"Bad magic? You need equipment to find bad magic? It chased me all the way from the creek."
Sir Davey looked up from his equipment, caterpillar eyebrows wiggling. "That's not bad magic, lass. That's just the feithid daoine."
"Feta what? I can never remember that. The stick people are the bhata, right?"
"Right."
"They started it. They hate me."
"They were probably trying to tell you something."
"Yeah, like that they hate me. Message received, loud and clear," she yelled across the meadow.
The metal disk at the top of the pole started spinning around, and the crystals started to glow. Sir Davey looked at them. "Uh-oh."
"What does it mean?"
"Incoming. Duck." He pushed her down just as lightning flashed overhead.
Keelie heard the Red Cap's maniacal song. "Do you hear that?"
"No, what?" Sir Davey was adjusting dials. "You'd better get back home, Keelie."
Keelie thought of her angry father and the awful things she'd said to him. Dad or the Red Cap? Either way, she was toast. She clutched the charred heart.
The air turned green, but it was thick, like syrup. She closed her eyes and pushed at it with her mind, and felt Hrok nearby, but nothing else. Hrok cried out a warning.
She opened her eyes and saw that the wind had whipped up forest debris, which hung in the air. Moss near her opened a mouth to cry. The bhata were being whirled around the meadow like a tornado of sticks and leaves.
Movement on the ground drew her gaze. It was Elianard, she could have sworn, but he was hurrying away through the trees. And then another movement, faster, toward her, and that smell! Cinnamon and mushrooms, two smells guaranteed to make her gag for the rest of her life. The horrid combination clogged her nose.
The Red Cap attacked Sir Davey, and they rolled off the rock and onto the ground. The Red Cap's mouth opened impossibly wide, like a giant toad's but lined with cruel teeth. Its eyes were on Keelie, laughing, as it started to suck Sir Davey's aura from him. Fog-like tendrils the color of bronze shimmered as the creature pulled.
Keelie crawled off of the rock, grabbing a crystal to bash the Red Cap with. But the Red Cap had grown powerful on his feast of Davey's life force. The bhata fell from the sky around her as their energy was sucked into the Red Cap, creating a vortex of death around him.
She fell, and a finger of lightning struck the ground nearby. The electricity made her hair prickle, and it danced on her skin. Pellets of rain beat down on her, and thunder rumbled, the sound increasing until it was deafening.
Her mouth was full of dirt. She spat, thinking of Earth magic, and her chest burned. She reached up to push away whatever was burning her, but it wasn't an ember. It was her necklace. The charred heart was glowing green, and it beat with the rhythm of forest sap, the bright glow of summer.
Keelie crawled forward and pushed the heart into the Red Cap's mouth. It screamed, gnashing its teeth, and backed away. She dragged herself toward it, surrounded by a green glow as she passed the bhata, revived and flying upwards.
She could feel the trees around her, a solid company that covered the meadow and the hills. All the trees were with her, and she grabbed Sir Davey and pushed his remaining energy into the greenness. Perhaps he would die. Perhaps he was dead already.
Beneath her, the ground trembled. She felt it ripple beneath her. What had she done?
The Red Cap snapped its teeth and stood, then with fiery eyes locked on hers, it began to sing. Keelie caught a glint of silver in its teeth. The necklace!
Behind the Red Cap, the earth bubbled, the way it had when Sir Davey had called upon the worms to frighten Elia.
The bubbling widened, and roots shot out of the earth, wriggling into the air as if something deep underground was seeking purchase in the storm.
Keelie held tight to Sir Davey as the Red Cap drew nearer. One of the roots lashed out, knocking him down. The charred heart rolled free, and Keelie reached for it. The Red Cap's jagged teeth snapped at her, snagging her sleeve and scratching her. She caught the chain and pulled it free, her arm burning from the creature's bite. Was he poisonous?
He turned, growling, and stopped as a great book appeared on the heaving earth's surface. Caked mud crumbled from the binding that glowed bright with silver, even in the gloom of the storm, revealing a design of thorns surrounded by rays. In her head, she felt her father's energy joining the trees. He channeled even more energy, drawing tree power from the surrounding mountain.
The Red Cap screamed and dove for the book. Another root slashed at him. He bit it in two.
Behind her, Keelie heard a cry and, thinking her father had come, turned to warn him. But it was Elianard, and his eyes were fixed on the book.
Keelie clutched the charred heart. No way could she reach the Red Cap before he got the book.
Throw it, Keelie. Her father's voice echoed in her head.
I can't. Sir Davey is hurt. He's dying, Dad.
You have to do this. Throw the heart. Try to hit the book.
She let go of Sir Davey and struggled to her feet, staggering from the Dread and the dark magic. She pulled her right arm back and threw the charred heart as hard as she could, her eyes on the bright thorns of the book cover. The green-glowing heart arced over the Red Cap's head and landed on the dirt by the book, then rolled backwards onto it. Silver shone green just as the Red Cap reached out and touched it.
Lightning forked to the ground, blinding Keelie. She cried in pain and flew backwards, hurled by the explosion of the bolt. Trees screamed as their roots burned, and she hit, hard. Then all was black.
Keelie came awake to grayness. She opened her eyes. The darkness was punctuated by flashes of red. Fire trucks. A crowd had gathered. Dad's face appeared above her.
"You're awake." He looked concerned and overjoyed. A weird mix.
"What happened?" She couldn't smell smoke, so the forest wasn't on fire. "Sir Davey?"
"His eyebrows are scorched, but he's okay."
"The Red Cap?" She wished she could speak in complete sentences, but her throat hurt so much she could barely croak out the words.
"Gone. Scorched. All that's left is a crater with a book cover and a red cap. We, ah, removed them before the fire department got here."
"My head hurts."
"You got knocked down pretty hard. How does your left arm feel?"
She moved it. "Sore. Okay, I guess."
Her dad picked up her arm and held it up so that she could see. A crisscross of deep scars covered her forearm. It looked like a long-healed wound.
"The Red Cap bit me. But it's healed." She stared at her forearm, amazed.
"The trees did it. It's why Sir Davey survived."
"The Red Cap was sucking his life force. Like the sprite."
"Yes, the sprite. You've made a lot of friends, daughter. The sprite called on the bhata and the feithid daoine to warn you.
"I thought they were attacking me."
"I have something for you." Dad opened her hand and dropped something into it. Something rough and rounded.
She looked into her cupped hand. A little lump of silver-all that remained of her melted chain-and the charred heart. The Queen Aspen had saved them all.
eighteen
Standing atop the Heartwood steps, Keelie gazed up at the starlit sky as fireflies flickered around her. She wrapped Mom's shawl tighter around her shoulders. The leaves of the trees sang a rustling song of peace. From above, a purr thrummed an accompaniment. Keelie glanced up at the hunched feline shape silhouetted against the sky.
She glanced into the apartment where Dad slept on the couch, a green pillow with silver trees covering his face. He'd had several mugs of mead with Sir Davey, claiming it soothed his ragged fatherly nerves. And the pirates had been there, too, outdrinking everyone at the Poacher's Inn.
A gentle breeze lifted her hair. The scent of flowers mingled with cinnamon. Keelie looked around. Elf smell. Was it Elia? Someone stoo
d in the overhang of Dad's shop and then stepped forward until he stood in the glow of the indoor lights. Sean. He placed his finger against his lips and motioned with his hand for her to come down. Keelie's heart fluttered. What was he doing here?
Dad's snores still puffed out from underneath the pillow. She shouldn't wake him up. He deserved his rest.
Fireflies lit her way. Restraining herself from running down the wide wooden steps, she took slow, precise steps. Mom had advised her not to seem too eager when she met her dates. Keep an air of mystery about you, she'd said. Keelie rubbed her palms against her pants legs, just in case they were sweaty.
Sean held out his hand, and she put her hand in his, gracefully, as she'd seen Elia do.
"What brings you here?"
He wore an embroidered shirt, very Elven-looking, over jeans. His fashion combined the human and Elven world. Just like she did.
"I came to see you, fair maiden."
Delight tingled up her spine.
"Walk with me to the jousting ring." He clasped her hand inside his.
Was there a party there? "Okay. We'll stay on the path, right?"
A knowing smile spread across his narrow, handsome face. "Of course."
Neither spoke as they walked, but it was comfortable, and Keelie enjoyed feeling his skin against hers. After a while the silence had become like a sound. She racked her brain to think of something clever to say. She wanted to be witty, to impress Sean with her intellect, because after dating Elia, a smart girl would be a refreshing change.
Keelie had drawn down lightning, bested a Red Cap, and saved the Faire, but she couldn't think of anything to say.
"Everyone's talking about what you did today. You were very brave. You saved a lot of lives."
She smiled, partly at his compliment and partly because he'd been the first to speak. "Thank you." She wanted him to kiss her. She really, really liked him, and she might never get another chance. And then, of course, if Elia found out that Sean had kissed Keelie, it would send the snarky elf girl into a tailspin of mega proportions.
More silence. Fireflies flickered, and the wind danced through the trees. Keelie could feel their green humming as they rejoiced in the disappearance of the dark magic. She couldn't see them, but she knew the bhata and the feithid daione were in the woods celebrating, too. Her skin vibrated in tune with their magic.
They passed the armory. It was dark and quiet now, unlike the weekends when the blacksmith's hammer clanged against steel as he made swords, expensive souvenirs for mundanes to buy.
Sean stopped and turned to her. It was dark, but a soft glow from a safety light atop a pole illumined his face.
Something warm and furry rubbed up against Keelie's leg. Knot had followed them. Sean rubbed the tip of his finger against her cheek. She leaned forward, waiting for the kiss that was sure to follow. Being this close to him was exciting.
She remembered the night at the Shire when Captain Randy had sat so close to her, touching her breast, and how she hadn't wanted him to stop. It'd felt so good to feel his body pressed against hers, and Keelie wanted to feel that with Sean. More, because Sean was someone she could actually date.
He lowered his face to hers. He was really going to kiss her. She lifted her head, anticipating the feel of his lips on hers.
Knot snagged his claws into her pants leg, making her gasp and pull back. A sharp kitty shiv scraped her skin. She forced herself to ignore the pain. She wanted to stay in this moment with Sean. She wiggled her leg in attempt to dislodge the demonic feline. He wasn't budging.
"Are you okay?" Sean looked concerned.
Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment. She pointed down. "Knot." The cat's eyes glowed as he glared up at Sean.
She whispered, "You are going to be an orange kittyfur muff." Knot arched his back and hissed, but backed away.
Sean smiled and leaned closer to her, then his lips gently pressed against hers. A shiver fluttered down her back, and her heart beat faster. When Sean pulled away, his fore head wrinkled and he forced a smile on his face. Keelie felt her stomach butterflies turn to nausea. He was disappointed in her kiss. She'd done something wrong.
Crestfallen, Keelie leaned against the fence railing for support. Oak from North Dakota. "Is something wrong?"
He lifted his knee to reveal Knot attached to his leg. Knot's tail swished back and forth, and he was doing a weird psycho cat growl. Keelie bopped him on the head. "Get down."
He purred.
"He was your mother's guardian." Sean said it as if it explained the weird behavior. "He's protecting you now."
"What kind of a guardian?"
Sean shook his leg in an attempt to dislodge the mental-case cat. "I remember when he'd attack anyone he thought was a threat to her. He's mellowed out quite a bit since then."
Keelie said, "Wow. You must have been five when Mom married Dad. What a memory."
"No, that was only fifteen years ago." Sean smiled down at her. "I was seventy," he added casually.
Keelie reeled and was glad she was leaning against the rail. Otherwise, she would've fallen down with shock. She mentally added seventy and fifteen, and blurted out the answer. "You're eighty-five years old!" The image of a pruny, wrinkled old man formed in her mind.
Sean nodded. Knot de-snagged himself from Sean's pants leg, jumped to the ground, and sauntered off with his tail at full mast. Sean appeared relieved. "I'm one of the youngest elves to be permitted to work with the horses. And I think when I ask your father for permission to court you, he'll be impressed." He noticed her expression and frowned. "I said something wrong."
"No. Everything's fine." Keelie wondered if he was joking, but he wasn't the kind of person to play a trick like that.
An awkward silence hung between them, like an invisible curtain.
"May I still court you?"
"I have no idea what that means. I'm so confused." She rubbed her hand across her forehead. Sean didn't look eighty-five. He looked hunky and nineteen, and her body was getting a delightful tingle looking at him, except for the number eighty-five that kept flashing across her mind. She envisioned wrinkled hands covered in brown spots, sparse hair, halting steps. None of those were here. What did it mean about her aging process? She was a humanelf hybrid. Would she live half an elf lifetime? A normal human lifetime? Did anyone know?
Dad had a lot of questions to answer.
"Sean, would you walk me back to Heartwood? I've got to talk to my father."
"Your father did not tell you." It wasn't a question. Sean's eyes widened as he read the answer on her face. "I think he's in for a long night."
They walked back up the path, and Sean's fingers touched her hand, as if asking permission to do more. She let his fingers curl around hers, then pressed his hand lightly.
A curious thought came to Keelie, and she had to ask it. "Sean, if you're eighty-five, how old is Elia?"
He grinned, as if he'd been expecting the question. "She's only sixty. But be wary of her. I think she plans to do something to you. She has not taken kindly to the respect that some of the elves now have toward you."
"What does that mean?"
He sighed. "There are those who consider you an abomination because of your human blood, but others have reconsidered their opinion."
Stunned, Keelie said, "How generous of them." An abomination? She was beginning to dislike her father's side of the family more and more. No wonder Mom hightailed it out of the woods. Keelie wrapped the shawl more tightly around her with her free hand.
As Sean and Keelie walked, holding hands, the only sound around was the crunching of their feet on gravelly sand. Fireflies danced around them, and she wondered now if they were really bugs.
Sean's revelation about his age hadn't disturbed her as much as the thought that the elves didn't like her, and all because of her heritage. She wanted to calm down and enjoy the moment with Sean. It had been hard enough to accept the fact that he was an elf, and she supposed the age thing just went w
ith it. She wondered what other surprises awaited her. Like, if Sean was eighty-five, how old was her father?
If this was Keelie's new reality, she wanted all the facts. Power to talk to trees-check. Targeted by mean redcapped gnomes-check. Not quite human-check. What hadn't they told her? At school they taught her that information was power, and she needed information now.
They stopped at the base of the stairs, and Knot ran between them. He stopped midway up the stairs, his tail slashing back and forth as if to hurry them up. Great, she was learning cat-tail language.
Sean towered over her. She wondered if he was going to kiss her again, and went up one step to make it easier for him. Just in case. So far, this might have been the best night of her life. She couldn't wait to tell Laurie everything. Everything but the elf part.
Sean held her chin lightly in his fingers so that she couldn't look away. "When we first met, I tried to convince myself that the feelings I had toward you were brotherly, but it wasn't true. It hasn't been for a while. I want to be more to you than a brother."
She shivered, wondering why Knot growled menacingly. "Knot, shut up." The cat was wrecking her moment. She grabbed the handrail, seeking reassurance in the familiar wood.
Sean placed his hand atop hers. "After this night, I'll be watching over you, too. When the Faire ends, our paths will part, but we'll meet again in the Dread Forest. I'll be thinking of you, Keliel Heartwood. Hopefully you'll allow me to steal more kisses before the Faire ends."
Knot hissed. Keelie put a hand behind her back, made a fist, and shook it at him.
"You don't have to steal them. They're yours, Sean." She pulled her hand out from under his and put it on his chest, leaning forward to kiss him.
Sean put his arms around her, and she closed her eyes, feeling the warm softness of his lips on hers, the strength of his arms around her. She didn't have any experience, but he sure did. Eighty-five years' worth. The thought must have made her move back, because he kissed her cheek.
"Good night, Keelie."
She opened her eyes to see Sean walking away into the darkness. Eighty-five years old. What was she getting into?
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