Page 26 of A Bear in a Birdbath

“A towel.” Margo actually smiled slightly. “What babbles but never talks?”

“A brook,” the gargoyle said without hesitation. “Until I am measured, I am not known. Yet how you miss me when I have flown. What am I?”

Margo was thoughtful. “Flow follows a theme of water…”

“Is that your guess?” Gary asked shrewdly.

“The answer is time,” Margo said firmly. “But I admire you for trying to trick me!”

Bruno told his jealous cave bear that she was not actually admiring the gargoyle as the jury applauded and chuckled.

Hug, his cave bear muttered, and it was the rib-crushing kind of hug.

“How much dirt is in a hole that is two feet by three and one third?” Margo asked.

The gargoyle’s eyes narrowed. “None; it is a hole. What is on the ground but also a hundred feet in the air?”

Margo had to think about that one, her mouth pursing before she burst out. “A hundred feet—a centipede on its back!”

The jury laughed out loud, and a giant in the back pounded the arm of his chair. Bruno thought that they were enjoying the contest, and surely Margo and Gary seemed to be. Eva, still strangely mute, was watching avidly, and Bruno longed to go to her, to pick her up and make sure that she was unharmed.

Hug, his cave bear agreed plaintively.

“What is orange and sounds like a parrot?” Margo asked.

This appeared to stump the gargoyle, at least momentarily. “You cannot riddle about obscure human world animals,” he protested. “I do not know all their sounds. You’d best find another riddle before your time to ask it runs out.”

Margo’s face remained unchanged but Bruno caught the corner of her mouth twitching. “No additional knowledge is necessary,” she said smoothly.

Gary considered that, then exclaimed in triumph, “A carrot!”

The jury applauded.

Gary appeared shaken by his own hesitation and he took almost the time on the sandglass to come up with his own riddle. “What tastes better than it smells?” he asked quickly.

Margo blinked, and Bruno remembered her confession about trolls having no sense of smell. Was this an unfair riddle? He eyed the jury, but they were watching the combatants raptly and probably didn’t know about her handicap. Should he volunteer the information? Would it embarrass Margo?

Hug.

I’m pretty sure hugging her in the middle of her trial won’t help anything.

“A tongue,” Margo said at last.

Bruno sat back with a sigh of relief.

“Forward, I am heavy. Backwards, I am not.”

Gary’s stone brow furrowed as he murmured the clue over under his breath. “I am not… Ton!”

He gave his riddle as Bruno was still trying to work out how the answer worked (T-O-N, heavy. N-O-T, backwards!) and the cave bear missed the clue, but Margo easily answered, “A stamp.”

She considered for a moment, then asked, “What starts with an E and ends with an E and only has one letter?”

“That one might have been trickier, if it hadn’t followed stamp,” Gary pointed out. “An envelope, of course. What word becomes shorter as you add more letters?”

“That one might have been trickier, if it hadn’t followed a riddle about words,” Margo retorted. “Short. What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it?”

Gary glanced behind him at the Queen, who had her mouth in a tight line. Clearly, she had expected her champion to win over Margo more quickly. “A name,” he said quietly. “Or a title, perhaps.”

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