The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen - Delia Sherman [42]
Autumn was coming.
Hugging my coat around me, I headed for the swing. Fortran was standing on the seat with Espresso sitting between his feet, both of them hanging on to the ivy ropes and pumping for all they were worth. Espresso was kicking at the top branches of a maple, which was dodging.
“I got it,” I shouted as they whooshed backwards into the sky. “I got the quest pass.”
The swing swooped forward.
“Wiiiiizard!”
“Groooovy!”
As soon as they’d slowed down enough to jump off, they were on either side of me, jittering with excitement and curiosity.
I took off the quest pass and held it out for them to look at.
“This is deeply groovy, Neef,” Espresso said. “Dig that crazy beaver!”
Fortran put his ear to the medal and listened. “It’s not magic,” he said, surprised. “I thought it would be magic.”
“It’s plenty magic, Number Man,” said Stonewall, who’d strolled up with Danskin just in time to hear. “It lets her do what she wants without worrying about the Loonie Rules.”
I put the quest pass back around my neck. “I wish it was magic enough to get me out of lessons. I can only quest on weekends and after school.”
“Then it’s a good thing that the next performance of Swan Lake is going to be the night after the Full Moon Gathering,” said Danskin. “Do you have anything to wear?”
I smoothed the lapels of my black coat. “What’s wrong with what I’ve got on? I thought you said my coat was dashing.”
“Oh, it is,” Stonewall said. “But it doesn’t exactly say ‘Evening at Lincoln Center,’ does it? What did you wear to Autumn Equinox?”
“A Dress Silver as the Moon.”
“You have one of those?” Danskin was impressed.
“Excellent!” said Stonewall. “Wear that. And lose the sneakers. You think your fairy godmother can magic up some glass slippers for you?”
“No glass slippers,” I said. “I might need to run.”
The next night, I was standing in Central Park Central between Astris and Mr. Rat, listening to the Lady hand out prizes for the scavenger hunt. The winner was the silver earring, with a pocket mirror (un-magical) and a shiny quarter as runners-up. The winners got to keep what they found, plus their choice of what everybody else had collected.
It was a beautiful night. The trees were beginning to turn, the ground beneath them scattered with the first of a dragon’s hoard of gold and ruby leaves. The moon was gigantic in a sky so clear and black I could see stars. Jack and his chilly relatives had touched the wind with the promise of frost. Astris had given me a new dress made with wool from the Sheep’s Meadow flock. I was as happy as a rat in a garbage bag.
And then Astris started chittering. “He’s here again. The Mermaid’s Voice!”
I looked past a flock of fauns to the Lady’s granite throne, where the Lady, crowned with leaves, was glaring at the shiny-vested mortal who had threatened the Park on the last full moon. I remembered Airboy had said that the changeling’s name was Oxygen, and he wasn’t really ready to be a Voice. Now that I’d been around mortals, I could tell he wasn’t grown up yet—maybe Stonewall’s age. He was nervous.
“Hail, Green Lady of Central Park,” he said. “Have you considered the Queen’s offer?”
The Lady laughed angrily. “You call that an offer? Sounded a lot like a threat to me. Yeah, I’m thinking about it, and I’m not done yet. Get lost, Fish Boy.”
“That’s the Lady,” Astris said, voice sad, whiskers admiring. “Proud as the rocks underfoot and twice as hard.”
In other words, the Queen was a pigheaded idiot. And I seemed to be the only one who thought it was a problem.
When Oxygen was gone, Astris grabbed Mr. Rat and plunged into the dancing. I ran up to the Castle and climbed into bed, where I shut out the stars with the curtains and the music with my pillow.
Chapter 13
RULE 208: STUDENTS MUST GIVE THEIR FELLOW MORTALS AID IF ASKED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADVICE, HELPFUL FACTS, CUPS OF TEA, AND USEFUL TALISMANS AND ARTICLES OF CLOTHING SUCH AS CLOAKS, BOOTS, WOOLLY HATS, AND UMBRELLAS.
Miss Van Loon’s Big Book of Rules
I told Astris about Lincoln Center the next