Read Wishes and Wings for Free Online Page B

biggest circle should be on that side of the meadow,” Aldous’s father said. He pointed.
    William shook his head. “No, that will cut usoff from the creek. We’ll have to walk around it ten times a day.”
    By the next morning the faeries had everything decided and they were ready to work.
    Tools were a problem.
    They didn’t have shovels, and they couldn’t buy or borrow from their human neighbors anymore.
    The strongest men ended up with the hardest chore. They used stout, sharpened sticks to loosen the dirt, and small, basic magic to lift it out of the planting holes.
    Alida’s mother gave all of the girls cloth sacks and told them to find baby berry bushes in the woods.
    â€œBe careful,” she reminded them. “Make sure no one sees you.”
    Alida showed Cinder and Terra and everyone else how to tie their shawls to hide their wings.
    Then they all set off in different directions.
    Alida’s bag was almost full when she found a seedling mulberry tree. She used her stick to loosen the soft soil. But the roots went much deeper than berry roots.

    The sun was getting hot overhead. Alida turned in a circle. No one was near. She took off her shawl and draped it over a tree branch.
    She dug deeper and deeper, using lifting magic to free the roots from the loose soil as she worked.
    She was almost finished when she heard a sound.
    She knelt and peeked through the trees.
    All too close there was a human girl sitting in the grass, her back to Alida. She was making small, sad sounds, and Alida saw her shoulders shaking.
    The girl was crying.
    Alida sank to the ground, wriggling closer to the berry bushes, wishing she could help and knowing she didn’t dare.
    Then she remembered her shawl.
    Without thinking, Alida whispered the words she had practiced, her fingers moving. But instead of saying names at the end, she breathed, “
Me and my shawl!
”
    She peeked again.
    Her hands and her shawl had the strange, dimmed, silvery shine the magic always caused—so it had worked. She was invisible.
    When the girl finally stopped crying and left, walking slowly, Alida stood up.
    She said the two words that ended the magic and tied the shawl over her wings.
    She carried the berry bushes and the mulberry seedling home and smiled when Aldous got excited over the little tree.
    But she didn’t tell anyone what she had done.
    She was embarrassed.
    If she had been more careful, she would never have had to use the new magic.
    With everyone working hard, by midmorning the next day the huge, crooked circles were planted.
    The faeries had included five kinds of berries, all mixed together. Nothing was sown in a neat line.All the plants looked as though wind and birds had scattered the seeds.
    The day after that the faeries added lilacs, wild pears, briar roses, and a few gooseberries.
    Late the next afternoon Gavin came to visit.
    Everyone was so glad to see him.
    Alida knew something was wrong.
    â€œI am bringing you bad news,” he said, “and I can’t stay more than the time it takes to tell you. My grandmother made me promise.”
    He looked at Alida over the heads of all the others, then went on.
    â€œThere were guards in Ash Grove today,” he said. “They came to tell us Lord Dunraven will claim half the farmers’ crops this year. Not a third, as usual.
Half
. The big wagons will come on the first full moon of harvest. My grandmother and Ruth Oakes are afraid the poorest families will starve.”
    The faeries started to talk, and Gavin paused until everyone was quiet. “It took me a day and a half toget here, walking fast,” he said. “But people will be gathering berries and hunting deer to feed their families. They could easily come this far. Ruth said to tell you to please be very careful and stay hidden.”
    There was a stunned silence as Gavin hugged Alida, then left, keeping his word to his grandmother. Alida ran after him with a