Reckless

"Jacob!" Fox yelped. "Come back under the trees!"



The image would stay with Clara forever. Jacob, looking back. And then the gunshot.



Such a sharp sound. Like wood splintering.



The bullet struck Jacob's chest.



Fox cried out as he fell on the yellow grass. Will ran to him before Clara could hold him back. He dropped to his knees next to his brother, calling his name, but Jacob didn't move. Blood stained his shirt right above his heart.



The Goyl appeared out of the mist like a bad dream, still holding the rifle. He was limping, and his left arm seemed to be injured as well. One of his soldiers was by his side — the girl Jacob had shot as she attacked Clara with her saber. Her uniform was still soaked with her colorless blood.



Fox leaped at them with bared fangs, but the Goyl just kicked her out of the way. The vixen changed shape, the pain robbing her of her fur. Clara wrapped her arms protectively around Fox as she cowered into the grass, sobbing. Will got to his feet, his face ablaze with rage. He reached the rifle Jacob had dropped, but he stumbled groggily, and the Goyl grabbed him and pressed the gun to his temple.



"Easy now!" he said while the She-Goyl pointed her pistol at Clara. "I had a score to settle with your brother, but we won't harm a hair on you."



Fox struggled out of Clara's embrace and pulled the pistol from Jacob's belt. The She-Goyl kicked it out of her hand while Will just stood there, staring down at his brother.



"Look at him, Nesser," the Goyl said, roughly turning Will's face toward him. "He really is turning jade."



Will tried to ram his head into the Goyl's face, but he was too numbed. The Goyl laughed.



"You're one of us, all right!" he said. "Even if you can't accept it yet. Tie his hands!" he ordered the She-Goyl. Then he went over to Jacob's body and examined him as a hunter would his prey.



"His face looks familiar. What's his name?" he asked Will.



Will didn't answer.



"Never mind," the Goyl said, turning away. "You Doughskins all look the same, anyway. Round up the horses," he barked at the girl. Then he pushed Will toward Jacob's mare.



"Where are you taking him?" Clara barely recognized her own voice.



The Goyl didn't even turn around.



"Forget him!" he said over his shoulder. "He will soon forget you."



30



A Shroud of Red Bodies



The gunshot wound looked much less harmful that the wounds Jacob had suffered when the Unicorns tore open his back. Back then, however, Jacob had been breathing, and Fox had felt his faint pulse. Now he was just still.



So much pain. She wanted to dig her teeth into her flesh just not to feel it anymore. Her fur wouldn't come back, and she felt exposed and lost as an abandoned child.



Clara was cowering next to her in the grass, her arms clasped around her knees. She shed no tears. She just sat there, as if someone had cut out her heart.



Clara was the first to see the Dwarf. He was wading toward them through the grass, looking as innocent as if they'd caught him picking mushrooms. However, who else but a Dwarf could have told the Goyl that the only way out of the Fairy realm was through the Unicorn graveyard?



Fox wiped the tears from her eyes and felt through the grass for Jacob's pistol.



"Stop! Stop! What are you doing?" Valiant yelled as she pointed the weapon at him. He quickly cowered behind the nearest bush. "How could I know they'd shoot him right away? I thought they just wanted his brother."



Clara got to her feet.



"Shoot him, Fox," she said. "If you don't, I will."



"Wait!" Valiant clamored. "They caught me on my way back to the gorge. What was I supposed to do? Get myself killed as well?"



"And now?" Fox yelled at him. "Come to plunder a corpse on your way back?"



"That's outrageous! I'm here to rescue you!" the Dwarf retorted with genuine indignation. "Two girls, all alone, lost and helpless..."



"So helpless that we'll surely pay you to save us?"



The silence answering from the bush was very telling, and Fox lifted the pistol again. If only she could stop the tears. They blurred everything: the misty valley, the bush where the treacherous Dwarf was hiding, and Jacob's lifeless face.



"Fox!"



Clara put a hand on her arm. A red moth had landed on Jacob's punctured chest. Another landed on his brow.



Fox dropped the pistol.



"Get away from him!" she shouted, her voice drowning in tears. "Go and tell your mistress he's never coming back!" She leaned over Jacob. "Didn't I tell you," she whispered, "not to go back to the Fairies? This time it will kill you."



Another moth landed on the still body. More and more of them fluttered out of the trees. They settled on him in such profusion that they looked like flowers sprouting from his shattered flesh.



Fox tried to drive them away, but there were too many. Finally she gave up and simply watched as they covered Jacob with their wings. It was as if the Red Fairy was claiming him even in death.



Clara knelt next to Fox and wrapped her arms around her.



"We have to bury him."



Fox freed herself from Clara's embrace and pressed her face against Jacob's chest.



Bury him.



I'll do it. The Dwarf had actually dared to venture closer. He picked up the rifle Jacob had dropped, and as if the metal were as soft as clay, he slapped the barrel flat with his bare hand, shaping it into a spade. "Bloody waste!" he muttered as he attacked the soil. "Two pounds of red moonstone! And now nobody will get it."



The Dwarf dug the grave effortlessly, as if he'd had a lot of practice. Fox just sat there, her arms wrapped around Clara, and looked at Jacob's still face. The moths were still covering him like a shroud when Valiant threw down his shovel and brushed the dirt off his hands.



"Right," he said. "Let's get him in there." He leaned over Jacob. "But first we should check his pockets. No point in letting perfectly good gold sovereigns rot in the ground."



Fox's fur returned in an instant. "Don't touch him!" she hissed, snapping at Valiant's eager fingers.



Bite him, Fox. As hard as you can. Maybe that will ease the pain.



The Dwarf tried to fend her off with the shovel-rifle, but she tore into his coat and jumped at his throat until Clara grabbed her by the fur and pulled her back.



"Fox, don't!" she whispered, pressing the quivering body against hers. "He's right. We'll need the money. And Jacob's weapons. The compass... everything he had with him."



"Why?"



"To find Will."



What was she talking about?



Behind them the Dwarf snorted in disbelief. "Will? There is no more Will."



But Clara bent over Jacob and put her hand in his coat pocket. "We'll give you all he had — if you help us find his brother," she said. "That's what he would've wanted."



She pulled the handkerchief from Jacob's pocket. Two gold sovereigns dropped onto his chest. The moths swirled up like leaves stirred by an autumn breeze.



"Strange how little resemblance there was between the two," Clara said, brushing the dark hair from Jacob's forehead. "Do you have sisters, Fox?"