Green (16 page)

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"By all that glitters!" Cain gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

I nodded. "But this is as far as you're going."

His 'stache drooped with disappointment.

"For now," I relented. "I need you to be my lookout. When I've got the bag to the outer keep, I'll signal for you to come get it."

"That's more the thing!" Cain said happily. "How will you get in, Lil?"

"I'll explain later." Or not. "Just make sure no one sneaks up on me."

I slipped off before he could argue, leaving him scanning the woods. Hugging the shadows as long as I could, I broke into the clearing on my final dash toward the cave. Moonlight poured down on my head, casting a spiky pixie-topped shadow across the grass. The four-leafed pisky-bite scars on my pumping hands began to glow brightly again. They hadn't faded at all, I realized; they just had to be seen under the moon. Then I plunged through the entrance to Kylie's keep and froze in utter darkness.

A shaft of moonlight fell through the opening, silhouetting the cave's jagged mouth. That gray slit and the dirt at my feet were the only things I could see. Summoning my courage, I grabbed Gigi's key and forced my energy into it.

The key flickered, then glowed, then burst forth with light.

The Scarlets' outer keep was larger than the Greens'. Its

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ceiling was higher too, but I was concentrating on the floor. Inching carefully across the dirt, holding my key like a flashlight, I saw something gleam near the right-hand wall. Kylie had left his keeper key half buried exactly where he'd promised.

My heart skipped as I picked up the ruby-studded key. Its gold chain dangled uselessly, broken at the clasp. Kylie and I had planned that too, to make it seem as if the key had slipped from his neck unnoticed in case someone else found it first. I'd put it back when I'd finished, and he'd retrieve it later.

Letting my own key hang on my neck, I gripped Kylie's in both hands.
Light
, I willed it silently, feeling my first moment of doubt. What if his key wouldn't work for me? What if Kylie was wrong and I had to be a Scarlet to use it? I squeezed the key harder, giving the task my entire focus.
Light, already. Please!

A low, warm glow filled my hands. Encouraged, I pumped in more energy, ratcheting up the illumination. The false back wall of Kylie's outer keep was thrown into perfect relief. Directly before me, right at eye level, a keyhole emerged from the rock and glinted invitingly.

It's going to work!
I thought. I'd have the gold in a minute, relock the keep, and be on my way. Slipping Kylie's key in up to its hilt, I gave it a firm twist.

The key froze in the lock, and my hand stuck to the key.

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The cave flooded with, light as an earsplitting alarm went off. I struggled frantically, but my fingers were attached to that key as if they'd been superglued. Flopping back and forth like a beached fish, I watched in horror as the skin of my trapped hand turned scarlet from wrist to fingertips.

"No!" I begged. "Cain! Help!" But I knew he couldn't hear me. I couldn't hear myself over that alarm. I panicked, screaming hysterically, totally trapped.

And then, like a lighthouse in a storm, Kylie appeared at the cave mouth. My whole body sagged with relief. "Help!" I cried. "Kylie, I'm stuck!"

He dashed toward me, crossing the keep in a few bounds. Grabbing my free arm, he twisted it behind me, trying to wrench me loose.

"Hurry!" I begged, just as five disheveled Scarlet guards rushed into the keep, skidding to a stunned stop at the sight of me stuck to their magic wall.

"Lilybet Green!" the guard with the bushiest orange beard bellowed. Taking out a gold whistle, he blew it long and hard.

The alarm cut off abruptly. My ears went right on ringing as more guards poured into the cave, some half-dressed, some half-asleep, all shouting at once:

"What's going on?"

"Is the keep breached?"

"By all that glitters!"

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"Thief! She's a thief!"

Beryl pushed his way in and joined the guard with the whistle. "What's going on here, Tully?"

"Caught this sneaking Green, Kylie did!" Tully reported. "And herself red-handed too!"

The whole group stared me down as if they'd caught a serial killer. My legs went wobbly. Luckily, Kylie was still behind me, holding me up by one elbow.

"Stand away, Kylie," Beryl ordered. "She's not going anywhere now."

Kylie let go and took a step back, leaving me still glued to the key. My eyes clung to his, begging him to save me.

"What say you, Lilybet Green?" Beryl demanded. "Has our Kylie caught you thieving?"

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My throat felt like it was full of cotton balls. The mob of guards surged closer, everyone shouting again.

I had never been more petrified.

Kylie will get me out of this
, I reassured myself.
He'll tell his clan it wasn't my fault, that we were going to put the gold back, that this isn't what it looks like
.

Kylie met my pleading gaze. And then he turned and winked at Beryl. The pair exchanged a smug smile that said more than words ever could.

Kylie wouldn't be coming to my rescue.

He had me right where he wanted me.

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It was a trick!
I realized, horrified. Kylie had never been my friend--"catching" me stealing had been his plan all along. The way he'd just happened to show up at the river, the way he had guessed my designs on his keep so easily ...

He was spying on me! Or Beryl was
. Maybe the two of them had laid this trap together.

And I'd jumped right into it.

"You don't understand!" I yelled at the guards. Panic forced the blood back into my legs, propelling me onto my toes. "You have no idea! I was ... was ... was ..." I wanted to
say framed
, but my lips refused to form the word. A strange taste filled my mouth, as if I'd been chewing on grass.

"You're making a big mistake!" I yelled, trying again. "I wouldn't even be here if--" Every muscle in my body strained to spit out
Kylie
, but I couldn't. Instead, something else bubbled into my mouth. I wiped off my tongue and stared in disbelief: little bits of chewed clover clung to the spit on my fingers.

"She's guilty!" angry voices cried.

"Caught red-handed, she is!"

"Never could trust a Green, not even a lepling!"

"Praises be for Kylie! If not for him, she might have breached our hoard!"

"Ky-lie! Ky-lie! Ky-lie!"
they chanted.

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Kylie smiled, soaking up their praise. He looked like a genius, the perfect keeper. And I ...

I looked like toast if I didn't start talking.

"No! No, I had an ... an ... an ..."
Accomplice
wouldn't come out either, just more bits of clover. My eyes cast about desperately and locked on Kylie's again. Still grinning, he bent his arm in front of him and casually pressed his thumb to his wrist.

His meaning hit me like a heavyweight's punch. My legs went to jelly again.

A clover swear was more binding than I'd ever dreamed.

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Chapter 14

"Lil!" a familiar voice called. The sound roused me off the cot where I'd been crying. "Lil, how are you faring? I came as soon as they'd let me."

Dawn had begun to seep through the barred slit of my cell window, and I was desperate to see any friendly face--even Balthazar's. Springing to my feet, I bumped my head in the low-ceilinged room. "Balthazar! Help me!"

A Scarlet guard unlocked a barred door barely larger than a cat flap and Balthazar stooped in.

"Get me out of here!" I demanded hysterically. "This is all your fault!"

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I hadn't expected him to agree with me, but to my surprise, Balthazar yanked his beard with two clenched fists and burst into noisy tears. "Aye, and you're right!" he blubbered. "I know you're right, Lilybet. I shouldn't have insisted on waiting for you, but how could I have guessed? Only grandchild o' Maureen and straight down my very own line--you
should
have been keeper, and a great one too. But then you didn't want to come and us without a keeper for over a year ... Well, how did that make me look? It was vanity clouded my judgment. I should have left you where I found you, safe and sound." He wrung his beard like a dish towel. "Can you ever forgive me?"

I sat down hard on the cot, totally unprepared to see him cry. After all,
I
was the one in jail. "Don't you dare go soft on me now," I said. "You have to get me out of this!"

"But Li--Li--Lillllll ..." He started bawling again, looking so sad and pathetic and wet I nearly lost my mind.

"Balthazar, knock it off! I'm not kidding." Grabbing him by one hand, I yanked him up onto the cot where we could see more eye to eye. "Pull yourself together and tell me how to get out of here."

He honked into a handkerchief with a sound like a sick elephant. Then he wiped his wet face with his wet beard and regarded me miserably. "They've got you red-handed, Lil."

He wasn't wrong about that. My right hand still looked

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like I'd dipped it in paint. "Yeah," I said, holding it up. "When does this go away?"

"That depends." Balthazar collapsed cross-legged onto the cot, wailing pitifully. "Oh, Lil! Why didn't you
tell
me what you were planning? I could have
warned
you. I could have
stopped
you! And to think I carried you into this mess myself ..."

"I told Cain," I said sullenly, not wanting to admit I'd been wrong to cut Balthazar out of the loop. That seemed obvious now, though. He was nearly as distraught as I was.

"But you didn't tell him your
plan
, Lil. You kept him in the
dark
. And once the alarm went off, there was nothing Cain could do but run back and tell the rest o' us."

"And that's another thing! How come none of you told me about that alarm? We don't have one."

"O' course we do, but it only goes off if an outsider tries to use the key. How were we supposed to know you'd got hold o' Kylie's?"

I would have loved to tell him
how
I got Kylie's key, but I'd already learned the hard way that my clover swear made telling impossible. I hadn't even been able to tell anyone I'd
made
a clover swear.

I sighed. "Couldn't you have mentioned the alarm
anyway?"

"Aye, and by gold I wish I had! I was just following orders, Lil--keeping unnecessary details mum until you passed all your tests. It's always been done that way."

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Bronwyn had told me basically the same thing, but she'd been brave enough to break the rule Balthazar had obeyed.

"I didn't want you to know I had the key," I admitted. "Someone in the Greens is trying to sabotage me."

Balthazar's jaw dropped. "Best be careful where you say that, Lil, but I've been thinking the same thing."

"But who?" I asked. "And why? What did
I
do?"

He shook his head. "The only thing I can work out is that someone wants to switch bloodlines, someone powerful."

"Switch bloodlines? Aren't we all Greens?"

"Aye, but some o' us are related more
recently
, if you take my meaning."

I shook my head.

"You and I, we're like first cousins, Lil. Cain too--he's right in our line. Fizz is more like a second cousin. And Ludlow? Kissing cousin, at best."

"Please don't say
kissing
."

Balthazar picked up on my disgust, but not the reason for it. "Aye," he said grimly. "That lad's been nothing but trouble, him and his diplomacy. He's ambitious too. A cold succession could play right into his hands, although he's not nearly powerful enough to have set all this in motion."

"A cold ... what?"

"Normally, the existing keeper chooses one o' her descendants to try for the key," he explained. "But if ever a keeper dies without a suitable descendant, or if all o' them

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fail, Donal's spell allows us to swing over to another branch o' the family tree. Or try a boy--which., I have to admit, is looking less daft than it used to."

"You mean you'd choose one of my relatives? Like ... not my cousin Gen! You leave Gen out of this!"

Balthazar shook his head. "That girl's no Green. On your mother's side, isn't she? No, we'd hold a selection assembly, and the entire clan would have a chance to put a lepling in their line forward. Every Green craves the status and privilege o' being aligned with the keeper."

"So then who do you think is responsible for making my tests so hard? Who even knew what they'd be?"

"Precious few, Lil, and fewer still with that sort o' influence. The council themselves chose your tests. The only other folk in on the secret were their consorts, Bronny (by virtue o' her relation to Mother Sosanna), me (by virtue o' my engagement to Bronny), Maxwell (by virtue o' my big mouth), and probably a few others I don't know about." Balthazar's eyes narrowed. "Ludlow is in Sosanna's line too."

"So you're thinking ... Sosanna and Ludlow?"

"Shh!" he shushed me frantically. "How could I? And even if I did, I wouldn't say it out loud."

It was all too hard to follow. Considering where I was, I wasn't sure it even mattered. "Well, if you don't get me out of this cell,
someone
is getting their wish."

"Right," he agreed, nodding listlessly. "Getting you out is