The Wizard's Dog Fetches the Grail by Eric Kahn Gale

Author:Eric Kahn Gale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

The sound of ringing metal turned my attention to a large open shed. Within, a burly man was hammering a hot horseshoe on an anvil. When he was satisfied, he used his tongs to lower the horseshoe to the ground. There sat a lizard as big as me, which opened its long flat beak and belched a jet of fire. Then the man returned his horseshoe to the anvil and hammered it again. “What is that?” I asked.

“A fire salamander,” Winnie said. “I told you, they fit right in. All the guilds and workshops have them.” She gestured to the long, low-slung buildings lining the street. Their chimneys coughed black smoke, and people and monsters traveled in and out with a lazy sense of purpose. Most of the buildings had signs I couldn’t read, but there were carvings and pictures, too. One was a wheel and hammer, another a single candle, and I saw many more: gold rings, heads of cabbage, fish, and even needles and thread.

“They can make things while they’re dreaming?” I asked Winnie.

She laughed. “If you’d ever had a job, you’d know work can be boring. You get distracted and your mind wanders. So Mab has them think of work and nothing else, and the city makes more goods than ever. But we’ve no neighbors to sell to, so the metalsmiths and weavers and wheelwrights destroy what they’ve made and start all over again! It’s madness!”

“Why does she have them work if she doesn’t want what they make?”

“I can answer some questions, Nosewise. But I don’t know the mind of the Fae queen.”

We kept walking through the town, peeking in windows and keeping our eyes out for any signs of my pack. A street vendor was slicing roasted hunks of cow thigh and selling them to passersby. While he was collecting the coins from a young couple, a gang of tiny, smoking frog creatures appeared from the grass and swarmed the cow leg. The vendor shouted and swatted at them and they went sparking away.

We passed by an alley, and I saw some well-fed street dogs feasting on a garbage pile. They kept their distance from a fire salamander that ate alongside them, but not as much distance as I would have kept.

At a crowded intersection, we spotted a regiment of soldiers. They looked like Lord Destrian’s men with their leather armor and serious faces, but instead of swords at their belts, each wore a long, limp reed.

“The soldiers are armed with willow branches,” Winnie said. “An invention of Queen Mab’s. Most likely to minimize the carnage if they wake up.”

“When people wake up, it’s bad?” I asked.

“It’s chaos,” Winnie answered solemnly. “But look where we are. This square connects roads all through the city. That way’s the best well water,” she said, pointing down one street. “Most of the merchants live this way”—she pointed in another direction—“and you follow that one to the biggest market, and beyond that are all the best taverns. Most townspeople cross this square at least once a day.

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