The Genie's Curse

by Tom Percival

  ‘But don’t you want to break the curse?’ asked Rufaro.

  ‘Not really,’ said Alphege. ‘It’s fun being a monkey, and I still get to be human sometimes – it’s the best of both worlds!’ He spooned up the last of his pasta shapes and licked the bowl clean. ‘So, Rufaro, what did that troll mean when he said “Hurrilan”? It looked like you knew who he was talking about?’

  Rufaro sighed deeply. ‘My sister and I were friends with him once . . .’ he said. ‘But that was a long time ago . . .’

  ‘Come down!’ yelled Adeola. ‘You’re too high up!’ Rufaro rolled his eyes: his sister was always worrying. He was nearly eight now – practically a grown-up!

  ‘It’s fine!’ he replied. ‘There’s no tree that I can’t cli—’

  The branch he was standing on snapped, and Rufaro found himself tumbling towards the rocks below. The wind rushed up at him. Rufaro knew this was going to be bad – really bad.

  But suddenly . . . it wasn’t.

  The wind seemed to be slowing him down, until he came to a stop, hovering just above the ground.

  ‘What?’ he murmured as he opened his eyes and looked around. Peering out from behind some bushes was a small, shy-looking troll.

  ‘You used your magic to save my life!’ Rufaro said quietly. ‘Wow!’

  The troll shrugged and looked away awkwardly. Then Adeola rushed forward and grabbed the troll in a warm hug.

  ‘Thank you!’ she said, smiling broadly. ‘Thank you!’

  ‘. . . And that troll was Hurrilan,’ explained Rufaro. ‘After that we became friends. Of course, we kept it secret – things weren’t quite so bad back then, but trolls and humans have never really seen eye-to-eye.’ He sighed and shook his head sadly. ‘Hurrilan was an outcast. Usually, a troll has one type of magic: Earth, Air, Fire or Water – but Hurrilan had a mixture of all four, so he could do a bit of each, but not much of any. His parents had died when he was young, and his clan of Earth trolls were a bit scared of his powers, so poor Hurrilan ended up living on his own in the woods.’

  ‘Poor Hurrilan?’ said Alphege. ‘I thought it was him that cursed you?’

  ‘Well, yes, it is looking that way . . .’ agreed Rufaro. ‘But back then, we were just children.’ He paused. ‘I don’t think Hurrilan had ever had a real friend before he met Adeola and me. Everything was great, until Jeremy got involved.’

  ‘Who’s Jeremy?’ asked Ella.

  ‘Jeremy Fitch – when I was young he was the mayor’s son.’

  ‘But isn’t he the current mayor of Tale Town?’ asked Rapunzel. ‘I’m sure I’ve heard my parents say his name – then one of them usually says “What a ghastly man”.’

  Rufaro nodded. ‘Yes, you’re right. Anyway, back when I was a young, Jeremy somehow found out that Adeola and I had become friends with Hurrilan. I’ll never forget the day that I went to meet Hurrilan and found Jeremy instead . . .’

  ‘Hey, Hurrilan!’ shouted Rufaro, as he and Adeola ran into the clearing. ‘Sorry we’re late, I had to do a few chores!’

  ‘Yeah, he had to clear up all the mud he trampled through the house!’ said Adeola.

  Rufaro laughed. ‘Come out, Hurri!’ he called.

  There was no reply.

  ‘Looking for someone?’ asked a mean voice, as Jeremy Fitch stepped out from behind a tree.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ asked Adeola.

  ‘What are YOU doing hanging out with trolls?’ retorted Jeremy. ‘You know trolls mean trouble!’

  ‘Hurrilan’s our friend!’ said Rufaro angrily. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Your precious troll’s fine,’ replied Jeremy. ‘He’s just through here . . .’

  Jeremy led them deeper into the woods. After a while they came to a rough cage made from branches, surrounded by Moonstone. Moonstone was always used for protection from trolls, as the silvery rocks weakened their magic and they hated to be near it.

  ‘What are you doing?’ yelled Rufaro, running towards the cage.

  Trapped inside and cowering from the sticks that were being poked at him by Jeremy’s friends was . . . Hurrilan.

  ‘What you told us to!’ said Jeremy with a wide grin. ‘YOU told us where to find the troll, we captured it, and now we’ll to take it back to your dad – just like YOU wanted . . .’

  ‘What—?’ began Rufaro, but a strange wailing sound cut him off. It was Hurrilan. His face was twisted with a mixture of sadness and anger.

  ‘Why?’ he roared, glaring through the bars at Rufaro and Adeola. ‘I thought we were friends?’

  ‘We are!’ said Rufaro. ‘Jeremy’s lying! I don’t know why – but he is!’

  It was too late. Hurrilan didn’t seem to be able to hear anything. He wailed again and the air whipped up into a tornado. Mist rolled in through the trees and sparks danced in the air. Jeremy and his friends backed away from the cage, which strained under the force of Hurrilan’s magic.

  ‘Why isn’t the Moonstone working?’ yelled one boy.

  ‘Dunno!’ shouted Jeremy, as the wooden sides of the cage bent to breaking point. ‘Let’s get out of here!’

  They turned and ran just as the cage exploded outward. The last thing that Rufaro saw was a heavy piece of wood spinning straight towards him.

  ‘I woke up in the clearing with Adeola beside me,’ said Rufaro. ‘I’m not sure how long I was knocked out for . . . but it was long enough for Jeremy to ruin our lives!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Rapunzel.

  ‘Jeremy ran back and told his father how my family were helping the trolls plan an attack on Tale Town. He’d stolen some of Hurrilan’s belongings and a letter he had written to me, asking to meet him in secret in the woods. It all seemed very convincing . . . I tried to explain, but nobody would believe me. The next day, my whole family was banished to Far Far Away. I never saw or heard from Hurrilan again.’

  ‘We’ve got to tell everyone the truth!’ said Ella crossly. ‘Mayor Fitch – I mean Jeremy – blamed you for something that wasn’t your fault – and look what happened!

  ‘Rapunzel’s parents are the King and Queen – surely they can do something about it? They’ll know it’s the truth if you tell them – right, Rapunzel?’

  ‘Er, yeah,’ said Rapunzel, blushing. ‘I’d never lie to my parents.’ She ate the rest of her pasta shapes in silence, feeling more guilty than ever about blaming Ella for breaking the hermit genie’s urn – but how could she tell the truth now?

  The sun was rising in the sky as the carriage stopped. Rufaro had driven through the night while Alphege and the girls slept, so he and the gorillas decided to get some rest while the others walked into Tale Town.

  It was a cold, crisp morning, but the sun was bright and the air smelt clean. While the two girls walked along the familiar road, Alphege decided to swing up into the treetops and take what he called the ‘scenic route’.

  ‘Hey, Ella . . .’ Rapunzel started, frowning and chewing on the end of her plait.

  ‘Yeah?’ replied Ella with a smile.

  ‘Nothing . . .’ muttered Rapunzel. This was impossible! Ella was always so kind and nice. So understanding and so thoughtful! She would never blame someone else for breaking a priceless antique urn. ‘Of course,’ thought Rapunzel, ‘Ella had probably never seen a priceless urn before she came to live at the castle, so she’d never have had the chance to break one. In that case, it would be more like Ella breaking, say, a cup or something, and blaming it on someone else. Ella must have done something like that before . . .’

  Rapunzel sighed. Who was she trying to fool? Ella wouldn’t even break a sweat and blame it on anyone else. She was just too good!

  Rapunzel groaned quietly.

  ‘Are you OK?’ asked Ella, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

  ‘Mnghhh . . .’ muttered Rapunzel.

  ‘You seem upset,’ added Ella. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

  ‘Mnghhh . . .’

  ‘Come on! It’s never as bad as it seems,’
said Ella. ‘Why, I remember when I was being held prisoner by that wicked witch in a freezing-cold, tiny stone room with no windows, and was forced to cook, clean and tidy for everyone in the castle without being allowed to eat more than one mouldy piece of bread each day! I mean, sure, I got a bit down-in-the-dumps sometimes, but I always remembered that someone somewhere was worse off than me, and felt sorry for them instead.’

  Rapunzel lifted her head and stared at her friend. ‘Seriously? Are you actually real? What could be worse than that?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Ella breezily. ‘Being slowly lowered into a pot of boiling tar filled with heat-proof piranhas? Something like that?’

  ‘Right . . .’ said Rapunzel, taking a deep breath. ‘OK. It’s like this . . .’

  Ella smiled and nodded encouragingly.

  ‘We’re here because of me. It’s all my fault, and—’

  ‘Oh, shush, Rapun—’

  ‘No! Let me finish,’ said Rapunzel. ‘It is my fault! The genie cursed me, to teach me a lesson after I broke its home – and I deserved it! You see . . .’ She swallowed uncomfortably. ‘I knocked over the urn that the genie lived in and then . . . then . . .’ She put her hands over her face, which had turned pink. ‘And . . . then I blamed it on you! The genie got super-cross and sang this stupid little song: “This is my curse: the spell has been spun, so it will stay till your crime is undone!” And he cursed me! I tried to undo what I’d done by fixing the urn – but I couldn’t! And I know that you’d never do anything like this in a million years and . . . well, basically . . . I wanted to say –’ Rapunzel peeped through a gap in her fingers – ‘I’m sorry!’

  There was a long pause. Eventually Ella nodded and said, ‘I understand.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Sure! I blamed the wrong person for something once too!’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘Yes! Back in the castle where I was a prisoner. The dragon had a nasty cold, and I was looking after her when she sneezed, and fire shot out, burning the witch’s favourite curtains to ashes! I didn’t want the dragon to get into trouble, so I said . . .’ Ella paused.

  ‘Yes?’ encouraged Rapunzel.

  ‘Well, I blamed . . .’

  ‘Yes?’ repeated Rapunzel.

  ‘Me!’ gasped Ella, her eyes wide. ‘And I know it’s so terribly wrong to lie, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of the dragon getting into trouble, as she was so ill and it was an accident. So I lied! I lied!’

  Ella struggled to suppress a sob.

  ‘That is so not the same thing!’ huffed Rapunzel. ‘You basically did a good thing and got yourself into trouble – I did a bad thing to get myself out of trouble.’

  ‘Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,’ said Ella, shrugging.

  ‘It doesn’t?’

  ‘Firstly, I accept your apology,’ said Ella. ‘And secondly, you’ve said sorry – you’ve admitted what you did was wrong! Think about the genie’s spell: “So it will stay till your crime is undone!” I think this means you’ve fixed things! You’ve owned up and told me the truth – the curse has got to be broken now!’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘Sure I do!’ said Ella, patting her friend on the arm. ‘We’re nearly back to Tale Town now. Just you wait. Things will be different – you’ll see!’

  Ella was right. Things were different in Tale Town – but not in the way she’d imagined. They were worse.

  Far worse.

  The never-ending porridge pot was overflowing again; somebody had also set off the never-ending Brussels sprouts pot – and, worst of all, the never-ending homework pot. The curse was clearly still in place, as Rapunzel was being blamed for all of it, and everything else that was going wrong too.

  Rapunzel pulled her hood further over her face as they waded knee-deep through a foul-smelling mix of porridge, sprouts and complicated maths problems. Alphege swung down from the trees and with a bright green flash turned back into a boy again.

  ‘This place is crazy!’ he said, shaking his head in wonder. ‘A minute ago I saw a boy fall over and scrape his knee. He started crying but the tears were like tiny little dogs that leaped away as soon as they came out of his eyes! Unbelievable!’

  ‘Ah, yes . . .’ replied Ella. ‘That’d be Stewart.’

  ‘OK . . . but that doesn’t explain the dogs?’ said Alphege.

  ‘Wolves, actually.’

  ‘What?’

  Ella sighed. ‘Did you ever hear the story about the boy who cried wolf?’ Alphege nodded his head. ‘Well, Stewart’s the boy who cried wolves – it’s a completely different story. Oh, and Alphege?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Maybe tuck the tail away. It’s a bit . . . noticeable.’

  ‘Ahh . . . right! Will do.’

  ‘I don’t understand!’ whispered Rapunzel, who hadn’t been paying any attention to their conversation. ‘I told you what I’d done wrong – I’ve said sorry. The curse should be broken.’

  They walked past a large group of townsfolk listening to a half-eaten gingerbread man explain that he’d gone out for his morning run, as usual, when Rapunzel, disguised as a fox, had pretended to help him across a river and then tried to eat him! Then a frog jumped up on to a log and did a very loud croak. Everybody ignored the frog,1 but they did agree that it was awful of Rapunzel to trick the gingerbread man.

  ‘I have had enough of this!’ hissed Rapunzel. ‘We need to find that genie and get him to lift the curse – NOW!’

  ‘But how?’ asked Alphege. ‘We’ve got no idea where this genie is likely to be! I mean, where do genies normally hang out?’

  Rapunzel’s eyes lit up. ‘I think I may have an idea! Come on, let’s go!’

  An hour later, Ella was dragging a large dirty-laundry basket along the palace corridor towards the Ancient Urns and Exciting-Looking Lamps, Jars and Bottles room. ‘Why me?’ she grunted as she heaved the heavy basket along. ‘Why can’t Alphege drag the basket?’

  ‘Because you live here!’ hissed Rapunzel. ‘The palace staff know you. It’s no super-fun party in here, you know! It smells awful and I keep feeling someone picking at my hair.’

  ‘Sorry!’ said Alphege apologetically. ‘It’s an instinct. And by the way, I think that smell might be you?’

  ‘You—’

  ‘Shush!’ interrupted Ella. ‘Someone might hear you!’ She heaved the basket into the Ancient Urns and Exciting-Looking Lamps, Jars and Bottles room and shut the door.

  Almost immediately Rapunzel and Alphege burst out. ‘Remind me never to hide in a laundry basket full of dirty socks again!’ exclaimed Rapunzel, who had turned a sort of yellowy-green colour.

  ‘Right,’ said Ella, biting her lip and trying not to smile.

  ‘Let’s get looking,’ Rapunzel continued. ‘That genie is bound to be in here somewhere!’

  They split up and ran around the room, tapping, shaking or polishing each urn, jar, bottle or lamp that they could find. At first they were filled with excitement, but that soon faded to disappointment and then, finally, to worry.

  What seemed like hours later, having checked every item in the huge room, they met up back at the laundry basket.

  ‘It’s no good!’ exclaimed Ella. ‘He’s not here – or if he is, then he’s ignoring us.’

  Rapunzel’s shoulders slumped. ‘What am I going to do?’ she said in a small voice. ‘I’m tired! And filthy!’ She sniffed. ‘And I smell of goat! I just want everything to go back to normal.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Ella. ‘It’s all going to be all right. It always is – eventually!’

  Just then, the door swung open and two of the palace cleaners wheeled in a cart piled high with industrial-strength polish, cleaning rags and brushes.

  ‘You!’ shrieked one of the cleaners, waving his fist angrily at Rapunzel. ‘You made me late for work when you broke my alarm clock!’

  ‘Quick!’ yelled Alphege. ‘Let’s go!’ He sprang towards the cart and tipped it over, scattering its co
ntents all over the cleaners. By the time they had scrambled to their feet, Ella, Rapunzel and Alphege were gone.

  Rapunzel’s feet pounded down the palace corridors. She glanced back to see Ella close behind her, with Alphege bouncing up and down on her shoulder.

  ‘Faster!’ shouted Alphege, who had turned back into a monkey to make it easier to swing on the chandeliers.

  ‘They’re gaining on us!’

  Following them, throwing cutlery, crockery, bread, cushions and anything else they could find, was a huge mass of palace staff, angrily shouting that everything was RAPUNZEL’S FAULT.

  They dashed into the Queen’s Room of Unwanted Gifts, which was piled high with beautiful, expensive, but not quite right presents, then sprinted through the Palace Dogs’ Dining Room. They’d just burst into the Draughty Spare Room for Visitors Who Have Stayed Too Long when another door flew open and a great mass of angry people poured in, cutting them off.

  ‘There she is!’ shouted Anansi, who was at the front of the crowd. ‘RAPUNZEL made it rain earlier and my friend Incy-Wincy got washed down a rusty old waterspout and grazed his leg!’

  ‘This way!’ yelled Ella, kicking open a secret door in the Draughty Spare Room’s bookcase of Not Particularly Interesting Books. They shot down a narrow spiral staircase that led into the servants’ passages. Eventually they burst into the kitchens.

  ‘Through here!’ gasped Rapunzel. ‘There’s a wag out!’ They raced to the heavy kitchen-delivery door, all of them straining to push it slowly open.