Clearheart (21 page)

In the light of many white elves, the Giants rested. Their bodies were safely tucked underground, their heads lay on the ice, and an occasional snore escaped from their big, fat lips.

Don Posiblemente, Samuel and Ella sat in a huddle around the Queen, upon Thomas's outstretched hand, reviewing all the information the peculiar party of Giants and Magicals and Flitterwigs had shared about that fateful night.

‘So if we are to believe that Bolgus's leg truly was trapped by a root when the whipwailing wind arrived and assaulted the Queen and the Clearheart, then the only person who could tell us whether there was anyone else there to perpetrate the crime is the Clearheart of old, who is dead, or Your Majesty,' said Samuel.

‘And I did not see anyone come with the wind,' said the Queen. ‘That is why I was sure that the Giants must be responsible. When Wrinkles and I made our escape, the Clearheart and her Protector were fighting back the wind alone.'

Don Posiblemente had his head deep in a section of the Flitterwig Files, searching for some clue. He had nipped back
to Spain to fetch the weighty tome. ‘There must have been someone else in the world of magic with a reason to kidnap the Queen, there just must have been,' he muttered to himself as he scanned the pages.

The group was hushed by the sound of Bolgus and Thomas waking. Bolgus spluttered as he woke, sending a spray of grit out of his mouth. Ella shuddered and thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't had to be Solidified. At least not yet. The idea of having her pointy ears and her nose and her mouth full of soil every day made her tummy heave. Gosh, what would her asthma be like under there? She was still anxious, for if the truth could not be found between them somehow, the Queen was convinced that reinstating the Ban and maintaining the breach with the Giants was the only way forward.

‘It is rather nice to see you again, Tirabella,' said Thomas shyly, rubbing his eyes with his free hand and drawing the group up to his face with the other. ‘Thank you for taking this time.'

The Queen dropped her head. She was giving the Giants a chance, but her heart was still full of uncertainty. There were so many unanswered questions.

Bolgus yawned. Ella was amazed at how dirty his teeth were.

‘What I do not understand, Bolgus, is why you did not
defend yourself before,' said the Queen as soon as he was properly awake. ‘I understand that I had accused you, and that your brother doubted you momentarily, but why, in Magic's name, did you not try to contact me before now and plead your case?'

Bolgus looked at the Queen a little dopily and sighed. ‘Well for one,' he said, ‘I was rather upset at the time. Plus, I was having trouble staying awake. Plus, no-one ever asked me what my side of the story was, you all just accused me at once. I was hurt by that. Why should I beg? Why would you be so quick to attack?'

Ella's hair flared. Her shoulders itched. Her ears tingled. ‘What did you just say, Bolgus?' she asked, Once again, the Queen noticed a trace of cinnamon and rain coming from the child's person.

‘I was upset?' said Bolgus.

‘No, not that bit,' said Ella, listening to her instincts as they reacted to his words.

‘I was sleepy?' said Bolgus.

‘No, not that bit either,' said Ella, focusing on what her body was trying to tell her.

‘No-one ever asked me for my side of the story?' he said.

Ella's ears were on fire. ‘No-one ever asked him!' she cried,
leaping about in Thomas's palm like her deranged pixie friend. ‘No-one ever asked me!' she repeated. The group stared at her blankly.

‘Ask me!' she cried. ‘That's what the Spirit Trees have been whispering to me. Not
asquemi
, but ASK ME! The Great Gum was there on the night of the attack. It knows what happened. It wanted me to ask it, though I don't know why it didn't just tell me!' she cried. ‘I was just too stupid to figure out what it was saying!'

‘But Clearhearted enough to make sure you got there in the end,' said Samuel, full of pride. He stood up and put his arms around Ella, squeezing her in a tight embrace. ‘You wouldn't know, of course, but the Spirit Trees keep secrets, truths. They can tell these secrets, these truths, to their kin, the dryads and Dryad Flitterwigs (and you of course, we all realise). But only if asked to do so.'

‘Even I am not privy to the secrets of the Spirit Trees,' the Queen said, her eyes shining with shame and respect in equal measure.

It was cool on the Nullarbor Plain that night. The Queen rested weakly in Samuel Happenstance's hand as she looked up at the
Great Gum of Gommoronahl. The impure air on Earth had started to affect her delicate lungs.

‘I'm so sorry that I couldn't understand you,' Ella said to the Gum. ‘You and yours have been whispering to me for so long and I didn't understand.'

The Great Gum bowed its silver branches to the Clearheart.
‘All in its time,'
it whispered. Although, to be honest, it sounded more like
‘Alinistye.'

And it did, indeed, take quite a bit of time for Ella to decipher the story whispered to her by the Gum. The story of the Ulnuses, an old family of Dryad Flitterwigs, and their plot to kidnap the Queen and hold her to ransom until the hierarchy of Magus was changed so that the dryads had a place in the Royal Court. Of how they sent a whipwailing wind, with Bongled Dryad Flitterwigs within it, to take the Queen by force.

Don Posiblemente slapped his forehead when this piece of information was divulged. ‘So that is why there are so few Moglin Flitterwigs,' he cried out, more to himself than anyone else, although it did make everybody jump. ‘The Dryad Flitterwigs must have forced Moglin Flitterwigs to Bongle them, and then killed them off so no-one would find out!'

The Great Gum paused while Don Posiblemente rifled through his cryptic Flitterwig Files to corroborate this
information. And then it continued. It told of how Sarafina and her Protector had held the wind back, allowing the Queen and Wrinkles to escape. Of how, in her battle against the Bongled creatures and the wind, the Clearheart was felled. Of how it was the Dryad Flitterwigs who made the sap dry up in the Spirit Trees, in order to lure the Queen to Earth.

And then the Spirit Tree paused. Its trunk seemed to slump and heave with some long-held sadness. When the tree began to whisper to Ella again, the breeze in its leaves was heavy with regret. The Great Gum told her of how it had been
its
roots which trapped Bolgus's leg, seeping sap to lure him, under instruction from Dryad Flitterwigs. It was true after all—Bolgus was innocent.

Don Posiblemente slapped his head again. ‘Of course, Dryad Flitterwigs would be able to draw sap from the Spirit Trees, and be better equipped than me to reproduce it artificially!' he cried out, making everyone jump again. ‘They must have been providing it to the Duke!' he said, lowering his voice now, for he was clearly spoiling the atmosphere of the moment.

Ella got to see the Queen look at Thomas and Bolgus with such apology in her eyes that a new star was born in the skies. She watched Thomas hug his brother in an embrace that would have squished an entire town to nothingness with its strength
as he said sorry again. She was so glad not to have to live under the dark earth, among the cracks and crevasses of its solid core, hardly able to breathe. And she was truly overjoyed that the Queen recanted her decision to reinstate the Ban. She and Dixon wouldn't lose one another after all, and the planet had a chance of survival!

‘My Dewdrops have some work to do on your sap supplies,' the Queen rasped breathily, looking up at Thomas timidly through her long, soft lashes. ‘But we will need you to help us, Ella, dear Clearheart, if you can ever forgive me. Would you mind?'

Ella beamed. ‘It would be my absolute pleasure, Your Majesty,' she said, looking at Thomas and winking happily.

Ella wasn't quite sure how she got back to Hedgeberry from the barren plains of Australia that night.

One moment she was smiling at the Queen and winking at Thomas, and the next she was being dried off by a bunch of pussy willow in Ms Wheelbarrow's warm office.

‘There will not be a word spoken about the past few days again, do you hear me, you two?' Ms Wheelbarrow was saying, most seriously indeed. Ella looked to her left and saw Charlie, searching about distractedly in his pockets.

‘Hi, you,' she said to her Protector.

‘Hi, you,' he said, grinning from ear to ear, so relieved to see Ella again that his feet were shaking.

‘Not a word,' the good lady said again. ‘Or I will have you both Bamboozled.'

Ella and Charlie nodded obediently, though Ella was desperate to tell Charlie how everything had turned out in the end. There wasn't much more Ella wished for right now, except a shower. Other than—Oh goodness, where was he?

‘Dixon is over there,' said Ms Wheelbarrow, motioning to her desk. There he was indeed, sitting upright upon it, his green hat and his stripy red and white T-shirt gleaming clean. He was stuffing a human-sized parsley omelette down his throat with glee.

‘But he is to return to Magus as soon as he has finished his dinner. For if everyone were to have a Magical friend, I don't know how any schoolwork would get done,' Ms Wheelbarrow added sternly. Except, being a Flitterwig, and being so thankful to have the children back in her care, her expression was not really that stern at all.

Ella rushed over to the headmistress's desk. ‘Hello, you,' she said to Dixon, crinkling up her nose and patting down her long, long hair as it flew out about her in delight.

Dixon looked up at Ella, his mouth full, and grinned a pixie grin. Which goes from ear to ear, in case you didn't know. Literally. There is nothing very attractive about a tiny green creature, with pointy ears and wide eyes, grinning from ear to ear with a mouth full of egg and parsley. But Ella gathered the pixie up and
cuddled him to her chest nonetheless. The pixie dragged what he could of the omelette with him.

‘Hmm. Sorry, Ella,' said Dixon, detaching his face from the strap of her dungarees, spitting omelette all over her and wiping bits of squished egg off her front.

‘Bit messy. Rhymes with Bessie. Mouth a bit full. Full. Rhymes with pull. Oh well! Everything's swell.'

Charlie watched Ella from the comfort of Ms Wheelbarrow's brown corduroy sofa, still searching through his pockets. Where was Harold? He had searched everywhere. ‘Excuse me, everyone,' he said, his voice strained. ‘I think I've lost Harold.'

There was a wriggle in his foot at the base of his sneaker. And then a muffled croak. ‘No you haven't, you silly chap,' whispered Harold, discreetly poking his head out of the top of Charlie's sock. ‘Just keeping a low profile. Don't want to be sent away like the pixie, don't you know.'

Ella sped along the bends of the Championship course, her wings flying out behind her, steadying her turns. Flitterwigs cheered wildly from the sidelines. Bolgus Brackenrack had found her yellow skateboard for her in the chasm he had created when he
cracked the ice and sent it back, with a letter of thanks written in stone.

Just ahead of her, Gloria approached the forest, her wings balancing her trajectory perfectly. Ella was sure that the girl would have to slow greatly on the incline into the forest, so steep that only a goblin's legs could possibly keep up the pace. Ella swerved on a zigzag and almost lost her footing. Max Pepper sped past her, followed by Ben Running and Solomon Mulch. All of them slowed as they took the incline and disappeared into the trees. But not Gloria. As the dense foliage of the Scots pines engulfed her, Gloria seemed to speed up. Rather than being stifled by the
concentration of leaves, the breeze whipped into a frenzy. It was as if Gloria commanded the wind-flow when she soared up over Forest Rise and flipped in a loop the loop through Elm Ridge itself. Ella could not understand it. They were surrounded by trees. There was no room for air, never mind wind to propel them on! She squealed with frustration.

‘Eek, squeak, peek!' Dixon squealed in unison, scrunching up his face in a mixture of pleasure and shock at the silly noise coming out of his darling's mouth. ‘Come on!' he yelled at her wings as they flapped with a fury to get help her get up the slope. ‘Rhymes with scone.' Flying was forbidden on a skateboard, but if it hadn't been, Ella would be winning for sure. Ella entered the forest, her too-big wings thrusting her forwards, beating her up and up the nasty rise.

Gloria grinned gleefully, her dark eyes shining as she sped through the back of Maple Valley. She bathed in the pleasure of knowing that she could not lose this race. For her parents helped her out a little each year, with an enchantment that compelled the trees to whip up their leaves to the other racers' disadvantage. Ella might be able to rest by Gloria's very own Spirit Tree when she wanted to escape everybody, but she had no idea of Gloria's power over those trees when it mattered most.
Gloria whistled silently across the valley to her beloved poplars and they whistled back obediently, blowing up the hair of everyone on the sidelines.

Ella pushed up Forest Rise, her hair flying behind her. Something was not right here. The trees were pushing the wind against her. Against them all. Pushing them back. Breaking their flow. Ella closed her eyes and remembered the Spirit Trees. Their quiet gentleness. She silently paid homage to all the felled trees whose spirits they held. She thanked them for bringing the Flitterwigs and the Magicals and the Giants together again. For bringing her the truth. She asked them to do what was right.

It worked like magic. For the oncoming currents died at once and Ella sped forwards, neck-and-neck with her competitors towards the final leg.

Gloria did not know what had hit her as four Flitterwigs flew past, one with oversized beating wings that would have been almost comical if the child to whom they belonged were not so unassuming in the pride with which she bore them.

It was a close race, and Max Pepper did the salamanders proud. But Dixon nearly fainted with pride when Ella came in first. And Manna, standing alongside the other spectators, actually did. Granny and Grandpa picked her up and gave her
a good shaking. They would not have missed seeing Ella race for anything, although they did wish that the school sport was something a little more traditional. Granny wondered to herself. She was sure she had been incredibly worried and cross about something very important this week, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what. She glanced about at the odd-looking students, parents and teachers who frequented this ridiculous school, and shook her head. It was a jolly good thing that she couldn't see Ella's wings or she would have fainted too. But, luckily, she was only human.

Don Posiblemente, watching quietly in the waters from the confines of his home in Spain, with Carmen and his dear friend Samuel sitting serenely by his side, clapped his hands together with pleasure.

The Ulnuses, however, were nowhere to be seen. ‘Arrested,' one Flitterwig parent was heard whispering to another on the sidelines. But no-one could really be sure.

Ella stood at the top of the hill, panting and proud, scanning the crowd in the hope of spotting her father there somewhere.

In a Bedouin tent, beside a shimmering oasis, in the middle of an endless Arabian desert, the Duke sat fanning his face. The
bevy of sun-kissed faces around him were entirely oblivious to his presence. His legs were tied up in two splints. He might be the second-most powerful elf in the universe, but he wasn't a sprite.

The pollution was mild out here, so the wicked elf was not faring too badly. How he was ever going to find himself more Antidote, however, since Saul had been arrested at the Ulnus estate, was anyone's guess.

‘Bring me water,' he ordered his long-suffering Protector, who was sweating in the shadows alongside a rather bedraggled collection of Troggles.

In Antarctica a group of geologists (more than one among them a Flitterwig, not that anyone knew), arrived at the co-ordinates they had been given by base camp. They had been sent to investigate a series of unexplained explosions which had left large craters in the snow and an inexplicable display of icicles reminiscent of Egyptian pyramids. The strange structures had been spotted by a reconnaissance team passing overhead in a helicopter during a monthly sweep of the protected sanctuary.

But when the team arrived, there was not a single crater or pyramid in sight.

Up over the white plains, an enormous Arctic tern flew by.
It was much bigger than any tern the geologists had ever, ever spotted before.

It had a long tendril of green fluttering behind it, twirling and twisting magically in the wind.