Close Kin by Clare Dunkle Read Free Book Online Page B

neck and kissed him.
    "I'll never
forget real magic," she said. "Tonight was a happy ending all its
own."
    ∗ ∗ ∗
    Seylin set off
into the woods again, glad to have made her happy, but the
shy young man walked all night long, determined to put some distance between
himself and the human world that had placed a little claim on his affection.
When dawn came, he pitched his tent deep in
the forest and slept soundly all day, far from human dwellings.
    While he ate his
meal in the early twilight that evening, he thought
again about Jane. He began to feel anxious. Something hadn't been right. The kiss! Those lips and thin arms had been so hot when they had touched him! They shouldn't
have been like that. He remembered Jane's sparkling eyes, her chattering teeth.
The little girl had been burning up with fever.
    Seylin broke camp as quickly as he
could and began to retrace his steps. As he walked, he argued with himself What
did a human mean to elves or goblins? If
this neglected girl were to die, that wasn't his fault. She meant nothing to him, nothing at all, and he had given her
a pleasant memory to think about while she was dying. What more should elves
and goblins do for a human? Humans never did anything for them.
    But even as
Seylin argued, he walked faster, and he scanned the ground for the herbs used in the Fever Spell. He had very
little experience with human illness.
Emily had been sick several times, but Marak
had cured her as soon as she began to feel bad. Jane's skinny body had been sick now for at least two days. He
doubted she would survive without help.
    He arrived at the dilapidated house a
couple of hours before dawn to find light
glimmering from an upstairs window. He changed
into a cat and quickly scrambled up a nearby tree. A candle flickered in
the little girl's bedroom, and she lay quite still beneath the covers. Her wise and handsome father sat
sobbing beside her, her hands clasped in his own.
    Seylin lashed his
tail furiously. He was too late. This was poor little Jane's happy ending. But
just as he was about to climb down from his tree and set out again on his
journey, he saw her twitch beneath the covers. She wasn't dead yet.
    The reserved
young man who had been raised never to interfere with
humans didn't hesitate for a second. He was out of the tree in two bounds. He changed into his own form, retrieved
his fever herbs, and was in the house and up the stairs as fast as he
could move. Jane's father reeled back at
the sight of him, but Seylin didn't stop for introductions.
    "Bring me a cup
of boiling water," he ordered.
    A kettle was
already on the grate, so his hot water arrived quickly. The young man set it carefully on the floor and
put the herbs into it, whispering the spell over
the dirty cup.
    "Jane,"
he said when it was ready, putting his hand on that blazing forehead; but, just like the elf girl in his story, Jane didn't know he was
there. He turned to her father, who was watching him with hollow eyes.
    "I need a spoon," he said.
"Help me get this into her." They managed to spoon the hot liquid
into the girl's mouth, and by the time it was half gone, she was able to drink
it from the cup.
    So much for the
fever, thought the pleased Seylin, and he began to
murmur the Locating Spell. He expected to find her lungs damaged, or her head,
or her stomach. Instead, he found damage over her entire body. There it was,
the disease that held her, a bright red rash at the moment. It was very common
in the human world, and when it didn't
kill, it scarred for life. The goblins had no spell to treat this disease; their human brides were safe from it
in the underground kingdom. The nomadic elves had no such protected
climate for the elf King's human wife or the human slaves they sometimes used. They had a spell for it, but what was it? Which
constellation? Seylin closed his eyes, thinking hard.
    That was it. He
had it now. It centered on the moon, with its scars and circles. In his mind, he reached for