Rine had now pulled Selden halfway up the tower. Hyan angled her hands. The tower leaned as the bell clover began flowing north. They were retreating, and they were taking Selden with them.
Fye ordered his troops to circle around the base of the witches’ tower. With their powerful hind legs, the Fillifut scratched and kicked at the clover, sending shredded leaves and roots flying. They could have brought the whole thing down if they didn’t have to keep dodging the shadow arrows Delin hurled at them.
“Come on, Hiron, come on,” whispered Izzy as she watched him circle higher and higher.
Hiron folded his wings behind him and dove down at the witches. When he was twenty feet above their heads, Delin looked up and saw him.
“Now!” Izzy yelled.
Hiron’s talons unclenched. There was a pause as Delin aimed one of his shadow arrows at Hiron’s chest. As he threw it, his body jolted backward. He lost his balance and fell. Hyan reacted quickly, sending a spurt of clover out to catch him, but it only slowed his fall. Delin hit the ground hard. The Fillifut swarmed over him, keeping him pinned to the ground.
Izzy started to cheer, but then she saw Hiron holding his right wing stiff while the other wing beat double time. The arrow must have hit him after all.
Hiron struggled to make his way back to the ship. He Changed into himself and collapsed in a corner of the basket, holding his right elbow. Lug rushed over to help him.
Tom had managed to get the ship closer to Rine. The Muscadine now hovered just a few yards above the witches.
Rine wore a cold snarl on his lips. He had pulled Selden on top of the clover tower. Izzy could barely make out Selden in his boy form beneath the dark bindings that covered his whole body.
“Hyan, take us away from here,” Rine commanded.
Hyan grimaced, concentrating. Her arm muscles strained as she waved her hands to the north. The bell clover began flowing faster.
Hen joined Izzy at the side of the basket. Suddenly, she jumped up and leaned over the side. “Hey, witch lady!” she shouted. “Check this out!”
Hyan looked up, confused. Hen reared her arm back and chucked a small ball at Hyan’s chest. A high-pitched whine followed the ball through the air as it fizzed and smoked. It spun wildly, sending off sprays of white sparks.
Now Izzy knew why her sister wanted her backpack so badly. Hen had smuggled fireworks into camp after all, and she’d brought them with her to Faerie. The ball she lobbed at Hyan was called a Zippy Zinger.
Hyan shielded her face as the sparking ball hit her square in the chest. She tumbled off the tower of clover, down to the mob of Fillifut waiting on the ground.
The tower of clover swayed. Without Hyan to keep it growing, the Fillifut’s claws would bring it down any moment.
Rine’s eyes flared with anger. With one flourish of his hand, he formed a dagger of shadows. “It seems like I’ll have to make a rushed exit,” he said to Selden. “I can’t take you with me, but I could at least take what I came for.”
Rine waved his other hand over Selden, and the shadow net fell away. Selden lay on top of the pad of clover, panting.
Izzy knew she only had seconds to act. She climbed up onto the rim of the basket. She took a deep breath and leaped onto the clover tower, landing on her hands and knees behind Rine.
She got to her feet. “Rine, stop!” she said.
Rine spun around. When he saw her, the anger in his eyes changed to shock. “S-Sasha?” he whispered.
Izzy held perfectly still, wearing the Likeness of Rine’s old friend.
“Sasha?” Rine’s words caught against each other. “Is that really you?”
Izzy focused on holding the Likeness, watching Selden from the corner of her eye. She wondered if he had enough strength to do what needed to be done. The shock was fading from Rine’s face. The witch’s eyes narrowed as he started to realize what he was really looking at.
Slowly, Selden drew his knees up to his chest. With one quick sweep of his legs, he kicked Rine off the tower.
Izzy let go of Sasha’s Likeness and leaned over to watch Rine fall. Moments before he hit the ground, his body convulsed and separated into thousands of bright-green shards. The pieces scattered and floated north on the wind.
Lug leaned down out of the Muscadine and pulled Selden on board. Izzy climbed in after him.
“Are you OK?” asked Izzy, kneeling over him.
Selden nodded as Lug wrapped a scrap of deflated balloon around his shoulders. “I’ll be fine.” He looked up at Izzy. “Thanks. That was a good trick.”
Izzy exhaled and collapsed onto the floor of the basket. She felt completely spent. “How about Hiron?” she asked.
Lug dabbed a bloodstained rag on Hiron’s wound. “No flying for a while, I’m afraid. But Hiron’s a lucky soul.” He slapped Hiron on the back, making him wince. “The arrow only grazed him and didn’t stick in.”
“Uh-oh,” said Hen. “Izzy, come here and look!”
Izzy hurried to join her sister at the rim of the basket. Fye stood below them, aiming his slingshot straight at the Muscadine. Hen ducked down, but Izzy stayed and held her hands overhead. She wanted Fye to be able to see what he was aiming for.
The slingshot twanged, and a small object sailed in a perfect arc, landing gently in the center of the Muscadine’s basket. Izzy picked it up. It was a small rock with a piece of paper wrapped around it and held on with twine. Izzy untied the note.
Hope we made it right by you, Bretabairn.
Izzy leaned over the side of the basket. She held both thumbs up, which she hoped was the universal symbol for “Yes—and thank you.”
“Next stop, Netherbee Hall,” called Tom.
Izzy frowned and rubbed her hand over her heart. “Not yet,” she said. “There’s something we need to get first.”
21
Checking Out
“Hey, Izzy,” Selden whispered.
“Shh.”
“Hey, we need to talk.”
Izzy leaned out past the corner of the bakery, across the street from the library in Avhalon. The lane was empty for now, and she and Selden wore Likenesses of baker’s apprentices, but she still didn’t want anyone to see them or ask questions.
“If I thought you were going to make so much noise, I would have told you to stay back at the Muscadine with the others,” she said.
Selden scowled. “Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to be in charge. You can’t just go ordering Tom to bring us back to Avhalon without even talking to me about it.”
“Like I told you, we’re just making a quick stop,” said Izzy. “Hen will be in and out, and then we’ll be back in the air before anyone even knows we landed.”
“I still don’t understand why we have to get the whole Book of the Bretabairn,” said Selden. “If that crazy puppet show you saw was the telling the truth, then that witch—”
“Sasha.”
“Fine, Sasha—took what was important out of the book.”
Izzy frowned and rubbed her shirt collar between her fingertips. Maybe Selden was right and they were taking a foolish risk to come back to Avhalon. But she couldn’t stop thinking about that electric buzz she felt when she’d held the book. It meant something. She was sure of it.
“If we don’t get the book now before we meet the others at Netherbee Hall, it’ll be impossible to come back later,” she said. “And we might need it to find the King’s Key.”
Selden’s mouth flew open. “Find the Ki—”
“Shh!” said Izzy. “Here comes Hen!”
Hen walked toward the library, looking over each shoulder as she approached the double doors.
“Come on,” said Selden, standing up and walking into the street. “We better get closer so we can keep an eye on her once she goes inside.”
Izzy put her hands in her apron pockets, try
ing to act natural. They crossed the street quickly and slid up against the side of the library, ducking under a window at the center of the building. Selden looked around to make sure no one was watching. Then he stood on his toes and pressed his palms against the windowpane. It opened with a soft squeak. They crouched down, eye level with the inch-wide crack, and dropped their Likenesses.
“You really think your sister is up for this?” asked Selden. “What if she gives us away to Nettle?”
Izzy shook her head. “Everyone thinks Hen is so cute and sweet, but that girl is the world’s greatest liar. She had my parents totally convinced she wasn’t bringing fireworks to camp!”
Inside, Hen walked casually up to the circulation desk.
“Ah, bonjour, mademoiselle, good morning and welcome.” Dr. Nettle’s voice carried from a far corner of the library, followed by the clicking of his hooves across the parquet floor.
“What, pray tell, may I do for you this fine morning, hmm?” he asked. “Would you care to peruse our periodicals? Ruminate in the reference section?”
“Thank you,” said Hen. “I’ll just look around for a minute if you don’t mind.”
“Please do. I am here to serve as your guide to the kingdom of bibliodom.”
Hen walked slowly from the circulation desk toward the stairs. Izzy had told her exactly where to find The Book of the Bretabairn. She hoped no one had moved it since she and the others had looked at it last.
“You have a really nice collection here,” said Hen in her sweetest voice, the one she used to get double helpings of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.
“See, I told you,” Izzy whispered to Selden.
“I don’t suppose you have ever been in a library?” Dr. Nettle asked Hen hopefully.
“Oh, I have. I’ve been in libraries all over. But never one as nice as this.” Hen whistled. “It’s pretty impressive if you ask me.”
Dr. Nettle rubbed his bearded chin with pride. “Thank you, my dear. It is nice to be appreciated. Please, make yourself at home.”
Hen nodded at him and began making her way upstairs. Izzy hoped her sister would be able to find the book from her directions.
Selden jabbed Izzy in the ribs. “Hey, we need to talk about this! You never said anything about finding the King’s Key. Now we know that Rine’s greatest desire isn’t just in any Changeling’s heart. It’s in—”
“Mine,” said Izzy.
“Right. And now that we know that, we have to protect you from him. We should be practicing your bird form, so you can fly and—”
Izzy shook her head. She’d given up on Changing. “We don’t have time for that.”
“Then we definitely don’t have time to go looking for that Key!” said Selden. “It could be anywhere. We should get you back to Earth.”
“Rine would just send the Unglers after me,” said Izzy. “I might be safe for a little while, but they’d find me eventually. They found me before. But if we could find the Key, I could take it to Earth and hide it. Drop it into the ocean or something like that. Then there would be no point in coming after me or any of the Changelings anymore.”
Selden stared at her, considering all she said. He nodded slowly. “Rine wouldn’t be able to cross over to Earth and get it, not even with the Unglers’ help.”
“Exactly!” said Izzy.
“I don’t know,” said Selden. “I have to think about what Peter would want me to do. Now that he’s not here, it’s up to me to keep us all safe.”
“But that’s the whole point,” said Izzy. “As long as Rine is looking for the Key, none of us are safe. He wants it so badly. If we want to stop him, we have to take away the possibility that he can get to it.” Izzy slumped against the bricks of the library. “You probably think this plan sounds totally crazy.”
Selden half smiled. “You know you’re in trouble when I’m the one calling your plan crazy. Hey, look!” He grabbed Izzy’s shoulder and turned her toward the window. “Your sister found the book!”
Hen bounced down the stairs with The Book of the Bretabairn tucked under one arm. With a thump, she set it on the circulation desk. “This one looks good to me,” she said.
Dr. Nettle bobbed his chin. “It’s not as literary as some of our other—”
“Where’d you get it?” Hen interrupted.
“Oh, that book has been here at least as long as I have,” said Dr. Nettle with a wheezy cough. “About ten or so years ago, a young man borrowed it and then disappeared. I thought we’d never get it back, but miraculously, I found it returned on the front stoop in perfect condition.”
“Not quite perfect,” whispered Izzy, thinking of the page Sasha ripped out.
“That incident is what made me institute our membership policy,” said Dr. Nettle. “Only members may borrow materials. So tell me, dear, are you a—”
“Yup,” said Hen. “Here’s my card.” Hen took a rectangle of plastic out of her shirt pocket and handed it to the old goat.
Dr. Nettle held the card ludicrously close to his face and flipped it back and forth. “I, well, I’m not sure this is valid…”
Selden leaned closer to Izzy and whispered, “Uh-oh. This isn’t good.”
“Shh,” said Izzy. “Just wait.” She crossed her fingers and hoped she was right about old Nettle’s ability to read.
“Huh, that’s funny,” said Hen. “I just renewed it last week. Here, let me see.” Hen reached across the desk and took the card back. “Oh yes, see here? It says ‘Library Card. Good for Checking Out One Book.’ And you can see I’ve still got five books left until I have to get a new one.”
“Hmm, well, I haven’t seen this type of card before,” said Dr. Nettle, rubbing the fur between his horns. He coughed and then lowered his voice. “The truth is, my dear lady, no one has ever come in with a library card before.”
“Oh, well, don’t worry about that. There’s a first time for everything. I’ll show you how to use it, and next time someone comes in, you’ll know what to do.” Hen leaned close and shielded the side of her mouth with one hand. “And don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone you didn’t know how to do it.”
Dr. Nettle sighed gratefully. “That would be lovely. I have a very important reputation in this town to uphold.”
Hen pointed to the bottom of the card. “See those symbols? Each one of them is a torch of wisdom. And when you check a book out to someone, you punch a little hole through one of the torches. Easy, right?”
“Ah, that is easy!” Dr. Nettle took the card and placed it between his teeth. He chomped, sending a fleck of plastic across the desk. “There. Now you are all checked out. That book will be due back in…well…”
“Two weeks is pretty usual,” said Hen, taking the card and sliding The Book of the Bretabairn off the desk. “But I don’t know what your policy is.”
“Yes, that is our policy as well,” said Dr. Nettle. “Thank you for your business, my dear. See you very soon. Au revoir.”
Hen tucked the book under her armpit and headed for the front of the building. When she reached the door, Dr. Nettle called out. “Wait! Young lady!”
Izzy and Selden both held their breath as Hen turned around slowly.
Dr. Nettle clackety-clacked across the wooden floor toward her. “You almost forgot this.” He held Peter’s flute out to her with a flourish.
“Oh!” said Hen, blushing bright pink. “Thank you. Bye now. Bonbon voyage.” The bells on the door handle jingled as the door swung shut behind her.
Hen clutched the book to her chest and hurried down the street with Izzy and Selden close behind. None of them said a word to each other until they were through the gates and out on a grassy field in the center of the orchard, where Tom had hidden the Muscadine among the apple trees.
Izzy and Selden both climbed into the Muscadine after Hen. While Tom and Lug got the air pumps whirring
back to life, Izzy hugged her sister.
“You were great!” said Izzy. “You deserve an award or something for pulling that off.”
Hen grinned and wrinkled her nose. “Thanks, but I can’t believe I almost left the flute behind! I was just so nervous.” She took the “library” card out of her pocket and held it out to Izzy. “I can’t believe he actually fell for that.”
Izzy flipped the card back and forth. The bubble letters across the front read, “Momo’s Frozen Yogurt Punch Card. Buy 10, Get 1 Free Kidz Cup.”
Izzy smiled. The “torch of wisdom” symbol Dr. Nettle had chomped was an icon of a swirly soft-serve cone.
Tom settled into his seat behind the controls. “All right. Off to Netherbee Hall now?”
“Yes—and we need to hurry,” said Selden. He looked at Izzy and smiled. “If we’re going to find what we’re looking for, we’ll need all the time we can get.”
22
Rejoice in the Making
“Sit still!” hissed Marian.
“I am sitting still,” whispered Izzy out of the corner of her mouth.
Marian exhaled. She shook out her hands, then held them palms up in front of Izzy. She glanced down at the paper on the table beside her and began working through the spell again.
Izzy pressed her legs into the seat of her chair to keep herself from fidgeting. We’re lucky this is me and not Hen, she thought. Hen wouldn’t have sat still for thirty seconds, let alone an hour, which was how long Izzy and Marian had been shut away, working on getting the page out of Izzy’s heart.
Izzy allowed her eyes to drift around the room. They were in Marian’s study on the second floor of Netherbee Hall. Bouquets of dried herbs and flowers hung from the ceiling. Potted plants crowded for space on the floor. What shelf space wasn’t taken up with jars of powder or spices held stacks of books. The spell Marian was using had come from one of those volumes.
Peter had given Marian every spell book he had collected over the years. Most of them were full of farmcraft—spells to grow bigger pumpkins or keep the blight off tomatoes. But a few of the books held deeper, more powerful spells. Even then, they’d been written by human farmers. The invisibility spell was originally written to protect a peach crop from being seen by hungry birds. These powerful spells were longer—multiple pages written in tiny print—and more complicated. Painstaking instructions directed the spell caster on how to hold and move their hands.
In a Dark Land Page 17