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 memory, 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.