Read Book 11 - Whispering Nickel Idols for Free Online Page B

out, a gorgeous specimen of pixie womanhood.
Sadly, pixies live fast. Melondie will hit middle age in about six
months. She was a typically obnoxious adolescent when I met her, a
month ago. Now she was a woman of standing in her nest.
    She piped, “Shakespear isn’t here anymore, Garrett. He married a
Daletripses. He decided to join her nest.”
    Pixie clusters are strongly matrilineal. Most times the boys follow
the girls.
    “Congratulations. I guess. That’s an important connection.” My
pixies are newcomers to TunFaire. Refugees. The Daletripses cluster is
an old line, as local pixie tribes go. A marital alliance would serve
my tenants well. “Though I thought that you and he…”
    “Let’s not talk about that. I have a husband of my own now. And he
don’t like hearing about the good old days.”
    “I’m sorry. If that’s the appropriate sentiment.”
    “Not to worry. He’s a little stupid, a lot lazy, and way too
jealous, but I’ll whip him into shape.”
    Marriage doesn’t take the same form with pixies. Passion is
unimportant. Forging alliances and preserving estates are. Passion gets
indulged on the side. In some clusters a girl isn’t marriage material
unless she’s demonstrated her fertility with several merrybegots.
    “I want to know if I can get some help with a case.”
    “Hey! We’ve got to pay the rent, don’t we?”
    “It might be dangerous.”
    “Talk to me, Garrett.”
    I told my story.
    “So you have a history with the Contagues.”
    “More than one.”
    “Better tell me about that, then. It could have an impact on how
decisions are made at the head table.”
    Belinda wouldn’t let sentiment hamstring business decisions. She was
harder than her father. And Chodo seldom let emotion get in the way.
    “This hall, Garrett. Where this will happen. Is it far out of our
territory?”
    “You know where the Bledsoe is? The charity hospital? That whole
area was all government buildings in olden times. When the Empire was
in charge. The hall is over there. It was something else before they
turned it into a war memorial. They were more frugal in the old days.”
    “Are there any pixies around there? Or anybody else who might think
we’re trespassing?”
    TunFaire is a hundred cities piled onto the same hapless patch of
dirt, a different one for every race. Some peoples are so different,
their TunFaires scarcely intersect. More often, they do, and only us
big, numerous types don’t need to invest in getting along. We can be as
awful as we want to be. And usually are.
    “I don’t know. I only just found out that the shindig is moving
there from Morley’s place. I haven’t been in that part of town since
somebody got me committed to the crazy ward at the Bledsoe.”
    “That must’ve been an adventure. How’d you lie your way out?
Convince them you were sane?”
    “I convinced them I was so crazy they didn’t want me there.”
    “There isn’t much time. You’ll have to take us with you when you go.
Keeping us out of sight.”
    That wouldn’t work. I couldn’t walk for miles lugging a carpetbag
full of squabbling pixies.
    Melondie read my mind. So to speak. “Don’t be such a cheap-ass,
Garrett. Hire a coach. We can get there unseen. And you can show up
without looking like a refugee yourself.” Everybody nags me about the
way I dress. Nobody believes me if I poor-mouth. They all think I’m
rich. Just because I have those points in the three-wheel factory.
    Melondie’s idea was sound. “Can somebody fly a note to Playmate’s
stable?” My friend Playmate doesn’t have a coach of his own, but he can
come up with one at a moment’s notice, usually. And I like to give my
business to friends. Plus, as a bonus, Playmate is about nine feet tall
and handy to have around when a debate turns physical.
    “I suppose.” She wasn’t enthusiastic. Long-distance flights are
risky for pixies. Too many things out there think they look like food.
    “Excellent. I’ll write one up and