Jack looked around the room. There had to be something that he’d missed – something he hadn’t noticed yet . . . It couldn’t end like this! Then he saw it – a tiny screw, dug into the cement around the door frame – and his face lit up. This was it: just what he needed!

Jack grinned. ‘I spy, with my little—’

‘NO!’ yelled Anansi. ‘No more, Jack! Please no more. It’s either: wall, floor, floorboard, brick, nail, door, doorway, window or cement. We’ve been playing I-spy for FIVE HOURS now and I. Can’t. Take it. ANY MORE!’

‘It wasn’t any of those things, actually,’ Jack muttered. ‘It was “screw”.’

A sudden squeak beneath his feet distracted him. He looked down at the wooden floor which had suddenly started shaking.

‘Do you think it’s the witch again?’ asked Jack.

Rapunzel shrugged and started trying to mime that she really needed to get her voice back, but to Jack it just looked like she was pretending to eat a bowl of imaginary spaghetti.

‘Sorry?’ said Jack. ‘What was that?’

Rapunzel’s shoulders slumped as the floor shook again, more powerfully this time.

Everyone leaped back as an explosion of floorboards shot up in a cloud of dust, followed by a glowing, see-though boy!

‘Whaaaat?’ screeched Betsy.

‘I don’t know!’ replied Jack. Then he looked down at the hole in the floor – there was someone else down there! ‘Red!’ he yelled, running forward to help her up. ‘You’re all right!’

‘Of course!’ said Red, grinning. ‘I only got chased by a dragon, fell through a roof, narrowly avoided DEATH, travelled to the future and escaped the guards. It’s just as well, really, otherwise you’d never be getting out of here!’

She turned to help pull Ella up too.

‘But what happened?’ asked Anansi. ‘Who’s this? How did you find us?’

‘Well, that’s all thanks to Ella and Cole,’ replied Red, pointing at her two new friends. ‘Ella’s got a network of secret tunnels that lead all through the castle. And not only that – we know where your mum is!’

‘What?’ exclaimed Anansi. ‘How?’

‘There’s no time right now!’ said Red. ‘We’ve got to get out of here!’

There was the sound of someone frantically jumping up and down and clapping their hands together.

‘Why are you doing that?’ Red asked Rapunzel.

‘She lost her voice,’ whispered Jack. ‘Well, I guess it was more stolen, but still, you know . . .’

Rapunzel glared at Jack, then took a deep breath and wrote a message in the dust on the floor: ‘Seriously? You expect me to crawl through that filthy tunnel?’

‘Ah . . . you must be Rapunzel?’ said Cole, with a quick smile at Red. ‘I’ve heard all about you. Well, don’t worry, I can cast a spell that means no dirt will touch you – and you’ll get your voice back!’

‘You can do magic?’ said Jack eagerly.

‘Ahem . . . well, sort of . . .’ fumbled Cole, before beginning again. ‘I mean, yeah of course!’

‘Cool!’ said Anansi and Jack.

‘OK, well, do your thing, Cole,’ replied Ella. ‘But be quick, the witch doesn’t know we’re here – yet – but it’s only a matter of time.’

‘It is not funny,’ snapped Rapunzel, glaring at Cole as they crawled down the dusty tunnel.

‘It is a bit funny,’ said Jack quietly.

‘It is not,’ repeated Rapunzel firmly. Above her, a small cloud produced a steady rain of rabbit droppings.

‘I’m with Rapunzel,’ muttered Anansi from behind her. ‘These rabbit poos are everywhere – I keep squashing my hands into them!’

‘It was an accident!’ protested Cole. ‘Ella was hurrying me along and . . . well, I got it wrong . . . I’m sorry.’ His voice brightened. ‘Hopefully it won’t last too much longer – and at least you got your voice back.’

‘I suppose,’ said Rapunzel with a sigh. ‘So how much longer do we have to crawl along this filthy tunnel?’

‘Not much,’ said Ella. ‘Everyone, be quiet – we’re getting near the exit.’

They crawled on; the only sound was the gentle pitter-patter of rabbit poo falling on Rapunzel’s head.

At the end, Ella peered out to check for guards. Then, one by one, they shuffled out of the tunnel, rubbing their sore knees and, in Anansi’s case, wiping his hands on his trousers.

‘This way . . .’ whispered Ella, leading the group to a narrow staircase. ‘The dungeons are in the very bottom of the castle, and this is the only way down.’

As they walked through the maze of corridors that made up the dungeons, Red shuddered; there was something so cold and horrible about this place, plus it smelt bad – really bad.

All the doors they passed were locked, but when they peered in, every cell was empty.

‘So . . . where’s my mum?’ whispered Anansi.

‘I don’t know . . .’ replied Ella. ‘It’s weird, isn’t it? The witch has been capturing hundreds of magicals creatures – so where are they all?’

They crept on until they saw a faint light flickering ahead in the darkness.

‘That way, I guess,’ whispered Red.

The passageway curled round to the left, so they couldn’t see what lay ahead until they found themselves staring into a huge circular chamber at the heart of the dungeons. The stone walls rose up high overhead with a huge central pillar that held up the vaulted ceiling. Chained up in a huge cell opposite them was a troll – Anansi’s mother.

‘Mum!’ Anansi called out, running towards her. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you out!’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that!’ A cruel voice rang out as the witch appeared inside a glowing ring circling the central pillar. The ring was made up of strange signs and symbols that shifted and danced in the dim light.

The witch muttered a few words under her breath and Red felt the ground tremble as a stone slab crashed down, blocking off the passage they had come through and trapping them in the dungeon. The trembling went on as large sections of the circular wall spun slowly around, revealing hundreds of stone cells, each with a different magical creature chained up inside. There was the dragon that had captured them earlier, a three-headed dog with saliva dripping from its fangs, a golem, a griffin, a hydra, a rather depressed-looking unicorn and many, many more.

‘Behold!’ screeched the witch. ‘The makings of my magical army!’

Then she laughed and laughed and laughed, until the echo of her laughter drowned out any other sound.