Must Be Magic Read Free

with him and that went against what the dust
was supposed to do. His Heart Match was supposed to instantly recognize him as her
mate, as well. But she seemed to have other things on her mind. Like the
contest across the street.
    She disappeared through the door,
and Myghal’s gaze drifted over the statuary inside the fence. An army of garden
gnomes—from small ones only as tall as a handspan to two in the back that were
about the right size for Gnomes—was spread out over most of the area, along
with bird baths, small benches, and flower pots. Too bad the Gnomes weren’t
real.
    He smiled. No self-respecting
Gnome would be caught in the clothing these wore. Red vests, blue trousers,
yellow shirts, purple caps. Gnomes dressed in browns and tans and dark greens
to blend in with the forest they lived in and the earth they worked in.
    One of the two tall statues near
the fence caught his eye. It looked suspiciously like a Troll… Myghal strolled
through the stone army. No, not stone—concrete. The human words were coming
back to him slowly. He wandered near the suspect statue. That one looked like a
Troll because humans had no idea what Gnomes and Trolls really looked like.
Just as they had no idea how evil Faeries could be or they wouldn’t present
them as children’s playthings.
    Satisfied that the statue was
only human error, Myghal turned around and headed toward the building where she
had gone. If it was what humans called St. Patrick’s Day here, then he had only
a few days before the Spring Equinox. Not much time to convince the human woman
that he was Prince of the Pixies, she was destined to be his Princess, and
discover a way to get them both back to Pixieland.
    *
* * * *
    Tredje, the Troll, sucked in a
deep breath when the Pixie Prince disappeared into the building. He punched the
Gnome next to him. “Do ye think the Pixie recognized us?”
    Gomit
grunted. “Here, now. I don’t have to suffer that kind of abuse.”
    Tredje
snarled. Neither of them was happy with the situation, and the other knew it.
When the old Faerie Queen—the present King’s great-grandmother—banished the
Trolls to live with other assorted earth-based kin in the Other Realm, they had
declared their independence from the Fae. Of course, the Fae still considered
them in their service. Fortunately, the Fae rarely visited the Other Realm
these days and seldom had need of Trolls.
    But the Sprite messenger, tiny in
both realms and able to pass from one to the other in a body of water as small
as a dewdrop, had arrived a month ago and called on the Troll Thane and the
Gnome General. Through its ability to locate Faerie Realm folk that all Sprites
possessed, it had brought news that the Pixie Prince would soon pass into the
Other Realm to go to his Heart Match. Sprites were also able to pass through
the time continuum as well. This one had slipped through to see where the
Prince had gone and who he had gone to, then it had brought the news into this
realm before the Prince’s escape actually happened in the Faerie Realm.
    The
Trolls and the Gnomes were to stop the Prince by any means necessary. It
happened that Tredje lived across the way from where the Prince would land, and
the General had chosen Gomit, so the two had been paired to carry out the
Faerie King’s mission. A sorrier warrior, Tredje had never seen. Still, a sorry
Gnome warrior could beat the best Pixie any day. And with the help of a Troll,
they’d soon be done with this assignment and Tredje could be back home under
his bridge sipping dandelion wine in no time at all.
    Gomit
scratched behind his ear. “I don’t know. He looked at you a long time, but I
think we blend in well enough.”
    Tredje
looked at the colorful clothes and little pointy hats he’d pilfered for them to
wear to match the other Gnome statues. Pitiful, what humans thought of Gnomes.
    “Aye,
but Pixies have a sense about things, I’ll give’em that,” Tredje said and
tugged his beard.
    “Do we
have