by Nina Smith
Hippy smiled. She liked snakes.
Poppy said what sounded like a bad word.
Hippy repeated the word, intrigued. “What does that mean?”
“It means I find that thing incredibly disconcerting, dear.”
“Hippy you must go up to the statue,” Pierus said. “And bring me back what you find in those hands. Do not be afraid.”
Hippy tentatively took a step off the bridge. Then another. The statue didn’t move, so she gained confidence.
“Why her?” Poppy asked. “Why not you or me?”
“It has to be her,” Pierus said. “Nobody else can touch it.”
Hippy walked barefoot to the statue. Water dripped from her tunic, making tiny craters in the cold, fine sand. The statue’s hands were too high for her to reach, so she found all the tiny little niches nobody but a fairy could see and scrambled up the rock wall next to it. When she reached elbow height she hung onto the wall and leaned over to look in the cupped hands, but it was too dark to see anything. “I need light!”
The torchlight flooded over the stone hands, lighting up ancient fingers, stone palms, an empty bowl.
Hippy bit her lip. Pierus was going to be very cross. She gave a disconsolate sigh. “It’s not here.”
Pierus was very, very quiet. “What?”
“I said it’s not here.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s completely empty.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Pierus’s voice could have chilled a bearfly in the hive. “Look again.”
“There’s nothing there,” Hippy said.
“Look again!”
Hippy made a face at him and leaned across once again. It was very awkward to hang onto the rock with one hand and reach across a stone shoulder with the other, but she didn’t feel it would be very respectful to climb on the statue itself. She reached into the cupped hands and felt around. Nope, still nothing. She checked all of the fingers, in case it was a very small treasure, with no success. Pierus was just going to have to accept it, the thing was gone.
Something sharp scraped the palm of her hand.
Hippy scrabbled for the object. She picked it up between two fingers and studied it in Poppy’s light. She blinked. “Freakin Fairies!” she yelled, and promptly fell backwards off the wall. She heard Poppy shriek just before she flipped, rolled on her back and landed at Pierus’s feet.
“What do you mean, Freakin Fairies?” Pierus’s voice was positively icy.
Hippy stood up and opened her hand. Poppy shone her torch on the object in it.
“It’s a snake tooth,” Hippy said. “Like the ones the Freakin Fairies who live in Quicksilver Forest wear in their hair.”
Pierus cursed black and blue, turned on his heel and stormed back over the bridge.
Hippy ran after him. “What does it mean? How do the Freakin Fairies even know about the treasure? What do we do now?”
“We find them,” Pierus said.
Poppy followed close behind them. “Are you two saying fairies took Pandora’s Box from a cave that’s been sealed for three thousand years?”
“Who else?” Pierus demanded. “Three thousand years ago Pandora was the only one who could touch the Apple of Chaos. Now that gift lies with her descendants. I knew that traitorous creature was going to come back to haunt me.”
“My God, you two really believe all this stuff,” Poppy said.
Pierus whirled on her. “You! Did you have anything to do with this? Are you in cahoots with the Freakin Fairies?”
“Back off!” Poppy planted a hand on his chest and shoved him. “See this? This is my personal space. I’m very particular about it. Don’t get in it. I’ll have you know I’m also very upset about coming all the way down here, at great personal risk, for nothing at all.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose, shoved past Pierus and stalked ahead.
Hippy giggled. “I like her. She’s just like a fairy.”
Pierus put a hand on her shoulder and matched his pace to hers. “If I were you my dear, I wouldn’t trust her.”
“Why not?”
“Just take my word for it. I know humans, and this one is not what she says she is.”
“Oh.” Hippy’s eyes widened, considering this. “Can we keep her anyway?”
Pierus chuckled. “She’s not a pet.”
“But she’s fun. And she knows stuff.”
“You have a point there. She does indeed appear to know things.”
They descended the steps together. Hippy balked at the sight of the stream. “Isn’t there another way out?”
Poppy, who had just lowered herself into the water, looked back. “Actually no,” she said. “In fact the water may be our only way out, depending on whether your so-called vampire friends decided to cut my rope or not once we were gone.”
Silence greeted this statement. Hippy shuddered. She’d forgotten, briefly, about the vamps.
Poppy waded downstream.
“Go on,” Pierus said. “I’m right behind you.”
Hippy wasn’t quite sure if he was trying to be comforting or scary, but she splashed disconsolately into the water anyway and waded after Poppy. It was no easier going downstream than up, because now the water pushed her off balance the other way. She gritted her teeth and kept going.
When Poppy went right past the hole in the rock overhead, Hippy’s nerves tightened like screws in a cooking pot. “You were serious about the rope being cut?” She eyed the roof, which sloped down to meet the surface of the water. The rock was dark and slick with slimy condensation. Something with a lot of legs crawled on the rough surface, oblivious to the current below.
“In my experience it’s best never to leave a site the same way you went in,” Poppy said. “Can you swim?”
“Swim? No!” Hippy’s voice rose to a squeak.
“Probably a good time to learn, then.” Poppy dived and disappeared.
“Oh for Shadow’s sake.” Pierus put one arm around her waist. “Just hold your breath.”
Hippy had just enough time to grab Fluffy Ducky’s pouch and hold it above the surface before Pierus dived, taking her under.
The water deafened and blinded her. She was wet. All wet. Panic flashed through her brain. Surely no Bloody Fairy in history had ever, ever been this wet. The only thing that stopped her from complete terror was the fact her hand was dry, even if her knuckles did keep scraping rock, so Fluffy Ducky must be okay.
Bubbles escaped from her mouth. Pierus kicked his legs and propelled them through the water with his free arm. Stars burst in front of her eyes. Her lungs strained. Her brain threatened to explode out of her skull.
Then all at once they shot out into sunlit water and surfaced in open, empty countryside.
Hippy opened her mouth to scream because the experience had been so awful, but the sound only lasted a second before Poppy clapped a hand over her mouth and kept it there until she stopped.
“Not a good idea,” Poppy said in a low voice. “Just relax. It’s only water. Okay?”
Hippy nodded.
Poppy took her hand away. “Come on.”
Hippy was only too glad to get out of the water, flop onto the grassy bank and do her best to wring out her sodden clothes while still wearing them. First though she took out Fluffy Ducky to check on him. He sat on her hand trembling. Droplets of water shone on his hairs. He blinked at her with all eight eyes.
Poppy crouched down next to her. “What do you have there?”
“Fluffy Ducky.” Hippy held him up for her inspection.
“Cute. In a frightening sort of way.” Poppy studied him closely. “Looks like some breed of tarantula. Does he bite?”
“Only vamps. Well, mostly only vamps. He doesn’t like Pierus, which is weird. He’s normally such a good judge of character.”
Poppy snorted. “I’d say he’s perfectly accurate. You know I saw spiders like that in the Central American jungles a couple of years ago. Woke up with one hanging in a brand new web right
across my bed.”
Hippy stared at her, impressed. “Did you bring him home for a friend?”
“`Fraid not, love. Thought he was better off in his natural environment.”
Hippy put Fluffy Ducky in his pouch. The hot sun was already drying her clothes off. She unpinned her hair and squeezed the water out of it, which was quite an operation, considering she could barely reach portions of it.
A footstep crunched on the grass nearby. Hippy looked up to see Pierus, his hair and clothes clinging to his skin, watching her. He had a funny tilt to his mouth that unsettled her.
“What is it?” Hippy wrung the last of her hair out and pinned it back into place.
Pierus muttered something and stalked away.
“That sounded like `just like Pandora.’” Poppy sounded amused.
Hippy stared after him. “You two keep talking about her,” she said. “Who is she?”
“Come on.” Poppy helped her to her feet and they followed Pierus through the long grass and up a sloping hillside. “Pandora was said to be the first woman created by the Greek Gods, long, long ago. Zeus, the king of the Gods, gave her a box to keep and told her not to open it. But of course she did and all the bad things that ever were–you know, greed, hate, envy–all came flying out into the world. The only thing left in the box was hope.”
“Sounds nasty,” Hippy said. “Why do you want such a box?”
“Can’t you imagine? Something so old and fabled would be infinitely valuable.”
“What happened to her?”
“Who, Pandora?” Poppy shrugged. “The usual myths don’t really say. Of course the ones I’ve been pursuing have been lost for so many years, it’s difficult to translate, but I’ve gathered she suffered some kind of punishment. Banished in darkness was the literal translation, but I’ve really no idea what that means.”
They gained the top of the slope and stopped. Ahead lay a flat grassy area strewn with rectangular rocks. To one side pillars rose from the ground, but supported no roof. Pierus crouched in the centre of the ruins. His coat flared out around him.
Hippy went and crouched down beside him. She plucked a blade of grass and twirled it in her fingers. “It’s a nice hill,” she said. “But the house is all broken.”
“Three thousand years will do that,” Pierus said in a low voice. “I had no idea it would affect me so much.”
“What would?”
“I lived over there.” He pointed to the south. “I used to come here often. This was a temple then, a beautiful stone temple.”
Hippy tried to imagine it, but she’d never seen a temple.
Pierus patted her hand. “Forgive an old man for getting maudlin,” he said. “I’ve been back to Dream from time to time, but never to my home. I had no idea it would be like this. It must be all this talk of Pandora. I brought her here once.” He brushed a lock of wet hair out of Hippy’s face and tucked it behind her ear. “You remind me of her.”
Hippy quickly stood up and stepped out of reach. She wasn’t sure why the look on his face made her nervous, but it did. “Poppy said Pandora opened a box and let all the bad things out.”
Pierus chuckled. “It didn’t quite happen like that.”
“How do you know?”
“Of all people, I should know. She was my wife.”
Poppy cleared her throat behind them. “Sorry to interrupt, you two,” she said. “Where’s your transport?”
“Transport?” Hippy looked at Pierus.
“Given we weren’t anticipating the theft of the Apple of Chaos, transport was not my first consideration when we arrived,” Pierus said.
“If talking like a pompous ass gave you wheels, you’d go miles. You’d better follow me. You don’t want to stay here.” Poppy turned around and walked down the slope toward a road that wound beneath the hillside.
Hippy skipped after her. Pierus followed a minute later. She thought maybe he was saying his goodbyes first. How odd, to think of Pierus as a young man with a wife. She wondered what Pandora had been like.
By the time they reached the road Hippy was hot and thirsty. She re-pinned her hair to lift it off her neck while they walked. The fabric of her tunic had dried all stiff and was gritty against her skin. Poppy seemed to know where she was going, even though the road was completely empty and wound on for miles and miles and miles.
After a while Poppy headed away from the road and towards a stand of trees where a black vehicle was parked. It was similar to cars Hippy had glimpsed in Shadow City the one time she’d been there, but it had the oddest dents all over it, a little round hole in the windscreen and no sleek shiny horns or buttons or dials to be seen. It was shrouded in foliage.
Poppy gave an apologetic shrug. “You can never be too careful.” She lifted a camouflaging branch off the bonnet and took a key from her pocket.
“How right you are, Miss Praeconius,” said an unfamiliar voice.
Something cold and metallic pressed into Hippy’s neck. She looked around in surprise.
Three men in black and white suits had appeared out of nowhere. One was short and bald, the other two were very big and had shoulders like tree branches. One pointed a gun at Poppy’s head, the other at Pierus.
Poppy slowly raised her hands in the air. She gave a nervous laugh. “Gentlemen, really, it’s so nice of you to come out and meet me here! I’m sure we can dispense with the hardware.”
“Dispense with the hardware? Really?” The bald guy made a wheezing noise low in his throat that could have been a laugh. “That’s my insurance. Where is it?”
“Gone.” Poppy looked steadily into his eyes and never flinched.
“Gone? Now why don’t I believe you?”
“She’s telling the truth!” Hippy scowled at him.
“Shut up Hippy.” Poppy kept a smile pasted on her face, but spoke through clenched teeth.
“Hippy is it?” Bald guy grabbed Hippy’s chin and twisted her face one way and then the other. “Yeah, she looks like a hippy. What do you know about the box, little girl?”
“I’m not a little girl,” Hippy said.
“Seriously she’s got nothing to do with it,” Poppy said. “Her and the old guy, I just met them up on the hill. They’re tourists. Now Tony I’m sure we can talk about this like civilised people.”
“Sure we can.” Tony jerked his head at a long black car that had just pulled up on the road behind them. “Get in. All three of you. No funny business or the hippy gets it, alright?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
It was all very well climbing into the back seat and looking to see if there was anything shiny in there, but when the doors locked them in and the countryside rushed past faster than the wind, Hippy started to feel sick. She’d never actually been inside a car, not even in Shadow City. Bloody Fairies didn’t trust any mode of transportation that lacked visible feet.
It was very cramped on the two facing bench seats. Poppy sat on one side, in between Tony and one of the big men. The other big man sat between her and Pierus.
“Now isn’t this cosy?” Tony plucked a small white box out of his pocket, took a little white tube from that and applied a flaming match to the end. The most foul-smelling smoke curled from the stick and filled the car.
Hippy couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. “Do you know that thing in your hand is on fire?”
Poppy muttered something under her breath.
Tony chuckled. “It’s a cigarette, sweetie.” He sucked on the thing and exhaled a cloud of smoke around her head. “What’s wrong with her?”
Hippy winced and waited for someone to say it.
“Nothing’s wrong with her,” Poppy snapped. “She’s just not from around here.”
Hippy beamed, then coughed when she inhaled a lungful of smoke.
“See I have a problem with this,” Tony said. “I could almost swear you told me you were going after this box alone, and I’ve got a very good memory.” He tapped his head. “But then you go underground and you
come up with two new friends. What gives?”
“You know I’ve been asking myself just that,” Poppy said.
“I could just about see my way clear to getting over that little hurdle,” Tony continued, “if you had of come back with the box. Like you promised. But you didn’t, so we’re going to have a problem.”
“Damn right we’re going to have a problem.” Poppy took a deep breath. “Someone else got there first. I’m going to need more money if you want me to keep chasing this, Tony. A woman can’t live on air.”
Pierus made a sharp movement. The big man planted a hand on his chest.
Tony glared at him. “Don’t you worry mister, you’ll get your turn to talk. Mostly because I just don’t like you. Unlike you-” he looked at Hippy. “You I could get used to.” He paused a moment and sucked on his cigarette. “You’re not getting another cent, Miss Praeconius, till you give us something solid. I’m starting to think there is no treasure. You don’t want to me to think that, because you know what’ll happen.” He drew a finger across his throat.
“Now Tony, have I ever given you cause not to trust me?” Poppy looked at him over her glasses.
Hippy lost interest in the conversation. She reached in to check on Fluffy Ducky.
“I don’t trust anybody.” Tony dragged on his cigarette. “I don’t trust you. You’re too smart for a woman. I don’t trust your man friend here, he walks around looking like he’s smelled something bad. I could maybe trust the little girl here, but it’d probably get me in deep trouble. You see where I’m coming from?”
“Little girl?” Hippy scowled. Fluffy Ducky ran up over her arm, paused on her shoulder and launched himself straight at Tony’s face.
The two big guys went for their guns. Tony screamed.
Pierus gave a low, deep chuckle. “That’s the first time I’ve had any use for that creature.”
Poppy moved faster than the men. She seized their guns right out of their hands and pointed each one at their owners. “Hippy just make sure that spider doesn’t bite him, will you? You, Ugly, stop the car.”
