Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise (16 page)

Daisy’s face was scarlet. “Go on, then,” she said between tight lips. “But talk quickly.”

Amber nodded. “In the fairy godmother world, we are used to making sacrifices. It is part of the job, and we all accept that. But in truth, nobody really understands the sacrifice that a stone fairy makes. Way beyond any other.”

Daisy rolled her eyes.

“You might doubt it,” Amber said, turning on her. “But
you
try giving up every single power you have, even the ability to
move
! Then stay like that for a hundred years!”

Daisy and Amber stared at each other like two dogs trying to decide whether to fight or run. Eventually, Amber broke her gaze. “I wouldn’t have minded,” she went on. “I accepted the responsibility and I took the vow. But do you know why?” She looked at us all.

I shook my head. “Why?”

Amber turned to me. “Because in my heart of hearts, I didn’t really believe it would be as hard as they said.”

“As who said?” Tommy asked.

“ATC.” Amber looked at Daisy. “I was like you,” she said. “Fiery and righteous. Always knew I was right.” She nudged her head toward me. “And with a best friend like yours, too.”

“A human, you mean?” I asked.

Amber looked taken aback. “I didn’t know you were human! Well, yes, in that case, that as well! But I meant the loyalty.” She paused. “Imagine for a moment that you two made each other a promise. Would you keep it?”

“Of course!” Daisy and I said in unison.

“Exactly. You’d honor it, no matter what. And if someone told you that you had to do something that meant you’d never be able to see each other again, would you do whatever you could to stop that from happening?”

Daisy nodded. “Yes, I would,” she said.

“Anything,” I added.

Amber folded her arms as though she’d won the whole argument.

“But I don’t understand,” I said. “What are you saying?”

“Is this about Elsie?” Tommy asked.

For a second, Amber looked trapped. “You know about Elsie?”

“How else do you think we tracked you down here?” Daisy asked.

“Elsie was my best friend,” Amber said sadly. “We met when I was on an assignment for ATC.”

“Exactly like us!” I burst out.

“I was working for IRD.”

“Illness and Recovery Department?” Daisy asked.

Amber nodded. “Elsie had food poisoning and I helped her get over it. We hit it off immediately.”

Daisy looked at me and made a face. “
Not
exactly like us, then!”

Amber went on. “When I took this job, they told me I would have to say good-bye to her, that I’d never see her again. But I didn’t really believe it. I
refused
to believe it. In fact, I was so determined to find a way that I made her a promise.”

“What did you promise?” Tommy asked.

“That I
would
see her again. I don’t know how I thought I could do it. I don’t know what made me believe that my determination was greater than my responsibility to ATC. I just knew that Elsie was my best friend, and I
was
going to see her again.”

“But that was — what? Seventy years ago?” Tommy said.

“Seventy-two,” Amber replied.

I cleared my throat. How did I put this? “Amber, maybe she’s, um, I mean have you thought about the possibility that she might be . . .”

“Yes. She might be dead by now. I know that,” Amber said. “But something in my heart tells me she’s alive. She’ll be eighty-four! All these years, I’ve imagined the look on her face when I turn up and shout, ‘Surprise!’ Even
I
had begun to doubt that this day would ever come. It’s hard to keep your belief for three quarters of a century, you know.” Amber looked at Tommy and smiled. “But thanks to you, I have a chance — my one and only chance. I want to find her. I
have
to find her,” she said. “And I’m not going back until I do.”

Daisy looked again at her MagiCell. For the first time since we’d found Amber, she spoke almost softly. “Look, I understand. I really do,” she said. “But you can’t! We’ve got less than an hour now. We
have
to get back. You don’t understand. If we don’t get back by midnight . . .”

Daisy stopped and glared at Tommy.

“Daisy, just tell her!” I said. “It doesn’t matter anymore. In an hour’s time, we’re
all
doomed! Tell her!”

“Look, it doesn’t make any difference, whatever you want to tell me,” Amber said. “I’ve made up my mind — and there’s nothing you can say that will change it. I can’t go back to that stone. I have to find Elsie!”

“But she’ll be frozen in time, like everyone else here!” Tommy burst out, looking as panic-stricken as me and Daisy, possibly because of hearing the words
we’re all doomed.

Amber shook her head. “I don’t care. I need to see her — one way or another — before it’s too late. I promised!” She nodded at me and Daisy. “It’s just like you two. She’s my best friend.”

Daisy stared at Amber. “You don’t realize what you’re doing. We’ve got more information than they had in your day. The fairy and human worlds will be severed forever — you’re condemning the world to utter disaster!”

“You’re exaggerating,” Amber said. “ATC will find a way around all of it, I’m sure. It’ll be OK. It won’t be as bad as you think.”

“As bad as we think?” I shouted. “You haven’t seen the images of the future!
I
have! It’s
not
going to be OK! You’re kidding yourself, just like you did with your stupid promise! It’s NOT going to be OK. You have to come with us!”

Amber shook her head again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am. But I’ve decided. I’m not going until I can see Elsie.”

I turned to Daisy. “Daisy — do something!” I screamed. I couldn’t bear it. To have come this far. To have found the stone fairy with only an hour to spare, and now this. We were going to be stuck here forever. I’d never see Robyn again, or Mom and Dad — or anyone!

Daisy was pressing buttons on her MagiCell. She didn’t reply. I grabbed her arm. “Please!”

Daisy shrugged my hand off and put her MagiCell to her ear. “Just give me a minute,” she said. And then she walked away.

That was it, then. Even Daisy had given up! The moment she turned her back and walked away was the moment I knew it was over.

I sat down on the ground and started saying my prayers.

I hunched over my MagiCell, talking as quietly as I could.

“So what do you say?” I asked.

Chara paused for a long time. “You are absolutely sure about this, FG32561?”

“I’m positive,” I replied. “There’s no other way.”

“You understand the sacrifice you are making? You are clear about all the implications of this decision?”

“I am,” I replied. “She hasn’t seen what EDD predicted. She doesn’t understand, and I haven’t got time to convince her. But I
have
seen it, and I know there’s no other choice.”

“You are a generous soul, you know,” Chara said.

“Thank you,” I replied, glad she couldn’t see me blush at her praise, and relieved she didn’t know the true mix of emotions that was swirling inside me with this decision.

“Very well, then,” she said. “We will allow it.”

I let out a huge breath. “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Go now,” Chara replied. “You have no time to waste.”

I switched off my MagiCell and ran back to the others. “OK,” I said. “I’ve figured it out. We need to go.”

“I’ve already told you, I’m not going,” Amber said. “I’m going to look for my friend.”

“You
can
look for her,” I snapped. Just because I’d made a huge sacrifice didn’t mean I was
happy
about it — or happy that she’d put me into a position where it was my only option. It wasn’t so much myself I was worried about. Yes, the whole world was hanging on our actions here — but most importantly, I couldn’t bear to think of Philippa being trapped here forever, never seeing her parents or Robyn or anyone she cared about ever again. I wasn’t going to do that to her.

“I’ve made a deal with ATC,” I went on. “If you go back to your job as the stone fairy, you’ll be allowed to travel between the human and fairy worlds and move around whenever you want, provided you are at the portal whenever you’re needed. So you
can
look for your friend — in her world. Plus the rest of us can get back there, too.”

“But how — how did you do that?” Philippa asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. I couldn’t look her in the eye. “All that matters is that we get back, quickly.”

“This isn’t a trick, is it?” Amber asked. “You’ve really made that deal?”

“I’ve really made the deal,” I said.

“You promise?” Amber asked. She looked at me with such gratitude and such hope that all of a sudden, I realized she was the same as me. She
did
care about the world, and about all of us.

She just cared about her best friend most of all.

I met her eyes and smiled. “I promise.”

We ran back to the portal so fast, my heart felt as though it had fire coursing through it. We reached the stone circle with fifteen minutes to spare. All we had to do now was link hands and recite the poem for taking us back through the hole in time — and
pray
that it would work.

I’d tried asking Daisy about the deal she’d made with ATC but she wouldn’t tell me. She wouldn’t even look at me — in fact she’d hardly spoken all the way here.
What had she done?

“Are you ready?” Daisy asked, looking around at us all.

Only Tommy hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean — I’m glad to be going back.
Really
glad — of course I am.”

“What, then?”

“Just — there are some things I’d rather not be going back to. Or rather — some people.”

“The bully? Danny?”

Tommy nodded. “I mean, I know that living in this frozen place has been like being trapped inside a nightmare — but at least I didn’t have to put up with
him.
” He laughed. “D’you know what I did one day?”

Daisy glanced at her MagiCell, probably checking we had enough time for Tommy’s story. “We’ve got time,” I said sternly. Then I turned back to Tommy. “What did you do?”

“I went to his house. He was sitting in front of his TV, feet up on a chair with his boots on, half a bag of chips in his mouth, frozen solid like everyone else. I went up to him with a marker and drew spots all over his face, and a big, thick pair of glasses to match. Every time I needed cheering up, I went over to look at him!” Tommy paused. “He didn’t look half as scary like that,” he went on. “But now I’m going back to the real world, and he’ll be back to the real Danny Slater again, won’t he? Calling me a wimp in front of everyone, making me a laughingstock at every opportunity.”

“But you’re not a
wimp
!” I said. “You’re about to help save the whole world from disaster!”

“Yeah, but he’ll never know that, will he? I’m not exactly going to go around telling people I went into another realm where time froze, met up with a couple of fairies, and happened to save the planet. I’d be bullied from here to eternity for coming up with a story like that!”

Daisy pressed some buttons on her MagiCell. “Right,” she said.

Tommy turned to her. “I mean, you told me that it’ll be as though I’d never been gone. So it’s back to the same old thing — constant taunting. It doesn’t exactly fill me with joy, that’s all.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure things will be
exactly
the same,” Daisy said, smiling as she put her MagiCell away. “You never know what ATC can come up with when you ask nicely.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked.

Daisy tapped her nose. “You’ll see,” she replied. “Let’s just say, time sometimes leaves its mark.”

And with that she headed for the center of the circle and called us all over. “This is it. We’ve got ten minutes. Everyone ready?”

Tommy and Amber nodded.

Daisy turned to me. “You know what’s going to happen now?”

“We go back to the normal world?”

Daisy nodded. “As soon as we go through the hole in time, we each come out in our own place. You and Tommy on Earth, I’ll be back at ATC, and Amber will be back in place here.”

I nodded. “Got it.”

Daisy swallowed. “So we should say good-bye,” she said quietly.

I laughed. “Well, yes. For now — but I’ll see you soon.”

Daisy swallowed again. Her eyes were shiny. And then I noticed something else — a tear rolling down her cheek.

“Daisy?”

She shook her head. Then she threw her arms around me and hugged me so tightly I couldn’t breathe. “Just take really good care of yourself,” she said hoarsely.

“Of course I will!” I replied. “But why the tears? You’re acting like we’re never going to see each other again!” I laughed. “Daisy?”

She wouldn’t meet my eyes. I turned cold as stone inside.

“Daisy — we
are
going to see each other again, aren’t we?”

She didn’t look up.

“Daisy, tell me!”

“It was all I could think of!” she cried, tears streaking down both of her cheeks now. “I didn’t have any choice. I asked ATC if there was any way she’d be able to do her job but still travel around. At first they said no. In order to let the portal create a bridge to allow fairies to travel between the human and fairy worlds, it needs a fairy to give up her power to do the same. But I pushed them. I said there
had
to be another way; it was our only hope. And eventually they said perhaps there could be. They weren’t sure it would work, but they agreed it was the only possibility.”

I suddenly realized what Daisy had done. “The stone fairy can fulfill her assignment, but the portal will take its power from you, instead of from her, so she can look for her friend.”

Daisy nodded.

“So once we’re back, and you get to ATC, that’s it — you’ll have lost your power to travel between the worlds?”

“That’s right.”

I stared at Daisy, trying to believe her but not wanting to. “So this really is good-bye?”

Daisy nodded. I swallowed hard. I wouldn’t let myself cry. If Daisy could make a sacrifice as big as this, I would do everything I could to support her. I wasn’t going to make it harder.

Amber spoke for the first time since we’d arrived at the stone circle. “You’re a very special fairy,” she said. “I don’t believe there are many who would have made that decision.”

Daisy tried to smile. She didn’t get very far. I gave her the biggest hug I could without squeezing the life out of her. “It’ll be OK,” I said, hoping she believed me more than I did.

Daisy held her hands out, reaching down so that Amber could take one. Tommy took the other. Then they both held my hands, so we formed a circle of our own, with the rest of the stones forming a larger one around us.

Daisy met my eyes. “Ready?” she asked.

I smiled at her, hoping that with just a smile I could convey all that I wanted. That my smile could say good-bye and good luck, and thank you and I’ll miss you and I’ll never forget you, all at the same time.

She smiled back, and I could tell she understood — and that she was saying the same things to me.

Then Amber spoke. “Daisy, I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done,” she said, “but I hope you know I will always,
always
be grateful.”

Daisy smiled at Amber. “I know,” she said softly. Then she looked at the rest of us. “OK, let’s do it,” she said.

And then together we recited the poem from ATC. Tommy and Amber had memorized it on the way up.

“Circle in and circle out,
Take us home tonight.
Put us back where we belong,
And make all wrong things right.”

I held tightly on to Amber’s and Tommy’s hands and held Daisy’s eyes all the way. We spun together, through the darkness, through the circle of rainbow colors, and finally through a white light that was so blinding I had to let go and shield my eyes.

I opened my eyes. I was in the middle of the stone circle — in the pitch darkness of the night.

I rubbed my eyes and looked around. Beyond the stones, crowds of people were gathered, eating hot chestnuts and warming their hands in front of a roaring fire that lit the dark night, everyone smiling and laughing. Nearby, church bells were chiming. The people were counting down with the chimes.

“Three!” the crowd roared. “Two! One — Happy New Year!”

A blaze of fireworks shot noisily into the sky. I watched them and began to laugh. We’d
done
it! We’d really, truly done it!

I turned around to find Daisy. And then I remembered.

I looked at the fireworks soaring up into the sky and wondered if she was looking at them too, from her side of all this, if she could see me, if she had a great big hole inside her the same shape as the one inside me.

I glanced up to the stone in the middle of the circle, hoping that Amber had gotten back safely, and reminding myself that she must have, or else none of this would have worked.

That was when I noticed Tommy. He was sitting on top of the stone, a group of kids standing on the ground around him.