Seren knelt in the dark grass and picked up the collar with both hands. It lay heavy on her palms, the diamonds glittering with cold brilliance, as if she held a constellation of stars. She was scared of how beautiful it was.

‘Thank you,’ she breathed.

‘Er … ahem.’ The Crow murmured hopefully.

The Swan turned its dark head. ‘I haven’t forgotten you. The child has asked for you to be unspelled, and I will tell you the way it must be done. But I warn you, it won’t be easy.’

‘You can’t do it straight away?’ Enoch asked, knitting his hands together. ‘We’ve waited so long…’

‘No. It is a fierce spell, spun in anger. A mighty enchantment. Such things cannot be undone with just a flick of a wing. There is a way but it will take courage. Especially,’ she turned to the Crow, ‘from you.’

The Crow looked anxious. ‘I’ll do anything.’

‘Anything?’

‘Anything.’ But he sounded terrified.

‘Then this is what has to be done.’ The Swan fixed Seren with its dark gaze. ‘You must take the Clockwork Crow apart, piece by piece. Every wheel, every cog, every feather. Beak and wings and claws. Then the pieces must be placed in a heap together under the full moon. And they must be burned to ashes.’

Enoch gasped.

Tomos said, ‘Golly!’

Seren’s eyes went wide. ‘I can’t!’

‘You must. Because that is the only way the spell can be broken.’

The Crow looked dazed. ‘I feel a little faint.’

‘You must show your courage now.’ The Swan rose gracefully and stretched its wings out, then it turned and slipped into the water with hardly a ripple, the cygnet snug in the downy feathers of its back, the tiny head gazing sleepily at Seren.

‘But,’ Seren hurried to the water’s edge, ‘what if we do all that and then … it doesn’t work?’

‘Trust me.’ The Swan’s voice came over the water, along the path of the moon. ‘If you are brave, it will work. Goodbye now. Go through the silver gate, and good luck.’

The white swans followed her, a moonlit procession.

And the singing of the roses was a pure high note, until the swans vanished into the misty darkness, and only the moon was left.

The song of the flowers died away.

The garden was silent.

Seren turned. Her face was white. ‘What are we going to do?’

No one dared answer.

Finally the Crow lifted its head with an effort and sat up. ‘First we go back. Then … we do what she said.’

‘Brother!’ Enoch muttered.

‘I have no choice.’ The Crow shook itself irritably. ‘Come on now, stop moping. Let’s find this wretched gate and get out of here. I never want to see this place ever again.’

Enoch nodded sadly. He bent and picked the Crow up.

‘It’s over there.’ Tomos had been looking about. ‘See?’

The gate was a small silver one in the wall, and beyond it was a path that seemed to lead towards the castle. Seren led the way. As they hurried between the fragrant beds of roses and phlox and night-scented stock she wondered how on earth she would be able to do what the Swan had said.