Green (13 page)

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butted in. "She doesn't crave any greater entertainment than meeting your esteemed council and perhaps conversing with her fellow keeper."

So now suddenly I was keeper--or at least Ludlow wanted the Scarlets to think so. He sure wasn't mentioning my third test. Swinging a leg out of the cart, I lurched awkwardly to my feet and smoothed my green dress.

"This way, Lilybet," Beryl said.

Ludlow and I started forward. Balthazar moved to follow us.

"Surely a guard isn't necessary?" Beryl asked suspiciously.

"Surely not," Ludlow agreed with a scowl at Balthazar. The next thing I knew, Beryl and three of his men were escorting me and Ludlow along the main street, while Balthazar, Fizz, and Cain were hustled down a side lane with the cart.

"Where are they going?" I asked anxiously. They could keep Balthazar for all I cared, but those dogs were my ticket home.

"We can't stable dogs in the center o' town." Beryl's expression suggested he might be wondering if I was kind of dumb. "Your companions need quarters backing up to the woods. They'll be comfortable there, I assure you."

I kept my mouth shut as we walked on, determined not to ask more stupid questions. A few long blocks later, the deserted street opened into an enormous cobbled square.

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Red lanterns hung from poles around the square's perimeter, and at its center stood a large building with a roof high enough to clear my head. Beryl led us through its open doors into a high-beamed room filled end to end with rows of dining tables. The benches flanking the tables were full of scarlet-coated leprechauns chowing down. Catching sight of me, they froze with forks halfway to their mouths, their amber eyes popping.

On a stage at the end of the hall, five women in red velvet rose to their feet. A crown of enormous rubies rested on their chief's head, and judging by the serene look in her eyes, she'd been warned about us in advance.

"Presenting Lilybet Green!" Beryl announced at the top of his voice. "Fresh keeper o' the Clan o' Green."

"Welcome, Lilybet," the chief said warmly. She seemed more frail than Sosanna, her once-orange hair faded to peach. "I am Mother Talia. You must eat with me and my council."

"Well ... um ...," I mumbled. Ludlow urged me forward with a frantic roll of his eyes. "Thanks."

Four waiters ran out under a human-sized chair as I joined the women on the platform, but the council's dining table was only as high as my shins. The platters laid out there were heaped with juicy red plums, meatballs with red dipping sauces, and pink-iced cookies with red sprinkles. Despite my nervousness, my stomach suddenly reminded

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me I hadn't eaten all day. I was about to ignore the chair and belly up on the floor when I saw a second chair coming, along with a human-height table and pretty much the last thing I expected: Carrying that furniture was a guy. A
human
guy. A guy who made Byron Berry look like last week's leftovers.

"You're Lilybet Green!" he said, setting down his table for two. "I've already eaten, but I couldn't wait to meet you!"

He was a year or two older than me, with shaggy light brown hair and wide hazel eyes. Perfect dimples in both cheeks framed an easy smile. He wore red drawstring pants, a puffy yellow shirt, and a black vest with silver buttons--and somehow carried that outfit off. "Kylie Scarlet," he said. "Pleased to meet you."

"Kylie?" The guy was pushing six feet tall, his shoulders were broad and strong, and the hand that shook mine was the size of a man's.
"Wee
Kylie?"

Kylie threw back his head and laughed. "They still call me that, do they? You can tell your clan I'm fifteen now--not so wee anymore."

I nodded, dazed.
"Wee
is the last thing I'd call you."

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Chapter 11

"I can't believe you didn't tell me about Kylie!" I scolded Balthazar. Dinner was over, I'd been shown to a tiny guest room attached to the Scarlets' main hall, and Balthazar was the only leprechaun I hadn't managed to get rid of yet. Even Ludlow had packed it in, off to crash with the rest of the Greens after a hard day's diplomacy.

"I tried!" Balthazar protested. "If that infernal pup of an ambassador hadn't butted in ... and himself not half my age! The council will hear o' it, I promise you. In the meantime, let's catch up now. What did Wee Kylie tell you at dinner?"

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Balthazar and the other Greens had ultimately been seated far from the stage, surrounded by Scarlets. I had barely noticed them, or the Scarlet council either; all my attention had been on Kylie. The boy was gorgeous in a way I'd never seen up close before.

"I'm so glad you've come!" he'd exclaimed, grinning as if we'd been friends for years. "How long are you going to stay? You have to stay at least a week."

"I doubt we'll be here
that
long." But coming from him, it sounded less like the worst idea I'd ever heard.

"You have to let me show you around. Do you like to walk? Will you hike with me in the morning?" Kylie's dimpled smile had turned sheepish. "Am I already driving you crazy?"

"Not at all." At least, not in the way he'd meant.

"I need to know what you two talked about," Balthazar persisted. "It could be important."

"Just ... stuff." The less Balthazar knew, the better--not that I had anything gold-related to tell him. "Do you think you could let me sleep now? I'm getting up early to meet Kylie."

"Meeting Wee Kylie!" he exclaimed, dumbfounded. "For what?"

"We're just going to walk around. He wants to show me the Hollow."

"Ach, but, Lil, you're brilliant! Devious, you are!"

"Excuse me?"

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"I'll hand it to you," he said, grinning with admiration. "I've had plenty o' concerns about this test. But pretending to
like
Wee Kylie ... genius!"

"I'm not pretending," I said irritably.

Balthazar winked a wide green eye. "O' course not."

"Whatever," I said, pointing to the exit.

Locking the door behind him, I collapsed on the red-covered bed and thought about Kylie Scarlet.

Maybe I shouldn't trust Kylie
, I worried drowsily. If I wanted to succeed, I had to be smart.

What would Gigi do?

She'd trust
herself
and she'd pass this test, like she passed all of hers
.

Stealing a bag of gold had to be doable somehow. Even if someone was trying to sabotage me, the council wouldn't have given me an impossible task.

Unless they were all in on it.

I just need to rest for an hour. Then I'll get up and figure it out
, I vowed, plunging into sleep.

I awoke to gentle tapping, a noise so faint I barely opened my eyes. My bleary gaze fell on sunlit red curtains.

"Oh no!" I gasped, bolting out of bed.

I had slept the entire night. I'd never even kicked off my shoes, and my velvet dress clung to my legs in sad, snoozed-in wrinkles. "I, uh ... just a minute!"

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Kylie chuckled outside the door. "Just tell me you're still coming."

"Oh. Yeah. I'm totally ... yeah," I said, dumping out my bag of extra clothes on the floor. I pulled on jeans, a button-down, and Gigi's old sweater in record time, then hurried into the teensy bathroom to brush my teeth. There were dark circles under my eyes, but my hair looked surprisingly perfect, as if maybe Kate's magic scissors had worked more magic than I'd realized. Taking a last deep breath, I opened the door to Kylie.

The sun had only been up a few minutes. The cobblestones of the square were slick with dew, and Kylie's eyes sparkled with amber flecks that were totally mesmerizing. "You didn't forget, did you?" he asked.

"No. It's just ... Do you always get up this early?"

"I like sunrises. Don't you, Lilybet?"

"I guess. I wish you'd call me Lily."

Kylie smiled. "Is that what your clan calls you?"

"It's what normal people call me. The leprechauns mostly call me Lil."

"That figures. I'm Wee, you're Lil--the folk are always trying to bring us down to their level."

We laughed at exactly the same time. For a moment, it felt as if we were sharing a joke on our keepers. Then I remembered that
we
were the keepers, and there was nothing funny about that.

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Kylie led me down a narrow street through town, then turned right toward the hills. "There's a place not far from here where you can see the whole Hollow, a really great view. You don't mind climbing, do you, Lily?"

It was half-past the crack of dawn, I hadn't eaten breakfast, and the grass at the edge of town was soaking my silver shoes. "I don't mind," I said.

Soon the ground got steep, and the grass gave way to woods. Rocks jutted out of the hillside, cracked and fractured by the gnarled roots of ancient trees using them for anchors. Kylie glanced back as the path got tougher. "Just a little farther," he encouraged.

"Piece of cake," I huffed, determined to keep up. He was wearing some clodhopping human-sized leprechaun boots, but my sleek flats matched him step for step, biting in like soccer cleats. I had no idea where my newfound coordination had come from, but I was grateful some had finally shown up, even if only temporarily.

A house-sized outcrop of rock protruded from the hill above us, cleaved down its center as if split by lightning. Kylie led the way up the rubble between its halves. A few feet short of the top, he turned back to offer a hand, pulling me past him in the narrow space.

"This last part goes straight up," he said. "Here, let me give you a boost."

Both sides of the crevice loomed above my head. Curling

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my fingers over its stony lips, I used biceps built by a hundred failed kips on the uneven bars and a foot planted firmly on Kylie's thigh to pull myself onto the rock's flat top. Kylie climbed up beside me, and we stood looking down on the Hollow.