Beauty and the Goblin King by Lidiya Foxglove

Author:Lidiya Foxglove [Foxglove, Lidiya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-27T04:00:00+00:00

When it was over, he gave her a sachet and said, “You should brew that into a tea, otherwise you might find yourself with a babe.”

“Oh—but—where will you be? What if we wanted a babe?”

He laughed. “We certainly don’t.”

“You aren’t going back to the southlands, are you? After this?”

“It’s Beltane night,” he said. “This is not the night you find the man you’ll marry. It’s the night you enjoy yourself.”

“But—I love you!”

He kneaded the bridge of his nose. “You certainly don’t, be sure of that.” Then he crouched on one knee before her, took her hand, and said, “It was a wonderful night. I’d do it again. But I’m young and so are you. And I don’t think you really want to be my bride.”

“I—I do…I…”

He patted her head but then left in rather a hurry, and at this point Keely started to sob in earnest. One of her friends found her and started scolding her. “There you are! We were all looking for you! You didn’t do anything with that strange man, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” Keely said, realizing now that she had been stupid. She had to pull herself together.

She went home, where her mother was waiting, already looking skeptical.

Keely’s mother was no ordinary woman. She was the most powerful water witch for a hundred miles in any direction, and Keely was her only child. Her only disappointment with her beautiful daughter was that she was so gullible, so eager to be liked…and no great talent with magic, either.

Well, in fact, there were quite a few reasons to be disappointed in Keely. But her mother still loved her as fiercely as any mother ever loved a daughter…or at least, she loved the idea of what Keely might be molded into, if she would only behave herself.

“I hope it went all right,” she said.

“It did…”

“You look very pale.” Her mother sniffed. “I smell something.”

Keely was horrified. Could her mother smell what she had done?

But no, it was the herbs her mother smelled. She used them for spells at times, herself. She reached in Keely’s pocket and took out the satchet. “What’s this?”

Keely tried to make up excuses, but her mother found out the truth in no time, and she flew into a rage. She made the brook that flowed just outside their door churn and roll, and then she grabbed her cloak and shoved open the door.

“Where are you going?” Keely cried.

“To find him!”

The water witch was very good at tracking people, for men never got very far in those parts without crossing a stream, and nothing gossiped like water, if you knew how to speak its language. She borrowed the swiftest horse in the village and rode until she found him.

But the water witch did not see the beautiful, golden fairy her daughter had slept with. She saw an ugly goblin with horns and fangs, riding along and laughing with his companions as if nothing had ever happened.

“You!” she cried. “You defiled my Keely!”

He turned. “Defiled? She very much enjoyed it.

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