SEVEN

I didn’t rest at all that night. Instead, I paced back and forth in my room, too weary to sleep. The unearthly cries were more mournful than usual, and louder, as if whatever made them was very close by. They made me feel more miserable than I already was, for I had the distinct impression that I was the cause of this night’s torment. I did not like that feeling at all, so I marched over to my window and peered out between the drapes, wondering if I would finally see the master of the tormented howls.

And indeed I did.

And it was not a hideous beast that stood there, as I had fully expected, but rather the Goblin King himself, poised proudly in a ribbon of moonlight. He had thrown back his head, and his eyes were closed as he cried out his torment. The sight left me gasping in stunned wonder. He had never looked so beautiful as he did in that moment…nor so completely alien. He frightened and fascinated me at the same time, and made me feel things I knew I had no right to be feeling, and that made me angry. It made me furious, in fact, and I threw open the window before I could think twice about it.

"Stop it!"

My scream startled even me, and it caused the Goblin King to jump like a startled hare, which gave me some satisfaction. His cry abruptly cut off; he looked at me with something akin to astonishment. This was the second time I had so forcefully addressed him in one day, and now that I had shocked him into silence, I used it to my advantage.

"You are the most selfish monster I have ever met in my life!" I cried harshly. "How could you possibly know how I feel being locked away in this castle as I am? You never had a family of your own, have you? You can’t know what it’s like to know that someone you love is seriously ill, and that you’re forbidden to go to them when you’re needed most, but try to imagine it anyway. Think of the guilt you’re putting me through, because I want to leave you; and yet, leaving would cause you such pain. But try to think of my pain for once. My father is dying, and you don’t even care! If you cared for me at all, you would put aside your self-centeredness and help me!"

I had to stop then, for my voice was choked with tears, but I had gotten my feelings across. The Goblin King had lowered his head and was walking slowly away. I drew the window shut with such force that the glass cracked and crawled into my bed, hoping that sleep would finally come, but it eluded me, as always.

* * * * *

Finally, just after dawn, there came a sharp knock on my door that caused me to bolt up in surprise. He stood there, the Goblin King, his face drawn and unhappy. "Until he dies," he said harshly. "You may return to your home until he dies, but then you must come back to me… and you must never ask to leave here again."

"D-do you truly mean it?" I whispered. "May I really go home?"

He nodded slowly, as if it took great effort to do so. "Say farewell to your sisters and your father, and when he passes from this world, then you must come back to me. Swear you will do so. Swear it!"

"I swear," I replied softly, and then I threw my arms around him joyously. "Oh, thank you so much! This means everything to me! How can I make it up to you?"

After a moment of silence, the Goblin King’s arms came about me and held me tightly as he buried his face in my hair. "Marry me," he murmured, and his voice brushed across my face like a kiss. I realized suddenly what I was doing and quickly let him go.

"I cannot marry you," I reminded him gently. "You know that."

He merely nodded, a hint of sadness coming into his gaze. "Come," he said. "You must leave now. There is no time to lose. I’ve prepared Isolese for your journey. There are gifts for your sisters in the saddlebags."

I followed him out to the stables, where the fanged stallion waited impatiently for me. "Isolese will take you to your family’s home, and he’ll come for you when it is time for you to return. I’ll give you a month to grieve and give comfort to your sisters, but then I must ask that you return to me. I’ll be watching for you," the Goblin King said.

He gazed at me, and I felt pain at the sadness in his eyes. "Please don’t look so sad," I pleaded. "It makes me sad, as well. I’ll be back; I promised I would. But I have to go. You know I do."

"I know, Gabriella," he replied gently, tracing a finger across my cheek. "But it will be dark and cold in this castle without you. I shall miss you terribly. If you do not return to me soon, I know I will die of loneliness." His statement, spoken so seriously, shook me to the core of my being.

"Surely you jest," I scoffed, though a bit unsteadily, at that. "No one has ever died simply from missing a friend!" And I laughed shakily, but he did not laugh with me.

"I will die," he repeated quietly, and his gaze went straight to my soul. "Your home is here, with me, and it always will be…and you are far more than a friend." With a final, soft touch to my cheek, he turned and strode away without another word, but not before I saw a tear glimmering in the corner of his eye.

A trick of the light, I told myself as I mounted Isolese. The stallion turned and snuffled my hair, his hot breath blasting across my face, smelling of rotting carcasses. I was no longer afraid of the stallion, for despite the razor fangs he was a gentle creature. At least, to me he was. I had, however, once encountered him as he was stalking one of the few, rare squirrels that very occasionally wandered into the gardens. He stood grazing as any other horse would, lulling the hapless creature into a sense of safety, and then he had struck like a serpent, lightning-quick. There had been a sharp click of teeth, a loud squeal, the crunch of bones, and the squirrel was no more. Since then I had been careful to make sure that Isolese had fed before I came too close, just to be on the safe side.

Isolese leaped forward as soon as I had settled onto his broad back, and we were off like the wind, racing through the ruins into the forest, dodging trees and shrubs at all sides. Yet the ride was smooth. It had been the last time as well, only then I had been too terrified of the Goblin King to take notice. Now I felt like I was flying, so gracefully did the midnight stallion run, and unlike when I had tried to leave, I noticed resentfully, the forest did not attempt to block Isolese’s path as he raced by.

The ride barely lasted more than a heart beat, it seemed, before Isolese slowed his pace and stepped out of the forest. I gaped in astonishment, for we were in my yard, right at the edge of the forest where the footbridge crossed the widest part of our stream, and where Journey had run and started this entire mess. I could see our cottage on the other side of the stream, with a plume of smoke rising from the chimney in a most welcome way. It was winter, and the air was cold, though there was no snow on the ground.

Suddenly, I felt very nervous. What if they’d forgotten me? It had been at least five years to them, after all. How to explain my sudden appearance, or the fact that I hadn’t aged, when they so clearly had? Well, I told myself, I’m never going to get anywhere by simply sitting here like a ninny! So I slid off Isolese’s back and gathered up my bags. Isolese shook his glowing mane, nuzzled my back, and trotted back into the forest, leaving me alone.

All of a sudden the front door to the cottage flew open and Journey bounced out, carrying a basket. She must have been planning to go to the village, but she saw me standing there and her mouth dropped open in shock. Her eyes grew so wide they resembled saucers, and she uttered a little squeak of surprise that turned into a loud shriek in the next moment.

The door opened again, and Willow came hurrying out, scowling, with a young man at her heels that I recognized as Matthew, the man who had been courting her when I’d been taken. "Journey!" she scolded fiercely. "Stop that screaming! You’ll wake Father!" Journey, of course, completely ignored her; her attention fixed completely on me. Willow followed her gaze until she, too, saw me standing there. Her expression matched Journey’s perfectly. "Gabby?" she gasped.

I smiled. "Hello, Willow, Journey. It’s good to see you again," I replied carefully as I crossed the bridge to them. They stared at me as though I was going to bite them, and I had to laugh. "Oh, come now! Surely in five years you’ve not forgotten your own sister already? Although I know there’s nothing special about me to remember…"

I was abruptly cut off as both of my sisters threw themselves at me with cries of delight, throwing their arms about me and talking at the top of their lungs.

"Gabby, where did…?"

"How did you…?"

"What are you doing here?!"

As for myself, I was laughing and crying at the same time as I struggled to get a word in edgewise. Matthew finally came to my rescue, grinning as he separated my two sisters from me. "Why not let the girl breathe, and then maybe she’ll answer your questions," he suggested teasingly, and I gave him a grateful smile as my sisters let me go.

"Oh, Gabby, what are you doing here? It’s been so long! How did you ever escape that horrible monster?" Journey cried. "We all thought you were dead! For a moment, I thought you were a ghost come back to take revenge on me!"

"Now, Journey, I’m perfectly well, as you can see. The Goblin King had promised that he wouldn’t hurt me, remember," I assured her. "Why in the world would you think I’d come to take revenge?"

"It’s my fault you got taken," she told me sadly.

"She’s been reading those stories you like so much," Willow added with a small laugh. "Remember the one about the vengeful ghost?"

"Of course! Journey, I thought you hated to read," I replied, giving her a curious look.

Journey looked embarrassed. "After you got taken, I felt guilty. I remembered how you were always trying to get me interested in books, so I started reading them to somehow make it up to you," she explained sheepishly.

I burst out laughing, despite Journey’s injured look. "Oh, Journey! If getting kidnapped by the Goblin King was what it took to get you to read, maybe I should have been kidnapped long ago," I gasped through my laughter, but quickly silenced myself when I saw my sisters’ horrified looks. "Oh, don’t look so shocked," I added impishly. "I’m happy with the Goblin King. Everything I could ever need or want is provided without question, and he is kind. But I know our father is ill, and I convinced the Goblin King to let me return for a short time. Until Father…passes on. Then I promised to return to him, after I have grieved."

"Oh, no! You can’t leave us!" Journey cried.

Willow looked upset. "You’ve only just come back again!" she added fretfully.

"Willow, love, calm down. It isn’t good for the baby," Matthew soothed her.

I turned to Willow in surprise. "Baby? Willow, what is he speaking of?"

She gazed at Matthew with a tender expression for a moment before turning to me and laying her hand on her stomach. "Matthew and I are married now, little sister," she said, "and I am expecting a child. At the end of summer it’s to be born, or so the midwife said. I only just found out a few days ago." She gave me a radiant smile as I threw my arms around her.

"Oh, how wonderful!" I cried happily. "Oh, if I could only have seen the wedding! Does Father know?"

Willow’s face turned grave. "No," she replied quietly. "The sickness has been with him since spring last. Ever since you...went away, he has slowly been losing his strength. And, I fear, his will to live, as well. He blames himself for not finding some way to save you. He and the other men of the village searched for you, deep in the forest, but you’d vanished."

"It’s because of the enchantment," I replied seriously. "I live in a great castle filled with magic. Candles light by themselves, doors open at my presence, and shadows serve me. There is no way for any mere mortal to find the castle if he doesn’t want it to be found."

"But why haven’t you aged at all?" Journey asked. "You look the same to me as you did when you left! Is it the magic?"

"Yes. The magic, and time. It passes so differently in the castle. The Goblin King says that there are no natural laws to govern it. In truth, what has been years to you has been mere months to me. It’s as though I’ve only just left." It was very hard to explain, and I could see that my sisters and Matthew did not truly understand. But when has magic ever been easy to understand?

"At any rate," I hastened to add, trying to change the subject, "I want to see Father. He’s the reason I’ve come back, after all. How serious is his illness?"

"It isn’t good," Willow said, always truthful, but there was a gleam of hope in her eyes. "Still, he only became sick after you’d been taken. Now that you’re back...maybe if he sees you, he’ll fight to live. You must talk to him, tell him not to give up." She took my hand and pulled me into the cottage to our father’s darkened room. The smell of illness, pungent and sour, hung heavy in the air, and I saw my father in the bed, breathing slowly and irregularly.

"Father!" I cried, hurrying to his side and taking a limp hand in my own. "Father, wake up, please. It’s me, Gabby."

Slowly, the old man’s eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at me with a blank stare. For a moment I feared that the fever had taken his memory of me, but then recognition dawned in his eyes. "Gabriella?" he whispered. I nodded and smiled through my tears.

"Yes," I replied. "It’s me. I’ve come back to you."

"But how?" he asked, his voice quavering. "How did you escape?"

"I didn’t escape. The Goblin King let me go, because I’d discovered that you were very sick. He allowed me to come home until…" Here I paused. What was I supposed to say to him? Until you died? No, that would never do. So I merely shrugged and smiled.

"Why would such a horrible monster do something so kind?" he asked.

Tenderness swelled in my heart as I thought of the Goblin King. "Because he is kind, Father," I replied, and found that I meant it. "I know he was cruel when first we met, but I have never wanted for anything. He is so sad, Father. He is cursed so cruelly, though I know not how or why. He was once a great ruler, I think, long ago. Now he is completely alone, or was until I came, with no one but shadows for company. We’ve talked often, and he has such beautiful gardens! It’s always spring there, and we walk in them nearly every day. I have grown…very fond of him."

I found, to my surprise, that I meant that as well, but wouldn’t allow myself think about what it may have meant. I knew he was my friend, but his final words drifted hauntingly through my memory. "You are far more than a friend…" It made me wonder what he might be to me…

Father’s voice jerked me back to the present, and I guiltily pushed aside my errant thoughts. "I don’t understand what you mean," he rasped, "but I am glad in my heart that you’ve returned to me after so long. I think that now, with you here, I’ll finally get well. Let me sleep now, but please come to me tomorrow and tell me more of your Goblin King, and the gardens you seem to love so much." His voice trailed away as he drifted back into sleep, and I tucked the covers more firmly around him and left the room, weeping with relief.

Willow met me at the door and put her arms about me. "He will live," she whispered. "I know he will. Thank you for coming home." She smiled gently as she showed me to my room, and I suddenly remembered the gifts for my sisters that the Goblin King sent along.

"Oh! Wait a moment. Here, I’ve brought you some things…from him," I told her, and called Journey to the room, as well. I opened the bags, not at all certain about what I’d find, and was astonished to see a jewel glittering in the dim light as I reached inside. I pulled out a beautiful silver necklace, with diamonds hanging like raindrops from the chain, and a pair of satin slippers.

"Ohhh..." my sisters breathed together, their eyes going wide at the sight of the diamonds. "I think the slippers are for Journey," Willow said, holding up the tiny shoes. Journey grinned and slipped them on right then.

"I never had such fine shoes!" she cried, twirling around with a giggle. The necklace went to Willow, who put it on and watched the diamonds flash on her throat breathlessly.

"Are they real?" she asked.

"Of course they are!" I replied with false indignation, fighting to hide my amused grin. "Whatever his faults, the Goblin King isn’t stingy!"