The Hollow Kingdom Page 12

  The band of goblins gathered under the trees behind the Hall, and the groom led the horses away through the woods. The rest walked, padded, or swung onto the quiet terrace. Kate could just imagine what Mrs. Bigelow would say if she saw them.

  Marak stepped up to the study window and stared into the lighted room without moving a muscle. Through it, Kate could see her guardian and Dr. Thatcher deep in intense discussion. The next second both men were asleep. Dr. Thatcher’s head rolled against the back of his chair, and her guardian flopped forward, chin on chest. Marak turned away and took her hand, a pleased smile on his pallid face.

  “You see, Kate,” he remarked quietly, “how easy it is with everyone but you. You’ve been such trouble, you make me doubt my own abilities. Half the time, I suspect you of enchanting me.” The absurdity of this statement almost made Kate smile, and she remembered her delight in besting him. Marak beckoned to Seylin, and the three of them moved toward the kitchen. As they passed a patch of moonlight, she looked up. It would be so hard underground, she thought wistfully, but maybe it wouldn’t be unbearable.

  They approached the kitchen window, and Marak gestured. “Seylin,” he said in a low voice, “you handle this one.” The big cat bounded to the window and froze, looking in. Marak and Kate walked up just in time to see Mrs. Bigelow slump forward, twitching slightly, her cheek on the kitchen table. “That’s very good,” said Marak appreciatively as the cat looked up. “You won’t get that twitching, though, if you stay with them just another couple of seconds.”

  The group filed into the entrance hall, the two large feathered apes turning sideways and hunching to fit through the doorway. The sight of such bizarre creatures in such ordinary surroundings almost took Kate’s breath away. They entered the study to find the men snoring gently as they dreamed in their chairs. Bulk, the light-colored ape, took his station right by her guardian. Thaydar stood on the other side of the chair, blocking access to the window.

  The King reminded everyone of their duties in the goblin language. Seylin and Hulk went off down the hall. “—And I want you to stand here, Kate,” added Marak, pointing. “Don’t move too far from the hearth. That way, no matter where I step, I won’t pull you down or drag you over a table.” Kate rubbed her palm unhappily as he spoke, remembering that her freedom was only an illusion.

  Marak went over to Hugh Roberts and gave him a stinging slap across the face with his six-fingered hand. “Wake up, cousin,” he said.

  Kate remembered her own nightmare as Hugh Roberts slowly awoke. Perhaps he, too, had been ordered to have bad dreams. He blinked about groggily, putting a hand up to adjust his wig. As he focused on Marak, the color drained from his round face and left it an ugly gray.

  “It’s always nice to meet close relatives,” observed Marak pleasantly. His odd eyes glinted, and the candlelight in the room emphasized the muddy color of his lips and fingernails. Hugh Roberts gasped for breath and began to look as if he had been ill for several days. Turning his head slowly, he located the large feathered ape right beside his chair. Bulk gazed dolefully at him with his patient yellow eyes. Hugh gave a muffled groan. His dull gaze wandered around the room to Thaydar, and he let out a shriek. Kate glanced at the burly goblin in surprise. Except for those cat eyes and fangs, Thaydar didn’t look so bad for a goblin. She turned back to find her guardian staring at her. He began to move his lips, but no words came out.

  “Don’t you dare speak to her,” Marak warned. “She’s not even related to you.” The goblin King crossed his arms, smiling down at Hugh and showing his pointed teeth a little. “No, you want to talk to me, your own flesh and blood,” he said encouragingly. “You want to tell me where little M is tonight. Kate came and told us that you thought we had her. But we don’t.” In spite of his shock, Hugh Roberts was listening closely, his lips working and his eyes fixed on Marak’s face. Kate decided that he had gotten over his disbelief in goblins very quickly.

  “Do you know where M is?” Marak asked. Hugh Roberts shook his head. The goblin’s expression didn’t change, but an angry gleam lit his eyes. “Then it’s a good thing I do.”

  Hulk came sidling through the doorway, Emily in his arms. He laid the girl carefully down on the couch across from her guardian as Kate hurried over, exclaiming in dismay. Seylin padded in and sat down on the floor by the couch, round golden eyes fixed curiously on the quivering, gray-faced man.

  “How’s the letter?” asked Marak, kneeling next to Kate. Emily grinned at him drowsily. “M, someone’s been using human magic on you—by which I mean a sleeping potion.” He ran his fingertips over her temples and down her neck, then checked her wrists and ankles.

  “Are you going to put any salve on me?” asked Emily in groggy anticipation. Marak smiled at her.

  “No, someone’s been very considerate,” he replied. “No one would ever know you’d been tied up.” He reached down a hand and helped Kate to her feet. “I hope you don’t mind, M, but your sister can’t stay here. She’s”—he paused, then chuckled—“guarding the fireplace.” Kate shot him a venomous look.

  “Now,” he said meditatively, drawing Kate back to the hearth and walking past her to the gray-faced Hugh, “this does raise a question. You’re M’s guardian, not I, but I’m the one who’s having to guard her tonight. Do you have any idea what M was doing tied up in your basement?” Hugh Roberts stared at the carpet and shook his head.

  The goblin King let out an exasperated sigh and reached into his pocket. Thaydar stepped to his side, grinning broadly. Marak handed him a small set of tongs, which he clicked a couple of times in anticipation. The King produced a rod of red sealing wax and a small bronze seal. Bulk shuffled a few feet sideways and clamped his gigantic hands over Hugh’s arms. When the big man opened his mouth to yell, Thaydar bent down and seized his tongue with the tongs. He grinned in delight at the indistinct yells and cries coming from the frantic man, but Marak, on the other side of Hugh’s chair, frowned in concentration. His lips moved silently as he held the rod of sealing wax above Hugh’s open mouth. It softened and dripped without the aid of a flame, and a large red blob landed on the extended tongue. Marak quickly stamped the seal into the blob of melted wax and studied the impression with satisfaction. He turned away, putting the wax and seal back into his pocket, as Thaydar reluctantly released his grip on the tongue. At a nod, Bulk shuffled back a step. Hugh Roberts bent forward in his chair, choking and spluttering.

  “Now,” Marak said, “I’ll ask you again. Do you have any idea what M was doing tied up in your basement?”

  “Of course I do!” snarled Kate’s guardian. “I tied the little witch up myself.” Then he let out a terrified squeak and clapped his hands over his mouth. The goblins howled in amusement at his dismay, and Marak grinned at Kate’s dumbfounded expression.

  “It’s the Stamp of Truth,” he explained. “It makes the receiver answer the complete truth to every question.” He turned back to Hugh Roberts. “And why did you tie M up in the basement, cousin?”

  The man struggled for a second, his hands over his mouth. Then he dropped them, breathing heavily. “Miss Winslow had lied so well that the doctor wouldn’t take her away. I was determined to make her tell the truth about her goblin obsession. If Miss Winslow thought her precious Em was stolen, I knew she’d admit everything, and her sister, doped and tied up, wouldn’t be able to find her and tell her otherwise.”

  “It’s so refreshing,” Marak remarked to Kate. “It really brings a goblin quality to human speech, don’t you agree?” A strangled sound caused him to turn. Hugh Roberts glared up at him, pale eyes frantic, a dribble of blood running from the corner of his mouth. “You’re a smart man, cousin,” Marak cautioned, “so I’ll explain something to you. The Stamp of Truth is only ceremonially applied to the tongue. It works on the whole person. You can bite your tongue out and cut your hands off, and you’ll still scribble out the truth with a quill pen clutched between your toes. I’m afraid that you’ll have to adjust to life as an honest man.
So tell me, honest man, why did you want the doctor to take Kate away?”

  “She doesn’t have any business here,” hissed Kate’s guardian. “She or her sister. This has been Roberts land for eight hundred years. I can show you the records.”

  “I know whose land it was before that,” declared the goblin, “and I can show you records, too. So you wanted them gone because they were taking your land. Then why did you offer to be their guardian?”

  “I had to,” growled Hugh Roberts, shifting from side to side as he tried to fight the spell. “Otherwise, whoever did would have thrown me out and moved into Hallow Hill with them. Besides, being their guardian would give me certain opportunities.” He glared at Kate rather desperately.

  “You had plans, then?” asked Marak, frowning.

  “Of course I did,” snapped the gray-faced man. “Ideas, mainly. I thought about poison, but I couldn’t make up my mind.”

  “And why’s that?” asked the goblin.

  “I have a horror of hanging,” said Hugh Roberts with a shudder.

  “What compassion!” hooted Marak. “You’re always thinking of others. Did you have any more ideas?”

  “I just decided to see what opportunities arose,” said Hugh reluctantly. “I had three years before she would come of age, and lots of things could happen in that time. Sure enough, she started showing real nervous strain, and I did all I could to encourage it. I even persuaded some village boys to play a trick, pretending to be goblins. She tried to run off the very next day. I knew she wouldn’t take her sister’s disappearance without a fight. I had the doctor right here to listen to her arguments when the search party brought her back from the woods.”

  “I see,” mused Marak, watching Kate become more and more indignant. “You were well on your way to getting rid of the older sister, but what were you going to do about M?”

  Hugh rocked back and forth furiously and ground his teeth. It was no use. “I would have had ten years with that one,” he spat out finally. “Almost anything can happen in ten years. I was sure, if the older one was gone, that I could handle the younger one.”

  Kate let out a shriek of rage.

  “Yes,” agreed Marak heartily, “I think we’ve had all the truth out of you that we can stand. You’ve made it quite clear what kind of guardian you are. The only thing now is to decide what to do about it. Kate has already made her decision. She came down to my kingdom tonight and agreed to marry me in exchange for her sister’s safety.”

  “Oh, Kate, really?” asked Emily excitedly, sitting up. “What was it like? Was it horrible and dark? Was it very beautiful?”

  “I don’t know, Em,” Kate replied, trying to harness her scattered thoughts. “It was—very beautiful, yes. I think,” she added slowly, “that some parts were horrible, too.”

  “You won’t leave me behind, will you?” begged Emily. “Please take me with you. I don’t want to stay here with him,” she insisted, pointing at her guardian.

  Marak gave Kate a shrewd, assessing glance. “I’d be happy to steal you, M,” he said sorrowfully, “but I’m afraid your sister wants you to stay behind. She thinks humans make much better companions for a young child than we monsters do. After all, M, your own race is bound to love you best.” He met Kate’s astonished stare with a rather wicked smirk.

  “How could you!” cried Emily as Kate opened her mouth to protest. “I don’t think humans are nice at all, and goblins are a lot more fun.”

  “But, Em,” said Kate sadly, “what about your great-aunts?” She tried to think of other things that tied her lonely little sister to the world she herself would have to leave. “And what about Hallow Hill?”

  “I don’t want Hallow Hill without you,” said Emily appealingly. “Who would go on rambles with me? And I don’t want to live with the aunts. They snapped at me, and they won’t let me have a pet. You let Seylin have a pet,” she told Marak. “Would you let me have one, too?”

  The goblin King chuckled and gave Kate a triumphant look. “Have a pet?” he said winningly. “Why, M, you’d be a pet! You’d go about the kingdom playing with the goblin children, and the old ones would weave ribbons into your hair, which is especially soft and beautiful by our standards.” Emily stroked her straight brown hair wonderingly. “And the dwarves would make jewelry just for you, rings and bracelets and pretty necklaces. They’re always disappointed, the dwarves, that the King’s Wife can’t wear necklaces.”

  “Do come, Em,” piped Seylin, putting his paws up on the couch. “I’ll show you all the magic I know.”

  “That’s fine as far as it goes,” interrupted Kate sternly, “but you’ll have to marry one of those goblins someday, Em. You’re just saving them the trouble of stealing you.” And she glared indignantly at the arrogant goblin King.

  “Your sister is right,” Marak said to Emily. “I’ll bring you into my kingdom under two conditions. First, you do have to marry a goblin when you’re old enough. But you can marry any goblin you like; I’ll leave you the choice. And second, if you come, no changing your mind later. You won’t be allowed to leave.”

  “I don’t mind marrying a goblin,” promised Emily with all the blithe disregard of a child for the future.

  “You know perfectly well Em’s not old enough to understand what she’s losing,” Kate cried angrily. “How dare you try to lure her underground after I made my promise to you! You know I intended her to stay up here and—and be a human!”

  Emily started to argue, but Marak stopped her with a gesture. He came to Kate’s side and took her hands soothingly. “By all means,” he agreed, “we can leave little M behind. And in whose care are you willing to leave her?”

  Kate ran quickly through the available choices. Her great-aunts? No, they had already failed her. Besides, after this horrible experience, Kate wondered whether they would even take Emily back in. Father’s nephew had already declined. If pressured, Kate suspected that he would do it, but he certainly wouldn’t love her.

  “Surely you don’t think,” said Marak, “that your guardian is particularly unusual? A young human girl alone, with land, is going to be quite a target. Or are you proposing that I sally forth every few years to rescue her from whatever new menace she encounters?”

  Kate looked up. The goblin’s pallid face was calm and cruel. He knew she had no choice. He must have realized right away that he could rescue Emily and still get to keep her. Kate jerked her hands free. As he let her go, she saw the brown wound on his thumb. That had probably been the only moment of her entire life when she would get the better of him.

  “Don’t you realize what you mean to M?” added Marak more kindly. “If you love her enough to give up your world for her, don’t you think she would want to do the same for you? She wants to be with you, and it won’t be as hard for her, I think. She’ll have a happy life with us. We’ll appreciate her.”

  Kate nodded reluctantly and looked away. Her eyes met her guardian’s, and she felt a rush of anger. She forgot her promise not to speak to him. “This is your fault!” she cried, helpless and furious. Her guardian glared back at her. He didn’t look particularly contrite.

  “Indeed it is, Kate,” Marak agreed. “It’s time to plan your revenge. Goblins just adore revenge.” He grinned. “Do you have anything in mind?”

  Kate was taken aback. “Revenge is wrong,” she told him solemnly. “Vengeance belongs to God.”

  The goblin put his head to one side and watched her through narrowed eyes. “You won’t even give God a little help?” he asked softly.

  Kate thought about what her guardian had done. He had made her promise to lose her freedom and marry a monster. Hallow Hill belonged to her, but she would never live here now. She’d never even see it again. But it was hers, and no one else’s, so it wasn’t wrong to demand this one thing.

  “I don’t want him living here,” she said firmly. “I want him off my land.”

  “Oh, good,” Marak said with relish. “I thought of that one, too.” He walked
over to her guardian. “It seems Kate doesn’t want you on her land,” he announced cheerfully. “And I’m bound to say, cousin, that I don’t want you here, either.”

  The big man stared up at him in alarm. “I didn’t do anything!” he insisted. “I never even touched her, and her sister’s fine.”

  “It’s true that you didn’t kill or imprison her,” agreed Marak, “although I don’t think you deserve much credit for that since you were certainly trying to. But no, we’ll set that aside. Kate’s revenge is for what you actually did do.

  “Kate isn’t at all like her sister. She has no desire to be a goblin’s pet. She tried everything she could think of to stay out of my reach, and she did quite a remarkable job. She went to you for protection, for the help that you had promised to provide, but not only did you not help her, you actually drove her to me. Kate is the first King’s Bride I know of who had to promise away her own freedom in exchange for the goblins’ help. Thanks to you, she’ll be lost to her own race and locked away from this land that she loves. She’ll never see the sun or stars. She’ll never be outside again. She’ll raise just one child now, and he’ll be a goblin; she’ll cry for days after her first sight of him. And she’ll be married to a creature she finds so frightful that I have to leash her to me with magic to keep her from running away even now.”

  A profound silence fell over the study. Kate stared down at the carpet, so overcome with homesickness and grief that she didn’t understand how it could fail to show. There should be a physical injury to cause such pain, some wound over her heart, gushing blood. The goblin King studied her grimly. Then he turned toward Hugh with a philosophical shrug.

  “It’s not my problem,” he said. “I have to protect my people. Kate’s suffering is the price paid for the goblin race to continue. But,” he added sternly, “you were supposed to protect her. You chose to become her guardian, and that makes her suffering your problem.