explained why he had so many teapots.
‘It’s all right, Harold,’ said Willow, patting the dog.
‘’Tis not all right!’ harrumphed Oswin. ‘We’ll starve at this rate.’
It was a full minute before Sometimes stirred, then he shouted, ‘CAPTURED!’ and sat up very fast to look at Willow, which was incredibly eerie as his eyes were still pure white. Suddenly his eyes changed back to blue and his hands started tearing at his wild white hair.
‘Moreg Vaine was CAPTURED BY THE BROTHERS OF WOL? You don’t think you could have mentioned that FROM THE START?’
Willow’s mouth gaped open. ‘Oh. Um … yes,’ she conceded. ‘I was just getting to that part …’
Nolin Sometimes’s eyes were nearly popping their sockets. ‘Tuesday has gone missing. Stolen, most likely, which could make our world unravel bit by bit, and the most powerful witch in Starfell has been taken prisoner, which means …’
He looked at her, then at Feathering.
Willow nodded. ‘There’s just us to get it back and save the world, yes.’
‘I was afraid you were going to say that.’
Sometimes fell away into a faint once again.
Willow sighed and started clearing up the debris. It’s what she did. She’d come from a home where everyone else had always been far too busy being self-important for chores. Chores were her thing.
She took down a new teapot, yellow this time, feeling the need for a cheering sort of colour, picked up the fallen bucket and then filled it with pepper tea for Feathering. She spied some weren leaves and decided to pop them in the teapot for Sometimes – weren flowers were known for their calming properties.
She placed the bucket of tea on a branch for the dragon, who eyed it with pleasure. ‘Just the thing – I’ve had a terrible cold,’ he said, taking a sip. A second later smoke started to curl out of his nostrils. ‘Much better.’
She took a sip of the weren tea and sat down in an armchair. From within the bag she could hear Oswin slurping the cup she’d passed him. Harold, it seemed, had decided to go back to bed.
Sometimes sat up and rubbed his head. ‘I can’t believe she’s been captured,’ he lamented, carrying on his conversation as if a full ten minutes hadn’t just passed, coming to sit opposite Willow in one of the armchairs.
Willow blinked. ‘Ah – yes, unfortunately.’
‘But how?’ he cried.
‘Well, we were entering the city of Bead—’
‘Beady Hill, yes, and then the High Master arrived!’
She frowned. ‘Oh, you saw that? Well, they had these magical—’
He nodded impatiently. ‘Manacles, yes – but she could get out of those if she wanted!’
‘Yes,’ said Willow slowly with a frown. Obviously he could just see her memory of the event for himself.
He looked from her to Feathering. ‘What I mean is – how was Moreg Vaine captured? How could she have let it happen? Surely she could have fought them off?’
‘Is she very powerful?’ asked Feathering.
Willow nodded, thinking of how thunder and lightning had ripped the sky. ‘I don’t think that they could really have captured her without her consent. I don’t know why she allowed it. I really don’t. But what I do know is that this was her plan. She wanted me to come here and find you –’ she looked at him now – ‘she thought that perhaps you could help.’
His eyes popped. ‘Me?’
She nodded. ‘She said that until we found out who took the day I couldn’t try to summon it – not until we know what we’re dealing with first.’
He blinked a few times. Then his eyes went hazy and he sank into a faint.
She sighed, took a sip of tea and shrugged at Feathering.
‘Bonkers,’ said Oswin, who’d opened the bag, and was leaning against the dragon egg, his legs crossed.
Sometimes sat bolt upright. ‘YOU ALMOST ENDED THE WORLD?’
He was obviously recalling the moment when she tried to summon the day and Moreg Vaine started to panic.
Outside Feathering boomed, ‘WHAT?’ in shock. ‘You almost ended the world?’
Willow shrugged. ‘Only almost.’
She explained that if she’d brought the day into the current reality it might have split apart the fabric of time. ‘See, that’s why I can’t try to find it just yet – we need to know who took it and why first. So, can you tell us who took last Tuesday?’ she asked Nolin Sometimes.
He rubbed his head and sighed deeply. He took a sip of his cold tea, then said, ‘It’s just not clear, and what I’m getting, well, it doesn’t make any sense!’
‘Oh?’ said