Larkspur Mittel: The Lark & Owl Trilogy

22- The Middlemost

 Ogdin called an emergency meeting of the Middlemost, the small circle of decision making and power in the Owl Council and Scholars Inn.

He'd dealt with the Hummerlad guards effectively when they'd come knocking to bully Gerd in 'Suliman Suluag's' boer. He'd sent them fleeing by greeting them at the door with a swarm of bees from the hive that 'Suluag' kept hidden in case of emergencies such as this.

The girl, Hero, and her friend Adelmus had escaped into the tunnels, just in time. They were safe for the time being, or so Ogdin thought.

The Middlemost was made up of several judges and a few scholars, and they met in one of the by-rooms off of the Stofa.

Ogdin told them about the girl, and when he described the object the Lark King's blind daughter had given to her, he could feel the rush of discovery felt by all gathered just then in the by-room.

Judge Damaris, who was known for her fierce temper, became grim and pensive. Her spastic grey hair stuck out in angry curls, and though she was most revered as a judge she also had a face that could frighten a degul, the younger scholars liked to joke. Her nose was short and beaked. One bulbous, green eye was much bigger than the other and protruded from her pale face like some strange telescope detecting all that was false in its view.

"Are you quite certain?" She asked Ogdin.

"I am. I saw it with my own eyes. It was glowing, as though possessed by the sun."

Damaris paused before she spoke again.

"We are all doomed if the globe is what they seek."

"But why have they waited?" another judge asked, "Surely they could have captured the girl upon her return, or any day since then?"

"Perhaps they w-weren't aware of it, of the g-globe," Ips spoke.

Ips was a nervous young scholar whom Ogdin had mentored. He stuttered, and had broken more than one tea cup in the Stofa with his awkward gait, and excitable hand gestures. All the same, he was tremendously clever. Ogdin had worked hard to convince the others that Ips deserved place in the Middlemost. They did not welcome him with ease.

"P-p-perhaps they learned of the g-globe only after the girl had returned to the city," he continued undeterred by their doubtful silence.

"Actually, that would make sense," Alderbash, the only droll present, agreed warily.

Alderbash was head of the drolls in the Owl Council and Scholars Inn, and had been there for as long as Ogdin could remember. He wore his usual fine, beige linen suit with a dark pink desert rose stuck in his lapel. How he could always appear so calm and well-dressed simply irritated all the other drolls. They agreed that his manner was more of a clever, lord fox than head administrative droll.

"With the price of peat rising so quickly and without the normal consensus on that price, we can only assume they mean to starve the population, bit by bit," Damaris added.

"A clever, but short-sighted ruse. With a starving and angry population, how will they rule?" Alderbash responded, as he could not help but pick holes in Damaris's argument.

"It only takes one discontent to foment a rebellion," the sharp judge countered back.

"Yes, but an empty stomach is a dangerous weapon."

Alderbash and Judge Damaris continued to exchange clever words as usual, much to the entertainment of those around them.

Suddenly Ips interrupted.

"W-what is the saying? 'Hunger knows only one f-friend. The hand that f-feeds.' They will starve the p-people and then offer them s-s-sustenance in exchange for their l-l-"

"Loyalty?" Alderbash couldn't contain himself and finished the sentence.

"Yes, their loyalty!"

The judges and scholars all stared at Ips, stunned.

This timorous scholar with the long arms and legs who knocked over books and spilled ink... this stink bug, stick insect of a young man had tried to join in with Alderbash and Judge Damaris's famous parry of words in the Middlemost.

"Perhaps," Ogdin smiled to himself, "but all the same, we haven't time for guessing just now. Those children are in dreadful danger, as is Larkspur Mittel. We must act at once!"

"Do we know which Bolvekr we are dealing with?" Damaris asked.

"G-G-Grimsoll Bolvekr, n-nephew to Hallus," Ips was quick to respond, "the one with the one, the one," Ips was holding his right arm up high.

"One arm?" Alderbash prompted Ips.

"Yes, one arm!"

"He is a swine, or so I've heard," Damaris commented.

"A swine with a big appetite for restitution I'd say," added Alderbash.

"W-w-why?"

Ogdin patiently explained to Ips the story that the others already knew well.

"You know that Hallus Bolvekr led the battle to take over Larkspur Mittel once before, during the peat wars. But what you may not know is that he fell to his demise from our northern minaret. Those who were there say he fell to his death from one of the window ledges near the top. His nephew, Grimsoll, was at his side and had reached down in time to grasp his uncle's hand. He was pulling him back up, such was his renowned strength, when a small axe with a potent, silver blade fell from above. The axe sliced Grimsoll Bolvekr's arm off at the shoulder. Needless to say, both uncle and arm fell to the ground."

"W-w-who threw the axe?"

"A lark woman," Judge Damaris responded, "they said it was a northern lark woman who had been hiding on the roof. Nobody ever found her afterwards, as she vanished. Legends say she was a lark spirit, though I highly doubt it. Lark spirits don't like heights. They are always close to the ground."

"Regardless, the Bolvekr put a price on her head. But she was not found," Alderbash added.

"And now Grimsoll Bolvekr has returned to claim what the Bolvekr have always believed to be theirs- the city of Larkspur Mittel. Whether they knew about the ancient globe beforehand is not important. They know of its whereabouts now, and that is the danger. I dare not think about what might happen should they posses it. Meanwhile, it lies in the satchel of a poor, young lark orphan, who to her great fortune has her wits about her and legs like the wind."

Ogdin wiped his brow, as the by-room had grown warm with a collective anxiety.

"I will leave the city immediately-" he had started to say when there was an urgent knock at the by-room door.

A droll entered hurriedly, his sash askew.

"The King's Reservoir has been released- they are flooding the droll tunnels!" He cried out.