Once Dignity stopped sulking over Gabrielle’s popularity with their trappers-turned-rescuers, they managed to clamber out of the pit with the help of a rope woven from multicolored vines.
“Did you get these from the castle walls?” Dignity asked, a frown on his face as he tried to untangle the orange and blue vines that had wrapped around his arm.
“Can’t say we did,” one boy chimed, followed by another adding thoughtfully, “Can’t say we didn’t.”
“What a conundrum,” the last one concluded with mock melancholy.
“So! We’ve been waylaying travelers-”
“- to help with your quest, of course, Gabrielle-”
“But the pickings are thin-”
“- haven’t caught many fish-”
“So imagine our surprise when we found, well,” the boys all looked at each other, linked hands, then turned to Gabrielle and said in unison, “you!”
Dignity looked at the tableau the boys presented, with pale skin and glowing eyes. Their robes seemed overly formal, like the vestments of some forgotten order, but their faces were full of mischief and far from anything officious. Despite their eery in-sync similarity, there were slight differences among the boys- their hair and sashes all fell at different angles, the intricate patterns on their robes were all slightly altered, and their eyes glowed in different colors: in red, blue, and green. And those eyes were familiar.
“You,” Dignity said in a low voice, “are the ones who chased me through the streets of Ramos.”
“Guilty.”
“And glad of it.”
“You threatened Gabrielle. You deserved no less.”
Dignity tilted his head to look at Gabrielle. “What did you do to earn the loyalty of three such liminal souls?”
“Gave them cheese, mostly,” Gabrielle said with a smile. “And milk.”
Dignity frowned, but assented to address the spirits again. “How did you know about our quest?”
“Gabrielle’s quest,” the red-eyed one corrected. “And she was given quest by Death herself. That sort of thing tends to get around.”
“The trees are terrible gossips,” the blue-eyed one added with a grin. And Gabrielle would have thought it a joke until the last one muttered under his breath, “and terrible flirts.”
“Though we are impressed, Gabrielle,” Red said, his voice sly. “You managed to find Prince Dignity. Not sure how you picked him out from the corn fields, though.”
Dignity narrowed his eyes and held back a huff. “Yes, well, I’ve been a bit indisposed, no thanks to you.”
“Sore point,” Green noted lazily. “Got it. We’ll refrain from calling you jack’o’lantern, then.”
“Or scarecrow.”
“His royal rag doll?”
All three grinned. “Pumpkin prince?”
Gabrielle smiled at Dignity, who was looking at her in suspicion. “It’s a well-fitting name.”
Dignity closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “I suppose it should be no surprise that your companions are as irreverent as you have been from time to time.”
“Oh, we like Gabrielle,” Green said.
“But we’re nothing like Gabrielle,” the blue-eyed continued.
“For instance, we don’t trust you.” Red ran a hand through his hair, somehow managing to look menacing. “Not yet. Not ’til you pass a trial of our own.”
Gabrielle sighed. Everything was a game to her friends, and they preferred to play by their own rules. “Guys, I assure you this is unnecessary.”
“Perhaps,” Blue replied with a shrug.
“But it’ll make me feel better,” said the green-eyed with a hint of bite in his words.
“Fine,” Dignity huffed, surprising them all. “You seek recompense for when I assaulted your sovereign. It is childish, but if that’s what it takes for us to get on with the quest, then so be it.”
“Ah yes,” said the blue-eyed. “Speaking of childish…”
***
“No one will ever speak of this,” Dignity commanded. “I assent to the action, not to any after-tellings.”
“Sure thing, Prince,” one of boys said.
“Nuh-uh-uh,” said another. “Put your hands back on your knees. No cheating.”
Dignity let out an aggrieved sigh and complied. He was sitting cross-legged- which with his spindly limbs was quite a sight to see- and blindfolded on the ground, his tattered purple coat spread out like wings behind him on the grass. The three boys and Gabrielle sat similarly in circle with him, though the boys had no need for a blindfold and Gabrielle had promised to keep her eyes shut. In a larger circle around them were sticks stuck upright into the ground for Gabrielle and Dignity to rap their hands against as they chased their unseen opponent around the ring.
“Okay.” The red-eyed boy spoke with an imperious tone. “The rules of Duck, Duck, Goose are quite simple. Should I repeat them for the simpleton?”
“I have grasped the essence of the game,” Dignity said, directing his blindfolded head to look at the space between Red and Green. He let out a sullen hmph. “I just haven’t grasped its necessity.”
“Oh,” said Blue, his voice somber. “It’s deadly serious.”
“Quite necessary.”
“Of vital importance.”
“Also,” said the three in harmony, “plenty of fun!”
And plenty of fun it was, at least for Gabrielle. Dignity still had little control over his wayward limbs, and any time he had to rocket to his feet he inevitably tangled himself up and tripped. She peeked sometimes when it wasn’t her turn, and was surprised to see the furrowed look of concentration on Dignity’s countenance as he tried and failed to catch the darting mice-boys as they ran around and around. Gabrielle herself was passing fair at the game and stumbled only a few times on the invisible uneven ground, her knuckles almost bruised from flinging against the wood of the sticks. But she had the muscle memory engraved even in her odd Harkenhilt soul, and it was there to access even if pulling it to her waking consciousness was a skill she didn’t quite know.
For a moment Gabrielle remembered the taste of juniper berry gin, and then she was bopped on her head by Dignity and was chasing his growingly graceful stick-limbs around the ring, her worries for a moment forgotten in the heat of childish feats of strength and speed and the simple desire to run run run and win win win.
***
Their first move after Duck, Duck, Goose was to continue to the Mansions of the Blessed and avoid any more surprise pitfalls. Gabrielle felt, for the first time, a bit uneasy about going to Mother Hall to solve her problem. This was Gabrielle’s quest, after all, and she had managed, by herself, to survive what Dignity had named as the Labyrinth of Madness and the Moor of Remembrance. She had found Dignity, or, at least, been found by him, and she had met with the guardian Alaethōn and negotiated passage over his river. She had seen Lillian and escaped, she had learned of this realm and its make, and now she was ready to continue on her quest. She was the de facto leader of their group, and it seemed strange that she cede her authority to Mother Hall.