Dirty Deeds

by R. J. Blain

  The feeling ebbed slowly, leaving behind a happy glow. Mal looked down at the little thimble, noticing that her skin had never looked so good. No sign of the mottling or the white bumps remained.

  She looked up at LeeAnne. “That stuff is amazing. What is it?”

  “Expensive and rare,” the housekeeper said wryly as she resealed the bottle. “But quite handy, on occasion.”

  “Thank you.”

  LeeAnne’s brows rose in surprise.

  Mal wanted to stick her tongue out. She had manners, even if she didn’t always use them.

  “You’re welcome. I needed Law focused, and he wouldn’t be if you were incapacitated.”

  Otherwise Mal would’ve had to suffer through. Message received, loud and clear.

  “I understand.”

  LeeAnne smiled. “Good. Now, I have to repair the damage done, assess who, if anyone, will be removed from the premises, and make sure that everyone is on their best behavior from here on out. There will be no repeat of this sort of mayhem, I assure you. In the meantime, I suggest you go clean up. You appear to have something in your hair, and you’re covered in blood. You’d better eat, as well, and hydrate. You’ve lost a lot of blood, and you used a lot of magic. You’ll need the calories, but you know that already.”

  The way she said it indicated she didn’t think Mal knew it at all and probably needed someone to bottle-feed her.

  LeeAnne was quite wrong. Using magic took a lot out of a person, and Mal’s stomach was already demanding she fill it after expending all that energy on ending the skirmish. But she had one more thing she needed to take care of.

  “One more thing. I want to see the bride and groom before the wedding. Alone. Nobody else.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to get their opinions on who might be out to sabotage the alliance and who has a motive to do so.”

  “That will be a long list.”

  “One you and Law already seem to have, but since you’re already busy and I’m playing catchup, I want to meet with them and hear it for myself.”

  “I’ll arrange it.”

  “As soon as you can.”

  She nodded. “I’ll text the details.”

  Understanding that for the dismissal that it was, Mal rose and headed for the door.

  Just before leaving, she looked over her shoulder. “You might talk to the pixies about the glitter bombs. Those are getting to be a royal pain in the ass.”

  LeeAnne smiled unpleasantly, her eyes turning a darker purple and starting to glow in a most unnerving way.

  “Believe me, the pixies will not be using any more glitter bombs here. Never again.”

  There was something in the way she said it that set off Mal’s run-like-hell response. She pulled the door shut and fled, feet barely touching the ground. tThe only thought in her brain screamed, Run!

  Chapter Ten

  LeeAnne arranged for Mal to meet Nayena and Coorsel—the diminutive giant groom—in a private room at the coffee bistro in the lobby. She arrived a few minutes after the groom, who had come accompanied by two other small giants, one male, one female.

  So much for meeting with the bride and groom privately.

  They were already sitting at a round table. The mini giants ranged from a little over three and a half feet tall to just under four and a half feet. The two males looked like miniature linebackers, with bulging biceps, chests like barrels, and thighs like logs. Mal guessed the younger one was Coorsel.

  The young giant had blond hair, caught up in an oiled topknot, beads and other decorations attached to the tail that dangled down to the middle of his back. The sides above his ears were shaved close, with earrings looped all the way up the lobes. He also wore a torque made of silver and enameled with green and yellow over a loose white shirt, white pants, and broad leather belt with several weapons attached. His ankle boots were embroidered thick with green and gold thread that matched the embroidery pattern on his pants and shirt.

  The man with him had darker hair, almost brown, and was older. He dressed similarly, with the same embroidery colors and pattern. The woman had a black topknot, and while the men had copper penny eyes, hers had a green patina. She had a generous mouth and an hourglass shape, and she moved as if she knew quite well what to do with the weapons she wore. Her gold earrings dangled to her shoulders and gleamed with sapphires. Her torque was made of gold set with more sapphires. Matching cuffs circled her wrists.

  She wore a similar clothing style to the men but made of gold cloth with blue embroidery. Her boots were made of blue leather stitched with gold.

  Mal nodded a greeting as they stood.

  “I wasn’t expecting three of you,” she said. If they thought she wouldn’t call them out, they were mistaken.

  “There are reasons to be concerned for Coorsel’s safety, are there not?” His male companion asked.

  “I am not concerned, Uncle,” Coorsel replied with clear irritation.

  “Nevertheless, this wedding concerns us all, and we are entitled to be here,” snapped the female.

  “I’m Mallory Jade. I work for Effrayant. I’m going to be helping make sure the wedding goes smoothly,” Mal said before a fight could break out.

  “Like that brawl when we arrived?” the female giant said with obvious disdain.

  Mal smiled. “I call that more a ballroom blitz. Anybody die?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “And bonus, everybody got a refreshing little nap. Sounds like a fun time was had by all.” Mal kept the smile plastered on her face, even though she’d had to dissect the two little bloodsuckers wedged in her nose and ear in order to get them out. Not her idea of fun.

  “May I know your names?”

  At that, all three looked like they’d had pointy sticks jammed up their butts. Apparently, they didn’t like getting called out for bad manners, at least as far as introducing themselves went. Barging in uninvited was fair game.

  “My apologies,” Coorsel said. “This is my Uncle Hammet of Clan Vorki. And this is Ilee Syvinga of Clan Sheske.”

  Just then, Nayena arrived. She fluttered in and stopped, hovering just to Mal’s right when she saw that Coorsel had not come alone.

  “I was told bring no one,” she said, a wealth of accusation in her calm statement.

  “So was Coorsel,” Mal said. “Now that you have seen him safely to his destination, the two of you can wait outside,” she said to the young giant’s self-appointed escort.

  Ilee smiled without any friendliness whatsoever. She had apple cheeks and dimples, which should have made her look cheerful but only emphasized the unrelenting cold of her eyes. “As I said, we are invested in this wedding, and what is said here involves us as well. We will stay.”

  Would they, though? It was entirely up to Mal. She could simply move them out or put them to sleep or encase them in a mime box, only instead of being invisible and pretend, it would be invisible, impenetrable, and soundproof. After all, it was her party, and she could make them cry if she wanted to. The question was, would she learn more with them or without them?

  Maybe both.

  “All right, then. Let’s sit.”

  She motioned for everyone to take a seat. A waiter brought a selection of foods, both sweet and savory, at least half of them Mal didn’t recognize. No doubt LeeAnne had preordered them. The waiter asked for drink orders, and Mal ordered an extra-large five-shot mocha with extra chocolate and extra whip.

  “We’d better keep this short. Reception starts in just a few hours,” she said, checking her watch. “What I want to know is who has reason to want to stop the wedding and why?” She pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of her pocket and shoved them to the middle of the table. “Write down anybody you can think of.”

  Nobody moved. Of course not. Why would they want to share that sort of information with someone who might actually do something about it?

  “So you’re saying that everybody is absolutely on board with the marriage and
you can’t think of anybody who might want to interfere. Is that it?”

  “Of course not,” snapped Ilee. “But to tell you everyone who has an interest in stopping the wedding would take far longer than we have. Besides what would you do with such a list once you had it? You wouldn’t have time to check into even two or three before the wedding began and it was too late.”

  Fair point.

  “That’s true. Except I’m not interested in checking them out. I’m interested in keeping them from interfering. That, I’m pretty sure I can do.”

  “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 was drunk.” 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.”

  All three giants stiffened.

  “That is correct,” Coorsel said after a moment. “We would be sent to the groka swamps to serve as forced labor.”

  “You wouldn’t be allowed to simply leave and live in another country?”

  Hammet’s teeth bared in a snarl. “Leave? Those are our lands. They have been ours for centuries. We will not just walk away.”

  “I’m asking if you were given a choice between forced labor or leaving,” Mal said, “would you be allowed to leave?”

  Ilee drummed her fingers. “What does it matter?”

  “Might not, but if you were given a choice, then stopping the alliance and wedding won’t necessarily force you to work in the groka swamps, which would rule out one group as potential culprits,” Mal explained. “The groka farmers won’t be very motivated, right?”

  “We had the choice of leaving but could never return to see our families or friends and could take only the clothes on our backs,” Coorsel said.

  Mal nodded and looked at Nayena. “How about your side of things? Who wants to see this stopped?”

  She shrugged. “Not so many among Moontree. A few who do not wish to mix blood. Some fear Moontree will be lost.”

  “Sounds like that’s already happening,” Mal said. “You’re being killed off little by little.”

  “Some killed. Some taken.”

  “Same result. Your clan is diminishing and will disappear without new blood, so it’s not terribly likely a lot of your clan are against the alliance.”

  She gave a nod. “Yes.”

  “Anybody else against the alliance? Jealous lovers, maybe?”

  She laughed out loud and shook her head. “That is not our way, but other clans do not wish to see the alliance as we will no longer be easy prey.”

  “Are any attending?”

  She shrugged. “Witnesses are invited, as is the law.”

  Given the group of pixies who’d swarmed in after Nayena’s arrival, Mal decided that meant the place was swarming with potential pixie assassins.

  What it boiled down to was as she’d expected: everybody was a potential suspect, and she couldn’t really rule anyone out. She eyed Hammet and Ilee. Even them? Just because Coorsel trusted them didn’t make them trustworthy.

  “Anything else you want me to know?” Mal asked, draining her cup and glancing at her companions.

  All this time, Coorsel and Nayena had barely exchanged a look, much less spoken to each other. Law had said they got along well enough, but if they did, they were doing a good job hiding it. Not that it mattered. They were both grown up and in possession of their faculties. If they wanted to do this, more power to them. No skin off her nose.

  It sounded like Coorsel wasn’t expecting Nayena to commit to monogamy. Though Coorsel was handsome enough to possibly tempt her. Of course, a lot depended on whether he knew what to do in bed. Pretty
could get you only so far. Then skills were required.

  “We will be guarding the wedding party,” Ilee declared. “We will not permit any attacks.”

  Her eyes flashed orange, and smoke escaped from her nose and mouth. Her dragon wasn’t far from the surface. Mal nodded acknowledgement. If even one little dragon turned out to be the Benedict Arnold, it would be tough to keep Coorsel and Nayena alive, especially if that traitor happened to be guarding the two. A fast shift, a dive, and a chomp, and it was all over. Or a shift and a blast of fire and instant barbecue. Ilee bore watching.

  What if a big giant morphed into a dragon? What sort of damage could it do? Cook the entire venue?

  “We’ll want to keep a buffer zone around the wedding ceremony itself, with spectators at a safe distance.” Mal didn’t tell Ilee and Hammet that they were most definitely going to be spectators and not members of the wedding party. Why spoil the surprise?

  “Just out of curiosity, why split the wedding and investing Nayena as the virdana? Why not do it all at the same time? That way you give your enemies less time and opportunity to create problems.”

  “It’s not possible,” Ilee said. “The rites must be performed properly.”

  Clearly, she meant to shut down that line of questioning, but Mal was nothing if not born to be annoying.

  “And you can’t do them properly at the same time?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “These are not matters that we discuss with outsiders,” Ilee said, the dragon fire in her eyes brightening.

  “All right, then,” Mal said, standing up. “I’ll see you all tonight.”

  She cast a quick spell at Coorsel and Nayena, unsurprised to find that Law had already cast shields around them both. She sealed hers to his. Magically, they were protected, but if someone decided to slip them poison or shove a knife between their ribs, they’d be dead as dodos.

  She wasn’t thrilled for Nayena to be traveling around the hotel solo and decided to wait in the corridor for her. She came out first, stopping in front of Mal, who leaned back against the far wall.

  “I’ll walk back with you,” Mal said.