Magic Ballerina 7-12. Darcey Bussell
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Название: Magic Ballerina 7-12
Автор: Darcey Bussell
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Детская проза
isbn: 9780007513550
isbn:
There were tall trees all around her and to the right of the lake she could see a big, dark castle. What should she do? She couldn’t just stay standing there. Which way should she go?
Not to the castle, she decided. It looked so forbidding. Instead, she made her way cautiously through the trees towards the lake.
Suddenly, she saw a flash of pink ahead of her. There was someone dancing in the trees. She hurried forward and stopped in amazement as she saw that the dancer was a fairy! The fairy had a tutu made of layers of brown and pink silk and a pale pink bodice with sequins embroidered over it. Her wavy chestnut hair was tied back in a bun. She had delicate wings and in one hand she held a wand. As she saw Rosa, she stopped with a gasp. Her gaze flew to Rosa’s feet. “You’re the girl with the red shoes! The new girl!” She ran over, her brown eyes shining with excitement. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”
“You are?” Rosa said in bewilderment.
“Of course!” The fairy seized her hands. “You’re here to help, aren’t you? Sugar told me you would come.”
“Help?” echoed Rosa. “Who’s Sugar? And where exactly am I?”
“You’re in Enchantia, of course!” said the fairy breathlessly. “The magical land of ballet. Oh dear, I’m sorry,” she said, looking at Rosa’s bewildered face. “Sugar said you wouldn’t have been here before and that I had to tell you everything from the beginning. It’s just I’m so excited to see you. I haven’t been doing proper magic for very long and I’ve never met a human before!”
Rosa smiled cautiously as the fairy’s words tumbled out one after another. “So who exactly is Sugar?” she asked.
The fairy took a deep breath and spoke a little more slowly. “She’s my older sister – the Sugar Plum Fairy – she knows lots about magic. I’m Nutmeg by the way. Whenever we have a big problem in Enchantia the red ballet shoes bring someone from your world who can help us, a girl who loves to dance,”
Rosa stared at her. So she was in a magic land and she was there to help! “Will…will I get to go home again?” she asked.
Nutmeg nodded. “Of course. The shoes will take you back when the problem is solved. No time passes in the human world while you’re here so no one will even know you’ve been gone.”
Rosa breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment she had thought about her mum waiting for her and getting really worried. That would have been dreadful!
“What’s your name?” the fairy asked.
“Rosa.”
“It’s so lovely to see you, Rosa. We really need your help,” Nutmeg said. “King Rat’s causing dreadful trouble again!”
“King Rat!” Rosa breathed, remembering Delphie’s words. So that must have been what Delphie was talking about. She must have come here too!
“Yes,” replied Nutmeg. “You see everyone in Enchantia loves dancing except for that horrible rodent. He keeps coming up with mean plans to stop us and now he’s taken the King and Queen’s niece, Princess Cressida.”
“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!”
“But that would be really dangerous!” said Nutmeg. “King Rat’s guards are very fierce!” She caught her breath. “Here they come now!”
A group of ten mice came swaggering around the side of the castle. Rosa stared. They were walking on their back legs and were way taller than her, with pointed teeth and long swords hanging from their belts.
They stopped. A couple of them leaned against the castle walls, the others mooched about. They looked fed up.
“I’m bored of marching round the castle,“ one of them grumbled.
“Me too,” said another. “My paws are hurting. King Rat’s out at the moment so why don’t we go and have a sit down?”
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