Silver Hollow (38 page)
Interrupting verse five thousand of his annoying song, Amie said, “So who are we going to visit again? I didn’t know you had neighbors.”
Henry blinked, startled out of his song with a
slowly
creeping grin. “Our friends certainly are not what you
w
ould pronounce neighborly, but their plot borders our estate. Everything tends to twist around in these woods. The forest does not like strangers much.”
“Yeah,
I
remember.” Amie shivered and wrapped her cloak more tightly around her, emerald eyes narrowing in on the black branches closing in above them. Dipping into her inner nixy
,
she chanced a twitch of the fingers at them. Unlike the vines
bending
towards her, the branches curled up into themselves and the path was less clustered than it had been moments before.
Henry turned his eye to her with suspicion
,
then delight. “I see the old devil has taught you some useful tricks after all.”
Amie flushed, embarrassed to be caught openly using the gifts she pretended to despise. “I guess.”
“Xcalibure is not half
as
old as Wenderdowne but I know you shall deem it quaint. Perhaps it will better look the part you expected to see when you first came, eh?”
She blushed again, from being found out. When she held quiet Henry resumed his song and left Amie to ponder what new mischief she was about to plop into.
…
Henry’s predictions were true. Xcalibure was nothing like Wenderdowne. Instead of a fortress that had been converted multiple times from bastion to castle to country home, Xcalibure was a simple two
-
story cottage in comparison. The narrow drive leading up to it eased through a
propped
-
open, black wrought
-
iron
gate covered in some coat of arms. The forest encroached on either side of the drive, keeping the full width of the house from view until they broke to the natural river and babbling pond centered in the spacious front yard. Scarlet
-
feathered swans floated silently on the surface in the light of dawn. Much as Wenderdowne seemed to have sprung up from the rocks themselves, the forest clung tightly to Xcalibure to keep it trapped in itself.
Light had broken through the canopy above to paint the white brick in rash oranges and liquid gold hues. Henry’s gray cloak brightened immediately so his skin glowed from the inside out. Amie was starting to wonder if his power
be
came strongest with the rise of the sun. He held up a coated arm as they rode over the bridge and came to the flower
-
studded entrance
. Amie stared, wondering if they had come to the wrong place, because
every window and door was currently open.
When Henry brought Dydymus to a halt at the entrance hall and dismounted she followed suit, curious when he simply tied the horse’s reins to its harness to wander free.
Simply made, the entrance hall spanned to another open doorway at the opposite unbroken end of the house and on either side smaller halls spread to other likewise open doors and their hidden rooms. Where the stair led to was a mystery to be resolved, yet Amie smiled at the warm empty stillness of the place.
Gooseflesh bubbled up on her arms as they crept through the hollow rooms. Little to no furniture decorated this house, and Amie wondered if the people living here were drifters. Yet no ghosts and unseen eyes haunted these halls. Shadows were light and the forest had obviously
encroached into the outer framework of the house. Leaves fell at an ever
-
increasing rate, keeping their bright emerald hue
,
and
dusted the stone floor. Tapestries and armor decorated every turn. Vines hung from the rafters and curled into sweet
-
smelling flora. Small birds similar to the ones in their gardens made their homes here in their little mitten
-
shaped nests.
A small
,
somewhat contained orchard met them on the other side, filled with the strange pear
-
shaped fruits she had seen in Cook’s kitchen. Certainly enough, there at the edge at the top of the tallest tree, a fancily dressed figure wearing impressive robes swung with the limbs.
“Look at you
,
Henry! You’re a wee little mouse down there! And I am the mighty Hawkeye! Ha! I could stamp ye with my boot or smite thee with my sword!”
“Oh cripes, please tell me he did nay find it
again
,
” Henry bemoaned and attempted to coax the bare
-
footed robed figure with the curling white beard. “Arthur! Get down
,
ye foolish oaf! This display does you no credit! And where the devil are your drawers?”
Standing at the base of the long
-
necked tree, Amie squinted from the shelter of her hand. “Find what again?”
“His sword,” Henry replied, shucking his jacket from his shoulders and peering back at the old house. “I hid it in a new place on my last visit. Such a shame Arthur has the uncanny knack of finding lost things…Now where is she?”
“Who?” Amie asked. But Henry was already marching back to the house. “Uncle Henry, wait up!”
“Stay with him, Jessamiene! It is imperative he be not harmed! I shall return shortly.”
Amie stared after him for a long moment, unbelieving her good fortune. What was she supposed to do if he suddenly fell out of the tree? She wasn’t Harry
stinking
Potter!
“Whee!” the crazy man crowed overhead and the longer Henry took, the more fearful she was he might try and jump. She worried for his life after the senile old coot started hacking at the branches that had the misfortune of becoming his enemy.
“Dastardly devilry! Champion my knights to a cause against mine own? Ha!”
Twisting her father’s ring around her finger in ceaseless circles, Amie bit her lip and tapped her foot, bending back to glance at the house. “C’mon
,
Henry…”
“Oops!” the old man said with a giggle synonymous with the obvious rip of his outer robe. A branch snapped and crashed down in a shower of leaves over Amie’s head.
“Hey!” Amie shouted. “Be careful up there!” The old man did not respond and her eyes lingered on the lower branches. She shook her head. “Underhill is going to kill me,” she said as she climbed up after him. “Hang on! I’m coming!” Her hands found the branches easily as even the trees wanted to be closer to her, bowed beneath her touch. Soon she was leaping and grasping with ease, as if she had been climbing trees like this one her whole life.
Shouldn’t you be finding this a little weird?
Amie ignored the voice in her head, however, and pressed on
u
ntil she could see the fuzzy toes of the old man’s house shoes
. T
he wind billowed up his white night shirt precariously above his knees. The glorious purple cloak was ripped at the corner, a piece of it still pinched between twin branches.
She looked up and thought she might go blind. “Whoa, way more than I wanted to see,” she said. Sunlight reflected off a long sharp metal
blade suddenly slashing at the air
above her fingers. “Hey!” she called. “Watch where you poke that thing.”
“Magpie
?” a weary old voice said, and then a rustle of robes and limbs were slipping downward, in front of her eyes, until a pair of very bold ageless eyes was staring into her own. Amie gasped as his eyes filled with tears and crinkled at the corners.
I know that face…
Blood drained from her face, as though someone had walked over her grave.
“Jessamiene?” Uncle Henry called from below. “Where the
farthe knockers
is she?”
Amie thought to respond, to keep him from worrying, but all she could do was stare at the old man dangling from the apple tree branches in front of her. “Who are you?” she asked him in so soft a tone, she was sure he couldn’t hear her.
“I know your face, enchantress,” was his warm
-
hearted reply. His passion and virility was evident, even in his tone.
“Jessamiene?” a feminine voice echoed Henry’s, jolting Amie from her reverie. “Papa has had a trying night! It was all I could do to keep him from climbing the roof again,” she said.
“Where are they? I know I heard Hawkey
e there at the top of this
tree only a moment ago.”
The woman laughed, and the sound struck a chord deep inside Amie. “Oh Henry, you know where she is, just as well as I.”
“How could I forget?” he answered after a weighty pause.
Amie, meanwhile, was watching the old man narrow his gaze on the couple wandering below them. Observing them as if they were really outlaws waiting to pounce, he drew his sword to a practiced steady point. She grinned when he met her gaze and brought his finger up to cover his lips. With great skill and precision, they slipped from high to lower branches, until their feet were dangling
inches
below the leaves. Looking up at the white
-
bearded coot, she waited for his signal.
One, two, oh crap!
Amie lost her footing and couldn’t grasp the tree in time.
“Charge!” the old man called, leaping after her.
So much for helpful plants!
She collided with a small yet surprisingly sturdy figure waiting below them. They were all a tangle of limbs and broken branches, laughter and groans. The woman, who was the man’s daughter, Amie presumed, helped her up. After wiping away invisible dust, she chanced a glance and saw the same billowing cloak, the same pale figure with the whimsical blue eyes.
“You!” she exclaimed.
Dameri smiled brightly. “Why, Jessamiene Wenderdowne, it does not suit you to catch bugs with your mouth.”
Henry spoke up, his voice sounding oddly strangled
.
“You know each other then?”
Ignoring him completely, Dameri kept her crystal blues on Amie and said, “Surprises are in store for you though, far more than you can possibly imagine. They were telling the truth when they told you that.”
“Easy now, Arthur, try not to overexert yourself,” Henry said to the older man.
“Bloodthirsty dragon almost had us!” Arthur growled while slashing his sword at the air.
Satisfied the men were preoccupied for the moment, the gremlin
-
hunting mystery woman turned her attention back to their guest. “So, how about a nice spot of tea, dear? I should love to learn more of your education.”
Amie glanced back to find Henry ducking from each of Arthur’s wide swings and parrying his own. Where the metal staff in her uncle’s hand
had
appeared from, she was too jaded to care. Facing Dameri, she sighed and tried not to dissect why the woman’s presence unnerved her so. “Sounds great.”
Dameri ushered her into a flower
-
coated room where their tea waited on its tray. Amie never saw the servants of this house, though the Lady assured her their brownie Elise was the best in the county.
Once they were properly settled Dameri began what Amie assumed to be her first lesson in proper etiquette. She watched carefully how the woman broke biscuits and stirred her tea and tried to emulate
her
. But because Amie was not quite human, simple tasks she had done before with ease were now complex.
In the light of day the Lady of Xcalibure was no less mysterious, but she could tell a bit more of her without the oversized cloak. She was still almost a foot shorter with Amie’s recently added height, her eyes a strange starburst of pale green fringed and streaked with blue. Her features were pointed and round and despite the vigor in her manner it was plain to see she was closer to Henry’s age than his niece’s.
The lesson was conducted without speaking a word and not until the second cup was done did the lady speak again. The clash of metal echoed from the orchard, occasionally broken by strange laughter and Henry’s boisterous bellow. Yet Amie could not escape the peace that had washed over her the moment she arrived.
“I have requested your company this day, Jessamiene Wenderdowne, because I want to help you.” With a secret smile,
Dameri
added, “This time, without the aid of a certain Myrddin Emrys.”
“Fine by me, I’d rather keep him locked away.”
Dameri’s laughter was unexpected, as
were
the tears in her eyes and the pretty hand to cover her face. “But that will not do at all
.
I am afraid he has been locked away before, once for over two hundred years! Forgive me
,
but you clearly have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
