Three pairs of hands thrust upward at once. For a moment, I was airborne. Then I hit the curved floor of the fake rocket like a sack of bowling balls.
"Ow!" I cried. "Why are you doing this?"
"Sorry, Lil," Balthazar said. "Can't be helped."
"I'm pretty sure it can! Take me home!"
"We're working on it," he assured me. "Just as fast as we know how."
"I can't breathe. It's a million degrees in here!"
"At least," Maxwell agreed, wiping his dripping face on his green coat sleeve.
Balthazar's face was flushed purple above his full beard. "We'll just be here a moment. Give us a chance to regroup."
"I'm for opening a door," Caspar said.
"And how do you propose doing that before the trial?" Balthazar asked. "Use your bean, lad, I'm begging."
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"We'll have to whistle for the cart," Maxwell said.
"Whistle away!" Caspar invited sarcastically. "It's only three miles off. We should have told Fizz to wait here."
"Right," Maxwell retorted. "Because none of these humans would have noticed six dogs and a--"
"By every coin and nugget!" Balthazar shouted. "If the pair o' you don't shut up and start helping me, I'll have you both before the council!"
They all fell momentarily silent, glaring at each other.
"It's so hot in here," I moaned. My head throbbed from its second fall to the floor, and the air felt like lava in my lungs. "Can't you just take me home?"
The leprechauns glanced at me, then resumed their argument, debating furiously about doors and dogs and doughnuts. Nothing they said made sense anymore. And although I was still afraid, my eyes wouldn't stay open. Maybe it was more magic from their binding gold, or maybe it was the normal result of being concussed and abducted, but I felt myself drifting and then I was gone, sucked into the bottomless depths of a velvety green darkness.
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Chapter 3
I was awakened by a jolt that shuddered through my bones.
"Hie!" a voice cried out. "Pull!"
I struggled to open my eyes, but my lids were still so heavy I could barely manage a slit. The sunshine had been snuffed out, replaced by a dim green glow.
Muffled voices floated back to me on a whiff of pipe smoke.
"... desperate glad to have her with us at last, but I hope she bucks up soon, because there never was a set o' tests like this. To pit her against the Scarlets ..."
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"Aye, but Wee Kylie! What match is a lad for a lass? If she's an ounce o' Maureen in her, she'll prevail. The council knows how to run a trial."
"Would I be disloyal enough to suggest they don't? But this one's not off to a grand start...."
Balthazar and Maxwell were deep in yet another conversation that made no sense. The air surrounding us now was cool and damp. Water dripped nearby, a slow pinging plop. I forced my eyes open at last.
I was lying propped on my back in a pile of fresh-cut grass mounded on a flat wagon. The wagon was a little bigger than a cot, with a low wooden railing around three sides and wheels like four extra-wide bicycle tires. At the forward ends of the railing, green lanterns hung from pegs, casting their strange glow over a team of six shaggy dogs the size of Labrador retrievers. They were pulling me through a long, dark cave, its low ceiling dripping from dirty crags to a muddy floor below.
"Hie!" the voice I had wakened to called again, urging the dogs on through the mud.
The team's paws made sucking sounds as they struggled to pull the cart forward. Their hind ends scrabbled and bunched, stretching their harnesses tight. The wagon jolted again, lurching forward as the muck released it and we rolled out onto hard stone. I bounced awkwardly in the grass. Then, slowly, I sat up.
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Balthazar and Maxwell were riding bareback on the pair of dogs nearest me. Caspar and a fourth leprechaun were riding the lead pair. Judging by my surroundings, I'd been asleep for a long time.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked. My voice echoed loudly, shaky and scared.
Balthazar turned on his shaggy mount, straddling it backward to face me. "Look who's awake!" he said cheerfully, knocking spent tobacco out of his pipe. "Fizz! Here's your chance to say hello."
The new leprechaun sprang to his feet on his trotting dog's back, riding like a circus performer. "Lilybet Green! At last!" he said, bowing down to his boots. "I am your humble brother and dog skipper, Fizz."
He was so obviously pleased to meet me that it seemed wrong to be rude. "Um ... hi," I returned.
Fizz straightened up, beaming. Then, with an easy leap, he spun in the air and landed restraddling his mount, catching its ears like reins.
Fizz could totally roll on the balance beam , I thought, temporarily distracted.
Balthazar leaned toward me over his dog's tail. "First ride in a dog cart, Lil?"
"That isn't obvious?" I retorted, feeling no obligation to be polite to Balthazar. I rubbed my wrists where he'd tied them, only then realizing that the binding gold was gone.
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My heart revved faster. There was nothing to keep me from running away!
Nothing except total darkness. Beyond the glow of the cart's green lanterns, the cave we were rolling through was pitch-black and seemingly endless. The thought of running through it blind was truly terrifying.
Maybe I can snag one of those lanterns . If I jumped off and grabbed the light fast, I could run back the way we'd just come. Although, I wasn't a bit convinced I could outrun the leprechauns. They were small, but they'd already proven they were ridiculously strong for their size. And what if they sent the dogs after me? For all I knew, we were miles underground, and I got winded halfway around the school track.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Home, Lil! To the Meadows. Your grandmother, Maureen, was our keeper, and now you'll take her place--as soon as you pass your trial, o' course. But that's only one wee bitty test, and then we'll all live happily ever after."
"You're taking me to live with you?"
"Don't say it like that, Lil," Balthazar replied, offended. "It's an honor, isn't it? One we've been well put out reserving for you--even before this nightmare o' a trip to fetch you. You might show a bit o' gratitude."
"Gratitude? For kidnapping me?"
Maxwell had been following the conversation over his
37
shoulder. Now he turned backward on his dog too. "Maybe we should explain from the beginning."
"You could try," I said sulkily.
"All right, then." Balthazar pulled out his pipe and lit it again. The dogs settled into a rhythm, loping along the cave floor with the cart rolling smoothly behind them. "Here it is," Balthazar said, exhaling a perfect smoke ring. "You, my girl, have leprechaun blood, on your father's side."
" What? " My jaw worked up and down. "What are you trying to say? That I'm some sort of leprechaun?"
Balthazar grinned around his pipe stem. "Do you look like a leprechaun, Lil? Your eyes and chin are right enough, but have you seen the rest o' you? Ninety-nine percent human, you are, give or take."
"You're a lepling," Maxwell offered. "One o' our sisters on the human side."
"Gee, thanks. That makes everything clear."
"Aye, but you're far luckier than most," Balthazar said. "Most leplings go their whole lives not realizing they're a bit more than meets the eye. A fine rare privilege it is, being called to join the clan."
I didn't feel privileged. I felt scared and confused and more than a little angry.
"Your grandmother," he went on, "had the honor o' being our keeper. That gold you're wearing is the Greens' keeper key. Maureen always intended to hand it on to you, but a
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keeper has to be o' age--thirteen at the youngest--and our poor Maureen passed on before you were old enough. It's been a hard road this past year, carrying on without a keeper, but we waited for you, Lil, because to try for the key and the cottage is your birthright."
"Aye, that she did, when she wanted to," Balthazar said. "She came and went, as keepers do."
I was about to call Balthazar a liar to his face when I remembered something. I'd spent a lot of time with Gigi, but Mom had often complained about how hard Gigi was to reach when we were trying to set up a visit. "I call the woman, I e-mail, but she's off who-knows-where again, pulling another of her disappearing acts. Really, Lily, sometimes it makes me wonder if it's safe leaving you with her. You might both disappear someday."
Even so, I found it hard to believe that Gigi was off in some meadow, keeping leprechauns.
"So now you've come at last," Balthazar said, "although I do think Maureen might have warned us how stubborn you are. It was dangerous enough showing up to collect you without all that fuss you raised. You may not appreciate, Lilybet, how easily we could have been captured."
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"Captured!" I exclaimed, hooting so loudly I spooked the dogs. "Who would want to capture you?"
"Don't be ignorant, girl. Everyone wants to catch a leprechaun."
"Right," I said. "For your Lucky Charms."
Balthazar's eyes narrowed, not a hint of humor about them. "For our gold."
"How do people even see you? I thought you were invisible."
"O' course we're not invisible! You see us, don't you? But most full-blooded humans don't take us in somehow--us or what we carry."
"Psychics see us," Maxwell offered. "And drunks, although no one ever believes them. Most of them don't believe it themselves, once they sober up."
"I can sympathize."
"Lucky for us," Balthazar said, "true psychics are rare, and your average drunk can't catch his own elbow. Still, there's always the danger o' crossing paths with another lepling. They're more common than you might think, especially in California. Not that a body has to see us to trample us. And let's not forget their dogs! Why do humans always raise such snarling, ill-mannered mutts? Do you know that a great vicious beast chased us off your front porch right through your neighbor's lawn fountain? Make no mistake, Lil, all manner o' dangerous creatures see us plain as pumpkins."
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"You should have stayed home, then, safe and sound," I said. "That would have been A-OK with me."
Balthazar took a deep breath and let it out slowly, determined not to be baited. "Ach, Lil. When we get to the Meadows, you'll change your tune. The whole clan is waiting to welcome you home. You are going to be one very important girl."
"Yeah? What's a keeper do anyway? Am I some sort of leprechaun queen?"
"Our queen!" Balthazar's braying laughter echoed through the cave. "Oh me, that's rich. Caspar! Fizz! Lil thinks she's our queen!"
I glared at him in a fury. I was missing my thirteenth birthday because of him, and now he was making fun of me too. No dinner, no movie, no ice cream, no Kendall ...
"I want to go home," I said, a sudden quaver in my voice. "You guys are mean, and you made me miss my party."
Balthazar stopped braying and put on a conciliatory tone. "Now, Lil, don't be upset. Someday we'll laugh about this, you and I. And as far as parties go, aren't we throwing you one this very night?"
"You're throwing me a party," I said, not believing a single word. "And who's going to be there?"
"Why, everyone, o' course! The entire Clan o' Green. Do you like cheese and doughnuts, Lil? O' course you do--you're a Green, aren't you?" he went on before I could
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answer. "And we couldn't have a party without piping. The acoustics in Green Field are the envy o' the clans! You'll see, Lilybet. You'll see it all."
"You said if I went with you, we'd come right back, and we've already been gone for hours," I accused, not exactly sure how long I'd been unconscious. "You lied. You all did."
"Aye, perhaps a wee bit," he admitted with an unrepentant grin. "But trust me on this, Lil: your grandmother wanted you with us today more than anything in the world."
I stared him down, on the verge of tears. The leprechauns obviously had no intention of taking me home, and how could I trust what they said about Gigi when they'd lied about everything else? Sinking back on the grass, I closed my eyes and tried to think.
I would have to get home on my own. But how?
I didn't have a clue.
Silent tears seeped out and dripped off my cheeks. I hated myself for being so weak and scared and useless. Ainsley Williams had never been abducted and held by leprechauns--I felt certain of that.
The dog cart rumbled on. With every turn of its wheels, I was getting farther from home, but instead of inspiring me to some brilliant plan, the stress turned my brain to mush. Hours passed. My mom was going to be worried sick, my explanation of where I'd been would probably get
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me grounded for life, and I still couldn't think of a single way to help myself.
"Almost there now," Balthazar sang out, abruptly breaking the silence. "You won't want to miss this, Lil."
My body swayed as the cart made a hard right turn.
"Hie! Hie! Home!" Fizz called excitedly.
The dogs broke into a run, creating a breeze that blew out both lanterns. We charged onward through darkness so dense I couldn't see my own hands. I screamed, certain we were about to crash.
But Balthazar only chuckled. "Not to worry, Lil!" he reassured me. "The dogs know where they're going."
I was too freaked out to do anything but hang on.
Very gradually, light began to bleed into the blackness. I made out silhouettes--first my fingers, then Balthazar's and Maxwell's tall hats. They were facing forward now and holding on. The entire team slowly became visible, with Caspar and Fizz still up front, skippering the charging dogs.
"Hie! Hie!" Fizz yelled.
The dogs put on even more speed. The cart careened crazily as the trickle of distant light grew into an eerie green glow. We were traveling through a huge natural tunnel, its walls slanting together to join in a peaked ceiling high above my head. The tunnel floor began to slope uphill, forming a rocky horizon against the growing light. Fizz and
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Caspar sat their mounts like cowboys galloping into a green sunset.
"That's the way, lads!" Balthazar cried happily. Maxwell clutched two fistfuls of fur as if his life depended on it.
At the crest of the rise, the tunnel's walls bent sharply away from us. I made out an enormous new cavern, its ceiling dripping with pale green stalactites as far as the eye could see. Then the cart tilted downward again, and I got my first glimpse of the cavern floor.
Hundreds of leprechauns crowded a chamber so vast its edges were lost to darkness. A sea of black hats teemed beneath us, lit by hundreds of greenish torches held aloft in tiny hands.
Putting two fingers to his mouth, Balthazar unleashed a piercing whistle. "Oy, oy, oy!" he shouted.
A roar rose up to greet us as the crowd below caught sight of our wagon. They surged in our direction, boots thundering on the stony floor, torches bobbing wildly.
"What did I tell you?" Balthazar crowed, glancing back at me. "There's no place like home, Lil!"
A deafening explosion rocked the cave. Brilliant green sparks flew through the air, twinkling against the crystalline ceiling and showering the cheering crowd below.
"There's so many of them!" I gasped. "What are they all doing here?"
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"Came to welcome you home, didn't they?"
The dog cart moved down through the frenzied crowd, its team completely unruffled by the fireworks exploding overhead or the mob of leprechauns crowding the wagon.
"Lilybet!" they shouted, doffing their pilgrim hats and waving them alongside their torches. "Lilybet Green! Welcome!"
I shrank into my mound of wilted grass. The cart had slowed to a crawl. I could finally see well enough to make a run for it....
But where was I supposed to
go?
Trapped and seriously outnumbered, I decided it might be safest to play along, at least until I came up with a plan. Taking a deep breath, I lifted one hand in a hesitant wave.
My weak gesture was greeted by a roar. A shout went up to the stalactites: "Green! Green! Greeeeeeeeen!"
"What did I tell you, Lil?" Balthazar boasted, sitting taller on his prancing mutt.
The crowd pressed in from all sides, forcing the cart to a crawl. Torchlight flickered on hundreds of upturned faces, many of them bearded and all with lively, wide-set green eyes. And not all the faces belonged to men. There were women in the crowd, too, although few and far between. They wore ankle-high boots with intricate silver buckles, fitted green coats that flared at the hips, and low, broad-brimmed
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hats rolled up on one side, secured with silver pins and sweeping green feathers.
Fizz and Caspar stood on their dogs' backs, waving for the crowd to give the cart room. Balthazar just waved, clearly loving the attention.
Maxwell finally relaxed his hold on his dog's fur and smiled over his shoulder at me. "Only a little farther," he promised.
On the other side of the cavern, our cart led the parade into a slit of a low-ceilinged tunnel. Water dripped from the ceiling, plopping on my head and making the torches behind us sizzle. The walls closed in until they scraped the cart. The roof descended by degrees.
"Might want to lie down for this next bit, Lil," Balthazar said. "That is, if you don't want to bump your bean."
Lying flat in the wilted grass, I watched dark, slimy rock pass inches above my face. I had never been claustrophobic before, but suddenly I could barely breathe. A horrible whimpering reached my ears before I realized I was making it. I was one second from a total meltdown when the ceiling finally rose back up.
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