Law frowned. “How?”
“Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about. Ta!”
She waved and headed for where the little female giants had grouped together. It was possible they might have left already. Part of her hoped that they had and that they got whatever punishment was coming to them. The other part of her said that they’d been treated horribly and deserved better, though doing evil to someone else to save your own ass was a damned shitty thing to do.
The group milling around, most looking stoic. Ilee remained inside the waterspout. Maybe that was justice. Mal didn’t know.
She approached the group.
“You all suck,” she said, amplifying her voice with magic.
They turned to look at her, and several shifted to dragon form as if preparing to fight.
“I get that what happened to you was crappy and you deserve a lot better, but this wasn’t the way to handle it. Why didn’t you all just leave Giantlandia and go looking for a cure on your own?”
“It was forbidden,” one female said quietly, uncowed.
“Not by the curse,” Mal said. “Otherwise you couldn’t be here.”
“By the virdanas and our clans.”
Because they were divided up over many clans, they didn’t have a singular voice to speak for themselves, so they were always outvoted.
Mal’s forehead wrinkled. “Why did they forbid it?”
“They wanted no one to know our shame. Nor did they wish anyone to learn of our shifting ability.”
“They can’t forbid it anymore,” Mal said.
“Our virdana can. Nayena. She will. The males of Moon Clan do not wish us to seek. They are happy enough with the alliance and, like the rest, do not want to spread news of our shame.”
“Theirshame,” another female said from farther back.
“What if I could offer you another choice?” Mal asked. “It’s dangerous. You might all die. In fact, you probably will, if you take it.”
The first woman she’d been speaking to gave her a long look. “But we’d be free?”
“Yes, but it’s not guaranteed. You’ll have to get permission first.”
“You could grant this?”
“I will ask for you. But you have to decide now,” Mal said as the waterspout froze in place behind her, a still sculpture of spun water. “Once Law gets done with the virdanas, I can’t help you.”
The female’s lips pursed, and she nodded once, decisively. “We will go.”
“You speak for everyone?”
“Yes.”
She looked over her shoulder as she said it as if not quite sure. Mal waited for someone to protest, but no one did.
“All right, then. Follow me.”
The path to the wildwood wasn’t far. They strode up the cathedral-like walkway, cobbles giving way to moss then leaf meal. The ghosts drifted along with them. Apparently, they were curious about how this would play out.
Mal halted just before the scattered line of yellow-spotted purple toadstools. Mist filled the entry like a wall, curling around the limbs of trees and reaching out to slide damp tendrils along the ground.
“Wait here.”
