A Threat of Shadows by JA Andrews

really a wizard?” Alaric asked, his voice pitched low so Gustav couldn’t hear.
    “I think so.” Brandson wrinkled his brow. “At least he tells an awful lot of stories about his magical skills. I have seen him start a fire with just a word.”
    Manipulating energy to light a fire wasn’t difficult. The old man might have some minimal talent. Maybe a touch more than the average street magician who could often sense energy without being able to manipulate it.
    “And those two?” Alaric asked, looking at the dwarf and the elf who were haggling over the color of a blackberry.
    “Black,” Douglon said, “it’s a blackberry.”
    “The berry is purple. And there is a hint of gold,” Ayda said.
    “Gold? Let me see.”
    Smiling triumphantly, she handed it to him.
    Douglon popped the berry in his mouth. “Tastes black.”
    Ayda glared at his mouth for a moment as though she might reach in and get the berry back. Then she shrugged. “I’ll find more. I wonder if they will all have gold in them?”
    Brandson let out a laugh. “I found Ayda when I was hunting. She was wandering through the forest chatting with trees. I had never seen an elf before, so I invited her to my home for a meal. She agreed, which surprised me. I didn’t think elves bothered with humans.”
    Alaric watched Ayda scampering along the bushes next to the road. “They usually don’t. I’m not only surprised she came to your home, I’m surprised that she would travel with you on a trip as long as this. She isn’t anxious to get home?”
    Brandson shook his head. “No. And it’s not just this trip. Ayda’s been staying at my smithy for almost three months. She does leave every once in a while, but then she shows back up again.”
    Three months? Elves that had come to the capital to meet with Saren were unhappy if they were out of the Greenwood for three days.
    Brandson watched Ayda for a moment. “I think she left her family, but I don’t know why. As far as I know, that is unusual for an elf.”
    It wasn’t unusual. It was unheard of. The elves shared a communal life force. If something were urgent enough, an elf would leave the Greenwood, but they always hurried back. Some Keepers went as far as to believe that isolating an elf would lead to its death.
    “She’s been with you that long? Elves never form attachments to anyone but other elves.”
    Brandson shrugged. “She’s become friends with us.”
    Alaric looked closely at the elf, wondering if Brandson was bestowing her feelings with a name they didn’t deserve.
    “I met Douglon that same day. Ayda and I discovered him in the woods on our way back home. He was standing in a clearing, pouring over a map. He hid it as soon as he noticed me. I approached him first, in case he was hostile, but he was nice enough. Especially when he saw my hunting knife.”
    Alaric glanced down at the knife on Brandson’s belt. He looked closer. “Is that dwarf-made?”
    “No, I made it, but I modeled it after the dwarfish blades. Douglon was intrigued. I invited him to my forge to see my work, and he accepted. But when Ayda stepped out of the trees, he almost left. Said his beard would fall out if he had to listen to the prattling of an elf for an entire meal.
    “It was the most serious I’d seen Ayda all day. She told him he was in need of a bath. It turns out Douglon is proud of his hygiene. Her words almost sent him into a frenzy.
    “I managed to calm the two and remind them that as my guests they would do well to respect my friends. They agreed, but it was a tense walk back. Part way through dinner, though, we had a breakthrough. Douglon, who’d had several pints of ale, confided to us that he possessed a treasure map. But he’d gotten himself stuck since he was unable to interpret the runes on the map.”
    Alaric was part fascinated, part alarmed. His augmenta spell might have worked too well. He had only wanted the blacksmith to feel comfortable, but if Brandson started spilling