The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [147]
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