Ahuman child has become lost in the Realm and it's up to Jessie to find her. With the help of the magical Rainbow Wand, Jessie sets off to save the day -- only to discover a terrible secret that threatens the peace and safety of the Fairy Realm.

Fairy Realm #10: The Rainbow Wand

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

Sticky-Beak

The flower fairies whirled around Jessie in a fluttering blur of pink, blue, green, purple, yellow, and white. Their bright wings brushed Jessie's cheeks. Their tiny fingers tangled in her golden red hair. Their voices rang in her ears like crystal bells.

"Don't go, Jessie! Queen Helena is in the west, and we've got no one to dance with us. Stay in the Realm and dance with us, Jessie! Oh, please, please, please!"

"Rose! Bluebell! Violet! Daffodil! Daisy! Stop this!" Jessie laughed. "I have to go back to my own world now. It's Saturday, and Mum's home. She'll be wondering where I am. I'll dance with you next time I visit, I promise."

"But that won't be for a long time!" cried Daisy. "That's what you said to Patrice the palace housekeeper, and Giff the elf, and Maybelle the little white horse."

"You said you had to stay away from the Realm -- because of a nasty old sticky-beak!" added Bluebell.

"Oh, you naughty fairies!" Jessie exclaimed. "You were hiding! You were listening!"

Bluebell and Violet hung their heads, but Daffodil, Daisy, and Rose giggled.

"Yes," said Daffodil, smoothing her yellow skirts. "We were hiding in the Ding Dong tree and we heard. What's a sticky-beak, Jessie? What, what, what?"

"Someone who pokes her nose into other people's business!" said Jessie, trying hard to sound stern. She faced the shadowy archway that marked the border of the Realm. "Open!" she called.

She closed her eyes as shadows surrounded her. Her skin prickled as the familiar cool, tingling breeze swept her away.

Then, suddenly, everything grew still again. She could hear birds singing. The tangy scent of rosemary filled the air.

Jessie opened her eyes. She was standing on a small square of smooth green grass. The grass was edged with rosemary bushes and surrounded by a high, clipped hedge. She was back in the place she called the secret garden. She was home.

Quickly she checked to see that the door in the hedge was still shut and that the spade she'd wedged against the old latch was still firmly in place. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that everything was just as she'd left it.

No one had tried to enter the secret garden while she was away. Now all she had to do was get back to the house without --

"Surprise!" squealed five tiny voices. And there were the flower fairies, dancing in the air in front of her, their faces filled with glee.

"We tricked you, Jessie!" shrieked Daffodil. "We came with you!"

"Now you can dance with us here!" squeaked Rose, dipping and twirling so that her frilly pink skirts billowed out around her and the tails of her green sash flew.

"No, I can't!" said Jessie, hiding a smile. "I have to go up to the house. Mum will be -- "

Suddenly anxious, Jessie ran to the door in the hedge, opened it cautiously, and peered out. The Blue Moon garden was deserted except for the birds chattering in the trees. Her mother, Rosemary, was nowhere to be seen, and for once there was no sign of Louise Tweedie, their nosy next-door neighbor, either.

Jessie breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a good idea to visit the Realm today -- the day when the inside of Mrs. Tweedie's house was going to be painted. She'd hoped that Mrs. Tweedie would be too busy fussing around the painters to be bothered about Blue Moon, and it looked as if she'd been right. Still . . .

She turned back to the fairies. "You should go back to the Realm now," she said. "Someone might see you."

Shy little Violet looked worried, but Daisy grinned. "No one sees us," she boasted, swinging on a stem of rosemary. "If they do, they think we're flutterbyes."

"Flutterbyes, flutterbyes!" Daffodil giggled, opening and closing her yellow wings.

"They might think you're butterflies at first," Jessie argued. "But what if they look more closely? What if -- ?"

"Your grandmother, our true Queen, likes it when we come to her garden to play, Jessie," Bluebell said seriously. "And lately she has been making a new game -- "

"I see one!" shrieked Rose. She darted under a rosemary bush, then fluttered back out onto the grass clutching something that looked like a tiny green-and-white-striped pillow.

"Sweetie-pies!"

With squeals of excitement, the other fairies began flying around, searching for more hidden treats.

"Quickly, quickly!" squeaked Daffodil. "Find them all before the rainbow fairies come and find them first! Emerald said that they found nine sweetie-pies yesterday. Nine! Pink-striped, green-striped, purple-striped . . ."

Jessie knew that there was no way she was going to make the fairies leave now. Frowning slightly, she closed the door in the hedge behind her and began walking up toward the house. For the first time in her life, she felt annoyed with her beloved grandmother.

Why has Granny put treats for the fairies in the secret garden? she thought crossly. Doesn't she realize that it's risky to encourage them to come here too often just now?

No, she doesn't! Jessie stopped suddenly as the thought struck her.

Granny had lived at Blue Moon for over fifty years, ever since she had left her life as a princess of the Realm to marry Robert Belairs, the human man she loved. For all that time the Blue Moon garden had been safe for any fairy, pixie, or other magical creature who had cared to visit.

But Granny had been away for two whole weeks, because the long-awaited exhibition of Robert Belairs's fairy paintings had begun at the National Gallery. The real trouble hadn't started till after she left.

Granny didn't know just how much of a pest Mrs. Tweedie had become. She didn't know that the woman was not only prying in the house, but had started making endless, feeble excuses for prowling around the Blue Moon garden.

Excerpted from Fairy Realm #10: The Rainbow Wandby Emily Rodda Copyright ©2006 by Emily Rodda. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.