Free Reckless (Free Preview) by Cornelia Funke Page B

to get away from all those sleeping
dead.
    It was a clear
night.   Black velvet, studded with
stars.   The trees and hills like
silhouettes, and Will beside her but only seemingly close.   So familiar and yet so
strange.
    Clara looked
across at him, and he smiled back as his eyes met hers.   But it was a mere shadow of the smile she
knew.   It had always been so easy to get
a smile from him.   Will gave love so freely.   And it was so easy to love him back.   Nothing had ever been as easy.   She didn't want to lose him, but the world around her whispered,
"He belongs to me."   And they
were riding deeper and deeper into it, as if they needed to find its heart to
make it release his brother again.
    Let him go!
    Clara wanted
to shout into the dismal face of this world.
    Let him go!
    But the world
behind the mirror was also reaching out for her.   She already felt its dark fingers on her own
skin.   "What do you want here?"
the strange night whispered.   "What
skin shall I give you?   Do you want
fur?   Do you want stone?"
    "No,"
Clara whispered back.   "I will find
your heart, and you will give him back to me."
    Yet Clara already
felt her new skin growing.   So soft.   Far too soft.   And she
felt the dark fingers reaching for her own heart.
    And she was so
afraid.

     

17
    A Guide To The Fairies

     
    It was true
what they said about the Fairies.   Nobody
came to them if they didn't want you to.   That had also been true when Jacob had first searched for them three
years ago, but even then there had been a way to find them.
    You just had
to bribe the right Dwarf.
    There had
always been those Dwarfs who claimed they traded with the Fairies and who
proudly displayed lilies on their family crests.   Most of them, however, had just told Jacob
dusty old tales about their ancestors before finally admitting that the last
family member who had actually seen a Fairy had died more than a century
ago.   Finally, however, one of the Dwarfs
at the imperial court had mentioned the name Evenaugh Valiant.
    At that time,
the Empress had offered a fortune in gold for a lily from the Fairy lake , for its scent was reputed to turn ugly girls into
beautiful women.   The prince consort had
been declaring himself increasingly disappointed with the appearance of their
only daughter.   He had died shortly
afterward in a hunting accident which, as sharp tongues had claimed, had been
arranged by his own wife.   But since the
Empress had always valued her husband's taste more than the man himself, she
had not withdrawn the reward for the lily, and so Jacob, who at that time was
already working without Chanute, had set off to find Evenaugh Valiant.
    Finding the
Dwarf had not been hard, and for a sizable amount of gold, he actually led
Jacob to the valley where the Fairies lived.   But his guide had neglected to tell Jacob about the creatures that
guarded the valley, and Jacob had nearly paid with his life for that little
excursion.   Valiant, however, sold the
lily to the Empress, and it turned her daughter, Amalie, into an acclaimed
beauty, and him into a purveyor to the court.
    Jacob had
imagined many times who he would settle his score with
the Dwarf, but after he returned from the Fairies, he had lost his taste for
revenge.   He'd won the imperial gold
through another assignment, and finally he had managed to push out of his mind
any memory of Evanaugh Valiant or the island, where he had been so happy that
he had nearly forgotten himself.   So what does that teach you, Jacob Reckless ? he wondered as
the first Dwarf dwellings appeared among the fields and hedgerows.   That,
on the whole, revenge is not such a great idea .   All the same, his heart clenched at the
prospect of meeting the Dwarf again.
    Not even the
hood could conceal the stone on Will's face any longer, and Jacob decided to
leave him and Clara behind with Fox while he rode into Terpevas (which, in the
language of its inhabitants, means nothing else but