The Earl's Childe (20 page)

“Where do you keep your horses if you're in the city? How many others do you have?”

“I had only one horse before. His name was Greyson. He was a warmblood, and we boarded him outside the city when I didn't have him at school, but he died last winter.” I heard Max sigh softly. “Needless to say, when the trailer pulled up at our house with Stormy, it caused a bit of a commotion. Fortunately, Miss Mary, the woman we used to board Greyson with, let us move right back in, so we sent the trailer to her place and moved him in right away.”

“That was good of her.”

“It was.”

We didn't need to say any more, as we got to the indoor ring attached to the main barn. I didn't hear the other students talking anymore, and we faced even more quiet inside. Not totally quiet. There were at least two nests of hungry barn swallows, but they were high in the rafters. I glanced up and saw a feline form. My heart nearly stopped until I discerned it wasn't Tom. We had at least five barn cats, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

I could hope though. Right?

We tucked Stormy into his stall with a couple of cookies I snuck from the office, which Max appreciated and promised not to say anything about. I passed one more to my pony, Eastwood, with a pang in my heart. He was hardly
my
pony now.

I led Max to the main doors of the castle. He balked a moment before coming in, and then shook his head, pausing once more as he came in, hand on his stomach.

“I've been in castles before, but…no offense meant, but something in here seems to chill me or turn my stomach or something.” He peered at the walls, as if looking for some odd mold.

Trying not to actually take offense, I answered, “We keep it perfectly clean, and Mum always has extra people come in to clean whenever we have visitors.”

Max shrugged, and I heard him take a few deep breaths behind me. We let the smell of food lead us into the dining room, where I separated to go sit by Rowan. Jared and Chris decided it was time to “get to know” Maximilian Drummond. I rolled my eyes upon seeing Lily, Sara-Not-Beth, and Livy sitting not too far away, eyes on the three boys. I wondered if I ought to go bail out Max until Rowan's whisper caught my attention. “Get something to bring with you. I have an idea.”

CHAPTER

10

Even the smallest faerie can mean seriously big trouble
.

Behind the main castle, we have all sorts of flower gardens, a hedge maze, and vegetable gardens. Rowan led me around to the far left, where the ancient rose gardens were.

In the center of the oldest rose garden was a fountain of bronze peacocks swirling upwards, tails out and catching drops of water that burbled up from the top. Tiny bushes of what Mum and Miss Eliza called “tea roses” grow around it with their “wee” (as Dad would say) flowers of peach, pink, deep red, and almost purple. Spaces between the bushes have flagstones, and there are two benches on either side of the fountain. The fountain was here when we moved in, and it's nearly a hundred years old. When people come to visit the castle, a lot of them throw coins into the fountain. Whenever Mr. McInnis cleans the fountain, he collects the coins, and my parents donate them to charities.

Rowan circled the peacocks, peering at the ledge and the bushes. After our third time around, I stopped. “What are we doing here?”

“Ivy had a cut on her hand, and she said it was from the rose garden. But she wouldn't look at me and left quickly after I asked her. You told me that the two little faery beings that the twins were friends with lived out here. Remember Ivy said one of them bit Anita when she was going to pick a flower? I think they're still here. Maybe they can get a message to Lord Cadmus and Lady Fana. But they won't come to me. Maybe they'll come if you're here?”

I don't think I'd ever heard Rowan say that much at once. His speech was a little stilted, and he paused in a few weird places, but that was a lot for him! I wanted to tell him he did a good job, but I didn't. When he was focused on something, he didn't like distractions.

“Maybe step back more. With that enchantment on you… you know?”

“Maybe.” He gave a firm nod and walked off the path around the fountain and halfway to the next cross-path.

I bit my lip. Had the pixies—I thought they were pixies, though I'd never actually met one of them—hurt my little sister? That thought worried me. I circled the fountain now, by myself. It was in the center of the garden and higher than the other gardens. If the faerie wanted to be seen, they'd know I was here.

After my second circle, I was getting impatient and wracked my brain to remember what Ivy had called the two pixies when she first told me about them.

“Eerie? Airee? Air-and-thall?” Crap. How many weeks ago did Ivy tell me? “Mell-um. Mell-dat?” Why couldn't they have simple names?

“Melldadium.” The tiny voice didn't sound happy.

“And Ehranthal.” Also not happy.

I squinted towards the fountain, where the voices had come from. I saw one of the bushes shaking, went over, and squatted bedside it.

“Hi!”

The tiny forms winced away from me as I spoke. I guess I must've sounded loud to them.

“Sorry,” I said more softly, trying not to grimace as I got a better look at them.

You know how there are all these pictures of pixies that look like pretty ballerinas or dancers with butterfly wings or dragonfly wings? Yeah. These guys, not so much. They had arms and legs and were people-shaped with people-like faces. Sort of. One of them, I didn't know who was who, had perfectly smooth, bright-green skin and bright pink eyes with no irises. Just, like, rose quartz or something. Its wings looked like poison ivy leaves. The other did have the dragonfly wings, but its skin looked like the bark on rose bushes, a mix of green and brown. And thorny. In one of its tiny hands, it held a particularly long thorn like a dagger. Its eyes were pollen-yellow with black irises, which was somewhat less freaky than the pink eyes. Neither of them had any hair.

I realized we were just staring at each other, which was probably kind of rude. “Um, hi. Again. I'm Heather—”

“We know who you are, Heather MacArthur, Human Liaison. Have you summoned us to undo the mischief your family has done?” spoke the green pixie. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl from its voice, which was not as high-pitched as I'd expected from something so small.

“Mischief that my family has done?” I frowned, but tried not to sound too annoyed. I had a feeling that even if they were being rude, I, the Human Liaison, would be expected to still be polite. “What are—”

“They have entrapped us in the gardens! Cutting us off from our true home!” Rose-Bark Pixie, whose voice reminded me of pebbles shaking in a rattle, shook its thorn-dagger at me.

I pulled back a little. Forget manners! “Hey! Watch it with that thing! Did you hurt my sister with that?”

“She would not even acknowledge us. We have spoken before, and she ignored us as if we had never met!”

I pressed my lips together, silently praising my baby sister for being good. “She's doing what she was told. My father is worried about the fey and the Unseelie lord who is trying to move in, so he asked all the younger kids to stay away from all fey, because we don't know who is allied with whom.” I hoped that sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

“You saw us at the meeting. You should know our alliance!” The poison-ivy pixie leaned towards me menacingly. Well, as menacing as a three-inch tall being could be, even if it was wearing poison ivy. “Unless you have not declared allegiance with Lady Fana and Lord Cadmus because you are allied against them.”

“We are not allied against them. In fact, my parents would like to meet with them, but there was…” I tried to think of a good adult word. “…an altercation between Tom and my dad, so we haven't been able to get word to them.”

“Pfft!” The poison-ivy one waved its wee hand in the direction of the castle. “Not surprised. The cat fey's whole family has brought nothing but trouble upon our relations with the MacArthur clan. I don't even know why he was given the little responsibility he had. Of course he would fail! We will bring your message to Lord Cadmus and Lady Fana if you release us from this garden.”

Tom's family had brought nothing but trouble to the MacArthurs? I thought of the platinum cat, the Marquesa or something, at the meeting and Tom's cryptic words that he didn't want to talk about her and that his
only
job was to be my liaison. I could think more about that later. “What do you mean release you?”

“Your family has entrapped us here! Do you not know this?”

I decided that the poison-ivy pixie's voice was really annoying and was relieved when the rose-bark one added, “Likely not. We rarely see this one in the gardens. Let us show her.”

With that, both pixies jumped from the bush, giving it a mighty rustle for their little size, and took off towards the far end of the gardens. I glanced at Rowan, who had crept up somewhat close to me, and we both took off after them. It wasn't easy; it was like trying to follow two dragonfly-sized bugs that zigzagged all over the place. Eventually, we reached the low brick wall that separated the gardens from the nature trails that joined up to the preserve bordering our property. The two pixies hovered a few inches from the gate.

“See?” said the one with the pebbly voice. “We cannot cross!”

I looked at the brick wall, then leaned over. Outside the wall, a thick line of salt followed the perimeter. I knew I should let them out, but with the dirt, I wasn't sure I could remake the line. And if I remembered correctly, even a tiny break, just big enough to let the two pixies out, would be enough to mess with the protection around the whole castle. And I didn't want one of the Unseelie or red caps able to sneak in.

I bit my lip, then looked at Rowan, who was a few feet behind me. “Rowan, can you run really fast and get me a cup of the salt Dad had delivered?”

My brother cocked his head, regarding me a moment, then nodded and took off.

Taking a few steps back, I vaulted over the wall. I looked back at the two pixies. “You'll tell Lady Fana and Lord Cadmus my parents want to meet with them? And you'll return and give me the details?”

“If you do not bar our way in,” said the whine of the poison-ivy pixie.

“I have to keep the castle safe, and we haven't come to an agreement with the Lord and Lady yet, so meet me by Ehrwnmyr when I feed him tonight, and give me the details, all right?”

I didn't understand the whiny or the gravely chatter between the two, but finally Rose-Bark answered, “We will contact you. We wish for the safety of these lands, too.”

Pursing my lips as I considered their words, I stared at the line in the sand for a moment.

“We can bring no message to anyone whilst we are trapped away from our people!” came from the higher voice of Poison-Ivy.

True. And I would build no good will with any of the fey by keeping two of them trapped. Cupping my hand, I brushed aside a few inches of the salt. Before I could even stand, I felt the buzz of both of them zooming from the gardens and into the trees. Swallowing hard, I stood, staring between the trees.

How close could the red caps be? Could one of the Unseelie be right here? I thought of these things too late, along with
what if this were a trap?

And then I thought, Dad
couldn't
have put salt around more than the castle itself when Tom came, or Tom couldn't have gotten to my window. When did he put the salt out here? And does Mum know?

Those questions sat almost as sickly in my stomach as the fear of an impending fey attack before Rowan could get back with the salt.

Further into the woods, I heard a rustle. I choked on my breath, peering into the darkness of the shade. Then, a chitter. Or a laugh. Or just a chitter. It could have just been a chitter from…a big squirrel or a bird or something.

But it sounded like a giggle. A really evil giggle.

I backed a step closer to the wall.

The pounding of trainers against ground reminded me to breathe.

Branches thrashed deeper in the woods. Not near enough to see.

“Heather?”

My brother's voice made me jump. “Yeah. Got it?”

He handed me a plastic cup full of salt, but his eyes were behind me, also scanning the woods.

“Do you see something?”

He shook his head. “But you should hurry anyway.”

Rowan didn't have to tell me twice. I poured a fresh line of salt, overlapping the two edges of the prior line by at least two inches on each side, laying it on thickly so that there was no chance of a break. As I did so, I whispered, “Let no evil cross this path,” over and over. I didn't know if it was a spell or anything, and I knew Mum had said no spells without her ever, but I felt better saying it. And I almost felt a hum from the salt line when I was done. This had to be a reasonable exception to the “no spells without me ever” rule. I hoped. I looked up at the sky. It had started to drizzle; it drizzled almost every day in Scotland, but the salt was still intact. There had to be some magick to that.