Angry Lead Skies

"You know, I still ache all over anytime I sit still for very long. I don't want to be a detective anymore today. And when I get up tomorrow I just want to be an accountant trying to figure out how to make sure we get paid for all of this. Can they read and write?"

I do not know. And now I can no longer see inside Evas' head without hammering my way in. For some reason she has begun to suspect that someone here might be able to read her mind. You would not have any notion why she might suspect that, would you?

I shrugged. It didn't seem likely, did it?

I'm not usually much concerned about money—as long as I've got some. I was growing concerned because of this mess, though. We were spending and spending and spending to hire help and buy food and there seemed to be an ever smaller likelihood of us managing any return on investment. Kip was back home with his family. The silver elves seemed to have lost interest in him. After the country confrontation, they all knew that he couldn't finger Lastyr and Noodiss.

But Old Bones was having him one hell of a good time, I could tell. This thing was the most fun he'd had in years. It was something new. These two weird women, Evas and Fasfir, were, to him, as exciting and alluring as was my friend Katie to me.

I said, "This's the least violent, least traditional thing we've ever been into. I'm not comfortable with it at all. The stakes are trivial and these silver elves are too alien for me to find very interesting."

Perhaps you will feel differently in the morning. Try considering the stakes from a viewpoint not your own. I will be doing that myself now that I have the mind time free. One obvious avenue of exploration is the possible dangers the Lords of the Hill fear.

"Those old paranoids are only scared because they think the whole world is infested with people as cruel and wicked and mean-spirited as they are."

True. But that does not render them automatically wrong in every instance. They can be afraid in a huge way because it is possible for them to have huge enemies to make life terrible, not just for them but for us all. Just one of these silver elves needs to be wicked and willing to use their weird but powerful sorcery against us.

He was right about that. Those people controlled some very strange powers.

He was right about me feeling differently in the morning, too—for reasons entirely unrelated to any remotely within his consideration at the time.

64

I wakened suddenly, thinking those pixies had to go. But they were quiet. Instead, there was a weak light burning and I wasn't alone in my bed. When I turned to tell Singe, yet again, that this couldn't happen, a spidery gray finger fell upon my lips. Another spidery finger touched a large eye, then tapped my temple.

Oh, boy. What was this? The silver elf woman, Evas, knelt on the edge of my bed. She'd seen that naughty image after all. And she'd brought a sheaf of papers with her. I recognized them. They'd all been in my office, on my desk, before I'd come upstairs.

Evas could read and write Karentine. And she'd been a busy little scribbler.

She placed the papers in my hands. The top sheet said, simply, Teach me.

She removed that raggedy, short shirt. And again placed a finger on my lips when I started to tell her to go away.

That petite form definitely did have its appeal, suddenly. I couldn't resist wondering about its possibilities.

Later I would wonder if there was any chance my thoughts had been guided from outside.

Evas moved the top sheet of paper to the bottom of the stack.

Followed a story of an extremely ancient people who, ages ago, had decided to set aside the insidious and constant distortions of the intellect that are caused by the stormy demands of sexual reproduction.

I could relate to that. Some would claim that I'm intellectually distorted most of the time. I confess freely that I'd be much more respectable and much less emotionally vagrant if the gods hadn't seen fit to bless and curse the rest of us with women.

Evas declared herself a despicable throwback who suffered wicked urges and curiosities all the time. She'd fought those successfully until now only because she'd always been surrounded by people who wouldn't let her get into situations where she might embarrass herself.

Here, tonight, she had an opportunity to pursue the curiosities that were driving her mad. And her people would never be the wiser.

Chances were excellent that such an opportunity would never come to her again.

She knew the mechanics. She'd taken advantage of her ability to move around unseen to indulge her curiosity intellectually. They all had. She was the only one who hadn't been repelled.

Back to sheet one and Teach me.

Hers was a whole new, entirely intellectual approach to the art of seduction. Backed up by what my rude senses could gather of her mental state. Evas wasn't kidding. And in that weak light she looked far more exotic and desirable than weird.

I had fallen into every red-blooded boy's favorite daydream.

At some point Evas took time out to use a thin fingertip to trace letters on my skin to pass me the message, "I will not break." She wanted me to know that she wasn't nearly as fragile as she looked.

65

"Good morning, Sunshine," Dean told me, nudging me to let me know he'd brought my tea. I was half-asleep at the breakfast table, unable to stop gri

I grunted.

"Odd. You're smiling. And you got to bed at a reasonable hour for once. But you're as crabby as a mountain boozelt."

"Them damned pixies. They never shut up. All night long."

He didn't challenge me. That could only mean that he didn't know any better.

Singe appeared, obviously having been up since the crack of dawn. She was chipper, though possibly more conspiratorial than ever. She was pleasant to me. Nor was I getting any grief from the Dead Man.

When Evas turned up she was coolly indifferent to everything but some tea heavily sweetened with honey. She was exactly as she had been yesterday except, possibly, for projecting a somewhat more resigned attitude toward her captivity. Her sidekick Fasfir, though equally cool, presented a puzzle. She kept looking at me the way you might regard a twenty-foot python you found coiled atop the kitchen table: repelled, wary, awed, maybe a little intrigued and excited.

Still nothing from the Dead Man.

That must've been one hell of a dream I'd had. Especially since it'd reawakened all my aches and pains and had added a few that were new.

Evas might be willing to let me think it had been all a dream spawned by my wicked imagination but I noted, with some satisfaction, that she moved very carefully and did so mainly when she thought no one was paying attention. Fasfir noticed, though.

So. She knew.

My grin spread a little wider.

"What evil thought just burst into your mind?" Singe demanded. There was an actual teasing edge to her voice.

"Nothing special. Just a warm memory."

Once I finished eating, and began to feel a little more awake, I moved to my office. I was feeling positive and eager to get things done. But before I could start I had to go round up a pile of missing paperwork.

During the course of the morning, various people came by the house. Most wanted money. Playmate was effusive with gratitude but didn't bring one copper sceat to defray the costs of my efforts to salvage his mado