She patted her short white curls framing her sweet face and said, “Darling, we have guests.”
“So I see,” said the wizard as he got to his feet with a swish of his blue silk robe. He clasped Chance’s outstretched hand. “How are you, my boy? I hope you and your father are … recovering from your loss.”
“Do ye, wizard? Do ye ever recover from a loss like that?”
The wizard sighed and shook his head. “But that isn’t why you are here, is it?”
“Not directly, no,” offered the prince, who had met the wizard only briefly when he had helped them in their war with Gaiscioch.
“Ah …” he said, waving them to be seated and looking at Charm. “Will you bring us some refreshments, my dear?”
“Of course,” she said. Smoothing her hands over her flowered apron, she started for the kitchens.
He turned back to Chance. “Now, what is it you need?”
“Ye know that Trevor and I are hell-bent on catching and stopping Pestale?”
The wizard nodded. “I know, but I have wished you would do this without the need for vengeance.”
Cha
nce shrugged. “It is what it is …”
“Seeking revenge will make you careless. I believe it already has, and that is why you are here.”
Chance grimaced. “Aye, then … perhaps. I should not have let her go alone … but I was in such a hurry to get to him …”
“Her?” asked the wizard, one white thick brow up.
Chance found it difficult to smile, but he liked Rysdale and respected him. If anyone could help it would be this wizard—who had come from a dimension of wizards!
“Aye, Princess Royce,” Chance offered. “She has gone off with the devil … with Pestale, though I doona know why … but we need to get to her, and Trevor’s family Orb is hampered by the black magic. It can’t show us where she is, and then if he has taken her back in time … we have no way of getting there. She has the Peckering, ye see.”
The wizard stroked his long white beard and sat thoughtfully before he got to his feet and said, “Come with me …”
Chance and Trevor got up and followed the swooshing skirt of his long, glittering blue robe. He stopped sharply and turned, sending his cone-shaped blue hat askew; Trevor swallowed a chuckle.
The wizard’s finger went to his nose as he said, “I almost forgot—we shall need one additional thing!” So saying he went rushing off to a long, buffet-styled table and picked up a silk tapestry runner. He shook it at them. “This, this will give us the story!”
Chance and Trevor eyed one another, but as he had already started off again, they hurried to follow.
He swung open the door to what appeared to be a weapons room and led them to a cabinet on top of which rested a huge glass globe.
“My Seeker shall find them. It is immune to black magic …” He picked it up, took it to a round table, and set it down on top of the silk tapestry.
“Sit!” he told them and pulled up a high-backed, ornately carved chair. He seemed to be concentrating on the globe as he plopped onto the thick red chair cushion.
They followed suit and watched as he waved two hands around the globe and said, “Her name is Princess Royce … her essence is Seelie Fae.”
“More than,” said the soft, genderless voice of the globe. “She is Royal born … and her mother is Daoine.”
Chance’s brow went up. Daoines were the highest caste of Seelie Fae, in tune with nature, and fancied themselves ‘the keepers of nature.’ He had not known that. He looked at Trevor, who confirmed it with a nod. That was why he’d said she had many untold powers!
“What more can you tell us, Seeker?”
“She is a prisoner of her own making … in a place where time stands still,” said the voice of the globe.
“How so?”