After Millie slid a swinging brick wall
to the side, a bunch of small green vines fluttered in on the breeze.
“What is this massive bunch of-? Oh!
Morning glory. I’d forgotten Teresa’d allowed that weed to grow up the side of
the trellis.” Millie pushed the thin vines of the fragrant pink and white
flowers aside to make room.
She placed one foot out of the small
hidden portrait that Queen Eloise had painted on the back of the Tapestry. She
pushed forward a little and soon all of her was outside.
She took a deep breath and let out a
happy sigh, “The smell of greenery and rich earth, nothing else can match it!”
She opened her arms spun around in her
daughter’s large garden, taking in all the beautiful scents around her.
“Orchards of citrus, magical roses by
the bush, and my prime raspberry patch has expanded beyond belief!” She giggled
happily and paused as she saw a large gated sink hole further down the row,
surrounded by mist, “Hello, what’s this?”
Ignoring the sign to not eat the
raspberries, she plucked a handful of the delicious fruit on the way to the
oddity. Her blue eyes inquisitively ran over the strange gate, “Coral - organic,
mist without a natural reason - magical…” She tossed a raspberry at the gate
and the berry bounced off, sailing past her head. “…a harsh rebound jinx.” She
smiled, “This must be Dee’s grotto. A fun find. I’ve never been this close to a
Siren’s grotto …”
General Zizzor left the colorful tree
that he was perched on and zoomed towards her, stopping a few inches from her
nose before she could take another step.
“Good day to you, General,” She bobbed a
curtsy and popped a raspberry in her mouth.
He chirped as fast as he flew. Luckily,
she’d kept up on her ‘enchanted hummer’ dialect while she’d been confined to
the doll house.
“Yes, I am aware that the tava tree and smitten
rose bush are off limits. I didn’t know Sandee’s grotto was included.”
He nodded.
“It’s rather amusing now that I think of
it…a siren granddaughter, living in my raspberry patch. Not every Spade can say
that.”
His twice-feathered tail twitched.
“Did you know one day I grew a raspberry
that was four feet tall and three feet wide?”
His pink eyes looked startled.
“I was about to harvest the seeds and
then Joyce Haberlie came calling. When I brought her out to show her my prize
raspberry, there was a drupelet that was missing. In its place, was Teresa’s
adorable face, happily sleeping, if sticky.”
The hummer general managed to look
amused.
“After giving my laughing friend a
drupelet, I concluded to wait until Teresa was older before I attempted such a
thing again. I dare say she has some control now. And since, Sandee is living in the patch, I
shalln’t worry about anyone else disturbing it. Minus myself and my daughter.”
He continued to flutter, staring at her.
She eyed the smitten rose bush, “But these
areas shalln’t be off limits for long.”
He zoomed around her head and nearly
perched on her nose, chirping with concern.
“I know Taps and Jeffery added a few
things to the garden, hence I won’t touch those. But ‘twas my garden in the
beginning, and I’m going to tend to those plants eventually.”
His feathers fluffed out in an offended
manner.
“Don’t worry, I’ll knock before I visit
my granddaughter and her spouse. ‘Tis only polite.” She stuck another berry in
her mouth and paused, “Is that new scent from the tava blossoms?”
The white and gold hummer wouldn’t move,
his pink eyes challenging.
“I know no one else has one of these!
Not in this world at least.” She tried to get around him, “No wonder Joyce has
such a time while she’s here.”
He protested in short piping trills.
“What big red bird?”
He landed on enormous claw marks that
were showing in the blue-green bark and tapped them with his beak. Millie
studied them.
“This bird isn’t any species I know…and
that’s saying something. They’ve certainly marked their territory.”
General Zizzor’s pink eyes blinked.
“I see, well, perhaps I’ll ask Taps to
introduce me when the bird returns. But are you sure I can’t study the tree
while the bird is away?”
His sharp nod left no doubt in her mind.
“Very well. I’ll walk about the garden.
Being stuck for over three hundred years in a doll house without a way to see
outside, makes me want to explore everything.” She popped the last juicy red
berry in her mouth.
He zoomed back to guarding the tava
tree.
After twenty minutes of wandering the
gardens, Millie skipped over a small bridge, admiring her surroundings, “I love
how Teresa made this garden support all sorts of plants, regardless of season
or climate. With fairies attending to it day and night, ‘tis a wonderment of
Spade’s delight! Hmm, all we need is a few unicorns, a few more distractions,
and perhaps a quilta or thr…” she stopped at the end of the bridge, “I don’t
recall that mingled scent.” She closed her eyes and sniffed again, “A creature,
large. But there’s a perfumed aroma along with it…a new rose, perhaps? Or a new
fruit?”
Her blue eyes popped open with a
challenging glint in her eye as she headed towards the scent, determined to
update her mental notebook.
*
“Why can’t I?” Piedee chuckled, leaning
against her bike, “It’s fun to see their faces!”
Sarah rolled her eyes, “Aunt Piedee,
just because I made you and uncle Z Realm Keeper protectors doesn’t give you
the right to just appear into their houses!”
“C’mon little britches! I mean, what if
the Keeper has gone bad?” the tall blonde biker model shrugged, “It could
really help to drop on them.”
“I think you mean, to drop IN on them.”
“Hey. You say potato, I say spiked tires
and greased quick-silver.” Piedee spread her arms.
“Anyway,” Sarah opened her hand and a short
list of the current American Keepers materialized, “Realm Keepers don’t go
bad.” She would have to hire several to fill in the many vacancies left behind.
Piedee shook her head, her black leather
gear creaking, “It’s happened before.”
“When?” Sarah focused on her aunt.
Piedee smirked, “I guess Taps never told
you about Keeper Chadwa.”
“Chadwa?”
“Well his last name was more common but
Chadwa was the nickname he earned after he was sentenced to life as a frog. He
made the sound ‘chad-WAH!’ as he hopped out of court.”
“I sense a story.” Sarah lifted her
eyebrow.
Piedee put her arms behind her head, “Back
when I was still in college and your mother was a knight…”
Alarm bells rang. Sarah jumped, Piedee stood
straight and looked up when a large holo of the Tapestry Realm came down from
the ceiling and rested in front of them.
“What’s going on with the realm? I’m not
seeing anything!” Sarah quickly swiveled the holo so she could look at the
grounds from every angle. Her adopted grandmother was looking at a large tree
far back in the gardens, but other than that, there was nothing she could see.
“The house and grounds seem in order.”
Sarah expanded the view to the nine
block radius.
“It’s not the outside, little britches.
If it showed the Tapestry first, that’s where the problem is.” Piedee narrowed
her green eyes and grabbed the magical holo. Sarah frowned as Piedee zoomed in
on the Tapestry.
“If it’s one thing I learned in all my
years of being queen, it’s that a keeper’s realm is never what it seems. Look.”
Piedee was looking at one of the windows, the one that housed Taps’ study. “The
window is glowing red.”
“Which means?”
“Taps used her study to call a royal
alert.” Her aunt looked at her, “Permission to kick trash if necessary?”
“Not without me.”
“Touch the window, it’ll let Taps know
you’ve answered if she checks that room again.”
Sarah did so.
Piedee jumped on her bike, snapped her
helm on and stretched out her gloved hand to Sarah. “At least with Taps, it’s
never dull.”
Sarah silently agreed and put an
invisible shield around them.
*
Following her nose, Millie found a large
Elm tree that had a tiny mound of earth set up under a large branch, but
nothing was on or in the mound as far as she could tell. There was a strange
knobbiness about the enormous tree.
“Peculiar. But that mound beneath the
branch is where the heavenly smell is coming from.” She looked down, “Though
it’s somewhat over powered by these mounds of reeking earth. Nothing can
staunch the smell of an angry dragon. So I’ve found my creature…”
Deep gouges in the grassy ground surrounded
the thick barked tree. Heaping mounds of soil were around the back. The tree
was cut very deep near the earth, but not enough to uproot it.
Millie sniffed the air, “Hmm. Now that
I’m here, it’s very apparent who’s been visiting. But why would Merrick tear up
the lawn in such a snit?”
She reached inside her dress pocket and
pulled out a miniature ladder, “Grow please.”
Once she set it a foot above the ground,
the ladder lengthened and widened enough for her to step up and make her way
over, and the roller steps flattened to make walking easier. She glanced to the
side as she balanced her way to the injured tree.
“These pits have to be seventy feet
deep. Thank goodness we don’t have human sprinkler systems or anymore gobs! What
a mess that would be!”
When she reached
the other side, she hopped off the ladder and reached out her hand to touch the
sliced bark. Red hearts and orange spade symbols circled her hand as red
sparkling mist flowed from her palm and fanned out around the injury. As she
set the tree’s healing process to quicken, Millie tilted her copper head to one
side.
“Dragons aren’t
interested in plants. So why would Merrick do this?” She stood and filled the gaping
holes with the mounds of earth using her magic, a two shovel-fulls at a time. “Oh
how I wish I would have been elevated to a five when we helped save King Gunner’s
niece! This wouldn’t take nearly as long. One swipe of the hand and it would
all be in. Simple.” Another irritated thought struck her, “And why didn’t the
hired help get to this part after the lurkers were extinct?”
*
Sarah and Piedee arrived outside the
gate. Everything seemed fine. Sarah quickly approached the mansion, wary of
anything possibly going wrong.
“Copey! Open!”
“Drat-it-all!” The goblin-headed gate
complained as he swung open. “You’s just in time, you is! I wanted to see ‘er
blow!”
Knowing Copey wouldn’t say such a thing
without a reason, Sarah ran for the dining room’s back door with Piedee quick
on her heels, “Wait! Little britches!”
Sarah yanked the door open, magical mist
spewed out into the yard as Piedee grabbed the back of Sarah’s shirt and pulled
her so she spun to the side.
“Piedee!” Sarah looked at her aunt,
“What is this?”
The former queen’s expression went from
shock to anger, “The Tapestry security arteries are bleeding out!”
“What does that mean?”
“Death, if we don’t stop it!” Piedee
dashed into the house, “WHOA!”
Her rebel aunt barely ducked in time as
the Tapestry’s librarian flew over her golden head! The large tome’s gold
ribbon was holding onto a red security artery and the poor book was screaming
for all he was worth!
Sarah grunted as she caught him,
“Sebastian?”
“My-my queen!” The book blinked, as he
tried to re-orient himself, “There’s a whole rattle snake nest full of
conundrums that Millie kicked! Stop her! Please!”
*
Taps woke up,
wheezing. She turned on her side and coughed, quickly coughing again at the
intake of dust. She pushed herself up and took in short breaths. Her lungs felt
burnt. She put her hand to her chest, using her heart magic to assess the
damage.
A body chart opened
in front of her. Her lungs were glowing red at the top and she touched the
picture. The lungs came forward.
“My bronchial tubes
(wheeze) are burnt. Drat it.” She croaked and looked at the rest of the
picture, “Just a bruise or two…other than that.”
She quickly let the
close up on her injured eye socket chart disappear.
Taps took a shallow
breath and swallowed. Her throat was raw and her body ached. She began to heal
her injured lungs, grateful for the many lessons Dr. Opikens had taught at
Starlight Key School.
“At least, (wheeze)
I’m not dead (wheeze) from that fall.”
Once Taps healed
her lungs and eye, she pushed up from the cold stone cavern, “Where’s Merrick?”
Another look made her pause, “Where’s my treasury?”
The entire room was
depleted! Not one giggler remained! She ran over to touch the wall that would open
into another section. Every shelf, every hook, was devoid of lucre.
“Gone? But-but my
children! If I had died…they would’ve been penniless! He stole everything!”
The silent alarm
went off. Taps braced herself and grabbed her hat as she was yanked to another
room, her heart screaming for justice.
If she survived
this problem, Merrick could expect a visit!
*
Once the ground was
again growing grass, she touched the ladder, “Thank you. Shrink.” She took the
tiny ladder and placed it in her pocket. A small breeze rolled by.
Out of the corner
of her blue eyes, something shimmered. “Hello, what’s this?”
The ground glittered here and there, but
it wasn’t any mineral. “It looks more like fabric, a flowy dress of sorts.” She paused and looked up. The air shimmered
around her and then stopped. Millie froze. The soft breeze blew through the
garden again and once more the air shimmered around her.
“Curtains?” She reached out and tried to
touch them, but her hand went right through. “Invisa-curtains!”
She looked back at the mending tree and
newly mended earth. The curtains extended through the ground.
“That’s why the ground shimmered
strangely and why Merrick couldn’t reach the item of interest. Whatever is
behind the curtain is invisible and intangible.” She kneeled and swiped her
hand through it again, not even being able to touch the small mound, “Unless
one is ordered retrieve it by the owner of the curtain.” She stood, “No doubt,
the curtains are keyed to Teresa or Jeffery, which points my inquiries to them.
“My my, what have you hidden that would intrigue a dragon, daughter-mine?”
Millie clasped her hands together in an excited fashion. She turned and looked
back at the large Victorian mansion, “Matter-o-fact, where is that over-grown newt? He should’ve returned now that the
Tapestry is back in order.”
*
Piedee’s
katana appeared in her hand and it glowed red hot, “Maddening Millie’s a whole
pack of problems!”
“I
thought grandma was called Miracle Millie.” Sarah put Sebastian’s monocle in
place as she ran into the house to follow her aunt.
“She’s
both! You should see the volumes King Encil wrote about her!” Piedee’s green
eyes were wide as they looked around the flooded room.
The
sparkles were up to their waists!
“From
the way this is gushing everywhere, we’ve got fifteen.” Piedee glared.
“Fifteen
what?”
“Minutes,”
Piedee frowned as she headed for the hall, “before we’re all dead.”
Sarah
gulped as she set Sebastian down on the dining table, “Where’s…”
Taps
flew out of the ceiling and slammed into the wall like she was a bunch of
bricks! She dropped down in front of her.
“Mom!”
Taps
got up, her hat smashed down to her shoulders! Worse, there was no indication
that she had a head or a neck anymore!
Sarah
was ready to scream as she came forward to heal her mother.
“Sarah!
Don’t move!” her mother shouted.
Sarah
stopped and looked down where the sound was coming from. She nearly jumped out
of her skin when she saw Taps’ head and neck (clear up to her yellow bowtie),
sticking up out of the floor! She was surrounded by portal lines.
“Ribs!
Pull your hat off so you don’t choke on that magical dust!” Piedee came over
and grabbed the smashed hat from Taps’ shoulders and pulled up.
Taps’
head and neck were yanked back through the portal and returned to their proper
place. The portal on the floor closed quickly.
Sarah
blinked, snapping her jaw shut and her air came out in a relieved rush.
Her
mind zoomed to the time they were attacked in the alleyway. After the skirmish,
Taps had had the reluctant Mr. Pytt step through her hat. It wasn’t just a
quick magician’s trick, it was a portal. With that mystery solved, more
questions flooded Sarah’s mind.
A portal in Mom’s hat
is a good idea. I wonder if her hat is only connected to the mansion or if it
can go other places? I’ll have to ask.
“Here
Ribs. Now tell us what’s going on!” Piedee threw Taps her hat.
Taps
punched the bottom of it at it returned to its proper shape; she slapped it
back on her curly head, “Mother has accidently snapped several of the security
arteries! Because of that the rooms are jumbled! We need to sear the arteries
shut and repair the whole lot!”
Taps
grabbed a blue artery in her hand and seared it shut with her Keeper magic.
There
was a small explosion below stairs that shook the mansion.
Sarah
steadied herself, “Is anyone else in
danger, if this all goes up in smoke?”
“I’ll
guarantee it!” Sebastian stated, looking at Piedee pointedly.
Piedee
looked at Taps, searing several arties with her hot katana, “The royal lines I
placed.”
Taps
went pale as more arteries flopped into the room and added to the flood.
“What royal lines?” Although she wasn’t
really drowning, Sarah instinctively raised her chin to keep her face above the
rising sparkles as she grabbed for more spurting strands, “Tell me what to do
and I’ll help!”
“Piedee, you’ll have
to tell her!” Taps was yanked up by some invisible force. The daring Realm
Keeper turned to face the ceiling as she sped towards it. She put her tapper
horizontally in front of her to avoid ramming her face into the ceiling.
