Green (3 page)

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I shook my head and blinked. He was still there, his boots stomping dents in my quilt as he walked closer. I smelled pipe smoke and grass and ... wet dog?

"Hello, Lilybet," he said.

"You kn-kn-know my name?"

"O' course! Now, don't go all shaky, Lil. And don't you dare scream or you'll tetch us up good."

My desk chair rolled across the floor and hit me behind the knees. Looking down, I saw two more rain-spattered little men pushing it, virtual clones of the first one except for the lack of beards on their pointed chins. I collapsed onto the seat, pretty sure I was hallucinating.

"You're not real," I said. "I mean, seriously. I'm imagining you guys, right?"

"We're as real as that key you're wearing, girl. Where do you think it came from?"

"I ... I ... This can't be healthy."

The bearded one jumped to the floor, bowing till his whiskers brushed wood. "Lilybet Green, we come to welcome you home on behalf o' the Clan o' Green. I am your humble brother Balthazar Green."

The other two lined up beside him and bowed as well. "Welcome, Lilybet. Your brother Maxwell Green," the second one said.

"Your brother Caspar Green," offered the third.

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I gripped the arms of my chair hard. Their corners dug into my palms, suggesting that I was still conscious.

"Um ... no offense, guys," I got out, "but I'm an only child."

"Depends how you look at it," Balthazar said. "Now pack up and let's be off. We've already drawn more attention than we want." He turned a withering gaze on Maxwell.

Maxwell hung his head. "That package wasn't supposed to explode."

"Yes it was," Caspar muttered.

"Well, to be sure." Maxwell gave me a pleading look. "But it wasn't supposed to
hurt
you, Lil. Cain said it would just add a bit o' flash."

"Flash?" I repeated uncertainly.

"Flair," Caspar supplied. "Excitement. Proper ceremony."

"But your hair ..." Maxwell wrung his hands. "That is a shame."

"Well, it can't be helped now." Balthazar shook his head. "Although frankly, Lil, I'm surprised. Who could have guessed you'd turn out to be so delicate?"

"Deli-
what?"
I sputtered. "I just survived a
bomb!"

"That bitty pop o' sparks? All right, all right! Let's not split hairs," he responded at my outraged expression. "Not any
more
hairs, I mean. I'm afraid we're off on the wrong foot, Lil. You do realize your grandmother sent us?"

"My grandmother?" I said with disbelief.

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He pointed to the key around my neck. "Maureen was one o' our own--but, then, you called her Gigi, right? We've been holding that key for your thirteenth birthday, just like we promised we would."

"Gigi gave
you
her key?"

"In a manner o' speaking. It's a long story, Lil, and she'd definitely want you to hear it. So put on some shoes and let's go."

"But--"

"I know someone who can fix that hair for you," Maxwell wheedled. "A bit o' magic will grow it back good as new."

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

"We'll just nip home, then nip right back," Balthazar promised. "Won't take a minute."

"Well ... if you're positive I'll be home before my mother gets--"

The wail of a siren cut through my words, snapping me back to my senses. What was I agreeing to? My mom would be home any second, and these little green men could only be figments of my explosion-scrambled brain.

The siren swelled louder. I heard Mrs. Douglas calling out front. Considering that I was conversing with my imagination, maybe medical attention wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"You guys have to leave now," I said, standing up to move toward my closet. "I have to change into some normal

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clothes, and if anyone catches me talking to you, I'll wind up in a rubber room."

"By all that glitters, girl! Don't be difficult!" Balthazar exclaimed. "We're not leaving without you. Why else are we here?"

"Don't ask me. I'm not even sure you
are
here."

We faced off in a four-way stare-down. And then I noticed something that made the peach fuzz prickle down my spine. Slowly, barely perceptibly, all three were creeping closer.

"I
can't,"
I pleaded uneasily. "What would I tell my mom?"

"Don't tell her anything," Caspar suggested. "Let her think you ran away. That usually works grand."

"Usually? You guys have done this before?"

Balthazar whipped a glare in Caspar's direction.

"Um ...no," Caspar stammered. "Not this. Exactly."

They eased another inch closer.

"Moooooom!" I shouted. "Mrs. Douglas! Help!"

All three of them jumped me at once. Six legs ran circles around mine. Hands reached above my knees, tying me up with a gold chain barely thicker than fishing line. Trying to kick free, I lost my balance and crashed to the floor. They buzzed about like frenzied green bees, able to reach all of me now.

"Knock it off!" I shouted, slapping and struggling. "Stop!"

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"Not to worry, Lil. We'll be out o' here in a jiffy," Balthazar huffed.

It was far from a fair fight, especially with me still half dazed by that blast on the porch. In seconds, they had tied my wrists together and bound my arms to my body, trussing me up like a sausage.

"If there's anything you'll be needing in the next few days," Balthazar said, "you'd best name it now."

"Days!
You said we'd be gone a
minute!"
I tried to sit up, but they had me so hog-tied I could barely wiggle. I'd have to talk my way out of it.

"Look, this is obviously a big misunderstanding," I said, forcing down my rising panic. "If Gigi sent you guys, of course I'll go. Just untie me so I can put on some shoes and we'll go wherever you want."

Balthazar held my gaze for a long moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed. "Bit o' a liar, are you, Lil? You're a Green, all right! Get the door, Caspar."

Removing a coiled rope from his jacket, Caspar lassoed my doorknob and flicked the door open. No one was in the hall. In a flash, the three of them wriggled beneath me and hoisted me over their heads like a surfboard. Something about the way they'd tied me up would not let me bend at all.

"Mrs. Douglas!" I bellowed again.
"Help!"

"On my mark, lads," Balthazar said. "Ready ... go!" They marched in unison, carrying me faceup.

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"Seriously! Stop it!" I begged. "This isn't funny anymore. Besides, do you really think you can carry me past all those people outside?"

"What a leprechaun carries is invisible, Lil. Everyone knows that," Caspar said.

"'What a ...' Did you say
leprechaun?"

My bedroom doorframe brushed my head and popped me in the shoulder. "Oopsie!" Balthazar trilled. "Mind the corners, laddies."

They hustled me down the hall, through the kitchen, and into the den, where Caspar withdrew from my midsection long enough to repeat his lasso trick on the back doorknob. Footsteps entered the living room. Voices called my name.

"Help!" I hollered as three leprechauns ran me headfirst through the open back door into the sunshine outside.

"Watch the stairs!" Balthazar barked. "Lively now, lads!"

We jolted down the three back steps, around the corner of the house, and through our side yard toward the street. An ambulance was parked at the curb, its emergency lights revolving. Mrs. Douglas and the other neighbors stood on our porch, waving an EMT across the lawn. My body cleared the driveway just as my mother's Civic pulled in. She was out before the car stopped rolling, leaving her driver's door open.

"Lily!" she cried, sprinting right past me on her way to the porch. "Lily!"

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"Mom!" I shouted desperately. "Mom, help!"

She rushed into the house without even turning her head. None of the neighbors glanced my way either as the leprechauns ran me over our grass to the sidewalk.

"Help!" I screamed. "Why doesn't anyone answer me?"

"That'll be the binding gold, Lil," Balthazar's voice said beneath me. "A bit o' magic there--immobility, plus it makes you completely silent to anyone outside the clan. Hated to use it, but you forced us a bit. The end will justify the means--you'll see. Bear to the left, lads, into the street!"

They trotted me down the bike lane in broad daylight, past houses and cars and pedestrians. Nobody noticed us. Nobody heard a thing. My mind raced with the need to get free, but my body was paralyzed. Panicky tears jiggled down my upturned face as block after block slipped by.

"Bal ... Bal ... Balty," Maxwell wheezed. "I've got ... to put ... her down."

"Not yet!" Balthazar huffed, out of breath himself. "Almost ... there."

We bumped up over the curb and into my neighborhood park, running practically under the noses of the Mommy-and-me crew at the sandbox. Sunshine blazed into my face, searing past wet lashes.

"To the rocket! The rocket ship!" Balthazar cried.

By then it wouldn't have shocked me if they were space

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aliens too, but when they jogged around the back of the park's maintenance hut, I saw what they were talking about.

A huge play rocket ship lay on its side, its disassembled metal legs rusting in a heap. The leprechauns charged in through the rocket's open base, carrying me headfirst. For a split second, I welcomed the shade. Then the stifling heat trapped inside hit me like a frying pan.

"This'll do," Balthazar panted. "Heave ho, laddies."

Three pairs of hands thrust upward at once. For a moment, I was airborne. Then I hit the curved floor of the fake rocket like a sack of bowling balls.

"Ow!" I cried. "Why are you doing this?"

"Sorry, Lil," Balthazar said. "Can't be helped."

"I'm pretty sure it can! Take me home!"

"We're working on it," he assured me. "Just as fast as we know how."

"I can't breathe. It's a million degrees in here!"

"At least," Maxwell agreed, wiping his dripping face on his green coat sleeve.

Balthazar's face was flushed purple above his full beard. "We'll just be here a moment. Give us a chance to regroup."

"I'm for opening a door," Caspar said.

"And how do you propose doing that before the trial?" Balthazar asked. "Use your bean, lad, I'm begging."

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"We'll have to whistle for the cart," Maxwell said.

"Whistle away!" Caspar invited sarcastically. "It's only three miles off. We should have told Fizz to wait here."

"Right," Maxwell retorted. "Because none of these humans would have noticed six dogs and a--"

"By every coin and nugget!" Balthazar shouted. "If the pair o' you don't shut up and start helping me, I'll have you both before the council!"

They all fell momentarily silent, glaring at each other.

"It's so hot in here," I moaned. My head throbbed from its second fall to the floor, and the air felt like lava in my lungs. "Can't you just take me home?"

The leprechauns glanced at me, then resumed their argument, debating furiously about doors and dogs and doughnuts. Nothing they said made sense anymore. And although I was still afraid, my eyes wouldn't stay open. Maybe it was more magic from their binding gold, or maybe it was the normal result of being concussed and abducted, but I felt myself drifting and then I was gone, sucked into the bottomless depths of a velvety green darkness.

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Chapter 3

I was awakened by a jolt that shuddered through my bones.

"Hie!" a voice cried out. "Pull!"

I struggled to open my eyes, but my lids were still so heavy I could barely manage a slit. The sunshine had been snuffed out, replaced by a dim green glow.

Muffled voices floated back to me on a whiff of pipe smoke.

"... desperate glad to have her with us at last, but I hope she bucks up soon, because there never was a set o' tests like this. To pit her against the Scarlets ..."

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"Aye, but Wee Kylie! What match is a lad for a lass? If she's an ounce o' Maureen in her, she'll prevail. The council knows how to run a trial."

"Would I be disloyal enough to suggest they don't? But this one's not off to a grand start...."

Balthazar and Maxwell were deep in yet another conversation that made no sense. The air surrounding us now was cool and damp. Water dripped nearby, a slow pinging plop. I forced my eyes open at last.

I was lying propped on my back in a pile of fresh-cut grass mounded on a flat wagon. The wagon was a little bigger than a cot, with a low wooden railing around three sides and wheels like four extra-wide bicycle tires. At the forward ends of the railing, green lanterns hung from pegs, casting their strange glow over a team of six shaggy dogs the size of Labrador retrievers. They were pulling me through a long, dark cave, its low ceiling dripping from dirty crags to a muddy floor below.

"Hie!" the voice I had wakened to called again, urging the dogs on through the mud.

The team's paws made sucking sounds as they struggled to pull the cart forward. Their hind ends scrabbled and bunched, stretching their harnesses tight. The wagon jolted again, lurching forward as the muck released it and we rolled out onto hard stone. I bounced awkwardly in the grass. Then, slowly, I sat up.