Ella Enchanted - By Gail Carson Levine Page 0,24
page was a letter from Father to his bailiff.
Dear James,
The post coach comes rarely to the elves' Forest, but it came today. I am still with the greenies. The trading has been disappointing. They have not so much as showed me an Agulen no matter what I bring out to tempt them. Their chief trader, Slannen, knows little about bargaining. He gave me three vases in exchange for a gnomish copper stewpot, and the same for a simple wooden flute.
Below were three pages of trades and sales. He closed with his intentions.
I am making for Uaaxee's farm. You may remember Uaaxee, the giantess who entrusted her turnip harvest to me last year. On October 15, she will marry off her daughter and I shall be there. I should like to see a giant's wedding. The ritual is said to be peculiar. Moreover, several fairies are likely to be present.
They say hardly a wedding or birth takes place without at least one in attendance. If I can persuade a few to reveal themseves, I may be able to pick up some fairy-made trifles.
I swallowed. My mouth had gone dry. Mandy had never told me that fairies liked to go to weddings and births. But she and Lucinda had both been present when I was born.
Perhaps Lucinda would go to the giants. It was the first time I'd ever known a definite place where she might be -- where I might be too, if I could get there.
She might even be in a generous frame of mind, especially if she had just cast a well-meant, horrible spell. Perhaps she'd be so pleased that she'd release me from mine if I begged her to.
I hadn't promised Father I would stay at finishing school, only that I would go. I could leave whenever I wanted. And by leaving, I'd never have to take another order from Hattie. Areida would still think I was her friend. And if I succeeded with Lucinda, I still could be.
How late was it? How much of the night was left for travel? I stood up, then sat down again. How far was Uaaxee's farm? The wedding was less than two weeks off Could I get there in time?
Frantically, I riffled the pages of my book, hoping to be vouchsafed a map.
There. But it was the same one I'd looked at in the carriage on the way to finishing school -- of Frell, and no use to me now.
No matter. I'd get directions somehow.
In five minutes, my carpetbag was packed with a few essentials: Tonic, my magic book, my dictionary, a shawl, and little else. After a long look at Areida's sleeping form, I left.
I paused before the door to the Daisy Room, then went in. With quiet steps, I approached Hattie's bed. She frowned in her sleep and mumbled. I understood only one word: "royal."
Her wig was askew. Neat-fingered as I had become, I was able to lift it off without waking her. Now, what to do with it? If I threw it into the dying fire, the smell might wake someone. I could drape it over the head of the china cat that adorned the mantelpiece, but if Hattie woke early, she could rescue it before anyone saw.
So I took it with me, a trophy.
13
I SLIPPED through the sleeping house as silently as a needle through lace.
Outside, I waved farewell to the sleeping topiary.
As I walked, the sky lightened. On the edge of Jenn, I gave a baker the first sale of the day, two currant muffins and two loaves of traveler's bread in exchange for Hattie's wig, which he declared the finest he'd ever seen.
He'd never heard of Uaaxee but said there were several giant farms "up north."
"I hear they bake cookies as wide as my waist," he said.
He drew a map for me in flour on his pastry board. The road would fork after I left jenn. The right-hand fork led back to Frell. The left fork was the one I wanted. My first landmark would be the elves' Forest. After the Forest I would come to another fork. The road to the left, which I was not to take, led to the Fens, where the ogres lived. The road on the right would take me to the giants.
When the cows became as big as barns, I would be there.
It didn't seem far on the pastry board. My fingers could travel the distance in a trice. The baker thought the trip would take five or six