CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I remembered my initial mission of saving Mallow and headed toward the dungeons. The exterior was a small one-story stone building, surrounded by a small grove of well-trimmed, flowering trees in which I spied birds nesting. There were no windows, and a small slat on the heavy, iron banded door was the only entrance or exit. I tied Flatchert up again a small distant away. I strolled past the lamplighter. Reddish-yellow light danced across the pockmarked guard's face.

"Hello, good sir." I bowed my head. "I've come to post bail on a particularly imposing inmate of yours. A lovely Giantess, you'd recognize her by the pale skin, reddish eyes, and bandage ensemble."

The guard sniffled and dragged his hand beneath his nose.

"Err..." He said. "Visiting hours is over. You'll have to come back tomorrow between noon and sunset." He sniffled again.

"But the sun is still visible." It was now tucked behind the roof line of the city, but its warm glow still fended off the enclosing cloak of purple that threatened to shroud it. "Wouldn't it be more convenient to allow me pay her fine and have us be on our way?"

"Gate don't open after sunset." The guard reaffirmed. "Too many clever blokes come with bags full of gold and end up being full of weapons, and then we got loose criminals rampaging around in the dark streets of Blythe." He squinted his eyes at me. "And with a Giant who heals in the moonlight, that's the last thing we're wanting."

"I wouldn't hurt a fly and neither would my Mallow." I protested.

The guard lowered his weapon, and with the blunt side tapped my shoulder roughly. The intimidation was ruined when he struggled to suppress a cough.

"Move back," he said. "You're making me nervous. I knows your Giant is in here 'cause she attacked an Avalon."

"It was a Boe—" I began, but I got thudded pretty solidly in the shoulder and stumbled back. I contemplated bribing the sour tempered guard, but his humorless expression led me to believe that perhaps he wouldn't go for it. Besides, the guard was right. Mallow had gotten herself into the situation all on her own, and I didn't think spending more coin than necessary to get her out early would teach her much.

"If she asks..." I said, backing up even more as the guard's scowl deepened. "Will you tell her that I at least tried to free her?"

"Strolling up ten minutes past closing don't fit my definition of trying, but if she asks I'll tell her." The guard's posture relaxed as I retreated. Irritated, I rode back toward the center town. A sneeze served as a good-bye.

My mind wandered back to that massive crowd of disappointed spectators. I kicked myself for saying that my stock was wiped out, if there was that much demand I could easily cook up some more batches and sold them, maybe even making use of these eggs. I tried to remember exactly how much I emphasized the out of stock portion of my pitch, and eventually decided I could retract the statement.

"Oh, you remembered it wrong, my friends." I said to myself as I got back to Flatchert. I climbed onto her saddle. I practiced, "Now these, these here are truly the very last!" Yeah, trying this trick more than once wouldn't work, so I'd have to make the next wave of sales count...

I vowed to start earlier, so that way I would sell the potions before Mallow found out and still have time to get Mallow out of the dungeon. I checked my reflection in a passing window, smiling a little bit. I skipped the stall food, realizing this might be my last chance to eat at a high end restaurant without Mallow sulking outside.

I hadn't gone far from the dungeons when I saw a two story establishment with outside tables on both the ground floor and the balconies. Both of the outdoor seating areas were shaded. The restaurant's owners had spent money to assure the customers' comfort.

Candles burned in glass shielded lanterns that sat at the center of tables and dangled every few feet along the underside of the overhang. A talented musician stood at the heart of the lower outdoor dining area, playing a cheerful but relaxed tune by plucking strings. His hat spread out before him, half full of copper and bronze coins. I recognized several faces from the inn I was staying at. I also recognized the messenger woman, her satchel limp and empty as it dangled carelessly from the back of her chair, her expression serene as she drank from her cup. Resting after a job well done, her checkered vest rendered only as a clothing and no longer an obligation to scurry about. I secured Flatchert at a post, noting that the water and feed supplied in front of it was fresh. I sidled up to one of my Assistant acquaintances from the inn. She had a healthy stomach and a bright orange tunic that matched the glow of her smiling cheeks.

"So, is this place any good, Papin?"

"It's wonderful. I mean, I haven't seen the inside of it yet, but the food they're bringing out is grand. Come, sit with us, Azark. I have some of my master's latest designs for Prover coffins..." Papin gestured at a chair, the split orange sleeve of her gown almost catching in the foamy green soup on her table. She pulled her arm back and checked the tail tips before tying them up into a tidy knot above her elbows. The chair itself was uneven, as if all the good chairs had been taken.

"Ah, I believe I will stand, thank you my friend."

She patted a large leather bound portfolio at her side. "Ah, all right, but you are missing out Azark. Master Utigaud has gotten commissioned to do some portrait busts on these ones, and he's spent stacks of vellum working out the exact likeness of the elves that are going inside of them before we start carving. Of course, many of them are empty. The bodies rarely make it back, but with the quality of my master's work they will be remembered as even more beautiful than any corpse could possibly hope to be."

"A fitting end to any noble spirit who ventures out to prove their Enchanted Elfishness. We could only hope to be so honored ourselves as lowly Assistants." This got a mixture of sighs and laughs from the table, but I still deferred. "I will have to hope to look at it later, at this particular moment I'm just too busy." The drawings actually did sound fascinating, but the interior of the exclusive restaurant was calling to me even more loudly.

A man stared at me, one table over. The staring was especially obvious because he was holding out an arm to another Assistant who was tipping a honey-colored potion onto it, one drop at a time. Despite the fortune being dispensed on his arm, he couldn't be bothered to look at it. Even as the drop hit his forearm, mottled with bruises and cuts, and melted them away like wiping away dirt from the skin. He wore only an off white sleeveless undershirt and skirt, his gray-green jacket with silver stitching hung over the back of his chair.

"I can't believe he'd go in to eat and leave you here like this," the women worried softly. This broke his attention on me. He regarded her.

"It's his right. I have been... distracted of late. This week is very important to my master. I should be working diligently to assure that it goes as he desires it." The man smiled sadly. Sudden recognition struck me. Bernard's friend's Assistant. Jury? Yuris? Jurdy? "This isn't so bad. I'm feeling better already."

"It's expected for a sorcerer to strike occasionally, but it's usually a slap or a kick, a burst of anger. Not like this. Your whole arm...." the woman chided. Her hands ran up to the elbow of the forearm. "Juris, he's excessive."

"He didn't mean to hurt me," Juris said, as the last of the dark blossoming spots faded back to flesh color beneath the glistening of the potion. "When he really wants to hurt someone, he doesn't use his fists. That's the ungifted way of doing it. Thoughtless. You know as much."

"My sorceress never uses magic to harm anyone. Juris—"

"A moment." Juris held up his newly healed hand, cutting off her anxiety-soaked words and stood up. "You."

He was staring at me again. I smiled at him, wide and ingratiating.

"Yes?"

"You're the one with the Moon Giant. I recall seeing you backstage."

"Ah, she's not so much mine... She's my Master's."

"How much for her?"

"My apologies, but she's not for sale. It's illegal to own sentient creatures according to CMA law. She is an Assistant." I parroted the Arcana Enforcement Agent who had bothered me earlier.

"You've a Moon Giant?" Papin asked me, in surprise. I grinned mischievously at her before Juris called out to me again.

"My Master was most covetous of her. I understand the figure may be large, but even if it is absurd, I should like to know the price of it."

Wait, did he mean Mallow's figure was large or the price of her was costly? Either way...

"She's not for sale." I repeated.

Juris stood up, pulling his jacket from the back of his chair. He began to button it up and walk over to me, navigating between the chairs. He tripped, his arms lurching out as he balanced himself. His hands landed on two chair backs, which tilted their occupants as he struggled to right himself.

I glanced down. I saw nothing for him to trip on. I heard the hiss of a shadow-slink, and Juris scowled at the ground before he finished buttoning up his jacket.

"I know she's not for sale officially, but Mister...?"

"Azark."

"Mister Azark. Surely there's some agreement we can come to. See, my Master isn't a bureaucrat or socialite. He's a man of vision, of discovery."

"He'll have to discover his own Moon Giant." I hoped if Juris's master ever found a Moon Giant it was a bad one who deserved him and not an innocent baby like Mallow had been. Juris's arms crossed over his chest and his head tilted to the side in thought. He attempted to decode me like a puzzle.

"Not even entertaining offers... oh, Do you only have the one?"

I nodded.

"I suppose all are hesitant to part with the gem of their collection. Very well... though, are you planning on breeding more anytime soon? I saw yours was a mature female." Juris leaning down to look at me demurely, making me want to punch him. As hard as possible. If he saw Mallow was a mature female, then he also saw her laugh. Her smile. He saw her speak, her voice rich with emotion like any of ours. He saw the intelligence and compassion that glinted behind her deep orange eyes. He saw that she was a person, not a dog. "If you are, are you taking applicants to purchase the resulting offspring? Is there a list?"

"No breeding planned at this time." I smiled tersely. "She doesn't have a partner."

"You should really consider it." Juris was telling me, feeling like we were now friends, his body language looser with me as he sat in the uneven chair. "There are a few Moon Giants in Majikast that the Thaucults have captured from battles over the years. The Zoologic Mystique Palace doesn't plan on selling theirs either, believe me, Master Ricardo has tried, but I'm sure they'd be willing to grant your Master an audience. I believe all the captured ones are male. The last female died about five years ago."

"Oh, I remember seeing those!" Papin's voice was all excitement, not a second of remorse for the Moon Giantess. "They are quite the sight. Utigaud frequently visits for inspirations, and one day I was there they fed the Giants a bull. Threw it into the pen. It was barbaric and disgusting but so entrancing. They ate the horns and all even as the bull thrashed. Blood got everywhere during the battle but they cleaned it up. Is yours like that?" Papin glanced askance to me, cheeks distressingly glowing with glee. "Does it eat the bones?"

I remained silent, as if I hadn't heard the question. Mallow did eat the bones on smaller things when she was angry, though usually she followed my example and discarded them. I felt like she'd be embarrassed if I'd told them how she ate. I was glad she was locked away, only a spectacle for one guard instead of an army of gawking Assistants.

"It is a shame they don't let visitors see them during the night. I was so anticipating watching their luminescence. I suppose it's nothing to you, though."

"Aha, yes, the magic of the glow has faded."

"You should certainly make a trip there. I'm surprised your Master hasn't been prepositioned yet..." Juris said to me, glancing around for a chair to offer me now that he was seated. "Of course, they're not domesticated like yours. Kept under lock and key. But I'm sure they're virile. There has to be some work around that would keep yours from getting too injured during the breeding."

"Is it full inside?" I asked abruptly, done with this conversation. I walked toward the door, showing Juris my back.

"Seems to be. All sorcerers too. I usually sit with Utigaud but the server said if I sat in there one less sorcerer would be able too, so..." Papin supplied, sagging in distress from being separated.

"Nnn. My Master Fushon isn't going to like that." I said, taking on fake apprehension as I regarded the even stone exterior. The dusky glass windows didn't give any clue what the interior was like, which only made me more curious. "I better go see if I can secure him a seat."

"Your Master's always running late, isn't he?"

"Brilliant minds, my friend, they don't operate like yours or mine." I tapped my forehead and left the table. I pushed open the door, heavy and secure, and stepped inside.

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