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Ann sits up."Where is your knight?"
"Oh, him. I had to let him go." Pippa yawns. "He always did whatever I asked. Frightfully dull."
"He was certainly handsome." Ann swoons.
"Yes, he was rather, wasn't he?" Pippa giggles.
"I am sorry," I say, afraid to disrupt our happiness. "But I don't understand. Why didn't you cross over?"
Pippa shrugs."My lord, the knight, told me that I didn't have to cross after all. There are many tribes here, creatures who've lived in the realms forever. They are part of this world." She leans back on straight arms, bends her knees, and lets them sway gently against each other.
"So you just came back?" I prompt. "Yes. And then I stopped to pick wildflowers to make a crown. Do you like it?"
"Oh, yes," Ann says.
"I shall make you one, then."
"And for me," Felicity adds.
"Of course," Pip says."We shall all have one."
I'm terribly confused. My mother told me that souls had to cross over or become corrupted. But here is our Pippa, happy and shining, eyes the color of fresh violets, the girl we've always known.
"How long have I been here?" Pippa asks.
"Two months," I say.
"Really? Sometimes it seems like yesterday; other times, it's as if I've been here forever. Two months . . . that would make it nearly Christmas. I do think I shall miss Christmas morning."
None of us knows what to say to this.
Ann sits up. "Perhaps she hasn't completed her soul's task. Perhaps that is why she is still here."
"Perhaps she is supposed to help us find the Temple!" Felicity exclaims.
"What temple?" Pippa asks.
"When I shattered the runes, I released the Order's power into the realms," I explain. "The Temple is the source of that magic. Whoever finds the Temple and binds the magic there controls it."
Pippa's eyes widen."How marvelous!"
Ann chimes in. "But everyone's looking for it, including Circe's spies."
Pippa links her arm through mine. "Then we must find it first. I shall do everything I can to help you. We can ask the creatures for help." I shake my head. "Kartik said we shouldn't trust anything from the realms, not with the magic loose." Trust no one. Trust nothing. But surely that doesn't mean Pippa.
"Kartik?" Pippa says, as if trying to remember something from long ago. "The Indian boy? The Rakshana?"
"Yes."
She lowers her voice."You ought to be careful with him. The Rakshana have their spies here too. They cannot be trusted."
"What do you mean?"
"I've been told that the Rakshana and the Order are not friends at all. The Rakshana only pretend to be their protectors. What they're really after is the Order's power--control of the magic and the realms."
"Who told you such a thing?"
Pippa shrugs."It is well known here. Ask anyone."
