Another knock, followed by a rattle.

Hippy crawled over to the covered section of the cart, shoved Nikifor's arm out of the way and studied the haphazard stacks of boxes.

Fluffy Ducky leaped from her head to the top box, scuttled down and came to rest on a small steel box tucked into a corner. It shook underneath him.

"What is it Fluffy Ducky?" she whispered.

The box shook again. Fluffy Ducky waved a foreleg at her.

Hippy reached out very, very, carefully and eased the box free of the pile. She glanced sidelong at Nikifor to make sure he was still asleep. A thin film of sweat covered his upper lip. Wow, he really looked sick.

Fluffy Ducky clung to the box. His hairs all stood on end.

Hippy ran her fingers around the edges until she found the catch. She pouted. It was padlocked.

The box shuddered so violently Fluffy Ducky was thrown off. The movement caused another package to slide off the top of the pile and hit Nikifor in the face.

Nikifor turned over, buried his head in his hands and snored.

Hippy suppressed a giggle. She took the tiniest bit of fairy dust from her belt and sprinkled it on the padlock. The metal sparkled, then turned to dust. The catch popped open.

The box was still. Fluffy Ducky waited, poised, on the pile above it.

Hippy opened it up. Her eyes widened. The box contained a severed hand, so white and veiny it could only have belonged to a vamp. The little finger twitched.

Fluffy Ducky pounced. The hand jumped two feet in the air, fingers splayed, and attempted to grab the spider. Fluffy Ducky twisted in mid-air, wrapped all eight legs around the index finger and chomped.

Hippy squealed with delight. "Go Fluffy Ducky!"

Nikifor sat bolt upright and stared around in panic. "Vampires!"

"It's a vampire hand!" Hippy clapped madly.

"What's going on back there?" Pierus pulled sharply on the reins.

"Fluffy Ducky's fighting a vamp hand!" Hippy jumped up and down with excitement. The cart rocked.

Nikifor put out his hands to steady himself. His gaze fixed on the wrestling spider and hand. "What fresh horror is this?" his voice cracked.

Pierus uttered a whole string of bad words he'd obviously picked up from Poppy, scrambled off his seat and into the cart. "Don't let it get into the sunlight!"

Hippy squealed a second time. "Fluffy Ducky it's allergic to light!"

The hand convulsed violently and flew from one wall to the other in an attempt to throw off the spider, at the same time evading Pierus's attempts to grab it. Nikifor pressed himself into a corner and watched the whole thing in horror-struck awe. Maybe this cart ride was going to be fun after all.

Pierus didn't sound happy. "Hippy Ishtar, if you don't control that spider I'm going to squash it. I need that hand."

Hippy pouted. "Fluffy Ducky come back!"

Fluffy Ducky stretched his legs out and wound them around a second finger, strapping the two fingers together. The hand went into a redoubled frenzy. It hit the walls, the roof, smashed into the pile of boxes and sent them tumbling all over the place.

Hippy shrugged when Pierus glared at her. "He's busy. He'll come back when the hand's dead."

A particularly nasty jolt shook the spider free. The hand took swift advantage by curling into a fist that knocked Fluffy Ducky flying.

"Fluffy Ducky!" Hippy ran after the spider, caught him and teetered on the edge of the cart. When she regained her balance she saw that Pierus had leaped on the hand and was struggling to subdue it.

"Nikifor the box!" the muse king snapped.

Nikifor picked up the discarded box and held it at arm's length. Pierus shoved the hand in there, closed the box, wound a hastily found chain around it and then put it inside a bigger box.

There was silence in the cart. Outside, a bird cackled. Leaves rustled in the forest.

"Why do you have a vamp hand?" Hippy asked.

Pierus breathed heavily from the exertion. His eyebrows gathered like storm clouds. "I need it," he said. "I need vampire genetics if I am to discover a way to keep them from returning."

"Why is it alive?"

"Because I preserved it with magic. Dead genetics are no good to me."

"What are genetics?"

"Enough questions." Pierus pushed his way past the boxes and Nikifor.

Hippy backed up, but there wasn't anywhere to go unless she jumped into the mud.

Pierus grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close. He looked into her eyes in that intense way he had. "You would do well to keep your hands to yourself, Fairy. Do not touch my things. Some of them are very dangerous."

Hippy scowled. It was rude of him to call her Fairy like that. She stroked Fluffy Ducky's back to calm him. "But I'm bored."

"Then I suggest you occupy yourself." He reached into a coat pocket and took something out. "Here. Perhaps this will amuse you." He opened his hand.

Hippy's eyes widened. There in his palm lay a shiny, shiny crystal in the shape of a teardrop.

Pierus dropped it into her hand. "Do try to behave yourself." Then he went back to his seat, picked up the reins and started the donkeys walking again.

Hippy resumed her seat. She held the crystal up and watched the sunlight play in all the tiny little facets. It was a very pretty little thing. It would normally keep her amused for hours, but something bothered her. Maybe it was the way she'd been so neatly manoeuvred into being a nice, cooperative, well-behaved little fairy.

She closed her hand over the crystal and twisted around. Pierus's back was to her. Nikifor sat amongst the boxes, awake, staring off into his own little world. Hippy threw the crystal at him. It bounced off his arm and fell amongst the boxes. He flinched, but otherwise didn't seem to notice.

She sighed and went back to watching the mud. It would have been so much better if Flower had come too.

A pebble hit the side of the cart and bounced off. A few seconds later another pebble hit her foot. That stung.

Hippy scowled and scanned the trees. n.o.body there. If she thought for a second someone was throwing rocks at her, she was going to jump off this cart and throw fairy dust at them.

A small, round pebble hit her in the arm. When another one whizzed through the air, Hippy raised her hand and caught it. Right. That was it. She jumped off the back of the cart, pulled her feet out of the mud they promptly sank into, then dashed into the trees as soon as she was on firm ground.

The forest was green and close. She could just hear the donkeys plodding away down the road. Huge leaves slapped against wooden trunks. A big black and white bird landed in a branch and made a noise like a rusty hinge.

"Right," Hippy said. "Whoever you are, you'd better come out right now and tell me why you're throwing rocks at me!"

Silence. A shadow flitted behind a tree. Yet another pebble flew through the air and bounced off her forehead.

"Ow! That's it, you're for it now!" Hippy bolted after the shadow.

The shadow darted from tree to tree, keeping just ahead of her. Hippy kept on it, determined, even though whoever it was disappeared every time she got close enough to reach out and grab hold.

Only when she realised they'd gone a long way into the forest did she stop. The figure had disappeared.

Hippy turned in a slow circle. Trees everywhere. The undergrowth was thick with spindly plants with little white flowers. She wasn't sure which way led back to the road. If the forest people caught her alone out here they might do anything. Fairies weren't supposed to stray this far into the forest. She gulped.

Twigs crunched. A rush of air. Someone knocked her to the ground. Hippy balled a fist and launched it, but she stopped an inch before making contact with her attacker's face. Her eyes widened when she saw who'd landed on top of her. "Clockwork!"

He didn't look the least bit happy to see her. "Yeah, it's me. Surprised?"

"You shouldn't have come." Hippy studied every detail of his face, from the little cut under his eye to the dreadlock that was plastered to his cheek with sweat. "How did you get here?"

"I followed you through the door Pierus opened. I've been following you ever since." Clockwork reached a hand toward her face. It trembled. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it away before he touched her. "Maybe I shouldn't have. I don't understand. What are you doing with the pretender? I thought you liked me."

Hippy reached up and brushed the dreadlock away from his face. She blinked back tears. "This is bigger than just you and me. I'm sorry Clockwork, butbut something happened and it's too late to go back now."

"What happened?" Lines of confusion marred his smooth forehead. "I need to know Hippy, because I left my dad behind to follow you here. I thought you'd come back with me if I rescued you."

Clockwork was the last person she wanted to tell. Her cheeks burned. She looked away.

"What is it?" This time he did touch her face and his voice was so concerned she almost let a tear escape.

"It's complicated."

"Tell me."

Hippy took a deep breath. "Promise me you won't be mad?"

"Why? What have you done?" Clockwork slid off her, sat on the damp ground and helped her into a sitting position.

Hippy poked at the gra.s.s. "The thing is, your dad said I should go with Pierus if he took the Apple of Chaos, because somebody would have to take it from him again. He said I was the only one who could do it."

A grin blossomed on Clockwork's face. "Then you don't like him better than me?"

"Of course not! He's an a.s.s, just like Poppy said."

The grin dropped from his face just as quickly. "What do you mean my dad said you should do this?"

"He said the future of Shadow could depend on it," Hippy said. "And he made me promise not to tell you."

"Not to tell me? Why?" Clockwork's lower lip trembled. "Why you?"

"Becausebecause he thinks" Hippy gestured in the direction she thought the road might lie, then dropped her hand. "Please don't be mad, if we weren't mixed up in all this I would never have let him do it. At least I don't think I would have, I can hardly remember how it happened, except I had to prove to him I was loyal, so I could take back the Apple of Chaos laterI'm sorry"

Clockwork laid his hand over hers, his eyes wide. "What? What did he do?"

"He made me pregnant," Hippy whispered. Her hand went involuntarily to her belly. "I'm sorry. But now you know why it's so complicated."

Clockwork stood up. He walked to the nearest tree, balled a fist and punched it. Then he leaned his forehead against the trunk. "Why in Shadow would my father send you up against him?"

"Because I can get close to him." Hippy rose to her feet.

"But you don't even know what you're doing!" Clockwork burst out. "You're no match for him on your own! And pregnant? No. You just can't. I'm taking you back to Dream, Dad will just have to send someone else!"

Hippy marched up to Clockwork and slapped him across the face. "No!" She put her hands on her hips and glared. "Don't even start on that rubbish, Clockwork Silver. I haven't come this far just to turn back. I didn't get banished by my family and put up with Pierus being so mean for all this time just to be told I'm not good enough! People have been saying that all my life, and you know what? I don't give a bearfly's b.u.t.t cheek what you all think of me. This is my battle now and I intend to fight it, pregnant or not. You can either help me or you can go back to Dream, that's totally up to you, but I will not be told I'm not good enough!" She stopped, panting for breath.

Clockwork inched back into the tree. "Oops," he said. "I forgot about pregnant fairies."

"Don't you pregnant fairy me."

"I'm sorry." Clockwork let out a long breath. "I just wish it was different."

"So do I." Hippy held out her hands. "Maybe when all this is over it can be."

He moved cautiously forward and held her hands. "Maybe."

Hippy flung herself on him and buried her face in his shoulder. "I lied. I do care what you do. Please stay close, however you can manage it, I can't stand to think I'm all alone with him. I don't even know where we're going."

Clockwork put his arms around her shoulders and stroked her hair. "I promise," he said. "I'll be close, no matter what."

CHAPTER THIRTY.

Hippy and Clockwork had outrun the donkeys strapped to the laden cart, got a good way ahead and climbed a tree to wait without even breaking a sweat. The vehicle swayed like a ship in a storm down the road below them.

Clockwork watched the cart like it was full of poisonous snakes. "I suppose there's nothing I can say to make you reconsider."

Hippy shook her head and eyed the donkeys. She had to time the jump just right.

"I'll find a way to see you once you get where you're going," he said. "I'll never be far."

"Be careful. Watch out for forest people." Hippy squeezed his hand, kissed him on the cheek and then leaped off the branch.

She rushed through the air. The cart trundled closer. d.a.m.n! She was off by half a cart's length.

She landed evenly on both feet on the bench seat right next to Pierus.