Green (10 page)

100

Lying in the dirt with two keeper tests still before me, I would have given anything to beam myself home somehow.

Cain snored on, oblivious. A full moon edged into the sky, silvering our campsite like a scene from a black-and-white movie. I could see every lump of gravel, each needle on the nearby pines. Nothing stirred, not even a breeze. As the moon arced slowly overhead, I felt myself losing what little confidence I had.

No pisky is coming
, I thought.
For all I know, they don't even exist. This could be some sort of leprechaun snipe hunt
.

Maybe the real test was just whether or not I was brave enough to follow Cain through the dark and sleep in the woods overnight.

I'll bet that's it!
I thought.
They were seeing if I'd chicken out!

I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. The night seemed suddenly safer and warm. The ground softened beneath me. My breathing slowed and leveled, carrying me right to the verge of sleep.

A tiny cork popped at my back. My eyes jerked instantly open.

A pisky was into the ale.

I held my breath, listening. There was no sound in the forest now, not a crackle, not a whisper.

Then something brushed the back of my neck, a touch so light it was barely more than a shiver down my spine. The

101

next instant, the gold chain suspending my keeper key yanked tight against my throat, pulled hard from behind.

"Hey!" My hands fumbling at the chain, I struggled to keep it from choking me as I staggered to my feet.

I whirled right, then left. I couldn't see anyone behind me, but the pressure on the chain increased. Wings whirred so close I felt their wind on my ears. And then something small pushed on the back of my neck, using it for leverage. Giving up trying to control the chain, I reached around to grab whatever was pulling on it. A creature that felt like a giant moth skittered from under my fingertips and ran up into my hair.

I screamed with fear and revulsion, jolting Cain out of his dreams. "Catch it! Hold it!" he shouted, still barely awake.

Summoning all my willpower, I clapped both hands down on my head, cupping them over the spot the creature had fled. Trapped wings beat frantically against my palms. A tiny body thrashed back and forth like a rabid bat's.

"Eew, eew,
eew!"
I cried, jumping from foot to foot.

"Now, pisky, we caught you fair and square!" Cain bellowed. "Settle yourself and hear our demands!"

There was a split second of calm. Then a set of sharp teeth sank painfully into my thumb.

"Yooowwww!" I howled, nearly letting go.

"Aye, they bite a bit," Cain said.

"You couldn't tell me that
before?"

102

Somehow I held on, pushing my hands into a closed trap and bringing them down in front of my face. The pisky inside fluttered crazily, desperate for a way out. My heart was beating as fast as its wings, but there was no backing out now.

"Just calm down," I begged the pisky. "I'm not going to hurt you. I only need to ask for a wish."

The wish!
In a sickening rush, I realized I'd been so busy worrying about
catching
a pisky that I'd never worked out what to wish for. My mind raced frantically.

"Tell it your wish!" Cain urged. "Make it do your bidding!"

I couldn't even see the thing. Was I supposed to talk through my hands? Besides, I needed to stall long enough to think of something.

"How does this sound?" I asked the pisky. "I'll open a little hole and you poke your head out, real slow. Don't try to fly off or I'll have to squeeze."

I braced to be bitten again. Nothing happened.

"Okay, here goes," I said, psyching myself up.

I flexed my thumbs slightly, creating the smallest opening I could. A tufty brown head popped out between them, wearing an indignant expression.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry about this!" I said. "I'll only bother you a second."

The pisky stuck out its tongue at me, a rude slash of pink between toffee-colored lips.
So
not Tinker Bell.

103

"You're a little thief!" Cain accused. "Going after our private things when we left you so much loot."

"And you're a big one," the pisky retorted in a shrill, whistle-y voice. It bared its teeth in Cain's direction, sharp upper and lower canines like twin sets of fangs. Cain was out of reach, though. The only things close enough to chomp were my thumbs, one of which was dripping blood.

"Okay! Let's not argue," I said, intervening quickly.

The pisky glared at me. "Key."

"What?" I suddenly realized the pisky had dropped Gigi's key in our scuffle. It now hung safely down my back, still attached to its gold chain. "What about it?"

"Mine," said the pisky. "Give me."

"Impertinent bit o' sass!" Cain exclaimed. "That's the keeper key o' the Clan o' Green!"

The teeth came out again.

"It belonged to my grandmother," I explained. "That key is the best thing I have of hers. I ... Go ahead and bite me," I said, resigned. "I can't give it to you."

The pisky's expression turned suddenly sweet. "Pretty wee shiny thing," it wheedled. "You
can
give it to me."

"I really can't. Sorry."

The creature started squirming again, its wings beating against my palms. I straightened my thumbs, pinning its neck to keep it trapped. "Please! I don't want to hurt you. I didn't even want to catch you! But I have to ask for a wish."

104

"You
owe
her a wish, pisky! Those are the rules," Cain backed me up.

The pisky smiled and sank its fangs into my other thumb.

"Oooowww! You little--"

The creature lifted its head, licking blood from its lips. "What is your wish, Lilybet Green?"

"You ... How do you know my name?"

Its tongue flicked out and lapped my thumb again. "This blood is straight down Donal's line. Who else could you be?"

"Oh." Also, eew. "Wait, are you saying I'm related to Donal Green? The magician?"

"Obviously. Your wish?"

My wish
. I still had no clue. I turned to Cain in a panic.

"A kingdom!" he proposed excitedly. "A castle, crown, and subjects to the very ends o' the earth!"

"That's ... a lot," I said doubtfully.

The pisky's wings flapped once. It gave me a questioning look that made me even more nervous.

"I just want ... I mean, I wish ..."
What?
Catching this pisky had turned out to be the easy part. If I wished for the wrong thing, I could still end up in plenty of trouble.

"A pet dragon! With a saddle!" Cain urged. "They fly and they're fearsome and no one else has one."

"Do dragons actually exist?" I asked.

"We'll find out together, Lil!"

"Um ... I don't think so." If making any wish was

105

dangerous, then asking for a dragon had to be a death wish. The saying "Be careful what you wish for" rang through my brain like a ten-bell alarm. Was there anything I could ask for that wouldn't turn around and bite me? Literally?

I just want to go home
, I thought for the millionth time, realizing in the same moment that might actually be a safe wish. But what if I wished for home and the pisky sent me back to the keeper's hut? Or sent the whole clan to Providence with me? Would the Greens wipe my memory for trying to escape?

I wish I were Kendall's best friend
, I thought, trying that one out. If I asked for that, would the pisky bring Kendall to the Meadows and strand her with me? Or would something horrible, like a car accident, take Lola out of the picture? I didn't like the girl, but I didn't want to kill her.

I wish Gigi were here
. But that wish had the potential to turn out worst of all--what if the pisky brought me Gigi's body?
I could wish Gigi and I were together again instead
. Except that then I might end up dead too. Was there any way to twist a wish to make Gigi alive again into something bad? Could the pisky bring her back but make her hate me? Or turn her into a zombie?

Those were all chances I wasn't willing to take.

"Clover ale!" Cain burst out, unable to contain himself. "A river o' ale for the entire Clan o' Green for all eternity! You'll be a
hero
, Lil!"

106

No, it has to be something smaller
, I realized.
Much smaller. Something so insignificant it won't be worth twisting
.

But what?

What would Gigi do?

"I'm waiting," the pisky reminded me, its tiny black eyes boring into mine. Its foot tapped rapidly against my palm.

"For the love o' gold! Make a wish!" Cain cried.

"I wish ... I wish ... I wish you would accept all of our silver buttons and my sincere apology," I blurted out in a rush. "Take the gold coin too."

"That is your only wish?" the pisky asked me with a sly smile. "That is what you most truly desire?"

I didn't like the look of that smile. My heart beat like an off-center washing machine, but somehow I stood my ground. "Yes. I wish for
exactly
what I said. No more and no less--just that."

"Lil!" Cain wailed, collapsing with disappointment. He hit the ground hard, his legs stretched stiffly in front of him.

"Very well," said the pisky. "Wish granted."

I cringed fearfully, bracing for some unforeseen side effect. But all I heard was the pisky's small voice: "Release me now, Lilybet."

"Huh? Oh. Right."

I opened my hands into a shelf. The fully revealed pisky stood straddling my palms, skinny arms crossed over a scrawny chest. The creature wore a rough shift of brown

107

leaves. Its twiggy legs ended in clogs made of bark. And sprouting from the pisky's back were wings like a giant moth's, silver-gray, spotted, and glowing in the moonlight.

"Okay," I said. "You're all free."

Now that the wishing was over, the pisky seemed in a better mood. It grinned around its sharp teeth, its pointed face beaming. "A coin and all your silver buttons--pay up." It pointed to Cain's belt. "One of those pouches should hold them." Flying down off my hands, the pisky landed on the rock beside the dymer and waited expectantly.

"Right. Okay," I said. "Cain, give me one of your pouches."

"What?" he objected, finding his voice again. "You never promised it a pouch!"

"I'll get you another one," I growled between clenched teeth. I really didn't want to split hairs with a creature known for its powerful magic and bad attitude.

"How?" he asked. "With what?"

"Just ..." I glanced at the pisky. "It's only a pouch, Cain! Don't act crazy, okay?"

The pisky looked back and forth between us, tapping one bark clog. Cain sighed, unbuckled his belt, and handed me an empty pouch. Scooting hastily around the campsite, I filled it with the buttons and set it on the rock. The pisky dropped in the gold coin.

"That's a big load," I said. "Are you going to be able to carry all that?"

108

The pisky gave me a suspicious look. "Lilybet Green, are you trying to go back on your wish?"

"What? No."

"You owe me more silver buttons."

"I don't! I said take them all, and that's all of them."

"Not
all
." The pisky looked at Cain again.

"Cain, are you hiding more ...?" The answer hit me all at once. "Oh."

"What?" he demanded. "I'm not hiding any blessed buttons!"

"Not
hiding
them," I agreed, pointing.

He looked blankly down at his belly before my meaning became clear. "By all that glitters!" he groaned. Pulling a knife from his belt, he began cutting buttons off his coat.

"Sorry, Cain. When I said
all
our silver buttons--"

"Ach, girl, never mind. No one wishes on a pisky without losing something. You did all right, considering. Although why you didn't wish for something worth having ..."

"I
have
been asked for more," the pisky acknowledged, watching Cain closely. "Not successfully, you understand. But they will ask."

"I'm sorry to have bothered you at all," I said, handing over the extra buttons. "My clan made me do it, as a test for my keeper trial."

The pisky closed the strings at the top of Cain's pouch and gave me an appraising look. "You're a rare one, Lilybet Green.