The Tree Shepherd's Daughter (29 page)

She nodded.

He rose from his chair and motioned with his hand.
"Sit. You look exhausted."

"I am exhausted." Keelie plopped into the chair. She
lowered her head to see if Knot was underneath, waiting
to ambush her. He wasn't there. In a perverse way, she was
disappointed. She liked scooting him out and watching
him glide across the hardwood floor on his butt.

"Right." Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't
eaten since breakfast. She sniffed. "Do I smell pizza?"

"Yes. Cheese. I've been trying to keep it warm till you
got home."

"You know, if you had a microwave, you could warm
it up if it got cold," she said. "This fast," she added, snapping her fingers.

"No microwave. Messes up the tree vibes. Speaking of
which, when you finish eating and before we have to go to
the meeting, let's work on the rocking chair."

Downstairs, Keelie watched him work, knowing that
he was receiving the strange knowledge that crept through
her whenever she touched wood.

She reached out to touch the yellowish cream board
Dad held out to her. It smelled faintly of turpentine. Her
fingers tingled as she stroked it, and in her mind came the
image of a grove of tall pines growing in the hot sun. Bees
seemed to buzz around her, but she knew they weren't real,
just part of the wood's sleepy memories. "It's pine, from a
coast. I can smell the sea."

Dad's face lit up with a smile. "Wondrous. It's Georgia
pine, from a forest near Savannah."

He dragged a large branch out from underneath the
counter and placed it on top. "Try this one. What can you
tell me about it?"

Rubbing the tip of her index finger along the smooth
joints of the tree branch, Keelie smiled. "This fell off during a storm from the tiptop of an oak, along with some
mistletoe. It used to be a perch for eagles."

Dad grinned. "Amazing. It comes to you as if you'd
studied the lore your entire life. Keelie, this is fantastic."

"I think it's creepy."

He laughed. "I guess it could seem so to an outsider.
You can imagine why we keep this knowledge to ourselves.
In older times, it was cause to be burned at the stake."

Keelie wondered what it would be like to burn at the
stake, knowing as you died about the trunk you were tied
to and the logs your feet rested on.

Her father's comment pleased and frightened her. Generation to generation in his family. Was she so much a part
of him? Would her mother's side fade away under his influence?

"Missing her, aren't you?"

"Yes. A lot." She wasn't surprised that he knew her
thoughts. Any weird look on her face could be correctly
interpreted the same way.

"I know." Dad swung his body around so Keelie couldn't
see his face. Crouching down, he ran his hands along some
branches and other pieces of wood on the floor.

"Whenever I need to think things through, I make
something. Kind of a Zen-Green thing happens."

"Really. Well, let's get to work." Keelie said.

Dad smoothed sandpaper over the wood of the chair
they'd made together. Tall and slender, with a gently dished
seat and sturdy legs, it reminded her of her mother. The
smooth ash was the color Mom's hair had been, and she'd
been just as slim and graceful.

Dad had vetoed the legs Keelie wanted-lithe ones like
Mom's-but these made the chair strong, and they were a
powerful foundation. The chair was like Mom, but it was
a part of her and Dad-their creation.

He looked up from his work. "A final sanding, then an
oil finish. What do you think?"

"Beautiful."

He nodded, pleased. "We do good work, daughter."

The phone rang.

Dad answered it. "Hello? Yes, this is Zekeliel Heartwood... You've got to be kidding. You folks said that it
would be routed to New York, then on to Colorado... This
is absolutely ridiculous. Just get my daughter's luggage to
LaGuardia, and I'll have a friend pick it up there."

Keelie's heart plummeted to her feet. Where was her
luggage now? Where was her Boo Boo Bunny? Where were
the photographs of Mom? She pictured it at the bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean alongside the remains of the Titanic.

On the other hand, since when did her sandals-andwhole-grain dad know someone in New York? She was
amazed he even knew the word "LaGuardia."

Dad hung up the phone. "It seems your luggage has
been routed to Greenland."

"Greenland. As in the Arctic Circle? As in the North
Pole?"

"We'll get your things, eventually. Don't worry."

"I'll try not to. I'm going to get a quick shower before
the meeting."

Keelie dressed in her bedroom, brushing cat hair from
her clothes. She hadn't had time to take her clothes to the
Swiss Miss Chalet. Somehow Knot had slipped inside the
wardrobe and was asleep on her handbag.

Her cell phone rang. Keelie's heart thumped against
her chest. It would be Laurie calling to firm up plans for
the Great Escape. She reached for the bag. Knot hissed,
ears flattened against his head, and he swatted at Keelie.

"Bad Knot. Give me back my bag." He swished his
tail. "I still haven't forgiven you for stinking up my under„
wear.

He glared at her. The phone stopped ringing. "Fine. Be
that way."

The cat licked his bottom.

Keelie pulled the bag out from underneath Knot, and
he tumbled to the floor. He landed on all fours. His purring thrummed through the room. "What is with you?
Every time I'm mean to you, you like it. Sicko kitty."

The cat rubbed up against her leg. She moved him out
of the way with her foot. He went sliding across the floor
on his belly.

"I've got to go. By the way, when you squat like that,
you look like a furry-headed toad."

The cat's eyes dilated to dark moon orbs. His purring
increased.

"Get over it, you grody cat."

She opened the door, and Knot shot past her. He
thumped his way down the steps, stopped, and sat on the
bottom step as if waiting for her. She looked down at him;
he swished his tail back and forth.

She walked down the steps past him and into the
shop.

"Dad, make your cat go away. He's leering at me."

"Knot. Behave."

Knot walked over to the oak tree in front of the shop
and began sharpening his claws.

The Poacher's Inn was fast filling with the Faire folk.
Keelie settled next to Dad, leaning against the wooden
fence. Cedar.

Elianard glared at her as Elia primped, looking bored.
Tania prattled on and on about Admin's threat to close
down the Faire permanently if repairs weren't made to
the booths immediately. Even though there was only two
weeks left of the High Mountain Renaissance Faire, a lot
of merchants and craftsmen depended on the income
earned in those remaining two weeks to carry them over
to the next Faire.

Keelie pressed her back against the fence, watching
Knot, who had perched on top of the old-fashioned bar
that wrapped around the building's exterior. He had his head stuck out, doing a vulture impersonation, eyes glued
to Sir Davey's new companion, Louie the turkey vulture.
Louie didn't realize he was being made fun of.

Raven represented the herb shop while Janice cleaned
up the mess back home. Raven had no idea how lucky she
was to have her mom.

Elia fanned herself with her hand and sneered at Keelie.
Behind her, Elianard seemed to be muttering.

Ha! Keelie remembered that according to Sir Davey,
she was much more powerful than Elia.

A whiff of rot came with the breeze that blew through the
porch of the Poacher's Inn. The heart pendant became warm
and tingled against her skin. Something pushed against the
sole of Keelie's shoe, and she moved her foot, stepping aside
and sweeping her skirts up. A small sapling was pushing
up from the board. Keelie watched, shocked, as it sprouted
limbs and green needles popped out and unfurled along each
edge. The smell of fresh cedar filled the air.

Keelie quickly covered the growing tree with her skirts
and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Elianard
was staring at the tip of her shoe, which was peeping out
from her skirt. He looked as if he thought a grizzly bear
was about to jump out from her petticoat. Or a Red Cap.

Her alarm was going off.

Something poked her in the back. She smelled cedar
and groaned, not daring to turn around. She tapped Zeke
on the arm.

"Dad, we have a problem." She moved her skirts. His
mouth dropped open as he looked at the cedar branch
growing from the floor. "That's not all." She moved her shoulder to show him the branch that had sprouted from
the fence.

"How?"

Keelie lifted her hands up in an I-don't-know-what-Idid gesture.

Raven came over to stand beside Keelie. Her friend
stared at the tree branch with a perplexed look on her face.
"That's new."

Then she motioned nonchalantly with her hand. "Listen, everyone is going to go on and on about Admin. Been
here, done this. Meet me at the herb shop in about an
hour. They're having a sale at the Shimmy Shack, and
we can snap up the bargains before the mundanes snatch
them up this weekend."

"Cool. That'll give me time to go and check on Ariel."

Keelie whispered to her dad. "Do you mind if I go and
check on Ariel and then go with Raven to a sale at the
Shimmy Shack?"

Dad looked up from the branch, and he nodded absentmindedly. "That sounds like a good idea."

As the two girls walked away from the deck, they could
hear the next speaker's droning voice.

"You've saved my life, Raven. I think I would have died
of boredom."

"The bodies will be thick in there. As a survivor of previous Faire meetings, let me warn you-run, do not walk,
next time one is announced."

At the mews, Keelie said goodbye to Raven, who
headed toward her mother's shop to get her money. Keelie
had put hers in her belt pouch that morning. Cameron was walking around with Moon on her shoulder. She'd
stayed behind to monitor the repairs in progress.

"Hey, Cameron."

"Hi, Keelie."

"I thought I'd let Ariel fly while I went over to the
Shimmy Shack. I think she's got a boyfriend around because there's another hawk flying nearby."

Cameron stopped and looked up. "That's not good."

"Why not? I think it's cute."

"Keelie, Ariel is half-blind. She cannot hunt for herself,
let alone defend herself from another hawk if it attacked
her."

"What do you mean?"

"Mate or kill. If this hawk is territorial, it's not after
making friends. It'll want Ariel gone or dead. Keelie, Ariel
can never be free."

Never be free. Keelie looked at the half-blind hawk and
thought of her plans to escape to California. She could
take Ariel with her. She thought of the hawk living among
the palm trees and malls, or her old neighborhood, where
flowering shrubs were the tallest vegetation.

She'd be miserable, just as Keelie was here. But was she?
She'd made friends, she had her father, and the trees were
counting on her to protect them from the dark magic.
Zeke couldn't do it alone.

When had she stopped being miserable?

Confused, Keelie hurried to Janice's shop to find Raven.
She could talk to Raven, who had one foot in both worlds,
too.

Knot stalked her as she walked. He snuck from tree
trunk to tree trunk, then disappeared. Tarl walked down
the path, arms full of stained and bedraggled fairy wings.
Another Muck and Mire denizen followed with a similar
load.

Tarl grinned. "Good morrow, Keelie."

"What are you doing with those?" Keelie had heard that the poor girl who ran the fairy wing cart was devastated because all of her stock was ruined in the storm.

"I bought 'em all for the Muck and Mire Show. Dirt
cheap."

"Dirt cheap. I get it. Ha."

"We can give you a part in our new show: Midsummer
Night's Mud. You can be Slime Mudfairy."