Go where?” I asked, standing as well. Patch slipped off my leg and crashed onto the floor with a thud. The dachshund made an offended grunt then strutted away. Whoops.
“Out of this room for starters,” Bess muttered, shuddering as she looked toward the dirty clothes draped on the hamper. “The city council must confer the mantle now.”
“But my parents–”
“Leave them a note. Tell them you’re off making poor choices or growing pimples or whatever.”
She stepped toward the window, placing the top hat on her head.
“You forgot your um, thing,” I said, pointing at the lacey item on the bed.
“You may burn it. Take hold of the cane,” she said, waving it in front of me.
I grabbed it—more to get it out of my face than anything. Bess twisted the handle.
Everything immediately changed and suddenly I was across the cul-de-sac from my house.
What the–
Before I caught my breath, she twisted the handle again and we were on top of a house at the end of the street. My grip on the cane tightened as I felt my feet slipping down the slope of the roof, my shoes grinding on the shingles.
Just as I was sure I was going to slip and fracture my everything, I heard her twist it again and we were on top of the high school. Whoa.
“That’s better,” Bess muttered, glancing around. Below, I saw that people were still finishing the 5K.
“What–” but once again everything changed. Now we were on top of the movie theater, half a mile from my house. I wasn’t sure whether to geek out or wet myself.
Everything changed a fifth time. We were now standing on the roof of a store.
“Oh my gosh,” I gasped as she tugged the cane out of my hands. “What the freaking heck just happened?”
Bess smirked. Yep, smirked. Here I am, about to have a panic attack and she thinks it’s funny.
“OK, Teddy, where are you?” she asked crossly.
“I’ve gotta get one of those canes,” I said, panting.
“This is the only one of its kind,” she said. “Teddy, now is not the time for these games. Time is short!”
She wandered around, waving her cane in front of her until I heard a loud metallic clunk and an old, purple, VW microbus appeared out of nowhere.
“Whoa,” I mumbled.
“What’s your address?”
“1701 East Saucer Circle,” I said, confused. Didn’t she already know how to find it?
She again tapped the front of the van with her cane then leaned in and muttered something. The van gave a funky honk and Bess nodded curtly. Then she opened the back door to the van and beckoned me to follow her inside.
I stepped up into the van and my jaw dropped.
Instead of the inside of a van, I found myself in a full-sized sitting room. Bookcases stuffed full of books lined the walls. A three-tier chandelier hung from the ceiling. Fancy sofas sat around an ornate wooden coffee table. A grand piano rested on one of the intricate rugs spread across the wooden floor. Curtained windows filled the room with cheery light.
“Wait, do you actually live inside your van?” I asked.
“Don’t be ridiculous. The van is merely a portal to my home.”
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” I said.
“You must live a dull life,” Bess said. “Let’s get moving.” She turned and opened another door.
I followed Bess through the doorway, only to find myself outdoors once again, standing on a cobblestone road. I stopped and took a deep breath, taking in a sweet lilac-like aroma. I blinked a few times, my eyes unsure what to look at first.
Flowers were everywhere. Blossoms of every shape and size sprung up on either side of the cobblestone road, interrupted only by the stairs and doorways of shops and townhomes. Floral vines were strung above us, dipping across the street with what looked like colorful lanterns hanging from them. Vines twisted up pillars and lined windows, doorframes, signs, and streetlamps. I even saw a bouquet of flowers on top of what looked like a garbage can.
“Is– is this–?” I stuttered, trying to take it all in.
“Welcome to Flamingo Springs, Santiago,” Bess said.
“We’re on the flying island?”
“Yes, we’re on the flyland.”
“Whoa,” I said. “So everything is underneath us?”
Bess grunted, which I took as a yes.
A flash of color out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned to look but couldn’t immediately identify what I’d seen. I almost shrugged it off but then it moved again and my eyes focused on a tiny body with large transparent wings hovering in midair. The portly little person tending flowers was about as tall as my phone was long.
“Fairy?” I asked Bess.
Another grunt.
“Awesome!” I said. Now that I had seen one, I realized that fairies were almost everywhere, zipping this way and that.
I heard an abrupt outburst of laughter and somebody brushed by me, knocking me back against the door. I turned in time to see a brown-haired girl run past.
“Slow down, Henrietta!” Bess barked.
“Sorry, Seer!” the girl called back brightly before disappearing into an alley.
Bess grumbled and started walking but I kept staring in the direction the girl had gone. I saw what looked like a large, shimmering purple wall, several miles away. It was slightly transparent and I could make out a faint outline of mountains on the other side. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing.
“Don’t worry about it,” Bess said, indicating that I should start walking the opposite direction.
I felt my shoulders slump. Perhaps Bess noticed my disappointment because she said, “Your head will explode if I explain every little thing.”
I had the feeling that whatever that purple wall was, it was anything but a “little thing.”
I had to stop myself from peering into shops such as Grabowski’s Brews, Kane and Rosalind’s Beauty Salon, and Nash’s Magical Items and Oddities, and The Flabby Fairy. I felt like a toddler in a grocery cart who just wanted to see, smell, and touch everything.
As we walked, a white, winged cat broke through the window of a store called Patty’s Pets.
No wait, it was a red, winged cat.
Or purple–
The cat-bird kept changing colors. A woman with more makeup than face burst out of the store, a long-handled net in her hand.
“You get back here, Colonel Benedict you nasty thing!”
She scampered after it, fluffy yellow slippers flipping in the air behind her as she swung the net menacingly. Given the ruthless look on the woman’s face, I half considered propping the store door open to start a full-blown animal jailbreak.
A shadow fell over us and I looked up to see a semi soaring overhead. It was then that I realized that the skies were dotted with flying cars. Sedans, trucks, buses, and vans all hurtled through the air. I also noted a small number of winged horses with riders in the mix. I noted that most of the roofs of these buildings were flat, with vehicles parked on top of them.
There was part of me that kept wanting to tap Bess’s shoulder and say, “Whoa, did you see that?” But she certainly had seen it all before.
The street opened into a large square. A fountain in the center shot water 30 feet into the air in impossible patterns. We passed what looked like a shopping center on the left and a library on the right as we crossed the square toward a brick building with a large white sign reading Flamingo Springs City Hall. The building was a bustle of activity with people hurrying up and down the wide, cement stairs. A pair of flags—one purple and one green—flew above the building.
Bess hobbled across the square and came to a stop about 20 yards away from the city hall.
“Make yourself as presentable as possible. And don’t say anything.”
Bess started muttering and making large gestures with her arm. A pebble shot up from the ground, hurtling toward a third-story window, which it rapped loudly.
“Grab my cane,” Bess told me, raising it.
I didn’t argue. I grabbed the golden cane as the window slid open and a large, middle-aged woman with short-cropped black hair and glasses popped her head out.
“Oh no, Bess, not–” she was cut off for a split second.
And instantly, Bess and I were behind her in front of an elegant oak desk.
“–again!”
The woman slammed the window shut then turned toward us, her face irritated.
Large windows lit the room. The ceiling was high with sparkling chandeliers hanging down. Golden-framed paintings adorned the walls. A cluster of tan couches sat in the middle of the room on plushy, forest-green carpet. A purple flag and a green flag hung on poles behind the desk and wooden shelves lined the walls with books that looked like they were dusted more often than they were read.
“Can’t be helped, Fran. Summon the council. Urgent business.”
“You can’t always use that excuse,” Fran said, taking a seat at the desk.
“I will say it as often as it is true.”
“I’ve half a mind to have that blasted cane confiscated. Who’s the boy and why is he only half dressed?”
I rubbed my shoulders self-consciously. I don’t know what I would’ve worn if Bess had given me time to change, but it wouldn’t have been star-spangled short shorts and a jersey shirt.
“Santiago, meet Francine Featherstone, mayor of Flamingo Springs.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said.
Mayor Featherstone rolled her eyes as she sat down at the desk and picked up what looked like an ostrich feather pen. “I don’t have time for nonsense, Bess. A high inquisitor from the Grand First Colonist’s office will be here any minute.”
“That will have to wait. I need to confer my mantle.”
“I can’t make a high inquisitor. . . wait, your mantle?” Featherstone dropped the pen. “You’re retiring?” Featherstone’s face softened, and I got the impression she was genuinely sad to hear the news.
“You seem surprised,” Bess said. “You know as well as I that the gift can be given or taken at any point.”
“I know, but I expected you would outlast me.”
Bess’s eyebrows shot up. “I became Seer decades before you were born. We all knew this day would come.”
“When did you find out?”
“I followed fate to this one an hour ago,” she said, gesturing to me in all my sweaty glory.
“You’re our new Seer?” Featherstone asked, tugging at the collar of her white turtleneck.
“Yep– yes, it’s me. I’m Santiago,” I said. “Bess just told me about all of this. Can I just say how awesome your flyland is?”
Bess’s grimace deepened.
Mayor Featherstone quickly said, “Klarik, scratch that last and hold off!” As I looked around, wondering where (and who) Klarik was, the mayor glared at Bess. “Are you telling me he didn’t know about our world before this morning?” She picked up her pen and signed the document on her desk.
“My family will freak when they find out,” I said. “They’re never going to believe me.” I folded my arms, then realized that’s what Bess was doing so I put them on my hips, which didn’t feel right either, so I just let them hang there awkwardly doing nothing.
“Surely Bess told you not to tell anyone else,” Featherstone said as she rolled up the document and tied a green ribbon around it.
“I can tell my parents, right?” I asked.
“Absolutely not,” Featherstone said. She rang a bell and I briefly thought that she’d called down fire, only to realize it was a fairy with pale skin and flaming red hair. She landed on the desk and curtsied to Featherstone. “Take this to Dale in accounting,” the mayor said, handing her the roll of paper. “We need these reconciled before the inquisitor arrives.”
“Yes, Mayor,” the fairy said. She bowed again and fluttered off, hefting the large roll of paper under one arm with surprising ease.
As Bess and the mayor continued talking, I happened to look up. When I did, I felt my mouth open.
“Whooooa,” I murmured, unable to help myself.
A couple dozen fairies were flying around the vaulted ceiling. Some of them were sitting on a chandelier, others were looping around it. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them before.
Mayor Featherstone continued. “Listen, Bess, by a strict interpretation of the law, he should not have been introduced to our world. If Colonial Central catches wind of this, and you know they will, you could both be in big trouble. I’m not sure if they’ll agree you had sufficient reason.”
“The mantle might choose its successors inconveniently, but it has never selected its successors incorrectly.”
“In your opinion,” Mayor Featherstone said.
“No harm has been done,” Bess insisted. “And greater harm would result if we had no Seer for Flamingo Springs.”
“And what if he puts it on his MyTubeSpace?”
MyTubeSpace? I couldn’t suppress a smirk. It proved to be really bad timing though, given that the mayor chose that moment to look straight at me. As quickly as I could, I tried to make my face look somber and trustworthy.
“Who would take him seriously?” Bess asked. “There are already thousands of less trustworthy people on flylands around the world who could do that. Just because someone is born here doesn’t mean she or he will not expose us.”
“It makes you look reckless, Bess. If Colonial Central decides to investigate this, I don’t know how much I can do to protect you, especially now that you’re losing your mantle.”
“I accept the consequences of my actions,” Bess said. “And I would do it again.”
The two women stared each other down for a few moments before I coughed. “I don’t want to get Bess in trouble, but I promise I won’t start sharing all this with the world or anything.”
The mayor bent down to my eye level. “Just to be clear—our laws forbid you from telling any Underlander about our world. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said.
If she felt reassured by this, the mayor certainly didn’t show it. She stood up to her full height and looked back to Bess. “By the way, how did you get him processed so quickly?”
“Processed?” I asked, looking at Bess.
“He hasn’t been processed yet?” the mayor asked, alarmed.
“There wasn’t time,” Bess said.
“No time?” the mayor repeated, her voice rising again. “Your mantle gave you a countdown timer did it? Do this now or the flyland falls out of the sky?”
“I sensed urgency. I don’t second-guess these things.”
“I’ve got an inquisitor coming from Colonial Central and there is an unprocessed Underlander in my office. Bess, this is a disaster!”
“Then assemble your council and get this ball rolling like I told you in the first place.”
The mayor was quiet for an unnerving amount of time. “Fine. But there isn’t any need to assemble the council, they’re scheduled to arrive in two minutes,” she said.