Clockwork Blue (6 page)

"
Very
well.
"
Glissando sighed and lifted from the rim
.
Wings whirring, h
e halted midair
and gave Nicola a perfect bow.
"
Good evening,
Miss
Diderot
.
"

She couldn
'
t bring herself to talk to the creature her mind had conjured up.

Glissando cocked his head, then turned to his accomplice, and held his hand up to cover his lips.
"
What
'
s wrong with her? She looks rather dim-wit
ted to me.
"

Nicola
realized she was staring with her mouth open. Scowling, she snapped it shut.

Allegro shook his bright
yellow
hea
d.
"
I didn
'
t sign onto this mission to be rude.
"

"
Oh?
"
Glissando smirked.
"
With your carping at her about her clothes, you could have fooled me.
"

Nicola watched Allegro
'
s face turn blood-red, the color contrasting with his bright
yellow
hair.
Could her mind really conjure up such details? Slowly she
reached out and touched Allegro.

He faltered and
yelped
.
"
Watch out! You could knock a fellow sill
y with that huge hand of yours.
"

She rubbed her fingers togeth
er, marveling. It was as if she
'
d touched light,
ye
t solid, tangible light—like a fragment of the sun. As the shock wore off, memories from her childhood flooded
Nicola
'
s mind, memories she
'
d convinced herself had been dreams.

She shook her head in wonder.
"
So, the little Callers do exist. The
pixie tales are true.
"

Glissando
flew close a
nd smiled.
"
Of course,
Miss
Diderot
.
"

"
My surname is not Diderot. It is Moore.
"

The pixie
'
s gaze outlined her face.
"
However, your aura says Diderot. You have Diderot ancestry in your blood, which is much stronger than the Moore surname you claim.
"

What rubbish was the wee fellow spouting? She dismissed his comment, her mind too busy with the fact that the pixies really
did
exist, and that they were here.
"
And you have finally returned.
"

"
A
ye
, we have come.
"

Allegro nudged his comp
anion aside and stared at her.
"
You remember?
"

She glared at him.
"
Of course.
"
Sh
e
'
d gotten a glimpse of
pixie
s when she was
a child of five
ye
ars. And Grandmother Diderot
had
told her about the Legend. But that had been so long ago,
Nicola
had convinced herself it was a child
'
s tale
her
grandmother
had fabricated to soften the harsh realities that made up her grandfather
.

"
So you
really do
remember.
"
Although
Glissando smiled
, Nicola could detect a strain in that grin.

Legends
came flooding back. Even
though she was only
five
ye
ars old, she remembered Granddear
'
s own tale of how devious pixies could be—namely
a pixie called
Glissando.
"
Yes
, I do. And I particularly recall how
Grandmother warned me against you.
"

Glissando
'
s shoulders drooped. Then he
lifted those shoulders and
gazed up
at her
.
"
Lass, I
'
ve changed. A
nd I
'
m here to redeem myself.
"

"
What
'
s this?
"
Allegro
'
s
eyes
widened as he glanced between them.

"
Why are you here?
"
Nicola asked, ignoring the other pixie. Instead, she narrowed her
eyes
at Glissando.

He ran a hand through his hair to flatten it, but the strands only popped up again.
"
To save England.
"

"
Ha! Well, sorry to break the news, but you came too late. England is saved. The war is over. We have the Treaty of Amiens between us and France. In fact, you missed the grand
c
elebrations we had nearly three months
ago.
"

Allegro flew in front
of Glissando to face her, hands on hips.
"
See here. I don
'
t know what
this note slider
did to your grandmother, but
I
wasn
'
t involved. And I tell you that England is still vulnerable
. Napoleon Bonaparte
will
renege on the deal. Your country
will
be a war again, several
terrible war
s that will be named The Napoleonic Wars
, and you are the key to de
feating Napoleon as well as crucial
to a long, prosperous era
following
the wars
.
"

Nicola narrowed her
eyes
at Allegro.
"
And just how am I going to achieve all this magnificence?
"

The pixie
opened his mouth as if to answer. But then he
glanced down at his dangling, curly-toed shoes as if he couldn
'
t look her in the
eyes
.
Soon he darted a look toward his companion
who had landed on the copper lip of an electrified wall sconce
.

"
Go ahead,
hot
shot
,
"
Glissando
leaned against the copper lamp and shrugged.
"
You might as well tell her everything. You
'
ve already compromised our
mission
.
"

"
I didn
'
t like your
schemes
anyway
,
"
Allegro
muttered
and tossed a dark look at his nemesis
.
"
All right, here goes nothing.
"
The
yellow
-haired pixie
'
s chest rose as he took a deep breath
and straightened
, giving Nicola his full attention
.
"
In order for England to win in this upcoming war, you mu
st marry—"

"
Lieutenant
Jethro
Tell
," Glissando interrupted.

Nicola
'
s
eyes
widened as disbelief swept through her.
"
You have got to be jesting.
Another mission to force two humans to wed?
That
'
s
exactly
what happened to Granddear.
"
She whirled on Glissando, standing on her tiptoes so she could glare at him while he still sat on the sconce.
"And what does Lieutenant
Tell
have to do with anything about the war?"
She couldn't imagine the timid man having anything with ending a war or ensuring long post-war prosperity.

"Hello? He's a lieutenant in the Prince Regent's
Calvary
, to be exact. I wasn't clued into all the details, but it's not out of the line of reason to think the poor man could influence England's destiny."