The Truest Heart Read online

  This book is dedicated to Kim, who inspired this series; to my fans, who ask for more; to Victoria, who is still teaching me so much; and to Brett, who makes me look at things in a different way.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  ALSO BY E. D. BAKER

  CHAPTER

  1

  “Wake up, lazybones,” Weegie the woodchuck said, nudging Cory’s hand with her cold, wet nose.

  Cory woke, startled, expecting to see yet another monster lurking in her bedroom. Instead, she saw the two woodchucks staring at her from the floor by the side of her bed. Although Noodles couldn’t talk, a witch’s spell had given his girlfriend the ability.

  “Hurry up,” said Weegie. “I need to go out, unless you want a puddle on your floor.”

  “I’m coming,” Cory said, still half asleep.

  Crawling out of bed, she pulled on her robe and started toward the door, yawning. Noodles got there before she did and sat on his haunches, while Weegie paced back and forth beside him. When Cory opened the door to her bedroom, they ran to the front door and turned to look at her accusingly.

  The moment she had it open, they ran outside and stopped. “What’s wrong?” Cory asked. She stepped onto the porch and gasped when she saw two flower fairies smearing mud across the floor.

  Surprised, the fairies stopped to stare.

  “Let me at ’em!” cried Weegie. She started to run at the fairies, but the mud was slippery and her feet went out from under her. Skidding across the mud, she collided with a flower fairy dressed all in green. The fairy took off, shrieking. The sound seemed to wake the other fairy, who shook herself and took off after her friend.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Cory said, seeing the mess on the porch.

  “What is it? What happened?” Blue asked as he staggered to his feet.

  Cory’s true love had spent the night sleeping on the floor of the main room. The guilds had been harassing Cory and had even tried to kidnap her from the courthouse minutes before she was to testify in front of the big jury. Blue had announced that he was going to arrange for bodyguards to watch over her and had taken the first shift himself.

  The guilds had been persecuting Cory for a while now. It had started right after she quit the Tooth Fairy Guild. Mary Mary, the head of the guild, had tried to make her rejoin by threatening her. When that didn’t work, she’d punished Cory by taking away her fairy abilities, including her fairy wings. Things only got worse when Cory and her grandfather Lionel got the law involved and pushed until the case went before the big jury.

  “Noodles and Weegie caught the flower fairies making a muddy mess on the porch,” Cory told Blue as the woodchucks rooted through the mud. “Weegie scared them off.”

  “Did I hear someone yelling?” Micah said from his bedroom door. Cory’s uncle looked as tired as she felt. Three different members of the Itinerant Troublemakers Guild had visited them during the night, which meant that no one had gotten much sleep.

  “Just another visit from the Flower Fairy Guild,” Cory said as she started to close the door. “I’ll clean up the mud after breakfast.”

  Before Cory had the door fully closed, someone knocked on the other side. Surprised, she pulled it open again. Her grandfather Lionel was standing there, wiping his muddy shoes on the doormat.

  “I’m glad to see that you’re awake,” he said. “Is it too early to come in?”

  “No, no, please do,” Cory said as she stepped to the side. “We all seem to be up, so we might as well stay up.”

  “I’ll start breakfast as soon as I’ve gotten dressed,” said Micah, closing his bedroom door.

  “I’ll join you in the kitchen in just a minute,” Blue told her, and headed for the bathing room.

  Cory led her grandfather to the kitchen. While he took a seat, she started some hot water for tea.

  ”I saw that you already had a visitor this morning,” Lionel said.

  “Two visitors, actually,” Cory said as she reached for the tea container. “Two flower fairies were muddying up the porch when I let the woodchucks out. But that’s nothing compared to last night. Three different members of the Itinerant Troublemakers Guild dropped in. The Thing That Goes Bump in the Night came first. Then it was the Monster Under the Bed. Oh, and then the third one really came to warn me. It was my old friend Harmony Twitchet, who was filling in for the Thing That Scratches at Your Window. She came to tell me that the ITG has sent for its ‘Big Baddies’ to start plaguing me, as if the ordinary members aren’t bad enough.”

  “Three ITG members in one night!” exclaimed Lionel. “The guilds must really be worried. But that fits in with something I wanted to tell you.”

  “Here we are!” Micah said as he and Blue walked into the kitchen. “I’m going to make a big pot of cooked oats. Have a seat. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”

  Cory added tea to the water she’d heated. “Harmony said that the Itinerant Troublemakers Guild has teamed up with the Tooth Fairy Guild and the Flower Fairy Guild, supposedly to stop me from turning people against them.”

  Lionel nodded. “Our informants have told us that they’re inviting the other guilds to ‘stand up against guild suppression,’ as they call it. The real problem is, they’ve acquired a great deal of power over the years and are afraid of losing it. Even some of the less forceful guilds are being talked into joining them. The Housecleaning Guild is aligned with them now, as well as the Sandman Guild and that new Belly Button Lint Guild. Very few guilds have actually turned them down. Most just say that they are taking it under consideration. And that brings me to why I stopped by.”

  Lionel paused to stifle a yawn while everyone waited. “Excuse me. The members of the big jury stayed up all night deliberating. I’m on my way home now, but I wanted to tell you the news before it went public. The case against the guilds is going to trial. Judge Dumpty is about to make the public announcement.”

  “That was fast,” declared Micah. He set a bowl of cooked oats in front of Lionel, then passed out bowls to Cory and Blue.

  “When is the trial scheduled to begin?” asked Blue.

  “As soon as possible,” Lionel told him. “No one believed that the guilds were capable of terrorizing their own members until Cory and Stella Nimble testified. Now the board wants this whole thing settled before the rest of the guilds band together against us.”

  “I’m going to have to testify again, aren’t I?” said Cory.

  Lionel nodded. “You’ll be one of the first. The prosecuting law upholder will be calling on you any day now.”

  When someone started pounding on the front door, Blue jumped to his feet. “That should be Macks. He’ll be your bodyguard today while I’m at work,” he told Cory.

  “I’ll go meet him,” she said, standing up.

  “Cory, why don’t you stay here and eat your breakfast?” said Micah. “Your cooked oats will get cold. Blue, do you want to ask Macks to join us? If he’s going to spend the day here, I think we should all meet him.”

  Blue nodded and left the room while Cory sat down again. She was sprinkling brown sugar on her cooked oats when her grandfather said, “Who is this Macks person? Have you ever met him before?”

  Cory shrugged. “I might have. I’ve met a number of Blue’s friends, but I haven�
��t learned all their names yet.”

  She looked up as Blue came back into the room. Half ogre and half human, he nearly filled the doorway. Macks followed him into the kitchen and had to stoop to enter. When he turned to face Cory, she remembered seeing him before. He was one of the uglier ogres, with a bulging forehead, a nose like a lumpy potato, ears that stuck out from the sides of his head, and lips so thin on his wide mouth that it didn’t look as if he had any at all. Full ogres didn’t have to do or say anything to be intimidating.

  “Hey,” he rumbled when he saw everyone seated at the kitchen table. “What’s up?”

  “Everyone, this is Macks, a good friend of mine,” said Blue. “Cory, you might remember meeting him. He was with the solar-cycle riders when they stopped by the house and ate pie the other day. He was part of your escort to the courthouse yesterday, too.”

  “Hi, Macks,” said Cory.

  “Hey, Cory,” the ogre said in his deep, scratchy voice. “Got any more of that pie?”

  “Sorry,” she said with a smile. “It’s all gone.”

  “Macks,” said Blue, “this is Cory’s grandfather Mr. Feathering and her uncle, Mr. Fleuren.”

  “Hey,” Macks said, nodding at them both.

  “Macks is going to stay with you until I come back tonight, Cory,” Blue told her. “He can handle anything that comes up, but if something does, I want you to send me a message right away. It would be best if you didn’t go out.”

  “Does this mean that I can’t take on any more odd jobs?” said Cory. “My ad is still running in The Fey Express.”

  Blue shook his head. “No more odd jobs until the trial is over. Helping strangers is definitely out.”

  After quitting the guild, Cory had taken on odd jobs to earn money. She’d also become a matchmaker at her friend Marjorie’s request. Word had spread that she was good at making matches, and she quickly acquired more clients. The day after the Tooth Fairy Guild had taken away her fairy abilities, Cory had learned that she was a Cupid with the ability to find someone’s true love. Apparently, being a matchmaker of sorts really was her true calling.

  “She can go out tomorrow, though, right?” said Macks. “That party we told you about starts tomorrow morning. Are you going to bring those pies, Cory? You make the best pies.”

  “Oh, Blue, let’s go!” Cory said. “You know I’ll be safe with your ogre friends.”

  “I don’t know . . . ,” said Blue.

  “Ogres don’t join guilds,” Micah said, looking thoughtful. “And there’s little a guild could do to influence one. If they’re already your friends, I can’t think of anywhere safer.”

  “If you really want to go, Cory,” said Blue, “I’ll see about taking the day off so I can take you.”

  “I’ll talk to the board,” said Lionel. “You won’t have to take the day off if you’re assigned to protect her.”

  Blue was training to be a Fey Law Enforcement Agency officer and could easily be assigned to watch such an important witness. Even so, Cory was grateful. “Thank you, Grandfather,” she told him. “It helps having a close relative on the Fey Law Enforcement Agency board.”

  “Now that that’s settled, I have to get to work,” said Micah. “I’m giving each student in my first period class five minutes for their oral presentations. We’ll need to start as soon as the bell rings if half the class is going to present today. Oh, I almost forgot. Do you have a rehearsal tonight, Cory? Do you need to eat dinner early?”

  Cory nodded. “We’re working on a new song. I really should be there.”

  “Then go ahead and eat without me if you need to,” said Micah. “I have a faculty meeting after school, so I don’t know what time I’ll be home.”

  “Are you going to the party tomorrow, Uncle Micah?” Cory asked him. “You were invited, too, remember?”

  Micah shook his head. “Tomorrow is a regular school day,” he said. “I can’t take off for a party. But I want you to go and have a good time. I really need to head out now. Good-bye, everyone. Stay safe.”

  “I should go, too,” said Lionel. “The putti are probably worried sick about me. If I don’t get home soon, they’ll be mounting a search party. Putti may be small, but they have big hearts and are the worst worriers you’ll ever meet.”

  “Now that Macks is here, I need to get to work,” Blue announced. “If I get there early, I might be able to leave early and I want to get back in time to eat and take you to your rehearsal. No more riding on the pedal-bus until after the trial is over. I don’t want to give the guilds even the smallest opportunity to hurt you! If you absolutely have to go somewhere, either your bodyguard or I will take you.”

  Macks nodded. “I rode my solar cycle. I brought an extra helmet, too, just in case.”

  Blue gave Cory a quick kiss before starting for the door. “Good-bye, my love. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “’Bye!” said Macks with a wave of his hand.

  Blue gave him a funny look and Cory giggled. When the ogre turned to look at her, she told him, “I think he was talking to me.”

  “Oh!” he said, sounding surprised. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

  CHAPTER

  2

  As soon as Blue, Micah, and Lionel were gone, Cory offered Macks a seat. “Would you like a cup of tea or a bowl of cooked oats while I finish my breakfast?”

  “Ogres don’t drink tea,” said Macks. “It gives us indigestion. I’d eat the cooked oats, though.”

  Cory got another bowl from the cupboard and began to fill it. “Tell me when it’s enough,” she told the ogre.

  He watched intently as she dropped one spoonful after another into the bowl, but didn’t say anything until the pot was empty. “That should be enough,” he said, although Cory had a feeling he would have taken more if there had been any.

  Macks looked surprised when Cory offered him the brown sugar. When he tried a little on the oats, his eyes lit up and he reached for the sugar again. Enough sugar went on the oats to turn them brown, but Macks seemed to love it. “You are a very good cook!” he declared when he’d finished, and proceeded to lick the bowl.

  “Thank you,” Cory said, remembering that Blue had told her that ogres licked their plates if they thought the food was delicious. She wondered if all of them got indigestion from tea and liked sugar as much as Macks did. It made her think about how little she knew of ogres. Because her own true love was half ogre, Cory thought she really should learn all she could about them.

  “Say, I was wondering,” Macks said when he handed her the bowl. “Do you usually spread mud on your porch? Some ogres prefer it that way, but I don’t remember seeing mud there the other day.”

  Cory shook her head. “The flower fairies put it there. They’ve been doing all sorts of things to harass me.”

  “Do you want me to wash it off?” the ogre asked. “I like working with mud.”

  “That would be very helpful,” Cory told him. “The hose is around back.”

  “I’ll find it,” he said.

  “And then I’d like to go to the market,” said Cory. “If I’m going to make pies to take to the party tomorrow, I need to buy some berries.”

  “Lots of berries, you mean,” said Macks. “You’ll need them to make lots of pies!”

  While Cory went to her room to get dressed, Macks went to look for the hose. He was still washing off the porch when she came back out, so she washed the dirty dishes and straightened up the kitchen. The ogre was waiting for her when she finished. Grabbing her purse, she followed him outside.

  “The porch looks great!” Cory said as she locked the door. “Thank you for cleaning it.”

  “I enjoyed it,” said Macks. “Before we go, there’s something I want to set straight.”

  “What is it?” Cory asked, tucking her keys in her purse.

  “I just wanted you to know that I’m not available,” the ogre told her. “I have a girlfriend, and you have Blue.”

  Cory was stunned. “I never thought—�
��

  “I’m telling you this because I know that most girls find me irresistible, and I wouldn’t want you to get your hopes up. I had to fend them off with a stick when I was in school. I took that stick everywhere. I named it Ingbar. Blue has been my best friend since we were little gruntlings. My father and his father were best friends, too. I would never do anything to hurt Blue.”

  Cory shook her head. “I wouldn’t, either. I don’t know if Blue told you, but we love each other. I’m not interested in anyone but Blue.”

  “That’s a relief!” said Macks. “I thought you might have fallen for me because of my good looks, and the way I washed your porch without being asked.”

  “Uh, no,” Cory said, trying not to laugh.

  “You know,” Macks said as they stepped off the porch, “most ogres wouldn’t let their ogress girlfriends spend time with another ogre. A long time ago male ogres would go on rampages if another male even looked at their girlfriend the wrong way. We don’t do that anymore, though. It cost too much to fix everything we broke and our girlfriends would dump us. Now we just get mad and yell a lot.”

  “Good to know,” said Cory.

  “If you’re ready, I’m going to introduce you to Lucille.”

  Cory was aghast. “Do you mean that your girlfriend has been waiting out here all this time?”

  Macks snorted, knocking the petals off a petunia in the flower bed by the porch. “Lucille isn’t my girlfriend! My girlfriend’s name is Estel. This is Lucille, my special girl,” he said, leading Cory to a solar cycle parked at the curb. “I spent the entire morning polishing her chrome yesterday. You can see your reflection in it. See? Watch out, don’t touch anything! I’ll scalp the first person who puts fingerprints on her! I don’t mean you, of course, but I do want to keep her nice and shiny. She deserves it.”

  “She is very beautiful,” Cory told him. “I feel honored that you’re going to let me ride her.”

  “You should,” said Macks. “Very few people get the chance. So tell me, which market do you want to visit?”

  “The East Market, I suppose,” said Cory. “They have the freshest fruits and vegetables.”