Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

P aige's heart skipped a beat at Drucinda's words. Heat rushed over her. They'd assumed they were alone, but was someone still here?

Could it be her mother? Or was it someone more dangerous?

Devon readied his weapon and inched forward.

Drucinda shot them a glance over her shoulder. "You two stay here."

"I don't think so, lady," Dewey said as he rose into the air with Paige on his back. "We're sitting ducks here. We'll come with you."

"Just stay behind us. I don't need to rush anyone to the pixie doctor today."

"Stop saying pixie doctor. I'm not a pixie."

Drucinda ignored the statement, creeping to the door and peering down the hall. "Hall's clear."

Devon nodded as they slipped through the door and continued.

"You're the size of a pixie, though," Dewey said as he weaved around behind them .

"Yeah, but I'd still need a human doctor. Or are pixies close to human anatomy?"

Dewey chuckled as he shook his head. "Heck no. Just because they look like humans doesn't mean they're anything like humans. Pixies don't have any parts in common with a human, really."

"Seriously? Heart? Brain?"

"Nope. Their hearts are in their skulls and are a completely different configuration. Once when I was at Dracanum Academy, we dissected a pixie–"

"Will you two stop babbling? Do you ever shut up?"

"Sorry." Dewey splayed his arms out to the sides. "Paige doesn't understand anything, and I'm constantly trying to explain it to her."

"That's not true."

"It is," Dewey argued. "You don't know about pixie anatomy, you don't understand the basic principles of gold-hoarding, you don't–"

"Enough," Drucinda hissed between clenched teeth. "If there is someone or something here, you two will give us away before we get anywhere near it."

"Sorry," Dewey whispered.

They reached the corner. Drucinda and Devon prepared to look around it, signaling each other with sign language Paige couldn't understand.

She crinkled her brow at them as they finished their silent conversation. They readied themselves for another second before both of them sprang around the corner with weapons pointed in front of them.

"Clear." Drucinda lowered her weapon. She tilted her head to listen down the hall. "I don't hear anything anymore."

"I haven't either," Devon answered. "Not since we moved out of that room."

"Maybe it's in that room," Dewey said .

"Didn't sound like it, little man." Drucinda swung a door open and peered inside before closing it. Devon did the same on the opposite side of the hall.

Drucinda shot a glance over her shoulder. "Why don't you two head back and check it out whilst we continue our sweep?"

"Will do, boss." Dewey saluted her as he spun in the air and sailed back around the corner.

"Really? Will do, boss ?" Paige questioned.

"Don't knock it. I got us out of that and exploring on our own, didn't I?"

A smile spread across Paige's face, and she patted his head. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that. Good job, buddy."

"Maybe we'll find another trace of your mom. Something more definitive to help you have more hope."

Paige's shoulders slumped as they passed into the room she assumed was her mother's. "I'm really having trouble hoping right now."

Dewey landed on the bed. "Hop off, and you can explore on your own."

"Explore what? The fibers of the bed?"

"No, just…slide down the curtains to the floor if you want to get down."

"Seriously? Slide down the curtains?"

"You're tiny now, Paige. You're going to have to learn to do things on your own despite your size. We can't haul you around everywhere. You could be stuck like this for months."

Paige swung her leg over and slipped onto the fluffy bedding below. "Months? I thought you were going to fix this?"

"I will. I am." Dewey lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "But what if it takes a while for me to research. Or what if our first attempts fail? "

Paige stuck her hands on her hips. "Failure? Not an option. You are a potion expert, right? So…expert."

"Expert is not a verb, Paige. And also, yes, I am. I literally just counteracted Chaos Powder. But that doesn't mean I'll be able to work miracles." Dewey scoffed as he fluttered into the air and flew across the room.

Paige climbed a mountain of fabric to follow him. "What aren't you saying?"

"Nothing." He pulled the drawer open on the nightstand before slamming it shut.

"Something. There is something you're not telling me."

Dewey pressed his lips together until they went colorless.

"Dewey," Paige said.

"You know, you're really less imposing when you're six inches tall."

"Dewey!"

"Okay, okay." He held his paws in the air. "I just…am wondering if this is…permanent."

Paige's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped open. "What?"

"Permanent," he repeated. "Unable to be reversed."

"I know what permanent means, Dewey. How can that be true?"

"I don't know. But what if the magic dust I created somehow changed you on a molecular level?"

She flung her hands out. "Then change me back!"

"I'll try but…magic is… finicky. You may be stuck in pixie mode."

Paige buried her face in her hands. "I can't be stuck like this."

"Sorry, Paige. But you may be. It was stuck like that or stuck tumbling through time."

She flopped onto her backside and threw herself back on the silky duvet. "Why do these things keep happening to me?"

"Just lucky, I guess," Dewey said as he floated to a tall dresser and pulled open the top drawer.

Paige lay on the bed for another few seconds, allowing pity to wash over her. Just as the search for her mother heated up, she was reduced to pipsqueak size and was now unable to help in any way.

Coupled with the note about her mother's imminent demise, she wanted to curl into a ball and cry herself to sleep. Maybe if she had been normal-sized she would have felt more upbeat. If she could investigate on her own instead of flying around on a dragon's back or being carried in a pet carrier.

She sniffled as warm tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Stop having a pity party, Paige. Get up and get moving."

She rolled onto her side, pulling her knees to her chest. "Shut up, Dewey. You don't understand how hard this is."

"Don't I?"

A second later the teal dragon's face appeared in front of hers as he landed on the bed. "Don't I? Really?"

He flung his paws out to the sides. "Look at me. I'm tiny."

"But you've been tiny your whole life."

"Yep. So, I've had an entire lifetime of this. Do you think I just happily went about a normal life? You don't think it was hard for me to realize my siblings could fly from country to country easily, but I could barely make it across town? Or that everything in my house was set up for dragon-sized dragons, not teacups like me? Chores took me twice as long because the sponge was as big as me. Or the dishcloth was too heavy for me to carry.

"Vacuuming the house took forever because my sweeper was so tiny. But guess what? I learned to deal with it. And then I became part of the best library team. You can't give up. Being small is a handicap, yes. But it's not a death sentence."

Paige frowned at him, flicking a tear from her cheek.

"Now, get your tiny butt up, and let's find some more clues."

Dewey buzzed into the air and sailed across the room to continue his search of the dresser. Paige pushed up to lean against her elbows. Dewey was right. Whether she liked it or not, this was her life now. Hopefully, it wasn't permanent. But however long it lasted, she couldn't expect everyone to treat her like an invalid.

She scrambled to her feet and walked to the edge of the bed to peer over it. The ground looked so far away. But she had to find a way down.

"Dewey?"

"Yeah?" he asked as he rummaged through another drawer.

"Can you help me get down?"

Without even a glance at her, he continued his search. "Nope."

Paige stood dumbfounded for a second, her jaw hanging open. "Are you serious?"

"Yep," he answered as he shoved the drawer shut and continued down to the next one.

"Well, how am I supposed to get down? I can't jump. I'll break my leg. Or worse."

"Then don't jump."

"Dewey–"

"Look, Paige, you'll have to figure it out. If it's really something you can't do alone, like, say, open a door or make a tiny pixie-sized sandwich, then I'd help you. But it's not. You can get down on your own, and I'm going to make you figure it out."

"If I break my leg– "

"It's because you're too stupid to be that small."

Paige wrinkled her nose at the words and stamped a foot on the duvet. "I'm not stupid."

"Then, prove it." Dewey shrugged as he moved on to the next drawer.

"Fine," Paige said with flared nostrils as she glanced around in search of a solution.

Could she climb onto the nightstand? Probably, but it wouldn't help her much.

She considered sliding down the duvet, though it ended a good distance before the floor, so she still may end up hurt in the fall.

She sat down on the bed with a huff. Maybe she was too stupid to be small. After all, she was used to being normal-sized. She'd been that way for over three decades.

Dewey slammed the last drawer shut. "Still stuck on the bed?"

He clicked his tongue at her as he moved to another piece of furniture to explore. "Looks like you may not be smart enough to be a librarian. Definitely not smart enough to find your missing mom. That's best left to Drucinda."

The comment incensed her. Heat rose into her cheeks, and she balled her hands into fists. "That's not true."

"I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary."

Paige rose to her feet. She'd get off the bed if it killed her. And it just might. There was no way down from here. She tried to reason the problem in a different way.

What if she was normal-sized and had to climb down from a cliff?

"I wouldn't," she murmured to herself.

"What's that? Did you say something?" Dewey asked.

"Nope. Just doing some figuring in my head."

"Don't sweat it, Paige. Just sit down and let the grown-ups do the exploring. "

She shook her head as she pressed her lips together before she said something she'd regret and glanced over the edge of the bed again. Maybe if she tried working backward, she'd come up with a solution.

She imagined herself on the floor. Where had she been a moment earlier? What was the closest item to the floor? The bed frame touched the floor, but she couldn't use that. She'd never wrap her tiny arms around it. But something else touched the floor, too. The velvet curtains hung from the canopy all the way down to the carpet.

Paige grinned and hurried over to them. She grabbed hold of the thick fabric and swung over closer to it. A second later, she dangled from the curtain. With her grip loosened, she slid down it and landed in a heap on the floor.

She rose to her feet and dusted herself off. "I did it!"

Dewey flew closer, his fleshy eyebrows raised high. "Well, look at you. Aren't you a regular Einstein?"

"I'm way better than Einstein. He had a normal-sized brain. I have a pixie-sized brain and still figured it out."

Dewey grinned at her. "I knew a little tough love would do the trick. Now, come on. There's plenty for us to explore."

"I haven't heard the banging again, have you?" Paige wandered to the edge of the rug underneath the bed and stepped off it to the floor below.

"Not since we came back. But I definitely heard it before."

"Maybe it's the pipes."

"Pipes?"

Paige thrust her hands out to either side as she continued her trek across the room. "Yeah, you know. Draft old place like this, pipes banging around."

"No, I do not know. I've never heard pipes make a sound like that."

"Well, I have. I've lived in enough crappy apartments to have heard crazy noises like that. "

Dewey crinkled his brow as he landed on the floor and tottered along next to her. "Um, we established the crazy noises you heard was Devon in beast mode."

"Not that. Other noises."

"Like banging, and it's coming from pipes?"

"Maybe," she said as she reached the fireplace and climbed onto the stones trimming it.

"You've never heard anything like that in the past ever. Admit it."

"I have so. I've heard–Whoa!" Paige struggled to stay on her feet as the ground moved underneath her.

"Paige? Paige!" Dewey shouted, his voice muted and far away.

"Dewey?" she asked as darkness surrounded her.

"Paige! Where did you go?"

"I'm still here, by the fireplace, but…the room's gone. You must have triggered a secret passage to open."

"Yeah, but now it's closed."

"Well, open it again."

"I can't!" Dewey answered. "I moved the fireplace poker and that's what spun the fireplace. But it's gone now. I can't move it. It's with you."

"OMG!" Paige squealed. "Then, I'm stuck in here!"