The Realms of Faerie. Linda Massola

along with the cakes would also be invisible.

      ‘Now Tristan, act quickly! An army of Ciduries with Janus at the lead will accompany you to the outskirts of the caves. The Ciduries will carry supplies of fairy cakes. You will stay in the forest with the Ciduries and feed the cakes to the Hatchlings twice a day for two weeks!’ Lottie instructed him.

      Andrew had volunteered to help transport the cakes, figuring that Tristan might need some moral support. As the boys made their way to the forest of Gloomia, Tatiana was going over the plan with the fairy children.

      ‘In order to reverse Drabon’s very powerful magic over Mab and Oberon, we need to work on changing his mind!’ she told them.

      ‘Changing his mind? Are you mad?’ Lottie cried. ‘Drabon is evil and so is Putrida. They have no feelings! You will be unable to appeal to either of them. They will laugh in your face!’‘Wait Lottie,’ interrupted Tatiana. ‘We have to do it in a way that they will suspect nothing!’

      ‘How?’ Tatiana looked at Ella. Ella caught her look and instantly understood. ‘I know,’ she said, opening her eyes wide. ‘I need to morph again!’ Tatiana nodded.

      ‘I need to get into the caves without anyone seeing me!’ Ella explained.

      ‘Maybe as a flea or something,’ suggested Dominique.

      ‘Yes, yes. Then I can play Drabon and Putrida off against each other like I did to Drabon and Ratbonia in the fortress of Gloomia!’

      ‘Of course!’ Everyone began to understand now.

      ‘We will give Tristan a week to work on the Hatchlings,’ Tatiana said. ‘Then, when Drabon and Putrida realise that something is not quite right with them, we can go in and confuse them!’ She told Ella.

      ‘I’m coming with you,’ Dominique said. ‘I want to be near Ella!’

      ‘Me too!’

      ‘And me!’ The others started protesting.

      ‘You may all be of use to us in the forest,’ agreed Tatiana.

      The week that was spent waiting seemed an age to the children, but for Tristan, it flew by quickly. He had no problem becoming invisible and entering the caves of Gloomia. Once inside, he soon found the Hatchling nursery. He shuddered when he looked upon these little bat-like creatures that had so much potential for violence. One by one, he popped the cakes into the open beaks which seemed to want more and more each time he returned. Towards the end of the week, their hunger began to be satisfied. He noticed that they no longer set up a screeching noise demanding more cakes. Now they sat quietly contented. He even found himself patting one of them!

      ‘There’s something wrong with the Hatchlings!’ Putrida screamed at Drabon.

      ‘What now?’ he sighed.

      ‘They won’t eat,’ she told him nervously.

      ‘So they’re not hungry! So what? Are they sick?’

      ‘I don’t think so …’

      ‘Well then?’

      ‘They … they’re too quiet!’

      Drabon sighed again. ‘Get Losing-it and Lost-it to assemble them outside the caves. They are almost full-grown now. Perhaps we can send them out on a raid before we produce the next set of Hatchlings!’ When he observed the group of Hatchlings assembled outside the caves, he turned on Losing-it and Lost-it in anger. The Hatchlings were sitting quietly, some holding hands, some positively beaming.

      ‘What have you done to them?’ he screamed. ‘They should be screeching and biting and hissing! What have you done?’

      Losing-it and Lost-it shrugged their shoulders. ‘We … we didn’t do anything Master. We just fed them the food as you asked us to!’

      All of a sudden, the Hatchings began to hum a soft tune.

      ‘They hum? They hum music?’ Putrida asked in shock. ‘Something is wrong, Drabon. Something is dreadfully wrong!’

      ‘Take them away,’ Drabon roared to Losing-it and Lost-it. The Hatchlings stopped their humming. ‘We are hungry!’ they began bleating. ‘When do we eat?’

      Losing-it and Lost-it looked at each other nervously. ‘Er, that’s another thing, Master; they won’t eat the food we give them. They say they don’t eat blood!’

      ‘What?’ Drabon and Putrida looked at each other in disbelief. ‘They must be enchanted!’ cried Putrida suddenly. ‘But how?’

      ‘No, no. It can’t be,’ Drabon told her. ‘Remember we have Oberon and Mab. Statues can’t work magic! Scowla is in the River of Forgetfulness and the Kingdom of Fairy doesn’t have anyone who can work strong magic now!’

      ‘What about the fairy children?’

      ‘The fairy children can’t make spells yet; they are too young!’ Drabon said scornfully.

      As they continued to argue, the Hatchlings began to bleat with hunger.

      ‘Let them starve to death!’ Drabon roared at Losing-it and Lost-it.

      Chapter 7

      ‘We have to keep feeding the Hatchlings,’ Tatiana told Janus. ‘They won’t accept any blood now and Drabon has ordered Losing-it and Lost-it to let them starve to death! Tristan will have to continue to feed them once a day until we can get them back to the Kingdom of Fairy.’

      Each day, Tatiana was becoming more and more like the Tatiana of old. The fairies had all arrived in the forest of Gloomia, along with the children.

      ‘Now would be a good time for Ella to step in,’ Andrew told them. ‘Drabon and Putrida are very confused about the Hatchlings and can’t understand what has happened to them.’

      Ella wasted no time and as the others looked, she morphed into a tiny flea. Putrida was seated outside the caves looking down at the burnt Village of Toadstools. The gnomes had been working day and night trying to rebuild their homes. Ella, now a flea, resisted the temptation to give Putrida a bite. She might just as easily swot me, then it would be all over, she thought to herself. She left Putrida sitting idly picking her nose. Then she morphed into Putrida’s shape just before she entered the cave where Drabon was snoring, hanging upside down off a wall.

      ‘Wake up!’ she roared in Putrida’s voice. Drabon fell to the floor as the loud voice woke him with a start.

      ‘What do you want?’ he asked in annoyance.

      ‘Is this the way you solve the problems of the Hatchlings? I thought you would have figured it out by now!’

      ‘Figured it out? No … not really,’ he said slowly narrowing his eyes.

      ‘It’s the statues, I’m sure of it!’ Putrida told him.

      ‘The statues? What do you mean?’

      ‘I mean that obviously Mab and Oberon are exerting their power through the statues. Why else would the Hatchlings be affected? There is no one left in the Kingdom of Fairy who has that kind of power!’

      ‘You mean that Mab is still able to work magic even though she has been turned into a crystal?’ he said in disbelief. Putrida nodded. ‘That’s exactly what I mean!’

      ‘Mm … maybe,’ Drabon agreed. ‘But what do we do now?’

      ‘We get the statues out of the caves – that’s what we do!’

      ‘Out of the caves? How?’ Those statues are solid and weigh many tons!’

      ‘Use magic to remove them to the forest of Gloomia,’ she said quickly.

      Drabon’s eyes lit up suddenly. What made him think that Putrida wasn’t every bit as clever as Scowla had been? He rushed from the room and headed to the cave containing the statues