Can they make me marry him? Jill thought frantically. They can't, right?

The casket was opened. The goblin-suitor reached in.

He withdrew a small piece of parchment.

He held it before his blindfolded face, his expression contorted with grotesque excitement. Jill stared at him and felt sick.

The goblin tore off his blindfold and examined the paper.

"No!" he screamed, and the two goblin guards standing behind him rammed their spears straight through his body with a horrible crunching, slicing sound. The spear points came out, red and covered in viscera, on the other side. The goblin collapsed-quite dead-on the floor.

I'm sorry. I forgot to warn you that was coming. I was too caught up in telling the story. Anyway, it's all over now.

Jill, seeing the dead goblin, felt a mix of horror and relief that she found very confusing.

Four goblins ran out from who-knew-where and picked up the corpse and scrubbed the floor clean. All remnants of the hapless suitor were removed, and the line continued as it had before.

A few more admirers came and went. And then, another goblin threw himself on the ground and proclaimed his undying love for Jill.

Jill started in alarm and tried frantically to rip herself from the throne, to save either herself from marriage or the goblin from death.

But the two goblin soldiers came forward and questioned him, and then the four goblins came out with the casket.

Again the goblin drew a piece of parchment from the great chest.

Again, he held it before his blindfolded face as he quivered with excitement.

And again, he removed his blindfold, examined the paper, screamed in agony, and the two spears were rammed through his back. Blood spurted out of his chest as if from a fountain, spraying the casket and the two guards and then, once he had collapsed, dribbling slowly out of his body and running among the cobblestones.

Sorry, sorry! Totally forgot! Last time! Promise!

The four goblins on cleanup duty came forth and scrubbed the floor with red rags, and a minute later, the line was moving again.

Jill felt sick to her stomach.

Goblin after goblin told Jill of her celestial, supernatural, otherworldly beauty. They stared into her face and simpered lovingly at her.

She found it revolting.

And every third or fourth goblin declared his undying love for her, was presented with the casket, and was summarily killed.

After the fifteenth goblin had been stabbed through his back, Jill began to have serious doubts about the fairness of the test. It seemed to her that if there were two slips of parchment in the casket, one saying "Death!" and the other "The Lady!", she would be married to half the goblins in the room by now.

Three goblins in a row all declared their undying love for Jill, and all of them died on the points of spears. The last one convulsed on the floor, screaming in pain, as blood bubbled up out of his body like a hot spring and flowed all over the floor in crimson waves, eventually lapping up against the throne's legs like water against rocks on a beach.

Jeez! My bad! Sorry!

Jill stared. How is it possible, she wondered, that not a single goblin drew "The Lady"? But she did not have long to consider this, for suddenly, standing before her, was Jack.

He looked, somehow, different.

Her eyes traveled from his messy black hair to his eyes-which seemed harder, more resolute, than she'd ever seen them before-to his set mouth, his quivering chin, his shoulders-were they broader, now?-down his thin arms and past his elbows and his wrists and to his hands . . .

She stopped.

Confused? Well, allow me to go back to Jack's story for a moment.

It was just a short while before that Jack had been standing with the dream-sword raised above his head, and his left hand outstretched on a bed of velvet.

"Don't do it," the frog whispered frantically. "Jack, you will be sorry. So, so sorry."

Jack thought of Marie, laughing at him. He thought of his father. It'll prove that you're a man. He held his breath.

The blade began to sing.

This is where we left off, right?

Just checking.

The sword of Jack's dreams clattered to the floor.

The frog wept silently.

Neither the goblin-salesman nor the apothecary moved.

Jack looked at them, and then at the sword, and then at his hand.

He felt different. Very different.

He flexed his right hand.

Then he flexed his left.

"What happened?" said the salesman.

"You didn't do it!" the frog cried. "Hooray! Hoorah! He didn't do it!"

Jack said, "For a minute there, I felt very con-fused." He shook his head like he was waking up from a dream. Then he said, "Where's Jill?"

The goblin, trying to hide his frustration, smiled an oily smile. "Are you sure you don't want the sword? Everything you've ever wanted for will come true! Really! Really and truly!"

Jack's eyes became hazy again. But again he shook his head sharply. And then he said perhaps the wisest thing that he had ever said. He said: "Maybe I've been wanting the wrong things."

And he turned away from the goblin.

As he walked away, he said to himself, "I want Jill back."

So he went back to where he had begun and methodically traced Jill's path. He asked questions and eavesdropped and guessed his way past the stalls of the underground market, through the tall and crooked houses of the goblin city, and finally to the shadow of an enormous, dark castle. There, Jack saw a line of goblin men, winding out of the door. He asked them what they were waiting for. He joined the line, and waited, too.

And now Jill watched Jack step forward from the line, his jaw set, his face hard. He did look different, somehow. But not in his face, nor his shoulders, nor his hands. Perhaps it was just on the inside.

Just as Jill was thinking this, Jack announced, "I want to marry the queen."

Jill screamed from within her gag. She shook her head frantically to stop him. The frog hissed madly from Jack's pocket. "Jack! She's your cousin! Is this legal? I don't think it is! And aren't you a little young to settle down? Finally, consider the fact that they will kill you! Jack! Jack! Are you listening to me?" But he wasn't.

Meanwhile, a thrill had run through the Goblins in the hall. "It's a human!" "There's a human!" "Is that a human?"

Two guards had stepped forward. They slammed the b.u.t.ts of their spears into the stone floor. "Will you risk your life to treasure and protect this lady?" the guards barked in unison.

Jack looked at Jill and smiled. "Yes. I will."

"No!" Jill wanted to cry out. "Jack! It's a trap! It's not a fair test!" All she actually said was, "Nnnnnnjjjjjjjtttttrrrrnnnnffrrrrrrttttttt!"

Meanwhile, the hall exploded with sound. Goblins screamed and shouted at Jack. "She's ours!" "Leave her alone!" "No humans allowed!"

"Bring forth the casket!" the goblin guards yelled, and four other guards came forward with the great iron casket, suspended between two long poles. Again, they explained the task. "In this casket," announced the four guards in unison, "are two slips of parchment. One says 'Death!' The other says 'The Lady!' If you choose 'Death!', you will be killed right here on the spot! If you choose 'The Lady!', you will become her husband for all the rest of your days, and you and she will spend countless hours together alone, engaging in whatever pursuits give her pleasure. Do you understand?"

Jack gave a curt nod.

Jill strained against the bonds on her wrists and ankles. No, Jack . . . No . . .

Jack was blindfolded. Two soldiers pointed their spears into Jack's back.

The casket was brought directly before him.

Its lid was drawn back with a slow creak.

Jill watched, no longer breathing, as Jack's hand moved toward the casket's iron darkness.

"Wait."

It was Jack's voice.

"Wait," he said again. "Do you swear, on the honor of your kingdom and your queen, that this is a fair test?"

There was a pause. The great hall was deathly silent. Then one of the goblin guards, the one with the rich voice and the careworn face and the deep, old eyes, said, "It is a fair test."

"On the honor of your kingdom and your queen?" Jack pressed him.

There was another pause. Finally, Jack heard, "On the honor of the kingdom and the queen!"

Jack nodded. He slipped his hand into the chest and withdrew a piece of paper.

Jill had not drawn a breath for a good minute now. Her head felt light. She could not feel her hands or her feet.

Jack put the piece of paper in his mouth and began chewing.

For an instant, Jill had no idea what was going on.

Then the hall erupted.

"What happened?"

"What'd he do?"

"Stop him!"

These cries and more exploded from the goblin men. They clambered upon one another and pointed and howled.