Scarlet Discovers True Strength (11 page)

The Star Darlings were all so excited no one took notice of the pink-tinged shadow making its way to the back of the room. Scarlet slid into the corner, behind a potted boingtree. The branches were far enough apart for Scarlet to peek through but full enough of bright color-changing leaves to serve as an excellent screen.

She looked for Lady Stella but couldn't see her. The Star Darlings seemed starprised by her absence, as well, and stood chattering anxiously instead of taking seats around the large full moon–shaped table in the center of the room, as they'd normally do.

When Lady Stella finally entered through the hidden door in the back of her office, which led to the Star Darlings' secret Star Caves, her face wore uncharacteristic lines. She paused to consider every Star Darling, gazing deeply into each pair of eyes.

“What's up?” Gemma blurted.

“Gemma!”
Her sister, Tessa, elbowed her in the ribs.

“I'm afraid,” Lady Stella began, “that something quite troublesome is up. There are problems with this latest mission.”

“What kind of problems?” Sage asked with a flash. “The same kind of problems we've had before?”

“I'm afraid not,” said Lady Stella. “These are far graver….Ophelia's Wish Orb has gone black.”

A unified gasp whooshed through the room, as if every air molecule was sucked out. From the shadows, Scarlet watched the stunned Star Darlings grab and squeeze one another's hands. A black Wish Orb meant not only a failing mission but the potential loss of a Starling, as well.

“So…what do we
do
?” said Leona. “Someone has to
help
her!”

“Yes, someone does,” Lady Stella agreed.

“I'll go!” said Leona. “I'm ready right now. I can do it this time! Send me!” She moved toward Lady Stella, but the headmistress motioned her back.

“Star salutations, Leona, for your generous offer, but—”

“But what? I can't go because I failed my mission? But I thought you said that wasn't my fault!”

“No, it's not that, Leona,” Lady Stella assured her. Calmly she waved away the sparks that were sputtering out of Leona's ears. “I'm afraid only a Wish Orb can pick who goes, as on every other mission when help is required. This situation, of course, is far more dire. But the same procedure is required.” Then Lady Stella reached into the folds of the long silver robe she wore. In her hand sat Ophelia's Wish Orb. Each time before, when Lady Stella had gathered them to see who the Wish Orb would choose to help grant the wish, the orb had lost some of its glow. But this orb smoldered dully like a lump of crater coal. It was the ugliest thing Scarlet, or any other Starling, had ever seen in her life.

Lady Stella spread her fingers and let the orb rise and hover between her and the Star Darlings. After a moogle, it began to move…slowly drifting past each glittery, worried face in search of the one it would choose.

“Where is it going?” asked Vega as it floated up to her last, then swerved. “It's not choosing any of us? It's flying away. It's trying to get out of the room.”

“No…it's not,” said Cassie, pointing. “Look. It's heading into the corner over there, toward that kaleidoscope tree.”

Sure enough, it was. Scarlet watched it approach, just as confused as everyone else. As it reached the tree and stopped, however, she understood at once.

“It chose me!”

Scarlet stepped out from behind the tree, beaming. It was the first smile she'd worn in stardays. She'd almost forgotten how smiling felt. In her palm rested the Wish Orb, which had firmly settled there as soon as she had held her hand out.

“What the stars?”
exclaimed Gemma.

Tessa was too shocked to respond to her sister with her usual reproach.

“That's impossible!” said Leona. “She's not a Star Darling anymore!”

“And yet…” Lady Stella glided toward Scarlet, wearing an expression of not unhappy starprise. “Scarlet, I do not know how you got here, but Ophelia's Wish Orb has indeed chosen you. And it is you who must go help Ophelia—and hopefully make the wish come true.”

By the time
Scarlet's shooting star delivered her to Wishworld, she had fully transformed from a Starling into as convincing a Wishling as a Starling could be. Her skin was flat and freckled, without a hint of sparkle or a tinge of pink. Her eyes were brown instead of rose-colored. She had even toned down her hair so it was black with a single streak of bright pink.

Scarlet was pretty sure, too, that the outfit she'd ultimately chosen would convince any Wishling she might encounter that she'd lived there all her life. First she'd picked those pants Wishlings adored—according to Professor Margaret Dumarre, who knew the ways of Wishlings inside and out. Dungarees, she called them, though most Starlings who'd been to Wishworld seemed to refer to them as jeans. Scarlet also wore a deep burgundy hoodie made of a dense, rather stiff Wishling fabric, with a puffy black vest over that. Finally, on her feet were brand-new boots from Lady Stella, which would be her Wish Pendant from then on. One day, on her own mission, the rows of star-shaped energy-absorbing jewel buckles would light up when she met her Wisher and absorb all the wish energy produced when that Wisher's wish came true. For now, however, Scarlet was careful to pull her jeans down to cover as many of the jewels as she could.

Scarlet stood where she'd landed, in a Wishworld meadow filled with green grass and yellow flowers, canopied by a bright blue sky. In the distance, she could see a sharp steeple and the starkly angled rooftops of what looked like a small town.

So strange
…she thought as she looked around.
And so…uncomfortable, as well.

She sensed it first on her back…then on the top of her head, under her hood: a deep, inescapable feeling unlike any other she'd ever had. It didn't take away from the excitement of being on Wishworld at last…it just distracted her a bit.

Scarlet pulled down her hood and that helped a little, especially when a light breeze swept through her hair. But the uncomfortable feeling soon returned, stronger than before. Scarlet slipped off her vest and began to fan herself. That made a big difference, she discovered with relief.

Curious, she checked her Star-Zap to see what the temperature was.
Solar flare!
she thought as she realized how much warmer it was there than on Starland. Quickly, she reactivated her Wishworld Outfit Selector and dialed up a tank top.

Ah, much better
, she thought.

She wasn't there to worry about her comfort, though, Scarlet reminded herself. She was there to do a job—and, even more important, to prove what she could do! She needed to fix whatever mess Ophelia had made and get a wish granted and wish energy collected as soon as Starlingly possible. Ophelia had already squandered half the time the Wish Orb gave her, so there wasn't a moogle left to waste.

Quickly, she folded up her star and slipped it into her pocket. Then she switched her Star-Zap to locator mode.

“Take me to Ophelia!” she told it, and directions appeared instantly.

To Scarlet's starprise, the directions led her away from the town and into a vast field. It appeared to be full of some kind of crop, from what Scarlet had learned of Wishling ways of growing food. The plants stood in straight rows and were tall—much taller than she—with long, pointy, floppy green leaves. Near each stalk bloomed tight tubelike flowers nearly the size of Scarlet's arm, each with dark silky threads spilling from its top.

They gave off a distinct sweetish scent, too, which made Scarlet's nose begin to twitch….

She stepped forward and bumped right into something.
“Starf!”
she said, stepping back. She stepped forward again. Same thing. As she reached out into the air in front of her, Scarlet's hand encountered a smooth surface. Aha! A smile spread across her face. It was the smooth surface of an invisible tent!

“Ophelia?”

Scarlet knelt down and cautiously parted the flaps of the glitter-covered tent—Ophelia's glitter-covered invisibility-cloaked tent, to be exact. As she did, a glittery, wide-eyed, freckled face peered out with a tiny panicked squeal.

“
Eeh!
Oh!
Oh,
thank
stars
you're here!” Ophelia gasped, bursting out of the tent and into Scarlet's arms.

Scarlet fell backward onto the star-studded back pockets of her jeans.

“Star apologies!” said Ophelia, clambering off her. “It's just so good to see a friendly—oh…um…to see a familiar face, at least.”

Indeed, Scarlet's face was far from friendly then. She could feel the irritation hot beneath her sneer. “What in the stars are you doing in your tent, Ophelia? And please tell me you've changed your appearance and you don't still look like
that
to everyone here….” Scarlet knew Starlings always looked glittery to each other, no matter where they were or what form they assumed. Something, though, about the way Ophelia was flashing and hiding made Scarlet think she just might look glittery to Wishlings, too.

Ophelia looked down at her shimmering skin and wrung her hands, which only amplified their glow. “Those answers go together, I guess.” She looked up miserably and gulped.

“You were supposed to change your appearance and find your Wisher!” Scarlet said, disgusted. “Did you try to do
either
of those things?”

Ophelia nodded meekly. “I tried. But I don't know…nothing seemed to work….” She pulled out her Star-Zap and showed it to Scarlet. “This was supposed to help me change my appearance, right?”

Scarlet nodded.

“Well, nothing happened….”

“What do you mean ‘nothing'? It's so easy….No Wishworld Outfit Selector, either?”

Ophelia shook her head. “And when I asked it to take me to my Wisher…”

“What? What did it say?”

“It said, ‘Reply hazy. Ask again.'”

“So did you?”

“Only a hydrong times,” Ophelia groaned. “Finally, I just tried to go and find her in that little town on my own.”

“Like
that
?” Scarlet asked, looking Ophelia up and down.

“Well…what else could I do?” she said meekly. “But I didn't try for very long. Everyone was staring and asking me questions like ‘Is there a circus in town?' and ‘Are you a clown?' What's a circus and what's a clown, anyway?”

“Um, they're like royalty,” Scarlet guessed, since she didn't know.

“Oh.” Ophelia nodded. “So, anyway, I gave up because of that. And because of this thing, too.” She held her hand out toward Scarlet. On her wrist was a thick yellow bracelet studded with star-shaped jewels.

“Is that your Wish Pendant?”

Ophelia nodded. “Pretty, isn't it?” She sighed.

“Did it ever glow?”

Ophelia shook her head. “Not even a little,” she replied. “I thought it was because I couldn't find my Wisher, but now I'm not so sure that it's not broken, too….But anyway, that's why I'm here.” She gazed at the field around her tent. “I didn't know where else to go, and at least my Star-Zap could do this. I really wanted to make this mission succeed. Truly, Scarlet, I did.” She sniffed. “I didn't mean to fail.” Her glittery orange eyelashes fluttered as glittery orange tears welled in her eyes. “I'm just so happy to see you, Scarlet! Truly, I am! How in the stars did you know to come?” She paused as another question suddenly popped into her head. “But why…how is it
you
, Scarlet? I thought…” She stopped and bit her thumb.

“It's okay. Go ahead and say it,” said Scarlet. “You thought I'd been kicked out of the group for good? You're right. I was. But I never should have been. It was all a big mistake.”

“So you're back in?” exclaimed Ophelia. She wiped her tears and began to grin. “That's starmendous! I'm so happy for you! And so relieved…” She sighed. “So. Shall I wait here while you go find the Wisher and grant her wish so we can go home?”

“I wish,” Scarlet muttered.

Ophelia looked confused.

“It's still your wish,” Scarlet told her. She shrugged as Ophelia's smile of relief collapsed. “Hey, don't blame me. I don't make the rules. According to Lady Stella, I'm here to help. That's all.”

Ophelia gestured toward her Starling garments, then to her fluorescent-orange pigtails.

“Here.” Scarlet dialed up
APPEARANCE TRANSFORMATION
on her Star-Zap and placed it in Ophelia's hand. “Try mine and see what happens.”

Ophelia clutched it tightly, holding her breath.

“Recite the mantra!” Scarlet reminded her. “And put one hand on your bracelet!”

“Oh, right…Star light, star bright, first star I…”

“See tonight.”

“See tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I…”