A/N: Anything you recognize from the book belongs to Gail Carson Levine, not me!

::Chapter 6: Big Magic::



I stood there in shock, speechless.

Did I just hear. . . what I think I heard?!

I wiped the remaining tears off of my cheeks.

"I-I'm sorry," I said with a laugh. "I thought I just heard you say that-"

"You did," Mandy said with a straight face.

"What?" This HAD to be a joke.

"Amena, love, I'm you're fairy godmother." She continued to wash the dishes, finishing up the job she had started before I had come along.

I stared at her dumbly. "What?" I repeated.

Mandy sighed, set a wet plate on the counter, and took my hand. "Mena-I-am- your-fairy-godmother," she repeated slowly, pausing after each word as if she were talking to a child.

I stared at her in disbelief. I peered into her eyes to see if she was kidding, but I knew she wouldn't. "But-"

"Not only yours, but also your mother's and your grandmother's and even her mother before that."

I stared at her, slightly shaken. "But, Mandy. . . you can't-" the scene around me started to blur, my head pulsing painfully. I stopped talking and shook my head. "I believe you, but. . ."

"Yes?"

". . . why haven't you told me before?"

Mandy smiled warmly. "Sweets, you promise me one thing. Never tell anyone about this. . . this fairy business. No one else in the palace knows except for you and your mother."

My eyes widened. "But why, Mandy? Why can't anyone else know that you're a fairy?"

Mandy shook her head slowly. "There are many reasons. For one thing, they might want me to perform 'big magic', and doing that may only make the problem worse than before." She picked up a wet plate off the counter and started to dry it with a rag.

I raised an eyebrow. "Big magic?"

Mandy nodded. "Yes."

I satisfied myself with this answer. "Show me."

Mandy looked up from what she was doing and peered at me. "Show you what, dear?"

"Magic."

Mandy shook her head. "Oh, no. . . I couldn't," she said, nervously rubbing the dry plate with a damp drying cloth. Suddenly there was a loud crash, and I shrieked. Mandy had dropped a plate.

Instinctively I reached for the dusting broom Mandy kept in the kitchen.

"Wait, sweets, there's no need for that."

Confused, I stared at her. She lifted a finger and pointed at the pile of shattered glass on the floor. I watched in awe as the whole pile flew a few feet into the air, dropping into the garbage can.

Shocked, my eyes were glued to the glassless floor where, only seconds before, there had been a pile of the remains of a shattered plate.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, smiling dumbly. Then I raised an eyebrow and moved my glance towards Mandy. "But. . . how. . . WHY did you do that?" I asked.

"The floor was dirty, I cleaned it up."

I shook my head. "No. . . I mean, why didn't you just put the plate back together? I mean, I'm sure THAT doesn't qualify as 'big magic'."

Mandy smiled. "Almost every little thing may be considered as 'big magic'."

Confused, I asked, "But what harm would putting back a shattered plate together do to anyone?"

"Well, think about it. I put the plate together, and, who knows? Maybe at the next ball one of the maids may trip and fall, dropping the plate onto a guest. Do you see how this works?"

I nodded unsurely. After a few moments of thinking I lightened up. "Hey, Mandy, since you're a fairy and all, is there any way you can break this. . . this curse?" I asked, getting excited.

Mandy slowly shook her head, slowly. "I'm afraid that the only one who can do that is, Lucinda, darling."

I felt my heart sank with my disappointment. Then I had another idea. "Mandy, do you think you can break this betrothal somehow? Or at least make Nate go away?!"

Mandy shook her head again, chucking this time. "No can do, dear. Sorry."

I sighed. "Then what CAN you do?"

Mandy paused for a moment. "Well, little things. You know, things that may come in handy in the kitchen, like cleaning up messes with the lift of a finger. . ." she winked. "Or preparing special dishes and medicines. Things that won't get in the way of anyone else."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Is everything-" the person coughed. "-alright in here? I-" cough "-thought I heard a glass shatter."

"Oh, everything's dandy, Ella, dear," Mandy replied. There was a frown on her face. "Ella, come in here."

The door to the kitchen slowly swung open. I was surprised when I saw what I saw next. Mother walked in, but she didn't look anything like she did just this morning. Her face was pale, her eyes slightly bloodshot, as though she had been crying. She coughed. She looked terrible.

"Ella, did u drink the soup I made for you this morning?" Mandy asked in a concerned manner.

Mother nodded. "It was delici-" cough "delicious."

Mandy had a look of doubt on her face. "Every last bit?"

"Every last. . ." Mother looked to the floor.

"Ella. . ."

"Mandy, I-"

"Do you remember what happened to your Mother?" Mandy asked, looking sorry for bringing this subject up.

Tears welled up in Mother's eyes. "Mandy, I-I'm sorry! I-It's just th- that. . . that won't happen to me anyway. I-I just have a little cough, that's all." Her slight sobs turned into a fit of coughs.

Mandy shook her head. "Your mother started out having 'just a cough' too. This can turn out to be something serious, and I'm not about to take any chances. Ella, I'm making another bowl for you, and this time, I expect you to eat ALL of it."

"Mandy-"

"No questions." Then Mandy turned to me. "Mena, walk your mother to her bedchamber and come back to me and bring her up the soup."

"But-" I stopped myself from going any further, and nodded.

I stared at Mother the whole way as we walked to her bedchamber, noticing that she coughed every few seconds. She caught me staring at her once, and smiled sweetly. "I'll be fine, dear. It's just a little cough."

Although she tried to hide it by claiming it was just a cough, I knew she was lying- something I could never do. No, she wasn't lying about her physical condition. I believed her perfectly enough that she had a bad cough, it was quite common. But there was something else she was hiding. Only I wasn't quite sure what it was- yet.



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