Read Online Goblin Ball by L. K. Rigel - Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    “How…?”
    “I am Igraine,” Lily said. “And Cade is Ross Bausiney. When my life was cut short by Quinn Sarumen, Brother Sun and Sister Moon granted me another life, and Ross too. A chance to love again. The memories of my life as Igraine were awakened by handling Mistcutter . Cade understands and believes, but he only has sporadic flashes of memory, and none that stick. Other than him, you’re the one person in all the realms I trust utterly. It feels right that you should know.”
    “I’m… speechless.” It explained more than a few things, not the least why Lily had been able to remove the sword from the stone. Kaelyn had seen that it would be Igraine, and Kaelyn’s sight was never wrong.
    “I called you Maxim then,” Lilith said.
    “My proper name. I started hearing ‘Max’ about the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Everyone thought they were so modern then.”
    Lily chuckled. “Well, now you know about me. And I’m so glad.”
    “Why do you have the oracle ring?” Max blurted out the question, as this seemed to be a time for confidences.
    Lily’s face went red, but she answered forthrightly. “I found it at Igdrasil after the lightning strike, sitting in a cleft near the ground. My first thought was to destroy it. Throw it over the cliff into Tintagos Bay. But somehow I knew it couldn’t be destroyed. Better to keep it here, safely locked away. No one else knows I have it. Not even Cade. I don’t know why, but I feel it would be a danger to him if he knew.”
    “Perhaps,” Max said. “I’m sure the Dumnos Clad isn’t the only thing the Sarumen are after, and they have ways of finding out people’s secrets.”
    “Quinn.” Lily froze as she spoke the name. “Something Jenna said… I didn’t know, in that other life, that he was fae. She spoke of him as if he is still living. Max, do you want to take the ring with you?”
    “No. The less it travels, the better. This is a good, obscure hiding place—as long as the door to your treasures stays locked.” He gave her the scoping glass. “I should be getting back to Mavis.”
    “Your pony. See, I do remember things.” Lily returned the glass to the cubby and locked everything away again. After putting the key back in its own hiding place, she and Max went back to the nursery.
    Lexi was still napping. Again Max thought she looked angelic, but he’d seen a mischievous spark in her eye. She was going to be a fun one to watch grow up.
    “About the Sarumen,” Lily said. “I didn’t like Jenna because she stole my boyfriend. Ha! That sounds so childish. And of course now I’m glad she did it. But I didn’t like her family then because they were rich and powerful and I felt drab and powerless beside them. I had no idea they were magical and powerful.”
    “It’s because they’re power-hungry that I don’t trust them,” Max said. “I wonder if they’ll be there today.”
    “What do you mean? Why should they?”
    “Our queen has invited fae from all courts of the British Isles. She wants to show off her grandniece.”
    “Sun and moon,” Lily said. “I told the French girls the picnic might be fancy dress. I had no idea how right I was.”
    “The leprechauns had better hold on to their hats,” Max said. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

    A modern lawn surrounded most of the lake. The hunter’s lodge was gone, and a quarter of the way around the lake a Grecian temple had been built about the time Max’s name got shortened. A couple of starry-eyed Bausiney girls had named the grandiose marble gazebo the Temple of Joy and Wonder.
    Cade and Cissa were there, overseeing more than helping with final preparations for the day’s festivities. The brownies had just finished the finishing touches on the decorations around the Temple of Joy and Wonder, cheerfully calling out instructions to each other.
    With the first guests arriving, the leprechauns thought they were being clever and sly, but it was easy to see all they