Jak and Tobi agreed to avoid the path, so they started downhill, passing a rocky outcropping and thick stands of oaks, poplars and maples. Ferns dusted their legs as they walked and fairies peeped at them from the hoods of jack-in-the-pulpits.
“This is lovely,” said Tamisin, turning to look around.
Jak glanced back, half expecting to see someone behind them, but the only creatures following in their trail were the cats, their ears swivelling as they listened to the sounds of the forest. “That all depends on how you look at it,” he grumbled. “There are too many trees for goblins to hide behind.”
Tamisin gave him a quizzical look. “Will it be better by the sea?”
“No, we’ll be out in the open there,” Jak said, sounding surly even to himself.
It was midafternoon when they reached the Sograssy Sea. Instead of water it was a sea of waving grass, knee-high at the edge, but higher than their heads further out. Although Jak had known about the grass, and that the sea was big, he didn’t know how enormous it really was or that it was impossible to see from one side to the other.
Tamisin stepped to the very edge, which was closer than Jak cared to go. “Is the water on the other side of the grass? How long will it take to get across?”
The cats darted to where Tamisin stood and began to circle her, pushing against her legs so that she staggered away from the grass. Jak reached out and pulled her back too.
“That grass is the sea,” said Tobi. “Contrary-like to yer misconception, nobody crosses the Sograssy Sea. You gotta go ’round it.”
Tamisin shaded her eyes with her hand and gazed out across the sea. “But wouldn’t it be faster to go across? I mean a straight line is . . .”
“. . . the shortest distance between two points,” Jak replied. “Yeah, I went to school too. It would be, but grass isn’t the only thing in the Sograssy Sea. That’s where –”
“Well, well, well! Look what we have here! If it isn’t a couple of humans and a runty little goblin all alone in this big, bad world.”
The two cats turned and hissed, their eyes narrowed and glaring.
Nihlo had found them. Jak spun around at his cousin’s first word, hiding Tamisin behind him. He’d recognised Nihlo’s voice, but he was surprised to see his cousin wielding a knife as other goblins emerged from the woods. The cats had moved closer together and now stood between Tamisin and Nihlo.
“I see ya brought yer buddies, Nihlo,” Tobi said. “I didn’t know ya had any friends. Whaddya do when yer together, see who’s better at pullin’ legs off bugs?”
“Tobi!” Jak reached out and clamped a hand over his little friend’s mouth.
Nihlo made a show of licking his lips when he looked at Tobi. “Keep your pet quiet, Jak, or I’ll carve him up and eat him for dinner.”
The other goblins had gathered behind Nihlo, who seemed even more sure of himself with them there. “Where are you going, Jak? This isn’t the way to my father’s den. Or have you decided to betray his trust and get the reward for yourself?”
“I would never turn on my family for money,” said Jak.
Nihlo smiled. “Don’t sound so self-righteous. Have you told the girl the real reason you wanted to meet her? He was sent to kidnap you,” he said, turning to Tamisin, “and bring you back to my father.”
Jak could hear Tamisin’s sudden indrawn breath behind him. He wanted to explain it all to her, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off Nihlo.
“Is that true, Jak?” she asked with a catch in her voice. “I thought we were friends. I thought you were trying to help me.” Lightning streaked the sky in the distance, and the goblins behind Nihlo glanced up.
“We were,” said Jak. “I mean, we are. It’s a long story and –”
“Just give me the girl, Jak, and I’ll let you go. You know you can’t beat me in a fair fight.”
Jak narrowed his eyes at his cousin. “When have you ever fought in a fair fight?”
“I can’t trust either of you, can I, Jak?” Tamisin asked. “You wanted to kidnap me and he wants to take me from you.”
“He isn’t taking you anywhere,” Jak whispered back. Even if his cousin did intend to take her to Targin, Jak wasn’t about to let him get near her.
Nihlo waved the knife in Jak’s direction. “Get out of the way, Jak-O-MAN. Give the girl to me and I’ll let you go.”
Jak was surprised by how angry the thought of seeing Tamisin in Nihlo’s hands made him feel. He was about to reassure her when he turned his head and saw her edging towards the grass. “Tamisin, no!” he shouted.
“I have to, Jak. I can’t trust either of you.” And she bolted into the sea.
Tails twitching, the cats yowled in protest as she ran further into the grass, but neither of them followed her. Jak took his hand off Tobi’s mouth and for a moment considered going after Tamisin.
“She shouldn’t have run off like that,” said Nihlo. “Call her back.”
Tobi spat at the ground and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. “Now that’d be completely stupid,” he said. “He ain’t about ta call her back just so’s ya can wave yer knife in her face! Jak’s a whole lot smarter’n that. Heck, he’s a whole lot smarter than all of ya put together!”
“Shut up, Tobi,” grunted Nihlo. “Go after her, you!” he told a boar goblin who had come with him. “She’s getting away.”
The goblin shook his head. “I’m not going in there, and there’s nothing you can do to make me.”
“You’re going,” said Nihlo, “unless one of your friends would like to volunteer.”
The other goblins that had come with him glanced at each other and melted into the forest.
“Uh, uh,” said the remaining goblin. “She’s not paying me enough to –”
“Either you go in after the girl, or I’ll take care of you right now. And if you run off like your cockroach friends, I’ll hunt you down and serve you at the next clan feast.”
The boar goblin looked frightened, but he clenched his jaw and took a step towards the sea. “You owe me for this,” he said. “And my whole clan will come after you if anything happens to me!”
“Why don’t you go in yourself, Nihlo?” asked Jak.
“Why don’t you shut up, Jak?” the goblin said, glaring at his cousin.
“I think I see her!” shouted the boar goblin as he took off running.
While Nihlo argued with the boar goblin, Jak had taken off his watch behind his back and was changing it into a knife, longer and sharper than Nihlo’s. Jak had never used a knife in a fight before, but he was sure he could do some damage with it if he had to. He would have felt more confident if he hadn’t caught sight of the film of blue liquid tinting Nihlo’s blade. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
The knife was forming in his hands when he asked Nihlo a question that had been bothering him. “Who are you and your friend working for, Nihlo? Who is this ‘she’ who’s paying you? She must be giving you a lot of money for you to turn against your father like this.”
“She’s giving me respect, Jak-O-MAN, something you wouldn’t understand. Unlike my father, who doesn’t mind lowering himself by dealing with people like you, she knows the value of a true goblin. When she has the girl, she’ll see that some real changes are made, not the half measures that my father’s working towards.”
“Who is this wonderful person, Nihlo? Is it anyone I know?”
“I’m not wasting any more of my breath talking to you. Halflings are too stupid to understand what’s going on.”
Tobi had scuttled behind Jak the moment he’d let him go. He must have just noticed what Jak held in his hands, because he suddenly exclaimed, “There’s my boy, Jak! Ya got a knife! It’s bigger than yers, ya foul-breathed slime licker,” he shouted at Nihlo.
“I’m glad to hear it,” growled the cat goblin. “I’d hate to kill an unarmed halfling.”
“I don’t know why,” said Jak. “You’ve tried often enough.”
Sneering, Nihlo feinted with his knife. “If I had wanted to kill you, Jak, I would have. I was just waiting until the timing was better – like now!”
Jak jumped out of his cousin’s reach and tightened his grip on his knife. He’d known for a long while that he was going to have to face Nihlo again, only this time he didn’t intend to run.
Tamisin was afraid to run into the tallest grass until she heard one of the goblins shout, “I think I see her!” Glancing back, she saw the boar goblin enter the sea, so she turned and ran into the taller, more concealing growth, parting the blades with her outstretched arms. Her heart thudding in her chest, she kept expecting the goblin to grab her from behind. The grass flew by in a blur, then suddenly she was stumbling over an enormous bronze- and copper-coloured tube that twitched beneath her feet.
A woman’s head rose above the grass so that Tamisin had to look up to see her. She was beautiful, with flowing dark hair that gleamed blue-black in the sunlight. Her neck was long and slender; her skin was pale with just a hint of pink on her cheeks. The grass that brushed her bare shoulders hid her from the collarbone down.
The woman looked startled, as if Tamisin was the apparition. “What are you doing here?” she said in a whispery kind of voice.
“Running from goblins. I was told that no one comes into the sea, but at least one of them is following me. Why are you here? Are you running from something, too?”
“I wath taking a nap,” said the woman, patting her mouth delicately with well-manicured fingertips. “And jutht what do you mean, nobody cometh into the thea? Who told you that? Hath thomeone been thpreading rumourth about me again?” A soft shushing sound came from the depths of the grass.
“I’m sorry I woke you. It’s just, well, do you have somewhere I can hide?”
“You want me to hide you? That’th very funny. Nobody exthept my relativeth ever athked for my help before. Let me thee if anyone ith thtill chathing you. No, no one ith there. But if thomeone chathed you here on purpothe to dithturb my nap, I’ll thee that that foul . . .” The woman rose up until her head towered over Tamisin’s. Her upper body was wrapped in a silky fabric that didn’t cover much. She didn’t need clothes below her waist, because the rest of her body thickened into that of a snake.
Tamisin gasped and started to back away, but the woman was too busy working herself into a rage to notice. “Jutht wait until I get my fangth in . . .”
Tamisin might have escaped if she hadn’t tripped and landed on something cushiony. Putting her hands on the ground, she tried to push herself up, then snatched them back when she felt smooth, dry scales. She was sitting on the snake woman’s enormous bronze and copper coils with her legs draped over their sides. The end of the woman’s tail vibrated above Tamisin’s head, shaking a cluster of bead-shaped rattles that made the shushing sound she’d heard.
The woman swung her head around and glanced down at Tamisin. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m sorry! I . . .”
Three bright lights no bigger than Tamisin’s little finger darted past. She cringed when the snake woman opened her mouth and hissed. Long white fangs curved from her upper jaw, and Tamisin could have sworn she saw drops of venom on their tips. In a flash, the snake woman lunged at the lights, dumping Tamisin out of her coils on to the ground. The little lights bumped into one another, then fled over the undulating grass.
“Thtupid fairieth,” said the woman, turning back to Tamisin. “They’re thuch a nuithance. They probably think I’m going to eat you.”
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Tamisin said with a mouth so dry that the words came out in a whisper.
“Of courthe not!” said the snake woman, her eyes flaring with indignation. “I don’t do that kind of thing anymore. I admit that I uthed to enjoy frightening people and I relithed the occathional thpirited thnack, but a girl geth lonely after a couple of centurieth. Now I jutht want to have thomeone to talk to, thomeone who won’t run off when he theeth me. I’ve been lonely for motht of my life and I’m tired of it.” The snake woman glided towards Tamisin, lowering her head until they were the same height. “You aren’t afraid of me, are you?”
“You are a little scary,” Tamisin admitted as she struggled to her feet.
The woman’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t mean to be,” she said. “I can’t help being different. I wath born thith way.”
Tamisin couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. While tears trickled down the snake woman’s cheeks, Tamisin reached into her bag for a tissue, but all she could find was a pink bandanna. “Here,” she said, offering it to the woman. “You can dry your eyes with this.”
“You’re giving thith to me?” she asked, appearing incredulous.
Tamisin nodded since she didn’t really want it back.
The woman sniffed and patted her eyes. “No one’th ever given me a gift of her own free will before! Thank you.”
Tamisin stepped back when the woman looked as if she wanted to give her a hug. “You know, you wouldn’t be so scary if you didn’t hiss at people or show your fangs.”
“Oh,” the woman said, looking surprised. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Pulling her lips over her teeth, she leaned towards Tamisin and said, “Ith thith better?”
The tips of her fangs still showed. Tamisin shook her head. “Not really,” she said, and she began to back away.
The woman followed, her head only a few feet above Tamisin’s. “Pleathe help me,” she said as a big tear trickled down the side of her nose. “I really want to know what to do.”
“You’re still hissing,” Tamisin replied. “Maybe a good speech therapist could help.” The rattle vibrated again, making her jump. “And don’t shake your rattle. That’s really scary.”
“Oh, right,” said the woman, but her rattle continued to shake. Muttering to herself, she grabbed the end of her tail with both hands. “It’th a nervouth habit.”
“Habits are made to be broken,” said Tamisin. “I’m sure you can if you try.”
Peering into the grass around her, Tamisin tried to decide what to do. In a world where everything was strange and often threatening, she was beginning to think that Jak wasn’t so bad. He was familiar and had never hurt her, even if he had been sent to kidnap her. She knew that she didn’t want to go anywhere with the goblin that Tobi had called Nihlo, nor could she stay in the sea with the snake woman. And Jak had promised to take Tamisin to the fairy queen, even though it meant going against his uncle’s wishes.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go now,” she told the snake woman. “I need to find my friend.”
“I can go with you, if you’d like.” The snake woman sounded as eager as a small child who’s offered a special treat. “No goblinth will bother you if I’m around.”
“I’m not sure which way to go from here,” Tamisin said.
“No problem,” said the woman, rising up on her tail. “I can thee your trail. And look, that mutht be your friend at the edge of the grath. He’th lying down. Maybe he’th taking a nap.”
The woman slithered beside Tamisin as they forced their way through the grass. Butterflies fluttered past and a swallow skimmed the rustling sea, but suddenly Tamisin was too worried about Jak to notice them. Jak wouldn’t be taking a nap; if he was lying down, something must be terribly wrong.