The Wyvern's Spur

21 The Final Battle

Giogi drew his foil and rushed forward, shouting, “Stay back!” In his left hand the finder’s stone flared with a light as bright as day. The undead backed away from the light, snarling and retreating to the back of the audience chamber.

Flattery whirled around suddenly. “What is this?” he shouted. He hurled at Dorath’s head the object she’d just handed him. The old woman’s shape had already begun to blur and grow, however, and the wooden darning sock bounced off her red wyvern scales and clattered harmlessly to the floor.

Without a second’s hesitation Dorath smashed her stinging tail down on the wizard, catching him in the shoulder with its venomous tip. As Flattery crumbled to the ground screaming, Dorath snatched up in her mouth the globe that held Amberlee, and whirled around.

“Run, Aunt Dorath!” Giogi shouted.

The wyvern plodded from the audience chamber as fast as its two birdlike legs could carry it, ducking to clear the door frame.

From the top of the dais Giogi saw Cat pulling out a scroll she’d concealed in the sash she wore. Giogi rushed toward Flattery, but one undead, a dark shadow unafraid of the light, intercepted the nobleman.

Giogi drew back. He still couldn’t remember the entire rhyme about the undead, but the line “A shadow’s touch saps the strength” came to him in a flash. He could hear Cat chanting, reading from her scroll.

Flattery stumbled to his feet, a bloodstain spreading on his robe. “After the wyvern!” he screamed.

A swarm of wraiths skimmed around the finder’s stone’s light, heading for the door, but they all bounced backward, repelled by an invisible barrier.

Satisfied that his aunt would make good her escape, the nobleman turned his full attention to the shadow. He lunged at it with his foil, but the weapon did no more damage to the creature than a stick did to air. The shadow closed on Giogi, its hands outstretched, its body traveling up the length of the foil’s blade.

Just as the shadow reached the weapon’s guard, Giogi heard Cat cry out the word “coffin,” and the shadow halted. Giogi stepped back and withdrew his foil from the undead. Cat ran to the nobleman.

Flattery turned toward them. “I taught you to hold undead, Cat. But where did you get the wall of force?” the wizard asked. “A scroll, Cat? You’ve blocked your own exit. Why don’t you lower it and flee?”

“No,” Giogi whispered to her. “We need to give Aunt Dorath time to reach Redstone.”

“You’ve bought your miserable relatives a few hours,” Flattery replied. “I will have the spur from them once I’ve dispensed with you. Your Uncle Drone is dead. The old woman may be able to wield the spur, but she is the only other one, and she will be too weak to fight me, even if she can resist my magic. If they do not surrender the spur, they all will die.”

He doesn’t know Uncle Drone is alive, Giogi realized. If I can stall Flattery long enough for Aunt Dorath to reach Redstone, Uncle Drone will come to help.

“Let’s see, Catling. Besides holding that undead,” Flattery said, motioning to the immobile shadow that had nearly gotten Giogi, “you assaulted me with missiles. You summoned me earlier today with a whispering wind bird. You have more power still. Cast something else at me.”

“Why bother? It’s obvious you’ve made yourself invulnerable to my attacks,” she said, indicating the reddish glow that outlined his body. “I’ll save my attacks for your undead, should any more of them have the courage to brave the light of Giogi’s stone.”

“I don’t think you have any power left,” the wizard taunted, “which makes you just a woman.” Flattery advanced toward her menacingly.

“A woman under my protection,” Giogi said, stepping forward with his foil leveled at the wizard. With the hand that held the finder’s stone the nobleman pushed Cat behind him. Without undead to shield him, Giogi wondered, can I run Flattery through before he can cast a spell?

Flattery snorted at Giogi’s foil. “So, the men of the clan still learn to use that ridiculous weapon,” the wizard said, stepping back and assuming a fencing stance. He snapped his fingers and whispered, “Ward.” A foil appeared in his hand.

“Well, Giogioni,” Flattery said, saluting with his foil. “Do we fight over the lady’s honor? I use the word ‘lady’ loosely, of course.”

Giogi returned the salute with a cold anger. “On guard,” he replied, crouching into his stance. Behind him he could hear Cat begin whispering another chant. In his back hand, the finder’s stone remained bright.

For the first few minutes, Flattery parried Giogi’s attacks without attacking back, taking the measure of his opponent. The wizard’s parries were flawless.

“I take it,” Flattery said, “that beyond defending that witch, your intention is to avenge the deaths of your father and uncle.”

“Naturally,” Giogi replied. He beat at his opponent’s blade, forcing the wizard into a step backward.

“What kind of fool would fight for a doddering old man, a father who’d abandoned him, and a slut without a memory?” Flattery asked, finally making an attack lunge at Giogi’s shoulder. Giogi parried high, but Flattery’s motion proved to be a feint for a lower attack at his ribs. Giogi was forced to retreat a step.

Giogi fought down the anger the wizard’s words ignited in him. It looked as if he might be sorely outclassed in this battle. It was imperative that he remain levelheaded.

It was true that Uncle Drone was a bit of a duffer, and secretly Giogi had harbored hostility toward Cole for dying and abandoning him, and there was no doubt that Cat had made a very unwise decision allying herself with Flattery. None of those things, however, were as important as the fact that he loved all those people. They were his family.

Giogi was just beginning to understand why he always stood up for them in spite of their failings. They wouldn’t be a family without failings. Poor Steele only feels Frefford’s rank and my wealth because he’s had to live second to them. Julia only wants to be loved. Aunt Dorath only wanted to protect me from her own fears. As for the others, …

“My uncle was foully ambushed,” Giogi stated. “My father died defending the family honor. And the lady never loved you; she was terrified of you. Who could blame her?”

Flattery scowled for just a moment, and his blade wavered. Giogi thought, Can’t take what he dishes out, eh?

“I wonder,” Giogi continued, suddenly feeling more confident and mixing feints in with his attacks, “What kind of man has no respect for the elderly, no loyalty to his family, and prefers the company of undead to a beautiful woman? You know, Flattery, I don’t think you’re a man at all.”

Flattery made a direct attack, low and clumsy, which Giogi parried easily.

“Close to the mark, eh?” the nobleman said with a chill disdain. “My guess would be you’re some sort of lich with an illusion spell to mimic the face of a true Wyvernspur.”

Flattery pressed at the nobleman’s blade, thrust, and lunged. The foil pierced through Giogi’s tabard and pricked the skin below his ribs before the nobleman managed to retreat.

Giogi nearly backed into Cat, who was still behind him reciting the words to some involved magic spell. Startled, the mage broke off her chant for a fraction of a second as she retreated to avoid being trampled by the nobleman. Upon recovering her balance, she resumed chanting, even faster than before.

“People say you’re nothing but a useless wastrel with delusions of being a warrior,” Flattery snarled. “You aren’t even competent with the foil. I’ve drawn first blood already.”

“Ah, but at least I have blood you can draw. What have you got, Flattery? If I get lucky and score a hit, will there be blood on my weapon or just some oozing ichor?”

Flattery thrust and lunged again, but Giogi parried and riposted. Flattery retreated slightly.

Both men slowed their attacks. Somewhere in his past Flattery had learned to fence very well, but it was not a skill he’d exercised for some while. He was tired. Giogi, who’d been riding and walking regularly, making his journey home, could last for some time, provided he wasn’t dealt a mortal wound—which ultimately Flattery could deliver.

Since Giogi’s purpose was to buy time for his Uncle Drone to arrive, not get himself killed, he slowed his attacks as well.

Still chanting, Cat pulled from her sash the special component the spell required. It was wrapped in a piece of paper and still smelled quite strong. She dipped all her fingers into it.

Flattery’s attacks began to speed up again, and Giogi renewed his taunting banter.

“So. What happened to all the zombies and ghouls? Did the Shard’s mist destroy every last one? Are those undead cowering from the light over there all that’s left of your army?”

“Undead are easy to recruit,” Flattery growled. “When we’ve finished with this battle, I shall give you a firsthand demonstration.”

Giogi felt Cat very close behind him. While he realized she needed to stay in the circle of light shed by the finder’s stone, so the undead did not attack her, he wished she would back away a little more, for both their safety.

She was practically chanting in his ear, words that made no sense at all to him. Her hands reached about his head, and she ran her fingers down his cheeks, smearing them with her spell component. She intoned, “Be as the beast.”

Giogi crinkled his nose. The scent of the spell components Cat had used to hold the shadow, garlic and sulfur, lingered on her hands, mingled in with a much stronger and more unpleasant odor—rather like dung. Cat pulled her hands back. “This is the only spell I have left,” she whispered in Giogi’s ear. “I’ve saved it for you, my love.” Then she stepped back.

Flattery’s nose twitched from the smell. “You can give him the strength of a golem, Catling, but it won’t improve his fencing. His skill is abysmal.”

The wizard’s prediction, however, proved wrong. With the muscles in Giogi’s arms strengthened, his weapon suddenly felt lighter, and he wielded it with more speed and fluidity. He broke through one of Flattery’s parries and stabbed the wizard’s chest.

“One-one, Flattery,” the nobleman said. His tone was grim. He knew he could not afford to grow cocky. “Hmm,” he said, eyeing the tip of his foil as it danced before him. “Blood. Red blood. Liches don’t bleed I’m going to have to reevaluate my opinion of you. Let’s see. What bleeds and looks human but isn’t? Flesh golems or those devilish little homonculi. Are you a golem, Flattery?”

Flattery growled, beat at Giogi’s blade, and lunged for his heart. Giogi tried a stop-thrust with only partial success. His foil went harmlessly through the robe of Flattery’s sleeve while Flattery’s foil pierced Giogi’s shoulder blade.

Giogi clenched his teeth against the pain. “Flesh golems don’t get angry, but you’re awfully tall for a homonculous.”

Olive Ruskettle crept down the front hall of Flattery’s keep. Once Dorath had returned with Amber, Drone changed into a pegasus, and he and Olive had flown to Flattery’s lair. The halfling had convinced Drone to wait outside to give her time to scout out the territory. If Giogi was still alive, she would get the spur to him, and he could handle Flattery. If it was too late, then Drone was her only way off the rock, and she didn’t want him captured or killed.

She arrived at the audience hall in time to catch the last minute of Giogi’s fencing duel with Flattery. Olive stood in the doorway and watched with interest. The wizard’s fury was out of all proportion to the taunts Giogi made. Olive realized that those taunts must have some basis in truth.

The halfling moved to enter the room but found her passage blocked by an unseen barrier. As she ran her hands across the smooth surface, it crumbled at her touch like a dried sand castle or a spell that had reached its maximum duration. Within the passage of a breath, the way was clear to where Giogi mocked the increasingly furious wizard.

Unfortunately, while Flattery did grow careless in his anger, he did not grow careless enough to give Giogi the winning edge.

Then Giogi said, “You’re not a Wyvernspur. You’re an overgrown homonculous, some wizard’s imp who escaped.”

Flattery made a running charge at Giogi, missing him completely in his rage. The charge so startled Giogi that he tripped and fell over backward, losing both his foil and the finder’s stone.

The wizard loomed over Giogi, with his foil pointed at the nobleman’s throat. Flattery put a foot on Giogi’s chest and said, “I will tell you what I told your father in his dying moments, as we fell toward the earth. My father was a Wyvernspur so vile that the Harpers wiped his name from the Realms and banished him to a Limbo.”

“Nameless!” Olive cried out with excitement. “I was right! You did mean the Nameless Bard.”

Flattery whirled around, with the same look on his face he’d worn the night he’d murdered Jade and Olive had screamed at him. Olive gulped, but she stood her ground.

Giogi took advantage of the wizard’s inattention to roll away and rise to his feet.

“You!” Flattery screamed at Olive. “You freed him!”

“Me?” Olive squeaked. “No.”

“Don’t lie. I’ve heard you singing his songs. And you’re a Harper. Only Harpers knew where his prison was. I’ll find him, and with the spur I can destroy him. I can destroy his whole family.”

“But why?” Olive asked.

“Why? Look what he did to me!” Flattery demanded.

Olive stared hard at Flattery. “You look all right to me. Pretty near perfect, actually.”

Flattery screamed. “I do not look all right. I look exactly like him. He made me that way. I don’t want to be exactly like him. I don’t want his face. I don’t want his memories. I don’t want his thoughts. I don’t want his voice, and I don’t want his songs. No one can make me say his name or sing his songs. I’ll kill him before he tries to make me sing them again.”

“Oh, my gosh,” Olive said. The realization of exactly who Flattery was dawned on her and made her tremble. “You aren’t his son. You’re the first creature he made to sing his songs, the one that got him in all the trouble with the Harpers in the first place.” Olive knew that many wizards had died in Nameless’s bizarre experiments to create living vessels for his works.

“What do you mean the first creature?” Flattery demanded.

“Well, he made another one. Woman. Very pretty. Sings like a bird,” Olive said. She kept Flattery’s attention fixed on her. Behind the wizard, Cat retrieved Giogi’s foil and returned it to him. Olive bragged, “Everyone loves the songs she sings. The songs he wrote.”

“You lie!” Flattery shouted, closing on Olive. “I will kill you and slay him with the spur. His name will never be spoken again.” His eyes wide with rage, Flattery raised a ring-bedecked hand and pointed at the halfling.

Giogi slammed into Flattery, spoiling whatever magic the wizard had intended to cast at Olive. “Stay behind me, Mistress Ruskettle,” the young noble said as the halfling scurried to his side.

“Little present from your aunt,” Olive whispered, slipping the wyvern’s spur into the top of Giogi’s boot. Giogi concentrated on the dream. From behind the nobleman’s body the halfling taunted the wizard. “You’re too late, you know, Flattery. Nameless’s true name is on everyone’s lips. Best bard in the Realms-Finder Wyvernspur.”

Flattery lunged at Giogi to get at Olive but found himself confronted with a wyvern.

Flattery leaped backward with a snarl. His foil was not likely to penetrate the wyvern’s scales, and Giogi’s transformed body was immune to his spells. Flattery might have run, but he spotted Cat picking up the finder’s stone.

Backing away farther, the wizard drew something out of his pocket. It was a crystal as dark as a new moon. Just like the one Jade had stolen, Olive thought.

“Catling, you want this? Come and get it,” said Flattery, circling to keep the enchantress between him and the wyvern, Giogi.

Cat looked with confusion at the crystal. Her eyes shone with desire. She took a hesitant step forward.

“It’s a trick, Cat,” Olive shouted. “He destroyed the real crystal. He just wants to use you against Giogi.”

Flattery was a fast thinker and a faster liar. “I made a second crystal, Cat. It’s everything the first was. Just come here, and I will give it to you.”

Cat froze, then stepped back, taking up a position behind Giogi. “It doesn’t matter anymore, Flattery,” she said proudly. “I can make myself new memories.”

With that, Olive said, “Time to go,” took Cat’s hand, and pulled her toward the exit. Giogi backed slowly in the same direction, waving his tail over his head. He had to get the mage and the bard to safety before he finished with the wizard.

The three of them slipped from the audience chamber quickly. Something exploded behind them. Flattery shrieked, and a howl went up from the undead.

“Run!” Olive shouted.

The halfling and the mage pounded down the corridor. Behind them, Giogi continued backing away as fast as he could. Drone, in his human form, stood waiting outside the door.

“Giogi?” said the old man.

“Right behind us,” Olive gasped.

The wyvern backed out of the keep door and changed quickly back into a human. “You know, this wyvern form is deucedly awkward enough to walk in going forward,” Giogi said with irritation. “I can’t see where I’m going at all when I go backward, let alone try to be graceful about it.”

Drone took Cat by the shoulders. “Where are my scrolls, young lady?” he demanded.

Cat swallowed. “Gone,” she said. “Flattery took them. He’s already opened one, I think. We heard an explosion as we fled the keep.”

“You knew the scrolls you took were covered in explosive runes?” Drone asked.

Cat grinned slyly. “Except for the few I used,” she said.

“The exploding scroll will have destroyed all the others with it,” Drone snapped. “All you needed for a booby trap was one.”

“If I’d only brought him one scroll, he’d be suspicious,” Cat explained. “The more I brought him, the less suspicious he’d be. I had to bring all the ones with exploding runes to make sure he got hit by the first one he read.”

“Devious. She’s very devious, Giogi. She owes me twenty-seven scrolls, though,” Drone growled. “I’ve spent all my power for the day. Without those scrolls, I’m no good to you in battle. I can get the ladies safely to the ground, Giogi, if you can delay pursuit.”

Giogi nodded.

A horrendous howl erupted from the audience chamber, and everyone knew Flattery trailed them with renewed fury.

“Lead Flattery away from this rock, as far away as you can get him to go,” Drone said.

“Yes, sir.”

Drone pulled a small scroll from his sleeve, muttered a few words, and was surrounded by a milky blue glow. When the glow subsided, the old Wyvernspur had been transformed into a pegasus.

“Hand up, if you please, Master Giogioni,” Olive said.

Giogioni lifted the halfling onto his uncle’s back.

“Be careful,” Cat pleaded.

Giogi kissed her once and set her behind Olive. “Don’t fall off this horse,” he warned. “It’s a long way to the ground.”

“Wait!” Cat said. “The undead. If they get past the invisible barrier, they can still chase you, as they did your father. The mage untied her yellow sash, dropped the finder’s stone in it, and knotted it inside. “Change to the wyvern,” she ordered Giogi.

Giogi quickly transformed.

“Bend your head down.”

Cat wrapped her sash around Giogi’s wyvern throat and knotted the fabric tight. “There,” she said.

The finder’s stone shone brightly through the fabric.

Drone stamped his foot impatiently and whinnied.

“Good luck,” Cat whispered.

Drone took off, flying just high enough to clear the fortress walls. Giogi took to the air and circled over the fortress, near the large iron doors. The moon had just risen high enough to shine on the inner ward.

Flattery came out, just as Giogi knew he would, in the shape of a great sky-blue dragon. The wizard looked no worse for all the injury Cat had done him with her magic missile in the nursery and the explosive runes on Uncle Drone’s scrolls. He looked like a dragon in his prime.

Giogi folded his wings and swooped down silently, his moon shadow behind him. Like a wasp, he delivered a stinging blow to Flattery’s head. Then Giogi tore off to the west.

When he took a moment to look back, he could see the dragon’s silhouette in the moonlight, much closer to him than he thought. Dark clouds and white mist flew beside the wizard.

Olive squinted through the telescope at the tiny, retreating figures of Giogi, Flattery, and the few flying minions he had left. The minions were already no more than a collection of motes in the glass.

Drone was balanced precariously on the tower roof, chanting some very powerful spell from a scroll. Mother Lleddew was in courtyard below, praying some powerful prayer from another scroll. Their chants intermixed in a toneless song of magic.

Olive looked up at the flying fortress looming over the castle. Suddenly it began to shake then levitate upward very, very quickly, so that it looked as if it were shrinking.

The halfling could hear Drone jumping up and down, shouting, “Look at it go!” and Cat trying to keep him calm enough so that he didn’t slip off the tower and break his fool neck.

Drone slid down the kudzu vine and back into the room, still chuckling. Cat followed.

“Did you see that?” Drone asked.

“You made it fly higher,” Olive said.

“No, no, no. You don’t understand how gravity works. I made it fall up.”

“Nothing falls up,” Olive said.

“Hee, hee, hee,” Drone wheezed. “Not without powerful magic, at any rate.”

“Will it fall back down?” Olive asked.

“Oh, I hope so,” Drone said.

“But then it will destroy the town,” Olive objected.

“Burn up as it falls. Be quite a spectacular meteor.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it, Mistress Ruskettle.”

At the window, Cat fidgeted nervously. Mother Lleddew was casting some sort of scrying spell so they knew what happened in Giogi’s battle with Flattery. Cat didn’t want to miss anything. “Are we finished?” the enchantress asked impatiently.

“Don’t you snap at me, girl,” Drone told her. “You owe me twenty-seven scrolls. You’ll work off every one of them, too.”

Cat looked at the floor.

“Oh, stop that. Don’t mope. I hate it when pretty girls mope. I suppose we’re finished. Lleddew should have her scrying spell set up by now. Let’s go watch the show. Don’t want to miss Giogi beating the stuffing out of the villain.” His voice was light, but Olive could see the worry lines in the old man’s face tighten as he spoke.

My arms are going to fall off, Giogi thought. Wings, not arms, he corrected himself. The cold wind streaming over his scales whistled in his ears. Behind him he heard Flattery’s dragon-shape pumping its leathery wings, and he knew that the undead must still be with him. Undead fly as fast as dragons—and faster than me, he realized.

This has to be far enough, the transformed Wyvernspur thought.

Giogi rolled and banked to the south, then east, back toward Immersea and his pursuers. Flattery climbed, positioning himself for a dive down on Giogi.

He’s still silhouetted against the moon, Giogi thought. He hasn’t got any instinct for this kind of fighting. Giogi slowed as the attackers closed the gap between them.

The wyvern waited until the dragon and the undead cloud and mist shapes were almost on top of him, then he pulled up, baring his belly and the scarf-wrapped stone to his pursuers.

All right, finder’s stone, Giogi thought, squinting his eyes nearly shut, keep those undead from me.

The finder’s stone flared into light as bright as daylight. The wraiths and specters flying with Flattery scattered across the night sky like spooked pigeons. Flattery—momentarily blinded—pulled up.

Giogi banked around again. He was below but behind the dragon now. He increased his altitude while Flattery shook off the effects of the bright light. The wyvern positioned himself above the dragon, careful not to cast his own shadow on his prey.

Flattery tried climbing, too, but Giogi was already diving on him. Flattery tried to swerve, but he moved too slowly for the plummeting wyvern.

Giogi’s talons closed on the back of the dragon’s neck and he stabbed at the dragon’s throat with his stinger. It was like striking the pillar in the crypt. Flattery’s scales were as hard as stone. Giogi stabbed again and again, uncertain whether he was doing any damage. The dragon did not cry out, so he doubted it.

They lost altitude, then an updraft caught in both their beating wings and they soared, locked in combat. Flattery raked one of his foreclaws back and upward along the wyvern’s neck, clawing a gash in Giogi’s scales. Pain shot along Giogi’s very long neck, and his flesh burned from the cold wind blowing on it. In a rage, the wyvern began stabbing faster at the dragon’s neck until his tail muscles twitched.

The dragon had all four claws free to use, while Giogi’s two claws were occupied hanging onto his prey. His tail seemed unable to penetrate any scales within its reach. Still, Flattery was in an awkward position for clawing, even though he had managed it. Giogi could not afford to let go, lest Flattery get a hold on him with his mouth facing the wyvern. Dragons could breathe deadly things, not to mention bite and swallow.

Flattery clawed up along Giogi’s throat again, and the wyvern began to feel moisture around his neck. He was bleeding. He felt colder than before. In pain and anger, he bit down on Flattery’s blue-plated neck.

Shocked by his action, Giogi ceased suddenly. He couldn’t bring himself to chew his opponent.

Flattery’s back claw caught and tore one of Giogi’s beating wings. The pain of the tear drove Giogi to frenzy. He sunk his teeth into Flattery’s neck again and shook it, like a dog baiting a bull. One of the blue dragon’s neck plate’s came loose, and Giogi tasted blood. He pulled his head up and thunked his tail in the spot. He did it again.

Flattery screeched with pain at last. Then Giogi noticed they were both dropping in the sky. He flapped his wings, but he could feel the tear widening with the effort.

Giogi folded his wings and became a dead weight, his stinger still embedded in Flattery’s throat.

The added weight of the wyvern was too much for Flattery to support. Unable to fly together, the gigantic creatures fell faster. The dragon tried to twist in Giogi’s grip, to break away, but the grip of the talons was too firm, and the daggerlike stinger kept jabbing him. The ground, covered in a thick forest, came up to meet them.

Flattery tried to somersault, to dislodge Giogi, and they both began spinning as they plummeted.

At the last moment, one of the gigantic creatures pulled away from the other. Its shadowy form spread its great batlike wings and swooped low, skimming the treetops and gliding swiftly to the north.

The other gigantic form smashed into the trees with an impact that rattled cottages miles away. The woods rumbled with the sound of the crash, and all the wildlife within was silent. Then, softly, the spring peepers began to sing again.