Close Kin by Clare Dunkle Read Free Book Online

overpowered her guards and surrounded the terrified elf girls. Then
the goblin King himself came, and he let every one of her maidens go, and all
the guards, too, but the lord's sister he took underground to be his own
bride."
    "And was
he fearfully ugly?" asked Jane in a hushed voice. "Was he
scaly and horrible?"
    "Let's
see," said Seylin, trying to remember. "No, he wasn't scaly. He had bright red eyes, and he was covered all
over with short black fur, like a
panther." Jane shivered deliciously.
    "The poor elf
bride was horrified at her new life in the goblin realm. Gradually her fear
died away, but it left behind nothing but sorrow. The goblin King brought her
gold and jewels, rich clothes and finery, but none of it mattered to his
unhappy wife. She begged instead to be allowed one
more night of dancing under the moon, but
this he couldn't grant her. She was under a spell never to leave the goblin
caves and never to see the night sky again.
    "The goblin
King's Wife began to pine away, and nothing seemed to help. Again and again, she begged to dance just
one more night, and again and again, her husband
denied her pleas. Finally, she fell very ill,
and then the poor elf girl couldn't have danced even If the King had let
her.
    "The goblin King sent a message
to the lord of the Third Belt Star Camp:
'My wife and your sister lies dying in my kingdom. Send an elf musician
to play for her so that she can get well.' When he learned this, the elf lord grieved bitterly, and he called all the musicians in his camp to ask if any was brave enough to go
down into the goblin caves. One after another turned pale and refused to
go, but a young elf man agreed to make that
terrible journey. He went with the guards
past the great iron door and into the huge palace, and came at last to
the room where the poor girl lay, so ill that she didn't even know another elf
had braved that trip to come help her.
    "Then the goblin King sent his dying
wife a beautiful dream of the full moon
shining above the hill where he had first found her. The young elf took
his pipe and began to play to the sleeping girl. The lovely, haunting elf music
flowed into her dream, and she began to dance. So ill that she couldn't even
lift her own hand, locked away from the sky that she loved, still, for that one
night and in that one dream, the elf girl
danced and danced, far from the goblin King, who sat by her bedside and watched
the look of joy on her face. The elf piper never stopped playing, and the elf
girl never stopped dancing, till a
full night and day had passed, and evening had come again.
    "Then the goblin King said to the
piper, 'You have worked very hard playing
your pipe for me, but now you won't have to work any longer. I give you the
gift of playing the wind itself.' And for the rest of his life, whenever
the wind blew, it played all the notes that the piper wished to hear, and he
became the most famous musician in the elf kingdom. The goblin King's Wife
slept for days and days, tired from all her
dancing, and when she finally woke up again, she was sound and well. And
there was peace between the elves and goblins for the rest of that King's
life."
    Jane sat for a
minute after Seylin had finished speaking, her thin face
puzzled and anxious.
    "But, Seylin," she
prompted, "that can't be the end of the story."
    "Well, I
don't know," said the black cat doubtfully. "There never really is an end, is there? I suppose I could say
that the elf girl came to love the
goblin King very much and that their son, Marak Horsetooth, was one of the
greatest of the Kings."
    "No, no, no!" said Jane
emphatically. "Seylin, that can't be how it ends. She can't love a goblin.
Stories just don't turn out like that. Maybe
the piper had a magic box with servants in it, and they popped out and killed the goblin King, and then he
kissed the elf girl, and she woke up,
and they escaped together from the caves, and as a reward for his bravery, the elf lord married her to the piper, and they