Mudface snatched it from her hands and clutched it to her ribs. "I was just getting an idea," she said. "They made me forget it."

"Your writing is very important to you." The idea puzzled Flower immensely. Humans wrote and drew and sang. Of course fairies did as well, but not with this kind of intensity. They were only fairies.

The scowl deepened. "So?"

"So I understand. I am a muse, after all." Flower brushed some of the dirt from the girl's forehead and tried to sound practical about it all.

Mudface's eyes widened. "I remember!" she burst out. Her voice dropped to a confidential whisper. "I'm writing a subversive future of Shadow. One day everyone's going to read my book and know the truth about everything." She nodded once, then sat down on the spot, opened the book and scratched in there with her piece of charcoal.

"The truth? What does a Bloomin Fairy know about the truth?" The words escaped her before she could stop them. Flower pressed a guilty hand to her mouth, but Mudface was oblivious.

Flower got to her feet at the sound of someone clearing his throat and found Fitz standing watching them. She folded her arms across her chest. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." He jerked his head in the opposite direction. "Walk with me."

Flower had no desire whatsoever to go walking with an enemy of the king, but Mudface was absorbed in her writing and frankly she had nothing else to do. She joined him and they walked slowly away from the village, following the line of the edge of the crops.

"I saw you stand up for Mudface," Fitz said.

"Well of course I did, did you see what the rotten little creatures were doing to her?"

Fitz gave her a sidelong glance. "Don't be too hard on them. There's never been a Bloomin Fairy who wrote before. It'll take them time to get used to it."

"And you propose to allow them to bully her in the meantime?"

"I'm not here to tell them how to behave."

Seeing they'd already walked far enough from the houses to not be overheard, Flower planted herself squarely in front of the man, hands on hips, and adopted her coldest tone, usually reserved for Guild bureaucrats and Moon Troopers. She only had an inch or two of height over him, but she used it to look down nonetheless. "Then why are you here?"

Fitz studied her. He looked older in the light of day, his face lined and scarred from years of fighting or who knew what kind of lifestyle. Flower had the distinct impression he was preparing himself to take a calculated risk.

"I'm here to evacuate them."

"Evacuate them?" Flower glanced back at the village, where she could just see a fairy or two wandering about pulling up weeds. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly." Fitz's eyes never left her face. "The Guild is closing in on the village of Pumpkin, just like they did with Cauliflower and Daisy villages, where there is nothing left but scorch marks. They've cut off all roads in and out of Bloomin Fairy territory. Every day fetches sweep the skies looking for villages and every night Moon Troopers search new areas. It's only a matter of time before they get here."

Flower glanced up, but the sky was blue and empty. "Why? What do they want with them?"

"If we could answer that question, we'd know why so many fairies and muses are missing."

"So what are you saying? You want them to up and leave everything they've ever known?" Flower started walking again to give herself time to think about why a self-professed enemy of the king would spend his time helping Bloomin Fairies.

Fitz followed her. "We've evacuated several groups of fairies successfully before the Guild could get to them."

"Just fairies?" A spark of hope burned. "What about muses?"

"I'm sorry. Your arrival here is the first news I've had of muses going missing."

Well that spark was short-lived. "How in Shadow has every single muse disappeared and nobody even noticed?" Flower clenched her fists and stopped again, causing Fitz to almost run into her.

"Maybe you should ask your king that, when you find him."

"Maybe I will!"

They glared at each other.

Fitz broke the deadlock first. He sighed and turned to look at the endless crops spreading away from them. "I didn't come out here to argue about the king."

"Then why did you?"

"Because you came to seek my help and because I need yours. I'm going to propose a bargain."

"Why would I make a bargain with an enemy of the king?"

"Because you have little choice. You are in as much peril as these fairies."

Flower brushed an imaginary speck from her sleeve. "Nikifor and I can look after ourselves."

"Really?"

Flower caught his scepticism. She made an impatient gesture. "Fine, so maybe we haven't been doing so well. What are you proposing?"

Fitz tugged on his beard and frowned at the ground. "I need you to help me evacuate Pumpkin. In return, I will take you to someone who will help you rescue the Freakin Fairies."

"Who?"

"A Freakin Fairy from that village. He's not been there for many years, but if anyone can help you, it's him."

"And where will these fairies go?"

Fitz looked directly at her. "Dream."

Flower blinked. It took a moment for the word to sink in. "Dream!" she yelled. "Are you crazy?"

Fitz made a pained gesture for her to lower her voice.

Flower glanced at the still empty sky and did so. "You can't take a whole tribe of Bloomin Fairies to Dream!"

"It's the only safe place," Fitz said. "The Guild have eyes all over Shadow. Until they are removed from power, the fairies must stay in Dream."

"But it's impossible! You know what humans are like, if they so much as saw a Bloomin Fairy-"

Fitz shook his head. "Humans believe what they're told, not what they see. We've successfully integrated a whole clan of Feathertip Bloody Fairies as a travelling circus. We have an enclave of Freakin Fairies operating a jewellery corporation. I could go on."

"And how do you intend to integrate the Bloomin Fairies?"

"We have land set aside for them to form an organic farming commune. It'll be isolated, but they'll have everything they need to live just like they do here."

"And this Freakin Fairy." Flower studied Fitz closely. "He's in Dream too? Is he one of your jewellers?"

"He lives in Dream," Fitz said. "He helps us to get the fairies out and settled."

Flower tried to hide her excitement by walking slowly on with her head down. This could be the same Freakin Fairy she'd seen walking with Krysta. The curiosity was almost too much to bear, but she kept a lid on it. The offer was impossible to resist. "You sound organised," she said. "Are you the leader of this enterprise?"

"Hardly." Fitz chuckled. "But yes, we are organised."

"What name do you give yourselves?"

"I don't think that matters."

Flower turned back to him. "Of course it matters."

"You won't like it."

"If you don't tell me I won't help you."

"We are the Invisible Army."

Flower closed her eyes in disbelief. She sat on the ground right there and put her head in her hands. "Are you serious?"

Fitz squatted in front of her. "Yes."

"Since when did the Invisible Army stop following around the king and sabotaging his every good work and turn to smuggling fairies?"

"Since we realised somebody had to help them."

Flower was silent for some time, struggling with the idea. The Invisible Army, or the IA as they called themselves, had been a shadowy presence for as long as she could remember. Pierus had never taken them that seriously. But then, the king wasn't the one who had to clean up the mess they left when they interfered. Come to think of it, they'd been quiet since the Vampire Wars, when She frowned. She could see big frightened eyes looking up at her. A Bloody Fairy. A pregnant Bloody Fairy, and something very, very wrong, but the memory slipped from her grasp as quickly as it had landed there. Damn it, this was getting frustrating.

She studied Fitz, who still knelt in front of her. "Alright. We'll do it. We'll help you, but only with the fairies. Nikifor and I are not getting involved in anything that would harm the king."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Your destiny is to kill the muse king.

Nikifor had watched Flower and Fitz walk away and been glad of some time to himself. He had so much to think about. The fairy's words came back to him again and again. He hadn't told anyone but Fitz. He couldn't. How could he tell Flower he was a danger to the king? She would never understand.

By the time they came back he'd figured nothing out. He went out to meet them, but his steps dragged and his attention was on the ground.

"Nikifor." Flower tucked her hand into his elbow and drew him a little way ahead of Fitz when they met. She looked unusually serious.

"Bad news?"

"Perhaps a little. Fitz has agreed to take us to somebody who can help to free the Freakin Fairies, but first we must help him evacuate these Bloomin Fairies from their village. I know it's highly irregular for us to work with an enemy of the king and it will take much, much longer for us to find Pierus now, but it seems the only way."

Excitement, relief, elation washed over him in dizzying waves. "But that's magnificent!" he boomed.

Flower gave him a pained expression and rubbed her ear. "Really? Why?"

"Sorry," Nikifor whispered. "I only mean, I think we should help the Bloomin Fairies." He decided not to volunteer any more opinions. It was true, he did want to help the village, but the delay also meant he had longer to figure out what to do about being a danger to the king.

If Flower was surprised he'd agreed so readily, she didn't show it. She only shrugged. "We're going to see the Lord of the Gourd right now. I'm going to try and convince him to leave before the Guild gets here."

"Her," Nikifor said.

"What?"

"The Lord of the Gourd is a lady."

"But that's ridiculous. How can a lord be a lady?"

Fitz caught up to them. He chuckled. "The Lord of the Gourd is always the Bloomin Fairy who can beat all the other fairies in a fist fight. Apparently this lady trounced every male in the village when the last Lord of the Gourd died about sixty years ago."

They stopped at the giant pumpkin in the centre of the village and ducked through the doorway to get inside. Fitz led the way to the centre of the almost empty space, where once more the Lord of the Gourd resembled a pile of snoring blankets.

Pumpkinhead, who was sitting in the corner mashing something up in a mortar and pestle, jumped up at their entrance, ran over to the pile of blankets and poked at it. "Lord of the Gourd!" he yelled.

The Lord of the Gourd grunted, wriggled, then sat up in a cocoon of blankets. "What?!"

"Visitors, oh great Lord of the Gourd!"

"You don't have to shout! I may be old but I'm not deaf! Who is it?"

Nikifor winced. The Lord of the Gourd's pitch was so loud it hurt his ears, but something else bothered him, too. A cold prickle ran down his spine. He glanced about the shadows in the room, but it wasn't until he looked back at Flower he saw anything unusual. A tall, shadowy creature he knew only too well hovered at her shoulder.

"It's the Great Clip Clop with the Dead Giant Freakin Muse and the Crazy Giant Freakin Muse!" Pumpkinhead shouted the words so loud veins popped out on his face.