The shoes were her magic ballet shoes! They were taken from me, she remembered. Serendipity must have told the servants to put them up here so I wouldn’t find them. And what about Nutmeg? I was supposed to be meeting her here.
An icy hand seemed to grasp at Rosa’s heart. Serendipity must have put a spell on her to make her forget everything…
Rosa ran down the winding staircase, suddenly becoming aware of shouting and raised voices. A manservant was running along the landing at the bottom of the staircase, but he didn’t look normal. He seemed to be shimmering, dissolving and a long green tail was growing…Rosa gasped out loud as, in front of her very eyes, the servant turned into a big green lizard!
She’d barely had time to take it in before she realised that all around her, the walls of the castle were shimmering and dissolving too. White carpets turned to black stone, tapestries disappeared from the walls, soft lights were being replaced by dark candles in spiky metal holders. What was happening?
The castle and the servants must have all been enchanted, Rosa realised. And now the spell has somehow broken and they’re turning back to how they were!
She didn’t know what was going on, but she definitely wanted to get out of there. Racing for the front door, Rosa threw it open and ran outside. But as she did so, she saw Serendipity’s carriage charging down the drive. The horses were turning into two giant mice and the coachman was becoming a lizard, just like the servants in the house. The carriage’s gleaming white sides were darkening to black. It skidded to a stop in front of the house and the door swung open.
“No!” Rosa whispered in horror as a grey-haired woman in a dark, ragged dress and a long beaky nose stepped out. It was the Wicked Fairy of Enchantia!
The Wicked Fairy laughed gloatingly. She was just as ugly and horrid as Rosa remembered her. “How do you like my castle now, Rosa?” she demanded.
“Your castle?” Rosa stammered. “So you’re Serendipity?”
The Wicked Fairy grinned. “Indeed! I cast a magical disguise over myself and the castle, and enchanted you to make you forget everything.”
“But why?” Rosa asked helplessly.
“I wanted to stop you from going to the Ruling Ceremony, that’s why,” the Wicked Fairy cackled.
“The Ruling Ceremony?” Rosa echoed. “What’s that?”
“Don’t you know anything, you stupid girl?” snapped the fairy. “The King and Queen have special magic protecting them so that no one can overthrow them. But every ten years, there’s a ceremony where they are reappointed as the rulers of Enchantia by the First Fairy…”
Rosa knew the First Fairy. She was very magical and had been there when Enchantia had been created.
“To summon her, the human who is the guardian of the red ballet shoes must dance in the centre of the forest, just as the sun sets,” the Wicked Fairy went on. “The ballet shoes can bring her here because they are part of the ancient magic of Enchantia.” She cackled. “But this year, the First Fairy will not be summoned because you and the ballet shoes will not be there!”
“So, what will happen?” Rosa asked in alarm.
The Wicked Fairy drew herself up. “The magic spells protecting the King and Queen will vanish as the sun sets and I will then be able to use my magic against them. I shall become queen!”
“No,” Rosa whispered.
“Oh, yes,” the Fairy gloated. “And it’s all your fault, Rosa. If you’d waited and met Nutmeg in the woods like you should have done, you would have been safely whisked off to the Royal Palace to have your role in the ceremony explained by the King and Queen. Instead you came with me and now…” She banged her wand on the ground. A mist appeared and in the centre of it Rosa saw a picture. It showed Queen Isabella crying and King Tristan comforting her and everyone else in the Royal Palace running around frantically. “Where’s Rosa?” Rosa heard them saying. “Where’s Nutmeg? We need them!”
“What do they mean, where’s Nutmeg?” Rosa demanded.
The Wicked Fairy chuckled. “I’m afraid Nutmeg had a little accident while she was on her way to meet you.”
“What sort of accident?” Rosa asked.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that she can’t get to you and you’re stuck here. No one is going to find you and you won’t be going to the ceremony!”
Rosa made a dash past the Wicked Fairy.
“Guards, get her!” the hag snapped.
Four lizards followed Rosa out of the house and caught her in seconds.
“Let me go!” she protested, struggling as they gripped her arms.
“Certainly not!” replied the Wicked Fairy.
Rosa kept struggling. “I don’t understand. Why did you do the enchantment? Why did you bother to disguise yourself and your castle? Why not just stop me with magic?”
“Because just as there are spells protecting the King and Queen, there are spells that protect the ceremony. No one can use magic to stop the guardian of the ballet shoes going to the ceremony. You had to come with me willingly – and you did. You believed I was a beautiful, kind fairy. Now, you have broken my enchantment by dancing in my castle with those shoes, but that does not matter. The ceremony will happen this evening – but you shall not be there. Guards!” She looked at the lizards. “Throw her in the tower until it is over.”
“No!” cried Rosa. But the guards were already pulling her towards a door at the base of a tower. Rosa was pushed inside and the heavy door banged shut behind her. She heard great bolts being shot across.
She flung herself at the thick wood and beat on it with her fists. “Let me out!” she cried furiously.
“No!” cackled the Wicked Fairy from the other side. Rosa heard her stomp away and the main door to the castle slam shut.
Slowly she looked all around. It was dark inside the tower, with only a little light filtering through one small window high up near the top of the tower.
The walls and floor were completely bare.
Rosa sank down to the floor, tears welling in her eyes. She’d been so stupid! Why had she got into the carriage? The Wicked Fairy was right, thought Rosa. It is all my fault! She didn’t usually cry, but now a sob burst from her.
A silvery voice rang out. “Oh, dearie me. You don’t seem very happy, poppet.”
Rosa almost jumped out of her skin. Rubbing her tears away with her hands, she looked around the dark dungeon, but it was completely empty. “Where…where are you?” she stammered.
“I’m over here, dearie.”
The voice came from Rosa’s left. She looked but there was just the wall of the dungeon.
She stepped closer to the wall, her eyes scanning through the shadows, when suddenly she saw a spider, sitting in the middle of a web. Rosa squealed and jumped back.
“Don’t be scared.” The spider smiled and waved a hairy leg. “I’m Tangleweb. Hello, dearie.”
Rosa backed away across the dungeon. “H-hello,” she quavered. She didn’t really like spiders all that much.
“Oh, it’s so lovely to see someone else,” said Tangleweb. “I’ve been shut in here on my own for ages, feeling very lonely. Why have you been put in here, my dear?”
Rosa explained what had happened. As she told the story she found herself stepping closer to Tangleweb again. The spider might look scary, but she seemed quite friendly. She had started to spin her web as Rosa talked and her spinning movements reminded Rosa of dancing.
“Goodness me!” Tangleweb exclaimed, as Rosa finished her story. “This is dreadful news. We really must get you out of here, poppet!”
Rosa glanced round. “But how?”
Tangleweb spun her web for a moment, deep in thought. “Hmm…she has the shoes,” she said, almost to herself. “She can obviously dance.” She stopped and looked at Rosa. “Can you climb a rope, dearie?”
Rosa nodded.
The spider smiled. “Then, maybe I can help…”
Tangleweb looked at Rosa. “I’ll go up to the window and spin a thread down fo
r you to climb up.”
Rosa’s heart sank. “But I’m much too heavy!”
“Ah, but we will use the shoes’ magic, dearie,” said Tangleweb. “If you dance a spinning dance as I spin my thread, and if you copy my movements exactly, the magic in your shoes will strengthen the thread, thicken it and make it strong enough for you to climb. Come on, let’s try!” Tangleweb scuttled up the wall to the window and quickly spun a little web nearby. “I’m ready to start. Just copy my movements.”
Rosa concentrated hard. Tangleweb began to twirl round, moving from side to side, and Rosa followed her. Step to the left and back. Step to the right and back. Spin round. Do it again. She moved around the dungeon floor, copying the spider as Tangleweb began to spin a long strand of silver thread. Sparks swirled up from Rosa’s shoes. She gasped and almost stopped.
“Keep going!” Tangleweb urged.
The sparks wound round the thread, flashing in the darkness. Rosa kept dancing and Tangleweb kept spinning, until the thread got thicker and a silky rope of it hung down from the window.
“There!” cried Tangleweb triumphantly.
Rosa stopped dancing. “I can reach it!” she cried.
The sparkles vanished as Rosa stopped dancing, but the rope remained. “Then come on, dearie, up you come. There’s no time to lose!” Tangleweb called. She glanced out of the window. “The sun is starting to set.”
Gripping the rope with her knees, Rosa pulled herself upwards, hand over hand. She went on until she reached the top. Tangleweb was sitting in the middle of her web, smiling. “Oh, well done, poppet!” she exclaimed.
Rosa grasped the window ledge. It was just wide enough for her to climb on to. From there she could see out over the castle grounds and all the way to the forest. The Wicked Fairy’s words rang in her head: The magic spells protecting the King and Queen will vanish as the sun sets and I will then be able to use my magic against them. Rosa knew she had to get there now!
To her relief, the window wasn’t locked. Rosa pulled it open, hauled up the rope and hung it down the outside of the tower. She looked round at the little spider. “Thank you for helping me, Tangleweb. What are you going to do now?”
“Come with you, dearie, of course!” said the spider. “I’d have escaped long ago if I could have opened this window. Maybe I could travel with you?”
Rosa nodded. “Of course.” Her fear of the spider had completely vanished. She picked up Tangleweb, who felt warm and tickly, popped the creature on her shoulder and started climbing down the rope. She didn’t know what she would do if anybody saw her, but she had to risk it.
Reaching the bottom of the tower, Rosa let go of the rope and ran as fast as she could across the grass. She reached the safety of the trees, panting and gasping, and dragged in huge gulps of air.
Tangleweb coughed. “Oh, dearie, I don’t like to say this, but there’s really no time to stop and rest.”
Rosa knew Tangleweb was right. The sun was setting in the sky. She broke into a run again. They had to get to the centre of the forest – before it was too late!
Rosa fought her way along the paths, but it was hard going. As she tripped over brambles and tree roots, she felt like crying. She could see the sky turning a golden pink above the treetops. It was almost sunset! She was never going to get there in time.
You can’t give up now, she thought, remembering the vision of the King and Queen as she pushed her way along a particularly overgrown path. You’ve got to try.
Suddenly she heard the creak of carriage wheels on the main path. She ducked down behind a bush and watched as the Wicked Fairy raced past in her black carriage, the driver whipping the giant mice as they charged along.
“She must be going to the ceremony!” the spider exclaimed. Rosa felt a sob rise up inside her. “It’s no use. We’re not going to get there in time, Tangleweb.”
“Help! Help!”
Rosa blinked. “That sounds like…Nutmeg!”
The voice had come from just ahead of them. Rosa broke into a run.
“Oh, my goodness!” she gasped as she saw what lay ahead of her. Nutmeg was trapped inside a giant wooden birdcage that was lying on its side in the bottom of a ditch. She looked very dishevelled and her wand was lying on the ground.
“Rosa!” she cried, her face lighting up. “It’s you!”
“What happened?” Rosa said as the spider waved at the fairy.
“Oh, Rosa,” Nutmeg cried unhappily. “I was supposed to meet you and take you to the palace. I was waiting for you when the Wicked Fairy’s lizards grabbed me. They locked me in this cage, rolled it over and pushed it into the ditch. I dropped my wand so I couldn’t magic myself away. I thought I heard your voice and I called out to you, but you didn’t come.”
Rosa felt dreadful. “I met the Wicked Fairy, only she was in disguise, so I went with her to her castle and she enchanted me,” she said, shamefaced. “I got away, but I’m not going to get to the centre of the forest by the time the sun sets. Oh, Nutmeg, what can we do?”
“It’s not quite sunset yet,” said Nutmeg. “If you can get me out of this cage, I can whisk us to the centre of the forest with my magic.”
Rosa ran to the cage. “Oh. There’s no key in the lock,” she said.
“Then it really is too late,” said Nutmeg in a small voice.
“No, it isn’t!” cried Tangleweb. “Let me help, dearies.” She scuttled over and jumped on to the cage. The next moment the little spider had disappeared inside the lock! “If I can fiddle about inside…” There were a few mutterings and a couple of clicks and then the cage door sprang open. Tangleweb poked her head out. “Easy!”
“Oh, Tangleweb. You’re brilliant!” gasped Rosa. She scooped the spider up. “Thank you!”
Nutmeg climbed out of the cage and picked up her wand. She waved it in the air and grabbed Rosa’s hands. “Hang on, Tangleweb!” she called. “Here we go!”
Rosa, Nutmeg and Tangleweb were whisked through the air and set gently down in the trees at the edge of a glade, where King Tristan and Queen Isabella were sitting on golden thrones. All around them were people Rosa knew, but her eyes focused on the Wicked Fairy, who was standing in the centre of the clearing, her back to Rosa and Nutmeg, cackling with glee.
“Your time is up!” she said, pointing her bony finger at the King and Queen. “The girl and the shoes are not here. Prepare to rule Enchantia no more!”
Nutmeg pushed Rosa. “Rosa, Rosa…dance!” she hissed.
“What type of dance?” Rosa whispered back.
“Anything! It’s just important that you dance.”
Rosa didn’t stop to question. Sweeping her arms around her head, she ran forward with flowing steps before stopping on her toes and reaching up to the sky. Then she skipped in a circle before turning round.
The people near the edge of the clearing saw her and gasped. But the Wicked Fairy was too busy advancing on the King and Queen to notice. “It is my turn to rule now!” she screeched.
“We’ll see about that,” Rosa cried, turning round and raising one knee.
The Wicked Fairy swung about. “You!” She raised her wand, but she was too late. Rosa was so well rehearsed that nothing could distract her.
Beautiful music flooded out through the air and golden sparkles started to swirl around the trees like dancing fireflies. Everyone gasped as there was a bright flash and a fairy appeared, spinning round on her pointes in the clearing. The First Fairy!
Rosa sank into a deep curtsy. All around her, everyone else either curtsied or bowed too…
Everyone except the Wicked Fairy. “No!” she shrieked, running towards the First Fairy, who pointed her wand straight at her.
The Wicked Fairy suddenly fell over. She tried to stand up again but the First Fairy had obviously put a charm on her legs. Every time the Wicked Fairy tried to stand, she fell over again.
“What have you done!” she shouted. “Take this magic off me! Take it off and—”
The First Fairy po
inted her wand at the Wicked Fairy’s mouth and the Wicked Fairy’s voice stopped. Looking startled, the Wicked Fairy opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. Rosa grinned. It was very funny seeing the Wicked Fairy looking so silly! Around the clearing, the watchers nudged each other and pointed.
The First Fairy looked at her and spoke in a sweet but grave voice. “Wicked Fairy, you tried to stop the Ruling Ceremony. That is against the rules of Enchantia. For that you must be punished. You will be banished to the furthest reaches of the land. In a year’s time, you may return to the Royal Palace, and if you are truly sorry, you may beg a pardon from the King and Queen. Then you will be allowed to return to your castle. Until then, be gone and learn the error of your ways!”
The Wicked Fairy started to shake her fists, but the First Fairy waved her wand and the next second, the Wicked Fairy had disappeared. Everyone burst out clapping and cheering.
The First Fairy danced over to the King and Queen. “I give you magic to rule Enchantia for another ten years, King Tristan and Queen Isabella,” she said, her voice ringing out. “May they be happy and peaceful ones for us all.” She touched the King and Queen with her wand and then the music started to play again. Moving in perfect time, the fairy danced lightly around the thrones before spinning off around the clearing.
As she came to where Nutmeg and Rosa were standing, her eyes met Rosa’s and she smiled. Rosa smiled back in delight. The fairy ran to the centre and leaped upwards in a grand jeté, one leg forward, one back, her arms stretched out to the sides. Then, at the height of the jump, she suddenly vanished. The music stopped and a shower of sparkles fell through the air.
For a moment there was silence and then everyone started talking at once. The King and Queen ran over to Rosa and Nutmeg.
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