Cory learned how persistent frost fairies could be the next morning. When she got out of bed, the fairies were busily flying around the outside of the house, covering it with a thick layer of frost. Noodles and the little dragon hadn’t gotten along when they first met, so Shimmer had slept in a makeshift bed in the kitchen. She was whining and clawing at the door when Cory entered the room. Cory let her out, delighted that she could do something about the fairies, but she wasn’t so delighted when her uncle came into the room a few minutes later.
“Why’s your dragon chasing fairies past my bedroom window at five thirty in the morning?” he asked. “The school’s getting heavy-duty pipes put in, so it’s closed today. I would have slept in if Shimmer hadn’t woken me!”
“I’m sorry!” said Cory. “I woke early and came to see how Shimmer was doing. The fairies were already frosting the house, so I let her out.”
Micah sighed and shook his head. “I know I said last night that we’d give it a try, but I really don’t think it’s a good idea to have a dragon in a house with a thatched roof. Do you know how easily she could set the roof on fire?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Cory.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to find a new home for your dragon. A woodchuck is one thing; a dragon is something else. It would be different if we lived in a stone castle like Prince Rupert.”
Cory nodded. She had been afraid of this, but she’d hoped it would work out. The baby dragon had already wormed her way into Cory’s heart, so giving her to someone else wasn’t going to be easy. It would have to be someone who’d be good to her; someone with plenty of room for her to fly and a nonflammable roof on their house. No neighbors with flammable roofs, either, she supposed. There was only one person who came to mind, and she wanted to see him anyway.
Cory would have preferred to take the baby dragon in her crate, but it wouldn’t fit in the basket on the pedal-bus. Instead, she left the house with the baby dragon in her arms, hoping she’d be good for the ride. The people on the bus gave her odd looks when she climbed on carrying Shimmer, but no one objected when she set the dragon in the basket and they started off.
They made three stops before they reached the Dell, where Jonas McDonald lived. When Cory knocked on the door, no one answered, so she lugged Shimmer to the fields, where they spotted the young farmer examining his potatoes.
“Hello, there!” he called when he saw her walking down the aisle between the crops. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Shimmer,” said Cory. “Someone gave her to me, but my uncle says she can’t stay with us. His house has a thatched roof and, well, you know dragons. I was hoping she could come live with you. She might be able to help you with that problem we discussed. How is that going, by the way?”
Jonas shaded his eyes with his hand and looked up at the sky. “It worked really well at first, but then a few of them dusted my fields on purpose, and when they saw I wasn’t really going to do anything, it got a whole lot worse. They do flybys every evening when they leave work and dump their leftover dust on my fields. Now my tomatoes grow to be huge, but they explode when you touch them. And those darned grapes get ruder every day. I wear earplugs now when I go near the grapevines.”
“My boyfriend came up with a good idea,” said Cory. “You could sell the potatoes with eyes and the corn with ears and the gossiping grapes as novelty gifts. Some people might actually like them. But if you just want to make the fairies stop, I bet Shimmer could help you. She’s great at chasing away fairies, and she’s really smart. Just tell her what you need her to do and she does it.”
“Is that so? Then maybe I will give her a try. I wasn’t so sure about having a dragon around the farm, but if she can keep the fairies away from my crops, I’m all for it.”
Cory handed the little dragon over, along with the few toys she’d taken from Noodles’s collection. She could hear Shimmer crying as she walked away, but she didn’t dare look back for fear she’d never be able to leave the baby dragon if she did.
Cory tried not to think about the little dragon on her way home and was almost relieved when a vision came unexpectedly. She’d forgotten about finding Mary Lambkin’s true love in all the excitement, and was delighted to see her face along with that of a nice-looking young man. She was already thinking about how she could find him when she got off the bus and saw Blue waiting on the front porch.
“Your uncle told me you were back,” he said, getting to his feet. When she reached the top of the steps, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. They didn’t move apart for a while, but when they did, he stroked her hair, saying, “From the little bit he told me, it sounds as if you had quite an adventure.”
“I guess you could call it that,” Cory said as she led Blue back to the chairs. “Nothing turned out quite the way we expected it to.” She told him about how Rupert had changed his mind during the wedding, and was going to marry Goldilocks. Then she told him about how they had played an unexpected concert the day before the wedding, and didn’t play one after the wedding was canceled. What she didn’t tell him was why Rupert had changed his mind, or what happened to the princess afterward. Once again she wished she could tell him everything.
“I heard that you were robbed on the way there, but nobody was hurt.”
“No, thank goodness!” said Cory. “They took the bracelet you gave me and Chancy’s wedding ring and Daisy’s earrings and Goldilocks’s necklace. Everyone was so upset!”
“Don’t worry about the bracelet,” said Blue. “I’ll see if I can get another one just like it.”
“But I got it back! Princess Lillian gave me a ride in her carriage. We saw the highwayman and I got the jewelry from his saddlebag.”
“What?” said Blue. “How did you do that?”
Cory realized her mistake. There was no way she could explain it all without telling him about flying to the tavern and hearing the highwaymen talking, and to do that she’d have to tell him about her wings and being a Cupid. Somehow, this didn’t seem like the right time for that. “It’s a long story, and I will tell you someday, but I can’t quite yet. Do you trust me to tell you the whole story later?”
“You weren’t in any danger, were you?” Blue said, looking worried.
“No! He didn’t threaten me or anything, if that’s what you mean.”
“Then I can wait if I have to,” said Blue. “But I do want to hear everything, including why you can’t tell me now.”
“I’ll tell you every bit,” Cory said, and kissed him to seal the promise. When they moved apart, she sighed, realizing just how much she had missed him. “Now you tell me. What happened here?”
“A lot, actually. Your grandfather Lionel finally got the FLEA to go after the guilds. Mary Mary and the leader of the Flower Fairy Guild have been arrested for not obeying restraining orders. Micah showed me what the frost fairies did the day you left, and we’re trying to get a restraining order against them, too. Now that you’re back, you’re going to be asked to testify in front of the big jury tomorrow. Your friend Stella Nimble is also going to testify. We’re hoping that when people hear about what the guilds have done, more people will come forward with their stories.”
“Pardon me,” Micah said from the doorway, “but we’ve just received a message from your grandparents, Cory. They’ve invited us to dinner tonight. You, too, Blue.”
“I’m not going if Mother is going to be there,” Cory replied.
“Your grandmother assures me that Delphinium was not invited. Apparently, they just want to meet Blue and know you won’t stay if they invited your mother.”
“In that case we’ll go,” said Cory. “That is, unless you have something else you need to do, Blue?”
“After all the things you’ve told me about your grandparents, I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” he told her with a grin. “I took the rest of the day off and I plan to spend it all with you.”
“You could bake one of your berry pies,” her uncle said, sounding hopeful. “I bet Blue would like it.”
“Nobody likes my berry pies as much as you do, Uncle Micah!” said Cory. “If I’m going to make one, I might as well make two—one to take and one to eat here. Provided we have enough berries, that is.”
“I’ll run to the store and get them,” Micah said, already starting down the walk.
He wasn’t gone long before he was back with more than enough berries and two jugs of milk. “You need milk to drink with the pies!” Micah explained to Blue.
“It looks as if you brought me enough berries to make three or four pies,” Cory said as she took one of the bags. “I’ll measure them to see how many I can make.”
Blue sat in the kitchen talking to Cory while she washed the berries and measured them in a measuring cup. “I guess I’m making four pies,” she said. “Uncle Micah will be happy.”
While Cory bustled around the kitchen, measuring and mixing and assembling the pies, Blue sat at the table reading The Fey Express out loud to her. She had put the pies in the oven and was washing the mixing bowl when there was a ruckus in front of the house.
“Now what?” said Cory. “I wonder which guild it is this time.”
“You stay here while I go look,” Blue told her as he got to his feet.
Cory dried her hands and waited, growing increasingly impatient. When she couldn’t wait any longer, she went into the front room to peek out the window. Blue and her uncle were standing by the street, talking to a gang of ogres on solar cycles. Worried, Cory hurried out the front door and down the steps.
“Is everything all right?” she asked Blue.
He nodded and grinned. “Everything is fine.” Glancing from the ogres to Cory, he said in a loud voice, “Cory, these are some of my friends. I’ll tell you all their names later. Fellas, this is Cory, the love of my life.”
“Hey, Cory!” the ogres called in their deep, rumbling voices.
“The guys were riding by when they saw my cycle parked here,” Blue told her. “They stopped to ask if I’d be interested in playing at a party they’re planning. I said I’d be happy to, if I could bring you along. Your uncle wants to go, too. Are you interested?”
Cory glanced at the ogres. Although they were all seated on their cycles, they looked huge. Unlike Blue who was half ogre, they were full-blooded and at least a head taller. Cory thought they were scary-looking and intimidating, but they were Blue’s friends, so she should get to know them. She bit her lip and nodded. “Of course I’ll go,” she told him. “As long as Zephyr isn’t playing somewhere at the same time. Say, I have an idea. Why don’t you invite them to come sit on the front porch? The pies are almost ready and they can each have a piece.”
“Are you sure?” Blue asked, glancing at his friends who were laughing and joking with Micah. “They can be a little rowdy.”
“I’m sure,” said Cory. “I’ll get the plates. ”
“Don’t bother with forks,” Blue called after her. “Ogres don’t use them. ”
Cory counted the ogres on the cycles, then hurried inside to check the pies and get everything ready. The voices outside grew louder as the ogres moved onto the porch. After pouring enough glasses of milk for everyone, she took the pies out of the oven and cut them up. When she was done, two pie pans were empty. Carrying a tray loaded down with pie, Cory hurried back out. Blue and Micah helped her pass the plates around, and she was soon inside getting the rest.
The ogres loved her pies. “This is the best pie I’ve ever eaten,” three or four ogres told her.
“This is the only pie I’ve ever eaten!” announced an ogre with a mustache that covered his mouth down to his chin.
An ogre with one eyebrow and a short pug nose was sitting on the floor, yet his head was almost as high as Cory’s. “I’ll have to get your recipe!” he said.
The other ogres laughed when they heard this. “You’ve never cooked a thing in your life, Beetle Brow!” one shouted.
“I might start after this,” he said, and gave Cory a shy smile.
When the ogres finished their pie, they all licked their plates clean. Cory didn’t say anything, but Blue must have noticed the expression on her face because he leaned closer to whisper in her ear, “Ogres always lick the plate if they really like the food.”
“I suppose there are a lot of things I’ll have to learn about ogres,” Cory whispered back, and began collecting the plates and empty milk glasses.
“We need to go, fellas,” Blue told his friends. “We’ve been invited somewhere for dinner.”
“Thanks for the pie!” said Beetle Brow, and a chorus of ogre voices echoed him.
The ogres left then, talking about how much they liked the pie. Blue carried the tray of empty plates and glasses to the kitchen and helped Cory wash them. When they were finished, Cory hurried to change her clothes.
After locking the door, Micah became small and flew off while Blue strapped the pie they were taking to the back of his solar cycle and gave Cory a ride to her grandparents’.
Cory’s grandmother was slightly less grumpy than usual when they arrived, and even managed a smile when they walked in the door. Seeing the pie in Cory’s hands, she took it from her and handed it to Cory’s grandfather, saying, “Go find someplace to put this thing. I suppose you want us to eat it with dinner, Cory. Didn’t it occur to you that I might have made dessert myself?”
“Uh,” Cory began.
“Well, I didn’t! We’ll eat your pie if we still have room in our stomachs after we eat the big meal I spent all day making. Oh, Micah. I see you’re here, too. Why don’t you go help your father in the kitchen? You can ruin dinner together.”
As Micah left the room, shaking his head, his mother stepped back to take a good, long look at Blue. “Aren’t you a big one! Got any troll blood in you?”
“No, ma’am,” said Blue. “Ogre.”
“That’s what I thought!” Cory’s grandmother replied. “I’ve known a lot of ogres in my day. My dentist was an ogre. Come in and have a seat. Dinner is almost ready. I’m glad you could take the time from your busy schedules to stop by. I’ve been wanting to meet Cory’s young man. Micah tells me that you two are madly in love. Is Blue your real name or your favorite color?”
“It’s my name, ma’am. Johnny Blue. ”
“Peculiar name, but then you are part ogre.”
“Grandmother,” said Cory. “Dinner smells wonderful. Can Blue and I help in the kitchen?”
“Is that your way of telling me that you want to eat now? Because if it is . . . Do I smell something burning? Clayton? Did you check the casserole?” she called, hustling out of the room.
“I’m sorry about my grandmother, Blue,” Cory told him. “She can be a little hard to take.”
“She’s exactly the way I pictured her from your description,” Blue said. “Believe me, I’ve met worse.”
There was a knock on the door and Cory went to open it. She was speechless when her mother walked into the house.
“Did I hear someone knock?” her grandmother asked, hurrying back into the room with Blue and Cory’s grandfather right behind her. “Delphinium, what are you doing here? I specifically sent you a message today to tell you not to come by because Cory and her young man were coming over for dinner. Oh, and your brother’s here, too.”
“I came to see my daughter,” Delphinium said. She sighed when her mother tried to push her out the door. “I’m not leaving yet, Mother, so stop trying to make me. Cory, you cannot testify tomorrow. The Tooth Fairy Guild has been good to us and you have no right to destroy it.”
“I’m not destroying anything, Mother. I just want them to stop trying to order people around. I had every right to quit the TFG, just as I have every right to testify against them!”
“I warned you before about going against the guild, and look where it got you!” her mother declared, her face turning red.
“It got me my freedom, Mother! I’ll never regret what I did.”
“You will if you go to that courthouse to testify!” Delphinium declared.
“Stop pushing me, Mother! I’m leaving.”
“You’ve been warned, Cory. Don’t say I never tried to help you.”
“Do you know of a threat against her?” Blue asked as Delphinium turned toward the door.
Delphinium paused with her hand on the doorknob long enough to say, “I know I don’t want to have any more to do with her if she testifies tomorrow! If you go to that courthouse, you are no longer my daughter, Corialis!”
As the door slammed behind her, Blue told Cory, “Wow, you have a very dramatic mother!”
“She loves making threats and acting like she’s doing me a favor,” Cory said, dropping into a chair.
“Are you still going to testify tomorrow?” asked Micah.
“Of course,” said Cory. “I’ll be helping to put the guilds in their place and getting my mother to leave me alone. It can’t get any better than that!”