Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand

by Gail Carson Levine

  Text by Gail Carson Levine

  Art by David Christiana

  Copyright © 2007 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Levine, Gail Carson. Fairy Haven and the quest for the wand / by Gail Carson Levine ; illustrated by David Christiana.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Sequel to: Fairy dust and the quest for the egg.

  Summary: Three fairies from Never Land must deliver a wand they promised to the mermaid who has threatened to flood their home in Fairy Haven.

  [1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Mermaids—Fiction.]

  I. Christiana, David, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.L578345Fa 2007

  [Fic]—dc22

  2006030967

  ISBN: 978-1-4231-4334-5

  Visit www.disneyfairies.com

  Soop’s Song

  (Accompanied by tail thumps against a hard surface to establish a slow, sad rhythm)

  Ui eEe… oooooioooOooo

  aiiyoyo!

  yuyuUyuy…aAaAaA Eaa.

  aaE eee!

  oooooioooOooo. iAii…

  iU eI aOaO!

  uuooo… uUooo…o

  uaeouuaeou yooeee!

  iaia. oooooioooOooo

  yuyuUyuy ayAy!

  ioiOioi EE

  ee…Ee eE…ieieYooyoo!

  iii

  oooooioooOooo yuyuUyuy eeay!

  eaea uaueu u U u

  oooooioooOooo!

  oooooioooOooo

  oo… OO ooeyyaya!

  yuyuUyuy. iAii…

  iU eI.…ooeeO!

  ieieYooyoo. EE ee

  iAii Uyaya!

  ooeyyaya…

  oooooioooOooo iiEeO!

  (Translation from the Mermish: Once upon a time, more or less recently, a beautiful and generous mermaid of middle rank met a tiny and insignificant fairy, who was so lowly she lacked both wings and a wand. And she certainly had no tail, since fairies are not fortunate in this regard. The fairy most pathetically begged the kindhearted mermaid for the gift of her comb, a four-pearled whalebone of superb design. The comb was needed, or so the cunning fairy said, to save the life of a bird whose survival was of no concern to mermaids. However, because of her great goodness, the lovely mermaid consented, asking only for a magic wand in return. The lying, ungrateful fairy agreed and swam away with the precious comb—NEVER TO RETURN WITH THE MAGIC WAND—although the sweet mermaid waited, first with hope, then with resignation, and finally with despair. She composed this tragic and moving song to express her regret at the treachery of fairies.)

  Table of Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  O N E

  THE MERMAIDS dived when Rani approached, flying in on Brother Dove’s back. It broke Rani’s heart to see them go. She was a water-talent fairy, and she loved mermaids.

  Only the mermaid Soop remained, treading water just long enough to see that Rani had brought no wand. Then she dived, too.

  “Wait!” Rani shouted as Brother Dove landed on Marooners’ Rock. “I want you to have a wand. Mother Dove won’t let me—”

  It was too late. Rani was talking to Soop’s tail, just as she had yesterday and the day before and the day before that.

  She told Brother Dove to leave her. Alone on Marooners’ Rock, she wept. Because of her talent, she wept often, sweated easily, and her nose tended to run.

  After drying her eyes on a leafkerchief, she kicked off her sensible walking shoes and slipped into the lagoon. Of all fairies, Rani was the only one who could swim, and that was because she had no wings to drag her under.

  When she tired of floating and splashing, she made a play mermaid out of water. It was too bad the real mermaids hadn’t stayed to see. The water mermaid seemed to have scaly skin, its fingernails were tiny fins, and it was almost as graceful as a real mermaid. Rani even gave it a long pink scarf, just like Soop’s.

  Rani swam with the imitation mermaid, but she couldn’t make its tail swish. Worse, its eyes were empty, and its smile never varied. In the end, she turned it into a pyramid of bubbles.

  If only she had a wand for Soop!

  Rani had no illusions. The wand wouldn’t make Soop like her. Mermaids looked down on fairies, and a fulfilled promise wouldn’t change that.

  But first Rani would use the wand to make Soop her friend. Then she’d hand it over and everything would be lovely.

  Brother Dove came for Rani at sunset. The lagoon is perilous at night, because the mermaids sing their most magical songs then. Pirates see dead sea captains. Birds fly upside down. Fairies turn into bats.

  For her part, Soop was enraged. She’d given Rani a comb in exchange for a wand, and she wanted the wand. She had plans for it.

  She was convinced Rani was taunting her by returning to the lagoon every day without it. Soop wanted to vent her anger, but fairies were beneath her, so for a month after the hurricane she did nothing.

  Finally, one night, she was too angry to sing. The next morning, she didn’t dive when Rani arrived.

  Rani was thrilled. Her glow flared. She wept happy tears. “Oh, Soop! Oh, Soop!” She wanted to say the fascinating things she’d practiced for this moment, about swimming and fish fins and underwater castles. “Oh, Soop!”

  Soop smiled pleasantly until Brother Dove left. Then she reared up so that she was balanced precariously on the tip of her tail. The smile vanished. “You promised! You promised, and I have waited. I’ve waited patiently.” This wasn’t true. She’d been angry since the first day. “When will you fulfill your promise?” She flopped back down on Marooners’ Rock and whispered menacingly, “Beware a mermaid’s wrath!”

  Rani dabbed at the seawater and sweat on her face with a leafkerchief. “I want you to have it, but—”

  “If you want me to have it,” Soop said, “why don’t I have—”

  “—it? I’d need to get it.” The only other time they’d met, Rani had told Soop that Never fairies didn’t have wands. They had fairy dust and Mother Dove. “But Mother Dove won’t let me.”

  Excuses! “Observe, little fairy.” Soop beckoned the water below.

  “My name is Rani.” She smiled ingratiatingly.

  Automatically, Soop said, “I am Soop.” Then she frowned. She didn’t want to be polite. “It doesn’t matter what your name is. Watch the water.”

  It lapped higher and higher on the rock, up to the hem of Rani’s skirt.

  “Fulfill your promise. Bring a wand to our castle. The water is rising in your Fairy—”

  “—Haven. Don’t!” Rani’s water talent wasn’t strong enough to dry up a flood. Not even the combined talents of every
water-talent fairy would be strong enough. A flood would destroy Fairy Haven. “Oh, don’t!”

  “Bring me a wand!” Soop dived.

  T W O

  MOTHER DOVE was in her nest on her egg. As usual, she was attended by Beck, the island’s most skilled animal-talent fairy. Queen Clarion, or Ree as her fairies called her, was there, too, describing the final repairs to the Home Tree following the hurricane.

  Rani stepped from Brother Dove’s back onto the edge of the nest. “Mother Dove! Soop is going to flood Fairy Haven! Now we have to give her a wand.”

  Rani noticed that the ground was dry. Soop might have changed her mind, but Rani didn’t mention this possibility.

  Mother Dove was aware that Rani was leaving something out, and she knew why—it was that wand again.

  Mother Dove had refused to let anyone go to the mainland for a wand because wands were dangerous. She wouldn’t put fairies at risk. Staying alive was more important than keeping promises.

  But now…a flood!

  Beck held up a hand. “Listen!”

  Ree cocked her head, and her golden tiara slipped over one ear. “I don’t hear anything.”

  Beck flew down and returned, cradling a worm. “See how upset he—”

  “—is.” To Rani, the worm just looked hairy and floppy—and damp.

  “He says water falling from above is one thing, but this is rising from below. It’s frightening him.”

  Mother Dove patted her egg with a wing. Never fear, my love, she thought. Mother isn’t afraid.

  But she was. A flood would be disastrous.

  Ree said, “I’m afraid we have to get the wand.” She sounded grim, although she was secretly pleased. A few waves of a wand, just a few, would turn Fairy Haven into fairy heaven.

  Mother Dove sensed Ree’s pleasure and was more worried than ever. Ree was generally such a cautious, levelheaded queen. Mother Dove understood the allure of a wand. She herself had a wish that only a wand could grant, a wish that she would never make. But oh, how she would love to make it.

  Wishes, tantalizing wishes, made wands dangerous. A fairy might make the tiniest, most innocent wish, and it could cause a world of trouble. Mother Dove doubted even she could see around all the corners of a wish.

  Besides, a wand could bring out the worst in anyone, even a Never fairy: greed, jealousy, selfishness.

  And who knew what Soop would wish for?

  “I’ll go to Tutupia,” Ree said. Tutupia ruled the Great Wanded fairies.

  Mother Dove nodded reluctantly. They couldn’t allow Fairy Haven to be flooded, and Ree’s authority would have weight with the Great Wandies. “Take Rani.”

  “Me?” Rani’s mouth watered. She’d get her wish!

  “Yes,” Mother Dove said. “You know Soop. That will be helpful.”

  “Mother Dove?” Beck said. “Can I go?”

  Beck wants the wand, too! Mother Dove thought, disheartened. “No, dear. The animals will need you. Ree, take—”

  “Tink?” Rani said.

  “—a balloon carrier. Brother Dove needn’t go.”

  Ree nodded, although she hadn’t pulled a carrier in years.

  “And you can bring the wand back in it.” Mother Dove cooed, “Yes, Rani, Tink should go, too.” Tink had discipline.

  Or, Mother Dove thought, Tink usually had discipline. In the face of a wand, even Tink might give way.

  Ree left the nest to arrange for the balloon carrier and to give instructions for fighting the coming flood. Brother Dove took Rani to the Home Tree to tell Tink about the new quest, the quest for the wand.

  As soon as they were gone, Althea, a scout, flew to the nest. “Mother Dove, may I go for the wand, too? I can watch for hawks.”

  “No, dear. I need you to protect the fairies who will be fighting the flood.”

  Althea left, flying low out of disappointment.

  Next, a keyhole designer asked to go for the wand, then two cricket whistlers, followed by a walnut drummer. They each nodded when Mother Dove said no, but she felt their discontent.

  Mother Dove brushed a feather along her egg. She thought, I’m glad you have nothing to wish for, my love.

  But did it? she wondered. Did it wish to emerge and fly?

  Vidia hovered near the nest, seeming to arrive out of nowhere. “Darling…”

  “Fly with you, Vidia,” Mother Dove said, giving the traditional Never fairy greeting.

  “Dearest, I can fetch the wand faster than anyone. Especially—”

  Mother Dove cooed in an unusually high pitch. Three scouts swooped down on Vidia and carried her away. Vidia was the fastest of the fast-flying talents, and if the scouts hadn’t surprised her, they never would have been able to catch her.

  She, who was loyal to no one, felt betrayed. She kicked and flapped her wings, but the scouts held on.

  Mother Dove called after her, “If your wish came true it would break your heart.” In spite of everything, Mother Dove loved Vidia.

  Vidia’s shouts diminished in the distance.

  “Mother Dove?” A fairy turned an aerial cartwheel and landed on the branch below the nest.

  Mother Dove cooed, and Prilla did a handstand. She loved Mother Dove’s voice.

  “Yes, Prilla.”

  “Can I go on the new quest?”

  “Do you want to wave the wand, too?”

  “No…Yes…I mean, better cartwheels would be nice, but I just want to go.” The other quest had been thrilling, and Prilla’s two favorite fairies, Rani and Tink, were going.

  Mother Dove smiled. At least one fairy hadn’t been infected by the wand—yet. “You’d better not, dear. If there were more clapping-talent fairies, it would be different.”

  Prilla nodded solemnly. She was the only one who could save fairies from death when Clumsy—that is, human—children stopped believing.

  “And we’ll need everyone’s help against the flood,” Mother Dove added.

  “I’ll help!” Prilla somersaulted off the branch and started for the Home Tree.

  Another fairy landed on the spot Prilla had just left. “A dairy talent might come in handy on the mainland.”

  Mother Dove said she didn’t think so and waited for the next request, which came a minute later. And then there was another, and one after that. The wand was still across the ocean, but its influence had already arrived.

  T H R E E

  WHEN RANI stepped into Tink’s inside-a-teakettle workshop, Tink was repairing a saucepan that had been brought to her by Terence, a dust talent. He was at her side, watching.

  Rani had never seen a pot in such desperate straits. Its sides were down. Its bottom was one bump after another. Its handle hung by a thread. Its finish was past thinking of.

  “I left it on the stove too long,” Terence had said when he’d presented it to Tink. “I’d fly backward if I could for damaging it.”

  This was the fairy equivalent of an apology, although he wasn’t really sorry, and he hadn’t left the pan on the stove too long, either. He’d placed it under a tree and had rained rocks down on it for hours. After that he’d attacked it with a hammer and had soaked it in vinegar. All so he could present Tink with a problem worthy of her attention—and have an excuse for visiting her.

  Rani coughed when she came in, knowing Tink hated interruptions.

  Tink whirled around, her hand on her bangs. “What?”

  “We have to go to Mother Dove now.” Rani explained everything. “We’re leaving Never Land right away.”

  Tink put down the pot. A wand! A flood! A wand!

  Terence was frightened for Tink. A trip to the mainland was arduous, and the Great Wandies were known to be harebrained. “You’ll need fairy dust.”

  He flew out of the workshop. As he left, he thought about what he would wish for if he ever held the wand. One wish, only one, and then he’d never want anything more ever again.

  A supply of fairy dust was already in the carrier when he arrived at the nest with a full satchel.
He put his in, too, just in case.

  A crowd of fairies clustered in Mother Dove’s tree, each fairy hoping to be needed at the last minute.

  Terence told Tink, “Keep a sharp eye out for hawks.”

  She pulled her bangs. Of course she would.

  The afternoon was mild, as they mostly are on the island. The sun shone. Mother Dove’s branch was dry. But the ground was squishy.

  “The Great Wandies are rash,” Mother Dove said, although she hated to speak ill of any sort of fairy. “Ree, take care.”

  Ree nodded. “Rani will stay out of the way until it’s—”

  “—safe. All right.”

  “Ree…Rani…Tink…” Mother Dove cooed after each name. She hesitated. “Try not to wave the wand, but if you must wave it, make only one wish and make it a small wish, an unimportant one.”

  She knew they might not be able to honor their promises, and she also knew they’d hate themselves if they couldn’t. Still, their pledges might strengthen them.

  They promised, although Tink tugged her bangs. Didn’t Mother Dove trust her not to make a foolish wish?

  Mother Dove saw Tink’s irritation.

  Rani was annoyed, too. She couldn’t remember ever being annoyed with Mother Dove before. Her wish for friendship with Soop seemed small, but she didn’t know what Mother Dove would think. She was close to tears, and the last thing Fairy Haven needed was more water.

  Mother Dove’s voice grew stern. “Don’t use the wand to end the flood. Ree, don’t let the Great Wandies do it, either. Soop will retaliate. She could send a tidal wave.” Mother Dove shivered. “She could send sharks.”

  Everyone shivered.

  Tink said, “Couldn’t we stop Soop from wanting to flood us?” That seemed harmless enough.

  “Yes, Tink, you could.” Mother Dove’s voice had never sounded so cold, so unloving.

  Tink—brave Tink—was terrified.

  “And someone,” Mother Dove continued in that same awful tone, “could wave a wand and stop you from wanting to fix pots.” She saw Tink’s tremulous glow and cooed.

  Rani stepped into the balloon carrier. Tink, her glow still wavery from Mother Dove’s rebuke, felt for the knife on her belt.