Rick Cook - Wizardry Compiled

"Nope," Mike said. "We’re going to open a shop specializing in real-time programming and process control," Mike said.

"Yeah," Nancy added. "After this gig anything is gonna be easy." She looked over at Judith. "We were hoping to get you to join us, but I guess not."

"Oh, all this talking about leaving reminds me," Moira said. "Will you excuse me, My Ladies, My Lord?"

"You will be here to see us off, won’t you?"

"Oh yes," Moira said. "But there is one other detail that must be attended to. Please excuse me." She grasped Judith’s hands in hers. "And good luck."

"My Lords, Ladies, may I have your attention for a moment?"

Heads turned toward the dais where Moira was standing alone. "While you are all gathered here, and before you depart, there is one other denizen of our World we wish you to meet."

She gestured toward the side of the stage and a demon lurched out from behind the curtains. Nearly everyone in the room, programmers and wizards alike, gasped.

It was twelve feet tall, horned and fanged, with a barbed tail sticking out from underneath the jacket of its pin-striped suit. Its forest green skin contrasted vividly with its dark purple shirt and its stark white tie. Under one arm it carried a violin case big enough to hold a bull fiddle.

Moira smiled sweetly. I am certain you all remember the non-disclosure agreement you signed when you took this job?"

The programmers gulped and nodded.

"This is Guido," Moira said. "He is our contract enforcer."

Guido favored the group with a smile that showed all three rows of dagger-like teeth.

Nobody said anything.

"Naturally we will insist on strict observance of the non-disclosure clause," Moira said and smiled sweetly again.

"Can that thing reach us when we get home?" Karl whispered to Jerry.

"You want to find out?"

Karl thought a minute. "No, not really."

Neither of them said anything as the demon clumped back behind the curtain.

"Boy, that’s one way to get everyone’s attention," Karl said.

Jerry scanned the room, counting people with his forefinger. "Not everyone. Danny’s missing."

"The little twerp’s probably late as usual."

"Hey, Fox," Jerry called across the room. "Where’s Danny?"

Larry shrugged. "I dunno. He collected his money and split."

"Well, if he doesn’t get back here soon he’s going to miss the bus. Damn! I’d better go find him."

Moira had come up to Jerry at the end of the exchange. "No, My Lord, you stay here. I will go find him."

Danny turned out to be in the first place Moira checked, which was his room. He was wearing an open-throated collarless shirt, light leather jerkin and trousers tucked into high soft boots. He was stuffing his belongings into a leather traveler’s pack. June stood next to him, so close he nearly bumped into her every time he turned to take more things form the cupboard.

"That is hardly appropriate for your world," Moira said, eyeing his clothing.

"I’m not going back," Danny said defiantly. "I’m going to stay here." June stood close and squeezed his hand hard.

Moira looked hard at June. She had a definite glow about her that meant only one thing to the hedge witch’s trained eye.

"You are pregnant!" she said accusingly.

June smiled shyly and nodded.

"You see," Danny said triumphantly. "I can’t go back."

Fortuna! Moira thought, didn’t the little ninny have enough sense to take precautions?

"You cannot stay, either. How to you plan to support yourself—and your family?"

"I’m staying," he said gruffly. "Here at the keep or someplace else, but there’s nothing back there for me. And I can work. It’s not like I’m lazy or anything.

"Look," he went on, almost pleading. "Wiz is going to need help, right? I mean like there’s still a shitload of stuff to do. Well, I can help him."

Moira realized she was completely out of her depth.

"I think we had better talk to Wiz about this," she said finally. "I don’t think he is going to like it."

Wiz didn’t like it. He scowled through the whole recitation, or as much as you can scowl while you’re eating an apple. When Danny finally ran down he continued to scowl and kept on eating. Then he tossed the core of that apple away, selected another one from the bowl and took a hefty bite out of it while he tried to think. Danny stood silent and held one of June’s hands in both of his, as if he were afraid she would vanish if he let go.

"Won’t there be trouble if you don’t go back?" Wiz asked at last.

Danny shook his head vigorously. "Nah. My dad doesn’t want anything to do with me since I dropped out of school and my mom’s remarried. I’m over eighteen, so what could they do anyway?"

"You realize that if you don’t go back now it may be a long time before you get another chance?"

"I don’t want to go back. I want to say here with June."

Wiz thought for about as long as it took him to finish the apple.

"Leave us alone for a few minutes, will you?"

The couple left the room, still joined at the fingers.

"What do you think?" Wiz asked as soon as the door closed behind them.

Jerry shrugged. "I don’t know how much help he’d be, but I don’t think it would be a problem to have him around. He’s got more sense than most hackers his age." He caught the look in Moira’s eye. "Programming sense," he amended.

"Moira?"

"I doubt it will last. Both are children in more than just years and neither has a strong family upbringing. Still, they deserve the chance to try and I am not sure what June would do if they were parted forcibly." She looked at Wiz. "It has to be your decision, Lord. Ultimately you would be the one responsible for him."

Wiz grabbed another apple from the bowl and took two bites. "I’d just as soon he went back. He’s got potential, but sometimes he’s so obnoxious I want to kick his ass from one end of the castle to the other." He sighed. "On the other hand, I don’t like playing the ogre by separating them and he sure can’t take her back to Cupertino." He stood silent for a moment, chewing reflectively.

"Okay, if we can paper this over so he’s not missed, I guess he can stay." He looked sharply at Moira. "What’s wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"You’ve got that look in your eye."

"Oh, nothing," Moira said. "It is just that I got an odd feeling…" She shook herself. "No, nothing at all."

Wiz knew better than to pursue that. "All right, bring them back in here."

"Okay," Wiz said as he faced the pair. "You can stay. If," he waggled a finger at Danny. " If we can arrange this so you won’t be missed. You can’t just drop out of sight."

"That’s easy," Danny said. "I’ll write my mom a letter telling her I’ve taken a long-term contract overseas." He grinned. "That’s even true. Then I’ll throw in a couple of more letters to be mailed on her birthday and stuff. That way she won’t worry and we’ll just gradually lose touch."

Wiz wondered what Danny’s mother would make of getting letters on parchment, but he decided not to ask.

"All right. Get those letters written and get them back here before it is time to leave. We’ll see they get sent."

"I hope I’m not going to regret this," Wiz said after the pair raced out of the room.

"I wouldn’t lay you odds," Jerry told him.

Again the programmers—less two—gathered in a tight knot inside the circle inscribed on the chantry floor. As the sundial’s shadow shortened, they chattered among themselves and called goodbyes to the friends who had come to see them off. Wiz, Moira and Jerry stood on the dais next to Bal-Simba and waved back until the shadow reached its mark and the wizard motioned them to silence.

Once again the six-part chant welled up and the air shimmered and twisted about the group in the center of the room. The voices grew stronger and the people grew fainter until at last there was nothing but emptiness where they had been. The chant itself died away and nothing was left but the echoes.