Gillian Summers - The goblin's curse

“I can’t believe people said those things about me.” Vangar’s bronze eyes glinted with sadness. He tapped his fingers on the edge of his chair, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

Keelie felt sorry for him. Since she’d arrived, she hadn’t heard anyone say anything nice about Vangar, and if he was telling the truth, he’d done nothing to deserve it.

“While Sally ponders the card, what else can you tell me?” Finch glared at Keelie from across her desk. The pad in front of her was full of names.

“That’s it.” Feeling like a snitch, Keelie leaned back in her chair.

“So, Lavender and Shimmerlight think I’m doing a piss-poor job of handling the faire? Stupid fairies with their little glitter wings and tulle skirts, skipping around all happy.” Finch broke her pencil in two. Today, her red hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun and she was dressed in a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and serious steel-toed work boots with flames stitched on the sides. They looked like they could kick some fairy butt.

Knot hopped through the open office window, dragging a bedraggled puppet in his mouth. He jumped into Vangar’s lap.

“What do you have there, buddy?” Vangar removed the weird little puppet from Knot’s mouth. The cat swatted at it. It looked flat and lifeless without Hob to animate it. The puppet’s red and gold outfit was muddy and smelled smoky. Strange. Must be because the mask store was next to Heartwood.

“Why did you take Hob’s puppet, you bad kitty?” Keelie asked.

“You’re right, it’s Hob’s poppet,” Sally said.

“You mean puppet,” Keelie corrected her. “He calls it Toshi.”

“No, a poppet. They’re used to enchant people, to make them do their will,” Sally explained. “The way people act around here, I’m thinking he’s got them enchanted. It’s dark stuff. Most practitioners won’t touch it.” She waved her hands, as if wafting away the bad vibes.

Whatever it was, the puppet looked the worse for wear, thanks to Knot. Its dark beady eyes still shone with a sinister gleam.

“Poppets can be very powerful,” Sally said. “A lot of practitioners will find a spell in a grimoire and shape it to their purpose.”

“What do you want me to do with it?” Vangar asked, picking it up gingerly.

If Keelie had had the Compendium, she might have been able to find a spell to take care of the poppet.

“I’ll get rid of it.” Sally reached for Toshi, touching its hat. The bell in Keelie’s pocket rang as if in recognition. Keelie put her hand over the bell to quiet it as Sally took the puppet outside. Finch, Vangar, and Keelie followed her to the door and watched as Sally walked to the privies on the other side of the front gate. The privies were the perfect place for the horrible little poppet.

“Where are you, sweeting?” a sad and plaintive voice shouted. Keelie turned in the direction of the heart-wrenching plea. Immediately she stepped back into the safety of the office; Hob was wobbling down King’s Way as if he’d had too many meads down at the Poacher’s Inn. “Where are you?” he shouted outside the Magic Maze. “I need you. Sweetness, come back. Toshi. I need my Toshi.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Keelie asked.

“He’s acting weirder than usual.” Vangar arched an eyebrow. “He was in his mask shop screeching about something earlier. I’d say he’s been hanging out with his masks too long. All those empty eye sockets watching him all day long probably pushed him over the edge.”

Keelie could totally see that.

“Strange… ” Finch mused. “He has several dozen Toshi puppets in his store, but he’s going nuts looking for this one? Too late now, unless he goes searching in the privies.” She wrinkled her nose. “Never mind. Let’s get back to the reading.”

Keelie glimpsed several large books stacked in a corner behind Finch’s desk. Some of the books shimmered; but when she looked again, nothing. She wondered if these were magic books and her To See Truly abilities were kicking in.

Sally, who had remained outside, joined them and began shuffling cards. “Something is definitely wrong with Hob,” she said. “I saw him dart between the Magic Maze and the candle shop, and then he bolted down the lane when Tarl asked him if he needed any help.” She shook her head. “Enough distractions. Let’s concentrate on the cards.”

For a moment, the only sound was the ticking of the dragon clock hanging behind Finch, its pendulum tail swinging back and forth, ticking with each movement. The Timekeeper would’ve liked this clock, Keelie thought. Maybe Finch bought it at the Quicksilver Faire, or perhaps it was a present from Ermentrude.

Knot hopped onto the edge of Finch’s desk, closed his eyes, and purred like a contented feline Porsche.

Sally studied her cards, her gaze contemplative. “I have seen great danger. The cards say that something moves this way, and we must be prepared.”

“It’s goblins,” Keelie said. She’d seen them-she didn’t need a tarot card to tell her to be prepared.

“We know it’s goblins.” Finch motioned toward the cards. “What do they say?”

Sally spread more cards out on the desk. She didn’t blink at the mention of goblins, so Keelie figured she’d been around magic folk for a while.

The back of this tarot deck was very pretty, gold trim around a black and white checkerboard design. Sally deftly swept the cards into a deck with one smooth move. “Let’s try something new, to use all the energy in the room. Tap them.”

Finch did.

Vangar snorted, unimpressed.

“Each of you will draw a card,” Sally said as she held out the deck. “First, Finch.”

Finch pulled from the top.

Sally walked over to Vangar, who rolled his eyes. “Do I have to?” He cut a questioning glance over to Finch.

Her red brows rose to her hairline. “We talked about this.”

Keelie knew who wore the pants in this relationship. She smiled.

Vangar sighed. He pulled a card from the middle of the deck.

Sally strolled over to Keelie. “Now you.”

Keelie didn’t know why she was nervous. She’d drawn a tarot card before, but something felt different in the room, as if there was a layer of magic filtering through the doorway and settling around Sally. Keelie removed a card from the bottom.

Sally tapped the deck again. “Reveal your cards, at the same time, on the desk.”

Keelie leaned forward, as did Vangar and Finch. They laid their cards out at the same time. Finch had a red dragon-the seven of swords. Vangar’s was the King of Wands, a big gold dragon with glistening scales that would have made Shimmerlight jealous with its sparkles.

And when Keelie flipped her card over… the Fool, here pictured as a jester whose stare glittered at her through a mask’s eyeholes. Great. This meant one thing: Peascod.

“Now what?” Finch barked.

“Now you each study your card. Together they have a larger meaning.”

The gold dragon on Vangar’s card winked at Keelie, and gave her a thumbs-up. Since when did tarot cards come with animation?

“Wait a minute-I saw that dragon wink at me,” Keelie said.

Vangar grinned. “Rascal.”

“This is a deck brought to me from the Quicksilver Faire,” Sally said. A faerie deck. Keelie knew it.

Sally pointed to the red dragon on Finch’s card; it flew above a castle as a ragtag army of seven peasants gathered outside the drawbridge. “You will have to be a leader, even to those who are afraid of you,” she told Finch. “But you will be able to rally the troops if you can cast aside the doubt within. You must find the inner strength to lead.”

Finch sighed. “This means that we’re going to have to teach the humans how to fight. Davey and I were talking about that last night.”