Green (22 page)

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added a dash more when Maxie wasn't looking. Just enough to scare you off, Lil! Had to protect my investment, didn't I?"

"Cain Green," said Sosanna, "I've heard enough! You have broken the ban on pisky wishing, you have bepiskied me and the entire council, you have attempted to steal clan gold, and you have caused harm and aggravation to your sister Lilybet."

Harm and aggravation?
I thought with a smile.
Wait until she hears what happened in the Hollow!

"You are sentenced to exile in the Wastes," Sosanna decreed. "For life."

Cain slumped as if he'd been shot. Two of his guards caught him before he hit the floor. The council stared him down unmercifully, but in the crowd around the platform, I spotted pitying faces. The Wastes was obviously not a nice place.

The guards started marching Cain off the platform. "Stand on your feet, maggot!" one of them snapped as Cain's legs buckled.

"Wait!" I cried.

Everyone turned to me in surprise. I was surprised myself. But when Cain's eyes met mine, I knew what I had to do. He was my brother, my
blood
brother, and despite everything, I kind of liked him.

"Is there anyone here who hasn't felt the pull of gold?" I

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asked, addressing the whole crowd. "The way it gets into your blood and pumps through your veins like a fever?"

I could tell by their faces they knew that fever well.

"That's part of being a leprechaun, isn't it?" I asked. "I've felt it myself. In the keep, surrounded by all those coins and nuggets, the bars stacked up to the ceiling ... That gold shines with its own light. It hums like a lullaby and beats like a heart. Gold comes alive for us. Am I right?"

"Aye. Aye." The field was a sea of nodding heads.

"And I have hardly any leprechaun blood, so if
I
feel that way, I can only imagine what a temptation holding that key was to Cain. Can
you
imagine?" I asked them. "Would every one of you have been strong enough to resist?"

Hundreds of gazes dropped to the clover.

"What Cain did was wrong," I continued, "and I suppose he has to be punished. But he was
sick
. Doesn't he deserve a little mercy too?"

No one answered. Nobody looked at me either, no one except Cain. His eyes flowed over with gratitude until fat tears dripped to the ground.

"Lilybet, you speak with insight beyond your years," Sosanna said at last. "We are humbled by your forgiveness. You may decide Cain's punishment."

"Me?"
That was pretty much the last thing I'd expected. Or wanted. Everyone was looking at me, though. And I'd opened my mouth, so ...

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"Cain Green," I began. "Stand up, okay?"

The guards placed Cain over his boots again, and somehow he stayed there, tottering uncertainly.

"Cain Green, for bepiskying the council and trying to steal the clan's gold, I sentence you to ..." I thought desperately. "... community service! Someone has to pick up after all these dogs, right? That's you, Cain, for the next two years."

Appreciative snickers ran through the crowd.

"Also, you can't grow a mustache for five years, since that's how long you nearly got me imprisoned for."

Cain's expression said he found that especially harsh, but I wasn't done yet. "And you will use your own personal gold to pay back what I stole plus damages in the Hollow. Let's see, that's a wooden bridge, a stone jail cell, a thoroughly busted-up keep, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting right now."

Cain staggered but stayed on his feet. The other Greens cheered wildly.

"Lastly," I shouted over the noise, "you owe me three favors, Cain, to be collected whenever I say." I had no idea what I'd ask him for, but if I was going to be hanging around the Meadows, favors were sure to come in handy. "Okay. I'm done."

Sosanna nodded. "Very wise, Lilybet. Let it be."

Another huge cheer went up. The next second I was

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mobbed by leprechauns. They swarmed onto the platform, surrounding my legs, reaching their hands up to me, jostling and pushing and crowding until I could barely stay on my feet.

"Lil-y-bet! Lil-y-bet! Lil-y-bet!
Greeeeeeeeen!"

"You guys!" I protested, stumbling. "You're going to knock me down!"

"Fall back, Lil!" Balthazar urged. "We've got you!"

I resisted another second, and then I let go, tumbling backward onto the eager hands of dozens of cheering Greens. It felt like my body went weightless, floating on the gentle support of a living magic carpet. Hands moved underneath me, passing me from Green to Green. Across the platform, down the stairs, out over the grass ...

"Lil-y-bet! Lil-y-bet! Lil-y-bet!
Greeeeeeeeen!"

And beneath a perfect aqua sky, thousands of cheering leprechauns crowd-surfed me around that field like a rock star.

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Chapter 19

"Lilybet Green, you are our keeper," Sosanna said, leaning out on her stool to kiss my cheek. "May your work bring you joy."

"Thank you." I turned back to the crowd in Green Field, but for once they weren't all cheering. Instead, thousands of brimming eyes gazed up at me, touched by the solemn moment. I was pretty touched myself, but I'd already done enough crying to last a lifetime.

"Aw, come on, you guys," I said.
"Greeeeeeeeen!"
The call flew out of my throat as if it had been stuck there for years,

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just waiting for that moment. The sound boomeranged over the field and came back multiplied.

"Greeeeeeeeen!"
my clan shouted in unison. "Lilybet! Lilybet!
Greeeeeeeeen!"

And then the cheering began again, along with a bright green blizzard of slingshot-fired confetti. I jumped off the edge of the platform and ran through the field to the cottage, eager to pack my things for home.

I was already at the tall cupboard, throwing Gigi's clothes onto the bed, when the first leprechauns reached my open front door. Balthazar, at the front of the pack, did his best to block the doorway. "Lil! Lil!" he puffed, crimson-faced. "You have a few transfers out here."

"Transfers?" I crossed the room to find a hundred leprechauns in my front yard, some holding heavy bags, others empty sacks. With a sinking feeling, I realized what they wanted.

They wanted me to do
my job
.

"Now?" I said. "This minute?"

"Folk have been waiting a long time, Lil," Balthazar reminded me, but there was new respect in his tone. The gazes of the others were pleading. I suddenly understood what it truly meant to be keeper: They weren't telling me anymore. They were
asking
me. I had every right to say no and rush home to my mother--my deeply worried, soon-to-be-furious mother.

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"I suppose I could do a few transfers," I said, inspiring happy shouts. "But only a few! You've waited this long; you can wait a few more days while I straighten things out at home."

"Very wise, Lilybet," Balthazar said, bowing.

"I
am
very wise, but you've got to drop the act," I teased. "I don't know who you are when you're not driving me crazy. Hey, Lexie!" I cried, spotting her at the back of the crowd. "Lexie, hi! Let her come up, you guys."

The mob parted grudgingly, casting envious looks at Lexie as she hurried to my door.

"Lil, you did it!" she said. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, but I wouldn't be here without your help. Your lucky charm saved the day."

"Really?" Lexie looked thrilled.

"I'd actually started thinking that button wasn't lucky at all. Then, right when I least expected it, it totally came through."

"That's how luck is," she told me, grinning. "Luck never shows up when you're looking; it happens on its own terms. So where's the button, then? Why aren't you wearing it?"

My face fell. "I'm sorry, Lexie. A pisky took it."

"But ...
Another
pisky?"

Oohs and aahs from the crowd reminded me they were still listening. "Everyone, go wait by the keep," I directed. "I'll be there in a minute."

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Leprechauns stampeded my doorway, Balthazar barely managing to hold them back. "Go
around
, you idiots! Does Lilybet want the entire clan tramping through her hut?"

My hut
, I thought, smiling, as they diverted off around the cottage. It felt strange and a little awesome to have a place of my own. Not that I wasn't still anxious to get back to Providence.

"So, I'll do some quick transfers, then what?" I asked. "How soon can we leave?"

"One last bit o' business and you're on your way," Balthazar promised.

I'd been around the Greens long enough to spot a leprechaun snow job. "What sort of business?" I asked suspiciously.

"Practically nothing!" he assured me, wide-eyed. "Just the standard clover swear that you will never reveal the folk's existence or divulge anything about us to anyone until such time as your successor is ready for her trial, at which time you'll speak only to her."

"Oh." That didn't sound so bad. Except ... "What am I supposed to tell my mom?"

Balthazar shrugged. "Would she believe you anyway, Lil?"

He had me there. I was pretty much dead either way. In fact, I could actually see things going worse if I started ranting on about my time with the little people.

"Fine. I'll take the swear. But you guys owe me

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something too. What about the luck I was supposed to get when I became keeper? What about my allowance?"

"You already got the luck, Lil," Lexie said, touching a finger to her cheek. "You've been kissed by Mother Sosanna!"

I made a face, disappointed. I'd been hoping for a lucky gold ring or talisman--something with a lot more flash than a kiss. Unless maybe it had left a mark ...

Running over to the tub, I rummaged through the toiletries there until I found a small mirror. My cheek looked exactly the same.

"What are you looking for, silly?" Lexie asked, giggling. "You can't see luck! You wear it like you wear your skin. Luck is part o' you now, Lil. No one can ever take it away."

"Really?" If that were true, then maybe Sosanna's kiss was better than a ring--although still sadly lacking in flash. "How about my allowance?"

Balthazar stepped forward, looking shifty again. "I have an accounting o' that right here," he said, pulling a scrap of paper from his coat.

"Dog cart travel for both trips, one thousand nine hundred thirty-five dymers," he read aloud. "Feasting, thirty-four deloreans. Fireworks and leprechaun lights, nine hundred thirty-two class-A nuggets. Four-man escort from Providence--"

"Yeah, I know this one. Priceless," I said.

"No. Twelve deloreans," he corrected seriously.

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"Are you reading me a
bill?"
I asked, incredulous.

"Not a bill, Lil. Expenses. It's traditional for the keeper to bear the cost o' her initiation."

"Is it traditional for the keeper to get her butt thrown in jail and nearly drown falling through a bridge?" I shouted, outraged. "Is it traditional for her to get assigned a couple of suicide missions by a bepiskied council?"

"Now, Lil. You did destroy that bridge yourself, so you really can't hold the clan--"

"I'm not paying for that stuff! You guys owe
me
, and you owe me big!"

I looked to Lexie for backup.

"Sorry, Lil," she said miserably. "It's in the bylaws. The new keeper always pays."

"You've got to be ... Fine," I gave in, just wanting to get home. "How much is a delorean? Wait, never mind. Just tell me how much I'm getting after you subtract all that stuff."

Balthazar smiled with relief. "Not to worry, Lil. You'll have this all worked off in a couple o' years."

"A couple of years!"

"We didn't charge you for the keeper key," he offered.

"The key isn't actually mine, is it?"

"True enough," he admitted. "It belongs to the clan. Although some folk think we could charge you rent."

"Rent?" I had to take a couple of breaths before I could speak without shrieking. "This is completely unfair."

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"Nobody likes it at first," he admitted. "But you're only thirteen yet, and you'll earn plenty o' gold, Lil. More than you'll ever need."

Maybe so
, I thought, but I'd already learned this much about gold: the desire to possess it wasn't about need.

"Right, then!" he said brightly. "We'll just pop over to the keep and make those transfers, shall we?"

I followed him out my back door, still fuming about the deductions from my allowance. But the sun was shining brightly in the field behind the cottage, and the crowd waiting at the keep cheered the moment I stepped outside. Lexie skipped along beside me, her pride at being my friend obvious.
And she
is
my friend
, I realized with wonder.
I really care about her
.

I cared about Balthazar too. And Bronny and Kate and Sosanna and Fizz, and even Cain. They weren't the friends I'd been hoping for, but there was a bond between us now, one I felt certain would last all my life. "Good things
do
come in small packages," I said, laughing.

"And monstrously large ones," Lexie said, smiling back.

The first thing I noticed in the outer keep were the two bags of gold I had stolen, waiting to be counted and stored. I opened the magic wall, dragged them over the threshold to safety, and walked back to the desk. Opening the ancient ledger to a new page, I dipped an old-fashioned pen into green ink and broke out my best handwriting: