Page 32 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“I’ll run some tests on it in the greenhouse,” he said, pocketing the vial.
“Near all my plants?” Violet was horrified. “If one of your experiments gets even a drop of that substance on my—”
“I’ll take precautions. You can approve them before I so much as unstopper the vial.”
She searched his face and found sincerity. “Thank you.”
Nathaniel held her eye, nodding.
“We should make a sign warning people to stay away from this,” said Pru, gesturing to the plot of black.
“I think the smell will do most of the work, but yes, you’re right,” agreed Nathaniel, breaking Violet’s gaze. “Can you take care of that?”
“Of course. I’ll—”
A rumbling, scraping sound had thorns prickling at Violet’s skin before she whirled around to find the rock goblin from the Smokewood, the one with the big greenish stone in his chest, ambling slowly toward them on legs of jointed granite.
“Oy!” Pru wasn’t so pleased to see him. “It’s one of the little bastards that chases me around the park!”
“I don’t think it wants to hurt anyone,” said Violet, watching him carefully. “I saw this one in the woods the other day, before we found Daisy.”
“Where’s the rest of his slide?” Nathaniel asked, looking around.
But Violet only crouched down, ignoring Nathaniel’s and Pru’s sputtering as she held out a hand, waiting patiently until the rock goblin approached, sniffed, and gently butted her fingers with the top of his head. He was warmer than she expected, like sun-drenched stone in summertime, and as he rubbed against her hand, she scratched a bit with her fingertips, which he seemed to like.
“I wonder if the rock goblins caused this,” Pru mused darkly. Violet looked up, surprised at the thought.
“I doubt it.” Nathaniel’s eyes were fixed on Violet and the rock goblin, expression unreadable. “Their magic is limited to stonecraft.”
“Maybe they escaped from Shadowfade’s castle. Maybe he experimented on them and they—”
“He didn’t,” said Violet, more sharply than she intended. “I mean, look at this one. He’s like a cat.” She looked down at the rock goblin, who was now softly gnawing on the edge of her sleeve. “You didn’t do this, did you?”
The rock goblin bleated at her again.
“That’s a peridot, isn’t it?” Pru asked, pointing to the gemstone in his chest.
The rock goblin looked sharply up at her, his black eyes brightening as he bleated again.
“I think that’s a yes,” Violet said with a little smile. “Hi there, little peridot goblin.”
“I think he likes you,” said Pru. “I’m almost jealous.”
“Thought you were the only one who could attract pests?” Nathaniel teased.
“I saidalmost, didn’t I?”
The peridot goblin—Peri, Violet had already decided she’d call him—peered around Violet to the ring of rot. He released her sleeve and trotted over to it, head moving as though sniffing the air. He opened his mouth again and let out a different sound, lower and louder all at once. The ground rumbled. From the roots of trees and the base of the platform and the edges of garden beds, more rock goblins began to appear.
Violet watched them in amazement. They were all shapes and sizes, made of smooth, round river stones and others of jagged chunks of granite. Some were as small as mice, and the largest was about the size of a sheep. Some had strange markings and textures, and a few hinted at shapes that just escaped her recognition. Peri let out that sound again, which Violet suspected was for the other rock goblins in the same way she suspected his croaking little bleat was especially for human ears, and the rest of the slide gathered around the blighted spot of land, flowing around the humans’ legs while Pru hopped and squealed nervously. The peridot goblin rubbed against Violet’s ankle, scratching her skin in a not-entirely-unpleasant way until she got the hint and dutifully stepped back.
Almost immediately, the space where she’d been standingfilled with rock goblins, who launched themselves atop one another until they were near indistinguishable. They formed a ring around the blight, climbing and melding together into a spiraling shape like a snake coiled over itself, enough that Violet convinced herself she could even see scales. It was a wall of rock tighter and cleaner than any mason could replicate.
“They’re covering the rot,” said Nathaniel wonderingly.
Sure enough, in a matter of minutes the rock goblins had built a stony dome over the blight, blocking it from the rest of the park. Peri stood aside from the pile and stared up at Violet with onyx eyes. He croaked again in the sound she now recognized was for her. She bent to pat his head, and he leaned into her hand, letting out a rumbling sort of purr. “You did very well.”
“He did,” Pru agreed.
