“Don’t be embarrassed,” Glori said. “You’re not the first person to get around by Spec.”
“My father thinks he’s a menace,” Edward said with a big grin on his face.
“Yes, and don’t you love it,” Glori said to Edward. “Miriam. I don’t think you will have any problem leaving if you use that invisible thingy.”
“I know. All I have to do is distract one of those big Sky guarding the entrances so I can slip through.”
“Easy peasy. You can come with me. I’m always going in and out of my garden for supplies and things.”
“My garden?”
“It is Glori’s garden,” Specter said.
“Glori designed it and she supervises the maintenance, said Edward. “Everybody calls it Glori’s garden.”
“You did this? It’s so awesome, I mean, I could live here and never be bored. It’s…wonderful.”
“Thank you. I used to be in charge of the algae farms. This is way more fun. In any case, it means that Edward may be stuck here, but as long as you’re invisible, I can take you with me.” It looked like the escape part wasn’t going to be a problem, but I was still a long way from home.
“Where could we go?” I asked.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to visit one of the upper kingdoms,” she said. “We have a good chance of finding a squid eater and hitching a ride to Casalot. It would save weeks of traveling.”
“I like it. I could probably get home…I mean back to Casalot before my grandparents left for Metsoola.”
“We can’t leave now,” Glori said. “I have to report back to King Mundiflure and the guards will be suspicious if I come back later. But I always work in the garden in the morning. I like to get started before it’s full light. No one will think anything of it.
“Probably, someone will ask me to bring you your breakfast. If they do, the rest will be easy. After breakfast, I’ll take the food basket back to the kitchen. When the guard moves out of the doorway to let me through, you come, too. As soon as we’re alone, I sneak under that cape thing you’ve got, and … we’re history.”
It was a good plan. I fell asleep on the soft seagrass under the ledge, watching a group of four small fish that decorated a group of tall plants. “Nice touch,” I thought drowsily, “I wonder if they’re mechanical.”
Half awake, half asleep, I reached around searching for my sampo. There it was tucked comfortably under me. I was trying to decide whether to finish waking up or go back to sleep when the sound of voices finally got me to open my eyes.
I saw King Mundiflure coming into the garden through one of the upper entrances. He was carrying a big wicker basket and he was being followed by a whole entourage of people. They were mostly Sky, but there were also pixies, elves and sprites.
I was now most definitely and completely awake. “Edward! Edward! Wake up!” I shook the sleepy Sky into complete confusion.
“Huh?” was the best he could do. I grabbed his head, pointed it at the approaching fairies.
“Look!”
The eyes finally opened, wide, and then wider. Edward was now also most definitely and completely awake.
“Edward, I’ve got to hide my bag before your father gets here.” I waved it in front of his face.
“Oh, is that the bag?” he said calmly, and then “Oh, the bag! Quick, we’ve got to hide it before my father gets here!”
Too flustered to be annoyed by his pointless comment, I just said, “Yes, but where?” as we both looked wildly around for inspiration.
There was no spot in the garden where the bag could be left that it would not be found eventually by determined searchers. Frantically, I started to dig into the soft ooze of an algae bed with my fingers to bury it. All I could manage was a shallow depression and muddy water.
“Miriam,” said Flyingfish, the shyest of the seahorses, “Give me the bag.”
“You know a good spot?” Edward said, “Tell us.”
“I can take it home with me,” she answered. A big grin of understanding spread across my face.
“Don’t look and don’t listen, Edward,” I said, as I tied a tiny loop in the drawstring and hung it around Flyingfish’s neck.
I turned my back to Edward and spoke, as softly as I could. “Hs-if-gni-ylf,” I said, and the bag and seahorse disappeared.
I turned back to see the king and the others had arrived. “Good morning,” said King Mundiflure. “I’ve brought you your wedding breakfast.”
“But father, we’re not married,” was the best Edward could come up with.
“Oh, I thought it would be nice to have the ceremony right now, before breakfast. By the way, Miriam, I seem to have mislaid your magic bag. But I’m sure you can tell me where it is, can’t you?”
“I … I … I’ve sent it home. I’ve got to go. Goodbye.” I turned and fled.
CHAPTER 23
RUNAWAY BRIDE
Panic stricken, I swam fast and hard up to the salt lake. Half of my brain was saying, “Quick put on the invisible cloak so they can’t see you.” The other half of my brain was saying, “You don’t have time, they’re right behind you. Keep swimming.”
The third half of my brain (the bit I didn’t know about) wasn’t saying anything, but was busy sending my hand back to the pocket in my other wing where I kept the magic scale that Grandma had pulled off her tail for me.‘Don’t drop it. Don’t drop it. Don’t drop it,’ the third half kept repeating.
Holding the scale tightly in my fist I raced for the shore. Almost before I reached the shallows, I had given it the requisite twist and switched from tail to legs. Still moving fast, only with feet instead of a tail, I opened my wet wings and took off.
Turning at the sound of voices, I saw a head with two arms waving at me from the middle of the lake. Too far to recognize the face, I could just make out the words.
“Have you seen a young girl,” the head shouted, “a lost Sky?”
I turned away quickly and kept flying, hoping that whoever it was didn’t have a chance to recognize me.
After a couple of minutes of steady flying, I started to calm down and take notice of the surroundings. At the moment, I was passing over a small stand of trees. It was the first of a number of such stands that eventually blended into not far-off open woodland.
I landed in a comfortable crook of the largest tree in the group. Suddenly, and with considerable guilt, I remembered my friends.
“Is everyone all right?”
“All present and accounted for,” said Tidalwave.
“Are you O.K.? Is everyone comfortable?”
“At the moment,” Thorn said dryly, “comfort is not the issue. We are so tangled into your hair, that I don’t think we could go anywhere if we wanted to.”
“I’m sorry about bringing you with me,” I said. “I sort of panicked. I’m really glad you’re here though. I guess I should call–”
“Nooo!” screamed six tiny voices.
Seahorse shouting is not very loud but when they all do it at once, it’s hard not to notice.
“Don’t say her name up here,” Reddragon said. “She’s carrying your bag. Even without the extra weight, she would drop straight to the ground.” Although new to the subject, Reddragon had an excellent grasp of the principles and effects of gravity.
I was shocked into a guilty silence by the thought of what might have happened. Very carefully, I half climbed and half flew out of the tree to the ground.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, when my feet touched earth again. “I was scared, and I didn’t think about anything except running away. It must have been very frightening for you when I took off into the air.”
“Well,” said Darkflower politely, “it was rather exciting there for a few minutes.”
Everyone laughed at the understatement, and, feeling a little better, I decided to call back Flyingfish and the sampo. I lay flat on my back, first moving my hair to the side so that no one would get squashed.
“Flyingfish.”
/>
The sampo fell on my face. This was immediately followed by Flyingfish, who fell on top of the bag.
“Well, at least you had a soft landing,” I said after Flyingfish was firmly caught up in my hair. “But I’m going to send you all home,” I said seriously. “The land is not a safe place for you. Especially since I have no idea where I am or what I’ll find here.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” said Reddragon.
“You do?” I wanted to do the right thing, but secretly hoped they would insist on staying.
“Yes, I do. It’s about time someone apprised your grandparents of the situation.”
“Huh?”
“We live in the kingdom of Casalot. Even traveling at seahorse speed, once we’re back home, we could be at the castle in less than an hour. Bring us back at the end of the day before it gets dark. That will give us plenty of time to get to Casalot and see your grandparents. When we come back we can all go back to Metsoola and straighten things out.”
“What do you mean, ‘straighten things out’? If I show up there again, the king will have me married off before you can blink.”
“Exactly my point,” said Reddragon. He was hanging upside down over my forehead and giving me a hard look with his unblinking black eyes. “You’re about as likely to be kept prisoner in Metsoola as I am to blink.”
“Oh, right. No eyelids.”
“I’ve lived around fairies all my life. I’ve seen fairies who were selfish, bad tempered and thoughtless, self-centered, vain and frivolous. They may speak or act rashly, but I’ve never seen an argument or fight that went beyond words to hinder or hurt someone.”
“Excuse me, but was I not most definitely hindered by Zazkal. He kidnapped me not once but twice.”
“And look how it ended. The same thing will happen here. No matter how worried the king is about the fairy lights, he will have to let you go eventually, if that’s what you want. Anyway, I’ll be back with a message from your grandparents. That should be more than enough. You’ll see.”
I wasn’t convinced by Reddragon’s logic, but everyone else seemed to agree, so very softly, just in case anyone was listening, I spoke each of their names backwards, and one by one they disappeared.
Lying on the ground had been prickly so I took jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers out of my bag and spent the rest of the day on foot, exploring the edges of the woods.
Several times I thought I saw something moving out of the corner of my eyes and a soft whisper that was more than the rustle of leaves. But except for the birds and an occasional chipmunk, there was no sign of anyone living nearby.
I avoided going deeper into the woods and stayed on my feet for fear of being spotted by some unseen person while flying. Just because I can’t see anyone doesn’t mean they can’t see me, I thought.
“I guess being in fairyland is no guarantee of seeing fairies,” I said to no one in particular.
“You never know,” answered no one in particular, or more likely it was a bird song. Still half-convinced that I was not alone I decided on an early supper and an early return to Metsoola. Taking a sit-upon out of the sampo I settled down on a mossy spot just inside the woods.
Dinner was a melted cheese sandwich followed by a large piece of chocolate pudding graham cracker pie. Then, feeling that my parents wouldn’t approve, I ate a cucumber, one of the few vegetables I was prepared to eat on a regular basis. Having fulfilled my nutritional duty and feeling righteous, I put away the sit-upon and pulled a stick-full of pink cotton candy out of the sampo.
I walked slowly back to the salt lake, still watching for some sign of the fairies that must live here, while I carefully picked off bits of pink fluff and stuffed them into my mouth.
Walking into the water until it was chest deep, I took one last look around, switched to tail and left.
From the place where the woods began, shapes started to appear and the shy dryads emerged from their trees for a better view of the spot where this strange fairy had disappeared. Stiff and graceful like the trees that housed their souls, they walked as far as they dared from their homes and then returned to the woods to dance and whisper the story of Miriam’s visit from tree to tree throughout the forest.
CHAPTER 24
MIRIAM VANISHES
As soon as I was completely underwater, I put on my fern seed coat in case anybody was watching from below. It’s a little early to call back the seahorses. I don’t want to interrupt them if they are still talking with Grandma and Grandpa. Better to stay invisible until seahorse time. I closed the dragonfly clasp on my coat and swam down to the garden.
Coming out from under the overhang, I nearly collided with Glori. Startled, I pulled up short, making a backwash that loosened the clasp. Of course, Glori knew just who that little bit of unattached tail belonged to. I’m going to have to be more careful when I close it.
“Oh, Miriam, everyone has been so worried. The king is desperate. He’s sure something terrible has happened to you and that it’s all his fault. Everyone thinks you’ve escaped into fairyland and have been carried off by some creature.”
“One of your friends came,” she said without stopping. “Bobi or Boobi, something like that.”
“His name is Bibi,” I corrected.
“Whatever,” Glori said, not really interested in his real name. “King Mundiflure had him sent away under escort. Now he’s trying to get him back. But he’s too far ahead. The messengers he sent will probably end up following him all the way back to Casalot. The king has even called the magic experts off volcano duty to help devise strategies for rescuing you.”
“Didn’t you tell him about my invisible coat?”
“Ashatathowra! No way! But I was sure you hadn’t gone far. I’ve been waiting for you all day. Edward has been circling the gardens in case you got past me without noticing.”
“You have my permission to tell the king about my coat right away so that everyone can stop being hysterical on my account. But tell him…tell him…that I won’t come, no, that I will come…tell him that I will come to see him as soon as the seahorses return from their conference with my grandparents, and then we’ll all come together.”
From her expression, it was clear that Glori did not understand a word of this, so Miriam added, “In about an hour. They’ll be back in about an hour.”
“Who will?”
“The seahorses. The seahorses will be back in about an hour.” Glori’s expression changed from confusion to skepticism. “They’re very efficient travelers. Don’t worry, the king will understand. The main thing is to let him know I’m O.K. before he goes wandering off into fairyland looking for me. Talk about a fish out of water!”
“A what?”
“A fish out of water. It’s just an expression, but it pretty much sums up how silly he would look flopping around on the land trying to rescue me.”
I licked my lips and shook my head. All of a sudden the water tasted different, like getting to the second scoop of a different flavor in an ice cream cone. It’s still ice cream, just like this was still water, but I had switched from chocolate to vanilla. I shook my head because at the same time, my eyes seemed to go out of focus, and Glori was starting to look blurry.
PART III
HUNTING HAZMATS
CHAPTER 25
Lake Francis...Again
“Not a bad description of how I’ve felt for the last two days. So you finally got here,” said Zazkal.
“Glori? I said, looking around in confusion. This was not the garden at Castle Downalot. I was back in the lake where I had left Zazkal.
“How did you do that?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted grudgingly. “I couldn’t make another traveling bubble with the things I took out of your bag after you left. It turns out that I need slightly different things for the spell to work in fresh water and I didn’t have enough time to figure out what I needed.
“This water doesn’t interact with ingredients the same way proper salt wa
ter does,” he said testily. “I experimented with what I had and a few things I picked up here in the lake. I managed to bring you here, but I don’t know if I could do it again.
“I know what I need now. Just give me the bag,” he said abruptly, having made more than he cared to of polite conversation, “and let’s get out of here.”
Silently, I handed him the sampo, trying hard not to think about what Glori’s reaction to my second disappearance would be.
Concentrating, Zazkal took a small bottle of something gray and cloudy-looking that I didn’t recognize out of the sampo and began to swim for the surface. I followed and watched in silence while he constructed a pair of traveling bubbles, ignoring the astonishment on the faces of the nearby boaters
We were in the air and fast disappearing from sight before any of the boats could reach us, their dumbfounded passengers pointing and staring up at the sky.
I was more than a little confused by the rapidly changing events. I found it hard to believe that King Mundiflure had been as concerned for my well-being as Glori had made it sound. But there was no way I could ask about that now.
If they were worried when I disappeared the first time they must be hysterical by now, what with my gradual fading away behavior in front of Glori.
Zazkal spent the next few minutes listening while I told him about how I got to Metsoola and what had happened there. He didn’t say anything until I finished. Then he spoke slowly and thoughtfully.
“It doesn’t make sense to steal power nuts from the abyssmal kingdoms. It takes too long to transport them anywhere.
“I would expect them to be stolen from the upper kingdoms like Casalot. They’re closer to the land and there’s lots of traffic in and out that would make it easy to carry something off unnoticed.”
He didn’t speak for a few minutes. Recognizing his ‘do not interrupt me, or else’ expression, I stayed silent. When he spoke again, it was with an abrupt change of subject.
“Do you suppose you could get me to the spot where the Hazmats picked you up before you came to Metsoola?”
“How can I do that? The bubbles are taking us to Metsoola. Besides, we’ve got to go there. The king has taken all the magic experts off volcano duty to look for me. Glori said he was mad with worry.