“I don’t see her.”
“Oh no…oh please, no…”
“Wait! You guys, look!”
And then the stone lifted away from Izzy. She could breathe more easily. There was space to kick out her legs. Her eyes picked up on light in the darkness, but she couldn’t focus. Her head hurt so much.
“Do you think this could be…”
“Let me through! Let me see!”
Izzy’s body rolled onto a cushioned pink pad. She took a deep breath. She smelled…grape jelly.
“Oh!” The voice sounded like Hen but deeper and very far away. “Lug, come here and look! Is this her?”
Slowly, the world came back into focus. Izzy looked up at a face as large and round as a planet, peering down at her, its lips stretched in a wide smile.
“L-Lug?” Izzy whispered.
“Oh, my dear Izzy!” Lug boomed. “You discovered your other form!”
28
Fierceness beneath the Lace Wing
Before, when Izzy had daydreamed of what her fourth form could be, she hoped it was something magical and spectacular. It would have been nice to be a giant golden eagle like Hiron or a silvery fawn like Dree. She dreamed of being some special hybrid: half bird, half horse maybe. But she would have settled for something just plain unusual, like a platypus or a quetzal.
She never would have imagined she would be grateful for being able to Change into the most common insect in the world.
Izzy’s last form was a beetle.
If it had been anything else, she never would have survived the cave-in of the passageway. But small as she was, she had tucked into a hole between the falling stones, safe until Hen came to clear away the rubble with her flute.
They never found Rine’s body. Once they found Izzy, they took her back out to the Edgewood, and Hen closed the passageway up again. But Izzy knew what must have happened to him. He couldn’t have survived the cave-in. Even as a beetle, Izzy had barely made it out herself.
Marian and the others took her back to Netherbee Hall to rest and recover. She had been banged around a good bit, but more than anything, she was in shock and needed sleep. When she finally woke up, alone in a bedroom at the top of the stairs, the house was quiet. With a sickening feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, Izzy knew they weren’t keeping it quiet just for her.
She ignored her pounding headache as she slipped on boots and buttoned on a shirt. The curtains were still drawn against the light, even though they had nothing left to fear from the Unglers. Along with Hyan, the beasts had fled after Rine met his end.
Izzy walked down the hallway, following the amber light of candles. All the other bedroom doors were shut except the last one. When Izzy looked inside, she found Lug sitting in a chair at the foot of a bed, his chin dropped down to his chest, snoring. Selden sat beside him, his head lying on his crossed arms over the coverlet.
Lug stirred with a snort and looked up. “Oh, Izzy,” he said with a smile. “You’re up. That’s so good to see.”
“Is that…” Izzy swallowed and walked closer to the bed. “Is she…”
The bed looked rumpled and empty. Izzy reached out at the mattress. She felt the smooth skin of Dree’s arm lying on top of the covers. She was warm. Up close, Izzy could hear her friend breathing softly.
Lug strained to hold his smile. He patted the covers at the foot of the bed. “Yes, it’s Dree. And she’s all right. She’s going to be just fine.”
Selden lifted his head. Izzy could tell from his puffy pink eyes that he hadn’t slept. “She’s not all right,” he said flatly.
Lug stood up and walked to the head of the bed. He flipped his hand over and gently rested the back of it on Dree’s invisible forehead. “Marian and I did everything we could think of for her wound. Luckily, the sword missed everything vital.” He pointed to his own chest, just below the shoulder. “And she hasn’t had any fever. She’s been breathing easy. Although…” Lug sighed. “More and more shallow throughout the day.”
Izzy rubbed Dree’s arm. “Marian should make her visible again. Wouldn’t it be easier to make her better if you could see her?”
“That’s exactly the problem,” said Selden.
Lug cleared his throat. “Marian has made her visible again. At least, she’s tried. She’s performed the visibility spell on Dree many times. But it’s like the spell won’t stick to her somehow. Marian said there’s nothing more to do. It’s up to Dree whether she’ll stay or go.”
Izzy shut her eyes, remembering what Dree had said that night in the castle. Sometimes, I wonder if one day I’ll just fade away completely…and no one will even notice.
She felt for Dree’s hand and squeezed it, folding her friend’s fingers around her own. “We notice, Dree,” she whispered. “We’re here, and we want you to stay.”
Lug dabbed at the corner of his eye with his thumb knuckle. “I’ve got to go get more fresh water and towels,” he said, picking up a ceramic pitcher from the table beside the bed. “It’s about time for Marian to come and do the spell again. She tries it every few hours, just in case.”
When he reached the door, he turned around and said, “Izzy, could you come here a moment?”
Izzy walked to him, and he leaned down and whispered, “Try to talk to him.” He nodded his chin at Selden. “He’s barely spoken and hasn’t eaten anything since we got back to Netherbee. I think he blames himself for all this. I’m very worried about what will happen if she—”
Izzy put her hand on Lug’s arm. “It’s all right. I’ll stay with him.”
Lug smiled and left. As Izzy walked back to the bed, Selden’s body tensed, and he shrugged aside.
“I know what Lug told you,” he said. “That he wants me to eat or something stupid like that.”
Izzy pulled Lug’s chair over and sat beside Selden. She held back from trying to hug him, knowing he’d bristle at anything like that right now. She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at the bed, waiting for him to go on.
“Everyone thinks I’m upset because I’m blaming myself for what happened,” he said. “But that’s not it at all. This isn’t my fault. Dree did this to herself.”
“You’re right,” Izzy whispered. “It’s not your fault. It’s not Dree’s either though. It’s no one’s.”
“She should have stayed back instead of rushing in front of me,” said Selden, waving his hand angrily at the bed. “She’s always telling me I make stupid decisions, but how stupid was this?”
“But you’re not going to make anything better by making yourself sick sitting here.”
Selden’s fingers squeezed into fists. “I just want to be here when she wakes up. She has to wake up. She has to.” He looked up at Izzy, his eyes rimmed with tears. He tilted his head back, but they spilled over anyway. “Everyone leaves. Family, friends. Peter left. And now—” He twisted the bedcovers with his fingers. “What are we going to do if she goes?”
Izzy reached out for his hand. There were no words, nothing that she could think of that would make him feel better, that would make any of it better. They sat together like that for a while, listening to the sound of Dree’s quiet breathing.
Selden wiped his eyes and sniffed. “I keep telling her to get up. That’s all she has to do, just get up. But Dree’s always been so stubborn. She doesn’t like to listen to anyone.”
“Sounds like someone else I know.”
“No,” said Selden. “Dree’s so different from me. If this were me, I’d be raging to get up out of that bed.”
Izzy smiled. Selden would try to get out of bed even if he had both arms and legs in casts. That’s just who he was: Strongest, bravest, when wounded deep.
They heard footsteps outside the door, and Marian came in, followed by Lug. Izzy suddenly realized that she and Selden were still holding hands. She slipped hers out of his and rubb
ed her palm over her knee.
Hen and Ollie came in a moment later, and each of them hugged Izzy.
Marian stood beside the bed and took off her cap. She took a deep breath. “All right, time to try again. Dree?” she said loudly. “I’m doing the spell again, child. You hold on to it this time, all right?”
“Why hasn’t it worked before?” asked Izzy.
“The visibility spell tells the light to bounce off an object,” said Marian. “But part of the spell is that the object goes back to ‘what it was.’ I think that’s the problem. I know this sounds odd, but a teacup knows it’s a teacup, and a house knows it’s a house. Part of this is on Dree. It’s like she’s forgotten who she was before. And if she doesn’t know, the light can’t find her.”
They all took a step back from the bed to give Marian room. The old woman stood at Dree’s side and raised her softly wrinkled hands over the blankets. She took a deep breath and began moving her fingers like she was playing a piano.
Izzy bit down on her bottom lip, watching hopefully. She glanced at Selden and Lug. They both stood with their heads bowed. They’d seen Marian do this before and fail at it. Izzy shut her eyes.
This is on Dree. It’s like she’s forgotten who she was before.
Izzy’s eyes popped open. She turned and ran out of the room, past her grieving friends. Izzy hurried downstairs to the parlor. When she came back up, she had The Book of the Bretabairn tucked under her arm.
She laid the book at the foot of the bed and opened the cover.
“Izzy?” said Lug. “What are you—”
Marian shushed him. She gave Izzy a short nod. “Go on, child. It’s worth a try.”
Everyone watched Izzy as she flipped through the pages. She knew what they must be thinking. She was thinking it too. The Book of the Bretabairn wasn’t a book of spells. But Izzy had learned that there was a certain magic in knowing who you were supposed to be.
Maybe Dree needed a little reminder.
Izzy found Dree’s poem and started reading it out loud.
Butterfly, bird with scissored tail,
Fawn and cat with sharpened nail,
Cloaked in moonlight, skin like dew,
Fiery heart, kind and true.
For love, no trial she cannot face
With fierceness hid ’neath wings of lace.
When Izzy got to the end of the poem, she started over. Selden joined her. Hen scooted up beside her and held on to her sleeve. She started reading along with Izzy, stumbling over the longer words. Ollie didn’t know how to read, but after hearing it a few times, he recited the poem from memory. Lug joined in as well.
They kept reciting the poem as Marian worked the spell. They spoke the words over and over until they ran on in a singsong, and even simple words, like bird and true, began to sound like nonsense.
Selden stood up. “It’s working,” he whispered. “Look, it’s working.”
The faint outline of Dree’s body came into view, like someone had drawn her with a gray pencil. They continued reading, louder and faster.
Dree’s arms appeared, lying on top of the blankets. Her face, eyes shut, hovered over the pillow. She was translucent as she’d always been, but she was there again. The bedcover stirred. They all stopped reading midsentence.
Dree’s eyelids fluttered. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around the dark room. When her gaze focused on them, she cracked her lips. They all held a collective breath and leaned in.
“This place looks decked out for a funeral,” she croaked.
“Dree!” shouted Hen and Ollie.
Lug clapped his hands together and sobbed.
Dree looked up at Selden. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
He laughed. Izzy laughed. And then they were all laughing and crying and hugging one another and hugging Dree—but not too tight.
Marian put her hands on her hips. “You’re right, this place is much too gloomy.” She went to the window and pulled back the curtain. Soft light flooded the room, shining through Dree’s perfect, glassy face.
Izzy reached into her back pocket and pulled out the crow feather. Its edges were tattered now. She tucked it into the book’s spine, marking the page with Dree’s poem.
“Don’t worry about us, Peter,” she whispered. “We’re all going to be fine.”
29
Home Again
“Sweetie?” called Izzy’s mom as she knocked softly on her bedroom door. “The mail’s here!”
Izzy sat up on her bed and crossed her legs. “You can come in, Mom!”
The door swung open, and Izzy’s mom leaned inside, holding out a small brown envelope. “Dad says dinner’ll be ready in fifteen minutes, OK?” she turned to the other bed and added, “Dree, you like asparagus casserole, right?”
Dree sat on Hen’s bed with Izzy’s dog, Dublin, sprawled across her lap. “Love it, Mrs. Doyle.”
“Good. At least someone does around here. Lug and Hen are making a big salad from what they found in the woods.” Izzy’s mom smiled and shook her head. “That boy knows more about plants than anyone I’ve ever met.”
When she shut the door, Dree puffed out her cheeks and exhaled. “I still can’t get used to that.”
Izzy waved her hand. “You can relax. Hen’s got Mom and Dad totally enchanted. They think you’re solid, and they think Lug’s just got early facial hair growth.”
“And they think Selden actually combs and cleans his fingernails?”
Izzy grinned. “There’s a limit to what even Peter’s flute can do.”
Actually, Hen was showing amazing self-control in not abusing the flute’s power over humans. When they got home, she’d used it to make their parents think they should eat French fries and banana pudding at every meal, but even Hen got sick of that after a few days. Now she just used it to make them see the Changelings as regular children. Izzy’s parents thought Dree, Selden, and Lug were kids from the neighborhood.
Izzy’s mom did make remarks about how they didn’t like to wear shoes and had awful table manners. And every now and then, Izzy would catch her watching Dree, her head tilted curiously as if she wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. But overall, her parents were so glad that Izzy had finally made friends that if they suspected Dree of not being entirely solid, they never mentioned it.
Dublin rolled over so Dree could rub his tummy. She nodded at the letter in Izzy’s hand. “Another one from Selden?”
“He sent one with Smudge just yesterday,” said Izzy, flipping the envelope over. “I don’t know what else he’d have to say unless they’ve found a new family.”
Selden was now overseeing the Faerie side of the Exchange. But even though he took his new job very seriously, he had decided to do things differently than Peter.
They stuck to the ancient agreement of “a Child for a Changeling,” but they no longer made it an exact trade. Hiron and Ollie scoped out Earth for kind families who desperately wanted children but couldn’t have them on their own. They had already placed Phlox, Luthia, and Yash with good parents and had found a potential home for the twins, Mite and Mote. The new rule was that no Changeling had to be Exchanged if they didn’t want to, and everyone was encouraged to come back to Avhalon to visit.
Dree was in charge of finding human children to bring into Faerie. She looked for misfits, unhappy kids who weren’t loved at home. When she made contact with them and told them they could start a new life in a magical world, they almost always jumped at the chance. Hen rarely had to use the flute to lure anyone away, but she still played it as she led the way into Faerie, more to keep up with tradition than anything else.
Once in Faerie, human children lived with Hale and the other Changelings until Lug could find them a good family to live with—one that really wanted to take in a human child, not just get an extra helping hand a
round the farm. If he couldn’t find a perfect match, they could stay with Hale in Avhalon or with Marian at Netherbee until they were old enough to live on their own.
Selden oversaw the entire operation from Peter’s old desk. He worked with Smudge to keep all the details in order and sent messages to Earth through Izzy. The new system was way more complicated than the old one, but with all of them working together, they managed it somehow. The result was that Izzy’s friends came and stayed at her house often now, and she and Hen went back to Faerie on a regular basis. Selden had made her promise to come back for every major holiday, which for fairies meant every few weeks.
They had no idea where the King’s Key ended up after Izzy threw it. All they knew was that it lay somewhere on Earth. Izzy wondered if anyone would ever find it, and if they did, if they’d even notice that it was no ordinary rock.
“So?” asked Dree, nodding at the letter. “What did he say?”
Izzy opened the envelope and pulled out the paper tucked inside. She rolled her eyes and passed it to Dree. “He’s drawn all of us at the starting line of the Thripplemas races. It says, Two more weeks. Get ready to lose.”
“Everyone’s in this picture but you,” said Dree.
“Can’t you see, there at the bottom?” Izzy leaned over and pointed to the corner of the paper. “He’s drawn me as a shrimp.”
Dree grinned and handed the letter back to Izzy. “Good old Selden.” She hopped off the bed, and Dublin followed her to the door, tail wagging. “Should we go down to dinner? Lug won’t leave us anything if we don’t hurry.”
“Sure. I’ll be there in just a second.”
Izzy went to her desk and took a thumbtack out of the drawer. She pinned Selden’s drawing on the wall, next to the other letters from him and Lug and the other Changelings. As she leaned back, she smoothed her hand over a wrinkled piece of paper tacked next to her bed. Ollie had gone back to the clearing and found it for her.
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