Green (5 page)

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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.

But the walls squeezed in even closer.

"Here's where things get tight," Fizz said, sliding off his mount. "We're going to need you out of the wagon, Lil, so we can tilt her up and through."

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Caspar, Balthazar, and Maxwell helped unhitch the team. Reluctantly, I lowered my bare feet to the ground and stood up.

The stone felt cold and slick on my soles as I ventured a few paces forward. The torches were so far behind me now that the passage was almost pitch-dark. Glancing back, I saw the upended cart plugging the tunnel like a cork in a bottle, everyone but my abductors still stuck behind it. Fizz tended to the dogs while Balthazar, Caspar, and Maxwell worked with the leprechauns behind them to tilt the wagon through on its side.

No one was paying attention to me. This was my chance.

My feet slid quickly through the mucky darkness, my heart skipping with fear. They'd have that cart through in a few minutes, and then they'd be looking for me. I moved as fast as I dared, slipping blindly, cringing at each drop of water that fell on my head. I groped desperately for a place to hide, for any sort of escape....

A hint of light seeped toward me from the tunnel's far end. I hesitated, thinking I must be approaching another torch-filled cavern. Then I caught a whiff of pine and almost lost my mind.

That was
sunlight!
I was headed
outside!

"Yes!" I yelped, breaking into a sprint. My feet slid and slithered on the cave floor as I flung myself toward the light, only one thought on my mind: escape.

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"Lil!" Balthazar shouted. "Lil, you wait for us!"

I could already taste fresh air, full of sunshine and pollen and grass. I dashed on like a maniac.

"Lil!" Balthazar hollered.

Birds sang up ahead. In one final, breakneck sprint, I burst out through the cave's jagged exit....

And stood blinking in a fairy-tale forest.

Beams of light slanted through the trees and sparkled on a blanket of dewy green clover, each leaf facing into the rising sun. Tiny white flowers rose on slender stalks, dripping diamonds of dew. Not a footstep disturbed that silver blanket. No planes flew overhead. There wasn't the least sign of a building, or sidewalk, or road.

"Uh-oh," I said, completely lost. "I don't think we're in Providence anymore."

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Chapter 4

"What did I tell you?" Balthazar boasted. "The Meadows is the grandest place in all creation! Wave to the folk, Lil. Smile!"

I was riding in the dog cart again, being pulled down the center of the strangest, most beautiful valley I could have imagined. Pink wisps of clouds drifted across the yellow sun in a perfect aqua sky. A mile to either side of the wagon, dense trees covered steep hillsides. And down the rolling center of the valley was one long meadow of green grass and billowing clover punctuated by a few giant oaks. Their spreading branches shaded colonies of leprechaun-sized,

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slightly crooked three-story dwellings with green lace curtains and eager hands waving from every window. Once I'd emerged from the cave and realized I had nowhere to run, I'd reluctantly climbed back into the cart, letting Balthazar and the huge crowd trailing on foot believe I'd been so thrilled to see the Meadows that I'd dashed ahead out of excitement. I hadn't given up, though. As soon as I saw a landmark belonging to the real world, I intended to bolt again.

"How long have I been gone now?" I asked, glancing pointlessly at my wrist. I did own a watch, but of course I hadn't been smart enough to ask for it--or my phone--when the leprechauns snatched me. I could only guess I'd been missing for twenty-four hours, maybe even longer. "My mom'll be psychoballistic."

"No point worrying about what can't be helped," Balthazar told me jovially. "Plenty o' time to deal with that later."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who'll be grounded until you turn forty."

He laughed annoyingly. "I'll wager that when you get home, you'll find your mum less worried than you thought she'd be. So wave to the folk, girl! Show some manners!"

I shut my mouth and waved, hating him silently.

A long, bumpy ride later, the landscape began to change. The houses clustered closer together, gradually forming a sprawling storybook village. The dirt road sprouted cobblestones. I waved to the mostly male leprechauns

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pouring into the streets and was greeted by a roar of
"Greeeeeeeeen!"

"That's the way!" Balthazar said, waving wildly himself.

Ahead of us in the village, green streamers festooned the streets and swung in the breeze between crooked town-homes. Our cart moved forward through throngs of leprechauns waving hats, handkerchiefs, and handfuls of clover arranged like bouquets. At the center of town, where the buildings crowded close enough to bump into each other, the dogs took a sharp left down a new lane, one with a human-sized house at its end.

The thatched one-story cottage dwarfed the leprechaun houses, its little square of front lawn starting at the last row of cobblestones. I scrambled out of the wagon as the lower half of the cottage's green front door opened and three female leprechauns filed out.

The woman in front was obviously the oldest, with streaks of white in her greenish blond hair. The buckles on her shoes were shaped like oversized silver bows, and the curved feathers pinned to her hat were nearly as long as she was. The woman behind her had a flounce on her coat and a bouncy step to match. And the last of the group was a teenager with waist-length hair and a shy, eager glint in her wide green eyes.

"Welcome, Lilybet!" the oldest one called. "It took you

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long enough," she scolded in an aside to Balthazar. "Where have you been? Touring the whole countryside soaking up your five minutes of glory?"

"Well, now, Bronny," he replied uncomfortably. "We had a few unexpected hiccups."

"You know the banquet is tonight! Yet here you are, as late as dawn after a nightmare, barely giving us time to get ready at all!"

"Can we talk about this later?" he begged.

"Aye. That we will," she promised before bowing her head to me. "Your sister Bronwyn," she said. "Welcome, Lilybet."

The other two women dropped curtsies behind her.

"Kate," said the second in line.

"Your sister Lexie," the youngest one ventured. "'Tis an honor, Lilybet."

"Well, come in, girl. Come in!" Bronwyn said, herding me toward the door. "Your banquet starts in a few hours, and we've got fixing up to do before then." She shook her head disapprovingly. "More fixing than I'd expected."

"I don't usually dress this way," I said, cringing under her scrutiny. "And what happened to my hair was
not
my fault."

"No, I daresay it wasn't," she agreed. "Menfolk! Well, come along, Lilybet. The four of us will set things right."

The cottage's front door was farmhouse-style, with upper and lower halves. The leprechaun women walked

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inside through the open bottom section. Without a single glance back at Balthazar, I opened the door's top half and followed them in.

Half-burned green candles sat on ledges around every wall. A lumpy-looking bed lay beneath a comforter next to a tall cupboard. The room's center held a square table surrounded by three tall stools with ladder-rung legs and a normal, human-sized chair. But the most surprising feature was a claw-foot iron bathtub half hidden behind a wooden screen. Curling steam rose from its water, scenting the air with cloves.

"Dive in," Bronwyn offered, following my gaze. "We're going to have tea, but that can wait." She wrinkled her small nose. "We'll probably enjoy it more after you've had a wash anyway."

That seemed like a low blow, but she wasn't wrong. My blue satin shorts were a mess--dirty, wrinkled, and as covered with grass stains as my bare legs. My striped vest was in even worse shape. And then there was my hair, which had to be the sorriest sight of all. I took a step toward the tub and stopped. "I don't have anything clean to put on."

"Right here, Lil." Lexie ran to the cupboard and pulled on a tassel attached to its door. The door swung open to reveal human-sized clothes on hangers, some of which I recognized.

"That's Gigi's sweater!" I cried, crossing the room in

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three bounds. "And those sneakers! I remember those! Why do you have her things?"

"Balthazar didn't explain?" Bronwyn sounded annoyed again. "This is the keeper's hut, Lil. Maureen left them here."

Grabbing a pole with a hook on its end, Lexie snagged the hanger holding a green velvet dress. Its silver-embroidered hem swayed above her head. "This one's for tonight, for the banquet!" she told me.

"Maureen wore that frock herself, her first night here as a girl," Kate said nostalgically. "A grand banquet that was--so grand she saved the dress all these years."

I gave Kate a closer look. She looked to be my mom's age, but she was talking as if she'd attended Gigi's party.

"I was just a child then," Lexie told me, "too young to be allowed to go. But I'll be there tonight, Lil."

Lexie looked sixteen, at the oldest. "When, exactly, was this banquet?" I asked.

Bronwyn calculated. "That would be nearly fifty years ago now." She sighed. "You humans age so quickly. But let's chat after your bath."

I glanced at the tub again. Then I snatched the dress from Lexie and crushed its velvet to my face. The fabric smelled of Gigi. She suddenly seemed so close I almost expected her to walk into the room. When I reopened my eyes, though, I was still alone with three leprechauns.

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Rehanging the dress, I walked over to the tub and stepped in, fully clothed. Slumping dejectedly against its curved bottom, I slid down till the water closed over my head.

"You'll want to give that hair some attention," Bronwyn bossed, rapping on the tub's iron side. "There's shampoo on the ledge."

Exhaling a long sigh of bubbles, I surfaced again.

A shelf next to the tub held an assortment of bath products. Their familiar labels seemed out of place there, beamed in from any normal bathroom in America. Filling my hands with shampoo, I forced my fingers through my tangled hair, too worn out to argue.

Surprisingly, my head felt fine, already completely recovered except for its patches of scorched stubble. I scrubbed away, then slid underwater to rinse. When I came back up, I saw that Kate had dragged one of the stools to the tub's end and was standing on its seat gazing down at me.

"I thought that screen was for privacy!" I protested.

"You're dressed, aren't you? Besides, if I give you your privacy, who'll be taking care o' that rat's nest on your head?" She brandished a pair of tiny gold scissors, snipping the air in a way that made me shrink toward the other end of the tub.

"I don't want short hair." Tears welled into my eyes. "I'll look like even
more
of a freak with short hair!"

"I'll do what I can, but some of those places are down to your scalp. You have to compromise, Lil."

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Kate pointed at the edge of the tub, an expectant look on her face. I hesitated, then laid my head there. Short of shaving me bald, there wasn't a lot more damage she could do.

"Lexie! Bring us a comb," Kate called. "Now then, Lil. Are you ready?"

The next twenty minutes were a flurry of snipping scissors. Lexie climbed onto the stool with Kate and used a human-sized comb to lift my long snarls, sweeping it along my scalp whichever way Kate said. At first the comb got stuck every inch, but soon it moved so easily I could tell I had no hair left.

Bronwyn climbed up to check progress. "You've got a spot here needs filling in," she told Kate.

Moving near my left ear, Kate snipped repeatedly a few inches from my scalp. I could see her shears from the corner of my eye, cutting empty air.

"Um, Kate," I finally ventured. "Don't you have to put some hair between those blades?"

"I would if I was trying to make it shorter. I thought you wanted me to grow it. Make up your mind, girl!"

I sat up so abruptly I nearly knocked all three off the stool. "Wait! Are you telling me you can cut hair
longer?"

Kate glanced at her scissors, then back at me, as if I might be trying to trick her. "What good is a pair o' enchanted shears that only cuts things shorter?"