the beating he deserved, that's good hands-on learning for both of you. He won't forget that and he may never heal from it."

"Agness, I intend to write down everything you've told me about hands-on learning so when we find Nick, he can read it and you won't have to repeat yourself."

"Now that's the smartest thing you've said all week," huffed Agness.

"Writing it all down and giving it to the duke will turn hands-on learning into book learning. I'll make sure there's a copy in every witch's cottage so the new young witches will learn it after you retire."

Agness thought about it, then shook her head and sighed, "you're learnin' girl."

Octavia sagged to the floor, her knees drawn up, the back of her head thumping against the stone wall. "What am I doing wrong?"

"We'll find him girl..."

"I think I felt the baby kick today!" howled Octavia, "and he wasn't here to share it with me."

Agness now realized that these tears were tears of genuine sorrow, and that Octavia doesn't need an Aunt Agness; she needs a daddy. A witch can tell her about all the wonderful things that are happening inside her body; but only a hug from the man that loves her can calm the terror that always comes with the first child. Only a hug from a strong man can tell her, "I'm here for you, we are going to be all right," and no matter what happens, they will be all right. Agness pulled a Uduithia Crimson Delight, the world's most perfect apple, from the sleeve of her dress and handed it to Octavia. "Have a banana and then go back to worrying."

"It's not a banana," said Octavia.

"Picky, picky, picky. Eat now, then go back to worrying," ordered Agness.

Octavia took a bite, and it truly was the best apple she's ever eaten. Tart but with enough sweetness in the background to scream, "Put me in a pie!" she chewed, and her head was jumbled with a million thoughts. "What am I doing wrong?"

Ever the devil's advocate, Agness asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm using the Eye of Knute to find the most powerful magic user on the entire Xuantang continent. There's not very many magic users left in Xuantang, I guess there was a purge in the empire last year."

"Ok, can you tell it to find a Lancre black eagle?" asked Agness. "There may not be many, Lancre Blacks don't like foreign parts."

"Yes," sighed Octavia in frustration, "I found three, two were in rich people's estates, one was in the empirical throne room, none were magical."

"How many have a purple thingy on its leg?"

"Purple thingy on its leg..." Octavia almost laughed, purple thingy... what was Agness thinking of? "Oh shit," Octavia gasped.

"Young lady I DO NOT approve of obscene language!" Then she saw the look of discovery spread across Octavia's face and added, "in this case I may make an exception."

"I forgot about the red iron band! It absorbs magical energy!" Without getting up she grasped the shaft of Virga as did Agness, and soon the throne room of the Xuantang Empire came into view, and now the eagle came into focus, "Oh Gods!" Octavia wept, "He's trying to chew his leg off!"

"Another obscenity now would be permissible," said Agness.

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The day coach from the railhead at Slate Bottom Creek pulled up to the Temple of the Woods in Elm Springs. General Sir Ned Darby and Chief Inspector Felicity Warforge stepped off the coach. They had a murder and an assault on a couple of undercover officers to investigate and were not in the mood to muck about. There was quite a crowd in front of the temple, a mix of men and dwarves. There was even a wolf. Tervis, the god of health, was offering healthy diet advice to anyone that would listen. The King and Queen of Uduithia were there, adding to the uproar. Actually, the Queen was next door at the blacksmith's shop trying to make a horseshoe.

"Do you mind if I ask what is going on here, your majesty?" Sir Ned asked King Uric.

"It appears that these men and dwarves have returned from the Black Mountain mine site and we are trying to make sense of their stories."

"And Queen Elinor?" asked Jon.

King Uric looked over at Elinor as she hammered out a horseshoe. "It's her turn."

Chief Inspector Felicity Warforge's husband, Sergeant Camus, stepped down from the coach and asked Felicity, "where do I start?"

Felicity looked overwhelmed, but Ned said, "Start with the wolf."

"Start with the wolf. Right." Camus looked disgusted. "It's because I'm a werewolf, isn't it." He turned to the wolf that was sitting on a bench in the shade looking oddly sad and said, "Where were you on the night of Spire the seventeenth?"

"I ain't got nothin' to say, not without my lawyer," Pepin hopped down and walked into the temple. The look of shock on Camus's face was one for the newspapers; unfortunately, no one had an iconograph to capture the moment.

"You knew that would happen," spouted Camus. He pointed at Ned. "You put me up to that."

"That was the Duke of Wægn's best friend," grinned Ned around his cigar. "By the way, where is Nick?" The entire crowd went stony silent, and all stared at Ned and Felicity. "Where's the duchess?"

A broken-hearted female dwarf looked up at Ned and said, "The duke has been kidnapped... an' it's all my fault!" and started weeping. She was soon surrounded by a group of rough and tumble Bovukans who tried to reassure her she was used by a cad. As they tried to staunch the flow of her tears, the ground started trembling and everyone looked north. The air was rent with a horrible screaming; it was Octavia's warning siren.

"She's going to take a shot!" cried one of the Bruces from Bovuka as the ground started shaking.

A roar went up from the dwarves, and soon everyone joined in the chant, "TAVIA! 'TAVIA! 'TAVIA!"

"I say, this is quite exciting!" said King Uric, smiling for the first time in weeks. For her part, Queen Elinor never looked up, she finally found a way to work out the anger and frustration, and she swung her hammer with glee, often ruining her horseshoe but never dampening her spirits.

"What the hell?" gasped Ned. At the peak of Black Mountain, a blazing white ball appeared, then with a bark and a roar the ball shot across the sky racing south-westward faster than the eye could trace it, a crack and roll of thunder followed its path across the sky.

"You shoulda seen the BIG ones," sighed Eryri.

"Gods I hate coming into a case this late," groaned Jon.

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Buggy was having a horrible day with the eagle. All it wanted to do was chew its leg off or stare sadly at the temple. "I suppose if I don't get a dragon out of this eagle, I will cut both of your heads off, that should be worthy of entertainment," said Emperor Fu Ki.

"Your excellency, maybe if you allow me to remove this purple ring from his leg, maybe that's what is keeping him from changing," said Buggy, completely unaware of how utterly correct he was.

"No," said the spoiled young emperor. "I like purple, it goes well with the red furnishings, don't you think?" He swept hands around the room, acting like he designed the centuries-old furnishings himself.

"Sire..."

"NO. The purple stays. If he can't figure out how to do it with the purple ring, I'll just get a different dragon."

"Sire please..."

"So shall it be written, so shall it be done!" The boy emperor crossed his arms and nodded his head for effect, then plopped down on his throne.

"Megalomaniac much?" Buggy muttered under his breath. Of course, Lung Mist didn't say a word. His life had been threatened twice already today, and he didn't want to know if the third time would be the charm. It was the charm for the last Prime Minister whose head removal ceremony was last Friday.

Suddenly the air came alive with the sound of a woman in love. "Nick!" The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. Perfectly reproduced, the love and pain in the voice could not be mistaken. The eagle cried in response, and the voice continued, "Nick darling, look up, raise your wings."

For the first time since he was shot down, the eagle stood proud. He raised his wings high and cried out in his high-pitched raptor voice. The sound rang through the throne room, attracting attention from Emperor Fu Ki and eunuch Lung Mist. The emperor got up from his throne and moved closer, a grin of victory on his face. "Finally, my dragon is coming."

"Keep looking up honey, I'm sorry but..." A white-hot flash of light burned its way through the thousand year old tile roof of the ancient palace, through the back of the exquisite ceiling mounted mirror and through the eagle's right leg.

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"Got it, come on Aunt Agness, we gotta go!" shouted Octavia, feeling alive for the first time in a month.

"I can't, this broom doesn't start very well..."

"I'll tow you, come on!" Octavia mounted Virga like a witch's broom and grabbed the shaft of Agness's broom, and the four-foot-high wall slid down. "We'll go on three, ready? One!... Two!..." and suddenly they were plunging down the face of Black Mountain, steam still rising from the plant life that had almost taken hold before Octavia started shooting. Agness's broom finally kicked in as the tree line came up to them, and they found themselves racing down the mountain at treetop level, flying so fast the trees blurred into a blue/green carpet beneath them.

"What happened to three?" demanded Agness.

"Three! Sorry, I got a bit excited."

"The brakes on this broom were never any good."

"Then slow down, I'll catch you if you need help," and Octavia continued her headlong plunge down the face of Black Mountain. Octavia's voice filled the air in the village of Elm Springs.

"Tervis! I need a tunnel to the Temple of Phulia!"

"The path lies open, as I have decreed," called the god of Health.

"Thank you!"

She flew faster and faster. A small crowd of people at her cottage waved to her as she shot overhead, less than a mile to go! She lowered down, flying between the trees on either side of Nana's Driveway. It was like flying through a green tunnel.

"Clear away from the temple door, I'm coming in hot!"

"What was that?" demanded Ned Darby.

"That was the duchess," said Eryri as she shoved the Duke of Torwin out of the way.

Ned shook his head. He hated being the only person who didn't know something.

With the sound of a skid, a cloud of dust rose into the air. The crowd was showered with gravel as Octavia slid to a halt in front of the Temple. She pointed at Felicity and Camus. "Are you guys cops?" When they nodded, Octavia said, "I need you and you, Bruce, Bruce, and Bruce, Eryri, and Pepin, where are you Pepin?"

"Waitin' on you momma," came from inside the temple.

"Ok, you guys, let's go, oh, and can somebody catch Agness? She's inbound and her brakes are shot."

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The eagle's leg was shot off! Buggy watched in slack-jawed wonder as a bolt of light sliced the eagle's leg clean off. In fact, the leg and purple ring remained clutching the perch as the eagle pitched forward. It was off balance with its leg missing; it flapped its wings to adjust its direction of fall, then before it could fall it became a man who was falling. But the image of a falling man lasted only for the blink of an eye, and as the chain exploded off the man's left leg, he was replaced by a huge golden Xuantang dragon.

Horrible in its glory, the Xuantang dragon was over twenty meters long from its nose to the end of its writhing, sinuous tail. Its head resembled a lion with a permanent toothache, with foot-long fangs, massive, powerful jaws, a muscular neck and a long, muscled body built for destruction. Its four legs were like a tiger's legs, thick and muscular, right at home with ripping something's throat out. Its wings unfolded yet they remained close to its sides, and like its entire body the wings were metallic gold, glittering as they reflected the lamp and candlelight.

"My dragon!" cried the emperor, and he ran forward, but the emperor failed to take into account that the dragon was still falling and with a leg missing it wasn't going to be a pretty landing. Fortunately for the Xuantang Empire, between the falling dragon and the marble floor was Emperor Fu Ki. He didn't do much to aid the dragon's landing, but the dragon's landing did quite a bit to aid the life of the average Xuantang peasant.

Fu Ki looked at the dragon on the floor of his throne room with pride. "Great dragon, huh?"

"ONE OF THE BEST THAT I'VE EVER SEEN."

"I hope I can show him off on my birthday, that would impress a lot of people!" said the boy emperor as Droul looked at the goo on the floor that used to be the boy emperor.

"ACTUALLY, HIS APPEARANCE TODAY HAS IMPRESSED YOUR ENTIRE POPULATION."

The dragon gave one painful exhalation when his body hit the floor, then his body shriveled and shrank, and now he was just a man with blood pouring out of the stump of his leg. With a strangled shout of "Nick!" Buggy grabbed a sash off of a curtain and a sword that was dropped by a soldier as they ran. With the two pieces, Buggy was able to apply a tourniquet to the stump of Nick's severed leg and staunch the flow of blood. There were a few hangers-on in the gallery where once were almost a hundred advisors before Fu Ki had many of them executed for giving him advice he didn't want to hear.

Poor Lung Mist could barely understand what was happening. The shouting, tantrums, and demands were gone. Peace settled over the throne room for the first time in over seventeen years. (Fu Ki's father was a bit of an asshole as well.) Buggy and Lung Mist looked at each other in shock, their ears still ringing from previous tantrums. "What are you guys going to do?" asked Buggy, certain that cutting his head off was tops on the list.

"Umm... there is precedence over this," said Lung Mist, and he shuffled over to the temple library where he was almost run over by the crowd that followed Pepin coming out of the temple. Octavia dove for Nick, who was lying face down in a pool of blood. Pepin was licking his face trying to get him to wake up. Camus stepped out of the temple, and the scent of blood stirred the bloodlust in his body.

"My gods, all that blood, how is he still alive?" gasped Felicity Warforge.

Camus sniffed, "it's mostly someone else, Xuantang, young, eight, possibly nine years old, O positive with an iron deficiency."

"He would never eat his vegetables," said Lung Mist.

Meanwhile, Octavia was examining Nick's body. He was in shock, lost some blood, severely malnourished. "Who put this tourniquet on him?" she called.

"I did," said Buggy.

"You did a great job, thank you so much. Can you get me that talon off of the perch?" Buggy looked and saw that the talon was still clutching the perch, still wearing the purple ring. He pulled it off the perch and extended it to Octavia. "Thanks, but keep that purple ring, don't let it touch me or Nick... thank you."

Young Xuantang men and women soon arrived with towels and hot water and began cleaning up Nick and the pool of blood. They rolled Nick over, and one of the Bruces gasped, "What is that stuff on him?"

"That would be the former emperor," said Lung Mist.

Buggy, his clothes soaked with Nick's blood, found a quiet corner to sit in and watch the frantic activity around Nick. Buggy prayed that Nick would survive, but if he didn't, Buggy found he was too tired to fight the inevitable. If they want his head, they can take it. With shaking hands, he pulled out his tobacco pouch, but his hands were shaking too much to roll one up.

Taking pity because she wasn't far from his condition herself, Eryri sat down next to Buggy and took his tobacco pouch and rolled a perfect stogie, which she put in her own mouth and rolled one for him. They shared a match and watched as Octavia moved away from Nick's leg, showing that there was a foot at the end of both legs now. Octavia curled up next to Nick, whispering, "we're together, it's over," and soon Nick showed signs of returning to consciousness.

"What happened here?" asked Eryri.

"The usual," said Buggy, "I get dragged into the throne room to be sentenced to death, instead I get put in charge of a pet bird that turns into a dragon that crushes the emperor then turns into the man I was supposed to have killed."

"I hate when that happens," said Eryri.

"My boss sent me to the assassins federation to put out a contract on the duke, I didn't know it was my buddy, Nick. Then they said he was royalty and it cost too much, we couldn't afford the contract and they said that if something happened to Nick they would come take me," said Buggy, puffing nervously at his smoke.

"Guild overhead," said Eryri.

"What about you?"

"I was nabbed by some dull pick (a truly vile dwarf insult) who said he had my husband and son and said he'd return them if I shot an eagle out of the sky," said Eryri as she pointed to Nick, who was now talking weakly with Octavia.

"What happened?"

"I brought him down. Third shot but I got him. He came down an eagle and stayed an eagle till now."

"What happened with your family?"

"Turns out he didn't have them; they died at a shaft collapse in the Glory Pit."

"Oh, gods I'm sorry, I was there not long after the collapse, it was awful... Gods! A move like that? It sounds like that night soil bucket Rifty Peregrine."

"That's who it was. I shoot the duke out of the sky and end up best buddies with his wife, who woulda thought?"

As Nick flickered to full consciousness, he smiled up at Octavia. "I missed you so much... I knew you would come for me!"

"Nothing could keep me away," she said, weeping with joy. Their lips touched over and over. "We got to get you cleaned up, you got blood everywhere still."

Just then Lung Mist arrived with a clipboard and a quill and said, "Mister Nick? If you could just sign here, please? Just a formality."

Nick and Octavia looked at the document, and it looked like a chicken had walked through some spilled ink and danced on the page. They both shrugged, and Nick sighed, then he signed the document. He handed the clipboard back and only then did he ask, "What did I just sign for?"

"The empire."

"WHAT?"

"It's just a formality, you killed the former emperor, you are now the new emperor. It's the rules, signing just makes it look official."

Nick looked up at Octavia, his eyes still swimming from loss of blood. "Empress Enchantress. The title looks good on you."

"Know what else looks good on me?" whispered Octavia.

"What?"

Octavia leaned over and whispered in his ear, "your cum."

"Oh my!" gasped Lung Mist, who had heard everything.

Nick gestured Lung Mist and another advisor, Lǎo de Luózi, in close. "Lung Mist, you are my prime minister..."

"I cannot, oh Emperor. I am but a eunuch and unfit for a title. I am your advisor."

Nick frowned. It was Lung Mist who ran the empire, and they would have been in great shape if the emperor had listened to him. "Ok, Lǎo de Luózi, you are my Prime Minister. You must do what Lung Mist says to do."

"What if they try to kill me?" asked Lǎo.

"If anything happens to you I'll bring the dragon back and he won't care who is guilty. He will come back hungry, let everybody know that. Your first priority is ending this famine." Lǎo started to protest, but Nick snapped, "Don't argue with me, I sat right there on that perch listening to everything that was said in this room. I know how much wheat and rice is in storage. If anyone has a problem with that they can speak to the dragon."

As the Bruces lifted Nick and carried him toward the temple, Octavia, with the help of Felicity and Camus, led the way. "We better go," said Eryri, but Buggy couldn't get up. A returning Xuantang guard came over and helped him to his feet, then pulled off the gold face mask, and Buggy recognized that face, or at least didn't recognize that face. It was a face that could hide in any crowd, a face so plain and average that it could never be picked out of a line-up. "Surprise!" chuckled the guard.

"Look," groaned Buggy, "I am so tired, I can't run anymore. If you're going to do it then just do it."

"What? And entomb the dwarf that just saved the life of the emperor of the Xuantang Empire? You're a hero! I just want you to know that I'm on your protection detail now, ta ta!" and he replaced his mask and disappeared into the crowd of returning guards.

As they followed the Bruces into the stacks, Eryri asked Buggy, "You looking for work?"

"I guess I am now, from what Felicity said, my entire company Peregrine and Aegir Mining is in prison."

"I'm running one of their mines for the Duke and Duchess, small mine, 30 dwarves' tops, right now I have a dozen, we've all been screwed over by Peregrine and Aegir."

"Yeah," grinned Buggy, "count me in."

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Epilogue

Octavia should be enjoying the best sleep of her life. It's been so long since she had been able to lay next to Nick and feel the butterfly steps of the baby's first movements. Nick would love to feel this, but he was so weak! Octavia keeps waking up to check his pulse. It's there, but it's weak. Her head still spun from the events of the past week.

After returning Nick to human form and traveling back to Elm Springs, the strangest thing happened to her. All available witches descended on Nick, working desperately to save his life. Nick's friends from Torwin-Armistad, General Sir Ned Sinclair Darby, along with Chief Inspector Felicity Warforge and her husband Sergeant Camus Warforge, were questioning everyone, including the king and queen.

That's when Lala MacClenny came up to Octavia. "Love, there's no food in your house."

"What?"

"The army... with two battles, we had to feed them. There's no firewood either."

Octavia felt nauseous. No food? No firewood? How will they survive the winter? If the winter is half as bad as she imagines, they're going to die! Her mind spinning, she stumbled back into the temple and emerged in the Forbidden Temple in Xuantang, and she sat down on a comfortable-looking couch, which turned out to be the throne. She had no idea how long she sat there, head spinning, tears falling. She saved Nick from this beautiful room only to expose him to starvation and freezing to death. She sniffed and wiped her eyes and noticed two small piles of laundry on the ground in front of her. "Hello?"

"Your Excellency!" said Lung Mist. He and the Prime Minister Lǎo de Luózi were kneeling prostrate in front of her. Lǎo de Luózi chattered in Xuantang and Lung Mist translated. "He wants to know if the empress needs something."

"Food, I have no food to feed the emperor."

The two men chattered, then Lǎo de Luózi left, and Lung Mist said, "The health of the emperor is of much concern. Food will be made."

Soon Lǎo de Luózi returned with a man who carried a wicker tray carrying a dozen small wicker baskets. Lung Mist said, "When you get home place this on a pan of boiling water, the steam will cook the food."

Weeping with gratitude, Octavia nodded and said, "Thank you so much... I can pay."

The men didn't understand that at all. She's the empress; she owns the entire empire, but the men watched in amazement as she fished a fortune in copper coins out of her purse. "That's all I have, pennies. Here, if it's not enough..."

The men squawked and chattered and somehow convinced her she had change coming. Soon, a man from the treasury came and handed her a heavy leather pouch. "Thank you so much! I'll bring the baskets back soon!" and she stepped between the columns in the temple and stepped out into The Temple of the Woods.

"Pray, reveal what thou hast retrieved, your grace. We mustn't risk the Duke's divine vessel tainted by unfamiliar substances."

"Thank you lord Tervis, but I wish you would wear pants." She handed the tray to the god of health and looked into the pouch that the guy from the treasury gave her. She screamed in shock; the pouch was filled with solid gold coins.

"Doth thy spirit endure, Duchess?" asked Tervis as he inspected the food.

"GOLD! They gave me all this gold for a few pennies."

"Indeed, daughter of the gods. In distant realms such as Xuantang, gold holds little sway, whilst copper gleams with worth. Doubtless, they prospered greatly from thy transaction.

She held up a gold coin; it was easily equal to a fifty-dollar gold coin. "I have a bag of these!"

"Verily, that golden sovereign holds the equivalent worth of a single copper coin in Xuantang."

Octavia stepped outside, and it was still a madhouse. Tales of battle being told, stories of Octavia's mountain shooting here and there, and wagon loads of dwarven prisoners being hauled off to Waelmore Castle's dungeon.

She walked over to Metsker's Blacksmith Shop, and The Boys were still there watching the queen try to fashion a horseshoe. Queen Elinor was having the time of her life and wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion. Octavia grabbed Sieffre Merrick's arm. He was the most prosperous businessman in Elm Springs, and she dragged him off to the side. "I want half a cow, half a deer, and half a sheep, cut and wrapped, throw in some pig too. I want seven cases of canned vegetables and four cases of canned fruit, and two cords of firewood, cut, split and dried."

"I don't think..." She handed him a gold coin. "I think I can..." She handed him another gold coin. "It will be there tomorrow."

"Have your men carry the food inside and stack the wood neatly and there's one more with your name on it." She held the third coin up for him to see.

"Before noon, your grace," said Sieffre with a huge grin.

That was then; now, four days later, their cozy cottage was toasty warm. Buggy and Eryri were sleeping downstairs, keeping the fire going and the early autumn snow swept from the porches front and back.

Octavia got up and pulled on a robe, then went downstairs and out the back to pee in the moonlight mostly for something to do. Gods! Does she miss indoor plumbing! She experienced that at the orphanage she lived in as a child and at the university. She mentioned it once to Nick, who laughed so hard he almost threw up. She never did ask him what he had pictured in his mind when she mentioned how nice it was to poop indoors. She's going to have to ask Nana Peacock how this is overcome in the winter.

Climbing back up into their bedroom, she saw a figure in black robes standing at the foot of the bed. "You almost scared the life out of me!" she almost screamed.

"THAT WAS NOT MY INTENTION," said Droul, the god of Death.

"Then what are you here for, who are you here for?"

"I HAVE A QUESTION THAT I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ANSWER."

Octavia climbed into bed with Nick and pulled the cover up. She knew that Droul was an anthropomorphic personification of the concept of death, but it still felt weird to be naked in front of him. "What's your question?"

"WHEN YOU REMOVED NICK'S LEG HE STARTED TO FALL FORWARD, BUT HE FLAPPED HIS WINGS TO ADJUST HIS ANGLE SO THAT WHEN HE BECAME THE DRAGON HE WOULD LAND ON FU KI. THE DEATH OF FU KI SAVED COUNTLESS MILLIONS OF LIVES BY ENDING DECADES OF NEEDLESS FAMINE AND HE SAVED ME A LOT OF WORK."

"What is your question?"

"DID HE KNOW HE WAS GOING TO LAND ON FU KI?"

Octavia had heard that the rulers of the Xuantang Empire used famine as a way to keep the masses cowed and politically ignorant. Millions of people were dying intentionally, killed by their own government just to keep them scared. She took a deep breath and answered. "If he said yes he would admit to murdering one insane, poorly raised boy. If he said no he would be admitting that he almost let millions of people die because he refused to kill one underage madman, so he would never answer that question and I will never let anyone ask him."

"THAT IS WHY I ASKED YOU AND NOT HIM ."

Octavia looked at Nick and sighed, then she slowly nodded her head and whispered, "He knew."

"Who are you talking to dear?" mumbled Nick.

"I was just having a near death experience, now go back to sleep."

"ACTUALLY, I WAS HAVING A NEAR OCTAVIA EXPERIENCE."

"Tell him that joke is getting old," mumbled Nick as he drifted back to sleep.