The Goblin Market (Into the Green)

The Goblin Market (Into the Green) Read Free Page B

Book: The Goblin Market (Into the Green) Read Free
Author: Jennifer Melzer
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    After hanging out the lantern, Meredith settled into the chair beside the fireplace with her favorite book. The book belonged to her mother when she was a girl, and the decades of use and appreciation showed heavily on a cover so worn the gold-embossed title had almost completely rubbed off.
    Meredith was rereading her favorite story, a tale of two princes in competition for the love of a goddess disguised as a young peasant girl. The princes were brothers and the enmity between them so strong that not even the blood bond they shared was powerful enough to bring them back together. As the younger brother was thrown from his horse in the midst of his most dangerous task, Meredith leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. She hugged the book to her chest and felt herself easily begin to drift off to sleep.
    Dreams set in quickly, and Meredith found herself swaying between bodies on a crowded ballroom floor. She reacted stiffly to the gloved hand that clutched her close, but soon the masked stranger twirled her elegantly through a host of bizarre faces. They spun again and leaned into a dip before he drew her upright and once again they spiraled across the dance floor palm to palm. Fur-faced creatures with sharp, pointed ears and sunken eyes mingled with gawping cat-eyed women who purred with laughter as they swirled around Meredith and her mysterious partner.
    Far off in the night she heard the lonely gong of a bell tower striking once, twice, thrice, and for a moment her mind grasped for some meaning in the bell’s toll.
    Four, five, six clangs of the bell against the silent night.
    Time.
    Seven, eight, nine…
    Elegant couples swished and swayed this way and that in perfect mimicry of some grand, high gala.
    Ten, eleven, twelve…yes, twelve.
    Twelve o’clock, but where was Christina?
    A silent pause lingered after the echo of the twelfth bell, and she felt there should have been something more, something else to follow, but nothing came. It was as though in that single moment time stopped to catch its breath. Her dance partner surged forward, causing Meredith to stumble over herself. Echoes of cackling laughter rippled through the dream until they were completely silenced by a thunderous thud that brought Meredith out of her dream gasping desperately for air.
    Like time, she too had been holding her breath.
    The book fell from her lap onto the floor. Meredith blinked drowsily through the remnants of dream still clinging to the slow spur of consciousness fluttering in her mind. Ears burning, heart throbbing, a droplet of sweat rolled down her side from just under her arm into the fabric of her shift. She shuddered, a bodily attempt to ring the last bits of that strange dream from her mind, and then she heard the song. Slow. Melodic. Not quite a waltz. The instrument was a distant human voice.
    She sat upright in the chair and scanned the room, her eyes immediately drawn to the wide opened door.
    Chilled air mixed with the fire’s warmth and pried at her bedclothes like fingers. Meredith clutched the fabric of her nightgown closer and started for the door.
    “Christina?”
    The humming followed as Meredith stepped up to the door and gripped the heavy oak in her hands. Bare feet cringed against the slab of flagstone just outside the cottage and she scanned the garden with curious, careful eyes. The lantern she had hung out for her sister wavered against the slow wind, the flame flickering low on its wick.
    She had no idea how much time passed since she’d fallen asleep, but a surge of fear gripped her. It was dark and if her sister had not yet returned, where could she be?
    The song ebbed out to meet her again, and she realized it came from inside the cottage.
    “Chrissy?” She called over her shoulder.
    Still standing in the doorway, Meredith looked up at the display of clouds passing away from the face of the near full moon. Pale light reached beyond the wavering ring around the celestial body and shone softly

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