Higher Mythology

by Jody Lynn Nye

  Holl’s eyes narrowed, and the others drew closer around him. He signaled wildly with one arm for them to attempt the trace. The circle drew closer, and joined hands. Some of them closed their eyes; others stared fixedly at Holl and the telephone. Marcy stood outside the circle wringing her hands anxiously.

  “I see,” Holl said, trying to keep his voice from cracking. “Am I to assume that since you’ve not brought them to the telephone that there is a problem?”

  “It was a mistake,” the man said, after a brief hesitation. “We don’t want any repercussions. We want a guarantee from you.”

  Holl’s voice sharpened. “How can I know enough to give you a guarantee, or if my daughter is safe? Who are you? Hello? Hello?” The other end clicked loudly in his ear. He spun, wild-eyed. “Did you get a sense of the caller?”

  “No’ enough,” Curran said sadly, letting go the hands on either side of him. “Only he’s as scared as you.”

  “What did you do that for?” Mona demanded, staring at her employee. They were sitting very close together behind her desk. The telephone receiver had been cradled with a bang.

  “The baby’s his daughter!” Jake exclaimed.

  Mona bit her fingers to keep from yelling. “Not H. Doyle!” she whimpered, her teeth clenching her knuckle. “Not the man who has been single-handedly ruining my business and my political career! Oh, no!” She passed her hands anxiously over her face and dropped her fingertips to the desk, where they drummed almost with a life of their own. “Now what do I do?”

  Jake stared at the wall, a curious expression growing on his face. “Maybe you can make a good thing out of this,” he said.

  “A good thing?” she asked bitterly. “What if I just turn in the two of you and ask for arraignment as an accessory?”

  “You know we’re in this together,” the foreman said, shaking his head patiently at her raving. “You could work the situation to your advantage.”

  “What?” Mona asked, ashamed of herself. She realized that they were partners in crime no matter how this one incident ended. Mona was glad Jake didn’t respond to her threat. She had a lot more to lose than he did. “Extortion? Money?”

  “Well, a donation, maybe.” Jake’s stress on the word was careful. “He doesn’t know about the dumping, not for sure. You could get him to layoff criticizing you in the papers until after the election.”

  “He doesn’t have to know who we are,” Mona said quickly.

  “He’ll find out. The kid knows. She wasn’t blindfolded on the way here. You can ask for immunity from prosecution, and tell him to knock off writing to the papers.”

  “Well, maybe,” Mona said uncertainly, “but after the kids go back home all bets are off.”

  “Then get money,” Jake said reasonably.

  Mona hesitantly dangled the pen over the pad. She certainly could use it for the campaign and to pay for legitimate dump sites until her receivables picked up again. “Okay. Our demands. One, money. Two, immunity from prosecution. Three, no more letters to the editor. In exchange, the children will be returned safely.”

  “Give him a couple of days to stew about it, and we’ll call back,” Jake said. He grinned menacingly. “Just like in business. A little pressure, and back off a while to let him decide. He’ll cooperate.”

  “Not a trace,” Diane said to Keith when he picked her up at her apartment near the college early the next morning. “I’ve been back to the library every day, hoping the kids would show up. Not a sound. Nothing. My footprints are the only ones in the dust down there.”

  She leaned into the car toward the driver’s side, and Keith gave her a quick kiss.

  “This wasn’t the way I wanted to spend my days off down here with you,” he said, helping her slide in, “but what else could I do?”

  “Nothing,” Diane agreed, settling herself in under his right arm as he pulled away from the curb. “It’s horrible, and I’m glad you’re here. I know the others feel that way, too.”

  The main room of the farmhouse was crowded. All the Folk, both Big and Little, chatted together in low murmurs until Keith and Diane appeared. They greeted the two students solemnly, and invited them to sit down in the center with the elders. Dunn and Marcy perched on small chairs among the throng of elves. Ludmilla was there on the old sofa between Lee Eisley and Maura. The young elf woman seemed to be at the center of a carefully made up support group. Maura looked not only tired, but haunted. Her usually pink complexion was drained to dull white. She was trying to be brave, but everything reminded her of her missing infant. All her actions were jerky, uncoordinated, and she was constantly on the edge of tears. Catra had admitted over the phone to Keith that some of the others had been laying charms on Maura in the evenings to make her sleep, or she’d wander around at all hours looking for her baby.

  Keith was shocked to see how worn out Holl was. As the successor-apparent to the leadership of the village, everyone looked to him for strength and direction, and he could tell Holl was about out of both. It had only been two days since the disappearance.

  “We had a call late last night,” Holl said. “It was of too short a duration to get any idea from where it came, or who the speaker was, but the children live and are well. Still, the call did not serve to inform us how we may redeem Dola and Asrai, nor why they took them away in the first place.”

  “This incident has affected us profoundly,” the Master said. “In all the years past ve haf nefer had a crime committed against vun of our number. Vittingly or unvittingly, those who abducted the children haf intruded upon our peace.”

  “My poor little ones,” Ludmilla said. The old woman held Maura’s hand and patted it.

  “We feel vulnerable,” Candlepat said, glancing nervously around for agreement. Many of the others nodded their heads. “Much more so than when we lived in secret.”

  “We risked discovery then, but only when we set foot outside our fastness,” Curran said, narrowing his eyes at Keith as if he had personally carried away the children.

  “In a way I feel sort of responsible,” Keith said. “If I hadn’t butted into your lives, you wouldn’t be in any trouble.”

  “You provided us with the means to find a new home,” Holl said.

  “Yeah, but not until I endangered the old one in the first place.”

  “Ve could not haf remained in the old place for long,” Aylmer said, coming to Keith’s rescue. “Ve are better off than effer ve vere. And ve are glad of your friendship.”

  “Do not take more upon yourself than you deserf,” the Master said, closing the subject with an austere stare over the tops of his gold glasses. “You did not perpetrate this crime. Now it must be solfed.”

  “What can we do?” Maura asked, speaking for the first time. Her voice was thin and seemed to come from a long way off.

  “This is impossible,” Lee said, his brows drawn. He ticked off his points on his long fingers. “You can’t call the police or the FBI. Advertising in the papers is out. You can’t get a phone tap because that takes a court order. It would be great if we could use one of those crime-busting TV shows, but they’d laugh us off their hotlines if we told them we were looking for a couple of missing el—uh, Little Folk.” He spread out his long hands. “Where do we start?”

  “Can’t you do fortune telling or something?” Diane asked hopefully. Curran glared, and started to stand up.

  “That’s nae the way our talents work,” Dierdre said, carefully patient. She grabbed Curran’s wrist and pulled him down again.

  Holl shook his head. “The others call me the Maven, but I’m a novice at searching for the missing,” he said with a bitter laugh. “We’re simply unused to being so far apart. I am the only one of us who has been separated any distance from the rest of us, and I was under my own power. I’m too close to the problem. I’ve no idea how to proceed.”

  Keith’s eyebrows went up. “Maybe I do. Never mind trying to find the kidnappers. You remember teaching me how to see where the Folk were fro
m Scotland,” he said. “It was neat, Diane. In my mind’s eye, I could see just a little light in the horizon, like a radar blip. Can you sense just one of your people like that, Holl?”

  “It would be a very weak trace,” Holl said, his eyebrows ascending, “but I can try it.”

  The others, especially the Big Folk, looked skeptical. “We’ve already searched the surrounding countryside in that fashion, Keith Doyle,” Enoch said. “We found nothing.”

  Keith felt impatient at the quitter attitude everyone was displaying. “Well, turn your radar out further. Holl saw you from half a world away. The girls couldn’t be farther away than that. Pour on whatever power it takes!”

  “We’re not machines,” Tiron grumbled. “I’m as far from my folk as Holl was from his last year, and I couldn’t tell if there’s one or fifty back along at home.”

  “Ve haf no proof that the children are still vithin the immediate area!” Aylmer broke in.

  “It’s worth the attempt,” Holl chided them. Keith gave him an encouraging nod. “Lend me your strength, friends.” Tentatively, Maura stretched out her hand to her husband. Around the room, others joined hands, or touched in some way, until all the Little Folk were making physical contact. The Big Folk, tentatively, sheepishly, joined hands and reached out to the others. Holl shut his eyes to concentrate. He was silent for a long time. “I see nothing so far—no! There’s something. To the west of here.”

  “Is it Dola and Asrai?” Keith asked.

  Holl shook his head. “It’s so small and faraway I’m getting no detail at all, just that there is one of us or someone like us off in that direction. It feels right. It’s very hard, searching the distance for a pinpoint, instead of aiming in the direction I know it to be, as I did for the village from overseas.”

  “It is her!” Maura cried. “It’s my babe.”

  “You cannot be sure,” the Master said gently, “but I think there is something there vorth investigating.”

  Try as he might, Keith could get no sense of what Holl and the others were doing, beyond the slight perception of mental concentration. Now was not the time to ask for additional lessons in magic; he was going to have to trust the pros.

  “Okay, what if we try out that way? Now that we have a general direction to work toward, what if you, me, and some of the others drive around until we can triangulate in on the girls’ position?”

  There were mutters of “Progressive!” and “Big Folk talk,” but Holl smiled wryly.

  “Military tactic?” he asked.

  “Could work,” Keith said, raising his hands palm up as if offering the idea.

  The Master looked around at the faces of his family and friends. Many of them were bemused, and Tiron and some of the elders looked doubtful, but in some of them the light of hope was shining. “In the absence of other suggestions, Keith Doyle, your motion is carried.”

  Holl leaned over the rear seat of Keith’s Mustang, prepared to dive underneath the folded tarpaulin beside him if any other driver should get close enough to the car to see him clearly. Hope had given him back a little of the elasticity of his normal nature. Keith kept an eye on him through the rearview mirror, prepared to stop instantly if Holl got a solid vector. Walls of tall, green corn and wheat on either side of the road prevented them from getting more than occasional views of the farm buildings.

  “Drive slower,” Holl said.

  Keith eased off the gas, and glanced at the knot of farm buildings to their left. “You still seeing their blip in the same place?”

  “I was sure,” Holl said, shaking his head and sinking back into the rear seat. “It was very strong for a moment. Perhaps more over that way.” He pointed westward.

  Diane was navigating their progress on a map of the state. She drew her pencil upward on the sheet. “We’re half a mile from the next county road. You can turn left there.”

  Keith glanced around for other traffic as he slowed down for the intersection. They’d been on the road for hours, and had still not pinned down the girls’ location within a hundred square miles. Every time Holl was certain he was on the correct tangent to find them, something interfered with his mental fix, and he’d lose it.

  Somewhere out on the roads, three other cars, each containing one of the Little Folk and volunteer Big Folk drivers, were doing the same thing. As soon as Keith’s suggestion was taken, Marcy and Enoch had immediately offered their services. Dunn and Marm volunteered at once, and went off together in Dunn’s little green Volvo. Lee had taken Tay in his car. Ludmilla, though she had driven in from Midwestern by herself, remained behind with Maura and Siobhan.

  “How will we know who is who?” Marm had asked reasonably, while they were coordinating their plans.

  “You won’t,” Diane had said, “but if you find a fifth body out there broadcasting whatever it is you’re looking for, then you’ve found her.”

  “Besides,” Keith had added, “the chances are that their trace won’t be moving, and all of us will. If things go right, we’ll converge on the place where the girls are hidden.”

  “That’s sense,” Enoch had said, nodding. “Let’s go.”

  “Meet at Aunt Sally’s diner at three,” Keith had said, naming a family-style restaurant that was one of his favorite hangouts, on a county road north of Midwestern University.

  Except for confirming the existence of Holl’s “blip,” the day’s search was largely unfruitful. No one had much appetite for the enormous meals Aunt Sally’s served. The baseball cap Holl wore to disguise his ears drooped low over his forehead as he picked at half of a turkey sandwich. Tay was exhausted, and sat with his head tilted backward, staring at the ceiling, ignoring the plate of fries he had ordered. Marm ate with the single-minded determination of a man who didn’t know when he’d next get a meal. Both Tay and Marm must have put some kind of illusion on themselves, Keith decided, since they seemed to be bare-chinned now, but had had beards when they’d left the farm. No sense in attracting attention they didn’t need. The lack of hirsute adornment made Tay look even younger than one of the Folk usually did. The waitress had brought all four elves crayons and placemats with black-and-white line drawings of farm animals to color.

  “You’d think there’s some kind of interference,” Marcy complained as Enoch doodled on the picture of a cow with a red crayon. “We had a strong impulse to go eastward, for about three seconds, then it was gone.”

  “At least we’ve eliminated part of the state,” Dunn said, pursing his lips. He filched fries off Tay’s plate and dunked them in ketchup on Keith’s. “It’s still not going to be easy to pin down.”

  “Even if we’re right, and if the trace we’ve all been following is Dola and Asrai,” Keith said, remembering his lengthy tramp through the Field Museum. “You know, there could be other beings out there.”

  “I’m sure this has the right sense to it,” Holl declared strongly, but with more force than confidence. “I ought to know my own child’s emanations.”

  “There’s hope,” Marm said. “The mystery trace is within this area.” He spread out the driving map, and pointed to a square much smudged with pencil marks. “They’re in here. They are.” He offered a smile around the table. Keith couldn’t help but return it.

  “That’s still a lot of square miles,” Lee said, whistling.

  “At least we know they’re still in the county,” Diane said. “We can cut that down in no time.”

  “Not today,” said Enoch unexpectedly. The black-haired elf turned up a face that was woeful, but pinched-looking and pale around the mouth, with smudges of purple starting under the eyes. “I’m tired enough that any moment I’ll start finding squirrels instead. I’ve only so much strength. I’d give up my last heartbeat to find my sister’s child, but I can’t guarantee accuracy from here on in. I need rest.”

  Reluctantly, one by one the other Little Folk admitted to the same weakness. “Our strength’s not an inexhaustible well,” Holl said sadly. “All the influence you can raise fr
om an object, or a person, is that which is inherent in it.”

  “Then we need fresh scouts,” Keith said resignedly. “Tiron said he’d help. I can go on driving until I drop.”

  “I can, too,” said Lee. “All I have to do to get tomorrow off is to call in and tell ’em I’m onto a story. I’ve never lied to them before, but this is in a good cause.”

  “I appreciate all your help,” Holl said relieved. In spite of his exhaustion he looked better than he had in the morning.

  “I, too,” Tay added. “We’d not be able to cover this much physical distance as we have in a summer, let alone an afternoon.”

  “We’ll go back to the Farm and ask for more volunteers,” Keith said, raising his hand to wave at the waitress for the check.

  At the Farm, there was a telephone message waiting for Keith.

  “It was your father,” Catra explained. “He says he’d had a call,” she looked at the wall clock, “an hour and a half ago now that Ms. Mona Gilbreth will see you this afternoon, and also that Frank is looking for you at Midwestern tonight. Your friend is a poet,” Catra said, a wry half-smile lighting up her solemn face. “All the message he left for you was, ‘cool, still sky.’ A pretty image.”

  Keith looked shocked at himself for forgetting. He smacked himself in the head. “The ad firm! But I can’t go,” he said.

  “But you must,” the Master said at once.

  “I can’t,” Keith insisted. “I ought to be here to help. I can call Frank. I’ll beg off from seeing Ms. Gilbreth. It was only an excuse to get down here. Paul won’t be too mad.”

  “You cannot be here all the time. We did get along before you met us. It is time you learned to delegate, young man,” the Master said, not unkindly. He shook a finger up toward Keith’s face. His straight-backed stance still made him no taller than Keith’s middle shirt button. “You haf responsibilities of your own, Meester Doyle. Gif ofer to us. Mees Londen, Mees Collier and these others vill stay and assist. Tell us vhat should be done, and ve vill do it.”

  Keith looked at Holl and the others. He knew they counted on him. He thought of baby Asrai and Dola, out there somewhere, scared and maybe in danger. He met the Master’s eyes, and read there that the old elf knew the realities of the situation as well as he did himself. He knew what he was asking Keith to do.