Pierus started violently and jerked on the reins. The donkeys broke into a clumsy trot, causing the cart to teeter to one side. A wheel hit a rut too fast, bounced off it and veered to the side.

Pierus pulled up hard. The donkeys made grunts that sounded distinctly like swear words. The cart shuddered to a halt. "Nikifor check for damage!"

Nikifor slid off the cart and went to look at the wheels.

The muse king gave Hippy a lethal look. "What are you doing?"

Hippy returned a sunny smile. She patted her belt. "Fluffy Ducky ran away after his fight with that big mean vamp hand of yours, so I had to go find him. I just got back."

Pierus looked startled. "You left the cart?"

She nodded.

"You went into the forest?"

"He does like to climb trees."

"On your own?"

"I'm hardly on my own if Fluffy Ducky's around."

"That spider has got to go."

Hippy scowled. "Touch my Fluffy Ducky and I'll kill your vamp hand."

"My king," Nikifor said from beside the wheel. "There is no damage, but I suggest we resume moving immediately." He climbed back onto the cart.

Pierus scanned the road, made a clicking noise with his tongue and started the donkeys moving again. "Hippy," he said. "Sit down."

Hippy pouted. She'd been enjoying balancing on the seat while the cart moved, and besides, it gave her a good view of the treetop where she could still see Clockwork watching them go. "But I like it up here."

"Sit." Pierus curled a hand around her arm and yanked her down next to him.

Hippy landed hard on her rear end on the wooden seat. "Ow!"

"You're going to learn to do as you're told if it kills you." Pierus said this with a pleasant smile on his face that struck Hippy as odd, until she realised they weren't alone. Her eyes widened. Forest people emerged from the trees everywhere she looked. They didn't step onto the road; they just stood and watched. Their hair and clothes were tangled with leaves. Their hooves were caked with moss and mud. Every single one of them was armed with a crossbow or an axe.

"You see my dear, I have only your best interests at heart when I give you an order," Pierus said, still with that pleasant smile on his face. "You make far too easy a target standing up there."

They trundled on down the road at what seemed a snail's pace. The further they went, the more forest people appeared from the trees.

"Are they going to attack us?" Hippy whispered.

"Only if we stop in their territory or venture into the forest without their permission."

"Do they know you're the muse king?"

"Of course they do. They know I live beyond their forest. We have a treaty, of course. They leave me alone. I return the favour."

Hippy gave a disconsolate sigh. "I miss Poppy."

"That dreadful woman? Why?"

"She made long rides like this interesting. How come you haven't got a car? There are cars in Shadow City."

"Because there is not enough silver in Shadow to run a car further than a short distance."

Hippy flinched. "Silver?"

"My, you are a provincial little creature, aren't you? Fairies really need to educate their children."

"Hey! I learned my pictograms."

"Pictograms?" He snorted. "Cars, my dear, need fuel to get anywhere, and that fuel is liquid silver. Which of course is so jealously guarded by your dear friends the Freakin Fairies that n.o.body can run a car outside of the city for fear of running out of fuel."

"I didn't know that."

"Of course you didn't. You'll find you don't know most things about your world, which is why you need to pay attention to what I tell you. First and foremost, between now and when we arrive home, do not leave the cart without my permission. The forest is dangerous for little pregnant fairies."

Hippy shrugged. "If you say so." She eyed the forest people. "But the cart is boring."

"Didn't I give you a nice shiny crystal to play with?"

"I'm not a child, Pierus."

"Yes you are. Your entire species is juvenile and distractible and has the combined intellect of a moth colony."

Hippy stared at him, stricken. "Yeah? Well you've got a face like a moth-eaten cabbage."

"What did you do with the crystal, Hippy?"

"I threw it at Nikifor." Hippy swung her legs over the seat and into the interior of the cart. "If this is how you talked to Pandora, no wonder she left you."

Pierus curled his fingers around her arm before she could move further away. He never took his eyes off the road. "Don't leave the cart under any circ.u.mstances."

Hippy made a face at him, pulled away and clambered over the pile of boxes. She scowled at Nikifor until he looked away, then threw herself onto her stomach at the back of the cart, where she could happily glower at the diminishing forms of the forest people until they were out of sight.

Hippy woke with a start from a very pleasant dream about Pierus punching himself in the head. She smiled sleepily and laid her cheek against the wood of the cart. The forest trundled by. No forest people to be seen. It was late afternoon, judging by the mellowing of the light. The road surface had hardened up, making the ride smoother.

Something sparkled in the trees.

She sat up and leaned over the side of the cart. There, it sparkled again. Wow. She'd never seen anything quite so shiny. She looked over her shoulder. Nikifor was asleep and Pierus had his back to her.

Don't leave the cart, he'd said.

Shiny white light sparkled through the trees.

Hippy glanced over her shoulder once more. Then back into the forest. The shiny light had a sprinkle of blue in it.

Blue was one of her favourite colours.

Hippy leaped off the cart, landed on the road and bolted into the trees. Nikifor yelled out almost as soon as she'd gone and the cart lurched to a halt.

Hippy tiptoed toward the shiny thing bouncing up and down in a low tree branch. When she got closer, she pulled the leaves out of the way so she could see what it was. Her eyes widened when she found a little glowing creature struggling on the branch. At first she thought it was a dragon, but it was no bigger than her forearm, and everyone knew dragons were at least as big as donkeys. Besides, its face was rounder and it had little pointed ears and weird, featherless wings. Its claw was tangled in a th.o.r.n.y plant growing up the tree. Drops of blood stained the bark.

"Oh, you poor thing." Hippy ignored the heavy footsteps in the foliage behind her and reached slowly for the trapped claw.

The creature looked up at her with big, sad eyes and made a little whining noise.

Nikifor's hand landed on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Hippy, but you must return to the cart."

She turned on her heel, balled a fist and punched him in the stomach. Nikifor doubled over and apparently lost all his wind, because his next attempt to speak didn't work.

"Not until I've rescued the shiny thing." She returned to the trapped creature, gently prised the thorns away from its foot and removed one thorn from the pad altogether. The creature sent up a thin howl.

"There, it's okay, you're free now." Hippy lifted it off the branch and held it up. "Fly away."

The creature stretched its wings. It lifted off her hand, flapped the wings once and made an ungainly leap for her shoulder. When it landed there it nuzzled her neck.

Hippy giggled. "What are you doing?"

Nikifor, who had got his wind back, approached her more cautiously this time. "Please Hippy, Pierus said you must return to the cart at once."

Hippy shrugged. "So?" She headed for the road while giving the creature her hand to sniff. It nibbled at her fingertips with a hooked beak. "Are you hungry, little fella? Are you a boy or a girl?"

"She's a girl, and what we call a fetch," Nikifor said.

Hippy glanced over her shoulder. The muse blocked any path back into the forest. "A fetch?"

"They're very rare. Unless you travel to the mountains where n.o.body lives and find a colony."

"Well, you're very pretty. I think I'll call you Fangs," Hippy said.

"You call your killer spider Fluffy Ducky and a harmless shiny fetch Fangs?" Nikifor herded her down to the road.

"Yeah. So what?" Hippy sighed when she saw Pierus leaning against the back of the cart waiting for them.

"I thought I told you to watch her," Pierus said, the moment they were in earshot.

"I'm sorry my king," Nikifor said. "She's fast."

"Bring her here."

"Touch me and I'll break your teeth." Hippy marched across the road, pulled herself onto the edge of the cart, sat there and gave Pierus an enquiring look. "Well?"

"I told you not to leave the cart."

"But I saw something shiny."

Pierus went to speak, changed his mind and rubbed his forehead instead. "b.l.o.o.d.y Fairies," he said. "What is that on your shoulder?"

"The shiny thing."

"Forget I asked." He turned to walk away, then came back and put his hands on either side of her face. "What do I have to do to make you behave?"

Fangs stretched her leg out, hooked her claws and stabbed Pierus in the back of the hand.

He yelled and s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away.

Hippy giggled. "Pregnant fairies don't behave for anyone. Weren't you warned?"

Pierus took a step away from her. He rubbed the wound on his hand and looked like he was working up some very nasty words.

Hippy gave a big, insolent yawn. Finally, this trip was starting to be fun again. "Are we there yet?"

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.

The hooting didn't bother her. For as long as Hippy could remember, she'd lain awake in her bed in the darkest, most silent hours of the night and listened to the Thump Owls' night conversations.

It was the screeching she didn't like. She'd never heard a bird make that noise. The regular tap-tap-tapping in the tree tops that followed the cart along the road also made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. She told herself not to be afraid. There would be no more vamp attacks for a very long time. Nothing in the forest would harm her.

She lay on her stomach with a gas lamp set beside her. The light it shed only went as far as the edge of the cart, making the road and trees around them all the darker. They trundled on. Pierus had decided they should travel through the night rather than camp in unfriendly territory.

Fangs made a pretty bluish glow by her left hand. Her scales glittered and glowed in the gaslight like they were made of fairy dust.

Fluffy Ducky sat by her right hand. Hippy had been trying to introduce them all day and this was the closest she'd gotten, after finally convincing Fluffy Ducky it wasn't nice to attack fetches. Fluffy Ducky's hairs were still on end and occasionally he trembled and gave Fangs an eight-eyed glare. Fangs returned the glares with withering glances and spent the rest of the time cleaning her scales with the tip of her beak.

After a while Nikifor joined her. Hippy made room for him, but didn't look away from Fangs and Fluffy Ducky.

Nikifor sat cross-legged next to her and handed her a chunk of bread and cheese. "Here," he said. "You must be hungry."

Hippy scrambled into a sitting position so fast both Fangs and Fluffy Ducky jumped, bringing them a quarter of an inch closer together. "Starving." She tore into the bread.

Nikifor studied Fangs and Fluffy Ducky. "Are they making friends?"

Hippy shrugged. "They're not trying to kill each other. It's a good start." She glanced over her shoulder, but could not see Pierus in the dark. "Is he really going to stay awake all night up there?"

"He sleeps where he is. The donkeys know where to go and you and I will alert him to any danger." Nikifor followed the direction of her gaze. "May I ask you a question? Without you hitting me?"

Hippy giggled. "Sorry about that. Ask away. I promise I won't hurt you."

"Why are you here?"