"I tried!" Balthazar protested. "If that infernal pup of an ambassador hadn't butted in ... and himself not half my age! The council will hear o' it, I promise you. In the meantime, let's catch up now. What did Wee Kylie tell you at dinner?"
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Balthazar and the other Greens had ultimately been seated far from the stage, surrounded by Scarlets. I had barely noticed them, or the Scarlet council either; all my attention had been on Kylie. The boy was gorgeous in a way I'd never seen up close before.
"I'm so glad you've come!" he'd exclaimed, grinning as if we'd been friends for years. "How long are you going to stay? You have to stay at least a week."
"I doubt we'll be here that long." But coming from him, it sounded less like the worst idea I'd ever heard.
"You have to let me show you around. Do you like to walk? Will you hike with me in the morning?" Kylie's dimpled smile had turned sheepish. "Am I already driving you crazy?"
"Not at all." At least, not in the way he'd meant.
"I need to know what you two talked about," Balthazar persisted. "It could be important."
"Just ... stuff." The less Balthazar knew, the better--not that I had anything gold-related to tell him. "Do you think you could let me sleep now? I'm getting up early to meet Kylie."
"Meeting Wee Kylie!" he exclaimed, dumbfounded. "For what?"
"We're just going to walk around. He wants to show me the Hollow."
"Ach, but, Lil, you're brilliant! Devious, you are!"
"Excuse me?"
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"I'll hand it to you," he said, grinning with admiration. "I've had plenty o' concerns about this test. But pretending to like Wee Kylie ... genius!"
"I'm not pretending," I said irritably.
Balthazar winked a wide green eye. "O' course not."
"Whatever," I said, pointing to the exit.
Locking the door behind him, I collapsed on the red-covered bed and thought about Kylie Scarlet.
Maybe I shouldn't trust Kylie , I worried drowsily. If I wanted to succeed, I had to be smart.
What would Gigi do?
She'd trust herself and she'd pass this test, like she passed all of hers .
Stealing a bag of gold had to be doable somehow. Even if someone was trying to sabotage me, the council wouldn't have given me an impossible task.
Unless they were all in on it.
I just need to rest for an hour. Then I'll get up and figure it out , I vowed, plunging into sleep.
I awoke to gentle tapping, a noise so faint I barely opened my eyes. My bleary gaze fell on sunlit red curtains.
"Oh no!" I gasped, bolting out of bed.
I had slept the entire night. I'd never even kicked off my shoes, and my velvet dress clung to my legs in sad, snoozed-in wrinkles. "I, uh ... just a minute!"
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Kylie chuckled outside the door. "Just tell me you're still coming."
"Oh. Yeah. I'm totally ... yeah," I said, dumping out my bag of extra clothes on the floor. I pulled on jeans, a button-down, and Gigi's old sweater in record time, then hurried into the teensy bathroom to brush my teeth. There were dark circles under my eyes, but my hair looked surprisingly perfect, as if maybe Kate's magic scissors had worked more magic than I'd realized. Taking a last deep breath, I opened the door to Kylie.
The sun had only been up a few minutes. The cobblestones of the square were slick with dew, and Kylie's eyes sparkled with amber flecks that were totally mesmerizing. "You didn't forget, did you?" he asked.
"No. It's just ... Do you always get up this early?"
"I like sunrises. Don't you, Lilybet?"
"I guess. I wish you'd call me Lily."
Kylie smiled. "Is that what your clan calls you?"
"It's what normal people call me. The leprechauns mostly call me Lil."
"That figures. I'm Wee, you're Lil--the folk are always trying to bring us down to their level."
We laughed at exactly the same time. For a moment, it felt as if we were sharing a joke on our keepers. Then I remembered that we were the keepers, and there was nothing funny about that.
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Kylie led me down a narrow street through town, then turned right toward the hills. "There's a place not far from here where you can see the whole Hollow, a really great view. You don't mind climbing, do you, Lily?"
It was half-past the crack of dawn, I hadn't eaten breakfast, and the grass at the edge of town was soaking my silver shoes. "I don't mind," I said.
Soon the ground got steep, and the grass gave way to woods. Rocks jutted out of the hillside, cracked and fractured by the gnarled roots of ancient trees using them for anchors. Kylie glanced back as the path got tougher. "Just a little farther," he encouraged.
"Piece of cake," I huffed, determined to keep up. He was wearing some clodhopping human-sized leprechaun boots, but my sleek flats matched him step for step, biting in like soccer cleats. I had no idea where my newfound coordination had come from, but I was grateful some had finally shown up, even if only temporarily.
A house-sized outcrop of rock protruded from the hill above us, cleaved down its center as if split by lightning. Kylie led the way up the rubble between its halves. A few feet short of the top, he turned back to offer a hand, pulling me past him in the narrow space.
"This last part goes straight up," he said. "Here, let me give you a boost."
Both sides of the crevice loomed above my head. Curling
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my fingers over its stony lips, I used biceps built by a hundred failed kips on the uneven bars and a foot planted firmly on Kylie's thigh to pull myself onto the rock's flat top. Kylie climbed up beside me, and we stood looking down on the Hollow.
From above, the Hollow didn't look scary at all. There were no shadows from that angle. Instead, the climbing sun lit the top of every tree, turning the dense woods below us into a spiky green sea that rippled in the breeze. The Scarlets' town seemed even more miniature from such a height. I could see the main square, rows of houses crowding in on every side, and away past the farthest outskirts, the river.
Throwing my arms wide, I leaned out into space. "I'm the queen of the world!" I shouted.
Kylie grabbed my sweater belt. Turning my head, I flashed him a grin, but he obviously didn't get the joke.
"Lily! Be careful!" he cried, pulling me back against his chest. "You'll fall!"
I laughed. "I'm only doing Titanic . It's not like I'm planning to jump."
"Titanic?" Kylie let go of my sweater. We took quick steps away from each other, both suddenly realizing how very close we were standing.
"The movie?" I prompted. "Where have you been living? Under a rock?"
"Something like that." Moving carefully to the rock's
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edge, he motioned for me to sit beside him, our feet dangling in midair. The Hollow spread beneath us, more rugged than the Meadows but just as beautiful in its own way.
"Is it true you never go back?" I asked. "I mean, you could, right?" A cold fear gripped me. "Keepers are allowed to leave?"
"Of course," he said, restarting my heart. "It's just that I have nowhere to go."
"Nowhere to ... what about home?"
"This is my home now. My parents ..." Kylie shook his head, unable to finish that sentence. The heartbroken look he gave me ran chills down my spine. "Anyway, afterward, I bounced around a lot. Different people, different houses, different schools. All I ever wanted was to have a real family again--and now I do."
He forced a cheerful smile, but this time I could see the sadness beneath his dimples. It made me want to reach out to him, to comfort him somehow. I just didn't know how.
"So you ... what? Ran away from the real world?"
"Pretty much." He shrugged. "Things are better here. I may be only a male keeper, but at least I'm something--and one day I'll show the clans that boys are just as good as girls. I'm happier here. Really!" he added, laughing at my tragic expression. "Anyway, who cares about me? I want to know
about you."
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"I ... well ... There's not much to know." Compared to his, my life suddenly seemed pretty great. "I live in Providence now. California," I tacked on, not sure if that would be clear. "My mom has no idea where I am; she's probably got the National Guard on speed-dial by now. My grandmother, Maureen, was keeper for the Greens before me." Pulling Gigi's key from beneath my shirt, I held it up into the sunlight, its three emeralds catching green fire. "She wore this key all my life and I never even knew why."
"Aye." Kylie hooked a finger under his collar and pulled out a key set with rubies. Except for the contrasting gems, the keys were identical.
"Even our chains are the same!"
He shrugged. "They all do the same thing, so why reinvent the wheel? Or maybe the magic determined the form."
He obviously knew more about magic than I did. I wanted to ask him a million questions, but caution held me back. It just seemed smarter not to reveal my ignorance until after I'd completed my third test.
And then I had a horrible realization: Kylie wouldn't be answering any questions after I stole his gold. He'd probably hate me!
And what if the Scarlets punished him? Would he get kicked out of his clan? Where would he go?
If he gets in trouble, it will be my fault .
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"How long have you been keeper?" Kylie asked. "Not long, or we'd have heard of it."
"Oh, I'm not even"--caution jumped in again--"used to being keeper yet." If Ludlow was pretending I was already keeper, I probably should too.
"And your trial, was it hard?" Kylie asked.
"Not really," I lied. "Was yours?"
"Ach!" Kylie groaned. "The worst! What? Why are you laughing?"
"'Ach, aye,'" I imitated. "You talk like a leprechaun!"
He rolled his eyes. "You'll pick it up too," he warned. "You can't help it after a while."
"It's not a big deal." I wanted to tell him it was adorable, but I didn't have the nerve.
He smiled, and the sunlight edging his shaggy hair framed his face like a halo. "Can I tell you a secret?"
I nodded, pushing down the guilt of not sharing mine.
"Beryl and his men were up all night trying to figure out why you're here. Even our council is suspicious of your visit, but I totally understand. It gets weird, doesn't it, being the only human for miles?"
"So weird," I agreed.
"It'll be great having a friend so near, and us nearly the same age too. How old are you, Lily? Fourteen?"
"Um, just about." Mathematically speaking, that wasn't
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a lie, and if I told him I'd just turned thirteen, he might have guessed I wasn't keeper yet.
Worse, he might have thought I was too young for him.
"Are you going home soon?" he asked. "Back to Providence, I mean?"
"The second I can."
Kylie's face fell, then creased with confusion.
"But, you know, not right away," I backtracked. "And not before breakfast, for sure. When do we eat around here?"
Kylie gauged the angle of the sun. "Right about the time we'll get back, I'd say. And wait till you see the feast they're putting on in your honor!"
"Really?"
"Just wait," he promised, pulling me to my feet. "Do you like cheese and doughnuts, Lily?"
"I don't know why we couldn't do this in my room," I complained, swiping at the swarm of gnats dive-bombing my face. "It's way more comfortable there." After getting up so early, hiking for miles, and then stuffing myself with brunch, the last thing I'd needed was another long walk, but Balthazar had insisted we all meet up in the woods behind the Greens' cottage.
"The Scarlets have spies," Cain reminded me, glancing
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about as if one might be hiding behind any bush. "Best not to plot in their own hall, isn't it?"
I shot Balthazar an annoyed look. If he had explained it like that, I would have come more willingly. Taking a seat on a mossy rock, I waited for him to get on with it.
He laced his fingers over his round belly. "Lil needs our help," he announced, gazing from Cain to Fizz to Ludlow. "It's our duty as her brothers to make sure she passes this test."
"What?" I objected. "I thought you weren't allowed to help me!"
"Not directly," he admitted. "But there are--"
"Lilybet is right," Ludlow interrupted. "Our interference would only invalidate her test."
Balthazar gave Ludlow a dangerous look. "Heed me now, pup, and believe I'm serious. I've had all the 'diplomacy' I intend to hear from you. I was a guard before you were born, I know things about Scarlets that you've never dreamed, and I know a bitty loophole when one is staring me in the face."
"Loophole?" Fizz was standing on a fallen tree, minding the dogs through a gap in the woods, but that got his attention.
It got mine too. "What kind of loophole?"
"Well now, Lil, I'm glad you asked." Reaching into his coat, Balthazar pulled out a handful of fine gold chain wound up like a ball of yarn.
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"Binding gold!" Ludlow gasped.
Cain gave one end of his 'stache an uncertain twist. "Bit o' a stretch, isn't it? What are you brewing, Balty?"
"We can't help Lil break into the keep. But we can help her with Wee Kylie."
A slow, appreciative smile crinkled Cain's green eyes. Ludlow swayed in his boots as if he might pass out.
I stood up and glared. "Are you saying you want to tie up Kylie with binding gold?"
"Brilliant, yes?" Balthazar asked smugly.
"No! You're not using that stuff on Kylie! You're not going anywhere near him!"
"Praises be!" Ludlow exclaimed. "The lass has more sense than her advisors."
"Come up with another plan," I demanded.
"We could try luring him off," Cain suggested. "Did he show you where his keep is, Lil?"
"Of course not." And if he had, I wouldn't have shared that information in front of Balthazar. "Besides, even if I knew where the keep was and Kylie wasn't around to stop me, how am I supposed to get inside? How am I supposed to carry out gold when I'm not even keeper yet? You guys want to help me? How about some help with that?"
Fizz met my challenging gaze with an apologetic shrug. "I'm a dog skipper, Lil. If dogs come into it, I'm your lad. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'm not much use."
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At least he admitted it. I turned my glare on Ludlow.
"One thing I can say," Ludlow offered, squirming, "is that once the stolen gold is in your hands, you've passed the test and become our keeper. We'll celebrate formally later, of course, but you'll be able to exit the inner keep with your prize."
"And in?" I asked Balthazar. "How am I supposed to get in?"
"Well now, Lil, let's work this problem together, one step at a time. No point rushing, is there?"
"That's the first sensible thing you've said," Ludlow told him. "My advice is to do nothing at all for the first month. Lull the Scarlets into a false sense of security."
"Are you crazy?" I cried. "I can't stay here a month!" I turned to Cain, my last hope.
"Be certain the Scarlets are wondering why we've really come," he said. "And they'll wonder harder the longer we stay."
"They are wondering," I confirmed. "Kylie told me so."
Balthazar staggered. "What else did Wee Kylie tell you?"
"Just ... stuff. Nothing I want to share with you."
Balthazar's cheeks flushed purple. For a second, I worried I'd gone too far, that he would retaliate somehow.
Then Cain burst out laughing. "Let the lass do it her own way. It's her test, isn't it?"
"B-b-but--" Balthazar sputtered.
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"Can't force ourselves where we're not wanted, can we? Just remember, Lil: we're here when you need us."
At that moment, I couldn't imagine ever needing any of them. Not one of them had had a single useful suggestion. Tossing my head in frustration, I stalked off into the woods.
I didn't even slow down.
All morning, hanging out with Kylie, I'd managed to keep the real reason for my visit mostly out of my head. But now the enormity of my third test hit me like that whirling house from Kansas, squashing me under its weight.
If I didn't steal the gold, I'd lose my right to be keeper and every memory of Gigi.
If I did steal the gold, I'd be betraying Kylie, a really nice guy I already liked. A really nice guy who--to make things worse--had no place else to go.
And what if I try but the Scarlets catch me?
I didn't even want to think about that.
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Chapter 12
I stamped through the woods for a long time, until I was dirty and sweaty and thoroughly lost. I knew I ought to stop, holler for help, and pray one of the Greens had followed me, but I kept on anyway, too upset to admit I'd messed up.
And then I heard the river.
Ha! I thought, feeling vindicated. I'll just follow the river to the bridge. Then I can take the road back to town .
No help from leprechauns required.
Pushing my way through a thicket, I headed for the sound of water. The upper edge of the riverbank appeared
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and then, as visible as a stop sign in his red pants, Kylie. He was throwing stones with his back toward me, unaware of my presence. Sunlight glinted in his light brown hair as he sidearmed a rock into space and watched it fall to a river I was still too far back to see.
My first impulse was to run out to meet him, but I didn't want him to see me all grubby. Before I could lose myself in the trees, Kylie turned and spotted me.
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