Chapter 19. Enlightenment
While Friend was tending to her newest “nymphs,” the young Eagles, Daring Do asked, “What was it? I guess that I was poisoned.”
The nurse, taking advantage of Friend’s slight distraction, started to take Daring Do’s blood pressure and stuck a thermometer in her mouth. She replied, “It was a whole Hellbore mushroom in the sauce and diced throughout your steak. They had two of them. The other was being prepared for the Imperial table.”
Grata, crest set to thanks, carried on, “Luck alone caused a server to be over eager for the credit of destroying the Blasphemer. If we had all been served at once, as planned, they might have killed much of the rule of the Empire.”
Carmen picked up the story. “You have chosen well to have Friend as your “hive.” That is what she means when she calls you Matunen. I know that you know what it means.”
Daring Do managed a small nod.
“When you fell, Friend was off that nest in an instant. She wrapped you in a form of magic that none of us, not even Uncle M, have seen. We know that it stopped your heart beat and breathing. It was impenetrable as well.
“Friend’s magic that seems so delicate? It reached out and sealed the whole banquet hall. One conspirator tried to fly through it. All that hit the floor was a rain of blood, feathers and shreds of flesh and bone. None of the others was stupid enough to try that again!
“She sort of swept the room with it. All of the conspirators there were gathered up and dumped before the Throne like a pile of rabbit droppings! Krapper was still yelling about Blasphemy.”
Daring Do chuckled. It hurt. A lot. It was worth it. Friend put down the Eagle chick that she was tending and stepped over to lay her horn to Daring Do’s forehead.
Calmly she stated, “Matunen is tired. She needs more prey.”
The voice of steel called out, “Friend needs more prey! You five! Come out for selection!”
General Ironhooves escorted the unlucky five Gryphons into the room. One whined, “It is bad enough that … that thing is killing us by torture. Why do we have to watch it happen?”
Grata, crest raised in outrage, demanded, “So, it was a matter of celebration to use THE COWARD’S WEAPON of poison against one who was PROVING our Legends but it is not OK to see the consequence of your criminal and cowardly actions?”
As they were speaking, Friend’s delicate seeming magic settled about one of the five. He gave a despairing squawk as he aged visibly. Feathers began to loosen and fall out. His eyes filmed over, going to an opaque pale blue. He simply withered where he stood, until he could stand no more.
Friend stepped over to her victim and simply bit into his neck. There was not much blood. The Eagles hop-fluttered to his carcass and began to strip what was left of his meat from the bones. One of the four being made to watch vomited.
Daring Do felt the soft, loving magic that she trusted absolutely settle through her. As it did, it brought safety, strength and comfort.
Having eaten her fill, Friend returned to her happy preening of Eagle chicks. A Hospital Aerie orderly came in and cleaned up the remaining mess. As he carried away the bones and scraps, he commented, “Another one for the midden.”
That helped Daring Do to bring something to mind. “The civil war? Did we stop it?”
General Ironhooves replied, “Oh, it started while the banquet and Friend’s little round up was going on. It is down to a few isolated actions in several valleys. It should be over completely in another few days to a week.
”For a long planned revolt, they were really poorly equipped.” He cast a glance at Carmen as he went on, “I can’t imagine how they wound up so short of equipment and ammo.”
He grinned hugely. “Carmen and VILE have the best combination of Intelligence and sabotage that I have ever had the pleasure of having on my side!”
Grata, crest rippling in amusement, added, “VILE sold us a most amazing array of military hardware at very reasonable rates! At prices like that, one would ALMOST think that they were not acquired honestly!”
Daring Do snickered. “VILE has never been proved of or caught in any illegal act. They MUST have been properly obtained.”
There was a small commotion at the door. Grata told the guards, “That is Marehem. He is both family and has Imperial clearance. Let him in.”
The blue changeling with his orange mop of a mane, entered the room. He made a sideways grin as he handed a check to Carmen. “Here you are, my Dear. The last of the settlements. It seems inconceivable, but Allstable Insurance has some unhappy customers.”
The General raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
Marehem snorted, “We have been very actively selling insurance on collections of militaria throughout the Empire. Mostly to First Creationists.
“Recently, they opened up their warehouses and vaults. Many valuable articles were missing! Articles like main battle tanks and artillery pieces.
“Careful examination of each case resulted in denial of the claims for methods of loss not covered by the policy.”
Grata, crest dripping sarcasm, asked, “How could that possibly have happened?”
Daring Do managed to point a hoof at Marehem. “HE wrote the policies! That is how!”
Carmen agreed, “It is indeed how. Agent payrolls must be met someway. I was happy to be of assistance in this case.” She grinned happily, “In the course of evaluating the “collections of militaria”, we found a few other things to acquire! Our private museum’s collection of Gryphon art and sculpture is much improved!”
She turned to the General. “Your advice on military collectibles has proved invaluable, General. We had not done much in that regard but now have the start to a good collection. Thank you.”
He tipped his hat. “It was a pleasure, Ms. Pondiego.”
Daring Do was hit by a question. “Umm, the war is almost over? How long was I unconscious?”
The nurse replied, “Define unconscious. By every test that we know, you were dead for the first week. We remember the fool that tried to fly through that weak looking magic of Friend’s!
“She was taking three or four prey a day for that week. She said that you were loving her back properly. Then you started to breathe and your heart to beat. That was two weeks ago. We have gone with her assessments ever since!”
Daring Do’s mind was ticking off the time that they had known Friend and helped her with her precious eggs. “Shouldn’t the eggs have hatched some time ago?”
Friend looked up from her chick preening and feeding. “Friend loved them to wait so that Matunen could watch her nymphs emerge.”
There came a voice from the doorway that could be as loud as a Royal Canterlot Voice or as soft as a dream. Princess Luna entered the room.
The nurse, showing a typical Gryphon respect for leadership, crest rippling with amusement, commented, “Good thing that we don’t have a Navy! This much brass could overload and sink any ship!”
Luna turned to Grata and said quietly, “I am glad that you Gryphons can handle such informality. Our Court …” She shook her head. “Bunch of overstuffed lunks for the most part. No sense of humor.”
Grata, crest rippling amusement, replied, “You have had thousands of years of practice at being fluffed feathers. Give us time. With luck, we will learn to avoid that pitfall by seeing your experience.”
Chuckling, Luna stepped around the hospital nest and smiled at Friend and her nymphs. She stepped close and nuzzled Friend. “Thank you, Friend. You have given me the best gift that I ever got. These Gryphons that you loved into being are the best thing that ever came of our horrible Nightmare Wars.”
Friend looked up to Princess Luna, tears in her eyes. “They are good nymphs.” She suddenly made hardened steel seem soft. “Some are failed nymphs, good only for prey. They hurt Matunen. I take them and love their lives to help Matunen.”
Without any disturbance at all, Princess Luna said, “So I have heard. Why did you choose Doctor Do as Matunen? You know that she can’t give you eggs to tend.”
Friend stared over at Daring Do with love. “From her first word, Daring Do shared care for Friend. She shared mind/heart/love without hesitation or fear. She found out about my eggs. With many other things important to her, she made my eggs most important. No better Matunen could be.”
Luna nodded. “I do see now why you chose her. If none have told you so, Friend, you are wise.”
Luna turned to Daring Do and offered, “You have our greatest thanks, Doctor Do. We found your exhibit on the origins of Gryphons at the end of the last Nightmare War in the Royal Museum. Some, on the acquisitions committee, wanted to remove it until it should be properly cataloged and formally accepted. I ordered it kept on display without reservation.”
Daring Do glanced a question to Carmen. Carmen shrugged. “We know how much of a pain it is to give anything to the Royal Museum. True that they are far better now that Count Umber is out of the woodwork, but it is still not easy. It seemed more expeditious to simply install it in its logical place.”
Daring Do grinned at that. Turning to Luna she said, “I thought that you would like to know that this whole wonderful species came out of that terrible time. That such goodness and honor arose from that dark part of our past.”
Luna nodded slowly, tears at the corners of her eyes. “You were so right, Doctor Do. It really does help.”
Daring Do replied, “I am glad that it does.
“Friend, may I see our nymphs? Up close, I mean?”
Smiling, Friend brought over one chick at a time, using her egg turning claw as a sort of perch and support. After holding each chick close for examination, she set it down on Daring Do’s blanket and fetched another. When the last of the chicks had been transferred, Friend clambered up onto the hospital nest along with them.
She was happily preening the chicks and feeding them. Daring Do realized that she was feeding them by regurgitating small amounts of food. And what, or rather who, the food was.
Oddly, it did not bother her at all. She lay there and thought it over, figuring out that her sharing with Friend had been more complete than she had at first known. It was actually a comforting idea.
About two weeks later, Daring Do was back in the Royal Banquet Hall. In a mobility cart. Friend was pushing her along. In the cart with her was a collection of eaglets, just starting to fletch out.
After the meal, of which Daring Do could only eat a little, she was wheeled about to a place in front of the display of Gryphon origins.
She began, “As I was about to say, before I was so rudely interrupted …”
–THE END–