Eadric had mentioned that he wanted to go to the enchanted forest with me, so I wasn’t surprised when he brought Ferdy with him to breakfast. Ferdy was the singing sword Eadric had bought at the magic marketplace, and it was the best sword he had ever owned. I was hoping that we could leave Adara at the castle, and was happy to see that she hadn’t come downstairs by the time we started our breakfast. Unfortunately, Eadric had to eat his usual three bowls of oatmeal and stack of buttered toast before we could go anywhere. By the time we started up the stairs to get my magic carpet, Adara had arrived.
I had already dragged my magic carpet out of the storage room and unrolled it on the floor, so it was ready when we climbed the tower stairs. The rug had been Grassina’s, left behind when the curse took hold and she moved down to the dungeon. It was an older rug and had a few quirks, but the colors were still bright and I knew how to handle it. I’d also made a few modifications of my own.
I sat on one side and Eadric sat on the other. Adara, who had followed us upstairs, appeared baffled as she stood beside the rug. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I thought we were going to the enchanted forest this morning.”
“We are,” I said. “We’ll see you when we get back.”
“Why are you sitting on that ugly rug?” she asked.
I whispered a command and the carpet began to rise.
Adara gasped. “Is that a magic carpet? I’ve heard of them in stories, but I’ve never actually seen one before. Wait for me! I’m going, too!”
We were two feet off the ground when Adara tried to climb on between Eadric and me. There wasn’t room for three people to ride side by side, so when I didn’t move over, she jostled me and I fell off, tumbling to the floor.
“Why did you do that?” Eadric asked Adara. “That was really rude!” He got off to help me up, then laid a protective arm around my shoulders and glared at the princess.
The carpet kept rising because I hadn’t done anything to stop it.
“Eadric?” asked Adara. “What are you doing? Don’t you want to sit with me?”
“I want to sit with Emma,” he replied, giving me an extra squeeze.
I glanced at the carpet. With only one person on it, the carpet was rising faster now. It was already at head height and would reach the high ceiling soon.
Adara squawked and peered over the edge. “What’s happening?” she asked. “Is it supposed to do this?”
“Only if I’m not controlling it,” I told her. “That’s a safety feature so no one can steal it.”
Adara looked up, then back down at me. “Isn’t it going to stop?”
“Not unless I tell it to,” I said. “It will go all the way to the ceiling and squash anyone who’s on it.”
The princess reached up to the ceiling that was getting closer by the second. Placing both hands against it, she tried to keep the rug from going higher. “Make it stop!” she shouted. “What are you waiting for?”
“I’m waiting for you to promise that you won’t do that kind of thing again. You took my seat last night and again today. There’s a reason I sit where I do. I’m the Green Witch. This is my home and my rug. You are a guest, so I’ve made allowances for you, but you cannot take my place. Ask me nicely and you can go with us, but you’ll have to do what I say and be more respectful.”
The carpet was already only a little over a foot from the ceiling. Adara had lain down on her stomach and was peering over the edge at me again. “I promise!” she shouted “Now get me down from here!”
“Say please,” I told her.
“Please!” she cried as her back touched the ceiling.
I gestured and the carpet stopped moving.
“Would it really have squashed her?” Eadric whispered in my ear.
“No,” I whispered back. “But it would have held her against the ceiling until I let her down.”
I gestured again and the carpet began to descend. In a few seconds, it was hovering beside me at waist height. While Adara scooted farther back on the carpet, Eadric and I climbed on. “Eadric, why don’t you sit back here with me?” she asked him.
“Because he’s sitting up here with me like he always does,” I said through gritted teeth. “No talking now, please. I have to concentrate while I’m doing this.”
Eadric snorted. He knew that I could make the carpet fly while I was half-asleep. Because he didn’t say anything, I was sure he didn’t want to listen to Adara’s chatter any more than I did.
I made the carpet rise another foot, then race toward the window. The opening was much narrower than the carpet, so it looked as if we’d never fit, but at the last second the window widened like a big smile, letting us pass through unscathed. When I glanced back, Adara was gripping the sides of the carpet, her face white and her lips pressed into a thin line. “Oh, I forgot,” I said. A few muttered words and the ropes that held the passengers in place whipped around our waists, tightening themselves so we couldn’t fall off.
We were halfway to the enchanted forest when I took out my farseeing ball. “Show me the route to Farmer Johnson’s crops beside the enchanted forest,” I said. I began scanning the ground as we drew closer, thinking that the blight-stricken plants might be hard to see, but I needn’t have bothered. Even from a distance, the afflicted plants stood out. Farmer Johnson was right: the blight had affected plants in a very specific pattern, but it wasn’t just one circle; it was three concentric circles with the shape of a flower in the middle. The withered plants were brown, compared to the vivid green plants around them, making quite a contrast.
“I think it’s kind of pretty,” I said, pointing it out to Eadric.
“Huh,” he said. “Why would anyone do that?”
“Do you see anything that might have caused it?” I asked as we went lower.
“Not from here. Why don’t you set the carpet down so we can look around?”
“Can you put us on the ground really fast?” asked Adara. “I think I’m about to be sick.”
“Right away!” I replied, worried about my carpet.
The moment we landed, Adara hurried off by herself while Eadric and I looked around. We didn’t see anything, including footprints, and were soon climbing back onto the carpet. We had to wait a few minutes for Adara to return. When she did, she looked slightly green. Once we were all settled, I took out my farseeing ball again. “Where is Water Lily’s pond?” I asked it.
The enchanted forest was so large that it covered much of northern Greater Greensward. It varied from stands of ancient trees deep with shadows and secrets to sun-filled glades where unicorns cropped sweetgrass and fairies played among wildflowers. With creatures both nasty and benign dwelling in the forest, it was an uncertain place to venture.
Following the route the farseeing ball showed me, we entered the forest, flying just above the ground. We hadn’t gone far when we heard the sound of large wings beating the air and snapping twigs behind us. When I looked back, a half-grown griffin was following us through the trees. While the adult griffins that lived in the enchanted forest knew enough to leave me alone, the younger ones had yet to learn just how dangerous I could be.
I made the carpet go faster, hoping to outrun the griffin. Its eagle eyes lit up and its eagle wings beat that much harder. The griffin seemed to think it was a game, following us turn for turn. Finally, we were in danger of passing the very spot I wanted to inspect, so I turned around and flicked my fingers at it. Sparks shot from my fingertips, streaming past Adara, who screamed and would have fallen off if not for the rope wrapped around her waist.
Although the griffin tried to avoid the sparks, they followed it, exploding in sparkling puffs inches from its eagle beak. The beast let out a high-pitched scream as it turned and fled, its lion tail between its legs.
“That was fun!” Eadric declared, grinning.
“It was, wasn’t it?” I said, grinning back at him.
“That was terrifying!” exclaimed Adara. “What is wrong with you people?”
“You should have stayed back at the castle,” Eadric said over his shoulder. “Any trip into the enchanted forest is dangerous.”
When we landed beside Water Lily’s pond, I saw what the fairy had meant. The water was much lower than it should have been, with the level only halfway to the high-water mark. Usually the water lilies’ stems were submerged, but now they lay across the surface of the water, twining around one another to form a triangle with a cluster of small leaves in the middle.
“Look, another pattern,” I told Eadric. “Who do you suppose is making them?”
Eadric scratched his head. “This must mean something to somebody.”
“Let’s go see Maple’s trees,” I said.
We climbed back on the carpet and were soon in the air again. Adara sat with her lips pursed, not talking to either of us. She perked up when we passed a herd of unicorns running through an open field. I glanced at the farseeing ball and saw the route we needed to take to reach Maple’s trees. We’d have to go through one of the older, darker parts of the forest. It was the very same place where we had first met the baby dragon Ralf when Eadric freed him from a giant web.
Eadric recognized the area after we’d gone only a little way. “Watch out for webs, Emma,” he said, taking Ferdy from the sheath.
I slowed the carpet, trying to see through the gloom. “I can’t see a thing,” I finally told Eadric. “For all I know there might be hundreds of webs around us. Maybe we should go higher so we’re above the trees.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Adara. “Are you afraid of a little spider?”
“Not a little one,” I said.
I stopped the carpet right where it was and held out my hands. With a few muttered words, I created a witch’s light and sent it to hover over the ground a few yards in front of us. It was enough to let us see what lay before us as well as a few yards to each side. I started to look for a gap between the trees so we could fly above them, but they were growing too close to each other. Soft rustlings made me turn my head quickly. A short, staccato clicking made Eadric brandish Ferdy, which sang:
Spiders fast and spiders slow,
You’re no match for me.
I’ll slice off your hairy legs and—
“Shh!” I told the sword. “We don’t want to attract their attention if we can help it!”
“Got it!” the sword replied, and began to hum softly.
“You’ve got a singing sword, Eadric?” Adara asked in a normal voice.
“Shh!” Eadric told her, giving her a sharp look.
“There! I see one!” I cried, spotting the shine of the witch’s light reflecting off the silvery web. “And there’s another over there!”
Eadric pointed Ferdy in the direction of the webs. A spider as big as a small horse skittered across the closest web, making that same staccato clicking that we had heard only moments before. There was a rustling among the leaves on the forest floor, and an even bigger spider lunged at the carpet. Eadric slashed at the spider, knocking it to the ground.
When the spider started after us again, I said, “Oh, forget this!” and made the carpet zig and zag, rising until we were above the tops of the trees.
“I was about to kill that spider!” Eadric exclaimed.
“I know,” I said. “But that’s not why we’re here today. We can come back another day and take care of all of them.”
“Eadric, you are so brave!” Adara cried. “I would have gladly watched you slay each and every spider, if only Emma wasn’t afraid of them.”
“Oh, please!” I said as I turned the carpet around.
It wasn’t as easy to follow directions given for ground travel when we were flying higher, but it didn’t take us much longer to find the maple trees. From the air, the trees with the dried, withered leaves stood out among their healthy neighbors, and it was easy to see that there was a pattern, just like there had been with the wheat and the water lilies. This pattern was diamond shaped, with the curve of a leaf in the middle.
Landing the carpet, Eadric and I got off to look around. The fairy Maple wasn’t there, and neither was anyone else. It was unusually quiet except for the crunch of dead leaves beneath our feet. Other than brown leaves hanging from the trees when they should have been supple and green, we didn’t see anything unusual.
“I don’t know what’s causing this, but one thing is obvious,” I told Eadric. “It isn’t natural. Someone has to be behind this. But I can’t imagine who it might be.”