Puck scowled. “I have not lost my touch for mischief! I invented mischief!”
“These days you seem to act more like a good little boy than someone called the Trickster King. In fact, I’m surprised that people don’t mistake you for that other beloved flying boy that won’t grow up. What’s his name?”
“Don’t you say it!” Puck warned.
“I know who you’re talking about,” Daphne added, winking at her uncle. “The one that hangs out with the little girl and her brothers. He can fly, too. What’s his name?”
“I mean it! Don’t you say his name in front of me. That guy is a washed-up has-been. Don’t you even compare us!”
“Oh, I remember,” Uncle Jake said. “You’re acting like Peter—”
Puck let out an angry bellow. “FINE!” he shouted. “I’ll go with you but let’s get something straight. I am not some goofy flying boy in green tights. I am the Trickster King: the spiritual leader of hooligans, good-for-nothings, pranksters, and class clowns. I am a villain feared worldwide and don’t you forget it.”
“Of course you are,” Uncle Jake said.
Two enormous insectlike wings popped out of Puck’s back. They stood taller than his body, and when he flapped them, the wind they created blew Sabrina’s hair around. He buzzed right over Sabrina’s and Daphne’s heads, snatching the girls off their feet and whisking them out the open bedroom window. Sabrina saw her uncle wave good-bye as she soared over the forest, bright with the setting sun’s palette of oranges, reds, and yellows.
he Mid-Hudson Public Library was a small, squat building not far from the train station. Its parking lot was empty, as was the lot for the tiny auditorium next to it. When humans had lived in the town, the little library had been a bustling community center. Now that they were gone, it was lonely and dark. It reminded Sabrina of the westerns her mother loved to watch on television. They all seemed to be set in the same barren ghost town. The library had the same abandoned feel. She expected tumbleweeds to roll by at any moment.
Puck lowered the girls to the ground outside the library’s front door, and his wings tucked themselves back under his hoodie. He sniffed the air and crinkled up his nose.
“I smell books,” he said, repulsed.
“That’s probably because this is a library,” Sabrina said, rolling her eyes. “It’s full of books.”
“No way! Why didn’t you warn me?”
“What did you think a library was?” Daphne asked.
“I don’t know,” Puck cried. “I was hoping it was a place where men fought tigers with their bare hands. I should have known better. You guys never want to do anything fun.”
“Oh, you’re not going to be bored in here,” Daphne said.
“Yeah, I’m warning you in advance,” Sabrina said to the fairy boy. “You need to stay alert in here. The librarian is sort of unpredictable.”
“We should have brought the football helmets,” Daphne said to her sister.
Sabrina nodded. “You’re right. We keep forgetting.”
“You two are teasing me,” Puck complained.
“Fine! Don’t believe us,” Sabrina said. “You’ll see soon enough.”
She led them through the front door. Inside, the library was a disastrous mess. Books, magazines, and newspapers lay scattered about the floor as if a cyclone had blown them off their shelves. Everywhere she looked, Sabrina saw piles of papers and overturned chairs but not a single soul.
Puck’s face turned green as if he was about to be sick. “Look at all the learning,” he moaned. “I’m going to lose my lunch.”
Sabrina grabbed his hand and pulled him down an aisle lined with packed bookshelves. “Let’s just find what we’re looking for and get out of here. If we’re lucky we won’t have to see the librarian at all.”
Daphne took one side and Sabrina took the other, scanning the titles as they walked and hoping they might stumble upon a book of international flags. They found nothing, so they headed up another aisle. As they searched, Puck gagged.
“Can you give it a rest?” Sabrina asked.
“The smell is horrible! Books reek!” Puck cried. “It’s so bad I can almost taste them.”
“Stop being a baby,” Daphne said. Her tone startled Sabrina. She had never heard the little girl scold anyone, especially Puck. Daphne usually thought everything he said or did was hilarious. Worse still was the expression on her sister’s face. Daphne was impatiently rolling her eyes again. It was the rudest thing Sabrina had ever seen her do and it made her furious. She was just about to give her sister a lecture on manners when she heard someone whistling happily from across the room. Sabrina groaned. The librarian had found them.
“Is that the lunatic you were talking about?” Puck said, searching for the owner of the whistle.