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I scrambled for my phone and found that someone had conveniently programmed Merlin’s number into the directory. “You may be walking into a trap,” I blurted when he answered. “I don’t think he’s using the army to actually attack his enemies. The army is playing the role of enemy, and since they’re not coming, you’ll do.”
“Interesting theory, Miss Chandler. How goes the battle?”
“One of the guys from the elf underground started a singalong, so we’re good for now. And a lot of our people got free and back through the portal. But maybe you’d better get over here instead of going after Sylvester.”
“We are already on our way, since Sylvester doesn’t appear to be at home.”
That worried me. Sylvester had proven to be rather subtle thus far—that was, when he wasn’t under the influence of an evil magical gemstone. His schemes tended to involve making other people want him to be in power so he could take on even more power. His attempt to use magic had failed when someone else used the same gizmo for a different scheme and that got the whole magical world involved. Now I was sure his contingency plans had contingency plans. He had to be up to something, and that something would likely hit us hard.
On the former dance floor below, the elf love-in was going full-force. Even though I was immune to any magic in the song, the sound still sapped all aggression out of me. I wasn’t sure I could have been mean to anyone if I’d tried. By this time, all the elves were singing, even those who’d been leading Sylvester’s forces. I glanced at Earl, who was standing next to Brad, and saw that he was smiling slightly.
Brad led the group in one more song, as though to ensure that the effect would hold. When the song ended, he let the last note linger until it faded into nothingness. Then Earl took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak.
But before any sound left Earl’s throat, another voice rang throughout the warehouse. I glanced around for the source and saw Sylvester standing on the opposite side of the balcony, near the stairwell where I’d escaped and reentered.
“My fellow elves,” Sylvester boomed as I glanced back to see a scowling Earl, who hadn’t had a chance to get a word in edgewise. All the elves below turned their attention to the Elf Lord, who continued once he knew he had the crowd’s attention. “We have all been victims of a cruel scheme. Those of you from the elven realms have been brought here against your will as an invasion force. We sealed off the barriers between worlds ages ago to prevent such a thing, but now those from the other world have broken those barriers, and it seems that anyone who discovered this portal was captured and silenced. But thanks to our friends in the wizard world, we’ve stopped this invasion and freed our fellow elves from their enchantment.”
“We?” I muttered to myself. That was rich.
“Now that we’ve remembered that we are all elves, no matter where we live, I propose that our foreign friends return home and return their captives to us. Then we will seal this portal, and I vow that our forces will be extra-vigilant against this threat in the future.”
There were cheers from below, and while I was glad about the cessation of hostilities, there was something terribly wrong about how this was working out. The bad guy was supposed to be stopped and punished, not hailed as a hero and savior.
I ran down the stairs and found Owen. “What do we do?” I asked, grabbing his arm. “We’ve got to stop him.”
“Stop what?” Owen asked, giving me a perplexed look.
“He’s using the failure of his plan to carry out his plan. Now the elves are going to see the elves from the other realm as a threat, and they’ll feel like they have to support him against the common enemy. We can’t let him do that.”
“But what can we do? We didn’t find any hard evidence that Sylvester was behind it.”
“We know he was!” I argued.
“Yeah, but what do you think will happen if you say that? You’ll just give him a reason to make MSI the enemy. At least this way he has to make nice with us and pretend we’re all on the same team. That should slow him down and give us a chance to stop his next scheme before it starts.”
I wasn’t satisfied with that. The Elf Lord had ripped us out of our lives, messed with our memories, and made me date a real loser. He was not going to get away with this, not if I had anything to say about it.
“Florence!” I said suddenly.
“What about Florence?”
“Maybe she has some proof. She was one of the guards. Or she’d know someone who took direct orders from Sylvester and isn’t willing to take the fall for him.” He looked doubtful, so I squeezed his arm and said, “Please? I’m not ready to give up.”
With a sigh, he said, “Okay. I have to admit I’d rather stop him now.”
We wove our way through the rapt elves still listening to Sylvester’s campaign speech and found a scowling Florence. “That isn’t the truth, is it?” I asked her.
She quirked an eyebrow and smirked. “Seriously? You have to ask?”
“Do you have any proof? Or do you know anyone who does?”
“He came to give us a pep talk before we were sent over there to set up the prison—and before we found out that we were just as trapped as our prisoners were. But do you think me standing up there and saying that would do any good?”
“What if there’s more than one of you?” Owen asked. “Do you think any of the other guards would be willing to talk?”
She glanced around. “Give me a few minutes.” She headed off into the crowd.
While she was gone, Owen looked at me and said, “Now what? What do you have planned?”
