Summoned to Tourney by Mercedes Lackey; Ellen Guon Page B

humans would not be inclined to ignore him for much longer, and he wasn’t certain he could hold all of their minds at once.
    The elevator arrived with a happy DING! sound, and the doors opened. Kory stepped inside, and stopped, freezing as a primal fear chilled him through all of his veins.
    Iron. Cold Iron, all around him. Not touching him, but close enough that he could feel the chill on his skin, the whisper of death in the silent metal.
    He wanted to turn and run, to get as far away from this place as possible. He’d been in elevators before… Eric and Beth had taken him up in the elevator to the top floor of a place called The Hyatt, so they could drink wine in a restaurant and watch the sunset from a vista of windows overlooking the city. But this elevator was different, built of more solid metals, more deadly metals.
    He took a deep breath, and reached for the button panel inside the elevator. He couldn’t retreat; not with a lobby full of wary, angry humans behind him. And besides, all of his instincts told him he had followed the right path. Beth is down there. I cannot leave her here. The iron will not harm me, it is hidden behind layers of plastic and other metals. I can ignore it. I can do this. I can.
    The elevator doors closed. Kory kept a tight hold on himself, fought down his fear, and considered the array of buttons, each one with a peculiar slot next to it.
    He tried to decide which one to try first. He knew Beth was on one of the lower levels, but how deep? He could spend days in this place, trying each button.
    Just to get started, he pressed one button. The elevator did not move.
    Odd. Elevators move to the floor you press. So why wasn’t this one moving? Kory chewed his lip, and again noticed the strange slots, next to each button.
    The slots were roughly the size of one of Beth’s old credit cards… he remembered how impressed he had been by the idea of giving someone a piece of plastic and in return they would give you all kinds of clothing, boots, even food. But Beth said they couldn’t use her cards anymore, the police could track them that way.
    In any case, he didn’t have any of Beth’s credit cards with him, not now. If he needed one of those cards to make the elevator work, this might turn out to be more difficult than he thought.
    Perhaps there was an easier way…
    He knelt and pressed his hand against the elevator floor, twitching slightly at the feel of plastic against his palm. But not Cold Iron. I can touch this, it won’t hurt me.
    He pressed harder, a magical push against the elevator floor, forcing it downward.
    The elevator descended silently, and Kory closed his eyes, trying to imagine where Beth might be, trying to “reach out and touch someone,” as Eric always joked, trying to find…
    There! The elevator chimed and the doors slid open for him.
    It was another featureless hallway, with a young man seated behind another desk. Kory looked at the man’s badges and insignia, and decided that he did want a badge with his own picture on it. Perhaps after he and Beth left this place, they could go find someone who made those badges…
    “Hey, how did you get down here? Where’s your security badge?” the young man blurted, as Kory approached.
    The sign over the young man’s desk was interesting: Psychic Research Wing. Q Clearance Required.
    Psychic… Kory knew he’d heard that word somewhere before. Perhaps Beth, talking with one of her Wiccan friends. Clearance, now that was a word he understood… that was when everything was half-price at Macy’s, and Beth had to go buy clothes for herself. Together, though, the sentences did not make much sense to him.
    As Kory considered this, the youth reached under his desk, and when his hand emerged, he held a small pistol, aimed directly at Kory with an assurance that told the elf that the human knew how to use this thing, and use it well.
    :Please. You should not threaten someone, especially a warrior like myself I do not