‘Okay, here’s the plan.’

Cinders, Hansel, Sparks and Mouse all huddled together in a circle.

‘I’m going to wish for some gold. As soon as it appears, Hansel, you grab it and go to the sausage stall and buy us all some lunch,’ Cinders instructed, wiggling her fingers to warm them up. ‘Sparks, you go with Hansel and make sure he gets the right stuff and doesn’t draw attention to himself while me and Mouse hide back here.’

‘Oi,’ Hansel said, looking a little hurt. ‘I can be trusted to buy a sausage, you know.’

Sparks and Cinders shared a look.

‘Are you even sure you can wish up some gold?’ Hansel asked. ‘Your wishes haven’t always gone according to plan …’

He wasn’t exactly wrong. There was the pig that had bitten the king on the bottom, and that one time she’d accidentally magicked up a munklepoop when they were lost in the forest, not to mention the time she’d accidentally frozen Sparks in mid-air.

‘No time to worry about that,’ Cinders said, ignoring Hansel. She was getting quite good at ignoring Hansel.

She crouched down behind Mouse who shook out his mane in a very nonchalant manner. Or as nonchalant a manner as possible for a horse that used to be a mouse. It was quite hard not to draw attention to yourself when you looked different to everyone else, and Cinders, Mouse and Hansel looked very, very different.

She was still really quite new at doing magic and, every time Cinders’s fingers started to tingle, she got a little bit excited and a tiny bit nervous. What if something went wrong? What if Sparks turned to gold? What if a giant gold bar appeared out of nowhere and squished them all flat like pancakes? But they needed to eat, and to eat they needed gold, and this was the only way she could think to get some. Cinders could hardly offer to do chores in exchange for food when there were wanted posters all over the market with her face on them. Plus, she really, really hated doing chores.

‘Here we go,’ Sparks said, crouching his head down low and sticking his doggy bottom up high, ready to leap up and protect his best friend.

Hansel, Mouse and Sparks all watched as shimmering shots of silver and gold began to flicker from Cinders’s hands before glittery sparkles ran all the way up her arms and down her back, until her whole body was glowing.

‘I will never get used to this,’ Hansel gasped.

‘How do you think I feel?’ Cinders asked him as she began to float up off the ground.

Just when she thought she was going to fly all the way up to the sky, a tiny white cloud appeared over her head and it began to rain. It began to rain shiny gold coins.

‘Ow!’ Cinders exclaimed, covering her head with her hands as the coins kept coming. Hansel scrambled to pick them up as they fell to the ground, rolling around at their feet.

‘Good work, Cinders!’ he exclaimed, stuffing his pockets full. ‘You’re getting better at this!’

‘Thank you,’ she replied, rubbing a sore spot on the top of her noggin. ‘Now it’s your turn to make yourself useful.’

Hansel did not need telling twice. Scooping up another handful of magical coins, he and Sparks raced off into the market, leaving Cinders and Mouse to lurk quietly on the edges.

‘If my mum was a fairy, then I’m half fairy too,’ she said, looking Mouse squarely in the eye.

He squeaked in agreement.

‘But Rapunzel said fairies can talk to animals,’ she added. ‘And not just Sparks because he can talk to anyone. I should be able to talk to you, Mouse.’

Mouse cocked his head to one side.

‘It would be nice to know what you’re thinking,’ Cinders sighed. ‘Almost as nice as it would be to find out who my mother really was.’

‘Hello, there!’

Cinders turned round quickly. She was sure she’d heard someone say something, but she couldn’t see anyone.

‘Down here,’ the voice said.

She dipped her head and saw a short, stout man standing in front of her. He had silver-grey hair and a tall, pointy hat on his head. He looked very kind with shining violet eyes, a large nose and a big beaming smile underneath a long grey beard that stopped somewhere near his knees.

‘Hello,’ he said again. ‘Were you just talking to your horse?’

‘Absolutely not,’ Cinders replied nervously. So much for not drawing attention to herself. ‘What sort of weirdo would talk to a horse?’

‘I don’t know,’ the man chuckled, stroking his beard. ‘You might get more sense out of a horse than some of the folks around these parts.’

Cinders smiled. He seemed nice enough and she missed nice people. He even reminded her a little bit of her dad, and she missed him most of all.

‘I was just having a chat with your pal back by the sausage stall,’ the man went on. ‘He said you were looking for some lunch?’

‘Did he now?’ she asked, looking out into the market for blabbermouth Hansel.

‘He did indeed.’ The little man nodded. ‘So I sent him and the dog back to my restaurant for a slap-up sausage feast. If you’d care to join us, I could walk you over myself?’

Before Cinders could say anything, her stomach rumbled so loudly that the man guffawed, clutching his belly with joy.

‘Blummin’ blumkins, would you listen to that? You must be starved!’ he said, still laughing. ‘No wonder your friends were after the biggest, juiciest sausages in the market.’

Just the thought of a sausage made Cinders’s mouth water.

‘Hansel and Sparks are already at the restaurant?’ she asked.

‘They are indeed,’ the man replied. ‘Probably tucking into their first plump porker as we speak.’

Cinders looked at Mouse. Mouse looked at Cinders. He didn’t seem completely convinced by this stout little man, but he was also a horse that used to be a mouse, so she wasn’t sure that he knew what he was on about anyway. Besides, she was very hungry and it seemed as though it might be a good idea to get out of the market square and away from those wanted posters.

‘All right,’ she said, sticking her hands in her pockets and giving the man a grin. ‘Where’s your restaurant?’

‘Right this way,’ he said with a huge smile on his face. ‘Follow me and don’t worry about a thing …’