"Heart of the Crown" Chapter 33

[seymoure]

Chapter 33

Tribute

There was not the expected moment of supreme tension; instead Cela of Tar stepped forward.

“Will this do as a tribute,” she said, as she held the Eye of Finia out for their view.

“Niczzz,” the leader hissed.

“It is an article of great magical power in my land,” she told him. “It was to go to protect a mighty King, but the leader of the Zazzcats deserves it also.”

“That will do as a just tribute to the power of my clan,” the reptile/feline said.

“But first I must take one spell away,” Cela told them. “It will take but a moment. I must remove a spell that made it work its protection only for us.”

“Good, good,” came a chorus of agreement.

“But I would ask a boon,” the sorceress said.

“What would you have of us?”

“This talisman was leading us to the Cave of the Ice Bears; could you help us strangers get there?”

There was a buzz in a guttural, hissing language among the circle. “Yes,” said the leader. “Our Smiga will lead you to the forbidden cave. But he cannot go in; none of us will enter those caverns.”

“That is well,” the smiling mage told them. “We will leave as soon as I give you the talisman. We must hurry, for then we will be without its protection.”

A small, puny-looking Zazzcat walked to the leader. “This is Smiga, and he awaits your command.”

Cela turned to her comrades. She was performing hand gestures that seemed pointless to them, but they didn’t question.

She whispered, “The spell that I am removing is simply the protection I put on the talisman that covered our location from whoever sent the eye to us. They undoubtedly meant to use it to set up and ambush while we were here. Now they will attack someone other than us, and we want to be gone when that happens.”

“Not that I wouldn’t like to see the look on the faces of the assassins when they see their new opponents,” Slip said with a snort.

“Let’s go,” Hawk ordered.

Smiga shuffled off ahead of the striding humans, as Cela handed the Eye of Finia to his packs’ leader.

In seconds they were far enough away that they couldn’t hear the Zazzcats congratulating each other.

They would be miles away when the bloodbath began.

© 2008 C. Wayne Owens
Chapter 34 is here.