When Mehitabel arrived, the fight was already over.

She'd expected that but didn't bother to hide her disappointment.

Young Siri was curled up against a tree, her gold sickle clasped tight in her hand. She was gasping for breath and bleeding.

But hardly dying.

The same couldn't be said for the Goblins foolhardy enough to attack her.

Mehitabel inspected them from her mount. Of the Goblins, two were merely unconscious. One was dead. The numbers were reversed with the mounts, two slain, one alive. She caught the creature's halter and cantered back to Siri.

"Not bad, girl. Did you mean to leave survivors?"

Siri looked up. Her lip was swollen and one eye was already purpling beautifully. She shrugged with only one shoulder, favoring the other. "I'd have preferred not to kill any of them. But, they didn't give me much choice, did they?"

"They were fools to attack you with only three of them." She offered and hand to Siri.

"I got the feeling they didn't know who I was." She took the offered hand with her good arm and let herself be hauled up onto the mount, sitting behind Mehitabel.

"Fools twice over, then." Greenlings, Mehitabel thought but didn't say. Fresh meat from the altars, not to even know the Captain's child.

No reason to trouble Siri with such thoughts. These might be new enough to the Shadow Life to still have family and friends living in whatever lands they came from. If she said as much to Siri, the girl would want to take them to the Moon Altar, to have their lives and souls restored, and it couldn't be done, not now. Goblin blood felt when the woods were troubled. She would not burden herself with prisoners when she needed to the get Siri and the others to shelter.

"There was a boy," Siri said. "A human boy . . . ."

"I found him. He has your brother's dagger."

"Where – where is he?" Siri's weariness temporarily evaporated. "You didn't leave him behind?"

Mehitabel laughed. Wounded and weak and ready to take her on. It was no wonder she was fond of this child. "No, nothing like that. I left him with that cat-witch of yours, Silver. She came here hunting you, seemed to think you were in trouble."

Siri groaned. "What, she couldn't get here before I was in trouble?"

"Evidently not." She laughed. "Foretelling is a chancy gift, girl, as you should know. But, I don't doubt we'll meet them on our way, coming to rescue us."

"I made him promise to leave me behind and head for safety."

"So he did. And, if he has any eye for loopholes in a promise – and I never knew a boy his age who didn't – he has already realized that he left you and found safety. If he is a wise child, he knows there is more safety here with you and me than by himself. Even with the cat-witch."

Siri cursed in the inadequate language of her world. Mehitabel laughed again. "And what were you doing at fourteen? Busy saving the world, as I remember."

"Busy getting drafted into fixing somebody else's mess. I was never stupid enough to volunteer for that job."

"Truly? I seem to have misunderstood. Never mind. Here comes your young hero. You can save your curses for him."

0

The fight was over by the time Bae caught up with Mehitabel. In fact, Mehitabel was already riding back, leading another one of those scaly mounts. A battered Siri was mounted behind the Goblin woman.

She scowled at Bae. "I thought I told you to run," she said.

Bae looked at her bruised face and the hunched way she sat. "You needed help," he told her.

Mehitabel laughed. There was a wild, insane edge to it that reminded Bae of . . . things he'd rather not be reminded of. The Goblin woman told Siri, "Don't worry, girl, I'll explain the etiquette of disobeying orders later, so he can do it more properly in the future." She turned to Silver. "Here, witch, mount up. Siri can ride with you. Boy, you'll ride with me."

Bae looked uneasily at the Goblin woman, not liking the idea or her mad cheerfulness, and wondering how to turn her down without getting himself turned into a snail and stepped on.

Siri was the one who rescued him. "No," she said before he could come up with a good lie. "I'll ride with Bae. Just help me get on the stupid mount."

"Girl –"

"I promised to look after him. And I don't think he's going to be comfortable with you."

Bae felt his face turn red. At least she hadn't accused him of being afraid to ride with Mehitabel.

Even if it sounded like the same thing.

But, Mehitabel shrugged as if it made no difference to her (and maybe it didn't). She didn't make Siri get down from her mount and onto the other, however, getting on the second mount herself.

"Can you ride?" Bae asked Siri as he mounted up behind her. She liked she might fall off if he didn't hold onto her.

Siri gave a shrug of her own, one shouldered. "Not much choice. The mounts don't take directions from anyone but a Goblin. Or a part Goblin."

He stared at her, then at Mehitabel. "You said Goblins don't . . . breed."

"I said the don't breed with Goblins. They don't. Not with mortals either, much. There's one exception. If there's a mortal, a human, a Goblin was bound by oaths to before being cursed. It has to be before. Oaths go weird once they've changed . . . . Never mind. Complicated. They can't do it. So, it has to be a mortal the Goblin was married to before he became a Goblin – and it's always a he. Female Goblins don't have children. No matter what.

"Most of Goblins don't remember their human lives. Most who do get them back years after those lives are history. Nothing to go back to.

"But, there are always exceptions. One of them left a son. Who had a daughter. Who was my grandmother.

"Not that my brother and me knew much about that. We thought we were dirt normal till Tom got himself dragged to a Night Altar.

"Which was when everybody found out what happens when you try to change mixed bloods. Our memories and souls don't go anywhere. But our Goblin blood wakes up.

"Tom goes through a lot of trouble to cover up his ears, and his nails need a major trim every morning – he uses the kind of files they use on horse hooves when they're getting shoed.

"Oh, and he gets feelings about places to be and things like that. That's his own talent. If Goblins have that one, they can't be quiet long enough in their own heads to notice it."

"I heard that, girl," Mehitabel called.

"And am I right?"

"Of course."

"What about you?" Bae asked.

"Oh. That," she hesitated. "I don't know. I picked up stuff. Tricks. Tom and me, we travelled to some weird places when we were kids. I can do small magics. I don't know what would happen if anybody dragged me to a Night Altar. Maybe nothing. Maybe, I'd just be like Tom – maybe, I'd even lose the magic I have. Maybe not.

"Most Goblins would sooner see me dead than find out."