Tinker

by Wen Spencer

  That did put a different spin on things. "That's not good."

  "Yes, so I try to tell people. I had great hope that with this new land would come a new way of seeing the world."

  "Had?"

  "The arrival of Pittsburgh was unexpected."

  Tinker winced. "Sorry."

  "It actually has been beneficial," Windwolf said. "Enticing people to an utter wilderness was difficult; few wanted to suffer the ocean crossing for so few comforts. Human culture, though, is attracting the young and the curious—the ones most likely to see things my way."

  "Good." Tinker focused back on throwing the horseshoes. That's what she liked about the game. It encouraged a flow of conversation.

  "What about you?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Do you desire children?"

  She missed the stake completely, only the chain-link fence keeping the horseshoe from vanishing into the weeds. "Me?"

  "You. Or would you rather be childless?"

  "No." She blurted out the gut reaction to the question. "It's just I've never thought about kids. Sure, someday I'd like to have one or two, maybe as many as three, but hell, I've never even—" She was going to say kissed a man, but she supposed that wasn't true anymore. "You know."

  "Yes, I do know," he purred, looking far too pleased, and it put a flash of heat through her. Her and Windwolf? Like her dream? Suddenly she felt the need to sit down. As if he were reading her mind—gods, she hoped not—Windwolf indicated the battered picnic table beyond the horseshoe pit.

  As she clambered up to sit on the tabletop of the picnic table, she wondered what it would be like to be with him, as they had been in her dream. "How old are you?"

  "For an elf, barely adult. For a human, I am ancient. I'm two hundred and ten."

  Or 11.6 times older than she was. Nathan suddenly seemed close to her age.

  "Is that too old?" Windwolf asked.

  "No, no, not at all." Tinker struggled for perspective. Elves were considered adults at a hundred, but until they reached a thousand, they were still young. Triples were what the elves called them, or those that could count their age in three digits. Windwolf could be compared to a man that just turned twenty; only he'd been born in the 1820s.

  And she was like one of Oilcan's astronomers to him, staying only long enough to break his heart.

  First Nathan and now Windwolf. Well, didn't her choice of men suck?

  "Have you ever played ninepins?" Windwolf asked, breaking the silence.

  "Bowling? Yeah. But only with humans."

  "I am much better at ninepins."

  "Tooloo says humans should never play ninepins with elves. It always ends badly for humans."

  "This Tooloo is a font of misinformation. She was completely wrong about the life debt."

  "How so?"

  "The debt between us is not yours. It is mine," Windwolf said.

  "Yours?"

  "How could the count be any other way?"

  "During the fight with the saurus . . ."

  "You saved my life. I was dazed, and you distracted the saurus by putting out its eye at great risk to yourself."

  She blinked at him, stunned as the events now rearranged themselves in her mind. "But the spell you placed on me?"

  "If I did not survive the rest of the fight, I wanted others to know you had acted with courage. You were to be adopted into my household and cared for."

  "Oh." She didn't know what else to say.

  "We looked for you after the fight, but we thought you were a boy. We asked about 'the boy,' and no one knew who we were asking about."

  How could Tooloo have gotten it so wrong? Or had Tooloo been lying all this time? But why? Tinker struggled to keep faith in the crazy old half-elf; Windwolf could be lying to her now. But why would he? His version of the events certainly matched what she remembered better, and made more sense.

  "I must go. There are days when, even for elves, there is not enough time." Windwolf waved the guard with the present forward, took it, and banished both guards back to the scrapyard. "Last I saw you, you were a child, and now you are an adult. I want to grasp this moment before this too slips away."

  He held out the present.

  The keva beans had been harmless enough, and this gift looked no larger than the last. "Is this for me?"

  "If you desire it."

  Why did elves make everything seem so dangerous? It was just a small fabric-wrapped bundle. "What is it?"

  "I thought it best to stay with the traditional gift for the occasion."

  Trust elves to have a traditional gift for saving one's life. She unwrapped it tentatively. She was glad he had told her it was a traditional gift. Certainly it wasn't what she expected. She wasn't even sure what it was. It seemed to be a metal bowl, intricately worked as one expected of an elfin work, yet it stood on three legs anchored to a disc of marble. It had quite a heft to it, and what impressed her most was that Windwolf had made it seem so lightweight. She tried not to compare it with Lain's entire garden. The child in her, though, wanted to cry, That's it?

  "Do you accept?"

  "Yes."

  He smiled. It was like the sun coming out. He spoke a word in High Elvish and kissed her on the forehead. The touch of his lips seemed to sizzle on her skin.

  * * *

  Tinker called Lain from her scrap yard. "He brought me a bowl."

  "A bowl?"

  "Well, I think it's a bowl." She described it at length to Lain, who identified the gift, after some thought, as a brazier, and explained that one burned incense or charcoal in the bowl, and the legs anchored into the marble made it stable and protected whatever it was sitting on from the heat.

  A brazier? "Well, it's certainly not what I expected." Tinker eyed her gift. "I'm trying to figure out what the catch is."

  A click of keys came from Lain's side of the connection. " 'Braziers are a symbolic gift.' " Lain read from something. " 'Great importance is made of the wrapping of the gift, which must be extravagant, and the presentation, which must be subtle.' Yes, but what does it stand for?"

  "I don't know. He just said it was traditional for the occasion."

  "Not you. Barron. He released his anthropology paper on the elves this spring, but don't ever repeat that. The elves don't study themselves and certainly don't want us studying them either."

  "I was never sure why we compulsively study ourselves."

  "How else are we going to learn and grow?"

  "If the elves don't study themselves, does that mean they don't change?"

  "Possibly. We certainly haven't been able to pry any information out to indicate that they have." There was a pause, and Lain murmured softly, skimming the info in front of her. "Tinker, what did you talk about with Windwolf?"

  "I'm not sure. You know how it is to talk to them. It's worse than talking to you. Why?"

  "The brazier is a customary gift for what Barron only terms as 'delicate arrangements.' I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean. Apparently, accepting the gift implies agreement to the arrangements."

  Tinker yelped, as the only delicate arrangement that sprang to mind was sex. "W-w-we didn't talk about any arrangements. At least not that I can remember. Doesn't this Barron list anything?"

  "He says that this information was told to him in passing, and that when pressed, the elves stated that it wasn't a ritual that would occur between elf and human."

  Tinker made a rude sound of negation. "Maybe Barron has it completely wrong."

  "What did you talk about?"

  "Horseshoes. Oilcan. His family." Tinker glanced in the mirror and yipped in surprise at her reflection.

  "Tinker?"

  "What the—" A triangle of blue marked where Windwolf had kissed her on her forehead. The spot wouldn't rub off, even with spit. "He marked me—somehow—after I accepted."

  There was a long silence from Lain's side, and then, "I think you should come over."

  * * *

  Tinker and Oilcan
had laid claim to an old parking garage between her loft and the scrap yard, thus convenient and inconvenient to them both. It easily held the flatbed, her hoverbike, and whatever miscellaneous vehicles they'd picked up and refurbished.

  Tinker went round to the first bay and coded open the door. Her honey baby waited inside, gleaming red. She'd traded a custom-built Delta model hoverbike for a custom paint, detail, and chrome job at Czerneda's. Oilcan bitched that she was ripped off, because the detail job was so simple—gold pin striping—on a redshift paint job, but hell, it was perfection. She suspected that he bitched mostly because her own custom Deltas were the only serious competition she had on the racecourses, and every custom job she did chipped away at her odds of winning. Oilcan's loyalty wouldn't let him bet against her, but he liked to win.

  Well, he'd have to get used to it. The Gamma models were being mass-produced by a machine shop on the South Side, kicking back a royalty to her for the design. At the moment, she was the only one who seemed able to grasp all the physics involved to make modifications. Sooner or later, someone would be able to bend his or her mind around the whole concept and beat Tinker at her own game. It was how humans worked.

  She swung her leg over the saddle, thumbprinted the lock, and hit the ignition button. Ah, bliss—the rumble of a big engine between one's legs. She eased down on the throttle to activate the lift drive. Once the Delta actually lifted off of the parking studs, she retracted them and walked the Delta out of the garage. Once past the door sensors, she clicked the door shut.

  She opened up the throttle. The Delta soared up and forward, the lift drive providing altitude while the spell chain provided the actual forward torque. Simple physics. Sooner or later, someone would twig to what she'd done.

  * * *

  Tinker set the dish of whipped cream beside her bowl of strawberries. Lain was the only person who seemed to understand the correct ratio of topping to fruit, which was three to one. "Have you found out anything more about the brazier or the mark?"

  "Well, there's this." Lain put a slickie down in front of Tinker. "These are photos taken during the signing of the treaty. Look closely at the elves."

  Tinker thumbed through the slickie's photos, dipping the strawberries into the whipped cream and idly licking it off. Despite the president's acting career, the humans looked positively dowdy next to the elfin delegation. It did not help that the humans kept to the stately solids of navy, black, and gray, while the royal party dressed in a brilliant riot of colors and sparkled with gems and gold. So vivid was the elvish beauty that it crossed the line of believability and became surreal, as if the images next to the drab humans were computer-generated art. It was a cheap slickie, so most of the photos were two-d, allowing no panning or rotation. The centerfold, however, was full three-d, and she rotated through the photo, zooming in on the faces of the elves.

  Four of the thirty elves wore the same style of forehead marks. All four were female. Tinker frowned; the sample size was too small to use as a base for any good conclusion, but the marks certainly seemed to be a female thing only. Put there by males?

  All four marks were of different colors—red, black, blue, and white—and shape. As she studied the one in blue, she recognized the female as the high-caste elf at the hospice, the one who had called her and Oilcan wood sprites. In the shadows of the parking lot, Tinker had missed the mark. What had her name been? Sparrow something or other.

  Tinker dipped her current strawberry for the second time and studied the blue mark on Sparrow. Was it the same mark, or just the same color? "Do you have a mirror?"

  Lain went off to her downstairs bathroom and returned with a small hand mirror. They carefully compared marks.

  "No, they're not quite the same," Lain announced after several minutes.

  Tinker grunted. "What do you suppose it means?"

  "I don't know," Lain said. "But you seem to be in good company. This is the royal majesty herself and her court. They're the world leaders of Elfhome."

  Good company or not, she didn't want to be part of it. In her book, elves made colorful neighbors but she was glad not to be one of the family. She'd seen enough of their stiff formality and causal cruelty between castes to know it would drive her nuts.

  Tinker started at another familiar face. "This is Windwolf."

  Lain leaned over to check the photo. "Yes, it is."

  Tinker realized that despite a growing awareness that Windwolf was important in the local politics, she didn't know exactly what his title was. "This might be a silly question, but who exactly is Windwolf?"

  "Lord Windwolf is the viceroy of the Westernlands."

  Viceroy? Before Tinker could ask what that meant, the doorbell rang.

  "Looks like I have company," Lain said, reaching for her crutch.

  "What am I? Sauerkraut and kielbasa?" Tinker muttered.

  "Hush, my little pierogie," Lain called back as she limped up the hallway to the front door.

  Tinker considered the photo of Windwolf as Lain answered her front door. Tinker had thought him stunning the few times she had seen him, but now she knew she hadn't yet seen him at his best. The creature in the photo seemed as untouchable as a god.

  Lain's visitor, in a deep raspy male voice, introduced himself as the son of her fellow crew member who had died in the training exercise that crippled Lain. "I don't know if you remember me at the memorial. I was about five at the time."

  That drew Tinker out of the kitchen. Lain stood, apparently rendered speechless by the sudden appearance.

  The man was in his early twenties, tall with a shock of black hair and a long sharp nose. He was in biking leathers, wore a pair of sunglasses, and had a helmet tucked under his arm.

  Tinker recognized him with a start. He was the motorcyclist she and Oilcan had seen nearly hit on Shutdown Day. "I thought you might be a half-elf."

  He looked at her, frowning, and the frown deepened. "No. I'm not, lady. You're mistaken."

  "Tinker!" Lain admonished with a single word, then turned her attention back to the man. "I remember you. My, how you've grown, but children do that, I suppose. You were such a grieving little boy; I don't think I heard you say a single word that day."

  "It was long ago. I've moved past that," he said.

  "Riki was your name, wasn't it?"

  He nodded. "Yes, you do remember me. I was afraid that you wouldn't."

  "Your mother spoke a lot about you before the accident." Lain indicated Tinker. "This is Tinker, who is very worth knowing."

  Riki turned to look at Tinker. She reflected in his sunglasses. He nodded and turned back to Lain. "I was hoping you could tell me about my mother."

  "You stranded yourself on Elfhome just for that?"

  "No. I'm going to be attending the University of Pittsburgh once fall classes start. I've got a grant from Caltech as part of my graduate studies. I showed up a little early so I'd have a chance to experience Elfhome fully. It would be exploring an alien world, just like my mother hoped to."

  Lain clicked her tongue over what she certainly considered the folly of youth. Tinker had heard the sound often enough to recognize the thought behind it. "Pitt is a shadow of what it was; it's barely more than a community college right now. Well, there's not much to be done about that now. You're here. The question is, what is to be done with you now? Do you have a place to stay? Money enough to last?"

  "I have the grant money." Riki tapped a breast pocket, making paper inside wrinkle loudly. "It's supposed to last me six months, but I've got to make it stretch to nine. I'm hoping to find a job, and a cheap place to stay."

  "Housing shouldn't be too hard; it's summer—just find someplace that looks empty and squat," Lain said, and limped back to the kitchen. "Come have something to eat and drink, and we'll consider work."

  Riki followed Lain, glancing around with vivid interest, pausing at the doorway of the living room to scan it fully. "It's a nice place you have here. I expected something more rustic. They talk about how backward
Pittsburgh has become, cut off as it is. I half expected log cabins or something."

  Lain laughed from the kitchen.

  Tinker had stayed in the foyer. She picked up her helmet and called, "Lain, I'm going to go."

  Lain came to the kitchen doorway. "You! Stay! Into the kitchen."

  Tinker put down the helmet and obediently went into the kitchen. One didn't argue with Lain when she used that voice. "Why?"

  "All the positions up here on the hill are government funded; all hiring has to be written out in triplicate and approved in advance. You have more contacts than I do down in the city."

  Tinker winced. "Lain, I'm not an employment agency."

  Riki regarded Tinker with what seemed slight unease. It was hard to tell with the sunglasses. "You seem too young to be anything but a high school student."

  Tinker stuck her tongue out at him and got smacked in the back of the head by Lain.

  "Behave." Lain filled the teakettle and set it onto the gas range. "Tinker is much more than she seems. She's probably the most intelligent person in Pittsburgh. Now if she could learn a bit of common sense and get a more rounded education . . ."

  "Lain," Tinker growled. "I don't want to beat that horse right now."

  "Then be nice to my guest. Offer him a job."

  "I doubt if he wants to do demo work at the yard," Tinker said. "He certainly doesn't know anything about magic, and it's nearly as unlikely that he knows anything about quantum physics."

  "I've got a master's degree in quantum physics," Riki said.

  "Eat crow, little girl!" Lain cried, laughing at the look on Tinker's face.

  Riki startled at Lain's reaction.

  "You're kidding," Tinker said.

  "I'm going to do my doctorate on the quantum nature of magic. No one has done research on magic in its natural state. That's why I'm studying at Pitt."

  "If you want to learn about magic, you need to work with Tinker. She's the expert."

  "No, I'm not; elves are."

  "True, true, their whole society seems to be based on the ability to cast spells." Lain laughed, putting out cups. "But that does him no good, not as closed mouthed as they are."

  "What do you mean? Anyone can cast spells."