said, coming forward. 'I'm Ballimore.
You must be Princess Cimorene. I'm so pleased to meet you at last, after all that Kazul has told me about you.'
The giantess bent over to shake hands gently with Cimorene. She was at least three times as tall as Mendanbar, but she moved with a grace that suited her size. Cimorene returned the handshake gravely, and said, 'I hope Kazul hasn't given you the wrong idea about me.'
'Not at all, I'm sure,' said the giantess. 'Is this your young man? You're not running away from the dragons after all this time, are you?'
'Certainly not,' Cimorene said with unnecessary vehemence. 'I'm very happy with my job.'
'Of course,' Ballimore said, sounding disappointed. She gave Mendanbar a speculative look, then leaned toward Cimorene. 'If I were you, I'd reconsider,' she said in a loud whisper. 'Your young man doesn't look like the patient type.'
'No, no,' Cimorene said, reddening. 'It's not like that at all. This is the King of the Enchanted Forest, and he came to see Kazul, only Kazul has gone to visit her grandchildren and isn't home. That's why we came to see you-to borrow a magic carpet, so we can find Kazul.'
'Oh, I see,' said the giantess. 'Strictly business. Well, you'll have to wait until after supper. Dobbilan will be home any minute, and he hates it when his meals are late.'
'Dobbilan?' Mendanbar said with some misgiving.
'My husband,' Ballimore said.
There was a loud crash from the courtyard outside, followed by the thud, thud, thud of heavy footsteps that shook the castle.
Ballimore straightened with a happy smile. 'Here he comes now.'
8
In Which They Give Some Good Advice to a Giant
Mendanbar and Cimorene turned to face the castle doors as the footsteps drew nearer. A moment later, the doors flew open and the giantess's husband stepped into the hall. He was a giant's head taller than she, with wild brown hair and a beard like a large, untidy broom's head. He carried a club that was as long as Mendanbar was tall.
Just inside the door, the giant stopped and sniffed the air. Then he sneezed once, scowled ferociously, and said in a voice that shook the torches in their brackets: 'Fee, fie, foe, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread.'
Ballimore shook her head. 'Nonsense, dear. It's just Princess Cimorene and the King of the Enchanted Forest .'
'And neither of us is English,' Cimorene added.
The giant squinted down at her. 'Are you sure about that?'
'Positive,' Mendanbar said.
'Well-' The giant sniffed again, experimentally, then lowered his club with a sigh. 'That's all right, then. I wasn't in the mood for more work tonight, anyway. Sorry about the mistake. It must be this cold in my head.'
'I told you yesterday to take something for it,' Ballimore scolded.
'And I told you this morning to wrap some flannel around your throat before you went out. But do you listen to me? No!'
'I listen,' the giant protested uncomfortably. 'But I can't ransack villages with a piece of flannel around my neck. It wouldn't look right.'
Cimorene snorted softly. Mendanbar got the distinct impression that she didn't think much of doing things for the sake of appearances.
'Well, really, Dobbilan,' Ballimore said, 'how do you think it looks if you're coughing and sneezing all over everything while you're ransacking? Have a little sense.'
'I'd rather have a little dinner,' said Dobbilan and sneezed again.
'If you sound like that tomorrow, you're staying home in bed,' Ballimore informed her husband.
'I can't do that! I'm scheduled to pillage two villages and maraud half a county.'
'You're in no condition to pillage a hen house, much less a village,' Ballimore declared. 'Besides, you've earned a bit of a rest, what with all the extra time you've been putting in lately, looting and marauding and I don't know what all.'
'That's not the point.'
'It's precisely the point. You're just being stubborn because you think having a bad cold is un- giantlike.'
'Well, it is.'
Ballimore shook her head and looked at Cimorene. 'Men!' she said in tones of disgust.
'And don't you say 'men' to me,' Dobbilan said. 'It's my job we're talking about.'
'Maybe you should try a different line of work,' Mendanbar suggested.
'Eh?' Dobbilan peered down at him with interest. 'Like what?'
'Consulting,' Mendanbar said at random, because he hadn't actually thought about it.
'Consulting?'
'You know,' said Cimorene. 'Giving advice to people. You could teach other giants the best ways of-of ravaging and pillaging and marauding, and you could tell villages the best ways to keep giants away. With all your experience, I'll bet you'd be good at it.'
'I never thought of that,' Dobbilan said, rubbing his chin.
'I don't know why not,' Ballimore said. 'It's a very good idea. And you wouldn't be out in all sorts of weather, catching colds and flu and goodness knows what else.'
'Plundering has gotten to be an awful lot of work lately,' the giant admitted. 'It would be a relief to stop. I'm getting too old to tramp through fields.'
'I understand consulting pays very well, too,' Mendanbar told him.
'I'll do it!' Dobbilan said with sudden decision. 'Tomorrow morning, first thing. Thank you for the suggestion. What did you say your names were?'
'If you'd listen once in a while, you wouldn't have to ask me to repeat everything,' Ballimore said. 'This is Princess Cimorene, the one who's been with Kazul for the last year or so and gave me that marvelous biscuit recipe you like so much. And her young man is the King of the Enchanted Forest, who she's not running away with yet.'
Mendanbar choked and shot an apprehensive look at Cimorene. She rolled her eyes and made a face at him but did not say anything, having apparently decided it was a waste of effort to correct the giantess.
'Pleased to meet you, Princess,' Dobbilan said solemnly. 'Nice to see you, King. What brings you to Flat Top Mountain?'
'They say it's business,' Ballimore said before either Cimorene or Mendanbar could answer.
'Then it will have to wait until after dinner,' Dobbilan announced. 'I never discuss business at dinner. Or with dinner, for that matter.'
He winked at Cimorene. 'Besides, I'm hungry.' He sneezed a third time. 'Excuse me.'
Ballimore began scolding again as Cimorene and Mendanbar nodded politely. Mendanbar was beginning to wonder how long they were going to have to stand next to the table, when Ballimore shooed her husband to a seat at one end and started for the other herself, saying over her shoulder, 'Cimorene, dear, you and the King are on the right. Just walk around to the chair; it's all set up.'
With some misgiving, Mendanbar escorted Cimorene past Dobbilan's chair toward the seat Ballimore had indicated. As they approached, he saw that the giantess had not been exaggerating. A set of normal-sized wooden steps, equipped with wheels so as to be easily movable, stood next to the giant right-hand chair, and two ordinary chairs were perched side by side on the seat at the top. The combination was, Mendanbar discovered, exactly the
