I yawned again and glanced at Eadric. He was tired, too, and it was going to be a long flight to the border of Soggy Molvinia. Not knowing what we’d have to face there, I didn’t want to arrive exhausted in the middle of the night.
“I think we should sleep before we start out,” I told my companions.
Something grumbled in the tunnel and a puff of dust blew toward us. “Do you mind if we move away from here?” Persimmon said, looking nervous. “I don’t want to wake up to a dragon stepping on me.”
“We passed over a forest at the foot of the mountains. Why don’t we spend the night there?” Eadric suggested.
“Good idea,” I told him.
Eadric and I took our seats on the carpet. When he tried to hand Adara to me, she squeaked and ran up his sleeve.
“I guess she wants to stay with me,” said Eadric.
I glanced at his sleeve and nodded. “That’s fine, as long as I can see her. Get out of there, Adara, right this instant!”
The little mouse nose peeked out of the sleeve. A moment later, Adara crept out. “I wasn’t going to stay in here, although it is nice and warm.”
“Just stay where I can see you,” I told her. “I’m sure you don’t want to make me worry about you and lose my concentration while I’m flying the carpet.”
“Why are you so worried about her?” asked Eadric. “I’ll make sure she’s all right.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” I said. “She may be a mouse now, but I still don’t want her rooting around in your clothes!”
The forest wasn’t very far from the cave, and it didn’t take us long to get there. Even so, it was nearly dark before we arrived and I had to follow the light of the fairies’ wings to a clearing where a little stream ran cold and clear. The fairies grew to full size to help us gather wood for a fire and enough nuts and berries for a meager supper. Eadric refilled the water-skin that he had brought with him. Once the fire was started, I sat down on the carpet beside him.
We ate our meal by the glow of three witches’ lights that I positioned over the carpet. Nightshade, Oleander, and Persimmon sat under a nearby tree, talking quietly among themselves. Adara sat next to Eadric’s foot as she nibbled half a walnut. She didn’t say much because she was too busy eating. Acorn had also joined Eadric and me on the carpet. I noticed that he wasn’t touching the berries he’d chosen as he gazed off into the darkness. “How did you meet the queen?” I finally asked him.
“We’ve known each other for a very long time,” he said. “We grew up together.”
“Do you know why she might be unhappy?” I asked.
“I have a good idea,” he replied, looking glum.
“What is it? Did something happen?” I said.
He wasn’t able to meet my eyes when he said, “I think it’s more about what didn’t happen.”
“I don’t understand,” I told him.
Acorn shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Fine,” I told him. “But do you know anything that might help us find her?”
Acorn finally turned to look at me. “When I do, I’ll make sure to let you know.”
I watched as he got up and walked away. I may not have learned much, but I had the feeling that he really did care about Willow, and it wasn’t just because she was a good queen.
Adara was scrubbing her whiskers with her paw when she turned to me and said, “I don’t understand something. If you’re a witch, why don’t you just use a spell to find the Fairy Queen? I’m tired of going from one place to another when we don’t know for sure where to find her.”
“Fairies are very powerful,” I told her. “Their magic isn’t the same as witches’.”
I thought about what she’d said, though. Scrying to learn the truth about Adara had worked better than I could have hoped. My magic had grown ever since I turned myself into a dragon. Maybe I could see what had become of the Fairy Queen. There was no reason I couldn’t try.
Opening the sack I carried, I took out the bowl that Oculura had given to me. “What are you doing?” Eadric asked.
“Looking for the Fairy Queen,” I replied.
Borrowing Eadric’s water-skin, I poured water in the bowl until it was half-full. When the water grew still, I bent over the bowl and said, “Where is the Fairy Queen?”
I frowned, unsure of what I was seeing. For a moment it looked like pouring rain and lashing branches, until suddenly the picture was gone and all I could see was my own reflection. When I tried again, my reflection just stared back at me.
“It doesn’t seem to be working,” I said, glancing at Eadric.
The fairies had all gathered around as I tried to scry for Willow. “I don’t think Willow wants to be found,” said Acorn before he turned tiny and flew into a tree.
Nightshade seemed to want to say something, but instead he and his two friends turned tiny as well and found a tree of their own.
It looked as if all four fairies were wrapping themselves in leaves for the night. Because fairies often spent their evenings dancing or visiting one another, I decided that they must be as tired as Eadric and I if they were going to sleep so early.
“We could sleep on the carpet, I suppose,” Eadric said, rubbing his spine, “as long as we can find a spot without too many rocks. My back still hurts from sleeping on one earlier.”
“We don’t need to worry about rocks,” I said. “Lie down and I’ll show you.”
Eadric looked skeptical when he stretched out on the carpet. Lying down beside him, I twitched my fingers and made us rise a foot above the ground. Floating in the air feels wonderful when you’re lying down with nothing but an age-softened carpet and air beneath you. Before Eadric could say anything about being cold, I said,
Whisper soft and kitten warm,
Two blankets will be fine.
Two pillows for beneath our heads,
One’s Eadric’s and one’s mine.
Eadric gasped when blankets suddenly covered us and pillows plumped under our heads. “This is great! We should camp like this more often!”
“So you like sleeping on a magic carpet?” I asked, smiling into the dark.
“I will now!” he said. “Imagine, no ants or spiders to crawl on us, plus it feels like we’re floating on a cloud. Are you sure this will stay up all night?”
“Positive!” I said. “I have to concentrate only when I’m making it move.”
“What if I fall off?” Adara asked from up by Eadric’s head.
“You won’t have far to fall, but you’re small enough that you still might get hurt,” I told her. “Don’t move around and you’ll be fine.”
“That’s easy enough for you to say,” Adara grumbled. “You’re not a mouse and frightened of every little sound.”
“Then that shouldn’t be a problem,” said Eadric. “Haven’t you noticed how quiet it is here? I don’t even hear crickets chirping. Hey, look at the sky over the mountains! You can see the glow of the lava and the dragons’ fire.”
“And the outlines of flying dragons!” I said. “Some of them must practice at night. See, there’s one now. If you look straight up, you’ll see it flying above us.”
“You know what you don’t see?” asked Eadric. “The lights from the fairies who live around here. Normally fairy lights are all over a forest at night.”
I sat up to look around. Eadric was right. The forest was dark and quiet; the only movement was the occasional dragon flying overhead and the leaves rustling in the light breeze that stirred the air. Unlike the forests we’d visited before, there were no twinkling lights zigzagging through the trees. “Perhaps it’s because we’re so close to the dragons,” I said. “Maybe fairies don’t like to live where dragons are always coming and going.”
“Maybe,” said Eadric. “But there must be some fairies around if Nightshade found one to talk to.”
“That’s true,” I said, my eyelids suddenly too heavy to keep open.
When Eadric pulled me to his side, I rolled over to face him, pillowing my head on his chest.
“This is nice,” he said, kissing the top of my head.
“Mmm,” I murmured, snuggling closer. A moment later, I was asleep.
I woke the next morning to Acorn saying, “Wake up, sleepyheads! The sun is shining and we have a long way to go today. Here, have some apples. I found an apple tree and brought back breakfast.”
“How thoughtful,” I said even as Eadric groaned.
“Do I have to get up now or can I keep sleeping?” he asked, tugging his blanket up around his ears. “I’m already on the carpet.”
I laughed as I got to my feet. “I guess it won’t matter if you’re awake or not. Stay where you are if you want. Just don’t roll over and fall off when we’re flying.”
“I won’t,” he said, and was asleep again a moment later.
Not wanting to take any chances, I had the safety straps wrap around him so he couldn’t roll off in his sleep. When I was sure he was secure, I chose one apple from Acorn’s gift and put the rest in the cloth sack. A minute later, we were flying toward Soggy Molvinia. I had finished eating my apple before we were out of sight of the Purple Mountains.
For most of our journey, I traveled in silence with Eadric asleep beside me and Adara curled against his back. The fairies flitted around the carpet, resting on it when they grew weary. I enjoyed watching the scenery pass under us as we flew east toward Soggy Molvinia. Vast forests melted into farmland where stone walls and hedgerows divided the fields, reminding me of pieced-together quilts.
Eventually the farms were farther apart. Soon there were none at all—just swamp grass and bogs with no signs of roads or people. I knew then that we had almost reached Soggy Molvinia, and it was time to start looking for Queen Willow. Only a few minutes later, the gentle breeze that had accompanied us most of the way became stronger. Our ride became bumpier then, and Eadric woke as rain began to fall. Grumbling, he sat up to look around, saying, “Where are we now?”
“The border is just ahead,” I said. “I’m not sure how we’ll find Queen Willow, though.”
“Maybe the fairies can help with that,” Eadric suggested.
I nodded. “Good idea. Nightshade! Acorn!” I called.
The fairies flew through the rain, looking wet and bedraggled when they reached the carpet. “Can you find the queen from here?” I asked.
“We can try,” said Acorn.
“I’ll talk to the others,” said Nightshade. “This won’t be easy, though.”
The two fairies flew off, and I soon saw all four darting across the landscape. It wasn’t long before Acorn came back. “I didn’t see her, but I think she must be that way,” he said, pointing south. “When I went in that direction, the rain got heavier. As soon as I turned around, it let up behind me.”
“That could be a coincidence,” said Eadric.
“Maybe,” Acorn told him. “But it’s the kind of thing Willow would do if she didn’t want anyone to find her.”
“It’s worth a look,” I said, and turned the carpet in that direction.
The rain had been steady, but as we flew south, it suddenly became much heavier. When I tried Acorn’s experiment and turned around, the rain nearly stopped. I turned back and it instantly became a deluge.
“I think you’re right,” I called to Acorn. “She must be somewhere up ahead.”
We flew on, but the storm only grew worse until it was impossible to see in any direction and the wind was trying to push us backward. Although I soon lost all sense of direction, I realized that as long as the wind was coming at us from directly ahead, we were going the right way. Twice we got turned around and the wind let up. Both times I turned us back so we were facing into the wind and kept going.
Eadric and I sat huddled together in the middle of the carpet with Adara crouched under the edge of my gown. The fairies had given up trying to take shelter under the carpet, and were under a fold of my gown as well. A particularly bad gust nearly flipped the carpet over and we almost fell off. I was starting to think that we might have to walk when suddenly the carpet shook as if something had hit it and took a nosedive, dumping us the last few feet. No one was hurt, including Adara, but when I tried to get the carpet to move, I couldn’t even get it to wiggle.
Not only were we completely wet and miserable, we now had no choice but to walk. I picked up Adara and tucked her in my pocket. She shivered and snuggled against me, too wet and cold to complain that Eadric wasn’t carrying her.
The fairies grew big then, unable to get anywhere in the rain when they were tiny. Leaving the carpet where it was, we started walking into the rain with our heads down and our shoulders hunched. We hadn’t gone far when the rain let up altogether.
“Thank goodness!” Adara squeaked.
“You can say that again,” Eadric said as he wrung out the hem of his tunic.