“Lord, as I told you at our first meeting, this will take time. We have accomplished an amazing amount, largely because you have been willing to let us alone to get on with it. We’re way ahead of any reasonable schedule on this project, but we’re still only about forty percent done. It just takes time, Lord.”
“I know,” Bal-Simba said. “But there have been some, ah, changes since our first meeting. You know that we face the possibility of war with the elves and others?”
Jerry nodded.
“What I tell you now is not common knowledge and I would keep it so. In the past three days we have lost two northern villages.”
Jerry’s eyes widened. “You mean they were invaded?”
Bal-Simba smiled mirthlessly. “I mean we lost them. They are not there any more. Where they stood is virgin forest once again.”
“That’s scary.”
“Perhaps more frightening than you know. Our watchers and other magicians had not the slightest hint that anything was amiss. There was not the least quiver, not a sign that magic was at work.”
“That’s real scary.”
“That is also why I wish to keep it quiet for the time being. But you see why we must have your new magic, and have it soon.
“If we had this we could use it as evidence to help us bargain. Or as a weapon should the bargaining fail. In either event, we must have it quickly.”
Jerry thought hard. Pressure to complete a project early was nothing new and he had been in a few situations where the fate of the company depended on it. But this was the first time being late with a project meant war.
“How fast do you need it?”
“We need it today,” Bal-Simba said. “But the need will be critical in a moon or less.”
“We’ll try,” he said finally. “We’ll try like hell, but there’s no way we can have a working project in that amount of time.”
“I understand,” Bal-Simba said heavily. “Be assured that if it comes to open war we will return you and the others to your World before matters come to a head.”
“Thanks,” Jerry said uncomfortably. “Lord, you do understand that we’re working as fast as we can? There’s just not much more we can do.”
“I do understand that and I thank you for your efforts. Meanwhile, is there anything we can do to make your job easier?”
Jerry made a wry face. “I don’t suppose you could come up with a forty-eight-hour day, could you?”
“Would that help?” Bal-Simba asked.
Jerry froze. “You mean you can come up with a forty-eight-hour day?”
“No,” the huge wizard said sadly. “Only a spell makes a night stretch to twice its normal length. The great wizard Oblius created it for his wedding night. It did not help him for he discovered that his reach exceeded his grasp—so to speak.” He shrugged. “I do not think it would aid us for you to sleep twice as long.
“Or would it?” he asked as he caught the look on Jerry’s face.
“Do you mean,” Jerry said carefully, “that you have a spell that makes time pass half as fast?”
“We do,” Bal-Simba said, “but it does not mean that time actually slows down. The people inside think so, but to outsiders they seem to speed up. Besides, it only works from sunset to sunrise.”
Jerry whooped and pounded Bal-Simba on the back. “Fire up that spell! We just may be able to beat this sucker yet.”
“People do not work at night,” Bal-Simba protested.
“You’re not dealing with people,” Jerry told him. “These are programmers, boy. Programmers!”
Seklos announced his presence to his master by sniffling and wiping his nose on the sleeve of his robe. He had been showing Dzhir Kar progressively less respect as the hunt for the Sparrow dragged on interminably. Besides, his cold had gotten worse.
“We have lost another one,” Seklos said without preamble.
Dzhir Kar raised his head. “Where? How?” he demanded.
“In the south tunnels. Isk-Nor. Killed like the others.”
Dzhir Kar nodded. So far half a dozen of the Dark League’s wizards had disappeared in the City of Night. Two of the bodies had been found, torn to pieces. Privately Dzhir Kar suspected that most or all of the others had deserted.