Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise (6 page)

“What’s that?” she asked.

“You need to go now,” I said, practically dragging her out of her chair. “Use the portal and go back down to Earth. Then find my mom! If you can’t find her, find Robyn! Get to the dangerous place, before my mom does. Hurry!”

“But how will I get your mom to listen to me?” she asked. “She’ll think I’m as crazy as you did. We’ve already established that she won’t —”

“Daisy,” I said firmly. “You’ll have to go as me!”

I emerged from the portal and looked around. It was six o’clock and already so dark it felt like night. I clicked a couple of buttons on my MagiCell to increase my vision capability and looked around. Nothing. No one was here.

Looking down at myself, I had a really weird feeling. It didn’t normally bother me — transporting as other people or as animals or whatever. But to be here as Philippa! It felt so strange. Almost as if it wasn’t just a disguise, but that I had her with me, almost as if I
was
her, seeing the world through her eyes. Experiencing her feelings.

I walked away from the stones, toward the path. If I followed this, at some point I should meet Philippa’s mom, or at least Robyn, coming up the path. What if I’d made a mistake and Philippa’s mom wasn’t going to veer off the path at all? Maybe the SRB was something else. Or perhaps I’d gotten the whole thing wrong and nothing bad was going to happen to her at all!

Except I knew better than that. I’d seen it. SRB doesn’t make mistakes. Something bad was going to happen soon — unless I stopped it.

Just then, I heard a noise in the distance. A rustling of footsteps on the path — twigs breaking, mud squelching. Someone was coming toward me!

I sped up again, hurrying toward the footsteps. Rounding a corner, I saw her.

“Robyn!” I yelled in utter relief. She was here! I’d found her!

She peered in my direction through the darkness. Another few steps toward me and she saw me too. “Philippa!” Her face was one enormous beaming smile of relief. She threw her arms around me. “Oh, Philippa, I’ve been so worried. What happened to you? For a moment I thought you’d — well, I’ve been thinking all sorts of ridiculous thoughts! Come on, let’s get back to your parents.”

“Yes, we have to find Philippa’s mom — and I think she’s on her way here,” I said.

Robyn laughed. “Philippa’s mom?” she said. “Your mom, you mean.”

I paused. How was I going to explain this? “Look,” I said. “I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I’m not Philippa.”

Robyn laughed again. “OK, whatever you say. I’m not Robyn either, then. Who should we be? Catwoman and Wonder Woman? Hey, yeah, that’d be fun. But can I be —”

“I’m not joking!” I said seriously.

Robyn looked at me but didn’t say anything.

“It’s not a game,” I said. “I promise. Philippa
did
disappear. She went to ATC with me. The poem you read on the stone, about following a fairy around the stones — she followed me!”

“But — but there was just that funny woman up here with us,” Robyn said. “Wasn’t there?”

“Yes, it was a woman,” I said. “But that was just a disguise, like this. It’s so that ATC doesn’t catch me and stop me from doing what I’ve come here to do.”

“So it’s, it really was — you’re —” Robyn stared at me, but didn’t go on.

“Robyn, it’s me, Daisy,” I said softly. “Philippa’s still at ATC.”

Robyn nodded silently.

“She’ll come back soon, I promise, once we’ve figured out how. But I’m here because something really bad is due to happen to her mom any minute now, and we have to stop it.”

Robyn’s face paled. “What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know. But it’s going to happen very, very soon. Philippa says you might be able to lead me to the place we think she might fall. Something to do with flooding and a landslide.”

In an instant, Robyn’s attitude completely changed. She was in charge now. “Come on,” she said. “I know where you mean. Tell me the rest on the way.”

And with that, she turned and led the way, and as I followed her, I told her everything — and silently prayed we wouldn’t be too late.

“Here,” Robyn said after we’d walked for several minutes. We left the path, inching carefully over to the place where the hill fell sharply away to a chasm below.

“How did that happen?” I asked.

“There used to be mining caves near here, so the land was already quite unstable, and then whole chunks of it were ripped off in storms last year. That’s why there are signs telling you to stay on the path.”

“Signs that you can’t see in the dark,” I said.

“Exactly. If anything’s going to happen to your mom — I mean to Philippa’s mom — this is where it’s likely to happen.”

I looked down and peered into the darkness below us. What if she was already down there? Perhaps we were too late. We yelled down to see if anyone was there but got no response. So, I checked my MagiCell, hacking in once again to SRB’s mission. I knew I was really pushing things now. Every time I did that, I was increasing the risk of being found out. But I couldn’t come this far and fail now. We had to stop the accident. Nothing else mattered.

My screen bleeped. There was an SRB squad fifteen minutes away! Whatever the event was, SRB had been alerted and it was going to happen very soon! At least that meant we weren’t too late. Philippa’s mom wasn’t lying injured — or worse — at the bottom of the chasm. We still had time!

“Robyn, you are sure this is the right place, aren’t you?” I asked urgently.

“Positive,” Robyn said. “There aren’t any other dangers around here at all. If she’s on her way up here, this is where it’ll be.” Then she shook her head. “I’m such an idiot,” she said.

“Why?”

“Why didn’t I think to say I’d go with her? I could have made sure she stuck to the path.”

I touched Robyn’s arm. “Hey, don’t blame yourself,” I said. “She was due for the SRB way before you spoke to her. There was nothing you could have done.”

Robyn looked down at her feet. “OK,” she said flatly. “I just feel so useless standing here. Maybe we should go looking for her?”

“You’re right. Maybe we can meet her before she even gets here.”

We picked our way carefully along the unstable ground, halfway between the dangerous precipice and the path. And then I saw a shape in the distance. It was her!

“Robyn,” I said. “There she is!”

“Mrs. Fisher!” I called before I could stop myself. She stopped and looked around. And in that moment, searching into the darkness to see who had called to her, she stepped off the path and began to come toward us — and the precipice.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, cold panic seeping through me.

Robyn looked at me openmouthed. “Well, for one thing, you can’t go around shouting ‘Mrs. Fisher’ when you look like Philippa!” she said.

“I know, I know. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I glanced up to see Philippa’s mom coming closer, straight toward the edge of the precipice.

“Robyn, do something!” I screeched, pushing her forward. “I can’t go. I’ll never get away with pretending to be Philippa to her. She’ll see through me!”

Robyn ran toward Philippa’s mom. “Mrs. Fisher!” she called.

Philippa’s mom spotted Robyn. “Oh, it’s only you, Robyn,” she said, her face full of disappointment. She kept picking her way toward the chasm at the edge of the hill.

“Don’t go down there!” Robyn said. “You’ve gone off the path.” She tried to steer Mrs. Fisher back onto the path. “Look, we need to head back this way,” she said gently.

“But maybe she’s down here! Maybe this is where she went!”

“It’s too dangerous this way,” Robyn said. “We need to get back on the path.”

“But that’s the whole point!” Mrs. Fisher said, pressing on determinedly. “If it’s dangerous, it’s even more likely that Philippa’s stuck down there and that’s why she hasn’t come home. I have to get to her!”

“She’s not down there!” Robyn shouted to Mrs. Fisher’s retreating back.

“Who says she isn’t? How can you be sure?” she replied without even slowing her stride. She was heading right for the edge!

And then she lost her footing and slipped on the loose ground.

No! Please, no!

Without stopping to think, I ran toward her. She was slipping and sliding down the bank toward the drop-off. I got to her seconds before she reached the edge and grabbed her coat before she fell any farther.

She turned toward me and looked directly into my eyes, her expression frozen.
She knows it’s not Philippa,
I thought.

And then her face broke into the biggest smile I’d ever seen.

“Philippa!” she cried. “My darling girl. Oh, my baby. Oh, Philippa!” Scrabbling to get back up onto the path, she reached out for me. A moment later, her arms were around me, squeezing me so hard that for a few seconds I couldn’t breathe. “Philippa, oh, I’ve been so worried; I was terrified something awful . . .” She held me away from her, looking at me, stroking my hair, smiling into my eyes, then pulling me close for another enormous hug. She was half laughing and half crying. “What happened to you?” she asked, looking into my eyes so intensely that I was convinced she must know it wasn’t really Philippa.
Surely
she could see me in there.

But she didn’t. She just kept on smiling at me — at Philippa — and laughing with pleasure.

“I — I’m sorry,” I said, steering her back onto the path with me. “I — we were playing a game, weren’t we, Robyn?”

I looked at Robyn. She glanced nervously at Philippa’s mom, then back at me. “Yes!” she said. “We were. That’s right, we were playing a game, and you got lost, didn’t you, Dais — Philippa?”

“I was hiding,” I said. “We were playing hide-and-seek, and it was my turn to hide — but I got lost and Robyn couldn’t find me, and then I couldn’t find her, and I didn’t know where I was. And — oh, Mom.” I cleared my throat. I’d never called anyone “Mom” before. It felt weird. But it also felt — what was it? I decided to try saying it again to see if I could figure it out. “Mom, I’m really sorry,” I said.

Mrs. Fisher wrapped me closer in her arms. “Oh, darling, it doesn’t matter,” she said, kissing my head. “All that matters is that you’re safe.”

That was when I realized what it felt like to say “Mom.” It felt really, really,
really
nice.

She took my hand as we walked back along the path in the darkness. “Robyn, are you coming back with us?” I asked.

“I’ll come over in a bit,” she said. “You’ll want to do a bit of catching up with — your parents.”

I nodded, then smiled as Philippa’s mom squeezed my hand. “OK,” I said, hoping I’d be able to keep my act going without Robyn to back me up. “See you later.”

The second Philippa’s mom and I walked through the door, her dad came running toward us and gathered me up in an enormous bear hug.

“I’ll make some hot drinks,” Philippa’s mom said. As she poured three hot chocolates and I helped Philippa’s dad build a fire in the family room, I felt overwhelmed by a warmth I’d never, ever experienced before.

I knew it was only temporary. I even knew it wasn’t real. But I knew something else, too: I liked it. I liked it a lot.

As soon as I got the chance, I checked my MagiCell. I put in the numbers for Mrs. Fisher’s SRB.

Nothing. The numbers weren’t recognized. The SRB had been erased!

“Yes!” I punched the air. We’d done it! We’d completely stopped it!

I wished so much that I could contact Philippa, but I didn’t dare risk it. ATC would know that someone had stopped the SRB, and it wouldn’t take them long to figure out that I’d disappeared again, either. I was going to be in
so
much trouble. The last thing I wanted was for ATC to link me to Philippa and get her into trouble too.

“Philippa, the hot chocolate’s ready!” Mrs. Fisher called.

I’d figure out how to get us out of this soon, but I wanted to enjoy pretending to be Philippa for a
bit
longer first.