Anna set another bowl on the table and Moira looked at the girl significantly. “We shall have plenty of time to discuss that when we get home.”
“Home,” Wiz repeated. “I can’t wait to get back. I’ve missed you so much. I’ve missed all of you.” He quirked a smile. “Heck, I even got to missing Little Red Dragon, I mean Fluffy.”
Moira raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I take it you have not enjoyed your adventure? Seeing strange lands? Battling dragons? Doing great deeds of heroism?”
Wiz smiled back. “I only battled dragons when it was absolutely necessary, I rigorously avoided deeds of heroism, great or otherwise, and this place may be strange enough, but I wish I’d never seen it and I bet you all do too.”
Moira turned to where Jerry and Malkin were deep in conversation.
“Well, not all of us perhaps.”
Watching the pair Wiz felt a sudden chill.
“Well, we’ll be out of here soon enough. Let me finish eating, grab my staff and we’ll be leaving inside a half-hour.” He smiled at the prospect and leaned back to take another pull from his mug of tea.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Jerry said. “I’ve got some news too. Malkin’s agreed to come back to the Capital with us.”
Wiz spewed tea all over the table.
“WHAT?” he demanded indignantly and lapsed into a coughing fit that somewhat diminished the effect.
“I have decided to come with you,” Malkin said gaily. “This Capital of yours sounds like an interesting place. Full of opportunities.”
Wiz thought of Malkin’s definition of “opportunity” and blanched. “I don’t think you’ll find any opportunities in the Capital. Nope, no opportunities at all. It’s a dull place really. Full of all kinds of boring guards and burglar alarms and . . .” He trailed off when he saw he obviously wasn’t making an impression. Then he looked at her more closely, over at Jerry and back at Malkin. “There’s more to it than just opportunity, isn’t there?”
Malkin looked shy. “He’s the first man I’ve ever met I didn’t have to look down on.”
Wiz was tall by this world’s standards and Malkin could look him square in the eye. Jerry was a head taller than Wiz, which made him about the biggest man around, save Bal-Simba. He was still heavy, but after several years of more exercise and the diet full of vegetables, grains and fiber eaten in this world he was no longer exactly fat.
Wiz looked at his friend.
“I’ve never met anybody like her before,” Jerry said simply.
Considering that Jerry had never been in jail that was probably true, Wiz reflected.
Wiz turned to Moira. “I don’t suppose this is some kind of infatuation spell?” he asked with a tinge of desperation in his voice.
Moira looked amused. “Infatuation, yes. A spell, no. Only the age-old magic between man and woman.”
Wiz put his head in his hands and moaned.
“Is there aught I can do?”
“Yes, warn the people at the Wizard’s Keep to nail down anything they want to keep.” He considered. “And tell them to use big nails.”
Jerry and Malkin had moved to the corner, intent on some private matter and oblivious to the other people in the room. She had her hands on the rough stone walls and was apparently explaining to him how to scale a wall at a corner. Jerry was just looking at her, ignoring what she was saying.
“I think Jerry has finally met his match,” Moira said approvingly. “She seems quite taken with him as well.”
“She probably just wants a place out of jail,” Wiz said sourly.
Moira looked speculatively at the couple in the corner. “No, she is really in love, I think.”
“Worse,” Wiz groaned.
“Well,” rumbled Bal-Simba. “At least it shall not be boring.”
“That,” said Wiz Zumwalt, “is exactly what I am afraid of.”