Which meant, so was he.

Baldrick, Grand Fell of the Gnomes of The Doors

The Doors, South Center of the Great Thicket Forest

WODELL

“Expect a summons. From True.”

Glenda, Empress of the Pixies, nodded while looking unsurprised.

As she wouldn’t.

They all suspected, upon True’s return, if he heard they had not been included in the royal nuptials, this would happen.

“Is she as marvelous as tales are telling?” she asked.

“Better.”

Her little pixie eyebrows rose into the pink markings at her forehead. “Better?”

“Their love will move mountains.”

“And defeat Beasts?” Glenda inquired.

Baldrick held her eyes. “I felt fear, Your Grace. Now I have only hope.”

“Then she is better than marvelous.”

“We will still need to be ready,” he warned.

“As ever, Baldrick, of course,” she drawled.

With that, and without another word, as was her wont, she buzzed away, only to turn back to look at him from the distance.

“Does she make him happy?” she called.

“He does not know it quite yet, but she is his world.”

“It’s about time he got one,” she replied.

She then swooped a loop in the air on a trail of taffy-pink pixie dust and darted out of sight, glittering dust drifting to the earth in her wake.

Baldrick moved to his tree and into it, ready to put up his feet and drink more ale.

And later, when he lay down in his bed, he slept easy for the first time since he felt a quake.

57

The Finnie

Queen Ha-Lah

Beach Beside the Triton Sea

OFF THE WEST COAST OF FIRENZE

Pecking at them with my fingers, I pulled at my curls, giving them more volume around my face as I stared into the looking glass that hung from a post in Aramus and my tent.

After nightly swims and daily showers in fresh water, I was going through my supply of oils and essences to keep them healthy, bouncy, separated and tamed, as I liked them.

This meant we’d have to find an apothecary along our journey to Wodell so I could blend some more.

Although Aramus had received a bird saying that we had much longer to make our way to Notting Thicket than we’d previously thought, we still had to leave. And soon. We’d dallied more than a few days and we’d been told the journey would take at least three weeks at a quick pace. From the beginning, we had little time to linger.

Therefore, we were leaving in the morning.

I would need far less oil and essence for my hair once we were inland.

I still needed to blend.

I sighed, turned away, and my skirts that had a number of loose, filmy panels that drifted like kelp around my thighs twirled about my legs as I did so.

I grabbed a short piece of toweling that was resting on our pallet as I made my way to the flaps of the tent that were tied back, giving me a wide view of the magnificent sea. I walked through the opening and stepped out onto the sand.