Chapter 431: Master of the Market

Chapter 431: Master of the Market

The Master of the Market looked down from his lofty perch atop a maple branch at his work and found it to be good.

Work was progressing well. The market was laid out with brightly colored stalls being erected by some lesser fae while others showed up with large wagons of goods that in essence a store on wheels. With permission to hire his lesser fae cousins, he'd arranged for musicians, fire eaters, and tricksters of all types. Lord Alwyn had provided flowering trees and bushes that his unicorns had encouraged to bloom for the first market day.

In the center of the market was a large pavilion where feasts and dancing would be held and to the side of that was a large faerie ring of giant toadstools. This would provide an endpoint for any of the High Fae who wished to visit the Market and dispense with the long journey through other realms that the lesser fae endured. Things seemed to be going well, and Gombrindle was pleased with the days work.

Well, until he noticed that the damned hedge maze was an actual maze and not just a bit of scenery separating the market area from the nearby fields. Squinting, he saw there wasn't even a way through it! "Horby! What the hell are you doing with that maze?"

A lesser fay with hair like leaves and bright green skin looked up, smiled, and yelled back happily, "She's a beauty, isn't she?! She'll hold 99 humans and not let even one of them leave or find the market until the setting sun illuminates the sundial and the shadow points to the exit. One of my best mazes yet!"

Gombindle climbed down from the tall ladder he'd been using to trim the ribbon on the main tent, briefly wishing he was back in Tuckbottom selling ribbons to tourists during the annual Toadstool Festival. Times had been simpler then, and while there had still been just as many idiots, they hadn't been his responsibility.

It only took one look at his lovely wife, Princess Fairchild, reclining on a blanket in the sun and enjoying a glass of the local wine to dispel that feeling. She waved to him when she saw his glance and blew him a kill. All thoughts of Tuckbottom blew away and he went to deal with his latest problem.

"Horby, I think we have a small misunderstanding. I distinctly remember asking for a simple arrangement of tall hedges to hide the market area, with wide, grassy paths to accommodate the crowds, and a simple set of twists and turns that would heighten the anticipation of the mortals coming to shop. What part of that didn't you understand?"

Horby scratched his head. "Pretty much all of it! Mazes are for trapping mortals! You don't make it easy on them and let them just walk right on through! They'll end up in the market and buying stuff, and not at all frustrated by my enchanted puzzle mazes. I figured you just explained things badly and decided to do things my way!"

Grombindle hadn't understood the mortal term 'facepalm' when he arrived in these strange lands. But he did now, and while he saved the strange gesture for only special occasions, he used it now. Any lesser fae who saw the scene laughed or grimaced, depending on how close they were related to Horby.

"Oh, I agree that I made an error, Horby. But I think I can fix it damned quick." He put his arm around the shoulders of his 7th cousin nine times removed, from his mother's sister's baker's side of the family, and whispered in his ear. Public shaming was always a more serious punishment, and he might need Horby and his mazes the next time they needed a fast getaway from a bad situation.

"I'm going to walk away, and you have a short smidgeon of time not less than three minutes and not more than nine minutes to reconsider my words and their most probably meaning from my viewpoint, and fix things. Failure will mean a trip to the Duchesses Realm to feed the Rippy Fish by hand."

Horby's eyes grew large, then larger again, and he ran for the maze, pulling out his Flaming Vorpal Hedgetrimmer of Hasty Landscaping, and got to work altering the hedge maze to better reflect the wishes of the Master of the Market. Gombrindle approached his wife, bowed low, and said, "Would it please the princess to share her blanket with her husband?"

Gwendolyn Fairchild, Princess of the Realm, inclined her head in a short bow and patted the blanket next to her, far closer than Gombrindle would normally have chosen. "Yes, sit. We need to talk." She poured him a large glass of wine. "Please drink this, and I'll pour another. This discussion may cause you some stress, and I can see that getting ready for the first Market Day is already doing that."

Gom drank but had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He'd been waiting in dread for this day, ever since his lovely wife had accepted his ribbon and fallen under the enchantment placed upon her. He noticed that she wasn't wearing that ribbon in her hair today.

"Oh, boy. Let me explain..."

"Damn, now that's a threat. Still, I was always afraid you'd wake up someday and realize you were a Princess married to a goblin!"

"A bored Princess! And don't forget the part about you being roguishly handsome. Crushing someone's hopes at the altar is so cliche. It had already happened six times that season alone, and countless times in years past. So boring! So utterly boring. Instead, I did something no one expected and it was exciting! People were talking about me immediately, both the lesser and the Greater Fae. Even the King heard the tale and complimented me on my choice. I think the novelty amused King Oberon, in a way so little does. And while Lord Airthistle could have accepted me refusing him the moment before we were wed, your move still has him confused and the laughter behind his back is so much greater. I still can't believe he tried the old 'love potion number nine' ploy."

"OK, so why are you still around, then? Don't get me wrong! This has been the best months of my life but I always knew it couldn't last."

"Simple, my handsome husband, because I'm the opposite of bored with you. Just that first day was amazing! Father's expression of confused hope, Mother and all her sisters fainting dead away! Exquisite. Who knew that was only the start of our little adventure? Front row seats to a glorious battle between the old Duchess and five mortal heroes, followed by a gnomish invasion force of Bankers and Lawyers? Such a day."

"And then I watched my new husband somehow dance between the raindrops of politics and disaster to become not only the King's newest advisor but the first of the lesser fae to do so in centuries!"

"Yeah, I was sweating during those negotiations.

"I trembled inside, excited but knowing that death by cold iron was only a few steps away. Taking your arm as you accompanied the King to the negotiating table put me closer to power than any of my family has ever been. I'm not sure I liked the feeling, truthfully, as much as others long for it. Truthfully, I don't think any of the High Fae could have stood so casually in front of the Butcher and negotiated half so well as you did. I was so proud of you in that moment. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Well, I'm hoping that I'm interpreting the deal correctly and that you're saying you want to keep me around?"

"Yes, I want to stay married. I want children, hopefully, some that look like you. And I want a house."

"You got it. Which Realm? I can pull some strings."

"None. I want a large mansion, here at the market. We'll put it beneath a large glamour, of course, except to show off on market days. It's exciting here. Already today I've seen two hobgoblins chased over hill and dale by an annoyed sedge beast, a fireworks wagon explode spontaneously, I've talked with dryads and frolicked with unicorns. Not to mention the ongoing fun of watching one of your helpers destroy his enchanted hedge and managing to slice off his own beard."

Gombrindle sighed, "And it's barely noon. OK, so, a large house here in Sedgewick. Frankly, that will help me carry on with the work on this market and let me work together with Lord Alwyn. It's not always going to be exciting. There will be some boring days."

"We'll visit Sedgewick on those days. And once the first batch of children arrives, I'll have fun watching them help you with your tasks."

Gom relaxed. If she saw an upside in a couple of dozen rugrats causing chaos, she was here to stay.

Down by the market, most of the hedge was on fire, and the badgers were taking bets on how far it would spread.