The Truest Heart

by E. D. Baker

  “Here, I have an extra helmet you can wear,” Macks said, opening a compartment in the back of Lucille. “It’s not as nice as mine, but it should fit your little head.”

  “Thanks,” Cory said, biting her lip so she didn’t laugh out loud. The helmet that Macks was putting on his own head was the one he had worn the day before. It looked like a troll skull with sharp horns and had paint the color of blood splashed on it to make it look more fearsome. Like Macks’s head, the helmet was huge. The helmet he’d handed to her was a lot like Blue’s, with a smoother shape and no bumps or protrusions. It was neon green, but then she supposed she couldn’t have everything.

  Riding behind Macks was a lot different from riding with Blue. When Blue was driving, Cory snuggled up to him and rode with her arms around him and her cheek pressed to his back. Macks was a lot bigger and smelled like an ogre. She had no desire to get close to him, or to touch him if she could help it. Even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t have wrapped her arms around him because he was just too big. Instead, she rode holding on to the seat, trying to balance with each turn and not fall off with every bump. Lucille was a nice solar cycle, but Cory much preferred riding with Blue.

  Cory had scarcely gotten used to riding with Macks when she spotted a young woman who reminded her of Mary Lambkin, one of her matchmaking clients. A few minutes later, a vision of Mary popped into her head. They were turning a corner when the face of Jasper Wilkins appeared in the vision as well. Cory had seen Mary and Jasper in a vision once before. Then the last time she’d visited the courthouse, she’d seen Jasper walking down the courthouse hallway. Although she didn’t know who he was then, she had learned about him by asking around. If she was seeing their faces again, she was supposed to match them up as soon as possible. When she saw a vision and didn’t make a match, that vision would come more and more frequently until she couldn’t think of anything else.

  Macks turned a corner and Cory started to slip. Startled, she tightened her grip on the seat. Her heart was pounding when she resolved to pay attention to the ride. Although the East Market wasn’t too far from Micah’s house, Cory thought the ride seemed to take forever. Part of that was because she was so uncomfortable, and part was because of the attention they were attracting. At first she thought people were staring at the ogre riding in front of her, but when they stopped at an intersection to let three fairies and a gnome cross, she saw that the people on the sidewalk were pointing at her.

  It was worse when they got to the market. She was handing the helmet she’d used to Macks when she heard people whispering behind her.

  “That’s her, I tell you. She’s the one that’s causing all the trouble.”

  “Can you believe it? Why would anyone want to destroy the guilds?”

  “Those poor fairies! Spreading lies about them like that. She should be ashamed of herself.”

  Macks must have heard them, too, because he turned around and glared at the whispering people. When Cory saw them, they were running away.

  “Let’s find those berries and get out of here,” said Macks. “I don’t like the riffraff.”

  Cory gave him a grateful look as he held the door open. She didn’t know if she could have come here without someone who was so obviously on her side.

  Unlike the West Market that was little more than a roof covering an area where vendors could sell their products from their carts, the East Market was made up of two buildings, each with walls and doors and big windows looking out onto the road. Inside it was filled with tables that the vendors rented. Macks had parked his solar cycle next to the building where food was sold. Vendors in the other building sold clothes and jewelry and footwear.

  When they stepped into the building, Cory found that they had entered at the opposite end from where fresh produce was displayed. They’d have to walk the entire length of the building to find berries. The vendors closest to them were frost fairies selling frozen food. Cory kept her head down, hoping they wouldn’t notice her in the crowd. She and Macks were leaving that section of the market when a frost fairy selling frozen fish and meat spotted her.

  “What are you doing here?” she said, looking at Cory with open dislike.

  “Just keep going,” Macks told Cory.

  “I was talking to you!” the frost fairy shouted when Cory and Macks walked away. Cory glanced back just as the frost fairy raised her arm.

  “Watch out!” Macks said, stepping between Cory and the frost fairy.

  Cory could hear the hiss of frost being cast across the room and the crackle as it started to form on Macks. The ogre growled and lunged toward the table. The frost fairy threw herself on the ground, out of the ogre’s reach. When Macks turned back to Cory, the side of his face and neck were white with frost.

  “Oh, no! That must really hurt!” Cory cried.

  “What?” said Macks, turning his head to look around.

  “Your face! She frosted it!” said Cory.

  The ogre reached up to touch his cheek. “Huh!” he grunted. “Better me than you. Frost doesn’t hurt me. I hear it bites soft skins like you.”

  Cory was confused until she realized that he meant “frostbite.” It was the reason no one wanted to get on the bad side of a frost fairy, and here she had the entire guild aligned against her!

  As Macks hustled Cory through the building, past the tables where fairies sold honey and wax candles and elves sold milk and cheese, she wondered if coming to the market had been such a good idea. She’d known the guilds were mad at her, but she didn’t know that individual fairies were as well. And the things they were saying weren’t at all true. She didn’t want to bring down the guilds, just make them treat their members the way everyone should be treated. She certainly hadn’t told any lies!

  The fresh produce section was crowded when Macks and Cory reached it, so it took a few minutes to find the farmer selling berries. Cory saw Jonas McDonald there, selling his gossiping grapes, but he had so many customers that she didn’t think he saw her. Apparently, he had taken her suggestion and was selling them as curiosities.

  The man selling berries was only three tables past Jonas, and was nearly as busy. Cory and Macks waited until it was their turn. The man barely glanced at Cory when she finally bought the berries. She was heading toward the exit, beginning to think that she and Macks might be able to leave without any more incidents, when a fairy selling fresh flowers saw her.

  “How dare you show your face here!” the fairy shouted, drawing everyone’s eyes to Cory. “You have a lot of nerve!”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Macks said as the flower fairy reached under her table.

  Macks and Cory were still in range when the flower fairy yanked the flowers out of a bucket and heaved the dirty water at them. Some of the water hit Cory, but most of it splashed Macks. He was dripping when he turned and roared at the fairy, “Now cut that out!”

  Suddenly, the way in front of them was clear. Macks growled when they passed a nymph trying to enter the building, making her quake and back away. When Cory and Macks reached Lucille, the ogre shook his head and scowled. “You know, I don’t care what they do to me, but now they’re making me get dirty water on Lucille! This makes me really mad!” He turned to face the building and raised his voice to a roar. “If I ever see those blasted fairies again, I’ll roll them up and use them as beach balls!”

  Half the windows on that side of the building shattered when he roared. Of the few people who had come outside to watch Cory and Macks leave, three people fainted and the rest ran away as fast as they could.

  “Probably wouldn’t work, though,” Macks muttered as he took his seat on Lucille. “They wouldn’t stay rolled up and I’m sure they’d yell a lot.”

  “Wouldn’t rolling people up be considered a rampage?” asked Cory.

  “Oh, no,” Macks said, shaking his head. “Rampages are much worse.”

  Much to Macks’s delight, Cory spent the rest of the day baking. She made eleven pies—ten to take to the
party and one to eat at home. Macks had already eaten half of the eleventh pie before Blue pulled up on his solar cycle.

  “I stopped at my house and got a change of clothes,” he said, showing Cory his suitcase. “I even remembered pajamas. Sleeping in the clothes you’re going to wear to work is not a good idea. Hey, Macks, how did it go today?”

  “Fine,” said his friend. “We went to the market and got berries. Cory made pies for tomorrow. I had a piece to make sure they were as good as the last ones.” The ogre winked at Cory and smacked his lips. “They were! I’ll be heading out now. See you tomorrow at the party!”

  “You went to the market?” said Blue as his friend left the house.

  Cory nodded. “I needed to get the pies baked early because I’ll be at rehearsal tonight. I think next time I’ll ask you or Micah to go. I know the guilds are mad at me, but I didn’t know that other people are, too.”

  “What do you mean?” Blue said.

  “People I’d never seen before were accusing me of lying and trying to destroy the guilds. A frost fairy was aiming for me, but Macks got between us and she frosted his face. Then a flower fairy threw water from a pail at us. Most of the water hit Macks. He’s actually a very nice person,” said Cory. “I’m sorry he got Lucille dirty. Are you hungry? I thought I’d heat up some soup and make sandwiches for supper.”

  “I’d like that, as long as I can have a piece of pie afterward! Is there anything I can do to help?” he said, following her into the kitchen.

  Cory smiled and handed him the bread. “You can make the sandwiches if you want.”

  Blue set the loaf on the table and went in search of a knife. “I’ll have you know I’m an expert sandwich maker. Ground nut butter or cheese? Those are my specialties!”

  While Cory heated the soup, Blue made a stack of sandwiches. When they finally sat down to eat, Cory asked, “So, were you assigned to watch over me tomorrow?”

  Blue grinned. “I was. I can’t drink cider when I’m on duty, but I wasn’t planning to drink it anyway. I need my wits about me all the time now. We never know what the guilds are going to do next.”

  “I can’t imagine they’ll try anything at an ogre party,” said Cory.

  “I don’t think they will, either,” replied Blue. “But you never can tell.”

  They rode Blue’s solar cycle to Olot’s cave, where the band always held their rehearsals. Olot was an ogre and was married to a lovely young woman named Chancy, the former lady-in-waiting to a wicked queen. Blue had met them both before, but this was the first time he was going to attend a rehearsal.

  “Are you sure they won’t mind?” Blue asked as he turned the solar cycle onto the road leading up the side of the mountain.

  “Not at all,” said Cory. “Skippy’s girlfriends come to all the rehearsals and no one has ever complained. Chancy will be there, too, but then it is her home. You already know who everyone is. I think you’ll have fun. The cave isn’t far from here. Look! That’s the path to the cave the three little pigs just bought from Olot. I wonder how Olot and Chancy like their new neighbors.”

  As soon as Blue had parked his cycle, Cory ran to the door of the cave. Chancy answered her knock and smiled when she saw that Blue was with her.

  “We heard about what happened at the courthouse,” said Chancy. “So we wondered if you’d be safe coming here. I’m so glad to see that Blue brought you. Come in, Blue! Welcome to our home!”

  “Did I hear you say that Johnny Blue is here?” boomed Olot as he tromped down the hallway. “Well, what do you know? A real celebrity coming to our cave.”

  Blue laughed as he shook Olot’s hand. “I think you and the other members of Zephyr are the celebrities. I’ve heard you play, and I’ve seen how much your audiences love you.”

  “No more than your audiences love you,” Olot told him. “You have to be the best trumpet player around. Come in and have a seat. I’m sure Cory has told you that we’re working on a new song tonight. We have a full lineup of gigs and need something new to keep our audiences coming back.”

  Cory took Blue’s hand and led him into the main room of Olot’s cave. It was a big room with a high, uneven ceiling. Although the walls and floor were stone, Chancy had made it cozy with colorful rugs and soft cushions on the chairs and sofas. Fairy lights made the room bright and inviting.

  Blue had scarcely entered the room when the other members of Zephyr came to greet him. Skippy the satyr was the first to say hello, while his two girlfriends giggled behind him. Cheeble, the brownie and professional gambler, didn’t say much, but he did give Blue a low five. Blue knew Cory’s good friend Daisy, who gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek. The last one to come up was Perky, who had long been one of Santa’s elves. He shook Blue’s hand before returning to his bells.

  Blue seemed more relaxed when he finally sat down on a chair beside Chancy. Cory smiled, grateful that her friends had gone out of their way to welcome him. After doing her wrist exercises, she did a quick tattoo to start her warm-up. It wasn’t long before Olot stood and waved his hand to get their attention.

  “We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we need to get started,” he announced. “We wrote this song in the beginning of the summer, so you may not remember it very well. If you’ll recall, we named it ‘Summer Heat.’ Let’s see what we can do with it.”

  In only moments, Cory was so caught up in the music that she lost track of everything else. She picked up the beat with her drums easily, setting the tempo for the rest of the band. When Olot finally announced that they were done for the night, she was amazed to see how much time had passed.

  “Before you go, I have two announcements to make,” Olot declared. “As you all know, Goldilocks has married Prince Rupert. She didn’t work as my assistant for long, but she was good at what she did. Chancy and I think we need someone to take over her job. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please have them contact me. And that brings me to my second announcement. One of the reasons we feel we need someone in Goldilocks’s old position is that Chancy and I are expecting and could use the help.”

  “Expecting what?” asked Cheeble. “A lot of job applicants?”

  “He means they’re expecting a baby!” Daisy cried. “Chancy, that’s wonderful!”

  As everyone started talking at once, Cory and Daisy hurried over to congratulate their friends. Chancy was blushing when they hugged her, and Olot was smiling so broadly that Cory could see every one of his sharp teeth. With all the excitement, it took a while before everyone said good night and left. When they finally did, Cory’s mouth was tired from smiling.

  “So, what did you think?” she asked Blue as they climbed on his solar cycle.

  “I like them a lot,” he said, handing her a helmet. “They’re almost more like a family than a band.”

  “And they’re my family, which means you’ll always be welcome,” said Cory. “Especially since you’re the best trumpet player around!”

  CHAPTER

  3

  The next day, Cory learned another thing about ogres: they liked to start their parties early. After Blue contacted him, Macks came back to the house to help carry the pies to the park pavilion that the ogres had reserved. They were there by nine in the morning and found that nearly everyone else had already arrived. It was a large park with separate areas set aside for big groups. The pavilion at one end of their area was big enough to seat fifty ogres. A small forest backed the large, flat field where ogres were already drawing lines with chalk.

  As soon as they arrived, Blue took Cory around to introduce her to more of his friends. She had seen many of them before, but it was nice to be able to attach names to faces. Although being the only one there without a drop of ogre blood made her uncomfortable at first, everyone was friendly and she soon felt as if she belonged.

  They hadn’t been there long before the ogres started a game of kick boulder. Blue found a strong branch on a tree at the forest’s edge where he and Cory could watch without og
res running over them or flying boulders crushing them. Cory thought it was fun until a boulder to the head knocked out a snaggletoothed ogre.

  “It happens nearly every game,” said Blue. “That’s usually how they know the game is over.”

  “Is he going to be all right?” Cory asked as they carried the ogre off the field.

  “He’ll be fine,” Blue told her. “Ogres have very hard heads. See, he’s already better.”

  The injured ogre was struggling against his friends who were carrying him. They dropped him, laughing as he got to his feet and staggered to a nearby bench.

  “Now what?” Cory asked as ogres began to gather around a long table.

  “Food-eating contest,” Blue declared. “No ogre party is complete without a contest where ogres gorge themselves. We’ll have to go closer to see what they’re eating.”

  He helped her out of the tree and led her through the crowd until they were standing in front of the table. The ogres made good-natured comments about letting “the shorty” see and gave her the best place to stand. Fourteen ogres and ogresses had taken seats on the opposite side of the table. The noise up close was awful when the contestants began to shout and slam their fists on the table until someone started passing out the food. Cory saw cabbage, both cooked and raw; broccoli; and all sorts of beans passing the length of the table.

  “Uh-oh,” Blue said in her ear. “That means they’re holding a flatulence contest later.”

  “That’s one contest I don’t want to be around!” said Cory.

  When each ogre had a pile of food, someone rang a bell and they all started stuffing the food into their mouths. The crowd roared in appreciation, urging on their favorites. Cory had to stick her fingers in her ears to make the racket more bearable. Although she thought it was disgusting at first as the ogres crammed more food into their mouths than they could reasonably chew, she soon thought the expressions on their faces were funny and began to laugh along with the rest of the audience.

  It wasn’t long before they’d eaten more than a fairy could have managed. Soon after that they’d eaten more than a human could have force-fed himself. Cory couldn’t believe how much they ate and was feeling slightly queasy when first one, then another gave up. When only one ogre was left, the audience clapped and roared and stomped their feet until the ground shook, and Cory wondered if her hearing might be permanently damaged.