He stopped and stood there, arms folded, and watched her patiently. Escalla hovered in front of him, coyly biting one finger.
“Not buying it?”
“Not really.”
“Still… pretty hoopy speech, huh?”
A warrior for justice should not be amused at falsity. Jus sniffed and kept a straight face. “One of your better ones.”
“Ha! Sorry, man. I drive you nuts.” Escalla flipped a fingeras though tipping an imaginary cap. “If you didn’t love me, you’d never put upwith me.”
“Yeah.”
Jus’ face cracked into a fond smile despite itself. SuddenlyEscalla met his eyes and matched his expression. The girl suddenly blushed, then paled and hastily whirred backward, thoroughly flustered. Aware that his ears were glowing an uncomfortable red, Jus cleared his throat, scowled, and turned to look along the stream.
Escalla cleared her throat and sped off to the wagon, busying herself by tidying an already neat pile of coins. Jus decided to walk along the stream and look for nonexistent tracks.
From his perch atop Jus’ head, Cinders sniggered and hissedsmoke. Funny!
Choosing not to comment, Jus tugged his armor straight and went about the serious business of being the Justicar.
Back at the wagon, Escalla meandered in midair like ahummingbird surveying her domain. With a sly, self-satisfied little smile, she blew a strand of hair from her eyes, pushing her long cornsilk locks behind her pointed ears. Remembering a hand mirror tucked into dark recesses of her baggage, the faerie fluttered down to pull at the satchels stored upon the cart, spilling her embarrassing collection of lingerie, old scrolls, and stale faerie cakes into the sun.
Gold sparkled amidst the bric-a-brac. Busily propping up the mirror against the baggage, Escalla flicked the gold a single annoyed glance. She stood before the mirror and turned sideways to admire her little figure, tidied her hair… and then frowned as the golden glimmer caught her eye oncemore.
There, lying amidst a colorful scatter of underwear, was a tiny little necklace on which a single clear stone shone and glittered in the sunlight. Escalla approached it, looking at it in startled disbelief. She touched it. The gold work was impossibly fine and fashioned perfectly for the scale and delicacy of a faerie.
Incredulous, Escalla lifted up the jewel and watched it sparkle. With the prettiest of little blushes, Escalla quietly put the necklace on. She admired it in awe, unable to believe just what was happening.
The gold was a dark, rich orange that showed her hair to be of a far more precious hue. The clear stone hung between her breasts and seemed to shimmer and flow with all the colors of the forest sky. It caught the green of her eyes and turned it from a sly glimmer to a shade innocent as forest grass. Escalla turned and gazed at her reflection in the mirror, looking at herself in blank astonishment.
It had been custom made for her-custom made with infinitecare.
Escalla turned and looked toward Jus. The man knelt beside the stream, carefully examining fallen autumn leaves in the mud. The faerie felt something akin to a tear well in her eye, even as she swelled her breast like a puffer fish about to burst.
A blush spread from her eartips to her toes. Suddenly girlishly shy, she found herself unable to move or even speak. The necklace hung fluid and gleaming about her neck, while Jus artlessly managed to avoid watching her.
Polk corked his jug and gave a loud, satisfied sigh. He had given his astonished mule a slug of whiskey, and the poor animal now stood with its knees knocking and its eyes staring into different dimensions of space and time. Turning, Polk saw Escalla’s necklace glistening about her alabasterthroat.
He creased his brows and exclaimed, “Jewels!” The teamsterscratched his head with a noise like sandpaper. “Is that treasure?”
“Oh, definitely.”
Escalla floated quietly into the air, feeling a strange, numb sensation. She hovered indecisively for a long moment then tugged her skirt straight, took a deep breath, and flew over to the Justicar.
He knelt, examining a fallen maple leaf, one of untold thousands that carpeted the banks of the forest stream. This particular leaf showed a tiny mark on the moist dirt that sheened its upper surface-a mark likea tiny footprint only a few inches long. Escalla landed softly on the mold nearby, her hands behind her back and her body swinging from side to side like an embarrassed child called up before her school.
She cleared her throat. Jus contrived to carefully lever up the fallen maple leaf and examine the indentation left in the mud below. The footprint could not have been made by a creature any heavier than a modest house cat.
Escalla took a step closer, and the sheer radiance of her blush made Jus look up into her coy smile. Looking at him from the corner of her eye, Escalla held her necklace stone in her hands.
“It’s, aah, a beautiful necklace.”
Jus knelt in the leaves before her, and Escalla cleared her throat.
“It’s slowglass. It sees everything I do and filters it outthe back in a fortnight’s time.” She blushed a deeper shade of cherry pink.“They’re called newlywed stones.”
Jus bared his head, slipping Cinders down onto his shoulders and letting his unhelmeted head gleam in the light. Escalla ventured a little closer, suddenly feeling an urge to pat the velvet stubble of Jus’ skull. Sheinstead bit her lip and smiled down into the fallen leaves.
“This is just too too sweet!”
Blinking, Jus looked at her from her tight little leggings up to the roots of her hair. “The necklace suits you.”
“Well, it is gorgeous. It’s tailor made.” The girlhalf turned away, hugging herself and casting one eye back across her shoulder. “Jus, I can’t! This is, like, really expensive!”
Looking a little confused, Jus sat back on his heels. Muscles moved under his shirt, making Escalla’s heart flutter in strange ways.
Jus scratched thoughtfully at his chin and said, “It doeslook expensive, but if it’s what you want…”
“Oh, oh, I want!” Escalla whirled, paled, blushed, and hidher face behind one hand. “I mean… it’s really appreciated. I know you think,well, that maybe I didn’t understand. I just wanted you to know…” Escallabit her finger, struggling her thoughts past her embarrassment. “I just wantedyou to know that, well, I’ve been thinking.” Her cheeks were aflame.Escalla pressed the backs of her hands against her face to cool them and felt a lump in her throat. “I’ve, ah, been thinking it through. I know that’s whatyou’d want me to do.” She felt her hands shake and hid them behind her back. “Imean, we have to be careful about all of this. It’s a change-not a badchange! — but it shifts everything into… well, you know… a new light.”
Jus rubbed at his nose, his confusion growing. He raised one brow and asked, “What have you been thinking?”
“Um, well, I’ve been thinking that it’s all right. You’vesort of grown, I’ve sort of grown…” The girl swallowed. “I… I think it’stime.”
Jus’ brows creased. “Time?”
“Oh, I know what you’re saying!” Escalla whirled,all-of-a-passion. “I know size differences might seem a… well, you know, abit of a problem! But, ah, I think there’s a spell somewhere that can help! Youknow, I could make myself a better scale. More able to, ah… to share… ah…” The girl suddenly blushed beet red and began prodding the tips of herindex fingers together. “Well, it just opens up possibilities, but we can wait.We have to wait. We might just have to be patient. You know-for a while…until we find the means…”