"I need to join the others," Sean said, releasing Herne. "Stay here and stay out of sight."
Keelie didn"t want him to go. "Stay with me-you"ll be safe. Or I"ll come with you."
He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. "You don"t know how to use a sword."
"I took lessons. You practiced with me!"
"Which means you know just enough to get yourself killed." Sean glanced at Herne. "I know you"d cheerfully join the battle, Keelie-you"re fearless. But you have a greater job to do, and you"d best do it from here."
"Herne said that goblins hate heights." Keelie"s heart pounded at the thought of Sean getting hurt, but he was right. She had to stay, and his job was down below.
He left, and Knot, grown to human size, helped her block the rooftop door with an old metal cooler. Herne eased himself over and sat on it, adding his weight to the blocked door.
The battle below looked bad for their side, as goblins poured in from every street. So far, none had looked up and seen her. Knot pulled out his sword and nodded to Keelie, then leaped into a nearby tree and scooted down to join the battle.
Keelie watched the fighting, horrified. Sean and Knotshe loved them both, and they were in great danger.
Behind her, Herne spoke. "Keelie, look."
He stood, weak but without help, as hundreds of glowing lights surrounded him. They landed on his skin until he looked like a Christmas display.
"The pixies will lend me their power. I will return with an army." Herne and his pixie escorts winked out of sight.
Knot, back to normal-cat size, scrabbled to the top of the roof and walked toward her on his hind legs, picking bits of goblin out of his teeth.
Minutes later, the door to the roof started to crash in and Keelie mentally prepared herself for a goblin attack. When the door finally banged open, she was relieved to see it was Sean.
His bloodied face was tense. "Where"s Herne?"
"He left." Keelie didn"t try to explain.
"Good," Sean said. "We need to get you out of here. The town is overrun by goblins. The elves are returning to the village to regroup for another attack. I"ve come to lead you "Where"s Ermentrude?" Keelie asked. She hoped the dragon would appear and flame the goblins.
"I don"t know."
Keelie stumbled to the edge of the roof. She"d been so worried about the elves and dwarves and Herne that she hadn"t thought about Dad, but he was in danger, too. If she lost Dad. She couldn"t even think about it. She wanted to fight the goblins, but she had no power. Everywhere she looked the goblins lurked behind cars and in doorways, or marched boldly in the middle of the street. From the safety of this building, all she could do was watch.
Battle shrieks from the goblins drew her attention. A small group of elves was surrounded.
Then a roar filled the valley, and a hot wind smelling of Juicy Fruit scented the air. A dark shape flew overhead, and Keelie felt the buoyancy of hope lift her for the first time since she and Herne had popped into Big Nugget.
Ermentrude had arrived.
Ermentrude swooped down over the valley, wings outspread like two scaly green awnings that caught the air and made her soar, her long reptilian neck outstretched and her mouth trailing smoke and flame. She roared and attacked the goblins, flame rushing from outstretched jaws lined with jagged teeth. Oily smoke rose from the patch where the goblins had been.
The great dragon bellowed in triumph, wheeled up, then paused in midair to attack again. She arched her neck and took a breath, her great sides inflating, ready to do her flamethrower trick again.
"We win! Dragon to the rescue!" Keelie grabbed Sean and kissed him.
He kissed her back, hard, then broke off their embrace and pointed to the street below. "We haven"t won yet. Look down there."
Keelie looked, and saw the loping, skittering shapes of fleeing goblins racing toward the forest.
"We"ll have to chase them all down and make sure they don"t regroup to attack." Sean headed toward the stairs.
Keelie froze as she saw a lone figure making its way against the tide of goblins. "Peascod."
Sean came to her side and stared at her. "That powermad jerk really is here? I thought he was human. Why is he with the goblins?"
Below, Peascod leaped onto an abandoned car"s roof and screamed out the goblin battle cry. Oh good. Now Ermentrude would spot him and turn him into a little pile of ash. But Peascod turned his masked face up toward them, pointed, and laughed. "Elves," he shouted, "you have met your doom. No dragon can vanquish us." He turned his arm, aiming his finger at Ermentrude.
She vanished, leaving a small red-haired figure plummeting through the sky.
Sean cried out, "No!"
Horror made Keelie"s breath stop. Time itself seemed to stop as she opened her tree sense. She reached out to anything that would answer, and the branches of the surrounding trees began to wave madly. A swarm of feithid daoine flew toward the falling figure, a dark cloud outlined in light by pixies. The swarm reached Ermentrude and surrounded her as well, slowing her fall. Keelie did a frantic mental review of the Compendium"s pages, trying to think of anything that would save the dragon. She was sure that in human form, Ermentrude would die from falling such a great distance.
Shouts in the street signaled that Peascod had rallied the goblins, who returned to attack again. She felt Sean leave her side and head down the stairs, but Keelie couldn"t take her eyes off Ermentrude and her fae escort. She ignored everything around her, concentrating; she"d thrown her power before. Keelie imagined the air turning thick, like pudding, every molecule suspended. Her right hand closed around the Queen Aspen"s charred heart and she stretched her left hand out, as if to grab Ermentrude from the sky.
The small, falling figure suddenly stopped, hanging suspended in the air, unconscious, her red hair like tangled yarn. She was surrounded by a cloud of unmovingfeithid daoine and pixies, which looked like pepper specks around her. A breeze blew by and the floating group drifted along with it.
Shouts came up from the streets as the elves and dwarves reacted to the sight.
Keelie stared, both pleased and horrified. She"d saved Ermentrude, but how could she get her down from there? As she watched, her magic broke apart and the dragon and her fae escort fell in slow motion, like deflated helium balloons, to land out of sight on the other side of one of the buildings.
Several elves ran in that direction, and from the concerned looks on their faces, Keelie knew that the landing hadn"t been light.
"Impressive, little one." Herne suddenly stood beside her, looking restored. His great antlers branched skyward, as broad as his shoulders.
"They"re hurt." She wasn"t sure about the feithid daoine, but Ermentrude must have hit with a big thump. "How are you.
"Still somewhat weak. I put all my power into my personal appearance to show the goblins that I am here."
The sound of fighting drifted up and Keelie ran back to the waist-high wall around the roof"s edge. Below, a thin line of elves was battling the goblins, bright swords flashing. Her heart thumped as she saw that Sean was with them.
A trumpet sounded behind the pharmacy and more elves ran to join their brothers. Keelie gasped. The elf leading the charge was her dad. She"d never seen him wear armor, but now he strode, tall and fierce, with a long sword in his right hand and a shield that was emblazoned with a single green tree strapped to his left foreman.
Dad! She sent a telepathic call to her father. This close, it couldn"t fail.
Stay there, Keelie. Can you distract the goblins so that we can get Ermentrude out of here?
Keelie looked around wildly, wondering what she could do to get the goblins" attention. She"d seen trees walk before, dragging their roots out of the earth to shuffle forward. It had been a frightening sight, maybe scary enough to freak out a goblin. She called on the trees, and they responded. But they weren"t strong enough to move.
Keelie reached for the wild magic that billowed and eddied in the wind like drifts of pollen. She grabbed up as much of it as she could, pulling it through herself, using her body to funnel the magic to the trees. The pines across from the pharmacy began to vibrate, their leaves shaking violently, but they didn"t walk. Instead, slender figures stepped out of their trunks.
"Dryads." Herne"s voice was husky with emotion. "You"ve called forth the dryads."
The elves and goblins stopped fighting for a second to stare at the creatures.
Dad turned his face up to Keelie, clearly astonished.
The dryads lifted their pale arms and screamed, then rushed the goblins.
"They"ll get hurt," Keelie cried. "What have I done?"
"Magic," whispered Herne. "They"ll come to no harm. Watch."
She felt the green magic anew, coming from the rushing horde of dryads, and realized that the weirdness she"d felt in the forest had come from them. They were neither male nor female and were only vaguely human-shaped, with arms and legs and torsos. But they were scaring the goblins.
The ground shook, and Keelie grabbed at the blacktarred roof to hold on, but this was not an earthquake. Below, the trees lifted their roots and started to move, using their great limbs to smash the goblins against the buildings and into the street, guided by the dryads. The elves followed warily, swords at the ready, shields lifted.
Keelie shifted her vision, looking at the scene through tree sight, and watched the wild magic flow around the dryads and seem to do their bidding. The goblins fled, unable to fight the trees.
As soon as the fight got to the end of the block, Keelie ran down the stairs and into the street, Herne and Knot behind her. Outside, the Healer elves were performing first aid on the fallen. The dryads had all disappeared but one, who seemed to be waiting for Keelie.
"Viran and your grandmother send greetings," the dryad said, its voice papery and thin. "They heard your call for help, as we did. We have answered."
Viran, the old tree shepherd of the Redwood Forest, had grown weary of life outside of the woods. After the goblin threat there had pa.s.sed, he had melded with one of the Great Trees and was now helping Grandmother Keliatiel, the new tree shepherd of the redwoods.
"You heard them all the way from California?" Keelie asked the dryad. That was some reception.
The slender figure nodded what seemed to be its head. "I will remain, to represent the tree spirits at the meeting of the Councils."
Keelie looked at Knot, puzzled.
One of the Healer elves turned to her. "We couldn"t find you and called upon the dwarves and the dragon to help us. We meet tonight at the Council building."
"The dark fae will be there too," Herne promised. He turned to Keelie and bowed. "You are indeed a warrior." He vanished.
A green tickle in her mind told Keelie that the Mother Tree would be there tonight as well. Maybe not in person, but seeing through Keelie"s eyes.
The Mother Tree. Keelie wondered where the withered old woman kept her roots. Was she part of the Mother Tree itself, perhaps a more physical manifestation of the tree spirits Keelie had met in the past? Or was she like a dryad, the creatures who lived in the trees? "Will Queen Vania come too?" she asked.
"She has not answered the call." The elf on the ground moaned and the Healer elf"s attention turned back to him.
Keelie ran to see if Dad and Sean were unharmed. Her racing heart slowed when she saw Dad holding up an elven woman as her leg got bandaged. He seemed relieved to see her, too. He nodded at the Healer elves and stood, just in time for her hugs and kisses.
"Where were you for four days, after you returned from Fairy?" he asked. "I heard it rumored you were Under-theHill, but that cannot be true." Keelie"s blush told him it was.
Dad pulled her away from the medic"s area. "Are you mad? I send you with a warrior and your fae guardian, and you leave them behind to help Herne, alone? And what about Elia? She bears the hope of our forest, but she is alone among strangers in the Northwoods. These elves have no love for her."
"I noticed. But it wasn"t my fault, Dad. You don"t say no to a forest G.o.d."
Dad didn"t seem to hear. "Dariel is upset-he abandoned his forest to come here to his wife"s aid and found her alone in the elven village. Do you know how often a unicorn leaves his forest? Never."
"Elia was always with us in the beginning," Keelie said. "But I tried to ditch her when we went to the Quicksilver-" Oops. She realized her error when Dad turned hot red.
"You did what? You took Elia? To the High Court?" He tugged on his long hair, eyes wild. "Where"s Davey? Why didn"t he stop her?"
"Davey"s related to King Gneiss, the King of the Dwarves. Did you know that?"
"Don"t change the subject. Once you step into Fairy, you cannot control your fate. How did Elia come free of the place? What was the price?"
"I"ll tell you everything, Dad. Knot came with me." Keelie told him about the rift and trying to mend it, and when he started to get angry, she told him about the Mother Tree. He seemed to relax. A little.
Miszrial appeared at their side. "We"ve counted one hundred and fifty dead goblins. Many have escaped."
Dad frowned. "And our wounded?"
"Twenty wounded, two dead. The wounds are mostly bites."
"That"s good, right?" Keelie looked from one to the other.
"Not good," Dad said. "Goblin bites fester quickly."
"I"m not surprised," Keelie said. "They"re so gross."
Dad straightened and looked behind her. "How could you allow her out of your sight? She went to Under-the-Hill with Herne. Alone."
She turned to where Sean stood, his face pale, and rolled her eyes. "Guys, I"m right here. I"m in one piece, virtue intact. And we need Herne"s help as much as he needs ours. You sent me here to get us to work together and I was doing my darndest. If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at Queen Vania. She does not play well with others."
"We"ll address that at the Alliance Summit." Dad looked at Sean. "We"re not done speaking. Don"t lose her again."
Knot walked by, once more in his regular cat form, and Dad glared at him. "You, too."
Knot purred and rubbed up against his leg.
A Healer elf came running up. "Ermentrude"s awake and asking for the tree shepherd."
Keelie and Dad turned to her, both answering, "Yes?" Dad looked at Keelie. "My turn. Go get cleaned up. Take her to Grey Mantle, Sean, and don"t lose her."
"Come on, Keelie." Sean began walking away, his hand on the hilt of his sword, as he did when he was upset.
She ran after him, matching his pace. "We can"t go back to the village yet. I need to find out where Peascod went. He"s planning something, Sean. He wants to defeat Herne, and Herne"s weak enough that he might lose. He"s seriously weak."
Sean stopped abruptly and turned to her. "Everyone is meeting in Grey Mantle. Herne promised to be there. You should let other people help now. This is not the mission you were sent to accomplish. It"s much bigger, and you can"t do everything alone."
Sean was right. Herne would be at Grey Mantle; in the meantime, she could talk to Ermentrude. The old dragon might have an idea about how to stop the leaking magic without involving Vania.
In the treetops above, Keelie sensed the presence of dark fae. When she lifted her head, afraid of what she"d see, she was relieved that it was only a bhata waving to her. It had something in its sticklike hand that looked like a small present. The bhata moved to where a large limb branched off into smaller ones, and it pointed at another creature in the tree.
"Knot, you can"t eat the bhata," Keelie said. Knot swished his orange tail, eyes fixed on the little creature. "I think it has a package for me."
"See, what did I tell you?" Sean said, waving his hands. "What are you talking about?"
"Knot, come back down here."
"Meow." Knot jumped down and stomped over, sitting down next to Sean.