The Wee Free Men

Tiffany was in the front row. She was there when the man started to give his verdict, 'um' ing and 'ah' ing, trying not to say the words he knew he'd have to say, when the door at the back of the hall opened and the sheepdogs Thunder and Lightning trotted in.

They came down the aisle between the rows of benches and sat down in front of the Baron, looking bright-eyed and alert.

Only Tiffany craned to see back up the aisle. The doors were still slightly ajar. They were far too heavy even for a strong dog to push them open. And she could just make out someone looking through the crack.

The Baron stopped, and stared. He, too, looked at the other end of the hall.

And then, after a few moments, he pushed the law book aside and said: 'Perhaps we should do this a different way...'

And there was a different way, involving people paying a little more attention to Miss Robinson. It wasn't perfect, and not everyone was happy, but it worked.

Tiffany smelled the scent of Jolly Sailor outside the hall when the meeting was over, and thought about the Baron's dog. 'Remember this day,' Granny Aching had said, and, 'Ye'll have cause to.'

Barons needed reminding...

'Who will speak up for you?' Tiffany said aloud.

'Speak up for me?' answered the Queen, her fine eyebrows arching.

And Tiffany's Third Thoughts said: Watch her face when she is worried.

'There isn't anyone, is there?' said Tiffany, backing away. 'Is there anyone you've been kind to? Anyone who'll say you're not just a thief and a bully? Because that's what you are. You've got a... you're like the dromes, you've just got one trick...'

And there it was. Now she could see what her Third Thoughts had spotted. The Queen's face flickered for a moment.

'And that's not your body,' said Tiffany, plunging on. 'That's just what you want people to see. It's not real. It's just like everything else here, it's hollow and empty—'

The Queen ran forward and slapped her much harder than a dream should be able to. Tiffany landed in the moss and Wentworth rolled away, yelling, 'Wanna go-a toy-lut!'

Good, said Tiffany's Third Thoughts.

'Good?' said Tiffany aloud.

'Good?' said the Queen.

Yes, said the Third Thoughts, because she doesn't know you can have Third Thoughts and your hand is only a few inches from the frying pan and things like her hate iron, don't they? She's angry. Now make her furious, so that she doesn't think. Hurt her.

'You just live here in a land full of winter and all you do is dream of summers,' said Tiffany. 'No wonder the King went away.'

The Queen stood still for a moment, like the beautiful statue she so much resembled. Again, the walking dream flickered and Tiffany thought she saw... something. It was not much bigger than her, and almost human, and a little shabby and, just for a moment, shocked. Then the Queen was back, tall and angry, and she drew a deep breath—

Tiffany grabbed the pan and swung it as she rolled onto her feet. It hit the tall figure only a glancing blow, but the Queen wavered like air over a hot road, and screamed.

Tiffany didn't wait to see what else was going to happen. She grabbed her brother again, and ran away, down through the grass, past the strange figures looking round at the sound of the Queen's anger.

Now shadows moved in the shadowless grasses. Some of the people—the joke people, the ones that looked like a flaps-on-the-pages picture book—changed shape and started to move after Tiffany and her screaming brother.

There was a booming noise on the other side of the clearing. The two huge creatures that Roland had called the Bumble-Bee women were rising off the ground, their tiny wings blurring with the effort.

Somebody grabbed her and pulled her into the grasses. It was Roland.

'Can you get out now?' he demanded, his face red. 'Er...' Tiffany began.

'Then we'd better just run,' he said. 'Give me your hand. Come on!'