It was the most down-to-earth, normal behavior Mal had ever seen the other woman exhibit. Between that and swearing, she was almost likable.
“Can’t you kick the pixies out after their theatrics?”
“No.”
Mal waited for an explanation, and when LeeAnne remained quiet, she pushed. “Seriously? They just created a small unnatural disaster. What else do they need to do? Start a world war? Maybe bring on the next ice age?”
LeeAnne slashed her an annoyed look and stood.
“The wedding parties begin arriving shortly. I’ll get you the itinerary. The reception and wedding are this evening. Dignitaries from every giant and pixie clan will be in attendance, as well as a variety of other guests. Expect at least a thousand, likely more.”
She glanced at Law. “That means I need you here during check-in to keep the peace.”
She turned her attention back to Mal. “Tomorrow will be the investment ceremony that establishes the bride as virdana of the new pixie-giant clan. Many on both sides revile this wedding, the alliance, and establishing a pixie in the role of virdana. They are determined to stop it at any cost. I am just as determined to make sure this wedding and alliance succeed. Effrayant’s reputation depends on it. Any and all resources are at your disposal. You need only call.
“I’d like you to attend the arrival of both parties. Law can fill you in on the necessary details.”
With that, she strode away. Mal watched her go, then turned to Law.
“All right. What’s going on? Because it’s weird enough that we have mini giants, that a giant is marrying a pixie, and that there’s going to be a pixie virdana, but now LeeAnne is swearing like a trucker and putting me on the payroll. We’ve just gone a couple hundred miles past Crazyland, right into Inside-Out World.”
He smiled. “I can’t argue that.”
He was about to say more but stopped. His head tipped and his eyes unfocused, the smile fading. He grimaced, shoving back from the table and launching to his feet. “’Fraid I’m out of time. I’ve got giants arriving and they’re getting into a brawl.”
“Wait! At least tell mesomething. I’m going into this blind.”
Law stopped and swung around. “Nutshell: some of the giants are cursed. Because of that, they have become small and many in the clans no longer consider them real giants and want to strip them of their citizen and clan rights. This marriage is designed to give them a measure of safety and some other benefits, as well as provide protection to the pixies, who also have reason to need it. That talisman you retrieved is part of the virdana investment ceremony. Talk to the bridal parties. They’ll fill you in on the details. I’ll check in with you as soon as I can.”
With that, he hustled away. At the same time, one of the desk clerks approached carrying a blue folder.
“This is for you,” she said, handing it to Mal before returning to her post.
Mal flipped it open and examined the itinerary.
As she scanned down the top page, she made a face and checked her watch. Damn it. She had about six minutes before the pixie wedding party arrived. Only they weren’t coming in the front doors. They were scheduled to come in through the grotto, which was between the tree houses by the wildwood and the sea gardens.
With no time to waste, Mal broke into a jog. It was clear that the giants and their smaller companions had been murdered to obtain the wedding talisman. It was equally clear there was a lot more going on here than she’d imagined and a lot more at stake. Cursed giants? A mixed pixie–small giant clan run by a pixie virdana?
She couldn’t even wrap her head around the idea. Giants and pixies were ice and fire in terms of cultural habits. Take marriage. Pixies didn’t marry among themselves except to make alliances, and even then, they weren’t expected to stay together or be faithful. They had many partners with many children spread through dozens of nests. The adults raised whatever littles were in their nests. Specific parentage didn’t matter. In fact, nobody really knew who was whose sibling or parent. Genetically, that could have been dangerous, but they kept the gene pool well churned with the multiclan meeting orgies that happened with some regularity, plus once every few years, pixie females did a kind of traveling roadshow, visiting various clans to get pregnant. A few years later, the males would go make a similar trip and sow their seeds. The process solved the whole inbreeding problem pretty quick.
Giants, on the other hand, took marriage and ancestry very seriously. Mal was pretty sure they’d invented and cornered the market on the big heritage and DNA dot-coms out there and were making a mint off them. Giants were intensely monogamous and freakishly anal about keeping track of who was related to whom.
How those two familial styles were going to mesh, Mal had no idea, but the word cataclysm sprang to mind. So did apocalypse, scorched earth, and annihilation.
Chapter Eight
Mal arrivedat the grotto before the pixies. She entered the sylvan space through a magical curtain keyed, she assumed, to allow in only pixies and auberge staff. Mal was a little surprised that it granted her entrance, but then again, LeeAnne was nothing if not efficient.
It was an odd mix of artful construction and uncultivated beauty. A series of pools cascaded into one another, ending in a quiet stream that meandered through tall cairns interspersed with trees and flowering vines. The pools pushed back under a massive crested-wave stone overhang, dripping with stalactites. Vines draped over the edge of the rock shelf in a lush, green curtain. Deep within, water cascaded merrily over a series of short falls into the first of the basins.
The temperature was comfortable, and a soft breeze stirred the air. All sorts of small and large nooks filled with soft moss, downy feathers, velvet, silk, and a variety of other comforts, had been tucked away in trees, rocky outcroppings, and along the banks of the pools and stream. Nothing was out of season in LeeAnne’s world, and fruit hung thick from the vines and trees. Tables resembling enormous cat trees interspersed the space, each holding a variety of foods and beverages on various platforms. Everything was cut into bite-sized pieces—bite-sized for pixies. Mal saw no signs of anything resembling forks or spoons or serving ware, nor did she see any dishes. The only containers for food were the pink crystal cups sitting on Christmas tree–shaped shelves near the beverage towers.
Mal checked her watch and the itinerary. The pixies were ten minutes late. She hoped that wasn’t a sign that something had happened to them. Like someone harpooning a bunch of them to the ground and hacking off body parts. The giant wedding party was due in less than an hour.
That gave them a few hours until the reception began at five, followed by the wedding around ten. Weird that the reception was first, but maybe they all wanted to have a good opportunity to get plastered first.
The itinerary didn’t say where the bride and groom would be spending their wedding night. Mal figured that LeeAnne didn’t want even her staff knowing. The fewer people who knew, the fewer people could attack the newlyweds there. The investment ceremony would take place the following day at noon.
