The Tree Shepherd's Daughter (23 page)

Fairies. She groaned and put her palm against her forehead.

"Raven, could you leave me alone, please? I need to die."

"No way." Raven grinned. Her teeth were so, sobright.

Raven smiled and put the dress back on the wooden
rack that she and Janice had brought in, loaded with costumes for her to try on. She took down the next one.

Keelie groaned. That morning she'd bolted upright, her
heart racing, remembering Moon, the aspen tree, the little
stick creature, and the poisonous bug. Her awful headache
lingered, as if someone was hitting the back of her head
while squeezing her temples, like the bellows the blacksmith used over at the sword-making booth.

Angry fairies, Zeke had said. She'd lost the whole evening, put under by fairy dust. He'd also said that the little
creature might be mad at her for healing Moon. If she
hadn't seen it herself, she would have thought it was more
of her father's weirdness. Of course, the whole event in the
field made her father look less weird by the second.

"You need that headache tea," Raven said.

"Bring it on. Make it a double." Keelie looked around,
in case the creepy little flying thing was around somewhere. "Why did the fairies put a hit on me?"

Raven patted her shoulder. "Your dad's looking into
it." She rummaged through the dresses on the rack. "You
can lie down a little while longer, but it's better for you to
move around."

Her father had already left for his shop when she'd
come out of the fairy-induced sleep and discovered her
right hand was Crayola green. Janice had been sitting by
her bed, a cup of soothing, honey-sweetened tea ready for
her. It was cold now. Raven had taken over after an hour,
when she'd gone back to finish her shop's bookkeeping.

Keelie reached for the cup that Raven offered. "So you
believe in fairies, too? Have you seen them?" The tea was
cool, but it smelled good.

"I've never seen them. Mom calls them the bhata." She
pronounced it "watta." Raven sounded wistful. "But this
Red Cap everyone's worried about? I've seen what he can
do. Two guys almost killed each other over a missing MP3
player at the Shire, and neither of them is the fighting
kind. It was bad vibes, and very weird. Scary weird."

"Scary weird? Coming from She-Who-Likes-SlasherMovies?"

"Hey, I don't like to live them." Raven tipped up the
bottom of the cup with her finger. "Drink up, small fry,
and then we'll get your blood moving."

Keelie did as she was told, draining the cup. She felt
better already, though the room still shifted to the left if she turned her head too fast. "What do you mean, get my
blood moving?"

Raven looked mysteriously at her, then reached toward
the floor and pulled out a long black scarf covered in jingling gold coins. She stood up, swishing her hips as she
wrapped the scarf around them and knotted it in front.
"Time for your lesson."

"Now? Raven, I'm dying. This is not a good time."

"Get up, slacker. Dancing will make you feel better,
promise." Raven grabbed the covers and yanked them to
the floor, exposing Keelie's poor, dying body to the chill.

"Oh, that's cruel. Now I'll die of pneumonia, too."

Beneath the bed, Knot purred.

Keelie rolled over and bent her head over the side of
the bed, anchoring herself with her hands clutching the
sides of the mattress. Under the bed, Knot was chewing
on one of her socks, drooling over the shredded fabric.

"I took a fairy bullet for you last night, fuzz ball. Let's
have a little gratitude." Hanging upside down was a bad
idea. Her head was pounding even more.

Knot stared at her with huge green eyes, then darted
a paw and swatted at her. As he moved, she saw her cell
phone protruding from under his pudgy side.

"Hey, my phone." She reached in and grabbed it,
avoiding his claws. She tried to straighten up but slid off
the bed, landing in a heap on the wooden floor.

Raven snatched the phone from her hand. "Yuck, it's
all covered in dried mud." She scraped at the crusty shell
with a fingernail. "I think it's had it."

Keelie lay on the floor, looking up. Any minute the crime-scene guys would show up to draw a chalk line
around her.

"But you never can tell. Maybe if you cleaned it out
carefully and dried it fast it might work again."

Keelie closed her eyes. "I need it to work. It's my only
connection to my friends in L.A." She thought she heard
Raven snort, but she was probably wrong. "Yesterday was
so strange. It was like a dream. The day started normal,
but then it went out of control. I think I saw Knot wearing boots and fighting those stick fairies with a sword."

"I wouldn't be surprised," she heard Raven answer.
"Knot is an interesting creature. Sort of a mystery, like the
Bermuda Triangle."

"A mystery? Misery's more like it. I can think of other
words to describe him, too."

That one made Raven laugh.

Knot purred as he rubbed up against Raven's legs. She
stepped back. "Oh, nasty. I have kitty slime on me. He's
drooled all over my custom-made boots."

Something heavy landed on the bed above her head.
Keelie didn't need to look to know it was the hairball. He
purred.

"Can I look at the dresses later? I think I need to get
back in bed." She picked up the sunglasses that she'd
dropped on the nightstand the day she arrived and put
them on. Darker, but better.

"Do those help? You're still a little green."

Keelie opened her eyes. "At least I'm not seeing green
streamers shooting out of your head."

Raven felt the top of her black hair. "Thank goodness. Green is so not my color. " She gestured at the rack full of
dresses. "You've got two underdresses, those are the white
ones-they can double as nightgowns. We've got three
gowns for you too, including the green one, and Mom
measured your shoes for medieval boots. They're sort of
a mix between bedroom slippers and boots. Super comfy,
mud repellent. You should have those in a few days."

In a few days, Keelie hoped to be gone. She felt guilty
accepting the costumes, but she still needed garb to wear
until then, and she could always wear them when she came
back to visit her dad. It's not like they'd go out of style or
anything, being four hundred years past their expiration
date already.

"You and your mom are so nice. It sure is different
from that Muck and Mire Show outfit." She was sure Elia
would find something snarky to say about her new clothes,
as well as remind everyone about the tacky handprints on
her old Muck and Mire Show skirt. She wondered how
much Elia knew about the fairies. Could she see all this
weird stuff, too, or was it just a family thing? She remembered how the rain had not touched Elia even when everyone else was soaked.

Keelie rubbed her right hand against her nightdress.
The skin on her hand and fingers were still stained green
but didn't feel sunburned any more.

Raven couldn't see the fairies nor the faces in the trees.
What if she ended up having more in common with Elia
than with Raven? She shuddered. No way.

"Sir Davey dropped off some coffee for you. It's in the
kitchen. He said to sip it every few minutes."

"Thanks." Coffee as medicine. Gotta love it. Sir Davey
was another one she needed to talk to. He'd mentioned
Earth magic. Maybe that was what she'd done yesterday.

"I promise I'll be back later. I have to check out what's
going on in the meadow."

"In the meadow? What?" Keelie sat up, then clutched
her head. Jeez. Like it hadn't been pounding for hours. She
remembered that creepy manic midget in the red hat and
the thing living in the stream. "What's happening in the
meadow? Is it Moon? Is she okay?"

Raven helped Keelie get up. "Moon's on the mend. Remember I told you? Don't worry about what's going on.
It's a Shire thing. Our party last night kind of got out of
control. I'll be back, I promise. Skins and I are going to go
and investigate some stuff. Aviva, one of my belly-dancing friends, lost a silver ring carved with rowan leaves.
It's a family heirloom. Maybe we'll find the missing MP3
player, too."

"Okay. If you promise to come back and tell me everything." The Shire partied, and Keelie turned green. If she
didn't feel so bad, she'd make a joke about it. "Can I take a
rain check on that dancing?"

"Yeah. Get some rest, and when you feel better, I'll
show you how to do some hip lifts." Raven helped her get
into bed.

"Hip what?" Keelie rose up on her elbows.

Raven lifted her hip and then it dropped in a smooth,
fluid movement. Then she did it several times, the coins
on her scarf jingling like a tambourine. Knot's head moved
up and down like a fuzzy kitty yo-yo as he watched Raven's moves, and Keelie became dizzy. Raven stopped. Keelie
plopped back down on her pillow. "I'll never be able to
do that."

"Probably not. You're so California. See ya, kid."

Raven left the room, then stuck her head back in, grinning. "By the way, you missed a great party, but I understand. It was for a good cause." She ducked out of sight
again, and Keelie heard the door and Raven's voice say,
"Hi, Zeke. She's doing a lot better."

Footsteps sounded loudly on the wooden floorboards,
making her wince, and then her father appeared in the
curtained doorway. "Glad to see you sitting up." He held
a tray, and on it there was a silver carafe with a glass lid
sparkling with different jewels. She inhaled the aroma of
coffee.

"I thought I would bring you some of Sir Davey's `clear
away anything giving you a headache' coffee."

She nodded. "Coffee. Great. I'm still alive. Freaked
out, but living."

"Want to hear some good news?" He placed the tray
on the bedside table and poured the coffee into a green
clay mug embossed with a gold leaf.

"About?"

He handed her the mug, and she gripped it with both
hands. The warmth soaked into her skin, then she sipped
the strong but delicious brew. Immediately, the throbbing
in her head eased.

"It seems your luggage has made it to London." He
was smiling, but his eyes held a look of concern. He didn't
believe she was all right.

"London. As in England. As in Great Britain." Her
head pulsed. She shouldn't have nodded. She sipped more
of Sir Davey's coffee.

"It's getting closer. It'll be in New York City in a couple
of days. That's New York, as in New York State. As in the
United States." He smiled. "Why don't you lay down and
rest?"

"I'm fine. I want to change into my new clothes. I'm
feeling better. I think I can move now." Her head whirled,
but not as much.

Despite her headache, she was happy about the good
news. Things were looking up. Her luggage, including
Mom's pictures and Boo Boo Bunny, were on their way
back to her. She needed to see Mom's pictures. She needed
to make sure she remembered her face the way it had been.
And she could use a stuffed bunny hug about now.

"If you're up to it, I'd like to have some folks over
to talk about Faire business tonight. Just Janice and Sir
Davey. They're worried about you, too, and I didn't want
to leave you alone. We'll move the meeting if we bother
you.

He looked at his hands, his soft voice deepened with
remorse. "I feel badly about what happened, Keelie, and
that you had to deal with it unprepared."

Keelie wrapped her arms around herself. Had Dad carried her back from the field? She didn't remember anything after the bug bite, or whatever it was.

"You keep saying that we need to talk," she said. "Just
tell me now."

He shrugged and looked as if he was about to say something, then changed his mind. After thinking for a
moment, he lifted his head and looked at her. "Remember
the tree I was working on yesterday?"

"How could I forget?"

"You said something about an allergy, and then the
fairies attacked Knot and we didn't talk again. What did
you mean?"

"Mom said I was allergic to wood, ever since the trees
talked to me in the park when I was five and I told her
about it. She said it was allergen-induced psychosis."

His expression grew grim. "Your mother wanted to
protect you, and she did, the best way she knew how. But
you don't have any allergies, Keelie."

"I figured. It's been worse since I moved here, but I
wasn't itchy or sneezing. I was hearing the trees. I can feel
them in my skin. Can you do that, too?"

"Yes." His leaf-green eyes looked directly into hers.

"And that sad face in the oak in your shop was real. I
know that now, because I saw a face in the aspen in the
meadow, too. He talked to me." Keelie held her breath,
wondering if he would trust her with the truth.

He nodded thoughtfully. "I saw the power interchange.
Have you ever done that before?"

She shook her head.

"Could you feel the tree spirits in California?"

"Yes. Well, a little. There weren't too many trees where
we lived. But here-Dad, just touching wood I know what
it is, where it came from. What's that about? Can you do
that, too?"

"I do. We're more attuned to nature than other crea tures, Keelie. All trees have spirits, and their roots drink
deep of the Earth's healing magic. There are those who aid
the trees, keep malevolent forces from harming them, and
in turn, the trees allow them to draw from their magic."

"The aspen called me Tree Shepherd's daughter," Keelie
said.

"I'm one of the shepherds." Her father sounded weary.
"Seems you're one, too. I was expecting it."

She lowered her sunglasses. "Right. They didn't cover
this in Career Day at school. My dream job is not wandering through the woods, watering trees and chatting with
them about squirrels and angry fairies."

Dad gave a short laugh. "That's not exactly what it's
about, and the teachers at your old school have no idea,
but you need to learn to control your gift."