They drove past the church and the closed gas station, then made a right onto Maple Street. Down the windy road they sped, leaving the town behind.
Pearl remembered the first time she and Ben walked the tree-lined street together, carrying a dragon hatchling in a cookie tin. Ever since, they’d walked there on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Those had been some of the best mornings of her life.
As the hospital came into view, a large shadow passed overhead. Metalmouth soared gracefully over the lawn, then landed on the hospital’s roof.
“The gate’s open,” Ben said with surprise. It was never open. Mr. Tabby kept it secured with a padlock, and he was the only one who carried the key. “Did you forget to close it?” Ben asked. He’d gotten in trouble for not locking the hospital’s front door.
“I do not forget such things,” Mr. Tabby said with a low growl. “I left it open as a time-saving measure.”
Pearl wondered if this was true. Perhaps the doctor’s assistant wasn’t as perfect as he appeared.
Mr. Tabby drove up the gravel driveway and stopped abruptly in front of the entrance. They all scrambled out. While Ben unwound the vacuum hose, Mr. Tabby started inching it up the hospital’s exterior wall, past the second, third, and fourth floors. Then past the fifth. “Wait,” Ben said. “Don’t you want to put them in the Fairy Lounge?”
“They are going to the tenth floor,” Mr. Tabby said. “The rest of the fairies are waiting there.”
“To the Portal?” Pearl was confused. “You’re going to send them back? But how can you do that if Maximus is still in the Imaginary World? Won’t he try to capture them? Doesn’t he need their dust?”
Mr. Tabby ignored her questions. He stood on the tiptoes of his polished shoes, stretching his entire body as he continued to push the vacuum hose higher and higher. Pearl climbed onto the tailgate. The fairies seemed wobbly, but they’d survived the crazy drive. When the hose reached the tenth floor, a window opened and a pair of furry hands emerged and grabbed the hose, pulling the nozzle inside.
“Now,” Mr. Tabby told Pearl. She pressed the relocation button.
The Vacuumator’s engine hummed, and then a whoosh sounded. The fairies swirled into a clump and were sucked out of the canister. In a matter of moments, the clump made its way up the tube and through the tenth-floor window. Mission accomplished! A furry hand reached out and waved. The vacuum tube tumbled to the ground.
Pearl pressed the off button. She threw her arms around Ben. “We did it!” she said. “We saved the fairies!”
“I’m so glad Mr. Tabby knows how to drive,” Ben said with a grin. But the joyful moment burst like a bubble as a police siren rose in the distance. “Uh-oh. I wonder if your aunt is looking for a stolen truck. Or a dragon. Or both!”
“Follow me,” Mr. Tabby instructed. He didn’t bother to move the truck or lock the front gate. Nor did he bother to bolt the hospital’s front door after they’d all run inside.
Why is he forgetting all his rules? Pearl wondered as Mr. Tabby led them straight to the back stairwell. A bad feeling took hold of Pearl. Something big was about to happen. Ben frowned, looking equally worried as they followed Mr. Tabby to the tenth floor.
And when they stepped into the Portal room, the very thing Pearl was worried about—the worst thing that could possibly happen that summer—came true.
17
The tenth floor was usually empty, with just a switchboard on the far wall and a switchboard operator sitting on a stool. But when Pearl and Ben entered, they found the room crowded with boxes, crates, and a huge pile of suitcases. Dr. Woo’s massive carved desk was there, too, and Metalmouth’s metal nest. Pearl began to fidget. When Dr. Woo traveled to the Imaginary World, she took her medical satchel, nothing more. Why had all this stuff been brought upstairs?
And why was the room full of so many familiar faces? Aside from the fairies, who sat in the fairy trap, eating jelly beans, both Violet and Vinny were there. They stood next to the switchboard, sharing a bag of oats. The sasquatch was there, busily arranging suitcases into matching color stacks.
But most of the room was taken up by Metalmouth, who’d squeezed through a window and was bouncing his tennis ball. “Hiya, Pearl! Hiya, Ben!”
“Hello, little daaaaarlings,” Violet said with a wave. Vinny snorted. The sasquatch stuck a suitcase on its head.
“Hi,” Ben said.
Pearl could barely speak. She walked across the glittery floor and stopped next to a large red suitcase. A tag hung from its handle: PROPERTY OF EMERALD WOO. A big suitcase was only necessary if someone was planning a long trip. Pearl swallowed hard. When she managed to find her voice, it was small and breathy. “Dr. Woo’s…leaving?”
“Yes,” Mr. Tabby said. “Dr. Woo is leaving Buttonville.”
“What?” Ben’s voice cracked. “You can’t be serious.”
“We’re all leaving,” Metalmouth said. “It’s because of that bad guy, Maximus Steele. He’s the reason we have to move again!” He bellowed so loudly a flame shot from his mouth and singed the nearby wall. The fairies shrieked, then went back to munching jelly beans.
“Calm dooooown,” Violet said. Her hooves clacked as she waddled across the floor. She patted the dragon’s front paw. “I know you’re tired of moving, sweetie, but we have no other choice. We’ve got to close this Portal location right quiiiiick.”
“Right quiiiiick,” Vinny echoed, his mouth full of half-chewed oats.
“Why do you have to close it?” Ben asked. He looked anxiously at Mr. Tabby, as did Pearl. Would the grumpy assistant ignore the question?
To their surprise, Mr. Tabby cleared his throat, then offered an explanation. “Dr. Woo possesses the only legal contract to operate the Portal. Thus, the Portal can deliver the doctor and her guests to any place in the Imaginary World. However, it only returns to one location in the Known World, and that location is wherever Dr. Woo lives. Which, at the moment, is Buttonville.”
“We used to live in Iceland,” Metalmouth said. “I liked it up there. Lots of warm, steamy volcanoes.” The sasquatch grunted, as if in agreement, then began to make a new stack of brown suitcases.
“I don’t miss it,” Violet said. “Those lava rocks were hard on my hoooooves.” She hurried back to her brother’s side and began eating oats again.
Frustration filled Pearl, from the tips of her leprechaun shoes to the top of her blond head. She wanted to grab all the suitcases and throw them out the window. She’d do anything to keep Dr. Woo from moving. “I still don’t get it,” she said. “Why does Dr. Woo have to leave Buttonville? If this is about Mrs. Mulberry and Victoria and Bug Guy seeing Metalmouth, we can fix that. Ben will come up with a good cover story. Right, Ben?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll tell them the dragon is a robot that escaped from a Hollywood movie set.”
Pearl smiled. “That’s a good one. They’ll believe him. See, you don’t have to leave.”
Mr. Tabby smoothed the ends of his mustache. “This has nothing to do with Metalmouth’s game of fetch on Main Street. Do try to follow along so we can eliminate any unnecessary questions.” He waited for their full attention, then proceeded. “In order to protect the Imaginary World, Dr. Woo must keep a low profile. There are always loathsome individuals who would take advantage of the Portal, most especially—”
“Maximus Steeeeele,” Vinny and Violet bleated.
“He followed us from Iceland,” Metalmouth said. “He’s super sneaky.”
Mr. Tabby growled softly. “Indeed, Steele is a hunter with superb tracking skills. And though he does not possess leprechaun shoes, he has trained himself to walk without detection. Soon after we moved to this abandoned factory, he crept inside, stole a vial of fairy dust, and summoned the Portal. It was enough dust for a one-way trip. He’s been in the Imaginary World ever since.”
“It’s Vinny’s faaaaault,” Violet said. She punched her brother in the shoulder. “He took a snack break.”
“My f
ault?” Vinny shrugged. “I got hungry. So sue meeeee.”
Violet yanked the bag of oats from his hand. “You’re always taking snack breaks. You’re supposed to watch the Portal at niiiiight!” She lowered her head and butted him with her horns.
“You take snack breaks, tooooo!” He lowered his head and was about to butt her back when a voice interrupted.
“Vinny is not to blame.” All eyes turned to the door as Dr. Woo entered. She set a crate and an empty birdcage on the floor. “The Portal is my responsibility, and I must make things right.” She looked at Pearl and Ben. “Will you give me a hand?” She wedged the door open with a small piece of wood. The apprentices followed her to the stairwell, which was crowded with all the stuff from her office. While Pearl wheeled a skeleton of a two-headed serpent, Ben carried a stack of boxes into the Portal room. Mr. Tabby grabbed the last few items.
“And the rest of the hospital?” Dr. Woo asked Mr. Tabby, wiping dirt from her lab coat.
“All taken care of,” he told her.
“Excellent,” she said. She smiled at Pearl and Ben. “I assume you two are feeling a bit surprised and confused.” They nodded. “I had hoped to stay much longer. Buttonville is such a nice little town. And you’ve turned out to be better apprentices than I’d ever expected.” Her smile faded. “But my time here has come to an end. Max will be arriving soon, and when he does, I will close this Portal location forever.”
Pearl groaned. “Forever?”
“Wait…” Ben furrowed his brow. “Maximus Steele is coming here?”
“Yes,” Dr. Woo said calmly.
“When?” Ben asked.
Mr. Tabby glanced at his pocket watch. “He could arrive at any moment.”
Metalmouth tried to hide his face under his paws. “I don’t like waiting. Tell me when it’s over.”
“But how can he get here?” Ben asked. “He doesn’t have any fairy dust.”
At that moment, Pearl realized that someone was missing. “Twanabeth,” she said. She hurried to the fairy trap and peered inside. Some of the fairies were fast asleep, while others were still eating. But a crown-wearing, green-haired fairy was nowhere to be seen. “You sent her back?”
“Yes,” Dr. Woo said. “You see, being stuck on a roof with no ladder is okay for my enemy, but it is terrible for me. If the fairies continue to stay here in the Known World, they cannot make magical fairy dust, and I have a limited supply, which will soon run out. If the fairies cannot replenish the dust, I cannot travel freely to help the creatures. My work will end, and many will suffer. And the fairies would be trapped here forever. And so, we must lure Max off the roof.”
“You mean you’ve got to get him out of the Imaginary World?” Ben asked. “But how?”
Mr. Tabby’s irises flashed. “The best way to catch a rat is with cheese.”
“Cheese is goooood,” Vinny bleated. With his sister still hogging the bag of oats, he’d begun to chew on an old shoe.
“Cheese?” Pearl asked. This plan was getting more confusing by the second. “But what does Twanabeth have to do with cheese?”
“What Mr. Tabby means is that we needed bait. Which is why I sent Twanabeth to find Max. She is carrying a message for him.” Dr. Woo sat on a crate. Sensing a story was about to be told, Pearl and Ben gathered closer. “A few days ago, Mr. Tabby, Metalmouth, and I flew back to Iceland. I’d left a few things behind that I needed to retrieve. One of those items was a photo that I’d taken years ago of the reclusive Nemean lion.”
“He was scary,” Metalmouth said. “He bit off the doctor’s finger!”
Dr. Woo held up her hand. “Yes, he did bite my finger. He thought that I’d come to hurt him.”
“But you’d never hurt anything,” Pearl said softly.
“The lion was acting on instinct when he bit and scratched me.” She pointed to the scars on her face and neck. “The claws of a Nemean lion are sharper than a sword and can cut through armor. Its golden fur is impervious to attack. I wouldn’t have gone near him, but Max forced the encounter.” Her sigh was long and weary, as if the memory brought great sadness.
Pearl tried to breathe as quietly as possible, not wanting to miss a single word. Ben held perfectly still. Violet and Vinny stopped chewing. Metalmouth’s and Mr. Tabby’s ears perked up. The sasquatch stopped stacking, and the fairies pressed against the side of the fairy trap, waiting for the story to continue.
“Max and I were working as apprentices to my grandmother Diamond Woo. We had just finished delivering cold medicine to a leprechaun family when Max disappeared without a trace. We were worried, of course. He’d never taken off before, and we had no idea what had happened to him. Days later, a call came in that the Nemean lion was in trouble. Grandmother and I found the lion in a trap, with Max trying to take one of its claws. Grandmother attempted to reason with Max, but his mind was poisoned with greed. Fortunately, Vinny arrived in the Portal and wrestled Max to the ground. Trying to help, I opened the trap. The lion lashed out at me.” She looked at her hand. “That was one of the last times Max worked as our apprentice.”
“So the photo of the lion is going to be some kind of bait?” Ben asked. “I don’t get it.”
“The lion represents a huge loss to Max. It was a creature that I took from him. And he has never forgotten. Now I’ve taken something else that he wants—the fairies. I wrote a message on the back of the photo. It says, ‘You can’t have them.’ He will not be able to resist such a challenge. Twanabeth will allow herself to be caught. She will shed enough fairy dust for Maximus to summon the Portal.”
Dr. Woo stood, her voice growing louder as she made the following proclamation. “Maximus Steele will come here ready for a hunt, but we will become the hunters. We will defeat him once and for all, and when we do, his days in the Imaginary World will be over!”
18
Dr. Woo had masterminded a four-pronged attack to defeat Maximus Steele.
Prong One: Fairy Strike. As soon as Maximus stepped out of the Portal, Dr. Woo would release the fairies, and they would distract him with fairy bites. Before her departure, Twanabeth had ordered her fairies to help the doctor. They had agreed.
Prong Two: Dragon Pounce. Once Maximus was distracted, Metalmouth would spring into the air and capture the hunter in his big paws.
“I don’t wanna do that,” Metalmouth grumbled, scooting back into a corner.
“Your pacifist tendencies are admirable,” Mr. Tabby said. “But, for once, we need you to act like a dragon. Muster some of the ferocity that pulses through the veins of your species.”
“I don’t wanna pulse,” Metalmouth said.
“Why not think of it as a game of fetch?” Ben suggested. “Pretend that Maximus is a big yellow tennis ball.”
Metalmouth’s tail thumped. “Oh boy, oh boy, I’m gonna play fetch.”
Dr. Woo patted Ben’s shoulder. “Wise suggestion,” she said.
Prong Three: Net Toss. Mr. Tabby riffled through a crate, then removed a Sasquatch Catching Kit. Upon seeing the kit, the sasquatch grunted unhappily and hid behind Metalmouth.
“It is not for you,” Mr. Tabby said as he opened the kit and pulled out a net. “Once Metalmouth has pounced on Maximus, Vinny and Violet will throw this over his head. I will secure the ends so Maximus can’t escape.” He handed the net to Vinny.
Then came the supersad part. The plan ended with Dr. Woo, Vinny, Violet, Metalmouth, the sasquatch, and the fairies escaping into the Portal.
That left Pearl, Ben, and Mr. Tabby to deal with Prong Four: Maximus Removal.
“You want us to remove him?” Ben scratched his head. “How are we supposed to do that?”
This part of the plan was worrisome to Pearl. Maximus was a muscular guy, and the last time they’d seen him, he’d carried a big knife. “I could call my aunt Milly. She could take him to jail.”
“I appreciate your offer,” Dr. Woo said. “But, unfortunately, Max hasn’t broken any laws in the Known World.” She took Pearl’s
hand. For someone about to face her enemy, her skin was surprisingly cool. “You and Ben do not have to assist with this plan. You have already been an enormous help by capturing the fairies. If you’d like to go home and avoid this unpleasant situation, please do so with my blessing.”
“No way,” Pearl said with a stomp of her foot. “I’d never go home, not now. This is important, and I want to help.”
“Me too,” Ben said. Pearl hadn’t needed to nudge or encourage him. His expression was resolute. “We’re staying.”
“Very well,” Dr. Woo said, releasing Pearl’s hand. “Then help you shall.”
Pearl grinned proudly. They were a team. No doubt about it.
“Maximus Removal will proceed as follows.” Mr. Tabby began to pace. “Once Maximus is netted, the apprentices and I will carry him from the building. We will deposit him on the front lawn and release the net, and where he goes after that is none of our concern. Good riddance, I say.”
“He better not stay in Buttonville,” Pearl said.
“As long as I am not here, he will not stay,” Dr. Woo assured her.
“But, Mr. Tabby? How come you’re not escaping into the Imaginary World with the others? Is it because you’ll turn into a cat?” Ben asked.
“I will remain in the Known World to search for a new location,” Mr. Tabby explained. “I need to find a home for Dr. Woo so she can continue her important work.”
“Only Imaginary creatures are allowed to live in the Imaginary World,” Dr. Woo said. “Imaginary creatures exist under different laws of time and physics. I can visit for a while, but if I stayed there long-term, the effects on my human body would be detrimental. Likewise, Maximus can only stay there temporarily. It is another reason why he needs fairy dust.”