In fact the precautions had taken more time than the buildings. Not only was the glass carefully dulled to avoid any hint of reflection and the stone colored to match the surrounding rock, but powerful blocking spells had been erected over the place. From the air the valley appeared as simply another hill. Magical emanations were blocked. Even infrared, UV and radar signatures were tightly controlled.
Moira sighed. "Oh, I know, love. But on the same island as our enemies!"
"It’s a big island. We’re nearly a hundred miles away from them. As long as we don’t have dragons flying in and out of here or something we’ll be safe enough."
"I suppose," Moira said in a tone that suggested she supposed nothing of the sort. But she relaxed and turned back toward Wiz.
He smiled down at her. "Besides, look at the bright side. In this world there are no dwarves trying to kill me."
Glandurg was bent over his locating talisman. For two days there had been no sign of the Sparrow even on his searching device. Now he was attempting a difficult spell to increase its power temporarily.
His followers were crowded around the stump where he sat, watching as he poured all the magical energy he could muster into the device. The sweat was running down Glandurg’s brow and even Gimli was uncharacteristically quiet.
The device pulsed, flickered and then lit with a faint blue glow. Within it a shadowy arrow pointed south.
Glandurg jumped up off the stump so quickly he almost knocked Ragnar over. "South! The alien wizard has gone south." His face split in a wide smile. "Excellent. We have driven him from his hole and now we can follow him. He will not be so well protected in his new lair." He jumped up on the stump and struck a heroic pose.
"This time we shall not fail!" he proclaimed in ringing tones.
The other dwarves listened politely, but with a notable lack of enthusiasm.
"This means the griffins again, doesn’t it?" Thorfin asked glumly.
"I don’t see why we don’t just grab the thing now," Danny complained as he and Wiz made their way back to their quarters. "It’s been nearly a week since we got here and we can’t do anything until we get that computer."
It was well past midnight and the halls were deserted. The support staff was small and was not on duty around the clock. Even Jerry had turned in an hour ago, leaving Wiz and Danny to finish reviewing the results of their search for a "candidate" computer system.
"Because it’s still legal," Wiz told him. "They haven’t done anything they aren’t supposed to yet."
"But we know they’re going to."
"But they haven’t. So we don’t touch it."
"Like, the KGB is really going to use a supercomputer in the United States."
"It’s the GRU-military intelligence-and they’re still legal."
"Bullshit!"
"Maybe," Wiz said firmly. "But that’s the way we’re going to play it."
They walked on in silence. Their feet made no noise on the carpeted floor and the dim light from the ceiling panels had a bluish cast that made it seem even dimmer.
As they came around a corner, they saw movement ahead. Instinctively they both froze. Then Wiz realized it was June.
June was always cat-quiet when she moved, edging along the walls of a room as if she was afraid something would grab her. Now she was moving even more stealthily. She kept her back to the wall and stepped sideways with large cross-body steps that carried her along utterly without sound.
Danny moved to say something, but Wiz put a cautionary hand on his arm. As silently as she had come, June disappeared down the cross-corridor.
"What’s June doing sneaking around like that?"
"She’s not sneaking!" Danny fired back.
"All right, she’s not sneaking. What’s she doing?"
Danny dropped his eyes and didn’t say anything.
"Danny…" Wiz began dangerously.
"She’s…" He took a deep breath. "Well, she’s watching."
"Watching who?"
"That elf dude. She doesn’t trust him."
"That’s obvious. Any special reason?"
"Because he’s dangerous. Because he doesn’t belong here."
"He’s our ally."
"How do we know that? Because he says so?"
"Because he is," Wiz told him with a lot more firmness than he felt.
"Look man, June knows elves. She lived with them for hundreds of years, right? She doesn’t trust him and that’s good enough for me."
"He’s saved my life a couple of times and that’s good enough for me," Wiz retorted. "Look, I told you once before you don’t have to like him, but you’re going to have to work with him. If you or June can’t handle that, I’ll have to send you back to the Capital."
Danny just snorted and turned away.
The only thing worse than flying over the ocean, Glandurg decided, was flying over the ocean at night. It was bad enough to look down and see nothing but water beneath you, but it was worse to look down and not see the water you knew was there.
This whole trip was worse than anything he had imagined. He was cramped and sore after hours of hanging from a griffin’s talons. He was mortally tired, but he could not get any sleep. He was chilled nearly to the marrow from the night cold and wind. He was still half-airsick from the terrible fog bank they had gone through a while ago where everything was suddenly wrong. Now the griffin that bore him was laboring and wheezing as if from exhaustion.
Well, at least Thorfin had stopped moaning and Gimli wasn’t retching any more. The next time I make a journey like this I will insist on a flying carpet, he declared to himself. It costs more, but the extra comfort is worth it.
The truth of the matter, he admitted to himself, was that he didn’t want to make a journey like this. Not ever again. Not even the quest was worth this misery. He would have gladly ordered the griffins to turn around and take them home if it didn’t mean flying for hours and hours more.
A sudden move by the griffin jerked him out of his misery and sent a new thrill of terror through him. The griffin had banked and seemed to be losing altitude. Glandurg’s heart jumped into his throat at the thought of going down in the ocean.
Then his dwarvishly keen nose caught a new smell mingled with the iodine-and-salt odor of the ocean. A smell of mud and decay that was like perfume to him. Land! There was land ahead.
Glandurg fumbled with half-numb fingers for the thong around his throat. The talisman was glowing brightly and the arrow pointed sharp and clear straight ahead of them.
"We have got to do something about June," Wiz told his wife the next morning over breakfast. "Now she’s taken to sneaking around after Duke Aelric."
"I know," Moira said calmly.