She seemed to be using her hands to pull the rug up into the air via an invisible force. Effie didn’t say anything while this was going on. She understood now that magic needed your whole concentration. She’d been practicing quite a lot lately.

Clothilde soon got the carpet to rise up into the air. She and Effie got onto it. Immediately it seemed so much bigger than it had on the ground.

“Okay,” said Clothilde. “Try not to fall off!”

“I will,” said Effie.

“Probably best to lie on your front. That way you can look over the edge and see the view but I can hold on to you if it gets bumpy.”

“Bumpy?”

“Air currents,” said Clothilde. “They’re quite safe. Well, sort of. Ready?”

“Of course,” said Effie.

Apart from a couple of jolts when the air current changed as they flew over a large blue lake, it was a completely smooth ride. Effie felt that she could have stayed on the magic carpet forever. It went pretty fast, but you could still see everything perfectly laid out beneath you. There were forests with little cottages in them, and two large castles.

Effie had only been in an airplane once, and this was completely different from that. It felt a bit how she imagined it might feel to be a bird. Waves of air lifted the carpet gently in little steady puffs. Soon there were more normal-looking houses below, and Effie could see people walking down wide, tree-lined streets. Then, suddenly, at the base of a hill, began the thick white stone wall that seemed to hold in the vast number of brightly colored shops, houses, bazaars, markets, people, carriages, animals and complex passageways that made up the higgledy-piggledy town of Frog Hole. At the top of the hill was a castle covered in masses of tumbling pink flowers.

“We can land in Anastasia’s courtyard,” said Clothilde. “We’ll get a drink while we’re there and store the carpet in their cloakroom until later. Right, hold on!”

Landing was quite a complex procedure, made even more complicated by the sheer amount of things in the air above the town. As well as the many people on carpets, broomsticks and flying bicycles, there were also a number of miniature flying dragons, cats with wings, pink parakeets, hummingbirds and large glowing insects. Effie tried to be quiet while Clothilde navigated her way down.

Everything was so lovely. One shop was displaying golden urns in a pleasing jumble just outside its blue wooden door; another had hardcover books with the most handsome covers; another had the most intricate, ornate cakes. Everything sparkled. Above one of the shops a long-haired man on a balcony played the saxophone as if he had been paid to do it for the entertainment of everyone below. It was the most pleasant sound Effie had ever heard.