Page 16 (1/2)

But Mallow’s sorcerer friend had been a Dry Magician, and though Mallow did not really think of herself as a —she belonged to the Dry School as well Dry Magic, having been invented by a ht shift, consorts with inanimate objects, books and maps and laure in the higher levels, as well as the Dust of Ages and Thirsts of all kinds It is a difficult discipline, and Mallow had ic too, which had to do with living things, with tears and rain and love and blood Truly, Mallow yearned to know everything Curiosity was part of her, like her short blond hair and bitten fingernails The best thing in the world was not her luckfigs or her whiskey lake, not her weeping-orchid garden or the cast-iron ducks that thudded heavily on her sills everyfor a bit of onion oil to moisten their bills, not even her friends or her little country house, but having curiosity satisfied, feeling the warh her body

If this is so, you ht well ask, why do you stay in your cozy house, Mallow, and not venture out into the wilder bits of Fairyland looking for things to know? Are you fearful? Are you ill?

If I am to tell you the truth and I think that I must, if I am to do my job well, Malloas not like the other creatures in Fairyland She had used her ic to make a pleasant life for herself, where she could be alone as she preferred, and where nothing would disturb or hurt her if she did not want to be disturbed or hurt This was important to her, for she wished to be safe, and she wished to live in a kind world, which on the best of days Fairyland could onlya trick on a maiden or nine

I will tell you what her ducks would say on the subject, for Mallow herself would, with a bright smile, tell you to mind your business and send you on your ith a war Her ducks, after all, knew her quite as well as anyone, and since she gathered their coal eggs for breakfast every(do not worry! once cracked open the little black things overfloith smoky, rich yolk the color of ink) they felt she was in some sense their rooster and therefore family

All three of the cast-iron ducks would tell you quackingly: “Mallow is the cleverest girl since the first girl, so she knows theto Yourself When she first built her little house— it! With her own hands! And only a few of the ere ers couldn’t leave her alone That’s Winesap village, just down the road, population two hundred Fairies, one hundred Ouphes, fifty Tanuki, several Gnomes, and at least one Jack-in-the-Green Practically all of the helpful and honest as best they could Where did she come from? What did she do for a profession? Why had she chosen Winesap? Did she find any of the Fairy youths attractive in a ic could she do and would she do it right now for all to see? Would she represent her Folk in the Seelie come harvest time?”

Mallow’s bed would then ruffle its linens, plump its pillows into a mouth, and join in to explain the situation: “We beds know quite well that in addition to all the other kinds of ic, and Malloonderful fierce at No Magic Soic you can hold on to, when all the rest has gone No, she said to all of it ‘I want to live a little life in a little house by a little lake I do not want to be bothered by anyone I do not want to marry a Fairy boy I do not want to ply my trade at the market I do not want to pass laws at the Seelie which will vanish up in green smoke by dahen everyone does as they like anyway I do not want to muddle about with Politicks, and whenever two Folk of any sort are in a rooether there are always Politicks to be muddled in I have all the books I could need, and what e in commerce if books are the coin Coood one, not just your great-aunt’s book of doily patterns—and I will give you an egg or a cake or a pair of woolen socks I a It should be spent in asas possible and no undue excite has had troubles in her youth She only wanted a gentle, slow sort of living from then till forever”

Mallow’s hairpins would clack together into a little wiry homunculus and finish up: “No one in Fairyland had ever irl before, who looked to the future and expected winter to coreatly respected A village counts itself blessed to have one, and Mallow had done just as well as announcing she meant to be a country witch in commune with the cosood ones, such as Cabbage’s Index of Wunnerous Machines and Their Moods and Buttonwood’s A Redcap’s Carol and even Arthur A Physicks for Experts Only—and she would leave that cake or those woolen socks or a bit of home-cut soap, and all of these economies happened in quiet before the sun ca, the villagers had decided that ‘practical’objects’ and had officially subtitled themselves, Winesap: A Pracktical Towne”

But ducks must always have the last word, and they are very ood while, and you would almost think Mallow the usual sort of hermit, save that once, when her sorcerer friend visited,her crying in his arh she had been hurt a long tio and reminded of it all unwanted It’s true the world will always hurt you, we say, so best to stay with your ducks by a pleasant lake, and feed thee bits especially”

And Mallow ht have, for all her days, but for Temptation Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural ih all the harder when they succuedthickest, in the forainst her strong black doo

r Golden ink swirled into beautiful calligraphy; bold red and black words leapt up at her hungry eyes

King Goldmouth (the Mad) Byds a Happy Cherrycost to Alle

And Issues The Followyng Compulsion to His Fairylanders:

Present Theeself to Pandemonium Upon Applemas

For the Commencement of the Most Excellent

Fairyland World’s Foul!