Close Kin by Clare Dunkle Read Free Book Online Page A

lived happily ever after."
    "That's not possible,"
protested Seylin. "No elf could kill the goblin King, whether he had
servants in a box or not."
    "But I want
the goblin dead and the poor girl rescued from him!" insisted Jane. "No creature that
horrible should live through a story. Change the
ending."
    "Jane!"
cried the cat, his fur bristling. "I told you the truth! Marak
Redeye was a good goblin King; he took care of his people, and he loved his wife. It's not the goblins who
are dead at all, it's the elves.
There's a goblin King alive right this minute, but I don't know if any
elves are left."
    "That's terrible!"
said Jane, folding her arms and refusing to look at him. "The goblins shouldn't be alive
and the elves dead. How could you
tell me a story like that?"
    Seylin thought
about all of Jane's stories, in which brave, handsome princes battled witches
and trolls, and beautiful maidens lived happily
ever after.
    "Your stories aren't true, are
they?" he observed. "Someone just made them up."
    Jane jumped to her feet and faced him
indignantly.
    "They are,
too, true!" she shouted. "They're more true than yours. People
really do defeat evil goblins, and they really do live happily ever after!" "And she started to cry.
Before the surprised Seylin could even speak, she ran into the house and
slammed the door.
    Seylin spent that night searching the
nearby woods for evidence of elves, depressed about his conversation with Jane.
He hadn't thought of goblins as such an awful thing, but maybe they really
were. Maybe it was wrong that Marak Redeye had saved his wife from dying. Maybe
he should have let her die. He remembered his own King telling him, "You
are who you are, and I am who I am because elf brides came to harm."
    The next morning, he went back to the
neglected house to see if Jane would speak
to him again. He found her crying in the shed, her messy hair covered
with cobwebs.
    "You were
right, Seylin," she sobbed. "I asked my father, and he told
me that the stories weren't true. He says there's no such thing as goblins or elves or happy endings, and that magic
doesn't really hap pen at all."
    Seylin curled up next to the white-faced
little girl.
    "Jane, that's
not right, either," he said. "Magic does happen. You're talking to a
cat. There are goblins, too, whether your father believes that or not. And there's still one elf left as long as I'm
alive."
    "But no happy
endings!" Jane said. "I just can't bear it." She rubbed her hand across her eyes. They were dull, and her
whole manner was different. Seylin felt that it was his fault.
    "I hope there are happy
endings," he mused. "I'm not sure, but I think I've seen one."
He hesitated. "Would you like to see me work some magic? You mustn't ever
tell, you know."
    Her dirty face lit
up.
    "I'd love
to," she breathed. "When? Now?"
    "No," he said. "Elves
can't see in the daytime. I'll come back tonight in my normal shape, the way
you first saw me. Wait in the woods behind the shed, and I'll take you to see
real magic."
    That night, the
air turned chilly. The cautious young man watched
the area for an hour before he came out to greet her. Jane was shivering, and her teeth were chattering, but
her eyes were bright with excitement.
    Seylin led her
to a clearing in the woods and worked all the pretty elf
magic he knew for her. He surrounded her with bobbing cres cent moons and grew the plant with glowing
flowers that had always entranced Emily. He made each constellation over
her head glow brightly and then change into the object it was named for, and he
brought the rabbits out of their holes to dance.
    Then he showed her goblin magic. He
made a fire of rainbow flames. He made a wall
of glowing smoke that encircled the two of them in a golden room, and he
wrote her name in fiery sparks at her feet.
    Jane watched
everything in a delight beyond words, her sparkling eyes huge in her pinched face. And when he
finally led her back to her house
and said goodbye, she threw her arms around his