The wind gusted. The tree shook.

The Box wobbled.

‘No… Wait…! ‘Seren grabbed at it. She slipped. She screamed and quite suddenly everything went giddy and the world skewed and she was hanging upside down from her arms and feet, clinging on tight. And there, flashing past her, down and down and crashing through the branches below, she heard the Box fall all the way to the floor.

8

A warning is given

Magic is made of simple things.

A mirror, a crystal, a pad of pins.

Seren kept her eyes closed. She didn’t want to see. But her arms were aching and she would fall if she didn’t do something, so she swung her way to the branch and climbed back up onto it, her boots wedged in cracks, her green hands slipping and sliding on moss and lichen.

Once she was the right way up, she took a deep breath and wriggled to the trunk. Then she hurried down.

After the first really wobbly steps it wasn’t so bad. Soon she was inside the tree and scrambling down the wooden steps, twisting and turning into the dark faster than was safe, racing down until, quite suddenly, she burst out onto the forest floor.

She looked round, gasping.

The Box lay on its side in a heap of leaves.

It was quite intact.

There was no sight or sound of Them.

But she knew they were probably watching.

She picked it up quickly and opened it and YES, there it was. She had been terrified it would be a mess of yolk and shell but it must be really strong.

Was there a crack?

She couldn’t tell in the dim green light. She shoved it in the bag and ran.

The way back through the tangled trees seemed shorter than before; in minutes she was in a more normal woodland, and it was hot, with shafts of sun all around her, and then she was out and running towards the lake and there was Plas-y-Fran in front of her, all its old stone golden and shining in the sun.

She stopped, breathless.

She had done it!

‘You’ve done WHAT!’

The Crow was perched on the soldiers’ fort in Tomos’s room of toys.

He stared at the Egg as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. He spluttered and gulped. ‘Its… Well … it can’t possibly… How…? I don’t… Goodness!’

Seren sat wearily on the chair by the table. She felt rather tired.

‘Seren, it’s fantastic! You were so brave!’ Tomos stared at the Egg, fascinated. He put out a finger towards it and the Crow almost screamed.

‘NO! Be careful! It’s so precious! If indeed it is the right one…’

‘It is,’ Seren said. ‘I got it from Them.’

The Crow blinked one jewel-bright eye sideways at her. Then it hopped closer. ‘From Them?’

Seren nodded. She was rather dreading what was coming.

‘But how did you get it? I mean They wouldn’t just give it you,’ Tomos said.

‘I … er … sort of asked Them for it.’