Reckless (Mirrorworld 1)

"He doesn't love anybody anymore," Fox whispered back. "He's forgetting who he is."

She knew how it felt. Another skin, another person. But the fur she had grown was soft and warm. The stone was hard and cold.

Clara looked toward the cave. Fox picked a feather from her hair.

"Don't leave!" Fox whispered to her. "Jacob will help him. You'll see."

If only he were back already.

21

His Brother's Keeper

As Jacob rode toward the cave, Fox came running to him. Will and Clara were nowhere to be seen.

"Will you look at that! That mangy vixen still following you around?" Valiant jeered as Jacob lifted him from the horse. Jacob had tied him with a silver chain, the only metal that Dwarfs could not snap like thread.

Jacob would not have been surprised if Fox had replied to Valiant's remark with a bite, but she seemed not to have even noticed the Dwarf. Something had happened. Her fur was standing on end, and she had some white feathers stuck to her back.

"You have to talk to your brother," she said while Jacob tied the Dwarf to a nearby tree.

"What happened?" Jacob cast a worried glance at the cave where Will was hiding, but Fox pointed toward the horses. Clara was there, sleeping in the shade of a beech. Her shirt was torn, and Jacob could see blood on her throat.

;I asked not to be disturbed, Banster." The Dwarf sighed without opening his eyes. "Don't tell me it's about that stuffed Waterman again."

He'd grown fat. And older. The curly red hair was already turning gray, early for a Dwarf. Most of them lived to be at least a hundred, and Valiant was barely sixty, unless he'd also lied about his age.

"No, a stuffed Waterman isn't quite what I'm after," Jacob said, pointing his pistol at the curly head. "But three years ago, I paid for services I never received."

Valiant nearly choked on his cigar. He looked at Jacob as dumbfoundedly as one would at a visitor one had left to the mercy of a stampeding herd of Unicorns.

"Jacob Reckless!" he said, panting.

"Well, I never! You actually remember my name."

The Dwarf dropped his cigar, and his hand reached under the desk, but he quickly pulled his stubby fingers back as Jacob slit his tailored sleeve with the saber.

"Careful, now!' Jacob said. "You don't need both your arms to take me to the Fairies. And you don't need your ears and your nose, either. Hands behind you head. Now!"

Valiant obeyed. As he raised his hands, his mouth twisted into far too broad a smile.

"Jacob!" he purred. "What is this? Of course I knew you weren't dead. After all, everybody's heard your story. Jacob Reckless, the fortunate mortal who was kept by the Red Fairy for a year. Every male creature in the land, be he Dwarf, human, or Goyl, is green with envy at the mere thought of it. Go on: Admit it! Whom do you have to thank for that? Evenaugh Valiant. Had I warned you about the Unicorns, you would've been turned into a thistle or a fish, like any other uninvited visitor. But not even the Red Fairy can resist a man who's lying, helpless, in his own blood."

Jacob had to admire the Dwarf's brazen logic.

"Tell me!" Valiant whispered across his oversize desk without even a hint of remorse. "How was she? And how did you manage to get away?"

Jacob grabbed the Dwarf by his bespoke lapels and pulled him out from behind his desk. "This is my onetime offer: I won't shoot you, and in return you'll take me to their valley once again, but this time you show me how to get past the Unicorns."

"What?" Valiant tried to wriggle free, but Jacob's pistol quickly changed his mind. "It's a two-day ride, at least!" he whined. "I can't just leave the business!"

Jacob simply shoved him toward the door.

The two secretaries were whispering in the wardrobe. Valiant glared in their direction as he plucked his hat from the coatrack by the door.

"My prices have increased considerably in the past three years," he said.

"I'll let you live," Jacob replied. "That's more of a raise than you deserve."