Free Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson Page A

paws. The Piper is far fleeter, his boots barely touching the ground, so that he isn’t even slightly singed, and he strides unharmed to the very edge of the fiery inferno,still playing persuasively, and all the rats tumble down down down in a squealing squeaking flurry and are all burned to a crisp. So the general stench in Glassworld is given an even more rancid reek of roasted rat flesh, so the problem is even more dire, soooooo …’
    Carl looked at me. ‘Come on, come on. I’ve been talking for ages. It’s your turn now, Sylvie.’
    I sighed, trying to think. I didn’t really want to carry on. I felt hypnotized like the poor rats. Carl hadn’t been so inventive, so fired up, so totally involved in Glassworld for ages. I’d longed for him to play it properly, the way we did when we were little kids, but now I wasn’t quite so sure.
I
was usually the one with the best ideas, the one who invented new characters and planned every aspect of the plot. I felt usurped, wrong-footed, left out. I couldn’t get
into
the story. I was stuck in the hut, holding the paperweight in my hand, while Carl was inside Glassworld with his King and this new irritating Piper who seemed to have taken over, charming everyone with his ludicrous get-up and crude music. I wanted him out of Glassworld.
    ‘Queen Sylviana had not been idle when she was rather unkindly closeted in her bedroom, erroneously deemed mad. She sensed right from the beginning that the Piper was a dangerous enchanter. He not only bewitched rats, he bewitched children, women, men – even kings. He was actually in league with the enemy spy who blew up the Glassworld sewers. It was allpart of his dastardly plot to charm his way into the royal circle and eventually usurp the King himself.’
    ‘Rubbish!’ said Carl. ‘You’re spoiling it.’
    ‘Look, it’s my go now – you had ages and ages. I’m
not
spoiling it. I’ll make it turn out right, you’ll see.
So
, Queen Sylviana tossed and turned on her silk swansdown pillow, trying to think what to do for the best. Her own magical powers were in decline, as she always sank into a terrible depression when she felt she was out of favour with the King. She thought hard of all the women in the world strong enough to play the Piper at his own game. She looked into her Glassworld mirror, and every facet of the glass shone rainbow spectrums in her face. She closed her eyes, dazzled, and when she tried opening them again she did not see her own reflection, she saw a plump and comely raven-haired enchantress, Princess Mirandarette, playing with her potions in her Ice Palace in the Snowland Steppes. Queen Sylviana shivered, knowing Mirandarette’s powers. She was the most ruthless of all the enchanters, showing no mercy, because she had a sliver of ice in her heart. She was her only chance.
    ‘Queen Sylviana summoned up all her magical strength and sent a psychic message through the ether. Princess Mirandarette smiled. She donned her white fur robes, called for her reindeer sleigh, and set off across the night sky, travelling faster than the speed oflight to Glassworld. As her sleigh hovered over the beleaguered city the reindeer threw back their heavy antlered heads at the stench and trod thin air, not wanting to land in such a polluted place. Princess Mirandarette waved her moonstone sceptre thrice above her head and snow started falling, such thick, rapid snow that Glassworld all but disappeared, just the very pinnacles and spires sticking out of the all-enveloping snow blanket. She circled above, her sceptre flashing through the air, lowering the temperature so suddenly that Mirandarette turned a ghostly shade of blue beneath her furs. Then her arm shot out and she summoned the sun itself, and the snow melted almost instantly, taking with it all the stench and mire, miraculously cleaning Glassworld until it sparkled in the glorious sunshine. Princess Mirandarette sparkled too, a radiance glowing around her like an