Back | Next
Contents

Chapter Nine

At the door came a knock, and when Adam answered it, Spence came in, without his human seeming.

"Your Majesty," Spence said, bowing. "I am Iarbanel of Avalon, and I wish to be of service. Sire." The elf wore a maroon Bugle Boy shirt, slacks, casual shoes—his usual attire. The only thing noticeably different about him were the pointed elven ears. His bowing seemed odd, alien, uncomfortable. But it was something Adam would have to get used to.

"I'm glad you've decided to join our little party," Adam said, dispensing with the royal formalities and giving Spence a hug. "I'm only recently, well, re-elfed, I guess. This is still new to me," he added, dismissing the glamorie and returning to his full elven splendor.

Spence nodded, as if he'd expected the reply. The moment felt awkward to Adam, since he'd looked up to Spence and his wisdom in spite of his youth. And now, Adam was his King.

Take it slowly, Adam thought. Just because I'm the ruler now doesn't mean I can't still look up to him. Didn't Father say that wisdom was part humility, and knowing when to seek advice?

Adam now saw that, since his arrival in the human realm, he'd been surrounded by elven guardians. His "mother" Sammi, Spence, Moira . . . when school was in session, they had been inseparable and made excuses or explanations for each other's "allergies." When Adam started working at the Yaz, Jimmy hired Spence the same day, even though there were several applicants more qualified.

Hmm. Looks like my best buddy has already been using elven magic to influence the human realm. Maybe that's why he made straight A's when I had a B average.

I'm going to have to talk to him about that. . . .

They seated themselves in the living room, Adam on the chair, the others on the couches. Spence took a seat to his left, looking grim, a disturbing sight on his otherwise light-hearted features.

"Something happened over at the Wintons' mansion last night," Spence began. "I don't think you've learned of it yet, and I wouldn't mention it now, except that it has a bearing on this Court."

Sammi leaned forward, glanced at the others, and said, "Adam, you didn't know about that?"

"About what?" he said. He didn't like the look his mother had at all. Moira looked interested, too. Apparently she hadn't heard the latest. "I knew there was a big party over there last night," Adam said, feeling like he'd been left out of a big secret. "We were there until things started getting a little out of hand."

" 'Out of hand' is not the phrase I would have chosen," Sammi said. "I was over there this afternoon, saw the results of last night." She looked at Adam, hesitating before continuing. "You wouldn't know what had happened, I suppose."

Spence said, "Several humans died. Steve was one of the victims."

"Died?" Adam said, horrified. "What happened over there last night?"

Sammi rummaged through her purse, pulled out some pictures, and handed them to Adam. "This is what happened. Not long after you left."

Adam took the pictures, started going through them. He got halfway through the stack before he stopped looking. The ones he saw sickened him; he had even known a few of the now-dead kids.

"Nineteen dead," Sammi said. "Or was it twenty? Your friend Daryl was the only survivor." She shook her head. "It wasn't a homicide, but I paid a little visit anyway, in part because you were involved, or almost involved. Good thing you left when you did."

Adam shrugged. "I never would have done the drugs in the first place," he said. "Neither would Moira or Spence."

Sammi's grin was wicked. "That's right, you wouldn't have. But if you had, I would have known. Spells. Like little alarms. I would have heard them a thousand miles away." She paused, reflecting. "I'll bet human mothers would appreciate something like that."

Adam didn't know what to think about those particular spells, but was glad Sammi had the foresight to place them. As a human, I would have human weaknesses. No telling what might have happened if I'd been a little less resolute.

"I'm not concerned with the drugs, per se. Yes, they killed the humans. And yes, you were in the same house, but—"

Marbann interrupted, "The humans are not our concern. We are their superiors in every way," he said. The comment brought strange, accusing looks from all assembled.

"We have lived among the humans for some time," Spence said. He seemed visibly angered by Marbann's statements, but appeared to be holding it in. "We have even become humans, to a degree. It has been five human years since we Gated here. You have only arrived today."

"The humans are very much a part of our world now, Marbann," Sammi said. "It has been many years since I arrived here, but I do remember what my first impressions of this race are. I didn't much care for them. They enslaved their own kind, the ones with dark skin, though they later fought a great war over it. Slavery ended. The race improved. They are far from perfect, mind you, but . . ."

Sammi's words trailed off, as if she were seeking the right words to express herself.

"What I think Samantha is trying to say," Moira said, "is that humans are not the lesser race we once thought them to be."

Marbann didn't look convinced. "Are you telling me they are our equals?" he said, and looked around, seeking support for his side. He found none. "They only a live about hundred years. They have no possession of magic. They scoff at our existence, or anything else that doesn't fit neatly into their narrow sciences. They are cattle, so far as I am concerned." Marbann folded his arms resolutely.

"You forget, my dear Marbann," Sammi said ominously, "that King Aedham Tuiereann has lived among, and believed himself to be one of, these cattle, as you so indelicately call them. Where does that leave our new ruler?"

Flustered, Marbann replied hastily, "I meant no insult, Your Majesty. It's just that . . ."

"It's just that you're repeating the same line of caca we were taught in Underhill," Moira said. "We've been here long enough to know there is much to this race, which our kind has ignored for too long. Now we have been forced to learn about them, and we have even learned to appreciate them, in the course of our own preservation. Tell me, Marbann of Avalon, have you ever met a human? Have you even seen one?"

Marbann said nothing for a long moment and looked down at the carpet, avoiding everyone's eyes. "No, I have not," he said grudgingly. "I've only just arrived here." Then, "I have much to learn."

Adam remained quiet during the discussion, his mind returning to the previous evening at the Wintons' mansion. It was Moira, Spence and I. Daryl was having a birthday party. The place felt wrong from the beginning, but we stayed anyway. I had a wine cooler. As the evening progressed, the human children starting acting stupid, which often happens at such parties, but there was something else underlying the stupidity. I knew then something bad was about to happen. Today when I talked to Daryl, who couldn't find his ass with both hands if he had to, I knew something bad had happened.

He regarded the Polaroids as if they were some sort of time machine; they had nothing like photography in Underhill, and even though he'd been in the human realm a few years, and photography and video had become commonplace in his human life, the technology seemed alien now. All those humans dead. No, there's more to it than just an overdose of recreational drugs.

As he reviewed the events, he recalled some other strange occurrences the last few days, aside from his raging hormones and his lust for Moira. There was that stoned kid in the mall, and that black feeling he got from him. And then the experience in the vacant store. The lost time. What happened back there? What else happened that I don't remember?

While Adam's thoughts trailed off, the conversation became chaotic, with everyone speaking at once. But he heard through the chaos something which seized his attention.

"Is it any surprise that the Unseleighe followed us here?" Samantha said loudly, clearly.

All conversation ceased.

"Go on," Adam said, intrigued. "I think you now have our ears."

Moira groaned, as if in response to a bad pun. But Adam had intended none.

"You do not know Zeldan Dhu as I do," Samantha said acidly. "Before our late King died, he told me of Zeldan and his family. Our ancestor killed his ancestor long ago. Our great-great-grandfather fought against his. They had been plotting the invasion for centuries. Zeldan Dhu had vowed to kill every last one of the Tuiereann family and will not hesitate to come here, to the human realm, to do it."

Marbann didn't seem convinced. "They could not have traced us back to this human city in this human time. The spell our late King and I wove was not detectable. It left no trails for our enemy to follow." He stubbornly folded his arms again, an action which was becoming irritating to Adam.

Is he forgetting who's King here? Adam thought, holding his tongue and temper.

Spence said, "If the Unseleighe have pursued us here, what evidence have you?"

Again, that terrible silence fell in the room. Adam wondered if he should attempt to exert some royal influence to calm things down, assume a leadership role, but at the moment he didn't feel much like a leader. The transition to his true self left him a bit muddled, and he still didn't feel, well, royal. Not yet. His only link to royalty was his family, who were all dead except for Samantha. Things were so much easier when I was a human kid. . . .

Samantha continued, "At the Wintons' mansion I felt Unseleighe magic."

Marbann stood up, his height towering over the others. "Certainly not here, milady . . ." he said, amid gasps of disbelief in the room. "We have only just arrived. I doubt the Unseleighe's ability to find us in a year, much less a day."

"We don't need Unseleighe to have evil around here," Moira said haughtily. "Humans do just fine all by themselves! Besides, there were enough bad boys and girls at the party last night to fill a prison. Losers. Troublemakers . . ."

Samantha calmly held a hand up, gently urging all to be silent and listen. Once the gesture restored order, she continued, "Granted, evil forces exist in abundance in the human world, but these forces are of a different flavor from Unseleighe evil. They are . . . human. For all the good humans do, they have their evil as well. As a human, I am an officer of the law, a profession I have chosen so that I can study the humans. With my authority, I have access to records that most humans do not. I can use this access to cover my elven identity should I need to. In this profession, I investigate crimes, murder mostly, and I am very good at it." She gestured toward the room, the house in general. "This is an above-average human abode. And none of this has been raised by magic. I earned it all, the old-fashioned human way."

" 'Abode'?" Marbann said, clearly confused.

"This home. This . . . elfhame. Our new one, for now. While I was at the Winton mansion, the magic I sensed was not human. It was Unseleighe."

"Zeldan?" Moira whispered.

"I don't think so. More likely a minion. I doubt he would have the courage to show himself, though I don't know how long they've been here in the humans' world."

Last night's close call made Adam shudder. Not only had he been a defenseless human, he was an oblivious one as well.

Perhaps they would have discovered me, perhaps not. The risk is still too great to repeat. But then, that was the whole idea of hiding my elven identity under a wrapping of humanity.

"Where are they?" Spence asked. "Among us?"

Then, it all became clear to the new King. "They're here, all right. In Dallas."

Samantha stared at him. "Do tell, young King," she said. "Have you encountered them already?"

Adam straightened himself up in the chair; he had begun to slouch. While he did this, he gathered his thoughts. How to put this?

"I think that what I encountered was their results," Adam said. "First, I ran across a young human, stoned on some drug, in the Marketplace. He said, and I think I have this down correctly: 'It's like, the sky opened up, and Gabriel tore loose with horns of brass,' " Adam began, feeling his voice change to match that of the stoned boy's, a pitch higher, and slurred. " 'And Armageddon was here. And the black Eagle saw the ruined castle, and all the dead within waited for the mighty to take the palace.'

"Then he looked at me, and said, 'And you were there. And you did not die.' "

Adam considered this, remembering something now that he didn't before . . . because it hadn't happened yet.

The black Eagle. Ruined palace . . .

Fear rippled through him. He couldn't have known!

Adam leaped to his feet.

"Gods, Samantha. That boy described the Dream. The Dream I just had! How did he—?"

Marbann said, "Do not confuse time, young King. What is before and after, here in the human realm, does not fall necessarily in that order in Underhill."

"He's right," Sammi said softly. "Was he Unseleighe? Would you have known?"

"No, I  . . . don't think so." The boy was Cory, and I've known him for years. But I guess that doesn't really mean much.

Samantha looked uncomfortable, as if a disturbing thought just came to her. "You said the boy was stoned. On what?"

Adam returned to his seat, feeling reassured, though he did not quite grasp the time concept Marbann was trying to explain.

"Black Dream," Adam said. The black-stoppered vial. "The boy was on Black Dream."

Samantha exhaled loudly. When Adam looked up, she had her face in her hands.

"That's the drug you warned me about," Adam said. "Was that the drug that killed all those humans last night?" It was a wild guess, but his hunch was unusually strong. I knew there was something different, evil and magical, about that envelope.

"So that's why," Samantha said cryptically. "It's been on the street for a year, but it has to be."

"My dear lady, you are making little sense," Marbann said. "If this is a human drug, it is a human problem."

Samantha glared at him. "There lies the problem. It isn't a human drug."

"The Unseleighe," Moira said. "Zeldan. That's his style, all right. A year, you say?"

"At least. Narco has been going crazy lately with a new wave of the stuff, particularly after last night at the Wintons'. I think Black Dream is responsible for the deaths. And Black Dream has been around since last summer."

Marbann of Avalon yawned.

"A year," Adam said. "The time—"

"—doesn't matter here," Moira said. "The human realm doesn't intersect with Underhill on any level. Five human years ago, relative to you, you Gated. Marbann has only just arrived, but left immediately after you and Samantha did, am I correct?"

Marbann nodded. "You are. For me, the King . . . died only moments ago."

"So it is possible," Adam said, "that the Unseleighe have been here not only a year, but perhaps longer."

"The Unseleighe," Samantha corrected, "have been here for centuries. Zeldan is the newcomer. He may have arrived shortly after you did, young King. Or a month ago."

"What matters is that they are here now," Moira said. "Gods, I didn't think it had already happened."

"Moira," Adam said, approaching this from a new angle, "did you notice anything odd last night about the party?"

Moira considered this carefully, taking a several moments to respond. "I wasn't particularly aware of anything Unseleighelike, though I always sense evil when I see humans abusing their minds, souls and bodies. But then, I'm not a mage."

Samantha hissed, her ears quivered, and her slitted eyes widened and glowed momentarily with an energy of their own. Her elfing-out totally like that was a frightening sight. Adam curled up into the chair like a cat, protectively.

"What? What did I say?" Moira asked, but she sounded like she knew she'd let something vital slip out.

"Samantha, what's a mage?" Adam asked. He had an idea. He wanted to be sure.

Samantha sighed in resignation. "I suppose it is well past the time we should keep anything from you, Adam," Samantha said.

Adam realized he preferred to be addressed as Adam instead of King, or young King, or even Your Majesty, but now was not the moment to bring that up. Later.

"A Mage is an elf with exceptional magical abilities. Humans occasionally have mages sprout up randomly, but the occurrence is so rare it is not worth concerning ourselves with right now. Or, maybe, ever. Zeldan Dhu is our problem. Not mages."

"I see," Adam said, uncertain if he did. "Let me adjust to being an elf, first. That's . . . taking some getting used to. I've been a human a long time." He reached up and touched his ears. "These still feel weird."

"Our plan precisely," Samantha said, casting a warning look at Moira. "But I suppose no harm is done."

"There was something else," Adam said, hoping to break up the awkward moment by changing the subject, "that happened after this incident I described. Now this was weird."

Even Marbann sat up attentively.

"The boy I mentioned, he gave me a vial of—you guessed it—Black Dream. And walked off. Security cameras are all over the place there, so I thought, 'Hey, this looks like a drug deal,' so I started looking for a place to ditch it before I got busted. I went straight to the men's room and flushed it. It went all the way down."

"You flushed twice. Good boy," Samantha said. Marbann grimaced. He is the King, not a child! his look seemed to say.

Adam continued, "After I left the rest room, there was this unleased space to the left. And I was like, I dunno, hypnotized by something. The room filled up with fog. Lights appeared under the fog. I must have zoned out or something."

Moira seemed delighted. "So you were Dreaming, even under the spell." She turned to Samantha. "You felt it too, didn't you?"

"But what happened there?" Adam asked. He felt like he'd been excluded from yet another secret, and they were teasing him with it. "What were those lights under the fog?"

"Don't you know?" Moira taunted.

Adam held his tongue.

"Those were the nodes," Samantha said. "Powerful ones, too. Deep underground, at the very spot they manifested. The human realm has them as well. Only, they're wasted here, unless an elf comes along and puts them to use. Why else do you think our kind would bother coming to this chaotic place?"

Moira seemed to be enjoying this. She said, "The Marketplace was built on the site of three power nodes, long ago. Originally the building was a cookie and cracker factory."

Adam groaned as cookie-making cartoon elves flashed through his mind. "Give me a break," he said, smiling just a bit in amusement.

"It's for real. Well, most buildings would have been knocked down when they outlived their original usefulness, but someone decided this one was worth saving. Maybe it was the nodes, influencing the humans subconsciously. Anyway, the presence of the nodes is one of the reasons we were drawn to the Marketplace. It's a natural place for us to be."

"The Marketplace," Adam said, bemused. Then a dark thought came to him: "If the nodes attract us, won't they attract the Unseleighe as well?"

No one said anything for quite a while. Then Samantha spoke up, "Most likely they would be as unappealing as the prospect is."

Hunger was not among the physiological differences between humans and elves. At some point during the dark discussion, Adam realized he hadn't eaten much that day and now had a craving for pizza.

In Avalon, of course, there was no pizza or any of the processed foods humans enjoyed. Fruits and vegetables grew abundantly on the palace grounds, with the aid of magic. In his particular elfhame, Adam had learned that to create food, or ken it from nothing, was not polite. Kenning food was something the Unseleighe did, Adam had been told while growing up, but he knew that other Seleighe elf clans kenned regularly. It was just a matter of etiquette. While it was acceptable to urge the natural growth of vegetables along with spells, "acceptable" food went through the stages of normal growth, more or less.

Game was also in abundance, though servants hunted it for the royal family instead of raising it in pens, as Adam had grown accustomed to seeing out in the country in Texas. Servants did most of the hunting, but occasionally the royal family would indulge in a bit of sport, hunting deer with the crudest of bows and arrows, and no magic whatsoever. Neither Adam, nor anyone else in Avalon, had never been hungry. Food was always available, in one form or another. There had never been a drought, a famine, or a flood.

The Unseleighe were the only scourge in Avalon, and in less than a day they had taken everything from the rightful owners.

Adam found himself in a quandary. While it had been five years since his last experience with the war, Marbann had just stepped out of it, and was no doubt famished. Moira, who'd mentioned she'd eaten no breakfast or lunch, was probably starving, too. Other elves were on the way as well, and might arrive anytime. But this was the human realm, with no elven food to speak of; food here was all grown without spells, and was highly processed, seasoned, and garnished.

On the floor was a stack of newspaper with the coupon section on the top. "Unexpected Guests? Order a Two For One from Dominique's Pizza," one ad announced. Dominique's makes the best pizza in the universe. And I'm King. That's what we're having.

"Anyone hungry?" Adam asked. Everyone was.

While the new King called in the order, Samantha went scavenging in the kitchen for other eatables. Since she wasn't expecting out of town guests either, at least on this particular day, she came up empty-handed.

"Looks like it's pizza tonight," she said from the kitchen doorway. "Time for a shopping trip to SAM'S."

Marbann looked puzzled. "What manner of beast is a pizza?"

Adam stifled a smirk and said, "Several kinds," he said. Samantha brought in a pitcher of lemonade and five glasses. "You're all probably parched," Samantha said. After filling the five glasses, Adam noticed the pitcher was still nearly full.

I guess a little kenning is acceptable, if done surreptitiously, noted Adam as he downed his drink.

Presently, the pizza arrived, and Adam went to the door to pay for it.

"Ah, wait a minute," Moira said, following him to the door. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Adam paused, with his hand on the doorknob. "Like . . . what?"

"Are we having a costume party here, or are you trying to pass yourself off as a Vulcan?"

Adam felt his ears. "Geez, of course." As Moira had shown him, he replaced the glamorie, and immediately noticed the difference between elven and human perceptions. His vision was not as sharp, and he didn't feel as strong. Moira stood back, out of sight. When he opened the door, he must have been presentable to the pizza human who was standing on the front steps with their dinner in a big vinyl box. The Dominique's guy didn't seem to notice anything amiss as he counted out the change.

Adam closed the door, and as he stood there, holding the two-for-ones, Moira changed him back. His vision sharpened, and his energy returned. I'm not going to like going back to being a human, even temporarily, he thought morosely.

Adam entered the living room and announced, "Dinner is served."

"That smells sooooo goooood," Samantha said, holding a stack of plates and forks. "I never did get to eat that orange at work."

"Your hired servants put the kill in boxes before they present it to you?" Marbann said. "Most odd, these human ways."

Adam set the pizza down on the coffee table and opened the long cardboard box. The vultures descended on the kill.

All except Marbann, who gaped at the pizza, openmouthed. He picked up and examined one of two little plastic table thingies used to keep the box lid from touching the pizza. He held it up and exclaimed, "How did they manage to kill this strange beast with one of these?"

Moira almost choked on her slice. "Marbann, this is not an animal. It is a combination of ingredients, part pig, and part . . . well, pig. Something like a boar. Sausage and Canadian bacon. And cheese, made from milk. The red sauce is made from a vegetable. The crust is, a—well, never mind. It would take too long to explain baking."

Marbann shook his head. "Why go to all that trouble? It is much easier to cook the boar on a spit, and the vegetables taste much better by themselves."

As Spence devoured his slice, he said between mouthfuls, "It has been a long time since I've arrived from Underhill. I remember thinking the same thing, but after awhile I grew to like human food. Humans don't have magic, remember, and they have to go to extra trouble to make their meals enjoyable."

"I can't imagine life without pizza," Samantha said. "For humans, too much of this causes fat to build up around their stomachs. Elves have no such problem, you see."

"Humans gain fat when they eat?" Marbann was aghast. "Then why do they eat this pizza?"

"Because, my dear Marbann," Samantha said, "that is the way of the universe. Humans have little control over their lives, their physical surroundings. And no control whatsoever over the sacred pizza pie."

Marbann tried a piece of Dominique's finest and recoiled violently.

"Humans also like their food very hot. Be careful," Moira said belatedly.

"Thank you for the warning," Marbann said, then frowned, regarding the slice of pizza as if it were poisonous. "I'm not so certain I'm going to like the humans' world."

"It will grow on you," Adam said, already reaching for another piece. "What should we do about our human covers? Should we go in hiding somewhere, or retain our human identities? If Zeldan is looking for us, might it be in our best interests to go somewhere else? Overseas, perhaps?"

"I've always wanted to go to Ireland," Spence said. "I remember my father talking about it in the old days, how easy it was to be elves there. No glamories, no secrets."

"And those days are gone forever, I'm afraid," Samantha said. "I've been giving it some thought, especially recently, since I've suspected we would soon learn the outcome of the battle we fled. It is not easy to go into hiding in the humans' world now. So much is explored. Although the humans don't have magic, they do have advanced technology that can record and track us, if they so desired. When I arrived in the new world over a hundred human years ago, this land was largely unexplored, and an elf could live in relative isolation because so many of the humans here did.

"Now it is much easier to hide in plain sight. I don't think we'll have any trouble staying here for awhile. With our magics we can make do with this abode for some time. What do you think, Adam?"

It was unusual for his mother to ask his opinion of important matters, but she was not his true mother, and he was, after all, the King.

Time to act like one.

"Perhaps it would be best," Adam said, "if we stayed here until we find out more about Zeldan Dhu, and what he's up to. I don't like the idea of spreading out just yet. I think we're all in danger." Black Eagle. Unseleighe. Zeldan Dhu . . . 

"They're after you, not us," Spence said. "Don't kid yourself, Ad—I mean, Your Majesty."

"But they won't hesitate to kill us all. That means we all need a sanctuary," Adam said. "And if we're going to go on living like humans, it would look a little odd to keep calling me 'Majesty.' Call me Adam. Like you always have."

"Well, not always," Moira said.

"Those of us with human covers should stick with their human names," Sammi said. "If anything, to keep us from getting confused."

"I'm inclined to agree," Marbann said. He'd eaten one slice and was starting on a second, this time without hesitation. "Zeldan is out there. And we must stay here until the others appear, since I don't know how to move a Gate once it's established. Gating is not my specialty. Those capable of moving a Gate are now dead."

"Alas, 'tis true," Samantha said. "But no matter. We are safe here, for many reasons. My cover is secure with the police department, as is the King's at his place of employment."

"The King, doing manual labor? Is this appropriate?" Marbann said, but he seemed more interested in the pizza, talking around his piece most impolitely.

"What better way to keep an eye on the Marketplace?" Adam said, eyeing the vanishing pizza with distress. "If Zeldan and his people show up there, we would be in the best position to notice it." Maybe we should have ordered more. "And if Spence and I suddenly disappear, that would seem strange, even suspicious. Anyone familiar with the Yaz would notice. Jimmy would be left running the entire place, and he's been fair to us from the very start. I think he deserves the same in return."

"I agree with the King," Samantha said. "At least for now, I think those of us already living in the humans' realm should go on, business as usual."

"Hey, I like cutting hair!" Moira exclaimed. "Most of the time. That little brat today . . ."

Marbann finished his pizza and reached for another, but there was only one left.

"Don't you even think it," Moira said, eyeing the piece. "I've only had three."

Marbann looked hurt. "Well, I've only had two, madam," he said, then his expression softened in evident surrender. "But since I am a gentleman . . ."

While Marbann and Moira discussed the fate of the last piece of Dominique's, the piece glimmered momentarily, then vanished from the tray. They stared at the empty space for several long moments, then looked around.

"Okay," Moira said, accusingly. "Who swiped it?"

And as one, the elves turned to their King, who proudly held up his sausage and Canadian bacon prize.

"I think our King is starting to remember his magic," Marbann said with a hint of pride in his voice.

Samantha had also turned back to Sammi McDaris, the human lady cop. "And now, young man, it's time for you to go to bed. You have a busy day ahead of you," she said, urging him toward his bedroom.

"Aw, Mom," Adam said, half in jest. He was tired and had been ready for bed for the last half hour. That screw-up with the levin bolt happened because he was tired. After a full night's rest, he knew he would control one better, if not perfectly. Learning one element of magic had triggered some recall of the other forms. "Do I have to go to bed now?"

"Yes, you do. Now turn around and march," she commanded. "Moira and I will tuck in the rest of the Folk in the attic."

Adam paused at his door. "Good night, everybody. Sleep as late as you want. I have to be at work tomorrow."

The young elven King flopped down on his unmade bed and promptly fell asleep.

 

Back | Next
Framed