Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand Page 9

  Frustrated, Pah dived down to the table for the wand. She pushed the plates and mugs aside. It’s gone! The wand is gone!

  “What?”

  Fairies collected around the nest to wait for Rani’s return. They simmered with wand madness. Even Beck was infected. She sat on a branch several yards from the nest. She wouldn’t come closer lest Mother Dove sense her nonstop wishing for the power to switch to any animal—bear, beaver, butterfly—and back to fairy, whenever she liked.

  On a branch above Mother Dove, Ree straightened her second-best tiara. She was dreaming again of declaring herself empress and wielding the wand as her scepter.

  Prilla was there, too, just back from another blink to Sara Quirtle. Prilla alone was untouched by wand madness. Perhaps she was too new to have collected many wishes, or she was too pleased with the wish she had made to want more.

  “Prilla…” Mother Dove said.

  Prilla flew to the nest.

  “Fetch Vidia from her room. Tell her not to argue.”

  Prilla flew off, certain that Vidia would argue.

  “Mother Dove?” Tink called from her perch below the nest, next to Terence. “We don’t need Vidia.”

  “Maybe not,” Mother Dove said. She wasn’t sure which fairy would be needed. She wasn’t sure if any of them would succeed with the wand.

  Never fear, she thought to the egg. There is nothing to fear.

  Terence took Tink’s hand.

  “If you were a cake pan,” Tink told him tenderly, “your cakes would be delicious, even if a doorknob-talent fairy made them.”

  “If you were fairy dust,” Terence said, “you would come from Mother Dove’s neck.”

  Tink’s glow deepened at the compliment. Then she sighed. “I may not be able to wake the wand. The Great Wandies said we couldn’t.”

  “You’ll do it.”

  “I may not be able to reverse the wishes.”

  “You’ll be able to.”

  “I may not reverse your wish.”

  “Reverse it,” Terence said bravely. “We’re both broken pots now. You’re the Tink who has to care about me, and I’m the Terence who made you have to care.”

  “I’ll miss you.” Tink tugged her bangs. “But I won’t know it.”

  Terence reached into the pocket of his frock coat. “Take this.” He gave her a small velvet pouch. “It’s leg dust. Use it on your most contrary pots.”

  Tink dimpled. “The desperate cases.”

  “That’s right.”

  “After I use the dust, I’ll keep the pouch.” She hooked it onto her belt, next to her dagger. “I’ll save it forever.”

  Terence doubted she would, but he said, “That will be lovely.”

  They sat together quietly. Tink stopped worrying about the ordeal ahead. Terence’s company was as soothing as copper polish.

  Rani swam out of the mermaid’s castle and upward through the lagoon.

  Esteemed fairy, please set me free.

  Rani didn’t answer. She rose out of the water and began to fly toward Fairy Haven.

  Please let me be a bat again.

  Rani would have loved to be rid of Rani-bat, but she didn’t dare. She heard every one of Rani-bat’s thoughts, which were about snatching the wand and waving it and becoming a bat matriarch and drawing thousands of spiders to her and eating them. Thanking Rani was part of Rani-bat’s plan, but giving up the wand wasn’t.

  T W E N T Y - F I V E

  VIDIA DIDN’T answer Prilla’s knocks, so Prilla eased the door open.

  “Step right in, darling. Don’t wait for an invitation.”

  Prilla sneezed. The room could have belonged to a wrecking-talent fairy. Wing-chair stuffing drifted in the air. Strips of cloth from Vidia’s wing-patterned bed canopy dangled over the bed. Black paint blotches splashed across the cloud mural on Vidia’s west wall.

  “Vidia?” Prilla flew to the bed.

  Vidia rolled over, face down.

  “Mother Dove wants you to come to the nest.”

  Silence.

  “Mother Dove said not to argue.”

  Vidia turned her head to the side to speak. “Am I arguing, love?”

  “No, but you haven’t come.”

  Silence.

  Vidia would have come instantly if Prilla had told her that Tink was going to try to reverse everyone’s wishes. But Prilla didn’t know about Vidia’s wish.

  “Mother Dove must have a good reason for wanting you.”

  “Honeybunch, the only reason…” Vidia turned on her side. Maybe Mother Dove thought she could get her old flight back. She sprang up, and was gone.

  Prilla followed, wondering what she’d said to make Vidia change her mind.

  Fighting wand madness, Rani passed over beach, brush, and the woods that bordered Fairy Haven. She passed over the Home Tree, the barnyard, the mill, and the orchard and reached the air high above Mother Dove’s hawthorn. There, her own madness and Rani-bat’s joined forces. She didn’t descend.

  Mother Dove felt her up there. She raised her beak and began to coo resounding coos that filled her tree, expanded to the fairy circle, and rose to the clouds above. Rani heard them. Her madness didn’t drain away, but it shrank and became manageable. The madness of the assembled fairies shrank, too.

  Esteemed fairy, a bird is your matriarch?

  She’s Mother Dove, esteemed bat.

  “Give the wand to Tink,” Mother Dove cooed.

  Tink and Terence had flown to the ground under the hawthorn.

  “You can fix anything,” Terence said and stepped back.

  Rani handed the wand to Tink.

  Fairies circled Tink or hovered above her. Tink sprinkled fairy dust on the wand, remembering Tutupia’s hope that they had picked one with a big heart. If they hadn’t, Tink wanted to expand the heart before she woke the wand. She held the wand in one hand and ran her other hand along its length. As before, the wand was aware of her power.

  The cottony layers of sleep blocked Tink’s view of the heart. Her fingers barely moving, she began to lift away the layers, intending to remove just a few. As she did, the wand wriggled and shed layers, too. She glimpsed its pinched heart and malicious mind just as the wand threw off its last wisp of sleep.

  It jerked Tink along the ground. She hung on, concentrating, probing the heart for a soft spot. Oof! They slammed into Terence, who grasped the wand to steady it, to help Tink.

  He shouldn’t have put a finger on it. It could do nothing unless someone held it, and it didn’t want to be held by Tink. It yanked itself away from her but clung to him. Tink sprawled on the ground. He tried to get to her, but the wand wouldn’t let him.

  Mother Dove sang in tinkling, plinking notes, the way one wand might sing to another. “These are my fairies, wand. Please be kind.”

  If its heart hadn’t been weak, the wand would have been happy to be kind. It heard Mother Dove’s words but didn’t heed them. It was bent on mischief! It lifted Terence onto Mother Dove’s back.

  The moment Terence touched Mother Dove, the wand sniffed out her wish: that her chick would hatch. Mother Dove didn’t wish her wish. She didn’t even think of it. Her only thoughts were for her fairies. But the wish was present, hanging about her wing tips, and the wand caught it.

  Mother Dove felt a quivering beneath her. Oh! Oh, no! No! “Fly away, Terence!”

  Terence tried, but the wand made him stick firmly to Mother Dove.

  She rose off the nest, praying that the hatching hadn’t truly started, that flying the wand away had prevented it. Yet if the hatching wasn’t underway, Mother Dove had to return to the egg or it would chill.

  But she couldn’t return with the wand or the hatching would certainly begin.

  The wand tried to force her back, but she had enough magic to resist. She spiraled in the fairy circle, dipping and bucking, trying to throw off Terence.

  Minutes passed. The hatching had been arrested, but the egg was cooling.

  Terence leaned one way and
another, hoping to fall. He braced his feet against Mother Dove’s back, pushed off and flapped his wings but didn’t rise.

  Beck and the animal talents crowded atop the egg, imparting a little warmth, but not enough.

  Mother Dove felt a tremor run through Never Land. Its enchantment was fading. The egg was failing.

  She flew upside down for a whole minute. The wand kept Terence on her back. She turned right-side up and cawed at it in a language no one had heard before, to no effect. She flew straight at the thick branch of an oak tree.

  When she was an inch away she dived.

  The branch hit Terence in the chest, knocking him off her back.

  He felt a rib crack, but he was glad.

  Mother Dove flew to the egg and settled herself, cooing. “Mother is here.” The egg was still alive. It would regain its heat. She felt Never Land’s magic snap back. “Mother will always be here.”

  A voice boomed over the fairy circle. “Cute! So many adorable little fairies. Cute! Cute! Cute!”

  Dazed, Tink looked around. The voice sounded like Tutupia.

  Of course it was the wand, imitating the Great Wandy queen.

  Fairies scowled. Cute, adorable, and little were insults.

  Tink flew toward Terence, who was hovering over the fairy circle. He held the wand out to her, but it dragged him away. She flew after him.

  “Cute! And so tiny.”

  The wand made Tink grow.

  T W E N T Y - S I X

  “CUTE!” It made all the fairies grow. They grew to six inches tall, eight, a foot. The golden hawk flew from Beck’s shoulder to a twig at the top of the hawthorn. He ruffled his feathers, gold side out, to keep the wand from finding him.

  The fairies expanded to two feet tall, seven feet, twelve feet, and kept growing. They towered above the hawthorn. Mother Dove became a speck, almost too small to see. The fairies froze, afraid to move and crush her.

  Never Land swelled to accommodate the giants. The wand saw the ground move. Hah! It had changed an island.

  Rani-bat bleated, Esteemed fairy, please make it stop.

  “Cute!”

  Terence waved the wand and shouted, his voice booming, “Shrink us back!” As he shouted, his broken rib stabbed at him.

  The fairies shrank so fast that for a second their hearts beat high above their heads. Terence felt triumph until he—and everyone—grew again. And shrank again. It hurt in both directions—spread, squeeze, spread, squeeze. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!

  The wind screamed in Beck’s ears as she telescoped up and down. Rani felt like a rubber band. The world rushed by Ree’s eyes so fast she had to close them. She swayed and almost toppled. Vidia laughed, trying to grow faster and shrink faster than anyone else. They were all too busy shrinking and expanding to notice how ragged their breathing was, how jagged their heartbeats.

  Mother Dove sent her thoughts to the wand. Relax, wand, relax. Why hurry? Be lazy. Relax.

  The wand slowed. Fairies paused in their growth and shrinking. Tink was huge at the moment. Terence was small. She took a giant step toward him.

  The wand wrenched itself free of Mother Dove’s influence and zipped away with him. “Cute fairies!”

  Tink shrank again and flew at Terence. The wand forced his arm up. Tink flew higher. Terence’s arm grew longer and longer, lengthening faster than Tink could fly. His fingers touched the clouds. She gave up and descended into the hawthorn.

  “Cute fairies!” The wand lifted Terence high into an apple tree.

  “Vidia!” Tink cried, panting. “I need…”

  “Yes, darling?”

  “…I need to catch the wand.”

  “So, sweet?”

  “To reverse all the wish—”

  “Where is it?”

  Tink pointed at Terence in the apple tree.

  Vidia flew. It made no difference how big or small she was, she was fast. But the wand was faster. The wand zoomed Terence to a pine tree.

  Vidia was there, too, but not quick enough to get the wand.

  Terence was halfway across the island, at the Wough River. His chest was in agony.

  Vidia arrived, too, a beat behind.

  Terence, twelve feet tall, was on the pirate ship, but invisible to the pirates. His weight made the ship dip starboard.

  Vidia returned to the fairy circle and flew to the nest. “I couldn’t help, darling. I’d fly back—” She saw spots before her eyes and fainted.

  Prilla saw Vidia fall. Vidia! Stronger than anyone!

  Terence was reeling near a dogwood tree. Prilla thought he might faint soon, too.

  Rani flew to the dogwood, wanting to do something.

  Esteemed fairy, say please to the wand. Promise to thank it if it does what you ask.

  “Esteemed wand, please let us stop growing and shrinking. I will thank you if you do.”

  The wand didn’t care about politeness.

  Furious, Rani spat on it, a torrent of water. The wand was almost washed away, but it stuck to a dry spot on the inside of Terence’s pinkie.

  Prilla blinked to the mainland and was restored to her normal size. She landed on the desk of a Clumsy girl doing her homework.

  “A fairy!”

  Prilla pictured Tink at the end of her imaginary tunnel. When she got there, Tink was huge. Prilla threw her arms around Tink’s left index finger and blinked.

  “Two fairies!”

  Tink was her regular size. They both were.

  Tink was panting and trembling. “I have to get the wand.”

  “First catch your breath.”

  “I’m fine now.” But her glow was a mottled green.

  “Wait.” Prilla wouldn’t blink until Tink was tugging her bangs with her usual force. She took Tink’s hand and pictured the wand at the end of the tunnel.

  Tink and Prilla arrived right at the wand, still held by Terence. Tink’s hands joined his on the wand. But before she could begin her repairs, it pulled him away from her.

  Prilla blinked Tink back to the mainland.

  Tink said, “Get Beck.”

  Prilla blinked and returned with Beck.

  “Three fairies!”

  Beck needed a minute to recover.

  “I almost had the wand before,” Tink said. “If there were two of us, we might hold on to it. Beck?” Her glow flared. “Do you think you have power over the wand?”

  “Understanding, not power.”

  Prilla said, “Understanding is what Mother Dove has.”

  “Let’s blink,” Tink said.

  This time, when they arrived, they were pressed against the wand in Terence’s hand. The wand pushed the fairies away, but Beck grasped it for a moment and felt its outrage at her touch.

  “Terence!” Tink cried, terrified. His face was gray, and he was barely glowing.

  He cried out, his voice hoarse, “The leg dust, Tink.” He fell out of the air in a faint.

  The fairies stopped growing and shrinking. The wand clung to Terence’s open hand, but with Terence unconscious it could do nothing more than wriggle.

  T W E N T Y - S E V E N

  TINK, BECK, and Prilla reached Terence. Tink stroked his face. “Wake up! You can’t…I don’t—”

  “The wand!” Prilla yelled. “Take the wand.”

  Tink and Beck reached for it. Tink grasped it first. Before Beck could put her hand around it, too, the wand lifted Tink into the air and pulled her toward Rani. It planned to trick Rani into taking it, as it had Terence. Rani flew away, fingers splayed, determined not to grasp it. With one hand, Tink found the leg dust and sprinkled some on the wand. At the same time, she thought the command: Slow. Slow.

  The wand tried to speed up but slowed down instead.

  Rani reached the hawthorn and fainted.

  Luckily Tink didn’t know. She closed her eyes and focused. In her mind, she said, This won’t hurt, wand. I’m a gentle tinker. We’ll do this together. Don’t make me grow again.

  She flew the wand to the ground, remaining fa
iry size. Mentally she entered the wand.

  It was all knotted up inside! There was no serenity, no smooth flow of impulses, just jumpiness. No wonder the wand was so mischievous. Tink intensified the glow in her hand and used the heat to melt the knots and iron things out.

  The wand felt Tink and resisted, clumping itself tighter, pulsing with defiant energy. But Tink knew what she was about. She soothed. She quieted.

  Fairies still shrank and grew. Ree scraped herself on a tree trunk and bled heavily. Mother Dove thought Vidia was close to death.

  Although she was huge and very dizzy, Beck joined Tink. She put her hand on the wand, too.

  Let Beck be her proper size, Tink commanded.

  Beck shrank. She closed her eyes and crooned, “Pretty silver wand, funny silver wand…”

  The wand enjoyed this new fairy’s attention, which was merry and sympathetic. The new fairy admired wand mischief, but only mischief that didn’t hurt anyone.

  The wand didn’t care!

  Tink delved into the wand’s heart. She sprinkled on more leg dust. There. There.

  Ah. The wand’s heart grew.

  And the wand’s mind needed sweetening. There. There.

  Its spite melted away. Now the wand wanted to please the sympathetic fairy. It felt relaxed and content. It let the fairies stop growing and shrinking.

  Prilla turned a double cartwheel. Hooray for Beck and Tink! The nursing-talent fairies went to the injured fairies. The others gathered around the wand. The fairies who had fainted awakened.

  Rani sat up.

  Are we alive, esteemed fairy?

  Terence sat up. “Is Tink safe?”

  Beck touched Tink’s arm. “Now!”

  Tink thought, Wand, good wand, reverse the wishes that fairies and mermaids have made.

  Prilla said, “Don’t reverse Sara Quirtle!”

  But Tink was too absorbed to hear, and she’d forgotten Sara Quirtle. She waved the wand.

  It formed obstinate lumps again. Those wishes hadn’t been its fault! Tink smoothed out the new lumps. The wand stopped resisting. It began with the last command it had been given before awakening.