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"On the surface?" I spluttered, "I thought your kind never visited the surface any more?" The Old One sighed, emitting a plume of smoke from his mouth. I emulated him, puffing on my cigarette to calm my nerves. "We have almost forgotten," he said sadly, "What it is like to fly freely in the open air, to feel the cool wind and the warm sun, to look down on the mountains. Sometimes the urge is too strong. One of us must give in and visit the upper world once more." "Hmmm," I murmured, not entirely without sympathy, then added, "What mountains was your colleague looking down upon when he disappeared?" The Old Ones spoke the name of a range of snow-capped mountains. A human might refer to them as the Rockies. "Isn't that a bit, well, dangerous?" I enquired, "Surely there's a risk that the humans might spot you?" "We are well-practiced at keeping out of sight of the humans," the Old One replied with what sounded like a sneer, "We know when we are being watched." For a moment, I wondered just what kind of agency could tackle a huge flying monster, and one which was an adept in all kinds of ancient magic to boot. Sure, the humans have some powerful military weaponry these days, but it was hard to imagine that such capability could be deployed without at some kind of warning, especially for communal telepaths. "I guess I better get up there and make some enquiries," I said uncertainly, "It'll take some time. It's a huge area." "We suspect," the Old One went on, suddenly sounding more confident, "That you will need assistance, allies, in this quest. You should not hesitate to call upon them. We feel sure you will use all the necessary discretion as to the objective and the client." This sounded worryingly like one of those obscure predictions that litter the pronouncements of a member of a mildly prescient race. I sat as still as the rock chair beneath me for a long moment, in some kind of a daze, smoking my cigarette absent-mindedly. It didn't look like the Old Ones knew any more, or they would have told me already. I was going to have to rely on intuition, and luck. I hated relying on those two particularly tricky characters.
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Part 7