Shadows of the Redwood (2 page)

But instead, she was stuck in Oregon, plowing through the Lore Books that Lord Elianard had assigned her, as well as working through the massive and massively boring book of charms and spells, otherwise known as the Compendium of Elven Household Charms. Lord Elianard expected her to have it memorized by the time they rendezvoused in Colorado at the High Mountain Faire. It seemed Keelie’s life was happening elsewhere while she was stuck here.

She walked behind the stone and timber homes of the village elves until she reached her house. Zekeliel Heartwood—her dad, master carpenter, tree shepherd, and current Lord of the Forest—had built this two-story craftsman-style house for his bride Katy, Keelie’s human mom. Now Keelie called it home. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else … except for that little house in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, where she’d lived with Mom.

“Dad?” No answer. Knot shot upstairs, and Keelie left the other mail on the kitchen counter and went back out, the folded Talbot and Talbot letter in her pocket. The village was quiet today. Many of the elves had left for the various fairs they worked across the country.

The air smelled sweet and full of life, and under her feet was the hum of living things. Deeper below, she could hear the heartlike thrum of the underworld. Under-the-Hill, just a hundred feet below her.

Keelie passed the circle of ancient oaks called the Grove, which surrounded the green where the village business took place. A giant but new tree rose in the center, its roots emerging from the broken pieces of petrified wood that had formed the Elven Council’s meeting place, the Caudex. Someone had made a pavement out of the fragments of the Caudex, and they still resonated with power.

The tree’s branches glittered with hanging chains, wind chimes, and bits of crystal. Her name was Alora. She had come from the Wildewood Forest in New York, an acorn in Keelie’s pocket. As a treeling she’d loved to wear Keelie’s earrings and other shiny jewelry, which she delightedly called “twinkles.” But the treeling had grown with magic, and was now the Great Tree of the Dread Forest. Her place on the Caudex had sealed the presence of the Dread in these woods and restored the balance of magic in the forest.

Leaves swished and branches rattled as Keelie approached the ancient trees and Alora. The trees greeted her, some friendly, some with indifference, but the three oaks call the Aunties trilled their delight at her presence, and Alora at their center most of all.

“Did you bring me twinkles?” Alora asked excitedly. She spoke aloud, although no regular elves could hear her. For all her power, she was still very young.

“No, I just went to the post office,” Keelie replied. “Dad doesn’t let me drive very far, since I just got my license.” She pulled the envelope from her pocket. “I got this, though. The house I lived in with my mom has been sold.”

Alora’s spirit face pushed out of her trunk. “Your root home? Your forest mother?”

“More like the pot she was planted in.” Keelie struggled to find another way to make a tree understand what a house meant. “You’ve been in my bedroom, when you were small. You know what it was like inside.”

Alora shuddered. “A pot made from the bones of trees.”

That was one way to describe a wooden house. “I was happy there with my mom. And now it’ll belong to someone else.” Keelie felt tears burn her eyes.

“But your roots are here. Your pot is not your home.” Alora looked puzzled.

One of the Aunties interrupted, in tree speak.
I don’t understand how a treeling can have more than one pot. This is your pot. We are your forest
.

Keelie sniffed. “Thanks. I love you guys so much. I can’t imagine living anyplace else. But I remember living there, and I was happy because I was with my mom.”

What trees were there?
Another of the Aunties chimed in.

“Um, not too many trees. My mom didn’t want me to be around them.” Immediately she knew she’d said the wrong thing. Branches started to crack overhead as the trees expressed their disapproval.

“Oh, please,” Alora said. “Pipe down, Aunties. Her mother died only a ring ago.”

We remember her
, one of the Aunties said.
She had brown leaves like Keelie.

Keelie tugged at her short, curly hair. Leaves?

“Have you spoken with your father?” Alora asked. “He has much to discuss with you.”

“Uh oh. What’s up?”

You’re not in trouble, but he has a boon to beg of you
, the Auntie said.

“A boon? A favor, of me? What kind?”

We can’t say
, the Auntie replied.

Alora ran a slender branch across her mouth, as if zipping it up. The older trees rustled their branches at the human-like motion. They thought that hanging around with Keelie had corrupted their Great Tree.

“Okay, if you won’t tell me, I’ll go find Dad. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Bring me back some twinkles,” Alora called.

“Right. You’re already wearing my entire jewelry box.”

It was truly weird that her best friend was a tree, and that when she wanted a pair of earrings she had to climb up and dig them out of a branch. Good thing there weren’t any magpies in the forest, or her jewelry would be scattered all over Oregon.

Keelie headed back toward the house, wondering where her dad could be at this time of day. With the Ren Faire season coming up, she thought he might be in his woodshop, and sure enough, that’s where she found him, finishing up an armchair made of bent willow twigs.

Her dad was wearing a long tunic of fine golden linen, no doubt a gift from one of the elven ladies who followed him around just as human women did at the Ren Faires. Dad was a chick magnet. At least they’d held off a little when she and Dad had first moved back to the Dread Forest; they probably were disconcerted to find him with a teenaged daughter.

“Keelie, right on time. Give me a hand with this.” He gave her a cloth and put a bowl of lemon oil polish between them. Keelie dipped the cloth in the oil and started to rub it into the chair while Dad worked on the other side. She pushed away the vision of the shallow stream and dappled forest which came to her as her fingers touched the willow’s wood.

“I got a letter from Talbot and Talbot today, Dad.”

“Really? Tax stuff?”

“No, they sold Mom’s house in Hancock Park.”

“Oh, good. Took long enough.” Dad scraped at a blemish in the wood with his fingernail.

Keelie bit her lip.

Dad straightened. “I know the house meant a lot to you, but it couldn’t sit empty waiting for you. Someday, if you want it again, you can find the owners and make them an offer. It won’t be gone forever.” He opened his arms and swept her into a hug. “Home is not a house.”

Keelie hugged him back, loving the feel of his strength. When Dad had taken her in when Mom died, he’d loved her unconditionally, and Keelie suddenly realized that she was making a big deal out of the house sale. But there was little of her mother in the Dread Forest, and Keelie wanted to feel surrounded by her mother’s presence one more time. Somehow, she had to get to Los Angeles.

“Alora said you had something to tell me.”

Dad stopped rubbing polish into the wood and straightened. “I do. I, too, have received an important message. Viran, the tree shepherd of the Redwood Forest, is missing. A few of the strongest shepherds are gathering there to help find him. The Redwood Forest is the oldest of the new world’s forests, and the shepherd of the sequoias must be very strong, for the trees are so old that their power could drive a weak one mad. We fear for Viran. No one has seen him in weeks.”

“Why don’t you ask the trees where he is?”

“Good point. But the trees don’t know, either. Or they aren’t telling.”

“What do you mean, not telling? Trees don’t lie.”

Dad looked grim. “I said the forest is very powerful. Do you know how the trees here can show their faces, and sometimes root walk?”

Keelie nodded. She saw the trees’ faces all the time, and root walking was something she’d seen for herself in the Wildewood Forest, and not in a good way. Trees had dragged their roots out of the ground and moved around as if they had feet, a scary sight. It got even more frightening when they attacked.

“Well, in the Redwood forest, the tree spirits can take the form of people, and interact with people. Their spirits walk among the elves.”

Keelie stared at him. “You’re serious. They can do that?” She pictured tree spirits chasing her around.

Dad nodded. “They’re quite powerful. Of course, most humans don’t see it. You’ll find them wise and independent. Their tree shepherd is most unusual.” He started polishing again. “I’m supposed to open the Heartwood shop at the High Mountain Faire the day after tomorrow, and I can’t change that commitment. So I want you to go to the redwoods in my stead. While you’re there, you can set up a Heartwood shop at the Juliet City Shakespeare Festival. We’ve never been there, and there’s space available.”

A million thoughts sped through Keelie’s mind. This was perfect! Running a faire shop was a piece of cake for her now, and she could also go see her former home. Would Laurie, her old school friend, drive up and take her to L.A.? But how could she take her father’s place, since he’d said that only the strongest tree shepherds could deal with the redwoods? And how was she going to get to Juliet City?

Keelie only voiced some of these thoughts. “How can I drive myself all the way to the redwoods? They’re down on the California coast. And do you really think I’m powerful enough to deal with the ancient trees?”

Just at that moment, Grandmother appeared in the woodshop’s doorway. “I will attend to the Redwood Forest. Keelie can tend to the festival.”

Keelie looked at her grandmother’s stern face, which was framed by tightly braided silver hair. Keliatiel Heartwood was dressed in linen robes embroidered with forest motifs, every inch still the Lady of the Forest.

“Your grandmother knows the redwoods of old,” Dad explained. “She will deal with the trees and the other tree shepherds. You will learn much from her.”

Goodbye, L.A., goodbye, fun. Keelie looked once more at her stuffy, old-school grandmother.

Grandmother’s eyes swiveled to meet hers. “I drive.”

Life sucked.

Two days later, Keelie stood staring at the skimpy candy selection in the Gas-A-Minute, fifty yards over the California state line. Two kinds of chocolate bar, dusty-looking, foil-wrapped mint patties, and chewing gum brands she’d never heard of. That was it. Not a sour gummy anything.

Keelie stared at the rack, trying to summon up a little appetite. She deserved a treat, and nothing here was treat-worthy.

She glanced outside. No sign of Grandmother, who’d lost every bit of elegance the minute they’d pulled into the gas station parking lot. She’d pushed the driver-side door open and had raced to the ladies’ room, leaving Keelie to turn the car off and wait.

At least they were finally in California. The first two stops had been in Oregon.

“You want some chips instead?” The woman sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine, had been watching Keelie.

Keelie considered, then chose a bag of SunChips. “I’ll take these, please.”

The woman stood to ring up her purchase. “You can quit looking outside. She’s still in the restroom.”

Keelie bit her lip. Had she been that obvious?

“Older women sometimes have to go a lot,” the woman confided, speaking as if she had personal experience with the problem.

“You don’t know my grandmother.” Keelie paid for the chips and went back outside, holding the metal bells that dangled from the back of the plate glass door so that they were quiet. Their jangle had made her shudder when she’d entered, or maybe it was because the whole building was made of concrete, steel, and glass. Even the counter was plastic.

She let the door close behind her and inhaled the fresh outdoor air. It smelled different from Oregon, and the trees murmured to her of rain and fog. She hadn’t noticed a difference in the tree smells before last summer, when the trees had called to her and she’d discovered that she could talk to them, along with all sorts of other strange creatures that lived in forests. Her half-elf blood had gotten her into so much trouble lately.

She was glad for this road trip, even if Grandmother hadn’t let her get near the steering wheel even once.