get stuck on. Someone reset the thermostat and the humidity thingie.”
Wiz and Jerry crowded around him quickly. Sure enough inside the clear
plastic box covering the controls both dials were at their maximum
positions.
“I could have sworn I set those properly,” Jerry said.
“You did,” Wiz told him. “I double-checked before I left the computer room
last night.”
“Someone must have messed with them,” Danny said.
“Inside the locked cover? I don’t see how.”
“Magic,” the young programmer retorted.
“From where?” Wiz asked. “Moira, did you . . .”
“Certainly not!” the hedge witch said indignantly. “Nor did any of the
other wizards here. Believe me, my Lord, if there is one thing any
apprentice learns early it is not to tamper with another’s magic. Those
who do not learn it do not live long enough to become magicians.”
Wiz put his hand on her arm. “Of course you didn’t darling, it’s just that
. . .” Then he stopped as he caught sight of something over Moira’s
shoulder.
A line of seven little figures marched across the top of the computer
console, their arms swinging and their bodies swaying in time to the song
they were bawling out at the top of their tiny lungs. Their voices were so
shrill that the words were lost, but the tune came through clearly, as if
hummed by a chorus of mosquitoes.
eee-eh, eee-eh
eee-eh heh heh heh heh
eee-eh heh heh, eee-eh heh heh
eee-eh-heh heh heh heh
As Wiz watched, the creatures disappeared through an open inspection panel
into the guts of the computer. The last one, evidently realizing it was
being watched, waved gaily to Wiz before it dived after its fellows.
“Uh, folks,” Wiz said just a shade too calmly. “I think we’ve found our
problem.”
For a moment no one said anything. For a long moment.
“What in the World was that?” Jerry demanded finally.
“I have seen their like before,” Moira said. “The mill in my village had
one. How the miller would curse when the thing played tricks on him! He
had me down there nearly every new moon to try to rid the mill of it.”
“I take it you didn’t have much luck?”
“No. Sometimes it would quiet down after I came. Sometimes not. Once it
dumped near a barrel of flour on the miller and me as we left the mill
after the exorcism.”
She paused and shrugged. “I do not know what to call them. They are so
rare they do not have a name.”
“Gremlins,” Wiz supplied. “We have gremlins in our computer. Wonderful.”
“Gremlins?” Moira asked.
“Little magical creatures that live in machinery and cause trouble.” He
jerked a thumb at the infested computer. “You know, gremlins.”
Moira frowned in the especially pretty manner she had when she was
confused. “Love, how is it you have names for these things if they do not
exist in your world?”
“They didn’t exist so we had to make them up.”
Moira raised an eyebrow. “That makes less sense than most of what you
say.”
“That’s because you’ve never worked around complicated equipment. Believe
me, it’s enough to make you believe in gremlins even when you know they
don’t exist.”
The hedge witch sighed. “I will take your word for it.”
“The real question is, how do we get rid of them?” Jerry asked.
“I do not know. I was not very successful with the one in the mill.
Perhaps one of the Mighty will know more.”
“What can you tell us about them?”
Moira pursed her lips and tried to think. “Not a great deal, I fear. They
are very uncommon.”
“You said there was just one in the mill,” Wiz said, “I just saw seven of
them go into the computer.”
“That is very unusual. I have never heard of more than one at any place.”
“I’m surprised you don’t have them around the Capital with all the magical
apparatus there.”
“Only mechanical things attract them. Aside from that,” she shrugged, “I
know only that they are somewhat like the other Little Folk, the ones you
call Brownies.”
“Wait a minute,” Wiz said. “Do you think Brownies could give us some