“Princess Cressida?” Rosa scratched her head. It was all a lot to take in.

“Yes, Cressida was on her way to visit her aunt and uncle to keep them company whilst their own daughter, Aurelia, is away. Nutmeg explained. Anyway, King Rat has captured Cressida to stop all the balls and dancing that would go on for her visit. Without her at the palace there won’t be any celebrations.”

“So where has he taken her?” breathed Rosa.

“She’s here in his castle grounds,” said Nutmeg. “He’s put a spell on her so that by day she’s a swan, but by night she’s the princess again.”

“Just like Swan Lake!” Rosa said excitedly.

“Yes, exactly,” Nutmeg nodded. “That’s where King Rat got the idea from. Look, there’s Princess Cressida on the Enchanted Lake now.” Nutmeg pointed towards the graceful white swan on the shimmering water. “Sugar has asked me to stand guard to check that King Rat doesn’t whisk her away somewhere else or put even more spells on her, but she doesn’t even realise I’m here. You see she forgets all about being a princess in the day. It just comes back to her as the sun sets and she flies back to her room in the castle’s towers and turns back into her old self.”

“Oh, the poor thing,” Rosa said, her heart going out to the princess.

Nutmeg shivered. “Everyone in Enchantia keeps trying to think up a plan to rescue her, but we haven’t come up with anything yet. If only we could get her out of King Rat’s castle grounds, the enchantment would be broken. But the lake is enchanted so we can’t swim or row across to get her and she wouldn’t recognise us anyway.”

Rosa thought for a moment. “Can’t you use magic to rescue her at night when she’s locked inside?”

Nutmeg shook her head. “King Rat’s magic is much too powerful. He’s put spells on the castle so that no one else can do strong magic either in it or its grounds. I stay in the trees because some of my magic still works in the forest. Also, I can keep watch on Cressida and magic myself away if his horrible scary guards come.” She clasped her hands together. “Oh, Rosa. Can you think of a way we could rescue the princess?”

Rosa stared at her helplessly and gulped. It all seemed pretty impossible. “I wish I could,” she said. “But I really haven’t got any other ideas.”

“Then Princess Cressida will just have to stay a secret princess forever!” exclaimed Nutmeg, her eyes filling with tears.

“Look, we can’t give up that easily!” Rosa declared. “Hmm, what could we do?” She glanced around. “You know, maybe we don’t need magic to get us into the castle. Maybe we could just sneak inside. We could hide somewhere until the princess comes back then let her out of her room and all escape together!”