“Vangar is innocent. It was Hob who set the fires,” Keelie said. “Hob was just a disguise for a dangerous creature who wants to destroy us.”
Marcia, Tracy, and Lily arrived, dressed in jeans and T-shirts. They looked like ordinary girls except for the swords they wielded. They stood in front of Finch like a human shield.
“You heard Finch, Thomas,” Marcia shouted. “Get back in your shop, or get out here and fight and help defend our faire.”
Keelie’s opinion of these three fairy-wing wearers went up several notches.
“You’re wrong, Marcia. Hob tried to help us all. He warned us about Finch and Vangar,” Sam the Potter said.
Lily snorted. “He lied and cheated. He’s nothing but a fraud.”
Tracy scowled. “He was nuts, too. He started going around talking to his puppet, which was weird.” She carried her broad sword with an air of expertise.
Finch smiled and cut her eyes over to Keelie.
“You fools need to listen to Finch and Keelie.” Sir Davey’s eyes flashed. He shouldered his axe. In full dwarven armor, he was a formidable sight.
Then a loud roar split through the air. Spinning around, Keelie couldn’t see if something or someone had transformed, or appeared out of thin air.
“It’s too late to run. Now is the time to fight,” Finch said as her eyes narrowed to slits and flame blazed within the irises. “They’re on Equus Island, but the shield holds for now.”
In the distance, Keelie heard a loud booming of a drum and the familiar blare of battle horns.
Marcia, Tracy, and Lily joined up, shoulders together, ready to take on whatever came their way.
Dad! Keelie heart’s thumped hard against her chest as everyone looked toward the sound of the horns. She made her way to Sir Davey. “Where is Dad?”
“Once he had the dwarfstone, he said he needed to speak to a friend named Bruce.” Sir Davey scowled. “He said if he was late, not to worry-he will be here with reinforcements.”
Not to worry. Keelie planned to give Dad a good talking to when he arrived. Until then, she would help Finch and Vangar. Wait… the only Bruce she knew was a tree. She shrugged; she didn’t know everybody.
With a cry of horror, Thomas pointed at a charging throng of armored goblins wielding swords and battle axes. “Keelie was right,” he squealed. “The goblins are real.”
“It isn’t real. They’re probably making a movie,” the turkey-leg vendor said, but her eyes were wide.
“You fool, those goblins are the first wave of an attack, and if you had any sense about you, you’d get inside and protect your family. All of you,” Sir Davey bellowed to the assembled shopkeepers and performers. “Stay within the faire. You’re protected by a magical force field.”
Keelie turned to Finch. Sometimes people needed a demonstration to change their minds and convince them that something was real.
“Finch, show them what you are.”
The dragon smiled her wicked grin as smoke drifted from her nose and ears. “Yes, I think it’s time.”
A tornado of fire swirled around Finch, and Keelie shielded her face with her hands as the intense heat blasted toward her. Small beads of light twirled, then sucked inwards as if Finch were magnetic. Bright light exploded, then collapsed, too bright to endure. Keelie closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, Finch was gone. In her place, a red dragon with glistening scales reared up on powerful back legs, her wing tips soaring in an arc over their heads.
“Wicked cool,” Marcia said.
“Can you teach me how to do that?” Lily’s eyes blinked several times, as if she couldn’t believe what was before her.
Tracy just stared, jaw dropped open.
“Consider me impressed,” Keelie said to Sir Davey, who was dusting dirt off of his hat. “The woman has a flare for theatrics, just like her mother.”
“I agree.” A bronze dragon lowered his head in between Keelie and Sir Davey. Keelie saw her reflection in a yellow-gold eye with an iris slit like a goat’s.
“Vangar?”
“Yes,” he answered, his voice a deep, rich bass that conjured up warm evenings by a fire as soft music played in the background. If Vangar ever became a lounge singer, he’d have women throwing their underwear at him. The dragon body might be a PR problem, but his voice was like smoky velvet.
“I knew all along we had dragons amongst us,” Thomas declared, oblivious to the skeptical looks that others threw his way. He pointed at Vangar. “I said there was a firebug, and there he is.”
Vangar turned his massive bronze head toward Thomas, then lowered it until he could look the glassblower in the eye. “I thought we had established the fact that Hob was the firebug, not me.”
Keelie’s opinion of Thomas had dropped fifty points in her personal opinion poll. Was he crazy? You didn’t call a dragon a firebug.
Finch turned to Vangar. “I think it’s time to nip this rebellion in the bud and show these interlopers who’s the boss around here.”
Vangar stretched out his wings. “After you, my dear.”
Keelie motioned for everyone to move back. “Give them some room for takeoff. They’ll kick up a lot of dust.”
Vangar and Finch both pumped their wings and ascended, two draconic air fliers, into the sky with elegance and muscular grace.
Finch flamed the sky, a plume of fire erupting from her mouth.
Keelie couldn’t help a smile. “Show-off,” she whispered.
Everyone was transfixed by the dragon spectacle above them.
Keelie was amazed that no one had run to hide in their shops, hopped into their vehicles, or run for the mountaintops when Finch and Vangar revealed themselves to be dragons. Maybe the faire’s fantasy ambiance had made them comfortable with any possibility.
She’d been right. The humans needed to know what they were up against, and the people of the High Mountain Faire might just be able to hold their own against the goblins. Still, they needed help. She hoped Dad arrived soon with reinforcements.
She nodded to Sir Davey. “You stay here and control the crowd. I have something to do.”
She had to find the Compendium, and with the goblins trying to find a way through the magical shield, she had to act quickly. Keelie moved away from the crowd, looking for a place to work undisturbed.
She held out the aspen branch and envisioned the book of elven household spells and charms. If this worked, the branch would lead her to the Compendium. She had to get this right, and fast.
twenty-two
Keelie held the image of the Compendium in her mind as she walked purposefully through the jostling crowd-some racing to their shops, preparing for battle-and stopped next to the art gallery near Galadriel’s Closet. Standing in the road in front of the booth, Keelie pointed Hrok’s branch to the east, west, north, and south. She recalled the Compendium’s elegant calligraphy and the numerous spells within it, including the hay-fever charm she thought she’d never use and the protection charm she’d cast over the Redwood Forest.
If the book had developed a consciousness and wanted to find her, she wanted to open herself telepathically to help it.
Here I am, she thought. Where are you, Peascod? Where did you go with my book?
Keelie felt a tingle touch her mind. It wasn’t green, but a different kind of magic-something young and fresh.
But it disappeared as soon as she tried to lock onto it.
Then, nothing.
Around her, the performers and shop owners ran through the streets, gathering swords and other weapons
