“There is at least one elf here because that was a magical attack Alberon just thwarted. We are helpless against that, even with our shields. Stay down until it’s over.”
“Come out and face us,” Nelion said. He didn’t shout but his voice was authoritative in its tone.
“And if I don’t?” a voice said from somewhere to the right.
“The consequences will be worse. Surrendering yourself will ensure a trial. Not surrendering will ensure your death.” Alberon was confident in his abilities.
A laugh, then, “What have I done? Nothing outside our laws. I have simply worked to ensure we can take our rightful place in the world as elves without using glamour to keep the puny humans comfortable.”
“I disagree,” Nelion replied, all the while scanning the sides of the clearing. “I believe you have performed transmogrification. That is against our laws.”
“I didn’t and no, it’s not. It’s discouraged but there is nothing in the laws prohibiting it. Pffft. It was just an ogre. They are stupid and count for nothing, anyways.”
I bristled at that, and I felt Gregory tense up. Ev may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier in some respects but he was far from “counting for nothing.”
I started to tune out the argument. It sounded like every generational spat I’d ever heard of and, at the moment, was less concerning than getting my boss back in one piece. I scanned the skies once again. Nothing was flying overhead. Our noise had scared everything off. It was then I noticed Fudge’s warmth had disappeared from my side.
“Where are you?”
“Scouting to find where the bats have gone. Are the elves done arguing yet?”
I tuned back in. “No. Obrist, or whoever it is, is still pleading his case. Nelion is trying to reason with him. It doesn’t appear to be working. I’m not certain what will happen next.”
A sigh touched my mind. “The birds and bats will not return until the clearing is empty and has been so for a while. That make take some time if they insist on diplomacy rather than action. Therefore, I need to find them for you.”
Gregory, too, left my side, crouching down and making his way through the trees around the right of the clearing. My guess was he thought the younger elf might be distracted during his conversation with Nelion and could be taken by surprise. I was stuck lying on my stomach behind Nelion and Alberon. I hoped neither of them backed up without looking first.
The arguments continued, the younger one arguing for his position and Nelion refuting him. Alberon simply stood quietly, his hand extended, palm out, presumably maintaining a shield of some sort.
All of a sudden, I heard a crashing through the trees, coming our direction. Not certain if it was friend or foe, I put my head down and tried to make myself as small as I could.
Then I heard, “Get this out of my mouth before my instincts take over and I kill it!”
I raised my head to see Fudge bounding toward us through the clearing, oblivious to whatever may be happening with the elves, holding something as gingerly as he could in his mouth. Ignoring whatever danger there might be from the rogue elf (or the senior ones, for that matter), I sat up and cupped my hands. As he came to a crashing halt, skidding between the legs of Nelion and Alberon, he opened his mouth and dropped something warm and furry. “Close your hands, quick, before it flies away!”
I obeyed, barely able to contain whatever was struggling to get out. Fudge’s sides were heaving and his tail was twitching wildly.
“I am fairly certain that is your employer. It does not smell like any of the other bats.”
Nelion had broken off his parlay to see what was going on behind him. “What is that?” he asked.
“Fudge says he thinks it’s Ev. Hey Gregory,” I called, “I think we have him!”
Nelion gave a short nod to Alberon who, with his free hand, traced a pattern in the air, then shoved that hand toward where the voice had been coming from. I heard a loud intake of breath, then another. Then Gregory’s voice saying, “shit.” All the while, the furry thing in my hand squirmed.
“We must contain it somehow. You will be unable to hold it long, and it may bite you.”
Well, wasn’t that a comfort! If it was indeed Ev and he bit me, I’d never let him live it down. Especially if I had to go through that series of rabies shots.
“I will return when you have restored him,” Fudge said as he trotted off. Fighting the natural instincts of the body you inhabited must be a real pain.
“Anyone happen to have a pillowcase on them?” I asked. I’d read that was the best way to trap a bat that had gotten inside a house and it was the only thing I could think of on the spur of the moment.
“If this oaf will let me down and Alberon remove his binding, you may use my jacket,” Gregory said. He was slung over one shoulder of the guard who’d gone off to the right and was now walking toward Nelion and Alberon. An elf with long blond hair nearly trailing on the ground hung off the other. The guard was impressive. He was carrying two full-sized men and didn’t appear bothered by it. However, he leaned over and unceremoniously dumped his charges at Alberon’s feet, both grunting with the impact.
Alberon looked down at Gregory. “You must have been directly behind him to have received the full brunt of the spell.”
“I was. I was about to jump him when you hit us. Would you kindly unbind me, please, so I can help Amy?”
“Unbind me as well, you ancient hunk of mistletoe,” the elf said, attempting to right himself while blowing his hair out of his face.
“Ancient hunk of mistletoe?” I asked.
“It is unflattering to be compared to a parasitic plant, is it not?” Alberon calmly replied, while pointing his right index finger at Gregory, who finally flexed his limbs and stood to remove his jacket.
“I will hold it over your hands. When I say ‘now,’ open them,” Gregory said. He held his jacket open, ensuring the sleeves were caught in his hands, then lowered it over my hands. “Now,” he said. As soon as I released the little fella, he half-flew straight into the material, which Gregory gathered together to form a small pocket.
“We will not be able to contain him long this way. There’s little air in there,” Gregory told the elves. “Alberon, I would appreciate you restoring my employer sooner rather than later.”
“Of course. Just a moment more,” Nelion answered.
“Where is Obrist?” he asked the elf, who was still laying on the ground, hair partially covering his face.
Oho. So this wasn’t “our man.” The plot thickens, as they say.
“I don’t know and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” he spat out.
Nelion signaled the guard who, once again, picked up the blond, slung him over a shoulder and headed toward the cars.
He sighed. “This one will prove difficult, I am afraid.”
“He is not the one who cast the transmogrification spell, I will say that,” Alberon said. “Let me have a look at your prize.”
“I cannot open the jacket without losing him,” Gregory said.
“Do not worry. I will convince him to stay quiet. Give me a moment.”
Alberon stared at the pile of material in Gregory’s hands as he had stared at the snake earlier in the day. “You may untangle him from your jacket and re-don it if, you wish. He will stay with you now.”
First a snake, then a bat. I was going to start referring to him as Doctor Doolittle in my head. I almost snickered out loud at the thought but caught myself. This was a serious situation!
Gregory gently peeled back the layers of fabric to expose a brown bat in his hand, sitting quietly but breathing heavily, and with big, black eyes darting all around. One wing didn’t completely tuck into his side, suggesting an injury.
Alberon peered down at him, then squatted to get a look from the side. With a wave of his hand, I felt the tingle of magic that had been missing and saw a bit of sparkle on the bat’s shoulder. It was indeed Ev!
“Hmm,” Alberon mused.
“The cloaking spell was easy enough, but I have never seen a transmogrification spell like this. I have made it visible to your eyes, wizard, in the hopes you see something I do not.”
Gregory stared with him. “Is that black thread a trigger?”
I looked myself. I could actually see the spell woven around the bat! It looked like a very fine mesh that followed the contours of the bat’s body, including around the injured wing. Most of it was a sickly green, but one black thread twisted in and out of the design. But that was all I could see. Spells such as these were beyond my abilities.
“I believe you are correct,” Alberon replied to Gregory. “If I attempt to dismantle it as I would any other spell, the black thread would kill your employer. It is a failsafe, knowing we revere all life. Well, most elves do. Whoever cast this one certainly does not.”
“Other than that, is it a typical spell, one that will degrade with time?”
“I believe so. At least, I see nothing that would make me think otherwise. The strength of the binding tells me it will be seven, perhaps ten days before it weakens enough to fall apart.
“I would suggest we take him with us to our enclave. A healer can see to that wing and we have areas where he could feed and still be safe. With your permission, of course.”
Gregory frowned. “He is irascible on a normal basis. Are you sure you want to deal with him when the spell does disintegrate? On the other hand, I’m not certain how we would care for him until it does. Amy, do you have any suggestions?”
I didn’t. Keeping him in a cage was out of the question, much less finding bugs for him to eat until whatever was going to happen, happened. On the other hand, a familiar face needed to be on hand to attempt to calm him when he did come out of it.
“Will he remember what happened?” I asked.
“Undoubtedly,” Alberon told me. “His ogre mind is in there, somewhere, although it does not have control of the body in this form.”
That was so not good! “Ev will blow a gasket when he’s back. One of us, probably Gregory, needs to be around to be a calming influence when he comes to himself. Otherwise, your enclave could sustain some major damage.”
“That’s true,” Gregory nodded. “He’s been known to be violent over smaller things than being turned into a bat. If he knows it was an elf who changed him, any of your kind anywhere near would bear the brunt of his anger.”
Alberon mused a moment. “While we could bind him to prevent damage, I do not think that to be a wise course of action in such a volatile person. A compromise, then. We will care for him until I see it’s almost time for the spell to break. Then we will bring him to you in Minneapolis. That way, we can all be present at the appropriate time. I know you will want to calm him, if you can, and Nelion will have questions regarding what he saw.”
Gregory shook his head. “Remember? Violence? I can think of nowhere to allow him to vent his frustrations that would not cause someone to call the authorities. Perhaps here, again? This seems remote enough and there isn’t much for him to destroy.”
A nod, then, “Very well. Nelion has your mobile number, I believe? He will call you when I think there is about a day left. Specific arrangements can be made at that time. If I may?”
He held out his hand and Gregory gently transferred the bat over, trying not to jostle the wing. Alberon cradled it, and, making cooing sounds, started off toward the cars. We followed.
“I don’t like leaving Ev with them, but I don’t see much of a choice, do you?” I asked.
“No. And that bothers me. Logically I know they are the best ones to care for him – they can fix the wing and they live out-of-doors, which is good for a bat and its diet. I’d have to locate a wildlife veterinarian and try to explain why I had a bat not indigenous to Minnesota with a broken wing, whereas their healers can have that bat flying again in a couple of days. I also wouldn’t relish crawling around on the ground, trying to find enough bugs to feed it. On the other hand, I feel like I’m abandoning him.”
“Me, too,” I sighed. “Do we go home or wait here for a week or more?”
“We go home. You back to work and me on the phone. I need to let Howard and Althea know what’s happened and get their instructions. I also need to put our charter service on standby. It’ll cost but I want to ensure I can fly directly to Lake Charles with an hour’s notice.”
I punched his arm. “So we can fly directly to Lake Charles.”
“So we can fly directly to Lake Charles. I will not leave you to face that ogre alone.”
“We’ll talk about it later. No need to discuss this until we’re alone,” Gregory said quietly as we approached the cars.
Nelion and the two guards were standing at the back of their SUV with the hatch up. Out of curiosity, I walked around. Two men, one the blond elf and another, scruffy looking sort who was probably the werewolf, lay on the floor, looking as if they were bound with invisible ropes. It didn’t look comfortable.
“What did you have against my boss?” I asked.
The werewolf snarled but the blond elf smiled. “Boss? What boss? Why in the world would I have anything to do with a witch’s boss?”
Nelion put his hand on my shoulder. “These are just lowly soldiers and probably know little. I will tell Miss Fitzsimmons anything we are able to discover.”
“Hey, little witch. Why are you with the old man? Wouldn’t you rather be with someone closer to your own age?” The blond elf didn’t seem to mind that he was trussed like a turkey, even if the bindings were invisible.
“Perhaps I would. But not you. I don’t date men with dirt on their face and leaves stuck in their hair.” I turned my back to him and walked over to our car.
“Nicely put,” Gregory said as he opened my door for Fudge to jump in. “You do know male elves are rather vain?”
“I figured as much from Perchaladon. I don’t know what his role is but bringing him down a peg or two seemed like the thing to do.”
“Ask the wiz…Gregory if he will send me home. I see no reason for me to fly in that machine again since he knows where we are going.”
I relayed the request.
“Before we leave, yes, I will send him home.”
We drove back to Lake Charles, grabbed our things from the hotel and checked out (much to the consternation of the desk clerk, who’d just checked us in a few hours earlier) and headed toward the airport. About five minutes away, Gregory pulled to the side of the road, held his cell phone to his ear as if making a call, and gave Fudge the boost he needed to go home. No matter how many times I saw it, to watch my cat just fade away to nothing still bothered me.
Then there were the odd looks from the flight crew as we carried an empty pet carrier onto the plane along with our overnight bags…
“Have you heard anything from the elf?” Gregory asked me as we made our way from the plane to the Hummer.
“No. Maybe he got my message to leave me alone,” I replied.
“Then, if you are comfortable, I will take you home rather than to my place.”
I couldn’t think of a reason not to go home and sleeping in my own bed would be blissful, so I agreed. Fudge greeted me at the door and, after ensuring his food and water bowls were full, I dropped everything and crawled into bed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Thursday, thankfully, wasn’t too bad. I’d only been out of the office one day and Sally, the sweetheart, had handled just about everything that came in. A good thing, too. It had been well after midnight when I hit the sack and the summer sun woke me early, as always. I yawned my way through the day.
On Friday, I got another call from Marvin, who informed me that the location movie shoot was wrapping up and they were scheduled to return to Atlanta that night to finish on a soundstage. More odd things had happened but nothing to our client, thank goodness.
Louise and Elsa got me out of the house on Saturday for a bike ride around the lake and more people watching at the ice cream parlor. Had they not, I probably would
have spent the entire time pacing my apartment – or cleaning. I was counting sunrises, you see.
Monday was more of the same but at least I had the usual weekend catch-up to keep me occupied. I heard the outer door open shortly before noon and chided myself for forgetting to lock the door but since it was only Cassandra bringing my lunch…
“I brought lunch for you,” a baritone voice announced.
That had me shooting out of my chair. “I thought I told you to go far, far away!” I yelled. “Do I need to call the authorities?”
Perchaladon came around the corner and into my office, bearing a silver tray laden with food, china, cutlery, everything you would need for a fancy picnic.
He chuckled, then said, “Come, come, Amy. There is no need. I have no desire to harm you. Remember, we revere life. Especially female life.”
“Enh. Yeah. Right. There are different kinds of harm. Inflicting your presence on someone who does not want it is one of them.”
My phone chimed with a text. Ignoring the elf for the moment, I looked to see it was from Cassandra. “I saw the elf going upstairs. You okay?”
“Excuse me a moment,” I said, then sent a reply, “Keep the line open.” That was our clue to each other that if the other’s phone rang with no one on the other end of the line, things had gone haywire and to come immediately.
“I wish merely to have lunch with a lovely lady. Is that so bad?” he said after I put my phone down.
I remembered Ms. Fitzsimmon’s admonishment to find out anything I could. Despite the fact that I didn’t appreciate being stalked, perhaps this was a prime opportunity.
“Okay, fine. You win. Lunch it is. But let’s go out into the reception area. There’s more room.”
And I could stomp on the floor, if necessary.
Transformation! Page 15
