TWENTY

THE QUEST would have ended right then. Rani and Vidia and possibly Prilla would have drowned.

But Never Land interceded.

The island had been observing the fairies and rooting for them. It didn’t want them to fail.

So it slid the beach toward them.

When Rani and Vidia fell into the sea, expecting to die, the water came up only to their knees.

A wave was coming. They dragged themselves and the holder onto dry sand. But they couldn’t remain there either. It would be absurd to escape drowning only to be killed by a hawk. They pulled the holder toward an outcropping of rock a few yards up the beach. Prilla arrived and helped.

Then they collapsed.

A cool autumn breeze swept across the island, although autumn had never before come to Never Land, only spring and summer.

Peter Pan woke to find a dozen baby teeth next to him on his sleeping mat.

Hook’s bosun, Smee, couldn’t remember where he’d left his spectacles.

The Never bear’s knee was stiffer today. And when he sniffed the air, he smelled a beehive but couldn’t tell if it was to his north or to his south.

In the courtyard outside the Home Tree, Queen Ree shivered in her open-weave fern mantle. A sparrow man ran to her. All over Fairy Haven, nuts had ripened overnight and had fallen to the ground.

At first Ree thought that was good, but then she realized that the mill wouldn’t grind without dust. They were likely to starve.

Still half asleep, Mother Dove wondered why she didn’t feel the egg under her. Then she remembered, and her heart broke all over again.

Her eyes had filmed over during the night. Everything looked blurry. She swung her head, searching for Tink.

“I’m here.” Tink made herself smile to keep from crying.

Mother Dove whispered, “Talk to me.”

Tink had no idea what to say. Then she thought of the pots and pans on her worktable. “Dulcie brought in a cookie cutter last week. Won’t cut any shape but clover. She tried…”

If she’d been well, Mother Dove would have been glad to listen to whatever Tink wanted to say about a cookie cutter. But now she couldn’t keep her mind on the words. “Not about cookie cutters, Tink. Or pots.”

Not about pots? But Tink didn’t have anything else to talk about. She thought for a full five minutes. She took out her dagger and turned it over and over in her hands.

Then she began, “The first time I met Peter Pan I saved him from a shark.” She’d never told this to anyone. She’d never talked about Peter before.

Better, Mother Dove thought. She settled herself as comfortably as she could and willed herself to listen.

In the early afternoon, Prilla awoke from dreaming the dreams of Clumsy children. Rani and Vidia were still asleep, and she was afraid to wake them. Vidia would probably make a crack about a talent for waking fairies up when they wanted to sleep.

Prilla sighed. She decided to see if she could blink over to the mainland on purpose. She was probably misbehaving, but it was such fun to be there, and she didn’t see what harm it did.

She closed her eyes and remembered the bedroom of the boy who’d heard noises under his bed. A bicycle had leaned against one wall. A window had been open. The curtains had been blue and white stripes. She tried to push herself there. She tried to take a gigantic leap.

Her eyes opened. She hadn’t budged an inch.

She closed her eyes again and pictured a tunnel. In her mind she flew through it. She imagined cold stone walls, a rounded ceiling, a muddy floor. She stayed a while in the tunnel, getting to know it. At the other end, she told herself, was the mainland.

She thought her strategy was succeeding. She thought she’d left Never Land.

She opened her eyes. Next to her, Rani rolled onto her side.

Prilla hadn’t gone anywhere, but, although she didn’t know it, she had made a beginning.