Goblin Moon (49 page)

Inside the laboratory, Caleb moved swiftly, snatching
up a little wicker cage from one of the long tables. In the dim
illumination of a single lanthorn, Sera could not see what the cage
contained but there was something moving about inside—a bird or a
small animal.

“Here now,” said Jed, looking around him in
considerable surprise. His gaze fell on a pile of books on one of
the tables. “You say we shouldn’t ask questions, but I want to
know—“

“Guess you seen them books afore,” said Caleb, as he
sidled out of the room. “You can explain to the young ladies. But
we got to go now; we got to go. Them books is proof of that. Reckon
they’d all be crumbling away to dust, if I’d finally killed him.
But they ain’t; so he’s still alive.”

Caleb disappeared through the door, but the others
did not immediately follow him. They were still too stunned by all
they had seen and heard, were still trying to make sense of it
all.

Then Jed crossed the room and gathered up an armful
of books. “Guess Mr. Owlfeather and the Guild ought to take a look
at these!” he said. With the books under one arm, he grabbed Elsie
by the hand and started to pull her out of the room. “Come along,
Sera, we don’t know if Uncle Caleb was telling the truth, but maybe
it’s not so safe to stay and find out.”

They were still in the bookshop when they heard
footsteps, rapidly descending the stairs. Without pausing to look
up the steps as they passed, Jed and Elsie ran out the door and
into the street, and Sera was only a step behind them.

Chapter
42

In which one Adventure ends, and a New one
begins.

The city of Ilben at the mouth of the river Lunn was
a thriving seaport: a collection of salt-scoured buildings; exotic
little shops selling curios from distant lands; shipyards,
warehouses, seamen’s boarding houses—all very clean and
breezy—separated from the ocean and her restless tides by a stout
seawall and a broad mud flat. Built out upon that dark expanse was
a network of piers and boardwalks bleached bone-white by the sun
and the wind, all leading down to a deep water harbor, where
fishing scows, pleasure boats, merchantmen, and navy ships rode
side by side with passenger vessels bound for all the ports of
Euterpe, Orania, and the New World.

On the tenth day of Fading, on the outskirts of the
town, a particularly large but otherwise plain and undistinguished
coach came clattering down the road from Thornburg and proceeded
toward the Ilben harbor. Inside this coach were Sera, Elsie, and
Jed—bound for the New World—and Mr. Hermes Budge and the dwarves
Mr. Owlfeather and Master Ule, who had come to see them off.

“This man: Thomas Penn or Thomas Kelly,” Mr.
Owlfeather was saying, “has apparently disappeared. And so has
Caleb Braun, who was last seen leaving Thornburg in great haste,
with some sort of a small animal that he carried in a cage. Yet
even without Mr. Braun to confirm them, we have been able to reach
certain conclusions. The man who killed your grandfather, Miss
Vorder, is apparently the same Thomas Kelly who made such a stir in
alchemical circles on the island of Mawbri one hundred and fifty
years ago! As he was known then to be a wicked and perilous man, it
now becomes apparent that you and Miss Elsie have
two
dangerous enemies to flee from instead of the
Duchess only. And that (among many other reasons) is why we have
arranged for you to travel such a distance.”

Elsie gave a tiny sigh and spoke in a small voice.
“Nova Imbria, it is the other side of the world. And to leave
without even saying good-bye to Mama and Papa; it is very hard. I
do not think I could bear it, if my dear Sera were not coming with
me—and Jedidiah, too!”

“Indeed,” said Sera, “this all comes about so
suddenly and so strangely. I understand the necessity, of
course—and the necessity, too, of a gentleman as escort—yet it
seems rather hard on poor Jed, who is leaving an excellent position
behind, and all his prospects for the future.

“There is no need for you to glare at me, Jedidiah,”
she added as he cast her a smoldering glance. “I know very well
that if you had not been asked, you would have put yourself
forward—but the fact remains you are coming along out of a sense of
duty, and not for your own advantage. I merely wished to point out
that I wished it were otherwise, and you were not forced to give up
so much for our sake.”

“In fact,” said Mr. Owlfeather, “it is not so bad as
you think. Mr. Braun is now in my employ, and he will be working
for me and earning wages all the time that he is in the New World.
I wish to know more about the glass and the porcelain trade as they
are now conducted on the continent of Calliope. Accordingly I have
commissioned Jedidiah to explore the matter thoroughly, to visit
manufactories in Nova Imbria, make observations as to quantity and
quality, and send all the information that he can gather, back to
me in Thornburg. If he serves me so well and industriously as he
has served Master Ule this last year, be sure that his prospects
will not suffer. “

The coach lurched as it hit a rut in the road. “Yes,”
said Sera, straightening her hat. “But nevertheless . . . !”

“Moreover,” said Master Ule, “he will also serve the
Glassmakers Guild by carrying with him those items—the books once
belonging to Thomas Kelly, and the magic parchment formerly in the
hands of the Duchess—which we are now sending to our brother
Glassmakers in Nova Imbria for safe-keeping. Now that Francis
Skelbrooke has revealed himself, in a manner of speaking, to the
Duchess, it will not take her long to realize—if indeed she has not
realized already—that it was he who stole the document from her.
From Skelbrooke to ourselves is not so great a step. Once she
begins to suspect that his association with the lodge was not so
innocent a thing as she once supposed, the parchment will no longer
be safe in our hands. We could not send either the books or the
parchment such a distance, except in the hands of a trustworthy
messenger like young Jedidiah. “

“We might have considered sending Mr. Budge,” added
Mr. Owlfeather, “were it not for the fact that he has such a
particular reason for wishing to stay—if not in Thornburg, which is
now too dangerous for him as well—at least on the continent. To be
brief: he is engaged to be married to my niece, Miss Garnet
Winterberry.”

“
Are
you, Mr. Budge?” Sera exchanged a fascinated
glance with Elsie. It was difficult to imagine the solemn and
sensible tutor in love with anyone, let alone entering into
anything as daring and romantic as a mixed marriage.

“I have that honor,” said Mr. Budge, turning slightly
pink.

“Fortunately,” went on Mr. Owlfeather, “young Mr.
Braun bears a superficial resemblence to you, Miss Sera, which
lends credibility to the roles you will be assuming: those of
brother and sister. Of course, his manners still lack polish
(though much improved, my boy, marvelously improved!) and his
speech is still just a little rough. But it is not at all uncommon
for boys of his age to be somewhat less elegant than their female
relations.”

By this time, they had reached the harbor. The coach
came to a halt, and everyone climbed out. The gentlemen stayed to
attend to the baggage—hastily bought and even more hastily
packed—while the girls walked ahead, out onto the windy
boardwalks.

“Jed
has
changed, “ Elsie
said, when they had walked some little distance. “He truly does
speak and behave in—in quite a respectable fashion.”

Sera sniffed loudly. “There is nothing in that. Jed
always could speak perfectly decently when he cared to make the
effort. Didn’t he and I take lessons together when we were small?
But he was always one to hide his light under a bushel, lest the
other boys and men who worked on the river get the idea that he was
getting above himself. He has a great deal of natural modesty,” she
added, with a sigh. “Even now, I rather suspect he would get on
much faster, if he weren’t so mortally afraid of appearing
presumptuous!”

She gave Elsie’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “But we
shall have sufficient opportunity to polish him up on shipboard. By
the time we land in Nova Imbria, Jed will be a perfect gentleman.
And then we shall see . . . what we shall see.”

“Miss Vorder, a word with you, if I may,” said Mr.
Budge, catching up with Sera, just as she and Elsie and Jed were
about to ascend the narrow gangplank to the big merchant vessel
which would take them across the sea. “We have not had the
opportunity to speak alone since Lord Skelbrooke took leave of us,
and I feel there are many things which I ought to tell you.”

“Yes,” said Sera, a little nervously, as she allowed
him to lead her aside from the others, past bales, and boxes and
trunks, and along the pier. “Perhaps you might begin by telling me
whether—whether you think it likely that Lord Skelbrooke will be
able to keep his promise. We are going so dreadfully far away, you
know, and we shall be covering our tracks as we go—so that even Mr.
Owlfeather will not know exactly where we are or where we are
heading—it hardly seems possible that Lord Skelbrooke will be able
to find us and receive an answer to the question he asked me.”

“Nevertheless,” said Mr. Budge, “I am persuaded that
he shall. He is a man of great resource and determination, and
obstacles are as nothing to him. And that is precisely why I think
it necessary for me to inform you of . . . certain unfortunate
traits in Lord Skelbrooke’s character.”

He shook his head sadly. “You are, perhaps, already
aware of a number of these—among them, his regrettable tendency to
be unnecessarily secretive, as when he failed to confide in Mr.
Owlfeather or any of his friends before his disappearance. Had he
told any one of them what he had guessed concerning Jarl Skogsrå,
then Mr. Owlfeather would have sent word to me, and your cousin
should not have suffered so very narrow an escape.” The tutor
heaved a sigh. “But it is all of a piece with his usual behavior,
and I should tell you that, though the Glassmakers do employ him as
a kind of an agent, his methods are sometimes so ruthless as to
cause considerable consternation among them.”

“Yes,” said Sera, standing there above the bright
water, with the wind blowing her skirts around her and fluttering
the ribbons on her hat. “I have seen Lord Skelbrooke when he was
very cold and very ruthless. But do you mean to tell me, Mr. Budge,
that these defects of character are irreparable?”

“By no means,” said Mr. Budge. “There is also much
goodness, much generosity, decency, and compassion in Francis
Skelbrooke. I do not consider, him a wicked man, so much as a man .
. . divided in his nature. And I have some hope that the love of a
good woman, such as yourself, might do much to heal that
division.”

Sera felt an odd lightening of her spirits. “Mr.
Budge, I thank you. I believe that you have done me a great
service, and Lord Skelbrooke as well.”

Budge inclined his head solemnly. “I shall rest
easier for knowing that. Farewell, Miss Vorder, and a safe voyage.
I hope that we may meet again, and under happier
circumstances.”

Sera took leave of Master Ule and Mr. Owlfeather, and
climbed the gangplank to the ship. She discovered Elsie and Jed
standing at the rail, gazing out across the blue water, into the
unknown distances into which they would be sailing.

Elsie slipped her hand into Sera’s. “How very strange
it seems. Only a few days ago, we thought we knew everything that
would happen to us for the rest of our lives, and now here we are,
quite unexpectedly, sailing to the New World. It seems I ought to
be frightened, but instead . . . I feel rather brave and
adventurous.”

It was very curious, thought Sera, but she felt
exactly the same. The future she saw before her was nothing at all
like the life she had imagined for herself, the safe, and sober,
and sensible existence; her grandfather was dead (she had not yet
been given the time to mourn for him but she knew that the tears
would come); she did not think that she would ever see Thornburg
again—yet here were Elsie and Jedidiah beside her; Francis
Skelbrooke would be following in his own good time; and a new life
in a new land beckoned.

“Indeed,” said Sera, with a toss of her head. “I am
perfectly convinced we are about to embark on a grand
adventure!”

###

About the Author

Teresa Edgerton is convinced that
she began telling stories as soon as she learned to
talk.

As a child she was a voracious
reader. However, her love affair with fantasy began at the age of
sixteen, when she first discovered the works of J. R. R Tolkien and
C. S. Lewis. Reading
The Lord of the
Rings
was a profound experience from which
she has never quite recovered.

Over the years, she has worked at
the usual number of mundane jobs: library page, telephone operator,
receptionist, and sales associate. She has also made puppets and
worked as a professional fortune-teller, which were much more fun,
though her true vocation has always been writing.

The author of eleven books, as
well as numerous short stories, reviews, and articles on writing,
she has finally fulfilled another life-long ambition: to be an
eccentric old lady in an equally eccentric old house hidden by rose
bushes and crammed full of books. The cats, however, are
borrowed.

You can visit her online
at:

Website:
http://teresaedgerton.com

Facebook:
http://www.facebook/teresa-edgerton

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