by Tom Percival
Red nodded.
‘I think my magic’s broken,’ said
Cole. ‘All of the other fairies tease me – none of my spells ever come out right, and they never last very long either.’
‘I’m sure you’ll get better at it when you’re a bit bigger . . .’ said Red.
‘Maybe,’ said Cole sadly. ‘Promise you won’t tell Ella! I’m her Fairy Godbrother . . .’ He sniffed loudly. ‘If she knew my magic was broken she’d swap me for a better one!’
He looked so upset that Red ran over and gave him a hug. ‘Come on, Cole, cheer up! Ella would never do that!’
‘What are you two whispering about?’ asked Ella as she walked back into the room. Cole stared at Red in a ‘You promised!’ sort of way.
‘Oh, nothing . . .’ said Red casually. ‘Wow! I love that dress!’
‘Thank you!’ beamed Ella. She patted down the collection of rags she was wearing. They looked even dirtier than the clothes she had just changed out of.
‘This is my very best dress, for special occasions!’ Ella swept her hair back elegantly, leaving a grimy smudge across her face.
‘Very nice!’ said Red with a slight grin. ‘So . . . how do we get out of here?’
Jack, Anansi and Rapunzel sat on the floor in a completely bare room with one heavily barred window high above and a securely locked door. Betsy had scrambled up to the windowsill and was peering sadly out.
When the dragon had first dumped them on the floor of the courtyard, Jack had been so relieved to still be alive. He had felt a renewed passion for life and promised that he would make the most of every single moment from then on.
That was before the guards had collected them and marched them up to this completely empty cell at the top of the tower. Now Jack was worried that he might die of boredom instead.
‘What do you think Red’s doing?’ he asked. ‘I hope she’s OK.’
‘That must be the bazillionth time you’ve asked that!’ said Rapunzel. ‘As I’ve said every other time, I’ve got no idea, and Yes, me too.’
‘Oh,’ said Jack. ‘Sorry. I’m just a bit bored. Hey! Shall we play a game? Yeah! Come on, guys! Hmmm, how about . . . I-spy?’
Rapunzel rolled her eyes and Anansi seemed to be grinding his teeth. Even Betsy was scowling.
Rapunzel rolled her eyes and Anansi seemed to be grinding his teeth. Even Betsy was scowling.
‘I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with . . .’ Jack looked around the empty room. ‘W!’
‘Walls,’ said Rapunzel without even looking up. Jack sighed and they all fell silent again. Moments later there was a quiet hiss behind the door.
‘Probably just those guards again,’ said Jack.
But he was wrong.
Coils of foul-smelling smoke drifted under the door and gathered in the middle of the room. They danced in a dizzying whirl until they had taken the shape of a person. Then the smoke vanished, leaving in its place a very wicked-looking witch.
Rapunzel stood up furiously. ‘You can’t keep us here! I’m a princess! When my father hears about—’
The witch clicked her fingers and Rapunzel’s voice vanished – she opened and shut her mouth furiously, but no sound came out at all.
‘Nobody will hear anything from you for a while,’ the witch said. ‘Now, what on EARTH would possess you to think that you, a group of children –’ she spat the last word as if it were poisonous – ‘could break into my castle?’
‘You’ve got my mum,’ said Anansi. ‘You kidnapped her!’
‘And what would I want with your mum?’ sneered the witch. ‘Does she have powerful magic? Is she extremely rare or precious?’
‘Yes!’ replied Anansi glaring at her.
The witch’s eyes lit up. ‘Really?’ she asked. ‘How?’
‘She’s my mum,’ replied Anansi.
The witch sighed. ‘Well, this is all terribly sentimental, but I can assure you, your mother isn’t here.’
‘You’re lying!’ shouted Anansi. ‘We followed the huntsman’s trail, right to this castle!’
‘Ahh!’ said the witch, a smile creasing her face unpleasantly. ‘I see!’ She began to laugh. ‘The troll? Am I right? Oh, well that’s just splendid!’
‘So . . . will you let her go?’ asked Anansi.
‘Of course not!’ snorted the witch. ‘But it’s good to have that mystery cleared up.’ She was about to say something else when a buzzing noise came out of her pocket, getting louder by the second. The witch reached into her gown and pulled out a glowing crystal ball, which she inspected closely. At first her mouth curled angrily, then it lifted at the corners and stretched into a cruel smile.
‘Well, that’ll save me a job!’ she said with an evil cackle.
‘What will?’ asked Anansi.
‘Now that is none of your business!’ replied the witch. She laughed one more horrible laugh, turned back into smoke and drifted away through the cracks around the door.
‘Whaaat!’ said Betsy after a moment’s silence.
‘I know,’ agreed Jack. ‘She wasn’t very nice at all. Even so, there’s no need to use bad language!’
Red crept along a tiny passageway behind Ella, with Cole’s faint glow leading the way. Thick curtains of spider webs brushed her and she could feel scurrying shapes dart past in the darkness.
‘It’s such a mess down here!’ whispered Ella. ‘These tunnels really could do with a spring clean!’
‘You don’t say,’ muttered Red as something cold, wet and slimy stuck to the side of her face. She grimaced as she pulled it off and tossed it behind her.
‘Still, they’re the only way I can get around the castle without the witch knowing,’ continued Ella. ‘Now, wait a second, I’ll just check the room’s empty, then we can sneak out and search the rest of the floor.’ Everything went silent for a moment, then Ella whispered, ‘Come on, the coast’s clear!’ Red moved forward and tumbled into a creepy-looking chamber. Animal skeletons, spikes and cauldrons were obviously ‘in’ this season.
Ella and Red tiptoed towards the door, but they could hear two guards having an argument on the other side.
‘Try it. You’ll love it!’
‘It’s just a banana with some almonds stuck in. It’s not a new food.’
‘It is! I’ve called it an Alm-ana.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘What foods have you ever invented?’
‘Loads!’
‘Like what?’
‘Well, one time I took a handful of almonds and poked them into a banana. I called it a Ban-almond.’
‘That sounds horrible!’
‘It was really tasty, actually! Far nicer than your stupid Alm-ana.’
Red looked over at Ella. ‘We don’t have time for this!’ she whispered.
Ella nodded. ‘Cole, can you get rid of those guards?’
‘Let see . . .’ said Cole thoughtfully. He started a wild dance, spinning through the air until he was just a glowing blur. Suddenly he stopped in a bizarre pose, his face a mask of intense concentration. He clicked his fingers three times and muttered some magic words.
Outside the door Red heard two loud shrieks.
‘My hair! It’s falling out!’
‘My beard won’t stop growing!’
There was the muffled sound of two men running away through a sea of beard hair, then silence.
Slowly Ella inched the door open and peered out. ‘It worked!’ she said. ‘They’re gone! Good work, Cole!’
‘It’s not as easy as it looks, you know!’ replied Cole, then leaned in and whispered to Red, ‘I was trying to turn them statues!’
Red, Ella and Cole had explored countless rooms on the castle’s many floor and had so far rescued none of Red’s friends. They had however stopped in each room so that Ella could sweep out a fireplace or do some dusting, and in one instance scrub the whole floor.
They were creeping down a long, winding corridor when Red suddenly shrieked, ‘Ou
ch! Something bit me!’
‘Sorry!’ muttered Ella.
‘You bit me?’ gasped Red.
‘It was a needle,’ explained Ella. ‘There’s a hole in your hood, so I thought I’d patch it up.’
‘While we’re in the middle of a rescue mission?’ cried Red.
‘Of course!’ replied Ella. ‘Or it might get even bigger!’
‘Look, Ella, you’ve got to stop all the tidying!’ snapped Red. ‘We don’t have . . .’ She stopped when she noticed Cole waving frantically at them both.
‘Guards!’ he whispered.
Red froze. The corridor had no doorways, no windows, no nothing – there was nowhere to hide.
‘Just keep cutting it!’ said a voice from the bend behind them.
‘I do,’ replied another. ‘But it keeps growing back.’
‘I KNOW,’ said the first voice. ‘It keeps tripping me up. That’s why you need to keep cutting it!’
‘You’re just jealous of my beard because you’ve gone bald!’
‘I’m not jealous!’ said the first voice. ‘I just don’t know why the boss won’t reverse the spell – she’s so mean!’
‘Of course she’s mean!’ snapped the second voice. ‘She’s a wicked witch!’
‘Cole!’ hissed Ella. ‘Do something. Anything!’
The Fairy Godbrother thought for a moment, then he leaped into the air and performed another chaotic dance. There was a puff of smoke and a door appeared in the wall next to them. On it hung a hastily painted sign reading:
‘Where’s “the fewchur”?’ whispered Red.
‘No idea!’ replied Ella. ‘But it’s either there or the guards take us to the dungeons!’ She opened the door and they all leaped through.
Red was extremely surprised to discover that door led back to exactly where they had just come from – except the guards were no longer behind them, they were just in front. Red held her breath and tried to be as quiet as possible.
The smaller guard was completely bald and carrying a plate piled with mouldy bread. The bigger guard held a large pair of shears, which he used every few seconds to chop off his fast-growing beard.
‘Why’d she have to put those kids in the highest room in the tower?’ grumbled the bald guard as they walked away. ‘Why not down in the dungeon with that troll and the rest of ’em? I’ll bet it was just so that we have to keep going up and down to take ’em their food. You know, just to make us that little bit more miserable . . . I’m starting to think she really hates me . . .’
‘She’s not the only one,’ muttered the bearded guard as they disappeared around a bend.
‘That’s the furthest I’ve EVER been able to go!’ whispered Cole excitedly, ‘Eight WHOLE seconds into the future! AMAZING!’
Red smiled as she realized what ‘To the fewchur’ meant. ‘Well done, Cole!’ she said, ruffling his blue hair. ‘And now we know where my friends are too.’
Jack looked around the room. There had to be something that he’d missed – something he hadn’t noticed yet . . . It couldn’t end like this! Then he saw it – a tiny screw, dug into the cement around the door frame – and his face lit up. This was it: just what he needed!
Jack grinned. ‘I spy, with my little—’
‘NO!’ yelled Anansi. ‘No more, Jack! Please no more. It’s either: wall, floor, floorboard, brick, nail, door, doorway, window or cement. We’ve been playing I-spy for FIVE HOURS now and I. Can’t. Take it. ANY MORE!’
‘It wasn’t any of those things, actually,’ Jack muttered. ‘It was “screw”.’
A sudden squeak beneath his feet distracted him. He looked down at the wooden floor which had suddenly started shaking.
‘Do you think it’s the witch again?’ asked Jack.
Rapunzel shrugged and started trying to mime that she really needed to get her voice back, but to Jack it just looked like she was pretending to eat a bowl of imaginary spaghetti.
‘Sorry?’ said Jack. ‘What was that?’
Rapunzel’s shoulders slumped as the floor shook again, more powerfully this time.
Everyone leaped back as an explosion of floorboards shot up in a cloud of dust, followed by a glowing, see-though boy!
‘Whaaaat?’ screeched Betsy.
‘I don’t know!’ replied Jack. Then he looked down at the hole in the floor – there was someone else down there! ‘Red!’ he yelled, running forward to help her up. ‘You’re all right!’
‘Of course!’ said Red, grinning. ‘I only got chased by a dragon, fell through a roof, narrowly avoided DEATH, travelled to the future and escaped the guards. It’s just as well, really, otherwise you’d never be getting out of here!’
She turned to help pull Ella up too.
‘But what happened?’ asked Anansi. ‘Who’s this? How did you find us?’
‘Well, that’s all thanks to Ella and Cole,’ replied Red, pointing at her two new friends. ‘Ella’s got a network of secret tunnels that lead all through the castle. And not only that – we know where your mum is!’
‘What?’ exclaimed Anansi. ‘How?’
‘There’s no time right now!’ said Red. ‘We’ve got to get out of here!’
There was the sound of someone frantically jumping up and down and clapping their hands together.
‘Why are you doing that?’ Red asked Rapunzel.
‘She lost her voice,’ whispered Jack. ‘Well, I guess it was more stolen, but still, you know . . .’
Rapunzel glared at Jack, then took a deep breath and wrote a message in the dust on the floor: ‘Seriously? You expect me to crawl through that filthy tunnel?’
‘Ah . . . you must be Rapunzel?’ said Cole, with a quick smile at Red. ‘I’ve heard all about you. Well, don’t worry, I can cast a spell that means no dirt will touch you – and you’ll get your voice back!’
‘You can do magic?’ said Jack eagerly.
‘Ahem . . . well, sort of . . .’ fumbled Cole, before beginning again. ‘I mean, yeah of course!’
‘Cool!’ said Anansi and Jack.
‘OK, well, do your thing, Cole,’ replied Ella. ‘But be quick, the witch doesn’t know we’re here – yet – but it’s only a matter of time.’
‘It is not funny,’ snapped Rapunzel, glaring at Cole as they crawled down the dusty tunnel.
‘It is a bit funny,’ said Jack quietly.
‘It is not,’ repeated Rapunzel firmly. Above her, a small cloud produced a steady rain of rabbit droppings.
‘I’m with Rapunzel,’ muttered Anansi from behind her. ‘These rabbit poos are everywhere – I keep squashing my hands into them!’
‘It was an accident!’ protested Cole. ‘Ella was hurrying me along and . . . well, I got it wrong . . . I’m sorry.’ His voice brightened. ‘Hopefully it won’t last too much longer – and at least you got your voice back.’
‘I suppose,’ said Rapunzel with a sigh. ‘So how much longer do we have to crawl along this filthy tunnel?’
‘Not much,’ said Ella. ‘Everyone, be quiet – we’re getting near the exit.’
They crawled on; the only sound was the gentle pitter-patter of rabbit poo falling on Rapunzel’s head.
At the end, Ella peered out to check for guards. Then, one by one, they shuffled out of the tunnel, rubbing their sore knees and, in Anansi’s case, wiping his hands on his trousers.
‘This way . . .’ whispered Ella, leading the group to a narrow staircase. ‘The dungeons are in the very bottom of the castle, and this is the only way down.’
As they walked through the maze of corridors that made up the dungeons, Red shuddered; there was something so cold and horrible about this place, plus it smelt bad – really bad.
All the doors they passed were locked, but when they peered in, every cell was empty.
‘So . . . where’s my mum?’ whispered Anansi.
‘I don’t know . . .’ replied Ella. ‘It’s weird, isn’t it? The witch has been capturing hundreds of magicals creatures – so where are they all?’
They crept on until they saw a faint light flickering ahead in the darkness.
‘That way, I guess,’ whispered Red.
The passageway curled round to the left, so they couldn’t see what lay ahead until they found themselves staring into a huge circular chamber at the heart of the dungeons. The stone walls rose up high overhead with a huge central pillar that held up the vaulted ceiling. Chained up in a huge cell opposite them was a troll – Anansi’s mother.
‘Mum!’ Anansi called out, running towards her. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you out!’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that!’ A cruel voice rang out as the witch appeared inside a glowing ring circling the central pillar. The ring was made up of strange signs and symbols that shifted and danced in the dim light.
The witch muttered a few words under her breath and Red felt the ground tremble as a stone slab crashed down, blocking off the passage they had come through and trapping them in the dungeon. The trembling went on as large sections of the circular wall spun slowly around, revealing hundreds of stone cells, each with a different magical creature chained up inside. There was the dragon that had captured them earlier, a three-headed dog with saliva dripping from its fangs, a golem, a griffin, a hydra, a rather depressed-looking unicorn and many, many more.
‘Behold!’ screeched the witch. ‘The makings of my magical army!’
Then she laughed and laughed and laughed, until the echo of her laughter drowned out any other sound.