They didn’t hear her. They were all busy being full of fake bluster.
“Must be going. See you soon! Stay safe,” Doris said, hustling SalGoud and Ned out the door. “And remember: be brave.”
The door slammed shut behind them. It took Annie a minute to move. Tala whined at the door.
“You must have to go out,” she said, staring at the dog’s fluffy, concerned face. “Come on. We’ll stick to the roads. But there’s no way I’m letting you out there without me.”
Annie and Tala meandered down the road away from the town and toward the blueberry barrens. Despite all those quotes that Ned and SalGoud were spouting, worry tunneled inside her. Miss Cornelia said everything would be okay. How could they possibly be okay, though? She’d run away from the Wiegles to a strange town that was obviously in some kind of danger—a danger so big that she couldn’t wander off. There was an evil-looking man who appeared in the fountain and terrified even the un-terrifiable Miss Cornelia. And last but not least, people kept saying “Annie has magic,” but she didn’t understand that at all.
How was she magic?
“I don’t feel magic. What if I’m not? What if I disappoint them? Mrs. Betsey is always disappointed in me—always,” Annie told Tala as they walked. “And she would never let me stay here if she knew there was magic. She is the least magic person ever.”
Tala nodded his agreement.
“I can’t lose this place, Tala. I can’t,” she said. She buried her face in Tala’s fur and wrapped her arms around his body. He licked her cheek just as a cheerful, familiar voice called out to her from a distance.
Jamie was sitting on a rock wall on a hill above town, and Annie ran to him, eager to change her solemn mood. Below the wall were rolling barrens of low-bush blueberries. The road led to a thick forest and back to the town. Smoke rose from many of the houses’ chimneys. A bell rang, marking the late morning hour.
“You’re sad, Annie,” Jamie said. “You okay?”
She sniffled. “I just—I’m afraid of messing everything up, you know? I’m afraid I’m not magic and that …”
“That what?”
She quietly explained everything that had happened with Eva and the Woman in White, only hesitating about Megan’s prophecy. “I need to find out if I am magic or not. And how I’m actually supposed to help the town. I’m just so worried I won’t be able to do anything. Like they have the wrong girl or something. Like they should be searching for some different Annie.”
Jamie coughed awkwardly. “I’m sure it’s you.”
Annie could tell from the way his voice lifted up and turned his sentence into a question that he wasn’t entirely sure.
“At least you have a destiny,” he offered.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just, all my life, I’ve been aimlessly floating along … I mean …”
“You mean that at least if I’m a Stopper I have a purpose?”
“Exactly.” He coughed. “I think being magical would be nice.”
“I don’t think you have to be magical to have a point, Jamie. I think you just have to be alive and willing to participate in life …” Her voice lost its confidence. “Or something. You know?”
He wheezed in the cold air. “Sure.”
It was not a very convincing ‘sure.’
Just when the awkward silence grew to the place where Annie and Jamie both felt terribly self-conscious, Bloom, the boy from the dinner the night before, strode down the road and hopped up on the wall next to Annie. He was sucking on some licorice. She glanced over, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and said, “Hi. Jamie was looking for you.”
Bloom stared at her for a second before breaking into a huge grin. “What are you two doing here alone? I’m glad I ran into you, friends.”
Annie’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s what the Woman in White said before she flew off. She said I’d meet a friend. I thought she meant Jamie.”
“Did she go through the wall?”
“Uh-huh.”
Bloom sighed and wiggled his eyebrows conspiratorially. Jamie thought that he was probably the kind of boy who was always having fun at everything. Bloom pulled a piece of gum from his coat pocket, broke it in three, and gave him and Annie a piece. The cold made the gum break into bits when he started to chew.
Elves are nice, thought Jamie, adding it to his mental list.
“What flavor is this gum?” he asked.
“It’s opposite gum. It tastes the opposite of how you feel.”
“So, if I feel bad?” Annie asked, chewing.
“It tastes good.”
“It tastes delicious,” she said, frowning.
“Then you must feel really bad,” Bloom said. “You asked the ghost a question, didn’t you?”
Annie nodded. “And I mentioned the sea. She didn’t like that. She got all—wiggy.” Annie sat back down, tired of being confused. She decided to let the confusion go and not dwell on it. She spit her gum out into a tissue. It was starting to taste yucky.
“She’s a bit loopy,” Bloom said after a moment. He pulled one leg up to his chest. “She’s a good ghost, though, as far as ghosts go. Always willing to help. She lived around here about three hundred years ago. She’s one of the few people who doesn’t call me ‘Our Little Bloom.’ ” He made a face.
“That’s a weird thing to call you. You aren’t even short.”
“Especially not compared to the dwarfs or the pixies.” Bloom tried to make a bubble and failed. “I can never do it.”
Annie sighed sympathetically. “It’s okay. It’s just because the gum is too cold.”
They sat for a moment. Doubt crushed into her again. “I just told Jamie about that Megan girl’s prophecy.”
Bloom sucked in his breath. “Hag prophecies aren’t always what they seem.”
“She said I’d fall with evil. And basically, the truth is, all my life I’m always screwing stuff up. So this place probably won’t be any different. I just don’t know the rules here. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act.” Annie stood up and starting pacing. “I’m sorry.”
Bloom shook his head. His voice came out gentle and soft. “It’s okay, Annie.”
She tried to smile at him, but couldn’t quite do it.
“What kind of place is this? Ghosts running about. People treating me like I’m some sort of hero. It makes no sense,” Annie said. “I don’t think I’m magic.”
Bloom stood up and asked, “Have you ever done something and not understood how?”
“No …” Annie then remembered the tracks in the snow that disappeared and how whenever she drew rabbits they would randomly show up in the room. “I don’t think so … I don’t know. I’m just … I’m going to disappoint her.” She tilted her head and her lip quivered as she spoke. “I disappoint everyone.”
Bloom spread his hands out. “You haven’t disappointed me.”
“Or me!” Jamie announced, jumping down from the wall to join them.
“I will. My foster families always expect someone better than I am. Someone cuter or a better floor scrubber.” She shuddered thinking about the Wiegles’ home. “They want me to be perkier or funnier or more invisible or something—always something more than what I actually am. You know?”
“I know how you feel,” Bloom said as Jamie’s stomach growled. “I don’t know how to be an elf. I don’t remember any of them, and all I have to go by is what people say, what I read, and it’s all adventures and magic and bravery.” He cringed.
“You don’t have to know how to be an elf. You just are an elf,” Annie said. “Maybe I’m not making sense.”
“No,” Bloom said slowly. “You are. You are very smart, Annie Nobody. I don’t know how you could ever disappoint anyone.”
Annie’s spirits lifted for the briefest of moments until she looked past Bloom. Beyond the bleak barrens and the carnival construction grounds, a storm brewed out at sea. Great dark clouds rolled against one another. They crashe
d violently toward the shore like they were trying to attack the town. Something dark and nasty was headed their way.
Tala growled and shoved at them with his nose so urgently that Annie lost her balance. Bloom caught her by the arm. His green eyes were wide.
“It comes.”
Bloom hurdled up the rock wall and pulled Annie along. She scrambled over. Her knee scraped on some old prickers, so sharp that they tore her jeans and cut her skin. Jamie vaulted over as well and hunkered down. Tala waited until they were all safely hidden and then bounded after them.
Bloom put a finger to his lips, and the fear in his eyes made Annie tremble. “Stay down,” Bloom mouthed. From a leather sheath strapped to the side of his leg, Bloom pulled out a dagger. The guard and pommel were both silver-plated, and images of dragons covered the handle. A fierce face resembling Bloom’s own stared out from the hilt. The blade itself had three lobes, and Bloom shakily held it before him.
Faster than Annie could imagine, the black clouds blew in from the sea, casting ominous shadows over Aurora. The sound of a thousand beating drums pummeled the ground as something very large and powerful approached. But it wasn’t the dark or the din that frightened the trio; it was the sick feeling of dread that accompanied the hoofbeats. It was the sense of foreboding that crept into their souls. Jamie, Bloom, and Annie knew without a doubt that whatever this was, it was bad news.
Huddled behind the stone wall with two new maybe-friends and a dog, Annie learned that fear in real life is nothing like fear in a movie. Her heart raced and thumped against her thin chest. Next to her, she could feel Bloom’s and Jamie’s hearts beat, too. She held her breath. She waited. The whole world felt uneasy. The world shook with the knowledge that something terrible was coming.
Out of sheer nervousness, she traced the outline of a bunny on her pants, over and over again. She glanced at Bloom. Despite the fact that he was brandishing a dangerous-looking weapon, he seemed to grow smaller as the sound of hooves drew closer. Jamie, however, seemed to firm up with courage and expectation.
Then something moved by her left foot. A bunny. It squeaked its tiny nose at her and hopped up in the air for a moment. Then he cocked his head at her and started to do what could only be called a hula dance, swaying his little furry hips around. Annie grabbed him and pulled him to her chest so he didn’t get hurt.
Annie peeked over the wall just as a huge brown horse with a glistening black mane galloped past them. A black cloud of spiky, sharp feathers trailed behind the massive horse. The feathers flapped against the wind, creating a screeching sort of noise as the cloud formed a bird shape and then became a cloud again. Annie blinked hard. The feathers were once more a bird, giant and full of darkness. Evil rolled off both creatures. The horse’s eye had no iris. It was just black. It smelled of rotting flesh and ancient eggs left in the attic too long. Death, Annie thought, it smells of death.
Jamie and Bloom both yanked her back down before she could get a better look at either of the strange beings. A minute passed, and the noise of the hooves was completely gone before Bloom loosened his hold on her arm.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“Was it the Raiff?” Jamie asked.
“No,” Bloom said. “That was some sort of bird monster, and the horse … that’s an Each Uisge, not the Raiff. The Raiff’s been banished to a place called the Badlands. After the Purge, Miss Cornelia trapped him there, and he’s been trying to get out ever since. His reflection can appear in Aurora, but that’s all. But it doesn’t stop trolls and his other minions from trying to find a way to bring him back. Those were his monsters.”
Bloom jumped back over the wall and started running down the road toward the town. “Come on, we have to let Miss Cornelia and the Council know.”
“Monsters?” Jamie’s voice squeaked as he followed him.
“Not just a horse and a really freaky bird?” Annie asked, hurrying behind the boys and holding the bunny.
Bloom’s voice was a whisper. “Monsters.”
Fear pushed Annie’s heart into her throat. Monsters were here in this town, this special magical place that she thought would be safe, would finally be a happy-forever home. The realization made her sick. How can we keep it safe?
“What are we going to do?” Jamie asked, taking the bunny from Annie so she could run freely like they were. He stuffed it into his shirt.
“Battle,” Bloom answered, putting his dagger away. “There is no reasoning with monsters. This means war.”
19
Preparing for Battle
As Bloom, Annie, and Jamie ran to warn the townspeople, they decided to stick together. Numbers seemed a safer choice when dealing with monsters.
They dashed down the street, up another side street, and jerked to a stop in front of a gigantic white town hall, which had a big bell tower at the peak of its steep roof. Tala flopped down on the snow, clearly intending to be their lookout.
Peering into the hall’s windows from the outside was Eva, who turned her head to Annie and whispered conspiratorially, “Snuck out. Again. Boo-yah. No grounding keeps this dwarf down. I’ve been trying to find out what all the brouhaha is in there.”
“Eva! We just saw monsters!” Annie said, the words tumbling out in a rush.
“Monsters!” Eva jumped up and down, closing her hands into fists. “Did you clobber them? Let me at them. I’ll put another notch in my ax.”
“You have no notches in your ax,” Bloom scolded and advised the others, “She only gets a notch if she kills a monster.”
“That means you just let them go!” Eva fumed and stomped her foot. “How could you let them go, Bloom? How?”
Bloom glared at her. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that there are monsters within our borders. The town needs to be on alert, to be ready.”
That was all Eva needed to hear. She smashed open the heavy wooden doors of the town hall with her fist and bellowed into a huge chamber that seemed almost like a church, full of pews and hardwood floors and long windows that let in slanted light.
“COUNCIL! I AM EVA BERYL-AXE, AND I AM HERE TO TELL YOU THAT WE MUST ARM FOR BATTLE!”
The doors banged noisily behind them, and the entire room at once grew silent as dozens of heads turned to look at the newcomers through the swirling dust particles that swamped the hall. The entire Town Council and many of Aurora’s key citizens were gathered and clearly in the middle of a debate … which Eva, Annie, Jamie, and Bloom had interrupted.
Annie swallowed. “Um, we’re sorry to disturb you, but—”
“Monsters have invaded Aurora!” Bloom shouted anxiously. “They’re coming for us!”
“Trolls?” Canin demanded, eyeing Jamie, who cleared his throat nervously. Canin’s eyes burned red, bright red. A Red Sox hat was perched on the top of his head, underneath which Brillo-like white hair squiggled out at impossible angles.
“We haven’t seen any trolls … yet,” Annie replied, stepping protectively in front of Jamie.
“Monsters,” said Miss Cornelia calmly, as she pushed up from her seat at the head of a long mahogany table that glittered along the edges as if sprinkled with gold dust. “Thank you for the warning, children.”
“We’ve got to take action, or my name isn’t Eva Beryl-Axe!” Eva commanded.
The rest of the Council members all began talking at once. Their velvet rainbow robes swished against the table as they gestured animatedly. All wore dour expressions, except for Miss Cornelia, and each of their chairs was decorated with a different marking: a tree for Arrius Herman, a stone for the Mayor, a cauldron for Walburga Wakanda, who couldn’t stop wringing her hands, a lion for the blond Leodora Leksi, an ax for Nicodemus Metal Smith, and a bat for Aelfric Darling, a thin, sallow-faced man who did not seem as if he wanted to be there.
It was Aelfric whose voice rose above the rest. “Dwarf, we know your name. And your kind ALWAYS think we should ready for battle. Nicodemus was saying the same thing.” Disdainfully, he motione
d toward the small-statured dwarf. And then he noticed Jamie. “Is this the troll?”
“He ain’t a troll!” Eva yelled.
“You are quite right, Eva,” Miss Cornelia said calmly, shooting a glance at the sallow-faced man. “Aelfric. Please try to hold your criticisms so we can hear what our young people have to say.” She nodded curtly at the children. “Do any of you wish to address the Council?”
Annie looked to Jamie, who nodded encouragingly as Annie moved quietly to the front of the room. “We would, please.”
She tried to take some calming breaths as Eva yelled, “Duh. Yes. Of course we would!”
Aelfric harrumphed.
“Respectful language, Eva! Make your people proud!” demanded Nicodemus.
“That’s the leader of the Aurora dwarfs. My dad has such a man-crush on him,” Eva whispered to Annie and then said loudly, “We would like to address the Council, please and thank you, and we don’t got no time to waste with this because this is big news. Big!”
Miss Cornelia exchanged a small smile with Leodora, the lionlike woman sitting to her left. “Please do, then. You have leave to address the Council.”
“Where’s the mayor?” Eva demanded. “Shouldn’t the mayor be here?”
“He went for refreshments. It’s been a long meeting,” Walburga the witch explained, yawning.
“Understatement,” Aelfric snapped. “Do get on with it.”
Eva puffed out her chest and bellowed, “There are monsters in the barrens! Bloom, Annie, and Jamie saw them headed this way!” She paused, turning to Bloom, and demanded, “What were the monsters?”
“An Each Uisge and a horrible black crow, larger than a normal crow, with feathers that made up its head and screeched as they moved,” Bloom explained.
The Council erupted in chatter and outrage. Both Arrius and Nicodemus leaped onto the table, sword and ax drawn. Leodora Leksi and Aelfric Darling transformed instantly into a lion and vampire. Walburga began pulling on her long, tangled white hair as she cackled something they couldn’t understand, while Miss Cornelia’s voice rang out calling for order. Nobody listened. It didn’t help that Eva was yelling even louder than the Council members about wanting to kill the monsters with her mighty ax of awesomeness.