Shadows of the Redwood - By Gillian Summers Page 0,89

and possessed the heart of my beloved Knot, I think we could’ve been good friends.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Keelie said. She smiled inwardly.

Risa concentrated again on the treelings. Soon the scent of cinnamon—elf magic—floated in the air, and the treelings stopped dancing and hovered in the dark meadow, watching Risa. She seemed to shimmer with pulsing energy as she smiled and lifted her hands. “Hello, little ones.” Her voice was like chimes.

The misty little forms floated back toward Risa. They were small, like wispy clouds on a spring day. One of them giggled innocently, but still, Keelie detected an undercurrent of darkness. They began swirling around Risa.

Keelie closed her eyes, tapping into the green tree magic around her. She focused on Bella Matera’s children. They were so small, but already she sensed that the darkness had intertwined itself into them on the cellular level. This dark magic was different than she’d experienced in the Dread Forest—it reminded her of what she’d felt in the mall parking lot in L.A. when she’d driven past the SUV. She wondered if it had been full of goblins.

Keelie lifted her eyes. Bella and Tavyn-Bloodroot had been conferring on the other side of the clearing, but now came toward them, drawn by the dancing children. Her heart raced. “Hurry, Risa.”

The little trees swirled faster around Risa. Green energy flowed from the elf girl, and her eyes were glazed as if she was in a trance.

The time had come to use the hay-fever charm.

Keelie forced herself to recall the sound of Mr. Heidelman’s lawn mower at midnight and the scent of freshly mown grass wafting through her window. She tightened her hand around the bits of moss.

She had to reach the goblin magic directly. With her tree sense, Keelie looked into the treelings’ slender trunks. Their cellulose was green, but slotted with oozy, oily tissue. Their mitochondria were polluted with dark magic. Keelie had to eradicate it, like chemo to a cancer cell, but first she had to use the charm.

She reached down to the line of fae energy she’d tapped earlier, and combined it with the tree magic she’d pulled from the trees around her. She combined the two, twisting the magics tightly until bright golden sparkles formed within her. The power exploded, surging through her.

Keelie opened her eyes to see her hands and arms glowing with golden iridescence. The moss she’d torn floated in midair before her.

“Children,” Keelie’s voice was loamy and commanding. Grandmother would be pleased.

The treelings stopped spinning. Risa collapsed as she released them to Keelie’s care.

Keelie blew, and the floating moss raced toward the treelings like poisonous darts, each greeny bit hitting a treeling spirit. The treeling cloud-forms screamed in pain and raced back to their tree bodies, the saplings in the protected glade.

Bella shrieked. “My babies!”

“No!” Tavyn-Bloodroot shouted. “Stop!” He ran toward Keelie, but a big orange object landed heavily on him, hissing, and started biting and scratching.

Knot.

Tavyn-Bloodroot tore the cat from his face and threw him to the side. Knot hit hard against the trunk of a tree and slid bonelessly to the ground.

The sound of voices came from the forest, and Tavyn-Bloodroot drew a sword and raced toward it.

Risa lifted her head and stretched her arms out to Knot. “Beloved.” She dragged herself over to the motionless, furry lump.

Keelie wanted to run to him, too, but she couldn’t stop now. She had to pull the dark goblin essence out of the little treelings before the elder spirits could stop her.

Golden light surrounded each small tree. Keelie held out her hand and let the magic flow freely. Like water from an overturned bucket, the golden cloud shimmered out in a wide, uncontrolled arc.

Bella began manically spinning around Keelie. She sang a beautiful melody about the stars; Keelie suddenly felt sleepy, but Bella Matera’s song was too frantic and she was able to shake it off.

Then, an ear-splitting howl shattered the hypnotic feeling. Coyote was beside Keelie. He howled again, a long, wavering note.

Bella shrieked in anger. “Your grandmother is dead, tree shepherd. Dead!” She reached upward and Keelie saw that the bubble with Grandmother and Viran was moving back and forth among the sharp upper branches of the trees. Grandmother seemed alert now, and her face was contorted with fear. Viran was on all fours, screaming down at them, although no sound escaped the bubble. She could see his mouth form a word over and over.

Bella would make the bubble burst and they would fall to their deaths, and it