Cinders and Sparks: Goblins and Gold. Lindsey Kelk

      ‘Eat you?’ the fairy gasped, clutching her sides. The prince had made her laugh so hard, she’d given herself a stitch. ‘I shouldn’t think so.

      Can you imagine the mess? And there’s hardly any meat on those bones anyway. I’m a fairy with a good appetite, and you wouldn’t fill up a flea.’

      ‘Right,’ Joderick said, still wary of the red-headed lady.

      Ever since he was a teeny-tiny little baby, his mother and father had told him stories of how evil the fairies were. How they stalked children at night, how they crept around with long claws and sharp teeth, and how they were determined to take over the kingdom. But this fairy didn’t have long claws or sharp teeth, and she certainly didn’t seem very interested in eating him. In fact, she’d already pulled a cupcake out of her bag and was happily tucking into that instead.

      ‘I’m looking for a girl,’ the fairy said, a dollop of icing on the end of her nose. ‘About your height, fair hair, very messy, probably covered in muck and with food all over her face.’

      Joderick’s eyes widened.

      ‘You wouldn’t be talking about Cinders by any chance, would you?’ he asked.

      ‘How do you know my goddaughter?’ the fairy replied.

      ‘She’s my friend. I’m looking for her too,’ Joderick said, completely gobsmacked. ‘You’re Cinders’s godmother?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘But you’re a fairy!’

      ‘Sharpest knife in the drawer, aren’t you, clever clogs?’ Brian muttered to herself. ‘Yes, I’m Cinders’s godmother and yes, I’m a fairy and, as I mentioned, I’m looking for her. Have you seen her or not because I’m in something of a rush. There’s a very large man with a very large axe roaming around these woods who is also looking for her and I’d much prefer it if I found her first.’

      All the colour drained from Joderick’s face.

      ‘I really, really, really, really hope you aren’t talking about the Huntsman,’ he said, holding Muffin’s reins a little bit tighter.

      ‘That’s him,’ Brian said with a chuckle. ‘Fancies himself a bit, doesn’t he?’

      Joderick was very pleased to be up on his horse because he was shaking so much that, if he’d been down on the ground, Brian would have seen his knees knocking together.

      ‘The Huntsman is the most feared man in the entire kingdom,’ he said in a wobbly voice. ‘He has never failed to complete a mission. Whatever he hunts, he catches. He isn’t scared of anything.’

      Brian shrugged. ‘Everyone is scared of something. For me, it’s guinea pigs. I don’t like their little hands …’

      ‘I’m serious!’ Joderick told her, trying not to sound too wibbly. ‘Anything you tell him to find, he finds it. And I don’t think he always asks nicely.’

      He knew his father would say it wasn’t very becoming for a prince to sound so scared, but they were talking about the Huntsman, and he was after Cinders.

      ‘I don’t know what you’re so worried about,’ Brian said, fluttering her wings until she was up on her feet once again. ‘Like I said, everyone is afraid of something, and I happen to have an inkling of what will scare him.’

      ‘What are you, some sort of mind-reader?’ Joderick asked.

      ‘Yes,’ she replied confidently.

      Joderick wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not, but she very much looked like she was.

      ‘The bigger they come, the harder they fall,’ Brian went on. ‘Besides, all we have to do is find Cinders first and then we needn’t worry about him.’

      ‘And how are we going to do that?’ Joderick asked.

      She looked at him with a little smile on her shining face.

      ‘Magic,’ she said, snapping her fingers.

      And, just like that, they both