"No double-dipping," it gloated. "You've been marked."
My fingers strained toward the ledge but refused to move.
"Put your arms down," the pisky commanded. They dropped to my sides. "Good girl. Now stay."
Being told to stay made me even more determined to move. I tried to lunge again, only to discover that my feet had stuck to the floor. My shoulders barely twitched. And I couldn't lift my hands. "What have you done to me?" I cried.
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"Well now," the pisky said with, a smile, "the first time you catch a pisky, we're in your power. The next time, you're in ours. Those chuckleheaded leprechauns didn't tell you that?"
"You wouldn't believe how much they didn't tell me," I answered sullenly.
The pisky smiled and picked up Lexie's button. "I'll be having this, for starters. What did you get off Kinkle?"
"Excuse me?"
Cradling the button in one arm, it pointed toward my right hand. My arm flew up, thumb first, forcing my glowing scar into the moonlight. "That's Kinkle's work, yes?"
"I, um, didn't get a name."
"Well now," the pisky said approvingly, "it isn't polite to ask, is it? But I'd recognize Kinkle's mark anywhere. What did you wish for? Wait, let me guess!" The pisky glanced around my stone cell. "A house no one could break into? A long vacation someplace you wouldn't be bothered?"
"I didn't ask for anything! I only wished that Kinkle would accept our silver buttons and my apologies for bothering, um ... Kinkle." I wasn't exactly sure if these piskies were boys or girls. "My clan made me do it. All I really wanted was to go home."
The creature gave me a skeptical look. "Then how did you end up here?"
"That's a long, sad story. Hey!" I said, sensing a possible
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loophole. "Since making that first wish wasn't my idea, and I didn't get anything out of it, can't--"
"You got those scars," the pisky said. "And from the way they've been silvered, you got off easy. If Kinkle hadn't dusted those bites, they'd have been ugly welts till the day you died. You must have made a good impression."
"Yes!" I said, grasping at that straw. "Kinkle liked me! Let's call Kinkle!"
"Won't change the rules. One wish per customer."
The pisky stooped to push its free hand through the center of one Life Saver, then another, threading them onto its twiggy arm like candy snow tires. Shifting the gold button awkwardly over on top of them, it threaded the remaining two peppermints onto its other arm, clasping its hands in front to hold everything together. The objects made an awkward load--four Life Savers stretching the limits of the pisky's reach, the button balanced on top like a basketball too big to sink.
"I'm not going to be stuck like this forever, am I?" I asked.
The pisky craned its neck around the button to look at me. "That depends. Do you have any silver?"
"No," I said despairingly. "I had a gold key, but they took it."
Hopping from scrap to scrap, the pisky kicked each bit of foil, checking underneath. Its arms were so full it could
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barely see, peering awkwardly around one elbow. "You don't like to stand still?" it asked. "Would you rather dance?"
"Um ... well ..." Was that a trick question? "I'd rather be able to dance. And stop. And lie down. And move however I like whenever I want to."
The pisky abandoned the foil with a snort. "That's a pretty tall order for a girl in your position. You do realize I can do whatever I want with you now?"
"Can you let me go?" I asked hopefully.
"I could. But I'm not going to. I always appreciate a good jig. Don't you?"
Quicker than thought, my knees jerked to my chest in an animated burst of wild, ridiculous stepping. My arms curved over my head, fingers snapping. I leaped and danced about the small cell, unable to stop or even slow down.
"Okay! I get it!" I cried. "You're not going to give me a wish! You don't have to humiliate me too. I could have squashed you like a bug, but I was careful not to hurt you ."
My limbs jerked into a whole new, maniacal gear. The cell blurred as I jumped and whirled, completely out of control.
"Squashed me like a what?" the pisky asked dangerously.
"Like a ... I mean a ..." I knew firsthand how it felt to be compared to a bug--and when the creature in question had
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wings like a moth's, that was probably an extra-sensitive subject. "I just meant your wings are delicate. That's all I was trying to say."
"I have fine strong fliers," the pisky retorted. "Got me here and they'll see me gone too."
"I'm sorry!" I gasped, out of breath from the jig. "Just let me stop dancing before I drop dead!"
"That has happened," the pisky acknowledged. "Give me three magic words and I'll think about it."
Magic words? I was doomed.
"I don't know any magic!" I begged. "If these leprechauns had taught me anything useful, would I be stuck in here?"
My body lurched to a sudden stop.
"Nice point," the pisky admitted, moving toward the bars with its loot. I tried to reach for it, only to discover I was paralyzed again.
Then I realized the pisky was leaving.
"No! Stop! Don't leave me stuck here like a human statue!"
The creature stepped through the bars and cranked up its wings for takeoff. Its heavy load tipped its body forward as its heels lifted off the ledge.
"Please!" I cried.
The pisky hesitated, toes barely scraping stone. "I thought you didn't know any magic words."
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"I don't! What magic words?" The answer hit me with a groan. "Please!" I shouted. "Pretty please! Pretty please with sugar on top!"
"There. Was that so hard?"
My feet released from the floor precisely as the pisky buzzed off into the moonlight. I threw myself against the bars, but the creature was already out of reach. I watched it fly across the clearing, juggling its awkward load.
Just at the edge of the pond, the button teetered off the pile. The pisky unclasped its hands to grab for it, and a Life Saver slipped from one skinny arm. Diving through the air, the pisky intercepted the button, but the candy fell to earth, landing in splashy wet mud. Its white edge reflected the moonlight as the pisky hovered indecisively above it.
My hand moved to my pocket. If the pisky liked peppermint so much, maybe I could still bargain with it. But before I could call out, the creature shrugged its scrawny shoulders and streaked off with the rest of its loot. I pushed my face up against the bars, straining to see where it had gone.
Then a new source of movement caught my eye.
Where the candy had fallen, something was rising out of the muck. Something weird and spindly and shaped like a ... tree? Its pointed trunk stretched up toward the moon. Boughs sprouted and began to spread. The thing was
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growing at hyperspeed, as if someone had hit fast-forward on the movie of its life. Roots squelched down through mud, then twisted and writhed across dry dirt. Still the tree kept growing--up, out, bigger, faster, until it was truly huge. And every inch of root, trunk, and needle was peppermint white, glowing in the moonlight like a bleached bone.
I watched in awe as the roots reached wider, forcing boulders out of the ground, cracking them up against each other, pushing and grinding and knocking aside everything in their way.
What if I'd swallowed one of those Life Savers? I thought. The candy had looked completely normal until it got wet. Good thing I don't like peppermint!
But Gigi had. She'd loved it. Was it possible she'd never realized the danger she'd carried around in her sweater?
It never hurts to take a sweater . Her advice popped into my head as if waiting for that moment.
"She knew!" I gasped. "She totally knew!"
The candies were a magical insurance policy. Gigi had left them for me knowing I wouldn't eat them. I snatched the remaining ten out of my pocket and examined them in the moonlight: perfectly n
ormal. If that pisky hadn't accidentally dropped one in water, I wouldn't have had a clue what they did.
That wasn't an accident , I realized. It was luck! Lexie's 200 lucky charm had made the pisky drop that candy--and helped me hatch the plan forming in my mind now.
Setting a single Life Saver in the middle of my cell floor, I put the roll back in my pocket. Then I grabbed the bucket of water and slopped some over the candy.
Nothing happened for about five seconds. Then the candy began to melt, fusing to the stone. Hairlike white roots sprouted and spread. A tiny trunk unfurled and pointed toward the ceiling. Branches popped in all directions. The tree's top touched the ceiling and bent over sideways, still growing. Spreading, thickening limbs pushed me up against the cell wall. Grabbing the mattress, I huddled behind its padding and hoped I hadn't just made a big mistake.
The treetop found the window and pushed out between the bars. White branches writhed against the walls. And still the tree kept growing, its trunk thickening and straining. A massive crack rocked the cell as roots broke through the stone floor. Dry wood crunched, then exploded into splinters. Peering around my mattress, I saw a moonlit opening where the cell door used to be. But before I could figure out how to crawl through the branches to freedom, a rumbling shook the cell. The bent tree snapped upright as I ducked beneath my mattress, quivering under a sudden downpour of falling rocks.
When I finally dared to peek out again, I could barely
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believe my eyes. The tree hadn't just destroyed the door; it had shattered the entire cell. Chunks of the hollowed boulder lay scattered all about. And towering above me, the tree stretched toward the full moon, still growing.
Shoving the mattress aside, I staggered to my feet. I was free! And, at least for the moment, there was no one around who knew that. What I did in the next few minutes could determine the rest of my life.
Leaping onto a branch of the peppermint tree, I took an elevator ride up its growing trunk, peering through the forest in an attempt to get my bearings. I couldn't locate the village, but far in the starry distance, a single dark pine poked above the horizon.
My tree stopped growing abruptly. I began scrambling down, half expecting to fall, but my flats gripped the chalky bark as if I'd turned into Spider-Man. Reaching the lowest branch, I jumped to the forest floor, landing easily.
I checked my sweater pocket. And then I took off running like I'd never run before.
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Chapter 17
With such bright moonlight to guide me, I reached Kylie's keep in record time. I paused beneath the big pine long enough to make sure no one else was around. Then I rushed to the cave mouth.
But I didn't go inside.
The Scarlets' keep was in a ridge that stuck out from the mountain like a crooked foot, and that meant the cave had a natural exterior wall. Bypassing the entrance, I thrashed through the brush along the ridge's base, nervously trying to estimate how far down that wall I needed to go. I didn't have time to fool around, and I definitely didn't have time to make
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a mistake. When the Scarlets discovered that I'd escaped, I was pretty sure they wouldn't be throwing me another party.
A hundred feet back from the cave mouth, I took out three more Life Savers and balanced them on a ledge four feet up the wall. Then I started spitting. I was still wetting the third candy when the first one started sprouting. Dropping a final loogie, I backed away and took cover.
Three peppermint trees began growing so fast their trunks touched within a minute. Their roots burrowed deep into the ridge and intertwined on its surface, spreading and tangling, fighting for space. The narrow ledge beneath them exploded in a puff of dust, crushed by ravenous white roots and expanding trunks. Masses of branches collided, forcing the trees away from each other as they tilted up into the sky. Boulders cracked and groaned. The trio of magic trees forced every obstruction aside, setting off a chaos of tumbling rocks and uprooted bushes that made the ground tremble up through my shoes.
A little more , I thought. Keep growing!
The trees were nearly full height when a boom like a giant's cannon sent my hands over my ears. The ground lurched dizzily. I watched in awe as three enormous trees shuddered and dropped through the hollow ridge, crashing to earth in three different directions. Their toppling roots ripped the cave wall apart, hurling boulders into the air. Gravel pelted down like hail. And at the center of the destruction, a fresh
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hole gaped--my newly opened entrance into Kylie's inner keep.
I rushed toward the jagged opening, the warm light of an untold fortune in gold drawing me in like a vacuum. Scrambling upslope over rocks and roots, I slid down the rubble on the hole's other side into a tumbled golden sea of coins, nuggets, and bars.
Gold lust boiled through my blood again. I wanted to roll on a bed of nuggets, to stroke every gleaming bar, but there simply wasn't time. My ploy had bypassed the magic alarm, but someone was sure to have heard those falling trees and rocks. Running to the rear of the cave, I found the keeper's cot, grabbed two burlap bags with lashing cords, and sprinted back to where I'd come in.
Moonlight poured down on my head as I scooped up coins with both hands, one normal, one glowing like Rudolph's red nose. I had planned to fill each bag halfway, splitting up my load for easier carrying, but the bags got half full and I couldn't stop, loading in more handfuls until I could barely tie their tops closed. Then I stood up and tried to walk with a bag gripped in each hand.
I knew right away I had made a mistake--I couldn't even straighten my back. But no way was I leaving my new gold behind. Yanking the belt out of Gigi's sweater, I lashed one end to each bag and ducked my head through its middle, forming a yoke across my shoulders. Staggering under my
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load, I fought my way up to the exit hole and hesitated at its edge, praying I'd worked out all the magic. If I'd miscalculated somewhere, or there was yet another thing the leprechauns hadn't told me ...
Drawing a deep breath, I stepped out with my gold. No invisible shield rose up to meet me. No leprechaun help required. I was free and clear!
Broken branches snagged my pants as I stumbled down through the fallen trees, but gold lust and adrenaline filled my veins, making me stronger than I'd ever dreamed. The bags actually seemed to get lighter as I walked on. Aiming for the heart of a pitch-dark thicket, I lost myself in its shadows just as the first Scarlet guards arrived, shouting with rage and disbelief at the sight of their broken keep.
I headed toward the village, keeping to the shadows and making quick progress. I was just beginning to hope I might be out of the search area when a posse of wild-eyed archers charged past a stone's throw away, arrows drawn and ready.
I froze behind a bush as they cut through a clearing, Lexie's warnings about shooting thieves ringing through my brain. There would be more archers about, ones who might do a better job of finding me. Forcing myself to move again, I dashed from tree to tree, daring to breathe only when my back was against the next trunk.
The sweater belt cut into my neck. My arms felt stretched to the breaking point. Common sense begged me to ditch
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the gold--or at least the extra bag--but I was way past listening to common sense. I was working under some completely different theory now, one in which gold was a living thing, something I'd no more abandon than a wounded best friend. I could feel its energy bubbling up through the bag tops, seeping into my blood, keeping me moving forward.
At last a few red lights came into view, glimmering through the trees. The excitement at the keep hadn't yet spread to the sleeping town. Remaining hidden in the woods, I worked my way along the town's outer edge until I could see the back of the Greens' guest cottage.
No lights were on in the hut, but outside in the yard, working alone by moonlight, Cain was harnessing the dog cart. All but two dogs were already hitched, and the corral gate stood open. I felt a rush of love for him and hi
s crazy mustache. How had he guessed I'd be coming?
I nearly dashed out to meet him, but caution held me back. It was possible Scarlets were watching the cottage, and my situation would only get worse if I was caught with stolen gold. Untying the bags from my belt, I stuffed them deep beneath a bush. Then I retied my sweater, brushed myself off, and slunk into the yard.
Cain greeted me with a wry smile. "It was my watch with the dogs," he whispered. "I heard a bit o' thunder out by the keep, and my bones told me it'd be you. Did you get the gold?"
I was about to tell him everything when something in his
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expression prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. Was I sure Cain could be trusted?
The last bit of advice from Gigi's letter screamed back into my brain: Lying here is A-OK .
I finally understood what she'd meant. She wasn't telling me to nap in the keep--she was telling me to lie . Just like all the leprechauns did. Like I'd been lied to by Kylie. Like Cain could be lying right now.
Lying here was more than okay; it was self-defense.
"I couldn't get any," I whispered back, saving the truth for Balthazar. "Let's just get the others and get out of here."
Cain's gaze turned suspicious.
He knows , I thought, panicking. He's going to see the gold anyway. I'm wasting time! I was just about to confess when Cain dropped his gaze.
"Go wake the others," he said. "I'll hitch this last pair."
He already had the dogs' harnesses on. I hurried across the yard, eager to wake Balthazar. I had just reached the cottage door when Cain cried out behind me. "Hie! Hie!"
Wheeling around, I saw him astride a lead dog, his hands gripping its ears and his heels dug in for all he was worth. The empty cart careened forward. I dashed after it as the dogs picked up speed, angling to cut them off at the gate. Launching myself like a football tackle, I sailed over the team and knocked Cain off his mount, trapping him under my body as we hit the ground.
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