Seventeen: A NEW ALLY
Wiz was in the middle of analyzing a module from the crashed recon drone when Bal-Simba found him in the Bull Pen.
"My Lord, you have a visitor."
There was something in the way he said it that made Wiz snap around, the intricacies of the code forgotten.
"Who?"
"Duke Aelric."
Wiz’s jaw dropped. Only once before had the elf duke sent his image into the Wizard’s Keep. The times Wiz had met him it had been in his own elf hill. No mortal understood how the elf hierarchy worked, but Aelric was called "duke" and stood high among the elves. Whatever this was, it had to be important.
Without another word Wiz left his code and hurried out the door of the Bull Pen, but when he turned toward the main keep and the Watcher’s Hall, Bal-Simba placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Not there. The main gate."
"Why did he send his image there?"
Bal-Simba looked at him strangely.
"He did not send his image, my Lord. He is here in person."
There was no room in the Wizard’s Keep deemed grand enough for receiving an elf, but the Wizard’s Day Room was quickly put right, Malus was awakened from his afternoon nap and shooed out, and Wiz and Duke Aelric retired there.
Even in leather breeches, boots and a simple tunic of dark blue velvet brocaded in silver, Duke Aelric was as out of place as a president in a pig sty. But he contrived to put Wiz so much at his ease in the short walk from the main gate that Wiz didn’t notice-almost.
"What can we do for you, my Lord?" Wiz asked after his guest had been seated and refused refreshment.
"It is more a question of what I can do for you, Sparrow," Duke Aelric said. "Or perhaps what we can do for each other."
"Oh?" was all Wiz could think of to say.
"You have already met the new arrivals from your world?"
"Mikey and Craig?" Wiz said grimly. "Yeah, I’ve met them."
"Then you agree they must be dealt with?"
"Yeah. That’s what you might call at the top of my to-do list."
"I also want to see them dealt with. And what is behind them. Better to work together on this, do you not agree?"
"I’d be honored, Lord. But why… ?"
Aelric cocked a silvery eyebrow. "Why am I interested? Because what you are doing is important. And because I think you will need my help. In fact, you will need all the help you can get."
The way he said it made Wiz’s blood run cold. He knew the business with Craig and Mikey was serious, but if Duke Aelric was interested it had to be even more serious than he imagined.
You will meet your greatest challenge, Lisella had said. He forced the rest of the prophecy out of his mind.
"Okay, what do you suggest?"
"First, I think, we must pool our knowledge. There are things I can tell you which will help and other things I wish to learn from you."
"Sure." Wiz reached for the silver bell to summon a servant. "Let me get the rest of the team in here."
Duke Aelric made small talk while they waited. Wiz was too astonished by the whole situation to do more than respond half-heartedly. He was very glad when Jerry burst into the room.
"They said you wanted to…" He stopped short and goggled at the guest. Duke Aelric rose and bowed exquisitely, obviously amused by Jerry’s reaction.
"This is, uh, Duke Aelric," Wiz said lamely. "I’ve told you about him."
"Honored."
"Ye… yeah," Jerry replied weakly. "Uh, forgive me. They didn’t tell me… I mean, they just said Wiz wanted to see me."
The door opened behind him and Danny came in with June beside him.
"And this is Danny…" Wiz began, but he was cut short by June’s shriek. She shrank back against Danny, white and open-mouthed.
Aelric bowed again. "My Lord, my Lady."
June turned away and buried her face in Danny’s shoulder.
"Uh, Danny, why don’t you take June back to your room?" Wiz said desperately. "I’ll talk to you later, okay?" Danny threw Aelric a venomous glance and led his shaking wife out.
"Now then," Wiz said, turning back to Duke Aelric, "here’s what we know so far."
It was several hours later when Wiz hunted up Moira.
"How is our guest?" she asked as soon as he came into their apartment.
Wiz kissed her perfunctorily. "You heard, huh?"
Moira looked at him. "Not much of a greeting, my Lord."
"I’ve got a problem. You know June saw Aelric and nearly went into hysterics?"
Moira nodded. "So I had heard."
"It’s the same thing that happened the last time she met an elf," Wiz went on. "At the time I thought it was just Lisella. The way she popped up was enough to scare anyone and June’s easy to frighten. But Aelric was just sitting there and she’s more afraid of him than she was of Lisella."
Moira nodded. "Certainly she is terrified of elves. But you are concerned about more than June’s feelings, I think."
"I’m concerned about making this thing work. Right now Danny wants to tear Aelric’s heart out because of the effect he has on June. We can’t build a team with something like that going on."
"What can I do to help you, love?"
"You’re closer to June than anyone. Do you have any idea why she’s so afraid of Aelric?"
"Nothing specific," the hedge witch said slowly. "June is afraid of many things." She smiled ruefully. She is hardly what you would call normal in the best of circumstances."
"Amen to that!"
"But still…" Moira trailed off and stared away. Then she looked up at her husband. "You know her history. She was found wandering on the Fringe of the Wild Wood a few years ago, much as she is now. No one knew her or whence she came and she cannot, or will not, tell us."
"So?"
"She is terribly afraid of elves. Perhaps she has had dealings with them before."
"That doesn’t make sense. Elves don’t deal with humans."
"They deal with you."
"So I’ve got an elf magnet in my pocket. June sure doesn’t."
"There is one case where elves do deal with humans regularly. They take human children to act as bond servants within elf hills."
"And you think June…"
"Time passes strangely under an elf hill. It seems like a season or two but when the servants have fulfilled their bond and are released centuries have passed. Their family, their friends, even their village are dust and gone."