The Secret of the Dread Forest: The Faire Folk Trilogy (13 page)

Grandmother Keliatiel rushed outside to greet them.

“I had to run to town,” Dad motioned toward the house. “Mother, you need to rest.”

“Why did you have to go into town?” Keliatiel waved her hand. “Never mind. Etilafael needs to speak with you on a matter most urgent. It’s about Elianard.”

Dad nodded. “I’ll go talk with her.”

“She’s at the Council house.”

“Keelie, I need to go, but when I return, we’ll figure
out this problem. Mother, you need to rest. You know you shouldn’t be up.”

“What problem? Perhaps I can help Keelie. I do need to speak to her.”

“No. I want you resting,” Dad insisted. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“I need to go check on Alora and Ariel,” Keelie said hastily. “I’ll see you later, Dad.” She waved at him as she headed up the stairs.

He smiled. “Hopefully sooner than later. Stay by the house, and don’t go into the woods.”

Upstairs in her room, Keelie listened to Alora’s complaints. “Why didn’t you take me to town? I’ve been stuck in this flowerpot. The aunties told me they wanted me to visit. So you need to take me to them.”

“I can’t take you into the woods. Dad told me to stay by the house.” Keelie was determined to be good.

“But the aunties said it was important for you to come. They want to talk to you—in person.”

“I can’t go and see the aunties.” Keelie lifted her shirt, relieved to see that the rash was gone. A circle of green now ringed her navel—chlorophyll poisoning. Of course. Coffee would take care of it.

“You have to go and see the aunties!” Alora insisted.

“I can’t. I told Dad I’d stay near the house, and I will.”

“The aunties have something to show you.” The treeling lifted her face up.

“If the aunties want to talk to me, then they can telepathically tell me whatever they have to say.”

“Fine, try it,” Alora grumbled. “I know it’s important.”

“We’ll see.” Keelie opened her senses and sought out the aunties.

Old ones, I’m here.

A stern voice rang in Keelie’s head.
Shepherdess, we seek an audience with thee.

Yes, do not keep us waiting. The Tree Shepherd comes to us when we command,
another haughty voice chimed in.

We are most insistent you come now. Quit being an impertinent little acorn,
a third voice demanded.

Impertinent little acorn! Demanding old biddy trees. Who did they think they were? The queens of the forest? Keelie had met a tree queen before, and she hadn’t acted like this.

I can’t,
Keelie replied.
I promised Dad I’d stay here at the house. There are dangers in the forest.

There was a knock at Keelie’s bedroom door. “Keelie, I really must speak to you.” Oh joy. It was Grandmother Keliatiel.

I must go.
She closed her mind to the aunties.

Alora shook her branches disapprovingly. “They’re not going to be happy with you.”

“Tell them to get in line.”

Keelie opened her door. Grandmother stood there, tapping her foot impatiently. “I wish to speak to you downstairs.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Grandmother leaned closer, peered at Keelie, frowned. “Are you all right? You’re looking a little green.”

“I’m fine. Just tree shepherd stuff.”

“Your grandfather always turned green after using magic, when he was your age.”

“Really?”

Grandmother nodded. “Yes, he would have green fingernails and toenails, too. And the veins in his eyes would be green.” She smiled at the long-ago memory.

“Wow. When was that?”

“Let me think.” Grandmother wrinkled her brow and stared at the ceiling. “Was it after
As You Like It?
Yes, I think it was.”

Warmed by her grandmother’s conversation, Keelie grinned at her. Maybe things were thawing between them. She opened the door a little further and leaned against the doorjamb. “I love
As You Like It,
too. Where did you see it?”

“Gibbons’ Tennis Court. I think it was in 1669. Or was that in 1730 at Drury Lane?” Grandmother’s eyes lost focus as she remembered.

Keelie couldn’t imagine remembering all the facts that a multiple-century lifespan would cram into a person’s skull.

“We treated your grandfather’s headaches with an herbal tea given to us by the…” She stopped as if a forbidden
name was about to escape from her tongue. “I need to speak with you, downstairs. Now.”

“Can’t we talk here?”

Grandmother glanced at Alora, almost too quickly to be noticed. “Downstairs, please.”

“I’ll be down in a minute. I have tree shepherd business with Princess Alora.”

Grandmother scowled. “Well, hurry.”

Keelie closed her door and leaned against it, as if willing Grandmother to go away. She heard footsteps on the wooden floor, leading away from her room.

“I need to see you downstairs.” She mimicked Grandmother’s stern voice.

“The aunties are mad at you. You need to go and see them.” Alora glared as she crossed her branches over her chest.

“Well, they’re not the first. Lately everyone needs to see me privately. I just can’t go out. It’s too dangerous.”

“You’re in trouble with them.”

“I’ll talk to them later.”

Keelie went downstairs and found her Grandmother sitting in the chair with the big cushy pillows.

“We need to talk about that.” Grandmother pointed toward Mom’s wood-carved portrait. “You must persuade your father to remove it. When I insisted, he refused. He said you wanted it in view, therefore it stays. Is this correct?”

Warmth and love for Dad filled Keelie. “Yes. I want it here. It’s beautiful.” She gazed lovingly at the sculpted
lines of Mom’s face. “And I miss her so much.” Pain made the words come out in a whisper.

“No doubt you do.” Her grandmother’s voice was emotionless. “The craftsmanship is superb. But I think the living room mantel is hardly the place to display it. Why don’t you move it to your bedroom? I think it makes Zeke think too much about Katharine.”

Keelie stared at her Grandmother in disbelief. “Yeah, so, he loved her. What’s your problem?”

“And she broke his heart.” Grandmother looked angry.

Keelie suddenly realized something. “When you look at me, you see her don’t you?”

“You have her way about you.” Grandmother frowned and examined the armrest of her chair.

Keelie looked up at Mom’s portrait as if it would give her strength. “The portrait stays.”

“You dare defy me?”

“Yes, I do. And I think you need to understand. I’m staying. Dad loved her, and he loves me.”

“Keelie, this is not a request, it is an order. I want you to tell your father that you would like him to remove this portrait. Say whatever you wish.” Grandmother made a cutting motion in the air. “I just want it done.”

“No.” Anger burned Keelie’s cheeks. “I won’t. You may run this forest, but you don’t run me.”

Grandmother pointed a thin finger at Keelie. “Oh, but I do. You are my blood, for good or bad, and I am the head of this family. I will not lose Zeke, not even to his daughter.

I’ve lost one son, I won’t lose the other. I want the portrait gone tonight.”

Wind blew outside, and Ariel called out plaintively from the mews.

“No.” Keelie shook her head. It hit her, once again, that her grandmother would never accept her. Like the elves, Keliatiel couldn’t overlook the fact that Keelie was half-human; but her grandmother had an additional reason for not wanting Keelie around. She was afraid of losing Dad.

Ariel cried out again.

Grandmother leaned back in the chair. Her voice was high with tension and anger. “That hawk has been shrieking all day. Go and take care of it. I don’t know why you even keep it alive.”

“How can you be so cruel?”

“You think me cruel, child?” Grandmother closed her eyes and then opened them. “I am tired. Maybe I’ve seen too many cruel things and had too many cruel things happen to me, and they’ve hardened my heart. You count your years in decades, Keliel, but I’m hundreds of years old.” She shifted in her chair. “I’ve lived through a long swathe of the history of this world, times where I’ve seen firsthand the cruelty of the human race. You think me unkind and unloving to you, child. It may be that time has warped me.” She sighed. “Let my experience guide you. You can’t heal that hawk. There is no way to break the curse. She can’t
fly, and by nature’s design a hawk is meant to feel the wind in her wings. Be kind to her, Keliel. Let Ariel die.”

Keelie recoiled. “No!” She jumped up, ready to argue.

The elderly elf continued as if she hadn’t heard her. “Your father is going to have to lead the elves, and he can’t live in the past.” She stood and walked to Mom’s portrait. “You can’t live in the past, either.” She turned to Keelie. “Be kind to your father, too—let him be free of the past. Allow him to let your mother go.”

With tears brimming in her eyes, Keelie spun on her heels and walked out the front door, letting it slam. She’d missed lunch, but the confrontation with Grandmother had killed her appetite. She ran to Ariel’s cage.

The hawk beat her wings against the wire. “I would never kill you, Ariel. Never. Never. I’ll do whatever I have to do to save you.”

The hawk cocked her head to listen. Her milky white eyes staring at nothing. She beat her wings against the cage. Keelie stepped back and looked up at the pale sky. The wind rustled through the trees. “Calm down girl. Do you want to fly with the trees to help you? It’s just so dangerous out there.”

She shuddered at the thought of Elianard catching Ariel and drinking her blood. A breeze rustled the branches above them. Ariel lifted her head and called out again.

Ariel
had
been flying, though, aided by trees. Wasn’t that enough? And was death freedom, or did you simply cease to exist? Keelie thought about Mom. She wasn’t here anymore
and all Keelie had were memories. She couldn’t touch her, talk to her, or see her. She lived in fear of not remembering what Mom’s voice sounded like. Keelie wiped away the tears dripping down her face and leaned against the bars of the cage. “Ariel, I don’t know what to do. I refuse to just let you die.”

“May I make a suggestion?” a voice asked. Keelie turned around as Niriel stepped into the mews. “She’s a beautiful bird. Sad her fate is to be condemned, blind, and held captive in a cage. Her only other option is death.”

Keelie groaned inwardly. Here was the last person she wanted to see, and he was being as rude as Elianard had always been.

Niriel’s sad smile twitched at one side, as if he was having trouble keeping up the empathy. He was a total fake. “Too bad you don’t have the knowledge to save her.”

“Dad says elven curses can’t be lifted.”

Niriel arched an eyebrow and gazed up at the house. The light in the living room was on. He rubbed his chin as if something was bothering him.

He knew something.

“What is it?” Keelie demanded. If there was a way to break the curse, she wanted to know about it. She wouldn’t let Ariel die.

“Long ago, we elves had the knowledge. We were powerful then, and wielded magic easily. We have since lost the knowledge held in our great books of magic, shared with the Shining Ones. The amulet key has been lost as well.”

Keelie immediately thought about Elianard’s amulet, which she’d left with the sprite. It was a key? To what? Her
skin was cold where it had lain against her. “But that’s dark magic.”

Niriel shrugged. “To save a little bird would require just a little magic. Too bad we no longer have the knowledge.” His voice was deep and warm, its tone comforting. Keelie felt sleepy. Her little bird needed just a little magic. She’d thought the same thing.

Something sharp sank deep into her leg. “Ow!”

At her feet, Knot glared up at her, his ears pressed against his head. She pushed at him with her foot. He purred.

When she looked up again, Niriel had disappeared. Ariel spread her wings wide, as if telling Keelie that she wanted to fly.

She’d used a huge amount of magic at the Wildewood, and it hadn’t hurt anything. Using a little dark magic wouldn’t be noticeable, and if it meant Ariel would fly unaided again, it would be for a good cause. Ariel would have a chance to live a normal life. Surely, Dad would understand why she did it.

Keelie looked around the side of the house, but Niriel was nowhere in sight. Good. Grandmother was resting and she could get the book, then run to the stream, get the amulet from the sprite, break the curse on Ariel, and still have time to put the amulet back before anyone noticed that she was gone.

She went into the house, ignoring Ariel’s cries behind her. “You’ll be free soon, my friend,” she whispered.

Keelie hurried to her room and changed into hiking boots, then crept along the hall, listening for her grandmother. She needed to get to the forest quickly. If she didn’t do it right this moment, she was afraid she’d never find the courage. Dad would have to forgive her for using dark magic. He would understand her reasons.

As she made her way down the stairs, she heard the front door open.

Dad walked in and Keelie stepped back into the shadows. If he saw her, she’d be in trouble.

His shoulders slumped. Grandmother greeted him at
the door. Dad wrapped his arms around her. “Mother you need to sit.”

“How is he? Is there hope?”

“No. He has chosen to fade. He sealed his fate when he tried to kill Einhorn in the Wildewood. Strangely enough, though, Elia said Keelie has something that could cure Elianard.”

It had to be the amulet. That was what would cure Elianard.

“Keelie?” Grandmother inhaled and let loose a plaintive cry. “Poor Elia. She’s desperate. She’ll do or say anything to save her father. What will happen to her?”

“She will stay with her father until he fades. After that, she does not know what she will do.”

Keelie listened, her heart breaking for Elia. Her mother was dead. Now, her father was dying, or fading, as it was for elves. Keelie knew what it was like to lose one parent, but to lose both? At the thought of losing Dad, fear squeezed its cold hand around her heart.

“Mother, I wish to check on Keelie.” Fatigue was in his voice. It had been a long day. “Please go home and get some rest. I’ll be over as soon as I can.”

As Grandmother gathered her shawl and headed for the door, Keelie rushed back to her room, Dad on the stairs right behind her. She barely made it.

Alora, who had been sleeping, lifted her leafy head, “The aunties say the humans are in the forest.”

Dad walked into Keelie’s room. “What are the aunties saying, Alora?” His eyes were bright with concern.

“Humans are in the heart of the forest. Their machines are so loud.”

Dad closed his eyes and Keelie knew he was telepathically contacting the aunties. When he opened them, they were bright green. His face flushed red.

“The Dread has been broken.” Dad clenched his fists. “There are some teenagers with ATVs creating havoc. The trees are frightened. It could be like in the Wildewood— they could become angry and turn against the humans.”

“Dad, can I help?”

“Not now. I want you to watch over your grandmother.”

“Dad, I need to help you. I need to be out there helping you with the trees.”

“Keelie, I know, but I need you to stay with Grandmother.” He clasped her shoulders. “That is how you can help best.”

“Why should I help her? She ordered me to tell you I wanted you to move Mom’s portrait.” Anger filled Keelie.

Dad’s mouth was drawn down in sadness. For a moment he was silent, then he sighed. “Keelie, her health is connected to the Dread. She magically and physically tied herself to this forest. It takes a potent form of magic to renew the Dread, and we don’t have the power to renew the forest without it. The Dread is fading, as is your Grandmother. ‘As the forest goes, so go the elves’ is more than a philosophical statement, my daughter. And if my
mother fades, then it will be my turn to tie myself to the forest.

Horrified, Keelie stepped forward. “If something happens to the forest, then the same thing will happen to you?” Images of the High Mountain forest and the Wildewood forest flooded Keelie’s mind. “Dad, why would you tie yourself to a dying forest?”

“I choose to hope, Keelie.” Dad walked to the doorway. “But now, I need to go stop the humans. If the trees panic and humans are harmed, it will bring doom on us. Go to Grandmother’s house and sit with her.”

Dad walked downstairs.

“I told you to talk to the aunties,” Alora whispered softly.

Keelie ignored her and went downstairs, then outside, walking quickly to her grandmother’s house. She found Keliatiel sitting on the couch in the vast great room, where the dismal welcome party had been just a few days ago.

Grandmother looked frail, her eyes closed, her shawl clutched tightly around her shoulders. She opened her eyes when she heard Keelie come in. “I want to go to bed.”

Keelie nodded. This would work out great. She helped the old lady up and followed her toward the stairs. As she passed the library door, she glanced quickly at the low bookcase in the center of the room. But the book was not there anymore.

Grandmother’s bedroom was dominated by a huge, dark-wood bed carved with flowers. As Keelie settled her
into the sheets, she brushed her hand over one of the bedposts, then pulled it away quickly, shocked at the bed’s age. It was from a walnut tree, even older than the Sherwood oak that formed the table in the dining room.

Keelie used her already-heightened tree sense to search Grandmother’s room for the book of magic, but it was not here either. Had Keliatiel hidden it? She sat with her grandmother until the old lady’s eyes closed. Outside, the sky had darkened. Grandmother looked pale, almost transparent. For the first time, Keelie wondered if she was going to die, to fade.

She walked through the dim house, trying to sense the forbidden book. She felt a glimmer of its dark magic, and turned to search the dining room with her mind. It was like a game of Marco Polo—she could “feel” she was getting closer to the book as she walked in certain spots. It felt strongest in front of a tall cabinet with locked doors. Keelie turned the key in the lock, but it wouldn’t open.

She heard a moan, and hurried back to her grandmother’s room. Grandmother opened her eyes and blinked several times. Keelie bent down. “Can I get you anything?”

Keliatiel reached out and smoothed back the hair over Keelie’s ears. Over her pointed ear, first, then over her round ear. “Keliel, I’m sorry, child, for speaking so unkindly to you earlier.”

Sympathy and sadness welled up in Keelie. “Dad told me that you aren’t feeling well. I get crabby when I’m sick.”

Grandmother lifted her head, then lowered it as if even
that small movement had taxed all her energy. “As a baby, you would scream very loudly when you were upset. Zeke said you reminded him of me when circumstances didn’t go as I planned.”

“You mean you get mad when you don’t get your way.”

Grandmother nodded. “Despite my differences with Katharine, she was a good mother. I tried to understand why she took you away, but anger and bitterness clouded my judgment. It still does. I could have taught you so many things.”

“I’m here. You can still teach me.”

Grandmother closed her eyes. “We’ll see. I don’t remember ever feeling this tired. We’ll talk later.”

Keelie knelt on the floor and leaned her head against the bed, the edge of the mattress pressing into her forehead. She closed her eyes. She felt so helpless—she needed to do something. Getting up, she returned to the cabinet in the dining room, frustrated by the lock. Was there a charm on it? A curse? She didn’t know enough about magic to tell the difference. She needed a better key.

She froze. A key. And she knew just where to find one.

Keelie ran back to her house to wrestle Alora down the stairs and over to her grandmother’s.

“Where are we going, Keelie?”

“To open a cabinet.”

“Is that fun? You don’t sound like you’re having fun.”

Keelie plunked the heavy planter down in front of her
sleeping grandmother.
Watch over her. You’re going to contact me if she wakes up.

Alora scowled.
I’m not the one who’s supposed to be watching. If you’d listened to me, then you wouldn’t have to sneak out to talk to the aunties.

An image of the sprite popped into Keelie’s mind.

What? You’re not going to the aunties? What are you going to do, Keliel Tree Talker?

I’m going to see the sprite. I’ll be back. If I hurry, then I can be back before Dad returns.

I don’t like this. You need to go to the aunties. They can advise you. They know everything that goes on in this forest.

No, Dad is with them. He has enough to do to stop those kids with the ATVs. I’ll be back.

This was becoming a pattern. If someone had told her a year ago that she’d be hiking in the woods day and night, she’d have laughed at them.

The moon was bright in the dusky sky as Keelie ran back to Dad’s house and grabbed a flashlight from the Swiss Miss Chalet. Playing the beam over the path, she could see numerous tire tracks in the dirt. It angered her to think about a bunch of idiots on ATVs wheeling through the forest. There had to be a way to restore the Dread. If not, more and more humans would come into the forest.

Hearing the creek, Keelie called out for the sprite. “Are you there?”

The little sprite rose up from the water. “Here I am.”

Keelie knelt down. “I need the amulet.”

The little sprite tilted her head. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I need it now.”

The sprite shook her head disapprovingly. She disappeared underwater with a silent splash, and returned with the mud-encrusted amulet. As she lifted it up in her hands, the mud washed away and its silver thorns glinted in the moonlight as if winking at Keelie.

Keelie reached out for it. Her fingers touched the sprite s wet, clammy skin. Clasping the amulet, Keelie felt cold, as if she had plunged her hands into a bucket of ice water and the chill had permanently settled in her bones.

“Thank you.”

The sprite smiled, wide and lipless, then sank back out of sight.

As Keelie made her way back through the woods, her heart raced with anticipation. She had the amulet—she should be able to unlock the cabinet.

The wind blew through the trees, leaves rustling against one another. She caught whispered tree conversations.
What is the Tree Shepherdess doing? Where is she going?
She hoped Dad wasn’t listening to the trees tonight.

Some form of healing magic had to be in the book. She wasn’t sure how to use it, but Einhorn had given her the amulet for a reason. He knew Keelie was the one who could resist dark magic. After all, she’d defeated the Red Cap when she barely even knew how to use her tree magic.

She reached out to the trees on the edge of the forest.
Where is my father?

He is with the queens, the ones the little princess calls the aunties. Do you wish to speak to him?

No.
Fear rushed through Keelie. If they contacted Dad, he would come back.

As you wish, Tree Shepherdess.

Keelie crept into her grandmother’s house.

She held the amulet to the locked cabinet door. She didn’t know how she knew what to do—it was as if she were being guided by the amulet itself. The spiral on it began to glow, starting on the outside ring, then circling deeper and deeper until it reached the center. From inside the cabinet, a bright gold light shone, matching the light coming from the amulet. The lock on the cabinet clicked, and the door swung open.

The book floated out. Keelie reached for it with an outstretched hand, holding the amulet with the other.

The concentric spirals on the book started to rotate, and then the book fell open. Alora’s voice was loud in her head.
What are you doing?

Keelie barely heard her. She was lost in a trance. The pages of the book flipped open. Keelie looked down and there it was—a spell to heal blindness. She read it, wondering why the strange script made sense to her.

She remembered the dream and Knot’s warning not to use dark magic, even for a good cause. But she must heal Ariel. She could control the magic. The wind was blowing and she heard the trees.
No! Tree Shepherd, hurry.

Keelie ran outside to the mews, the book tight to her chest and the amulet thrust forward in her hand. She shouted the words of the spell. Dark storm clouds formed, blotting out the moon. The wind increased, and a cold eeriness wrapped around her as a golden undulating light flowed from the amulet and snaked its way to Ariel, enveloping the hawk in bands of light.

Gold light shone from the hawk’s eyes. Ariel flapped her wings, her beak open, but made no sound.

Keelie held the book close. The magic was now reaching into her, the end of that serpentine light now entering her wrist and moving up her arm.

A dark fog surrounded her. The book was knocked out of her hand.

Keelie looked up into Jake’s pale, horrified face. “What have you done?”