Into the Wildewood (15 page)

Dad nodded solemnly. “I cannot accuse where there is no proof. Yet you are the only one who knows the lore books well enough to call upon the dark fae.”

“One could likewise accuse your daughter. Perhaps it was her tainted human half that lured the Red Cap to us.”

Yeah, right. Keelie had been there. She’d almost died trying to save the trees of the High Mountain, and Sir Davey had been injured.

Dad lowered his head, his eyes still on Elianard like a bull about to charge. He seemed stronger. “Whenever you’re around, magic is blighted. I can’t prove to the Council that you are the cause, but I can prevent you from harming my daughter. I warn you, stay away from her.”

Elianard’s face hardened. “Is that a threat, Zekeliel?”

“If that is how you choose to interpret my words, so be it.”

“I should report your irrational behavior to Lord Niriel,” Elianard said stiffly.

“And risk exposing yourself? An empty threat, Elianard.” Dad stepped forward. “If the Council wishes to inform me of a meeting, they’d best send another messenger. It is difficult for me to accept your words as truth. And as far as being your guide to the evergreens, speak to them yourself.”

Whoa.

Elianard’s voice dripped with restrained contempt. “You’ll guide us to the evergreens whether you want to or not. We must know what is going on in the forest. Have you been feeling a little under the weather, lately, Zekeliel? If so, you’re not the only one of the Faire Folk to feel sick.”

Dad shrugged. “There’s a bug going around, as my daughter would say.”

“The elven are not the only ones falling prey to the illness. The Council has issued a mandatory quarantine at the lodge and a curious journalist is investigating why some of the humans are getting sick. She’s noticed some odd differences between some of the Faire workers, and is calling attention to the EPA’s presence at the Faire.”

Dad’s expression went from nonchalant to pensive. “This goes along with information I received this afternoon from a human scientist. I’ll send a message to the Council. The EPA was indeed here, and they’re going to investigate even more closely.”

Elianard’s complexion whitened a shade or two. He reached for the worktable and steadied himself, then looked at Dad, who had crossed his arms over his chest. An understanding glance passed between the two men, as if they’d declared a truce. They’d probably realized that they were going to have to work together against the EPA.

The turbulent energy in the shop settled down. It was still tense, but calmer. Keelie turned away, but stopped—“Lulu?”

The puppet woman stood at the shop entrance wearing full fairy godmother gear, including sparkling wings. Dad and Elianard turned at the same time and stared, open-mouthed, at Lulu.

She came inside, but stopped when she saw Elianard. Keelie noticed that Lulu’s costume exposed quite a bit of cleavage; she looked more wenchy than fairy godmothery.

With her gaze glued on Elianard, Lulu leaned against a post and spoke in a smoky, seductive voice. “Hello. What is your name?”

Dad’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Lulu? Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine. Never better, but you must introduce me to your handsome friend here.” Her voice became even darker and sexier.

Keelie turned to look at Elianard. Again, there was something about him today that just drew you into his energy. It was like being mesmerized by a candle flame and wanting to reach out to touch the fire.

Lulu did a va-va-voom saunter over to Elianard, who seemed very uncomfortable to have a human woman openly flirting with him. This was good. Keelie was still miffed with the puppet lady after the Plumpkin incident, but all would be forgiven after this little spectacle.

Dipping her shoulder seductively, so that Elianard could get a good view of her chest, Lulu lifted her skirt to expose some calf from beneath her white sparkly dress. “Oh, baby, I’ve been looking for a man like you. You’ve got power unlike anything I’ve ever sensed before, and I’m looking for a man with energy like yours. You can handle me.”

Mother Goose was on the loose, and she’d found her an elfman to keep her warm. Keelie clapped her hand over her mouth.

Elianard looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming tractor-trailer.

Lulu placed her hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

Dad walked over to Keelie and smiled at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“There’s something about you that I find deeply attractive. Want to come over and play with my puppets?” Lulu gave him a seductive pout and made kissy motions.

Elianard grimaced and removed Lulu’s hand from his shoulder, a scornful look on his face. “I must pass on your, er, eloquent invitation.”

“Oh, baby, don’t say no, come down to my camper and I’ll bake you my special chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. You won’t be able to resist my cupcakes. They’re so yummy.” She waggled her shoulders, giving a different meaning to the idea of baked goods.

Elianard turned and left the shop, walking quickly. The amorous puppet lady trotted at his heels, making kissy noises.

Dad’s whisper interrupted Keelie’s enjoyment of the sickly fascinating scene. “I need to save Elianard.”

“Don’t you mean save Lulu?”

“Not really. Interesting comment Lulu made about Elianard being a powerful man, but for the moment let it suffice to say that Lulu is a witch, and Elianard is Elianard. Even though they deserve one another, we need to discover the source of the elven flu.”

“Lulu’s a witch?”

Dad nodded. “Have you noticed the way children flock to her booth? It’s not just because of the toys she sells. I was going to inquire about her with the WWA.”

“WWA?” Keelie frowned. “Sounds like some television wrestling league.”

“It’s the Wizards and Witches Association. I think Lulu is enchanting children and stealing their energy.”

“That is so vile.” Keelie remembered the kids with blank faces who trailed around after the puppet lady.

“The Faire isn’t just a good cover for elves. A great many beings find it convenient … ”

Lulu, across the lane, was plastered against Elianard, body to body. The veins in his forehead popped out like thin purple rivers. He bit down on his lips as if he were trying hard not to scratch a really bad itchy rash in public.

The ground seemed to surge and billow around Keelie, and the oaks seemed to be walking toward her. Clammy, cold, and disoriented, she tried to breathe, but cinnamon clogged her nose. The Dread was hitting her like a tidal wave.

thirteen

Keelie gasped for air, and then Dad’s hand was on her shoulder. The world righted itself.

“Watch this,” he whispered into her elven ear. “Your old man is about to show off.” He motioned with his hand, fingers spread wide. The leaves in the oak trees swayed, and suddenly a volley of acorns launched at Elianard and Lulu.

The trees had awakened. The majority of their missiles landed on Lulu’s head. She screamed and ran back to her shop. “Oh, those accursed trees!” she wailed. “I’m going to hire a woodcutter to chop them down.”

Keelie heard howls of indignation from the oaks. She covered her ears with her hands. Everyone else heard the agitated rustling of leaves.

Elianard inclined his head toward Dad, apparently in gratitude for ridding him of Lulu. But he didn’t count on the oaks. With Lulu safely inside the sanctuary of her booth, Elianard was now the prime target, and they had really good aim.

Too bad there wasn’t a tree version of baseball for them to play. Elianard lifted his robes, revealing pale, skinny legs clad in custom-made Lady Annie boots. Life was so unfair!

That night, Keelie washed the dinner dishes in Sir Davey’s camper. Dad had left after dinner to take Elianard and two other unnamed elves to meet with some evergreens. Keelie didn’t trust Elianard, but Dad had reassured her that he’d be fine.

Sir Davey was at the tiny dining room table, comparing the inventory he’d done that day to a computer printout.

Keelie’s upper back ached from leaning over to reach the Davey-sized sink. She had forgotten to remind Dad about Laurie coming in the morning. She hoped he remembered.

Sir Davey looked up from his papers. “Talked to Janice. Raven’s coming to the Faire to help her mom. She sends her love.”

“Right, but not for weeks yet. I can’t wait to see her.” Her glamorous older friend would probably be wearing designer clothes and have a great haircut, along with exciting stories about her internship at Doom Kitty. Whereas Keelie so far had failed at a number of dead-end jobs, and was reduced to sawing branches into blocks.

“Apparently, something went wrong with her job at that Squirrel of Doom place.” Sir Davey sounded pleased that Raven’s city life hadn’t worked out. “She’ll be here in a couple of days.”

Keelie felt a dread more frightening than elf-magic Dread wash over her. Raven was not going to want to hang out with her. She was a college student and had worked at a cool company—she’d think Keelie was a loser. Along those lines, how was Laurie going to react to the “new Keelie”? Maybe she’d changed too much to have anything in common with her old California friend.

Glumly, Keelie imagined Laurie and Raven meeting. They would be wowed by one another and talk about their exciting lives. In her worst nightmare, her best friends would hit it off and ditch her, while Finch screamed at her to work some strange dork job and Elia and her elven friends sneered and pointed. Maybe Sean would show up and fall in love with Laurie.

She must be under too much stress. Keelie dried the last plate and placed it on the rack. She plopped into the booth seat across from Sir Davey, and sighed. He lowered his papers and studied her.

“Need some good news?” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Janice said Zeke could use her Jeep Wagoneer to pick up your friend tomorrow morning at the train station.”

“Great.” She sighed again.

“Worried?”

“About what?”

“About how your friend is going to react to the Faire? And what if she discovers you have tree magic? How are you going to hide that from her?”

“I don’t know.” Keelie put her chin in her hands. Davey had totally hit on her dilemma, and she had no solution.

Keelie looked at the spot on the couch where Dad crashed since they’d started sleeping in Sir Davey’s camper. He was not there, and it was already 9:00 AM. The pillows were still in the same position as last night. Fabulous. Dad hadn’t been to bed yet, or if he had, it wasn’t here. They were going to have to leave in one hour to go get Laurie at the Canooga Springs train station, and Dad was nowhere around.

Sir Davey was missing, too. Indignant, Keelie realized that they might have left without her. She was beginning to understand why Finch was so dragonish. You depended on people to follow through, and what happened?

Keelie sighed. She grabbed the rose quartz from where she’d placed it by the sink last night when washing dishes.

She needed an alternative plan. Janice had said they could use her Wagoneer, but she’d thought that Zeke was available to drive. For all Keelie knew, Dad was still with Elianard and the evergreens. Maybe Janice would take her. She sure wasn’t going to ask Finch—she was too young to die. Keelie thought about the Council meeting again. She was starting to worry.

This waiting was so frustrating. She walked over to the pillow, picked it up, and punched it. She threw it back down on the sofa. This was exactly why they needed cell phones. Real ones, not ones connected to trees. She opened the door to the camper and stepped outside, blinking up at the sunny sky. At least the weather was good. She needed to find out how Dad was doing, and let him know she was going to talk to Janice about taking her into town.

Keelie walked over to the hemlocks and closed her eyes. She tightened her hand around the quartz. It shielded her with a pink light, and then a bright green glow surrounded the pink light. Keelie opened herself to the tree energy, but this time she was able to gauge it. It didn’t overwhelm her. One tree in particular answered her summons. Its name was Tavak, the Douglas fir Dad had mentioned.

Tree Shepherdess, you call?