Pots of blackmoss tea and pitchers of chilled fruit juice shared the table
with platters that had held small cakes and other delicacies. There was a
sun dial very conspicuously planted in the middle and everyone made small
talk while they waited for the shadow to shorten.
“How is Danny?” Judith asked.
“Bronwyn says he will recover well enough,” Moira told her. “There is
sickness in his blood and the burns were of a dangerous kind. Still, she
can pull him through.” She bit her lip. “But the energies released did
something to him she cannot repair. He will have no more children.”
“Damn,” Wiz said softly.
“I’m so sorry,” Judith said.
Moira shrugged. “Such things happen. Considering the carnage all about
them they got off lightly.”
“And June?” Judith asked.
Moira smiled. “With him night and day, of course. They have brought the
cradle into the sick room so she may tend both of her men at once.”
“What about Duke Aelric?”
Wiz shrugged. “He took the key and vanished. I imagine we won’t see him
for a while.”
Judith poured herself another cup of fruit juice, drained it and sighed.
“My one chance to meet an elf. Gone.”
The all fell silent for a moment.
“Well, anyway, I’m glad I got a chance to see you again,” Judith said as
she put her cup back on the table.
“And we are glad to see you, my Lady,” Moira said. “I only wish it could
have been a more pleasant visit.”
Judith nodded and looked again at the creeping shadow of the sun dial.
“What are you going to tell them?” Wiz asked.
She looked down at the carefully soiled hospital gown. “That when I woke
up I was wandering around downtown San Jose in this.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
Judith’s eyes twinkled. “I know. That’s the best kind of explanation.”
“They’ll probably think you halfway came out of the coma, wandered out of
the hospital and you’ve just been roaming around ever since,” Jerry said.
Judith smiled. “How would I know? I was in a coma.”
Wiz turned to Major Gilligan. “I wish I could reward you for your help,
but I think anything we gave you would just complicate your life.”
“I’ve been rewarded already,” Gilligan told him. “And yeah, it would be a
little hard to explain showing up with a bag of gold or something.” As if
this isn’t going to be hard enough to explain, he thought.
“Okay, we understand you want to go back to the Air Force as if you’d
crashed in the ocean.”
“I’ve pretty much got to.”
“You know we would put you down just about anywhere in the world.”
Gilligan shook his head. “I’ve got a duty to go back and it will be easier
if it looks like I just crashed.”
“We’ll put you and your gear down on an uninhabited island not too far
from where you disappeared. From there you can use your radio to get
help.”
“How far is that island from where I went down?”
“About 200 miles.”
Gilligan frowned. “That’s thin.”
“We could put you and your raft in the water about where you crashed.”
Gilligan thought about the freezing, fogbound Bering Sea and how long it
would take to get rescued.
“I’ll take my chances on the island.”
“Okay, one other thing. We could heal your burns completely, but you’d be
left with marks you didn’t have when you took off.” He looked Gilligan
over. “Or we can partially heal you, so it will look as if you were burned
when your plane went down.”
“I’ve already been over this with your medics. I want to look like I was
injured when I bailed out.”
“You understand that once you’re on the other side the pain spells won’t
work. Those burns will hurt.”
Not half as much as some other things will hurt, Gilligan thought. But he
just nodded.
Wiz nodded in return. “Very well, then. Your equipment’s in the next room.
You might want to check it over and make sure you’ve got everything you
need while you’ve still got time. Bronwyn will meet you there for the
healing.”
Just about all his gear was there in a neat pile, even the things he had