The Gypsy Game (23 page)

Again, the beautiful bird considered her calmly as she put the cup into its box. It was almost as if it knew she was trying to help. It really did know, she decided as it turned its head on its long graceful neck to look down at the brine shrimp with apparent interest and then up again at Xandra. She was even more certain that the bird knew far too much to be an ordinary marsh-dwelling member of the heron family. As she prepared to leave the basement, Xandra stopped long enough to tell it so.

“I know you’re not just an ordinary egret,” she told the bird. “I know that you’re an enchanted creature. And I’m pretty sure that you were there in my forest for some important reason.”

The bird listened, turning its tear-shaped head and nodding as if agreeing with what she had to say. She felt sure it was agreeing. And later that night, sitting on the window seat in her room, she stared down into the dark garden and told herself she would soon find out what that reason could be. Why the enchanted
bird had been in her forest and just how she was to be rewarded for rescuing it.

But the next morning when she made a quick stop in the basement on her way to catch the bus, the carton held only the grassy nest, the water bowl and an empty cup. The bird was gone. All that remained was one long, softly quivering white feather. But from that moment, from that breath-catching, heart-racing moment when she first saw the beautiful feather, Xandra guessed the truth. The feather was a magical gift, given to her as a promise that she would be rewarded for rescuing an enchanted creature. And she must find a way to keep it with her wherever she went.