Page 27 of A Bear in a Birdbath

The jury murmured over this answer for a moment and then allowed it.

Gary drew himself up. He was taller than Margo by a handspan. “I appear once a minute, twice a moment, but never in one hundred thousand years. What am I?”

Margo stewed over this one almost until the sand timer ran out. “M!” she cried, as the final sands fell.

Bruno let his breath out in a huff as the jury approved her answer.

“What is taken before you can get it?” Margo asked.

Gary opened his mouth and shut it. “Honor?” he finally guessed, as the sands of his own timer finally ran out.

“A photo,” Margo answered in triumph.

“Objection!” the Queen cried. “That is obscure and human!”

“A photo is obscure?” Margo looked genuinely taken aback.

“We do not have cameras in faery. I submit that this riddle is unfair.”

Gary scowled.

The jury consulted.

Bruno thought their heated discussion looked much more like a battle than Margo and Gary’s competition, and it was everything he could do not to wade into the argument that ensued and knock heads together to make them see Margo’s side. He caught Eva’s gaze from across the makeshift courtroom and she shook her head just slightly, warning him not to.

So much was at stake. How could he leave this kind of decision to a rag-tag bunch of fae fools? His mates were his, and this was all nonsense. But Bruno trusted his mates, and Margo was waiting quietly. She and Gary were like stone sentries on either side of a bridge, and it wasn’t long before the jury got themselves back in order.

“We rule this riddle unfair,” the woodling said, looking even more like they’d just been through a tornado than they had. “We declare the winner to be the Queen’s gargoyle.”

“Don’t I get to ask another?” Margo protested.

“You had to ask a fair question in the time given by the glass,” the woodling said regretfully. “Those are the rules.”

What does this mean? Bruno wondered in horror. If Margo lost…

“Come, troll,” the Queen said imperiously. “You are mine as well, now.”

A gold shackle appeared on Margo’s boot at the ankle, and a strand of gold chain as fine as Eva’s came to the Queen’s hand.

Bruno surged to his feet with a roar that he didn’t even try to hold back.

23

MARGO

It took three goblins, two shrieking dryads, and a pile of rocks in the general shape of a snowman to subdue Bruno as a cave bear. Finally, one of the giants from the jury simply sat on him, and would not let him up until Bruno had pounded the ground with a fist in defeat and shifted back to a man.

The Queen tsked disapprovingly and made the mess that Bruno had made of the jury box and courtyard vanish with the wave of her hand.

Margo herself only felt numb.

She’d lost. She’d gambled her own freedom for Eva’s and lost.

She hadn’t let herself think about the possibility while she was competing, focused on each puzzle in turn, listening for the clues and centering herself on the solution. Was her question unfair? Was it a rightful loss?

Eva rose up to her feet as Margo stumbled for the dais, dragged along by the persistent pull at her ankle. Her shackle was as delicate as Eva’s, and looked out of place around her rugged boot. She should have been able to break it with a pinky, but she knew better than to try.

She sank to her knees and was in reach of Eva, who came to wrap her small arms around Margo’s big frame.

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