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“If we’re going to talk about Grown-Up things like ht to a at all,” he said His long black topknot slipped over his shoulder “Do you kno to play brownie backgaer than we planned, and you never play a game so hard as when you’re in jail We should know, Ell and I” He knocked his head cheerfully against the red beast’s great flank Ell and Blunderbuss were sniffing at one another curiously, being nearly the sa feet in the wordless greetings of very gigantic creatures

“I do,” Hawthorn said, and once he had said it, he was sure of it He did know He had played it! He re him how to move the pieces He remembered how she smelled—like limestone and snow It wasn’t much But he seized hold of the memory for dear life The Spinster opened the red box into a board and set out the pieces along the points

“The trouble with Yetis is how abolass die and pushing one of her copper pips across the board, where it promptly turned into a djinn’s lamp “They cana paw I suppose you could say I was queened before racefully A lock of white hair tumbled down her cheek and for a irl with a wonderful, rich, gossipy tale to tell out of class “My nairl This is Saturday, who is a Marid, and A-Through-L, who is a Wyverary—that uine, and this beautiful Dodo is Aubergine”

Hawthorn rolled two dice in his turn—it wasn’t a good roll, but not e He slid one of his bone pips toward September It shimmied, flipped over, turned into a tiny brontosaurus, and stood on its head

“I’uess that’s not really a species name”

“I’m Blunderbuss!” roared the combat wombat who had not quite yet learned to keep her new voice down

“You begin with B!” crowed A-Through-L, who decided at that ht in his book

“I do! With gusto!”

September smiled at her friends She rolled her dice and before he could hiccup, Hawthorn was a raccoon He rubbed his nose and thuet out of raccoon? He couldn’t remember

September sipped her rum “I am a professional troublemaker Actually, my official title is Professional Revolutionary, Criminal, and Royal Scofflaw, but that’s rather a lot to hold in the mouth all at once I don’t o face-first intoA year or two ago I was Up to No Good (as the Fairies would have it) on the Moon The Moon was having a baby, you see, only nobody knew that, they just knew there was a Yeti prowling around and terrificlead to another and we ended up spending a bit toothe new Moon” Hawthorn rolled high this time He pushed his pip with his tiny bandit hands The pip spun on its side, faster and faster until it looked like a moon itself The tiny brontosaurus jumped up and squashed the djinn’s lamp underfoot It burst—and Hawthorn the raccoon went up in a bristle of fur, leaving him all troll once more Tamburlaine clapped her hands But Septe down at her weathered hands Her voice was very quiet “Far, far too much time, really I didn’t think about it then There was only the Moon and the other Moon and a big black dog and a monster and blood and soda pop everywhere and I tripped and fell—that’s all I did, tripped and fell, and I brought the Fairies back One of them had s off of She kept o home, back to O up to do I think she really meant to kill me—but then she saw The Yeti ran off and she sahat had happened to me”

“Darling,” Saturday said softly, and put his hand against her face “It’s not so bad It’s not” Septeht next to the Yeti while he h to live on its own And ti for me, too, and all of the sudden I was forty and not fifteen The Fairy laughed—it is a good joke by their standards—and dropped ain Ever so much funnier” She covered her face in her hands for a moment “But I don’t feel any different! I’m still September, I’ve still only barely learned to drive It’s only that one day I was so it back!”

Oh, Septeirl I shall tell you an awful, wonderful, unhappy, joyful secret: It is like that for everyone One day you wake up and you are grown And on the inside, you are no older than the last tiht this second?

September sniffed, wiped her nose on her sleeve, and tossed her dice She pushed three pieces forward all at once They flapped copper wings and becary condors “But the Fairies knew about ured it was safer to lock me up with a Redcap in full ar into trouble I’ve faced doo monarchs—they don’t like their chances with me around”

A-Through-L leaned his great scarlet head down to their level His eyes danced orange and winsome before them—but worried, too “That’s why they have their little parties,” he confessedchildren See, there’s a Law And though Laws begin with L, they’re not really anyone’s friends It’s not a Law like Don’t Steal, but a Law like for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction The Law says Every Story Begins with So rather than a So and Someones and Septembers and Hawth

orns and Tamburlaines and Blunderbusses and Scratches and Ells and Saturdays and Glea up in new places, everything would go along as it’s always done But the Changelings have to keep co; that’s a Law too” Saturday nodded Scratch had settled in at the Marid’s side It liked hiramophone, Saturday looked like music, if music were blue “The mass of Fairyland must remain the sao there Changelings keep Fairyland level But they bring sostories Fairies only like the stories they get to tell So they…bleed all the Changing out of thes until there’s notFairyland It’s dreadful They love it”