Princess Rose

  'What’s wrong with you, you silly girl?' yells the Witch, bringing Rose promptly back to her world.

  I must be more careful, she thinks.

  Chapter 8 - Over My Dead Body

  'You're in a dream these days Sofie,' says Caroline. 'Is everything alright?'

  'No, it's not,' says Sofie. 'My friend Rose is held captive by a wicked witch in Fort Carre. I must rescue her.'

  'You’d better!' says Caroline.

  Rose reads her old diaries in the evening before she goes to sleep. When she has a chance, Sofie's there too, reading over her shoulder. It's like going into a time warp and being transported back to olden days. Sofie gets so lost in Rose's account of an attack by Saracen pirates on Antibes and the fort that she doesn't notice that Rose has gone to sleep - until the page needs turning!

  Now's her chance, she'll see what the Witch and Jinx get up to. Being careful to stay well away from the Witch she moves slowly around the hut.

  'You can go out now Jinx,' snarls the Witch.

  Jinx jumps up from by the fire, stretches himself, then ambles over to the wardrobe, where the Witch keeps her broom and capes. He jumps up and opens the latch. The door swings open and he jumps in, Sofie close behind. She follows him down some steep spiral stairs then along a dark, foul smelling passage, full of cobwebs. Just the bottom is clear up to the height of one witches cat. There are rats, but they run and hide in cracks and crevices when Jinx approaches. The tunnel ends in a puddle. Jinx dives in, Sofie following him in her thoughts. They're under water for a few seconds, then pop up next to the wall at the end of the beach with the flat pebbles. Jinx shakes himself off and vanishes into the darkness.

  What a brave cat, thinks Sofie, who's never heard of a cat swimming before. She has a good look around to get her bearings, so she can come back and find the place. Is the tunnel real, or is it a magic one? Looking from the beach to the spot where the tunnel comes out, the goalpost on the soccer pitch lines up with the head of the big soldier. She'll remember that.

  In her thoughts, she dives back into the water, swims through the underwater entrance and back into the tunnel, then walks along in the gloomy darkness, up the spiral staircase into the wardrobe and back into the room. Rose is sound asleep.

  The Witch is brewing up a potion. She has a big tatty book open on the table and is carefully measuring quantities, talking to herself as she adds things in.

  '6 cats' eyeballs-green; a bunch of rosemary-flowering; 2 fish skeletons-mullet; 3 grains of potassium permanganate; 12 maggots-alive; 1 cup dried jellyfish tentacles-pinky purple variety.'

  This is the potion! thinks Sofie.

  She carefully remembers the ingredients and the quantities. It isn't hard, the things are so yucky! 6 cats' eyeballs-green; 12 maggots, alive and wriggling.

  Yuck, yuck and double yuck!!

  She watches the Witch mixing the yucky ingredients into her cauldron, chanting spells as thick luminous vapours rise from the bubbling liquid. She tastes it occasionally, adding a few more dried jellyfish tentacles then throwing another cat’s eyeball in.

  Plop!

  A wet but contented Jinx arrives back from his hunting, stretches out in front of the fire and cleans himself.

  'You disgusting creature,' snarls the Witch at him. 'I’ll be putting your eyeballs in here one day. You’d have been in the pot ages ago if you weren’t so stringy.'

  'No you won't,' retorts the cat. 'You need me to watch the girl, and you know it. Why don’t you let her go? You’re getting old, what do you need her for? Let her go.'

  'Over my dead body,' shrieks the Witch. 'Never!'

  The Witch tastes the potion again, gives a sly satisfied smile and fills the jar above the fireplace. She then grabs her fishing net, jumps on her broomstick and Whoooosh, off she zooms into the night.

  Sofie pinches herself to bring herself back to her world. It's late, the moon is setting behind the buildings and she can hear the rubbish men outside. Between yawns, she draws a quick picture of the bearings for the tunnel and writes down the recipe for the potion, then curls up with her dolls, Pinky and Marie and is asleep.

  'Wake up! Wake up! It’s time for school! It’s late, milk or juice?' It's her dad, all bright and cheerful. Sofie has only just gone to sleep, she's shattered! She holds her dolls tight and cries.

  'You look terrible!' says her mum. 'No school for you today.'

  Sofie turns over and goes back to sleep.

  She wakes early in the afternoon, feeling much better. She calls Rose and tells her all the things that happened.

  'He’s not all bad, that old cat,' says the Princess. 'I knew he had a bit of good in him. It’s time for my siesta, pretend you are still asleep, and come back and watch over me.'

  And that's just what Sofie does. She doesn't need to do the reading trick; it's one of those things, that once you've done it once, you can always do it, like riding a bike. Rose dozes off under her beautiful duvet. Sofie watches her sleeping for a while then moves around the room, carefully examining everything. She looks at the witchy wardrobe, painted deep blue with stars and moons on it; the witchy bathroom in the corner, just large enough for Rose to bath in, and the witchy toilet next to it. There's a curtain you can draw around this corner for privacy. The Witch normally keeps it shut because she doesn't like looking at the toilet all day. The Witch must have made the bathroom just for Rose as she never washes and you can smell her pongy witchy smell when you get near her. In the opposite corner of the room is the fireplace. The cauldron sits on a wonky old grate above the fire and up above that is a shelf where the potion bottle and a couple of candles live. There's a locked cupboard next to the fireplace. It's probably where the Witch keeps all her magic ingredients. Between this and the window is a little rock work surface the Witch uses as a kitchen.

  Rose sleeps next to the window that looks out over the sea and Antibes, south towards the sunshine. The Witch sleeps in the cold dark corner by the window that looks north towards Nice and the mountains. You couldn’t really call the Witch's bed a bed; it's more of a pile of old smelly sacks which she curls up in.

  The Witch moves from her chair making Sofie jump. She waves her wand and Rose, still asleep, sits up in bed. The Witch pours a little of the potion in to a beaker and gives it to Rose to drink. She gulps it down, then lays back on her bed.

  Sofie slips back into her world and carefully draws a plan of the room with all the things in it.

  Chapter 9 - The Secret Tunnel

  'Dad,' says Sofie, when he gets back from work. 'Can you teach us to snorkel this weekend?

  'You’ve got better quickly,' he says. 'Of course, let's go to the pebbly beach.'

  'No, no, no,' says Sofie. 'Let's go to the beach by Fort Carre.'

  'Let's!'

  First thing Saturday morning, they fuel up with hot croissants and pain-au-chocolate from the boulangerie and head off. It takes them ages to get to the beach because Sam insists on wearing his flippers and every few steps either trips over himself or Lulu jumps on them. When they finally arrive, her dad helps Sofie put on the mask and she practices diving underwater. It leaks a bit, but she can see the pebbly bottom, her feet and a few small fish.

  She gets her bearings for the tunnel, lining up the goal post with the statue of the soldier and, sure enough, there's a pipe coming out there. It's only just under the surface and there's lots of fish and anemones living in the entrance.

  'It’s probably a secret tunnel to Fort Carre,' says Nick, her dad.

  'Do you really think so?' says Sofie, a little surprised that her dad knows about the tunnel.

  'No, just joking,' he replies. 'It’s probably an old sewer or something.'

  Now that she knows the tunnel is there, Sofie needs a plan. She doesn't dare talk to Rose about it in case the Witch somehow listens in. She's a cunning old hag and will get suspicious if Rose does anything different to normal.

  Sofie knows how they'll get in to the invisible room, but how will they rescue the P
rincess once they're in? She's sure Rose can't escape through the tunnel as she's trapped by the magic. If she tries and fails, the Witch will block the tunnel and their only way into Rose’s world.

  The answer must lie in the potion. Maybe they can change it. Sofie reads her spell book from cover to cover, but the spells are all spells for fairies. Spells to tidy your room, spells to chase away bad dreams, spells to do your homework for you (she's kept that one secret from her mum!), but not spells to rescue princesses from wicked witches.

  She decides to ask her friend Leah. Leah knows all about witches and witchy things and loves spiders and black cats and wicked spells. Leah comes for a sleep over and Sofie spends all night telling her about Princess Rose and the wicked Witch. She shows her the poems and all the drawings she's made of Rose, the plan of the invisible hut and the formula for the potion.

  'This is great,' says Leah, bursting with excitement. 'It’s the most exciting thing ever. Let’s rescue her. We can all do it as a team, you, me, Sam, Lulu and Jana. The flag flying on your roof can be our emblem, and and, and, we can have a motto. All secret organisations have a motto. I know, there’s a funny one my mum told me today. When in danger and in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!’

  'That sounds just the motto for us,' says Sofie, although she did have her doubts that it's quite the right one for their perilous mission.

  'We can go in through the tunnel and give Princess Rose the antidote!' says Leah.

  'What’s an anti, anti...dot?' asks Sofie.

  'It’s something that undoes magic or stops a poison,' says Leah. 'Like if you get bitten by a snake, you must take the antidote for its venom before it kills you. All we have to do is to find the antidote. Let’s start in the morning.'

  Leah looks thoughtful for a moment, then says, 'Wait a minute. What’s the Witch called? She must have a name.'

  Sofie scratches her head, then says, 'Yes, yes, Rose did mention it once, she usually just calls her The Witch. What was it again? Gangor, Blandor, no Genube. No, no, no, that’s it...Zubenelgenubl, after the star!'

  'No wonder she is just called The Witch,' says Leah.

  'And we,' she continues, 'the rescue team, need a name. Like The Fearsome Five or something like that. Let’s have a midnight feast and think about it.'

  It's a late midnight feast, it's that quiet time of night after Caroline, has stopped reading and sneaking things from the fridge, rustle, rustle, crinkle, scrunch, yum, yum!!!, and before the rubbish men start up, Bang, Crash, Smash!!!

  The girls have their feast; forget all about thinking up a name, and go to sleep.

  The next day two rather sleepy girls go through all Sofie’s spell books, but there's nothing about antidotes or jellyfish tentacles. They ask Nick to look on the internet. They try putting jellyfish tentacles in - nothing. They try jelly fish stings - 3812 hits. Most say, wash with salt water and vinegar; an antidote, but not what they're looking for.

  That’s not it,' they say.

  'What exactly are you looking for?' asks Nick, getting exasperated.

  'We need an antidote,' say the girls. 'A wicked witch is holding Princess Rose captive in Fort Carre using a potion made with jellyfish tentacles.'

  'Let’s go to Heidi’s,' he says. 'Come on, shoes on, out the door.'

  There are books about all sorts of things at Heidi’s: the supernatural, The Beginners Guide toWitchcraft, The complete Book of Witchcraft, and Wizardry for Experts, a lot of waffle about crop circles and balancing stones, but nothing specific about spells and antidotes. It's like the authors didn’t really know what they were talking about.

  On the way home, an old fellow with a beard and a wonky hat, cycles by on a cranky old bicycle.

  'He’s the one we need,' says Sofie’s dad. 'Barry, Hold on a sec!'

  The old fella stops and they tell him what they're looking for. He thinks for a minute, twiddling his beard with his fingers. 'I might have just the book you need,' he says. 'I came across an old musty book in a cellar last week. It would have been valuable but it’s falling to bits. You can have it if it’s of any use. I’ll nip home and grab it. I just live round the corner.'

  With a ting-a-ling on his bell, he shoots off on his bike and is back in a minute with a tatty old book all tied up with string. It's all in French so they take it to Leah’s house, as her mum, Carol, speaks good French.

  The pages are so old and fragile that the first few fall to pieces as she turns them. After that, she turns them super carefully, reading as she goes.

  'This is a witches' spell book,' she says after a while, then turning another page adds, 'Ah, here we are. You can stop the ageing process indefinitely with this spell…..

  'What the cosmetic companies would give to get hold of it!

  'Cats eyeballs, rosemary, dried jellyfish tentacles... It goes on to say that this potion must be used with extreme caution and that by throwing a spell or curse at the same time you can make very strong magic, create invisibility, making people or whole objects disappear.'

  'That’s it. That’s the one!' exclaims Leah. 'Is there an antidote?'

  'Be patient!' says Carol. 'We must be careful not to destroy the page.'

  'But, but, but we need the antidote right now. It’s an emergency!' pleads Leah.

  Leah’s dad, Mohammed, comes to the rescue. He tells them all to stay still and not to move, and nips around the corner to the stationary shop, coming back with a big sheet of sticky plastic. He carefully places it on top of the valuable page, squishes it flat to make it stick, turns the page over and sticks another sheet on the other side.

  'Now let me see,' he says. 'Ah, yes, the antidote.

  'Mix: 200 fish eyeballs, crushed; 1 lambs brain; a bunch of basil and a pinch of diamond dust; boil for 12 hours, then crush up and mix with vinegar.'

  During the week the girls collect all the ingredients they can find. Basil is no trouble. Caroline is surprised when Sofie asks for brains for supper one night. Her dad says that they're good wrapped in bacon, and surprisingly, they are! Sofie notes what her mum asks for at the butcher's shop and puts some pocket money aside to buy some. Next she asks her dad if they can go fishing in the weekend. Everyone is suddenly very keen on fishing: Sofie, Sam, Lulu, Leah and Jana.

  They have a meeting during the week and are all dead keen to help rescue the Princess. The girls aren't too happy about having the young ones, Lulu and Jana, along but decide that they can't go without them. Sofie buys two lambs’ brains, one for fish bait and one which she hides in the fridge for later.

  On Saturday they have a great time fishing at the pebbly beach. The brains make excellent bait. It doesn't stay on the hook very well, but the fish love it! They catch lots of fish. After they've hauled in about twenty, Nick says that maybe they should stop while there are still a few fish left in the sea!

  'No, no,' plead the girls. 'We need two hundred fishes’ eyeballs for our potion!'

  'Yuck,' says Nick. 'Let’s catch some more fish then. You can have the eyeballs, I’ll make fish soup.'

  While they're fishing, the girls pick Nick’s brains with lots of questions, like, 'Where do we get diamond dust from?'

  'You could crush mum’s diamond rings, but she might not be very happy! How much do you need? How badly do you need it?'

  'It’s a matter of life and death!' reply the girls. 'We just need a pinch.'

  'That’s no trouble then,' he says. 'I have an old saw blade on the boat. We’ll pick it up on the way home and try to scrape the diamond dust off.'

  'That tunnel, you know the secret passage to Fort Carre,' says Sofie, worrying that the young’uns won't be able to dive underwater to get into its hidden entrance.

  'Yes?' says Nick.

  'Well, might there be some way we could get into it without having to dive underwater? Could we dig a hole or something?'

  'You’d need a ditch digger to dig a hole big enough,' he laughs. 'Why not just wait for the tide to go out?'

  'For the tide to go out
. What are you on about?' says Sofie.

  'Low tide,' says her dad. 'There’s not much of a tide here, but if you wait for the full moon or a new moon, the sea level does go up and down a bit. If there's high pressure it pushes the sea down a bit and if it blows a mistral, it blows some of the water away, dropping it a bit more.'

  She isn't quite sure what he's going on about, so asks, 'When it's a new moon, it’s a really dark night. Right?'

  'Yes…'

  'So, what time will it be low tide on the next new moon?'

  'We’ll check it out on the boat, when we pick the saw up.' He's a bit bemused by the girls, in fact all of the kids, sudden interest in spells, potions, magic, fishing and old sewer pipes, and with Sam eating brains. What's up with him? He never normally eats nothing but plain pasta. Truth be known, Sofie threatened Sam that he couldn’t help rescue the Princess if he didn’t eat his brains!

  Back home, they put all the fish in a big pot, add a few herbs and a few potatoes and boil them up. As the pot slowly bubbles away, eyeballs pop out and float to the surface. The kids fight to scoop them out with the ladle. They carefully wash and dry them and line them up on the table, all looking the same way. Leah counts them: Two hundred and seven, they have enough with seven to spare.

  The girls set up their cauldron next to Dad's fish soup and put a lid on so he can't see the brains in there; put his fish soup ingredients in by mistake or do some other dopey thing and ruin their potion.

  They leave it bubbling gently all night and wake up first thing in the morning to check it. It glows green in the dark with the eyeballs bobbing around on the surface. It must be good! They have a taste.

  Yuck!

  It tastes horrible!

  They crush it up, add vinegar, then strain it through a sieve, pour it carefully into some miniature bottles they found on the mantelpiece and hide it in a box under Sam's bed.

  Later that day, the Fearsome Five have a special meeting. They need a plan as the new moon is going to be on Tuesday night, with low, low tide due at two o’clock in the morning. They make a plan and a backup plan. They can't think of a escape plan, so decide that they'll just have to succeed. There'll be no turning back once they get started. Do or Die!