by E. D. Baker
After giving Blue a long kiss that had her uncle clearing his throat, Cory left to summon the pedal-bus. Blue and Micah stood on the porch and waved as the bus arrived and Cory climbed on. She waved back as the bus pulled away, wishing she could stay home and spend the evening with them.
Cory was the first to reach Olot’s cave. Chancy ushered her in, bubbling about how much fun they were going to have on the trip. The rest of the band members soon arrived and they started rehearsal right on time. They didn’t practice for as long as usual because they all had to get up early the next morning. When they were packing up, Cory went to talk to Olot. “I think we should hire someone to help carry the instruments and run errands and things. It would take some of the burden off you and Chancy and let you enjoy yourselves a little more.”
“That’s awfully kind of you, Cory, but I’m not sure . . .”
“Good, because I already hired someone. Her name is Goldilocks and she’ll be starting tomorrow.”
“Huh?” Olot said, looking confused.
“Don’t worry! She’ll be a big help!” Cory told him, hoping she was right. She left before he could turn down her suggestion. Although Cory hated handling it this way, she couldn’t think of anything else to do.
The sky was clear and the air was muggy when Cory flew home that night. She landed in the park across the street and walked to the house, noticing that the stones were still warm from the sun beating down on them all day. Stepping onto the walkway leading to the porch, her legs suddenly flew out from under her and she fell flat on her back.
Cory groaned and struggled to sit up, seeing the ice coating the walkway for the first time. Two words popped into her head. “Frost fairies,” she grumbled out loud, certain she was right.
CHAPTER
12
Cory was dressed and eating her breakfast before the first rays lightened the sky. Wondering if Goldilocks would actually show up, she glanced toward the window and groaned. Although the day was promising to be warm, a frosty pattern was etched onto the glass, surrounding the words Cory is a bad girl! Turning to the other windows, she saw that the same words were written in frost on each of them.
“It wasn’t enough that they made me slip and fall last night,” she muttered, thinking of how much her back still ached.
Cory was about to leave when her uncle came into the kitchen. “Oh, good! You’re still here,” he said when he saw her. “I was afraid you might have gone already.”
“I’m just about to,” said Cory. “Did you see what the frost fairies did last night? It’s the same on every window.”
Micah frowned as he examined the glass. “Now they have the frost fairies involved? What’s next—that new Belly Button Lint Guild?”
“I hope not!” Cory said, pretending to shudder. “Be careful when you go out. The frost fairies iced the front walkway last night. I slipped and fell coming home.”
“Did you get hurt?” he asked, his frown deepening. “Because if you did, I’ll—”
“No, no! I’m fine. I just want you to be careful while I’m gone. Please send Blue a message about the Frost Fairy Guild right away. I’d do it myself, but I have to leave now.”
“I will,” said Micah. “We can use it as more evidence against the guilds. I’m glad you’re getting out of town today. Just promise me that you’ll be careful.”
“Of course,” Cory replied. “I should be back in a few days.”
After hugging her uncle and saying good-bye, she went to her room to get her things. She hadn’t packed much, knowing that Chancy had two outfits for her to wear, so she was taking only one bag. Seeing that Noodles was awake, she petted his head, promising that she wouldn’t be gone long.
When Cory left the house, she walked across the yard instead of the still-icy walkway. She didn’t have to wait long for the pedal-bus. The only people on it were the two drivers and three flower fairies who didn’t feel like flying to work. Cory’s bag was a little big for the basket in front of her seat, but she crammed it in and steadied it with one hand every time they turned a corner.
By the time the pedal-bus reached the next customer, Cory had stopped worrying about her uncle and the frost fairies and had gone back to worrying about Goldilocks. On one hand, Cory was worried that she wouldn’t show up. On the other hand, Cory almost hoped Goldilocks stayed away. If she didn’t come, Cory wouldn’t have to decide what to do about Rupert, making her life much easier. Even so, she couldn’t help but feel that the easy way out wasn’t always the best way.
When Cory arrived at Olot’s cave, Olot and Chancy were waiting out front along with Perky, Skippy, and his girlfriends. After greeting Cory, one of Skippy’s girlfriends said, “We came to say good-bye to Skippy, but we’re really hoping we can go, too. I don’t suppose there’d be room for us?” she asked Olot.
The ogre shook his head. “Sorry, ladies, not today,” he said as if they’d already asked a dozen times.
Skippy took them aside to console them while Olot looked down the road for the carriage and Cory looked for Goldilocks. If the girl was late, Cory couldn’t really ask Olot to wait, especially since she wasn’t even sure Goldilocks was coming.
Cheeble showed up a few minutes later, lugging a bag covered with embroidered flowers.
“Nice bag,” Skippy said with a smirk.
“My mother made it for me when I left home,” Cheeble snapped. “Are you criticizing my mother?”
“Not at all,” Skippy said, holding up his hands in protest.
“How are you doing, Cheeble?” asked Olot. “Did you get much sleep last night?”
“I didn’t get any,” the brownie snarled. “I played in an all-night game of marbles and lost everything I wagered.”
“Uh-oh,” Perky whispered to Cory. “Better stay away from him for a while.”
The rumble of a vehicle coming up the road made everyone turn to look, but instead of the carriage, it was Daisy’s parents hauling her cart loaded down with luggage while Daisy walked behind, picking up the things that fell off. When they started unloading Daisy’s things onto the side of the road, Olot looked dismayed as the pile grew and grew. He seemed to want to say something, but then the carriage came into sight.
The carriage was longer than most that Cory had seen, and had six horses pulling it. At least she thought the two in the front were horses until they got closer and she realized that they were centaurs, one slightly larger than the other. Both were chestnut brown with the head and torso of men and they looked as if they were related. Four horses trotted behind them, moving when the centaurs moved, stopping when they stopped. As far as she could see, there was no coachman to guide them. Printed on the side of the carriage were the words HORACE AND SON TRANSPORTATION in neat block letters. Cory decided that the older and larger centaur must be Horace, while the younger one who looked a lot like him had to be his son.
“Here they are!” Olot said, sounding relieved.
The centaurs were unhitching themselves when the ogre went to talk to them. They spoke for a minute, then the centaurs trotted to the back of the carriage.Opening a door to a compartment underneath, they began loading the instruments while Olot cautioned them to be careful. When all the instruments were safely stowed, they closed the door and opened another. This time they weren’t as careful, tossing the luggage in so that Cory wondered how anyone could ever get it all straightened out. The other members of the band were already climbing on board when Goldilocks walked up carrying a single bag over her shoulder.
Cory’s relief must have shown on her face, because Goldilocks took one look at her and said, “Didn’t think I’d come, did you? I said I would and here I am. Where do I put this?” Swinging the bag off her shoulder, she handed it to the younger centaur. It was the last bag stowed away before they shut the door.
While the centaurs returned to the front of the carriage and began to hitch themselves up again, Olot came to talk to Cory.
“This is Goldilocks, the girl I told you about,” Cor
y told him.
“I figured as much,” he said before turning to Goldilocks. “To be honest, I don’t really think we need you, but Cory said we do and my wife thinks it’s a great idea. The instruments and the luggage are already stowed in the carriage. When we reach our destination, it will be your job to sort them out and see that they get where they need to go. Climb aboard, ladies. Our journey is about to begin.”
“Cory, sit with me!” Daisy called as Cory stuck her head in the carriage.
There were four wide seats; the two in the front faced each other and the two in the back faced each other, which meant that half the seats faced forward and half faced backward. Cory joined Daisy in the front of the carriage, leaving Goldilocks to sit in the far back with Perky.
When Skippy saw Goldilocks, he called out, “You can sit with me! Cheeble, you have to move.”
Cheeble was slouched in his seat with his hat pulled over his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere,” he grumbled, sounding as if he was already half asleep.
Perky glanced up from the book he was reading. “Sit here,” he said, nodding toward the seat beside him. “I don’t bite. Just be forewarned, I plan to finish this book today, so I’m not up for much conversation.”
“That’s okay,” Goldilocks said, edging past the other seats.
“Why does she get to go when we can’t?” cried one of Skippy’s girlfriends.
“Because she’ll be working and you’d be going for fun,” Olot told her.
“It’s not fair!” the other one whined. “We could have done whatever she’s going to do.”
The carriage started with a jolt, leaving the girls and Daisy’s parents behind. Daisy leaned out the window to wave to her parents until they were out of sight. “Thank goodness,” she said, sitting back in her seat. “I thought we’d never go! Oh, I have to tell you; I saw your mother yesterday. She is so mad at you! I wanted to tell her about how well the band is doing and that she didn’t need to worry about you, but she didn’t want to hear it. She isn’t nearly as nice as she used to be.”
“I never really thought of her as nice,” said Cory. “But then, she always did like you.”
“I’m so glad we have this chance to talk. We haven’t gotten together in ages! We’ve both been busy with the band, and I have Garwood and you have Blue.”
“Who is Garwood?” Cory asked her, only half listening. Although she couldn’t hear what they were saying, she could see that Goldilocks and Perky were engaged in some sort of animated conversation that involved lots of gesturing. She assumed they weren’t talking any louder because Cheeble was sleeping, with his head held at an awkward angle.
“I didn’t tell you about Garwood?” Daisy cried. “He’s my new boyfriend. I met him the last time we played at the Shady Nook. He’s a waiter there, and considering that Priscilla Hood is engaged to a waiter from Perfect Pastry, I thought it might be worth giving him a chance. Garwood is very sweet and . . .”
Cory tuned her friend out, although she still nodded when she thought it was appropriate and made sympathetic faces when she thought she should. She had perfected the technique after years of being Daisy’s best friend and had often found it useful. Over the years, she’d noticed that those of Daisy’s boyfriends who lasted the longest also had this ability.
After a while, Daisy ran out of things to say and settled back in her seat for a nap. Perky was reading again and Goldilocks was looking bored. It occurred to Cory that she might have enjoyed sitting with Perky more and letting Goldilocks sit with Daisy, but it was too late now.
Not at all sleepy, Cory shifted so that she could look out the window on her side of the carriage. They had already left the hills where Olot and Chancy lived and were traveling through farmland. She enjoyed seeing the cows and horses on the farms and the rows of crops edging the road. Soon after passing through a small town, they passed through mile after mile of open grazing land where centaurs roamed freely. A small band of teenage centaurs trotted alongside the coach for a while, talking to Horace’s son before the carriage left them behind.
Cory leaned so close to her window that she almost fell out of her seat when they passed the ruins of an ancient castle with crumbling towers and trees growing in the roofless remains of the great hall. They crossed a river soon after that, riding up and over a high arched bridge while ships with tall masts sailed below. More miles of farmland passed by before they reached another bridge, but this one was more solid looking than the first and crossed over a wide, slow-moving river where fishermen pulled in nets heavy with sparkling silver fish.
Cory must have dozed for a while, because before she knew it, they were in the deep shade of a forest and Olot was announcing, “We should reach the castle in a few hours.”
“The marble game was rigged,” Cheeble murmured in his sleep.
“Do you think we should redo the kitchen?” Chancy asked Olot, continuing the conversation they’d been having.
Daisy stirred and woke, bumping into Cory with her elbow when she stretched. She yawned, patting her mouth daintily, and said, “Ooh, I’m so stiff. Do you think we could get out and stretch our legs?”
“Olot said we’ll be there soon,” said Cory. “The centaurs probably—”
The carriage slowed and stopped so abruptly that Daisy would have slid off the seat if Cory hadn’t caught her. Cheeble did fall off, landing on the floor with Skippy.
“What’s going on?” Olot said, getting to his feet. He strode to the door, throwing it open with such force that it slammed into the side of the coach and bounced back, hitting him as he got out. This seemed to make him madder and he stormed to the front of the carriage, bellowing, “Why did we stop like that?”
Cory heard voices replying, then the door opened and a masked stranger holding a piece of bamboo at least six inches long stuck his head into the carriage. “Everybody out! And be quick about it if you know what’s good for you!” The mask covered the top half of his face, but Cory could still see that he had a large hooked nose and almost no chin.
Pointing the bamboo at Cory, he gestured for her to go first.
“Why should I listen to you?” Cory asked. “That’s just a piece of bamboo! What harm can that do?”
“That’s not just bamboo, that’s a peashooter!” said Cheeble. “Watch out. If he’s got frozen peas, that’s really going to hurt!”
Cory climbed down, keeping an eye on the stranger. When she reached the ground, she looked for Olot, and saw him standing at the edge of the road, where another man was pointing a piece of bamboo at him.
Following the highwayman’s orders, Cory joined Olot. She could see why the carriage had stopped; a large tree had been chopped down across the road. Horace stood glaring at the humans, while one of the men unhitched the horses and slapped them so they’d run off into the woods. When he reached the centaurs, Horace said, “Don’t touch us! We’re not horses.”
“But I’m going to set you free,” the man said, looking puzzled. “You don’t have to live as slaves anymore. You can run into the forest and join your own kind.”
“I’m not a slave!” said Horace. “This is my carriage and my business. I hire out the carriage and take people where they want to go.”
“Really?” said the highwayman. “I wondered why we couldn’t find a coachman.”
“She’s not here!” called the man who had made Cory and her friends leave the carriage.
“What do you mean?” replied another man as he emerged from among the trees. He was taller than the others and had a more refined look, with polished boots and a fitted jacket. His dark curly hair fell over his mask, and his eyes were a piercing blue. He wore an air of command that demanded everyone’s attention. “She has to be here. This is the only carriage that has come this way all day.”
“I don’t know where she is, but she’s not here,” said the man with the hooked nose.
The man who had talked to Horace nodded. “It’s a carriage for hire. This centaur says he owns it.”
Chancy tried to hide her wedding ring in her pocket, but one of the men stepped up and reached for it. Olot growled, baring his fangs when the man got close. The leader aimed his piece of bamboo at Olot and said, “Now, now. We’ll have none of that. I’d rather not shoot you, but I will if I must. Just let her hand over the jewelry like a good ogre and no one will get hurt.”
Chancy’s hand shook when she took the ring out of her pocket and gave it to the highwayman. The man had taken off his cap, revealing curly brown hair. He dropped the ring in the cap and said, “Got it, boss.”
“What about you?” he asked when he came to Cory. His eyes traveled from her throat and ears, where she didn’t have any jewelry, to the bracelet that Blue had given to her. “That’ll do nicely,” he said, grabbing her arm and slipping the bracelet from her wrist.
Daisy handed over her tiny daisy earrings and shrugged. “They were a gift from my last boyfriend. I never really liked them,” she said, although Cory noticed that she bit her lip after that, as if she was trying not to cry.
When the man stepped in front of Goldilocks, she glared at him as if daring him to take the simple chain she wore around her neck. He grinned when he took it, but he was gentle when he undid the clasp.
“And now, before we leave, I’m going to give each of you ladies something in return,” said the leader of the highwaymen.
Olot looked as if he wanted to rip the leader’s head off when he gave Chancy a kiss, which might have been why the highwayman didn’t linger. Cory squeezed her lips together and glared when he kissed her. Daisy almost seemed to enjoy her kiss, but Goldilocks leaned closer and put her arms around the man, letting the kiss last longer than the others. Cory thought the girl had actually liked it, but when the man turned away, Goldilocks scrubbed the back of her hand across her mouth and made a disgusted face.