far.”
“Yeah, but you’d think this saving the world business would get easier
with practice. It just seems to get harder and more complicated every
time.”
“Let us hope this is the final time, love.”
“Yeah,” Wiz said fervently and squeezed her hand.
“Besides,” Moira went on brightly. “There is a positive side to this, you
know. You said we needed to do something about June. June is doing
something about herself. It is helping to heal her.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
They ate in silence for a while.
“Moira?” Wiz said at last.
“Yes, love?”
“Do you trust Duke Aelric?”
The redheaded witch considered. “Not trust, exactly. I think that as he
says, his goals and ours run together on this thing. Besides, Bal-Simba
says he is worthy in this and I trust Bal-Simba.”
Wiz hesitated. “You really don’t like him, do you? Aelric, I mean.”
Moira paused. “Nooo,” she said at last. “I do not like him.”
“You seemed to like him well enough when we met him in the Wild Wood.”
“He saved our lives in the Wild Wood.”
“But you never said anything that indicated you don’t like him.”
Moira sighed and bit into her bread and jam. “Liking or not liking an elf
is like liking or not-liking a mountain,” she said around the mouthful of
food. “An elf or a mountain simply is and you must accept that.”
“Well, I like him,” Wiz said firmly. “And I trust him too.”
He turned back to his own breakfast. Just maybe not as much as I used to,
he thought as he reached for the butter.
* * *
Even for humans, the place was strange looking, Glandurg thought as he
crouched on the hill looking down on his enemy’s new lair. It was only one
story, even if it did run out in all directions. The stone of the walls
looked solid enough, but the place had windows as big as doors! Not a moat
or a crenelation to be seen.
Not even a log palisade. He snorted silently. The place was defenseless.
There was a tiny noise in the bushes and Ragnar slithered back into view.
Glandurg and the others crowded around him.
“Dwarf-proof!” he said disgustedly. “Whole bloody place is spelled against
us.”
Glandurg wanted to beat his fist in the dirt in frustration. But it would
not do to lose control in front of his followers. “Then we will wait and
watch,” he said between gritted teeth. “The wizard cannot stay within
forever.”
Twenty: MEETING BY MOONLIGHT
Unlike the Wizard’s Keep, the small staff at the Mousehole did not work
around the clock. By nine P.M. the hallways were deserted and by midnight
the place was as silent as a tomb.
It was well past midnight when a shadow slipped into the lobby and paused
at the main door. A remarkably well-dressed shadow.
Aelric’s cloak was blue at the shoulders fading to purple and finally to
black at the hem. Here and there upon it gems sparkled like stars in
fading twilight. As he turned June saw his tunic was dove gray and his
hose pure white. He turned fully and she caught her breath and shrank back
into the shadow. But his face remained as serene as always and he gave no
hint that he knew she was there.
Then liquidly, noiselessly, he opened the door and slipped out into the
night. June waited for a moment and then followed, not nearly so graceful
but just as soundlessly.
Aelric did not sneak, but nonetheless he moved quickly and gracefully in
an odd twisting fashion that was hard for a human eye to follow.
About a half mile from headquarters the path wound through a thick patch
of ferns and then dropped into an open glade. June hesitated for a moment
and when Aelric did not emerge on the path that came out of the
depression, she dropped to her hands and knees and crept forward.
She knew the glade well enough. By day it was a pleasant spot and once or
twice she and Danny had come this way to picnic and make love. Under the
full moon their pleasant little picnic spot was transformed into something