Soop and Pah were at Soop’s desk. Pah was telling Soop a mermaid fable. Pah flicked her finger and mouthed the word the.
Soop said, “The…”
Pah drew two mermaids on Soop’s sand slate.
Soop said, “The two friends…”
Pah nodded.
Neither of them saw the urn of squid ink vanish from the breakfast tray. They also failed to see the tray itself and everything on it vanish an instant later. Pah wasn’t trying to write, so she had no idea that she could again.
Pah pantomimed a breaststroke.
“Swam…” Soop said.
“…away…” Pah said, moving her lips carefully.
“…away…” Soop said.
Pah nodded, and then they stared at each other.
“Yooo heard me!”
“I heard you!”
Pah wrote on Soop’s slate, “Pah and Soop.”
Clink! Ping!
Soop and Pah turned in time to see the glitter vanish from Soop’s concealment forest.
“The shells!” Soop cried.
They’d been under the walk-the-plank table, hidden beneath a tablecloth. As they watched, the tablecloth went flat.
Soop shrugged and said, “Oh, well.”
Pah frowned. “Yooo were wrong, yooo know, about the song. Its title is ‘Squid Swan Song,’ not ‘Squid Dawn Song.’”
Soop jutted her chin out. “What’s a squid swan?”
“Song titles don’t have tooo make sense.”
“Yes, they dooo! I mean, do!”
The wand was finished with Soop and Pah. The romance dropped out of Tink’s feelings for Terence. She didn’t notice, since her attention was riveted on the wand. The empty leg-dust pouch fell from her hand.
Vidia’s shoulders ached. She flapped her wings and flew a few feet. Nothing had ever hurt so much. Her shoulder blades were exhausted. She hugged the wing polisher next to her. “Darling, I’m so happy.”
Terrified, the golden hawk felt himself change. Something was pulling on his wings. His skin felt tight. It was about to burst! His stomach bulged. It was about to explode! Oh, the pressure! The twig beneath him broke.
He flapped his wings. He was big again.
The glory of it!
Ree saw him grow. She should have given the alarm, but she was too pleased to think of it.
He rose above the hawthorn. He could hunt again, for prey large enough to be worthy of him. He could have pounced on a fairy immediately. But since he’d spent so much time with Beck, a fairy meal was unappetizing. He flew away.
Holding his clamshell above the water, Peter sidestroked through the sea toward the pirate ship, carrying out a plan that had been whispered to him by the clamshell.
But…but how could a clamshell have planned a pirate raid? Impossible! He must have invented the raid himself. Certainly he had! He let the shell go.
Sara Quirtle was kicking puddle water ahead of her when she became incomplete again. She lowered her foot and stood in the puddle, staring ahead.
T W E N T Y - E I G H T
THE WAND paused, aware of Sara Quirtle. A child shouldn’t be a stump of wood with stone eyes. A mistake had been made. This wish should stand.
The metal inside the wand formed waves. Tink felt the change but could do nothing. The wand wrenched its power away from her and Beck and restored Sara Quirtle, who kicked the puddle again. She bent over, hands extended, and tried to turn a cartwheel. She fell over with a splash and lay half in the water, laughing.
The wand watched and felt joy for the first time. It jiggled in Tink’s and Beck’s hands.
After it had completed Sara Quirtle—permanently, so she’d never be incomplete again—it smoothed itself out and went back to reversing wishes.
Rani hovered in the middle of the crowd of fairies surrounding the wand. She should have been on the ground, but she wasn’t thinking. Her wings vanished, and she lost her ability to speak and breathe underwater. She fell onto the head of a dairy talent and tumbled to the earth.
Esteemed fairy, where are our wings?
They’re gone, esteemed bat. Rani felt almost as sad as she had the first time she’d lost them.
Esteemed fairy, I wouldn’t have made the exchange if I had known.
Esteemed bat, I’d fly backward if I could. But we’ll be aloft again. There are balloon carriers and there is Brother Dove.
It won’t be the same, esteemed fairy.
Esteemed bat, I miss them, too.
I regret your suffering, esteemed fairy.
Rani took this as sympathy. Esteemed bat, something worse is going to happen.
Terrible things have been happening all day, esteemed fairy. What will happen next?
Soop is going to stop liking me, esteemed bat.
That is unimportant, esteemed fairy.
Esteemed bat, it’s not!
Soop was alone, lying on her bed, staring up at her coral ceiling. She wished Pah would admit when she was wrong. Once, just once, would be enough. Soop was sure the little fairy wasn’t like that. She decided to compose a song for Rani on her next visit.
It should begin, “O, unusual fairy. O, superior fairy. O…”
She stopped. She didn’t care for fairies. Lesser creatures, every one. She wondered if she might have been mistaken about the name of the squid song, or perhaps the name didn’t matter.
Beck whispered, “Tink…” She kept in contact with the wand. “It’s over.”
They felt the wand settle into quiet contentment.
“Mother Dove, it’s over,” Beck said.
“Prilla…” Mother Dove cooed, “blink the wand to the Great Wandies’ wand room.”
Prilla took the wand. Beck and Tink let go, but stood ready in case new mischief began. The wand only jiggled in Prilla’s hands.
Prilla blinked—but not to the Great Wandies.
Sara Quirtle was in her backyard, jumping on a trampoline. She yelled, “My fairy!”
Prilla shouted, “Sara Quirtle!” She flew to the trampoline and started jumping, too.
The wand added to the fun. A kangaroo appeared in the yard and jumped along with them.
Sara Quirtle climbed off the trampoline and ran to the kangaroo, who picked her up and hopped around the yard. Prilla turned cartwheels on the kangaroo’s head.
If Tink and Beck had been there, they’d have felt the wand’s happy current. They’d have sensed how pleased it was with itself. I’m good! I’m good!
After five minutes of play, when Prilla felt Never Land tugging at her, the kangaroo vanished.
There had always been a Clumsy child or Fairy Haven at the end of Prilla’s tunnel, so she wasn’t sure she’d be able to blink to the Great Wandies. But she put her trust in Mother Dove, imagined the Great Wandy castle, and blinked.
She was in the castle wand room, flying over the squirming wands. She placed the silver wand atop one of the trays.
Of course it was the finest, biggest-hearted wand the Great Wandies would ever own.
Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand Page 10
