The Legacy of Mount Drood

Chapter 25

"So Captain Gar, I see you did find young Pennistyle. Exactly when were you going to tell me about this achievement?" Hella slapped her branch against her gown as she tread carefully across the cobblestones.

"At about the same time your Highness revealed why her greed and impatience precipitated the murder of his parents—and the reason."

Everyone gawked at Gar, the brevity and eloquence of his reply stunning them into silence. Hella's face flushed purple and she turned on him with another onslaught of insult and profanity. Rodney meanwhile, couldn't take his eyes of the old woman hovering near the entrance. Something pulled at his memory, something too elusive to grasp, then suddenly he went pale, his stomach heaving, weakening his knees as Prize caught his stare and returned it with a wink and a smile.

"Enough of this! Bring me the stones and the Key." Hella returned to her seat, shoving away the attentions of a groveling Consiflore. "If any of them give you trouble, kill them!"

Consiflore looked at the captives in confusion; the whereabouts of the items in question remaining a mystery. His gaze fell on Rodney, and mistaking the pale look of fright for guilt, he ordered the soldiers to bring him forward for a search. Rodney struggled mightily, shouting and squirming, dragging his feet and generally making the operation a comic ballet.

Hella screamed another oath, which charged Consiflore, as though struck by lightening, into clubbing Rodney with the back of his fist. Rodney roared at the Queen over the Count's stupidity in thinking that he or Gar had the key, and pointed an accusing finger at Jep.

"Well why is he acting so guilty then?" Consiflore pouted. "He must have something to hide."

"Do you—whoever you are—have something to hide?" Hella queried from her makeshift throne, meanwhile shifting one eye to Jep.

Prize stepped forward, bowing facetiously and grinning her hag grin. "I believe your Majesty's time—"

Rodney strained against his captors, his face flaming with rage. "No! NO! Priss, please!"

Mokum watched the byplay between Rodney and Prize from his uncomfortable position, the confirmation of his suspicions tantalizingly close. Derrick suddenly snapped to attention at the mention of the name, Priss. "Of course!" He blurted aloud. "Pricilla Teacher! She's Pricilla Teacher, sister of Keebooten and- and-"

"That means she's his aunt!" Gwendolise shouted in shocked surprise. Rodney gurgled a moan, casting a frightened glance toward Gar. It took a few beats before he reacted. The words striking his brain in a flurry of noise then sorting into coherent thought, bringing his entire body into one huge, tight knot. "You!" He hissed. "You are the offspring of that- that popinjay who married Myra?" He stumbled forward on rigid legs. "The cowardly scum that did this to me!" He wrenched the patch from his eye, revealing a hideously gaping hole, puckered and black.

"Wait! Wait!" Rodney broke free from the soldiers, falling to the ground with his hands up for protection. "I'm not the one to blame, I wasn't even born! It was her—Priss—she's the one."

Gar looked up at the old woman, a bewildered expression overcoming the gross appearance of his bare eye.

"You don't recognize me, Captain?" Prize smiled, holding his stare. "Pricilla, Priss, Prize?"

"But- but you were- you died from plague..."

"My husband did, but I was left with this." She drew her hand dramatically past her face. "We make a handsome pair, Captain." She crackled a giggle.

"You- you're Pricilla Teacher!" Gwendolise blurted again.

"TEACHER!" Hella exclaimed noisily. "Are you telling me I've been treating with a member of the Teacher family?"

"Perhaps you should ask your sister, your Majesty." Prize was enjoying every minute of the shocking revelations.

"My sister?" The years of hate, anger and greed held at bay for so long, suddenly bubbled to the surface as Hella cast a perplexed eye over the group. Gwendolise moved behind Jep. Another silence fell over the courtyard, this one ominous in the deathly stillness that accompanied it; even the sounds of nature seemed to shut down. Derrick used the distraction to release Mokum from the back of Dolly, pointing to William and Mary.

"Gwendolise?" Hella turned her attention to the woman Prize indicated. "Doesn't this just make the music sweeter... a reunion with my long lost young sister." She started to order Consiflore to fetch Gwendolise when Gar drew his sword and clanged the blade on the courtyard stones.

"Enough! EnoUGH! ENOUGH!" He bellowed. "I'll take my trip down memory lane later, right now I'm here for the Key. Now, WHERE IS IT?"

"I told you, I couldn't find it! It's not in the pack." Jep pointed at the mule and shrugged. "I don't know where it is."

Derrick nudged Mokum, who was busily untying William and Mary while the soldiers were distracted, and flashed the edge of Jep's box from beneath his jacket. Mokum put a finger to his lips and nodded, whispering the news to William.

"You had better look around you, Captain, it is I who will be taking charge of the key." Hella kept one eye on her sister as she braced Gar, ordering her men forward.

"Uh- Your Majesty," Consiflore stuttered, "we don't have the key as yet..."

"Then find it, you dolt!" He barely ducked out of range of the branch she was swinging and scampered behind some of the soldiers.

"Bring them all over here," Consiflore yelled, waving the men about imperiously. "Get them in a line. We'll soon see where this Key is. Him first!" He jabbed a finger toward Jep who shrugged and shook his head.

"I've already told you, I don't know where it is."

"Search him. Search them all." Consiflore looked to the Queen for approval.

William moved behind Derrick and slipped the box from his coat, handing it down to Mokum. While the others were busy with Jep and Gwendolise, Mokum managed to ease himself around behind Dolly and out of everyone's sight. Consiflore drew his sword and smugly jabbed the tip against Jep's chest.

"Perhaps a meal of cold steel might help your memory, Penni-weight." He chuckled at his joke and tossed Hella a glance.

"Forget him," she ordered, "ask my dear sister."

Consiflore signaled one of his men to bring her forward, his arm hanging mid beckon as the thunk of an arrow piercing the soldier's neck made a rude interruption. Holding both ends of the arrow, the soldier staggered forward emitting a loud gurgle before crashing to the stony ground.