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 around 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 flap-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 Bumblebee 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!”
“Do you know a way out?” Tiffany panted, as they dashed through giant daisies.
“No,” Roland panted back. “There isn’t one. You saw…the dromes outside…this is a really strong dream.”
“Then why are we running?”
“To keep out of her way. If you hide long enough…Sneebs says she…forgets.”
I don’t think she’s going to forget me very quickly, Tiffany thought.
Roland had stopped, but she pulled her hand away and ran onward, with Wentworth clinging to her in silent amazement.
“Where are you going?” shouted Roland behind her.
“I really want to keep out of her way!”
“Come back! You’re running right back!”
“No I’m not! I’m running in a straight line!”
“This is a dream!” Roland shouted, but it was louder now because he was catching up to her. “You’re running right around—”
Tiffany burst into a clearing……the clearing.
The Bumblebee women landed on either side of her, and the Queen stepped forward.
“You know,” said the Queen, “I really expected better of you, Tiffany. Now, give me back the boy, and I shall decide what to do next.”
“It’s not a big dream,” mumbled Roland behind her. “If you go too far, you end up coming back—”
“I could make a dream for you that’s even smaller than you are,” said the Queen pleasantly. “That can be quite painful!”
The colors were brighter. And sounds were louder. Tiffany could smell something, too, and what was strange about that was that up until now there had been no smells.
It was a sharp, bitter smell that you never forgot. It was the smell of snow. And underneath the insect buzzings in the grass, she heard the faintest of voices.
“Crivens! I canna find the way oot!”
CHAPTER 11
Awakening
On the other side of the clearing, where the nut-cracking man had been at work, was the last nut, half as high as Tiffany. And it was rocking gently. The cracker took a swipe at it with the hammer, and it rolled out of the way.
See what’s really there, said Tiffany to herself, and laughed.