22. Bruno

22

brUNO

B runo wished it was a fight of swords or fists. He understood that kind of battle. Someone got pounded until they didn't want to get up, and that was the end of it.

He wasn't sure where a battle of riddles concluded, and he didn't want to look more stupid by asking.

Margo, clever, savvy Margo, gazed at her opponent. "What is it that falls standing, but runs lying down?"

The gargoyle was silent for an inscrutable moment. "Rain," he said gravely. Bruno was not sure if he'd had to think about it, or if he was just pausing for effect. "What gets wet the more it dries?"

"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."

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.