Willow Moss & the Vanished Kingdom by Dominique Valente

Author:Dominique Valente
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

12

Written in the Stars

“WAIT, TWIST, DIDN’T you say you thought the mural was trying to tell you something else, and you didn’t know what?” said Peg.

“Yes,” said Twist. “I can feel it through elfsense. I think it could be connected to the missing tiles. Maybe, if it was fully restored, it would tell us something more.”

Willow nodded. She’d been wondering the same thing. “I’ll try to find them,” she said. She closed her eyes and concentrated, then held her hand to the sky. A moment later, a dozen pieces of colored tile rained down at their feet.

They stared at them for a moment. Peg scratched his head and said, “I suppose we try and match the different colored tiles to the picture in the mural—like a puzzle?”

Willow nodded. “That makes sense.”

“This should go here,” said Twist, holding up a green tile and placing it in a missing section in the forest scene. There was a faint glow, like a guttering candle, and then the tile fell back off into her hands. “Oh!” she cried. “How can we make it stick?”

Oswin padded closer. “Give it ’ere,” he suggested.

The elf handed him the tile, a puzzled look on her face. He gave the back of the tile a lick, then passed it over with an air of nonchalance.

Twist reluctantly took it from him, pulling a face. “Ugh. It’s so sticky.”

“That wos the ideas,” said Oswin, rolling his eyes. “Kobold spittles is a bit like glues.”

Twist placed the tile in the empty space, and they watched in amazement as it fitted like a glove, held firmly in place by Oswin’s saliva. It began to glow, changing from green to faintly pink—the elfsense was working.

“Brilliant!” cried Twist.

“I didn’t know your . . . erm, saliva could do that,” said Willow, staring at the kobold in astonishment.

He looked at her in surprise. “Why do you fink the Flossy Mistress always used ter tell me, “Get out of here, kobold, lickety-spit!”?”

It was true. Granny Flossy had said that to him. A lot.

Willow, Twist, and Peg shared a look that fortunately the kobold missed.

“’Cos she wanted me ter seals up the cracks and fings in the walls, yew see?”

“O-kay,” said Willow, deciding not to let Oswin in on the fact that Granny Flossy had meant for him to leave the room pronto so she could brew her potions in peace—without him complaining that the room smelled funny or hiding behind furniture and warning Willow that things were likely to explode (which they were).

They got to work, color-matching tiles. Oswin licked each one before it was put in place, and then they were left with just three for the very top of the mural.

“We’ll have to climb on each other’s shoulders, I think,” said Peg.

Twist nodded. “I’ll go at the bottom. I’m stronger than the pair of you.” They stared at her in surprise, and she said, “Oh, sorry—the direct thing, yes. Well, it’s true. To withstand storms and the like, elf bones are a bit like marble. .

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