With this last, she fixed her gaze with such fire upon poor Foxbrush that he thought he might actually melt. He quickly shook his head, wondering if it was safe for him to get to his feet, scarcely daring with the lioness standing so near. “Um. No,” he replied. Then, sniffling, he added, “Not yet anyway.”
“Then you will be!” exclaimed Nidawi the Everblooming. “You will be, which means you are, which means you always have been! The King of Here and There!”
She whirled again, and when she came full around, she was once more the gorgeous woman, not so tall this time, her face more youthful (though no less dreadful) in its eagerness. “You are the King of Here and There! And you will marry me!”
“What?”
Foxbrush leapt to his feet, though he fell back into the arms of the fir tree, which tickled and pinched him unkindly. One branch prodded into his trouser pocket and pulled out the scroll, which it tossed to roll through the ferns.
Before Foxbrush could reclaim himself from the tree, Nidawi pounced, plucking up the scroll between a long index finger and equally long thumb. Before Foxbrush could think to make a protest, she experimentally stuck the end of the scroll in her mouth. She made a face, pulled it back out, and opened it.
“What’s this?” she said, frowning. “I can’t read this. Are these evil signs? Witch work?”
“Please, that’s mine!” Foxbrush gasped. The lioness growled. “Or rather, take it. It’s yours. It’s a gift. For you.” He shrugged, trying to look anywhere but at the lioness. “I didn’t want it anyway.”
Nidawi put the paper to her mouth once more and licked it. Another unhappy face, and she tossed it over her shoulder, where it curled up on itself like a frightened hedgehog. Nidawi smiled at Foxbrush.
“I like presents,” she said. “And I like you. When shall we wed?”
With that, the Everblooming stepped toward him, her eyes so full of otherworldly feelings that she was quite a terror to behold. She placed her hands on Foxbrush’s chest and would have kissed him had he not, in that moment, sneezed. This startled her into stepping back, and he took the opportunity to drop to his knees and crawl rather desperately away. He was just putting out a long arm, trying to reach his scroll, when he felt her hands on his shirt and belt, hauling him back.
“Come here, king!” the Faerie woman demanded, and with amazing strength set him on his feet, spun him around, and looked at him with the most brilliant set of eyes. The colors of them swirled from violet to gold with flecks of green and deeps of blue. They were the eyes of a whole forest, all rolled into tiny points of light. And they were irked.
“Don’t you like me?” Nidawi asked.
“Oh no! I mean . . .” Foxbrush’s head was light and whirling, for the nearness of her was a bath of summer wine, intoxicating, thrilling, and a little messy. It would be too easy for an ordinary man to forget himself, to forgo his responsibilities and commitments, to become lost in the smell of flowers in her hair and never be heard from again.
“I’m engaged!” he cried in a last desperate defense, grabbing her hands and pushing them away as gently as he could. One might just as easily dislodge mountain roots.
Nidawi’s eyes narrowed, and her perfect posy of a mouth bloomed into a full pout. “Engaged?” she said, taking a step back. The lioness muttered behind her. “Engaged to whom, may I ask?”
Her fingers loosened, and Foxbrush took advantage of the moment to back away into the shushing ferns. The lioness and Nidawi watched him, and he knew it would be foolish to try running, so he swallowed, his throat constricting painfully, and tried to straighten his hopelessly bedraggled shirt. “To Daylily, Lady Daylily, the woman I mentioned before.”
“You never mentioned a woman,” said Nidawi, who was not the sort to remember any woman besides herself. Tears brimmed yet again. “Faithless, heartless, cruel man—” she began.
“No, no!” Foxbrush put out both hands. “Please don’t cry! It’s . . . it’s nothing against you, I assure you. You are by far the loveliest woman I’ve ever clapped eyes upon—”
“Oh, well, that’s settled, then,” said Nidawi, and her tears vanished at once behind a satisfied smile. “If I’m lovelier than this Daylily creature, then who cares if you break off with her to marry me as you should?”
Foxbrush rubbed his nose and took another tentative step back. Though not the most insightful man in the worlds, even he could conclude that now was not the time to mention his intention of ending his betrothal to Daylily. The lioness flicked an ear his way, and he froze once more. “It’s a, um, a matter of honor. I must honor my promise to her. And I must find her as well. So you see, I don’t have time to marry anyone else.”
“Find her?” said Nidawi, her pout returning. “Find her, why?”