Son of the Hero

"Morning already?" Resler asked, staring blankly. He didn't notice that he was sopping wet, or who was in his room, or anything. He yawned wide.

"What the hell's going on?" I demanded, almost shouting in my effort to shock his brain awake. It didn't work.

"What's going on?" he asked back, dreamy. His eyes started to droop shut again.

"Lesh, see if you can find coffee. Or whiskey if there's no coffee brewing." He nodded and left.

"Wake up, Baron." This time I did shout. A

"What's going on?" he asked, a little more coherently.

"That's what I want to know," I said, still speaking loudly. "Why won't anyone wake up?"

"I don't know. I was sleeping so peacefully." Resler seemed to be speaking at about half speed, and ru

"You're back already? We thought it would take another week."

"Another week? I've been gone almost three weeks now!"

Resler shook his head slowly, then stopped. His eyes opened a little wider. "It can't be more than three or four days."

I was getting confused. First I was told that I had been gone twice as long as I thought, then that I had just left. I watched Resler as he continued to come awake. It was incredibly, impossibly slow going.

"Where's my uncle, the wizard?" I asked when Resler looked as if he was finally getting his act together.

Resler's eyebrows moved toward each other. "We have a problem,' he said slowly. "Something came over us." Very slowly now. "It hit the town first. The elflord…"

"What about Parthet?"

"He was-he was trying to find a way to fight-to fight the sleepiness." Resler started to sag, falling asleep again almost in the middle of a word.

"Wake up!" I screamed. His eyelids rose. He stared at me bleary-eyed.

"I wasn't." He blinked several times. "I was." He stood, moving like an arthritic scarcely able to bend his joints.

"What about Parthet?" I asked again.

"He's here somewhere." Resler started pacing slowly. "I can't think. My head's all fuzzy."

"Harkane, find Parthet. Take one of the men with you." Our six soldiers were standing in the hall outside the Baron's room. I sent four of them to the great hall to start waking the garrison. I warned them how hard it would be. I kept the last soldier at the baron's door.

All of the assurances that the elflord's offensive magics didn't work well outside Fairy weren't worth dragon's crap. Xayber had at least one dandy trick that was working all too well. Why worry about killing your enemies in battle or frying them with lightning or whatever if you can just put them to sleep and waltz in to slit their throats at leisure? That thought ripped a growl from my throat and a quick glance at A

A

"There's nobody awake in the kitchens either," Lesh reported. "Cooking fires are stone cold. Rotten meat hanging in the larder. Looks like they've been snoozing for ages."

"No coffee?"

"I started a fire and put coffee on to boil. It'll be ready soon, but I thought this'd help." Boiled coffee. No wonder it all tasted so bitter.

A

"I found the wizard! On the battlements, standing like a statue, arms up, staring at the sky!"

I started ru

17 – Perchance to Dream

Parthet wasn't alone on the battlements of the keep. There was also a sentry walking his circuit, a soldier who wasn't completely asleep, though he did seem to be in a trance, sleepwalking. The sentry didn't even notice the bunch of us who charged up the stairs and surrounded Parthet until he had walked another complete circuit, and even then he scarcely reacted. He simply detoured around us.

Parthet looked in bad shape. He was rigid, "like a statue." He was standing with his feet spread, head tilted back, arms extended upward at full reach, not even trembling-like Charlton Heston holding open the Red Sea before Yul Bry

"He's locked in a duel with the Elflord of Xayber," I said. That was all the explanation the people who had been with me in Fairy needed.

I had to do something. The idea of butting in and facing the elflord again turned my stomach. I was scared, and I couldn't hide that, not from myself. But I couldn't hesitate either. I took the elf sword in hand, got in front of Parthet, and touched my rings to his. There was another surge of electricity and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My teeth ached and I felt as if the skin on my face had tightened up about three sizes. Parthet slumped and disappeared from my view.

And I was facing the elflord on that featureless gray plain again. This time, I didn't wait for him to start the game.

"You try my patience!" I said, with genuine anger and all the phony confidence I could muster to hide my fear. "This man is mine, and this place. Leave while you may."

It was all bluff and bluster. I don't think I've ever felt half as arrogant as I tried to sound. I held Dragon's Death between us and took a couple of steps toward the image of the elflord. The face that looked back at me showed no emotion. I did have one advantage, maybe a couple. First, there was little chance now that I would be vulnerable to anything like the fall-on-your-sword ploy. I had seen it before and I wouldn't be taken by surprise again. Just keep a tight rein on your head, I told myself. And the second advantage: I was outside his realm now. I wasn't quite as certain of that one.

I also wasn't sure how long I could maintain this bluff. I brought my hands together so the rings touched, closed my eyes, and turned my back on the elflord. When I opened my eyes, I was back at Arrowroot. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Are you all right?" A

I looked around the battlements while I felt myself out. "I think so. Where's Parthet?"

"Lesh and Harkane carried him downstairs. He's in trouble, Gil." There seemed to be real concern in her voice, and that surprised me. It was also the first time she had called me by name. "Was it really the elflord?"

I nodded. "There was no duel this time. I broke the contact." Okay, I was bragging a little, but more than that, I was wondering what was in the painkiller I had been taking to give me that kind of gall. "How long did it take?"

"Only a couple of minutes."

Long enough for Lesh and Harkane to carry Parthet off the battlements, at least. "See if you can learn anything from this guard," I said. He was still walking his post, paying no attention to anything but getting one foot in front of the other. "I've got to get downstairs to see to Uncle Parthet."

Lesh had ousted Baron Resler's chief functionary from bed, literally, to make room for Parthet. The steward didn't seem to mind. He was sound asleep on the floor, out of the way. I checked Parthet over. His pulse was weak and erratic, his face pale but sweating, and I could scarcely see any movement of his chest as he breathed. He needed a top-notch urban trauma center-with a resident witch doctor.