Enchanted Palace

by Rosie Banks

  A shower of purple glitter spread through the air and settled on the performers. But they still couldn’t stop laughing.

  “Malice’s magic is much too powerful for me. We’re going to have to cancel the performance.” Trixi shook her head in despair. “It was supposed to be the grand opening to the party. King Merry’s palace is usually full of laughter — and Queen Malice has turned that into a bad thing. King Merry will be heartbroken.”

  “Wait,” Jasmine said. “We can’t let Queen Malice win. Maybe magic isn’t the only way to stop her.”

  “What do you mean, Jasmine?” Summer asked.

  “The four of us can put on the show ourselves,” Jasmine announced.

  Ellie nodded, a smile stretching across her face. “If you can get me some paint and brushes,” she said, “I can easily paint some new scenery.”

  “And I can write you a song to perform, Jasmine,” Summer offered.

  Jasmine glanced over at the giggling performers. “I think we’ll need a dance as well. I can make something up.”

  Trixi’s face bloomed with happiness. “And I’ll help you all in any way I can! First, paint and brushes!” Trixi tapped her ring and instantly several brushes and pots of bright colors appeared.

  Ellie knelt down and gathered them up. “Perfect!” She hurried over to the stage, stepping over a giggling elf. There were six backdrops at the rear of the stage. Ellie shook her head in disgust as she saw that they had all been covered with big splashes of black paint.

  Ellie squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember all the wonderful places she’d seen from the back of her swan. In no time at all she had painted a whole new scene showing the mermaids she had seen in the beautiful greenish-blue sea.

  “One down, five to go,” Ellie said to herself determinedly.

  Meanwhile, Jasmine had started practicing some tricky dance moves. Her face was serious as she concentrated on making the steps as polished as possible.

  Summer chewed on a pencil as she tried to think of lyrics for a new song. She looked up at the sky, hoping that the words might jump into her head. Her eyes widened. Even though it was daytime and the sun was shining, she could also see shooting stars and the moon glowing brightly in the sky. She blinked as she saw a face appear in the white surface of the moon and wink down at her. Summer smiled and eagerly scribbled something down. She knew exactly what the song’s chorus would be!

  Trixi whizzed between the girls, helping out where she could. Finally, the scenery, dance, and song were all finished.

  “We’ve sorted out the show, but what about the poor performers?” kindhearted Summer asked. She nodded at the actors, stagehands, and musicians, who were still lying on the ground giggling.

  “At least they’re happy!” Trixi smiled as an elf gave a squeal of laughter. “But we need to get them backstage — and quickly! The king’s guests will be here soon.” She tapped her ring and conjured up some floating stretchers, which carried off the giggling performers. Trixi and the girls quickly followed them.

  From the wings of the stage, they watched as the guests took their seats. The audience let out a huge cheer as King Merry arrived, wearing his ceremonial robes, which were so long they almost tripped him as he walked!

  Trixi floated behind him, holding up the end of his robes like a wedding dress as he made his way to his seat, looking very excited.

  Trixi tapped her ring and two spotlights burst to life. “It’s showtime!” she said.

  Jasmine took a deep breath and marched out onto the stage. She felt braver when she saw Ellie’s beautiful backdrops, with their paintings of mermaids, glittering golden beaches, and snowcapped mountains.

  From the wings, Summer and Ellie peered into the crowd. They had never seen an audience like it. To the right, there were two real-life unicorns. To the left, a group of fairies with bright shimmering wings whispered excitedly. In the front row were the youngest pixies, elves, dwarfs, and imps.

  On the stage, Jasmine didn’t have long to take it all in. She had to start the show.

  “Thank you for coming here from all over the Secret Kingdom,” Jasmine called out. “Welcome to the start of King Merry’s birthday party!” She threw her arms wide, just as she’d seen performers do on TV. The audience cheered in approval. Whispers rippled through the crowd.

  Trixi grinned at Summer and Ellie. “The crowd loves her! I don’t think they’ve ever seen a human girl before.”

  “We have quite a show for you tonight,” Jasmine continued. “But first I must tell you about something that almost stopped it from going ahead at all.”

  King Merry’s face went pale, but Jasmine caught his eye and winked reassuringly. She swiftly explained how Queen Malice’s magic had given the royal performers a bad case of the giggles and damaged the scenery.

  “My friends Summer, Ellie, Trixi, and I have put together a new show for you!” Jasmine said with a flourish. “We’re not going to let Queen Malice ruin the king’s birthday, are we?”

  “NOOOOO!” the crowd roared.

  “That’s the spirit!” Jasmine said, beaming at the crowd. “We have a very special song for the king. But before I start, I think I need some backup singers. Summer and Ellie, will you come out and join me?”

  Summer felt her cheeks go warm. She reached up quickly to twirl one of her braids. “I can’t perform in front of all those people,” she whispered.

  “Yes, you can,” Ellie urged. “Come on!” She dragged Summer onto the stage, and Trixi conjured up microphones for them both.

  Jasmine grinned at her friends. “Trixi? Hit it!”

  Trixi tapped her ring, and all at once the instruments floated up from the sides of the stage and began to play a cheerful melody. With one more burst of glitter from Trixi’s ring, another sparkly microphone appeared in the air, and Jasmine caught it.

  The three girls began to sing Summer’s song. It was all about the Secret Kingdom and the places the king loved best. The audience thought it was wonderful and soon started singing along with the chorus:

  “The Secret Kingdom

  is a magical place,

  Even the moon has a smiley face.

  The king’s birthday will

  be a day of fun,

  Malice’s meanness will be undone.”

  While the instruments kept playing, Jasmine handed her microphone to Ellie and began her dance routine. Her dark hair whipped all around her as she skipped across the stage.

  The crowd clapped wildly in approval.

  Ellie gave Summer a big grin. “We’ve done it. We’ve stopped Queen Malice from ruining the party and —”

  SPLAT!

  Ellie was interrupted by something hitting the scenery.

  She and Summer looked up. Six strange-looking creatures with spiky hair, batlike wings, and ugly faces had swooped down into the open-air theater, riding on mini thunderclouds. Their eyes were shining with mischief and their mouths were twisted into angry scowls.

  Jasmine hadn’t noticed them yet because she was far too busy dancing. But Summer could see that in their hands they held big fat raindrops, which they began hurling toward the stage!

  “Trixi!” Summer hissed, beckoning to the pixie, who was hovering nearby. “Who are they?”

  “Oh no!” Trixi’s face fell. “Those are Storm Sprites, Queen Malice’s servants.” The pixie looked worried. “And if we get hit by one of their misery drops, we’ll be made as sad and mean as she is.”

  “We’ve got to stop them!” Ellie cried.

  Summer nodded and looked over at Jasmine. A misery drop was whizzing straight toward her!

  “Jasmine!” shouted Summer. “Duck!”

  Jasmine heard the warning just in time and dove to the ground as the misery drop sailed over her head, missing her by inches. Immediately she jumped back to her feet and tap-danced on the spot, trying to keep the show going.

  “Those are Queen Malice’s Storm Sprites!” Ellie called to her, pointing up at the sky toward where the creatures we
re hovering.

  Trixi flew over to Jasmine. “We have to get off the stage. Getting hit by one of those misery drops would be really bad news.”

  Jasmine kept on tap-dancing. “We can’t stop,” she said. “We can’t let them ruin everything!”

  From the stage, Ellie and Summer saw King Merry fall out of his chair as he dodged one of the Storm Sprites’ misery drops.

  Drops were now splashing into the audience, causing little rain clouds to spring up over everyone’s heads. Soon unicorns, pixies, and elves were all looking miserable.

  Up on the stage, Jasmine began to dance faster. “Hey, sprites!” she called. “Bet you can’t get me!”

  The six Storm Sprites narrowed their eyes and flew toward her.

  “We’re going to soak you!” one of the sprites said with a sneer. “Splish, splash, splosh!” He hurled a misery drop at Jasmine, but she jumped out of the way.

  “Careful!” another sprite screeched. “You almost got me.” The two sprites began to argue.

  “That’s it!” Jasmine said to herself. “If we can get the sprites to throw the drops at one another, we can turn their magic back on them!”

  “Jasmine, come on!” Summer called as she and Ellie dodged and dived to avoid the misery drops splattered around them. “Duck!”

  But Jasmine stood absolutely still.

  “Jasmine, what are you doing?” Ellie called.

  “Quick, get beside me and wait for my shout,” Jasmine said. To her left she could see three Storm Sprites whizzing toward her on their rain clouds, misery drops raised. Another three were coming at her from the right. Ellie and Summer raced over to stand next to her.

  “They’re going to splash us!” Ellie cried.

  “One . . . two . . . three . . . DUCK!” Jasmine shouted.

  All three girls dropped to the ground just as all the sprites released their misery drops. There was a great SPLAT, and then a series of loud wails. All six sprites had been hit, and each one was soaking wet! Little storm clouds broke out over each sprite’s head.

  “Ugh!” one sprite whined. “I’m all cold and wet! I’ve got water up my nose. Look, I can blow bubbles.”

  “Me too,” said the sprite next to him, letting all his drops fall to the ground and sitting on his cloud gloomily.

  Jasmine rushed forward, scooped up his misery drops, and passed some to Summer and Ellie.

  “Take that!” she yelled as they pelted the Storm Sprites with misery drops.

  “Argh!” yelled a sprite. “This is horrible. Let’s get out of here!”

  The sprites’ rain clouds rose into the air and zoomed quickly out of sight.

  “Yes!” Jasmine cheered. “We did it!”

  Ellie jumped up and down in delight.

  But Summer was staring at the misery drop in her hands with a twinkle in her eye. “I have an idea,” she whispered. “Maybe the misery drops can cure the performers’ giggles.”

  “Let’s ask Trixi,” Jasmine suggested, waving her over.

  The little pixie was helping King Merry, who had been hit with a misery drop and was sitting unhappily in a puddle with a cloud raining down on his head.

  “He’s so sad!” Trixi sighed as she flew over to the girls.

  Summer quickly explained her plan and Trixi’s eyes shone brightly. “Good idea, Summer!”

  Summer held out the shining droplet, and Trixi pointed at it. Her pixie ring gleamed as she chanted:

  “Go to the performers, misery drop,

  And make their silly laughing stop!”

  The drop vanished, and there was a loud cracking sound from outside the theater.

  “What was that noise?” Summer asked, pulling her two friends to their feet.

  “I think I know,” said Trixi. She darted to the theater gates, and reappeared with a mass of ugly black splinters floating behind her in a cloud of dust. “They’re from Queen Malice’s thunderbolt,” she explained.

  “Yuck!” Summer said, peering at the splinters. “Even now, it still looks nasty. But what happened to it?”

  “When you girls helped the performers and stopped Queen Malice from ruining the show, it broke her spell,” explained Trixi. “And the thunderbolt must have shattered.”

  Trixi tapped her ring and the splinters disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  An angry shriek sounded, and suddenly a storm cloud appeared overhead with a familiar figure on top. It was Queen Malice, shaking her bony fist. “You human girls may have broken my first thunderbolt,” she screeched, “but next time you won’t be so lucky. My next one is hidden so well that you’ll never find it!” She threw her head back and laughed as she zoomed away on her cloud.

  Trixi shuddered.

  “Don’t worry, Trixi,” Jasmine said fiercely. “We won’t let her ruin the Secret Kingdom.”

  The others nodded.

  “Oh, look.” Summer smiled. “The performers — they’ve all stopped laughing.”

  Everyone turned to watch the royal performers walking out onto the stage. They were all shaking their heads as if waking up from a bad dream.

  In the audience, the rain clouds had disappeared from above King Merry and the rest of the audience, and they all looked happy once again.

  “Now that the thunderbolt is broken, all of Queen Malice’s mean magic is undone!” Trixi said happily.

  “Great,” Jasmine said with a grin. “Now that everyone’s back to normal, we can do a grand finale to the show!” She turned to the audience. “Sorry about the interruption, everybody. I think we should all sing along for this one. Are you ready?”

  The crowd cheered. Jasmine whispered something to Trixi, and the little pixie tapped her ring. The instruments immediately struck up a familiar tune, and the whole audience sang “Happy Birthday” to King Merry. His face broke into a smile and tears of joy rolled down his plump cheeks.

  After the show had finished, King Merry came backstage to congratulate Summer, Jasmine, and Ellie.

  “If it weren’t for them, Sire, we would never have destroyed Queen Malice’s thunderbolt,” Trixi said.

  The King smiled. “The Magic Box was very wise indeed when it took us to the girls. Summer, Jasmine, and Ellie, will you continue to be friends to the Secret Kingdom, and help stop my sister from causing more trouble?”

  “Definitely,” said Jasmine.

  “I can’t wait to come back!” Ellie grinned.

  “We’ll be here anytime you need us,” added Summer.

  The king nodded. “But you must promise to keep the Secret Kingdom a secret.”

  “We promise,” Jasmine vowed. King Merry nodded at Trixi, and she grinned and tapped her pixie ring.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, three beautiful tiaras appeared in the air above the girls! Each one was surrounded by a sparkling glow. Summer’s was a delicate rosy-gold color, with beautiful pink, heart-shaped jewels. Ellie’s had fancy swirls and a green, diamond-shaped jewel in the center. Jasmine’s was a shimmering gold with intricate loops and pretty opals that seemed to sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow.

  The girls gasped as the tiaras settled carefully on top of their heads. They fitted perfectly!

  King Merry smiled. “These tiaras will appear whenever you are here, and they will show everyone that you are VIFs of the Secret Kingdom, on important royal business.”

  “VIFs?” Jasmine wondered out loud.

  “Very Important Friends,” Trixi whispered.

  “Wow!” said Ellie, taking her tiara off to look at it. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

  Jasmine and Summer smiled broadly as they looked at each other’s tiaras. “Thank you so much, King Merry!”

  Trixi smiled at the girls and did a little somersault of delight. “I’m so pleased that you will visit us again,” she said. “I’ll be here to guide you every step of the way. And this will help as well.”

  Trixi pointed her ring toward the beautiful pictures of the Secret Kingdom that Ellie had painted as backdrops for t
he show. As the girls watched, the pictures flew up into the air in a burst of twinkles. And as they floated down, the pictures joined together and grew smaller and smaller, then landed in Summer’s hands.

  “It’s a map of the Secret Kingdom!” Summer exclaimed.

  But as the girls looked at the map closely, they realized that it wasn’t an ordinary map — it was moving! The sea around the island had blue waves that lapped against the shore. The trees of the forests swayed in a breeze, and the meadows of sunflowers gleamed.

  “There are five more of Queen Malice’s nasty thunderbolts somewhere in the kingdom, just waiting to cause trouble,” Trixi continued. “The Magic Box will tell you when it has located one, and the map will help you find out where it is.”

  The girls nodded. “We’ll be back whenever we’re needed,” Summer promised.

  “Good-bye, girls,” Trixi said, flying up to kiss each of them on the tip of her nose. “See you very soon!”

  With a tap of her ring, Trixi conjured up a whirlwind that scooped the girls up into the air, higher and higher. Then, with a bright flash of light, they found themselves landing gently back in Summer’s bedroom.

  Jasmine stared down at the Magic Box, which was still sitting on the fluffy white rug, exactly where they had left it.

  “Did all that just happen, or was I having a strange dream?” she said. She put her hand up to feel for her tiara, but it was gone.

  “It really happened,” Summer breathed. “Look!” She held up the map of the kingdom.

  “Where should we keep it?” Ellie asked. “It’ll have to be somewhere secret. You heard what King Merry said — nobody can know about the Secret Kingdom except us.”

  As she spoke, the mirror on the Magic Box glowed. Then, to the girls’ amazement, the box slowly opened, revealing six little wooden compartments, all of different sizes! A shower of light sparkled from the center of the box.

  “It’s the perfect place to store our gift!” Summer exclaimed.

  Ellie gently placed the folded map into one of the spaces. It fitted perfectly! As soon as the map was in place, the lid on the box closed again.