"It's not him doing it! It can't be!" Flower seized his hands. "Nikifor, we can answer all of these questions and I know in my soul we will find the king innocent. Let's go, let's go now and find him. I know where to go, I figured it out. You're so much better than you were, you're ready to face him, the curse can wait until afterwards. He needs us, he needs us now. Will you ignore your king when he is in peril?"

"Yes," Nikifor said.

"Yes?" she looked confused. "Yes we'll go?"

"Yes I will ignore him." Nikifor raised his wrist and showed her the scar. "He did this to me. He branded me when I let Hippy Ishtar escape him. He forced me to drink vibe until I could not stop and then plunged me into hell. He tormented me until I was little better than a madman. I hope he rots in a pit of despair until the end of days!" His last words ended on a shout.

Flower took a step away from him. A tear slid down her face. "You're having another episode," she said. "That must be it. Our king would never do those things. Some imposter is making you think he is the king. Please Nikifor, let the king help you. Come with me now."

Nikifor dropped his head. A long breath expelled from his ribs, a heavy sigh of disappointment. "Don't go, Flower."

"The king needs us. I at least will go to his aid."

"He will kill you."

Flower turned toward the forest. She cast a haunted look over her shoulder. "I'm sorry Nikifor. I tried so hard to save you, but I can see you're beyond my help. I'll ask the king to come back for you."

The rigid set of her shoulders made it clear there was no reasoning with her. A wave of terror for his friend coursed through his blood. "Flower I swear to you he is evil! You will suffer a thousand deaths at his hands!"

"Enough, Nikifor." She walked away.

Nikifor fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands. Only when Fitz touched his shoulder did he realise there had been witnesses to their argument.

"Let her go, friend," Fitz said.

"But she will meet the fate of the other muses." Nikifor couldn't keep the tremble from his voice.

"If she won't face the truth about the king, we can't stop her going to him. His hold on her is powerful."

"But-"

"She must make her own mistakes." Fitz's tone brooked no argument.

"Even if she dies of them?"

"She's not dying," a small, determined voice said next to him.

Nikifor raised his eyes to Mudface, who was at eye level with him while he knelt. Her jaw was set and her eyes hard. The indefinable essence of pink about her had spread to a pink streak in her hair. "How do you know?"

"Because I'm going with her," Mudface said. "The king's not expecting a Bloomin Fairy." She gave Nikifor a glance so unexpectedly vicious he recoiled.

"Aren't you afraid of the king?" he whispered.

"I've been cursed pink." Her voice was bitter. "What's left to be afraid of?" She patted Fitz's arm. "Be careful at the mines, Great Clip Clop."

"This is not a good idea, Mudface." Fitz put out a hand to detain her.

"Maybe, maybe not, but it's my idea. The Lord of the Gourd doesn't tell me what to do now. Nor do you. Bye bye, Nikifor. I'll look after Flower. Us dead ones got to stick together."

As simple as that, Mudface walked after Flower.

Nikifor rose to his feet and watched them go. Cold fingers gripped at his heart. He'd failed them both. "Are we to let them go to their deaths?"

"Mate, if I've learned one thing in my life, it's not to argue with a determined woman." Fitz shaded his eyes to watch while the pair grew smaller and further away. "They generally know what they're doing. Even when they don't seem to."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

Fury thumped in Flower's skull, drove her steps, propelled her away from Ishtar Village as fast as she could walk. She strode with her head down and her fists clenched until she found the road into the forest and turned down it.

The road slowed her furious march. Mud sucked her boots down with every footstep. The motion of dragging her feet out again and again gradually calmed her, leaving her only with a hard, burning anger. When her legs ached too much to go on, she sat on the mossy rocks by the roadside, put her head in her hands and cursed herself.

She should never have left the village. She shouldn't have abandoned Nikifor, even if he was a traitor. She could have made him see the truth, given enough time and the right persuasion. She shouldn't have left for the plain and simple fact Shadow was crawling with Moon Troopers looking for them. At least together they'd stood half a chance.

She'd just have to find the king before they found her. She pushed away her doubts and put her key back together, since there was nobody around to freak out over it now. Yes, she could feel it in her bones, the king was at Castle Arch. He needed her help and this road would lead her to him.

She opened her eyes and yelped in fright.

The apparition standing in front of her gave her a reproachful look. "You walked too fast."

"Go back, Mudface." Troubled the Bloomin Fairy had witnessed her moment of weakness, Flower reached out and brushed a lock of hair as pink as Krysta's from the girl's face. "This road is too dangerous for you."

Mudface sat down beside her. Her book was clutched, as always, to her chest. "I'm coming with you."

"Don't be silly. You need to stay with Nikifor and Fitz."

Mudface heaved a sigh so deep her shoulders rose and fell. "They're going to rescue the Freakin Fairies. I'm not much help in a big war like that." She turned her face to Flower, resolute. "But I can help you."

Flower held back the snort of amusement that built inside her. "How can you help me? You're just-"

"Just a Bloomin Fairy?" Mudface's eyes flashed. "You're just a crazy muse who don't know what she's getting into. What if you get killed or disappear? Nobody would know. Except me." She poked herself in the chest.

"And what if you get killed or disappear?"

Mudface gave her a thin smile, opened her book and thrust it under her nose.

Flower took the book and studied it. On one page was a picture of a girl with pink hair, wearing a pink suit and pink shoes, holding a rolled-up newspaper under one arm. On the other page, in bold letters, one sentence.

"Pinky writes in Shadow and Dream," Flower read aloud. "What does that mean?"

"I didn't know till Lord of the Gourd cursed me," Mudface said. "That's me. I write for Shadow and Dream. That means I won't get killed helping you, because I haven't done that yet."

Flower couldn't fault the logic. She brushed her fingers over the picture. "This is you though? Really?"

Mudface's eyebrows drew together and she snatched the book back. "Stupid Lord of the Gourd. I hate pink." She flicked through the pages and paused at one. Her lower lip trembled and a tic developed under her right eye.

"What is it?" Flower took the book from her again. "What in Shadow does this mean?"

The pictograms were badly drawn and took her a minute to translate. "Shazza is the shazzam and gets to be so famous everyone in Shadow wants to be like her? That's not what it said before!"

"She changed it!" Mudface turned bright red. "She changed my book!"

Flower stiffened when a whiff of stale smoke reached her nose. She reached for a weapon, only to realise she didn't have one before Shazza herself materialised on the road in front of them. "Someone say my name?" She looked over Flower and Mudface with narrowed eyes. "Oh, it's you two. You're back. Where's the scary sorcerer and the crazy guy?"

"None of your business," Flower snapped, not the least bit in the mood for this creature right now. "Go away."

Mudface ran for Shazza and leaped into a flying tackle. Shazza caught her by the scruff of the neck and held her over the road, dangling in midair. "Is that the thanks I get for what I did for you?"

"What'd you do for me?" Mudface pummelled the air between them with her fists. "You changed my book!"

"I published your book." Shazza dropped Mudface onto the road. "I reserved the right to make editorial changes."

Mudface landed in a heap, leaped up and would have attacked again, but Shazza clenched a fist and made a nasty face at her. "Back off, Fairy!"

"Enough!" Flower set Mudface back onto the mossy rocks and glared at Shazza. "What were you thinking?"

Shazza shrugged. "I want to be famous. I put myself at risk to publish that book, I should get something out of it. Anyway, she should be thanking me. Everyone in Shadow City is reading the book. It's so popular the Guild's banned it and the Moon Troopers are throwing anyone found with a copy in the Gulakh."

Flower glanced at Mudface, who had gone very pale and still. She was disconcerted to find even more of a sprinkling of pink through her hair, which also appeared to be falling out of its knots. "But that's terrible," she said. "Mudface-"

Mudface wasn't listening. "Guild banned my book?"

Shazza nodded. "And there's a price on your head. Everyone wants to know who Mudface of Pumpkin is."

Mudface's eyes shone. "Everybody? Every single person?"

Flower felt the beginnings of a headache at her temples. Neither of them seemed to realise just how bad this was, and she doubted she'd be able to get it through to them right now. It was already afternoon and they had to find shelter before night. She got to her feet. "Come on Mudface. We need to get moving."

Mudface obediently jumped to her feet and followed. So did Shazza.

"I'm sure you've got better things to do than hang about with a pair of fugitives." Flower didn't bother to look at the false muse. She kept her back straight and her eyes on the road. The key hummed gently at the base of her throat, assuring her they were going the right way.

"Not really." Shazza caught up easily and walked by Flower's side. "Working for the Guild is, like, old. Where are you going?"

"Nowhere."

"Come on, you can tell me. You must be doing something interesting if it made your boyfriends leave you."

"I left them, thank you very much!"

"Did you now?" Shazza disappeared in a puff of foul-smelling smoke and reappeared just up the road, arms folded, barring the way. "I'm not stupid. There's only one thing at the end of this road."

"And what might that be?" Flower walked around her, then lifted Mudface over a deep pothole filled with water.

Mudface happened to look into the very still puddle while Flower lifted her over. "Hey!" she yelled. "My hair's going pink! Yuck!"

"You knew it was going to happen." Flower set her down.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." The fairy stormed ahead.

"You're going to see the king."

Shazza's sing song statement did little to help Flower's growing headache. "What about it?"

"I think I'll come too."

"No."

"Who's going to stop me, you? I want to ask him why he didn't keep his promise and make me important. Why are you going?"

"I intend to rescue my king from the imposter who calls himself your king."

Shazza chuckled. "This ought to be a fun tea party then."

They spent a cold and uncomfortable night sleeping in the topmost branches of a spikenut tree. Thankfully the spikenuts weren't in season, so they weren't torn to pieces climbing it, but Flower wasn't accustomed to climbing trees as it was, and was sore and irritated by the time she settled in at the top. Mudface of course had no difficulty with the climb and Shazza simply materialised up there and started snoring.

Flower lay awake on her branch for a long time, watching the darkness below where the road lay. She hoped they'd remain unnoticed should any Moon Troopers go by, but Shazza's snoring wasn't exactly quiet.

When her eyes finally closed, she traced a familiar path through Dream. She visited all of her writers and apologised, even though they couldn't hear her, for neglecting them for so long. Before her eyes they took up their paintbrushes and pen and chisels and started to work. That alone was enough to ease the headache that had carried over into her sleep. Tensions lifted. She began to feel right again. How silly of Nikifor to be so worried about her key.

She visited Krysta last of all. Having met her face to face, Flower felt a rush of affection when she stood in the garden with her.

Krysta swung her hockey stick back and forth, back and forth, while she stared off at nothing.

The affection faded. Flower frowned and moved closer. She placed her invisible hand on Krysta's wrist as though she could stop the motion. "Please be careful," she said.

Krysta stopped swinging. A shudder ran over her.

"What's the matter?"

Flower glanced up at the interruption. She hadn't seen the boyfriend standing in the doorway, also watching Krysta.

"Drew, when did you get here?" Krysta rested the hockey stick on her shoulder.

"Just now. We were supposed to go to lunch, or did you forget?"

"I forgot." She shrugged.

Drew came out into the garden, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Off with the fairies again?"

"Get off my back." She threw him a scowl. "It was a weird night, alright? I had this stupid dream and I swear I woke up in different pyjamas and couldn't find the ones I went to bed in, and then this morning there was some friend of my mum's here who was kind of intense." She paused, sighed. "And Dad's gone away again. Mum's taken it really hard this time. I can tell she's really, really worried about him, but she won't tell me why. Freaking hell, I'm twenty-five years old, if he's doing something dangerous on all these business trips, don't they think I'm old enough to know?"

Drew put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Whatever he's up to, your dad can look after himself, right? Anyway, it could be worse. Just look what my mother used to get up to."