by Kiki Thorpe
Gabby clapped her hands. “We’ll be like princesses!”
Iridessa would rather have slept in an open meadow, with poppy petals for bedding and fireflies for a night-light. But as the first drops of rain spattered down, she realized they had no choice. They would have to make the best of it.
Murmuring with excitement, the girls climbed the stone steps into the tower. Iridessa followed reluctantly.
Inside, they looked around. The room was bare and sunk in gloom. The tiny windows let in little of the fading daylight.
Mia’s face fell. “This isn’t quite what I was picturing,” she said.
Lainey examined the great stone hearth. It was nearly as tall as she was. “I wish we had a fire,” she said, “or at least some candles.”
“Who needs firelight when you have fairy light?” Iridessa said.
The fairies all brightened their glows. Instantly, the room filled with cozy light.
“We’ll need beds, too.” Rosetta fluttered down to floor level. She skimmed over the stones until she found what she was looking for—a small patch of moss growing in the corner.
Rosetta sprinkled fairy dust on the moss. Then she raised her hands and beckoned to it.
“Come to me, good little moss,” she murmured.
As they watched, the moss started to grow. It spread across the stone floor, slowly at first. Then it grew faster and faster. Soon it had covered the whole room like a plush green carpet.
Rosetta waved her hand again. Tiny white flowers sprouted from the moss.
“Ta-da! Flower beds!” Rosetta said with a flourish.
The girls clapped. The fairies did, too. Iridessa smiled at her friend. Even though she was used to Rosetta’s gardening magic, the light fairy never got tired of seeing it. “It’s lovely,” she said to Rosetta.
Rosetta shrugged. “I have to practice when I can. I wouldn’t want the flowers in Pixie Hollow to think I’d lost my touch.”
They settled down on the soft bedding. But although they were tired from the long day, no one seemed ready to close her eyes.
“Look.” Lainey pointed to the wall, where Iridessa’s glow cast a circle of light. “Kate’s shadow looks like a whale.”
Kate was lying on her stomach with her feet up in the air. Her legs did look a bit like a whale’s tail.
“Pssshh!” Kate pretended to spout.
Mia held her hands up to the light so they made the shadow of a rabbit. “I can make a bunny!”
“Watch out, bunny. Here comes a dog.” Lainey made a shadow dog with her hands. It chased Mia’s shadow rabbit around the wall.
“And here comes a hawk!” Kate said. She made her hands into the shadow of a bird.
“Oh, I have one!” Gabby joined them, holding her hands up to the light. “Look, I’m a—”
She broke off, staring. “Where’s my shadow?” she asked.
Where Gabby’s shadow should have been, there was only an empty circle of light.
“You must be standing in the wrong place,” Mia said. “Move over here.”
She positioned Gabby right in front of Iridessa’s light. Still Gabby’s shadow did not appear.
The other girls tried to help. They moved Gabby here and there. But nothing they did brought her shadow forth.
“Iridessa, make your light brighter,” Kate suggested.
“It’s not my light that’s the problem,” the light-talent fairy replied with alarm. Now she knew what had been bothering her since they’d arrived at the castle—it was the shadows. They appeared where they should not have been. And where they should have been, they were not.
“Where’s my shadow?” Gabby repeated. She was growing upset. “What’s happened to it?”
“Nothing’s happened.” Mia put a protective arm around her sister’s shoulders. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. Right, Iridessa?”
“Hmm,” Iridessa said.
She fluttered around Gabby, looking at her first from one side, then the other. But no matter which way Iridessa shone her light, the girl didn’t cast a shadow.
“There can be only one explanation,” Iridessa concluded. “Gabby, you’ve lost your shadow.”
Mia frowned. “When I said there must be a reasonable explanation, that is not what I had in mind!”
“Will I get it back?” Gabby asked.
“I’m not sure,” Iridessa admitted. “Since we don’t know where it’s gone.”
Gabby’s lower lip trembled. “I’ll be the only kid in kindergarten without a shadow!”
“Iridessa,” Mia said, “may I speak to you for a moment?” She stepped to the far side of the room and beckoned for Iridessa to join. “Do you see how upset Gabby is?” Mia whispered when they were alone.
“I do.” Iridessa nodded. “Poor thing. It must be quite a shock.”
“Iridessa!” Mia hissed. “You’re the one upsetting her. Why would you tell her she lost her shadow?”
“Because she obviously has,” Iridessa replied.
“But…but…” Mia waved her arms in frustration. “Shadows don’t just come off!”
“Mia,” Iridessa said calmly, “since we’ve come to Shadow Island, we’ve met talking trees. We’ve seen a turtle the size of a small island. We followed mist horses across the sky.”
“So?” said Mia.
“So I think it’s safe to say that anything is possible,” Iridessa replied. “There is powerful magic at work here. I’ve felt it since we arrived.”
Now Mia looked worried. “What kind of magic?”
“I don’t know yet. And unless you want to upset Gabby more, please don’t say anything until we can figure it out.”
Mia pressed her lips together and nodded.
Iridessa flew over to Gabby. “It’s going to be okay. I’m sure we’ll find your shadow in the morning. Now, it’s been a long day and we all need sleep. Fawn, Silvermist, Rosetta?”
The fairies fluttered up. “Yes, Iridessa?” said Fawn.
“We’ll take turns staying awake. I’ll take the first shift.” She smiled at Gabby. “For tonight, consider us your own personal night-lights.”
Deep in the night, Iridessa woke with a start.
She blinked in the darkness. Rosetta, the last fairy on watch, had drifted off. All the other fairies were asleep, too. Without the light from their glows, the room was nearly pitch black.
Iridessa flared her own glow to see better. What had awakened her?
She could make out the dark forms of the girls sleeping on the floor. She counted one, two, three—
Only three! Someone was missing!
She flew to the doorway and looked out. The rain had stopped. The ruins looked pale in the light of a half-moon. Had one of the girls ventured out alone into the night?
Just then, Iridessa heard a soft noise, like a foot scuffing against stone. It was coming from within the tower.
Iridessa followed the sound. At the back of the tower, she came to a spiraling stone stairway. Halfway up the stairs, Gabby was standing on tiptoe, looking out a small window.
“Gabby?” Iridessa whispered.
Gabby gasped and spun around.
“Iridessa, you scared me,” she said.
“What are you doing up?” Iridessa asked.
“I thought I heard something outside,” Gabby told her. “I wanted to see what it was.”
“What did it sound like?” Iridessa asked.
“It was hard to tell. Sort of like a bell, I guess,” Gabby said.
“A bell? Are you sure?” Iridessa was struck with sudden hope. Clumsies sometimes thought fairy voices sounded like bells. Had Gabby heard Tink’s voice? “Could it have been a fairy?”
“It didn’t sound like a fairy. It was different,” Gabby replied.
“Different how?” Iridessa pressed
.
Gabby thought about it. “It was slower. And sadder,” she explained.
Iridessa looked out the window. She could see the castle ruins, shrouded in mist, and the dense, dark forest beyond. All was still and quiet. “Maybe you dreamed it,” she told Gabby.
“Maybe,” Gabby agreed sleepily. Her eyelids were starting to droop.
“Why don’t you go back to sleep?” Iridessa suggested. “It’s been a long day, and we both could use some rest.”
“All right,” Gabby agreed.
As they turned to go, Iridessa cast one last glance outside. Her heart skipped a beat.
On the far side of the castle grounds, she saw an immense shape that hadn’t been there before. It was formless, like a great cloud, and blacker than the night itself. It seemed to blot out any sign of the forest beyond.
Iridessa blinked. When she looked again, it was gone. She could see the forest lit by moonlight.
“Iridessa?” Gabby called to her. “Are you coming?”
“Yes.” Iridessa came away from the window. Gabby shuffled back to her mossy bed. Iridessa was silent as she lit the way, but her mind churned.
What could that thing have been? Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Or had she really seen something out there in the night?
Gabby’s eyes were closing even as her head touched down. “Night, Iridessa.”
“Good night, Gabby.”
Iridessa flew to her own little tuft of moss. But she couldn’t fall asleep. Her glow, usually so strong and steady, was flickering like a candle. Iridessa realized it was because she was trembling.
For the rest of the night, Iridessa lay awake. Her mind went over and over the strange shape in the darkness.
It was too big to be an animal, at least any sort of animal Iridessa had seen before. But she did not think it had been just a cloud or a patch of mist. It had moved in a lumbering, animal-like way. What was it?
Iridessa decided not to tell her friends what she had seen. She didn’t want to frighten them for no reason. But she knew that she had to find out more.
When the first rays of light touched the sky, Iridessa rose. She flew over the sleeping girls and fairies and out of the castle.
Dawn made a rosy band of light on the horizon. The air was cool and fresh. Iridessa breathed in deeply.
Most light-talent fairies loved the night because that was when they shone brightest. But morning was Iridessa’s favorite time of day. It was a time to put things in order and start fresh.
Across the castle grounds, she could see the lone stone archway standing among the tall grass and wildflowers and, beyond it, the dark forest. This was where Iridessa had seen the dark shape in the night. It was where she headed now.
In the early-morning light, the clearing seemed quiet and peaceful. Iridessa searched all around for tracks. But she found nothing, not even a bent blade of grass. There was no sign that anything large had passed that way.
Had she only imagined it? In the light of day, her fears faded a little. Perhaps it had been nothing after all—a trick of the moonlight, maybe.
The sun rose above the treetops and touched the meadow. Iridessa plucked up a sunbeam and squeezed it between her hands. Its warmth made her feel calm and strong. Morning light was not the brightest. But it had its own magic. It held all the promise of a new day.
The grass rustled behind her. Iridessa dropped the sunbeam and spun around.
Gabby was standing there.
“Oh,” Iridessa sighed. “Gabby, what are you doing out here?”
“I followed you,” Gabby said. “What are you doing?”
Iridessa hesitated. Should she tell Gabby about the strange thing she’d seen in the night?
No, better not to mention it, she decided. Poor Gabby already had enough to worry about with her missing shadow.
“I like to get up early,” Iridessa said. She plucked up another sunbeam and rolled it between her hands.
“Can you show me how to do that?” Gabby asked.
“Do what?” asked Iridessa.
“Hold the light.”
Iridessa was about to say no. Only light-talent fairies could grasp a sunbeam. Even for them, it took practice. But Gabby looked so hopeful, so eager. What harm was there in trying?
“All right. Hold out your hands. No, like this.” Iridessa turned her palms to the sky.
Then she shook fairy dust from her wings into Gabby’s open hands. The fairy dust wouldn’t give Gabby light talent. But it might help a little.
Iridessa plucked another sunbeam from the air. She formed it into a glowing ball. Ever so gently, she placed the ball in Gabby’s hands.
Light from the ball cast a golden glow across Gabby’s excited face. But as soon as she tried to close her hands around it, the light faded away.
“Not bad for a Clumsy,” Iridessa said. “You might have a little light magic in you after all.”
Gabby’s whole face lit up. “Really? Do you think so?”
Iridessa smiled. “It’s possible.”
“Let me try again!” Gabby said.
Iridessa collected another sunbeam. But this time, when she put it in Gabby’s waiting hands, it bounced off and shot away into the grass.
“Oh!” Iridessa gasped. A dark cloud of butterflies rose where it landed.
“Look at them all!” Gabby exclaimed as the butterflies whirled over their heads. “Have you ever seen so many?”
The butterflies scattered across the open field. Iridessa saw that the meadow was full of butterflies, many of them gray or black. Looking closer, she realized why. They were shadows!
Shadows without objects, Iridessa thought. It seemed Gabby wasn’t the only one who’d lost her shadow. Something was causing the shadows to come off.
“Gabby!” she said. “Did you walk through this field yesterday?”
Gabby nodded. “My fairy dust washed off in the stream, remember? I was running to catch up with you guys.”
It has something to do with this meadow, Iridessa thought. That would explain why Gabby had lost her shadow, when the rest of them had not. Did a strange type of grass grow there? Or some kind of poisonous flower?
At that moment, a white butterfly flitted past. Iridessa decided to follow it. She watched it closely as it weaved through the meadow. When it flew under the archway, the butterfly seemed to struggle for a moment, as if it were caught in an invisible spider web.
A second later, it flew on—leaving its shadow behind.
It’s the arch! Iridessa thought. Somehow the shadow comes off when someone goes through! But why?
Iridessa watched the left-behind shadow. Alone, the shadow moved in a panicky way. It darted left and right. It looked as if it was searching for something to grab on to.
“Iridessa, come look at this!” Gabby called.
Iridessa flew over to her. A little black cloud was drifting over the grass. It looked almost like a rain cloud, but smaller and denser.
“What is it?” Gabby asked.
“I don’t know. Don’t touch—” Iridessa started to say. But Gabby was already reaching out a finger to poke it.
Her finger slid into the cloud and vanished. Gabby gasped and jerked her hand back. Her finger reappeared.
“What is it?” Gabby repeated.
“Another shadow!” Iridessa realized. A shadow so dark they couldn’t see through it. But what could have made it?
A butterfly shadow flitted toward them, its wings flapping frantically. When it came near the dark cloud, it swerved toward it. For a moment, they could still see the outline of its wings. Then it disappeared into the shadowy mass.
“Hmm.” Iridessa suddenly had an idea.
She plucked a sunbeam from the air and rolled it between her hands until it formed a narrow wand. Carefully, she reached out and touched the shadow w
ith the ray of light.
As the light pierced it, the cloud broke apart. The shadows of a hundred butterflies rose into the air.
Gabby gaped in amazement. Together they watched the shadows swirl above them. “How did you know it would do that?”
“I didn’t, really,” Iridessa replied. “It was just a hunch. But look—see how the shadows follow each other?” Already the freed butterfly shadows were joining together again, forming dark-winged clumps in the air. “It’s as if they can’t bear to be alone.”
“They miss their butterflies,” Gabby said.
“Gabby, you know, I think you’re right.” Iridessa was surprised at how perceptive Gabby was. It hadn’t occurred to Iridessa to wonder why the shadows clung together. But she saw that it made perfect sense. The shadows longed to be attached to something, even if it was only to each other.
“Do you think my shadow misses me?” Gabby asked.
“I’m sure it does,” Iridessa said. “And now we are one step closer to finding it. We learned something today that we didn’t know before.”
“What’s that?” Gabby asked.
“Shadows are not always what they seem,” Iridessa said.
Like most people, Gabby had never paid much attention to her shadow. But as she followed Iridessa back to the castle, she found she missed it quite a bit. Without her shadow, Gabby felt as if she weren’t quite connected to the ground. Any moment, it seemed, she might float away like a balloon. It was an unpleasant feeling.
When they reached the tower, they found the other girls and fairies sitting outside. They were having a picnic of walnuts, pears, and tiny strawberries.
“My! Where did all this come from?” Iridessa asked as she fluttered up.
“Mia and I found them growing nearby,” Rosetta said. “The strawberries are wild. But pear and walnut trees don’t usually grow in forests like this. They must be left over from the old kingdom.”