Reckless (Free Preview) by Cornelia Funke Page B

since.   It still felt as if the Tailor was stitching
seams through his skin.
    Valiant was
sitting in front of him.   He kept
turning, clearly delighted at how awful Jacob was feeling.
    "Oh, you
really look terrible, Reckless!" he observed for the umpteenth time, with
undisguised glee.   "That poor girl
is staring at you again.   She's probably
terrified you'll fall off your horse before her boyfriend can get his skin
back.   Don't you worry, though.   After you're dead
and your brother has turned into a Goyl, I'll console her.   I'm quite partial to human women."
    It had been
like that ever since they set out, but Jacob was too dazed by the fever to
reply.   Even the words Will had said to
him in the cave no longer penetrated his agony, and by now he longed for the
healing air of the Fairy's realm as much for his own sake as for his brother's.
    Not far now, Jacob.   You just have to get through the gorge, and
then you're in their valley .
    Clara was
riding right behind him.   Every now and
then, Will rode up next to her, as if trying to make her forget what had
happened in the cave.   Love and fear were
battling each other on her face.   But she
rode on.   Like him.   Like Will.
    And the Dwarf
could still betray them all.
    The sun was
already standing quite low, and the shadows between the rocks were
growing.   The foaming creek along which
they rode was so dark it looked like it was carrying the night into the gorge,
and they had not gotten very far when Will suddenly reined in his horse.
    "What is
it? " Valiant asked anxiously.
    "There
are Goyl here."   There was not a
trace of doubt in Will's voice.
    "Goyl?"   Valiant cast a malicious glance at Jacob.   "Excellent.   I get on great with the Goyl."
    Jacob put his
hand on the Dwarf's mouth.   He slackened
the mare's reins and listened, but the rush of the water drowned out all other
sounds.   "Act as if we're watering
the horses," he whispered to Clara and Will.
    "I smell
them, too! " Fox hissed.   "Dead ahead."
    "But why
are they hiding?"   Will shuddered,
like an animal catching the scent of its pride.
    Valiant looked
at him as if he saw him for the first time.   Then he spun around so abruptly that he nearly fell off the horse.
    "You
cunning dog!" he hissed at Jacob.   "What's the color of the stone in your skin?   Green, right?"
    "So what?"
    "So what?   Don't
take me for a fool!   It's jade.   The Goyl are offering two pounds of red
moonstone for him.   Your brother,
indeed!   Don't make me laugh!"   The Dwarf gave him a conspiratorial
wink.   "You found him — just like
you found the glass slipper and the wishing table.   But why are you taking him to the
Fairies?"
    Jade.
    Jacob stared
at Will's pale green skin.   He had, of
course, heard the stories.   The Goyl King and his invincible bodyguard.   Chanute had once fantasized about finding him
and selling him to the Empress.   But they
couldn't seriously think his brother was the Jade Goyl.
    He could see
the mist-shrouded valley at the end of the gorge.   So close.
    "Let's
take him to one of their fortresses and split the reward! " Valiant hissed again.   "If
they capture him here, they won't give us anything for him."
    But Jacob
ignored him.
    He saw Will shudder.
    "Is there
another way into the valley? " Jacob asked the
Dwarf.
    "Sure,"
Valiant replied with a smirk, "if you think your so-called brother has
time to go the long way around... not to mention yourself."
    Will looked
around like a caged animal.
    Clara steered
her horse next to Jacob's.   "Get him
away from here!" she whispered.   "Please!"
    But then what?
    A few yards
away, a group of pine trees grew in front of the rocks.   It was so dark under their branches that even
as close as this, Jacob couldn't see beneath them.
    Jacob leaned
over to Will and reached for his arm.
    "Follow
me to those pines," he whispered to him.   "Dismount when I do."
    It was time to
play some hide-and-seek and