“Mom!” I gave her a little shake.
“All right, all right. I’ll do it, if it’ll make you happy. But if I don’t like it—”
“If you don’t like it, we’ll do whatever we can to make you comfortable again.” I didn’t sayget you back to normal, because that would have made it sound like using magic was something weird or bad. Mom already thought that way, and I had no desire to reinforce it. “Come on. Let’s start now.”
“Already?”
“No time like the present. Isn’t that what you always told me?”
“I didn’t expect you to use my wise words against me.”
“Payback’s a mother.”
“Zelda!”
I laughed. “Let’s go see Poppy.”
“Where is Poppy, by the way? I didn’t see her or that enormous dog of hers this morning.”
“She’s—” How would I explain this to my mother? Pocket universes? Parallel dimensions? Magic doors?
Magic doors it was. “You know the Narnia books?”
Mom looked half offended, half like I had lost my mind. “Of course I know the Narnia books.”
“Remember how the children got to Narnia?”
“I am not climbing into a wardrobe, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“Not a wardrobe. More like… a garden path.”
“A garden path?”
“Poppy is in another world that’s adjacent to ours. A world belonging to a people called the Gentry. You can think of them as fairies, if it helps. Berron is one of them.”
She patted my arm. “All this sounds like complete nonsense, so don’t fret yourself about the details. Just lead on.” She glanced down at Jester. “Does he come, too?”
“Jester?” I looked down at my miniature poodle.
His jaw fell open in a doggy smile, and his tongue hung out slightly off-center.
“See?” Mom said. “He wants to go.”
Jester’s tongue swiped over his entire face in search of egg molecules.
I rolled my eyes. “Sure he does,” I said. Then again, if it gave Mom courage, Jester couldn’t betoomuch trouble. “Okay. Fine. The dog can come.”
My mom leaned down to Jester. “You’re coming, too! You hear that, little boy?”
Jester, clueless but enthusiastic, jumped up on his hind legs and kissed her face.
There were multiple known entry points. Gramercy Park was the one we had used at first, but after all of the ways between our world and theirs had opened, the one in Riverside Park became the go-to for sheer convenience.
We would need one of the Gentry to take us through. Since Berron was the only one who spent any amount of time outside the Forest of Emeralds, that meant I needed Berron.
While Mom bustled off to finish getting ready, I texted the Prince of the Gentry.What’s up, Your Highness?Couldn’t go straight into demanding things. I mean, Icould, but if I started low-key, I had somewhere to build to.
A few minutes later, he replied.I’m at the Museum of Arts and Design.
