“Maybe so,” the Apple Tree Man said, “and I don’t mind having you to fall back on if things don’t go right. But I’ve got something else I’d like to try first.”
I guess we were pretty much all in disagreement with his plan when he was done telling it, except for Li’l Pater, who I still wasn’t sure was really on our side. I could understand the Apple Tree Man helping us on account of Aunt Lillian, and the ‘sangmen because they might feel beholden to us, but Li’l Pater was still a mystery.
“You’ve trusted me so far,” the Apple Tree Man said. “Trust me just a little longer.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” I asked, not wanting to think of what might happen to my sisters, but I couldn’t not think about it either.
“No one will be hurt,” he said.
“Can you promise me that?”
He hesitated for a long moment, then slowly shook his head. “Can’t anybody promise you that.”
“It’ll work,” Li’l Pater assured us, which didn’t help much so far as I was concerned. “The one thing fairies can’t resist is a mystery.”
I agreed in the end. I didn’t feel like I had any other choice. By all accounts, the bee court far outnumbered the ‘sangmen. Adding in the Apple Tree Man, an old woman, three girls, and some kind of little cat man didn’t seem to change the odds much in our favor. And since no one was coming up with a better idea, we were stuck with this one, for better or worse.
“You’re not doing this alone, Janey,” Bess said.
Laurel nodded an agreement.
“But—”
“They’re our sisters, too.”
I looked to Aunt Lillian and the Apple Tree Man for help, but didn’t find any.
“If there are three of you, it’ll work more in your favor,” he said. “Especially since you’re all red-haired.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Bess asked.
“Redheads are sacred to the Father of Cats,” Li’l Pater explained. “Most fairies won’t harm them.”
“So we don’t really have anything to worry about,” I said, happy now to have endured all those years of being called “Carrot-head,” “Freckleface,” and the like in the schoolyard.
The Apple Tree Man got an uncomfortable look.
“I said ‘most,’ “ Li’l Pater told us.
“And there are many ways to hurt a person,” the king of the ‘sangmen added, “without actually killing them.”
“Great,” Laurel said.
Bess nodded unhappily. “Yes, that’s really comforting to hear.”
The thought of anything bad happening to my sisters was too much for me to be able to hold in my head for long without going crazy.
“Let’s just do this,” I said.
5
Ruth and Grace
The worst thing, Grace thought, about having bees all over your face and arms was how much they tickled. But you didn’t dare do a thing about it. All you could do was feel the way your skin squirmed under all those fuzzy little bee feet and try to remember not to swat at them and their tiny riders. It was a horrible feeling. Even when the cloud of them finally lifted from her and Ruth, she could still feel thousands of little feet carpeting her skin. It was like the way you imagined cobwebs staying on you after you’ve brushed them away. Even though you know they’re gone, a ghostly veil of them still clings to your skin.
“Grace … ?” Ruth said at her side.
Instead of rubbing at her face and arms the way Grace was, she was looking past Grace, farther up the slope, her face pale. Grace slowly turned to see what had caught her sister’s attention.
She almost wished she hadn’t.
Bee fairies, it seemed, could come in any size. From the tiny ones that had covered them on the journey to get here and the fat bumblebee man who’d captured them, to these terrifying lords and lady with their grim faces, sitting tall and straight-backed on horses that didn’t seem quite right. But then the riders weren’t quite right, either. They were almost people, but their features were all too sharp and they had a cold light in their eyes like no normal person Grace had ever seen. There were footmen, too. A lot of them. Armed with bows and arrows, rapiers, and slender spears with barbed tips.
Her own heart sank.
“So,” she said in a small voice, her hand reaching for and finding Ruth’s. “Tell me again why we left the house today, when we could have been safely doing housework, which, I have to tell you now, I would just love to be doing because it’d sure beat being here.”
“Anything would beat being here,” Ruth said.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any firecrackers in your pocket, would you? Or a pistol, say?”
“No, but… but would a can of Raid do?”
Grace squeezed her hand and found a weak smile. “Never let them see you’re scared,” she remembered Adie telling them once when she and Ruth were being picked on by some kids at school. “That only eggs them on like they’re a pack of dogs. Just stand up and take the licking, and try to give back as good as you get. You might get hurt, but they’re going to know you’re not easy targets and next time they’ll think twice before they come after you.”
And it had worked, too—a couple of black eyes and a few dozen scrapes and bruises later. They’d only ever had to fight twice, standing back to back as the bullies ganged up on them. They might only have been ten years old at the time, but after that, even the older kids left them alone.
“A can of Raid would be perfect,” she told Ruth now.
“If only.”
“And it would have to be humongous. How big a pocket do you have anyway?”
“Be still!” the only woman in the group told them.
She looked to be their leader—the queen bee, Grace supposed. They all had a hardness, a mean, savage air about them, but from the look of her, she could have invented the very idea of meanness. Which was sad for a whole bunch of reasons, but one was that she could have been so pretty if she hadn’t let that cruelty twist her features.
Grace swallowed hard. No fear, she told herself. Or at least don’t show it.
“Oh, shut up, yourself,” she said. “Who do you think you are— our mother?”
Ruth tugged at her sleeve with her free hand. “You know, maybe we shouldn’t be quite so—”
“I am hardly your mother,” the woman interrupted, her voice like ice. “I am no one’s mother. Not any longer.”
“Big surprise there,” Grace said. “No boyfriend either, I’m guessing. Not with that personality.”
“May … maybe you should think about a makeover,” Ruth said.
That was the spirit, Grace thought.
“Oh sure,” she added. “Mama says they can make you feel like a whole new woman, which with you, would be a big improvement.”
The woman smiled, which somehow made her scarier than when she was just looking mean.
If she could have, Grace would have taken off right then. Just run off with Ruth, as fast and as far away from here as they could. But they couldn’t outrun horses. Or those strange dogs she now spied, six or seven of them crouched in a half-circle. She blinked, realizing that the dogs had Root penned up against the trunk of some old apple tree, though Root didn’t appear to be taking much notice of them.
Turning back to the woman, she caught a glimpse of red hair farther up the slope. Staring harder, she realized it was Elsie, sitting on the ground under a big beech tree, her hands tied in front of her.
Did that mean they had Adie, too? And Janey?
“I don’t know if you’re brave or simply half-witted,” the woman said, “and frankly, I don’t really care. But you are an annoyance.”
“Shall we bind them and put them with the others?” one of the footmen standing by her horse asked.
“Well, now,” the queen said. “We certainly don’t need all four of these wretched girls to bargain with. All we need is one more than the dirt-eaters have.”
“Should I take the other back to their
world?” the fat little man who’d captured them asked.
“Why bother? Just kill one of them—the rude one who talks too much—and put the other with her sisters.”
“But, madam,” the little man began, obviously as shocked as Grace was with the queen’s offhand order for her execution. “They are red-haired …”
The queen gave him a long cold look. “Are you arguing with me?”
“No, but… the Father of Cats says such mortals are sacred.”
The queen made a sharp motion with her hand and one of the footmen stepped forward, notched an arrow and let fly. All Grace’s bravery fled. She winced, but the arrow wasn’t meant for her. It struck the little man in the throat and he went down, knees buckling under him. He gasped, tearing at the arrow with his fingers. Blood streamed over his hands and down his chest before he toppled over onto the ground.
Grace thought she was going to throw up. Ruth’s sudden tight grip on her hand would have hurt if she wasn’t already gripping Ruth’s hand just as fiercely.
“Thank you,” the queen told her footman. She turned to regard her court. “Does anyone else have something they wish to discuss?”
It had been quiet in the meadow before this. Now the silence was utter. Not even the horses moved.
The queen returned her gaze to the twins, that terrible smile twitching the corners of her mouth.
“That’s better,” she said. “Now if someone would deal with these little wretches … ?”
The bowman notched another arrow.
6
Adie
Creeping through the underbrush, Adie heard none of the twins’ exchange with the queen. She was too busy sneaking up on one of the queen’s footmen—a scout or a guard, she wasn’t sure which. It didn’t matter. All she knew was she didn’t want him behind her when she went for the queen with Elsie’s little jackknife.
She didn’t really think she’d succeed. Or if she did, she didn’t think she’d survive. But the jackknife was made of steel, so it had iron in it, and all the fairy tales said iron was deadly to fairies, so there was the chance she’d be able to do some damage. And while she might not survive, perhaps at least her sisters might get away in the confusion.
That was all that really mattered. That they were safe.
Right now the jackknife was folded up and in the pocket of her jeans. In her hands was a three-foot-long branch that she’d picked up from the debris under the trees. It hadn’t been her first choice. She’d kept picking up and hefting various branches as she continued to sneak up on the bee fairy until she finally found one with some weight to it that didn’t feel as though it would break the first time she used it.
It was hard to stay quiet. If this part of the wood hadn’t been sprucey-pine, she probably wouldn’t have gotten as far as she did. But the ground was thick with a carpet of needles, spongy and silent underfoot. Every time she did make some noise—stepped on a twig, pushed through the occasional bush—she stopped dead and crouched low, not daring to breathe, hoping the bee fairy would think it was only a squirrel or bird.
Maybe it was true that they had some Indian blood in them from their father’s side, she thought, as she managed to creep almost up on the footman without his noticing her.
Okay, this was it.
She straightened up, took a long, deep breath, and stepped forward, swinging the branch. The footman grunted when the branch connected with the back of his head and toppled forward, his spear falling from his hand. The force of the blow stung the palms of Adie’s hands enough so that she almost lost her grip on the branch. The footman landed on his hands, down but not out.
They’re not people, Adie reminded herself. They’re bugs. It’s hurt them or be hurt by them.
She swung the branch again, just as the footman was half-rising and turning in her direction. The blow caught him in the temple and this time he went down and stayed there.
Adie dropped the branch and had to go down on one knee. She was shaking so badly she didn’t think she could stand and felt she might throw up. But she made herself take a few steadying breaths until the queasiness passed and she was able to get back to her feet. Picking up her stick, she held it ready and nudged the footman with her foot. He didn’t move. She tried again. When he still didn’t move, she traded her branch for his spear and began to work her way back to the meadow where the fairy court held her sisters captive.
She arrived just in time to see one of the queen’s footmen kill a fat little man that looked like a bumblebee, then turn his bow in Grace’s direction.
7
Elsie
As soon as the twins began to mouth off to the fairy queen, Elsie shook her head. She couldn’t believe that they were being their usual incorrigible selves at a time like this. Didn’t they realize that they were just making things worse?
And speaking of things getting worse, any moment the bee fairies were going to notice that Adie was gone.
Making sure that nobody was looking in her direction, she got to her feet and looked around for something she could use as a weapon. She wished her legs didn’t feel like jelly, that her heartbeat wasn’t drumming double-time in her chest. That she could at least take one deep breath.
Why couldn’t she be as brave as Adie, just getting up and doing what needed to be done?
She glanced back at the fairy court, then stood rooted in place, watching in horror as the queen had the fat little man standing by the twins shot by one of her footmen. He notched another arrow and aimed it at Grace.
Her protective instincts sent a surge of adrenaline through her and she could move again. There was no time to worry if Adie was in position or not. Now was the time for the diversion. But while she was trying to decide between running around shrieking like a madwoman, or picking up a stick and attacking her captors, someone else provided the diversion for her.
Wide-eyed, she watched Sarah Jane, Laurel and Bess come dancing into the glade, paying no attention to the gathering of bee fairies.
8
Sarah Jane
I felt like a guerrilla soldier as we made our way to where the bee fairy court was holding my sisters captive. Li’l Pater led the way— something which didn’t particularly thrill me, but both the Apple Tree Man and the ‘sangmen deferred to him in this, explaining that moving between the worlds could be tricky. The Apple Tree Man only went back and forth through his tree, while the ‘sangmen usually only crossed in between their ‘sang patches in either world. So without someone like Li’l Pater, we could end up miles from where we needed to be, or at a disadvantage as we all tried to sneak out of the Apple Tree Man’s tree without being seen.
Li’l Pater brought us out of the fairies’ world and back into our own right in the woods just above Aunt Lillian’s orchard. At one point he held up a hand for us all to stop while he crept ahead. When he finally waved at us to come along, I spied one of the bee fairies unconscious behind a tree, trussed up with grass ropes. It seemed he was a little fiercer than you’d think from the little size of him. And then I saw the bee court and my sisters below and realized he’d played us fair in this as well.
“I guess I misjudged you,” I told him.
He was pretty gracious about it, except for the little smirk in one corner of his mouth.
“Oh, that’s all right,” he said. “I know that’s just the way you big folks are.”
“Yes, well, it’s not like we—”
“You’ll be careful,” Aunt Lillian said, crouching beside us.
I nodded, wondering if she’d interrupted to stop me and Li’l Pater from getting into another argument. Probably. Not much got past Aunt Lillian. And while I was trying my best not to get started again, Li’l Pater didn’t make it easy and I could feel it happening all the same.
I turned from them to stare out at the bee fairies. I guess they were more like the way I’d always pictured fairies in my head—sort of special and scary, all at the same time. Instead of being all rooty and earthy like the ‘sangmen, the
y were bright and shining, sharp-featured and tall. Some rode horses and they had a pack of lean dogs that had Root penned up against the Apple Tree Man’s tree. Root wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was just staring at that tree—waiting for us to come back out again, I guess.
Looking back at the fairy court, I picked out the red heads of my sisters. Grace and Ruth were easy to spot—they looked like they’d just been brought in and were the center of everybody’s attention. It took me a little longer to find Elsie, way over by a tree. I couldn’t find Adie and my heart started beating too quick. I had to hope she was just lying down in the grass, out of sight.
While I was studying the fairy court, the ‘sangmen slipped away from us, taking up positions all along the edge of the woods close to where we’d arrived. They carried stout cudgels and spears, knives and short bows with arrows made of some kind of dark wood and fletched with what looked like owl feathers. The ‘sangmen were supposed to be our backup in case the Apple Tree Man’s plan didn’t work out. Seeing the size of the bee court, I was surely hoping it wouldn’t come to a fight. There were way too many of the bee fairies for my liking.
Taking a steadying breath, I turned to the twins.
“Remember,” I warned them as we were about to leave our hidey-hole on the edge of the meadow. “No matter what happens, not a word.”
Bess mimed a zipper closing from one corner of her mouth to the other.
“Our lips are sealed,” she said.
Laurel grinned. “Good one. The Go-Go’s, right?”
“ ‘Fraid so. I know they’re completely passe.”
“Nope, they’re doing a reunion tour, remember?”
“I always liked the Bangles better.”
“This is serious,” I told them.
“We know that, Janey,” Bess said, putting her hand on my arm. “But we’re scared and this is the only way we know how to deal with it.”
“Hey,” Laurel asked the Apple Tree Man. “Is it okay if we hum while we’re doing this?”
“I don’t see why not,” he told them.