The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [125]
"Cole snatched the wizard from the ground and flew high, stinging and biting Flattery until the wizard ceased his struggling. It looked as if Cole had won, but then…"
Mother Lleddew closed her eyes as if she could shut out the sight of what she had already seen. "As Cole flew back toward us, a black cloud drifted toward him, moving against the wind. By the time we noticed its strange movements and shape, it was too late for Cole.
"The cloud was a pack of wraiths, fifteen or twenty in number. They may have been acting on their own, but I believe Flattery summoned them, and in doing so broke the rules of single combat. Whichever is the truth, the wraiths fell upon Cole as a single body. Your father shrieked from their icy, life-draining touch and dropped the wizard.
"I invoked Selune to turn the undead away from your father. The wraiths fled, though possibly it was the swift sunrise that sent them away and not I.
"Cole was very weak when he landed, but he began to search for Flattery's body at once. None of us had seen the wizard land.
"Then Cole was challenged from above by a sky-blue dragon. Since his magic could not directly harm Cole, Flattery had taken a shape that could. Cole took to the sky again.
"With all the wounds the wizard had taken in the first combat, and from the awkward way Flattery fought, we did not think he would win. But the wraiths had drained more of Cole's energy than we'd realized. Still, the battle seemed evenly matched, until another set of Flattery's minions interfered.
"Ju-ju zombies, more powerful than most, fired upon Cole with crossbows. Our party's mage cast a fireball at the undead, obliterating them before they could get off a second round.
"It was hard to see the blue dragon against the sky. He dove on Cole, and they fell earthward, tearing one another apart. At the last moment, they parted. Flattery soared off, badly wounded, but Cole crashed to the ground."
Mother Lleddew brushed tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Giogi tried to swallow the lump in his throat. The priestess finished her tale.
"Flattery did not return to his city, nor did we find his body. We were sure, though, that if he was not dead, he was so grievously wounded that he had fled for his life.
"Cole was dead. I would have carried his body home myself, on my own back, but he did not change back to human form at death, as a lycanthrope would. We did not know how to change him back and had no way to transport a wyvern's corpse. We had to send for Drone. We waited ten days and nights for him to arrive."
"What did Uncle Drone do?" Giogi asked.
"It was so simple, I was a fool not to have thought of it," Mother Lleddew said, shaking her head, "but it was also ghastly."
"What?" Giogi repeated.
"He sliced off the wyvern's right spur. It transformed back into the mummified spur, and Cole returned to his human form."
Giogi felt a little nauseated. Poor Uncle Drone-having to do such a gruesome thing. Of course, only Uncle Drone could have thought of that.
"I'm not sure that I want to know, but I suppose I ought to," the nobleman said with a glance at Olive. "How did my father make the spur work?"
"I'm not sure. He kept it in his boot, and whenever he needed to change, he would concentrate on it."
"Pardon me, sir," Thomas interrupted, "but you don't have the spur in your boot, do you?"
"Why, yes," Giogi said, patting his right calf, "it's right here beside the finder's stone. Why do you ask?"
"I might recommend that you avoid thinking about wyverns until you step outside. Perhaps, just to be on the safe side, you might want to leave the spur on the table for the duration of the discussion. A transformation in the house might be a trifle uncomfortable."
Giogi