The Tree Shepherd's Daughter

by Gillian Summers

  fourteen

  Keelie's back ached, and she smelled like cedar wood shavings and sweat. After working all night with Dad on the aspen, she'd been up at seven in the morning to work with Cameron in the mews. A girl finds out she's an elf, and the next day, she's putting together cages.

  The aspen's wooden heart hung on a silver chain beneath her shirt. Dad had turned it into a pendant, wrapping it with silver wires instead of drilling a hole in it. It gave her a sense of security. Ariel flew overhead, and every now and then, another call answered from nearby. The other hawk lurked nearby. Did Ariel have a boyfriend?

  Sir Davey had buried protection stones around the cages, hoping to ward off the Red Cap. Keelie had been curious, but she was not ready to learn more about Earth magic. Mud magic. She was trying to cope with the trees.

  Dad had been summoned to a meeting of the elves in their secret part of the woods. He was going to mention the Red Cap. Some elves had been denying its existence, but it was time to do something about it. Enough harm had been caused, including the two college students still hospitalized.

  A meeting of all the Faire folk had been called for later this afternoon. Keelie would need to shower before she attended. She hoped to see Raven, who had been busy cleaning up the herb shop.

  "Well, well. She does one good thing, and she's her daddy's darling." The sweet voice had a spiteful edge. Elia.

  "I was having a wonderful morning until I saw you," said Keelie. "You're like a thunderstorm on a picnic. You show up when you're not wanted."

  "Boom. Boom. Boom," said Elia. Her green eyes held a murderous glint.

  "Oh, was that your imitation of thunder? Or was that your brain firing off some neurons?"

  "Funny, human," Elia sneered.

  "Human? And you're not? At last we agree on something. I know about the elves, Elia."

  She flinched but quickly regained her composure. "Listen, just because Sean is singing your praises now-don't get comfortable in your newfound glory. You may be enjoying a momentary glimmer of sunshine, but remember you're the mud girl, and eventually it must rain. You'11 have to go back to the slimy mud hole you crawled out of." She smiled and played with a silver ribbon on her frothy pink dress.

  "Oh. Mud girl, am I? I may have my feet firmly planted in the soil, but I don't play dirty, as certain nasty people do." Ariel winged toward Keelie, then landed on a cedar tree.

  Keelie held out her gloved arm. Ariel came to her, her talons digging into the leather. Keelie thought she saw a small stick person watching her from a nearby holly bush. When she looked again, it was still there. Keelie smiled, but it disappeared into the camouflage of the woods.

  "Lass, is everything okay?" Sir Davey came to stand beside Keelie. Louie, the vulture, waddled after him.

  Elia frowned when she saw Sir Davey. "I should've known that Keliel Heartwood would take up with your kind, dwarf."

  Keelie wanted to smack Elia or make one of the silver doodads on her candy-colored dress fall off for being rude to Sir Davey. "Where do you get off being so nasty to everybody?"

  "I'm not, as you say, nasty to everyone. In fact, I'm often praised by my own kind for my ability to socialize with the tourists and still retain a sense of nobility about me." Elia lifted a handful of golden ringlets in one pale hand and tossed them over her delicate shoulder.

  Keelie made barfing motions, jabbing her finger into her open mouth.

  Sir Davey laughed. "Crude, Mistress Keelie. Your father would disapprove."

  She rolled her eyes. "Then don't laugh."

  He winked at her, then tilted his nose in the air. Louie hissed and shook his bald head as he stared at Elia.

  "Why don't you go and be with your own kind and let the rest of us have a nice day and finish our work," Sir Davey said.

  Elia's eyes blazed with anger. "You dare insult me?"

  "It's not an insult; it's a suggestion." Sir Davey crossed his arms on his chest.

  "A hint," Keelie added.

  Elia tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear, and that's when Keelie clearly saw the pointed tip. It was like Sean's and like Dad's. She was reminded that Elia, like her father, was an elf, and Keelie was half-elf. Were they related? What a repugnant thought. And if a half-elf could do the things Keelie could, what was Elia capable of?

  Right now Keelie had more important things to do than stand in the middle of Ironmonger's Way and trade insults with Elia.

  "Be careful, mud girl. You never know when the wild part of your hawk will take over. She might fly away and never come back," said Elia.

  A cold chill of foreboding traveled down Keelie's spine. She walked over to Elia until they were face-to-face, nose tip to nose tip. "Is that a threat?"

  Ariel flapped her wings as if saying, I'll take her on.

  "No. Just a warning."

  "Don't ever threaten Ariel." The wooden heart warmed against her skin.

  "Or you'll do what?"

  "Step away, Keelie!" shouted Sir Davey.

  She did. She could feel small tremors beneath her feet. Colorado didn't have earthquakes, did it? The San Andreas fault couldn't have followed her here.

  With a devilish grin on his face, Sir Davey held out his hand and wiggled his fingers. Mounds of dirt erupted in a circle around Elia as earthworms writhed to the surface.

  She screamed as she tiptoed around the growing heap of wriggling worms. Wherever her feet touched the ground, a new fountain of worms spewed forth. Sir Davey continued to wiggle his fingers, emitting a wicked chuckle as he did so.

  Elia shrieked, lifted her long dress, and ran. Keelie clamped her hands over her ears. Eventually, Elia's screams became less and less piercing as she made her way back to wherever she stayed during the day.

  "I guess she's going back to her kind," said Sir Davey.

  Keelie laughed.

  Sir Davey's happy expression quickly turned serious. "Be wary of her and some of the jousters, and be extra vigilant with Ariel. I didn't like the words that fell from that foul mouth of hers. That one is planning something."

  "Yeah, well, I can handle her."

  "I think you're right. You may be only half-Elven, but you can do things that she cannot."

  "Like what?"

  "The tree magic. Her skills are different."

  "And scary. Would you walk me back to the shop?"

  He bowed. "Milady, 'tis my honor."

  Keelie was curious about what she'd just witnessed. As she walked beside the dwarf, she wondered if he would be insulted or if he'd lecture her if she asked. Finally, curiosity won. She blurted, "How did you make the earthworms come out of the ground like that?"

  The dwarf studied her with steel gray eyes. "Are you ready to know about such things?"

  She studied him for a moment. It would take forever to learn the truth about all the freaky things going on around her.

  In the woods, she saw another stick person moving among the cedar tree trunks. This one looked bigger, almost the size of a small dog. The forest folk were getting braver.

  How could she live with the truth when she returned to the real world? She'd remembered chasing the fairies when she'd been a small girl. And now she was seeing them again.

  "Ah, you're thinking that if you do give voice to all the oddities you've seen and done, it will make them real everywhere you go," Sir Davey said.

  Keelie stopped walking. "Okay, I admit it." She placed her hands on her hips. "Because from where I'm from, these things aren't part of the real world."

  "What happens to you if you believe they're real?"

  Her chest tightened at having to actually speak it out loud. "If I believe that fairies are real, that my dad's cat wears boots and wields a sword, and if I truly believe that I can feel and see a tree's spirit in the bark of a tree, that makes me not a part of my mom's world. Believing what I thought was imaginary and only possible in children's books takes part of me from my mom and part of her from me."

  "Keelie, you'll never lose your mother," Sir
Davey said. "She may be gone from this existence. But she lives on in you. She'll be with you every day of your life. As far as believing in magic and fairies and boot-wearing cats, and seeing faces in the trees, you'll have to accept that those things are part of your world, just a part you didn't know about before."

  Sir Davey took her hand and patted it reassuringly. "When you face the challenges of this world, be they real or what you claim to be imaginary, then face them with your heart. For everyone who loves you is in your heart. From within your heart comes the magic that makes you who you are."

  Keelie realized that she and Sir Davey had arrived at Heartwood. She knew that because she'd opened herself to the magic, she'd made a difference to the forest on the night of the storm. She'd taken a chance. There was room in her heart for Ariel, her mom, and maybe her dad, too. Still, Keelie feared that if she loved anyone else as much as she loved her mom, she would lose her mom bit by bit.

  "Don't overdo it, young lady. It takes energy to talk to trees.

  Keelie laughed. "And to make earthworms wiggle out of the ground."

  "Quite right. Time for me to go and rest up for the day."

  "Thank you, Sir Davey."

  "Whenever you need help accepting the magic, Keelie, make sure you come talk it over with me. Especially if someone says or does something that might turn your world upside down."

  Keelie couldn't imagine what could be more disturbing than seeing faces in trees, touching trees and feeling their spirits, and seeing fairies flying through the air. "I promise."

  The dwarf turned around to walk away.

  "Sir Davey?"

  He stopped and looked at Keelie.

  "Are dragons real?"

  "The ones I know are all busy posing for illustrators of fairy tales." He waved goodbye.

  An owl hooted and distracted Keelie. "What kind of answer is ... ?"

  Keelie turned around. Where was Sir Davey? She looked down the lane. He had disappeared.

  Weird. And she thought nothing about the Faire could surprise her any more.

  Keelie dragged her body up the flight of stairs to the rooms above her dad's shop. She was exhausted, stinking from bird poop, and grossed out after watching Ariel eat her rat. Cameron said she'd watch her while Keelie attended the meeting. She opened the door, and the yummy smell of pizza greeted her. Dad sat at the kitchen table reading a newspaper. He gazed over it, then lowered it. "Hungry, Keelie?"

  She nodded.

  He rose from his chair and motioned with his hand. "Sit. You look exhausted."

  "I am exhausted." Keelie plopped into the chair. She lowered her head to see if Knot was underneath, waiting to ambush her. He wasn't there. In a perverse way, she was disappointed. She liked scooting him out and watching him glide across the hardwood floor on his butt.

  "Right." Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten since breakfast. She sniffed. "Do I smell pizza?"

  "Yes. Cheese. I've been trying to keep it warm till you got home."

  "You know, if you had a microwave, you could warm it up if it got cold," she said. "This fast," she added, snapping her fingers.

  "No microwave. Messes up the tree vibes. Speaking of which, when you finish eating and before we have to go to the meeting, let's work on the rocking chair."

  Downstairs, Keelie watched him work, knowing that he was receiving the strange knowledge that crept through her whenever she touched wood.

  She reached out to touch the yellowish cream board Dad held out to her. It smelled faintly of turpentine. Her fingers tingled as she stroked it, and in her mind came the image of a grove of tall pines growing in the hot sun. Bees seemed to buzz around her, but she knew they weren't real, just part of the wood's sleepy memories. "It's pine, from a coast. I can smell the sea."

  Dad's face lit up with a smile. "Wondrous. It's Georgia pine, from a forest near Savannah."

  He dragged a large branch out from underneath the counter and placed it on top. "Try this one. What can you tell me about it?"

  Rubbing the tip of her index finger along the smooth joints of the tree branch, Keelie smiled. "This fell off during a storm from the tiptop of an oak, along with some mistletoe. It used to be a perch for eagles."

  Dad grinned. "Amazing. It comes to you as if you'd studied the lore your entire life. Keelie, this is fantastic."

  "I think it's creepy."

  He laughed. "I guess it could seem so to an outsider. You can imagine why we keep this knowledge to ourselves. In older times, it was cause to be burned at the stake."

  Keelie wondered what it would be like to burn at the stake, knowing as you died about the trunk you were tied to and the logs your feet rested on.

  Her father's comment pleased and frightened her. Generation to generation in his family. Was she so much a part of him? Would her mother's side fade away under his influence?

  "Missing her, aren't you?"

  "Yes. A lot." She wasn't surprised that he knew her thoughts. Any weird look on her face could be correctly interpreted the same way.

  "I know." Dad swung his body around so Keelie couldn't see his face. Crouching down, he ran his hands along some branches and other pieces of wood on the floor.

  "Whenever I need to think things through, I make something. Kind of a Zen-Green thing happens."

  "Really. Well, let's get to work." Keelie said.

  Dad smoothed sandpaper over the wood of the chair they'd made together. Tall and slender, with a gently dished seat and sturdy legs, it reminded her of her mother. The smooth ash was the color Mom's hair had been, and she'd been just as slim and graceful.

  Dad had vetoed the legs Keelie wanted-lithe ones like Mom's-but these made the chair strong, and they were a powerful foundation. The chair was like Mom, but it was a part of her and Dad-their creation.

  He looked up from his work. "A final sanding, then an oil finish. What do you think?"

  "Beautiful."

  He nodded, pleased. "We do good work, daughter."

  The phone rang.

  Dad answered it. "Hello? Yes, this is Zekeliel Heartwood... You've got to be kidding. You folks said that it would be routed to New York, then on to Colorado... This is absolutely ridiculous. Just get my daughter's luggage to LaGuardia, and I'll have a friend pick it up there."

  Keelie's heart plummeted to her feet. Where was her luggage now? Where was her Boo Boo Bunny? Where were the photographs of Mom? She pictured it at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean alongside the remains of the Titanic.

  On the other hand, since when did her sandals-andwhole-grain dad know someone in New York? She was amazed he even knew the word "LaGuardia."

  Dad hung up the phone. "It seems your luggage has been routed to Greenland."

  "Greenland. As in the Arctic Circle? As in the North Pole?"

  "We'll get your things, eventually. Don't worry."

  "I'll try not to. I'm going to get a quick shower before the meeting."

  Keelie dressed in her bedroom, brushing cat hair from her clothes. She hadn't had time to take her clothes to the Swiss Miss Chalet. Somehow Knot had slipped inside the wardrobe and was asleep on her handbag.

  Her cell phone rang. Keelie's heart thumped against her chest. It would be Laurie calling to firm up plans for the Great Escape. She reached for the bag. Knot hissed, ears flattened against his head, and he swatted at Keelie.

  "Bad Knot. Give me back my bag." He swished his tail. "I still haven't forgiven you for stinking up my under„ wear.

  He glared at her. The phone stopped ringing. "Fine. Be that way."

  The cat licked his bottom.

  Keelie pulled the bag out from underneath Knot, and he tumbled to the floor. He landed on all fours. His purring thrummed through the room. "What is with you? Every time I'm mean to you, you like it. Sicko kitty."

  The cat rubbed up against her leg. She moved him out of the way with her foot. He went sliding across the floor on his belly.

  "I've got to go. By the way, when you squat like that, you look like a f
urry-headed toad."

  The cat's eyes dilated to dark moon orbs. His purring increased.

  "Get over it, you grody cat."

  She opened the door, and Knot shot past her. He thumped his way down the steps, stopped, and sat on the bottom step as if waiting for her. She looked down at him; he swished his tail back and forth.

  She walked down the steps past him and into the shop.

  "Dad, make your cat go away. He's leering at me."

  "Knot. Behave."

  Knot walked over to the oak tree in front of the shop and began sharpening his claws.

  The Poacher's Inn was fast filling with the Faire folk. Keelie settled next to Dad, leaning against the wooden fence. Cedar.

  Elianard glared at her as Elia primped, looking bored. Tania prattled on and on about Admin's threat to close down the Faire permanently if repairs weren't made to the booths immediately. Even though there was only two weeks left of the High Mountain Renaissance Faire, a lot of merchants and craftsmen depended on the income earned in those remaining two weeks to carry them over to the next Faire.

  Keelie pressed her back against the fence, watching Knot, who had perched on top of the old-fashioned bar that wrapped around the building's exterior. He had his head stuck out, doing a vulture impersonation, eyes glued to Sir Davey's new companion, Louie the turkey vulture. Louie didn't realize he was being made fun of.

  Raven represented the herb shop while Janice cleaned up the mess back home. Raven had no idea how lucky she was to have her mom.

  Elia fanned herself with her hand and sneered at Keelie. Behind her, Elianard seemed to be muttering.

  Ha! Keelie remembered that according to Sir Davey, she was much more powerful than Elia.

  A whiff of rot came with the breeze that blew through the porch of the Poacher's Inn. The heart pendant became warm and tingled against her skin. Something pushed against the sole of Keelie's shoe, and she moved her foot, stepping aside and sweeping her skirts up. A small sapling was pushing up from the board. Keelie watched, shocked, as it sprouted limbs and green needles popped out and unfurled along each edge. The smell of fresh cedar filled the air.