Wings (18 page)

Tamisin dipped her spoon in the soup and tasted it. “Really good, actually.” She gave his bowl a sideways glance. “A lot of things are different here from what I’m used to back home. I’m just going to have to try to get used to it.”

“I know how that goes,” said Jak, remembering how hard it had been to adjust to his uncle’s household when he’d moved in as a young kit. He’d lived with his parents before that and had never seen either one eat something that was still alive.

They were almost finished when one of the goblin waiters set two enormous glasses filled to the brim with a green liquid on their table. The waiter resembled the innkeeper so much that he might have been a younger version of the goblin. The only thing that wasn’t the same was the way he looked at Jak and Tamisin. It made Jak uneasy, and when the waiter said, “Green beetle juice, compliments of the house,” curling his lip in the imitation of a smile, Jak became more than a little suspicious.

“No, thank you,” said Jak. “The water is fine.”

“I insist,” said the goblin, his smile broadening until his face looked like it might split in two. “You won’t know what you’re missing unless you try it.”

“We really don’t want—,” Tamisin began.

The goblin’s vertical pupils narrowed and the false smile disappeared. “Around here, it’s considered rude to turn down a fine drink like this.”

Jak felt the hair on the back of his neck go up. “We weren’t trying to be rude—”

“Good. Then drink it,” said the waiter. Although he wasn’t very tall, he looked threatening as he hovered beside their chairs. He was still standing there when Jak picked up the glass and sniffed. It smelled like mud and rotting straw, although there was a hint of something acidic, too. There was no way either Jak or Tamisin was about to swallow
that
.

“Thank you,” Jak said, forcing himself to smile.

The goblin nodded, but he didn’t leave until a leprechaun shouted from across the room, “Waiter, another round of drinks for my friends!” Tucking his tray under his arm, the goblin sneered at Jak before leaving.

“We can’t drink this,” Jak told Tamisin as soon as the waiter was gone.

“Thank goodness!” said Tamisin, looking visibly relieved. “I thought you were going to say that I had to.”

“There’s something in it besides freshly squeezed beetles,” Jak said. “Watch what I do, then do the same. Just make sure that none of the goblins see you doing this.”

Moving his bowl so his body blocked it from the goblins’ view, Jak poured half the beetle juice into the bowl, then emptied the bowl into the hole in the middle of the table, hoping any goblins who saw would think it was the last of the custard. He kept his eyes on the goblins
while Tamisin copied him, and whispered, “Don’t pour it all out at once. He’ll never believe that you drank the whole thing that fast.”

Tamisin did what he’d said and had already set her bowl back down before the waiter returned. “Do you like it?” he asked, pointing at Jak’s glass.

“It’s very good,” he said, trying to look sincere.

The waiter grinned at them again, and was about to say something else when one of the gray women called, “Over here, young goblin.” Scowling, the waiter went to her side, looking impatient while she peered into a small gray bag with her one eye. When she’d found what she was looking for, she smiled toothlessly and handed him a piece of amber containing a beetle. “That should cover the room as well,” she said.

“Yes, indeed,” said the waiter. “With change left over.”

“Are you ready, ladies?” she asked her companions. After a great deal of fuss during which they knocked over their chairs and bumped into one another, they held hands as they tromped across the room single file, the one with the eye leading the others to the staircase.

Jak yawned until his jaw made a cracking sound. When Bob stopped at their table and asked if they wanted a room to spend the night, Jak was ready to accept. After a long walk and nearly two days without sleep, he couldn’t face going out into the dark and trying to find somewhere to sleep that would be safe.

Jak and Tamisin were following the innkeeper up the stairs when Jak glanced back at the dining room. The
goblin waiter stood by the stairs, watching them almost as if he expected something to happen. Whatever it was, Jak was certain that it wasn’t anything good.

Tamisin was so tired that she had to struggle to keep her eyes open, and she knew Jak was just as tired. When the innkeeper opened the door to a room, she kicked off her shoes, collapsed on the board-hard mattress, and flung her arm across her eyes to block out the light. She heard the goblin leave, but it wasn’t until she heard another bed creaking that she realized Jak was still there. He was sitting on a narrow bed on the other side of the tiny room. A wavering candle was the only source of light.

“They said this is all they had,” Jak said in response to Tamisin’s questioning look. “Do you have any money with you?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “But I doubt American money is going to do us any good.”

Jak held out his hand. “All I need is one coin.”

Tamisin shrugged and reached into her purse. “You can have it, but they aren’t going to take it. You saw as well as I did what kind of money they want, and believe me, I don’t have any green beetles in amber.”

“No,” said Jak, “but I do.” Where he’d been holding a quarter in his hand just a moment before, he now had a piece of yellow amber and the same kind of beetle that Tamisin had seen in the gray woman’s hand.

“That’s amazing!” she said, reaching for it. “How did you manage that?”

“It’s just something I can do,” he said.

“Can all goblins do that?”

Jak shrugged. “Goblins can change natural things, but as far as I know I’m the only one who can change stuff like this. You know, things that have already been made into something else.”

“What are you doing now?” Tamisin asked when Jak dropped onto his knees beside his bed.

“Looking at these beds. You were right when you said that we couldn’t stay outside at night, but we’re not a whole lot safer in here. We’re going to have to take a few precautions. Most goblins won’t give anything away unless it benefits them. There was something in that beetle juice the waiter gave us, either a poison or some kind of drug. If I’m right, we should be having a visitor later tonight, and I’m not going to let us become victims. Yeah, just as I thought … These beds are bolted to the floor so we can’t move them to block the door. If you look, you’ll see that there are no locks on the doors either. This is all laid out to make it easy for them.”

“So what do you suggest?” Tamisin asked.

Jak stood up and brushed off his hands, then went to place his palms on the door. “I can change the door like I did that coin, to start with,” he said. “I’ll make it so no one can open it.” He closed his eyes and a moment later there was a shiny metal lock on the door.

“That should be enough, shouldn’t it?” asked Tamisin.

“I don’t know,” Jak said. “Those goblins could have a dozen ways into this room and that was just the most
obvious. I think we should sleep under the beds, just in case. It would be harder for them to find us there, and it might give me enough time to do something. It’s dirty, but a little bit of dirt is better than a whole lot of dead.”

“You mean he wants to kill us?” Tamisin asked, her voice rising to a near squeak.

“That’s one of the possibilities,” said Jak. “But we’re not going to give him the chance. Take that blanket off the bed. You can roll yourself up in it. I want you to crawl under the bed and make yourself comfortable. There’s no telling how long we’ll have to stay there. And whatever you do, don’t come out until I tell you to. I don’t know much about lizard goblins, but if we’re lucky, they don’t see well in the dark.”

The cobwebs and layer of dust under the bed made Tamisin glad that she had taken Jak’s advice and brought the blanket with her. Using her purse as a pillow, she curled up in the musty-smelling blanket and stared at the underside of the bed above her. She tried not to fall asleep, but after Jak blew out the candle and crawled under the other bed, the darkness was absolute and her eyes kept closing.

“When do you think that goblin will come?” she whispered to Jak.

“Probably as soon as he thinks we’re asleep.”

“Pretty soon then, huh?”

“As long as we’re quiet.”

“So what if we stay up all night talking? Do you think they’d leave us alone?”

“I don’t think I could,” Jak murmured. “I’m practically asleep as it is.”

“Yeah,” said Tamisin, “me, too.”

“Jak,” she whispered a minute later. “What will happen to us if we both fall asleep? Jak?” When he didn’t answer, she knew he had already drifted off. It was up to her to stay awake, so as long as she could manage it … Tamisin yawned and rubbed her eyes. A moment later, she, too, was asleep.

“Snake snot!”

Tamisin’s eyes shot open when someone swore only a few inches away. She recognized the voice of the goblin waiter even though he hadn’t said much. He couldn’t have found her already, could he? Thunder rumbled in the distance. Tamisin held her breath as the goblin scrambled to his feet. Apparently, he couldn’t see in the dark, because he still acted as if she was in the bed, not under it.

“What is it, Gob?” whispered a scratchier voice.

“I tripped over somebody’s shoes! It’s so dark in here I can’t see my hand in front of my face! First the door wouldn’t open, and now this. I’m glad I oiled the hinges on the trapdoor last week.”

“Shut up, Gob. You’ll wake them!”

“I put the potion in the juice. We can’t wake them. They’re sleeping like the dead.”

“Or will be soon enough,” Gob snickered. “Got your knife?”

“In my hand. Where’s the bed?”

“Ow! You jabbed my belly, you brainless flea! Stop waving that knife around and get over here. Take my hand, Hob … that’s it. The bed’s right there. I’ll go to this one … Ready? Now!”

Tamisin cowered under the bed as the two goblins hacked and slashed at the mattresses. She wondered if Jak was awake or if he was sleeping through it all. Even if the goblins didn’t wake him, surely the thunder would. It had gotten closer and a whole lot louder. The two goblins didn’t seem to hear it though, because they kept stabbing the beds as if nothing else in the world mattered. When they finally stopped, they were both panting from exertion. Tamisin was afraid to think about what would come next.

“That should do it,” said Gob. “They’ll have more holes in them now than Granny Nutshell’s cheese. We’ll have the money come morning. Let me see if this one … wait! Nobody’s here!”

“Of course somebody’s there. We just stabbed them, didn’t we? Wait a minute! This one’s empty, too!”

Tamisin could hear the goblin beside her fumbling with the bedding, trying to find her blood-soaked body. It wouldn’t be long before they started looking somewhere else—like under the bed.

Suddenly the goblin on the other side of the room crashed to the floor. “Hey!” he shouted. “Why did you trip me?”

“What are you talking about?” said the one standing over Tamisin’s bed. “I didn’t … Ow! My nose! What’s the big idea!”

“I didn’t touch you, you big baby! What makes you think …”

Tamisin heard the thud of a blow landing. “That hurt!” squealed a goblin. “Don’t think you’re getting away with that, you slippery-tongued …”

“Why you—!”

Tamisin lay under the bed, not sure what to think. It sounded as if the two goblins were fighting, but she couldn’t imagine why they would be unless … It occurred to her that Jak might have done something. He’d talked about luck and whether or not the goblins could see in the dark. If he got the two of them fighting with each other …

Voices outside the room were shouting, “What’s going on in there?” “We’re trying to get some sleep!” “Quit making that racket!”

The door flew open and candlelight from the hall lit the room. Tamisin saw Jak step behind the now-open door.

The hallway was full of the inn’s patrons, but it was one of the gray ladies who stomped into the room. She was still poking her eye in place when she shouted, “Stop it this instant, you two!” in a voice that reminded Tamisin of a gym teacher she’d once hated. The goblins drew apart, scowling furiously at each other. Neither one seemed to notice Jak.