We join hands and close our eyes. It has been so long since we've entered the realms. I'm afraid I shan't be able to make the door of light appear. But soon, I feel the familiar tingle on my skin, the warmth of the light. I open one eye, then the other. There it is, shimmering before us: the glorious portal into the other world.
Felicity and Ann wear their awe on their faces.
"I don't know what we'll find there," I say before we start.
"There is only one way to find out," Felicity answers.
I open the door and we step through into the realms.
The trees rain flowers that tickle our noses. The grass is still the green of eternal summer. To our right lies the gurgling river. I can hear the faint song that floats up from its depths and forms silver rings on the surface. And the sky! Like the most gorgeous sunset on the happiest of days. My heart feels as if it shall burst. Oh, I have missed this place! How could I ever have thought of leaving it?
"Oh!" Felicity cries. Laughing, she twirls round and round, her palms out and open to the orange sky."It's so beautiful!"
Ann steps to the river. She stoops and gazes at her reflection, smiling. "I'm so beautiful here." And indeed she is. She is Ann as Ann would look with no cares, no fear or meekness, no need to fill her emptiness with cakes and scones.
Felicity runs her fingers over a willow tree that shifts, like water rippling, and becomes a fountain. "That's extraordinary. We can do anything here. Anything!"
"Watch!" Ann calls. She cups a blade of grass in her palms, closes her eyes. When she opens her hands, a ruby pendant lies glittering there."Help me put it on!" Felicity locks the clasp. The thing shines against Ann's skin like a rajah's treasure.
"Mother?" I call, wondering if she will walk out to greet me. There is nothing but the river's song and my friends' delighted laughter as they turn flowers to butterflies, rocks to jewels. I suppose I knew she was gone for good, but I could not help hoping.
Beyond the trees lies the silver arch leading into the heart of the garden. It was there that I fought with Circe's assassin, one of the dark spirits from the Winterlands. It was there that I smashed the Runes of the Oracle, freeing my mother but also setting loose the magic. Yes, the magic is loose. That is why we've come. And yet, everything seems as it was. Nothing seems amiss.
"Follow me," I say. We pass beneath the shiny arch and find ourselves in a familiar circle. Where the crystal runes once rose tall and powerful there are now only charred patches of earth and an odd assortment of tiny toadstools.
"Gracious," Ann says."Did you really do that, Gemma?"
"Yes."
"But how?" Felicity asks."How were you able to break something that stood for centuries?"
"I don't know," I say. "Ugh," Ann says. She's stepped on one of the toadstools. It splits open, black and wet.
"Mind your step," Felicity warns.
"Where do we look for this temple?" Ann asks.
I sigh. "I've no idea. Kartik said there's no map. I only know that it is somewhere inside the realms."
"We don't know how large this place is," Ann says. "Or how many realms there could be."
"You've nothing to go on?" Felicity asks. "No. We know it can't be here in the garden or else we'd have seen it already. I suppose we should pick a direction and . . . What is it?"
Felicity's face has gone white. Ann's too. Whatever it is, it's behind me. Every muscle taut, I turn slowly to face my doom.
She steps out from behind a grove of olive trees, a garland of flowers wound into her dark hair. The same violet eyes. The same pale skin and dazzling beauty.
"Hello," Pippa says."I was hoping you'd come back."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FELICITY RUNS TO HER.
"Wait!" I yell, but there's no holding her back. She runs to Pippa and embraces her tightly. Pippa kisses Felicity's cheeks.
"It's you!" Felicity says. She's laughing and crying at the same time."Pip, Pip, darling Pip, you're here!"
"Yes! I'm here. Ann! Gemma! Oh, please don't stand staring so."
"Pippa!" Ann cries, running to her. I can scarcely believe it. Pip, our Pip, is here, as lovely as ever. Something in me gives way. I fall to the grass, sobbing, my tears bringing up small lotus blossoms where they fall.
"Oh, Gemma, darling, don't cry," Pippa says. Swift as a deer, she's by my side. The cold hands I've seen in my dreams are brushing through my hair, and they are as warm as summer rain."Don't cry."