The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [121]
"I thought it was some sort of metal spur, such as for a horse," Cat said. "It's been sliced off a real wyvern's foot, though, hasn't it?" she asked.
"Yes," Giogi said. "It was a gift from a female wyvern to Paton Wyvernspur for rescuing her children. She sliced it off her dead mate."
Yuck! Olive thought inside the carriage.
"Yick!" Cat exclaimed. "How gruesome."
"Well, yes. Speaking of gruesome, are you sure you're all right? That's a nasty bump you've got there," Giogi said.
"You should talk," the mage laughed. "You're three colors that humans don't generally come in," she said, poking at a large bruise on his cheek. "You're bleeding, too. What happened?"
"We ran into a few undead," Giogi said with a shrug. "Nothing we couldn't handle. The potions you gave us helped a lot, though."
Olive mentally amended: An army of undead that we beat only with help from a werebear and a goddess's powerful minion. And the potions helped only as long as the right type of undead attacked us.
"So, how was your afternoon? Giogi asked the mage.
Cat related the events at Redstone in detail.
Giogi looked astonished by her story. "Is that all?" he asked with mock ennui.
"Is that all?" Cat echoed. "No. One more thing."
"What?"
"I missed you," the mage admitted.
"Really?" Giogi asked, feeling his heart pounding in his chest.
Olive shifted uneasily inside the carriage. Despite the mage having loyally handed the spur over to Giogi, Olive could not trust her. She hadn't leveled with Giogi about being Flattery's wife, but she continued to flirt with him. The halfling had firsthand experience at betraying people. She couldn't help thinking that Cat still had some sort of scheme in mind that required Giogi's cooperation.
18
Mother Lleddew's Tale
From the Journal of Giogioni Wyvernspur:
The 21st of Ches, in the year of the Shadows
While it seems like an age ago, it was only the day before yesterday when our family heirloom was stolen, and it was only yesterday that my Uncle Drone died-foully murdered, as I now suspect, by the evil wizard Flattery. The spur has been returned by the remarkable Harper bard, Olive Ruskettle, who has suffered the loss of her partner. Jade More, at Flattery's hand.
Mistress Ruskettle is still uncertain of the details, but she believes Jade removed the spur from our family crypt at the request of my Uncle Drone, convinced as he was that I was destined to use the spur. Jade, Mistress Ruskettle has explained, was a Wyvernspur from the same lost line as the mage Cat, which my Uncle Drone must somehow have known, or he would not have sent Jade in to face the guardian. One other attribute made Jade perfect for the task-apparently she could not be detected magically, which would have kept the spur's location a secret as long as she held on to it.
Mistress Ruskettle claims Cat also possesses this remarkable undetectability, which is why she hid the spur on Cat early this morning, disguised as a magical amulet. Jade gave the spur to Mistress Ruskettle moments before being killed, but it took the bard a day to discover that she was carrying the most sought-after item in Immersea. She has apologized for not trusting me with its location sooner, but she feared that once I knew it was safe I would abandon my quest to learn its power and neglect my responsibility to use it. I cannot deny that she might have been right.
Having fought my way through Flattery's minions to reach Mother Lleddew, I would feel rather foolish now not asking about the spur. I have an uneasy suspicion that I may need her knowledge not only to ensure the spur's safety but my family's safety as well.
Giogi laid his quill down on the desk and put his head in his hands. While he shared Olive Ruskettle's thirst for justice and had no intention of backing down on his promise to do all he could to help her, he felt uncertain that he could really bring himself to use the spur.
There had to be something bad about the artifact if Aunt Dorath believed it to be cursed. Moreover,