The Kingdom - Clare B Dunkle - Hollow Kingdom 01 - The Hollow Kingdom

“Stop doing that!” she called out loudly. “You’re frightening my sister!”

Complete calm reigned instantly. No lightning crackled, and the wind puffed down to a gentle breeze. After a few seconds, the girls raised their heads and looked about them, expecting to see destruction and chaos, wildfires and uprooted trees. Instead, the stars hung huge and low, and the silver moon shone down. The clearing looked exactly as it had before.

“Kate,” called Marak’s pleasant voice from beyond the huge oak trees, “it’s time to stop this foolishness now. Come out before you make me do something rash.”

Kate felt her blood turn to ice. She stroked the grassy turf for a second. The feel of it gave her confidence. She looked around at the stars, the moon, the trees. These were things that she could count on.

“You can’t come in here, can you?” she shouted back. “This is a magic place.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the goblin answered reasonably. “Of course I can come in. It is a magic place, and I’m magic.”

“Oh, no, or you’d already be here,” Kate shouted exultantly. “Your magic doesn’t work here. You can’t do anything to us, I know it!”

Marak walked into the clearing, stopping just inside the circle of trees. Emily gave a gasp of dismay and scrambled to her feet. She was getting her first good look at the goblin King.

Marak grinned, showing his dark teeth. “Kate, you’re a treasure,” he declared. “I don’t know how you know things, but you do. You’re exactly right. I can’t do anything to make you leave this place. Anything magical, anything actual. All force is completely forbidden here because this is the elves’ and goblins’ truce circle.” He sighed. “And once again, I just wish I knew how you know it.”

Kate struggled to her feet, wild hope making her giddy.

“We’re safe here,” she told her sister. She turned triumphantly to face the goblin King. “And you might as well leave. We’ll be staying here all night where you can’t hurt us.”

The wiry goblin smiled at her. “Now, who ever gave you the idea that I would hurt you?” He shook the striped hair out of his brilliant eyes. “No, force is not allowed at all within this circle. You are free to do whatever you want to do. Or whatever you’re persuaded to do. Elves and goblins aren’t susceptible to persuasion spells, so there’s no protection against them.” He leered at the two sisters. “Let’s see, Kate,” he suggested. “I think what you really want to do right now is walk over to me.”

Kate stiffened at once, her confidence evaporating. “I certainly do not!” she gasped. Marak’s big, bony face wore an amused grin.

“No?” he asked coolly. His voice dropped, becoming quiet and gentle. “Walk toward me, Kate, first the left foot and then the right. You want to come away with me.” He continued in a steady murmur, the pleasant voice almost a singsong. Kate felt her resistance begin to fade. He was so convincing. It all sounded so easy. She found herself taking a step.

“Em, help!” Kate cried out in dread, but before her sister could come to her aid, Marak’s voice quickened a trifle.

“And M, you want to sit right down and watch her,” he went on smoothly. Emily plopped down on the grass. “You just wonder what all the fuss is about.” His even voice continued, rising and falling, almost without words. Emily watched Kate tottering step by step toward the edge of the circle, her teeth gritted, hands clenched, desperately trying to stop herself. And Emily wondered, indeed, what all the fuss was about.

Kate was almost to the first circle of trees. The goblin King kept up the quiet rhythm, stepping away from her back between the oaks. His smile was triumphant as he reached out to her. Kate gave a strangled cry. As he disappeared from view, she felt the magic pull weaken just a little. It was her only chance. She turned and bashed her head as hard as she could against the trunk nearest to her. With a sigh, she crumpled at the foot of the tree. The moonlit world winked into darkness.

Chapter 5

Emily came to her senses. Feet flying, she dashed to her sister’s side, but Marak reached Kate first. He rolled her over, a stream of foreign words issuing emphatically from his lips. Emily flinched, afraid of magical lightning or some other powerful result, but no spell was underway. Marak was just venting his sorely tried feelings in the capable goblin tongue.

“Leave her alone,” Emily cried. Marak paid no attention. He snapped his fingers in the air, and a small silvery globe appeared. It was not as bright as a candle, but it shed a soft light. Marak moved it to a spot about three feet above Kate’s face. When he released it, the shining globe hovered obediently in the air.

By its silver light, Emily could see a large, shallow wound across her sister’s forehead. Blood was running in a dark stream into her hair and across her closed eyelids, and a shadowed bruise was already spreading under the skin around her eyes. The goblin murmured something under his breath, pressing his fingers into the wound. He pulled them away and wiped Kate’s forehead with his cloak. The wound stopped bleeding. Emily watched it closely, but no fresh trickles flowed from it to join the dark tracks congealing in Kate’s hair.

The goblin walked away, licking his bloody fingers, and came back a minute later with a small bag in his hand. He knelt again by Kate. Loosening the bag, he scooped out a small quantity of cream and carefully smeared it across the open wound. As he did so, the wound bubbled, flattened, and formed a sudden skin. Within a few seconds, it had healed without a trace.

Emily stared openmouthed at the goblin as he applied minute dabs of cream, frowning with deep concentration, his coarse, striped hair falling over his bony face. As he smoothed the salve down the side of Kate’s nose and underneath her eye, the bruise melted back into fair skin. He took a somewhat generous dollop and pressed it onto her forehead over the spot where the wound had been, murmuring something under his breath. Emily watched the cream vanish as if he had driven it through the skin.

Kate began to groan and twitch. Marak quickly caught her face between his hands. He laid all six fingers of his right hand on her brow, and she relaxed again into slumber.

“You really can work magic!” breathed Emily, staring at her weird companion in awe. Marak flicked her a glance from those gleaming bicolor eyes and then went on with his work. He ran his fingertips speculatively over Kate’s eyes and nose. He ran them along her temples and down her neck. Emily sat back, hugging her knees to her chest, and studied the busy goblin King. Kate was right: He did look pretty frightful. His pointed ears poked out through his shaggy hair like a dog’s. In fact, he looked about as ugly as anything she had ever seen, but Emily was ready to forgive a great deal in someone who could work magic. He didn’t seem so ghastly, really. She mulled over what Kate had told her that afternoon and what Agatha had said in the clearing.

“Kate says you want her to be your new wife,” she began.

“That’s right,” he murmured, applying salve to a bloody knee he had found. Emily watched in excitement as the scab bubbled away. In a few seconds the knee was whole and undamaged. Real magic, right before her eyes.

“But she doesn’t want to be your wife,” she pointed out. Marak had reached the filthy, ragged sock on the foot with no shoe. He pressed his knotted hand on the bottom of her foot and sighed in exasperation, reaching for the salve.

“That doesn’t really matter,” he remarked inattentively. “The King’s Wife is always a captured bride.”

“I think that’s the most vile thing I ever heard,” declared Emily forcefully. So what if he could work magic! “How could you suggest such an awful thing? No wonder she doesn’t want to marry you!”