The Market Thief

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

The stone slips through my fingers and I don’t try to catch it, I kneel by Eli “I’m sorry, it was an accident. I finally make a friend and end up hurting him. I’ll understand if you never want to be my friend again.” I cradle his head in my lap and cry. My whole body starts to tingle and then Alfred is kneeling over us.

“You again,” he growls, “can’t you ever stay out of trouble?”

An eternity passes as he examines Eli. He mutters and stands up, “there, I have done all that I can. We will need to call for a healer.”

“No need,” a soft voice says from behind me. “We heard the girl’s cry for help and came right away.”

The woman steps forward. “Alfred would you please step back so I may see to him.” She has the same musical voice as Eli, only lighter.

More Elves step from the shadows and make a circle around us; they hold hands and begin to chant softly. The lady examines Eli’s wounds. “How did this happen?”

Alfred steps up; “This girl has been trouble since I laid eyes on here.”

The lady holds up her hand, “I want the girl to tell me what happened.

Alfred steps back, I gently push back Eli’s hair from his face. “I’m not sure what happened, everything was so crazy.”

“Just start at the beginning,” the lady suggests.

“Eli and I came up here to explore.” I begin.

“Excuse me for interrupting, but who is Eli?” The lady has a puzzled look on her face.

“What?” her question confused me; doesn’t she know who Eli is?

“Who is Eli?” she repeats.

“Eli is,” I shake my head to clear it. “Eli is what Lord Elysia told me to call him.”

‘He did love using funny names,” the lady responds, “Please go on.”

“We came up here to explore and saw the beautiful outfits, I couldn’t resist them so we put them on and were dancing. I mentioned how beautiful a royal ball must be with all the beautiful ladies and their handsome lords dancing.”

The lady grabs the spear and gives it a good yank; she throws it aside and puts her hand over the wound, the blood stops squirting out.

I trace my finger along Eli’s ear, “Eli says that because this is a wizards house we can make a few outfits dance with us. At the time, it seemed like a could idea, but it quickly went bad.”

How can I tell them about getting my friend hurt? What kind of a friend am I if I can’t even protect my friend? I bury my face in my hands to ashamed to tell them the rest of the story. A number
of hands pat me on the back.

“Shhh, child,” says one of the Elves, “we must hear the whole story, it will help heal the pain you are feeling.”

I take a deep breath, “It was so grand seeing all of them dancing and twirling.”

“All of them?” barks Alfred, “You must be mistaking. Lord Elysia doesn’t have enough magic to make all of them dance.”

I look up at Alfred, “I didn’t mean to honestly. Eli didn’t make them dance, I did. It’s all my fault! He said only a few would dance he told me the magic word and that it, I did the rest!” By the time I had finished I was yelling.

“Impossible,” sputter Alfred.

“My fault, all my fault.” I whisper as I rock back and forth.

“The lady touches my shoulder, “calm yourself child and finish your story. Alfred please be quiet your upsetting the child.”

“We’d stopped dancing when we hear a loud crash, the suits of armor had begun to dance with their weapons. Eli didn’t know how they had become affected because they were so heavy and far away. At first we laughed about it because they looked so funny.” I smile remembering the sight but it quickly vanishes as I remember what came next. “It was awful, dodging and weaving to get out of their weapons. I knocked Eli out of the way when the first suit came our way. It was then that Eli tells me he can’t get them to stop. If only I could have remembered the command word Alfred used with the book mess I could have stopped it faster.”

“Book mess?” interrupts one of the Elves.

“You won’t believe it,” starts Alfred.

“Not now,” orders the lady, “did you remember
the word?”

I look up at the lady. “Not at first, if I had he wouldn’t be here hurt now. I said it wrong the first time and Eli had to correct me. He told me again that it wasn’t working but we ran out of time when the suit of armor speared him, all I could think to do was scream the word at the top of my lungs and everything just stopped.”

“Everything?” repeats one of the Elves.

“Yes, just like it is now. It all just stopped right were it was.” I reply.

“Not possible, it must have,” Alfred starts but I interrupt him.

“Everything,” I say forcefully. “I know what happened. It wasn’t like when they started dancing a few at a time. They all just stopped exactly as they were.”

“Impossible,” this time the lady interrupts him.

“Do not interrupt again,” she commands.

“Yes Ma’am” says Alfred. Hulda is the only one I’ve ever seen Alfred back down to because he is Alfred T. Neble the Great Wizard. I snap out of my thought and back to the story.

“I tried to warn Eli but I was to late, I wanted to go get help but he said there wasn’t enough time.” I pause and the hand patting my back begins to rub it releases some of the tension. “He told me to take the stone from his pocket and call for help. He was so weak he could hardly tell me what to do. Once he was done he fainted and hasn’t woke up since.” I look down at him and start to cry.

The hand stops rubbing my back and begins to sooth my hair. “It wasn’t your fault child,” the Elf whispers, “tell us how you used the stone.”

I lean back and rest against the Elf who has been so kind to me. “I knew Hulda would never make it up all those steps in time to help, plus she told me she had no magical ability at all. I thought about Eli’s family but since I don’t know any of them and he said I had to picture them in my mind that option was out. Well I do know something about them. This was his grandmothers dress.” I look down; “Hulda is going to kill me for wrecking the outfit. What am I going to do? I am in soo much trouble. I’m never going to get to leave here.”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” instructs the lady, “just finish the story.”

I take a deep breath and count to 5 to calm down. “The only person I could think of was Alfred. You know he knows everything. Have you seen all the books in his library? I had to put all the ones he has read away and.”

I look up at the Elves around me, they are making funny noises, and the chanting must have changed. The lady has a huge smile and her face and I see her wink at Alfred who is bright red. I continue the story. “I knew Alfred was going to yell at me when he got here but I had to help Eli and Alfred was the best person.”

I start to cry and in between sobs “he was my friend, I mean he is my friend. Eli not Alfred. Eli is my first and only friend and look what I did to him.”

My friendly Elf wipes away my tear. “Its okay now,” she comforts me.

“I don’t know how you can say it’s going to be okay,” I tell her, “I hurt my friend. Let’s get this over with, there isn’t much more to tell. I did what Eli told me and after a few seconds I felt a tingle.”

“A tingle?” inquires the lady.

“Yep, just like when I tried to steal Alfred’s coin pouch and he froze me,” I shiver at the memory.

“You felt a tingle when you touch my pouch?” growls Alfred in a much softer growl than before.

“Yes” I answer. What’s the big deal, it was a tingle. Oh, the lady is talking I’d better listen.

“I think I will want to hear all of these
adventures later. For now, please finish this one.”

“That’s about it. I felt the tingle and Alfred and you showed up. I look down at Eli; “can you help him?”

“Already have,” says the lady, “right now he’s resting. He will be a little sore when he wakes up but you will be out exploring again soon.”

“No way! Don’t you get it; I’m in a wizard’s house. I am not doing, touching or saying anything.” I declare.