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THE MERMAIDS dived when Rani approached, flying in on Brother Dove’s back. It broke Rani’s heart to see them go. She was a water-talent fairy, and she loved mermaids.

Only the mermaid Soop remained, treading water just long enough to see that Rani had brought no wand. Then she dived, too.

“Wait!” Rani shouted as Brother Dove landed on Marooners’ Rock. “I want you to have a wand. Mother Dove won’t let me—”

It was too late. Rani was talking to Soop’s tail, just as she had yesterday and the day before and the day before that.

She told Brother Dove to leave her. Alone on Marooners’ Rock, she wept. Because of her talent, she wept often, sweated easily, and her nose tended to run.

After drying her eyes on a leafkerchief, she kicked off her sensible walking shoes and slipped into the lagoon. Of all fairies, Rani was the only one who could swim, and that was because she had no wings to drag her under.

When she tired of floating and splashing, she made a play mermaid out of water. It was too bad the real mermaids hadn’t stayed to see. The water mermaid seemed to have scaly skin, its fingernails were tiny fins, and it was almost as graceful as a real mermaid. Rani even gave it a long pink scarf, just like Soop’s.

Rani swam with the imitation mermaid, but she couldn’t make its tail swish. Worse, its eyes were empty, and its smile never varied. In the end, she turned it into a pyramid of bubbles.

If only she had a wand for Soop!

Rani had no illusions. The wand wouldn’t make Soop like her. Mermaids looked down on fairies, and a fulfilled promise wouldn’t change that.

But first Rani would use the wand to make Soop her friend. Then she’d hand it over and everything would be lovely.

Brother Dove came for Rani at sunset. The lagoon is perilous at night, because the mermaids sing their most magical songs then. Pirates see dead sea captains. Birds fly upside down. Fairies turn into bats.

For her part, Soop was enraged. She’d given Rani a comb in exchange for a wand, and she wanted the wand. She had plans for it.

She was convinced Rani was taunting her by returning to the lagoon every day without it. Soop wanted to vent her anger, but fairies were beneath her, so for a month after the hurricane she did nothing.

Finally, one night, she was too angry to sing. The next morning, she didn’t dive when Rani arrived.

Rani was thrilled. Her glow flared. She wept happy tears. “Oh, Soop! Oh, Soop!” She wanted to say the fascinating things she’d practiced for this moment, about swimming and fish fins and underwater castles. “Oh, Soop!”

Soop smiled pleasantly until Brother Dove left. Then she reared up so that she was balanced precariously on the tip of her tail. The smile vanished. “You promised! You promised, and I have waited. I’ve waited patiently.” This wasn’t true. She’d been angry since the first day. “When will you fulfill your promise?” She flopped back down on Marooners’ Rock and whispered menacingly, “Beware a mermaid’s wrath!”

Rani dabbed at the seawater and sweat on her face with a leafkerchief. “I want you to have it, but—”

“If you want me to have it,” Soop said, “why don’t I have—”

“—it? I’d need to get it.” The only other time they’d met, Rani had told Soop that Never fairies didn’t have wands. They had fairy dust and Mother Dove. “But Mother Dove won’t let me.”

Excuses! “Observe, little fairy.” Soop beckoned the water below.

“My name is Rani.” She smiled ingratiatingly.

Automatically, Soop said, “I am Soop.” Then she frowned. She didn’t want to be polite. “It doesn’t matter what your name is. Watch the water.”

It lapped higher and higher on the rock, up to the hem of Rani’s skirt.

“Fulfill your promise. Bring a wand to our castle. The water is rising in your Fairy—”

“—Haven. Don’t!” Rani’s water talent wasn’t strong enough to dry up a flood. Not even the combined talents of every water-talent fairy would be strong enough. A flood would destroy Fairy Haven. “Oh, don’t!”

“Bring me a wand!” Soop dived.