The Goblin's Curse Read Online Free

bed for her shoes. Yesterday’s socks were hanging out of them and she jammed them onto her feet. Showers and clean clothes later—first, she’d go meet Sean, and then pick up Raven to head to the meadow.
    “Don’t make plans to be out late tonight,” Dad called. “You’ll have an early start tomorrow. I heard the new admin wants us to rehearse the royal parade, and then the pirate’s parade. And I may be busy because I have to meet a tow truck driver in the campground. Someone noticed a big puddle of oil under the pickup truck’s engine.”
    “Oh my.” Keelie fought a grin. She knew it was serious and possibly very expensive to have car trouble, but the thought of a tow truck dragging the Swiss Miss Chalet—their tiny, gingerbread-festooned house perched on the bed of Dad’s aged pickup—down the road was hilarious.
    She stepped past her curtain and pulled it closed behind her, enjoying the familiar rattle of its wooden rings. “I think I might go down to the meadow this morning,” she said casually. “I want to check out where the Red Cap died.”
    Dad filled in what she hadn’t said. “Because of the blood in the ground? There’s nothing around there that could be harmed by the taint.”
    Keelie knew he was worried, though, because suddenly he was stirring the oats on the stove much faster. She bit her lip and hurried to the bathroom, shielding her mind because sometimes Dad could read every thought as it scrolled through her brain.
    “Why don’t you take Lord Elianard with you?” he called. “He’s anxious to get started with your lore lessons again, and he can check if the goblin taint might be threatening the elven village.”
    “Maybe.” She could sense the spread of the goblin’s toxic magic herself.
    She did need to see Elianard sometime, though. Keelie thought of the enormous Compendium, which was basically a magical recipe book containing the collected spells and charms of generations of Dread Forest elves (they really needed to get it online). She would study it later.
    Elianard would surely give her a huge lore lesson if he knew she’d planted an aspen branch right in the center of the disturbed earth where the evil Red Cap had died. The branch had immediately put out a leaf, and Keelie hoped it would thrive, but just this spring she’d learned a lot about what goblin blood could do to trees. If the little sapling was still alive, its roots would have drunk deep of the evil goblin’s blood—blood spilled by Keelie when she’d called up the combination of tree and Earth magic that had blasted the evil creature to fragments.
    She was glad Raven would be there with her. She didn’t want to return to the site of her battle alone.

two
     
    “Okay, Dad, I’m headed to Mrs. Butters’.” Keelie kissed her father goodbye and trotted down the stairs. She started across the clearing toward the path down the hill.
    A door closed nearby. “Hey, neighbor!”
    She turned to see Hob walking toward her. He was even better-looking in the daylight.
    He grinned at her. “Heading my way? If I don’t get a muffin in the next ten minutes, I’m going to eat a squirrel.”
    Keelie laughed, and as they walked together down the hill, she couldn’t help wishing that all the mean elf girls could see her walking with this studly specimen.
    “I can’t wait to see your shop,” she told him.
    “Come by any time.” He shrugged. “My wares are not the caliber of your father’s, but they’re amusing.”
    “Lots of people like masks and disguises.”
    He looked a little startled, but then his smile broadened. “They do indeed, if they have a mischievous streak.”
    “My cat should be your first customer, then.” The thought of Knot in a mask was funny. In a creepy way.
    “No pets allowed. But you can buy the kitty a toy if you wish.” He bowed as they arrived at Mrs. Butters’ tea shop and held her fingers to his lips. “Milady, have a lovely day.”
    “You don’t know how nice it is to