"How apt." Melora muttered. "Do you know who's fighting?"

  "Well, I don't know them personally," Cass said, bobbing its leaves. "Except Prince Jespierre, of course. Everyone knows him."

  Melora eyed Harry. The poor kid wasn't boy crazy. He had literally two crushes and both of them happened to be on the most inconvenient people possible. Still.

  "You wanted me to get involved in this because you're worried about Jespierre?" Melora demanded. It was kind of ludicrous. He was known to be one of the best swordsmen in the entire kingdom. She was a little more worried about Sorrel's cousin at this point, to be honest.

  "No!" Harry protested.

  "Ah, young love." Cass remarked.

  "I don't like Jespierre...I mean, not like that anyway." Harry said, blushing at little when he realized both Melora and Cass were staring at him.

  Melora eyed him. So then, if not Jespierre, who was he so concerned about? Damn. Garrick, really? The worst fop in the entire court. Harry really did have a thing for pretty boys, didn't he?

  "Just please tell me Evangeline is not involved." Melora said.

  The aforementioned princess was known to be her grandmother's favorite and absolutely horrible at any sort of weaponry to the point it was a running joke among the courtiers who visited. She'd heard the same story at least twice before about how Evangeline nearly skewered an Ambassador by accident during a fencing match and he hadn't even been a combatant. However, she was her brother Jespierre's favorite sibling and the current royal family had at least eight or nine kids.

  Cass make a noise that in it indicated disgust. "No, I don't think so." It said, "What use would she be in a duel anyhow? If it doesn't involve rearranging the public garden plants then she's probably not interested."

  True.

  "How is she not on the list of known garden menaces?" Harry asked Melora who seemed confused.

  "She's not?"

  The aforementioned Evangeline also had a particular fondness for the Cannibal Plants, which she deemed "cheerful". And yes, they were extremely colorful but they were also prone to biting people and eating rare specimens if left unsupervised. There was a rumor, which was true but not public knowledge, that they'd even gotten into Greenhouse 5 and eaten one of the invisible plants and that was why almost half of them vanished when it rained.

  "Speaking of known menaces, Cass said, "When you're going to do something about that blasted dog?"

  "You're perfectly capable of talking to Gert yourself." Melora said.

  "Yeah, but she thinks I have evil intentions." Cass pointed out.

  "Don't you?" Melora asked it.

  "No, of course not." Cass said, rustling its leaves in clear annoyance as Melora turned to go.

  ---

  The highly anticipated duel was taking place on a fairly unremarkable spring night. Nothing else was out of the ordinary, Melora had to admit to herself as she crossed the garden under the bright but pale light of the full triple moons. Even the weather was typical for this time of year and she pulled her hooded sweater around her. Except she kept smelling the faintest hint of something buttery and salty, an order that grew stronger as she approached the small terrace that overlooked the Rose Garden Pavilion.

  She thought it would be a good way to get a look at the situation before intervening in anyway. Tibbs had been strangely silent on the subject when Melora had brought it up to him earlier. She suspected that bribes were involved. He'd told her to handle the situation but hadn't given her any real guidance as to what she was expected to do about it, which was typical behavior for Tibbs. "Just do something about it!" was his favorite command to his underlings but he was never clear as to what specifically that might be so it was open to interpretation.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  However, when she got there she found a crowd of her coworkers and all the interns. They'd all dragged benches out of the main hall and gotten chairs from somewhere and the pavilion was now littered with them. The delicious smell was coming from a popcorn machine that was cheerfully being manned by Ermont himself. A girl that she recognized as one of the interns, Gemma Frost, was passing out the field binoculars that were kept in the Shack, which is what the staff called the Visitor Center when Tibbs wasn't in earshot. He didn't like the dismissive way it sounded. And Gert was there too sitting in a prime spot near the front of the proceedings. Skibble on the other hand was hanging around near the popcorn machine and making eyes at anyone taking boxes from Ermont in hopes of convincing them to feed her.

  "I take it the d'Arques paid off the watch." Melora said to Ermont after the vaguely familiar girl that he'd been handing popcorn to finally stopped her obvious flirting with him and disappeared into the crowd.

  "Or the Fairins did." Ermont replied, handing her cardboard box with a scoop of popcorn. He pointed to a far corner where someone had set out a buffet. "Toppings are over there. And we got some leftover Nightwitch Juice from the last staff party. Unless you want to take your chances with the punch."

  "How spiked is it?"

  "Gert made it." Ermont said, tossing a bit of popcorn at Skibble, who promptly licked her mouth and whined for more. "So there's probably enough liquor in there to start its own store. But it's good."

  Melora had her doubts about that. She had experience with Gert's culinary efforts before and frequently regretted her choices afterwards. After all, there was such a thing as too much booze. Not that Gert believed that herself.

  "Who is that girl anyway?" She asked him, noticing that Ermont's attention seemed to be elsewhere.

  "You mean Ginna?" Ermont said, probably because Melora had been watching her with a frown on her face. "Yeah, I'm not sure what her deal is."

  "Aside from her stalker tendencies?" Melora said, causing Ermont to frown and the tips of his ears to drop a little as he considered it. He didn't want to admit it of course, but there was only so many times a person could accidentally turn up where someone else was known to be without it being blatantly obvious what was going on. The trouble was that Ermont, despite his ancestry, was still a male and they tended to be far more oblivious to that sort of thing.

  "I really don't think she's stalking me." Ermont said, tossing another piece of popcorn at the dog. "I think you and Tibbs are overreacting with the whole 'no stalkers in the garden' thing. Who else do you think is being stalked?"

  "Not one stalker. Many." Melora pointed out, "You have to admit the number of girls who follow you around the gardens is getting absurd. And anyway, I wasn't asking about her."

  "Good." Ermont said, seeming relieved. "She's not my favorite topic of conversation anyway."

  "I'm asking about the girl keep staring at, the one that's over there in the corner and who I really can't see from this far away." Melora said.

  Ermont frowned, considered it, tossed a few more pieces of popcorn to the large fluffy creature who licked his hand when she'd quickly slurped them up. "Go ask someone else for food," He said to the dog, who seemed to understand him. "I've already paid the Skibble tax."

  "And if you don't tell me, I just ask someone."

  He sighed. "It's Zephie."

  "The bard that keeps getting stuck in the Chantrella?" Melora asked him, "I've heard about her."

  But before she could say anything else the clang of steel on steel caused the crowd to hush, pull out their binoculars, and inch closer for a better view.

  "Go on," Ermont said, "You'll miss the show. I think there's a spot by Gert."

  "How am I supposed to 'handle' the duel, if I'm just sitting here watching it?" Melora demanded.

  "Beats me." Ermont said, "If Tibbs wanted you to actually intervene, he should have been more specific."

  She'd thought the same thing herself.

  "Just go talk to her, Ere." Melora insisted, but walked away because as he mentioned there was a spot by Gert and Tibbs really should have been more specific if he had wanted her to stop the duel herself rather than observe it.

  --

  Gert barely registered Melora sitting down beside her, other than giving her a curt nod of acknowledgement, because her own eyes were fixed on the duel below. The silvery swords gleaming in the moonlight, the determined expressions on the faces of both Prince Jespierre and a beautiful aristocratic girl who was easily matching him blow for blow. Their seconds, who would presumably take over when the primary duelist were cut until either group was out of fighters, were waiting to one side of the pavilion with a stately gray haired woman who must have been the required master of ceremonies.

  She instantly recognized Sorrel, who was frequently in the gardens and the rumor was that she was dating one of the scientists that worked with Ermont. Her practical outfit was enough like her normal attire that she was easily recognizable. But it took her slightly longer to recognize the man standing beside her because he normally was wearing some ridiculously fashionable outfit that looked as if it wouldn't withstand the slightest turn of the ballroom much less last five seconds in the gardens. He was probably the only member of the royal family who was less likely to be present than Evangeline and yet, here he was. Unless it was a distant cousin who looked just like him?

  "Is that Garrick Fairin?" Melora asked Gert, who nodded.

  "Sure," Gert said, "I don't know what Jespierre was thinking by picking him as a second. Probably thought he didn't need him anyway, but the poor idiot will be lucky to not get skewered."

  Melora nodded and hoped Harry didn't make a fool of himself in that instance.

  "Half the people here are betting on Jespierre to win. The other half's betting on Isabeal." Gert said, "That's where my money is, but the two of them are pretty evenly matched. Care to make a wager yourself?"

  Melora shook her head.

  Because of the way the duels are set up in this kingdom, first blood eliminates a combatant and the objective isn't not to kill your opponent (because that's the only way this would be illegal) so the second person from their "team" gets a shot. The last person standing is technically the "winner". So who wins the duel?