Wood Sprites(112)
“You’ll have to be careful on Elfhome not to blow it with anything metal in your hands—that could twist the magic and the results could be bad,” Louise warned. “Here is a list of gossamer commands we’ve pieced together from analyzing video. It’s kind of like morse code. We’re guessing on these, so don’t take them as God’s word.”
“Thank you so very much. I never expected Lemon-Lime to be two little girls. You didn’t come here all by yourself, did you? You have someone…?”
“Our parents,” Louise said.
“They’re here?” Nigel glanced toward the door.
Louise jumped a little. “Someplace.”
“But they don’t know about our videos!” Jillian said.
“They don’t?” Nigel looked concerned.
“They’re super protective and they were afraid that if we posted our videos, we’d pick up creepy stalkers. They’re not very computer smart, so they didn’t believe we could stay anonymous. We knew that if we were careful, no one could trace our posts back to us, so we—kind of—went around them.”
Like Anna Desmarais probably would. Louise cringed inwardly.
“So they don’t know how popular you are?”
“No! ” the twins cried.
“We didn’t even know,” Jillian grumbled. “We apparently use the Internet in a much different way than the average person. We know about all the social media but we don’t hit those sites.” Until recently, they didn’t have anyone to be social with. “We do research.” Hack into secure sites. “And post our videos.”
Embarrassed, Louise turned the conversation back to the whistle. “The elves seemed to be exploiting instinctual behavior with the gossamer call. Elves have stated that the wargs bioengineered for war. If the elves found a way to make sound trigger certain responses in all animals, then this whistle might effect anything they’ve created.”
“So it works on wargs?” Nigel tried the various finger positions.
“We think it will, but the commands and reactions aren’t going to be the same as for the gossamer. You would have to use trial and error and that could be dangerous.”
Nigel suddenly lifted the call and blew on it.
“No!” both the girls cried.
Joy appeared perched on Nigel’s shoulder. She was smeared in frosting. “Who’s there?” She leaned in close to peer nose to nose at the man who had gone still with surprise. “Cake?” She held out a fistful of white cake.
“Oh, you bottomless pit!” Louise cried and reached up to pry her carefully from Nigel’s shoulder. “What have you done?”
“So hungry!” Joy crammed the cake into her mouth. “Nom, nom, nom.”
“We fed you before we came.” Jillian tried to wipe the frosting off Nigel’s shoulder but only smeared it more.
“Cake yummy!” Joy licked her hands.
Nikola, who had been watching the door intently, suddenly announced, “Tut, tut it looks like rain.”
“Nikola! ” the twins cried.
“But-but-but mother is coming!” Nikola cried and then grumbled. “Silly old bear.”
Both girls yipped in fear and they hurriedly opened up Tesla’s storage and shoved Joy into it.
Jillian pointed fiercely at Nigel. “You saw nothing!”
Nigel blinked for a moment and then said, “Yes, nothing, nothing at all.”
“She’s using her phone to track me,” Nikola whispered.
“Oh god, did she hear anything we said?” Jillian cried.
“No, I don’t think so.” Nikola was torn between looking at the door and at Nigel, who was watching with eyebrows raised. “She keeps pushing buttons on her phone and swearing. I don’t think she knows she’s already connected to my command system.”
Jillian caught Nikola by the leash. “Come on, let’s head her off. We can’t let her catch us alone in a room with a stranger.”
Louise let Jillian go on ahead. She wanted to say goodbye properly instead of tearing off like a pair of headless chickens. “It was nice to actually meet you. Be careful on Elfhome.” She didn’t know what else to say; she had never had to say goodbye like this before. “Maybe we can get together when you get back.”
“Yes, I would like that.” Nigel calmly pocketed the whistle. “I’m sorry but I have to ask: what exactly did I just not see?”
He meant Joy.
Louise blushed hotly. “We’re not sure. We—we found her in the box before Sparrow took it to Elfhome. We think there are eleven more like her still inside it. You have to save them.”