Into the Wildewood (18 page)

Sir Davey arched an eyebrow. “Don’t schools teach geology any more?”

“They might have.” Laurie looked embarrassed.

Sir Davey turned to Keelie.

She shook her head. “Some kind of mineral?”

“Tektite is a natural glass object, usually found in meteorite impact areas.”

“No fair. If it’s from outer space, then it’s not technically Earth science. It’s a star rock, and a really ugly one.” Laurie looked down at the tektite with distaste. Ugly was never a plus in Laurie’s world.

“What does it do? Except make me crazy?” Keelie figured it had to do something, or else Davey wouldn’t be so excited.

“Girl, if you think this rock is making you crazy, then don’t blame the rock.” Laurie laughed.

“It is used metaphysically…” Sir Davey winked at Keelie. “ … to stop certain types of transmitted ailments and to strengthen the energy of whoever carries it.”

Keelie frowned at the chunk of tektite. “I thought my rock would be something more earthy. As in, from the Earth.”

“We’re all made of stardust, aren’t we?” He pointed to the mythical creatures on the wall, stopping at a unicorn. “Some of us have more stardust in us than others.”

Stardust. Maybe that was what made the unicorn glow, unless it was just a metaphor. Maybe Sir Davey was following up his Earth science lesson with a little bit of poetry.

“How much is it?” Keelie asked, but she knew whatever the price was, she couldn’t buy it. Besides, why would she want it? It would drive her nuts.

“I’d buy it. I totally need some cosmic stardust at my house.” Laurie glanced over at another counter. “Check out those killer earrings.” She abandoned the tektite to look at a display of silver jewelry.

“Keelie.” Sir Davey’s voice was low. “Your father told me to let you buy what you needed, and you need the tektite. Can’t you hear it calling you?”

“Is that what it’s doing? I don’t need anything that makes my eyeballs vibrate and my fingernails itch.”

Davey laughed. “Then you haven’t touched it.”

Keelie stared at the glassy rock. “Are you sure it won’t hurt me?”

“Positive.”

Her fingers hovered over the rock. The buzzing made her shiver. She lowered a fingertip and let it rest on one of the jagged edges. The vibrating noise stopped, as if she’d suddenly gone a block away. Peace filled her, as if she were floating in the ocean. “Whoa.” She picked up the rock. No buzzing.

Davey smiled at her expression. “See? You need it.”

“Is it expensive? It’s out here like it’s really special.”

“It’s special to you. But I think Ben just put it out because it’s different.”

“So this will help me with the Dread?” Keelie put the tektite into Sir Davey’s hand.

He winked at her. “It will. It’ll help you in many ways.”

“Thanks.”

“You are most welcome.” He bowed. “And if you’ll allow me to keep it, I’ll etch runes on it to strengthen and focus its power.”

“Sure.” She didn’t doubt anything Sir Davey said.

He handed her a basket holding a folded green velvet bag. “Now let’s do something to help your father.” He pointed to the wall holding baskets of tumbled stones. A painted dragon hovered on the wall next to them, looking a little like Finch.

“I want you to create a medicine pouch using the stones in those baskets. Whatever stone calls to you goes into the bag to help protect your father from illness.”

“Keelie, come over here.” Laurie was jumping excitedly by the jewelry counter. “You’ve got to come over here and look at these earrings. You’re going to want to buy several pairs.”

“Be there in a bit.” Keelie went to stand in front of the baskets filled with healing stones. It was like a candy store, every basket holding a different color and identified by a little calligraphic card. Keelie went from basket to basket, choosing stones for the properties identified on their cards. When she had room for one more, she hesitated.

The seventh basket on the third shelf was full of smooth brown and white rocks, with rings banding them like tree rings. Keelie looked at the rectangular card. Petrified wood. Should’ve known. She picked one up and sensed the faraway echo of an alien forest. She quickly put it into the bag.

The card said that it was a grounding stone that provided strength during ill health. Perfect for dear old Dad.

She drew the drawstring closed on the full bag and joined Laurie at the jewelry counter. Sir Davey was sitting on a tall stool at the end of the counter talking to Ben, the proprietor. She handed the bag to him. He hefted it and smiled. “Feels rock solid.”

“Ha, ha. Rock solid, very funny. I hope they work.”

“They should.” Sir Davey nodded to Ben, who rang up their purchases.

Laurie looked at the lumpy sack. “Maybe I should get some of those.”

“Next time, girls. We have to return to the Faire.”

“And pick up my luggage, too.”

Keelie grinned at Sir Davey. She couldn’t wait to see his face when he caught sight of the stack of suitcases.

“You’re not getting any earrings?” Laurie dangled her silver butterflies, crescent moons, and hearts.

“No. I don’t need any.” Keelie yearned for a pair, but every time she thought about earrings, she saw the pair of boots she’d ordered. But she was pleased with her tektite and her bag of healing rocks for Dad, even if he’d paid for them himself.

“Well, duh. I don’t
need
any either.” She put the silver moons into her ears and admired her reflection in the countertop mirror. “I just
had
to have these.”

Keelie shook her head. “Dad is into this less-is-more philosophy. I’ve got lots of earrings. I just haven’t unpacked all of my jewelry yet.”

Laurie’s eyes met Keelie’s. “I don’t know if I could live with the less-is-more thing, but then, sometimes I wonder if shopping is just a way of trying to find the right thing to make me happy. You know. Once the thrill of the purchase is gone, I’m onto the next thing that might make me happy.”

“I’m learning that.”

At the checkout counter, Keelie’s eyes immediately zeroed in on a tiny oak-leaf navel ring in a display of silver body jewelry. It was perfect for her, even though she didn’t have a pierced navel. Maybe this was a sign that she should finally get hers pierced.

Keelie hoped that Laurie wouldn’t buy the oak leaf for her own piercing. Instead, Laurie reached for a navel ring with a unicorn charm attached to it.

“Less is more, maybe, but this is too cute!” She dangled it in the air and pointed to the painting of the unicorn on the wall. “Looks just like it, doesn’t it?”

Keelie stared at the painting. The unicorn glowed like silvery moonlight, and the artist had painted little starbursts all around it and at the tip of its horn. Keelie wondered what Laurie would do if she knew what a real unicorn looked like—and that Keelie had seen one.

fifteen

On the way back to the Faire, Sir Davey drove while Keelie and Laurie sat in the backseat. Keelie made sure Laurie sat behind the driver’s seat so that she didn’t notice that Sir Davey’s feet didn’t reach the pedals. At least he was going through the motions of pretending to drive. Keelie hoped that this wasn’t how Laurie’s whole stay would be, with Keelie trying to keep her from seeing her new, hidden world.

“So, will I get to meet your man, Sean?” Laurie’s eyes crinkled with curiosity. “Last I heard, he was working at a Florida Renaissance Faire.”

“Yeah, and I haven’t heard from him. Nothing’s changed.” The thought of Sean, far away, made her glum. Their kiss seemed long ago, not just a few weeks past. And not hearing from him made the time seem so much longer.

“I can’t believe you haven’t touched a phone since St. Louis. How do you exist? So does Sean email? Is he on MySpace?”

“I don’t go online much anymore,” Keelie admitted. More like, at all. Laurie would find out soon enough that they were practically living in the Middle Ages. “How are things at Baywood?”

Laurie made a face. “I failed most of my classes, even though Mom redid my room in ‘get good grades’ colors. She moved my furniture all around, too, because she said the bad feng shui was holding me back. I think it was spending time at the mall with Trent. I passed history, though, which is good because Mom said that if I studied she’d buy me the peridot-and-amethyst necklace and earrings that I really wanted.” Laurie’s stream of words dried up and her expression turned serious. “It’s not the same without you. School’s not the same. Shopping’s not the same. I miss you.”

Keelie’s chest tightened. “I miss you, too.” She was about to get teary, but Laurie let out a laugh and punched her shoulder.

“Yeah, right, last time we talked, you were on the road with your Pops and totally excited about something. You said you were going to tell me what it was all about, but so far, nada. Was it about Sean?”

“I wish.” She couldn’t tell a mundane about the elves and the other world. For one, Laurie would think she was nuts. “Maybe it was about the pirates.” The High Mountain Faire had been infested with pirates, handsome ones who were mostly very naughty. As in, a-girl-could-really-get-into-trouble-hanging-with-them kind of naughty.

“Oh! Details.”

Sir Davey had an ear cocked their way. Not that he would overhear on purpose, maybe, but he was her dad’s best friend. But she didn’t want him to know just how friendly she had been with the pirates, especially Captain Dandy Randy. Keelie whispered, “We’ll talk later.”

Laurie raised her eyebrows. “Gotcha.”

As if on cue, Sir Davey inserted a CD and a rollicking drumbeat started, joined by flutes and fiddles.

Laurie’s eyes widened. “I love Irish music!”

“This is Rigadoon. They play at the Faire.” Keelie had heard the band at the Fletcher’s Row stage when she’d been in the Plumpkin costume. She whispered, “They’re also famous for doing the music at the drinking parties at Rivendell, the Faire’s party spot. Dad says they’re as bad as pirates.” She laughed. “He called them rogues.”

Laurie grinned, eyes twinkling, and wriggled in her seat belt as if she were already dancing at the party.

Keelie thought that with Laurie along, she might gather up the courage to join in the merriment. It would be great to get away from all the tree troubles, and with the elves sick and at the lodge, maybe Rivendell would be more fun—not that the elves ever mixed with the humans.

“Rogues.” Laurie shivered, smiling. “They sound exciting and scary. What do these Rigadoon rogues look like?”

“They’re all different. Tall, short, fat, skinny, bearded, and bald. All of them are incredibly talented and incredibly weird, and
so
not boyfriend material.”

“So, where
is
the so-called boyfriend material around here? I’m ready for a summer fling.”

Sir Davey made a noise that might have been a snort of laughter. Laurie glared at the back of his head.

“Some of the actors are really cute. You should see the guy who plays Robin Hood. Yummy.” Keelie hugged herself to show how totally delicious she found Robin Hood.

Sir Davey’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. He was sending her severe parental vibes.

Keelie smiled innocently at him, then turned to look out the window. She was catching snippets of each tree as they passed by, one big blurry sense of leafy green flashing in her mind. Unlike the forest around the Wildewood Faire, everything seemed to be fine in the forest around Canooga Springs—except for a few distressing seconds, when she’d picked up a sense of desperation in the trees, wanting her, calling out to her for help. And then, like a dropped call on her cell phone (when she’d had one), it was gone.

Maybe she was stressed. She wondered how she was going to hide the tree magic from Laurie. Did she even want her to know? Laurie was her last tie to her old life. If she knew about the other world, then it would blur the line between her old life and her new one, a line already shaky since she’d remembered seeing the fairies and feeling the trees as a child. Keelie thought of the times she wanted to remember, and the moments slid through her mind like the passing landscape: she and Laurie at the beach with the cute surfers in the background, at the mall trying on goofy hats, and talking and teasing about Trent. Laurie was still living this life, which was now closed to her.

Sir Davey pulled into the Faire’s main parking lot instead of the campground. “I have a meeting with some of the performers in a few minutes. Show Laurie around, Keelie. I’ll drive the car around to the RV when I’m done, and you girls can help me unload.”

Keelie steeled herself. Time to introduce Laurie to her new life. Things would never be the same between them. She hugged her friend, and Laurie hugged her back, surprised.

“You dope. It hasn’t been that long.” Laurie jumped out of the Wagoneer. “Thank you for coming to pick me up, Sir Davey.” She curtseyed, a movement that should have looked dumb in street clothes, but instead looked natural. Watch out Elia. Laurie’s California-blonde good looks would rival the elf girl’s any day of the week.

“Everything is quiet until the weekends,” Keelie told her friend. “But most of the folk live here and camp by the river. It’ll get livelier tomorrow.”

They strolled through the gates, and Laurie looked up, interested in the towers and the medieval-looking architecture. Keelie saw it through her friend’s eyes and was struck by how pretty it was, with flowers bursting from window boxes and brightly colored banners and shop signs everywhere.

Their trip toward the campground took them near the Admin building. Keelie shivered and looked up the path, dark from the forest canopy above it. She looked around for Elianard. She hated the way he popped out of thin air, his derisive tone of voice being the only warning he was there. Keelie shuddered. Of course, it could be because of the Admin building, lair to the living, breathing, human dragon. She’d have to face Finch tomorrow, and with Elianard lurking around in the woods, Keelie would stay away. Right now, she’d just enjoy the moment with Laurie.

Heartwood’s simple wooden structure was deserted, but Dad had left them a little note tacked to an outer post: “Come to Janice’s for lunch. Dad.”