‘Here, child, come, sit beside me and spin,’ the old woman said.

  Briar Rose sat and the old woman handed her the spindle. But the instant Briar Rose took hold if it, she pricked herself.

  ‘Oh,’ said Briar Rose, as a single drop of blood appeared on the end of her finger. And she slumped off the chair, onto the floor, falling into a deep sleep.

  At that very moment, the king and queen stepped inside the front door of the castle, and they also fell into a deep sleep, right there in the hallway. The pages and footmen fell asleep. The cook fell asleep and the kitchen boy did too. The mice in the kitchen fell asleep, the servants fell asleep and so did all the guests that had just arrived for the banquet.

  Just as the twelfth fairy had promised, a giant hedge of thorns immediately sprouted around the entire palace, growing tall and thick to protect everyone inside. Soon the hedge was so high that the palace was hidden entirely from view, even its highest turret, where Briar Rose lay sleeping.

  ‘I saw her,’ blurted Lana.

  ‘Saw who, darling?’

  ‘Briar Rose. Today, in the supermarket.’

  ‘Oh, how exciting,’ said her mother, playing along. ‘Was she with Rumpelstiltskin?’

  ‘Mum, I’m not joking. I was in the story! There’s a trapdoor,’ said Lana, unable to stop herself. ‘In the pick ’n’ mix. That little old man pushed me into it, and I ended up in the palace. And everyone was asleep! That’s where I was when Dad thought I had gone missing.’

  ‘Right,’ said her mother decisively, and closed the book. ‘I think that’s enough of that.’

  ‘But you haven’t finished the chapter.’

  ‘No, and I’m not going to. I knew these stories were too scary.’

  ‘But it’s true!’

  ‘That’s enough, Lana,’ said her mother firmly, and turned out the light. ‘This book is going away for good.’

  Chapter Seven

  Having the book of fairytales taken away was very upsetting. The following morning at breakfast, Lana hardly said a word. It had taken her ages to go to sleep, as she couldn’t stop thinking about Briar Rose. The thirteenth fairy had tricked Briar Rose once, but what if she did it again? What if she found a way to stop the princess waking up, even after one hundred years? Lana had to go back to the castle – she had to help Briar Rose and make sure the curse was broken.

  ‘Cheer up,’ said her father, as he tucked into his apricot jam on toast. ‘It’s pocket-money day! That usually puts a smile on your face.’

  Harrison’s ears pricked up. He lowered his book on Archimedes and looked around the table as if he was seeing everyone for the first time.

  ‘Pocket-money day?’ he echoed.

  ‘I know, Harrison. Why don’t we go to the new supermarket?’ Lana suggested, trying not to give anything away in her voice. ‘There are so many fun things there.’

  ‘Like what?’ asked Harrison.

  ‘Sweets,’ said Lana. ‘More sweets than you have ever seen in your life. You’ll love it.’

  ‘The supermarket again?’ asked their mother, wiping her feet on the mat at the back door. She had just been to feed the chickens. She glanced at Lana. ‘I thought you said supermarkets were boring?’

  ‘Mostly they are,’ said Lana. ‘But Grimm’s… Grimm’s is different. Besides, Harrison and I need to spend our pocket money!’

  ‘Okay. If Harrison goes too, you can both walk there. It’s not far and the fresh air will do you good,’ said her mother with a smile.

  Lana felt her heart leap. No parents meant the perfect opportunity to tell Harrison about her plan.

  * * *

  It was still quite early, and Lana and Harrison arrived to find the store with all the lights on, but completely empty, with the doors locked.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Harrison, looking at his watch and squinting at the signs on the door. ‘It looks like, they don’t open for another nine minutes.’

  ‘Harrison…’ said Lana. ‘Have you ever seen a fairy?’

  ‘No,’ said Harrison firmly. ‘Because there’s no such thing.’

  ‘Yes, there is,’ said Lana. ‘There’s one in there. I saw her.’

  ‘There’s a fairy in the supermarket?’ snorted Harrison.

  ‘Well, not exactly, but there’s a trapdoor,’ Lana explained. ‘In the pick ’n’ mix. I slid down a chute from the sherbet lemons tub and landed in a castle, Briar Rose’s castle to be precise.’

  ‘Whose castle?’

  ‘Briar Rose. She’s from a fairytale called Sleeping Beauty.’

  ‘Lana,’ said Harrison, with the air of someone with a lot on their mind, none of which involved trapdoors to fairytales, ‘do you think you might possibly have made that up?’

  ‘It’s true! If you don’t believe me, come and look.’

  Suddenly the doors rattled, and they turned to see the little old man on the other side, wrestling with a large bunch of keys. He was dressed as a security guard this time, with a curly mop of ginger hair and a large bushy beard.

  ‘That’s the man who pushed me down the chute!’ Lana hissed to Harrison. ‘He seems to be the only person who works here.’

  Finally, the little old man found the right key, and the doors slid open.

  ‘Can I help you?’ he asked.

  ‘Probably not,’ said Harrison. ‘My sister says there’s a trapdoor in the pick ’n’ mix.’

  ‘No, I didn’t!’ said Lana, furious that Harrison had just given away what was quite obviously a secret.

  ‘Yes, you did. You said it leads to Briar Rose’s castle.’

  The little old man began to laugh uncontrollably.

  ‘A trapdoor!’ he hooted. ‘That’s a good one! What a fabulous imagination you have, little girl.’ He leant forward slightly and looked Lana right in the eyes. ‘What do you know about Briar Rose, anyway? I hope you haven’t been reading Sleeping Beauty. Because that is clearly much too scary a story for you.’

  ‘It’s not!’ objected Lana, who was getting more than a little fed up of being told what was too scary for her.

  ‘How can a fairytale be scary?’ asked Harrison. ‘They’re just full of princesses and balls and happy-ever-afters. Boring!’

  ‘Trust me,’ said the little old man, ominously. ‘Fairytales are anything but boring.’

  ‘Anyway,’ said Harrison, ‘I told her you didn’t have one.’

  ‘One what?’ he asked.

  ‘A trapdoor to a fairytale world in your pick ’n’ mix,’ replied Harrison.

  ‘Oh, of course not!’ scoffed the little man. ‘Goodness, the very idea! As I say, what an imagination your sister has! But we do have many of the popular football kits, if that’s of interest?’ Then he looked around, as if to check no one was watching, and ushered them inside.

  Once again, he allowed himself a tiny smile.

  Chapter Eight

  Harrison brushed past Lana and headed into the store.

  ‘Wait! Where are you going?’ she asked her brother. ‘The pick ’n’ mix is this way.’

  ‘I’m going to check out the football kit. I don’t have time for your silly stories.’

  ‘It’s true, Harrison! I promise!’ called Lana.

  But Harrison had already turned the corner. Lana, however, wasn’t that easily deterred. She made her way straight to the pick ’n’ mix, determined to prove that she was telling the truth.

  After making sure that no one was watching her, she borrowed a big plastic box of Lego from the toy section, and stood on it to reach the tub of sherbet lemons.

  There was the little cluster of yellow sweets, stuck to the bottom of the tub, just as before. But when she pushed against the hard plastic, it was completely solid. The trapdoor had vanished.

  What was going on? Was Harrison right? Had she imagined the whole thing?

  ‘Can I help you?’ said a familiar voice, so close it made Lana jump. The little old man’s ginger wig and beard were gone, and he was once again wearing his maroon boiler suit, with a matching gold-trimmed hat.

  ‘Where’s the trapdoor gone?’ demanded Lana. ‘And why did you tell my brother I was lying?’

  ‘Brother?’ repeated the little old man, with an air of bafflement. ‘I’ve never met your brother.’

  Lana felt her temper rising. ‘Yes, you have,’ she said accusingly. ‘These disguises don’t fool me. You met him two minutes ago, when you were pretending to be a security guard. You know there was a trapdoor, because yesterday you pushed me into it. And don’t say you didn’t, because you did!’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ hissed the little old man, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. ‘Keep your voice down. I didn’t push you. It takes a little force to open the portal, that’s all.’

  ‘I knew it! I knew I had travelled to the castle! So where has the… portal gone?’

  ‘Nowhere. It’s still there, it’s just closed.’

  Lana narrowed her eyes. ‘You’re not explaining very well.’

  ‘Each of these sweet tubs is a portal. But they aren’t always open, and they don’t all lead to the same story. To know when they are open, and where they lead, you need this.’ As he spoke, he fished the red-leather booklet from his top pocket and held it up.

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘A timetable,’ he replied.

  ‘Like for a bus?’ asked Lana.

  ‘Exactly. Let me see… liquorice allsorts. Closed now but in–’ He checked his pocket watch – ‘fifteen minutes, that will lead to the beginning of Rapunzel. Perhaps you know it?’

  ‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!’ chanted Lana.

  ‘Precisely,’ said the little old man. ‘Though that’s later in the story. The beginning is about a pregnant woman, who asks her husband to steal some lamb’s lettuce from a witch’s garden. If you want the “let down your hair” bit, you’ll need the fizzy snakes at half past three on Saturday.’

  ‘What about Briar Rose?’ asked Lana.

  ‘What about her indeed?’

  ‘How do I get back into her story?’

  The little old man grinned, as if he had finally cornered his prey.

  ‘Remind me, where were you last?’

  Lana had a strong feeling he knew the answer, but she replied anyway. ‘The bit where she pricked her finger.’

  ‘Yes, of course, Briar Rose’s fifteenth birthday, I remember. The next stop, I believe, is the arrival of the first prince.’ He licked the tips of two long-nailed fingers, and began to flick through the pages of the timetable. ‘Sleeping Beauty, Sleeping Beauty, Sleeping Beauty… Ah, you’re in luck. There’s a portal opening any second.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Lana. ‘Where is it?’

  He pointed with the timetable, directing Lana’s gaze. ‘Have you tried the dolly mixtures? I hear they are particularly good today.’

  By the time Lana looked back, he was gone.

  Cautiously, she lifted the lid to the dolly mixtures. The tub was half full. A waft of delicious scent tickled her nostrils, and her mouth began to water. Seizing the trowel, she started to dig, searching for a trapdoor. But every time she took a shovelful of sweets, the rest collapsed to fill the hole. So, rolling up her sleeve, she buried her right arm as far as it would go, stretching out her hand, until the tips of her fingers met the smooth plastic at the bottom of the tub. She gave it an experimental jab, but it didn’t budge.

  What was it the little old man had said? ‘It takes a little force to open the portal.’

  Spreading both hands, she pushed as hard as she could on the top layer of sweets. Again, nothing happened. Somehow, she was going to have to force her way through. So, checking the aisle was empty, Lana hoisted herself up, and launched herself into the tub.

  She was hoping that she would go sailing through the portal, but what actually happened was that, for an awkward moment, Lana found herself pinned by her own bodyweight, face-down in a tub full of dolly mixtures with her legs sticking out in the air.

  Then suddenly everything gave way and she was hurtling downwards!

  Round and down and round and down she raced, until once again the chute swerved sharply downwards, buffeting her so hard it was almost impossible to catch her breath. Just when she felt her lungs were about to burst, it began to spiral, turning in tighter and tighter curls, slowing her almost to a halt, before yawning her out through the hollow of a giant oak tree onto a bed of thick green moss.

  Lana took in her surroundings as she lay on the moss, breathing heavily. This time it was night and the air smelled sweet and damp. Above her a full moon shone, illuminating the leafy canopy. Then, sensing something, she held her breath…

  She could hear voices.

  Chapter Nine

  Carefully and quietly, Lana pushed herself to her feet. Off beyond the furthest trees a light was flickering. Taking a deep breath, she crept towards it. A young man in a white fur cape was standing by a campfire in a clearing. Beyond him, towering like a cliff face, was a giant wall of thorns.

  He must be a prince! Surely he would help rescue Briar Rose? This must be the next part of the story…

  Lana suddenly realised that it didn’t matter that her mother had taken away the book. Not when she could come through the pick ’n’ mix portal and visit any fairytale she liked!

  Imagine all the exciting adventures she was going to have!

  Delighted, Lana crept closer. She could see now that the prince was accompanied by two elderly courtiers, one with a long nose, and one with big ears. They were discussing what might be behind the wall of thorns.

  ‘I have heard,’ the long-nosed courtier was saying, ‘that beyond is a castle, and in that castle lives a dragon who breathes real fire.’

  Lana frowned. That wasn’t true at all!

  ‘Why has no one ever seen it, then?’ asked the prince.

  ‘He only flies at night,’ replied the long-nosed courtier wisely.

  ‘It’s night now,’ countered the prince.

  ‘The dead of night,’ said the long-nosed courtier, correcting himself. ‘And, anyway, there’s a full moon. Dragons never fly on a full moon.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ interrupted the big-eared courtier. ‘There’s a castle, true enough, but no dragon. An ogre lives there, with his eight wives.’

  ‘Eight wives?’ asked the prince.

  ‘And twenty-seven baby ogres,’ added the big-eared courtier.

  Lana frowned again. That wasn’t true either. Didn’t they know Briar Rose was in there?

  ‘That’s a great many ogres,’ mused the prince. ‘What do they all eat?’

  ‘Sheep,’ said the big-eared courtier, without a moment’s hesitation.

  Lana shook her head. If she didn’t do something, Briar Rose might never get rescued.

  ‘You’re both wrong,’ she said in a loud, clear voice, stepping out of the shadows.

  ‘Who goes there?!’ called the big-eared courtier, as he and several others scrambled to their feet.

  ‘Lana.’

  ‘And what manner of creature are you, Lana? A flower-fairy? A shape-shifter?’

  ‘Well… I’m a girl.’

  ‘A girl?’ echoed the prince, as if he had never heard the word before in his life. ‘And how, pray tell, do you know what’s inside the wall of thorns?’

  ‘I’ve been in there,’ said Lana.

  ‘Really? By what means?’

  This didn’t feel like the moment to say, ‘Through the pick ’n’ mix section of my local supermarket’, so instead Lana crossed her fingers behind her back and said in a loud, clear voice, ‘Magic.’

  The courtiers looked at one another.

  ‘Well, do tell us what’s inside?’ said the prince, smirking at his courtiers, clearly not believing at all that a small girl like Lana could possibly know more than him.

  ‘It’s true that there’s a castle,’ said Lana, stepping forward. ‘But there’s no dragon, and there’s no ogre. There’s a sleeping princess. In fact the castle is full of sleeping people.’

  ‘What’s the name of the princess?’ probed the prince.

  ‘Briar Rose,’ replied Lana. ‘She pricked her finger on her fifteenth birthday and fell into a deep sleep for a hundred years because of an angry fairy’s curse. But there must be a way to rescue her, and her family.’

  The big-eared courtier gave a sarcastic laugh. ‘Sounds like a very tall tale to me, sire,’ he said, smugly.

  ‘On the contrary,’ said the prince. ‘A curse explains the thorns. Presumably another, kinder fairy put them there as protection?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Lana.

  ‘Yes, sire,’ corrected the long-nosed courtier.

  ‘And this princess…’ said the prince, looking right into Lana’s eyes. ‘What’s she like?’

  ‘Kind and clever and courageous,’ said Lana. ‘And lots of other wonderful things. Every one of the twelve fairies gave her a gift—’

  ‘Woah woah woah woah,’ said the prince. ‘The twelve fairies? Her family invited the twelve fairies, and they came? Fairies only eat from gold plates, so these parents must be very wealthy?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Lana shrugged. ‘He’s a king, so—’

  ‘Trust me,’ interrupted the prince, leaning in so that only Lana could hear. ‘That means nothing. I’m heir to the throne of Dreitsmark and I’m penniless.’ He turned away from her. ‘Sir Ulrich!’

  The big-eared courtier stepped forward.

  ‘Message the first fairy and ask if she has heard of a princess called Briar Rose.’

  The big-eared courtier took a quill, inscribed a short note, fastened it to the leg of a carrier pigeon, then threw the bird high into the air. The startled pigeon circled their heads once, twice, then took off over the forest.

  There was a long awkward moment while they all waited for the reply. Lana felt an uneasiness creep over her. The prince seemed interested in Briar Rose because of her money, rather than because she was a good person. That couldn’t be right, surely?

  ‘Takes a while,’ said the prince to Lana. ‘The bird has to fly there, catch the attention of the first fairy, then she needs to reply…’