Close Kin by Clare B. Dunkle

Author:Clare B. Dunkle
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Published: 2004-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

Marak stood in the workroom in front of the maps, his unmatched eyes shrewd and thoughtful. He’d checked three times last night, and Seylin was still in exactly the same spot. Either he needed some sort of help, or he had found what he was looking for. Marak’s eyes gleamed at the thought. Elves. Elf brides. If only he had! Finding new elf brides in this day and age would be the most important event of his whole reign.

The goblin King took the ring he had made out of Seylin’s hair and walked to the big cave that held his water mirror. Then he tossed the ring against the liquid wall. It floated on the water, raising no ripples on its dark surface.

Marak sat down on the hard floor of the cave and leaned against the stone wall, reaching up to the floating object. He put the index finger of his right hand through the ring, the other fingers curling around it. His fingers felt cold in the frigid water. Only the index finger did not. It felt instead the soft locks of Seylin’s hair as he lay asleep in his tent in the elves’ cave. Marak concentrated on the sleeping form that was so far away. Then he closed his own eyes in sleep—or at least in something very like it.

Seylin dreamed that morning that he was back home again. He was sitting with Marak in the library, and he was telling the goblin King all about his travels. He described the five elves and their horrible life, their appalling ignorance, their pitiful clothes, and their struggle to find food.

It felt so good to be back home, talking over his troubles with a real friend. Marak listened carefully and asked him endless questions. Particularly about the women. Most particularly about Sable.

“She doesn’t know any magic at all, you say,” the King mused. “But it sounds like none of them knows very much. A camp lord’s daughter! One of the high families. Tell me, does she have dark eyes?”

“No,” said Seylin. “They’re blue like Kate’s, but her hair is black.”

“Oh,” said Marak, disappointed. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the line has lost its strength. Black hair, though. I wonder what her parents looked like. No father; no mother, either. For any of them, come to think of it. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”

“The life must be too hard,” said Seylin. “They must not live very long.”

“Maybe so. And she’s never been married, you’re sure about that. Why not? What did they say about it?”

Seylin frowned. “Thorn said she was a coward. He said she wanted to stay a child.”

“It takes courage to marry?” asked the goblin King. “What is that supposed to mean? What sort of life does a child have that would be worth keeping? That other girl’s still a child by their standards, and she works as hard as any of them.”

“I think it must be some sort of insanity,” said Seylin, “to cause an injury like that to her face.

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