Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise by Liz Kessler Read Free Book Online Page A

landslide!
    I didn’t need a computer to tell me what was going to happen. I knew it as firmly as if Daisy’s supervisor had stood in front of me and confirmed it herself.
    “We have to get in touch with Robyn,” I said. “We have to get her to find Mom and stop her from going up to Tidehill Rocks.”
    “Got it!” she said. She turned back to the computer. “Open the communication box,” she said out loud. The computer sprang to life as Daisy sat looking at it, thinking so fiercely I could almost see her thoughts myself.
    Of course! It was the same panel that had opened up on Robyn’s computer when we’d heard Daisy’s conversation with her supervisor. So perhaps we could use it to communicate with Robyn! Why hadn’t we thought of this before?
    A moment later, the box was open. “Come on, come on,” Daisy murmured, staring at the blank box, waiting for it to find Robyn via Annie’s, and now Robyn’s, computer. Anticipation danced inside my stomach.
    But the anticipation soon began to flutter and die. The connection didn’t go through. Nobody was there. Robyn must have already left. Every second seemed to last an hour, each one passing in useless, awful silence.
    And every second that passed was another one wasted, and another one closer to the moment when Mom would have a terrible accident — all because of me.
    “I can’t bear it,” I said. “I feel so useless.”
    “Me, too.” Daisy was fidgeting and glancing around.
    “What is it?” I asked. “Who are you looking for?”
    Daisy leaned in close again. “My supervisor,” she whispered. “I have an idea.”
    “What?”
    “Listen, take the desk next to mine. It’s been empty for weeks anyway. I’m going back down there. I’m going after your mom. I’ll stop her from going to the woods.”
    “But how? She’s probably halfway there by now. And you don’t even know where the dangerous part is. You’ll never find her.”
    “Well, I’ll find Robyn, then. She can show me!”
    “Daisy, how will you get Robyn to listen to you? If you go down as yourself, they’ll find you immediately and you’ll be in the worst trouble ever. You know you can’t risk that, especially now.”
    “You’re right,” she said glumly. “I probably won’t even get out of the door if I go as myself.”
    “And if you go in disguise, she’ll never listen to you. Look what happened with me! All the attempts you made to get me to listen to you, and I just wrote you off as a weirdo. How will you convince Robyn it’s really you?”
    Daisy looked as miserable as I felt. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “After all this, we just have to sit around and wait for something awful to happen to your mom. If only we knew how to get you down there.”
    And that’s when it hit me.
    “Daisy,” I said, finally filled with real hope. “I’ve got it. The one thing that will ensure that Robyn will listen to you!”
    “What’s that?” she asked.
    “You need to go now,” I said, practically dragging her out of her chair. “Use the portal and go back down to Earth. Then find my mom! If you can’t find her, find Robyn! Get to the dangerous place, before my mom does. Hurry!”
    “But how will I get your mom to listen to me?” she asked. “She’ll think I’m as crazy as you did. We’ve already established that she won’t —”
    “Daisy,” I said firmly. “You’ll have to go as me!”

I emerged from the portal and looked around. It was six o’clock and already so dark it felt like night. I clicked a couple of buttons on my MagiCell to increase my vision capability and looked around. Nothing. No one was here.
    Looking down at myself, I had a really weird feeling. It didn’t normally bother me — transporting as other people or as animals or whatever. But to be here as Philippa! It felt so strange. Almost as if it wasn’t just a disguise, but that I had her with me, almost as if I was her, seeing the world through her eyes. Experiencing her feelings.
    I