Rosa slammed the door shut and pushed the bolt across, her fingers trembling. She’d done it! She’d escaped!

The mice started banging on the door and shouting but it was a very thick door and the noise was muffled.

I’m free! Rosa thought. She raced up the stairs. No one was in the main hall. The front door was just opposite her. But just as she was about to make her escape, she saw the big door handle turn and heard a loud voice…

“So the prisoner’s a girl, you say? A girl with red ballet shoes? But not the same girl who has been to Enchantia before?”

“A different one, King Rat. Definitely a different one.”

Rosa ran through a nearby archway. There was a large chest and she ducked behind it.

“Take me to this prisoner then!” she heard King Rat snap.

Peeping out from behind the chest, Rosa saw a black rat with a golden crown on his head and a long purple cloak come marching across the hall. He looked really scary with his red eyes and curling whiskers. She hid back behind the chest as he headed for the steps that led to the room where she had been kept prisoner.

Oh no! As soon as he got there he would realise she had escaped!

She looked all around her. The chest was in a small corridor that seemed to be used for keeping bags of vegetables. Turning, she ran down it, her heart thudding. Any minute now, the guards would get out and come looking for her! What was she going to do?

Rosa didn’t know where she was going, but surely there must be a way out. She hurried down the corridor till she came to a small door in the wall. It looked like the door she had seen earlier from the outside of the castle. Her heart leaped. It was locked but there was a key in it!

She turned the lock and opened the door and now she could see the woods just ahead of her! She ran towards them, faster than she had ever run in her life. With every stride she expected to hear voices shouting to stop and mice running after her but the only sound was of muffled yelling from inside the castle. She had a feeling her escape had just been discovered and the guards were in trouble but she didn’t care. She had got out!

As she entered the woods, Nutmeg flew up to her. “Oh, Rosa! What happened?” The fairy looked scared stiff. “I saw the guards capture you. I didn’t know what to do!”

“I’m really sorry,” Rosa panted. “I was just trying to help the princess. I thought that if only I could get inside I might be able to hide and let her out tonight.”

“It was really brave of you,” Nutmeg said admiringly.