| Immacolata opened her eyes. She was used to waking early,
and it was late. She instantly remembered why she felt so unhappy. Chrissy hadn't
come home last night.
Wandering through to the kitchen, she found
a second note on the table, under the one that had been left with the hot chocolate.
It was considerably longer.
Dear Black Waterlily, Elenna Lanta and Immacolata
Magdalene.
There is something I should have told you a
long, long time ago. It was stupid of me to keep it a secret from you. I thought
I was keeping you safe, but in reality I was only making it more dangerous for
you…
"Oh, very funny," sneered Immacolata, crumpling
it into a ball. She moved to the door, opened it and flung the crumpled paper
as hard as she could.
"Learn how to forge Chrissy's handwriting properly
before you try that again!" she shouted, slamming the door closed. Waterlily
walked in from the sitting room, holding a piece of paper. "Can you make any
sense of this?"
Immacolata read it carefully. "Clever, I'll
admit. At least they typewrote this one, instead of handwriting it, but it's
not Chrissy."
"How can you tell?" Elenna walked in, looking
sleepy. She poured a bowl of Kau Kau Farm Milk for Neca, leaning over the paper.
"They put it through a spell checker."
"Oh."
"And it doesn't sound like Chrissy. She always
writes the word perfect as purrfect, the way she says it. This isn't right at
all."
Waterlily shrugged, crumpling it and throwing
the letter into the snow, with a yell of "And learn how to sound like Chrissy
before you try that again either!"
"Now," she added with a more normal voice. "Where
is Chriss… Argh!"
The 'Argh' was because Elenna had just poured
half a bottle of freezing cold milk over her head. This wasn't intentional;
it was because she had just spotted something in the bottom.
"Look! Look! It's… What is it?"
Immacolata had the smallest fingers, so she
fished out the article. It was a small piece of paper, folded inside a clear
plastic cube. After some poking, they got the cube open and were able to read
it.
"That's paper from my diary," Waterlily said
in a rather small voice.
"And my sparkly pen," added Elenna. Immacolata
read it carefully.
"And Chrissy's handwriting. It's ciphered, of
course."
"Can you… un-cipher it?"
"Yes. Give me a moment."
After a few seconds of chewing their hooves,
Immacolata had it solved.
"It says:
Dear Waterlily, Elenna and Immacolata,
If you're getting this, I hope one of you
didn't swallow it. This is pretty important, but I'm sure Immacolata can solve
the cipher. You are all perfectly safe, as long as you stay in the house and
don't let anyone in. I should have told you a lot of things a long time ago,
but I didn't. I'll explain once I get home, Okay? It's too risky in case this
message is intercepted, and knowing certain people, it'll be very surprising
if it isn't. You don't have to eat the note or anything stupid, but throw it
in the fire, will you?
I love you all. I'll be back for Christmas,
cross my heart and hope to be thrown of the edge of Faerieland.
X0X0X0X ~ Chrissy"
"Oh."
There was a stunned silence.
"What do you think it is she hasn't been telling
us?"
"I can explain that."
They all whirled around to face the white Eyrie
who was standing in the door to the sitting room. Waterlily noticed he had a
slight coffee stain on his head feathers.
"Now, if you'd all like to follow me…"
"How'd you get in?"
"That's not important."
"I would still like to know," Immacolata replied.
"That's a fourteen digit security code to enter."
"I know someone. She has all the codes. Now,
come in and sit down…"
"Ain't gonna happen, White."
They whirled around a second time to face a
black Lupe who had come in from the hall.
"Nice security system, if I hadn't had Solar
to help me, I wouldn't have got in at all. And what a tragedy that would have
been, especially since he got here first…"
"Okay, who in the Faerie Queen's name are you
two?" Waterlily shouted. They both smiled and answered simultaneously.
"We're friends of Chrissy's."
Then they both glared at each other.
"Listen to me," barked the Lupe. "I'm here to
help you, to help Darigan, Chrissy is making a big mistake…"
"No! Listen to me, they're using Chrissy to
try and ruin Meridell's chances…"
"Wait, Chrissy is working for you!"
"No, she's working for you, she never contacted
us…
"… But she set off anyway…"
"… And now she's going to complete the mission…"
"Freelance," they both groaned. Waterlily raised
one eyebrow at Elenna, who returned the gesture. "Anyway." The Lupe was the
first to recover "You three have got to help us help Darigan."
"No! Don't listen to him, you've got to help
Us help Merridell!"
"He's lying…"
At which point, acting on some hidden initiative,
Waterlily charged the Lupe, knocking him to the floor and sitting on his back
so he couldn't get up. At the same moment, Elenna slammed the Eyrie to the floor
and put one hoof on the back of his neck.
"Now, if you'll both listen to me…" Immacolata
started, flexing her fingers. She opened up her laptop, talking to the four
pets while it loaded.
"I think I have some idea of what is going on
here…."
To be continued...
| 
