Covering for an oops (part 8)

“Sorry if I woke you up,” I said.

“Who were you talking to,” he said in a low voice.

“Who? Do you see anyone here?”

“I heard you.”

I then played a trick on him.

I held up my hand, moved it like a mouth talking, and using ventriloquism, I said in a high, elf-like voice, “Of course you heard me.”

“What kind of magic is this?” He gasped.

“It’s no magic. It’s a skill you can learn, like juggling. It’s called throwing your voice.”

“Throwing your voice? How can you throw your voice? Isn’t that magic?”

“No at all. By moving my hand like this” I then moved it like a mouth again, and continued in the same high voice, “I can make you think my hand is talking.”

I put my hand down and said in the same voice, “But when I put my hand down, part of the trick is gone, and you can plainly see that it is me.

“But,” I added in my own voice, “if you thought it was magic, they might, too. I’d better be careful.”

“It's...it's a trick? Where did you learn such a trick?”

“Oh, I’ve known a few traveling performers in my time. I’ve also learned to juggle, and to play some different musical instruments. I could teach you.”

“Maybe later,” he said, finally relaxing. “But this is not the place.”

“No.”

“Do you have any tricks that will get us out of here?”

“I could get us out, but then we’ll never be able to help these people.”

“At this point, should we?”

“Everyone deserves help, no matter how misguided they are.”

“I agree,” Anna said from her cell.

“Let’s just wait to see why they think you are a witch,” I said.

“We used to joke that she was a witch,” Nicholas said. “She had a way with animals. I’ve seen her charm squirrels out of trees, and get birds to land on her hand to eat.”

I thought of the bees when she gathered honey. And that dog on the way here.
”

“It took work. I would spend days on each squirrel getting them so they wouldn’t be afraid.”

“It takes patience, not magic,” I said.

“Yes,” she said.

I thought of the dog.

He was a large dog. A guard dog. Yet he had acted like a puppy with her.

I had an idea.

I just hoped I could tell it to my elves in time.