Wizardry Compiled by Rick Cook

Author:Rick Cook [Cook, Rick]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Indoor Games, Role-playing & war games
ISBN: 9781555940591
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2010-01-21T16:02:35+00:00

Fifteen :

War Warning

A jump gone awry is one of the hardest bugs to locate.

—programmers’ saying

Bal-Simba was walking in the castle garden when his deputy found him.

“Lord,” Arianne said strangely. “Someone wishes to speak to you.”

“Who?” the black wizard asked, catching her mood.

“Aelric, the elf duke.”

Duke Aelric, or rather his image, was waiting for him in the

Watcher’s room. The Watchers, who kept magical watch on the entire world, shifted uneasily at their communications crystals in the elf’s presence.

Bal-Simba studied the apparition as he mounted the dais overlooking the sunken floor where the Watchers worked. The elf duke was wearing a simple tunic of dark-brown velvet that set off his milk-white complexion. His long hair was caught back in a golden filet set with small yellow gems at his temples. His face was serene and untroubled, not that that meant anything. Elves were inhumanly good at hiding their feelings and in any event their emotions were not those of mortals.

Bal-Simba had heard Wiz and Moira’s story of their rescue by Duke Aelric and their dinner with him, but this was the first time Bal-Simba had ever seen him. Come to that, it is the first time I have ever seen any elf this close, he thought as he seated himself in his chair.

Duke Aelric seemed not to notice Bal-Simba until he was properly settled to receive his guest.

“I seek the Sparrow, but I am told he is not available,” Aelric said.

“He is not here.”

“Do you know when he will return?”

Bal-Simba considered the question before answering.

“I do not. He is off in the Wild Wood, I believe.”

Aelric raised a silver eyebrow. “Indeed? Forgive me if I pry, but when did he leave?”

“Forgive my curiosity, but why do you wish to know?”

“Because he was on business of some urgency when he left my hold to return to your city a fortnight hence,” Aelric said.

Bal-Simba frowned mightily. “He was coming straight back?”

Aelric waved a hand. “That was his plan. He left upon the Wizard’s Way to return here immediately.” He looked sharply at the black Wizard.

“I swear to you he did not arrive here,” Bal-Simba told him. He struck his chest. “Upon my life I swear it.”

“I believe you, oath or no,” the image said.

“I will also tell you that we have been trying to contact him for several days without success. Frankly, we are becoming worried.”

Elf and mortal fell silent, contemplating the implications.

“It occurs to me,” the elf duke said slowly, “that someone may have transgressed upon my hospitality. I do not appreciate interference with those traveling to and from my abode.”

“It occurs to me that Wiz may be in dire danger,” Bal-Simba said, a trifle sharply.

“I hope not,” Aelric told him. “For all our sakes.”

It was Bal-Simba’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

“A matter of forestalling a war between humans and other users of magic, I think,” Duke Aelric explained.

“War?”

“Did you expect your drive to exterminate magical creatures along the Fringe would go unremarked? Or that your expansion deep into the Wild Wood would

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