“But we humans have lawyers.”
Vanessa’s face stretched into a rictus of a smile. She slowly straightened herself up and adjusted her dress.
“You’re not quite the dummy everyone thinks you are,” she finally said.
“Just you,” Eric pointed out. “Everyone else thinks I’m distracted and creative. Only you think I’m actually stupid.”
“Fair enough,” Vanessa conceded. “I always knew playing with humans would be fun. You’re all a lot more—fun—than I imagined. It’s really astounding, the propensity for evil the least of you have. Here I was thinking that I was the master of tricky and binding agreements. Apparently I have a lot to learn. What’s that saying? ‘The devil is in the details’？ You make me think that humans invented the devil.”
Eric said nothing. He wasn’t, as she said, stupid. And he was a little wiser than the first time around. There was no celebrating his victory over her yet. Something as horrible and ancient as Ursula no doubt had another shoe to drop—possibly seven shoes.
She shook her shoulders and settled back into a proper Vanessa pose, prim and pretty.
“All right, then, Prince Eric, a partnership. ‘For Tirulia.’ At least until one of us figures out how to…dissolve it.”
“All I care about is my country,” Eric said with feeling. Don’t think of her. Don’t think of Ariel. Don’t think of how you’re continuing to help her, looking for her father. While he was unsure if the witch could read minds, it was clear that Vanessa could read faces—and would. “And its people. As long as they are safe and happy and prosperous, I don’t care what mad little witcheries or whatever it is you do on the side.”
“What a generous offer. Thank you, My Prince,” she said, giving a very ornate bow—not a curtsy. “Mad little witcheries, indeed. Time was I would turn you into a barnacle for such language.”
“Those times are over, Princess,” Eric said with a thin smile. “Welcome to the human race.”
AT THE ABSINTHE HOUSE:
“I don’t know, Lord Francese. Do we even wish the good prince to return to his senses? At this stage? It seems that all is going along rather splendidly…I’ve already received several nice…shall we say…returns on my investment in the clearing of the Devil’s Pass. A pair of vineyards, in fact. Let the lad write his songs and the lady lead us into wealth!”
“I don’t object to the general idea of expansion, Lord Savho. And I’ve made quite a bit myself on the shipment of munitions from Druvest. But I think it’s rather ridiculous to consider us Druvest’s equal, or Gaulica’s. The world is changing, and I am not convinced Tirulia is ready to be the world power our dear princess wishes it were.”
“Oh, I agree, darling. And I feel nothing but empathy for that lovely prince of ours. He’s so haunted—such a handsome young man.”
“He is indeed, Lady Francese. I was just having tea with the princess, and upon leaving I saw him cutting such a lovely, gothic figure kneeling in an overgrown garden.”
“Whatever was he doing there, Emelita? Practicing his poetry?”
“Honestly…it rather looked like he was talking to a seagull…”
AT THE MARKET:
“Mad he might be, but I don’t think he wants us to be all over the place starting wars with which and who. And I agree.”
“Don’t you say that! Florin came back from the assault in the mountains with a necklace for me. There’s opportunities in the army for the youngest son of seven that don’t exist elsewhere.”
“He could get a place on a ship like everyone else, Lalia.”
“Yes, and come back with stinky fish. Not necklaces.”
“Well, I don’t like it. None of you are old enough to remember the troubles of Thirty-Five—”
“When none of the boys in your village came back alive, yes, yes, we’ve heard it before. This is different. Vanessa is clever! She has all these modern weapons, explosives, and tactics…our boys don’t even need to risk themselves.”
“Really? Dead times twenty isn’t a risk?”
“I may hire on to a fishing boat myself. There’s enough work to go around, though not enough boats…”
“Plus there’s that contest! A chest of treasure for finding a magic fish! That could buy you a thousand necklaces, Lalia…”
AT THE DOCKS:
“I think our prince has taken for the worse—have you heard? He’s started talking to seagulls!”