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  The Warlock is Missing

  ( Warlock in Spite of Himself - 7 )

  Christopher Stasheff

  Cristopher Stasheff

  The Warlock is Missing

  Warlock in Spite of Himself - 7

  Chapter 1

  Once upon a time, there were three little warlocks and a witch, and they lost their mommy and daddy.

  Well, they didn't lose them, really. Their parents went out for the night, and left them with an elf for a babysitter. The elf's name was Puck (it was really Robin Goodfellow, but most people preferred his nickname), and he was very mischievous. He was so mischievous that the children made sure they did whatever he told them to, even though they could all work magic of their own. They even went to bed on time.

  But they didn't go to sleep. The boys lay awake talking to each other in whispers, and the girl came in to join them—she had a bedroom of her own, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as her brothers'. There weren't any other children in it.

  "They should have been home ere now, " Magnus whispered. He was the eldest—twelve years old.

  "Nay, surely 'tis not so late, " Cordelia protested. She was nine—nearly as old as Magnus, as she reminded him at least twice a day.

  "'TIS late enow. " Geoffrey was gazing out the window at the stars. "The Plow is over Cuchullain's Hill. " He was only seven, but that was old enough to realize that the whole sky seems to turn like a great wheel during the night, and to remember where the star-pictures called "constellations" have moved to, every hour.

  Cordelia frowned. "Where could they have gone?"

  Magnus shrugged. "Mayhap a band of trolls leaped upon them from hiding. "

  "Poor trolls, " Geoffrey sighed.

  "Thou dost but regret that thou. wast not with them, " Cordelia accused.

  "In some part, " Geoffrey admitted. "Yet thou must needs own that any band of trolls would come off much the worst,

  were they to go up against our parents. "

  Their mother, Gwendylon Gallowglass, was a witch, though a very pretty one; and their father, Rod Gallowglass, was a warlock, which is what you call a man who has powers like a witch's.

  "Mayhap the King and Queen have summoned them, " Gregory pointed out. He was the youngest, only five, but he already knew that the King and Queen of their country sometimes called on the children's parents to help them, when their kingdom of Gramarye was in trouble.

  "Aye!" Cordelia sat bolt-upright, her eyes gleaming. "Mayhap the Abbot and his monks have called up the barons 'gainst the King and Queen again!"

  "Or an evil sorcerer may once more have risen 'gainst them. " Gregory's eyes lit.

  "Or mayhap an army of monsters hath come out of the forests!" Geoffrey grinned. He liked armies. Monsters, too.

  "Or mayhap ghosts have come haunting the castle, " Magnus cried.

  "Or mayhap, " rumbled a deep voice from the doorway, "the witch and the warlock are so pleased by themselves, with no children to pester them, that they have stayed longer man they had planned, amidst the flowers and the cool forest air— and mayhap four naughty children have kept themselves waking when they should have fallen asleep!"

  The boys dived under their covers, and Cordelia dived under Magnus's bed.

  Their foot-and-a-half babysitter strode into the room. "Shame upon thee, then! Can thy parents not enjoy a single evening to themselves, but thou must needs bedevil them with thy guessing, even though they be not here?"

  "We were not thinking at them, Puck, " Geoffrey protested. All four of the children were mind-readers, who could also put their own thoughts into other people's minds.

  "Nay, " said Puck, "but thou wast biding in wakefulness, belike to spring out upon them when they did return. "

  "We would do no such thing, " Magnus said indignantly. After all, he'd only been toying with the idea.

  "Be certain thou wilt not, " Puck assured him. "Now lie still and close thine eyes—and thy mouths also! Or I shall close them for thee!"

  The boys instantly squeezed their eyes shut. They remembered the last time Geoffrey had talked back to Puck. It had

  taken Mama an hour to figure out how to get the padlock off his tips.

  "And thou, damsel! To thy chamber!" Puck stabbed his finger toward the doorway.

  The room was silent for a moment; then Cordelia rolled out from under Magnus's bed and sprang to her feet. "Thou spoilsport, Robin!" And she flounced out of the room.

  Puck gazed after her as though he were considering how she'd look with goggle eyes and webbed feet; but he must have decided against it, for he turned back to rumble, "Sleep! Or the hobgoblin will catch thee!"

  "What, " said Magnus, "is the hobgoblin?"

  "I am, " Puck snapped. "Now sleep!" And he slammed the door.

  The boys were still as mice for three minutes.

  Then Geoffrey whispered, "Dost thou think he might truly… "

  The door crashed open, and Puck boomed, "Sleep!"

  They slept.

  When they came down to breakfast the next morning, they found a very worried-looking Puck sitting by the hearth, knuckling his chin. They gathered around him, wide-eyed and silent. Finally, Magnus asked, "Have they not come home, then?"

  Puck dismissed the notion with a gesture. "'Tis naught. Belike they'll step in the door ere the sun's up. "

  Gregory darted a quick glance at the window. "'Tis risen, Puck—and thou knowest not where they be. "

  "Not know!?!!" Puck sat up straight, glaring in indignation. "Whence cometh such a thought?"

  Gregory shook his head. "An thou didst know, thy face would not show such concern. "

  "Thou seest too quickly for my liking. "

  "Or mine, " Gregory agreed, "for if thou knowest not where they be, they are gone. "

  "What?"

  "Nay!"

  "What sayest thou!" his brothers and sister cried.

  But Gregory only shook his head. "If the Wee Folk know not where our parents be, they be not within this Land of Gramarye. "

  "Why, how dost thou riddle that?" Puck studied the boy's face.

  Gregory shrugged. " 'tis plainly seen—for what one of the Wee Folk know, all will know presently. And naught doth happen that they know not of, for there are pixies, elves, and fairies throughout the length and breadth of this kingdom, so that there lies not a square yard of ground in all our Isle of Gramarye that the Wee Folk see not. Thus if thou dost not know where our parents be, they be not in this land. "

  "But they cannot be gone!" Cordelia cried. "How should we manage without them?"

  "How should the kingdom manage?" Puck breamed, for Gramarye had many enemies that only the High Warlock and his wife kept at bay.

  "And how—how canst thou say it?" Geoffrey threw up his hands in exasperation. "How canst thou stand there with so bland a face, cheerfully consigning thy mother and father to who knows what fate?"

  "Nay!" Big brother Magnus instantly clapped an arm around Gregory and pressed him against his side. "Be not so cruel to thine own brother! Belike he's as frighted as thou… "

  "I am never frighted!"

  "Alarmed, then, " Magnus said between his teeth. "As alarmed as thou, yet brave enough not to show it. "

  "Yet I am not alarmed, neither. " Gregory looked up at his brother. "Nor am I frighted—for they have been gone aforetime, have they not? And ever they've returned. "

  They all stilled, staring at him. Then Magnus said carefully, "Thou dost remember that?"

  "Thou wast but a babe!" Cordelia burst out. "Aged scarce half a year! Nay, hardly do I recall that, myself!"

  "Nor do I. " Gregory shook his head, wide-eyed. "I have only some odd feeling that 'tis so. "

  "A me
mory, but one that lies so deeply he doth ken it not, " Puck explained. "Yet 'tis so, lad—thy parents did vanish, and thy brothers and sister with them. "

  What he did not say was that it had been baby Gregory who had anchored his family to Gramarye. They had been whisked away to another world, a land of magic, and had only been able to return because Gregory's infant mind, longing for his mother, had reached out through the emptiness between the worlds to pull them back—with a power amazing in any person, let alone a baby.

  "They did vanish, and they did return. " Gregory smiled.

  He didn't smile often. His brothers and sister found them-

  selves smiling too, even though they were nowhere nearly as certain as he was. In fact, when they stopped to think about it, a feeling of dread began to seep through them.

  Geoffrey couldn't allow that. "Out upon them!" he cried. "Seek and find!"

  Magnus and Cordelia cheered, and dashed for the door.

  "Now I cry HOLD!" Puck roared.

  They froze, with Magnus's hand on the latch. "But Puck —an our parents be strayed, 'tis our duty to seek them!"

  "'Tis thy duty to do as they have bade thee!" The elf seemed to flicker like a candle flame, and was suddenly standing with his back against the door, fists on his hips, glaring at them. "They have charged thee to stay, and obey my commands—so stay thou shalt, and stay I shall, until their return!"

  Storm clouds began to gather in the boys' faces.

  Cordelia tried reason. "They did not know they would vanish, Puck. Assuredly, then, they would have wished us to seek them. "

  "Assuredly, if their enemies have become strong enough to capture them, they would wish thee safe at home! And safe thou shalt be, guarded by legions of elves!"

  "Legions?" Gregory stared, wide-eyed.

  Then he dashed to the window, to peer out. Geoffrey was right behind him—"legions" meant an army. Cordelia and Magnus wavered, then ran for the window too.

  They stared out at an empty garden and a meadow beyond it, with the forest rising up at its far edge.

  "There's naught there!" Geoffrey cried in disappointment.

  "Nay, there is, " Puck assured them. "Thou mayest not see them, but there's not a foot of that meadow or garden that hath not its elf with his sling, or a fairy with her dart. Thou couldst wander all day, and see never a one of them—but let a stranger approach, and he'll stumble and fall, never to rise again. "

  Magnus turned slowly, his face set and expressionless. "Are they to keep us penned within, also?"

  Puck answered with a sour smile. "Credit me with some sense, warlock-ling! I know thy sister can fly away on her broomstick, and that any of thou lads can fly without one—or disappear, and reappear miles away. Nay, I'd not seek to pen thee here by force. "

  "Yet thou wilt seek to hold us, " Cordelia said quietly.

  Puck nodded. "I will hold thee by thy love of thy parents —for look you, what was their last command to thee?"

  The children were silent, scowling at the floor and scuffing their toes.

  "What did they say?" Puck demanded.

  "That we should stay, " Cordelia admitted, as though the words were dragged out of her, "and obey thee. "

  And they did obey him, all that day. Two wizened little women, scarcely a foot high, popped up to make breakfast, and two more to make dinner. It took three to make supper, though.

  And all the while, the children did their best to find things to do. They tried a game of hide and seek, but their hearts just weren't in it; Magnus just barely managed to make himself look like a little apple tree, and Gregory did so poor a job of casting his glamour that Cordelia lifted her head, saw the large toadstool next to her, and scowled. "Thou art not to hide 'round my base, Gregory! 'Tis thou must be 'it' now!"

  Freeze-tag was worse; they couldn't summon up the energy to freeze a beetle. And when they tried to play catch, Magnus's and Cordelia's minds kept wandering, so the ball would fall to the ground in the middle of a throw.

  Finally, in desperation, Puck sat them down and gave them lessons. This was bad enough while they were angry and grumbling; but it became worse when they became puzzled.

  "But, Robin—Papa says there are ninety-two elements that endure, " Cordelia said.

  Gregory nodded. "And some of those are so rare, they are never seen. "

  "Thy father!" Puck wrinkled his nose in disgust. "He, with his outlandish notions of what is real and what dreamlike! Children, reach about thee, and feel what is there! Canst thou see this 'uranium' that he speaketh of, or mis 'aluminum'? Nay! But thou canst feel the earth 'neath thy fingers, and the air blown against thy cheek as a wind! I tell thee, there be but four elements, as there have ever been—earth, water, air, and fire!"

  "Yet what is rock, then?"

  "Only earth, packed tightly. "

  "And what's a tree?"

  "Why, a thing compounded out of earth and water!"

  "And iron?"

  Puck shuddered; iron was poison to elves. "Let us speak rather of copper. Where dost thou find it? Why, where rocks are put into fire! What should it be, then, but a thing made up of earth and fire?"

  And so it went. Puck had very definite views about everything in nature, and the children began to become interested, in spite of themselves.

  "Now, there do be three trees only that do signify, " Puck lectured, "Oak, Ash, and Thorn. "

  Gregory frowned. "What of the pine?"

  "Fit only to be brought within doors, for the Yuletide. "

  "What of the holly and the ivy?"

  "The one's a bush, the other a vine. I speak of trees!"

  "What of the briar, and the rose?"

  What could Puck do then but sigh, and tell them all the tale, the sad, winding story of Fair Margaret and Sweet William, of their meeting and courtship, of his leaving her to wed another woman, and Sweet Margaret's death, and Sweet William's, and the briar and the rose sprouting from their graves, to climb to the top of the church steeple and twine in a true lover's knot.

  Cordelia sat enthralled throughout it, but the boys did begin to seem a little restless; so of course, for them, Puck had to tell the tale of the child Merlin, and his capture by the evil King Vortigem, of the tower that would not stand and the two dragons that slept under it. From there, one tale led to another, of course—of the boy Arthur, and his growing to become a king who brought peace and plenty to a strife-torn England; of Lancelot, his bravest knight, and his saving of the sweet Elaine; of their son Galahad, and his quest for the Holy Grail; and of Arthur's nephew Gawain, and the Green Knight.

  "And what of his brothers?" Geoffrey demanded. "What of Agravaine, and Gareth and Gaheris?"

  "Ah, but if thou hast heard of them aforetime, " Puck sighed, "wherefore shouldst thou need to hear of them again?"

  "Because the tale is always filled with wonder and magic!" "But most so when thou dost tell it, Robin. " Cordelia already knew the virtues of a compliment.

  So did Puck, but he puffed out his chest and grinned any-way. "Ah, but I've had such practice at the telling of them— hundreds of years! Yet the hour groweth late, and I think I smell a supper cooking. "

  Four little heads snapped up; four small noses sniffed the

  evening air. Then four voices yelped, and the boys disappeared in miniature thunderclaps. Cordelia leaped on her broomstick, and sped like an arrow toward the front door, crying, " 'Tis not fair! Thou must not commence without me!" Puck heaved a long, shaky sigh. "Eh! I've kept them busy for this one day, at least. Yet how shall I manage for the morrow?"

  But the next day took care of itself; for Cordelia awoke before the sun was up, and sprang to her window to look for her parents—and, by the cool, moist gray light that comes before dawn, she saw, in their garden, a unicorn.

  She was tall and slender, milk-white, with a golden mane and a gilded horn; and as a cry of delight welled up within Cordelia, the unicorn lifted her head and looked right into Cordelia's eyes. The girl froze in wonder.

  Then
the unicorn turned away, lowering her head to graze among Mama's flowers, and Cordelia rushed to pull on a dress, hose, and slippers, and ran out into the garden, still lacing her bodice.

  She skidded to a halt, realizing again that she might scare the unicorn away; but she had nothing to fear. The unicorn stood quietly, watching her, chewing on a mouthful of sweet clover, and Cordelia caught her breath, enchanted by its beauty.

  Then the unicorn lowered her head to the clover, and Cordelia felt saddened, because she could no longer see the great, lovely eyes. She plumped down in the grass, sitting on her heels, and pulled a patch of sweet dill from the herb-bed. She held it out in her open palm, calling softly, "Come. Oh, come, I beg thee, most beauteous one—for I long to stroke thy velvet cheek, and caress thy silken mane!"

  The unicorn turned, lifting her head, and looked right into Cordelia's eyes again. The girl watched, scarcely daring to breathe, as the unicorn came toward her slowly, one delicate step at a time, until she stood right in front of Cordelia, and slowly lowered her muzzle to accept the dill. A thrill shot through Cordelia as the unicorn's soft, gentle nose tickled her palm, and she hurried to pull some more dill with her left hand. The unicorn took that, too, staring into Cordelia's eyes. Greatly daring, she reached out slowly to rest her hand upon the muzzle. The unicorn moved her head, letting Cordelia's hand rub against her cheek, and the girl stroked the velvet

  smoothness, breathing in delight, "Oh! Thou art so beautiful!"

  The unicorn bowed her head, accepting the tribute and pawing the turf. Cordelia reached out her other hand to touch the golden mane.

  The unicorn's head snapped up, and Cordelia snatched her hand back, afraid she had offended. Then she saw that the unicorn wasn't moving away, but was staring toward the house. Following the direction of her gaze, she saw her brothers, standing together just outside the back door, wide-eyed in wonder.

  Cordelia couldn't speak aloud, for fear of frightening the unicorn; so she pressed her lips tight in anger and thought at her brothers, Thou great oafs! Begone, ere thou dost scare her away!

  She doth not seem afrighted, Magnus thought back at Cordelia, nor ought she; we come only to watch.