Herne offered her a plastic bottle full of soda.

"This isn't some fairy trick, is it?"

"No, it came from that machine over there. It's human food, though it doesn't seem to have any food in it."

"Why are you here?" Keelie pulled the top off the soda, heard the fizz, and took a sip.

"I came to show you something." Herne called a goblin to him, one of the little ones she'd seen all over Underthe-Hill. Keelie backed up, ready to jump back through the motel room door.

"Stop, it's safe. He's mine, look."

The goblin came up and squatted at Herne's feet, putting its spidery arms around the forest G.o.d's booted leg. His skin looked chitinous, a shiny black that glowed in the slanting arctic sun. His round, protruding eyes looked up at her.

"I thought Peascod controlled the goblins. Did you kill Peascod?"

"No. I'm not sure where the accursed fool went, but I discovered that when he's not around, his influence fades, and the goblins look to me. At least they still band together. It's easier to control them that way, when I can."

"Permanently? What happens if he comes back?"

Herne shrugged. "I don't understand the power Peascod has over the wild magic. But I don't think he's working alone."

"I still can't figure out how you lost control," Keelie said. "I mean, you're a G.o.d, right?"

Herne's expression turned stoney. "I was."

"What's the difference between a G.o.d and a fairy?"

"Power. Much of my power came from my worshipers, although most of it comes from nature itself. Few practice the old ways." He seemed reluctant to say the words.

"Don't look at me. I'm not a worshiping kind of girl."

Herne met her eyes. "I could make you."

Keelie shivered, sure that he could. She wondered how many other G.o.ds there were. Eager to look away from Herne, she glanced down at the little goblin. He was hideous, but seemed content to sit there. The little fellow looked up at Keelie and his eyes zoomed to her soda. He licked his lips.

Keelie offered it to him, careful to keep her hands away from his sharp talons. He s.n.a.t.c.hed the bottle, ripped it in two and poured the liquid out, then calmly chomped down on it.

Keelie stared. "Do they all do that?"

"Table manners are not part of goblin life."

"No, I mean eat plastic."

Herne looked at the little creature. "I suppose. They eat all kinds of garbage."

She remembered how clean Big Nugget had been. No wonder. And of course, that's why cities were full of goblins. They ate garbage. Plastic. The idea excited her-a recycling solution. Although if the cities were full of goblins, you sure couldn't tell the difference.

"I have to go to bed," she said to Herne. "Thanks for coming by. I'm glad the goblins seem to be yours once more."

He bowed. "I'll see you soon. This alliance idea is so amusing.

"No more mention of consorts, okay?"

Herne's eyes flashed. "Oh, yes." Keelie felt that tingle again and stepped back.

"Don't fight it, Keelie. You are dark fae, and your blood sings to me."

She stood tall. "I'm also part elven and part human, and you have no sway over those."

Herne grinned again. "So you think." He bowed, and vanished.

Her elf guard moaned from the ground. She needed to go inside before he saw her out here or he would tell Dad. She put a hand on the doork.n.o.b, and the trees moved with a breeze that spoke to her in Herne's voice. I do love a challenge.

Two hours later, as Keelie tried to read the dragon magic book, her eyes closed. She swore she smelled the familiar scent of Ermentrude's charcoal cigarettes and the purring of Knot as he snuggled up against her.

She felt as if she were falling, and then she landed in a valley tucked between snow-capped mountains. The air was crystal clear and the gra.s.s was soft beneath her feet. Sunlight shone on her shoulders, warm on her skin. Knot played among the red and blue flowers. In the spring-green gra.s.s, Coyote rolled on his back with his legs up in the air.

It all seemed so real. It had to be. Keelie wished Sean were here with her. It would be a calm, serene place for her to pour her heart out to him, and he'd understand.

"It is beautiful, isn't it?"

At the sound of the voice, Keelie almost fell over. She didn't turn around. She didn't want to look for fear the speaker wouldn't be there.

"We're here, Keliel," Grandmother Josephine said.

Keelie turned. Her grandmother's voice was the same as she remembered, but in this place she was so young and beautiful. Another woman stood slightly behind Grandma Jo, and as she stepped forward, Keelie cried out with every bit of grief and anguish in her heart and soul.

"Mom!" The word floated and echoed around the mountain.

The wind blew and rustled her mother's dark hair. Tears streamed down Keelie's cheek as she stared at her through blurry eyes.

"Hey, sweetie," Mom smiled lovingly at her, but there was sadness in her eyes. "You've grown so much."

Knot and Coyote ran to Keelie's side, then bounded in front of her, blocking her way as she was about to run to her mother.

"No, Keelie," Coyote yelled. "They're here to give you a message, but you cannot touch them. The fairy magic that flows within you, and within them, is what is allowing the contact between this realm and the spirit realm."

"The magic is leaking into the spirit world," Grandma Jo said. She placed her hands across Mom's shoulders as if to give her comfort.

"What?" Keelie wanted to run to Mom so badly, but Coyote stopped her by sinking his teeth into her shirt and tugging her back.

"There is a dark force who wants to release the dead to do his bidding, if he is allowed to be free. He has slept for a long time. You have to mend the rift within the Earth to stop him," Mom said. "Mend the rift first, to stop the wild magic. Then you'll be able to use your tree magic to mend the crack in Gaia's Dome."

"Our time is almost up," Grandma Jo said sadly.

"What? You just arrived," Keelie protested.

"I know, my darling," said Mom.

Knot rubbed his head up against Keelie's leg. He purred. "Meow time."

"It can't be time."

Keelie looked at Mom, wanting to memorize everything about her so she'd never forget what she looked like. "Mom, I'm sorry I said I didn't love you the morning you left. I love you. I love you. I love you."

Tears formed in Mom's eyes. "I know, Keelie. I love you, too. Rest your heart. I know you didn't mean it."

Grandma Jo turned her head. "They're calling us. We have to go. Beware of the jester, Keelie. He is very dangerous, and he seeks your death to gain your power."

Fear pulsed through every fiber of Keelie's being.

"Will I ever see you, again?" she asked.

Coyote turned to Knot. "Let's go."

Keelie wanted to shout no. Mom and Grandma Jo were beginning to fade, growing smaller as if they were being pulled away.

Mom's voice wafted back, as pale as her image. "Keelie, tell your father that I love him."

Pain lanced through Keelie as she felt herself leaving the mountainside. She whirled through a smoky vortex of fire, and she landed on the lumpy motel mattress with a loud squeal of bedsprings.

Knot and Coyote crashed to the motel floor in a bundle of fur.

"Yeow off meow."

"Get off of me, you fat cat."

A red ember of smoke from a lighted cigarette glowed in the dark room. "Told you it was a dragon magic book."

Keelie's head pounded like she had cannons going off inside her skull. "Was that real?"

Ermentrude clicked on a light, and though she was still in human form, she had claws instead of hands. She was knitting with them, rapidly working yarn. Knot and Coyote were still trying to disentangle their legs from one another.

"Yep, it was all real." Ermentrude took another puff of her cigarette. It smelled like a charcoal grill in the small, cramped room. Keelie wished desperately for some Febreze.

"The magic is leaking into..." She didn't quite know how to explain it to Ermentrude.

"The spirit world," Ermentrude answered.

"Yeah, the spirit world."

"Exciting stuff." Flames appeared in Ermentrude's nostrils, then snuffed out.

"I saw my mother and grandmother."

"You were given a rare gift."

"Yes, I was."

"You miss your mom, don't you?" Ermentrude asked.

Keelie nodded. If she said anything, she'd choke on the words.

"I wish my daughter would miss me. She's too busy avoiding me."

"Is your daughter a ... ?"

"A dragon. Yes."

Ermentrude untangled her claws from her knitting, then put out her cigarette in an ashtray. She picked up her knitting again and threaded the loops onto her claws. "Yeah, but she's working, traveling around the United States from faire to faire. I'm hoping she'll get it out of her system, come back, and hatch some eggs. I'm ready for a batch of granddragons, but she has to meet the right guy first."

Keelie had a sneaking suspicion she knew Ermentrude's daughter. "What's your daughter's name?"

"Rose. Her father's idea, to name her after her grandmother. You might know her. She goes by her father's name. In dragon society, it's the mother's name that is pa.s.sed on."

"What is the name she goes by?"

"Finch."

Keelie sat down hard. Finch, the horrifying administrator from the Wildewood Faire who hated Keelie's guts. She was not one bit surprised that Finch was really a dragon.

"Do you know her? She's got great people skills." Ermentrude sounded as proud as any mother bragging about her kid. Keelie wasn't going to tell her otherwise. "She's working at a faire in Colorado this year," the dragon added.

"Really." Keelie shuddered. Whenever this drama in the Northwoods was over, she and Dad were going to the High Mountain Renaissance Faire in Colorado. She briefly wondered who was minding their woodworking shop there while Dad was here.

Ermentrude stood up and packed her knitting bag. "I'll leave you to sleep. You haven't had much of that lately."

She left, and Keelie got ready for bed. She wanted to slip back into her dream world, to freeze Mom and Grandma Jo's images in her mind. Maybe she could go there alone if the magic walls were thin. It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't asked how Grandmother Keliatiel had discovered about their dark fairy blood.

Something hard landed on her stomach.

"Ah." Keelie bolted upright. It was Coyote.

He stared at her. "Don't try and go there without me or Knot. If you get stuck, your soul can't return back to your body. And you can't go where your kin have gone unless you're dead."

She'd be stuck on that hillside forever, alone. "I've got it. I won't go back." Unless she really needed to.

"How did you two get there?" Keelie asked Coyote and Knot the next morning as they walked to Ermentrude's room for breakfast. She was still thinking about the dreamworld.

Coyote shrugged one furry shoulder. "I'm a spirit walker. I've told you before that I walk between worlds."

Knot swished his tail, and Keelie heard a distant sound of meowing.

"And that means you can walk to the world of the dead? Agh-" Keelie almost tripped over several tabbies and calicos sitting outside Ermentrude's door. The cats didn't flinch, just stared at her.

"What's with the cats?" Keelie looked at Knot for an answer. He lifted his nose in reply. Keelie knocked, then opened the door. Inside, Ermentrude sat at a tiny dinette table. Elia and Dariel stood next to her, their arms wrapped around each other.

"I have to leave," Dariel said. "We're still in Council meetings with all the big wigs. Herne is sending trolls."