by Liz Kessler
“OK, left at the next junction, then around this bend, and then —” I looked up from the postcard. “That’s it!”
We’d done it! We’d found the fairy garden in the middle of the maze.
“Wow,” Tommy said, turning around to survey the fairy garden. “Look at it!”
A perfect green lawn with trees dotted all over it, a row of tiny stone cottages, with some steps made from logs leading up a hill — all in miniature! A river ran through the middle of it all, with a stone bridge across it. Here and there, little doors formed entrances into the hill. And hidden in nooks and crannies all over the place were little fairies!
One of them was sitting on a swing looped over a tree’s branch. Another sat at the water’s edge just below the bridge. The more I looked, the more of them I saw. They were absolutely everywhere!
“We haven’t got time to look around,” Daisy said. “We need to find Amber.”
A second later, Tommy gasped and clapped a hand over his mouth. He pulled at my sleeve. “Philippa, come with me,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Then he whispered out of the other corner, “Daisy, come on. Don’t say anything, and don’t make it obvious.”
He walked a few steps away from the fairy garden, in an exaggerated impression of someone trying to look casual. Daisy and I followed, giving each other any-idea-what-this-is-about looks.
Tommy leaned in toward us. “She’s here,” he whispered.
“What?” Daisy nearly shouted. “How do you know?”
“Shh, don’t give it away!” he stage-whispered back at her.
“Which one is she?” I asked, turning around to look again.
“Don’t make it obvious!” Tommy hissed. “She clearly doesn’t want us to find her, or she wouldn’t be trying to disguise herself as one of these. She’s halfway up the hill behind the bridge.”
I pretended to scratch my neck and turned around so I could see where he meant. “The one with long hair?”
“Yes. The only one who looks as though she’s paused in the middle of trying to get somewhere.”
Now that he mentioned it, I could see what he meant. She did look as though she was midpace, and all the others seemed to be either sitting or leaning against something.
Daisy looked across too. “That’s not really enough to prove she’s —”
“And the fact that she’s a bit bigger than the others,” Tommy went on.
Daisy snorted. “Hardly! And that’s not exactly —”
“And the fact that I’ve already seen her, remember! When she flew out of my hand?”
I stared at Tommy, mouth open. Daisy did one quick double take from Tommy to the fairy and back again. “You’re absolutely sure?” she asked.
“Positive,” Tommy said seriously.
“Right,” she said. And with that, she stomped right up to the fairy before I’d even had a chance to close my mouth.
Daisy grabbed the fairy and lifted it up. “It’s you, isn’t it?” she said.
The fairy didn’t reply. It didn’t move.
Daisy shook the fairy. “Tell me!” she shouted at it, holding it tightly in her hand. “You’re the stone fairy, aren’t you? Not a stone fairy like these ones — you’re the stone fairy. Aren’t you?”
The fairy still didn’t move. I was beginning to think Tommy had gotten it all wrong. “Daisy, are you sure —”
“Answer me!” Daisy squeezed the fairy harder — and then, all of a sudden, the fairy made a sound. She let out a breath! It was her!
The fairy gasped for breath. “You’re hurting me!” she said. “You’re holding me too tight!”
“I’m not letting go till you admit it,” Daisy said. “Answer my question. Are you Amber?”
The fairy stared up at Daisy for a silent few moments. Then, finally, she lowered her eyes. “Yes,” she said in a voice so quiet, we might have missed it if it wasn’t so still and silent all around us. “I’m the one you’re looking for. I’m the stone fairy.”
“What were you doing?” Daisy shouted at the fairy. “Why were you hiding like that?”
The fairy lowered her head. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Look, please just let me down, and I’ll tell you.”
“No chance.”
“Please. I promise I won’t run away.”
“Daisy, put her on the ground,” I said. “She can’t get very far with all three of us watching her every move.”
Daisy opened her hand. “If you even try —”
“I won’t,” she said firmly.
Daisy glared at her for a moment, then set her back down on the ground.
The fairy shook herself, then looked around at all three of us. “So you know who I am?” she asked.
“You’re Amber,” I replied.
“The stone fairy,” Tommy added.
She nodded. “And I’m guessing you’ve come to take me back to the stone circle, so I can get back to my job.”
“That’s right,” Daisy said, glancing at her MagiCell. “And we need to get a move on. We’ve got just over an hour to get back!”
“Right,” Amber said. “Well, in that case, I’d better tell you something important.”
“Amber, tell us quickly,” I begged. I was getting so impatient, my teeth were starting to itch!
“Very well.” She pressed her lips together and rubbed her chin. Then she nodded, as though making an agreement with herself. “Here’s the thing,” she said. “I’m not going back.”
“You’re not going back?” Daisy yelled in a high-pitched screech. “What do you mean, you’re not going back? You most definitely are going back, if I have to drag you there my —”
“Daisy, wait.” I put a hand on her arm. I’d never seen her like this. Even when we first met and I accidentally threw her out of the window, she wasn’t as angry as this. “Let Amber tell us the full story.”
“The full story?” Daisy snapped. “We haven’t got time to hear her story!”
“I’d say we haven’t got time not to hear it,” Tommy said. “It doesn’t look like she’s going to do what you say if we don’t.”
“You should listen to your friends,” Amber said to Daisy. “They’re talking sense. You could drag me back to the stone circle, but you cannot return me to my work without my agreement.”
Daisy’s face was scarlet. “Go on, then,” she said between tight lips. “But talk quickly.”
Amber nodded. “In the fairy godmother world, we are used to making sacrifices. It is part of the job, and we all accept that. But in truth, nobody really understands the sacrifice that a stone fairy makes. Way beyond any other.”
Daisy rolled her eyes.
“You might doubt it,” Amber said, turning on her. “But you try giving up every single power you have, even the ability to move! Then stay like that for a hundred years!”
Daisy and Amber stared at each other like two dogs trying to decide whether to fight or run. Eventually, Amber broke her gaze. “I wouldn’t have minded,” she went on. “I accepted the responsibility and I took the vow. But do you know why?” She looked at us all.
I shook my head. “Why?”
Amber turned to me. “Because in my heart of hearts, I didn’t really believe it would be as hard as they said.”
“As who said?” Tommy asked.
“ATC.” Amber looked at Daisy. “I was like you,” she said. “Fiery and righteous. Always knew I was right.” She nudged her head toward me. “And with a best friend like yours, too.”
“A human, you mean?” I asked.
Amber looked taken aback. “I didn’t know you were human! Well, yes, in that case, that as well! But I meant the loyalty.” She paused. “Imagine for a moment that you two made each other a promise. Would you keep it?”
“Of course!” Daisy and I said in unison.
“Exactly. You’d honor it, no matter what. And if someone told you that you had to do something that meant you’d never be able to see each other again, would you do whatever you could to
stop that from happening?”
Daisy nodded. “Yes, I would,” she said.
“Anything,” I added.
Amber folded her arms as though she’d won the whole argument.
“But I don’t understand,” I said. “What are you saying?”
“Is this about Elsie?” Tommy asked.
For a second, Amber looked trapped. “You know about Elsie?”
“How else do you think we tracked you down here?” Daisy asked.
“Elsie was my best friend,” Amber said sadly. “We met when I was on an assignment for ATC.”
“Exactly like us!” I burst out.
“I was working for IRD.”
“Illness and Recovery Department?” Daisy asked.
Amber nodded. “Elsie had food poisoning and I helped her get over it. We hit it off immediately.”
Daisy looked at me and made a face. “Not exactly like us, then!”
Amber went on. “When I took this job, they told me I would have to say good-bye to her, that I’d never see her again. But I didn’t really believe it. I refused to believe it. In fact, I was so determined to find a way that I made her a promise.”
“What did you promise?” Tommy asked.
“That I would see her again. I don’t know how I thought I could do it. I don’t know what made me believe that my determination was greater than my responsibility to ATC. I just knew that Elsie was my best friend, and I was going to see her again.”
“But that was — what? Seventy years ago?” Tommy said.
“Seventy-two,” Amber replied.
I cleared my throat. How did I put this? “Amber, maybe she’s, um, I mean have you thought about the possibility that she might be . . .”
“Yes. She might be dead by now. I know that,” Amber said. “But something in my heart tells me she’s alive. She’ll be eighty-four! All these years, I’ve imagined the look on her face when I turn up and shout, ‘Surprise!’ Even I had begun to doubt that this day would ever come. It’s hard to keep your belief for three quarters of a century, you know.” Amber looked at Tommy and smiled. “But thanks to you, I have a chance — my one and only chance. I want to find her. I have to find her,” she said. “And I’m not going back until I do.”
Daisy looked again at her MagiCell. For the first time since we’d found Amber, she spoke almost softly. “Look, I understand. I really do,” she said. “But you can’t! We’ve got less than an hour now. We have to get back. You don’t understand. If we don’t get back by midnight . . .”
Daisy stopped and glared at Tommy.
“Daisy, just tell her!” I said. “It doesn’t matter anymore. In an hour’s time, we’re all doomed! Tell her!”
“Look, it doesn’t make any difference, whatever you want to tell me,” Amber said. “I’ve made up my mind — and there’s nothing you can say that will change it. I can’t go back to that stone. I have to find Elsie!”
“But she’ll be frozen in time, like everyone else here!” Tommy burst out, looking as panic-stricken as me and Daisy, possibly because of hearing the words we’re all doomed.
Amber shook her head. “I don’t care. I need to see her — one way or another — before it’s too late. I promised!” She nodded at me and Daisy. “It’s just like you two. She’s my best friend.”
Daisy stared at Amber. “You don’t realize what you’re doing. We’ve got more information than they had in your day. The fairy and human worlds will be severed forever — you’re condemning the world to utter disaster!”
“You’re exaggerating,” Amber said. “ATC will find a way around all of it, I’m sure. It’ll be OK. It won’t be as bad as you think.”
“As bad as we think?” I shouted. “You haven’t seen the images of the future! I have! It’s not going to be OK! You’re kidding yourself, just like you did with your stupid promise! It’s NOT going to be OK. You have to come with us!”
Amber shook her head again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am. But I’ve decided. I’m not going until I can see Elsie.”
I turned to Daisy. “Daisy — do something!” I screamed. I couldn’t bear it. To have come this far. To have found the stone fairy with only an hour to spare, and now this. We were going to be stuck here forever. I’d never see Robyn again, or Mom and Dad — or anyone!
Daisy was pressing buttons on her MagiCell. She didn’t reply. I grabbed her arm. “Please!”
Daisy shrugged my hand off and put her MagiCell to her ear. “Just give me a minute,” she said. And then she walked away.
That was it, then. Even Daisy had given up! The moment she turned her back and walked away was the moment I knew it was over.
I sat down on the ground and started saying my prayers.
I hunched over my MagiCell, talking as quietly as I could.
“So what do you say?” I asked.
Chara paused for a long time. “You are absolutely sure about this, FG32561?”
“I’m positive,” I replied. “There’s no other way.”
“You understand the sacrifice you are making? You are clear about all the implications of this decision?”
“I am,” I replied. “She hasn’t seen what EDD predicted. She doesn’t understand, and I haven’t got time to convince her. But I have seen it, and I know there’s no other choice.”
“You are a generous soul, you know,” Chara said.
“Thank you,” I replied, glad she couldn’t see me blush at her praise, and relieved she didn’t know the true mix of emotions that was swirling inside me with this decision.
“Very well, then,” she said. “We will allow it.”
I let out a huge breath. “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Go now,” Chara replied. “You have no time to waste.”
I switched off my MagiCell and ran back to the others. “OK,” I said. “I’ve figured it out. We need to go.”
“I’ve already told you, I’m not going,” Amber said. “I’m going to look for my friend.”
“You can look for her,” I snapped. Just because I’d made a huge sacrifice didn’t mean I was happy about it — or happy that she’d put me into a position where it was my only option. It wasn’t so much myself I was worried about. Yes, the whole world was hanging on our actions here — but most importantly, I couldn’t bear to think of Philippa being trapped here forever, never seeing her parents or Robyn or anyone she cared about ever again. I wasn’t going to do that to her.
“I’ve made a deal with ATC,” I went on. “If you go back to your job as the stone fairy, you’ll be allowed to travel between the human and fairy worlds and move around whenever you want, provided you are at the portal whenever you’re needed. So you can look for your friend — in her world. Plus the rest of us can get back there, too.”
“But how — how did you do that?” Philippa asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. I couldn’t look her in the eye. “All that matters is that we get back, quickly.”
“This isn’t a trick, is it?” Amber asked. “You’ve really made that deal?”
“I’ve really made the deal,” I said.
“You promise?” Amber asked. She looked at me with such gratitude and such hope that all of a sudden, I realized she was the same as me. She did care about the world, and about all of us.
She just cared about her best friend most of all.
I met her eyes and smiled. “I promise.”
We ran back to the portal so fast, my heart felt as though it had fire coursing through it. We reached the stone circle with fifteen minutes to spare. All we had to do now was link hands and recite the poem for taking us back through the hole in time — and pray that it would work.
I’d tried asking Daisy about the deal she’d made with ATC but she wouldn’t tell me. She wouldn’t even look at me — in fact she’d hardly spoken all the way here. What had she done?
“Are you ready?” Daisy asked, looking around at us all.
Only Tommy hesitated.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean — I’m glad to be going back. Really glad — of course I am.”
“What, then?”
“Just — there are some things I’d rather not be going back to. Or rather — some people.”
“The bully? Danny?”
Tommy nodded. “I mean, I know that living in this frozen place has been like being trapped inside a nightmare — but at least I didn’t have to put up with him.” He laughed. “D’you know what I did one day?”
Daisy glanced at her MagiCell, probably checking we had enough time for Tommy’s story. “We’ve got time,” I said sternly. Then I turned back to Tommy. “What did you do?”
“I went to his house. He was sitting in front of his TV, feet up on a chair with his boots on, half a bag of chips in his mouth, frozen solid like everyone else. I went up to him with a marker and drew spots all over his face, and a big, thick pair of glasses to match. Every time I needed cheering up, I went over to look at him!” Tommy paused. “He didn’t look half as scary like that,” he went on. “But now I’m going back to the real world, and he’ll be back to the real Danny Slater again, won’t he? Calling me a wimp in front of everyone, making me a laughingstock at every opportunity.”
“But you’re not a wimp!” I said. “You’re about to help save the whole world from disaster!”
“Yeah, but he’ll never know that, will he? I’m not exactly going to go around telling people I went into another realm where time froze, met up with a couple of fairies, and happened to save the planet. I’d be bullied from here to eternity for coming up with a story like that!”
Daisy pressed some buttons on her MagiCell. “Right,” she said.
Tommy turned to her. “I mean, you told me that it’ll be as though I’d never been gone. So it’s back to the same old thing — constant taunting. It doesn’t exactly fill me with joy, that’s all.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure things will be exactly the same,” Daisy said, smiling as she put her MagiCell away. “You never know what ATC can come up with when you ask nicely.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy asked.
