‘Do you feel any different?’ Tick repeated.
‘I . . . I don’t know,’ Cora said. She closed her eye and searched. She felt a little different but she thought that was the warlock magic. But maybe it could be . . . She opened her eye and looked at Tick and Tock. ‘A little?’
The fairies shrugged.
‘It’s . . . over,’ said Cora, unbelieving. ‘It’s really over,’ she looked at Artemis then back at the fairies. They smiled at her.
Cora stood up and spun around on the spot. She felt a weight tumble from her shoulders and hit the ground. It’s over. The curse is lifted.
Cora looked out and saw that some of the magical beings of Jade City had started to help repair the damaged street, the sound of POP!s of magic in the air.
Tick waved to them.
‘Do you think we will be allowed back to Jade City?’ Tock asked looking around at the mess they had made.
‘Probably not,’ said Tick.
There was silence amongst them.
‘What now?’ Cora asked.
‘We were thinking of having a nap,’ said Tick.
‘For five days,’ said Tock.
Cora smiled. Then she looked over at Artemis. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For all of your help.’
Artemis nodded.
‘We will deliver your message to King Clang,’ said Tock.
‘We will tell him about the silver-haired man,’ said Tick.
‘And what happened to the princess,’ added Cora.
‘Thank you,’ said Artemis.
‘Where will you go?’ Cora asked. As she looked around, she couldn’t help but think the same thing about herself.
‘Home,’ said Artemis. ‘The kingdom is destroyed but maybe some of my kind were able to escape the silver-haired man.’
Cora thought on Artemis’s words. Home. She always thought Urt was her home . . . but perhaps she had another home somewhere. The one she couldn’t remember.
‘If you ever need me,’ Artemis said, ‘just send word.’
Cora and the fairies nodded.
And then with a SNAP, Artemis transformed into a great golden bird. He bent his head down in a bow before taking off in flight, beating his great wings into the air.
The three of them watched as Artemis flew up and over the evening sky of Jade City.
Then Tick sighed. ‘I wish we had wings like that.’
Chapter Forty-Five
Cora, Tick and Tock helped the magical beings of Jade City repair the destruction left behind by the Jinx. Magic sparks zipped in the air as they put bricks back, smoothed cracks in the streets, mended roofs and windows. Cora helped an ogre lift up a slanted house and Tick and Tock scooped up debris with the help of a group of diligent gnomes.
When the evening sky turned into night, Cora and the fairies threw themselves down on the ground, well and truly exhausted. The street was ramshackle and not quite right — Cora spotted an upside-down roof on a house nearby — but it was close.
As they sat, Cora could hear the music from the Jade City festival begin again in the distance. She smiled. She felt lighter, the curse no longer clinging to her like a shadow. She was free. But beneath her relief swam a sinking feeling in her stomach. She glanced down at her wrist and saw it bare. She was no longer protected by her bracelet. The more magic you absorb, the harder it will be to control it, Tick’s words rang in her mind. And Tock’s, It can tear you apart. She swallowed and quickly pulled her jacket sleeve down over her wrist.
‘Cora?’ said Tock.
‘Huh?’ she said, her mind elsewhere. She looked back at the fairies.
‘Are you alright?’ Tock asked.
Cora nodded.
‘I suppose you’re going to go back home?’ asked Tick after a while. ‘To Urt.’
Home. Cora thought about that word again.
‘To find your Dot and Scrap?’ added Tock.
‘Scratch,’ Cora corrected with a smile. She wanted to go back to Urt. To find Dot and Scratch. She wanted to see them again, more than anything. But something inside her was pulling her elsewhere. Home. She thought about her bracelet again. Who had given it to her? If there were other syphons, then where were they? Maybe she could find them. Her heart quickened at the thought. She didn’t know what world she belonged to. But maybe she could find out.
‘Yes, I’d like to go home,’ Cora said.
Tick nodded sadly. He wiped his nose on his sleeve.
Tock rubbed one of his eyes with his shirt.
‘But I don’t think Urt is home anymore,’ she said. ‘So I think I might stick with you two until I find it, if that’s okay?’
The fairies looked at Cora, large grins spread across their faces. Then they flew at her, barrelling into her with hugs. She hugged them back.
Cora was happy. So happy that she ignored the faint crackle of warlock magic that sizzled and sparked strangely beneath her skin.
When they let go of Cora, Tick and Tock flew upwards, twirling and somersaulting happily in the air.
‘I think our work here is done,’ said Tick proudly.
‘To the Hollow!’ said Tock.
‘Are you sure we’ll be allowed back in?’ Cora asked.
‘Banished! Schmanished!’ said Tick.
Cora laughed.
‘And without that pesky Jinx chasing us, we can travel however we please,’ said Tock.
Cora remembered the travel sickness she felt when they arrived at Drake Manor. ‘Oh no.’
‘Hold onto your stomach!’ said Tock.
Then Tick and Tock flew down towards her and with a final POP! of magic, Cora and the fairies disappeared from Jade City, a soft echo of laughter in the air.
to be continued . . .
About the Author
REBECCA McRITCHIE would love to tell you that she was raised by wolves in the depths of a snow-laden forest until she stumbled upon and saved a village from the fiery peril of a disgruntled dragon.
But, truthfully, she works as a children’s book editor and lives in Sydney.
Whimsy and Woe and the sequel, Whimsy and Woe: The Final Act, were her first fiction titles, followed by the Jinxed! series.
About the Illustrator
SHARON O’CONNOR is a freelance illustrator who lives in Melbourne with her husband and triplet sons.
After graduating from R.M.I.T. Graphic Design, she has spent many years designing and illustrating in publishing, textiles and packaging with a particular love of charater design. In her spare time she likes to paint, bake, hang out with animals and take lots of photos.
WHIMSY AND WOE
by Rebecca McRitchie
illustrated by Sonia Kretschmar
After being abandoned by their thespian parents, Whimsy and Woe Mordaunt are left in the care of their austere Aunt Apoline.
Forced to work in Apoline’s boarding house, slaving at the beck and call of outlandish and demanding guests, and sharpening the thorns of every plant in the poisonous plant garden, Whimsy and Woe lose all hope that their parents will ever return. Until one day, quite by accident, the siblings stumble upon a half-charred letter that sets them on a course to freedom and finding their parents.
‘Adventurous and outlandish, Whimsy and Woe will hook kids in from the first page’
Books+Publishing, ****
WHIMSY AND WOE: THE FINAL ACT
by Rebecca McRitchie
illustrated by Sonia Kretschmar
As a blazing inferno rages through Whitby City, Whimsy and Woe Mordaunt see their last clue go up in flames and their journey to find their parents has seemingly come to a fiery end. That is until the siblings spot a very familiar man in the crowd . . .
In the final act to this dramatic tale, Whimsy and Woe must escape villainous thieves, travel beneath a desert, climb the Mountainous Mountains and perform a death-defying trapeze act in the Benton Brothers Circus . . . all before going undercover at the annual Thespian Society Masquerade Ball.
Can they stop The Purple Puppete
er’s evil plans in time and rescue their parents? Or will The Purple Puppeteer pull their family’s strings forever?
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Australia
First published in Australia in 2019
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Rebecca McRitchie 2019
Illustrations copyright © Sharon O’Connor 2019
The rights of Rebecca McRitchie and Sharon O’Connor to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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ISBN 978 1 4607 5764 2 (paperback)
ISBN 978 1 4607 1130 9 (ebook)
A Catalogue record entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
Cover design by Amy Daoud, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover and internal illustrations by Sharon O’Connor
Jinxed!: The Curious Curse of Cora Bell Page 16
