The first goblin spear flew so close to Jak’s cheek that he could feel the air move. “Watch out!” he shouted, reaching for Tamisin, but the goblins had already snatched her away and were dragging her back to their side.
Before Jak could go after her, a tiny fairy buzzed around his head, shouting, “Get down, you fool.” A thick vine hit him in the back of the legs, making him stagger and fall to his knees. He would have tumbled into the cave, but the vine clung to his ankles and hauled him towards the trees.
“Jak!” Tamisin screamed as the goblins pulled her further behind the goblin lines.
The vine dragged Jak until he had passed the first of the fairy warriors. “Let me go!” he shouted, but none of the warriors answered. While tiny fairies flew overhead, the full-sized warrior fairies stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the goblins on the other side of the clearing. Raising hollow reeds to their lips, they blew small, golden darts at the goblins. Jak wondered why the darts buzzed as they flew until one reed misfired and the dart fell to the ground and walked away. The darts weren’t darts at all, but golden bumblebees that stung the goblins they hit and chased the ones they didn’t.
When the vine finally went limp, Jak jumped to his feet and shouted, “Why did you do that?” at the warrior who seemed to be in charge. “You let them take Tamisin!”
“No, we didn’t,” said the fairy, a tall slender man with hair the same shade of silver as his eyes. “You did. The vine would have brought her to us if you hadn’t been in the way.”
A blue-haired warrior who had been listening to a swarm of fairies no bigger than the bumblebees nodded, then turned to the silver-haired fairy and announced, “Colonel Silverthorn, Fifth Platoon reports that the goblins are retreating!”
“Mugwort, Crabgrass, Sumac, have your platoons follow them in air formation with dust ready for deployment at your discretion. The rest of you, reload your reeds and arm yourselves with wands. We’re going after the princess before they can take her underground. And remember, today the only good goblin is a sleeping goblin!”
“What about me?” asked Jak.
Colonel Silverthorn looked annoyed at the interruption. “You don’t count. You’re half human.”
“I mean, where do you want me to go?” said Jak. “I want to help get the princess back.”
“Just stay out of the way, halfling,” the colonel said. “This is a job for fairies.”
As far as Jak could tell, all the fairies had done so far was let Tamisin fall into the hands of the goblins. Even so, he would help the fairies if it meant he could keep her safe. He didn’t care why else the fairies and the goblins were fighting; all he was concerned about was Tamisin. “I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine,” he said. “And my name isn’t Halfling. It’s Jak!”
While some of the fairies made themselves tiny and flew with their platoons after the fleeing goblins, the rest re-armed themselves even as they ran. The fairies were fast, but Jak was faster and reached the bottom of the hill before any of the full-sized warriors. At first he thought that no one was there. The shrubs at the base of the hill weren’t thick enough to hide anyone, and the trees were too spindly for anyone to have climbed. But then he began to hear voices so close by that he could have sworn they were all around him.
“Uh, oh! There are the fairies! Quick, we have to hide!”
“They’re going to get us if we’re not careful.”
“I’m afraid! What do you think they’ll do to us?”
Then the fairies were there searching the area and looking puzzled when they couldn’t find anyone. “I can hear them, but I don’t see them,” said the colonel. “They must have found a way to make themselves invisible.”
“No, they haven’t,” said Jak. “It’s a trap. They aren’t here at all. They’re throwing their voices to make us think they’re here, only I’m not sure why.”
“No one is this good at voice projection,” said Colonel Silverthorn. “They have to be somewhere close by.”
“I tell you, they’re not here. We have to leave,” said Jak. “Don’t you hear that?”
“It sounds like thunder,” said one of Silverthorn’s lieutenants.
Jak shook his head. “Look!” A dark shape was approaching from the far side of a neighbouring hill. Jak couldn’t tell what it was until he saw the tossing heads and the shape resolved into individual beasts. “They’re driving the hipporines this way!”
“Hippowhats?” asked Colonel Silverthorn. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. If you were sent here to mislead us, I’ll deal with you myself, you . . .”
“There,” said Jak, pointing at the beasts. A hipporine screamed. While Colonel Silverthorn watched the animals with disbelief, Jak dashed to the nearest hillside and climbed until he was higher than the hipporines could reach. Rearing and bucking, the hipporines charged at the fairies.
“Run!” Jak shouted to the colonel, who was still watching, dumbstruck. The first of the hipporines was almost on the colonel when he made himself small. The tiny fairy darted out from under the rearing hipporine. A moment later the colonel was standing beside Jak, full-sized once again. The few fairies who’d been slow to change were nearly overrun and came away from the encounter dazed. One fairy was struck with a hoof and flew erratically when he finally made himself smaller.
“I’ve never seen anything like them before,” said Colonel Silverthorn.
“The goblins were probably counting on that,” said Jak. “My uncle has been keeping them hidden for years.”
“Your uncle?” the colonel asked, eyeing Jak with suspicion.
“Targin, my mother’s brother.”
When the hipporines discovered that the fairies had taken refuge on higher ground, some of the animals screamed in rage as they scrabbled up the hillside, stopping only when it became too steep. The rest paced back and forth just below the fairies, waiting for them to come down.
“We’ll have to neutralise those beasts somehow,” said Colonel Silverthorn. “We can’t have them running loose like this.”
“Don’t hurt them!” Jak said. “We can take them away from here – to somewhere they won’t hurt anyone.”
“On my way here I saw a valley that might work,” said one of the lieutenants. “It was a dead end, so if we could get the beasts to go in . . .”
“You could close off the other end. That’s a great idea,” said Jak. “I think I know the valley you mean.”
“And how do you suggest we herd these animals?” Colonel Silverthorn asked.
“Leave that to me,” said Jak. “If I can get the head stallion to go, the rest will follow him. Just make sure you close them in once I get them in the valley.”
Putterby, the stallion, and half a dozen other hipporines were still raging at the fairies when Jak started down the hill. They lunged at him, rearing up and pawing the air while he tried to soothe them with his voice.
“Look at those monsters,” said the colonel as the hipporines pawed the ground, tearing up great clods of dirt. “That boy will never be able to control them.”
Jak slipped among the hipporines, deftly avoiding their teeth and hooves until he reached the stallion, who turned an intelligent eye to his old friend and stood, sides quivering, nostrils flaring. Putterby snorted as Jak ran his hand down the stallion’s neck. Then in one smooth movement the boy leaped on to the hipporine’s back and squeezed the animal’s heaving sides with his legs. The hipporine turned his head and tried to bite Jak’s foot, but his neck was too short to reach. Slipping his hand into the beast’s coarse mane, Jak got a good grip and held on. Furious, the beast tried to buck him off. The other hipporines scattered as Putterby gyrated from hillside to path and back again, but Jak’s legs were too strong and his hold was too tight.
With one last toss of his head, Putterby started to run. Although he protested every time Jak kicked his side, the stallion turned where Jak wanted him to go. From the thunder of hooves behind them, Jak didn’t have to turn around to know that the other hipporines were following, but he was relieved to see the twinkle of lights as two platoons of fairies kept pace on either side.
The goblins had made it plain right away that they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Tamisin if she didn’t do what they wanted. That hadn’t been a surprise, considering who had grabbed her. Nihlo had been sent with the patrol to watch for approaching fairies. Having captured the princess, he’d been given the job of watching over her, which seemed to make him angry. Tamisin’s jaw ached where Nihlo had hit her when she tried to talk to him as he dragged her down the hill to Targin’s den. The grizzled cat goblin who stood at the door sent them to join other goblins in an already crowded room. At first Tamisin thought that a goblin named Wulfrin was in charge. Lean-bodied and with flowing grey hair, he had the air of a predator about him. Then Targin arrived to look out the hidden opening in the side of the hill and everyone’s attention switched to him. Tamisin didn’t know what happened, but whatever Targin saw made him angry, and he left in a hurry after snarling at the goblins to await further orders.
“I can’t see the hipporines any more,” said a baboon-faced goblin, his nose pressed against the wavy glass.
“How many fairies do you see?” Wulfrin asked.
The baboon goblin scratched his backside and shook his head. “Don’t know. They move around too much to count.”
“He probably can’t count that high,” sniggered another goblin.
“Shut up!” snapped the baboon goblin.
“Stop your squabbling and tell me what the fairies are doing now,” Wulfrin said.
Trying to see out, the smaller goblin rubbed his face along the glass, leaving a dirty smear. “Can’t see ’em from here. Maybe they left too.”
Suddenly the door slammed open and one of the cat goblins stuck his head in the room. “Targin is outside,” he told Nihlo. “He wants you to bring the fairy girl to him.”
“Move it,” said Nihlo, shoving Tamisin towards the door. She kept her eyes lowered, afraid that Nihlo would consider anything, including eye contact, to be a direct challenge.
Thunder rumbled. Remembering what Jak had told her about her connection to thunder, Tamisin raised her head to listen. She decided to try a little experiment, so she took long, deep breaths in an effort to calm down. When the thunder stopped, she ducked her head so no one could see her smile.
Tamisin was determined not to do anything to attract Nihlo’s attention. She might be able to escape if he was distracted. Now that they were in the hallway, he wasn’t watching her as closely as he had been and seemed more interested in what everyone else was doing. His head turned every time a goblin passed them as if he was looking for someone. Tamisin didn’t think anything of it until a figure in a hooded cloak stopped to speak to Nihlo. The newcomer’s face was hidden, but when she reached up to pull her hood further forward, her sleeves fell back and Tamisin could see her hands. It was Lurinda, which didn’t make sense. Why would the goblin woman try to conceal her identity in her very own home?
Whatever Lurinda said to him, it must have had something to do with Tamisin because Nihlo glanced in her direction more than once during their conversation. When Lurinda finished talking, she turned to walk away, but Tamisin cried out, “Wait, Lurinda! I need to talk to you.”
The hooded figure paused and glanced back. “What is it, halfling?”
“I don’t understand why you’re working against Titania. From everything you’ve told me, I thought you were her friend. You’ve kept her secret all these years. Why have you turned against her now?”
Lurinda closed the gap between them in two long strides. When she spoke, her whispered voice shook with anger. “I was her servant and her confidant, but I was never her friend, although I tried to be. I consoled her when she fought with Oberon and I was by her side when you were born. You were the offspring of the fairy queen and a human who had been changed by magic into a parody of a goblin. Do you know how degrading that would have been for goblins everywhere, and how much they would have hated your mother? I couldn’t let that happen, not to Titania, not then. I was the one who convinced her that she needed to give you up. When you were taken away I thought that everything would be as it had been. But it wasn’t. Titania said that she couldn’t bear to look at me because it made her think of you. She gave me a lesser post where she rarely saw me. I would have been better off if she had released me from her service, but I was stuck there until they thought I was too old to be of any use. I’m free now and it’s time she paid for the way she treated me.”
Whirling on her heel, Lurinda strode away, leaving Tamisin speechless. This was the woman who had stolen her from her mother only days before. She was also the woman who had talked her mother into sending the infant Tamisin to the human world.
“Move it!” growled Nihlo, shoving Tamisin so that she stumbled towards the door.
The den was in rolling countryside, forested except for the paths and clearings that the goblins had created over centuries of use. Nearby hills concealed other dens, also belonging to members of the cat clan. What was normally a quiet forest whose only sound was birdsong and the creaking of branches in the wind had become a battleground filled with goblins herding flocks of battering rams ready to knock down the enemies’ defences, strategically placed goblins hefting spears as they waited for the fighting to begin, and goblins camouflaging themselves in the trees.
Nihlo was prodding her towards a large group of goblins when the fairies began their attack. A platoon of tiny fairy warriors zoomed low to sprinkle yellow dust on the heads of the goblins herding the rams. Two of the goblins sneezed, and they all looked up as the last of the drifting dust settled on their heads and shoulders.
“Fairy dust!” shrieked a goblin, slapping at his clothes. The first goblin to fall asleep settled to the ground with a sigh. The second fell in a boneless heap, snoring before he hit the dirt. With their shepherds asleep, the rams ran wild, butting everything in their way. By then the goblins were aware of what had happened, so when the fairy platoon approached another group of goblins, they were met with waving spears that swatted them aside like flies.
Over on another hillside, a group of big fairy warriors was building a barricade of rocks. Spear-carrying goblins ran towards them, but a swarm of tiny warriors zoomed into the air, carrying heavy sacks from which they sprinkled dust on any goblin who came too close. This time it was blue dust that made the goblins’ feet grow so enormous that they slapped the ground like paddles, making walking almost impossible. Then there was purple dust that made their noses grow so long and heavy that the goblins had to struggle to hold up their heads. Some goblins were coated with dust of both colours.
It wasn’t long before the fairies building the barricade were finished. Gathering behind it, they aimed their wands and shot bolts of icy air at the goblins. They were so intent on their larger targets that they didn’t notice a small rat goblin who, scurrying from stone to tree to shrub, stayed hidden until he reached the barricade. After placing his hand on the rock wall for only a moment, he squealed with delight when it turned into a clump of pointy-topped mushrooms, leaving the fairies exposed.
The rat goblin was running back towards goblin lines when an angry fairy pointed a wand at him. A blast of cold air shot from the wand, turning the goblin into an ice-covered statue. He made a pitiful keening sound as he froze, drawing the attention of every goblin around. Hundreds of goblin eyes turned towards the fairies. A moment later, a flood of roaring, barking, snarling goblins descended on the fairies, who suddenly became small, making the air sparkle as they flew away. A few remained behind to freeze the oncoming goblins.
When it looked as if these last few fairy warriors were about to be overwhelmed, a goblin with a horsey face howled, “Lamias!”
Nihlo jerked his head towards the top of the hill where a group of older goblins were gathering and told Tamisin, “We’ll go up there. That’s probably where my father is anyway.”
They had climbed partway up the hill when a goblin ran screaming past the spot where they’d been standing. Tamisin looked back as a lamia with long golden hair slithered after the goblin. Nihlo hustled Tamisin up the hillside, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure there weren’t any lamias following them too.
When they reached the top of the hill, they found a large group of goblins clustered at the edge of a clearing. Wulfrin was in front beside Targin, but Lurinda, still wearing her hooded cloak, was in the back behind the taller goblins. Titania stood on the opposite side of the clearing, the air sparkling around her as warriors of all sizes stood guard over their queen. Tamisin glimpsed the small, masked figure of Tobi peeking through the branches behind the fairy warriors, but she didn’t see Jak anywhere. She’d last seen him being dragged towards the fairies when the goblins recaptured her, but now that she didn’t see him with them she feared that he had been injured or worse.
Targin and Wulfrin were busy arguing when a hush settled over the assembled fairies. They were all watching as Titania raised her hand, her fingers outstretched, her palm taut. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then Tamisin felt something move beneath her feet, forcing its way from the earth. She hopped on to a large rock as roots erupted through the grass, whipping the air as they reached for something, anything. Thick tendrils wrapped around Nihlo’s leg, making him swear and reach for his knife, but they tightened their grip and dragged him downwards. Staggering, he stepped back into the clutches of another thick root that wound around his knees and yanked him off his feet completely. When the other goblins tried to run away, roots tripped them and wrapped themselves around their squirming bodies. The goblins who could still move their hands pulled at the roots with their fingers, or tried to cut them with knives, but only a few could free themselves.
“Transmogrification!” bellowed Targin, and they all seemed to know what to do. One after the other the goblins bent down and closed their eyes, and when they opened them, the roots were roots no longer. The goblin in front of Tamisin turned them into morning glory vines, which he ripped out of the ground. Another changed the roots into hair that he clipped as neatly as a barber.
Then tiny fairies descended on the goblins, flinging pink dust. Only a few goblins fell asleep before Targin again signalled to his warriors. They raised reeds to their mouths and shot thorns at the fairies, piercing the tiny bodies so that they fell to the ground, still and silent. As their fellow fairy warriors bellowed, Titania called up a breeze that whisked her fallen soldiers back to her side of the clearing. Nymphs emerged from the trees to tend to the injured warriors, while the few tiny fairies who had not been injured straggled back to await the orders of their queen.
The wind grew stronger, blowing into the goblins’ faces, making their eyes tear and their noses stream, plucking the reeds from the goblins’ hands, rending the spears from their grips, and leaving them without any weapons but their wits. While the other goblins watched, Targin reached down and picked up a stone. His eyes were closed and his brow was furrowed as he turned the stone into a buzzing, straining wasp nest, sealed shut from the outside. Pulling back his arm, he hurled the nest into the midst of the fairies, where it hit the ground and exploded in a shower of dry powder, releasing the furious insects. Fairies shouted, slapping at their clothes, their hair and their skin as other goblins followed his lead and threw wasp nests of their own. And then Titania’s lips moved and the wasps turned to fly straight back at the goblins who had sent them.
At the wasps’ approach, Tamisin pulled her sleeves down and covered her face with her arms, but the insects seemed to shy away from her, attacking the goblins around her instead. The goblins were still flailing at the wasps when Titania spoke once more and the ground beneath them stirred as springs bubbled through the soil.
Although the rock upon which Tamisin stood gave her firm footing, the goblins near her staggered as the ground turned mushy beneath them. Goblins sank into the soil up to their knees, crying out to their comrades for help, while Titania raised her voice, calling on a colder wind that circled the goblins and froze the ground, trapping their feet in the hardening, freezing mud.
Targin picked up another stone, cupped it in his hands, and dropped a red-hot coal on to the ground. Steam rose from the soil, inspiring the other goblins, who found stones and bits of twig on the ground near them and turned them into glowing embers or flaming logs. But no matter how hard they tried, the ice refused to thaw, and they remained trapped.
When it looked as if the goblins had nothing else they could do, Titania motioned again. The ground rumbled and suddenly the air seemed to be tinged with gold. “Name yourself, goblin,” Titania said to Targin in a voice as clear as if she were standing only feet away.
Although he was sunk in the frozen ground up to his knees, Targin kept his back ramrod straight and crossed his arms. “I am Targin, head of the cat clan,” he said. “I am ready to negotiate.”
“And why would I negotiate with you?”
“Because my goblins captured your daughter,” said Targin.
“Yet you don’t seem able to grasp that you have lost.”
“But I haven’t. You’ll get your daughter back as soon as we’ve reached an agreement. My people are unhappy with your rule,” Targin said. “They yearn to return to a time when goblins ruled goblins and answered to no one else.”
“You and I both know that isn’t possible. I’m not parcelling off my kingdom for anyone.”
“Either you do what we want or we’ll give your halfling to the lamias.”
“And do you really think I’d stand for that?” asked the queen.
“What would you do, call lightning down on our heads?” asked Targin. “Make us half donkeys like the princess’s father? Wait! It was Oberon who perpetrated that travesty. You just fell in love with the man who mocked goblins.” The goblins behind him became restless, muttering to each other in lowered voices.
Nihlo sneered at Tamisin. “Did you hear that? My father wants to feed you to the snake women.” Tamisin tried not to flinch when he pinched her arm hard enough to leave a bruise. These creatures were willing to let her die to get what they wanted; they didn’t know that Lamia Lou was her friend. If only there was something she could do . . .
Titania was talking to Targin again, but Tamisin couldn’t hear her over Nihlo’s taunting. She held on to her anger, adding to it her memories of all the cruel things people had ever said or done to her. When she pictured Lurinda telling her how she’d talked Titania into sending Tamisin away, thunder rumbled over the forest, growing louder the angrier Tamisin became.
Lurinda turned towards Nihlo and gave him a signal with her hand. Nihlo nodded and glanced at Tamisin. When she saw his knife, she suddenly understood. Everything Gammi had said about her sister came back to Tamisin – how she held on to grudges and how she was a bad person to cross. Keeping her eyes on Nihlo’s knife, Tamisin let her anger and fear grow, knowing it was the only way she was going to get out alive. Goblins shrieked as lightning struck a tree at the edge of the clearing and thunder crashed overhead.
Targin pointed his finger at the queen. “Your theatrics won’t work with us. You can bring lighting down on our heads and we still won’t change our minds.”
Titania glanced up at the sky and made a calming motion with her hand. When the thunder didn’t subside, she looked puzzled. Turning to the fairy warriors beside her, she said something that only they could hear. Then they too, began to look confused.
Nihlo was hauling Tamisin closer with one hand while brandishing his knife with the other when Jak pushed his way through the goblins. Tamisin gasped when Jak appeared at her side, but he didn’t look at her. Pulling back his fist, he struck his cousin with such force that Nihlo let go of Tamisin and fell against the goblin behind him.
“Don’t ever touch her again,” Jak snarled.
“And who’s going to stop me?” Nihlo asked, feeling his swollen lip.
Jak pulled a knife out of a sheath on his belt and said, “Who do you think?”
“Jak, are you –,” Tamisin began.
“I’m fine,” he said, sparing her a quick glance. He must have noticed that she’d opened her wings partway, because he added, “Get out of here while you can.”
Thunder boomed as lightning ripped the sky again. A fierce wind thrashed the branches of the forest; a soaking rain pelted everyone until hair, fur and feathers were wet and bedraggled. Targin gestured for his goblins to bring Tamisin forward, but her wings were already spread wide behind her and her feet were leaving the ground. Unlike that long-ago Halloween when the wind had slowed her down while she fled the goblins, this time it acted as her ally, enveloping her in a pocket of calm as it pushed the goblins away. Targin’s goblins fought to take hold of her, but Tamisin beat her wings once, twice, and then the wind carried her high above the ground, leaving the goblins, her mother and everyone else watching her in astonishment. Full-blooded fairies couldn’t really fly when they were big because their wings weren’t strong enough, but then, she wasn’t really a fairy. Tamisin Warner was something much better. She was a halfling.
It wasn’t hard to find Lamia Lou. All Tamisin had to do was wait until the screaming goblins ran past and see who was chasing them. When she found a lamia with long dark hair, she flew low enough to see her face, then landed on the ground beside her. “Hi!” Tamisin said. “I have a favour to ask of you, but before I tell you, can I ask why you’re chasing the goblins? I thought you didn’t like eating them anymore.”
“I don’t,” said Lamia Lou. “They thay that goblins tathte like chicken, but they’re wrong. If you athk me, chicken tathte much better. But we aren’t chathing the goblinth becauthe we want to eat them. We jutht want them to thtop being tho noithy. Everyone in my family ith very thenthitive to noithe. It hurth our earth.”
“You mean you come here to make them stop being noisy, then they see you and get even noisier, so you chase them?”
“That’th it,” said Lamia Lou. “Now what about that favour?”
“It’s really very simple . . . ,” said Tamisin.
When Tamisin returned to the top of the hill, she found Titania and Targin still arguing and everyone else looking wet and miserable. The ground had thawed, releasing the goblins. Lurinda and Nihlo were gone. To her relief, Jak was still on his feet.
The storm had died down while Tamisin talked to Lamia Lou, leaving the ground so soggy that it squelched under her feet when she landed. Everyone seemed surprised to see her, but she couldn’t decide if it was because they had been unable to believe their eyes the first time or because they thought she had gone and wasn’t coming back.
“Hello, Mother, Targin,” she said, nodding to each in turn. “I see you haven’t settled your differences yet.”
Targin glared at her, obviously angry that she hadn’t been the bargaining tool he’d wanted. It was her mother who spoke up first, and even she sounded angry with Tamisin. “Why are you here? I was proud of you for escaping from this lout on your own, but I see no reason for you to return.”
“I came for you, Mother. And for him,” Tamisin said, gesturing towards Targin. “I wanted to give you some advice. You need to stop threatening each other. You’ll never get anywhere that way. I want you two to sit down and work things out like responsible adults. I know you want to be a good queen, Mother, and do what’s best for your subjects. And you,” she said, turning to Targin, “want what you think is best for your people. It seems to me that you already have similar goals.”
“We don’t need your advice,” said Targin.
“That’s too bad,” said Tamisin. “Because my friends and I aren’t going anywhere and neither are you until you reach an agreement, no matter how long it takes.”
“What friends?” Targin asked with a sneer. “If you mean my nephew, that boy’s a traitor and deserves to be whipped for letting you go.”
“I think the princeth meanth uth,” lisped a voice from the woods as four lamias slithered into the clearing to the horror of everyone except Tamisin. “My name ith Lamia Lou and I’m a good friend of Princeth Tamithin. That maketh her a friend of my thithterth, too. Unh, unh,” she said, rattling her tail at a goblin who looked as if he were about to run away. “You heard the princeth. No one leaveth until we thay they can.”
Tamisin was enjoying herself immensely. “Thank you, Lamia Lou.”
“Your threat won’t work on me, Tamisin,” said Titania. “I could leave any time.”
“That’s true,” said Tamisin. “But some of your fairies might get hurt and you wouldn’t want that.”
Titania glanced at the nymphs who were still tending to the fallen fairies. She turned to Targin. “What exactly are your demands?”
“We want to control what goes on in our territory. We’ll obey your laws when we’re elsewhere in your kingdom, but we want to make our own laws inside our forest. And we don’t want our children taken from us to serve at your court indefinitely. We want a set period of time and we want their service to be voluntary.”
Titania frowned. “That’s ridiculous. There would be chaos if every group of fey made its own laws. I can’t possibly consider it!”
“Isn’t there something you could do, Mother?” said Tamisin. “If the goblins are really so unhappy . . .”
Titania sighed. “Perhaps you can write your own laws regarding some matters, but there are others that must stay the same throughout the kingdom. Travellers must be able to pass through your forest in safety, so the laws against killing and eating them cannot change.”
Targin nodded. “And as to the children serving at the royal court?”
“I must discuss it with my advisers, but I don’t think your request is too unreasonable.”
Titania and Targin were still talking when Jak came up behind Tamisin trailing a dozen cats. “Are you all right?” asked Tamisin. “What happened with you and Nihlo?”
“Nihlo didn’t have the stomach for a real fight once he saw that his poison no longer affected me. I guess he’d already used it on me too many times, plus his father gave me the antidote a few days ago. Nihlo took off when I didn’t collapse after he pricked me,” Jak said, showing her a hole in his sleeve. “How are you?”
“I’m fine now that you’re back.”
“If you two are finished,” said Titania, “we’d like to go.”
“Is everything settled?” asked Tamisin.
“Her Royal Majesty will be convening a meeting of the heads of all the goblin clans,” said Targin. “She assures me that we will be able to work out something.”
“Good,” said Tamisin. “And I want you both to give me your word that neither fairy nor goblin shall bother us should Jak and I return to the human world.”
“So be it,” replied Titania. “No fairy under my command shall follow you or cause you mischief or harm in the human world.”
“And I give my word for my goblins,” said Targin.
“Oh, there’s one other thing,” Tamisin added after glancing at the lamias. “You should know that loud noises hurt the lamias’ ears. It tends to make them angry. I don’t think you want to make them angry, do you?”
“No! Of course not!” said Targin. “I never knew . . .”
“I thank you for your help, ladies,” Tamisin told the lamias. “You may go now.” The collective sigh of relief from fairies and goblins sounded like a breeze passing through the clearing.
“It’s ’bout time!” Tobi said as he climbed down from the tree and hurried over to join them. “I thought ya’d keep us here till morning. Uh-oh!” Tobi scurried behind Jak and Tamisin as the lamias slithered closer. The cats hissed and drew nearer to Jak.
The goblins were already disbanding when Herbert trotted out of the forest. “Lamia Lou,” he called. “Are you ready to go? You said you wouldn’t be long. I’ve missed my slithering sweetie.”
“I’ve mithed you, too, Thtud Muffin!” replied Lamia Lou. “Come over here and let me introduthe you to my thithterth. Thith ith Lamia Lee and thith ith Lamia Lynn and thith ith Lamia Thlamia, my baby thithter. Girlth, thith ith Herbert!”
“Ladies!” Herbert said, whuffling his lips in admiration.
“Tamisin, I’d like to talk to you,” said Titania. “That was clever of you to dance the way you did down in the goblins’ cave. I don’t know why, but your dancing draws my fairies like no one else’s can. Unfortunately, it took longer to locate you when you were underground. My warriors were unable to find you until the cats showed them the hole in the clearing. Thank goodness the cats like you so much, Jak.”
“Yeah,” said Jak, nudging a persistent cat away with his foot. “It’s great.”
“Are you really returning to the human world now?” asked Titania. “You’re both welcome to stay with me for as long as you’d like.”
Tamisin glanced at Jak, then back at Titania. She wanted to answer her mother without hurting her feelings, but she wasn’t quite sure how to do it. “That’s kind of you,” she finally said, “but you were right when you told me that I belong in the human world. I have family and friends who care about me there, and Jak’s family . . . well, he’d be better off there too.”
Titania nodded. “It’s probably just as well. You’ll be safer in the human world, at least until I’ve met with the heads of the clans and things have calmed down. But even there you’ll have to be careful. I meant what I said about my fairies leaving you alone. However, there are some fairies who don’t listen to me. And I’ve only just learned that my former handmaiden Lurinda stole one of my most valuable rings. Shortly before she left my service she made it appear as if another handmaiden had taken it, but I’ve always suspected Lurinda. She’s proven her guilt by taking you the way she did, which she couldn’t have done without the ring. It’s a ring of power that can open any Gate, at any time, which is how she brought you here, Tamisin, and how she got away. I have to find her and get the ring back. Lurinda has already used it more in the last few days than I did over all the years I had it in my possession. The ring shouldn’t be used lightly. Using it too frequently will weaken the fabric that divides the human and the fey, with potentially disastrous consequences. I don’t know what she hopes to accomplish, but I doubt it will benefit anyone but her. Remember, she can use my ring to go anywhere she pleases, so be careful, whatever you do. I just hope that the human world is safer for you than this one has proven to be.”
“We’ll keep our eyes open,” said Jak.
“If you’re going back today, I have it on good authority,” Titania said, darting a glance at her fairy warriors, “that a Gate is open across the Sograssy Sea at the edge of Deep Blue Lake. Ordinarily it would take you a day to reach it and you wouldn’t get there before it closes, but considering who your friends are . . .”
“That sounds perfect,” said Tamisin.
Targin had joined them while they were talking to Titania. “I wanted to apologise to you, Jak. You were doing what you thought was best, and since I never told you what I was doing or why . . . Let’s just say that things might have gone differently.”
Jak nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“What about me, Princess? Are ya still annoyed at good ole Tobi?” the little goblin asked, peeking out from behind Jak.
“That remains to be seen,” said Tamisin.
“Herbert and I would be happy to take you acroth the thea,” said Lamia Lou. “We’re going acroth anyway. I want Herbert to meet the retht of my family.”
“How many are there?” Tamisin whispered to Jak.
“I don’t think anyone has ever counted them,” Jak whispered back. “And I doubt anyone really wants to.”