Jake lowered his head, then met her eyes. “Like you, I thought I could control the dark magic. Elianard, Niriel, and I thought the unicorn’s horn could be used to restore the Dread and save our home. It worked—but I spend every minute of every day regretting my decision.” Jake looked at Elia with sadness. “I’m sorry.” He reached out to her, and she ran to his embrace.
“Elia?” Niriel scowled. “You let this abomination touch you?”
“He is no abomination.” From within the circle of Jake’s arms, Elia lifted her chin, defiant. “You are. You’re the one who urged Father to save the Dread by killing the Wildewood unicorn.”
“Your father is the one condemned by the magic, not me.” They were all included in Niriel’s contemptuous stare. “If he had been able to follow the plan we made, he would have remained untouched by the magic. The unicorn’s horn would be ours.”
Keelie knew what the plan had been. “You were going to kill the Wildewood unicorn and use his magic to save the Dread Forest, and I was supposed to lure Einhorn while you killed him—but Einhorn lived. So why is Elianard dying?”
“Because he used the amulet with intent to harm. You, my dear, can use the book and the amulet, too. You will restore the Dread.”
“But I’ll be cursed,” Keelie said. This didn’t sound like a great plan.
“You’re already cursed,” Niriel said curtly. He turned to the jousters. “Let’s get them to the Lore House.”
The jousters moved forward.
“I won’t do it.” Keelie held the book high. “The magic of this book was guarded by the tree shepherds, and the amulet was entrusted to me by Einhorn. I’ll give them to my father.”
Niriel cocked his head and motioned nonchalantly. Several jousters stepped up with swords drawn. “Brave words that signify nothing. You will be held in the Lore House to await the pleasure of the tree queens and the Elven Council.”
Jake growled.
Niriel pressed his sword tip into Elia’s chest, daring Jake to come closer. “I wouldn’t move if I were you. This one’s death would spare the Council one decision.”
Elia stared at Niriel, unafraid.
The other elven jousters moved in around Jake. He stood still, his eyes on Elia. “Don’t hurt her.”
“He actually cares for you, Elia. And you care for him. I thought it impossible for someone to break through your icy veneer. To think I even considered a marriage between you and my son.” Niriel laughed.
Jake broke free of his captors and one of the jousters lifted a sword in a wide, slashing arc toward Jake’s neck.
“Stop.” Keelie dropped the book and lunged forward to grab the sword’s blade, ignoring the sharp pain as it cut her hand. Her blood sizzled, and sparks shot from the steel as it transformed to wood.
The elf dropped the sword with a startled cry and jumped back.
“Impossible,” Niriel hissed.
Everyone stared at the wooden sword on the ground. The jousters shifted uneasily.
“A pretty trick.” Niriel motioned for more elven guards. The jousters recovered from their surprise and surrounded Jake, Elia, and Keelie. “Take them to the Lore House.”
“The trees told me there was trouble.” Zeke walked rapidly toward them. The jousters stopped, confused at the sight of the tree shepherd.
Niriel reached down for the book, but Zeke’s booted foot stepped down on it. “This book is forbidden to you.”
Niriel straightened with a scowl. “Tree Shepherd. Of course.”
“What goes on here?” Grandmother appeared behind Dad, her eyes wide at the sight of the armed men. “The trees called to me in my sleep. It’s been so long since they’ve spoken to me. They told me my granddaughter needed me.”
Keelie was so glad to see them, but she was also frightened and embarrassed to be found out.
Grandmother looked at Keelie, and then her gaze slid to Jake. She lifted a trembling hand to her face, her expression frozen in a mask of disbelief. “Dariel?”
Jake bowed his head. “Mother, Zekeliel.”
Mother? Keelie looked from Jake to Dad. Oh yeah, she could see it now.
Dad paled. “Dariel, why have you returned? Leave at once, or you’ll be killed.”
Keelie looked from Dad to Jake. “What’s going on here?”
Dad shook his head. “The trees whispered of this, but I hoped it wasn’t true. And if it wasn’t, then it was a secret best left in the past.”
So Jake was Dad’s long-lost brother. This was a family disclosure straight out of Star Wars.
“Jake, you could have told me that you’re my uncle.”
“Family secrets revealed.” Niriel sneered at them. “Really, Zeke, you must learn to communicate with your daughter.” He shook his head, feigning sadness. “Of course, this changes nothing. I am escorting them to the Lore House, Tree Shepherd. There they will await their trial.”
“Ridiculous,” Grandmother said angrily. “If anyone is to go on trial it is you and Lord Elianard.”
Niriel bowed his head. “But Keliatiel, we have witnessed Keliel’s use of dark magic, and she has admitted to aiding the vampire, as has Elia. Our laws are clear and must be honored. You lead us, what say you?” His eyes shifted from face to face.
He’s lying, Keelie thought. His plan’s been found out and he’s making this up as he goes along.
Keliatiel looked from her two sons to Keelie, eyes shining with unshed tears. “I will see you at the Oaken Circle of the Queens, before the Caudex.”
seventeen
A jouster stepped forward, dressed in silvery chain mail. It was Tamriel, Niriel’s right-hand elf. He always did whatever the elven lord wanted.
He signaled to the other jousters, and they fell into formation, marching four abreast, then parted and surrounded Keelie, Jake, and Elia. Dad joined them, the book held firmly in his hands. Keelie slipped the amulet into her pocket. Once they were surrounded, the troop turned to face the path. Grandmother stood regally to one side and watched.
Tamriel looked down his haughty nose at Keelie. “I will walk behind you,” he said in a firm tone.
They had no choice but to obey. Niriel said nothing as the men began to march, herding their prisoners.
Keelie’s head rang with a clanging of hammers, and the earth beneath her feet vibrated with energy. From the corner of her eyes, she watched as the bhata darted in the treetops as if keeping tabs on her whereabouts. An angry cloud of feithid daoine buzzed nearby. She was hyper aware of everything around her.
Most of all, she was aware of the book in Dad’s arms.
She wanted it. She felt its power reach out to her. She could use the magic within to restore the Dread. When she restored the Dread, the elves would not put her on trial. They would free her and Jake, too.
Dad reached out and tilted her chin up. “Your eyes.”
“What about them?”
“They’ve changed. They have the look of the fae about them.”
“Are they silver like Zabrina’s?”
“No, they’re green flecked with glimmering gold, like the magic that comes from the book.”
Keelie couldn’t help it. She glanced at the book.
“It calls to you, doesn’t it?” Dad held the book loosely clasped in his arms. He didn’t seem worried that she would make a grab for it.
“Yes.” Her fingers reached out.
“Keelie, you’ve got to fight the temptation.”
“Dad, you can’t let the aunties have it.”
“Keep moving,” Tamriel commanded.
Dad and Keelie quickened their pace to appease the jouster.
“Don’t worry. Once it’s in their possession it will be safe,” Dad reassured Keelie.
It wasn’t the answer she wanted. She wanted the book, but there was more to worry about.
“I’m going to be put on trial. What’s going to happen to me?” She slowed, waiting for his answer. “I keep thinking of the Salem witch trials. They ended in a barbecue.”
Tamriel pushed her forward. “I said keep moving.”
Keelie glared at him until Dad took her elbow and gently tugged her forward. He whispered in a do-it-now-and-don’t-argue tone, “Walk with me. Don’t make Tamriel angry. He’s looking for an opportunity to use his sword.”
She complied, matching her steps to his.
After a few minutes, they fell into a rhythmic pace. Dad leaned in closer to Keelie. “Why did you use the book?” His voice was sad.
“I had to heal Ariel—it would be just a little bit of magic. And if it worked, I figured that it would prove to everyone how the book could be used without bad effects. Then we could figure out how to save the Dread. I would have told you. Grandmother Keliatiel wouldn’t fade, and you wouldn’t tie yourself to the forest.”
“The book deceives the user.”
“Like Jake? He thought he’d found a way to save the Dread,” Keelie said. “Look at him now. He’s a vampire.
Why didn’t you ever tell me you had a brother?”
Dad lifted his head, his gaze on his long-lost brother.
“Some memories and people are better left in the past.”
Keelie watched as Jake wrapped his arms protectively around Elia. They were a couple who had possibly found love in the midst of turmoil. Maybe there could be hope for them. She had to hang on to that thought. She had to believe that she wasn’t cursed, that she hadn’t cursed them all.
“What’s going to happen to them at the trial? What’s going to happen to me?”
Dad sighed. He pulled her closer to him as if he was hanging onto her, as if these fleeting moments with her were precious and he wanted to keep her close. Not a good sign.
“The trial is overseen by the Council. We haven’t had one for many years. If found guilty, you could be exiled, if the Council is kind. Or sent to fade, out in the world away from the forests. It is a painful experience for an elf to fade—or to die, as you know it—away from the forest. Your name will be struck from the lore, and it will be as if you’d never existed.”
“Oh!” She found it hard to breathe, imagining the loneliness. Then she straightened. She’d survive. She could make it, even if the elves were cruel and made her leave. There was no way she’d fade—she was half human. She’d come from Los Angeles, and she could go back there. She leaned closer to Dad, letting some of his strength seep into her body.
But the thought of miles of concrete and steel made her stomach clench and her heart ache. Maybe she was more elf than she thought.
“Doesn’t it matter that I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone? I cured Ariel. For that they’d kill me?”
“Death is not an option. They will more than likely banish you.”
“That means I can’t live in the Dread Forest with you.”
“Not here, nor anywhere else that the elven have claimed as their own. It means you would never be able to see me again, unless I came to you. If you’re exiled, you would be made to forget your past and all in it.”
Stunned, Keelie looked up at Dad. “They can’t make me forget you.”
Dad nodded grimly. “They can. And your mother, and Ariel. That’s what happened when they banished Jake.”
“But he came back.” Her voice was a whisper. She’d thought of all the things Jake had seen, without wondering what he’d lost. And he remembered now, she knew he did.
“It’s been a hundred years since I last saw my brother.”
Dad’s voice was sad. “Something must have triggered his memory.” Far ahead of them, Jake was walking alongside Elia, now holding her hand. He alone looked happy. Keelie wouldn’t have a hundred years to regain her memory.
A commotion behind them drew Keelie’s attention. She turned to see Sean striding up to Tamriel.
“Lord Niriel requests that you run ahead and tell the Council to make ready at the Lore House.”
Tamriel looked baffled. “But my lord, he has given me no such orders.”
“Do I need to tell my father you disobeyed?” Sean stood, tall and regal, in their path. He didn’t look toward Keelie and she was glad. Right now she wished she were invisible. He must know she’d used the dark magic—the whole world would know by now. Maybe it was imprinted on her forehead. No, it was imprinted on her eyes for all to see: Dark Magic User.
Tamriel nodded and sprinted up the path ahead of the others, around Jake and Elia and into the woods.
Sean stepped toward Keelie. She closed her fist, ready to deck him if he got any closer. Instead, he leaned toward her father.
“Everything is going as planned,” he whispered. “I’ve had a message from Knot. He will meet you near the Lore House. Watch for his signal.”
Keelie scowled. “You heard from Knot? You don’t understand cat.”
“Knot has a unique way of communicating.” Sean raised his sleeve. Runic scratch marks appeared on his skin. He arched an eyebrow. “Despite the fact that you think I’m a—what is it you called me, a wienie?—I’m not.”
Dad put a hand on Sean’s shoulder. “Sean has been helping me, Keelie. I’m sorry he had to let you think he didn’t care for you anymore.”
One of the jousters walked within hearing distance.
“No matter what happens, don’t forget how I feel about you,” Sean whispered as he strode ahead and joined the other jousters. He looked like he belonged with them.
Keelie was confused. She didn’t know who wouldn’t be. She was cursed now. How long before she started craving blood? They were on their way to her trial, where she could be banished and made to forget about her father and the guy she cared about. The guy she thought had betrayed her, but who was now telling her that he cared about her.
She had been through too much for the elves to treat her this way. She’d done so much to help them and had gotten nothing but misery in return.
Knot had tried to warn her. Jake had told her about the dark magic, but she hadn’t listened. She had been so determined to save Ariel from blindness that she had blinded herself to the truth.
Dad held the book tight in his right hand and held her hand in his left. They didn’t talk because armed men were hovering very close, eavesdropping, as if hoping to pick up some incriminating evidence.
Keelie soaked up the nearness of her father. She had missed this. Just being with him. She leaned her head against his shoulder. It eased the pounding in her head.
On the path, they passed an evergreen with low-lying branches. A bhata climbed down onto Keelie’s shoulder and patted her cheek and pointed upwards. She looked.
Awe filled her.
The air was thick, a green nourishing soup that glowed all around. Above her, branches larger than many trees’ trunks clasped arms hundreds of feet in the air. It was as if they were in a great living cathedral, its canopy filled with bhata. Ariel flew by, and a glittering trail of golden magic illumined her wings as she glided through the trees. Her piercing cry rang out over the forest, reminding Keelie that even though she had used dark magic, it had been for a good purpose. Somewhere, that had to count for something.
“Dad, look—Ariel.”
“I know.” His voice cracked.
Watching the hawk made Keelie s heart soar.
“Your little bird is putting on quite the show.” Niriel joined them. “Nevertheless, it’s time to break up this happy family reunion. The Lore House is not too far. This is where you will have to part ways with your daughter and your brother, Tree Shepherd.”
Dad’s expression grew angry. “You told me I could accompany Keelie all the way.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Keelie saw Knot. He motioned his head to the side as if saying, Come on.
She didn’t need a PhD in cat body-language to understand that it was a signal.
Dad’s hold on the book had loosened as he argued with Niriel. “Your word is your bond.”
“Not when I’m dealing with prisoners.”
Keelie hadn’t made any such promise. S
he saw that everyone was distracted. She leaned close to Dad, grabbed the book and ran.
eighteen
“Stop, Round Ear.” A jouster was close behind her. He tripped, and Keelie felt a gloved hand close around her ankle.
Come to us, child, the aunties called to Keelie. Whether in command or invitation, it was her best bet.
She kicked the hand and scrambled away. Above her she heard Ariel’s keening cry. The hawk plunged down and attacked the downed jouster, her talons gripping his exposed head. He screamed and swatted at her, but she kept attacking, releasing him briefly, then swooping down to slash at him again. He fell to his knees and cowered, protecting his bleeding head with his forearms and yelling for help.
Ariel circled upwards, and then turned and came in again for another attack. The screaming jouster’s mail shirt rattled, but it was his head that needed protection since he wore no helm.
Keelie couldn’t believe it. Ariel hadn’t flown away— she’d returned to help her. Jake had said that the hawk been transformed by the dark magic, but here she was, saving Keelie, giving her a chance to get away.
Hurry, Keliel. Come to us, now, the aunties urged. But she couldn’t. She had to help Jake and Elia.
Ariel screeched as if she were saying, Go, go, while you can.
“What’s happening?” A deep voice shouted from nearby.
Keelie’s heart pounded so loudly she was sure whoever had shouted could hear it.
“Over by the trees. Hurry, get this damn bird off me.”
Where could she go? Wherever she went, she’d be found. The elves knew this forest much better than she did.
The three giant oaks, the aunties, beckoned her with their massive branches. Come, Keliel. Come to us.
Something furry brushed up against Keelie’s ankle. She jumped, looked down, and to her relief saw that it was Knot. “Where have you been?”
The shouts of the jousters were getting closer and she could hear the pounding of their booted feet, but before she could run, cool greenness filled her, pushing away the darkness, clearing her mind of fuzzy thoughts.
The Secret of the Dread Forest: The Faire Folk Trilogy Page 16
