Close Kin (21 page)

"Don't you want to know what it
is, Sable?" he asked. She eyed
him
anxiously. There wasn't a right answer. Everyone was staring at
her, and
she flashed a nervous glance at them all. Thorn reached under his cloak.

"It's a
goblin!" he shouted, holding up the mirror, and Sable
cried out at the sight of herself She threw up a hand to
slap him, but
she stopped
herself in time and stood there gasping, her hands balled
into
fists.

Everyone
laughed at her, even Irina, her pretty voice joining the
rest. Everyone except Seylin, who looked at her
mortified expression
and felt thoroughly
ill. Thorn stopped laughing. He took a step toward her, his gray eyes deadly.

"Now you
know what it's like for the rest of us," he hissed. "We
have
to look at it every single night."

Seylin walked
up to the elf leader, absolutely furious. "I'm leav
ing
tomorrow," he said coldly.

Thorn
turned toward him in surprise, and Sable made her escape.
"Leaving the camp, eh?" asked the blond elf
without much
interest. "I guess you finally believe me about the
girl. Tomorrow's a
good
time for you, but not a good time for us. We'll be working all night butchering
that monster outside. I expected you to do your

share."

Seylin glared at the
hateful elf.

"All
right," he said shortly. "I'll help with the butchering, but
I'm
leaving the minute it's done."

Thorn shrugged. "Go right
ahead," he said, turning away. He
looked
for Sable, but she was gone. "The ugly woman left her look
ing glass
behind," he announced in mock concern. "Here, puppy, you might as
well keep it."

"Oh,
Thorn!" gasped Irina. She took the mirror from him, unable
to believe her good fortune. It was terribly hard to
admire a reflection in
the water. Her hair
always dragged into it and spoiled the view.

Sable came back to serve the morning
meal. Thorn gave her no
food. He ate
heartily, tipping up the bowl to slurp the last of the stew.
He wiped
his dirty hands and face on his remaining bread as if it
were a dinner napkin. Then he flipped it through
the air so that it fell
in the dirt at Sable's feet.

Don't pick it up, thought Seylin.
Don't give him the satisfaction of watching you eat it. But the scarred woman
snatched the dirty bread and dusted it off hurriedly. Such a large piece. Who
would have thought he would give her so much? And she devoured it in quick
bites before he could change his mind.

∗ ∗ ∗

"Em, this is
madness," said Ruby. "He left months ago." But Emily wasn't
listening.

"We were
right here," noted Jane, leading the way into the
snowy clearing. "This is where he worked his magic.
He told me not
to tell
anyone," she added to Emily, "but I don't think he'd have minded
this, do you?"

"I hope
not," said Emily, looking around.

"I won't
tell," volunteered Richard.

"What
magic did he work?" asked Ruby, studying the clear sky.
The
stars were shining very brightly.

"He changed
the constellations into wonderful shapes, like harps
and
wreaths and thrones. He made a flower bush out of light. He wrote my name in
sparks. He made the rabbits come out of their holes and-- Good heavens! What's
that?!"

A large white
rabbit came crashing out of the frozen underbrush
and
collided with Jane's legs. Then it curled up on top of her feet and sat there,
shivering.

"Do you think I did that?"
she wondered, turning to the group. "Did Seylin give me the power to call
rabbits?"

Ruby knelt down
and examined the terrified beast. "That's not a
rabbit,"
she replied.

Minutes later,
an old farmer huddled in the snow, talking to him
self,
while the rest of them stood around and watched him. "'Now
then,' I said. 'Now, then. What's all this?' And
then I was all over
fur! Thanks, misses," he added as Ruby handed
him a flask. "Lord, you're ugly to be an angel."

"Do you think it was a sorcerer
who did it?" Emily wanted to know. The teacher shook her head.

"That's an elvish spell,"
she pointed out. "It makes a very pretty rabbit."

"Rabbit!"
exclaimed the old man distractedly. "That's what they
made of me. A rabbit! All that blessed fur! Where's my
home? If
this is heaven, I don't like it one bit.
It's cold and soggy."

Emily sat down next
to the farmer.

"Did you
see elves?" she asked eagerly. "Was one of them good,
looking?
Well, I suppose all elves are good looking -- but did one have black hair and
black eyes?"

"They
attacked me!" blurted out the man. "Busted right into my kitchen!
Elves? How should I know? They murdered me! And then
I
was a rabbit!"

They finally got the old man onto his
feet and brought him to
Jane's house, where
she and her father discussed local events until the
farmer gave up the idea of being in heaven. His
village, it turned out,
was not far
away. Jane stayed home with the sleepy twins while her
father drove the
rest of them to the farmer's house in a wagon.

"Seylin saved Jane from the
smallpox," he told them, "and he
really
saved my life, too. I had never realized how much she meant to
me until I thought I was going to lose her. For
the first time since her
mother died, I'm not just living in the
past."

They arrived at the
farmer's cottage.

"I can't
interfere," Ruby told Emily. "Not if elves are in the
house." But the elves were gone, and so was the
farmer's horse and all
his flour. In their
place was a small pile of money on the kitchen table. Emily called Ruby in to
look at it.

"That's
Seylin's money," she pointed out. "Dwarf-made coins.
He
must have been with the intruders and paid for the things they
took. I can't go back to the kingdom now. He's
nearby, and I have to
find him."

The goblin woman sat down at the
table to examine the little hoard. "But the children!" she insisted
in dismay.

Jane's father
had been helping the distraught old man to bed. He
came
back into the room in time to hear Ruby's comment.

"The twins
can stay with us for a while," he offered. "Jane and I
can
look after them."

"And I want to
help Em find her soldier," noted Richard.

"I can't
allow that," replied Ruby. "Marak has word of you children, and he
wants to see you right away. And, Em, I have to be the
one to take the twins to him. Marak won't mind Martha, but
he
won't want Jack in the kingdom. There's a
law against having an elf
or human man ever
live down there with us. But I've been thinking.
If the right person promised to look after them in a quiet place across
the lake valley, maybe the King would let them stay until Jack grows
up.
I have to be there to ask Marak about it before he makes up his mind."

Emily was astounded.

"The right person? Ruby, you
can't mean you! You're going to volunteer to raise humans? What about teaching
the pages?"

"I'm tired of teaching. I want a
change. You were right, I made
everyone hate
my class. And you know what it's like to be a
human," said the old
woman appealingly. "I can't bear for those children to grow up without
help."

Emily sat down on the bench next to
her. "I think that's a good plan," she said generously. "I think
they need you. Go home with them, Ruby. I'll be fine on my own."

"I can't allow that,
either." Ruby shook her head emphatically.
"The King insisted that you were always to have a goblin nearby to
guard you."

"Well, I'm
a goblin, aren't I?" pointed out young Richard. "I
can do that Fire Spell about as well as you can. And I'm
not so anxiou
s to meet this ugly King. I'd rather
stay here and help Em."

Ruby
started to speak, but Emily spoke before she could answer.

"We aren't far from Seylin now,
and we aren't far from home," she said. "If we don't find him
quickly, I'll bring Richard to the
kingdom
myself. Marak won't mind. He'll know you did every
thing he told you to
do."

They walked out
into the frosty night, and Jane's father climbed up
onto his wagon. Ruby started to follow him, but then she
turned back.

"Goodbye,
Em," she said. "You and Richard be careful.
And"
-- she hesitated for a second -- "and I hope you find Seylin."

"You
do?" demanded Emily, more shocked than before. The old
goblin looked
embarrassed.

"For his sake,
really, if he wants to marry you," she muttered. "He was always such
a good boy."

Emily stared at her nemesis,
remembering their countless class,
room
battles. It was strange to think that she'd never realized what a
brat
she had been. She knew Ruby hadn't been fair about humans
back then, but she'd never helped the goblin
understand them,
either. She
supposed if she'd been Ruby she would have murdered a
student like her.

"Ruby,
there's something I need to tell you," she said slowly. "All
those
tests -- all those perfect scores - "

The teacher stiffened, and her white
eyes narrowed in an angry glare.

"I studied and studied to earn
them," Emily admitted in a rush.
"I
did all the homework, too, but I made sure no one ever found out.
I
studied more for your class than I did for any of the others. It was such hard
work it almost killed me."

Ruby's lipless
mouth broke into a smile so wide that it seemed it would split her face in two.
But when she spoke, it wasn't to Emily.
Instead,
she crooked a finger at Richard.

"Come here, you
smart little goblin," she told the street urchin. "I'm going to teach
you another spell. This one tracks things and
shows
you where they went. Why don't you practice it on those foot
prints over
there?"

The next night, Seylin was up early. He
struck his tent and packed
his belongings,
fuming to himself He couldn't wait to go, but he
was furious that he
should have to. These were his people. They should have welcomed him. And even
if they were ignorant and
savage, they
didn't have to be awful. They were fools and bullies, and
the only
intelligent member of the band just wanted him to leave.

He went outside
to feed the horse, and his heart sank at the sight of the friendly animal. He
stroked the horse's rough coat and rubbed
his
broad forehead. Those dark eyes watched him willingly. What
are we going to do now? they asked. You're going
to become a steam
ing carcass, thought
Seylin unhappily. And once you're bloody
bones and parts, I can leave
this horrid place.

Rowan came through the door, testing
the new edge he had put on his metal knife. Only Thorn had a real elf knife
like Seylin's.

"What are
you doing?" Rowan grinned. "Playing with your
food?"

"I'm not eating
this horse," replied Seylin with dignity.

"Oh, that's right," said
Rowan, sobering up. "You're leaving. Good luck finding an elf woman."

Thorn came
outside and began to issue orders. The women built
a
fire in the yard and began rearranging the meat in the shed. The
shed was filling up, and Sable was considering
where to put tonight's
butchering. Seylin glanced into the shed and was
sorry he did. He wouldn't have shared their meals if he'd seen it.