Fitz turned a pained expression on them both. "Would you two shut up for five minutes? Hippy, you have nothing to fear. Just answer any questions Mr Silver puts to you and try not to say anything else."

Hippy made a face at Clockwork. "Mr Silver?" she hissed.

Ana tapped her on the back of the head. "Weren't you just told to shut up?"

Fitz rapped on the door, then pushed it open. He took a firm grip of Hippy's shoulder and guided her inside. The other two followed.

Inside, a huge fire crackled in one corner, adding a bright orange glow to electric lights that were muted by coloured gla.s.s lightshades. Here, too, every inch of the wall was covered, but not with shiny things or artwork. Instead there were pieces of paper with writing scribbled over them, some in pictograms, some in the letters she'd seen in Athens, some in other letters altogether. There were maps of Dream and maps of Athens and maps of somewhere called Greece. There were sketches, too. When she looked closer, she realised one of them was of Nikifor. Her eyes widened. She found another one that looked like Flower. There was a detailed sketch of Pierus, with notes made in letters all around it. There was a very new-looking sketch of Poppy and under that one of herself marked with red words under the picture. She pointed. "What does that say?"

Fitz scowled at her and shook his head.

Silence descended. A chair sc.r.a.ped the floor at the other end of the room, where a big heavy desk was strewn with papers and lit only by a single electric lamp.

Once her eyes adjusted to the shadows, Hippy made out a man standing there watching them. She gulped and wished Clockwork hadn't spent so much time trying to freak her out.

Mr Silver went around the desk and walked towards them. He was tall for a fairy. He could have measured over five foot. Long black hair decorated with only one plait and a bead framed a face with wide cheekbones and a square jaw. A streak of grey went from one temple to his shoulder. Apart from the hair, he wasn't like any fairy she'd ever seen. He looked more serious than a muse about to walk into a pit of fairy dust. He looked hard, too, as though he'd been fighting for a very long time and had no idea how to stop.

When he looked down on Hippy, his heavy eyebrows drew together. "What's this?"

"A b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy, Mr Silver," Fitz said.

"I know it's a b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy. Why is it in my house?"

Hippy scowled. She didn't much like being referred to as `it.'

"She was in danger," Fitz said. "I couldn't leave her in his hands."

"I wasn't in danger," Hippy burst out. "I was perfectly alright. You kid-" she trailed off when Mr Silver's gaze fell on her. "h.e.l.lo," she finished, in a small voice. "I'm Hippy Ishtar."

Mr Silver studied her closely. "Who are your parents?"

"Willow and Leaf Ishtar."

"The only two b.l.o.o.d.y Fairies I know of who come close to being remotely sensible. What were they thinking letting you come here?"

"They didn't exactly know," Hippy said.

Mr Silver raised an eyebrow. The effect was enough to make Hippy's cheeks burn scarlet. "What were you thinking?"

Hippy straightened her back. "The vamps were about to overwhelm us. There was an opportunity to find something that would drive them back. I took it."

"You mean you ran off with the muse king to help him find the Apple of Chaos."

"Well, sort of."

The eyebrow went up again.

Hippy looked at her feet. "Yes," she mumbled.

"And what made you think anything he told you was the truth?"

"He's the muse king!" Hippy couldn't hold down her outrage, even though Clockwork's dad was every bit as terrifying as Clockwork had said. "He was there helping us fight the vamps all along. Why shouldn't I trust him?"

Mr Silver looked at Fitz.

Fitz shrugged. "We tried to tell her. She wouldn't listen. She thinks she's in love."

Hippy's cheeks burned. "I do not!"

Mr Silver tapped her on the forehead. "Quiet."

"Okay." She edged back behind Fitz.

"Clockwork," Mr Silver said. "Come here."

Clockwork trotted forward, keeping his head slightly bent. "Yes Dad?"

"Take the b.l.o.o.d.y Fairy out of here. I wish to talk to Fitz and Ana alone."

Hippy peered out from behind Fitz. "Can we go see Ralph the peac.o.c.k?"

Mr Silver's mouth twitched. "Of course," he said. "But don't leave Clockwork's sight. There are some things in my gardens you wouldn't like to encounter." The corners of his eyes crinkled.

At the sight of that crinkle Hippy was only too glad to leave.

Clockwork scowled. "It's all your fault. If you'd stopped yammering we could have stayed and listened to what he was talking about with Fitz and Ana."

Hippy teetered on the edge of a marble step, trying to decide which part of the garden looked the most interesting. "Where's Ralph?" she said. "What's in the garden I wouldn't like? Is it a vamp? It can't be, they can't come out during the day. Who's that lady?" She pointed at the statue.

Clockwork straightened his back and puffed out his chest. "That's Aphrodite," he said. "She was one of the G.o.ddesses in Ancient Greece. As for what's in the garden-" A wicked grin curved his mouth. "Wanna see?"

"Alright." Hippy bounded down the steps after him. "But can we see Ralph first?"

Clockwork glanced over his shoulder, then slowed to wait for her. "You'd better stick close," he said. "You don't want to fall into the snake pit."

"A snake pit?" Hippy did a little delighted jump in the air. "What kind of snakes?"

Clockwork set a quick pace down a path made of flat stones embedded into lush green gra.s.s. "Big snakes," he said. "With two heads and fangs the size of a bearfly's bottom. They'll crush you as soon as look at you and then chew you up and eat you whole."

"Will not!" Hippy skipped over the stones behind him. "How can they eat you whole if they already chewed you up?"

Clockwork stopped and spoke in an ominous voice. "You don't want to find out."

Hippy stared at him. Then she giggled.

Clockwork's serious face only lasted for two seconds. Then he grinned. "Fine, no two-headed snakes. Just stick to the paths, okay?" He headed off.

She followed for a few minutes and almost b.u.mped into him when he stopped.

Clockwork crouched down and put a finger to his lips. "Ralph's over there."

Hippy sat next to him and watched the blue bird peck at a bug in the gra.s.s.

"Wait for it," Clockwork whispered.

Ralph threw back his head and uttered a harsh, deafening screech. Then he fanned out his tail in an explosion of layered, gleaming eyes. Hippy's jaw dropped. She'd never seen anything so perfect. "Wow," she whispered.

Clockwork looked satisfied that she was suitably impressed. He leaned forward and made a clicking noise with his tongue. "Ralph," he called.

The peac.o.c.k turned his head their way. He took a few steps forward.

"Ralph!" Clockwork clicked his tongue again. "Come here!"

Hippy leaned forward and stuck out her hand too. "Ralph," she called.

The peac.o.c.k turned his head to the side and eyed her. Then he ran toward them, head down.

"Uh oh." Clockwork jumped to his feet.

Ralph made straight for Clockwork, screeched and pecked his trousers. Hippy shrieked and jumped away. Clockwork grabbed her hand. "Run!"

The pair bolted, the peac.o.c.k in hot pursuit. They ran from stone to stone, leaped a low, bushy hedge and then clambered onto the high marble rim of a tall fountain.

Ralph stayed on the gra.s.s and screeched at them for a full minute before walking away, never taking his eyes off them until he was out of sight.

"Yeah you'd better leave!" Clockwork yelled after him. Then he chuckled. "Actually he always does that."

Hippy balanced on the fountain wall and walked around it. Crystal-clear water welled just under her feet from a huge sh.e.l.l in the centre. A statue of a woman with no arms rose from the water. Clockwork watched her intently.

"I want to see the snake pit," she said.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

"It's not really a snake pit." Clockwork switched paths and headed off down a line of red flagstones. "Actually she doesn't live in a pit at all."

Hippy followed. The fountain was soon obscured behind them by a garden of hibiscus trees so tall a muse could have hidden in them.

She glanced over her shoulder at the thought, but of course there was nothing there. She honestly didn't see how Pierus was supposed to find her out here at all.

Clockwork ducked under an arch made out of roses and skirted a garden choked with thick, woody lavender and straggling thyme. He beckoned madly. "Over here!"

Hippy ran up behind him. "Wow," she said. "She's pretty."

They leaned on a steel fence that ran a complete circle around lush gra.s.s and a murky pool. Beside the pool, the most enormous reptile Hippy had ever seen lay in the sun. She was yellow and white. Her body, at least as thick as a good-sized tree, lay coiled all around the pool in intricate tangles. She eyed them sleepily.

"Her name's Doris," Clockwork said. "She's not poisonous, but she eats stuff whole. She's pretty sleepy at the moment because two vamps got in here the other night. Dad fed them both to her."

Hippy's eyes widened. "No way."

"Actually it's true." Clockwork leaned so far over the fence his feet almost left the ground. "My dad doesn't tolerate vamps. At all."

"I wish I had a vamp-eating snake," Hippy said. "I wonder if my dad would let me have one when I get home."

Clockwork turned his back to the fence and gave her an odd look. "You're going to go home?"

"Not yet." Hippy couldn't take her eyes off Doris. She was the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen, except for Fluffy Ducky. "I like it here in Dream."

"What about your family? What about the war?"

"That's why I'm here. To stop the vamps. You know that. You Freakin Fairies might not be at war with them yet, but if they overrun us you'll be next."

"I thought you were here because you thought the muse king was in love with you."

Hippy scowled. "That's none of your business."

Clockwork hugged himself and pursed his lips. "Oh Pierus," he said. "My one true love. You're sososo old!" He made a loud kissing noise.

"Shut up!" Hippy tackled him, knocked him to the ground and brandished a fist in his face. "You take it back!"

Clockwork laughed. "Or what?"

"Or I'll slap that grin onto the other side of your face!"

"You couldn't slap a bearfly into a waterfall."

Hippy cracked her palm across his face. Clockwork yanked her hair so hard it brought tears to her eyes, then pushed her. Hippy kept hold of his ear with one hand and hit him with the other while they rolled down the gra.s.sy slope, right into a row of grape vines trained along low wire runners.

Clockwork landed on top and put a knee in her stomach. "Is that all the fight you've got?" he crowed. "I could get a better fight out of the peac.o.c.k!"

Hippy narrowed her eyes. "Weren't you the one who ran away from the peac.o.c.k?" She clenched her fist and punched him in the leg.

"Ow!" Clockwork lost his balance and rolled into a grape vine. Three grapes dropped on his head.

Hippy sprang, but she'd barely had a chance to punch him in the ribs when a low growl sounded on the other side of the garden.

Both fairies froze.

"What's that?" Hippy whispered.

"That's the reason we were supposed to stay on the path."

Hippy looked up, and up, and up. Over the tops of the vines she could see what looked like a brown, furry hump. The next minute, a big head attached to a snake-like neck thrust through the leaves and sniffed at them. It drew its lips back over teeth the size of daggers and snarled.