me. “Take a couple of days to give your answer if you wish. Tomorrow night have dinner at the pub. And wear the shoes. Not everyone who lives in and around will be there, but enough turn out of a night to give you a sampling of life here on the Hill. You’ll see that you’re a celebrity. Hallow Hill is the seat of magical justice for the British Isles and all of western Europe.”
“Oh, God,” I said, getting that woozy feeling I get when I’ve given too much blood. “All of Europe.”
I had a history of stage fright in public speaking situations.
“Western Europe,” he corrected. “After a couple of nights in your own bed the answer will come to you. The magistrate’s house has good stuff. Sweet dreams.”
What a salesman. How could anybody predict sweet dreams?
“And you like red!” Ivy said, clearly trying to be helpful.
I looked at her and blinked.
Maggie gestured toward my dress. “I think she means you must like red or ye would no’ be wearin’ this dress tonight. The reference is to magistrates’ robes. They’re red, about the same value as that fetchin’ smock.”
I sighed. “Um, yes. I do like red and I think I need to mull all this over. Sleep in the house.”
“Aye.” Maggie looked hopeful.
“Did you say you discourage tourism?” I asked.
“Well, no, we didn’t say so. Exactly,” Lochan answered. “But we don’t encourage too much of it either.”
“Because you don’t need the money?”
Lochlan grinned. “We don’t need money. But like all creatures, we need purpose. Lily isn’t masquerading as a florist. She’s providing flowers to locals and to humans in towns throughout Cumbria. Nothing gives her more pleasure. The same could be said for each of us who is engaged in commerce. Ebb and flow are on our side. We get our share of lookers in the summer months. We have to hire humans from Ambleside to help with parking, since we don’t allow vehicles on the circle. We provide parking at the bottom of the hill and valet service for a reasonable fee. And they get a taste of the world pre dot-com.”
“I knew it,” I said. “Hallow Hill is a recreation of an amusement park.” No one got the joke, but I wasn’t surprised.
Lochlan forged on as if I hadn’t said something that the three of them were unlikely to understand. “As for the times between high tourism when we get a nice trade from Mundies and Court Meets when we get a nice trade from the magic kind community? Well, we like our quiet ways.” I didn’t miss Ivy’s snort even though she made a halfhearted attempt to do it quietly.
Twice now I’d made an exit speech and started to leave, only to linger for one more question. “You said eight times a year.” Lochlan nodded. “When’s the next, um…?”
“Court.”
“Yes.”
“Normally it would be about a week from now, but circumstances being what they are, with the magistrate’s post in transition, we’re pushing the docket off until Hallowstide.”
“Like Halloween?”
Lochlan smiled the way he would if he was being patient with a child. “Last week of October. Maybe a little longer next Meet because we missed the last one. People will come from far and wide. Most of the houses you see on the lanes that lead off the circle are here to house guests.”
“Well that explains why there are so many houses and so few people about. And you think seven weeks would be sufficient time for me to prepare?”
With a little chuff, Lochlan said, “You worry like an old woman, Rita. There’s plenty of time. The Powers That Be…”
I finished the sentence for him. “Are never wrong.”
“Right you are!”
“Tell me, how long has this system of employing a human judge been in place?”
After rubbing his smooth jaw with a long-fingered hand, he said, “At least eight hundred years. Maybe longer. Has been a boon to us, it has. Before Merle…” He stopped and nodded at me. “He’s the resident mathemagician.”
“He’s a genius, he is,” added Maggie.
Lochlan began that thought again. “Before Merle came up with the idea, the magical world, our world, was becoming endangered. We argued and fought, refused to compromise, and were on the verge of killing ourselves off. You’re providing a service to our kind and, in the ways that count most, you’re elevated above monarchs, since you could put them in prison or even have them executed and all.”
“Executed?” I squeaked. “I don’t believe in capital punishment.”
Ivy leaned into Maggie. “Does that mean killing?”
“I