Fellowship & Fairydust

By Amanda Pizzolatto (alias Aurora Mandeville)

Word Count: 31845

Rating: PG for scary situations

Summary: Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, is used to being alone, until one day a girl with auburn hair waltzes into his life…

Ida let the kids sleep in her attic for the rest of the night, then, after a quick breakfast, they piled into her boat and she drove to the north side of Venice. Riccio had been questioning whether she would turn them over to the police, but when they stopped, all fear of that quickly vanished; they had arrived at the orphanage. Ida took them to a courtyard and bade them to wait, mentioning that she had to find the person. They made themselves comfortable upon a few logs, apparently put there as a kind of seating arrangement. It wasn’t long before Ida returned with an elderly nun, the two talking excitedly. Once everyone was introduced to Sister Antonia, she began her tale.

“Over a hundred and fifty years ago, a rich merchant gave a merry-go-round to the orphanage. But before the children could enjoy it, it disappeared. All they ever found was a fragment.”

“The wing!” blurted Bo.

Sister Antonia chuckled. “I found it in the attic of the orphanage, and I gave it to Ida to keep safe.” She walked over to where Ida sat, and the two shared an affectionate embrace before the sister walked back to her seat. “I never saw the merry-go-round, but it was said to be unique. It had five wooden figures . . .”

“Yes, I know—a mermaid, the man with the big fork, the seahorse from the fountain, the flying lion, and the uni-um, whatsit.”

“The unicorn.”

“Yes, like that one,” Bo said, pointing.

Everyone looked in the direction he was indicating; a pure white horse went galloping by. Lucy and Nico shared a look; they weren’t exactly sure, but they thought they had seen something of a horn sticking out from the middle of its forehead. Lucy turned back to the nun, straining to keep her excitement contained, whilst Nico felt downhearted. They were going to get into a lot of trouble because of this merry-go-round.

“Bo, how did you know all this?”

“Mom told me.”

Then Scipio finally asked the question of the day. “Sister, what made the merry-go-round so special?”

“It had magical powers.”

Nico sucked in a breath. Anything called “magical” that didn’t come from the gods was something that a demigod should stay well away from. Who knows where it had come from, and there was no guarantee that his father could protect him or even help him.

“What did it do?” asked Hornet.

“A child could go round and round and round, and it became a grown-up. A grown-up could go round and round and round, and become a child.”

“Sister, please tell me, is that really true?”

“Of course, my great-great-grandmother saw it.”

“But does anyone know exactly what happened to the merry-go-round since then? Has anyone tried to find out?”

“Oh, we’ve tried, my child, but we couldn’t find anything besides the wing. Ida and I searched the grounds for years, looking in places up to four times, but we never found anything. I even looked one last time when she left, but there was still nothing. If anything, the merry-go-round was stolen because of its powers, and whoever stole it took its hiding place to the grave. It might still be in Venice; there are lots of islands with plenty of secrets hanging around. If you want to find it, check there first.”

“We never said we were looking for it, we were just curious about the story of the wing.”

Sister Antonia smiled. “Maybe it’s looking for you.”

A chill went up and down Nico’s spine, right before he tensed up. His dark eyes quickly scanned the courtyard, and saw the top of a pair of stone wings just above the wall behind them. He quickly looked away, then looked back. They were gone. He tapped Lucy’s shoulder and pointed to where the wings had now appeared again. She quickly looked and glanced at him, all the excitement gone from her face. They glanced around for the wings again, but when they couldn’t see them, knew that there wasn’t much time to lose.  Nico quickly strolled over to Scipio and whispered in his ear.

“We need to get out of here, now!”

“One of your monsters?”

“Worse, I’ll explain later, but I can say this—we’re not the only ones after the merry-go-round.”

Scipio looked at Nico for a bit, then nodded. He turned to Sister Antonia and gave her a big smile. “Thank you, sister, perhaps we shall look for the merry-go-round, after all. We’d better get going on it if we want to find it before we’ve gotten too old.”

The sister chuckled. “Of course, well, I hope you liked the story, and I wish you good luck on your little adventure. May God bless you all.” She rose and went on her way, but not before giving Ida another affectionate embrace.

Nico was growing impatient as the others stretched before slowly, but surely, meandering out of the courtyard. Once they reached the exit, he quickly looked in all directions, but no sign of the stone angel could be seen. He breathed a little bit, for they might leave them alone long enough for the children to find the merry-go-round before they would come in and snatch the priceless treasure.

But they now had the information they were looking for, and a conclusion. “The Conte must know where the merry-go-round is; it doesn’t make sense, otherwise. I bet he believes that if he reattaches the wing, it will actually work.”

“Actually work, like the sister said?”

“If it actually works, I’ll find it,” Scipio declared. “I’ll find it, ride it, and I’ll only get off when I’m taller than my father.”

Nico glanced at Scipio; he was clearly in earnest. Maybe he should try it as well; they were always saying he seemed older than what he was. They piled back into Ida’s boat and she got it going back to her house.

“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “I’ll give you the wing. You take it to the Conte and get your reward, but I want to come with you. We’ll follow the Conte and he’ll lead us to the merry-go-round.”

“We’ll do as Ida says,” Scipio decided.

“Who asked you?” Riccio sneered. “Go home, Thief Lord, go back to that big posh house you live in.”

“Hey! Fighting won’t do us any good right now.” Hornet berated him. “I’m as cross with him as you are, but he’s right.”

Nico gave a little smirk. “Besides Riccio, you forget that the Conte spoke directly to the Thief Lord. If Scipio doesn’t show up, he might suspect something.”

“Why don’t you go as the Thief Lord? You look pretty similar.”

“But I certainly don’t sound the same, nor do I speak the same way as Scipio. The Conte’s no fool. If we’re going to do this, we’ll need Scipio’s help.”

“Well, the quiet angel has spoken,” Ida put in, “and you know what they say, you should obey the word of an angel.”

Nico glanced at the others, Lucy the only one besides him not quite happy with the new nickname. “Please don’t call me that, Ida, I know of others far more quiet.”

“Oh, not only dark and mysterious, but you have great knowledge as well. Fine, I won’t call you that. However, I hope you don’t mind my dropping a few references to Lord Byron in your presence. You’re the type of boy he would immortalize and all of his fans would idolize.”

“Lord Byron?”

“Don’t read much, do you? Well, it looks like I know what to get you for Christmas.” She grinned at Nico’s surprise.

Nothing more was said until they returned to the Stellar, Ida having dropped them off back at their boat which took them the rest of the way. Once there, Scipio told them what needed to be done.

“Free the pigeon tomorrow morning and head to Barbarossa’s on the day after. I’ll be in around noon to get the info. Nico, once you have the info, make sure Ida knows the date and time so we can meet at her house. I’m sorry about not telling you sooner, but, well, I thought you wouldn’t trust me or like me anymore once you knew.”

“Well, we don’t exactly trust you, Scip, but that don’t mean we don’t like you,” said Hornet. She glanced at Riccio, who sighed and rolled his eyes before giving a little nod.

“Right, besides, with that dad of yours, I can understand wanting to get out of the house from time to time, even stealing from him to make him mad,” put in Prop.

Scipio smiled sadly, “Thanks, guys. I’ll make it up to you someday, I promise. Now I’d better get going before my dad begins to wonder why I’m out so late, again. See you Saturday!”

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