Elvendude (14 page)

"You'll need water," Samantha said, and Moira dashed out of the room, temporarily upsetting the elven pyramid blocking the door.

"You'll need more than a drink," Marbann said, looking into Adam's eyes, first one, then the other. "So far you've managed to avoid healer's shock. Next time, you may not be so fortunate." Marbann stood to his full height, and his head threatened to touch the ceiling. "I made a promise to your father that if our escape ever succeeded, as it has, I would teach you in the ways of the elves. You father said you would forget much, and now it is evident that you've forgotten more than we've bargained for. No mage would have handled that much raw power without protection."

"It seemed the thing to do," Adam said. "Niamh, are you well already?"

"I am, I am, Your Majesty. Your most capable hands have healed me completely."

Moira returned with a Flintstones jelly glass full of water, which Adam gratefully drank down. He was thirsty; when it was finished, he gave it to Moira, who went off again to refill it.

Marbann continued, "My education is a bit sparse when it comes to mage powers. However, I believe you have forgotten some basic concepts."

Adam's first reaction was to deny this—after all, wasn't he the King? Even before today he caught himself assuming he knew it all, a common trait among teenagers, elven
and
human. But he still hadn't quite recovered from healing Niamh, and if Marbann had advice to offer, he was going to listen to it.

"Will you please show me?" Adam said. Marbann seemed to bloom with the request. The big elf beamed proudly and extended his hand. Adam took it and, with some effort, got to his feet. "I have my memories, but other things, basic abilities, I've lost. I don't know how to turn myself into a human, and as you've seen, I don't know how to protect myself from my own power." He had a raging headache, he discovered when Marbann helped him to his feet. "And my head hurts."

Marbann chuckled. "That I don't doubt, young King."

"And another thing. I think I should insist that everyone should call me Adam, even if we are among ourselves. I don't feel like a king yet, and the title makes me feel distant."

"When I am through with you," Marbann said as they made their way through the living room, "you
will
feel like a king."

Someone had turned the entertainment center on, and Moira was showing Petrus how to channel-surf. The young elf held the Sony remote as if it were a live animal that would bite him, and the other elves were gazing at the screen, awestruck. Of course, they had never seen a TV before, Adam realized, much less one this big. The elves jumped when the surround-sound blasted through from a fight scene from
Terminator,
and one of them looked behind the couch, apparently looking for hunter-killers.

"Moira, maybe you should order more pizza," Adam said. "Looks like we have the makings of a party here."

"Might as well," Moira said, making herself comfortable on the couch next to Petrus. A surge of jealousy flared in Adam, then quickly subsided, knowing that Petrus was far too young for her.

"Marbann, why don't you both go out in the garage," Samantha said, taking control of the remote from Petrus, who was all too willing to surrender it. Niamh was fascinated with the techie toys all lit up on the console, and was poking at the receiver's illuminated dial. "Niamh, don't touch
anything
yet," then, to Adam, "I think I'll stay here and give our recent arrivals a crash course on the human realm with the help of cable TV. There's a big clear space out in the garage with lots of privacy."

"Which is precisely what we need," Marbann said. "Cold iron will get in the way, but I suppose now that we're in the human realm this is unavoidable." He turned to Adam. "And another thing. When I am teaching you, and only when I am teaching you, you are no longer the King, and I am not the royal subject. You are the student, and I am the master. Agreed?"

Learning, or relearning, the elven ways in a suburban garage in a human city seemed a bit ludicrous to Adam, but they were in hiding for the time being, and there was no other place. Since he never felt like a king in the first place, Marbann's conditions were easy to swallow.

Besides, if I make a mistake, I'm not likely to destroy anything valuable,
he reasoned.

"Let's go," the young King said. "Now's a good a time as any."

Adam had started keeping the two-car garage fairly tidy once he'd bought his Geo, so that it and Mom's Taurus would both fit without banging the doors. At the end toward the house was a set of aluminium shelves, the gas heater, and the hot water heater. On the shelf was a set of metric sockets, a power drill, a fire extinguisher, and a heavy-duty staple gun. Next to the shelf was a portable wooden worktable with adjustable clamps, which was handy for working on things you didn't want moving around. Then there was the smoker, a crude piece of work, made of quarter-inch steel plate. Its steel content made it too uncomfortable for either of them to use.

The garage was easily ten degrees hotter than it was outside. Adam turned on a ceiling fan, but that only stirred up the hot air.

"Do you think it's hot in here, Adam?" Marbann asked.

"It's hotter than hell in here," Adam replied, gazing at the ceiling fan forlornly. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

Marbann shook his head. "You're still thinking like a human, and this is something you must stop doing. Elves do not let their environment rule them—elves rule their environment. Granted, there are specialized problems here in the human realm. However, a hot garage is
not
one of them. Observe."

Marbann closed his eyes, and Adam felt something
change
in the garage. His ears popped as the air pressure increased, and the temperature began to drop quickly.

"It's comfortable now," Adam said. "How did you . . . ?"

Marbann continued with his work. The temperature continued to drop, until Adam saw his breath fog before him. The ceiling fan slowed, as the grease and bearings inside it became cold, and its whine was a little deeper. Frost formed on the floor, the shelves, the worktable.

"Marbann! It's cold enough in here. It's below freezing, at least!"

Marbann opened his eyes. "Cold, is it? I thought you said it was too hot."

"Well, it was, but now . . ." He ran his finger along the wall, leaving a line in the frost. "Is this how you like it? Cold enough to freeze your  . . ."

Marbann was grinning wickedly. "If you don't like the temperature, then
you
change it to your liking." He folded his arms. "Well. I'm waiting."

"I don't know how to do that," he said. "You've got to show me. . . ." He began to shiver, and he hugged himself against the cold.
It's got to be ten degrees in here!

"I'll do no such thing. At least, not directly. You healed a rather nasty wound in there. With no training, I might add. Bringing the temperature up a few degrees in here is nothing compared to that."

"But I
had
to do something! He might have died."

"Precisely. So tell me, how
did
you heal Niamh in there? Tell me quickly. Or don't tell me at all. I can wait all day."

Adam didn't like this one bit. Marbann had suddenly turned the tables and was toying with him, like he was a child.
Compared to him, I am a child. I should go along with this, I guess. . . . 

"I reached inside, and it, well, just happened."

"Then make it happen again. It's not getting any warmer in here."

Marbann was right—it wasn't. The older elf was still making the temperature go down. The ends of Adam's nose and ears were getting numb.

"We're going to freeze in here!"

Marbann smirked, which, despite the cold, made Adam's blood boil. "No,
you
are going to freeze in here. I'm doing just fine, thank you."

He's making a fool out of me, that's what he's doing! He doesn't like the idea of my being King, and he resents it, and now he's playing with me. Damn him. . . .

Adam hardly noticed his own clenched fists, clutched at his sides, as the anger boiled up within him. Then, something began to happen. He visualized his anger, imagined it turning to heat. He sensed Marbann letting go of the situation, the older elf's expression turning from ridicule to anticipation.

"That's it," Marbann whispered. "It's like grabbing a rope and then pulling on it. But if you pull too hard, it comes free, and you have to start all over again."

As the temperature stabilized at what had to be around seventy, Adam let go of the "rope" and looked at Marbann expectantly.

"Well? How did I do?"

"You did fine," Marbann said, "though I have to admit that I set you up."

Adam tested the floor, finding it damp from the recently melted frost, but safe to walk on. "What did you do?"

"Anger is one of the primal emotions of our kind, and of the humans, as well. It is an emotion that protects, and defends. Magic-using is also instinctive, but since it's been blocked for so long in you, I had to get to it a different way, through emotion."

Adam reached for the power, now closer, accessible. It was like a recently hatched eagle, young and awkward, but no longer sealed off by its shell.

Marbann went on to the next lesson: shields
.
Adam had a bit more trouble with these, mostly because of the distance between him and the nodes, which were miles away. But once he established the link between himself and their prized power source, the shields went up practically by themselves.

"These shields are malleable and can be concentrated on certain sides, depending on the direction of the attack. For example," Marbann said, standing in the center of the garage, "like this." When he closed his eyes, the shield formed around him, a humanoid block of blurry ice that reminded Adam of a cubist painting. The shield contracted, then appeared to melt from behind and reform before him.

"If you are certain your enemy is nowhere behind you, you can concentrate your shield elsewhere." Marbann's voice had changed timbre and sounded like he was speaking through a long metal tube once the shield was up.

Adam tried several times before he successfully copied the move, first forming the full shield, then focusing the energy on a flat area before him.

"The shield, in this state, is much stronger and will withstand more from your opponent," Marbann said. "The disadvantage, of course, is that your arse is vulnerable. Now. I'd like to demonstrate a helpful aid, commonly referred to as
bridging.
"

Adam glanced over at Marbann, who seemed to be tapping into the nodes as well. The King felt the subtle change in the flow he was receiving.

"Even an experienced mage cannot use the full potential of power in a node cluster the size of this one." His mood turned visibly dark. "This is how Zeldan seized our nodes. Instead of his best mage taking on the nodes alone, they spread the power out over several mages. This formed a web which, when focused on a specific point, generated levin bolts of horrendous strength." The teacher paused before continuing. "It was one of these bolts that killed your father."

The King said nothing in reply, instead focusing on extinguishing the new anger that surfaced. His shield flickered during the brief lapse in concentration.

"Bridging can be useful, then," Adam said, when he'd regained some of his composure. "With the help of my people, I shall return the favor to Zeldan."

Marbann bowed, a signal for Adam to do the same, and dropped his shields. The protective fields evaporated, and Adam's teacher came into sharp focus once again.

They went on to the next lesson: offense. Marbann began with the basic attacks, starting with paralyzing moves reminding Adam of Vulcan neck pinches, moving up to the more lethal weapons of their magical armory.

"The energy for levin bolts comes from the same source as shields. The main difference is that the bolts are highly concentrated in a tight area and are focused outward. As you are a mage, your capacity is greater than the average elf, but it will, like everything else, take time to master." Without concentrating much on what he was doing, Adam tried to randomly generate a bolt; too late, he realized he had given the blast nowhere specific to go.

"Adam, no,
wait.
. ." Marbann began, but it had already begun. Adam felt node energy race from the souls of his feet through his body and blast from his palm. Marbann ducked as the searing white arc flared past his head and plowed into the metal shelves against the garage wall. The blast threw them both sprawling backward; Marbann fell into the wall, and Adam landed gracelessly on his rear end.

Adam sat on the floor, dazed, an eerie silence having fallen on the garage. With Marbann's assistance, Adam crawled to his feet, and his hearing gradually returned, the blast having temporarily robbed him of it.

"What are you two boys doing out here?" Samantha admonished from the garage doorway, hands on her hips, evidently trying to look angry. The grin on her elven features gave her away.

"Nothing to worry about, my lady," Marbann said quickly, as Adam brushed dust off his jeans. "Just a little levin bolt practice."

"I'll say," she said. "It's past nine. Here in the human realm, we can't make noise that attracts attention to us, much less noise that occurs at this hour. I might be able to cover for us once or twice if my coworkers at the police department show up, but if this becomes a habit, it might look a little weird."

"Yes, my lady," Marbann said. "Perhaps we should take a rest from tonight's practice and resume tomorrow?"

"Marbann, that is a
splendid
idea," Samantha agreed. "There's something inside here I'd like to show you."

In the kitchen, Adam found Moira cutting hair with a pair of ceramic scissors she carried around in her purse for emergencies. Niamh sat at one of the informal dining room chairs with a pink flowered bed sheet around his neck, scowling most unhappily about the whole thing. Several hues of elven hair lay at their feet.

"Marbann, you're next," Moira commanded, snipping the scissors in his direction. "You need something a little more human."