The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle Page B

whispered. "It's already dawn. We'll leave by the front door. If Seylin's still where he said he would be, we can keep the house between us."
    In a few minutes, they were hurrying down the gravel track through a rustling, dewy meadow, the forested hills to their backs now and the fields before them. Somewhere on these fields, Kate remembered with a sinking heart, the goblins had kept watch around their bonfire. She wondered just how far their magical kingdom extended.
    The exhausted girls stumbled along the pebbly track, stepping on their long shadows as the red sun rose over the Hill behind them. Kate's shoes were cracked at the toes, and her feet began to ache. She tried to turn over the events of the night in her mind, but it all began to run together and change. She was arguing with Marak. She was yelling at him, and he was laughing. Agatha came and looked at her palm, telling Kate to be careful. "I see danger in this hand," she said, her black eyes huge, "from someone very close to you."
    Someone very close. Kate came out of her doze with a start. She heard the clopping of horses' hooves coming along fast behind them. Swiftly she grabbed the sagging Emily by the arm and glanced around for cover. There was none to be had. They were in the middle of a mowed field with not so much as a rock wall in reach. Kate's heart pounded as she whirled to face her enemy. What right, she thought furiously, did he have to be out during the day?
    The dogcart bowled into sight over a slight ridge. The old mare stopped a few feet from them and dropped her head, blowing heavily. Hugh Roberts climbed down from the seat, his wig askew and his round face brick red with anger.
    "Miss Winslow," he remarked heatedly, "you are quite beyond our ability to handle."
    He drove the girls to the Hall in silence. Emily fell asleep on the way.
    "Come with me, Miss Winslow," he ordered, leaving the cart at the door. Kate climbed down and looked back at her sleeping sister, a lump in her throat. I've lost my last chance to escape, she thought. I won't see Em again, and now I can't even say good-bye.
    Her guardian led her down the hall to one of the bedrooms. "I'm leaving you in here," he told her. "Ring if you need anything." Kate stared aghast at the elegant bedroom. It was on the ground floor, facing the dense forest of the Hill, and it opened out onto the shaded terrace via a pair of pretty double doors. Almost the whole wall by the terrace was window, covered with lacy curtains.
    "How long will I be staying here?" she demanded anxiously. Her guardian paused in the doorway.
    "I don't exactly know," he said ponderously. "I feel you are now a danger to yourself and to your sister. You'll have to stay in here until we can decide what to do about you. Prim and Celia cannot deal with you at the Lodge."
    Kate could just imagine a whole coterie of monsters assembling in the woods outside those double doors. At twilight they would come bursting in and haul her away, their weird goblin chieftain in the lead.
    "Mr. Roberts," she begged, "please don't leave me in this room! At least put me on the second floor or in a room that doesn't face the forest. There must be bedrooms that are safer than this."
    "Safer from goblins?" Hugh Roberts asked sardonically, and Kate knew that the argument was over. She heard him lock the door as he left.
    Exhausted and frustrated, Kate flung herself down on the bed to think. Ever since she had asked for her guardian's help, things had gotten worse and worse. He had practically accused her of insanity in front of her aunts, he had instructed them to throw her out of the house after dark, and now he had locked her up in a room perfect for goblin attack. Short of delivering her tied up to the goblins' front door, Kate couldn't think of anything worse he could do. Of course, she concluded miserably, he would say that he just wanted her to face her fears. She was pretty sure that was exactly what she would be doing once twilight came