Wood Sprites полностью

“I did get through to my parents and cousins,” April continued. “At first they didn’t know whom I was talking about. I think my mom is going senile early; Old Man Bell saved my life, and she didn’t remember him at all. She was no help. I had more luck with my cousin, Ellen. It took ten minutes of describing the hotel on Neville Island, Old Man Bell, and his two grandchildren who build go-carts, for her to figure out who I meant. Apparently Alexander doesn’t use her real name.”

“What name does she use?” Dufae would be just as dangerous.

“Tinker.”

“Tinker?” Louise echoed, mystified.

“As in Tinker Bell?” Jillian cried. “Eewww.”

“She doesn’t seem to use a last name. I think she just goes by Tinker. And Orville is Oilcan. My cousin saw the two of them last week. They’re racing hoverbikes professionally.”

“Hoverbikes?”

“Alex invented them!” April sounded surprised and proud. “They use magic to hover, but they also have a gasoline engine. I’m not sure I understood that part completely. Racing them is a big sport event that everyone follows. Ellen says that she only knows it’s the same two kids because my folks lived down the street from them for years. She thinks that Sparrow’s people are going to have a hard time finding her if all they know is her real name.”

“How much did you tell your cousin?” Louise cried.

“Not everything.” April sighed. “Nothing about you two. But it was getting obvious that I wasn’t going to get through, and I didn’t want Ellen drawing attention to herself or Alexander by talking to the wrong person. I warned her that it’s not safe to talk to the EIA or the police or anyone else outside the family. I told her that this is a widespread conspiracy, and it being elves, their moles could have been put into place shortly after the first Startup. The first time I talked to her, she thought I was an utter loon.”

“And the second time?” Because it sounded like there was a second phone call that had gone totally differently than the first.

“She heard on the news that one of the sekasha had been killed, and Windwolf was missing.”

“Oh no! Which one?” Oh, please God, not Pony!

“I don’t know. It might make the Earth news tomorrow. I wasn’t thinking about the elves. I was worried about Alexander.”

Louise tried to take comfort knowing that at least Alexander was well hidden. But what if Sparrow’s trap succeeded? What if both Windwolf and Pony were dead? Tears started to burn in her eyes.

“Ellen promised me that she’ll find where Alexander lives and go see her and tell her about Sparrow. And she’ll tell her that I’m willing to have her come live with me in New York. I’m not sure if Alex will take me up on the offer. I would have at eighteen, but I always thought of Earth as my home, not Elfhome.”

Louise would jump at a chance to visit Elfhome, but to stay? To leave behind everyone she knew? No. If Alexander were anything like her and Jillian, she would never leave her grandfather and Orville.

“Ellen will warn her,” April repeated firmly. “You can stop worrying.”

They said good-bye and hung up, feeling raw and drained. April was right in that there was nothing they could do now until next Shutdown. In the meantime, they still had the babies to save.

The news was full of the attack on Windwolf and his disappearance. Lacking concrete details, the media filled in with speculation. What was known as fact was that the viceroy and his bodyguards had been traveling in two separate Rolls-Royces from the south edge of the Rim. At some point the two vehicles had been separated. Near dawn, Windwolf’s car was found in an area called Fairywood, along with the body of his driver. To Louise’s guilty relief, the sekasha that had been killed was Hawk Scream; the warrior’s neck had been broken by a large animal. Since the police were involved in the shoot-out on Veterans Bridge, the search for Windwolf had been left to the EIA.

Knowing that the very people that attacked Windwolf also controlled the EIA, Louise was afraid that he might be dead. The only thing that gave her hope was an odd dream she had about him surviving the night without magic to protect him.

Certainly the media had decided that the viceroy was dead; they debated who would replace Windwolf and what his death would mean to Pittsburgh. Would the elves declare war on the humans? Should the UN pull in extra troops just in case to protect the human population? Or would the elves consider that a sign of aggression? Analysts pointed out that this wasn’t the first time that a sekasha had been killed by an animal while guarding Windwolf. Five years earlier, humans had a caged saurus on display at the fairgrounds. When the massive lizard broke free, it had wounded the viceroy and mauled one of his bodyguards before Windwolf killed it with a flame strike. The elves hadn’t threatened war at the time; they had simply deported the humans responsible.