Duke Aelric seemed not to notice Bal-Simba until he was properly settled to receive his guest.
“I seek the Sparrow, but I am told he is not available,” Aelric said.
“He is not here.”
“Do you know when he will return?”
Bal-Simba considered the question before answering.
“I do not. He is off in the Wild Wood, I believe.”
Aelric raised a silver eyebrow. “Indeed? Forgive me if I pry, but when did he leave?”
“Forgive my curiosity, but why do you wish to know?”
“Because he was on business of some urgency when he left my hold to return to your city a fortnight hence,” Aelric said.
Bal-Simba frowned mightily. “He was coming straight back?”
Aelric waved a hand. “That was his plan. He left upon the Wizard’s Way to return here immediately.” He looked sharply at the black Wizard.
“I swear to you he did not arrive here,” Bal-Simba told him. He struck his chest. “Upon my life I swear it.”
“I believe you, oath or no,” the image said.
“I will also tell you that we have been trying to contact him for several days without success. Frankly, we are becoming worried.”
Elf and mortal fell silent, contemplating the implications.
“It occurs to me,” the elf duke said slowly, “that someone may have transgressed upon my hospitality. I do not appreciate interference with those traveling to and from my abode.”
“It occurs to me that Wiz may be in dire danger,” Bal-Simba said, a trifle sharply.
“I hope not,” Aelric told him. “For all our sakes.”
It was Bal-Simba’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“A matter of forestalling a war between humans and other users of magic, I think,” Duke Aelric explained.
“War?”
“Did you expect your drive to exterminate magical creatures along the Fringe would go unremarked? Or that your expansion deep into the Wild Wood would pass unnoticed?”
“I think that there is a great deal going on out on the Fringe that I and the Council are unaware of.”
Aelric waved a languid hand. “That is as it may be. The Sparrow seemed to feel he could turn this human tide before it came to that.” Then he sobered and power seemed to radiate out of him like a nimbus.
“But I tell you this, wizard. If you cannot find your Sparrow—and soon—then you may have lost your only chance to forestall a war which would rend the World asunder.”
He nodded gravely. “Merry part.”
Bal-Simba’s eyes widened at the usage, but he nodded in reply. “Merry meet again.” And the elf duke’s image was gone.
Bal-Simba heaved a great sigh. “When an elf uses human courtesies you know you are in trouble,” he remarked to no one in particular. Then the giant black wizard turned to the gaping Watchers in the pit.
“I want every Watcher we have scanning the World for our Sparrow.” He turned to Arianne. “Set up a schedule so we may search day and night.” Then to one of the wizards with a communication crystal. “Send the word out to all the villages and habitations at once. Wiz must be found. And order the dragon cavalry out to search as well.”
“Lord, do you think he meant what he said about war?” Arianne asked.
“Have you ever known an elf to joke?” Bal-Simba said. “He was concerned enough to come to us. That is more than sufficient proof that something very dangerous is in the air.”
“Jerry, I think you’d better look at this.”
Judith was standing at the entrance to Jerry’s stall with an odd look on her face.
“We got the voting module working and, well, I think you’d better see the result.”
Jerry followed her over to her own stall where Karl was looking bemused at three small demons standing together on the table.
“We know that any spell above a certain level of complexity generates a demon as its physical manifestation,” Judith explained. “So we expected this thing would produce demons. But watch what happens when we feed it correct code.
“emac.” An Emac popped up on the desk next to the trio of demons.
“backslash test1 exe.” Judith said and the Emac gabbled at the demons. The demons stood motionless and then the one on the left hummed.