by Terry Brooks
“I do not have the bottle, my Lord!” Questor snapped in reply, pushing forward bravely to confront the other. Kallendbor was as big as a wall.
“If you do not have it, then you know where it is!” the other rasped in fury. “Tell me!”
Questor took a deep breath. “My word is known to be good everywhere, my Lord,”he said evenly. “You know that to be so. I do not lie. The truth is exactly as I have told you. I do not have the bottle nor do I know where it is. I have seen nothing of it since this morning when you took it away.”He cleared his throat. “I warned you that the magic was dangerous and that—”
“Enough!” Kallendbor wheeled away and stalked back to the open door. When he reached it, he wheeled back again. “You will stay as my guest a few days more, Questor Thews!” he said. “I think you would do well to pray that the bottle reappears in that time—one way or the other!”
He walked out, slamming the door behind him. Questor could hear the locks snapping into place and the sound of men taking up watch.
“We are being made prisoners!” he exclaimed in disbelief.
He started across the room, stopped, started forward again, stopped again, thought angrily of what the High Lord would do when he learned that his representatives were being held against their will by a land baron, and then remembered that the High Lord would do nothing because Ben Holiday wasn't even in Landover anymore and wouldn't know a thing about any of this.
In short, Questor realized dismally, he was on his own.
It was several hours later that Bunion reappeared. He did not come through the door, being no fool, but through the window of the tower wall. He tapped softly on the shutter until Questor opened it in curiosity and found him perched there on the window ledge. Below, it was a straight drop of at least sixty feet to the battlement wall.
The little kobold was grinning broadly, his teeth flashing. In one hand was a length of knotted rope. Questor peered out. Somehow Bunion must have scaled the castle wall to reach them.
“Come to rescue us, I see!” Questor whispered in excitement and smiled back. “You were right to do so!”
Bunion, it happened, had been as suspicious of Kal-lendbor's intentions as Questor and had decided to keep an eye on things from a distance after witnessing the destruction of the tower. Kobolds, of course, could do that; you couldn't see them if they didn't want you to. That was the way of things with true fairy creatures. Bunion understood all too well the awesome power of the magic wielded by the Darkling and he did not think Kallendbor strong enough to resist its lure. Better that he remain hidden, he had decided, until he could be certain that Questor and the others would not become victims of Kallendbor's misguided ambition. It was fortunate he had done so.
Questor helped the kobold crawl inside, and together they began tying one end of the knotted rope about a wall hook. The others were awake now as well, and Questor was quick to hush the gnomes into silence. The last thing he needed was for Fillip and Sot to start whining. They worked quickly and quietly, and the rope was firmly fastened in minutes. Then out the window they all went, one after the other, hand over hand down the castle wall. It was easy going for the kobolds and the gnomes, and only Questor was forced to work a bit at it.
Once safely down, they followed Bunion along the castle wall to a stairway and down that to a passage leading to an iron door that opened to the outside. Slipping through the dark, keeping within the shadows, they crossed to the back of the town and arrived at a shed where waited the horses and pack animals Bunion had somehow managed to retrieve.
Questor mounted his gray, put Fillip and Sot together on Jurisdiction, left the remaining animals to Parsnip's care, and signaled for Bunion to lead them out. Slowly, cautiously, they made their way through the sleeping town, crossed the bridge, and disappeared into the night.
“Farewell and good riddance, Lord Kallendbor!” Questor shouted back once they were safely into the grasslands.
He was feeling considerably better about things. He had extracted himself and his friends from a difficult situation before any harm had been done to them. He neatly sidestepped the fact that it was Bunion who had actually rescued them by telling himself that it was his leadership that had made it all possible. He was free now to resume his duties and to carry out the responsibilities that had been given him. He would prove his worth to the High Lord yet!
There was only one problem. Bunion, it turned out, didn't have the missing bottle after all. Someone else had stolen it—someone who, like Bunion, could get in and out of a heavily guarded room without being seen.
Questor Thews knotted his owlish face in thought.
Now who could that someone be?
When the phone finally rang, Ben Holiday almost broke his leg falling over a chair in his eagerness to catch the call.
“Damn! Hello?”
“Doc? I'm here, finally,”Miles Bennett said through the receiver. “I'm downstairs in the lobby.”
Ben breathed a long, audible sigh of relief. “Thank God!”
“You want me to come up?”
“Immediately.”
He hung up the phone, collapsed onto the nearby sofa, and rubbed his sore leg ruefully. Salvation, at last! He had been waiting four days for Miles to arrive with the information on Michel Ard Rhi and Abernathy—four long, endless days of being cooped up in the opulent confines of the Shangri-La. Miles had wired the promised money, so at least he had been able to avoid starvation and eviction. But it hadn't been possible to leave the room for more than an hour or two each day—always late at night or early in the morning. Willow simply drew too much attention.
Besides, the sylph had not been feeling well ever since their arrival from Landover.
He glanced over to where she sat naked in a pool of sunlight on the balcony just outside the sliding glass doors that opened off the living room of their suite. She sat there every day, sometimes for hours, staring out into the desert, face lifted toward the sun, perfectly still. It seemed to help her to be exposed like that, so he left her alone. He figured that it had something to do with her amorphous physiology, that the sunlight was good for both the animal and plant parts of her. Nevertheless, she seemed listless and wan, her coloring not quite right, her energy mysteriously depleted. At times, she appeared disoriented. He was very worried about her. He was beginning to believe that something either present or lacking in the environment of his world was causing the problem. He wanted to finish this business with Abernathy and the missing medallion and get Willow safely back to Landover.
He got up, walked into the bathroom, and splashed some cold water on his face. He hadn't lept well these past few days, too keyed up, too anxious to do something and end this waiting. He toweled his face dry and gazed at himself in the mirror. He looked healthy enough, he decided, except for his eyes. His eyes were tiny roadmaps. That came from lack of sleep and reading two or three paperback novels a day to keep from going stir crazy.
A knock sounded on the door; He tossed aside the towel, crossed the room, and squinted into the peephole. It was Miles. He released the latch and pulled open the door.
“Hiya, Doc,”Miles greeted, extending his hand.
Ben took it and pumped it vigorously. Miles hadn't changed a bit—still the big, baby-faced teddy bear with the rumpled suit and the winning smile. He was carrying a leather briefcase under one arm. “You look good, Miles,”he said and meant it.
“You look like a damn yuppie,”Miles replied. “Running suit and Nikes, camped out in the Shangri-La, waiting for nightfall and the lights of the city. Except you're too old. Can I come in?”
“Yeah, sure you can.”He stepped aside to let his old friend into the room, checked both ways down the outside hall, then closed the door behind them. “Find a comfortable seat, why don't you?”
Miles moved across the room, admiring the furnishings, whistling softly at the fully stocked bar, and then suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. “For Christ's sake, Doc!”
He was staring th
rough the sliding glass doors at Willow.
“Nuts!” Ben exclaimed in dismay. He had forgotten all about Willow.
He went into the bedroom, took down a bathrobe, and went out onto the balcony. He placed the robe gently around Willow's slender shoulders. She looked up at him questioningly, her eyes distant and haunted.
“Miles is here,”he told her quietly.
She nodded and rose to join him. They walked back into the living room to confront the still-paralyzed man who was clutching his briefcase like a shield. “Miles, this is Willow,”he said.
Miles seemed to remember himself. “Oh, yeah, pleased to meet you… Willow,”he stammered.
“Willow is from Landover, Miles,”Ben explained. “From where I live now. She's a sylph.”
Miles looked at him. “A what?”
“A sylph. A mix of wood nymph and water sprite.”
“Sure.”Miles smiled uneasily. “She's green, Doc.”
“That's just her coloring.”Ben was suddenly uncomfortable. “Look, why don't we sit down on the sofa and have a look at what you brought, Miles.”
Miles nodded, his eyes still on Willow. The sylph smiled briefly, then turned and moved off into the bedroom. “You know, it's a good thing I'm standing here having this conversation with you, Doc, and actually seeing this girl, rather than hearing about her over the phone,”Miles said quietly. “Otherwise, I'd be tempted to write you off as a certified nut case.”
Ben smiled. “I don't blame you.”He dropped onto the sofa and motioned Miles to join him.
“A sylph, huh?” Miles shook his head. “So all that stuff about a world of magic with dragons and fairy creatures was real after all. That right, Doc? Was it all real?”
Ben sighed. “Some of it, anyway.”
“My God.”Miles slowly sat down beside him, a stunned look on his face. “You aren't kidding me, are you? It really exists? Yeah, it does, doesn't it? I can see it in your face. And that girl… she's, well, she's beautiful, different, something like you'd imagine would live in a fairy world. Damn, Doc!”
Ben nodded. “We can talk about it some more later, Miles. But what about the information I asked you to get? Any luck?”
Miles was staring at Willow through the bedroom door as she undraped the bathrobe and stepped off into the shower. “Uh, yeah,”he said finally. He unsnapped his briefcase and pulled out an orange-colored file. “Here's what the investigators got on this Michel Ard Rhi character. And, believe me, he's a character with a capital C.”
Ben accepted the file, opened it, and quickly began to scan its contents. The first page offered general history. Michel Ard Rhi. Birthplace, parents, age, early history all unknown. A financier, mostly through private concerns. Net worth estimated at two hundred twenty-five million dollars. Lived outside Woodinville, Washington—Washington?—in a castle purchased and then shipped, block by block, from Great Britain. Unmarried. No hobbies, no clubs, no organizations.
“Not much here,”he remarked.
“Keep reading,”Miles said.
He did. On the second page, it began to get interesting. Michel Ard Rhi kept his own private army. He had helped finance several revolutions in foreign countries. He owned pieces of banking institutions, major arms corporations, even a few foreign government-subsidized industries. There was a suggestion that he might be involved in a good deal more, but there was no hard evidence. He had been charged with various criminal acts, mostly fraud related to SEC violations, although there was something about animal cruelty, but he had never been convicted. He traveled extensively, always with bodyguards, always by private transport.
Ben closed the file. “Washington, huh? I don't get it. I was sure Las Vegas was where we would find…”
“Wait a minute, Doc,”Miles interrupted quickly. “There's something more, something that just turned up yesterday. It's pretty farfetched, but it might tie in somehow with this guy being up there in Washington.”
He dug through his briefcase and extracted a single sheet of typed paper. “Here we go. The investigators threw this in after I told them I wanted anything they could find on a talking dog. Seems one of them has some contacts in the scandal sheet business. Listen to this. Some fellow living in Woodinville, Washington—same place, right—tried to make a deal with Hollywood Eye for a hundred thousand dollars cash on delivery for an exclusive interview and photo session with a genuine talking dog!”
“Abernathy!” Ben exclaimed immediately.
Miles shrugged. “Could be.”
“Did they give his name? The dog's?”
“Nope. Just the man's. Davis Whitsell. He's a dog trainer and showman. But he lives right there in Woodinville, same place this Ard Rhi keeps his walled tower. What do you think?”
Ben sat forward, his mind racing. “I think it's an awfully big coincidence, if that's all it is. But, if not, what's Abernathy doing with this Whitsell character instead of Ard Rhi? And what are Willow and I doing here? Could be Questor messed up with the magic and sent us to Nevada instead of to Washington. Damn! I suppose I should be grateful he didn't deposit us in the Pacific Ocean!” He was thinking out loud to himself now, and Miles was staring at him. He smiled. “Don't worry, I'm just trying to sort all this out. You did a heck of a job, Miles. Thanks.”
Miles shrugged. “You're welcome. Now are you going to tell me what's going on here?”
Ben studied his old friend a moment, then nodded. “I'm going to try. You deserve that much. You want a Glenlivet while we talk?”
Miles had his scotch, then another, then a third as Ben tried to explain the story behind Abernathy and the missing medallion. This, of course, necessarily involved some minimal description of Landover, and that, in turn, took them off on a variety of side trips. Ben didn't tell Miles everything, particularly where it involved anything dangerous, because he knew it would only worry Miles. Willow appeared from the shower, and Ben sent down for dinner. Miles seemed to grow more comfortable in the sylph's presence after a time, and she in his, and they began to talk with each other like real people. Much of what Miles had to say to Willow left her mystified, and much of what she had to say to him left him speechless—but they got along. The evening wore on, the questions mostly got answered, and the lights of the strip began to brighten the casinos and lounges against the night skies.
Finally, Willow drifted off to bed, and Miles and Ben were left alone. Ben poured them a brandy from the bar stock, and they sat together staring out the window.
“You have a place to stay?” Ben said after a time. “I never thought to check.”
Miles nodded, his gaze distant. “Down a floor or two. Down with the commoners. I booked it with the plane tickets.”
“That reminds me.”Ben was on his feet. “I have to call the airport right now for a flight out tomorrow.”
“Washington?”
Ben nodded. “Where the heck is Woodinville?” he called back as he crossed to the phone.
“North of Seattle.”Miles stretched. “Make sure you make reservations for three.”
Ben stopped. “Wait a minute, you're not going.”
Miles sighed. “Sure, I'm going. What do you think, Doc? That I'm leaving just when this is getting interesting? Besides, you might need me. You don't have all the connections you used to. I do—not to mention credit cards and money.”
Ben shook his head. “I don't know. This could be dangerous, Miles. Who knows what we're up against with Michel Ard Rhi. I don't like the idea—”
“Doc!” Miles cut him short. “I'm going. Make the call.”
Ben gave up arguing, made the reservations on an early morning PSA flight, and returned to the sofa. Miles was staring out the window again.
“Remember when we were kids and we did all that pretending? Remember how we created all those make-believe worlds to play in? I was thinking about how lucky you were to find one for real, Doc. Everyone else has to live with the world they've got.”He shook his head. “Not you. You get to live what others can only wish fo
r.”
Ben didn't say anything. He was thinking about how differently they looked at things. It was the difference in their realities. Landover was his reality; Miles had only this world. He remembered how desperately he had wished for exactly what he had now just two short years ago. He had forgotten about that. It was good to remember it again.
“I am pretty lucky,”he said finally.
Miles did not reply.
They sat together in silence, sipping brandy and letting their private dreams take shape in the playground of their thoughts.
Their flight out of Las Vegas was at 7:58 A.M. on PSA flight 726, a smaller jet making a single stopover in Reno on its way north to Seattle. They arrived early at the airport, camped out in an empty terminal until boarding, and took seats at the rear of the airplane to avoid drawing any more attention than was necessary. Ben had bound up Willow's hair in a head scarf, covered her face with skin-toned foundation cream, and clothed her head to foot to hide her skin, but she looked like a walking sideshow nevertheless. Worse, she was more listless than ever. Her strength seemed to be simply draining away from her.
When they had taken off the second time out of Reno and Miles was dozing, she leaned over to Ben and whispered, “I know what troubles me, Ben. I need to nourish in the soil. I need to make the change. I think that is why I am so weak. I'm sorry.”
He nodded and hugged her close. He had forgotten about her need to transform from human to tree every twenty days. Perhaps he had simply blocked it away when he had agreed to bring her on this journey in the misguided hope that it wouldn't prove to be a problem. But the twenty-day cycle had obviously come around again. She would have to be allowed to change.
But what would the elements in the soil of this world do to her body systems?
He didn't like to think about it. It made him feel helpless. They were trapped here now, trapped until he found Abernathy and retrieved his medallion.
He took a deep breath, gripped Willow's gloved hand tightly in his own, and leaned back in his seat. Just one more day, he promised silently. By tonight, he would be on Davis Whitsell's doorstep, and his search would be over.
