Elfish by Julie Steimle (librera reader txt) 📖

of leaves and spider webs, apparently. And though she had blankets, they were more like downy sleeping bags. The far window was broken.

“Oh no…” Robin murmured.

Daniel walked over to see what he was looking at. In Robin’s hands were long curly strands of hair, sheered off by the looks of it, with scissors. A thousand things ran through Daniel’s mind. One was that elf hair, just like werewolf hair, was cherished in witch potions. It gave witches influence over various things, one of which was slowing aging—a vain thing really. But also, there was a legend that an elf could be controlled if you owned a sufficient amount of their hair. It was a dangerous thing to do, as elves would trick you out of that possession, then kill you in retribution.

“They dropped some,” Daniel murmured, realizing what the witches were there for.

“She’ll chase them down and kill them if she can,” Robin said, clutching the hair to his chest.

Nodding, Daniel detected noise coming into the apartment. He drew his sword—one which he always kept hidden in a special sheathe which magically concealed it from metal detectors and eyes. In walked that blonde.

Quickly muttering words, eyes fixed on them, especially Robin, the blonde pulled out something from a bag.

But Daniel grabbed his red crystal and set his sword aflame. 

The blonde yelped. Whatever she threw caught fire and never reached them. Seeing that, she ran for the door.

They chased her down.

Robin seized her. Daniel sheathed his sword and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from another hidden satchel and latched one on her wrist.

She shrieked. “Up here! Help me!”

Robin slapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t make me want to break your neck.”

“Why don’t you become something scary?” Daniel said, cuffing her other wrist behind her back.

“Like what? A giant spider?” Robin said. He eyed her, “Or more like an ROUS?”

Daniel raised his eyebrow at him.

“A what?” the girl snapped, looking at Robin as if he were a lunatic.

“A rodent of unusual size,” Daniel murmured with chuckle, shoving her to a dirt covered chair.

She shot then both an odd look.

“What? I like that movie,” Robin said. “Not a totally bad adaptation from the book.”

“Are you for real?” the blonde snapped at him, not quite recognizing him as she had not met this shape of Puck.

In ran two more women. One was the matron. The other, Daniel did not know. He wondered where the redhead was. Both women muttered spells.

Daniel grasped his red crystal and set their hands on fire.

Screaming, they staggered to leave the apartment. But the plants had already shut the door on Puck’s silent command. The plants had even spread over it. They stared at it, looking to the window next, but the living plants shut the curtains.

Quenching the fire, Daniel fixed his gaze on them. “Try anything, and I’ll torch your hair next.”

All three women whimpered, eyes raking over him and their blistered hands.

The blonde in the chair swore. “Holy Seven my a—”

Robin whopped a hand over her mouth. He looked to Daniel. “What do you want to do, my pyro friend?”

Rolling his eyes, always resenting the implication that he was pyromaniac, Daniel said to the witches, “What did you do to the Elf?”

Cradling their blistered hands, those witches said, “What do you think?”

Bristling, Robin snapped, “Stole hair is what!”

They laughed. It was an ugly sound—not so much a cackle as pure spite and mockery.

“We’re providing this town a service,” the matron from the pair of witches said. “All we were doing was getting her out of the house.”

“It isn’t about her hair,” the other added.

Yet something in Daniel’s pocket vibrated. He shook his head. “That’s a lie. I know for a fact elf hair is key ingredient in a lot of potions.”

They snarled at him, eyes fixed with rage.

The blonde bit Robin’s fingers.

“OW!” Robin pulled back his hands, sucking on them. With one throbbing hand, he whopped her on the head, not quite hurting her—yet.

“What are you even doing here?” the blonde snapped. “You’re really not here to help these people. If you were, the Seven would have come long ago.”

Hunching down to meet her face to face, Daniel said, “Previous Sevens did not know she was here.”

“Or maybe they were avoiding her,” she snapped.

A shiver went down Daniel’s back. Admittedly, previous Sevens left elves alone if they were not wreaking havoc… and this one was just being a nuisance. However, was it possible some Sevens before knew she was their elf and steered clear?

He peeked to the blonde. “So… you know she is our patron elf?”

She shuddered, eyes widening. She looked to the others. They also looked panic stricken.

“You didn’t know.” Daniel looked to Robin. “Ok. So… We are the first to figure out where she ended up. The question is, where did she go?”

“And when will she come back?” Robin added sorely, nursing his bitten finger still.

The witches snickered.

Daniel did not like that. There was definitely something else going on. 

“Funny, huh?” Daniel clenched his crystal in his hand tighter. “What else is going on?”

“We’re not going to help you,” the three witches said, almost in chorus.

Robin looked to Daniel, panicked.

“It is going to play out exactly as planned. We don’t care if we die,” they said. “You can’t stop it.”

Witches were insufferable. He had had his fill of them. Daniel shook his head. “No. You don’t decide for us. Robin?”

Nodding, Robin Goodfellow looked in earnest to him, eager to help.

“Can you follow her? Find out where she is going?”

Nodding again, Robin clenched the hair tighter to his chest. “I can. I won’t be as fast, but I can. I know her better than anyone.” He immediately shook down into a gorgeous barn owl, which startled all of them there except for Daniel who had seen this shape before. Puck-the-owl flew out through the broken window in the bedroom.

“No more elf to protect you—” the blonde murmured, like one thinking they now had the advantage. What a ditz.

“I don’t need an elf to protect me,” Daniel said. He then enacted one spell Silvia had taught him—one which created a circle of fire around them all—snapping the fingers of his left hand in symbol pattern.

The women screamed, backing from the flames around them as they burst upward, licking the ceiling. It did not affect the building at all. Just them. Of course, Daniel also remained unaffected.

“That’s witchcraft!” one shrieked, practically accusing him of stealing it.

“Sit down!” Daniel ordered, drawing his sword again.

They hastily sat on the floor.

He paced, thinking. “Alright… so the townspeople hired you to get rid of the Elf. It is only going to be temporary. She will come back.”

“That’s what you think!” snapped the matron.

Daniel shot her a dirty look. “She used to be a goddess. For that matter, she was a destroying angel once. Do you actually think your pitiful spells will have any lasting effect on her?”

They exchanged looks. Something in their eyes told him they knew, somewhat. But perhaps were willing to take this extremely dangerous risk for some sort of gain. It wasn’t just about the hair. But the hair was part of it.

“Damn,” Daniel muttered. “I need to text the Zombie on this.”

“Zombie?” the cuffed blonde in the chair said. “You work with zombies too? What kind of Holy Seven are you? Not very holy, that’s for certain.”

Daniel shrugged, pulling out his cell phone. What did he care? They had been chosen for their effectiveness and intent, not for their past. And it was not his job to humor public opinion. He dialed.

<< Hello? Dan? Did you find her? >>

“Kind of,” Daniel muttered. “I stumbled into some witches over here and—”

<< I’ve got some over here too, following me. >>

Rolling his eyes, Daniel groaned. “Can I get to the point?”

<< Sorry. You wanted to say something. >>

“Yes. Witches interfered. Lucky for me, Puck tagged along and decided to help out—”

<< You’re kidding! He left his tea shop? >>

“Pete! I’ve got a problem! You’re supposed to be my backup! They’ve upset the Elf. I’ve sent Puck after her, but I think something bigger is happening here.” Daniel looked to the witches who were exchanging surreptitious glances, probably thinking up counter curses to quench his fire and escape.

<< Sorry. What do you want me to do? Should I head to Wells? I mean, if you found the Elf then there is no reason for me to sit in on Prof. Birtwistle’s lecture Saturday. >>

The blonde in the chair drew in a gasp. The two women on the floor exchanged looks. Daniel noticed.

“Hold on.” He looked to them. “You know this professor?”

“No,” the lied. It was all over their faces that they very much knew him.

Daniel said into his cellphone. “You said you had witches following you. That the professor seemed macabre, and Prof. Taylor thinks he might get spirited away if he doesn’t watch it. Right?”

He watched the effect of those words on the witches, who were terrible at masking their emotions. A Middleton Village witch would have been better at it. But then, the witches from home were experts.

<< Yeah. One hundred percent. >>

Daniel went to the blonde, grabbing her purse. She yelped, watching him rifle through it. She would have fought, but her eyes were on his glowing red crystal. He dug out a student ID card. Oxford. “And he’s lecturing on god-elves, right?”

The witches exchanged panicked looks as Peter said, << Yeah. Which is why I am attending. Prof. Taylor even left me a sticky note saying I might have stirred something bad up. I assume it is local coven. >>

Daniel nodded. “Ok. You stay there. I have a feeling our Elf may be heading your way.”

<< My way? What for? >>

“She’s was a god-level elf wasn’t she?” Daniel held up the woman’s ID. “And I’ve got a witch here called Eunice Kerr from Oxford.”

<< Oh! >> But Peter sounded delighted. << Eunice! Perky blonde! Yeah! I’ve met her. She ditched the last lecture with Mia—she’s a redhead. Is she anywhere there? >>

Daniel nodded. “I think I saw her in the inn this morning at breakfast.”

The ladies screeched, calling for help. Clearly they knew they were in severe trouble.

“But I don’t think she’s here now.” Daniel looked around, realizing the police might come. He had to leave. “I think she’s gone back to Oxford with a chunk of our Elf’s hair.”

<< Gotcha. I’ll keep an eye out and intercept her. >>

Thinking, Daniel added, “I’ll follow.”

<< It’s about two to three hours by train, >> Peter said. << I calculated it last night. >>

“Ok. I’ll call you as soon as I get there,” Daniel said. He ended the call. He walked though the ladies, and the fire, entirely unscathed. On the other side, he nudged the branches that closed the door out of the way so he could leave. They obliged him, shying away from the fiery glow around him. “As much as this has been fun, I need to go.”

“You won’t succeed!” one of the witches shouted after him.

He laughed then muttered a retrieving spell Silvia had also taught him. The cuffs on the blonde unlatched and flew to his hand where he caught it.

Immediately, he marched out of the apartment and down the stairs, going as quickly as he could back to the hotel. The fire went out only after he had left the block. By that time, he could no longer sustain it.

The White Hart Inn was in uproar when he entered. No one saw him, though. One of the other spells Silvia had given him was a distraction spell, one which forced people’s eyes to look somewhere else when you walked by. He marched up through the chaos to his room, retrieved his bag, and quietly checked out without so much as a blink from anyone. He was at the bus station to take a bus to Bristol where he would catch a train to Oxford in hardly any time.

However, when he arrived, all the busses to Bristol had slashed tires. The police were already