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wasn’t.”
    She sipped her hot drink from the cap off a glue dispenser Jan had found for her to use as a cup.
    “And the next thing you knew, you were in that awful nest,” said Jan.
    Tiki nodded. Suddenly she put the cap down andbrought her hands up to her face. Her shoulders jerked up and down.
    “Tiki, are you making tears?” asked Jan, bending toward her.
    She shook her tiny pink head.
    “Yes, you are,” said Jan.
    Tiki lifted a wet face and sniffed.
    “They’re not like yours,” she hiccupped. “They’re sweet ones. I never thought I could make any, though. Fairies aren’t supposed to. We never
used
to, before …”
    “Before what?” asked Jan.
    “Just … before,” said Tiki with a gulp. “You see, I really did love the Queen. I believed she was good. I trusted her.”
    She wiped her eyes with the end of her colored scarf.
    “It was horrible in there,” she said. “All dark and empty and—and—”
    “Lonely?”
    “Is that what it means? With no friends to talk to?”
    “Yes.”
    “Oh, I’m glad I made your baby start growing!” she said suddenly. “No matter what.”
    “But what about the hair?” asked Charlie, refilling Tiki’s cap-cup with one drop of honey water.
    “Well, I’ll try to explain,” said Tiki. “The Queen took away all the magic I had when she
innesterated
me—”
    “Innesterated? You mean, put you in prison?”
    “In a nest, yes. I told you, I hardly had any magic left: I’d used it all up on you. But what she can’t do is stop me getting more.”
    “Wait a bit,” said Charlie. “You mean, a fairy is always growing more magic?”
    “Yes. It just keeps on coming. We can use it or save it up, but it never stops. Like hair. I mean, if
you
were innesterated—”
    “Put in prison—”
    “Someone might keep cutting your hair short but they couldn’t stop it growing.”
    “And didn’t the Queen keep cutting your magic short as it grew?”
    Tiki shook her head.
    “No. She must have forgotten. She often forgets about fairies she’s innesterated. She forgets to let them out in the spring, and sometimes …” She dropped her voice.
    “Yes, we know,” said Jan quickly. “Wijic told us.”
    Tiki sat up. “You’ve seen Wijic?
Seen
him?”
    “How do you think we found out where you were?”
    Tiki sat very straight on Jan’s hand. Her eyes grew round and it seemed her glistening hair stood up on end.
    “Wijic helped to save me?” she asked at last in an even more tiny voice than usual.
    “Yes.”
    Two more syrupy tears rolled down Tiki’s cheeks. Then suddenly she burst out into a tinkly laugh, jumped to her feet, changed like lightning into a pink ballet dress and did a mad little dance all over Jan’s hand.
    “Tiki,” said Charlie. “Would you mind? We need to know about our baby’s
hair
.”
    “Hair—hair—hair!” cried Tiki, vanishing and reappearing as she jumped about. “I fixed it, I fixed it! Anyway, I
think
I fixed it,” she said more seriously, and she changed into jeans and a pink poncho and sat down again.
    “As soon as I had saved enough magic—and of course, I had to use a bit of it to magic myself things to eat; after all, you can’t live on air—I made a tiny hole in the wall of the nest and sent a spell through it to call the grand master-elf. I think he rather fancies me,” she said, patting her hair.
    “Anyway, he came. I asked him first if he could let me out, and he said no, the Queen would have a fit if he did, and then I told him about you. At first he said he didn’t dare do anything and told me off about the baby. But then I said, well, it’s done now, and if the baby turns out to have blue hair, everyone will start talking. They’ll know it’s a fairy child. Think how much better if it looks quite ordinary; then no one need know I was mixed up in it all, and there’ll be no bother about it. And do you know what
he
said?”
    “No, what?” asked Jan and Charlie together.
    “He said,” said Tiki