they just don’t work very well.”
“Sounds like an IBM shop,” Jerry said.
“Whatever. Anyway that explains the drone. It was only designed to work in
that world and it got in here by accident.”
“But it does not tell us who sent it,” Moira said. “Or why. Those are the
things we most need to know.”
“It seems to me,” Bal-Simba rumbled, “that we have two ways to find out.
We can sit here and wait for whomever or whatever is sending these things
to come to us or we can send our own scouts through to spy out this new
world.”
“Lord, that’s not much of a choice,” Wiz said. “So far these things aren’t
hostile, but they’re sure not friendly. If we wait we may not like what we
get.”
“My thinking precisely, Sparrow. So we must go and see.”
“Forgive me, Lord,” Moira said, “but might that not be taken as an
unfriendly act? True, they have not sent us embassies, but they have done
us no harm either.”
“Unfriendly, perhaps. But no more so than what they have done already. If
you have a better suggestion, Lady, I am anxious to hear it.”
“No, none, Lord. But I would not have us blunder into war unnecessarily.”
“Fear not, Lady. We shall be very circumspect.”
Eleven: A WALK IN THE WOODS
Across the river from the castle mount a line of hills ran down to the
water’s edge. Because the land was so rugged it had never been farmed.
Instead it was left as a source of firewood, mushrooms and herbs for the
denizens of the Capital.
It also made a pleasant place to walk on an Indian summer afternoon. Which
is why Wiz, Danny and Jerry were picking their way through the woods as
the sky started to darken from twilight to evening.
“I still think we ought to try to catch one of those drones,” Danny said
as the trio made their way down a trail that skirted the edge of the
bluff.
“For the tenth time, no,” Wiz told him. “And watch your step here, it’s
steep.”
“We already have one drone,” Jerry said, stepping to the side of the trail
away from the cliff. “What do we need another one for?”
“Yeah but . . .”
A small black-clad shape hurtled out of the trees above them, screaming
and waving a samurai sword as he came. The trio watched open-mouthed as he
passed a good four feet to their left, missed the path completely and went
over the edge of the cliff.
There were a couple of bounces, a thud and then something that sounded
like a particularly inventive brand of profanity.
“What was that?” Jerry asked, peering over the edge.
“I think it was a ninja dwarf,” Wiz said wonderingly.
Danny frowned. “That sounds like a character out of a D&D game.” He
thought for a second. “A bad D&D game.”
Bal-Simba looked up from the scrying stone and blinked as if to clear his
vision.
Wiz leaned across the table eagerly. “Well?”
“I sense malign influences aimed at you and a definite violent intent.”
The big black wizard rubbed his temples. “It appears, Sparrow, that
someone is trying to kill you-again.”
“Who?” Wiz asked. “And why? And why a dwarf, for Pete’s sake?”
“That I could not discover,” Bal-Simba said. “There is deadly intent and
fixity of purpose. There are indications that non-mortals are involved,
but that is all I know.”
“Lisella?” Jerry suggested.
“Perhaps,” Bal-Simba said slowly.
Wiz shook his head. “I don’t think so. Lisella is subtle. There’s nothing
subtle about a dwarf jumping out of a tree waving a sword.”
“Nothing very effective either,” Danny said. “He missed us by a mile.
Well,” he amended under Wiz’s glare, “a good six feet.”
“Maybe that was Duke Aelric protecting you.”
Wiz snorted. “More likely it was incompetence.”
Bal-Simba stood up. “Whatever it was, I think it would be best if you
stayed within the Wizard’s Keep for a space.”
“Fine by me. I’ve got more than enough to keep me busy for a couple of
weeks.”
“It may be longer than that,” Bal-Simba told him. “Until we know who or