Lily and the Prisoner of Magic Read Free Page A

fat little hand, and held out her other hand to one of the boys, who took it rather gingerly. The boys and girls had been separated at Fell Hall, and he probably hadn’t held a girl’s hand in years. His hand was dry, and hot, and it was shaking.
    ‘We need to hide ourselves,’ Lily murmured, looking around at the nervous, excited faces. They were all gathered in a circle now, with Henrietta still weaving herself in and out as though she were playing some strange party game. Lily could feel more than just Lottie eagerly squeezing her fingers, and the shy boy’s tentative grasp. Magic was humming round the circle already. Years of pent-up power were sparking from fingertip to fingertip, and the boy holding her hand gasped excitedly as a sheen of silver washed itself over his arms.
    ‘What’s happening?’ he whispered to her. ‘I didn’t do anything; I thought we’d have to say some words.’
    ‘Sometimes you do,’ Lily whispered back. ‘But sometimes things happen without you really knowing why.’ Henrietta nudged her leg, and peered up at her smugly. The glistening magic was coating her dark fur too.
    ‘Think about hiding,’ Lily said, raising her voice to speak to all of them.
    All around the circle, children were gripping hands more tightly, half frightened, half gleeful, as their magic shone and sparkled among them. Lily saw that Lottie’s gingery curls were glittering, as magic shone along every strand of hair. Elizabeth, her sister, squeaked as her own red hair unbound itself from its tight plait, twisting and swirling and growing almost to her toes.
    ‘Hiding,’ Lily said again, almost hating to call everyone back from this first joy of magic rushing through them. ‘We have to be safe. Think of a wall that closes us in.’
    ‘No!’ the boy next to her hissed, almost pulling his hand away. ‘Not after Fell Hall! No more walls.’
    Lily nodded. ‘A hedge then!’ Magical stories had grown unpopular since the queen had banished magicians, but she’d had an ancient book of fairytales at home in Merrythought House. She remembered a rose hedge, thorny and impenetrable. ‘We’ll make the trees seem thicker, and darker, and if people come past, they’ll want to go round the wood, instead of through it.’ She closed her eyes, thinking of vines and ivy and roses trailing in between the outer trees as a flowery barrier.
    ‘Look…’ Georgie whispered, and Lily’s eyes flickered open again.
    Elizabeth’s red hair was twined with vines and tiny white wild roses, their thorny stems winding in and out. Her always worried, greenish eyes were sparkling now, and her grey-pale cheeks were pink. And beyond the trees a shadowy fence of flowers and leaves had grown up, not quite there…but Lily was fairly certain that anyone who tried to walk through it would find it was very real indeed.
    ‘Oh…that was so exciting…’ Elizabeth breathed, as the others broke out of the spell and stared at her.
    ‘You’ve got a proper dress on,’ one of the girls said admiringly. ‘Look, she was in her nightgown before!’
    It was true that Elizabeth was now wearing a long, trailing white dress, with sprays of silken flowers embroidered up and down the skirt.
    ‘It’s beautiful,’ Georgie murmured, stroking it. ‘Look at the stitching! That spell must have seen it inside you somehow. I’d never thought of doing embroidery by magic.’
    Lily rolled her eyes at Henrietta. Georgie loved clothes, and would have liked nothing better than to work in the wardrobe at the theatre they’d lived in, making costumes for the ballet dancers. Lily couldn’t think why anyone would sew for pleasure, and Georgie seethed about her little sister’s torn, stained dresses. Magical embroidery didn’t sound much more exciting than the normal kind to Lily.
    Elizabeth and Georgie settled down by the princess, admiring the delicacy of the dress, and the others sat in groups, stretching out their fingers and trying to recapture that