Read Online The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente - Free Book Online Page A

midnight I expect I’ll have turned into a basilisk and started a career in the ballet!” She looked round the wonderful room and pressed her lips together. Perhaps it was bad manners to feel jealous when you were a Queen.
    â€œThere’s nothing for me here at all,” said September, a prickling of hurt in her voice.
    â€œWell, it’s not your room, is it?” said Hawthorn. He sat back in a great, soft troll-sized armchair. “Oh, I don’t mean it like that! You can come by whenever you want! But you’re the Queen! I’m sure the house has got something better for you. Something really spectacular.”
    Saturday put his hand on hers. “Let’s go find your room. We can repaint it—I’m sure Crunchcrab wallpapered in barnacles or something. Let’s go find it and spill food on the floor and break all the lamps and stay up all night together like we used to do in the rum cellar. Did you know Blunderbuss can shoot passionfruits and horseshoes out of her mouth? It’s fantastic!”
    â€œYes, let’s!” agreed Blunderbuss heartily. “And maybe on the way we can find a library for Ell to nosh on? Castles always have libraries, usually with Forbidden Tomes in them. It’s the law.”
    And September felt quite as though she had skipped several chapters in her favorite novel and opened it up again only to find everyone much further along than she.
    â€œCome in!” sang Hawthorn and Tamburlaine together. Scratch gave a jaunty little squeak with his needle.
    The Scuttler cleared his throat and opened the door with a grand sweep of his claw.
    â€œSPOKE!” hollered September, clambering down from the nest to greet him.
    â€œMiss! Oh, it is lovely to see a familiar face, isn’t it? I hardly meet a soul from the old lunar days anymore. Came down from the Moon when the quakes cracked my shell a good one. Good thing scuttling is almost exactly like taxiing! Come when you’re called, show company around the place, know what’s needed before it gets to needing, take the occasional trip below stairs and forward in time—just like home! Ah, I should say something fancy, shouldn’t I? How’s about: Greetings to you upon this fair evening, Your Highness?”
    September wrinkled her nose.
    â€œNaw, you’re right, it don’t fit me any better than a pair of pants. Anyhap! I’ve come to deliver an invitation to you and deliver you to the invitees.” Spoke held up one black-and-white claw with an elegant calling card snared between the pincers. “Your Most Grand High Tip-Topping Such and Such, You Are Cordially Demanded to Attend the First Meeting of the Reconvened Once and Future Club at Nine in the P.M. This Very Night in the Rex Tyrannosaur’s Room Because His Is the Biggest. Bring Your Own Brandy and Ancient Resentments.”
    â€œA club? Already?” Tam said.
    â€œCan we come this time?” Ell pleaded. His great, orange, hopeful eyes loomed above them all like lanterns.
    â€œInvitation is for one, lads,” Spoke answered with chagrin. “And arguing with that lot is like arguing with the Code of Hammurabi.”
    â€œI don’t know what that is but it sounds very boring,” snorted the scrap-yarn wombat.
    â€œI’ll come back soon,” September said. “We’ll throw passionfruits at my bedroom walls, I promise.”
    September followed the former Taxicrab out of those cluttered, cozy quarters and the circle of her dear ones, where, it seemed, she could not be allowed to stay for a moment. But a moment later, she ducked her head back round the edge of the door.
    â€œWhat did you think would make me angry?” she asked Hawthorn and Tamburlaine.
    â€œOh,” he answered her. “We wanted to know … if it would upset you. If we entered the race on Thursday. Since you don’t want to rule Fairyland and we … well, we do.”
    The Green