Goblin Ball (13 page)

I.
Mudcastle

“Yikes.” Lexi said
under her breath as she twisted out of Violet’s path.

“Lexi, girl, where did you go?”

Lexi couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing, giving her position away. As soon as the fairy heard her, the invisibility spell dissipated.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Violet said. “You know I only care about your safety.”

“Right.” Lexi rolled her eyes. They both knew who was more likely to protect whom in this relationship. Lexi hadn’t called the fairy
Nanny
in weeks.

“Well, there’s safety in numbers,” Violet said. “Oh, look. We’re here.”

Lexi stopped at Mudcastle’s door, disappointed. A feeling of darkness hovered about the enchanted cottage. “They’re gone.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

“Let’s go in anyway,” Violet said. “It’s so hot, and I’m dying for some iced honey tea.”

Exactly what Lexi had hoped for. She’d sensed when they passed the Temple of Joy and Wonder that Mudcastle was empty, that Beverly and Dandelion had gone flying and wouldn’t be back for hours.

“I’ll fix us both a glass. Sound good?” Violet flitted off to the kitchen.

“Sounds good.”

Lexi scanned the lounge. Not here. She closed her eyes and sent out a tracing wyrd…
yes!
It was there. She popped into the master bedroom and found it, tucked away in a bookcase.
Thank sun and moon.
She might have a chance to return it before her grandmother noticed it was gone.

She slipped the book into her new long pouch, a present from Queen Cissa along with a hidey pouch (though she was pretty sure Max had made them). It worked great! Lydia Pengrith’s
Tales of Wyrd & Fae
disappeared inside, taking up no space and weightless, as if nothing were there.

How convenient.

She hated being so sneaky. She wasn’t that kind of person. But no one seemed to understand that she wasn’t a child anymore! And anyway, didn’t she have the right to know about spells and magic and… and everything? She was a person—not someone’s precious sparkly object!

She went back out to the lounge and met Violet coming from the kitchen with two glasses of iced tea.

“Thank you.” She meant it too. For all that Violet was sometimes a pest, they’d become pals of a sort.

“Why do you have Beverly’s book in your pouch?” Violet said.

“What—you know what’s in my long pouch?”

“Well, duh,” Violet said. “If you want to hide something, put it in your hidey pouch, silly.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Ack. The hazards of a rushed life. How many millions of little details were there she hadn’t had time to learn yet?

She pulled out the book. “I wanted to borrow it.”

“Oh, no, no, no. Best not.
That
one is special. Beverly would put a honking, hurting wyrd on you if you
borrow
that one, no matter how much she loves you.”

“Darn.”

“Why don’t you read it while we’re here?” Violet brightened. “We can pull down the new hammocks outside and enjoy the lazy July day.”

“Vi, that’s brill!”

Hours passed. It was twilight when Mudcastle’s inhabitants returned. Beverly said nothing when she found Lexi swaying in the hammock, enthralled by Lydia Pengrith’s journal, but with a stern raised eyebrow she promptly took the book away.

Before Beverly returned from her room, Lexi felt the boundary form around the book, and her emotions did a dance of yin and yang. Part of her was so, so sad the journal was now locked away from her; the other part was thrilled with everything she’d already learned from it.

II. Into the Mystic

“Daddy!” Lexi stomped
her foot, the way she’d seen her aunt Cissa do and launched into her best dramatic voice. “I can’t take it anymore.
Please
let me pop down to the village.”

“You know we can’t take the risk, sweetie.”

“Agh! Why do you have to be so… conservative?”

That didn’t help. Her dad just laughed. “I’m sorry, sweetie. There’s no one to go with you and keep you safe. You’ve driven Violet away, your mom is visiting Moo at the Tragic Fall, and I’m waiting for a phone call from Duncan Edan that I just can’t miss.”

“I’m sorry I called you conservative.” Poor Daddy. He looked worried. “Is it about the Clad?”

“What do you know about the Clad?”

“I listen,” Lexi said. She didn’t understand it really, but something called
the Clad
made her dad and mom anxious and sad. Especially her dad. It had to do with the nasty Sarumens, and Duncan Edan, who worked for Daddy, was on our side. “I care.”

“Bottom line, no. You can’t
pop
down to the village. Not now.”

“But I haven’t been anywhere in so long!”

“So long?” her dad smiled. “You were born six months ago.”

“Eight. I have to get out of the house, Daddy. I feel like a prisoner.”

“Not a prisoner, surely.”

“A pampered prisoner,” she said. “I could go to the faewood. They all know about me there.”

Bad suggestion. Her dad flew out of his chair and grabbed her arm.

“Ow!”

“Never.” His lovely green eyes darkened and flashed with anger… and fear. “Never go to the faewood without someone we trust.”

“Daddy, you’re scaring me.”

“Good, sweetie.” He pulled her into his arms. “I want you to be afraid.”

“It’s not fair.” The tears flowed then, real ones. “Why do I have to be afraid of both realms?”

“I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Her dad patted her back. “It won’t be forever in the human realm. But while you’re growing so fast, it’s better to stay under the radar, away from small or fearful minds. In the fae realm, it’s a different level of danger. First, we don’t know if Anzlyn’s gift of a time tether will work. Max and Cissa have found no experience of it among goblinkind or fae, and Beverly can find no mention of such a spell among the wyrd. But more than that, the fae realm is inherently dangerous. It’s a realm of dream
and
nightmare. The human realm can’t compare.”

“Then let me go down to the village.” Lily sniffed and rubbed her nose. She wouldn’t be put off by the same warnings she’d heard every day since she could understand them. “I’ll pretend I’m a tourist.”

There was an idea. She popped up to her bedroom, grabbed an oversized shopping bag with the
Tintagos Castle
logo on it—so cool; a red dragon and a white dove—and popped back down to her dad’s study.

“Nobody will even know who I am.”

“Who gave you that?” Her dad eyed the bag. “Goldy or Morning Glory?”

“Violet. She knows I like dragons.”

“Well, your mother hates doves. And so do I,” Daddy said. “I never should have changed the sigil.”

“When you were Ross, you mean?”

“Not much gets by you, does it, sweetie?”

There. He was softening. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut and wait…

“Don’t let your mother see the bag.”

“Thank you, Daddy!” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll find Mom at the Tragic Fall and come home with her.”

“Go straight to the Inn, then,” her dad said. “No dilly-dallying.”

“You’re funny, Daddy. Ta! Thank you!”

She meant to do it. She intended to pop in behind a shrub or tree and go walk like a normal person directly to the Tragic Fall. But she landed behind a lovely red rose bush in full bloom located in the garden behind the shop she’d always wanted to visit, but that her mother was always too busy to stop into.

Who could resist a shop called
Into the Mystic
?

“Have we met?” A lady met her as soon as she walked through the door, before the pretty little bells finished jingling.

“No, no. I’m a tourist.” Lexi showed her castle bag.

“I don’t think so,” said the lady. “I’d know that pretty ginger hair and those brilliant violet eyes anywhere. You’re Lady Lexi.”

Discovered! Lexi’s heart pounded. She looked around and counted five customers. Too many to risk popping out on.

“No fear, dear one,” the lady said. “I’m Cammy, and my sister Bella is there at the register. We’re friends of your family. We attended Lord and Lady Dumnos’s wedding—and your gifting. What was it… nearly four months ago? You’ve certainly grown.”

Lexi could feel the emotions in the music of Cammy’s voice. The shopkeeper was surprised by Lexi’s growth, but she wasn’t unnerved. Lexi did feel safe with her.

“Oh, thank goodness.” She let go a sigh of relief. “I can’t tell you how fantastic it is to meet a friendly face.”

“Come in, come in. Were you looking for anything in particular?”

“You mean to buy?” Lexi said. “Actually, I did want to find a different bag, something without a dove on it. And don’t you carry Hobnobs?”

“Chocolate. Your father’s favorites,” Cammy said. She was really nice. “There are some bags over by the wall you might like. I’ll put the biscuits by the register for you.”

Cammy hurried off, and Lexi looked around the shop. They had wonderful things here, though the bagged holy cakes seemed in poor taste.

“Oh, you have magic mirrors.” She picked one up, but it felt all wrong.

“They don’t work,” Cammy said. “None have, since the ones Morning Glory fixed. I don’t suppose you…?”

“Not a problem.” Lexi felt all puffed up. She wriggled her fingers over the display of mirrors and shot the spell to the ones she sensed in storage. As Cammy’s sister Bella joined them, Lexi said, “Done.”

“All righty then.” Bella said.

“Shall we try them?” Lexi heard the lack of faith in Bella’s tone. “I just learned a new spell for mirrors.”

“The one with the apples?” Cammy said.

“Yes.” How wonderful to meet a kindred spirit! Lexi liked Cammy immensely. “Are you a wyrding woman?” she asked under her breath.

“I don’t know,” Cammy said quietly. “I think I might be.”

“Can’t do it,” Bella said. “It isn’t midnight.”

“Oh, there’s a way around that,” Lexi said. “But what about your customers?”

“There’s a way around that too,” Cammy said.

“Cammy!” Bella huffed her disapproval as her sister ushered the three other remaining customers out of the shop, saying
Into the Mystic
was closing for the lunch hour.

Into the Mystic.
Lexi would bet Cammy had come up with that name.

They took three mirrors upstairs. Cammy brought out the apples and candles, and Bella brought out some wine and three glasses—but she only poured the wine into two.

“Not for you, silly,” Bella said. She went back to the kitchen and brought out a pitcher of lemonade. It was fun to drink it in a wineglass. Oh, Lexi how wanted to be grown up
now
!

Lexi bit into her apple—which tasted super sweet after the lemonade.

“So what’s the trick?” Bella said. “To get around it not being midnight?”

“It’s midnight somewhere,” Lexi said with a laugh. “Let the candles burn a minute and think of that before you look into the mirror.”

As Cammy lit the candles, Lexi’s heart raced a little with anticipation. She’d been dying to do this spell since she read it in Lydia Pengrith’s journal. True love was one of the best ideas she’d learned of so far, and she couldn’t wait to see hers.

She stared into her mirror, and after a few moments a man did appear, but she didn’t know what to think. He was fae, definitely, and beautiful, though he had a pained look on his face. She felt a profound bond with him, as if she’d known him forever. The high gods seemed to reach out and touch her heart and his simultaneously and then fuse those vital organs together as one. But it couldn’t be…

“Sun and moon,” Bella said, and not with any joy. She looked at her sister. “It’s the same… person as before.”

“Let me see.” Lexi put her mirror down.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Cammy said. “You can’t see someone else’s… you can?”

“Oh, I know him,” Lexi said. Maybe they couldn’t see in other people’s mirrors, but she could. It felt awesome to show off her abilities. “He’s a gob. His name is Drang, and he’s really nice.”

Actually, she’d never met Drang, but she’d seen him with Max at Mudcastle the day they put up the hammocks. She hadn’t met Drang because she hadn’t been allowed to go to Mudcastle that day, so she watched in her glimmer glass—but she wasn’t about to mention that. Nobody, not even Violet, knew she had a glimmer glass.

“A gob,” Bella said. “You mean goblin. I knew it.”

“Oh, you believe it when
she
says it,” Cammy said.

“I know he looks ugly on the outside, but he’s beautiful in here.” Lexi touched her heart.

“That’s… nice?”

“Drang’s great, Bella. Truly. He can make anything. They say he’s the best dancer in the Blue Vale. And he’s super strong.”

“The brownie gift at work, right?” Bella said. “To find happiness in all things. Lord, that would drive me batty.”

“Is it because he’s ugly?” Lexi said. “It must be frustrating to be disgusted by your true love.”

“Oh!” Bella broke down in tears and covered her face.

Cammy was still looking in her mirror, so Lexi snuck a peek. “Yes, please!” she said. “Your guy is lovely.”

“Isn’t he?” Cammy said dreamily, ignoring her poor sister. “His name is Duncan Edan. He’s wonderful.”

“I know that name. He works for my dad,” Lexi said. “I’ve never met him, but Daddy thinks he’s great.”

“He is. I met him at your gifting, actually,” Cammy said. “But what about you? Did your true love appear in your mirror?”

“I…I guess.” Lexi felt suddenly awkward. She really didn’t want to talk about it—not with anybody, not even her mother. “But I don’t think he can be very nice. Look.” She showed Cammy the mirror, but it was no use. Wyrding woman or no, Cammy couldn’t see in Lexi’s glass.

“Well, not to worry,” Cammy said. “You’re far too young to be meeting your true love as yet. The high gods work in mysterious ways. Maybe you’re not ready for each other yet.”

“I’m certainly not ready for him,” Lexi said. “I have too many things to do before I fall in love.”

But it
was
difficult to get the man’s image out of her mind. Or the fact that he seemed to be held captive in a sort of prison.