“How?”
Nayena looked both interested and bloodthirsty, like maybe she’d throw a few people on the list just for the hell of it. Mal had to admit, she liked her better than the giants, so far.
“With creativity and style,” Mal said mildly.
The pixie’s eyes got brighter, and her colorful wings fluttered with what could only be delight. “Sounds fun. I will help.”
Not entirely a compliment from someone whose idea of a prank was to throw a glitter bomb. That was a little bit like shooting a nuclear warhead off to celebrate someone’s sweet sixteen.
“Fun for me, anyway,” Mal said, deciding that bonding with the pixie would get her a lot further than being rude, a la the whole sugar versus vinegar thing. “I think you’re going to be busy getting married, though.” She looked at the others.
“Here’s the deal. Eight giants were murdered yesterday. They were killed and dismembered in an effort to locate the talisman that would make Nayena the virdana of the new clan. Luckily, we found it. I suspect today’s brawl was an effort to kill off Coorsel or Nayena or both, or to cause enough friction to call the wedding off or get you all kicked out of Effrayant. Possibly all of the above.
“The point is they failed, and they’ll only be getting more desperate. It would be helpful to have a better sense of who might be willing to go to these lengths to stop the alliance.”
“Every giant clan,” Coorsel said flatly.
Mal’s brows rose. “I thought the Vorki clan backed this wedding.”
“The virdana does,” Hammet said. “And a few of the other bigs. Family members, mostly. The rest are not enthusiastic. That applies to all the clans where there are smalls. Some support us, some don’t.”
“Maybe you should tell me how you became cursed. The short version,” Mal said. She’d had an idea that most or all of them were concentrated in just a few clans.
The three giants exchanged a look. Then Ilee spoke.
“A sorcerer fell wildly in love. An accident happened and his love was killed. A giant was responsible. He wasdrunk.” Her lip curled, disgust and recrimination dripping from her words.
“The sorcerer, dying, wanted revenge. He cursed all the giants within range of his power. He made them—us—small and infertile. Then he died. That was seventeen years ago, and we have not been able to break his curse. He was very powerful, and he cast the curse in death, which made it many times more powerful than it should have been. He cast it near one of our main market cities, so the afflicted came from many different clans. This wedding and alliance would give the small giants their own clan, as well as a few other things.”
“Like children for the males,” Mal said, watching the other woman carefully.
She nodded. “We will serve as guardians of the creches and help raise the children, much in the pixie fashion.”
Mal couldn’t hide her surprise at the ease of her response. Giants were not typically flexible, and when it came to families and clans, they were rigid as hell. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d much like the pixie way of having families,” she said.
“We must compromise if we are to survive,” Hammet said, square jaw jutting. “All of us must do our duty, no matter how noxious.”
“Noxious?” Mal repeated. Something in the deal had clearly made Hammet very unhappy.
It was Coorsel who answered. “Some of us were married before the curse, and their wives and husbands and families remained bigs. Their marriages will be dissolved. Those who were lucky enough to have their spouses be cursed with them must allow the husband to procreate with the pixies. We must widen our gene pool.”
Mal blinked. Hearing a giant talk about gene pools was like hearing spinach talk about the heat death of the universe.
“And the wives are good with that?” she asked in disbelief.
“We voted. And they will be able to have the care of their husband’s children.”
Mal pursed her lips in a silent whistle. Spoken like a true idiot. Sacrifice was necessary but looking after your husband’s bastard kids was asking a lot.
Not her circus. Moving along.
“Why take action now and not next year or later?”
“The Moontree Clan has agreed, and the Vorki virdana is willing to perform the ceremony to invest the new virdana with power,” said Coorsel.
An answer, and even part of the whole, but not the bigger part. Mal wanted it all.
“I heard that the small giants were in danger of having their citizenship rights stripped and losing their lands and other assets.”
