A Life Less Ordinary by Christopher Nuttall

now, ladies and gentlemen,” the barker was saying, “we have a family enslaved for a lucky winner! One man, a proven hard worker; one woman, a proven cook; one son, a promising worker in the future...and last, but not least, a daughter with many promising charms, if you know what I mean!” There was a roar of laughter from the crowd. I looked up at the daughter – she couldn’t have been much younger than me – and stared in dismay. The iron collar around her neck kept her rooted to the spot and would force her to obey orders, whatever the orders were. I felt sick. Whatever they had done, if they had done anything to deserve punishment, they didn’t deserve to be enslaved.
    I turned and fled out of the tent as the bids started to rise higher and higher. I wondered if I should try to bid myself, just so I could free them, but I doubted I had anything like enough money to bid on even one of them. Master Revels might have the sort of money needed to buy slaves, yet I had no idea where to find him. I tried to push the image of the girl’s helpless face out of my mind and walked over to one of the eateries. I needed something to eat, if only to take my mind off the slaves. The cook – a humanoid creature with six arms and four legs – waved at me. I wandered over to the counter and sat down, examining the menu. There was very little that was familiar, so I found myself ordering a burger and chips. It was in front of me almost before I sat down at the table, a great steaming burger and a massive pile of chips. It tasted far better than anything I’d had in the mundane world.
    “Hi,” a voice said. I didn’t look up from my burger. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until I’d taken the first bite. “Can I join you?”
    I looked up in some surprise. There were only a handful of customers in the store and there were plenty of other seats. The man in front of me was...I stared. He was tall, and patrician, with long blond hair and very fine cheekbones. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about him that was overwhelmingly sexy. I swallowed hard. Whatever it was, however he did it, I wanted to roll over and spread my legs for him. And he knew it. I could have drowned in those eyes forever. If there was such a thing as love at first sight, this was it; no, maybe not love, but certainly lust at first sight. I had never felt such feelings before...
    And they might not be natural.
    “Of course,” I said, swallowing again. “What is your...ah, what would you like to be called?”
    “It always gets the newcomers that way,” the man said, as he sat down in front of me and helped himself to a chip. I couldn’t find the urge to argue. “You may call me Cardonel.”
    I frowned as I took another bite of my burger. It helped to keep my mind off him and his body and the two of us...I pushed that thought aside, angrily. If he was using magic to manipulate me, I wasn’t going to fall for it. Besides, he was too handsome to be true; the more I looked at him, the more I was sure that he was covered by a glamour-spell of some kind. There was something about his ears that didn’t seem quite right.
    “You may call me Dizzy,” I said, slowly. The lust wasn’t diminishing even though I was sure that it was a spell. If anything, it was growing stronger. His smile – oh god, those cheekbones – was overpowering. “I...”
    “You’re the one who escaped one of her spells,” Cardonel said, flatly. His smile seemed to grow more powerful as I finished my burger and gave serious thought to ordering another one. “Did you think that that would go unnoticed?”
    “Circe?” I asked, surprised. Who was this man...if he was a man? Maybe what was he would be a better question. “It wasn’t exactly easy.”
    Cardonel’s eyes widened. “There are very few human magicians who could have broken one of her curses,” he said. “And you’re not even afraid to say her name!”
    He leaned forward. “Do you have