Wulf doesn't have a chance to ask
It was no great feat to have made it this far undetected, especially so late at night. If, however, the whispers of the maids were to believed, there was a real live elf behind this door, and Wulf suspected that a real live elf would be just as keen-eared as he and Gils.
This was a mission requiring the greatest stealth, and his squirmy little brother often jeopardized even ordinary raids on the pantry. Tonight he was so excited he was hopping from foot to foot, and his bare soles slapping on the dusty flagstones were no less than an army of tramping boots to Wulf’s ears.
“Whisht!” he whispered. “If you wake him up, I warn you, I shall make you pee in your underpants right in front of him, and all down your leg.”
“I might do that anyway, if he wakes up!”
“You better not!”
“Then don’t make me pee!” Gils whimpered.
“Then don’t wake him up!”
Gils was silenced by this logic and even stopped his hopping.
It was now or never. Wulf took a deep breath, prayed he would not so embarrass his own self if the elf awoke, and pushed open the door.
Though it was only early September, a fire had been lit, and the room was a nightmare of leaping shadows. The chair danced in place, the candlestick rocked and swayed like a poplar in a storm, and the pitching bed seemed a four-masted ship on the sea.
Wulf had not thought of this added terror. Was it a trait of all real elves that they loved fires? He and Gils did not, and indeed Wulf was secretly frightened by their barely-controlled menace. Perhaps there was something wrong with the two of them. That was one of the things Wulf wanted to know.
The elf’s face too was frightening, for the shadows flickering over his lips made him appear to be muttering to himself, and the long hair that draped over his eyes prevented them from seeing whether they were even closed.
But it was not his lips or hair or eyes they had come to see.
“Look at his ears!” Gils breathed.
“Whisht! That’s a real live elf, all right,” Wulf whispered. “You stay back.”
“Look how big they are! You think ours will get that big some day?”
“Perhaps, but not as big as your mouth! Shut up!”
“You’re talking too!”
“Only to shut you up!”
“You shut up!”
“You shut up first since you started talking first! You stupid – ”
“Beetlehead,” the big elf whispered.
Neither Wulf nor Gils peed in his underpants and all down his leg, but Wulf had not the presence of mind to prevent himself from crying aloud. Nor did they think to run out of the room, but instead cowered together in the corner.
The elf sat up and looked at them out of the one eye that was not covered by his hair.
“Don’t steal us!” Gils whimpered.
“Or if you do, you have to take us both,” Wulf added.
“Or just him, because he’s the oldest.”
“But I don’t want to steal you,” the elf said. “You both seem like a lot of trouble to me.”
He swung his legs out of the bed, sending the boys huddling together against the wall.
“What are you doing?” Wulf squeaked.
“Lighting a candle. If you want to see a real live elf, you need light.”
To Wulf’s great surprise, Gils squirmed free of his arms and took a few steps closer to the elf. “You don’t seem so mean.”
“Who told you I was?”
“My Da says elves are mean and I should always stay away from them.”
“So what are you doing here?”
The candle lit, the elf stretched out on the bed again. Now that he was not towering over them, Wulf too dared approach. He gave his most convincing smile. “Can we come up there with you?”
“Provided you do not put your sticky fingers into my hair as you did once when you were a baby.”
“I did?” Wulf beamed with pride in his baby self, who had not feared to paw a real live elf.
“Hmm.” The elf nodded absently.
“My name is Wulf and this is my brother Gils. We’re Sir Egelric’s boys.”
“I know. And my name is Vash.”
“Were you supposed to marry my big sister Iylaine?” Gils asked.
Wulf had a feeling it was unwise to talk about Iylaine before this elf, but he was sitting too far away from his brother to shove him. “Whisht! Beetlehead!” But this new insult was so funny his look of withering scorn was spoiled by giggles.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” the elf asked.
Gils turned red. “Well…”
“Naughty boys!” Vash laughed. “I was just as bad about getting up at nights. I’m still naughty, too. I was supposed to go somewhere tonight, and I didn’t want to go. And because I didn’t want my father to know I didn’t, I came here to hide.”
“He’ll never find you here!” Wulf cried.
“And if he does,” Gils gabbled, “my Da will scare him off and make him leave! Like that one blind elf who came!”
“Did you know about that?” Wulf asked Vash.
The elf’s face was like an April day, with gray clouds and fits of sun that never lasted long enough to warm one. Even when he laughed, Wulf thought his eyes were sad, as Wyn’s used to be, but now his face was gray clouds all over, and he turned it away. “I heard something about that from your father and your friend Wyn.”
“He saved Wyn’s life!” Wulf explained. “But now he forgot everything.”
“Do you know him?” Gils asked.
“I just got dangerously close to drunk with him and your father!”
“Not Wyn! I mean the blind elf. Do you know him? Is he your friend?”
Vash picked at the finger of one hand with the fingers of the other. “I have never spoken with any blind elves before.”
“You didn’t?” Wulf frowned. “We didn’t get to see him, either. I wish we did. But now we did see a real live elf. Who isn’t even blind!” That, he realized, was some consolation.
“My Da doesn’t like any elves except you and my sister,” Gils said. “He chased that blind elf away, even though he saved Wyn.”
“But Da didn’t know he was saved yet,” Wulf reminded him.
“I know, but still.”
Wulf was about to remind him that the blind elf alone had not saved him, either, but Vash spoke first.
“I have heard that blind elves like apples. If you ever see him again and you wish to thank him, I recommend you offer him apples.”
“That’s a good idea!” Wulf cried. “It’s almost apple season, too! Some of the cider apples are already ripe!”
“Da will never let us go, though,” Gils reminded him. “He won’t let Cat go anywhere by herself now, because of that blind elf.”
“Speaking of where your Da will and won’t let you go,” Vash interrupted, “I believe someone is coming to find out where you did go.”
“Can you hear someone?” Gils whispered.
“Can we hide under your bed?” Wulf asked.
“No!” Vash laughed softly.
“Please? We let you hide in our castle from your Da!”
Vash gave him a smile that made him feel very proud and good inside. It seemed to admit that Wulf had outsmarted him and even that he wished he could allow the boys to hide and stay a while. But before he could change his mind there was a knock at the door.
“Come in, Wyn,” Vash called.
The door opened, and a bewildered-looking, rampant-curled Ethelwyn came in. “How did you…”
“By your walk.”
“I… see. I beg your pardon for my own sake as well as these boys’. What are you young gentlemen doing down here?”
Wulf and Gils grinned at him.
“You weren’t even supposed to know he was here.”
“We heard the maids talking outside our room,” Gils explained.
Wulf again regretted having sat himself so far from his brother. Gils was always saying too much.
Vash laughed and said to Ethelwyn, “You will find your own children to be as easily managed as lambs after these two boys with their pointed ears.”
“If they are half as mischievous as my wife, I am still in for some trouble. Now, come along, you two.”
Wyn was always indulgent lately when he got to smiling over his wife, so Wulf pleaded, “But I didn’t get to ask him anything I wanted to ask him yet!”
“Under no circumstances except for fire do we disturb guests in their beds,” Ethelwyn scolded.
“Just till I count to five hundred!”
“If you’re busy counting, you won’t have the time to ask anything anyway.”
“Gils can count and I can ask!”
“Don’t make me start counting!” Wyn warned. “If I get to ten, I shall go wake your father, and if he gets his hands on you, you’ll be sleeping on your bellies tonight.”
Wulf and Gils were both silenced by this logic.
“Perhaps I shall come again and we can talk then,” Vash said gently, but something about his smile made Wulf feel hopeless and sad.
