Chapter 13: The Spellsong of Sand and Glass.

The musstangler broke the band’s fall, the ground however was not kind to it. Lupix was beginning to fell that the whole falling thing was becoming a bit of a habit, she didn’t like that. As the band got off the shattered remains of the musstangler they had a moment of silence.

It had served them well, if unwillingly.

“Eh, it would have tried eating us eventually anyway” Am ‘P’ said.

Nobody was really able to disagree with him.

They had fallen into the ruins of Wolfhiem. Nothing remained of it but ashes and cracked blackened stone, the bones of a dead city. As Lupix wandered around, she could almost remember what it looked like, in her mind, ghostly images of what it once was like drifted in her mind. There was no question, this was where she had to sing the spellsong.

“Is the sand all right Koul?” Lupix asked.

Koul pulled the glass head with the snow white sand in it out.

“Yes Princess, somehow not a single grain has fallen out by the looks of it”

“Well, that’s good, we’d be in a right fix if we didn’t have the sand, right?” Mik said.

“Yes, we would” Lupix confirmed.

“Now… I want to sing the song here, but… I should do it in the centre of the city”

“Where the palace once was.” Koul murmured.

Koul was doing some remembrance himself, he had lived in the city longer than Lupix, and was older when the wolves had to flee from the Firelord’s wrath. As they passed through the city, it seemed curiously alive in spite of being completely deserted, as if the city was anticipating what was going to happen.

The wind whispered, swirling up ashes that one could almost mistake for people at times.

There was no people.

There was not even a beast to confront the band.

With each step Lupix took, she felt how right it would be to bring song back to the barren remains of Wolfhiem, to bring life and joy. There was the aspect of defiance in it. To sing was cut the sting of what the Firelord had done. Koul and the three conepeople gaped in amazement as a fiery aura began to dift from her back.

The wind stopped whispers, now it sung lightly, the song was the chatter and buzz of a living city, of buskers pouring their hearts out, merchants crying their wares, and denizens talking brightly.

Koul did not look back at the mass of ephemeral ashy spectres that followed them, not souls of the dead, but memories.

The memories marched behind Lupix, as if knowing that the city was going to be reclaimed from destruction. She charged through the streets, climbed up stairs and rubble to the gutted place. As they entered its black ribs, the sound of someone clapping cut through the air, the wind stopped singing and the ashen memories dispersed, even Lupix’s fiery aura faded.

There before her, was her father, The present King of Wolves. Reclining on the royal beanbag, in the royal bean-bowl. He was wearing his sparkly white jumpsuit with it’s big furry collar and sleeves that flared into ribbons. On his old head was the crown of the Fire Howlers, both a crown and a set of crystal pipes, its colour flickering like flame. The heavy medallion, the royal seal hung from his neck.

With him was not just his entourage, but many citizens of Wolfhiem that fled when the Firelord came. Lupix remembered what the sand spirits had said, that ‘he’ would be waiting there and not the Firelord.

The King stopped clapping, he took from his head the crystal pipes and put them in one hand, and the medallion he put in his other hand.

“My Daughter, my strawberry, you must either sing, or give up your band and take up your Royal duties, this charm, this geas did I bind you with. Now, tell me your choice”

“Yeah, yeah, tell him” An irreverent voice spoke out.

“Bread?” Lupix spluttered in shock.

“The one and only!”

“Why are you here you miscreant?” Koul demanded.

“Well someone had to keep the old man informed about what was going on and I owe the old dog some tricks, me and the fire howlers go way back, always liked your parties, course, I go way back with most folks!”

The King gave Bread a sour look, then turned his heavy gaze back to his daughter.

“I ask again, what is your choice?”

He extended both his hands.

Being put on the spot on the moment, doubts came to Lupix. She wondered what she was doing, was it right for her to pursue her dream of singing as her grandmother had? What did her father expect of her? What did the people of Wolfhiem expect? What about the band?

The choice was to sing, or give up the band and take up her royal duties. Lupix paused.

Were those really the choices open to her?

In that moment, it all became clear to Lupix.

She took the crown from her father, and set it in her hair.

“I will sing…” she began.

Then, she took the royal seal, and put it around her neck.

“…and I will rule my people as Queen, what would be a wolf queen who did not sing?”

This was her answer, she wished to sing, but she would not abandon her people.

Her father smiled, and laughed, and the crowd of denizens applauded.

“She would be no wolf-queen at all!” He crowed.

Lupix spun around. The time to sing the spellsong had come, he wore the crown of the Fire Howlers, which would be the perfect instrument for the second half of the song.

“Koul, set the sand before me.”

Koul put the glass snake head filled with sand before Lupix’s feet.

“Yes, my Queen!” Koul shouted.

Lupix put one foot on the head, and took a long look over the remains of wolfhiem. The wind began to sing, she glowed with flame and the ashes rose to kneel before her.

Then Lupix VII Queen of the Wolves, sang.

What she sang was not normal words, but runic, the language of magic in Elcon. Her flame rose with her voice washing over Wolfheim and everyone, burning nothing and no-one. Her flame just warmly embraced them.

The song while nobody could understand the exact words, got its meaning through to everyone. The song spoke of the wolves and wolfhiem, it spoke of music, old and new, of a greater song. The flames made images of wolfhiem and the city was reconstructed in flame.

There was joy and freedom in the song and light. It was a song that defied wrongs. It healed the hurt in the hearts of those that heard it. Even the most broken among them felt whole.

The flames formed a great castle and opera house where the palace once was. Towering walls of flame and song.

This calm wafted for a time, warmed erasing many of the wounds that Wolfhiem’s fall had made.

Lupix took the crystal pipes, the crown from her head, and began to play them. This was the part that had to come from the depths of Lupix’s heart.

That was when the magic really began. The white sand burst forth with the pipe music, flying through the city. There seemed to be no end to the sand.

The music constructed great walls of sand around the ruins of wolfhiem. These walls rose and fell with the music. Protection. Everyone knew then that no vile flame could pass the walls, and that those with ill intentions would have great trouble doing so.

The song was not over, it soared, declaring its challenge. Then, in a roar of triumph the flames mimicking Wolfhiem rushed into the palace. The pipe music flowed around and through them, then it brought the rest of the sand with it.

Sand blended with flame, a new castle was being made a palace and an opera house. Shining glass shone through flame, taking more and more stable form, great domes and towers. A glass operapalace, far stronger than normal glass.

Then the song slowly died down, weaving its way into the glass operapalace and the sand walls.

Lupix sighed in relief.

She knew that the Firelord and his flame could never cross the sand walls, lest they snuff him out. The glassopera house was more of a bonus really.

She wondered why nobody was cheering.

Then she saw him, standing on top of the wall the Firelord’s Grand Snuffer Laud Boum.

She didn’t understand, the wall was not supposed to allow anyone with ill intentions across.