Wings (19 page)

“Bob!” the gray woman shouted into the hallway. “Come see what your nephews have done.”

“Is it safe to come out now?” Tamisin asked from under the bed.

“Sure,” said Jak. Seeing him standing there for the first time, the two goblins looked confused.

“What’s going on in here?” asked Bob, forcing his way into the room. When he spotted the ruined mattresses, he looked almost expectant, but then disappointment set in and finally anger. It struck Tamisin that he had known about the attack and had thought to find them dead in their beds. If so many of his other guests hadn’t been standing there, she thought he might still have done something awful to her and Jak. As it was he didn’t dare touch them now, so he began shouting at the two younger lizard goblins.

“Gobbledygook, Hobnob, what do you two think you’re doing?” roared Bob.

The waiters turned with a start, their mouths gaping in surprise.

“Uncle Thingamabob! We were just—”

“We didn’t mean—”

The innkeeper’s face was bright red. “Were you trying to kill a guest?” he said. “How will we get repeat customers if you kill them on their first stay? And what about the mattresses? I paid good money for them! The cost of replacing those is coming out of your wages.”

“We’re sorry, Uncle Bob!” croaked his nephews.

Bob was still scolding the two younger goblins when the gray woman turned to Tamisin and said, “Are you all right, my dear? From the look of things, I’d say you’ve had a dreadful experience. Why don’t you come with me so you can freshen up?”

“That’s very kind of you,” said Tamisin, trying not to
look at the woman’s gaping eye socket. “Can my friend Jak come, too?”

“That’s okay, Tam. You go ahead. I want to make sure that we get another room.” He gave the innkeeper a look. The goblin opened his mouth to protest until he saw the faces of the other guests.

“I’ll take care of it,” Bob said.

The three gray women were very gracious to Tamisin. They let her use the pitcher of water they’d paid to have brought to their room, claiming that she needed it more than they did. While Tamisin washed the grime from her face and hands and combed the cobwebs from her hair, the old ladies sat on their beds facing her as if all three could see what she was doing. When Tamisin turned to thank them, the woman with the eye said, “You’re quite welcome, my dear. If there’s ever anything else we can do to help …”

“Tamisin, are you ready?” Jak said from the open doorway. “Bob found us another room.”

“I thought they didn’t have any others,” said Tamisin, following him into the hall. She was closing the door when she saw that the three women were sitting with their heads together, whispering. When she thanked them and waved good-bye, the one with the eye waved back, giving her a wide, empty-mouthed smile.

Jak took her hand in his. “It’s amazing how much a story can change when you have witnesses.”

Their new room couldn’t have been more different from the first. A shiny lantern glowed on a table between two comfortable beds. There was a window with curtains
and, just as Jak had been promised, a real lock on the door that worked from the inside. Tamisin groaned as she lay down on the soft mattress. “This is so much better,” she said. “Don’t you think so, Jak? Jak?” She turned her head to look at her companion, but he was already asleep.

Tamisin pulled the blanket up to her chin and snuggled down under the covers. She’d been wary of Jak almost since she met him, but he had always been nice to her and had gone out of his way to protect her from the nastier goblins, first at his party and then that very night at the inn. It was foolish to distrust him just because he was half goblin. Having seen how well he could fight and how protective he was of her, Tamisin realized that she felt safe when she was around him. It was a nice thought, especially when she was drifting off to sleep.

When they went downstairs to pay their bill the next morning, some of the guests who had been there the night before still lingered in the taproom. The three gray women were seated at the table closest to the door. Everyone grew quiet when Tamisin walked into the room, but when she turned to stand beside Jak she could hear them start talking again in not-quite-whispers.

“She looks just like her.”

“I told you so!”

“I seen her once when I was a girl. It can’t be her, though. What would she be doin’ in a place like this?”

Tamisin was wondering who they were talking about when a familiar masked figure walked through the door.

“Tobi, what are you doing here?” Jak asked.

The little goblin looked relieved to see them, but all he said was, “I thought ya might like some company on the road, seein’ ya’ve got a long way to travel.”

“We need to go.” Jak cast a nervous glance at the people seated at the tables, who had all stopped talking and were obviously trying to listen in on his conversation. “Come on, Tamisin,” Jak said, hustling her past Tobi.

The cats were outside, waiting under an old oak. They stood and stretched, then fell into line behind Jak and Tamisin as they set off down the path. “We don’t want everyone knowing where we are, remember?” Jak said, keeping his voice low. “We were trying to avoid attracting attention, not wave a flag and say, ‘Look at us!’ After last night everyone who was at the inn will be talking about what happened. Soon everyone will know that we stayed at the Green Beetle. And now, with Tobi showing up and announcing where we were headed …”

“But he didn’t,” Tamisin began.

“He was about to,” Jak said, scowling.

“Hey, you two! Wait for me!” Tobi was running down the path, waving his tail behind him. “Ya left so fast,” Tobi panted, “that I couldn’t keep up. Ya always were faster than a griffin late fer dinner, Jak. Back at school when we was runnin’ races … Lookie there! Ya got cats followin’ ya. I know they liked ya on the other side, but I didn’t expect to see ’em here.”

“You were in school together?” asked Tamisin.

Tobi nodded. “Sure. Jak and me been best buds since we was young ’uns. Ya mean ta say he never told ya bout good ole Tobi?”

“No, he never did.” Tamisin gave Jak a curious look, then smiled at the raccoon goblin. “But then, I never told him about you either. Like how you followed me every day for weeks.”

Tobi grimaced. “Ya knew ’bout that? I could-a sworn …”

Tamisin’s smile grew. “And how much you like big dogs in fenced-in yards. Now, Jak,” she said, turning to face him, “I want to know: who is this ‘she’ those people were talking about back there?”

Jak shook his head. “I heard them talking, too, but I have no idea who ‘she’ is.”

Tamisin turned to the little masked goblin. “The people back at the inn said that I looked like someone. Do you have any idea who it might be?”

Tobi looked away as if he couldn’t meet her eyes. “Me? I ain’t got no idea, thought, opinion. Maybe it was a friend of theirs?”

“Tobi,” said Jak. “What do you know that you’re not telling us? You’re talking in threes, and you do that only when you’re agitated.”

“I don’t know anything, less than nothing, no idea!” said Tobi.

“Really?” said Jak. “Why do I find that so hard to believe? Well then, tell us something you do know. Have you heard anything more about that reward?”

“I still don’t know who offered it, if that’s what ya mean,” said Tobi. “The reward itself is the usual—twelve
pieces of fairy gold for delivering the girl, dead or alive. Did I forget to mention that last part?”

“Yeah, you did,” Jak said. “But it explains what happened last night. The innkeeper’s nephews tried to kill us.”

“And I heard them mention money,” Tamisin added.

“What?” squeaked Tobi. “They can’t … They shouldn’t … No one can …” The little goblin’s tail twitched and his ears flicked back and forth. “I knew there were goblins lookin’ for her, but I never thought …” Squaring his shoulders, he looked up at his friend. “Ya can’t go to yer uncle’s, Jak. It wouldn’t be safe, secure, out of harm’s way. Ya gotta take her to the fairy queen. She’s the only one who could protect the girl.”

“Titania? Why her?” asked Jak.

“Because no one will try to hurt a fairy while she’s under the queen’s protection.”

“My uncle …”

“Doesn’t command all the goblins or any of the rest of the fey. It has to be Titania! Look at it this way, Jak. If ya take her to yer uncle, ya’ll be drawin’ a whole lot of trouble straight to his doorstep. The fairy queen can handle it. Can yer family?”

“I don’t want to cause your family any problems,” said Tamisin.

Jak glanced from one earnest face to the other. He had promised his uncle that he’d bring her and had been hoping to make him proud. If he didn’t take her now, his uncle would think he was a failure, or even worse, a traitor.
However, if he did take her to Targin, he could be endangering the very person he was trying to help. Somehow Tamisin’s safety had become a lot more important than his pride, so Jak straightened his shoulders and nodded. “To Titania, then. It makes more sense that we’d go there anyway. Nihlo’s up to something and he already knows we were going to his father’s den. He’d probably be waiting for us when we got there.”

“Good thinkin’, Jak!” exclaimed Tobi. “This time of year Titania’ll be in the Old Forest, gettin’ ready for the midsummer’s dance.”

“Which way is that?” asked Tamisin.

“Through the woods,” Jak said. “We’ll have to go around the Sograssy Sea. But before we go any farther, I want to make sure no one’s following us. I wouldn’t put it past Bob and his nephews to want to finish what they started.”

“I’ll go with you,” Tamisin said.

“No,” said Jak. “You won’t. I want you and Tobi to hide somewhere off the path where no one could see you. Over here looks good.” Jak began following a deer trail back into the woods, then left the trail and picked his way through the underbrush, circling around so their tracks wouldn’t be easy to find. He stopped when he found a small clearing, and gestured to the ground. “Have a seat right here. I’ll be back for you as soon as I can. Tobi, you keep an eye on her. I’m counting on you.”

“If you’re gone too long, I’m going to come looking for you,” Tamisin warned.

“Me, too,” piped up Tobi.

“Fair enough,” said Jak and he disappeared into the underbrush along with one of the cats.

Tamisin could still hear Jak making his way back to the path when Tobi started eyeing the closest tree. “Ya’ll have ta ’scuse me fer a coupla minutes. I got some business ta see to.”

“But Jak said you should stay here with me,” said Tamisin.

“I won’t be long,” he replied. “Ya just hunker down and don’t move. I’ll be back before ya know it.”

“All right, just …,” Tamisin began, but he was gone.

Tamisin’s stomach rumbled. Jak had made them skip breakfast in his hurry to leave the inn, so after finding a mossy patch without too many anthills, she sat cross-legged on the ground and opened her purse to take out a lemon cookie that had once been a breath mint. She was wondering how much longer Jak would be gone when the leaves of the undergrowth rustled. The cat that had stayed with her stood up and sniffed the air. Whatever the cat smelled didn’t leave her too concerned, because she lay down and rested her head on her paws. Tamisin decided that Jak must be coming back already and was about to call out to him when a huge white horselike head bearing a long silver horn parted the leaves and a unicorn stepped into the clearing.

Tamisin had seen pictures of unicorns, of course, but most of the artists who had drawn them had made them
look delicate. This unicorn was sleek and beautiful, but there wasn’t anything delicate about him. Except for the horn, he looked like a white racehorse, but was bigger than any horse she’d ever seen. He snorted when he saw her, and his brown eyes flashed almost crimson. His mane was silver streaked with gold, and it shed sparks when he shook it. He took a step toward Tamisin, then pawed the ground as if not sure what to do.

Tamisin tried to remember the magazine articles she’d read about how to act when encountering wild animals. Should she run to the closest tree and climb it? Should she jump up and shout, trying to make herself look big and fierce? Maybe she should lie down and play dead, hoping the unicorn would sniff her and walk away. She sat motionless, unable to make up her mind.

The unicorn lowered his head and approached Tamisin, one slow step at a time, until he stood towering above her. She was about to jump to her feet when he knelt so that his brown eyes became almost liquid gazing into hers. Sighing, he lay down and rested his heavy head on her lap.

Tamisin wasn’t sure if she should be honored or frightened. She decided not to move. The creature’s horn was sharp and could easily swing around to skewer her. The last thing she wanted to do was make him angry. Maybe Tobi would know what to do when he came back. And where was he anyway? He’d already been gone longer than a few minutes.

The unicorn looked up at Tamisin’s face and snuffled. He was magnificent with his gleaming mane, his velvet
hide, and his glittering silver horn that spiraled from his well-formed brow. She couldn’t resist touching his neck ever so gently. He snorted, his nostrils flaring, but his head stayed on her lap. When she brushed his mane from his eyes, he sighed and blinked. Her fingers wandered to the base of his horn. He closed his eyes and she could feel him relax, his head becoming even heavier than before. Tamisin idly scratched his brow, and he seemed to enjoy it, shifting his head so her fingers stayed by his silver horn. It reminded her of the way her cat, Skipper, liked to have her head scratched in a certain way.