Read an excerpt from The Travelers’ Market. Available July 2008 from your local independent bookstore, the fine folks at Idylls Press or through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Travelers’ Market

paperback: 978-1-59597-012-1

hardcover: 978-1-59597-013-8

The doorbell rang for the fifth time that evening. Timothy James Maxwell had been counting. He finished off another Almond Joy bar and poured the rest of the bag of candy into the large bowl right by the front door. Every year it seemed that there were fewer and fewer trick-or-treators. It was already after nine, late for little kids to be out, even if it was a Friday. Still, they had only gone through one bag of candy; three more bags were stacked on a chair by the door.

Timothy looked at the candy with satisfaction: mostly chocolate, and he’d have them all to himself, since Sarah always complained that chocolate tasted like mud. Besides, she was off at a Halloween slumber party tonight, and his parents had left him and his friend Jessica in charge of answering the door while they watched a movie in the family room.

Timothy smiled to himself. Just six months ago, he and Jessica could never have been friends. Jessica was popular. She was pretty. She was a trend girls tried to follow, a status symbol boys tried to collect. She was smart, but she cloaked it well. And she had been one of Timothy’s biggest detractors. But that part, at least, was in the past. It had all changed when Jessica received a pale blue note with a riddle written on it―a riddle that led her to a terrifying encounter with the Wild Hunt. To survive, she had been forced to join forces with the most unlikely persons she could imagine: Timothy James Maxwell and his sister, Sarah.

Just then, Jessica came in from the kitchen with a steaming bag of popcorn in her hands. A group of people had just stepped up on the porch, all much bigger than the earlier groups who had come in princess gowns and superhero capes. Late night was the domain of teenagers dragging large grocery sacks and wearing just the minimal to be considered Trick-or-Treaters. In front of the group were two boys Timothy thought he recognized: fifteen or sixteen years of age, they were dressed in dark baggy clothing, their faces smeared with black smudges. A younger girl was with them, all in black with pointy cat ears and a long tail pinned to the back of her pants.

“I didn’t know you were friends with Sarah,” the girl cooed to Jessica, looking right through Timothy.

Jessica smiled and took the bowl of treats from Timothy. “Open your bag. You’re probably the last people tonight and we might as well get rid of all this candy.”

Timothy was about to protest, but his attention was caught by the fourth person on the porch.

Like the others, the figure was bundled in black, but his face was disguised by a rubber mask. A dark hood shaded the mask from the porch light. Most disturbing of all, Timothy couldn’t tell if the figure was male or female. At first, he thought the masked figure was part of the group, but when the others melted into the shadows, clutching their bulging bags of candy, the hooded shape lingered, a pillowcase extended like an offering[DLM1] .

The night grew still, without wind or noise. Timothy felt his scalp prickle. Even Jessica stopped chattering behind him.

Timothy grabbed the last handful of candy from the bowl and leaned forward, deliberately dropping it piece by piece into the pillowcase so he could steal a closer look under the stranger’s hood. In the dim porch light, the Trick-or-Treater’s rubber face was gray and puffy, the nose a misshapen blob.

Above it was a dark rimmed opening for a single eye.

Timothy jumped back and Jessica drew a sharp breath.

The hooded figure took a step toward the lighted living room. A raspy hum rose like a swarm of bees from behind the mask and something squirmed in the pillowcase.

Timothy’s mind screamed for him to shut the door, but his arms refused to obey. The figure shuffled forward, one foot raised to cross the threshold, then stopped, abruptly, as if it had run smack into an invisible barrier.

The figure shuddered and dropped the sack. It spilled open.

“Shut the door!” Jessica cried.

Finally, Timothy’s arms moved. He flung the door closed, but a moment too late: a large brown rat darted out from the pillowcase and scampered across the threshold into his house.

From behind the stranger’s mask, Timothy heard the bee-hum swell to a high wheezing laugh just as the door crashed to a close.

“What was that…that thing on the porch?” Jessica shrieked, jumping onto the bench in the entry way and knocking over the bags of candy in her rush to escape the rat. Miniature chocolate bars and packets of M&M’s skittered across the floor.

“You’re supposed to be the one with powers!” Timothy retorted. “And by the way, rats can climb.” Timothy’s heart pounded in his chest and he hoped Jessica couldn’t hear how frightened he felt. He couldn’t see the rat anywhere in the long hallway, but he was sure it was there somewhere, lurking, watching them. “Did you notice that the…the…that it couldn’t come through the door?”

“The sprig of rowan stopped it!” Jessica ,still tensed on the bench, peered into the darkness of the hallway.. “I hung it there when I came in, to keep away evil[DLM2] .” She reached up to touch the small cluster of leaves and took a deep breath. Her face was very white and her hazel eyes enormous. “It was just a precaution. It’s not like I expected anything to happen.”

“Then why could the rat get in if he couldn’t?”

“Maybe it only works against people. Either way, I bet it’s what your leaf has been warning you about. Something awful has found a way into your house.”

Timothy looked wildly about. “We have to find it before anything happens!”

“Don’t worry,” Jessica said grimly, “I think it will find us.”