Page 19 (1/2)
In the dizzy night following the Apple sound beyond the ice tent Curiosity ith sharp teeth within her She crept out of the Leopard of Little Breezes’ heavy protecting paws and out of the tent, drawing a pale, gli to the Gold Wind over her shoulders The Winds lay snoring, all about, Green in Mabry Muscat’s Ar over his head, as if in his sleep trying to stop some fell act Mallow left them behind and peered out froate The long, wide boulevard of central Pandeuttering and flickering, the reat blue mirror in the sky
Mallow heard the sound again
She squinted to see, up the street one way and down the other She ht have ducked into a near alley to follow it, but her eyes finally seized the prize—a long figure waddling down the cobblestones, shoulders hunched, cloak drawn up to its face Wisps of fog billowed at its feet Mallow froze; she could not have begun to convince her feet to ht, and where the beams struck it a thousand colors sprayed out as if a vein had been cut in the side of a rainbow
It was King Goldmouth
Mallo hie clurichaun, hunched down in his cloak of jewels, volueed, barrel-thick, hanging down so far as to hide his old Furry eyebrows concealed his gaze, and his bald head had been tattooed with astrological gibberish, the graffiti of a hundred royal stargazers
With a garu creak, Golders In the laernails burnished Not just his mouth then, but more, and fro old, much older than anyone had really suspected A leprechaun spent his days guarding gold—but a clurichaun drank and ate and gluttoned and over the centuries slowly turned to gold, beco his own treasure
As Malloatched, King Gold behind the ear and whispered to it The mist scampered off and returned in less than a , handsos a pale, leathery orange Gru softly all the while, Gold the knuckles He drew all six of theently pushed the thin nose He worked his thu had his whole ar, scrabbling, looking for so in the depths of hi Goldmouth withdrew his arle lovely, faceted topaz He popped it into hisit
When he had done, the King breathed upon the drea ahile the clouds of fog whirled and cheered in their silent, wispy way
Malloatched the King at his night feast for another hour, her calves aching, her skin frozen, unable tothat s and stilled her es and towers, wiggling his fingers inside the out some secret, tiny heart—a brick or a pebble or a china cup or a lu on as the wall or terrace orcru holes Mallow had seen all over the city
Bit by bit, the King was eating Pandemonium
“Everyone is hungry,” I Mallow out of her spell “But only the King can eat his fill”
That night, Malloept bitterly into the Leopard’s fur, and did not knoas to be done The Leopard licked her gently, in a sleeping rhythm, and did not know, either
The day of the Tithe arrived suddenly and with a tre air Fairyland’s whole nation prepared breakfast and drank their coffees and teas and stiff peach-liquors, nibbled at brioche and iced cake and crisp bacon, but found itself not very hungry Mallow told her tale and the Red Wind turned her face into her hair Iago laid his head on her red knee The Green Wind and Mabry Muscat exchanged fearful glances It will be lances said He’ll want all of Fairyland on his table sooner or later And maybe one day is today and that is the awful reason for the dead, dark Tithe coht They held hands, and for once, Malloished she had a hand to hold
Before her thought could finish itself, Mabry took her fingers in his, and the Leopard dropped her head into her lap, looking up at her with those black, kind eyes “Tell hiether He cannot eat you all”
The Blue Wind stroked his indigo beard and sighed “Perhaps he is right, and the Tithe is good and and honest and willWe did it for a hundred thousand years, or anyway a lot of years, before it stopped There must have been a reason We cannot know until we try And maybe he will be sated”