Cinders and Sparks: Fairies in the Forest. Lindsey Kelk

her.’

      Joderick turned his attention to the older man, kneeling down beside his chair. ‘Excuse me for saying so, sir, but I’m not sure it’s a terribly good idea for you to go off into the Dark Forest. It’s awfully dangerous.’

      ‘There’s a very good chance she’s already been eaten,’ added Margery. ‘The prince is right. You must come to the palace with us where you’ll be safe.’

      ‘Absolutely not,’ her father said, using all his strength to stand upright. ‘I will not leave my little girl alone in that forest. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find her and bring her home safely. Then we’ll explain everything to the king.’

      Margery lifted an eyebrow. ‘Explain what exactly?’ she asked.

      ‘It’s my own fault,’ her father whispered to Joderick. ‘I never should have kept it a secret.’

      Joderick looked at the frail man. He seemed to have aged fifty years since the first time they’d met – there was no way he could ride off into the Dark Forest.

      ‘I think we should all go back to the palace,’ Joderick suggested.

      Margery, Elly and Aggy cheered.

      ‘And then I will go into the Dark Forest to find Cinders,’ he added bravely. ‘I’m the prince. I’ll be safer.’

      Margery, Elly and Aggy gasped.

      ‘Are you … sure?’ said Cinders’s father.

      ‘Yes,’ said Joderick.

      ‘Very well. I would like to go myself, but … my strength is not what it was. You will make a great king one day,’ said Cinders’s dad.

      ‘Not if he gets eaten by a munklepoop, he won’t,’ Margery pointed out.

      Joderick took another bite of his hard, dry biscuit. If a munklepoop comes after me, I can just throw this at its head and knock it out cold, he thought. But he didn’t repeat this out loud – he’d been raised to be polite, even when people didn’t deserve it.

      ‘We’ll find Cinders,’ he said to her father. ‘I promise.’