The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [117]
"Aunt Dorath's been looking for you everywhere," Julia said anxiously. "She'll check up here any minute now. You are going to catch Nine Hells if she finds you here. You know she's put the room off-limits."
"Nothing will be off-limits to me in a moment," Steele said. He pointed at Cat. "Check her pockets. She's Giogi's little ass. She has the spur."
"What are you talking about?" Julia asked.
"Just do as I say," Steele ordered.
Using the large staff she'd used to club the mage, Julia lowered herself clumsily to one knee. Keeping her poison pin pointed at Cat, Julia ran her hands through the folds of the mage's gown until she came on an item. Julia drew out a silk scarf wrapped around a lumpy bundle-the amulet of protection against scrying and detection.
Through clenched teeth Cat growled, "My amulet."
Slipping her pin into the bodice of her gown, Julia stood and unwrapped the material. "Eeeew" she said, sniffing at the contents of the scarf with disgust. From the five pieces of dried, cured meat she selected the largest chunk. It was the size and shape of a baby zucchini, and uglier than a three-month-old sausage. "Steele! It is!" she cried excitedly. "It's the spur!"
Steele strode forward, but Julia stepped back, pulling out her poison pin and holding it out warningly.
"You can't fool me, Sister, dear. I know you don't have poison on that pin. You're too tender-hearted."
"I do have the sleeping sap you gave me, though, which works just as well for my purposes. I helped you, Steele. Remember what you promised," she demanded.
"Yes, yes. All right. Now give me the spur."
"On your honor as a Wyvernspur, swear it."
Steele huffed. "On my honor as a Wyvernspur, you have my permission to marry any jackass you please. It could be a Calimshan merchant for all I care. Now hand the spur over."
Cat opened her eyes against the stinging light just in time to watch the spur tossed across the room. It looked like a piece of brown, dried meat someone had kept in a knapsack for a few years too long. Steele snatched it from the air. His laughter sounded like Flattery's.
Frefford burst into the room. "What is going on here?" he hissed. "Aunt Dorath said she heard glass breaking."
Gaylyn came in behind her husband. "Julia, you shouldn't have climbed all the way up here with your ankle. It could get worse…" Gaylyn's chiding died on her lips and she blanched when she spotted Cat kneeling on the floor.
Frefford looked down at what had upset his wife. "Mistress Cat, are you all right?" he asked, dropping to his knees beside the mage. "What happened?"
"Hit on the head," Cat muttered. Her head throbbed too much to say more, but she rose shakily to her feet with the Wyvernspur lord's assistance.
Gaylyn, aghast, stared at the pin in Julia's hand. "Julia, what have you done?" she gasped.
"Steele's found the spur," Julia said, pointing at her brother as if his discovery would explain everything.
"And now its power will be all mine," Steele declared.
"Steele, it doesn't work that way," Gaylyn insisted, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. "Uncle Drone explained it to me the night before he died. Only one of the guardian's favorites can use the spur safely. Put it down, please."
Cat focused on the spur. It was ugly for an artifact, but its power was already obvious. Blue sparks were shooting from its surface between the fingers of Steele's fist.
"Oh, no," Steele said. "I'm not buying that silly story, Gaylyn, dear. The guardian is a family myth only someone as foolish as Giogi could possibly believe in. I am not letting that idiot get his hands on the spur. I don't care if Drone wanted to give it to him. I found it. It's mine."
Steele held the spur with both hands and raised it above his head. "I can feel its power already," he said. The blue sparks were now bolts of blue light, which flickered down Steele's arm.
Aunt Dorath huffed into the room