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.You won’t learn anything that way.”“You would know where to look for him,” Emily said softly, looking so humble that she thought her face would crack.“You wouldn’t make the mistakes I’m making.You’d know how to think like an elf.”It worked.Ruby’s voice grew distant and thoughtful.“Yes, I would,” she replied.“If I were looking for Seylin, I’d be in the elf King’s forest.”“The forest?” Emily was disappointed.“We looked there, and I didn’t find a thing.”“Oh, no, we didn’t.You just looked in the small strip of woodland that lies on goblin land.The elf King’s forest is huge.No one goes there now.Humans are afraid of it because the elf spells still linger.Goblins don’t like it, either, but I’d like to walk through it just once.”“Really?” Emily was interested in spite of herself.“Why would you, if goblins don’t like it?”“Because I’m a strong elf cross,” replied Ruby smugly.“That’s where I got my hair.”“Oh,” remarked Emily.She couldn’t think of anything more complimentary to say.“Then we’ll go there, Ruby.I think you’re right.We’ll look for Seylin the elf way.”Ruby crossed her arms.“I’m not helping you find him,” she declared.Emily grinned.“I think you already have.”In the goblin kingdom, the little children had stopped asking when Emily would come back.They walked sadly by their playmate’s empty apartment and wondered where she was.Catspaw and Til in particular were hard-hit by the loss.The human orphan that Kate had saved from the sorcerer’s lair and her foster brother, the goblin prince, both adored their aunt Emily.She was the only person in the kingdom who could distract the two children so well that they forgot to quarrel with each other.The nurse brought the children into the royal rooms for the walk down to the banquet hall.Kate and Marak heard them coming well before they saw them.“Father!”“Papa!”The pair charged in, racing to be the first to reach Marak.Til was older and larger and took the lead for an easy win, but the young prince stretched out his lion’s paw after her as she ran by.She began to slide backward with every step, running as hard as she could and going nowhere.But as Catspaw trotted past the angry girl, she socked him hard in the stomach.Catspaw doubled over, and Til won the race.“Papa, Papa!” she cried, clambering onto his lap.The goblin King put one arm around her and held the other out toward his angry son.“No vengeful magic!” he ordered sharply, intercepting the bolt, and whatever Catspaw had intended for Til didn’t happen.He had to fall back instead on that childhood favorite, the verbal insult.“You don’t have a Father!” He scowled, walking up to his father, whose lap was now full.“You don’t have a Papa,” retorted the little girl, leering at him from her prized vantage point.“Silence,” commanded the goblin King, catching his son’s paw to prevent further outbursts.“Til, you just struck Catspaw.You know that’s wrong, and it’s also very dangerous.What do you have to say about it?”Til’s mobile young face crumpled at once, and her black eyes filled with tears.“But he’s so mean, Papa,” she quavered.“I hate Catspaw! He’s always doing things like that to me.”“So he is,” commented Marak, patting her short black hair, which Catspaw had only recently singed off again.“Since you hate Catspaw, you’ll be glad to know that I have some new playmates for you.Tomorrow you can come with your mother and me to the pages’ floor to see your room, and you and another little girl will stay in that room and be pages together.”“I don’t want to stay with another little girl,” she whimpered.“I hate little girls!”“Til,” said the goblin dryly, “you’re a little girl yourself.” Til stopped crying to think about this.“Father?” asked Catspaw anxiously.“Can I be a pages-together, too?” Marak pulled on the little lion’s paw and drew his son close.“No, you won’t be a page, but you’ll have a tutor soon,” he promised, putting an arm around him.“You have to start learning how to be a King.”Til saw an immediate advantage to her new social position.“You don’t get to be a page,” she gloated to the little prince.“I get to be a page.”Catspaw rallied at once.“You don’t get to be a King,” he retorted.“I don’t want to,” sniffed Til.“They don’t let Kings have any fun.”“Oh, I don’t know about that,” chuckled Marak, pushing her off his lap and standing up.“Come along now, Til.You can meet that little girl you hate.”Til inspired the pages with awe, and she pointed out at every opportunity to Catspaw that she had now outgrown his company.Catspaw was jealous over Til’s new career and too young to understand why his aunt Emily had left.Everything was changing around the goblin prince, but he was still doing the same things.One day, he stayed with Agatha while his mother taught class.Marak’s former nurse had finally given up keeping order on the pages’ floor.She was too old to chase after a crowd of children.Catspaw was unhappy and out of sorts, and Agatha was no help.Usually the dwarf woman was lively and full of fun, but today he could hardly get her to move.She watched him throwing his ball and retrieving it with a stern look on her face [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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