You’d have thought that the one perk of being forced to work in a garden in some kind of alternative universe would be that there would be new and interesting things to look at.  No such luck.  This place looked like every miserable allotment Jeanette had been  dragged to in primary school when the teachers had decided the kids needed to get some dirt under their fingernails.  Rows and rows of tangled bushes in such a dull shade of green that it was almost grey, and hundreds of sickly-looking carroty-parsnip things to pull up and put in the basket until your back ached like buggery.

She probably noticed the feather because it was the only thing in sight with any actual colour in it.  A vibrant red (or, at least, it looked vibrant against all the grey) fading to dark pink near the top.  On a whim, Jeanette picked it up and put it behind her ear.  After a few minutes, she more-or-less forgot it was there.

*

They were taken back into that weird red dining room to report to the family, and Lady Sameander noticed the feather right away.

She jabbed her finger in Jeanette’s direction.  “That feather.  Where did you get it?”

Jeanette shrugged.  Where do you think I got it, you daft old cow?  “The garden.”

She put out a hand.  “Give it to me.  Now.”

It had been a long day, and Jeanette was too tired to argue.  She took it out from behind her ear and handed it over.  “There you go.”

Lady Sameander stared at it for a few seconds, then leaned over to her husband and whispered frantically.  He said something back, but no matter how hard Jeanette tried to hear what it was, she couldn’t.  After a few back-and-forths, the High Priest turned back to Jeanette and her sisters.  “Did you see the bird this came from?”

Jeanette thought about it.  “No.”

“You must have.  It would have been looking for food in the berry bushes.  It wouldn’t have looked like any of the other birds around here- it would have been red with a golden crest on its head.”

Jeanette shrugged.

“It’s important.”

“Sorry,” said Jeanette, “I didn’t see it.”

Apparently deciding that Jeanette either really hadn’t seen the bird or was too stupid to realise that she had, the High Priest gave a long, irritated sigh.  “I want you to look through the grounds for the bird.  Red, with a golden crest.  We need it back.”

Jeanette nodded.  “Can my sisters come and help?”

“If they must.  But the important thing is to find it.”  He jabbed a finger at Jeanette’s face, just like his wife had a minute ago.  “Don’t stop until you’ve found it.  If you come back without it, There will be consequences.”

*

For the first twenty minutes or so, they tried their best to move stealthily.  Then, about halfway down the hill, they realised that nobody was following them.

“So… are they just going to let us wander off?” asked Sally, who was still taking care to stay near her sisters as they walked.

“I think so,” said Jeanette.  She’d barely let herself think about what they were doing until now, in case she jinxed it somehow.  But now, it all seemed to fit.  “I don’t think it occurred to them that we wouldn’t do as we were told.  I think they’re too used to getting their own way.”  She glanced over at Rube, who wasn’t twitching and checking behind her as much as she’d have expected.  “Remember how surprised that servant woman was when I told her to kiss my arse?”

“When you told Lady Sameander to kiss your arse,” murmured Rube.  She seemed to be getting the idea.

“Exactly.  We’d just been kidnapped and locked in a cell, and she was surprised that we didn’t want to do a job for her boss.”  Jeanette hadn’t thought about it before, but now she actually felt bad for the shocked servant woman.  It was probably one of those jobs where they docked your pay for not smiling enough when people yelled at you.

From here, they could see the field they’d had lunch in yesterday. Obviously they weren’t safe there, if the High Priest’s weird little army thought they could arrest them for trespassing just for having a picnic, but a little further and they’d be back on the path.

“I hope Kai’s able to find us,” said Rube, after a while.

“It’ll be fine,” said Sally, “He knows we’re heading to Opal Hill.”

“I just hope we can find it without the map.”

(To be continued)