wen watched in horror as Flora fell towards her. Just as she was sure her cousin was going to slide down the entire slope, Flora somehow managed to grab a tree stump, stopping her fall. She clung to the hillside, her face pale, her legs swinging.

‘Gwen!’ she gasped.

‘You’re all right,’ Gwen called. Her own heart was pounding but she tried to stay calm for Flora’s sake. Panicking would be the worst thing either of them could do. Flora was still about halfway up and if she fell now, she might land on hard rock and really hurt herself. ‘Wait, I’ll come up and help you,’ she said quickly.

‘No, I can do it.’ Flora frowned in determination and reached out to start climbing again. She found a tree root to hold on to and put her weight on it.

‘Be careful!’ Gwen cried as she saw the tree root move. ‘That doesn’t look very safe…’

Her words were drowned out by Flora’s squeal as the root started to come away from the hillside!

‘Hold on!’ Gwen cried. She frantically tried to think of a way to save Flora. Suddenly she whipped an arrow from her quiver and slipped the bow off her shoulder. Maybe she could shoot through Flora’s cloak and stop her falling that way? No, that would be far too risky. Then an idea came to her. She couldn’t shoot at Flora but. . . Gwen notched the arrow to the string and in a single, smooth movement, heaved the string back with her right hand. Breathing out, Gwen released the arrow, and followed it with another, then another. The three arrows flew swiftly from her bow and hit the slope, striking into the soil, their shafts quivering. ‘Grab hold of the arrows!’ Gwen yelled to Flora as the tree root finally gave way.

Flora reached out desperately as she slid past Gwen’s arrows. The first arrow gave way, but the second and third held firm. Flora swung from them, her legs kicking.

‘Keep still!’ Gwen called out. She could see the danger wasn’t over yet. The arrows could snap or come loose at any moment. Gwen threw down her bow and quiver and started to climb the slope. She had to get to her cousin and help her. ‘Don’t move, Flora! You’re making it worse!’

But even as she spoke, the two arrows both snapped at the same time and Flora shrieked as she crashed down the slope into Gwen. The two girls tumbled down the steep hill, rolling over and over until they came to a stop in the thick bracken below.

For a moment, Gwen just lay there in the grass, blinking up at the blue sky. She tried to move her arms and legs. She was a bit bruised, but nothing seemed to be broken. ‘Flora?’ she called anxiously, sitting up.

Her cousin was a few metres away, also just beginning to sit up. There were brown fronds caught in her neat plaits, soil smudges on her cheeks and her cloak was torn.

‘Are you all right?’ Gwen asked.

‘Y–yes.’ Flora blinked.

Gwen felt a rush of relief. And then she started to giggle. Flora looked as startled as a fawn and completely unlike her usual lady-like self.

‘What are you laughing at?’ Flora demanded.

‘You look really funny!’ Gwen started to laugh harder.

Indignation flashed through Flora’s eyes. ‘Well, how am I expected to look? I’ve just fallen down the hillside that you made me climb, and you’ve been shooting arrows at me!’

For a moment Gwen thought her cousin was really cross with her, but then she saw the teasing glint in Flora’s blue eyes as she began to smile.

‘You could at least have caught me! Oh, and by the way, you should see yourself. You’ve got a worm on your head!’ Flora said with amusement. Gwen reached up, and her hand landed straight on a squishy worm. ‘Yuck!’ she cried, pulling it out of her red hair.

Flora burst into a torrent of giggles at Gwen’s expression. Gwen saw the funny side and the next minute the two of them had collapsed back into the bracken, laughing together.

But their laughter soon faded as they remembered the task at hand. Getting their breath back, Gwen and Flora got to their feet.

‘Oh, Gwen, what are we going to do? We’ve still got to get to the top of the hill,’ Flora pointed out. ‘Poor Sophia’s trapped somewhere up there and we have to free her as soon as possible.’

‘Let’s look for a different way up,’ Gwen replied.

They collected Gwen’s bow and quiver and quickly walked round the hillside until they found a gentler slope to climb. With Gwen’s help, and Flora being extra careful about what she used for a handhold, they finally managed to get to the very top. The crown of the hill was gently rounded, covered with short grass and a mass of silver birch trees that surrounded a small clearing.

‘Oh goodness, aren’t the trees beautiful?’ Flora breathed as she walked between the slender trunks.

Gwen nodded. The birches had silvery white bark and the leaves overhead were yellow and bronze. The air amongst the trees was strangely still, almost as though it was waiting for something to happen. Gwen was reminded of the Lake. There was the same feeling of magic here in the birch glade.

But the beauty and feeling of magic couldn’t distract her from what they had come there to do. ‘We’ve got to find Sophia!’ she said, looking round anxiously. ‘But where could she be?’

‘There’s nothing that looks like a prison here,’ said Flora.

‘What about those rocks?’ Gwen pointed to a cluster of grey boulders in the clearing.

The girls went over to them. The rocks were tall, bigger than them. But there was no sign of anyone trapped there.

Gwen began to feel panicky. ‘There isn’t anything here, just trees and rocks. Maybe Sophia isn’t imprisoned here after all. Morgana could have moved her somewhere else!’

‘Wait!’ Flora said suddenly. ‘Don’t you remember what the Lady of the Lake said? She told us to look carefully because Sophia could be anywhere or be anything. So, maybe…’ She gazed round the clearing, her eyes widening. ‘Sophia is trapped inside one of these rocks or in one of the trees?’

Gwen could have hugged her. ‘Oh, Flora! Of course! After all, it was the trees that Nineve’s magic flame on the Lake showed us, wasn’t it?’ She glanced round at the silver birches and her face fell. ‘But how will we know which one? There are so many of them.’

Flora ran over and started examining the nearest tree trunk. ‘Maybe there’s a clue somewhere.’

Gwen had another idea. ‘What about the pendant? It might be able to help.’ Taking hold of it, she held it up. The glowing blue gem caught the rays of the afternoon sun. It glittered and shone, sparkling like a river in sunshine. Gwen watched it, waiting for a sign, something – anything – that would help her discover where Sophia was. ‘Come on,’ she muttered to it. ‘Help us! Please!’

But the pendant just winked at her in the sun. Gwen sighed in frustration and put it back around her neck. It looked like they really were going to have to check every tree one by one. It was going to take hours!

‘Gwen!’ She heard Flora’s intake of breath.

‘What?’ Gwen swung round.

‘Come here! Look at this tree… it’s different!’ Flora was standing by one of the smallest, most slender birch trees near the edge of the clearing. She beckoned Gwen over.

‘It looks just the same as all the others to me,’ said Gwen as she walked over to where Flora was standing.

‘No. Look properly.’ Flora pointed to the trunk and then Gwen saw what Flora’s sharp eyes had already spotted. The trunk was a slightly different colour from the other trees. Instead of being a pale ghostly white, it had a definite coppery tinge, and its leaves glinted red in the sunlight – like fire!

‘Maybe this is where Sophia is trapped!’ Flora said excitedly.

Gwen’s heart skipped a beat. Could Flora be right? Now she was looking more closely too, she could see that there were other differences from the rest of trees. This one had smoother bark and not a single leaf had fallen from its branches. ‘But how do we find out for sure?’

Flora looked at her. ‘I don’t know.’

Gwen cautiously touched the bark of the tree. ‘Hello?’ Immediately, her fingers started to tingle. It was the same feeling she’d had when she’d first pulled the pendant from the rock. ‘Sophia? Are you in there? The Lady of the Lake sent us. I’m Gwen and this is my cousin, Flora.’

As Gwen spoke, the tree seemed to shiver and an image started to form in the bark. The girls gasped. It was the face of a beautiful young woman! Gwen realised that Sophia wasn’t just trapped inside the tree – she was the tree. Her sad eyes were pleading, and to Gwen and Flora’s surprise, her mouth moved.

‘Help me!’ The words seemed to whisper in the air like the sound of leaves rustling in a breeze. ‘Set me free!’

‘We will! Don’t worry!’ Gwen promised. ‘Oh, I’m so glad we’ve found you!’

Keeping one hand on the bark, she fumbled for the pendant with the other hand. The spell. She just had to say the spell!

But as Gwen reached for the blue gem, she heard a hideous cawing sound, like jackdaws screaming – only ten times as loud. Flora looked over her shoulder and cried out in alarm. Gwen heard the panic in her cousin’s voice and looked round too. What she saw filled her with an icy horror.

A flock of evil-looking birds was swooping across the sky towards the hilltop. Their bodies were black as coal and their red beaks sharp and pointed. They had huge wings that were as large as an eagle’s and, worst of all, their tails crackled with magical bolts of lightning.

Flora gave a choking cry. ‘Th-they’re going to attack us!’

‘Morgana must have sent them!’ cried Gwen as the birds darted towards them, their sparking tails lighting up the sky. ‘She wants to stop us freeing Sophia!’

Flora looked at Gwen in terror. ‘What are we going to do?’