CHAPTER TWENTY

The next morning, after returning my carriage to the stables I set up shop again. This time I felt significantly guiltier than the night before. I had done the math, and Mallow had been in the prison long enough to make bail unnecessary. Still... I had to sell these, and Mallow, if around, wouldn't let me.

Since there was no crowd of people disappointed by the Avalons today, the sales took much longer. I was competing for attention with all the other sales people around. I felt a certain nervousness that one of the other Assistants would notice me. Although a few waved and nodded at me as they hurried through town, however, not one of the Enchanted or their Assistants stopped to actually speak to me. Most of my customers were from out of town. As part of my sales pitch, I always talked to customers. Many of them were charmed by the city of Blythe; they'd never seen magic in any form before (which explained why I was able to sell my obvious fakes when there were real potions across town). For my easily impressed customers, seeing such casual casting by sorcerers clothed in gems and fine fabrics was draw enough, even if the Divinis of this town hadn't set up so many entertainments, like the music, dramas, puppet shows, and games. Every customer left happy and glowing, excited to have magic to take home with them in the form of my potion, some to put on the shelf, some to feed to a sick loved one, and some for more oblique reasons.

It was past noon when I finally finished. I had a handful of potions left, but decided to save a few instead of waiting to move the stragglers; it took ten times as long to sell the last 10% of a product. People preferred buying from shelves that were well stocked for some bizarre reason. I closed shop. The person that let me borrow their stall this time wasn't as grateful as Egg Lady yesterday, probably because I didn't pay half as much. Though... I had told Mallow I was broke. I mulled over one story after another as I made my way to the city's dungeons, which were in the nicest part of town near the manor house of the Divinis.

There had to be a good reason I didn't leave to get her until today, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was. Let's see, the first night I was angry because she yelled at me. The second night was that lady. Definitely wouldn't share that with Mallow. The third day had been the potion sales... again, best keep that on the secretive side.

As I got further uphill, the crowded streets fell away to the finer shops and restaurants, interspersed with fine houses, complete with glass and vividly colored garden boxes hanging from the windows. The manor house wasn't locked behind a wall, but the sprawling green lawn acted as a separator. It must have been painstaking to keep it so short and even... though maybe there was some charm that kept it that way? There were no scythe marks or the signs of animal grazing that usually kept the ungifted wealthy's lawns neat.

Passing by rows of flowering trees and waves of swaying flowers, I went to the smaller fortified doorway that led to the dungeons. It couldn't have held much more than a single room, and I wondered how tiny the dungeons in this city were. Today there were two guards posted instead of the one.

"Hello!" I said to the guard I had spoken with yesterday. His thumb cocked back his helmet a little bit. His color was healthier and his breath wasn't as congested. "Ah, you're not feeling ill today?" Sometimes it was possible to small talk enemies into submission.

"Ay," he said. "The cold remedy my boyfriend's been making for me finally worked."

"Oh? Your boyfriend good with medicines?"

"Not especially. The instruction from the Mediceum book in the library had drawings though. I was half convinced he was going to poison me, but he was right, as usual."

"So... honey, garlic, elderberry, or nettle leaf?"

"Mostly nettle leaf. What's more surprising, you actually showed up on time today."

He had thawed to me. Operation small talk had been a success.

"May I visit my Giant?"

My guard waved a hand for me to pass, then the other guard hit him with the butt end of his spear. Not exactly the most subtle gesture. My guard glowered at the other. The assaulting guard tried to communicate something through pantomime, unable to speak in my presence of his reasons.

"Well...?" I ventured. My pock marked guard stared intensely at the aggressor for a long moment. Eyes still locked on the other guard, his lips moved.

"Uh... no." He gripped his sword hilt loosely with his other hand. "No, you cannot."

"Why not?"

"I..." He gaped at the other guard, then back at me. "Because."

"Because?" I tilted my head skeptically.

"Because... of..." My guard began, desperately searching. He had no idea why I couldn't enter, besides his friend's assurances that I most definitely could not enter.

"Because of procedure," the second guard supplied. Now united, they both nodded at me and my guard parroted the other's 'procedure' response. Oh, so it was one of those things...

"Ah, it must be hard being a guard, with all of these procedures and practices to uphold at all time," I lamented. I reached into my pocket, swayed for but a moment, and then produced a small handful of coin. I shook the other man's hand and then stepped back. His eyes fell down to his palm where I had deposited the coin. He pocketed it.

"Ay, it's very hard. But I remembered that there's an exception," my guard said. The other sputtered, but my guard took his hand and shook it. "Right, remember that exception?"

What good friends. Sharing the bribe. Then they moved out of the way, and I ventured through the door.

My initial assessment that the walls didn't hold much more than a small room was correct. All that was on the inside was a door on the floor that was currently propped open. Beneath that was a staircase, carved into the stone of the ground itself. The steps were sturdy and muted as I took them one at a time, my feet feeling the cool of the rock through the thin, dressy soles. I'd have to get those patched up soon. Though not with the guy who originally made them; he'd charge too much.

It was a good thing the stone was more or less fireproof, as spots of fire light stood every few feet into recessed cavities into the wall. The world was orange and blue, and I went down at least two flights. There weren't cells along the way, and I wondered why they had made the staircase so long. Maybe so that those on the surface didn't hear the prisoners down below? My palm pricked with sweat, and I inhaled. No smell of rot or of blood, but that didn't mean anything. Squinting in the darkness I saw a dark splatter on a stair. I prodded it with my toe; it was dry and flaked off. Someone had bled here. It wasn't silver, so it wasn't my Mallow, but I hurried down the rest of the stairs all the same.

The landing at the bottom of the stairs was carved out like everything else had been. The clean stone was dry thanks to the straw that had been scattered to pick up the wetness rock mysteriously generated when kept from the sun. Torches kept it well lit, even more so than the stairs. A few benches were carved into the stone, and some guards had moved some of the straw from the floor onto the benches to pad them for long watches. I saw the first glint of the bars of the cells when a wall flew up in front of me. It was tall, older than I with a grim expression, and a direly overlong red mustache.

I stopped.

"Yes? May I make your acquaintance?" I asked.

"I'm Anders. State your business," the guard—Anders apparently—said.

"I'm here to visit the Moon Giant," I said. "I'm her traveling companion."

The mustachioed guard's expression faltered.

"Afraid you are mistaken," Anders said. "There is no Giant here."

For a moment I felt a panic. Mallow didn't get the death penalty, did she? Well, no. For one, the Avalon said that it was a minor charge, and he had to be telling the truth because he was an Avalon. Secondly, if the city of Blythe held a Moon Giant execution they'd probably build box seats to view the event. No, this was a lie. Freeze it, the man's face even showed it with that twitch in his eye.

"Really? No Moon Giant?" I asked. "Because my companion was definitely taken in here a few days ago, and she's not likely to be mistaken for someone else."

"Perhaps she was not mistaken." Anders leaned in closer to me. "But you most definitely are." His voice got high at the last part. He had a nervous energy that was unbecoming of a guard. I felt so much pity for him, it took a moment for me to realize he was actually threatening me. A guard in a town with Avalons couldn't be a sadist, usually, but there were plenty of towns that didn't have magic at all to keep authorities in check, and I'd been mishandled by more than a few of them over my years of being a con man. Compared to those men, Anders didn't have it in him to hurt me.

"Oh, all right," Being taller and leaner, I spotted a set of cell doors before he side-stepped to block my view. I smiled ingratiatingly at Anders the guard, and then, standing on my tip toes, I inhaled deeply. All that air escaped in one powerful scream of "MALLOW!"

Before Anders lectured me or arrest me, Mallow cried back.

"Dad?!" she shouted. "Dad!"

"I'm here," I shouted. "Now, how are you going to tell me there's no-?"

That's when his fist slammed into the side of my face. The metal plated leather gauntlet crushed against my skin, bruising it and cutting it against the bone. I stumbled backward

"Dad?" Mallow asked. Her voice rose in panic. "Dad, what's going on?"

I tried to raise my fists to defend myself, but my reaction speed was groggy and slow. Like the cornered and panicking animal he currently was, the guard took another blind swipe at me. I was knocked back against the wall. I shook away the pain and the white spots from my eyes, but the guard stepped down with his boot, kicking me to the floor. So I was wrong. He might not have been beating me for fun, but he was able to beat me, as his toe jamming into my stomach, causing me to gag, would attest.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it and come get me!" Mallow's voice traveled from beyond the wall. Was... was she whining at me now? Did she think I was having fun over here?

"I'm trying!" I pleaded. It was supposed to be a shout, but I don't think she heard me. The man knocked me to the side. Pain flashed across my eyes. I stood and drew up my fists to defend myself. However, like with the bandits, I was not used to fighting. Mallow did that for me. I was sent staggering back from the next blow. I regretted letting myself fall out of shape.

"There is no Giant here. Now get going!" his voice was childish with a nagging whine. He shoved me again, but I struck back. He caught my wrist in his hand and squeezed. Mallow's cries reached my ear. At some point during the scuffling, we'd gotten turned around so that my back was to the cell and his was to the stairway. I saw, over Ander's shoulder, several more guards rush in down the stairs.

"Help me get this man out of here!" Anders said. He twisted me around, by this point pain had made me malleable, and shoved me toward the stairs.

The guards pressed themselves against the walls in preparation for us passing. However, instead of us going up, sound traveled down.

"What is going on here?" a familiar, booming voice cried behind us. I fell to the ground as the guard unhanded me, his gaze veering up the stairwell. Terror held off the pain enough for me to see where the shout had come from.

"Divinis Wenrick?" the guard said. He lowered his gaze. "I was..."

"You?" Winsor's voice. Up the stairwell was Winsor, half hanging behind an older man. The man, this had to be the Divinis of Blythe, looked familiar. Side by side like this I saw Winsor and he had the same high cheek bones, but that's where the resemblance ended. The Divinis' skin was ruddy and healthy, his frame fat and contented like a sorcerer's ought to be. He wore a fashionable tunic with a heavy overhanging coat lined with exotically patterned furs, a screaming opposite to Winsor's archaic and drab black garb. A third contrast, so unimposing I didn't notice at first, was a slender man in a white tunic. He was quiet and older, an Assistant. He stood behind Winsor and the Divinis.

"You know him?" the guard stammered, avoiding eye contact with both Winsor and the older man.

Divinis Wenrick waved his hand, and the man went quiet, not from magic but from authority. He eyed me, wordlessly. My skin grew tight. I felt the prickle of danger on the back of my neck.

"Know may be an exaggeration of sorts, and I certainly wouldn't vouch for his character for purposes of introduction, but yes, we have spoken before. He is Azark." Winsor was taller than I remembered at eye level. "This man who is guilty of many a ruse shall have skin without a single bruise." One of his pale hands touched my cheek, healing the injuries.

I noticed now that he was hovering, not standing on the ground.

"I must ask, although the answer may be unsavory. What did you do to anger our guards? I assume it's related to your penchant for deception, but I'm not sure what gambit concluded with you in such a wretched state in these dungeons." Winsor asked me, sounding amused rather than angry.

"I didn't do anything, Enchanted One," I pleaded. "When Mallow got arrested for fighting, the Avalon Osoro told me—"

Winsor's face flashed with dislike, but his silent, impatient huff urged me forward.

"..well..." Oh! Oh! Avalons were referred to as Sir. "Sir Osoro said I could come bail her out in a few days, and that's what I came here to do. And... the guard insisted that there was no Giant, but obviously—"

"Dad? Dad, are you dead? Dad, don't be dead!" She couldn't hear me anymore now that I wasn't shouting.

"She's here." I shifted awkwardly, unsure how much of a breach it would be to shout in front of a sorcerer in a setting like this. "Ah, may I reassure her that I am not dead?"

Winsor's gaze followed Mallow's voice.

The Divinis joined us and gestured toward the cell area.

"Yes, come along... you." He swiped a hand through the air. "You are relieved of duty; go to the barracks until I call for you later."

"Yes, Enchanted One." Anders bowed deeply and then scampered out of the dungeon. I sneered after his back, mostly relieved that the fight was over.

The cell section of the dungeon was cozy. The floor was swept free of rat droppings, the ceiling was low and cobweb free. Sparkling, non-fire magic torches hung against the walls, diffusing the gentle warmth of a sun at dusk across the large stones. Heavy iron bars sat welded tightly into the ground in front of four cells. In the leftmost one was Mallow, pressed up against the bars and watching me anxiously. Her orange eyes were wide, but I noticed she was cleaner than usual. Her hair was knotless and glossy. She must have had little to do besides combing it while stuck here for several days.

"Dad! It sounded like you were getting hurt. Like when those bandits attacked us," she said. I hurried over to the bars.

"It's nothing too bad, my friend over here saved me." I gestured to Winsor. Behind him the Divinis was scowling. Winsor examined Mallow.

"She's... she's yours, then?" Winsor said. His face pinched. "I suppose it isn't uncharacteristic for you to conceal such a truth, although I cannot fathom the motivation for doing so when I made my interests so abundantly clear." With more a churlish undertone, "I must have appeared to be a fool to all around, speculating on her nature when the man with all the answers stood right beside me."

"Ah, yes, a shameful oversight on my part. I would have explained, Enchanted One, but we had previous engagements that were time sensitive." I bowed my head. Winsor's sulking face made me guilty, the map he had made me coming to mind. I shot Divinis Wenrick a entreating glance. "Enchanted One? May I... May I take my daughter with me?"

"Daughter? Hardly. But, yes, you may take her. She is a free being, after all, and this is a civilized city." He stepped forward. "She has paid her time, so releasing her is fine." As he said it, so casually I hadn't even realized it was a spell, the bars disappeared from Mallow's cell, leaving only a room with three walls. Mallow crawled out, on hand and knees because of the low ceiling, and then sat on her heels and pulled me into her arms.

"Dad! I can't believe you got hurt because I wasn't here again! I'm so, so sorry!" She squeezed me. I hugged her, relaxing in her large muscular arms. My heart began to calm finally. Mallow was free. Two sorcerers or no, I was going to be fine. I felt sure of it. I took a moment to examine the cell behind her. Straw spread across the entire floor, a large circle thinned in the middle where she had probably been curled into a ball when she slept. A half-eaten loaf of bread sat in a bowl in the corner. A wash bowl still held water with bubbles skimming its top. A wooden comb sat near it.

The cell next to hers had the Boeren, who was sitting similarly awkwardly on account of his height. He was snorting around his tusks.

"Told you." Mallow leered at the Boeren. "You were wrong! Admit it!"

"Bah," the Boeren said.

"We had a bet!" Mallow released me. She fumbled on her knees and hands until she was facing Wallet. It was ridiculous, her trying to be imposing while on her knees. But if she had been a little bit less my own adorable daughter and little bit more monster, she would have probably been quite imposing on four legs. Like a bear.

"No bet when you have no coin." Wallet snorted.

"I do have coin; it's you that's broke now, because you were wrong."

"She's beautiful," Winsor said.

This effectively halted the blossoming argument. Even the ambient noise was sucked from the room with this revelation.

Mallow realized Winsor had been referring to her, so she twisted to face him. She was flattered by the compliment, but I didn't see it as much reason for celebration. Winsor's eyes lingered on her body.

"I am glad at least you got a chance to see her up close before she was released, my son," Divinis Wenrick said. Winsor stepped up close to Mallow.

"I've only ever seen drawings of them, like a tapestry... usually their depictions are distorted by the trauma of the memory. I believed that a Moon Giant would be hideous, terrifying..." His face wore no mask of protection, emotions displayed loudly in each twitch of the lips and widening of the eyes. "But, when I gazed upon you behind the stage, I realized how wrong they were. You are... so... there are hardly even words to describe a creature as magnificent as you." He shuddered. "I am overcome with remorse that you have been trapped here for so long, and I have only now seen you. If I had but known earlier..."

He pouted at Divinis Wenrick.

"Father, why didn't you tell me of her earlier? Why wait until now, until the guard burst through the door and told us a man had come for a Giant?" Winsor unthinkingly lifted one of Mallow's locks of hair, curled on the floor, in his pale hands. He draped it over her shoulder gently. The movement was full of sorrowful abdication. Mallow's face pinkened at the contact.

Divinis Wenrick cleared his throat.

"Winsor, my son, the man said that they must be going—"

"To think I unwittingly squandered such an extraordinary privilege as being in the company of this lovely creature."

Mallow, still grinning stupidly with flattered embarrassment, snorted.

"I'm not a creature. I'm a woman," she said. "My name's Mallow."

"Winsor. Winsor Reglar. Forgive my transgression in etiquette. I am unpracticed in the company of Moon Giants and awed into ineffectualness besides. A most unfortunate ignorance that can only be remedied by continued exposure, I believe."

"What?" Mallow said. If I was having a hard time keeping up with this kid sorcerer with my several years of schooling, I imagined Mallow would be only getting about half of it. To complicate matters further, this was the first time anyone had outwardly flirted with Mallow instead of leering at her butt. I desperately wished that Winsor was just a leering creep instead of... whatever this was. Frigid misery, could he ... stop looking into her eyes already?

Winsor's voice was soft. "You are ... it is... before this week, I'd never seen you, and yet anticipation of this second has been an infinite agony." He fumbled for a moment, at an uncharacteristic loss for words. He peered at his hands as they swam through the air, searching. "-when lightning strikes the ground—"

As Winsor spoke that, Divinis Wenrick's face flushed white, and then green.

"-shining with a luminance that only the stars can produce as they dance across the sky, anyone lucky enough to see it is stunned." He tilted his head and stared deep into her glinting orange eyes with his own wide, sleepless ones. "Stunned in helplessness. Powerless to do anything but quake as the aftershock of thunder shakes their body. "

Mallow was speechless. Her jaw dropped open inelegantly. Divinis Wenrick's expression had fallen completely out of control. His lips were pulled tight, and his eyes were wet. He was tense, unsteady and guilty all at once. I tried to figure it out...

Oh.

I ran through the lines he had spouted while a heated silence filled the chamber. Winsor's face was giddily vacant, his eyes gliding from this aspect to that of Mallow. Mallow was watching him, a pleasantly confused smile that was satisfied on her lips.

No, no! Hex it! I might have wanted to get closer to Winsor, but him as a son-in-law was way too close. Not to mention, with the Divinis's eyebrows arching above narrowed eyes and fierce frown, I was pretty sure that we were one kiss away from all disappearing mysteriously never to be heard of ever again.

"Aww, I'm not that lunasunset," Mallow said humbly, mangling the unfamiliar word. Winsor giggled.

No wonder the Divinis Wenrick was fuming. A sorcerer had a hard enough time when he married a non-gifted human or elf, though they certainly fooled around. But... to have his son get involved with a Moon Giant....

I tried to think of a way to make a quick exit to save myself, her, and even Winsor, but Mallow's size made a quick escape impossible. As I was mulling it over, Divinis Wenrick made an announcement.

"You may take your..." the corner of his lip quirked... "daughter and go. Don't try our patience again."

"Father!" Winsor cried, forcefully pulling his gaze away from Mallow. "Surely I can have a few more moments, nay, a few more hours... she shall join us for dinner... the grand hall is large enough, and..."

"No," the Divinis said. Winsor's expression fell. The Divinis had the "heavy burden of being a dad" face on, the one I felt so often on my own features when I had to deny Mallow. "They are leaving, Winsor, you've had your opportunity see her. Since she is a free being, no further studies are even possible."

Winsor placed a hand on Mallow's cheek. She scooted backward as she flinched away from the uninvited contact. He nearly stopped breathing as he spoke his next words.

"I'll visit you, after the festival. I'll move wherever you are to learn all of your secrets. I'll bring with me a carriage and my coin and anything else you might ask for, I will provide it. Tell me, where do you call home?" he asked. Mallow shrugged awkwardly as she moved toward the stairs.

"Um, not really anywhere. Me and my dad sort of do the travelling salesmen thing," she said. "Nice meeting you, Winton."

"Winsor," he corrected gently.

"Yeah, sure. Probably won't see you again... I never see anyone again... but later!" Mallow was now halfway up the stairs, and I followed her. Behind me, Winsor sighed. Hardly loud enough to be heard, he said, "A paradise dreamed of becomes a nightmare when it is guaranteed one can never step foot in it again."

"The Boeren remains, my son. You've not met one of those since you were a lad."

"Boeren are unaffected by magic. Something about their fur and core temperature in the Barren lands up north. You know that. He holds no interest for me magically, and certainly none aesthetically."

"Ah, you remembered."

"Of course... though..." The sorrow in his voice was broken by a quizzical edge. "It is curious how the Avalons managed to get him down here without the aid of magic."

Walking backward a few steps, I shouted down at Winsor.

"The way us ungifted do everything; they overpowered him with muscle!" I flexed my arm.

Then, I was out the door. It swung shut, and Mallow and I blinked against the bright sun.

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