by A. J. Ponder
Alec stared at her. What was Mrs Bee up to? Did she really believe his dad was out of town? But then, why did she keep looking up into the sky? Had she seen the cloud, or – and he shivered at the thought – had she arrived on it?
Mrs Bee stepped through the fence towards him, right through the pickets as if they weren’t there at all. “I’ve got an idea,” she said, tugging on Alec’s hand. “Let’s grab an ice-cream while we wait. The Fairy boat will get you back home quicker than you can say frog soup.”
“Er...” Alec tried to back away.
“I know things are difficult right now, but please believe me, everything’s fine. Your dad will be back in a week and-”
“You said a couple of days before.”
“Did I? Well, he wasn’t too sure. Packed in a bit of a hurry.”
“The – “ Alec stopped. He’d been about to say the Wizard’s Guide had told him that Wellingtowne was a dangerous place, but Ike was still completely invisible and silent. Likely he wanted to stay that way. Alec frowned. And likely this woman was dangerous.
“Come on,” Mrs Bee said. “I swear I’m not going to eat you or anything. When your father gets back he can explain everything.” She laughed her wheezy laugh. “Look, I’m not even inviting you into my gingerbread house.”
“Gingerbread?” Alec asked stupidly. He looked over at her house very carefully as if it really might suddenly sprout gumdrops and lemon icing.
“Don’t be daft,” Mrs Bee smiled, looking right into his eyes. “Come on, let’s get those ice-creams.”
“I can buy my own ice-cream,” Alec said belatedly, but strangely enough he was already trailing after her as if his feet were moving of their own accord.
HIDE AND SEEK
Perrin pushed open the shop door, setting off a small set of cowbells. Inside Old Fachtrichte’s, books of magic and maps, treasure and fairies, dragons and demons littered the floor and curved high overhead in gravity-defying stacks. They teetered ominously as the door swung shut behind her.
Relatively confident none of it would actually fall over her, Perrin shoved her way past a large display cabinet stocked with expensive books and potions and an entire bookcase filled with creatures in pickling jars to what looked to be a stand of maps. It wasn’t. Just baby ‘zids’ puzzle books. She sighed, and the shop bell rattled again. A smell of seaweed wafted through the door.
Instinctively Perrin ducked behind a stack of books. A Siren slid into the shop, looked quickly around, then turned back to the door and began to shriek at someone in a voice that would shatter glass. “Fool, she’s not here! You’ve lost her.”
“Don’t you whinge at me,” her companion grumped back. He stomped through the door after the Siren, sending the stack of books she was hiding behind into convulsions. Perrin caught a glimpse of him through the swaying stack and recognised the man she’d seen in the street. The one who had given her his card. His suit looked a little rumpled and his face didn’t look nearly so friendly, all twisted up in an angry scowl.
“At least I have some idea where she is. You saw that boy yet he could be anywhere by now.”
Perrin ducked down further.
“That’s quite different,” the Siren snapped. “I didn’t even know who he was.”
“It’s exactly the same. Worse – he had a Guide.
“But, nobody – ” she spluttered.
“Do you think Bignose will accept that as an excuse, Milly? No way. So let’s at least catch this one. I know she’s close because I had enough presence of mind to drop her a business card.”
Perrin looked at the traitorous piece of card, and then at the stack of maze books – Mary’s Magical Maze would be perfect. She slipped Nathaniel Nugget’s card carefully inside the nastiest maze she could see, and almost yelped as footsteps echoed behind her. A black-robed lady with long spiky hair every colour of the rainbow pushed past her as if she wasn’t there and bore down on Nathaniel and the Siren. “Can I help you...?”
“We’re looking for a darrrling little girl,” the Siren said, her voice smooth as honey. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen her?”
Perrin almost stopped breathing.
“Her?” the woman gasped. “Darlin’? Right little brat she was. Runs in here, grabs a book from the shelf and flies out that window.” The lady pointed so dramatically, Perrin had to stop herself from turning to look. “Not a shekel! Nada. If that young ‘un’s yours then you can pay. That book she took was worth two guilder.”
“Er, no, sorry to disturb you,” the gentleman said. “Her mum asked us to look for her before she gets into trouble. That way, you say?”
“Her mum?” And for just a moment the voice was hesitant. “Well, then, you’d better hurry.”
Perrin listened rather than watched the rather odd couple pick their way across the shop.
“This just isn’t right,” the Siren whined as Nathaniel gave her a leg up to the window. “It’s so undignified climbing through windows looking for some human brat.”
“Stop whinging and hurry up.” Nathaniel gave the Siren a final push before jumping up onto the sill and squeezing through the window himself.
When she heard him land on the other side Perrin felt safe enough to emerge from her hiding place, only to come face to face with the spiky-haired woman, whose eyes were flashing almost as bright and silver as her nose-ring.
“Thank you,” Perrin mumbled.
“Don’t thank me. I assume they’re not here because your mum is after you?”
“My mum’s dead.” Perrin ignored the flinch. “And you can’t be Old Fachtrichte?”
“No, I’m Elsie Ore. I’m just minding the store for a bit. Now what did you come in here for, or was it just to hide from those two?”
“I’d like a map of Wellingtowne.”
“Right you are.” Elsie disappeared behind the counter and rummaged around. It seemed like forever before she brought out a map with a triumphant flourish. “There you are. Anything else?”
“No.” Perrin shook her head. She paid the silver bit gladly, moved away from the counter and opened the map. “Please reveal the residence of Mr Kettleson.”
No answer.
She repeated herself, but the map just lay there and didn’t say a word. A nervous glance over at the store assistant revealed her nose ring was bobbing about alarmingly, the corners of her mouth twitching as if they were on strings.
Perrin went back to the counter and said, trying to keep her voice even and steady, “This map here doesn’t seem to be working. It won’t give me the address I need.”
“It’s not meant to. You have to buy a guide for that.”
“A guide?”
“I do have one, right here.” Elsie waved her hand over to the glass cabinet to where a book opened glossy pages, coyly revealing glimpses of canoes on bright water and branches festooned with bright red flowers and infested with cherubic babies – but when Perrin saw it was two hundred and twenty guilder she shook her head.
She smiled at the lady hopefully. “Couldn’t you just get it out and ask it nicely, like?”
“Firstly, it’s heard everything we’ve said and has chosen to say nothing, and secondly, no way. Did that once, and had to get a tracker in to find it. So now it’s twice the price – and with the scarcity of these things it’s worth every ounce.”
“Great. Now I’m never going to find him.”
Elsie smiled. “I guess you could try the White Pages.” She shoved a book the size of a doorstop at her. It looked terribly mundane.
“Show me Petre Kettleson,” Perrin asked it.
“You don’t...oh, never mind,” Elsie said. “I’ll look him up, shall I?”
She opened the book more or less to the middle. “Yes, here he is, a Mr P. Kettleson, 155c Marine Parade, Eastbourne. You could ring him.”
Perrin shook her head. She didn’t have much time before Nathaniel and his Siren retraced their steps. Besides after her grandfather had died of magical lightning strike whil
e talking on a telephone her grandmother had made her promise not to use them. On pain of boils. As if magical lightning strike wasn’t scary enough.
“All right then. Well, see this, it’s right here.” Elsie’s finger stabbed at the map. “And this -” she pointed to where a little winged boat buzzed lazily from there to the other side of the map’s harbour “ – this is the local Fairy boat. It’s almost here – if you hurry you might be able to catch it from the wharf outside. The stop’s just to the right of us.”
There was a noise – footsteps, and then a loud shrill voice outside the door. In panic Perrin grabbed the map and turned to the window.
“No! Quick, this way.” Elsie opened a previously invisible hatch behind the counter. “Run!”
Perrin didn’t need to be asked twice. She belted towards the opening even as the shop-bell tinkled behind her and an angry voice shrieked over the sound of crashing waves.
“That human brat, she’s here. She must be.”
“Not any more,” thought Perrin, running as fast as she could.
TEETERING ON DISASTER
A double-dip chocolate-coated, chocolate-and-mint ice-cream dripped unnoticed onto Alec’s hand as he glanced down a short alley. A shop-sign morphed so that at one moment it said, “Sparky’s Magical Supplies,” with a wand firing sparks down the street in fiery trails, while the next moment a cat with flashing eyes prowled over the wand and curled itself around the words “Get your Kittie’s Katnip here, the purrrrfect treat.”
Mrs Bee snatched her hand from her pocket and made a show of looking at her watch. “Well, well. Gosh, is that the time? We’d better hurry to catch that boat.”
“There’s still ten minutes,” Alec said. “Let’s look in there, just for a moment.”
“No more do Sparky’s want an untrained ‘zid with no money wasting their time than I want to have to worry about you – uh – “
The grandmotherly face looked so innocent as if she were explaining the time. But she was lying. Something about her was very wrong and Alec knew it.
Still she forged on. “So...um...far away from home. Now be good and don’t tell your mother anything...you know, magicky. It would only frighten her. She doesn’t know, you see, he never could tell her. Though I think he tried once.” Mrs Bee frowned and looked up at the sky searchingly. “Oh, look! That must be it now.”
Alec was pretty sure it wasn’t the Fairy at all, just a lone gull in the distance. But he didn’t argue. Either this woman was extremely dangerous or his father wasn’t in any trouble at all, and in either case the right thing to do – the sensible thing to do – was go back home. Maybe beta-test a couple of games.
He just didn’t want to. Every step with Mrs Bee showed him something new. Strange people were everywhere, lounging around brightly coloured stalls and eating stuff that looked so revolting Alec almost dropped his ice-cream – twice. The first time because he saw someone eating an enormous bug, legs still waving as the creature was swallowed down whole. The next time it was some sort of slug, eyestalks pulsing white and green until yellow teeth bit into it and bilious green slime sprayed down the woman’s chin. After that he tried to keep from looking too closely at the “Chunky Caterpillar Jam” and “Maggots in Brine” and other disgusting food until he’d licked the last of the ice-cream off his fingers.
Mrs Bee didn’t seem to notice any of the ghastly fare; she was too busy looking worriedly into the distance, her frown only breaking for a moment when she saw something resembling a house circling over the increasingly choppy waters like a bird looking for food. “Ah! There’s my Hewston, my old house, diving over the water. It...um...should keep a good eye on...um...on the fish.”
“Now you – “ Mrs Bee pulled him close, her eyes peering over the top of her spectacles “ – please don’t go and get into any more trouble.”
Alec bit his tongue. The only trouble he was in would be for losing his bike – but she didn’t know about that.
She smiled, all grandmother crinkles. “Wellingtowne can be a dangerous place for young wizards.”
“Urgh.” Alec bit his tongue harder. She sounded far too much like Ike – who was still in hiding.
“Wait a minute. You haven’t paid yet, have you? Don’t worry, I’ll feed the fish. Your father can pay me back later.”
She waggled her fingers. “Now where did I put my purse? Broken broomsticks, I can’t remember!” She pinned Alec with a long stare before her face broke into smiles. “Ah, here it is,” she said, taking off her hat just as the Fairy skimmed into sight. She fumbled around in it and pulled out a couple of coins before dropping them into the mouth of one of one of the metal fish on the end of the wharf.
Alec waved goodbye and stepped confidently out onto the craft – only to fall through air. Legs paddling furiously, he felt a sick gorge rise in his throat as he realised he hadn’t checked the water below.
Closing his eyes and bracing for impact, Alec juddered to an unexpected halt, hip-deep in the rubbery craft.
The book whistled. “Boy that was close. Did you feel that?”
“Yeah, I almost fell right through again,” Alec said, hoisting his legs out from the deck that was solidifying around him.
“No, no, not that – the cloud. It came back, and there was someone following you.”
“No! What?”
“Look.”
Alec turned back to see Mrs Bee wrestling with a black-cloaked figure.
He stared horrified out over the sea to the scuffle on the dock. Mrs Bee had been so firm. So sure of herself. She had even seemed dangerous.
But now she was in trouble and it was his fault.
Perrin walked along Wellington wharf, nervously searching for any sign of Milly or Nathaniel. She looked over the dangerous water, and shrank back almost bumping into a family of Trolls. Where was that Fairy-stop? Best to ask someone.
Looking around for a likely candidate Perrin saw a witch leaning up against the wall of a small shed opposite, her broomstick beside her. She hesitated. A large man with a huge eye in the middle of his forehead sat in the shadows next to the witch. Fortunately he didn’t seem too scary.
“‘Scuse me – “ Perrin tried to smile “ – but...”
The man straightened himself out to a full twelve foot and six inches. “Out of my way, baby ‘zid.”
“I’m not a baby,” Perrin grumped under her breath as she staggered backward to make room for the giant.
She turned back to the witch. “‘Scuse me, I was – “
The witch jumped up. “Not now, not now. Can’t you see we’ll miss it?
“Oh.” Perrin turned and saw an ancient, marshmallowy boat careening towards them. How could that old thing still be flying – and over water too? It couldn’t possibly be safe. If not for her pursuers she’d be walking – no running, away from such an obvious death-trap.
Perrin thought she might just do that anyway. Surely she was safe with all these people and she could explain it was all a misunderstanding. She turned to walk away and saw two cowled figures swooping down the wharf at top speed.
Faster than an ensorcelled cat she changed her mind and jumped on board.
The two wizards sped past on broomsticks, ermine cloaks fluttering behind them like a storm.
Perrin stifled a giggle, and wondered what they were rushing for. They had certainly given her a fright, but really? All this high drama over a mistake? Who in the world would be after her anyway? And what for? If not for the ghosts and their “bad men” she wouldn’t be so frightened. And the ghosts could be lying or confused, or the bad men might have nothing to do with her anyway.
Still, Perrin thought, none of that explained why the gnome at Mr Kettleson’s work had been so very nervous. Or why Nathaniel and Milly were looking for her. Her hands were shaking. “I’m not used to the water,” she muttered to a nosy goblin child staring at her. The child snorted and turned away.
“I’m not that pathetic,” Perrin snorted and bravely turned to look ou
t over the sea, grasping the cold rail so tightly her hands prickled and her knuckles showed white. If only her spells had revealed Ike this morning, he’d be showing her about and this would be much more fun.
Down in the water she saw a flash of scales and gasped. A creature – a sea person of some kind – reared up out of the water and she decided caution might be the better part of valour, ducking back down into the fluffy seats. She looked at her hands. Now they were itching like crazy where she’d been grasping the rails. That was odd.
Sea people were one of the reasons wizards never bothered to swim. It was said the sea people would either save you or kill you, depending on their whim, which meant swimming was not only dangerous but frowned upon because the more often wizards were caught in their territory the grumpier they became. Still, she hadn’t heard of anyone being allergic to them before. And she couldn’t be allergic to the water, could she?
By the time she neared Eastbourne her hands stung as if she’d shoved her arms into a patch of nettles. She scratched until they hurt and then tucked them under her armpits. Eager to get off the wretched craft and away from the sea air – and all the other sea dangers she began disembarking at speed.
“Watch out!” a goblin grumbled as she almost ran into him.
“Er, yeah. Sorry.” Perrin gritted her teeth and jumped down.
The itchiness exploded.
Perrin couldn’t move, couldn’t think; she just stood there scratching her hands red-raw until the Fairy began to pull away.
The itchiness eased the moment the boat sped off and Perrin realised it wasn’t the sea people, or anything to do with the sea air at all. It had to be something else. It had to be...
She almost screamed at her stupidity. All the spells she’d cast looking for Ike. They had caused this terrible itching. She looked across, and sure enough, there standing on the deck of the departing Fairy was the boy! She waved her arms and shouted, but he was too busy talking to his – her book.
“Ike! Boy, you can’t get away like this!” Perrin yelled, and grabbed up her bag and pulled out her broomstick without considering the danger.
