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dangerous, then asking for a dragon had to be a death wish. The saying "Be careful what you wish for" rang through my brain like a ten-bell alarm. Was there anything I could ask for that wouldn't turn around and bite me? Literally?
I just want to go home , I thought for the millionth time, realizing in the same moment that might actually be a safe wish. But what if I wished for home and the pisky sent me back to the keeper's hut? Or sent the whole clan to Providence with me? Would the Greens wipe my memory for trying to escape?
I wish I were Kendall's best friend , I thought, trying that one out. If I asked for that, would the pisky bring Kendall to the Meadows and strand her with me? Or would something horrible, like a car accident, take Lola out of the picture? I didn't like the girl, but I didn't want to kill her.
I wish Gigi were here . But that wish had the potential to turn out worst of all--what if the pisky brought me Gigi's body? I could wish Gigi and I were together again instead . Except that then I might end up dead too. Was there any way to twist a wish to make Gigi alive again into something bad? Could the pisky bring her back but make her hate me? Or turn her into a zombie?
Those were all chances I wasn't willing to take.
"Clover ale!" Cain burst out, unable to contain himself. "A river o' ale for the entire Clan o' Green for all eternity! You'll be a hero , Lil!"
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No, it has to be something smaller , I realized. Much smaller. Something so insignificant it won't be worth twisting .
But what?
What would Gigi do?
"I'm waiting," the pisky reminded me, its tiny black eyes boring into mine. Its foot tapped rapidly against my palm.
"For the love o' gold! Make a wish!" Cain cried.
"I wish ... I wish ... I wish you would accept all of our silver buttons and my sincere apology," I blurted out in a rush. "Take the gold coin too."
"That is your only wish?" the pisky asked me with a sly smile. "That is what you most truly desire?"
I didn't like the look of that smile. My heart beat like an off-center washing machine, but somehow I stood my ground. "Yes. I wish for exactly what I said. No more and no less--just that."
"Lil!" Cain wailed, collapsing with disappointment. He hit the ground hard, his legs stretched stiffly in front of him.
"Very well," said the pisky. "Wish granted."
I cringed fearfully, bracing for some unforeseen side effect. But all I heard was the pisky's small voice: "Release me now, Lilybet."
"Huh? Oh. Right."
I opened my hands into a shelf. The fully revealed pisky stood straddling my palms, skinny arms crossed over a scrawny chest. The creature wore a rough shift of brown
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leaves. Its twiggy legs ended in clogs made of bark. And sprouting from the pisky's back were wings like a giant moth's, silver-gray, spotted, and glowing in the moonlight.
"Okay," I said. "You're all free."
Now that the wishing was over, the pisky seemed in a better mood. It grinned around its sharp teeth, its pointed face beaming. "A coin and all your silver buttons--pay up." It pointed to Cain's belt. "One of those pouches should hold them." Flying down off my hands, the pisky landed on the rock beside the dymer and waited expectantly.
"Right. Okay," I said. "Cain, give me one of your pouches."
"What?" he objected, finding his voice again. "You never promised it a pouch!"
"I'll get you another one," I growled between clenched teeth. I really didn't want to split hairs with a creature known for its powerful magic and bad attitude.
"How?" he asked. "With what?"
"Just ..." I glanced at the pisky. "It's only a pouch, Cain! Don't act crazy, okay?"
The pisky looked back and forth between us, tapping one bark clog. Cain sighed, unbuckled his belt, and handed me an empty pouch. Scooting hastily around the campsite, I filled it with the buttons and set it on the rock. The pisky dropped in the gold coin.
"That's a big load," I said. "Are you going to be able to carry all that?"
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The pisky gave me a suspicious look. "Lilybet Green, are you trying to go back on your wish?"
"What? No."
"You owe me more silver buttons."
"I don't! I said take them all, and that's all of them."
"Not all ." The pisky looked at Cain again.
"Cain, are you hiding more ...?" The answer hit me all at once. "Oh."
"What?" he demanded. "I'm not hiding any blessed buttons!"
"Not hiding them," I agreed, pointing.
He looked blankly down at his belly before my meaning became clear. "By all that glitters!" he groaned. Pulling a knife from his belt, he began cutting buttons off his coat.
"Sorry, Cain. When I said all our silver buttons--"
"Ach, girl, never mind. No one wishes on a pisky without losing something. You did all right, considering. Although why you didn't wish for something worth having ..."
"I have been asked for more," the pisky acknowledged, watching Cain closely. "Not successfully, you understand. But they will ask."
"I'm sorry to have bothered you at all," I said, handing over the extra buttons. "My clan made me do it, as a test for my keeper trial."
The pisky closed the strings at the top of Cain's pouch and gave me an appraising look. "You're a rare one, Lilybet Green.
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Rare good sense for a human and more intelligence than a leprechaun ever dreamed of. May you attain your desire."
"Well ... I ... thanks."
"Hold out your thumbs."
I hesitated uneasily. My poor thumbs had barely stopped bleeding. But I was too close to passing my second test to chicken out over another nip. Bracing for more pain, I thrust my hands toward the pisky's fangs.
But the pisky didn't bite. Instead, it folded the tips of its wings over its shoulders and waggled them, showering silvery dust onto my punctures. Flecks of silver sparkled on barely congealed blood. And then the blood disappeared, leaving only two tiny scars, shaped like miniature four-leaf clovers and glowing silver in the moonlight.
"Cool!" I breathed. "Thank you."
The pisky grinned, and its teeth appeared somehow less sharp. "I'm off."
The creature's wings began to beat, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Its feet lifted off the rock, but the pouch stayed put. I was sure all that silver weighed too much for it, but the pisky just cranked up its wings to a hummingbird blur. "Pleasure doing business. Luck be with you, Lilybet Green."
Before I could say good-bye, the pisky sped off at hyper-speed, disappearing like a thrown stone.
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Chapter 9
I awoke as the sun topped the trees, feeling truly pleased with myself. I had completed a difficult second test and had slept in the woods overnight, all with nothing horrible happening to me. Maybe I was smarter--and braver--than I gave myself credit for.
Cain shared cheese, bread, and water for breakfast, keeping what ale the pisky had left for himself.
"You did grand last night, didn't you?" he said proudly. "But we'll be wanting to keep the fine points to ourselves. Piskies don't like it one bit if you tell how you captured them. We'll tell the clan you caught one, o' course, just not
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how. Then you'll tell your wish, and I'll be your witness. That's all folk need to know."
I couldn't understand why he didn't want to brag more. Then a slow smile found my face. "So, for example, it would be better if I didn't mention how badly you wanted me to wish for a saddled-up dragon?"
"It were a pisky , lass! I got carried away, didn't I?"
"I get it, Cain," I said. "And I owe you."
He chuckled happily, flushed from three bottles of ale. "Nonsense! We're friends now, aren't we? That's reward enough."
We tramped back through the woods in fine moods, Cain's buttonless green coat flapping, my unnaturally spotless silver shoes flashing beams of morning sunshine. I spent the long hike imagining joyous reunions
with my mother and Kendall, certain I'd be seeing them soon.
Back in Green Field, news of my pisky success was greeted with deafening enthusiasm. Cain joined us on the dais, bearing witness to my accomplishment and showing off his buttonless coat to laughter from the whole clan. Balthazar was on the platform, too, his sour, envious expression only adding to my pleasure.
Standing tall beneath her emerald tiara, Mother Sosanna addressed the crowd. "The trial is almost complete," she said. "Lilybet lacks only one test--the test of loyalty. To become our next keeper, she must prove her
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loyalty by stealing a bag o' Scarlet gold from their very keep."
The resulting cheers were late and stunned. I'd obviously just been handed another doozy of an assignment.
"You don't mean actually stealing," I said uneasily. "Stealing would be wrong."
The crowd recovered instantly, laughing as if I were hilarious. Mother Sosanna smiled indulgently at my scruples. "Loyalty, Lilybet. You have your test."
I should have wished for that pisky to send me home! I thought angrily, rushing down off the pedestal. I hate these leprechauns! Them and their stupid tests!
"Lil! Wait!" Balthazar called, running along behind me. "You didn't hear the best part: I've been chosen to help you!"
As if I wanted his help. That pint-sized piece of work had stolen me . Dashing up the path to the keeper's hut, I slammed the door in his face.
"Lil!" he persisted pathetically. "I want to tell you about the Scarlets! And Wee Kylie! You can't just wander into the Hollow and expect them to hand you a bag o' gold."
"Go away, Balty!" I shouted, plugging my ears and la-la-laing until he finally gave up and left.
Silence settled over the hut. That was when it occurred to me that it might have been smarter to let Balthazar speak, at least long enough to hear how I was supposed to
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steal that gold. Listening didn't mean I had to do what he said.
No, wanting to return home with my memory intact covers that .
Dropping into the only chair, I stared at my pisky scars. My triumph of the night before seemed like a distant dream. The scars had already faded so much I could barely even see them. Dropping my hands, I fingered Gigi's key and tried to figure out what to do.
I must have options. Mom says we always have options .
Option One: I could steal that gold--or try to anyway .
Option Two: I could ... I could ...
I had squat for Option Two.
A timid knock sounded on the hut door. Sighing, I got up to open it. "I'm warning you, Balthazar," I began.
But Lexie was the leprechaun standing on the mat. "It's only me," she said anxiously.
I waved her inside. At least Lexie could fill me in on what it was I wouldn't be doing. She climbed a ladder-leg stool to join me at the table.
"It's not fair," I complained. "I never asked to come here. No one tells me anything useful. For all I know, the council is making up tests as they go along."
"For all most of us know."
"I never even knew you guys existed! I was perfectly
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happy living a normal life in Providence. Well, maybe not happy , but--"
"I understand," Lexie said.
"And now I have to steal or they'll erase my own grandmother!"
"Shameful."
"If I had any ... Wait, are you agreeing with me?"
Lexie nodded. "I wanted you to come as badly as everyone else, so I guess I'm guilty too. But I didn't expect it to be like this , Lil. I can't help thinking if Maureen were here, things would be different."
"I know! Right? At least I'd have some help."
"She wouldn't be allowed to help you--and she'd never cheat. That's not it." Lexie glanced around, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "It's the tests. They're too hard."
"Um, that's not actually a secret."
She shook her head. "They're supposed to be hard. But yours are dangerous. Something just feels wrong."
I leaned toward her across the table. "Wrong how?"
"Like ... like ..." Lexie peered around again, then blurted it out. "Like someone wants you to fail!" She clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified to have said it out loud.
I was pretty horrified too.
"Why?" I finally got out. "I thought you guys couldn't get to your gold without me."
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"Without a keeper," Lexie corrected. "And you're Maureen's rightful successor. But there are other leplings, Lil, ones who could be tried if you fail."
"Yeah, okay, but ... why?" The idea that I wasn't wanted bothered me more than I would have expected--maybe because it felt too much like the real world. "What's the matter with me?"
"Nothing! I like you ever so much and so do Bronwyn and Kate." Lexie shook her head as if to free it from disturbing thoughts. "I'm probably gathering trouble out of sunshine. If the others find out how I'm talking--"
"No one will find out from me."
"It's just that messing with a clan's gold is no joke, Lil! If you do manage to take some and bring it back, you'll have amnesty at the border. But until then ..." Lexie shuddered. "If you're caught in Scarlet territory with that stolen gold, you'll be imprisoned for life. You might even be killed! Not executed," she added quickly, reading my expression. "But shooting a running thief is considered fair game. They'll aim for your legs, but arrows go astray when archers get excited, and if you manage to steal even a nugget from the Scarlets' keep, their archers will be very excited indeed."
I remembered the contest in the field, the arrows whizzing toward their targets with deadly accuracy. In my
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mind, the targets became my calves and thighs, pierced to a bloody pulp as I staggered through strange woods with a bag of stolen gold.
"Maybe it's not as bad as we're thinking," I said hopefully. "Being sealed in the keep was scary, but there was no actual danger. The pisky test ... that was risky. But the only real danger there was making a foolish wish."
That, and the biting , I remembered, feeling both thumbs twinge.
"There are always three tests," Lexie told me. "Blood, cleverness, and loyalty. The test of blood is always the ability to use the key, but the other two tests are unique every trial. Changing the tests prevents cheating. It ensures that every new keeper can handle herself and the gold she's entrusted with. But, Lil, new keepers practically always pass. Their clans want them to pass."
"So then why are they going so crazy making up impossible tasks for me?"
"Exactly! That's why if Maureen were here, the tests would have to be different. She would never let anyone put you in danger."
A lump formed in my throat. "She's not here," I said bitterly.
Lexie hung her head. "I miss her too. She was like a favorite auntie, letting me hang around, pestering her beyond a saint's patience from when I was the bittyest nipper."
It suddenly occurred to me that Lexie had known Gigi
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longer than I had. I envisioned the two of them together, having fun without me before I was even born, and felt a hot rush of jealousy. "She was my grandmother."
"Aye," Lexie said softly.
"She's practically the only person who ever liked me."
Lexie's hand reached over to curl around my pinky. "That's not true. I like you."
"Yes, but ..." But you're a leprechaun , I nearly said. Then I looked into Lexie's eyes, as widely spaced and brimming with tears as my own, and realized how little that mattered. All of my jealousy vanished. "I like you too," I said.
Lexie brightened instantly. "Maureen was like my auntie, but our ages are more equal, Lil. You and I can be friends--good friends--if you're willing."
"Do you honestly think so? I mean, I'd like to, but ... we're kind of different."
"It's true you're a monstrously large girl," she teased. "But I can overlook that if you can."
"Funny," I said, "coming from a pip-squeak like you."
"Which has probably kept me alive. Surviving middle school is hard enough without hair the color of yours."
"I guess we'll do well enough for each other, then."
"Yes," I agreed. "I guess we will."
Lexie let go of my finger and reached into her coat. She brought out a domed gold button, a four-leaf clover
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embossed on its shiny face. "This is my best lucky charm. I want you to have it."
"I can't take that. It's gold! Besides, I don't have a gift for you."
"Fare well and come back safe, Lilybet. That will be gift enough."
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Chapter 10
My mood when Bronwyn got me out of bed the next, morning was anything but cheerful. I took no joy in putting on Gigi's velvet dress, and I sulked at the table while Bronwyn poured tea and arranged a plate of cheese and doughnuts for me. She had come by herself, which made me hope Lexie wasn't in trouble.
"You know what I've been wondering?" I asked, pushing my untouched breakfast away. "Wouldn't it be easier if you guys handled your own gold, without a lepling?"
"Aye," Bronwyn agreed. "But easier to steal as well. Before Donal's security spells, there was constant thieving among
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the clans. The Scarlets would raid the Greens; the Browns stole from the Blues. Then the Greens would rob the Scarlets, the Blues would get their own back, plus more, and the Blacks would jump in to mediate and take a cut o' it all."
My head ached just trying to keep up. Until that moment, I'd kind of assumed "five clans" was just an expression.
"For the peace o' all the clans," Bronwyn continued, "we needed a safer way to keep our hoards. There was talk for generations o' some sort o' security spell. Every leprechaun with the touch took a crack at one time or another. Wilster Blue came up with a coin that cried like a baby when it left its owner--made it impossible to spend. Bonnie Black conjured a carry charm that meant wearing an enchanted token before you could carry the bag o' gold it was paired to. That was the best protection we had for years, but o' course folk took to stealing the tokens--and when they got lost, a fine mess that was! Even the gold's owner could never pick it up again."
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