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you!’

    As Twink sped away up the tree she could still hear Jade and Pix talking, and she smiled to herself. Maybe Pix hadn’t won the treasure hunt . . . but it seemed as if she might have found something even better.
    â€˜I can’t believe it,’ said Miss Shimmery softly, turning the gleaming silver band over in her hands. ‘Silvia’s ring, after all these years . . .’
    Sitting in Miss Shimmery’s office, Twink shifted on her seat in confusion. The HeadFairy had looked more and more taken aback as Twink had told her about Gran’s illness, and finding the journal . . . and now, examining the ring, she looked as if she were seeing a ghost.
    Miss Shimmery caught Twink’s expression and smiled faintly. Returning the ring to Twink, she folded her gleaming rainbow wings behind her back. ‘My dear child, I am Aurora,’ she said. ‘Your grandmother and I were very close friends when we were both students at school here.’
    â€˜ You’re Aurora?’ exclaimed Twink. Her thoughts spun wildly. ‘But – but what about all the pranks that you and Gran played, and – and the trouble you got into in your lessons, and – going down into the roots !’
    Miss Shimmery chuckled at her amazement. ‘Neither of us was perfect, it’s true. We were both high-spirited girls – though I might venture to say that it was normally your grandmother who thought up all the trouble we got into!’
    â€˜Oh,’ murmured Twink in a daze. It seemed unbelievable that serene, white-haired Miss Shimmery had once been a young girl at Glitterwings, getting into mischief. And that she had then grown up to be the HeadFairy!
    Miss Shimmery’s expression turned serious again. ‘You were wrong to go down into the roots without telling a teacher, Twink – but I understand why you did it. You won’t be punished.’
    She rose from her mushroom desk. ‘And now I’ll summon a hawk for us. We must hurry, and get this ring to Silvia straight away.’
    â€˜Gran?’ whispered Twink. Her grandmother sat in a chair by the window, gazing listlessly out at the summer evening. She gave no sign that she had heard.
    Twink knelt beside her. ‘Gran, it’s me – Twink!’ She touched her grandmother’s hand.

    The hawk had flown them to her grandmother’s house in record speed. Barely an hour had passed since Twink had sat in Miss Shimmery’s office explaining matters.
    But now her gran didn’t even seem to hear her.
    In the doorway, Twink’s parents stood with Miss Shimmery and the doctor. Twink’s dad had his arm around her mum as they all watched anxiously.
    Twink swallowed hard and tried again. ‘Look, Gran – I’ve brought you something,’ she said. Slipping the ring from her finger, she placed it on her grandmother’s lap.
    At first Gran didn’t seem to notice. Then, with a weary sigh, she looked downwards. Her expression didn’t change.
    â€˜Don’t – don’t you recognise it?’ faltered Twink. ‘It’s your old ring, that you lost when you were a student at Glitterwings! You were so upset at the time . . . Oh, Gran, don’t you remember?’ she pleaded.
    â€˜My . . . ring,’ murmured Gran, gazing down at it.
    â€˜Yes, your ring!’ said Twink’s father, fluttering over next to her. ‘Mum, you’ve told me about it before, remember? And now Twink’s found it for you!’ His hand squeezed Twink’s shoulder.
    â€˜My ring ,’ Gran repeated more strongly. A faint light appeared in her purple eyes. Slowly – so slowly that Twink thought she was only imagining it at first – Gran began to smile.
    Holding the ring up to the light, she turned it this way and that. ‘I never thought I’d see it again,’ she said. ‘My old ring!’
    Twink held her breath as her grandmother’s smile grew and