I shut my mouth again and listened.
“You have to go to the portal, but one of you needs to be on each side of the divide for it to work. Daisy here, Philippa back on Earth. Then you —”
“I get to go back to Earth?” I broke in. “Really?”
“You have to approach the hole in time from both sides of the divide at the same time — one from the human world and one from the fairy side,” Chara said. “It’s the only way.”
“But — I mean, that’s great!” I said. “I can go back to Earth!”
Alya shifted awkwardly in her seat.
“What?” I asked.
“Philippa, you realize that you are going back to Earth for one reason only: to get through the hole in time, fetch the stone fairy, and bring her back to her place in the portal.”
“I know, but . . .”
My voice trailed away. Again, those horrible images came into my head. Set against the kind of things EDD had predicted, my personal traumas seemed petty, and saying out loud how much I wanted to see my parents and Robyn would only sound selfish.
Alya smiled. “At the end of all this, you can go back to Earth for good. For now you have a job to do. But if we’re right about all of this, it should go smoothly. Now that we’ve found you, we can all relax a bit.”
Relax a bit? Did she really just say that? They were about to send Daisy and me on a mission where we could end up being stuck forever in a place where time had frozen, while the world turned into a big desert, and she was talking about relaxing?
Alya must have read my thoughts because she quickly went on. “Obviously, when I say ‘relax,’ I don’t mean it in the traditional sense. But it should be straightforward enough. All you have to do is get through the hole, grab the stone fairy, and bring her back. She should be waiting for you on the other side, in her stone form, a piece of amber.”
“What makes you so sure of this?” I asked.
“We’ve tried to contact her via her MagiCell, but haven’t managed to get through. We’re fairly sure this means that she hasn’t transformed.” Alya shuffled uncomfortably.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Daisy asked.
“We’re not positive about this,” Alya said. “It could mean that it’s impossible to make MagiCell contact within the hole in time.”
“We have never had the occasion to try it before,” Chara added. “That’s why we need you. But remember — she’s a fairy godmother, and she has an important job, so we can safely assume that she will be waiting to get back to it.”
“But what if she isn’t?” I asked. “I mean, we still don’t know how she got there. If someone stole her, they won’t want her to be returned or maybe they’ve taken her somewhere else.” A shiver of fear slithered through me as I imagined armed gangs on the other side, refusing to give us the stone fairy and willing to fight us for her.
“You’re right,” Alya said calmly. “We don’t know how she got there. And yes, we must assume that somebody stole her.”
“So what about them — the person, or people, who took her?” I asked. “Do we leave them there?”
“Our concern is the stone fairy,” Alya replied. “She will be waiting for you on the other side of the hole, and you must bring her back. But if you find the thief, he or she should be brought back too. If necessary, the thief will be punished.”
“Punished?” I asked. “What kind of punishment?”
“We will determine that at the time, when we know all the circumstances,” Chara said. “You don’t need to worry about that now. All you need to do is hold the stone fairy in between the two of you — and the thief, if appropriate — and bring them back through the hole in time with you.”
I let out a breath. This really wasn’t the kind of thing you imagined getting caught up in when you went to visit your friend for a relaxing vacation. My friend, Robyn — who knew nothing about any of this — was probably down there on Earth worried sick about us both.
“I want to see my parents and Robyn,” I said.
“There’s no time,” Alya said. “You have to go through the hole at the exact same time of day that it first opened up.”
“What time was that?” I asked.
“Four minutes and seventeen seconds past five in the evening,” Alya replied.
Wow, she wasn’t joking when she said exact. I checked my watch. “We’ve got four hours,” I said.
“We have to get you both prepared, make all the necessary arrangements. It simply can’t be —”
“I at least need to see Robyn,” I said. “She’s in this with us. I’m not going to just abandon her — especially if there’s a chance that I’m never coming back from this!”
The fairies exchanged a glance. “Philippa, this isn’t good-bye. It will all be fine,” Chara said.
“You can’t guarantee that,” I said. “Please.”
Alya let out a breath and shook her head. “OK. Here’s how it’ll work,” she said. “You can see Robyn on two conditions.”
“What are the conditions?”
“One, you have to be quick. You see her, say what you have to say, and then come straight to the portal to begin the assignment.”
“OK,” I said. “What’s the other?”
“Under no circumstances do you tell her anything about what you’re doing for us. This assignment must be kept absolutely between us. It has been given the highest level of confidentiality.”
“Why?” Daisy asked.
“Can you imagine what would happen if word got out?” Chara said. “The panic at ATC alone could destroy everything, never mind if anyone on Earth heard about it. The rumors would be devastating. So you can see your friend for a few minutes, but not a word about your assignment. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” I said.
“Good. And when this is all over,” Chara went on, “you will be returned to Earth and can get back to your normal life.”
And then, before I even had the chance to jump in the air and scream “Woohoo,” we were dismissed.
“Go, now,” Chara said. “Our assistants will help you prepare for your assignment. And girls — be careful.”
“We will,” Daisy said. “You can trust us.”
“We know that,” Alya said with a smile. “It’s why we chose you.”
What was that?
I was in my bedroom, sitting beside the radiator on my beanbag chair reading a magazine when something hit the window behind me.
I jumped up and looked out the window. Nothing there. I snuggled back into the beanbag and had just started reading my magazine again when I heard it once more.
Tap.
Something was hitting the window. I got up and peered outside again, looking all over to see what it was. That was when I saw her. She was hiding behind a row of garbage cans across the road. Philippa!
Or was it Daisy, transformed as Philippa? Either way, she was beckoning me to come outside.
I ran down the stairs and through the shop. “Just going out for a minute,” I said to Dad, and was out of the door before he had a chance to reply.
“Daisy?” I said uncertainly as I crept around the back of the cans.
She stepped out and grinned at me. “It’s me — Philippa!” she said.
“Philippa! It’s actually, really you?”
She laughed. “Yes, it’s me!”
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “I’m so glad to see you!” I glanced around at the trash cans in the alley. “Why here?” I asked. “Why didn’t you just come in?”
“I can’t let anyone else see me. I don’t have very long,” she said. “I begged them to let me see you before —” She stopped and blushed.
“Before what?” I asked.
Philippa shook her head. “I can’t tell you. It’s one of the conditions of ATC letting me see you. I wanted to know how you’re doing.”
“How are you doing?” I asked. “And Daisy. Is she OK? Did she get into terrible trouble? Have they found you out yet? How come
you’re here, anyway?”
Philippa laughed. “Too many questions. I haven’t got time to answer them all now.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, can I at least ask where you’re going?”
Philippa looked at me seriously. “Listen, I’ve just got to do something with Daisy, but it’ll all be over by tonight.”
I bit my tongue to stop asking more questions. They were only stupid, jealous questions anyway. Like whether she preferred doing things with Daisy, and if Daisy was more fun, being a fairy godsister and all that. How could I ever compete with her?
“I can’t wait to celebrate New Year’s with you tonight,” Philippa said, reading my mind so perfectly that I felt instantly guilty for all my silly worries. “No matter what happens, I’ll be back in time for the fireworks.”
“Promise?” I asked.
“Promise,” Philippa said, although the way she wouldn’t meet my eyes made me wonder how sure she was that she’d get back safely from whatever she had to do. “All you need to know is that I’m OK, Daisy’s OK, no one’s been punished, and as long as everything goes according to plan, life will be back to normal again by tonight.”
I smiled. “OK,” I said, forcing myself not to focus on the “as long as everything goes according to plan” part.
Philippa glanced at her watch. “Listen, I have to go,” she said.
“Is there any way I can keep in touch with you?” I asked. “Any way of sending me a message, just to let me know you’re OK?”
Philippa shook her head. But then she stopped. “Wait!” She reached into her pocket. “Take this.”
She handed me something that looked kind of like a cell phone. “Is that a phone?” I asked. “But I’ve already got —”
“It’s not a normal phone; it’s a MagiCell,” she said. “They gave it to me at ALD.”
“They what?”
Philippa shook her head. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Just keep it. We’ll have Daisy’s. I don’t know if it’ll work on the other —” She stopped and clapped a hand over her mouth. “In the place we’re going,” she said quietly. “But if it does, we’ll try to contact you.”
I held the MagiCell tightly in my hand. “I won’t let it out of my sight,” I said.
Philippa smiled. “Good. We’ll contact you if we can,” she said. “I’d better go. See you later.”
“Yeah, see you later,” I replied. And only when she’d run to the end of the street and rounded the corner did I whisper, “Good luck.”
It was nearly five o’clock. I made my way to the stone circle, making sure to follow the path. I couldn’t risk any mistakes at this stage!
By this time, the light of day had all but gone — the colors were shutting down, replaced by various combinations of gray.
At the right moment, I had to stand in the center of the circle and turn around three times.
I looked around to make sure no one else was here. Thankfully, the place was deserted. I checked my watch. Three minutes past five. I waited in the center of the circle. Four minutes past. My heart thudded hard in my chest. Ten seconds, fifteen, seventeen. This was it. I stretched out my arms and turned slowly around, praying that Daisy was doing exactly the same on the other side.
Around once, around twice. A third time, and then —
The stone circle disappeared. I was enveloped in a pitch-black void. There was nothing here — nothing in the whole of space except me, spinning slowly around, waiting for something to come and take me to the place of frozen time.
Daisy! Daisy! Where are you?
Something was emerging out of the darkness.
“Daisy?” I called uncertainly.
The something emerged into a person. It was her!
“Philippa! You made it!” she said, smiling at me across the darkness.
“So did you!” I said, letting out a huge breath of relief.
“You ready?” she asked.
“I think so.”
“Come on, let’s go,” she said.
I held out my arms and crossed them over, as High Command had told us. Daisy did the same, and we took hold of each other’s hands.
“OK?” Daisy asked. I went over the rhyme in my head. The one the fairies had told us to memorize — the one that would only work if our bond was strong enough. This was the point where we would find out the true value of our friendship.
I nodded, and we recited the rhyme together.
“Cross your arms and link your hands
And say aloud this rhyme.
Then travel through the portal
To the place of frozen time.”
We finished the rhyme and looked at each other. And then, a moment later, I looked up and saw a streak of light heading toward us like a dart. The light flew right at us, hitting us both and lighting up a bright white circle that enclosed us.
It had worked!
The circle turned from white into every color you could imagine, until it felt as if we were in the center of a circular rainbow.
I turned around, staring at the colors dancing and popping around us, spinning and growing from the rainbow’s circle into a ball, enveloping us almost completely. It felt as though the colors were spinning a web — with us enclosed on the inside.
The colors kept growing and extending and multiplying until — suddenly — they stopped. They had joined at every point. We were completely contained in a dancing, flashing ball of colors.
I had to shield my eyes from the brightness. “Is this supposed to happen?” I asked nervously.
“I imagine so,” Daisy replied. Then she pointed behind me. “Look!” She gasped.
I turned around. Among the dancing lights and colors, a tiny black hole was opening up. It started about as large as my eye, but grew and grew until it was the size of a basketball.
“That’s it,” Daisy said, pulling me over to the hole. “We have to go through there.”
The hole was probably just big enough to crawl though. I suddenly remembered I’d always been a little afraid of small spaces. It didn’t seem like a good time to mention this to Daisy, so I did the only thing I could do. I took the biggest breath I could — and followed her into the hole.
We crawled along the tunnel for a few minutes, and then it started going upward, getting steeper and steeper, until eventually we had to grip the sides and pull ourselves on.
“Daisy, look!” I pointed above us. There was a grayish light ahead. Only slightly lighter than the blackness of the hole, but it looked different.
We clambered and heaved and pulled ourselves up higher and higher until, finally, the grayish light was directly above us. Daisy was ahead of me. She dragged herself up through the top of the hole and reached down to help me through. I held on to her hand and pulled myself up. The second I was through it, the hole started to shrink. Smaller and smaller, down to the size of a quarter, a penny, a dot. And then it disappeared altogether. It was as though it had never been there.
Standing next to Daisy, I tore my eyes away from the ground and looked around. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
“The stone circle,” Daisy breathed.
“On the evening the stone fairy disappeared,” I added. The sky was gray, just as it had been when I left, the fading light of a winter’s afternoon. I looked at my watch. It had frozen on the time I’d come through the hole. From now on, only Daisy’s MagiCell would give us the right time. Here, it would be just after five o’clock all day.
I looked into the sky and gasped. “Daisy, look,” I said in a whisper, pointing at a bird that was hovering absolutely stock-still, directly above us. It had stopped in the middle of flapping its wings upward.
“Whoa, that is weird,” Daisy said. The more I looked around, the more birds I saw, caught like a photograph, midflight.
It was eerie. There was no movement at all. No wind. No sounds. Everything was completely, utterly, totally still.
“Frozen solid, all of it,” I said. “At least we know we’re in the righ
t place!”
Daisy nodded and looked around. “Now all we need to do is find the stone fairy.”
We walked around the stone circle, assuming she would be somewhere just on the outside of it, like the High Command fairies had told us. They’d said she should still be in stone form as a piece of amber. But there was a small possibility she could have transformed. If so, she could be anything! All we knew for sure was that the stone fairy would be the only thing around here that wasn’t frozen in time.
Well, the stone fairy and whoever had stolen her.
I shuddered and walked around the circle again.
“She’s not here,” I said as I met up with Daisy on the other side.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “But that’s . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“That’s what?” I asked, but Daisy just shook her head.
“Should we look farther afield?” I asked, glancing at the miles and miles of forest surrounding us and wondering where on earth to start.
Daisy was pressing buttons on her MagiCell. “Give me a minute,” she said. “I’ve had a thought.”
I waited a minute while Daisy pressed more buttons. “I don’t understand,” she said. “It should be working.”
“Daisy, what are you trying to do?” I asked.
She turned to me. “Look, all fairies have MagiCells for their assignments, right?”
“Right,” I agreed.
“When you’re in Nature Mode it doesn’t materialize with you.”
“Nature Mode?” I asked.
“You know. The form that you take for your assignment. Like I was a daisy when I gave you three wishes, and then I was a butterfly when I was working with Dream Delivery Department. I only had my MagiCell when I transformed back to a fairy or a human.”
“OK,” I said. “So when the stone fairy is a piece of amber, she won’t have her MagiCell, but if she transformed when she got here, she should have it?”