Cory was still tired when she dragged herself out of bed the next morning. Unlike most dreams, she could remember the nightmare as vividly as if it had really happened. It had left her with a feeling of dread, like something awful was about to take place, so she wasn’t her usual cheerful self when she staggered into the kitchen. Her eyes were watering and she was yawning so hard that she could hear her jaw creak when she took her seat at the table.
Her uncle looked up from his breakfast and gave her a sympathetic smile. “Late night?”
Cory shook her head. “Bad dream, and I still can’t get it out of my mind.”
“Tell me about playing at Rupert’s wedding,” said Micah. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay to hear more yesterday.”
“There’s not much to tell yet. His steward contacted Olot and asked us to come. Chancy is making us costumes. She said that she’s going to show us pictures of the castle tonight. We’re leaving in a few days, and rehearsing every night until then. Olot says that this couldn’t have come at a better time. I guess word has gotten around that I’m going to testify against the guilds and they’re getting riled up.”
Micah handed her a plate with buttered toast. “We knew that already. The candy was a good indication.”
“Oh,” Cory said as she took a piece of toast. “Mother stopped by yesterday after you left. She told me not to testify and warned me that things are only going to get worse if I do.”
“That’s my sister for you,” said Micah. “Ready with the dire warnings, but never actually helping. What are your plans for today?”
“Blue is taking me to the matinee of the water nymph ballet. I’m really looking forward to it. That reminds me—I babysat that nymph who keeps breaking the pipes at your school. She’s actually a very nice girl. Her name is Rina.”
Micah finished chewing a bite of toast before saying, “I never said she wasn’t nice, just having a little trouble learning control.”
“I talked to her mother about possibly homeschooling Rina. She said they’d been thinking about it.”
“Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but it’s great if it works out,” said Micah.
“There was something else,” said Cory. “Do you remember when I helped the farmer’s wife with the three blind mice? Their son is Jonas McDonald and he contacted me about a problem he’s been having. The flower fairies working on a neighbor’s farm have been dumping dust on his fields and his crops have been getting weird. He wants me to help him stop the fairies. Could you help me think of something that he could try?”
“I’ll think about it,” said her uncle. “Would you like more cider? We have enough for one more glass apiece.”
Ping! A message had arrived in the main room. Cory took her toast with her when she went to get the message. She recognized the writing right away.
Cory,
The date was a bust. Jack H. isn’t at all what I expected. Find me someone better next time!
Goldilocks
Cory started spluttering in disbelief before she’d even finished reading the message. Goldilocks had been the one who had insisted she meet Jack Horner, even though Cory had known that they wouldn’t be right for each other! It didn’t matter who she found; no one would be right until Cory matched Goldilocks up with her true love. If Cory hadn’t already seen him, she would have wondered if anyone would be right for the girl. Her reply was brief, the most she could manage.
I’ll look into it.
Cory
She was on her way to get dressed when her uncle said good-bye and left for work. He was back before she’d even reached her bedroom door. “They’ve been at it again,” he announced. “This time it must have been the Flower Fairy Guild.”
“What happened?” Cory asked, already dreading the answer.
“It looked as if they sprinkled weed seeds and used their magic to make them grow. Weeds are sprouting up everywhere. Look and you’ll see what I mean.”
Cory stepped onto the porch and gasped. He was right—there were weeds everywhere. There were more Queen Anne’s lace, cornflowers, clover, buttercups, daisies, and dandelions than there was grass, and all of them were blooming. Although they were thickest in the lawn, they were also growing in the cracks in the path, around the rosebushes, on top of an overturned bucket, on the bottom porch steps, and all over the toys Noodles had left outside. “You know, I kind of like it,” Cory told her uncle. “It looks like a meadow in the country. Do you mind if we leave it like this for a while?”
“Fine by me,” said Micah. “They are pretty when they bloom all at once like that. You can leave them until they finish, although you might want to remove the flowers from the steps and Noodles’s toys.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that they used plants with pretty flowers? I mean, if they really wanted to send a nasty message, wouldn’t they have used nastier weeds with thorns or prickers?”
“One would think so, but I think it depends on who planted the seeds,” Micah told her. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the flower fairies support what you’re doing. You’re not the only one who dislikes the way the guilds try to control their members’ lives. Someone higher up probably told them to weed our garden, and they chose to use seeds for the nicer plants. Uh-oh, I’m running late again. I can’t have my students there before I am!”
Cory waved good-bye as her uncle hurried down the steps, then went inside to change out of her nightgown and robe into slacks and a comfortable shirt. She took Noodles with her when she went back outside and began clearing off the porch steps. After pulling up the weeds growing too close to the roses, she cleaned off the bucket and Noodles’s toys. The woodchuck dropped his rope toy in the hole he’d been digging. Cory was collecting his other toys to put on the porch when Blue rode up on his solar cycle.
“Is it time to go?” Cory asked, surprised. “I’m not at all ready.”
“Then I’ll play with Noodles while you get ready. Hey, buddy, that’s some hole you’re digging,” Blue said as he crouched beside the woodchuck.
It took Cory only a few minutes to put on a soft blue dress and brush her hair. Slipping on her sandals, she locked the door and helped Blue put Noodles into the woodchuck’s enclosure. The ride to the restaurant didn’t take long on the cycle. Cory grimaced when she saw her reflection in the window as they walked inside.
“My hair is a mess,” she said, running her fingers through the tangles.
“You look beautiful,” said Blue, and gave her a kiss that made her forget all about her hair.
When Blue gave his name, they were led to a table in a quiet corner. Cory thought the flowers on the table were especially pretty and noticed that they were nicer than those anywhere else in the room. When she pointed this out to Blue, he smiled and said, “That’s because I had these sent over for you. I made the arrangements yesterday when I stopped by for the soup. This is for you, too,” he said, taking a small box from his pocket and handing it to her.
Cory gasped when she opened the box and saw a golden bracelet decorated with emeralds and sapphires. At first she thought the stones made a design, but when she looked again she saw that they repeated Cory and Blue around the entire bracelet.
“This is lovely!” Cory exclaimed, and got up to kiss Blue. After he helped her put the bracelet on her wrist, she kissed him again.
When she finally sat down, the waiter came running over. Smiling, he served them glasses of sparkling grape juice and left without saying a word.
“Did you ask for the juice?” Cory asked, taking a sip.
Blue grinned and raised his own glass. “I did. I placed our order yesterday. You get the same thing every time we come here, so that’s what I got for you. I hope that’s all right.”
“It’s perfect,” Cory said, pleased that he cared enough to notice. She’d dated her old boyfriend, Walker, for years, and he never could remember what she did or didn’t like.
While Blue dug into a plate of smoked trout and sautéed turnips, Cory enjoyed the leek soufflé that was the restaurant’s specialty. It was more than she normally ate for lunch, but this had turned into a special occasion.
When they were finished eating, Blue glanced out the window at the position of the sun. “We should get going so we can find our seats before the ballet starts.”
“This is so much fun!” Cory said as they got up from the table. “I’ve never gone to a water ballet before.”
“Neither have I,” said Blue. “It will be interesting to see how they dance in the water.”
The performance was being held at Turquoise Lake, one of the larger lakes within the town limits. Rows of seats had been set up at the water’s edge along one side of the lake. Cory and Blue found their assigned seats easily on the left side, just a few rows from the front. Soon after they arrived, the orchestra began to tune up and everyone hurried to sit.
Cory didn’t know what to expect, but she never would have guessed that streams of water would rise up out of the lake as the music began. The streams moved like living creatures, and each one supported a nymph who leaped, twirled, skipped, and dove to the music.
Glancing at the program, Cory saw that the performance was loosely based on a human ballet called Swan Lake. She thought that the dancers looked funny in their feathered costumes with costume wings and beaks. There were a few real swans in the dance troupe as well, swimming on the surface of the lake while the nymphs danced at various levels above them. Sometimes the streams formed arches above the dancers, and other nymphs swam up and over them as if they were flying. Other times, the water formed fountains that shot droplets into the air. When that happened, fairies darted through the spray, lighting it up in pinks and blues, greens and yellows.
“How are they doing that?” Cory whispered to Blue the first time she saw the different-colored fairy lights.
“I don’t know,” he whispered back. “But I think it probably shows up better at night.”
About three-quarters of the way through the performance, the arches became bigger, the lights more numerous, and the music louder. Cory watched as an arch formed at the very edge of the lake, not far from where they were sitting. It towered above them, supporting the nymph who bent and swayed to the music, as graceful as the swans swimming below her. When the arch began to bulge on one side, Cory thought it was a little odd, but no one else seemed to notice. As the bulge became more pronounced, however, and the arch seemed to move closer to the audience, people began to point it out to each other. Suddenly, the nymph dancing on top of the arch noticed and waved her arms as if beckoning the water back where it belonged. Then, with a loud sploosh! the arch collapsed, dumping the water on the audience.
People screamed and floundered about as the water carried them away from the lake over the grassy area beyond. Blue grabbed hold of Cory and held on tight as the water swept them away. When they slammed into a post, he wrapped his free arm around it, anchoring them there as the others were washed toward a refreshment stand and the lot where people had parked their carts and solar cycles. And then the water was coming back, weaker now, but still strong enough to drag people with it. Blue held on, even as two brownies and an imp slammed into him and clutched his arms as if he were a pole himself. When the water was past, they slid to the ground and lay there, stunned, while Blue hugged Cory.
“Are you all right?” he asked, wiping her hair from her eyes.
Cory coughed and nodded. She’d swallowed some of the water when it first hit and couldn’t get the taste of it out of her mouth. It tasted of fish and mud and the fear of people around her. She hated to think of what else it might have held.
“What about you?” he asked the brownies and the imp. When they said that they were fine as well, he turned back to Cory and said, “I have to see if anyone needs my help.”
“I’ll go with you,” she said, her voice scratchy and sore from the dirty water.
He looked as if he was going to protest, but seemed to think better of it and nodded instead. They slogged across the sodden ground, helping people get to their feet and checking for injuries. The water had carried off only a few dozen members of the audience, including some students from the Junior Fey School who had been there on a field trip. When it turned out that the worst injuries were a sprained ankle and a bent wing, Blue turned to Cory again.
“I’m going to have to stay to give a statement to the FLEA officers when they get here. They’re going to ask for your statement, too. After you’ve given it, I want you to go home. I’ll probably be here for the rest of the day, helping make some sense out of this and getting it all cleaned up.”
“I want to tell you something before the officers show up,” Cory told him. “At first I thought that one of the guilds had done this because I was here, but now that we’ve seen those students, I don’t think the guilds had anything to do with it. Rina was sitting with the other students on the field trip. She’s been having a lot of trouble learning to control water and has broken the pipes at the school more than once. I’ve seen her pull water to her before. I don’t think she does it on purpose, so please, if it was her, make sure the officers know that it was an accident.”
“Her name is Rina?” said Blue.
“Rina Diver. Her mother is Minerva Diver. Talk to the teachers who were with the group. I’m sure they can tell you what happened. They have to be aware of Rina’s problem.”
“I will,” Blue told her, and gave her a quick hug. “Here’s Officer Deeds now. Don’t let him bother you. Just tell him what you told me and you can go home. Most of the people have gone already, so you should be able to get a ride on a pedal-bus easily enough.”
Cory turned to where Officer Deeds was stomping across the grass, kicking loose debris out of his way. “I’ll go,” she told Blue. “Although I have to say, if Deeds wasn’t here, you’d have a hard time getting me to leave while you stayed behind.”