seven

“There she is! There she is!” Goldie heard the calls even before Merryweather was at the mainland ferry station.

Three very beautiful and very elegantly dressed fairies were waving a greeting. Goldie started to wave back—but then she realized they weren’t waving at her. She lowered her hand.

“I don’t mind,” said Goldie to Merryweather. “I’m going to do fine here.”

But as Goldie looked around at the unfamiliar setting, her courage failed her for a moment.

The mainland was a lot different from Sheepskerry.

There were no human people in sight, which was a relief, but Golden had never seen so many fairies. Not at the Fairy Ball; not at Queen Mab’s island meetings; not even in her dreams. How could there be so many fairies in one place? She gave Merryweather a quick kiss (that was her payment!) and unsteadily flew down the gangplank to the fairy town.

Goldie saw fairies of every age and shape and size. They were all in a terrible hurry. And if they noticed Golden Bell at all, it was only to tell her to get out of the way.

But oh, what an extraordinary place this was!

Buildings crowded the streets—not just fairy houses for one family, but gigantic fairy houses that must have fit a dozen or a score or a hundred fairies all together. The fairy houses were so high they seemed to reach almost to the sky. Instead of trees and flowers, there were long roads and pigeon buses. And looming up above the town were two enormous buildings. Goldie could read their big signs—one was the Museum of Fairy History; the other, the Gallery of Fairy Art.

Goldie was dazzled.

“Don’t stand there gawking,” said an elderly fairy to Goldie. “Or if you do, at least move out of the way, so an old fairy like me can get by.”

“Oh, of course,” said Golden. “May I ask, do you know the way to—”

But before Goldie could finish her question, the elderly fairy had flown away.

How does anyone find her way here? Goldie thought. But then she remembered the instructions Queen Mab had given her. A fairy named Avery would greet her at the ferry dock, and then take her to stay with two mainland fairies, Claudine and Amanda Townley. One thing at a time, Goldie thought.

“Avery, Avery. Where is she?” said Goldie. She half wished she could squeeze Rosy’s hand right now, or that Clara would take charge. She was even feeling that sometimes she was a little too harsh with Sylva—

“Golden? Golden Bell of Sheepskerry?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m Avery Pastel, Claudine and Amanda’s serving fairy.” Avery was neat and pretty, and she smiled at Golden shyly. “Welcome to the mainland.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Avery,” said Golden.

“Let me take those,” said Avery. She picked up two of Golden’s bags.

“Oh, thank you so much,” said Golden. “They’re very heavy.”

Avery looked startled. “You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “I’m a serving fairy.” She led Goldie to an elegant carriage. “You sit here,” she said, settling Goldie into a comfortable seat. Then Avery took a seat on a bench at the back of the carriage. “To the town house!” she said to the carriage driver, a bright-eyed sparrow. And off they flew.

As the two fairies made their way over the tall buildings in the afternoon sun, Goldie and Avery chatted about the mainland and what life was like there. “We don’t have serving fairies on Sheepskerry,” Goldie said.

Avery was so startled she almost bounced right off her bench. “No serving fairies?” she said. “How do you manage?”

“We do a lot of things for ourselves,” said Golden. “The cooking and cleaning, the laundry, the baby-fairy minding. Even the wood chopping, though I’m not much good at that.”

“The serving fairies take care of that kind of thing here. Fairies like you—they don’t have to lift a wing.”

“Oh, how marvelous!” sang Goldie. If she had been paying attention, she might have seen that Avery’s face fell a little. “I could get used to this!”