"Last king but two. Cornelius V never had much use for fancy things. Fishing's good, that's all he cares about."
"And who are we going to see?" Tananda asked.
"Whoever will talk to us," Matfany said. "Keep an eye out for the fox fire. That's where they'll be."
"What's fox fire?" I asked.
We stepped through an arching avenue of mangrove trees that blotted out the moon. I kept close to Tananda's light. The footing was tricky. It looked like there was only one path that didn't dump pedestrians into the soup. Matfany jumped from hummock to tussock to slippery, moss-covered rock. I heard a curse and a splash behind me, which meant Guido had missed at least one of them. All of us, except the prime minister, had gotten soaked numerous times.
We emerged on the other side. I had to squint at the blinding blaze of blue light that filled the clearing ahead. "That's fox fire," Matfany said.
Glimmering figures began to rise out of the ground until I felt like the only unlit candle on top of a birthday cake. In outline they were Swamp Foxes, but when I stuck a hand through one, all I felt was the dank, cold air.
"And those are the Old Folks."
THIRTY-ONE
Their insubstantiality only cut one way. The Old Folks grabbed us and hauled us into the middle of the brilliant blue light, which just happened to correspond exactly with the soggiest and stinkiest part of the marshland. At least they found us a relatively solid piece of turf to stand on, but it was so small that Tananda, Guido, and I were practically doing a group hug to keep from toppling off it into the mire. Bubbling black mud opened up belching bubbles of swamp gas that smelled like a bar at the end of a nine-day drunk. My eyes watered, but I kept my tone friendly and diplomatic.
"Nice place you've got here," I told the towering flames who guarded me, "Great weather we're having, huh?"
They didn't answer me.
Matfany stood a few yards away, surrounded by a halo of blue-light specials. These were more defined in shape than the majority of Old Folks. Between their triangular ears they had crowns on their heads, and the streams of ectoplasm that trailed behind them were embroidered.
fur-trimmed cloaks. Even with my keen hearing, I had to strain to listen to what they were saying to him.
"You have violated the sanctity of our wilderlands, and for what?" one long-nosed queen demanded. "For ordinary cash money?"
"I had little choice, your highness," Matfany said, with a bow. "Our resources are depleted."
"Our resources are endless," a broad-faced king boomed in a surprisingly low voice. "You just needed to be patient. Instead, you have interfered with the line of succession."
"I'm very sorry you see it that way," Matfany said. "I don't need to tell you that there have been three different lines of royal house here in Foxe-Swampburg."
"But she isn't dead! My daughter doesn't have to be the last of her line!" insisted a tenor. He retained more of his shape than even his fellow royals. Matfany looked startled, then bowed deeply.
"King Tinian ... I'm honored,"
"Well, you shouldn't be," he said. "Prime ministers serve. They don't rule. If I had realized that you would ever have done such a thing as depose my daughter, I would never have promoted you out of the accounting office!"
"What were you thinking, letting those rude Deveels do that to the Mountains Above Town?" the deep-voiced ghost asked. "What a mess they made. And where do they go calling The Tallest Peak after a Geek?"
"Let me explain," I said, pushing forward. I felt my leg go halfway into the mud before Guido hauled me
back onto the squashed marshmallow we occupied. "Don't blame Matfany. You know Deveels. You give them an inch; they take a mile. I can fix the problem. Just give us a chance. All we need is a little time for them to feel they've gotten their money's worth, then I'll make them take down all the signs and the rest of the junk."
The Old Folks turned away from Matfany and stared at me. The glowing sapphire eyes were hard to maintain contact with for long. I kept an affable smile on my face.
"I am no! sure," the deep-voiced king said, "that we will do any better to depend on a Pervert than on Deveels"
"That's Per-VECT," I said, holding on to my temper. "And it's not just me that Matfany hired to haul your cojones out of the cooker. There are also my associates."
Tananda leaned out from behind me to give them a little wave.
"Klahds and Trollops," Tinian said in disgust.
"Now, wait just a minute," I said. "We're M.Y.T.H., Inc. Maybe you're too far back in ancient history to have heard of us, but we have a reputation for helping people. Effectively."
"For money."
"Only a fool works for nothing, pal," I snarled. "Yeah, maybe your boy here made some stupid decisions, but he did what he had to with the best intentions. You want to keep your descendants on the throne without problem-solvers on your staff, then make sure they go to business school before they take the crown. They'll have to learn that what goes out has to come in first."
Fingernails dug into my wrist
"Aahz, maybe the firm approach isn't the best one here?" Tananda whispered to me. I noticed that the shimmering gas flames had moved just a little closer.
"So you think that being ignorant is worthy of being condemned to death?" the long-nosed female asked me.
"Stupidity is the only capital crime in the universe, honey," I said. "It's always punishable by death. Commutation comes by way of mercy or pure dumb luck. Matfany here needs to learn to control his temper, but he was smart enough to know he needed help."
"And you think that letting other people take over our landscape is the way out of the problem?"
"If we hadn't had a creative solution, other people would have taken over the landscape, and not in name only. I've seen your books. I haven't seen so much red ink since I read a copyedited manuscript of the last tell-all celebrity autobiography. You're not happy about it, but isn't it up to the living to find their way out of their own jams? You had your shot. It's up to them, now."
Matfany cleared his throat. "Your highnesses, I have given my word to these out-of-towners that they are allowed to commit some temporary depredations on our fair country for a time. I will hold to my word. That is the only honorable thing to do. I ask that you hold back from causing trouble for them for the period of the contracts."
The flames went into a huddle.
"His word? What if he did give his word? What's that got to do with us?"
"Well, if we have no honor, then we have nothing," Tinian said. "I did trust this fellah enough to give him the top post. That means that his word is my word."
"But what about his temper? I don't like it that he can boil over like that and cause such a constitutional crisis all at once. The royal house is the royal house. While a scion of it is living, she is the rightful monarch and should be back here at home where she belongs, not hiding out in some Klahdish manor house that calls itself a castle."
Possiltum, I thought with a smirk, filing away the fact for future use. Maybe I should arrange for a mob of adoring fans to descend on her there. Hemlock hates crowds. She'll throw Hermalaya out faster than that week's trash. That'll show Skeeve.
"It's a pretty smart thing to do, getting people to pay for nothing."
"I don't like anybody messing up our mountains and piers like that."
"Well, you see how it backfired."
"That boy couldn't have known It would." King Tinian said. "The mistake he made was over my daughter."
"That's true. Lucky for him that's the easiest thing to remedy."
The huddle broke, and the ghostly figures drifted toward us.
"So, what's the good news?" I asked, heartily. "Let us finish up clearing your books, and in no time Foxe-Swampburg will be back to its good, old tourist-trap self. How about it?"