01 THE TIME OF THE DARK

Her eyes went warily from Ingold to Rudy, then back to the wizard's face. Ingold rested a hand briefly on her shoulder and said quietly, "It's all right. He doesn't have to believe me, Gil."

She sighed and forced herself to relax. "All right," she agreed.

Rudy had watched all this with curiosity bordering on annoyance. "Well, don't do me any favors."

Those pale gray eyes grew colder. But Ingold's hand tightened almost imperceptibly on Gil's bony shoulder, and she said, in a more natural voice, "No, it's all right."

Rudy, in turn, relaxed and meant it when he said, "Thank you. Uh-can I give you a hand with that?" for Gil had turned back to the car and was fetching out assorted provisions, including canned beef stew and diapers, from the back seat. He dropped back a pace to walk beside her as they followed Ingold up to the cabin, however, and as soon as the old man was out of earshot Rudy asked softly, "Who is he?"

She regarded him with those pale schoolmarm eyes-old-maid eyes in the face of a girl his own age. "What did he tell you?"

"That he was some kind of a wizard from another universe."

When Gil was embarrassed, she became brusque. "That's his story."

Rudy refused to be put off. "Where'd you meet him?"

Gil sighed. "It's a long story," she said, falling back on Ingold's usual explanation. "And it doesn't matter, not really."

"It matters to me," Rudy said, and glanced up ahead of them to where Ingold was just vanishing into the shadows of the little house. "You see, I like the old guy, I really do, even if he isn't playing with a full deck. I'm just worried some land of harm will come to the kid."

They stopped at the foot of the rickety steps, and Gil looked carefully for the first time at the young man's face. It was sun-bronzed and sensual, but not a crass face, nor a stupid one. "Do you think he'd let any harm come to Tir?"

Rudy remembered the old man and the child together, Ingold's gentle competence and the protectiveness in his voice when he spoke to the baby. "No," he said slowly. "No-but what are they doing out here? And what's gonna happen when he goes wandering back to civilization like that?"

There was genuine concern in his voice, which Gil found rather touching. Besides, she thought, if I hadn't had the dreams, I'd probably think the same,

She shifted her burden from one hand to the other. "It will be okay," she assured him quietly.

"You know what's going on?"

She nodded.

Rudy looked down at her doubtfully, not quite satisfied and sensing something amiss. Still, in one real sense this girl was Ingold's contact with reality, which in spite of his obvious shrewdness and charm the old man sorely needed. And yet-and yet-Troubled visions of the old man stumbling out of a blazing aura of silver light returned to him as he started up the steps, Gil climbing at his heels. He swung around on her abruptly, to ask, "Do you believe him?"

But before Gil could answer, the cabin door opened again, and Ingold re-emerged onto the narrow porch, a flushed, sleepy infant in his arms. "This is Prince Altir Endorion," he introduced.

Gil and Rudy came up the last few steps to join him, the question left unanswered. On the whole, Gil disliked children, but, like most hard-hearted women, she had a soft spot for the very young and helpless. She touched the round pink cheek with gingerly reverence, as if afraid the child would shatter on contact. "He's very beautiful," she whispered.

"And very wet," Ingold replied, and led the way back into the house.

It was Rudy who ended up doing the changing as the only one with experience in the task, while Gil made a lunch of beef stew and coffee on the kerosene stove, and Ingold investigated the light switches to see how electricity worked. Rudy noticed that, among other things, Gil had brought an extra can of kerosene; though, if he recalled, the little stove had been out of sight beneath a counter when he'd first come in, and there had been no signs that the house had been entered in years.

How had Ingold known?

Gil came over to him and set a styrofoam cup of steaming black liquid on the floor at his side. She watched Rudy playing tickle-me with Tir for some moments, smiling, then said, "You know, you're probably the first man I've ever seen who'd volunteer for diaper duty."

"Hell," Rudy told her, grinning. "With six younger brothers and sisters, you get used to it."

"I suppose so." She tested one of the wobbly chairs, then sat in it, her arm resting over the back. "I only had the one sister, and she's just two years younger than I am, so I never knew."

Rudy glanced up at her. "Is she like you?" he asked.

Gil shook her head ruefully. "No. She's pretty. She's twenty-two and already getting her second divorce."