Tad Williams: The Secrets of Ordinary Farm

But when Gideon abruptly turned to Colin his scowling face looked more like Oz the Great and Terrible. “What’s this I hear about you and your mother locking Tyler and Lucinda into their rooms?”

Surprised, Colin swallowed hard. “Mother wanted to keep them out of trouble, with all the changes to the property and everything. Especially Tyler.” He couldn’t hold Gideon’s sharp stare. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“I think you and your mother sometimes forget who owns this farm,” the old man said sternly. “You can tell her there will be no more locking anyone in. As far as the changes to the property, we’re going on a little tour right now.”

Colin frowned. He hated the idea of spending time with Tyler Jenkins, who seemed to be even more obnoxious than last summer if such a thing was possible. Lucinda wasn’t so bad-in fact, Colin had been almost looking forward to seeing her-but he really didn’t want Gideon to think he was going to spend the summer babysitting these two. “I’m supposed to be working in the library, Gideon… ”

“The library?” Tyler Jenkins had just appeared on the stairs. “Why?”

“He’s doing some work for me.” Gideon’s hand stole up as if it had a mind of his own, reaching toward the locket he wore hidden under his pajama shirt-his wife’s locket that Tyler Jenkins had brought back to him, which Colin knew was the whole reason the old man had sent Colin to the library. “And now that we’re talking about it, Master Needle, I haven’t seen any results considering all the time you spend over there instead of doing your regular work.” The old man shook his head. “I’m losing my patience, lad.”

“That’s not fair…!” Colin felt his cheeks get hot and bit back the rest of his angry reply. “I’m doing my best, Gideon. The books are all out of order… ”

“What’s Colin doing in the library?” Tyler was not going to let it go.

“That’s none of your business!” Colin said. “You’ve only been here a day…!”

“Now, let’s have no more of this silly fighting,” Gideon said, growing cheerful again as other people argued. “Young Colin’s just doing some research for me. You’ll hear about it later. Right now we have a tour to take!”

“Can we see the unicorns?” Lucinda asked. “And Meseret and Desta again?”

Gideon laughed. “Maybe, if there’s time. Come along, everyone. I want to show you some of the features we’ve added since last summer-you might call it the new, improved Ordinary Farm!”

“But Gideon, what about my work?” Colin asked.

The master of the house looked at him without much kindness. “You might as well get to it, lad. I wasn’t inviting you to join us.”

He led them out, leaving Colin Needle alone in the entry hall with his face red, smarting like someone had slapped him.

After everything that had happened the night before, Tyler thought it was wonderful to be out of the house, away from the Needles, and rolling across the farm with Uncle Gideon and Mr. Walkwell. They picked up Haneb outside the Sick Barn. The shy little animal-keeper nodded to the children and might even have said hello, but he spoke very quietly as always, keeping his head turned away to hide the scars on his face.

They headed out toward the pasture lands, the horse cart rattling up and down the dirt roads and through the golden hills. Beyond the hills the valley was fenced by mountains, dark purple shadows against the sky in every direction Tyler looked. Even the air smelled different here in Standard Valley, wild as ocean air, full of mysteries.

As Lucinda had requested, their first stop was the unicorn pasture, where they found Ragnar already pouring feed into a huge trough. He summoned the animals with three loud whistles and they appeared over the rise less than a minute later, a spiky, thunderous cloud of dust and horns. Tyler, Lucinda, and sat watching from the cart while the Norseman, Mr. Walkwell and Haneb worked with the unicorns. A foal was corralled and given a shot of antibiotics. Several others had their delicate hooves inspected, cleaned, and trimmed. Shy, scarred Haneb gently felt the stomach of one skittish, expectant mother.

“Her time coming soon,” he announced.

“Well, that’s something to look forward to!” said Gideon. He settled back against the seat. “Ah. What a fine day. This is heavenly!”

Lucinda said, “Can we go see the dragons next?”

He frowned. “I told you, we’ll see. First, we truly do have to talk about security, if only for your safety. You’ve seen how hard we’ve been working to improve things since you were last here. Many things have changed.”

“How many fences are there now?” Tyler asked. “And are all of them, like, electrical?”

“There are three,” Gideon said. “One around the very outside of the property, one around the main buildings, and one just around the house itself.”

“How come so many?” What Tyler really wanted to see was what would happen if someone tried to climb over one, but he felt sadly sure that wouldn’t be part of any demonstration.

“It will be easier to explain once you see the rest of our precautions,” Gideon told them, his good spirits returning. “And it was all possible because of that money Stillman left here last year! Half a million! Even if he’s a billionaire, I bet that still hurt!” The old man let out a sudden cackle. “I’ll bet he’s kicking himself. He tried to ruin me, but it only made me stronger!”

“Has he tried to do anything else since then?” said Tyler.

“He never stopped,” his great-uncle growled. “He seems to have a new plan every week. Right now he’s trying to buy all the properties along the border of Ordinary Farm-throwing money at my neighbors like the soulless pig that he truly is. He wants to surround me! Do you wonder I’m trying to protect the farm?”

As they the wagon creaked and bumped back toward the center of the property, where they could again see the jumbled silhouette of the farmhouse, Tyler found himself coming back again and again to Uncle Gideon and Colin Needle. What was Colin doing for the old man in the library?

It hit him just as they made their way past a row of huts that might once have been workers’ cabins.

The necklace, he thought- he’s wearing Grace’s necklace. And where did I tell him I found it? The library-which was partly true. He had not told his great-uncle the rest of the story, how he had been given the locket by a woman Tyler was certain had to be Grace Goldring herself, a woman lost in a strange, backward version of Ordinary Farm on the far side of a magical washstand mirror Tyler and Lucinda had found in a little room off the library. Gideon’s got Colin trying to figure out how Grace’s necklace got into the library. Tyler doubted Colin would ever guess what had really happened, but knowing that the pale, unpleasant boy had been given free run of the library bothered Tyler. A lot.

Gideon cleared his throat as they reached a little wooden bridge over the stream that ran through this part of the property, only a few hundred yards from the house itself. “Now,” he said, pointing at the water, “I know you’ve seen this before, but do you know what it’s called? It’s Kumish Creek-that’s an Indian name. ‘Course, the creek recedes a bit as the summer goes on, but even in mid-August it’s more than wide and deep enough for a man to go down the middle in a canoe or even swim it. It runs all the way from the hills outside of the valley almost to our farmhouse door.’

“Why don’t you just make it run through a pipe or something?” Tyler asked.

Gideon scowled. “Oh, Lord, what would I ever do without children to point out the obvious? Because, boy, if we meddle with the creek it might flood the Fault Line chamber, which is just a few hundred yards away, over there. So we had to find another way to defend it.”