“Why’d they’d go into the woods?” Grace said, when she’d finally stopped laughing. “They could just as easily play around here.”
“Because this way they won’t have us bugging them.”
“They think,” Grace said.
“They dream.”
“I can’t wait to see their faces when they open those cases of theirs.”
Ruth shot her a big grin.
Jumping to their feet, the pair ran downstairs and outside. Playing Indian scout as they followed the older twins was way more fun than cleaning house. They hid behind clumps of milkweed and tall grasses and Joe Pye weed, darting from one to the next, trying hard not to giggle too loud and give themselves away.
“There sure are a lot of hornets around today,” Ruth said as they reached the deer trail their sisters had taken.
“Those aren’t hornets, they’re bees.”
“Whatever.”
“But you’re right,” Grace agreed. “There are lots of them. There’s probably a nest nearby.”
“Hive.”
Grace stuck out her tongue. “Whatever.”
They’d heard a fiddle play the whole time they’d been crossing the fields. Here in the woods it was louder, but it didn’t do the same for them as it did for Laurel and Bess. Pure, simple curiosity pulled them along the trail.
“Looks like they’re planning to have a hooley in the woods,” Ruth said.
Grace nodded. “Probably with a bunch of those old coots they’re always playing with.”
“Martin’s not an old coot. I think he’s handsome.”
“But he plays the fiddle.”
“Lots of nice people play the fiddle.”
“Name one.”
“Laurel.”
“She doesn’t count. She’s our sister.”
“Well, how about—”
“Shh!”
Ruth fell silent, realizing what Grace already had: They were too close to keep nattering on the way they were.
The fiddling had stopped and they could hear voices. They crept along the path until it opened into a small meadow and then they stood there with their mouths agape, staring at the little man with the fiddle that their older sisters had come to meet. Finally, Grace tugged on Ruth’s arm, pulling her down, out of sight behind a bush. The two girls looked at each other, eyes wide.
“That… man,” Ruth said in a voice that was barely a whisper. “He can’t be real… can he?”
Grace shook her head.
“But there he is all the same,” she said just as quietly.
“And Laurel and Bess know him. Came to meet him in the woods and all.”
“I don’t think they know him. Listen.”
They heard Laurel make her bargain with the man. When she and Bess laid down their cases, Grace began to shiver.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she said, burrowing her face in Ruth’s shoulder.
Ruth looked over her sister’s head, understanding immediately. Playing that trick with the older twins’ instruments wasn’t funny anymore. It wasn’t funny at all. And then … then the little man pulled them away into thin air; they were there one moment, the next gone as thought they’d all stepped behind an invisible curtain. She pressed her cheek against Grace’s, trying hard not to cry because Grace was doing enough for the both of them.
She held Grace close, trying to breathe slow like Mama always said they should do when they felt upset. “People forget to breathe,” she’d say, “and then they can’t think straight anymore. They get mad, where they should be patient. Or do something stupid, when they could have been smart.”
“Breathe, breathe,” she said to Grace.
Slowly she could feel the panic ebb a little. She sat back and held Grace at arm’s length to see that her sister was getting a hold of herself as well.
“That… that was real… wasn’t it?” Grace finally said.
Ruth had to swallow before she replied. “Looks like.”
“It’s my fault. They could’ve played rings around that little man.”
“You didn’t know.”
“It’s still my fault.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Ruth said. “All that matters now is that we figure out a way to get them back.”
Grace nodded. “I wish Janey was here.”
“Me, too.”
Janey wasn’t the oldest, but she knew all the stories. She got them from Aunt Lillian and was happy to pass them along to anyone who wanted to listen, which, in the Dillard family, pretty much only meant their older sister Elsie, who liked them, and Mama, who always seemed to have the time to listen to anything any one of them had to say.
Ruth stood up. “Come on,” she said. “We can at least look for clues.”
“Clues? Suddenly we’re detectives?”
“You know what I mean.”
She walked into the meadow with Grace trailing after her. They touched the instrument cases with the toes of their shoes and walked all around the spot where the little man and their sisters had disappeared, but there was nothing to see.
“I guess we have to go home and get Mama to help,” Ruth said.
Grace gave a glum nod.
They turned to the instrument cases, meaning to close them up and bring them along, when they realized that they were no longer alone. Right where the deer trail came out of the woods stood another little man, but where the one that had kidnapped their sisters had looked like a piece of a tree that decide to go for a walk, this one seemed more human. If you discounted his size. And the fact that he had virtually no neck—his round ball of a head seemed to sit directly on the round ball of his body. And then there were the wings—almost as big as him, fluttering rapidly at his back.
He looked, Ruth decided, a lot like a bee, what with the shape of his body and the wings and the fact that his shirt and trousers were all yellow and black stripes. She remembered all the bees they’d noticed on the way to this place. Were they all some kind of weird were-bees? She gave the meadow a quick study, but other than the fact that there seemed to be more bees than there should be, the little man appeared to be on his own.
“Well, now,” the little man said. “The ‘sangman got your sisters, and that made us even, but now we’ve got you, so we’re ahead again.”
Grace stooped and picked up one of the stones from Laurel’s fiddle case.
Ruth quickly followed suit. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel scared. She just felt angry now. Breathe, she started to tell herself, but then she realized she didn’t really want to stop being angry.
“What?” she asked. “Are you on some kind of sick scavenger hunt?”
The bee man gave her a puzzled look.
“Because if you are,” Grace said. “If you think you’re taking us anywhere, we’ll knock your brains right out of your head.”
She hefted the stone she held to show him she meant business.
He held his hands up. “No, no. You can’t do that. You’re my captives.”
“Not likely,” Grace said.
But Ruth heard a buzzing and now Grace did, too. The bees that had been flying about the meadow earlier were all hovering nearby now. And not just a handful, but hundreds of them.
“I don’t think we have enough stones,” Ruth said. “Not to hit them all.”
“Probably not,” Grace replied. “But we can hit him.”
“You don’t want to do that,” the bee man said. “Please. You need to calm down. No one will hurt you if you’ll just come along quietly.”
“We don’t want to go anywhere,” Ruth said.
“But you don’t have any choice.”
“Where do you want to take us?” Grace asked.
“Yeah, and why?” Ruth added.
“You’re to be hostages, nothing more.”
Ruth shook her head. “You don’t want to mess with us,” she said. “We’ve got a big brother, you know, and he’s killed thirteen giants.”
“No, you don’t,” the bee man said.
“Yes, we do,” Grace said. “He’s tall and fierce and he eats bees like candy. Eats them by the handful.”
“He eats bee sandwiches,” Ruth added. “And bee soup.”
“Bee stew and deep fried bees.”
“And he loves fat little bee men best of all.”
“You don’t have a brother,” the bee man said. “Why would you pretend that you do?”
“Why are we supposed to be your hostages?” Grace asked.
“Yeah,” Ruth said. “And what are we being hostaged for?”
“I don’t think that’s a word,” Grace said.
“He knows what I mean.”
“Your sister has the ‘sangman prince,” the bee man said, “and we need something to trade to her for him.”
“So trade yourself.”
“Or some of your bees,” Grace added.
“And,” the bee man went on, “if we didn’t take you, the ‘sangmen would. So you’re actually safer with us.”
“What are these ‘sangmen?” Ruth asked. “Are they like the weird little guy that grabbed our sisters just now?”
The bee man nodded. “They’re evil, rooty creatures.”
“While you’re just a bundle of sunshine and joy,” Grace said.
“At least we don’t take children of the light and put them in a dark hole.”
“I think you’re making this all up,” Ruth said. “I think the two of you are in cahoots. You and this sing-song man.”
“‘Sangman.”
“Don’t you start correcting me,” Ruth told him. “You’re not family.”
“You’re in danger,” the bee man tried.
“Oh, right. Like we need to be protected from these sing-song men.”
“Whatever they think they are,” Grace put in.
“When what we really need is to be protected from you and your little buzzy friends.”
“I think we should bop him with a stone and take our chances,” Grace said.
“They’ve already stolen two of you,” the bee man said, “and put a glamour on your sister so that she thinks she needs to help them.”
“Which sister?” Ruth asked.
“Probably Els—”
Grace was cut off by the jab of Ruth’s elbow in her side.
“Remember in the war movies,” Ruth said. “Name, rank and serial number. That’s all we’re supposed to give the enemy.”
Grace nodded and looked at the bee man.
“I’m Grace, daughter number six,” she said.
Ruth shook her head. “You just love to rub in that you were born one minute earlier, don’t you?”
“I’m not your enemy,” the bee man said. “Please believe me.”
“At least he’s polite,” Ruth said. “For a kidnapper and all.”
“If you’ll just come with me, the queen will explain everything.”
“Oh, now he’s got a queen,” Grace said.
“Well, he is a bee man. I wonder what it’s like to live in a hive?”
“Very noisy, I’d say.”
“That’s enough!” the bee man cried. “I don’t know why I had to get picked for this stupid job, but I’m finishing it now.”
He made a few odd movements with his hands and the bees swept in over the girls, covering their faces, necks and arms, leaving circles around their eyes and mouths.
“Don’t move!” he warned them. “Don’t even breathe, or my little cousins will give you a thousand stings and you’ll like that even less than being captured.”
Ruth stared at the bees covering her hands and then gasped. Riding each bee was a miniature version of the bee man who stood in front of them, each with a bow and a notched arrow. She turned her gaze to meet Grace’s. They didn’t have to speak. They each dropped the stone they were holding.
“That’s better,” the bee man said. “Now follow me.”
He made another odd movement with his hands and the air began to shimmer, just as it had when the ‘sangman had stolen away the older twins.
“I think we’re in real trouble now,” Grace said.
Ruth wanted to nod, but she was too scared to move in any way except for how the bee man told them to.
“We should have left a note for Mama,” she said.
Then she and Grace followed the bee man into the shimmering air and the world they knew was gone.
6
Adie and Elsie
Deeper in the woods and higher up in the hills, there was no opportunity for Adie and Elsie to have any sort of a discussion with their captors. The bee man who had captured the younger twins was only a scout, and a reluctant one at that, happier to go about his own business without having to be involved in the various politics and machinations of the fairy court. The sooner he could be done with his duty and go back to his normal solitary ways, the better. Still, he wasn’t mean, or even unfriendly, so he’d been willing to put up with a certain amount of the twins’ comments and complaints before putting his foot down.
But Adie and Elsie had been captured by the main fairy court, led by a queen who had neither the interest nor patience for dialogue with her captives. As soon as Adie started to ask a question, the queen waved a long thin hand in her direction.
“Gag her,” she said. “Gag them both and bind their wrists.”
Footmen ran from behind the horses to immediately carry out her orders, carrying strips of cloth and ropes. Adie called out to the queen before they reached her and Elsie.
“Please,” she said. “We’ll be quiet. Don’t gag us.”
The queen studied her for a long moment, then gave a brisk nod.
“No gags,” she told the footmen. “But bind their wrists and if they speak out of turn again, gag them.”
Adie had a hundred things she wanted to know, but she kept quiet and held out her hands in front of her so that the footmen could tie them together, hoping that they wouldn’t insist on tying them behind her back. This way, she’d feel more balanced and less likely to fall flat on her face on the uneven ground if they had a long march ahead of them. Happily, Elsie followed her lead and the footmen made quick work of their job.
The ropes the footmen used to bind their wrists seemed to be made from braided grasses, but they were no less strong for that. The sisters were led off under one of the big beech trees above Aunt Lillian’s homestead, where they were kept under guard. The two girls sat down with their backs against the tree, leaning against each other as they listened to the conversation coming from where the queen and her court sat on their horses.
“Is there word on the girl yet?” the queen was saying. “The sooner we trade these sisters of hers for that wretched ‘sangman, the happier I’ll be.”
“Not yet, madam,” one of the other riders replied.
Before he could go on, a footman came running up.
“The ‘sangmen have the older twins,” he reported.
“Will she choose between the sisters?” the queen asked. “Does she fancy any above the others?”
“There’s no way of telling.”
“What about the younger twins?”
“We have scouts looking for them.”
Elsie leaned closer to Adie, her mouth near her older sister’s ear.
“Who are they talking about?” she asked, her voice quieter that a breath.
Adie shrugged. She cast a glance to their nearest captors. When she saw they weren’t paying that close attention to them, she whispered in Elsie’s ear.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But it’s beginning to sound like Janey’s got us all caught up in something we have no business being mixed up in.”
“Do you know what ‘sangmen are?”
“Haven’t a clue. But I’d guess they have something to with ‘sang.”
“And Janey was going out to harvest some yesterday.”
Adie gave a grim nod. “And it sounds as though these ‘sangmen—whatever they are—have Laurel and Bess.”
“What did she mean about choos
ing between sisters?”
“I guess they were hoping to trade us for someone Janey has, but now things have gotten complicated because the other side has the twins to trade.”
“I don’t get any of this. Janey would never hurt anyone, never mind capture someone the way these people have got us.”
“I really don’t think they’re people,” Adie said.
Elsie sighed. “I was afraid you’d say something like that.”
They broke off when the queen glanced in their direction. Adie returned her glare with an innocent look and the queen’s attention turned away from her once more.
“Look,” Elsie whispered.
She nodded with her head to the apple tree that Root was still guarding. The fairies’ dogs had formed a half-circle around him, effectively penning him in. But Root paid no attention to them. His gaze stayed fixed on the tree in front of him like there wasn’t a fairy court behind him.
Oh, why didn’t you run off, Adie thought. You’ll be no match for that many dogs and who knows what magical powers they have.
But oddly enough, the fairy dogs showed no inclination of doing more than keeping Root penned up against the apple tree. Adie wondered why. Perhaps it was only because the fairy queen hadn’t given the order for them to attack yet. Then she returned her attention to the conversation of the queen and her courtiers and the answer came.
“Has anyone tracked down the girl yet?” the queen was asking.
There was a moment of silence before one of her court replied.
“No, madam. We only know she’s with the Apple Tree Man, but we can’t reach them because the dog’s barring the way through Applejack’s door and no one knows where it opens on the other side.”
“Then remove the dog.”
That command drew another silence. Apparently, Adie realized, no one liked to deliver bad news to their cranky queen.
“We can’t,” one of the riders said. “It won’t meet our gaze.”
Adie and Elsie exchanged glances.
“Does that mean what I think it does?” Elsie whispered.
Adie shrugged. She wasn’t sure, but what it seemed the fairies were saying was that you had to acknowledge their presence before they could interact with you. So maybe if they just concentrated on not believing the fairy court was here …
Before she could go any further with that, she was distracted by what what the queen was now saying.