Lily Pondwhisper's Arc

Chapter 2 of 12

The elders gathered under the great mushroom tree at dusk. Its layered caps glowed faint above them, and smaller mushrooms sprouted from its twisting roots. Lily came with the cracked locket in her hands and her winged cat at her heels. She had asked them before. Each time they went quiet and looked away. Tonight she would not leave without an answer. "I found this in the old library," Lily said. She held the locket up so the glow caught the butterfly on its face. "It says the one who cast the curse lies where the water goes dark. One of you knows what that means." The eldest fairy stiffened. She sat on a root, her wings thin as old paper. "Put that away, child," she said. "Some doors stay shut for a reason." "My grandmother was tall," Lily said. "Now she rides a frog. You all do. And none of you will say why." Her voice cracked. "I'm not asking to blame anyone. I'm asking so I can undo it." No one spoke. Her cat crept forward and set a paw on the eldest fairy's foot. The tiny butterfly ears twitched. The old fairy looked down at the small dark creature, and something in her face loosened. Lily tried a different way. She opened the locket wide and turned it toward the eldest. "This is fairy work. Fairy-sized. Someone tiny hid it after the shrinking. Someone who wanted the truth found." She pointed at the scratched letters. "Do you know this hand?" The eldest fairy leaned close. Her breath caught. "That is my sister's writing," she whispered. "She vanished the night we shrank. We never found her." Her hands trembled on the metal. The other elders murmured and drew back. But the eldest did not stop. "If she left this, she meant for you to go," she said. "So I will tell you what we swore never to speak." She pressed a thin finger to the locket's words. "The water goes dark at the black lake beyond the hollow. No fairy goes there. The one who cast the curse walked into that water and never came out. My sister followed to find her. Neither returned." Lily's chest tightened. "Then that's where I go." "You are the first to believe an old fairy," the eldest said. She closed Lily's fingers around the locket. "Trust that as you go. But hear me. Whatever lies under that dark water was strong enough to shrink us all. It may still be there." The other elders would not look at Lily now. She had won the truth, and it had cost the group its silence. She had also gained a warning she could not unhear. She tucked the locket to her chest and turned toward the dark edge of the hollow. Her cat spread its wings and followed. The black lake waited, and now she knew its name.