by Kim Thompson
“How old will you be? Twenty-six … twenty-seven?” asked Robert.
Baz elbowed him. “She’s turning eighteen, you ninny.”
Willa smiled. “Thirteen, actually.”
“Thirteen?” gasped Baz, putting her hands to her head in horror. “And Walpurgis Night still a whole month away!”
“Okay, what is Walpurgis Night?” asked Willa, but Baz was walking in circles around her and making strange gestures with her hands. “What are you doing?” Willa looked to the others. “What is she doing?”
“Baz is a little superstitious,” explained Horace, though he, too, was looking at Willa strangely. In fact, they were all staring at her.
“Your birthday is April Fools’ Day! You’re going to be thirteen on April Fools’ Day!” Tengu suddenly exclaimed.
“Thirteen!” wailed Baz, reversing her direction and pacing backward around Willa.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” said Willa. “It’s just a number.”
“Thirteen can sometimes be lucky,” suggested Fjalarr.
“She’s turning into a teenager,” observed Robert.
Fjalarr made a face. “Ooh. Not lucky. Poor kid.”
“Thirteen can be a symbol of momentous change,” admitted Horace.
“See, that’s good, right?” asked Willa hopefully.
“Momentous change, revolution, upheaval, ruin, apocalypse …” intoned Horace.
“Teenage boys,” added Robert, and they all shook their heads.
“All right already! Enough!” exclaimed Willa hotly. “Let’s just forget about my birthday!” They moved away, still eyeing her and whispering. Argus was the only one who lingered. He coughed apologetically.
“Would you like a report?”
“What? Oh, yeah, I suppose so.”
Argus cleared his throat and recited dutifully. “Eldritch Manor surveillance report, March thirty-first. The fairies were partying late last night. They kept everyone awake with their singing, and now most of the dwarves are napping. Baz has eaten so many beetles that she has a stomache ache. Tabitha’s stitches seem to be getting even smaller, and it’s really affecting our time. By my calculation, each hour of real world time lasts about three hours in here. Tengu still has something you don’t know about concealed in his room, and —”
“What has he got?” Willa interrupted.
“I promised him I wouldn’t tell,” said Argus. “I’m sorry, but he did save my life once, so I owe him.”
“All right, I’ll check it out. What else?”
“The lady in that room there…” He pointed.
“Miss Trang.”
“I hear her snoring; she’s been asleep ever since I arrived. Is that normal?”
“Yes. She’s a dragon. She hibernated all winter. Anything else?”
“Belle went for a midnight swim. She returned to her room at 1:22 a.m. and hasn’t come out or spoken to anyone since. Not even to complain about the fairies, which is rather … out of character.”
Willa nodded. “Is she in there now?”
“Yes.”
“Her mood?” asked Willa.
“Surly. With a touch of indignation.”
Just then Willa’s eye was caught by a small motion. She looked down and saw Tabitha scurry into the parlour.
“Okay, thanks Argus,” said Willa. He nodded and headed for the kitchen.
Willa stared at Belle’s door for a moment and then turned away. She didn’t want to see her, not right now. Belle would just rant about her mom, and at the moment Willa wanted a break from both of them.
She thought about finding out what Tengu was hiding in his room, but decided she didn’t really care. Then she considered talking to Tabitha again about the size of her stitches, but she knew the spider was doing her best. Instead, she climbed the stairs to the unfinished second storey, stepping out of a trapdoor into the fresh air. Above her head, the attic bobbed gently in the breeze. She grabbed the rope, pulled it down, and climbed inside.
Roshni sat on her perch, eyeing her in a friendly way. Willa ran a hand over the bird’s feathers. Her eyes strayed to the windows. To her great surprise, she could see the town below quite clearly.
The cloud the dwarves made, it must be like one-way glass! Nice. Gazing down at the streets and houses, Willa wondered how human she really was, and suddenly felt very alone. The room swayed gently. It was like being on a boat. All she could hear were leaves rustling and tree branches creaking in the wind.
Willa looked out the windows, one by one, first toward Hanlan’s Hill, then out to the distant sea, then in the direction of home and school, then finally she turned and looked down at their own yard. The pool looked very different from so far above. It sparkled like a black jewel, and Willa stared at it, transfixed.
Chapter Fourteen
In which Willa turns lucky thirteen
Willa stood looking down into the pool, but instead of water it was filled with lush, green leaves. She leaned forward and dived in, swimming down through endless green. Then a space opened before her, and the leaves began to form a face: grey, wideset eyes under straight, level brows, a long, thin nose, and a serious mouth. Willa swam and swam but came no closer. She sent out a thought:
Who are you?
After a moment the lips parted, and—
“Wake up! It’s nine o’clock! You’re late for school!”
Willa started, tumbling out of bed.
“What? I just—” She grabbed her clock. It was 7:27. Dad stood laughing in the doorway.
“You stinker!” She flung her pillow at him.
“Gotcha! And it’s Saturday, too! Happy April Fools’ birthday!” He disappeared.
She sat down on the bed and sighed.
April Fool, that’s me. A freak with gills. And lucky thirteen, too. Whoop-de-doo.
Her slippers were filled with shaving cream, there was mayonnaise in her tube of toothpaste, and the bathroom tap sprayed right in her face when she turned it on. Her dad, usually a pretty boring guy, absolutely lived for pranks.
She could hear her parents in the kitchen as she tiptoed toward the front door. She wasn’t in the mood for acting cheerful in front of her mom. She felt strangely drawn to go look in the pool.
“Where are you going, birthday girl?”
It was her dad. Willa thought quick, answering in a whisper. “I’m meeting some kids from school. We’re pranking one of the teachers.” She hated to lie to her dad, but she knew this would get him onside right away.
He grinned. “Nothing causing property damage or physical harm, I hope.”
“Nope.”
“Off you go then. I’ll cover for you, but don’t be long.” He gave her a wink and disappeared into the kitchen. Willa left feeling absolutely wretched.
The sun was peeking through the clouds and burst through in full force as she came through the Eldritch front gate. She lifted her face to the warm rays. Sunshine at last!
She started back toward the pool but heard someone calling her name. Mrs. Norton was hurrying out the front door and down the walk.
“Willa! Hello! I’ve got a little emergency on my hands … I just left Everett with your friend, Miss…” she made vague forgetful hand motions. “Oh, I’ve forgotten her name. I think it started with an M — tall young lady, with long blonde hair?”
“Young lady?” Willa frowned, but Mrs. Norton continued in a breathless rush.
“Anyway, Everett was sound asleep, and she said you’d be here any minute and then I saw you coming down the street, so I put him in the parlour … Can’t stay another second … We’ve got a flooded basement and the twins with the flu! I’ll be back for him once we’re done bailing ourselves out! Thank youuuu!” And with a wave she was gone.
Willa watched her go, then opened the front door and ran straight into the chandelier. She
stared at it. The crystals were the wrong way around. The chandelier was now attached to the floor at her feet and standing upright, with the crystals dangling upward somehow.
Laughter sounded from above, and Willa lifted her eyes to see a crowd of dwarves on the ceiling, cheerfully defying gravity.
“April Fool!” crowed Fjalarr.
“How are you doing that?” stammered Willa, drawing more laughter. Then she noticed several coats hanging upward from hooks on the wall.
I’m the one who’s on the ceiling!
In a panic, she threw her arms around the chandelier, just as she felt the pull of gravity reverse. The next thing she knew, she was hanging upside down and shrieking for help.
The hall carpet was yanked out from the feet of the dwarves and flew up to her, guided by a dozen giggling fairies.
“Hop on,” chortled Sarah. Just then the chandelier ripped free of the ceiling. Willa screamed, but the fairies caught her and the chandelier in the carpet and lowered them gently to the floor.
Willa looked up in time to see the front door she had just walked through slowly slide down the wall until it was back where it should be. The dwarves bowed to Willa, and before she could say what was on her mind, Fjalarr stepped forward and handed her a wrapped present.
“Happy birthday from all of us!”
Willa took a deep breath, and her good humour returned. “Thank you. That was quite … something.”
“Willa, come in here and sit down!” Tengu appeared, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the parlour. He pointed to an armchair. “Sit here!”
Willa looked around the parlour. Robert, Horace, and Baz were there, and the dwarves trooped in as well. But no Belle. And no baby carriage.
“Where’s Everett?”
Baz looked at her blankly. “Who’s Everett?”
“The baby! Mrs. Norton said she left him in the parlour. With a young lady, which doesn’t make sense....”
Baz shrugged. Tengu tugged on Willa’s sleeve. “Sit here, Willa!”
“No, hold on, I’ve got to find—” A box of chocolates was thrust into her face, flown in by more laughing fairies.
“Um, thank you,” sighed Willa. She gingerly pulled off the lid and was rewarded with a dazzling spray of rainbow-coloured sparks. Startled, Willa dropped the box and fell backward over a rabbit kneeling on the floor behind her. She landed heavily in the chair, from which sounded a loud raspberry. Tengu was laughing so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Whoopee cushion!” he gasped. “I love whoopee cushions!”
“Very funny,” said Willa. “Now where is baby Everett? Anyone?”
Silence fell over the room. Willa felt alarm take hold of her. “Mrs. Norton said she left Everett with a ‘tall young woman with long blonde hair.’”
No response, just a lot of blank looks. Willa struggled to keep calm.
“Listen. No more April Fools’ stuff. I’m serious. Who has Everett? The only person I can think of with long blonde hair is Mab, but she…” Willa stopped in her tracks. “Mab?” She started for the wasp nest.
“She’s not there,” said Sarah.
“Sarah! Is Mab behind this? Where is she?” Sarah pursed her lips, not answering. “And where’s Oberon? Why is it sunny again? Have they stopped fighting?” Willa spun around to Argus, just entering the parlour. “Argus! What’s going on?”
Argus cleared his throat and began calmly. “Eldritch Manor surveillance report, April first. Various pranks have been in play since daybreak, a few of which you have encountered. The refrigerator has stopped working. Tengu still has something in his room you don’t know about.”
Horace jumped to his feet and glared at Tengu. “I thought so!” he exclaimed, striding from the room. Tengu followed him, protesting.
“Horace, wait! I can explain!”
Bewildered, Willa watched them leave, then grabbed Argus’s arm. “Where’s the baby?”
Argus hung his head. “Oberon came to me with a startling report about some kind of evil presence in the woods and asked me to come with him to check it out. When I got out there I was overcome by a sleep spell.”
Willa began to pace. “So Oberon got you out of the house and put you to sleep, then Mab … can she change her form?”
Everyone nodded.
“So she changed to human size and took the baby.” Willa paused. “But why would she go to all that trouble?”
“It is odd,” admitted Argus slowly. “I haven’t heard of fairies stealing human babies for at least a hundred years.”
“Stealing babies?” gasped Willa. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s something fairies do,” said Baz simply. “Everyone knows that.”
“It’s something they did,” corrected Argus.
“What did they do with them?”
“With what?” asked Baz.
“The babies! What did they do with them?” Willa was on the edge of total panic.
“Took them for their own. Fed them fairy food, that kind of thing.”
“Why feed them fairy food?”
Baz responded slowly, as if speaking to someone with no brains. “Any human who eats fairy food must dwell in the land of fairies forever. How can you not know that?”
Willa turned again to Sarah. “Where is she? Where’s Mab?”
Sarah’s eyes were wide with alarm, but her lips remained pursed shut.
“Tell me, Sarah, please!” pleaded Willa.
“She can’t talk about it. She’s under a spell,” murmured Argus. “Shall we search the house?”
“Yes, yes! You take this floor. Look in every room! I’ll go upstairs! Robert, take the basement, and dwarves, search the woods! Go, go!” Willa ran into the hall. She could hear Horace and Tengu arguing in Tengu’s room as she raced past and up the stairs. From the second floor she heard Robert thundering down the ramp and the dwarves piling out the front door. She clambered up into the floating attic room.
“Roshni! I need your help! Can you fly around and look for baby Everett? Mab’s taken him somewhere. Hurry!”
Roshni gave a quick nod, hopped out the open door, and swooped high into the sky. Willa took advantage of the view, wildly scanning the backyard and the woods.
Then she heard loud voices, and Horace appeared around the corner of the house with Tengu running along behind. Horace was holding a small object wrapped in a blanket.
“Everett!” breathed Willa. “Thank goodness.” Tengu was shouting at Horace. She strained to hear him.
“I can take good care of him! He’s like my own child! Please!”
Willa frowned. Tengu took Everett? That makes no sense.
Horace turned angrily on Tengu, but Willa couldn’t hear his response. Then he strode on toward the pool.
Willa dropped out of the attic and threw herself down the stairs and out the front door, pushing aside a very surprised Argus. She rounded the house just in time to see Horace holding the small form above the pool.
“Horace, no!” hollered Willa. Surprised, Horace turned to look at her as he dropped the bundle into the water.
Willa shrieked. Propelled by a force too strong to resist, she ran and felt a strange thrill of freedom as she threw herself headlong into the dark water of the pool.
Chapter Fifteen
Full fathom five
Darkness all around. Willa kept her eye on the white spot below her, sinking into the depths.
She chased it, flailing with her arms and kicking wildly. She tried not to think about the cold and the whooshing around her ears, the tendrils tickling her arms and legs, the dark shadows darting through the gloom. She knew she couldn’t think about anything but that bundle in front of her.
As she reached out for it, she had the sudden thought, something isn’t right, as the cloth fell away and a glistening black shape
darted out of it.
Willa had only time for a glimpse of a weird bird-like head, bound with a cloth blindfold. With a strong whip of its snake-body, the creature zigzagged rapidly toward the surface.
What the heck was that?
Willa watched it disappear into the glare of daylight so distant above her. She became aware of the pressure of the water; a chill shot through her, and she wavered dizzily.
Then the terror hit. Her limbs felt encased in ice. The reality of having no air in her lungs hit her too. The pressure in her throat and head was agonizing. Her lungs throbbed and gaped inside her; she was a deflated balloon folding in on herself. White spots swam before her eyes, and then a dark curtain fell across her sight.
Her drift into unconsciousness was interrupted by a violent tearing, a burning, ripping sensation in her head. Her mouth opened to scream, but the pain suddenly fell away and oxygen flowed into her lungs. She gasped, and her vision cleared. All at once she could see her surroundings with astonishing clarity. No longer murky, the water was now filled with colour and movement. Gulping in delicious breaths of air, she looked around in wonder.
Willa was floating in a deep turquoise night filled with stars. Masses of golden and green ribbons rose from below, stretching upward in a gently waving forest. The fluorescent glimmer of a hundred tiny fish undulated before her, reminding Willa that she was underwater. She was underwater and she was breathing.
Her hands shot up, and she felt behind her ears. Two long folds in her skin opened and shut in rhythm with the rise and fall of her chest. She shut her mouth and plugged her nose, but found she was still inhaling and exhaling.
Gills! she thought. Gills.
But was it really so awful? It didn’t seem so bad right now. She was alive. She was underwater and could stay under as long as she liked. And she wasn’t afraid. That irrational terror, the phobia that had dogged every day of her life, had evaporated in the first rush of air through her gills.
I am not afraid of the water.
Water is not dangerous.
The extent of her mother’s deception astonished her. How could she keep all this from me? And why? This is … She couldn’t find words for it. The easy floating feeling, the drifting, the cool, the calm. It was the most peaceful sensation she’d ever felt. It felt … right. It just felt right. She kicked, glided, rolled, and flipped. It was glorious, this feeling. It was like flying.