the end of it.’
‘As your magic grows, you’ll have more control over it,’ Brian promised, helping herself to more sausages. ‘But while you’re learning you’ll have to speak your wishes out loud. And they must be very, very specific wishes, otherwise, well, I don’t need to tell you what could happen.’ Brian waved her hand at the frozen bluebirds and the flying dog.
‘All I have to do is make a wish?’ Cinders asked.
Brian the fairy gave a nod.
‘I wish things would go back to normal,’ Cinders said.
Her fingertips started to sparkle then glow and, in the blink of an eye, the birds began singing, the butterflies flapped away into the sky and Sparks dived face first into the now-empty plate of sausages.
‘All right, someone’s got some explaining to do,’ he grunted, rubbing his snout with a paw. ‘Who is this? What’s going on?’
‘I think the first thing you need to do is have a chat with those two,’ Brian said, pointing across the clearing to where Aggy and Elly were staring, slack-jawed, at Cinders, Sparks and her fairy godmother.
‘Oh, good grief.’ Cinders clapped a hand across her forehead as Elly grabbed her sister’s hand and legged it back through the forest. ‘I’d better try to explain before they tell my stepmother what they saw. Will you wait here, um, Brian?’
‘No,’ said Brian with a big, cheery smile. ‘But I will see you later. Now get back home before the messenger leaves.’
With that, she vanished.
‘Messenger?’ Cinders said to Sparks. ‘What is she talking about?’
‘Haven’t the foggiest,’ Sparks replied, ‘but can you please explain one thing?’
‘I can try.’ Cinders sighed. ‘It’s all a bit complicated, isn’t it? What with the magic, the fairy godmother and you talking all of a sudden.’
‘Who cares about any of that?’ Sparks gestured at the empty plate. ‘What on earth happened to all my sausages?’
At the exact same time as Cinders and Sparks arrived back at the cottage, a short man on a tall horse galloped away, tooting on a horn as he went.
‘That must be the messenger Brian was talking about,’ said Sparks. ‘Did you see the royal crest on his cloak?’
‘That’s the least of my problems,’ Cinders replied. ‘What do you think Elly and Aggy saw in the forest?’
As it turned out, Elly and Aggy had seen everything.
‘And there was a lady with red hair and she had wings!’ Aggy wailed as Cinders walked into the cottage with Sparks close behind. ‘And Sparks was floating!’
Closing her eyes and crossing her fingers, Cinders prepared herself for the worst. But Margery didn’t say a thing. When Cinders opened her eyes, she saw that her stepmother was far too busy reading a golden scroll to listen to her daughters.
‘And then the lady with the wings disappeared!’ Aggy squealed. ‘Poof – just like that!’
‘Agnes, I do not have time to listen to your nonsense,’ Margery announced. ‘And I’ve told you before, I won’t have you telling lies.’
‘But it’s not a lie,’ Aggy said sulkily. ‘There was a lady with wings and Sparks was flying and—’
‘Enough!’ snapped her mother, waving the scroll in the air. ‘Can any of you guess what this scroll says?’
Aggy and Elly shook their heads.
‘Obviously not,’ Cinders replied, breathing a sigh of relief. ‘Who sends scrolls any more? Why wouldn’t they send you a DM like normal people?’
‘Because it isn’t from normal people,’ Margery replied. ‘This is from the palace. It’s an invitation to the king’s ball, the most fabulous party the palace has ever thrown.’
Elly and Aggy forgot all about Brian as soon as they heard the word ‘ball’.
‘Will we have new dresses, Mother?’ asked Elly.
Margery nodded.
‘And new shoes?’ asked Aggy.
Margery nodded.
‘Can I go too?’ asked Cinders.
‘Certainly not,’ replied Margery. ‘Your name isn’t on the invitation, so you’re not invited. And I don’t want to hear another word on the matter. Now haven’t you got chores to do?’
Of course the answer was yes. Cinders always had chores to do.
A whole week went by and Cinders hadn’t been able to make a single wish come true.
Every morning, she woke up and did all her jobs: she washed the dishes, fed the animals and polished her stepsisters’ shoes until she could see her own sad face reflected in the super-shiny leather. She hadn’t teased Elly or Aggy, she hadn’t talked back to her stepmother and she hadn’t eaten a single cake all week long. Once the whole cottage was spick and span, Cinders snuck out of the house and into the forest with Sparks at her side where they spent each and every day wishing and wishing and wishing for Brian to come back and tell Cinders more about her mother.
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