“We still have three magic instruments to find before the talent competition this weekend,” Rachel reminded Kirsty as they went into the reception room. “We need to get them all back — even if Jack Frost has only one of the instruments, its magic will help his band win!”
“I know,” Kirsty agreed, placing the wedding gift on a table with a few other elegantly wrapped presents. “We don’t have much time left!” She nudged Rachel. “Look, there’s the harpist.”
A woman in a long, silky, pink dress sat at the other end of the room. She had a tall harp of polished wood in front of her, and she plucked at a few of the strings. As the girls watched, they could see that she was frowning. The harp was definitely out of tune.
“Oh, hello,” the woman called as she noticed Rachel and Kirsty. “Sorry about the awful noise.” She bit her lip. “I just can’t get my harp in tune. It sounds terrible! I seem to be all thumbs today.”
“Are you playing at Kerry’s wedding?” Kirsty asked.
“Yes, I’m supposed to be playing ‘The Wedding March’ for the happy couple,” the woman went on, with a huge sigh. “But how can the bride walk down the aisle to this horrible noise?” She stood up, looking very upset. “The wedding will be ruined if I can’t figure out what’s wrong!” she cried, rushing from the room in tears.
“Oh, that’s awful,” Kirsty said, concerned.
“And poor Kerry, too,” Rachel added. “It doesn’t look like she’ll get her harp music after all.”
“Well, at least we can make the room look nice for her,” Kirsty replied. “Let’s decorate the tables!”
Rachel opened the confetti bag. “There are lots of packets of pink and silver sparkly hearts,” she said, taking one out. “They’ll look pretty, scattered on these snowy white tablecloths.”
“And they’ll match the pink tulips,” added Kirsty, glancing at the crystal vases of flowers that stood on each of the tables.
Rachel put the brown bag down on a nearby table and tried to rip open the confetti. She struggled with the packet and had to use both hands to tug it open in the end.
The packet burst open, and confetti flew out in a shimmering cloud of pink and silver sparkles. The girls were amazed as the sparkles lingered in the air and then fizzed around the room in a flash of dazzling colors.
“Rachel, it’s a fairy!” Kirsty cried.
As the sparkles began to fade, the fairy whizzed over to hover in front of Rachel and Kirsty. She wore a flowing halter dress with a bright swirl pattern.
“Hi, girls!” she cried. “I’m Maya the Harp Fairy.”
“Oh, hello, Maya!” Rachel exclaimed in delight. “Is your harp somewhere close by?”
Maya nodded. “Yes, and the goblins are, too!” she said, twirling down to land lightly on the white tablecloth. “We have to find my harp, or Kerry’s wedding will be ruined!”
“Let’s start looking for the goblins right away,” Kirsty began, but Rachel pointed at the brown bag of confetti packets.
“We’d better do this first or your mom won’t be very happy, Kirsty!” she said with a grin.
“My magic can do that in a flash,” Maya chimed in. She pointed her wand at the bag and, in a shower of fairy sparkles, all the packets of confetti flew out. They hovered in the air for a second, then burst open with a pop. A huge cloud of glittering pink and silver hearts whirled around the room, scattering themselves on the white tablecloths.
“Perfect!” Kirsty laughed as the last few hearts landed neatly in place.
“Now we can go on a goblin hunt!” Maya said with a smile. “Remember, girls, Jack Frost has given the goblins a wand to change the size of the magic musical instruments. His spell has also made the goblins little-boy-size, and has taken the green out of their skin. So, they’ll be able to blend in with the wedding guests.”
“Yes, but the spell didn’t work completely, so they still have big noses, ears, and feet!” Kirsty added.
Rachel reached over and pulled a pink tulip from one of the vases. “You can hide in here, Maya,” she said.
Maya flew over to the tulip and slipped between the silky pink petals, out of sight.
“Let’s go, girls!” she whispered.
“Where should we look, Rachel?” asked Kirsty as they went into the hallway.
“Let’s go back to the lobby and start there,” Rachel suggested. She carried Maya’s tulip carefully.
As the girls made their way back to the lobby, a man in a tuxedo came hurrying toward them. He looked very annoyed and was mumbling to himself.
“Really, that’s no way for one musician to treat another!” he muttered furiously. “I’m going to complain to the hotel manager.”
The man was so angry, he barged right past the girls and almost knocked Maya out of the tulip. She grabbed ahold of a petal just in time to stop herself from falling.
“Are you all right, Maya?” asked Kirsty, when the man had disappeared around the corner.
Maya popped her head out of the tulip and nodded.
“I wonder what’s the matter with him?” said Rachel.
“I think he’s the piano player from the lobby,” Kirsty replied. “Remember? He was about to start playing when we first got here.”
“Listen!” Rachel grabbed her friend’s arm. “I hear music!”
Maya and the girls listened. They could all hear ripples of sweet, airy music coming from the lobby just ahead of them.
“That’s my harp!” Maya gasped.
Kirsty and Rachel ran toward the lobby. It was packed with people listening to the beautiful tune. It was so crowded, the girls couldn’t see Maya’s harp or the harpist.
“What should we do?” Kirsty whispered to Rachel.
“We’ll just have to push our way through the crowd as politely as possible!” Rachel whispered back.
The girls began to weave their way through the lobby. Rachel still held Maya’s tulip tightly.
“Excuse me,” Rachel said to an elderly woman who looked completely entranced by the music. “Could you let us by, please? We want to see who’s playing the harp.”
“Of course, my dear,” the woman replied, moving aside a little. “Isn’t it amazing to see such a young boy play so beautifully?”
Rachel and Kirsty exchanged a glance. Now they could see the harpist, plucking at the strings of a beautiful golden harp. He wore a suit with tails and a top hat, but the clothes couldn’t disguise his big nose, ears, and feet.
“It’s a goblin!” whispered Kirsty.
The goblin drew his fingers across the strings with a final, rippling flourish, and the audience broke into tremendous applause. Grinning, the goblin stood up and swept his top hat off in a low bow.
“Do you think he’s going to play another song?” Rachel asked Kirsty.
“I hope not,” Kirsty replied, “because we have no chance of getting Maya’s harp back with all these people around!”
The goblin was about to seat himself at the harp again when the crowd suddenly parted to let a tall man through. He wore a badge that read HOTEL MANAGER. Close behind him was the piano player, who still looked very annoyed.
Kirsty and Rachel watched as the hotel manager walked up to the goblin.
“Thank you very much for your lovely performance,” he said with a strained smile. “It was completely unexpected, but everyone enjoyed it. However, it’s the piano player’s turn to perform now.”
The goblin looked outraged. “I’m a much better musician than he is!” He snorted. And, sticking out his tongue, he grabbed ahold of the harp and wheeled it away. “After him!” Maya whispered from her tulip.
Rachel and Kirsty hurried after the goblin, weaving their way in between the people, who were now milling around.
“He’s leaving the hotel!” said Kirsty, catching a glimpse of the goblin as he wheeled his harp out of the main entrance.
The girls went after him as fast as they could, but it was difficult to keep up while so many people were around. More guests were
arriving for the wedding, too. It took a few minutes before Rachel and Kirsty could leave through the main doors.
“We lost him!” Rachel exclaimed in dismay.
“No, there he is!” Kirsty cried, pointing across the garden.
The goblin was just escaping through one of the ivy-covered archways.
Maya fluttered out of the tulip and into the air as she, Rachel, and Kirsty raced after the goblin. They peeked through the arch and saw him pull an icy wand from inside his jacket. He pointed it at the harp, and the instrument shrank down to pocket-size in the blink of an eye.
“Let’s try to grab the harp!” Rachel suggested.
The three friends dashed through the arch, but the goblin heard them coming. He spun around with a shriek of rage.
“Go away, pesky girls!” he roared, snatching the tiny harp from the ground. He slipped it into his pocket and ran off toward another archway.
Rachel, Kirsty, and Maya followed. On the other side of the arch was a beautiful rose garden with marble statues of Greek gods all around. But the goblin was nowhere to be seen.
“He must be here somewhere!” Kirsty panted. “There’s no other way out!”
Maya and the girls began to search the rose garden. They looked behind every rosebush, but there was no sign of the goblin anywhere.
Suddenly, Rachel clutched Kirsty’s arm.
“Look,” she said in a low voice. “See that statue under the willow tree at the bottom of the garden?”
Kirsty looked where Rachel was pointing. There was a tall stone wall at the bottom of the rose garden, and next to it was a willow tree. Under the tree stood a marble statue of a woman in a flowing robe. The statue was placed on top of a tall, marble base, and was in shadow, almost hidden by the willow’s long, drooping branches.
“The goblin could be hiding under the willow tree!” Rachel went on.
“Let’s go and see,” Maya said eagerly.
The three friends hurried over to the tree, and Rachel began to part the branches carefully, searching for the goblin.
Meanwhile, Kirsty glanced up at the tall statue. Suddenly, she caught a very quick glimpse of a top hat before it whisked out of sight again.
The goblin’s hiding behind the statue! Kirsty thought. He must have climbed up onto the base!
She glanced at Maya and Rachel, then put her finger to her lips and pointed at the statue. They nodded in understanding.
“The base is very high,” Kirsty whispered. “Rachel, if you stand on my shoulders, do you think you’d be able to get the harp out of the goblin’s pocket?”
“I’ll try!” Rachel whispered.
Quietly, the three friends headed over to the statue. But before they could carry out their plan, they heard a shriek of warning high above their heads.
“Look out! There are those horrible girls and a dreadful fairy!”
Disappointed, Maya, Rachel, and Kirsty looked up and saw a second goblin sitting on top of the garden wall. He reached down behind the statue and grabbed the goblin with the harp, tugging him up onto the wall.
“Ha, ha!” the goblins jeered, making faces at Maya and the girls. “We win and you lose! You’ll never get the magic harp back now!”
And with that, they disappeared over the garden wall.
“Oh, no!” Rachel exclaimed. “How are we going to catch them now? The wall’s too high for us to climb over.”
“The wall isn’t a problem,” Maya replied with a smile, “if you have wings!”
She flew over the girls’ heads, showering them with a cloud of multi-colored fairy sparkles from her wand. Immediately, Rachel and Kirsty became fairy-size, with glittering wings on their backs.
“Here we go!” Maya cried, linking arms with the girls.
Together, all three of them soared up and over the wall.
“There go the goblins!” Kirsty shouted, catching a glimpse of them in the distance.
“And it looks like they’re heading back toward the hotel!” Rachel added. The goblins were running across the lawn to the hotel entrance.
“I bet there are lots of people inside now, because all the wedding guests will have arrived,” said Kirsty, as the goblins dashed into the lobby. “The goblins are probably hoping that they’ll be able to hide in the crowd!”
“We need to be careful that they don’t spot us,” Maya said anxiously.
Rachel, Kirsty, and Maya flew into the lobby. As Kirsty had guessed, it was packed with people! The girls and Maya kept as close as possible to the walls of the room to avoid being seen by the guests.
“There are a lot of fancy wedding hats around!” Rachel gasped, as she zipped up to dodge a large-brimmed, pink straw hat.
“Let’s fly higher and see what’s happening,” Maya said in a low voice, pointing up at the crystal chandelier. They all whizzed upward and perched on one of the sparkling globes of glass.
“There are so many people here,” Kirsty remarked, peering down at the wedding guests. “The goblins could be anywhere!”
Rachel grinned. “I think I see one!” she said, pointing. “Look at that waiter!”
Kirsty and Maya peered down at a waiter below them. He looked pretty funny — his jacket was too big and came all the way down to his knees! He was pushing a food cart with a beautiful, white, four-tiered wedding cake on it.
“It’s the goblin who was on top of the wall!” said Maya. “But where’s the goblin with my harp?”
“Look at the bottom shelf of the cart!” Kirsty laughed.
The cart was covered with a long white cloth, but Kirsty had spotted two large feet poking out from underneath the material.
“After them!” Maya whispered.
The goblin waiter was wheeling the cart toward the reception room as fast as he could.
“I hope the goblins are careful with Kerry’s cake,” Kirsty worried as she flew after them. “It would be awful if anything happened to it!”
As the goblin pushed the cart into the reception room, Maya, Rachel, and Kirsty ducked inside, too. They had just enough time to hide behind the sparkly bow on top of one of the wedding presents before the goblin closed the door.
“You can come out now,” the waiter said triumphantly to the other goblin. “We managed to dodge that silly fairy and her human friends!”
The goblin with the harp climbed out from under the tablecloth, grinning happily. But suddenly, the door swung open and a woman in a pretty, rose-colored suit and a white hat hurried in.
“Oh!” Kirsty whispered. “It’s Kerry’s mother, Mrs. Bolton!”
Mrs. Bolton looked annoyed.
“Oh, you finally brought the cake!” she exclaimed. “We were beginning to wonder where it was.”
The goblins looked sheepish. “Well — er —” the goblin waiter began.
“Never mind that now,” Mrs. Bolton said impatiently. “Put the cake on that table in the corner, and please hurry!”
The goblins rushed to pick up the cake as Mrs. Bolton stepped out again, closing the door behind her.
“Oh, I can’t look!” Kirsty groaned, covering her eyes. The girls and Maya held their breath as the goblins clumsily lifted the cake off the cart and placed it on the table.
“At least the cake’s safe!” Rachel said with a sigh of relief. “Now it’s time to get the harp! But how?”
“Any ideas, girls?” asked Maya.
Kirsty and Rachel both thought hard. Below them, the goblins were smirking, looking very pleased with themselves.
“I’m going to play at the wedding!” the goblin with the harp announced proudly. “I’m a much better player than that human woman. Her harp sounded horrible!” He pulled Maya’s little harp out of his pocket and stroked it lovingly. The second goblin looked on with envy.
Kirsty grinned. “If there’s one thing we can always count on, it’s the goblins arguing with each other!” she whispered. “Maybe we can get them to argue over the harp?”
“Great idea, Kirsty!” Rachel agreed. “And while t
hey’re disagreeing, Maya can swoop down and get it back.”
“Go for it, girls!” said Maya.
Rachel and Kirsty flew across to the goblins. Kirsty zoomed toward the goblin who had the harp, while Rachel hurried over to the other one.
“Oh, no!” shrieked the goblin when he saw Kirsty. “Fairies!”
“I just wanted to tell you something,” Kirsty said quickly. “I’ve noticed that other goblin looking at your harp. I’m sure he’s going to try to steal it from you!”
The goblin frowned. “I’d like to see him try!” he muttered.
Meanwhile, Rachel was talking to the second goblin.
“Why don’t you get a turn with the harp?” she said. “I’d like to hear how you play.”
The goblin looked very sulky.
“He won’t let me,” he grumbled, pointing at the first goblin.
Rachel pretended to look astonished. “Doesn’t he ever share?” she asked.
The second goblin shook his head. “No, he’s mean!” he replied.
Rachel frowned and said, “I don’t think you should let him get away with that!”
“You’re right,” said the second goblin. “Well, he’s going to share now!” He dashed across the room and tried to grab the harp from the other goblin.
“Get away!” the first goblin howled, giving him a shove. Soon, the two goblins were rolling around on the floor, wrestling over the harp!
Kirsty and Rachel hovered nearby as Maya fluttered down, looking for an opportunity to grab the harp. But it was tough for her to get close to the fighting goblins.
“Oh, no!” Rachel gasped as the goblins rolled toward the table with the wedding cake on it.
The Music Fairies Collection Page 7
