one that had engulfed Heartwood. No fire extinguisher could have stopped that one.
“I don’t want to run away,” Keelie said. “I’m part of this faire and I want to help.”
“You’re not running away,” Davey said earnestly. “You have to warn Janice so that she can save her shop and spread the alarm to those living on the grounds.”
Keelie grabbed the heavy red extinguisher and ran up the road, pushing past the blue-jean-clad faire folk who jostled past her, carrying shovels, rakes, buckets, and even more fire extinguishers as they rushed toward the blaze, visible now as an orange glow on the horizon near the jousting arena. Thomas the Glass Blower huffed his way down the path, carrying a hoe, Sam the Potter beside him.
“I wonder if this was Vangar the firebug’s doing,” Sam said.
“Don’t know, but Finch will defend him if it is,” Thomas answered as they glared at Keelie.
She was the only one headed away from danger as she turned toward Green Lady Herbs, wishing she had the Compendium.
“Hurry, Keelie!” a red-faced Raven shouted, waving Keelie to the herb shop.
Janice was hosing water onto the roof and around the building. “Keelie, thank goodness you’re here. I need your help. Go inside and cover my herbs and tinctures with cloth.”
Inside the shop, the sweet, woodsy scent was now mixed with the smell of burnt wood. Keelie blinked back tears-the faire was slowly dying. Shimmerlight, Lavender Lollipop, and Lily Limerton showed up and helped cover the herbs. Then Janice ran toward the jousting arena, the girls behind her.
The stands were fully engulfed, the flames shooting high into the trees. The trees shrieked in Keelie’s head, howling in terror as the flames licked at their trunks and branches.
Keelie joined a bucket brigade that scooped water from the horses’ spring-fed trough and passed buckets to be flung at the fire. It was like spitting into a volcano, but it was something. Endless buckets passed her on their way to the roaring inferno, and while her body worked mechanically, her mind was trying to soothe the forest.
She sensed her father’s voice as he worked on the other side of the fire, and then she felt her uncle and her grandmother joining in from their far forests. The tree shepherds were working together. Despite her fear and exhaustion, Keelie’s pride lightened her heart.
Around her were signs of a similar spirit as the faire workers pitched in to help each other. The faire folk were family, maybe not by blood, but by choice and circumstance.
It wasn’t until after midnight that the last remnants of the fire were under control. The jousting arena had been turned to ashes. The Silver Bough Company would have to perform its demonstrations in the parking lot until the embers cooled.
Keelie trudged back to Green Lady Herbs with Janice and Raven, thinking this was getting really old.
Dad joined them just as they neared the shop. Janice stopped walking a moment, overcome with emotion at the sight of her little cottage unharmed.
Dad was dirty and his hair was loose, his ear tips exposed. “Thank you for letting Keelie stay with you, but she’ll sleep at Sir Davey’s tonight.”
“She helped me save my shop. I couldn’t have done it without her,” Janice said.
“Can’t she stay with us?” Raven asked.
Dad shook his head. Keelie sensed that something was off about him. For one thing, he never showed his ear tips around humans, even Janice and Raven who knew about the elves.
“Keelie, thank you for all of your help,” Janice said. Her cap was askew, and her face ashen and smudged with dirt.
Keelie wiped her hands over the forehead. Dirt and smoke came off in her hands. “I think I need a shower.”
“Let’s head to the RV.” Dad rubbed his eyes with the palm of his sooty hands.
“Be careful, especially around Vangar.” Janice hugged Keelie.
“We’ll be fine,” Keelie said.
Walking back to the performer’s campground, exhausted and desperately wanting to feel hot water sluicing down her body, Keelie yearned for Sir Davey’s RV and its expansive luxury spa bathroom.
“Keelie, I hope you didn’t say anything to Janice about the goblins?” Dad asked.
“No, we didn’t have time to talk.” Keelie frowned. “Why don’t you want her to know about the goblins? She knows you’re an elf. “
“Things have changed. The battle in the Northwoods has convinced the elves that the less we interact with humans, the better. For the Ren Faires there’ll be little change, but even so, the less humans know, the better.”
Keelie stopped. “It’s wrong, Dad. I think we should be more open, not less. Why can’t humans know about elves, anyway?”
Dad shook his head. He seemed so standoffish right now.
“We’ll argue about this later. Once I drop you off at Sir Davey’s, I must meet with the elves.”
“Again? It’s the middle of the night.” Keelie dropped her sarcastic tone and placed a hand on his sooty shoulder. “Dad, you need to rest too. You’re getting a little loopy.”
Dad hugged her. “Later.” They had reached the edge of the campground, and he left her standing among the parked cars. Thomas the Glass Blower waved to Dad as he walked toward the woodland path leading to the elven camp.
Feeling abandoned, Keelie went inside the RV for her much-needed shower. She’d get some sleep and clear her head. Two fires in two nights was not a coincidence. Someone in the faire was an arsonist, and he or she had to be stopped.
Four hours later, Keelie threw her pillow at the goblin tree in the corner of the RV’s living area. “Shut up.”
She’d gotten two hours of sleep before the tree had started singing pub songs about wenches. Loudly.
Oh, the pretty lass was quite the wench.
But she never washed, she had a stench.
It added more verses as it went along, and it was clearly no Grammy hopeful.
Keelie sat up. “We should have known not to put that tree where it could hear Tarl and the mud men.”
Knot meowed angrily, walked over to the little angry tree, and unsheathed his claws. “Meow firewood.”
“Threaten me all you want, stinky cat, but you don’t scare me,” the goblin tree shouted out loud. It pushed its face though its bark and stuck its green tongue out at Knot.
Keelie lowered herself back onto the sofa, hoping to go back to sleep.
“I saw you naked when you showered,” the tree continued. “I sent the image to all the trees around the mountain.”
Keelie blushed with embarrassment. “Silly tree. There’s a lot of serious stuff happening here. Besides, I don’t care. What do trees care about naked people?” But it gave her pause that the tree had spoken aloud. It was growing in power.
Keelie couldn’t stay in the RV another moment with the obnoxious thing. If she’d had the Compendium, she would’ve used a silence spell on it and then, just in case, sent out a forget-it spell to the trees so they wouldn’t remember the image of her naked.
A wave of regret washed over her as she remembered the Compendium. Cricket climbed on top of her head, as if sensing her sadness.
Keelie’s tree sense kicked in. Hrok?
Lady Keliel, your father is still in the elven village, and he will be so for many hours. He says you need to rest.
Thank you, Hrok. She paused. Hrok, can you sense the goblins? Are they near the entrance to Under-the- Hill?
No, milady. They have moved, but we do not know where. We sense they are near.
Yesterday, you told me that the goblins are your friends. I find it hard to believe that a tree could say that.
Oh yes. We like them very much.
Later, Hrok.
