"Aaron?" I said. Beside me, Joy stopped eating and looked up at Parthet too. "What's this all about?" I asked again.
Parthet chuckled and shook his head. "I think you'd best see for yourself, lad. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Come on, Uncle. After three years of this place, even the Cheshire Cat wouldn't surprise me." I made a face. "Your timing could sure use some work." Then I turned to Joy. "You want to wait here or come along?"
"Come along to where?" Joy asked.
"To Castle Basil, the capital."
"Through another one of those spooky doors?"
"I'm afraid so. You don't have to come if you don't want to. You can wait here and get settled in if you prefer. I shouldn't be gone too long. Right, Uncle?" I looked over at Parthet again.
"Probably not, lad, probably not." He was still chuckling. Whoever Aaron was, he sure had Parthet tickled.
Very quietly, Joy said, "I don't think I'm up to being left behind yet."
I gave her hand a squeeze. "It won't be so bad, now that you know what's coming. We'll go along and see what's got Uncle Parthet smirking so, then we'll come back. Pretty soon you won't think any more about using the magic doors than you would about an elevator."
"I'm not sure about that. This is too much like 'Beam me up, Scotty.' "
I laughed and we got up from the table. "I never even thought of that," I said.
"Must be a flaw in your education."
"Did you get enough to eat?" I asked, glancing side-ways so I'd be sure to catch her reaction as we followed Parthet to the stairs.
"I've never eaten so much in my life," Joy said. "It was as if I was starving to death. I hope you weren't lying about not gaining any weight."
I chuckled. "I've been eating like that for more than three years and I weigh exactly what I did before I came here."
We stopped for my swords before we popped through to Basil. The swords bothered Joy until I explained. "It's a formality. Tradition says that the Hero of Varay must be armed at all times in public." That worked until I strapped on both of the claymores, one sword diagonally over each shoulder. Then I had to explain the superstition that an abandoned elf sword would work to a person's disadvantage. That's the word I used. Joy nodded, but she was obviously unsatisfied with my explanation. I didn't strap on my regular broadsword, the blade I had practiced with as a teenager, the one I had used until I "inherited" my first long elf sword, Dragon's Death. My belt only held my dagger, and Joy didn't say anything about that. Since we were just going to Castle Basil, there was no need to carry anything else in the way of weapons, no bow and quiver of arrows, for instance, and I didn't bother to put on armor.
The doorway leading to my bathroom in Cayenne opens into my bedroom at Castle Basil.
"I see you've got yourself a real setup here," Joy whispered to me after we went through. "You can hop from bed to bed without even putting your pants back on."
"The only bed I'm interested in is the one you're in," I whispered back. It's nice to find the right thing to say once in a while-especially when it's the truth.
There was a crowd in the great hall of Castle Basil, but more organized than usual. As we crossed the room from the doorway, it looked as if everyone but the king was present. The focus of all the attention was the head of the lower table. The crowd was so thick that I couldn't see who, or what, they were all staring at.
As we crossed the room, Parthet whistled shrilly to get folks' attention. A few looked, then a few more. They saw Parthet. They saw me. There was some whispering. Most Varayans were more impressed with a Hero of Varay than I was. Half the time I still had to check to make sure that people weren't staring at me because my fly was open. A path opened in the crowd. People backed off to make room for us.
And I got my first glimpse of Aaron.
He was eating, but someone tapped him on the shoulder, then pointed when he looked up. Aaron looked our way, then stood up.
Aaron was black, extremely dark-skinned. I had known only one black guy that dark before, and he used to brag about it. "Ain't no honky skeletons in my family closet." He never sounded convincing when he tried to talk like that. An honors student at Northwestern, from a well-to-do family. Barry had never had much contact with what one of our English professors called Standard Black American English.
Aaron was thin, with close-cropped hair, dressed in blue jeans, print shirt, and Adidas sneakers. All of his clothing looked new. The jeans were rolled up into exaggerated cuffs.
Parthet moved a little ahead of Joy and me.
"Aaron, this is Gil Tyner," Parthet said.
Aaron looked up at me without blinking. "You the Man?" he asked. Aaron didn't sound comfortable talking like that either.
I smiled. "I studied computer science at Northwestern University, Aaron," I said. "And this is Joy Bennett. She just graduated from Northwestern."
"I know where that is," Aaron said. "I'm from Joliet."
"How old are you, Aaron?" I asked.
"Eight, almost nine."
"What's your full name?"
"Aaron Wesley Carpenter. I'm supposed to start fourth grade this year."
It was easy to see that Aaron was scared, but he was trying to hide it. At least he didn't seem to be as panic-stricken as Joy had been. Maybe being a kid has some real advantages.
"You get enough to eat?" I asked.
"I never get enough to eat," Aaron said, very earnestly. It got a laugh. Apparently, his appetite had drawn comment back home.
"Well, why don't you sit back down and keep eating. We can talk while you eat, if you don't mind."
"You gonna tell me how to get home? My gramma's gonna be worried."
Aaron and I sat down. Joy stood right behind me, her hands on my back-although she almost got tangled up in my swords first. Aaron looked at the sword hilts sticking up over my shoulders.
"Are those real?" he asked, pointing with a chunk of bread.
"The swords?" I asked. He nodded, then I did. "They're real."
Aaron looked around at all the people who were still staring at him. Now that he was at least a little less hungry than before, the crowd was beginning to bother him. I could understand that. I'm not at all that fond of crowds myself.
"Uncle, can you…" I gestured around. Parthet caught my meaning and, with Baron Kardeen's help, shooed off most of the gawkers.
"You want to tell me what happened to you, Aaron?" I asked after we had some clear space around us. Joy sat at my other side after the guards who had been there slid down the bench with their mugs of beer.
"Don't know what happened," Aaron said.
"Just tell me what you remember."
"He-Man was on TV. Gramma lets me watch that."
"Don't your parents let you watch it?"
He shrugged. "They both work."
"Okay, go on, Aaron," I urged. "What happened? You were watching He-Man."
"News came on, right in the middle. The man said a ship got blowed up. Gramma screamed and started crying. I got scared and something went poof, and I wasn't there no more."
"Why did your grandmother scream?" I asked, even though I could make a decent guess at the answer without much trouble.
"Mom and Dad went on the boat." He stopped eating then and started crying. Tears ran down his face. He didn't sob or make any noise. The tears just flowed.
"He appeared in the town," Parthet said softly, behind Joy and me. "I mean that just the way it sounds. He just popped up suddenly, out in front of the Bald Rock. There were several witnesses. The boy was scared and the townspeople brought him straight up here. I've never heard of anything like this happening before."
"You heard about the Coral Lady, I take it," I said, very softly, turning away from Aaron.
Parthet nodded. "We heard. That's why we all came back here so fast. Your mother wanted to wait until we could make sure that you had made it through, but I, uh, overruled her."
I couldn't hold back a smile. That was a scene I would have liked to see. Even Dad had trouble overruling Mother on anything, and Parthet wasn't a particularly assertive sort.
"I made a quick jump to Louisville to check on you after I found the swords on my bed," I said.
"You wear them well."
"Yeah, well, I'd better not come up with any more of these things. I feel like a complete jackass wearing two of them."
"Just think of the legends you're spawning," Parthet said, chuckling broadly. "It's something rare for a mortal to be able to claim even one elf sword. You've got two of them."
"Until Xayber sends another hotshot after me, maybe two or three of them together next time."
All this time, Aaron Carpenter sat at the table crying silently. He wasn't paying any visible attention to us, but I tried to keep an eye on him. When he started wiping at his eyes with his sleeves, I turned back to face him head on.
"Your parents were on vacation?" I asked.
He shook his head. "They're doctors."
That stopped me flat for a minute. "They had a meeting on the boat?" I asked finally. It was the only thing I could think of. Aaron nodded.
"You were staying at your grandmother's house when you went poof?" I asked, and Aaron nodded again. I asked him for the address and he rattled it right off without any hesitation or doubt.
"You gonna take me home?" Aaron asked.
My automatic affirmative was stopped when Parthet jabbed me in the shoulder. I turned to look at him and he shook his head vigorously.
"Hang on a minute, Aaron," I said. "I'll be right back." I got up and went off with Parthet, pulling him along by the sleeve of his Louisville Cardinals sweatshirt. Joy slid along the bench to where I had been sitting and started talking to Aaron.
"What the hell's got into you?" I asked Parthet when we were far enough away that Aaron wouldn't hear us.
"You can't take him home," Parthet said.
"Why not? His grandmother is probably going crazy if she saw him disappear like that. Even if she didn't actually see it."
"His parents are dead. They were on the Coral Lady. "
"I figured that out. What difference does it make? He's still got family."
"You're going to find a way to convince his grandmother that she isn't crazy?"
"It can be done," I said. "Just what's got into you?"
Parthet hesitated a beat before he answered. "You remember that I told you that I would know when it was time for me to start training an apprentice? Well, it's time. Nothing like this has ever happened. It's the clearest message I could have. Aaron is here to be my apprentice."
"He's just a kid!"
"That's the best time to start training him. The only time, as a matter of fact."
"Isn't eight years old a bit young to ask somebody to give up any hope of ever having children of his own?" I asked. I hadn't forgotten about that consequence of becoming a wizard.
"That comes with initiation, not with apprenticeship," Parthet said.
"It's beside the point anyway," I said.
"You still don't realize how singular an event this is, do you?" Parthet asked.
"I guess not. And it doesn't really matter."
Parthet shuffled from one foot to the other while he stared at me. "It has never happened before, anywhere, anytime. People don't blink in and out like that, not even in the buffer zone. That lad has a stronger touch for the craft than I've ever seen, even in someone out of Fairy. He must be a natural."
"I'm going to see if I can get in touch with his grandmother," I said slowly. "You have no right to keep him here."
Parthet really wasn't ready to give up the argument, but I turned and went back to the table, and Parthet followed.
"You have any brothers or sisters, Aaron?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"You want to go back to your grandmother's house now, or would you like to look around here first? If you want to look around the castle for a while, I'll go tell your grandmother that you're okay, that she doesn't have to worry."
"You'll tell her?"
"Sure. There's a lot to see here. It's a pretty neat castle." I waited a moment wishing that Lesh had come through to Basil with us. I had a feeling that if I turned Aaron over to Parthet, the youngster might not get much of a free choice. Parthet wanted to keep Aaron in Varay more than I had ever seen him want anything. There was only one possible out.
"You see that tall guy over there?" I asked Aaron. I pointed across the table. "That's Baron Kardeen. He's the king's right-hand man. He knows everything there is to know about this castle, and I'm sure he'd be happy to show you around the whole place." I looked up at Kardeen. So did Aaron. The chamberlain smiled and nodded. We went around the table. I took Kardeen aside and told him to keep Parthet away from Aaron until I could make arrangements to get him home. And I told him why.
"Leave it to me," Kardeen said. I left Aaron with him and went back to Parthet.
"I do have something to ask you, Uncle," I said. "Mother said that new rings are your job. I need a set for Joy. Any problem with that?"
He was scowling, but he shook his head. "A minor magic, new rings. I have molds." He glanced her way. "Small hands, right?"
"Her ring fingers are smaller than my little fingers." I said, holding out my hands. "You need an exact ring size?"
He shook his head again. "I think I can come up with the proper size. I've seen her hands." At least I didn't get any excuses about his not being able to see any more. I made sure that he got his eyes checked and got new glasses every year, whether he wanted to take the time or not. He didn't complain too much about that after seeing how much better he could see.
I went back to the table for Joy and then we stepped back to my apartment in Chicago, directly from Castle Basil. It was Joy's third time through a doorway, so she hardly blinked.
"You have these gizmos set up everywhere?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not. But I wish I had clued you in before we took that plane from Louisville to Chicago. If I had known what kind of mess was going to meet us at O'Hare, I think I would have."
"What do we do this trip?"
"Get hold of Aaron's grandmother, if she hasn't gone completely bananas." Then I remembered something I should have thought of before. "I didn't ask Aaron what her name is. I don't know if she's his paternal grandmother or maternal grandmother. I guess that rules out the telephone. We'll have to drive to Joliet."
"Her name is Emma Carpenter," Joy said. "I asked him."
I kissed her. "You get a phone number?"
"No, but with the name and address, you can get it from information."
Of course. I got the number and dialed. There was no answer. I let the phone ring on and on, just in case she was already in bed. It was after eleven o'clock. Joy went to the television to find out what the latest news on the Coral Lady was. The stories didn't seem much different from what they'd been earlier-a little more detail, such as the fact that there had been a medical conference taking place on the Coral Lady, a blend of work and vacation. News was still slow in being collected. Rescue teams were being assembled and flown in from military bases and from places where they were accustomed to dealing with radioactive materials, arsenals and nuclear power plants. Navy and Coast Guard ships were on the way to the area. Getting everything organized and on the move was providing monumental confusion. Streams of refugees were fleeing the area, choking all the roads. But there had been no additional blasts, and the diplomatic scene remained peaceful if not quiet.
"You've been on that phone for ten minutes," Joy observed. "If she hasn't answered by now, she isn't going to."
Still, I let it ring a few more times before I hung up.
"You think she might be at a relative's?" I asked.
"If she is, there's no way we can hope to find her," Joy said. "But if she got really terrified when Aaron disappeared…"
"A hospital?"
"Or worse. She could have had a heart attack or something. Two big shocks one right after the other like that."
"She might not be very old for a grandmother," I suggested. "She may just be in her late forties or early fifties."
"And maybe not," Joy replied. "How many hospitals you think there are in Joliet?"
"I don't have any idea. I don't think I've ever been there," I said. Joy started to say something, but I beat her to it. "I know. Call information."
I did. There were two of them, Silver Cross and St. Joseph's. St. Joseph's just gave me a polite "We have no one listed by that name here." The woman I talked to at Silver Cross was different.
"Are you a relative of Mrs. Carpenter?"
"Not exactly, but her grandson wandered off after he heard the news about his parents and ended up with my uncle. I figured that Mrs. Carpenter would be worried about the youngster, and there was no answer when I called her house."
"I see. Would you hold the line for a moment, please?" There was a click as I was put on hold. The wait was maybe thirty seconds long.
"Hello. Social Services, may I help you?"
I had to repeat the entire story. It didn't come out any more coherently the second time. There was a silence on the other end of the line when I finished.
"What is your name, please?"
A long-distance call could be traced easily in any case, so I gave my real name.
"Is the grandson with you now?"
"No, he's with my uncle. I said that. What about Mrs. Carpenter?"
"Mrs. Carpenter was brought in this evening. Cardiac arrest. I'm afraid she didn't make it."
"Do you know of any other relatives in the area? I know that Aaron's parents were both doctors, but not much else."
"I'll check with our chief of medical services. He may know. The Carpenters were both on staff here. If you'd care to bring the boy in here, sir, we can take care of getting him to relatives or to the county's family services people if there are no relatives."
"Fine. Is the morning soon enough? I imagine Aaron's asleep by now, and he's had enough of a shock for one day."
There was another long silence. I guessed that the woman I was talking with had to check with somebody else. "It's irregular, but I think you're right."
"He is in good hands for the night, and we'll get him there to the hospital first thing in the morning," I said.
I gave her my name again as well as my address and phone number. Then I explained that my uncle didn't have a phone and so forth. At least the woman in Family Services-or whoever she was getting instructions from-seemed to know enough about Chicago to realize that my address was a damn good one. And I got off the phone before anyone thought to ask what I was doing calling from forty miles away.
When I hung up, I looked to Joy and shrugged.
"We take him back in the morning?" she asked. I nodded.
"If we can pry him away from Uncle Parthet," I said. "He thinks that Aaron should stay in Varay and be his apprentice."
"You have to take him back. You gave them your name and address."
I nodded and smiled. "If I don't show up with Aaron Wesley Carpenter in the morning, the police will come looking for him, and for me. That's why I did it that way. I think that is strong enough to make even Uncle Parthet pay attention. If he won't, Kardeen will, or Grandfather if he's up to anything. Family honor is a big deal in Varay."
"Do we go back now?" Joy asked.
"Unless you want to stay here. It looks like it's going to be safe, for the moment at least. I won't force you to go back to Varay if you don't want to."
"But that place won't just go away though, will it?"
I shook my head. "I'll tell you the whole story when we get a chance, but Varay is as much my home as this world."
"Then I'll have to find a way to get used to it." She took a deep breath, then got up from the sofa and came to me. We hugged. "It still scares me. I can't help worrying that I've gone completely out of my mind."
"That's normal. That's how I felt when I found out about it. Uncle Parthet is going to make you a set of rings like mine. They're the keys to the doors. I'll show you how to use them and where all the doors are and where they go. Then you'll have as much freedom as anyone has."
"You mean anyone can use them?"
"Not exactly. It's a family magic."
"I'm not part of your family."
"You are in the important way." I put my mouth right up against her ear and told her just why she would be able to use the doorways.
"Aren't you afraid I'll run out and make a lot of other guys part of the family?"
"I don't think secondhand works."
"But we'd better make sure about me. It's been so long. Maybe it wore off." She started nibbling at my ear.
"We'll take care of that soon enough. You ready to go back to Basil?"
She sighed. "As ready as I'm going to get, I guess."
This time, I explained just what I was doing at the doors and showed her how the rings had to touch the silver tracing. Back at Castle Basil, I told her where the silver came from, that it was damn hard to get any, and about some of the connections that had been put in.
I asked around and found that Aaron's tour was still going on. Baron Kardeen had taken Aaron up to the battlements of the keep. I didn't feel like climbing all that distance, so I went after Uncle Parthet. He was in the great hall, drinking with a few other people. The other people were talking and drinking. Parthet was just drinking.
"The grandmother's dead," I told him. "Aaron goes back in the morning. The people at the hospital have my name and my Chicago address. He has to go back."
"Dead?" Parthet asked. I nodded. "Then he has no family at all there now, right?"
"I don't know that. The people at the hospital will check. His parents were both doctors there."
Parthet shook his head. "You had to go and mess in things."
"I had to," I conceded. "You know that."
"You don't understand." His voice was more morose than angry now.
"You keep saying that," I told him.
"Think about it. You have a major disruption in your world. Thousands of people are killed by terrorists. A nuclear bomb goes off. Then a little black kid just goes poof in your world and turns up in downtown Basil. Coincidence? Horseshit. We haven't seen the last of the trouble yet. That bomb has to have repercussions here, and in Fairy. It will-it has to-make the elflords stronger. And when they get stronger, they spill over into the seven kingdoms. Mark my words, lad. Things are going to get stranger yet."
He stopped for a minute, stared at me, then shook his head and drained his beer.
"I told you that I would know when it was time for me to start training an apprentice, and then you get in the way when the time finally comes."
I still didn't respond. His anger wasn't far from the surface yet, and I wasn't going to give him any new fuel.
"Just watch the trend, boy. Things have to get worse here, soon!"