Tricky Trickster
Kayla looks up from our map to the small island in front of us and frowns. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Aye! X marks the spot!” Ollie declares.
“Enough with the pirate talk already,” Jocelyn says wearily.
She has a roll of parchment on her lap and has been writing all morning instead of helping with the ship tasks Blackbeard gave us. His penmanship isn’t great, so it was hard to read his list, but I think it includes:
• Swab the deck (which basically means mop).
• Pick a powder monkey. (They have the tricky job of filling the cannons.)
• Be a good first mate! (Mates take care of the pulleys and anchors and also rig the sails from up high.)
“What be the trouble with me speak?” Ollie asks as he looks again through his spyglass at the island we’re nearing.
“It’s phony!” Jocelyn says. “You don’t talk like that or wear an eye patch or smelly pirate clothes. You are a man of the sea, but be your own person, for fairy’s sake. Save the rest for your paper for Professor Sebastian. ‘I want to be a pirate captain,’” she says mockingly.
“What are you writing about?” Ollie narrows his eyes. “How in five years you’ll still be mean?” Jocelyn stands up, her right hand glowing with a fireball.
“Hey!” I snap. “We can’t turn on one another now. We’re in this together, aren’t we?”
“Yes,” Ollie and Jocelyn mumble.
“Speaking of papers, I already handed mine in and got an A!” Maxine beams with pride. The color is finally coming back to her grayish face after a full day of seasickness that kept her and AG belowdecks, where they both apparently wrote their papers and sent them off.
AG sighs. “Father says I can’t have my grade till I come home. I think he’s trying to make sure I get back sooner rather than later.”
“What did you write about?” I ask.
“I said I want to run a fairy pets organization that oversees the care of magical creatures.” She shrugs. “Since I’m half-beast, who better to understand what each side needs?”
“I haven’t even started my paper yet,” Jax admits as he shinnies up a mast to adjust the sails again.
“Me either.” Ollie bites his lip. “Maybe I can work on it when we get to shore. Has anyone seen my compass?” He pats his pockets and looks around. Kayla shrugs. “Oh! There it is!” He pulls it from inside Jocelyn’s cape. Kayla, Maxine, and I applaud.
“Show-off.” Jocelyn takes her parchment and heads to the upper deck as Ollie transforms a wooden sword into a bouquet of flowers and presents them to Kayla and Maxine.
“I forgot how much fun it is doing magic tricks,” he says as he looks at the compass and steers the ship toward shore.
“Magic tricks are what got you thrown into FTRS,” I remind him.
“For stealing, but magic can be fun too.” Ollie looks at me. “I’m sure your grandma can show you plenty of fairy magic that you could learn to use. You’re so lucky you’ve got fairy blood coursing through your veins!”
“I’ve never felt an ounce of fairy magic in me, so I doubt I have fairy skills.” I lean on the railing and look at the tiny beach and deserted shoreline. I grab Ollie’s spyglass and look harder. “Are you sure this is right? The island looks deserted. Why would my grandmother live here?”
“Maybe she’s in hiding,” Kayla guesses. “Fairies can be pretty reclusive and shy.”
I hold up the small piece of parchment with the island’s latitude and longitude and frown. “These are definitely the right coordinates. She sent them to my mother in case of emergency.”
“Emergency? As in, don’t visit unless the world is about to be cursed?” Kayla asks. “Interesting.”
“Who would want to spend all their time alone?” I wonder. I can’t imagine taking this voyage without my friends.
“We’ll know the reason soon enough,” Ollie says as Jax comes back down the mast and drops the anchor. “Ready the rowboat, we’re going ashore!”
“Please let there be no krakens,” Maxine pleads.
There aren’t krakens. All we see on the uneventful rowboat ride over is a flock of seagulls that follow us then fly up and over the mountain as we near the beach. We pull the boat onto the sand and look around.
“No footprints, no sign of a home or anyone having been here.” Jax looks through the spyglass. “Kayla?”
She flutters to the ground, and her wings retract and disappear. “I took a quick fly around the island. There are lots of trees, but not a single home or fairy hut. Of course, she could be shrunk down to fairy size, which would make finding a hut pretty difficult.”
“She’s got fairy blood, but we don’t know what fairy traits she inherited,” I say, looking around. There doesn’t even appear to be a path leading off the beach. “I doubt she can shrink.”
“Can you shrink?” Jocelyn pokes me in the ribs.
“Ouch! And no! Not that I know of. Poking isn’t going to make it happen.”
“Maybe you need to try,” Kayla says brightly. “I wonder if you have wings and don’t even know it. Then we could fly everywhere!”
“I could join you on Blue, and then we could all travel together!” Maxine smiles toothily, thinking of our friend the magic carpet.
“Yes, but Blue isn’t here and Gilly’s grandmother supposedly is,” Jocelyn snaps, looking up from her school paper, which she’s carried to shore to continue working on. “Now where is she? Pearl! Isn’t that her name? Grandma Pearl! Where are you? Your granddaughter is here!”
“Shh!” I nudge her. “She doesn’t know I’m coming.”
“Oh, fairies always sense when company is coming,” Kayla confides. “She knows we’re here.”
“But does she want company?” Ollie pulls a sword out of his sheath, and we all gasp. “It’s for protection. What if these here shores be booby-trapped?”
“Booby-trapped. Please!” Jocelyn starts walking up the beach, her black and purple cape dragging through the sand. The stars and moons on it seem to glint in the sunlight, casting shadows on the beach. I’m so busy staring at them that I don’t realize Jocelyn is sinking till she’s almost waist-deep in the sand. “Quicksand!” she shouts, and blasts fireball after fireball at the sand. “Someone take my paper! I don’t want to start over.”
Kayla flutters over and takes it from her hand. “Hang on. I’ll pull you up.”
“No!” Jocelyn insists. “Don’t get any closer! You’ll sink too!”
“Throw her a rope!” Ollie shouts.
“We don’t have a rope!” Jax sprints to a nearby palm tree lying on its side on the beach. He grabs the dead branches and pulls the tree over to Jocelyn. “Grab on!” The rest of us help Jax pull her free.
Jocelyn pants. “Okay, so maybe there are booby traps.”
“That means she’s here,” Kayla says, looking around. “Fairies have the best protection charms.”
“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?” Jocelyn snatches her scroll back from Kayla. “I need to finish this paper and send it off with a carrier pigeon before your grandma accidentally blows it up.”
“What’s the rush?” I ask.
Jocelyn gives me a look. “We’re trying to stop a curse that could end the world, which means we’re kind of busy. And I never leave my homework till the last second.”
Huh. Who knew?
“Guys?” Maxine’s voice warbles. “I think there is another booby trap headed our way.”
I look up. Boulders as big as the boot my family lives in are rolling down the mountain toward the beach, and they’re picking up speed.
“Run!” I shout.
Jocelyn and I dive into the water to avoid getting hit by the first boulder. The sky opens, and lightning bolts singe the palm tree we used to rescue Jocelyn. The wind whips up and rain pelts us with such intensity that it’s hard to stay above water for too long.
“We need to find shelter!” I shout as we continue to tread water.
“We need to stay in the water. We can’t get past the boulders,” Jocelyn yells back. “They’re coming too fast.”
“Where are the others?” I can’t even see the shore.
Suddenly I feel something peck my head.
“The seagulls are attacking!” Jocelyn shouts. She reaches her hand up to conjure a fireball, but it fizzles out in the rain and the wind. Jocelyn and I cling to each other as waves start to roll in, threatening to carry us out to sea.
One thing is clear. If this is Grandma Pearl’s doing, she really doesn’t want to meet me.
“Gilly! Jocelyn!”
I hear voices calling our names, but I can’t tell where they’re coming from.
“Gilly!”
Maxine, Kayla, and AG have rowed up behind us and are suddenly pulling Jocelyn and me into her tiny boat. The small vessel can hardly stay upright in the heavy waves.
“Where are the oars?” Jocelyn cries.
“Gone!” AG replies.
“Where are Ollie and Jax?” I yell.
“We can’t find them!” Maxine bellows.
The boat gets caught in a massive wave and races in to shore, straight into the path of a boulder. I’m waiting to be flattened like the Gingerbread Man when I see Ollie run out in front of the rock, grinning like a madman. It all happens so fast that I barely have time to scream. I close my eyes tight, not wanting to look. But when I open them a second later, Ollie is still here. He holds his ground, letting another boulder slam right into him. I watch as it rolls straight through my pirate-loving friend.
It’s a mirage! The rain and birds are real though. I’m soaked and bruised.
“Come on! Jack figured out how to get past the booby traps!” Ollie shouts, enjoying the boulders flying straight through him. He grabs Kayla’s hand and pulls her out of the boat. We scramble down the beach. Jax is waiting by the palm trees.
“Ready to get off the beach? Watch this!” He sticks out his hand, and the air shimmers and wavers like a hallway at FTRS. For a split second, I see a different landscape behind it. Is that a cornfield? Jax pokes the air again, walks right through the trees, and disappears. Another mirage! We hurry after him, anxious to get out of the rain.
When I emerge on the other side, the sun is shining and the beach has given way to a massive cornfield. A basket of freshly picked corn sits untouched on the path, which tells me someone is definitely here. The path leads to a hill with a tiny stone house sitting atop it. Smoke plumes from the chimney, so someone definitely lives here.
“Fairy trickery at its finest,” Kayla marvels. “Gilly, your grandmother is a genius. Let’s go meet her!” She takes off down the path, fluttering toward the hillside. Smack! Kayla hits an invisible wall and falls to the ground.
“Maybe you just need a running start like this!” Jax races toward the same spot and gets flung backward. They both lie in a heap on the ground.
Now I’ve had it. “Grandma? That’s enough! You’ve had your tricks. Now come out and face me like a grown woman!”
“Grown fairy,” Maxine whispers.
Grandma Pearl still doesn’t show up.
“Well, if she won’t come to me, I’m going to her.” I stomp over to the invisible wall and look for something—anything—that appears out of place. There’s got to be a path around this blockade. There always is a way. My eyes search every speck of dirt and row of corn for an entrance. Suddenly, I spot a teal teakettle buried in the cornstalks. I reach out to grab it, and the whole barrier comes down.
A short, plump woman is standing on the other side. She has short, curly lilac hair and is wearing a long, flowy pink dress and a string of ivory pearls. She has a lilac purse on her shoulder as if she’s heading to market. Whisper-thin purple wings flutter gently behind her back. Her silver wand is raised to attack, but she does not look surprised to see me.
“Took you long enough.” She puts her wand safely back in her pocket. “I would have thought any granddaughter of mine would have realized the boulders were a mirage and a teakettle has no place in a corn maze right away.”
“Hello, Grandma Pearl,” I say, feeling suddenly nervous. “I’m your oldest granddaughter, Gilly. Thanks for nearly killing us on our quest to talk to you.”
“Oh, you were perfectly fine! A little shock is good for the heart.” She smiles at Jax and Ollie. “These fine young men were smart enough to realize the boulders were a ruse right away. Nice work, gentlemen.”
“Thank you, Grandma Pearl.” Ollie bows.
She looks me up and down and pulls her large purple purse higher on her shoulder. “You, however, Granddaughter, collapsed like Humpty Dumpty. Not sure what that says about your future and this curse, I’ll tell you that.”
“You know about the curse?” Kayla asks, her wings fluttering.
Grandma Pearl doesn’t respond. She picks up her teakettle and turns toward the path to the cottage. “I suppose you’re all hungry. You should eat before you leave the island.” She pulls an hourglass out of her dress pocket. “You have an hour till you have to leave.”
“An hour?” AG says. “Our clothes won’t even be dry by then.”
“An hour!” Grandma Pearl repeats. “That’s more than enough time to eat and explain to my granddaughter why it’s foolish to tangle with Rumpelstiltskin and Alva.”
I’m stunned into silence. “You know Alva?”
Grandma Pearl looks back at me. Her violet eyes seem to come alive. “Of course, I know her. We were best friends.”