And then Bale-Zur was there.
Half-hopping, half-shambling, the huge demon moved into the circle of weird radiance. Its great horned head turned neither right nor left and its glowing eyes, red as the fires of Hell, stayed fixed on the hedge witch and the heart. For an awful moment Wiz thought the monster would reach out and grind Moira into a red smear, as he had done with a legion of wizards from the Dark League. Instead the demon approached her across its heart and sank down on its haunches to stare motionless at the woman and the sphere.
Moira continued her chant as if nothing had changed. She lowered her staff and pointed at the heart. Bale-Zur stayed motionless, great taloned hands resting on his misshapen horned knees. The hedge witch extended her staff and tapped the crystal sphere once, twice, three times. The demon leaned forward as if in special interest. Moira repeated the three taps and Bale-Zur cocked its head. Again the three taps and this time the demon seemed to shrink in on itself like a deflating balloon. Suddenly, noiselessly, it shrank and vanished without a trace. The glow faded and all that was left was a woman and a head-sized ball of some shiny black material.
Moira grounded her staff and sighed deeply. Then she sagged against it.
That broke the spell. Wiz rushed to her and put his arms about her shoulders. She leaned against him and he could feel her heart pounding even through the thick cloak she wore.
"Fine," she muttered. "M’fine. Just hold me, will you?"
Danny, Jerry and June all gathered around them in the deepening gloom of evening. Moira took a deep breath and straightened in Wiz’s arms.
"It is done," she said in a surprisingly strong voice.
Wiz looked at the globe, now cold and dark. "That’s it then," he said. "Bale-Zur is gone."
"May we never see its like again," Moira said fervently.
"Oh, you will not, mortals," said a sweetly mocking voice behind them. "I see that in your future."
All four of them whirled. There, standing poised on the ruined wall, was an elf.
Like all her kind, she was tall and slender. The delicate points of her ears peeked through the long dark hair that curved around her face and fell loose down her back. Her oddly slanted eyes were as blue as Moira’s were green. In spite of the cold she wore a shoulderless gown of fine pale pink stuff that rippled in the chill wind and set off her pale skin and dark hair. She was as alien as she was beautiful, utterly relaxed and as menacing as a tiger poised to spring.
June screamed and sank back against Danny. Moira stepped to the side and held her staff aloft as if to strike. Danny clutched June to him and Wiz and Jerry simply goggled.
"Uh, hi," Wiz said, completely nonplussed. "Lisella, isn’t it?"
The elf maiden arched her beautifully formed brows and pursed her red lips in a mock pout.
"You have forgotten me already. I am disappointed, Sparrow."
"Ah, not exactly." I never forget someone who’s tried to kill me. The elf looked amused at his discomfort.
"So," he said at last, "what brings you here?"
Lisella smiled, bright and cold as the moon at midwinter. "Why, I came to renew our acquaintance, Sparrow, and to offer you a gift of prophecy. Shall I tell you your future?"
"Uh, no thanks."
"Ruin and loss," Lisella went on as if he had not spoken. "Your company shall meet your greatest enemy, one like you with powers as great as yours and allies greater than you can imagine." Her voice rang off the stones and the wind pulled at her skirt and hair. "At the crossroads of the worlds you and your companions shall meet him in a great battle. The mightiest among you shall die, each of your number shall suffer great loss and your enemy shall achieve his heart’s desire."
She raised her arm and made a sweeping gesture that encompassed all of them. "That is your future, mortals. That is what lies ahead."
And then she was gone. The only sound was June’s harsh sobbing echoing off the cold stone.
They looked at each other.
"Bitch!" Danny said fiercely as he clung to his wife. "Goddamn bitch."
"That’s the one who was trying to kill you?" Jerry asked Wiz.
"Yeah. She kept trying to set up magical accidents."
"Why?"
"Who knows? I met her once at Duke Aelric’s but by that time she’d been after me for months. I think it was some sort of cat-and-mouse game between her and Aelric-with them as cats and me as the mouse. She’d try to kill me by accident and Aelric would help me escape by the skin of my teeth."
"Do you think she’s after you again?"
Wiz looked apprehensively at the place on the wall where Lisella had stood. Then he shrugged. "Maybe."
Jerry followed his gaze. "It sounds like we’re in for some real trouble."
"If she’s right, maybe."
"Well, elves can foretell the future, can’t they?"
"Foretelling and true speaking are two different things," Moira said firmly. "Elves can see truly but they are as false and tricksome as a piskhie maze. Clearly she means us no good and we had best ignore what she has said."
It would have been more convincing, Wiz thought, if her knuckles hadn’t been white on her staff.
"Well anyway, I think we’d better wind up here and get back to the Capital," Jerry said. "Bal-Simba needs to know about this."
"I don’t think he’s going to like it much," Wiz predicted.
Wiz’s prophecy, at least, was correct. The enormous black wizard heard them out and then led them back through their story time and again with sharp questions. At last he had no more questions and simply sat with his head sunk into his hamlike hands. The group of programmers sat clustered around the table, unsure what to do next but unwilling to depart without his leave.
"What do you think it means, Lord?" Wiz ventured at last.
"I wish I knew, Sparrow." He lapsed into silence again.
"There have been other elven prophecies to mortals," Moira said. "Or so the stories say."
"Not like this," Arianne said from her place behind Bal-Simba’s chair. "Those stories speak of chance meetings and a prophecy given either as a reward or punishment."
"This was neither," Bal-Simba said. "She asked for nothing. More, she obviously sought you out at a time when you would all be together and away from the Capital and its protections."
"What should we do?"
"There is nothing we can do. The future may be open to elves, but to us it is closed and hidden. We can only live our lives as best we can and see what comes of all this."
"I wish I knew what her game was," Wiz said.
"I wish I knew why she wanted you dead," Moira replied.
"She hasn’t tried to kill me since I was kidnapped to the City of Night. That’s something anyway."