Golden Girl (5 page)

“Callie,” whispered Amerda. “We’ve got ourselves Callie LeRoux. The Bad Luck Girl herself. The Prophecy Girl. Why don’t you come here, Callie?”

She had one of my names, and my brain had gone fuzzy. I leaned toward her. Jack dragged me away, retreating toward the back wall of the house, but I kept pulling hard against him. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t even see straight.

Then, outside, a voice so deep it could have come straight out of the earth said a very rude word.

To my surprise, Amerda smiled all over her crocodile face. “Why, Paul!” She turned toward whoever’d spoken outside. “There you are at last!”

Without her calling my name, I was able to stumble with Jack toward the back of our flimsy fake farmhouse. Rougarou leaned as far as he could over the pathetic heap of iron nails, and that was awfully far. He had long arms too, and he stretched them all the way out, so we could see fingernails like dirty sickles.

“I thought I made it clear I wasn’t having anything to do with you people,” said the man outside to Amerda.

“Oh, you did. And we heard you. We were just on our way, weren’t we, my brother? You need not worry about us anymore.” Rougarou snapped his teeth at us and jerked his chin. His meaning was clear, to me anyway. If we made any noise, that man out there was dead.

Jack looked at me, and I looked at Jack. We got the message. But listening to folks who are already trying to kill you is never a good idea. Jack set his back to the wall and hefted the board in his hands like a baseball bat. “Help!”

“Whoever you are, help!” I added for good measure.

“What the hell are you doing?” shouted the man. “You’ve got
kids
in there!”

“This isn’t your business anymore!” snapped Amerda.

Apparently Paul out there didn’t agree. I couldn’t see what happened, but it made Amerda scream, loud and high, which got Rougarou to whip himself around and run. This left me and Jack with nobody watching us. Jack shoved up the sash on the nearest window and cupped his hands. I let him boost me out the window and fell hard on my knees. He vaulted through behind me, and we took off.

We didn’t get far.

Amerda screamed again. I couldn’t understand the words she used, but I also couldn’t feel the ground under my feet anymore. Jack and I flew backward through the air. We slammed into the dirt at her feet, and before my head stopped spinning, claws dug into my shoulder. Pain followed a split second later, and this time I did the screaming. Jack was on his feet, ready to swing his board, but a man caught hold of his shirt collar and jerked him back.

I don’t know what I was expecting “Paul” to be, but this man wasn’t it. He was just about the biggest, blackest Negro I’d ever seen in my life. He was dressed in a fine white shirt, dark trousers, and suspenders, but what I really noticed was
that he wasn’t running away or screaming. In fact, he’d put himself between Jack and both the fairies.

“Now, Paul.” Amerda dug her fingers into my shoulder. She’d put her pretty face back on, so she was the sparkling woman we’d first seen, but her crocodile claws still pressed needle-sharp into my skin. “There’s no need for any more trouble. We’ve each got ourselves one. What could be more fair?”

“Let her go!” Jack yelled, and tried to duck back in front of Paul, but Paul just stuck out an arm to block his way.

“You heard the boy,” said Paul, not even noticing Jack was pushing on him. “Let her go.”

“Oh, no.” Amerda’s claws nestled closer into the hollow of my shoulder. If I tried to move, she’d tear a chunk out. “Not this one. Not even for you, Paul dear.”

“Please, mister—” Jack began.

I cut him off. “Run, mister. Just … get him out of here.” These two would probably keep me alive because of what I was, but if they got their hands on Jack, he’d be dead. Jack wasn’t even part fairy. They didn’t need him for anything. It was plain they had some kind of history with this Paul, but Amerda would kill him too, just to keep her claws on me. I could feel it.

Rougarou had his own ideas, though. He crouched down like a runner, his long, tangled hair puddling in the dust around his big feet. “Let Rougarou have Mr. Paul.” His eyes glittered in the pale street light. “Let Rougarou
wrestle him down. Rougarou will bring them all back to the Seelie king. We be fed and free forever, sister mine!”

“Now there
is
an idea.” Greed slowed down each word. Amerda laid her fingertips on her chin, making a big show of thinking it all over. “What do you say to a little wager, Paul?”

“No!” I shouted. Amerda’s claws broke my skin, and I squeaked. “Don’t do it. I’ll be okay. Just run. Please, get out of here!”

Jack didn’t pay me any mind. Right there in the middle of being scared for my life and his, and for the life of this Paul guy, who knew too much and not enough at the same time, I wanted to roll my eyes. Brave was one thing, but Jack was downright dopey.

Amerda sighed and shook her head. “There’d be no need for any of this if you’d just accepted my offer, Paul. I wouldn’t even have known the girl was here.” She smiled down at me, all soft and pretty. The effect was kind of spoiled by my being close enough to see how jagged her teeth were. “In a way, you’ve done us a tremendous favor.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Amerda was trying to pull a fast one. She wanted Paul to think it was his fault Jack and I were in this fix. He hadn’t been here to see Ivy Bright. He didn’t know what was really happening.

That was when Paul surprised me again. He crouched down until his gaze was level with Jack’s. “Has either of you promised anything to this … woman?” he asked. “Anything at all?”

“No, mister,” said Jack. “Nothing.”

Who was this man? How’d he know about fairies and promises? And why couldn’t he figure out he was supposed to be scared out of his mind by now? He was as bad as Jack. “Mister, you don’t understand.”

“You’re correct. I don’t understand. But we’ll sort that out later.” Paul straightened up again. Standing beside him, Jack looked like a wheat stalk sticking up next to an oak tree. “Right now I’m going to finish this.”

He folded his hands behind his back. “Now, Miss Amerda. I don’t believe either of these children wishes to go with you, and as neither seems to be of your family, I see no reason why they should have to. Do you?”

“Only that I’ve got my hands on this one, Paul.” Amerda shrugged, and her claws dug in further. Blood trickled out slowly under my suit jacket, and I tried not to wince. “And I’ve grown so fond of her, I simply can’t bear to let her go.”

“What if I told you she was mine?”

I bit down hard on both my lips.

“Oh, no,
really
?” Amerda flashed a delighted smile and shook me. Pain sent bright sparks all up and down my arm. “I never suspected. Perhaps I should have. It would explain her being here, wouldn’t it?
Such
a small world.”

She was buying it. She thought I was related to this giant. Was she that stupid? No. She was that greedy. With all that passed for heart and soul under her fairy hide, she wanted to bring me back to her folks, and that made her stupid. Paul knew it too, and he was using it.

“And what if I told you I’d let you have my girl free and clear if your brother there can beat me in wrestling?”

Oh, no, no, no. Don’t do this. Stop him, Jack. Stop him!
Just a minute ago, I thought he knew about fairies and promises. Fairy promises aren’t like human promises. On their side, they can’t break them any more than they can hold on to black iron. On the human side, if you try to break the promise, they will come after you, and they will keep coming until one way or another the promise is kept.

“Please, please, please stop.” But it was like my voice didn’t reach all the way up to Paul’s ears. Jack wasn’t helping either. I could tell by the way he curled up his fists he wasn’t going to make a move. I dug down deep for my magic, but all I found was more shakes.

Paul patted Jack’s shoulder once and stepped forward.

“Stakes,” hissed Rougarou. He was starved. Hunger billowed around him like the smell of wet rot. He wanted pain and he wanted fear. He’d munch them down and be filled. Paul’s fear would taste so sweet. My stomach heaved. “What are the stakes for this little game?”

Paul wasn’t paying any attention to the hairy man. He walked in a slow circle, scraping a ring in the dirt with the heel of one shiny shoe. “If you throw me, I give you my girl,” he said. “If I throw you, you leave these children be, and you and yours never bother me again.”

“Done!” cried Amerda.

Slowly, with more dignity than I’d seen from a lot of men walking down the street, Paul took down his suspenders
and stripped off his shirt. He tossed it to Jack, who caught it, I think because he didn’t know what else to do. Paul’s skin gleamed. He had arms like a boxer’s and hands that could have unbent a horseshoe after he’d pulled it off the horse. Rougarou grinned and crossed into the circle. Paul stepped over the line to join him. He bent his knees and put his arms out, looking like a football player waiting for the tackle.

He didn’t have to wait long. Rougarou bellowed and threw himself straight at Paul. Paul didn’t even try to get out of the way. Rougarou plowed his head straight into Paul’s stomach, and Paul grabbed the hairy man around the waist and twisted. The monster hit the ground, and Paul dropped himself down to land right on top. Amerda hissed, and her ugly brother lashed out with one foot, and that was when we found out Rougarou could grab hold of things with his hairy toes. His hands caught Paul’s wrists and his toes wound around Paul’s ankles. Rougarou rolled over backward, aiming for the circle’s edge. But Paul wrapped his big hands around the monster’s elbow and dug both thumbs into the joint. The monster bellowed and dropped him. Paul rolled over onto his shoulder and came up into his crouch again, hands out, teeth bared in a grin that made him look every bit as fierce as Rougarou.

Amerda had her attention glued to the fight. A thin trickle of spit ran from the corner of her perfect, smiling mouth. In the ring, Rougarou and Paul circled around, sizing each other up, looking for openings. Rougarou feinted,
left then right, fast enough to be a blur in the dark. Amerda laughed.

This time Paul didn’t wait for Rougarou. He charged, and Rougarou got him by the waist, whirling them both around. He lifted his muzzle high. He was going to bite Paul on the back of his neck. I screamed. But Paul swung those huge fists, and Rougarou hollered. Paul twisted and punched again, and Rougarou’s grip broke. Trying to cover his head, he backed away from Paul, right toward the circle’s edge, Paul’s fists driving him out of bounds.

Amerda frowned. She lifted her free hand to her mouth, pursed her lips, and blew across the palm. A cloud of dust spiraled up from the ground, straight into Paul’s face. Paul fell back, choking. Rougarou stuck out a foot and caught Paul right behind the ankles. Paul stumbled out of the circle and fell to the ground.

“You cheated!” I cried. “You’re a cheater!”

“But I never said I would not.” Amerda straightened up until she was almost as tall as Paul. “Your man was careless, and he lost you, little Callie.” She cupped her hand under my chin and smiled down at me. Her hidden scales scraped against my skin, and she showed me all her crocodile teeth.

“No, no,” croaked Jack. “It can’t be.”

“It’s not.” Paul pulled himself up onto his knees and spat dust.

Amerda swung around, but she didn’t let go of my chin. “What’s that?”

“As it happens, she’s not my girl.”

A light came on inside me, like he’d thrown a switch. At the same time, Amerda’s jaw dropped.

“What?” She hissed out the word, all long and slow and deadly.

“She’s not my girl.” Paul climbed slowly to his feet. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “She’s nothing to me. I have no power to give her away.”

“But you said—”

“I said, what if I told you she was my girl? But I didn’t tell it to you, and you didn’t ask who my girl was. Or if I even had one,” he added with a grin that managed to be cheerful and dangerous at the same time. “You said you would take my girl as our bet. Well, whoever Miss Callie here may be, she’s not my girl and was no part of our bargain.”

Amerda hissed, long and hard. “You think you’re so very clever. But you do have a girl. You have a wife, you have—”

“Might be a problem, if …” Paul pivoted on one heel and wrapped his tree-trunk arms around Rougarou’s waist. The monster wasn’t ready for it, and Paul lifted him high. He held him there for a minute silhouetted against the deeper dark, and all I could think of was Samson from the Bible. Then Paul slammed the monster down so hard he bounced.

“I threw your man.
I
win.”

“You cheated!” shrieked Amerda.

“I never said I would not,” Paul replied calmly.

Amerda swelled up until the sparkly disguise stretched
thin and the crocodile face showed through underneath. She let go and stalked forward, her anger at Paul blinding her to everything else. Jack darted forward and grabbed my hand, ready to run. I tried to latch on to a wish, something, anything, but it was all too heavy and slick and my shoulder hurt too much.

Paul just stood where he was, letting Amerda come right up to him. She lashed out, claws curled, but her hand stopped two inches from his face like she’d hit an iron wall.

“You’ve lost, Amerda,” Paul said calmly. “You and your brother. You can’t touch me.”

Rougarou climbed to his feet and howled.

“You think you’re so very clever.” Amerda backed away. “The gallant knight riding to the rescue of the pitiful little girl. You have no idea what kind of creature you’ve just tried to save.”

She screamed, and she and Rougarou were gone. Whatever bubble of quiet she’d been holding us in burst and all the city night noises came flooding back. The world was almost normal again, with Jack holding my hand and this giant stranger who’d just saved our lives looking solemnly down at us both.

“Who are you?” Jack whispered finally.

“My name is Paul Robeson.”