“You were two years old,” she said. “I was there for your birthday. And that was the last time I saw Earth.”
“Ah,” I said. “Then it’s been thirty years.”
The elves all looked at one another, but I couldn’t read the expressions on their faces.
“Time moves differently in the subtle realms,” said the elf lady. “We forget that at our peril. I am Melanie Blaze, Eddie. I was married to your uncle James.”
I looked at her blankly for a long moment, honestly at a loss for what to say. Of course I knew her name, and her story. Of the one woman James truly loved; how she was never accepted by my family; and how she disappeared forever on a mission to . . . the subtle realms. At least now I knew why my family had never accepted the marriage. In the past, elves and Droods have defied tradition to get together in spite of all taboos and prejudice, the Blue Fairy being the most obvious result. But for the family’s greatest field agent, the legendary Grey Fox, to declare that he intended to marry a pure-blooded elf . . . No wonder they still wouldn’t talk about it. I realised that Melanie Blaze was still staring coldly at me, and I hurried to bring her up to date on the major changes in the family since she’d disappeared. Ending with the news that my parents, Charles and Emily, were missing and I was looking for them.
“Would you happen to know where they are?” I said. “Have you seen them . . . here?”
“No,” said Melanie. “They’re not here.”
“I never knew you were an elf,” I said.
“Few ever did,” said Melanie. “Your family saw to that. Droods aren’t afraid of anything—except a scandal inside the family. Anything that might make them look weak—and human. Even though James and I were properly married. We had a special ceremony, at Saint Jude’s Church in the Nightside. Your uncle Jack was best man. Saint Jude is the patron saint of lost causes; it seemed appropriate. But your family would never accept that, so James could never take me home. Finally the family sent us on an urgent mission together. We thought that meant something. It did, but not what we thought. It should have been simple enough—a quick incursion into the subtle realms in pursuit of a rogue Drood who’d gone missing with a weapon she’d stolen from the Armageddon Codex.”
“I never heard anything about that either,” I said.
Melanie smiled briefly. “Your family does love its secrets. They sent us . . . because we were considered expendable. We tracked down the rogue Drood: Catherine. But if she ever had a Forbidden Weapon, she didn’t have it when we caught up with her, here. She had something else, though, something really nasty. And she didn’t hesitate to use it. Perhaps because she used it here, it nearly killed James, despite his armour. I had to send him home, and then stand my ground and duel Catherine to the death. When that was over, most of my power was gone, and I had drifted too far into the subtle realms. I was trapped here. I waited for James to return and rescue me. Or for the family to send help. But no one ever came.”
“They said you were lost,” I said. “And James . . . didn’t know how to find you again.”
“Did James ever speak of me after I was gone?” said Melanie.
“Not so much, to me,” I said. “But I know he never forgot you. Never gave up looking for you.”
“How can you know that?”
“From Uncle Jack.”
She nodded slowly. “I like to think of James still looking for me. That he never gave up on me.”
“I don’t think the family helped much,” I said. “Uncle Jack tried, of course, but . . .”
“How is Jack?”
“He’s the family Armourer now,” I said. “Has been for years. He’s getting ready to retire.”
“Hard to think of Jack as old,” said Melanie.
I wanted to ask her how old she was, but this didn’t seem the right time, so I approached the question obliquely.
“Are elves really immortal?”
“No,” said Melanie. “We do die, eventually. James knew I would outlive him, but he loved me anyway. And I knew he would pass through my long life like a mayfly, but I loved him just the same. I thought . . . we’d have more time together.”
“Why are you still here?” I said. “In this place? Surely your