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  Lord Darke was advancing angrily towards Cinderella but, when he saw the glowing wand, he hesitated. His eyes widened in surprise and he stopped. Across the room, Lady Darke and the other nobles also froze. Slowly, Lady Darke put her hand to her face. The smooth, unblemished skin of her cheek was withering in front of Cinderella’s eyes. The prince, who had also managed to break free from his dancing partner, backed away in horror as her cheeks hollowed and the skin across her face tightened like old parchment.

  Lord Darke reached out towards Cinderella, stumbling forward and trying to grab the wand, but she held it high above her head. Lord Darke crumpled to his knees. He stared at Cinderella for a moment – his hair white, his face little more than a skull – then he pitched forwards. His clutching hand disintegrated into a pile of grey dust. Behind him, Lady Darke and the other nobles sank to their knees and also dissolved into dust.

  For a moment there was silence. Cinderella turned off the wand and slipped it back into the secret pocket in her sleeve. Guests screamed and ran from the ballroom, and amongst them, she spotted her stepmother and stepsisters pushing their way towards the exit. Cinderella hurried in the opposite direction, towards the passageway that would take her back to the side door and the man with his magic blue box.

  She had no idea what had happened, only that she had to get away. In the back of her mind she was worried that she must get home before her stepmother and stepsisters did. She ran down a short flight of steps and, in her haste, twisted her foot. One of her shoes fell off, but she wasted no time stopping to pick it up – she simply took off the other shoe and ran in bare feet. Was it her imagination, or could she hear someone running after her?

  Finally, she emerged into the cold night air. She stood, gasping for breath, beside the blue box. The door opened and the man came out. He was grinning. ‘You did it then? Well done!’

  She was so out of breath she could barely speak. ‘What did I do?’ she managed to ask at last.

  ‘Oh, just a simple sonic resonance.’ He took back the wand and slipped it into his jacket pocket. ‘At just the right moment, as the vampires are changing, it can interfere with their molecular transformation and, well, you saw the effect. Who’s your friend?’

  It took Cinderella a moment to work out what he meant. She turned to see that the prince was coming out of the side door. He walked slowly over to Cinderella, and handed her the shoe she had lost.

  ‘I don’t know what you did,’ he said, ‘but I think you saved all of our lives.’

  ‘She certainly did,’ the strange man said. ‘Especially yours. Lord Darke was going to turn you into a vampire so he could send you back to turn all the nobles of Arbesk into vampires too. This whole party was for your benefit.’

  ‘I came here looking for peace,’ said the prince quietly.

  ‘I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for,’ Cinderella told him.

  The prince took her hands in his. ‘It’s all right. I found something much better.’

  She frowned, confused. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I think,’ the strange man beside her said, ‘that he’s asking you if you want to be a princess. So, I’ll leave you to it then.’

  Cinderella did not hear the door to the blue box close. She didn’t notice the breeze that ruffled her hair, or the grating, rasping sound as the box slowly faded away. All her attention was focused on the prince whose life she had saved. It appeared that Cinderella’s luck had finally changed for good.

  Once, long ago but not so terribly far away, the emperor of Levithia lay dying. He was not an old man, but he had caught a fever and quickly became weaker and weaker. Before long it was evident that he did not have long left. The emperor’s brother, Lord Grath, sat by his bedside as his life faded; the emperor’s twin children, barely into their teenage years, were also close by.

  Rigel, the emperor’s most trusted advisor, visited often – and, in between visits, he ensured that the business of governing the empire continued smoothly despite the emperor’s worsening condition. As the emperor’s death drew closer, the empire’s nobles and senior officials also gathered to be with their leader.

  At last, the emperor drew his final breath. Lord Grath pulled a sheet up over his deceased brother’s face. ‘Rigel,’ Grath said. ‘Have the council gather at once. They must know immediately of the emperor’s death, and they must appoint a regent to rule on behalf of the children until they come of age.’

  Grath then sighed, and turned to the twins. The boy, Asher, was pale with grief; his sister, Ella, fought back her tears.

  ‘You are both emperor now,’ Grath told them. ‘You shall rule together, just as you were born together. Whoever is appointed as regent will guide you and help you until you are old enough and capable of ruling on your own.’

  Next, Grath turned to the emperor’s physician. ‘You must examine the body,’ he said quietly. ‘This illness struck quickly and has infected no one else. I should like to be sure that it was indeed misfortune that took my beloved brother from us, and not something more sinister.’

  The council of Levithia convened that same day. They confirmed that Asher and Ella would rule jointly as the new emperor, and the council appointed their uncle, Lord Grath, as regent of Levithia. The twins might have had the title, but it was Grath who would have the power – at least for the next two years, until they came of age.

  But the next two years was not long enough for Grath. When the emperor’s physician determined that the emperor had died from poisoning, Grath seized his chance. While their father had been alive, the twins had kept to themselves – they did not take part in affairs of state, and had a reputation for being aloof and cold. In actual fact, they were simply quiet and happiest in their own company. It was not difficult for Lord Grath to paint them as ambitious and cruel, craving the emperor’s throne for themselves and unwilling to wait for their father’s natural death.

  The only one in the council to speak up for the twins was Rigel, but such was Lord Grath’s power and influence that Rigel himself was denounced. Rigel pointed out that the twins could not have obtained or administered the poison themselves – they were too young, too inexperienced. Lord Grath had an answer to that: they had been helped. And who was better placed to commit the actual crime than Rigel himself? Perhaps Rigel had felt that the emperor no longer paid him enough attention; perhaps he thought that the young twins would be easier to manipulate. Whatever the reason, it was clear – according to Grath – that Rigel had been the ringleader. Rigel was sentenced to execution, but he still had friends on the council and in the palace, and he slipped away before he could be arrested.

  The twins, however, were not so lucky. They appeared before the council and, despite their tearful protestations of innocence, were found guilty of their father’s murder. They too were sentenced to death.

  Lord Grath watched with well-concealed satisfaction as the children were placed in an obliteration module. He feigned sadness as the hatch was closed and the countdown began. A large crowd gathered along with the council to watch as the obliteration module was launched from the surface of Levithia and started its journey into space and through the Seven Systems.

  But at the point where the module was supposed to explode into a million fragments and kill its occupants instantly something went wrong. The obliteration module did not explode. It kept going. Inside, the two children huddled together, awaiting their death. They did not realise that their lives had been spared until they saw a planet appear through the module’s only window. The module had entered the atmosphere of this planet, and the children were still alive.

  The module burned down through the sky, and the inside grew hotter and hotter. Just as the twins felt they were about to burst into flame, just as they realised that they were doomed to die after all, the module ploughed into the planet’s surface. It bounced and twisted, but mercifully remained intact. Eventually, it came to a halt. The final jolt, as the module struck a tree, jarred open the sealed hatc
hway, and the twins looked out in surprise at a clear orange sky framed by a canopy of trees.

  Shaken and groggy, but glad to be alive, Asher and Ella clambered out of the module. They found themselves in a wood, but immediately surrounding them was the charred destruction their module had wreaked when it descended on the planet. For a long time they stood, holding hands, and looked around them. They had no idea where they were or what they should do.

  ‘We’ll need to find food,’ Asher said at last.

  ‘And shelter,’ Ella added.

  So, still hand in hand, brother and sister set off into the wood. Despite the fact that two suns shone down from above, the light dimmed as they made their way deeper among the trees. Shadows darkened, and the orange sky was all but hidden by the branches and creepers above them. Several times they stopped to listen, thinking they had heard something in the undergrowth, but, apart from a few birds, the wood was silent.

  The day wore into evening and it became darker still. There was no hint of civilisation. The twins had hoped that they might find a village or even a town, but the wood showed no sign of thinning or ending. Perhaps, they thought, this whole planet is covered in trees and woodland.

  Through the covering of trees, twin moons shone down on the twin children. Asher and Ella had been walking for hours; they decided they must find somewhere to sleep.

  ‘I suppose we shall have to sleep on the ground,’ Ella said.

  They found an area where the ground was slightly hollowed, and collected bracken and ferns to soften the hard floor of the forest. They kept larger branches and leaves to pull over themselves for warmth. They were both hungry, but they were even more tired; before long Asher and Ella were asleep, each clutching the other in a comforting embrace.

  While they slept, the forest watched.

  A pair of eyes glinted in the moonlight, staring out from among the trees. Soon, another pair of eyes joined it. Then more. Gradually, cautiously, the watching creatures emerged from the shadows and moved closer to the twins, curious about these strange creatures who had fallen from the sky. As the night grew darker and colder, the creatures spread more leaves over the sleeping children, to keep them warm.

  When the morning sun struggled through the leaves and branches, Ella was the first to wake. Staring up at the roof of the forest, it took her several moments to remember where she was. She sat up slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Then she saw the creatures gathered round, watching her and Asher. She grabbed her brother.

  Asher was immediately awake, and pulled his sister to him. Trembling, they both stared back at the strange animals who were curiously watching them. The creatures were like large dogs, but with elongated snouts and black-and-white striped fur.

  ‘I don’t think they mean us any harm,’ Asher said at last. ‘They could have attacked us while we slept.’

  One of the braver animals tentatively approached the children. It was almost as big as they were. For a moment, it stood looking closely at them, then it leaned forward … and its tongue licked out across Ella’s face.

  Asher laughed at his sister’s expression of surprise and disgust. ‘It just wants to be friends,’ he said.

  And so it did. Seeing the success of this first exchange, the other animals also ventured closer. Asher and Ella patted and stroked each of them; from the quiet mewing noises they made – more like cats than dogs – they seemed to enjoy the attention.

  They obviously could not speak, but they understood Ella when she asked them for food and mimed eating. The animals led the way through the woods, and the twins found themselves in an area where large yellow fruit hung from the trees that grew out of the red grass. From somewhere nearby, came the sound of running water.

  Ella carefully took a bite from one of the fruit. She was ready to spit it out if it tasted nasty or poisonous, but it was sweet and delicious. The twins, who were starving, ate their fill. When the children had finished eating, the animals led them to a stream, where they scooped up handfuls of water to drink. It was cold and fresh and tasted slightly sweet.

  The animals looked after the children, showing them where to find more fruit and water. They helped to drag branches and logs from fallen trees so that Asher and Ella could build a shelter. The obliteration module was too small to be comfortable on its own, but they were able to strip out the seats to make more space. The hatchway served as a good door to the makeshift dwelling, and out the front of the module they used the branches and logs to construct a kind of porch. It was small and humble, but it was solid and kept them dry and warm.

  Neither of the children said it but they both knew that they were destined to spend the rest of their lives in the wood. While the animals were welcoming and helpful, and their cottage – as they came to think of it – was comfortable, every day followed the same routine: they ate, they explored and they slept. Before long it started to grow repetitive, and it made them miss their father and life they had lost all the more.

  Then, one day, the man arrived.

  He walked out of the trees and up to the cottage, wearing a long cloak with the hood pulled up so that the twins could not see his face. When he spoke, his voice seemed familiar, but neither twin could quite place it – not then. He had a large bag slung over his shoulder, which he set down by the door when Asher and Ella came out to meet him.

  ‘Happy birthday,’ the man said.

  The twins stared at him. They hadn’t even realised that it was their birthday.

  ‘Who are you?’ Asher asked at last. ‘Where have you come from?’

  ‘We thought we were the only people on this planet,’ Ella added.

  Then man nodded, his face shrouded by his hood. ‘My name is not important,’ he said, ‘although I have come a long way to see you.’

  ‘To see us?’ Asher asked. ‘But why?’

  ‘To bring you presents,’ the man replied. ‘And to see that you are safe and surviving.’

  Despite their entreaties, the man would not come into the cottage. He waited while Asher and Ella opened the bag and took out the things he had brought them – there were packets of their favourite foods from Levithia, cartons of drink and books to read.

  ‘Thank you,’ Ella said as she looked through it all. ‘But I still don’t understand why you are here. How are you here?’

  ‘There are people on this planet,’ the man said. ‘Although you are a long way from them here.’ He pointed into the distance. ‘If you walked for a month in that direction, you might eventually reach Arcadia. And that way,’ he turned to point in the opposite direction, ‘lies the Capitol beneath its protective dome. But that is even more distant.’

  ‘Which place are you from?’ Ella asked.

  ‘Neither,’ the man told them. ‘I am not from this world, any more than you are.’

  ‘Do you have a ship?’ Asher asked. ‘Can you take us away from this place?’

  ‘I have a ship,’ the man admitted. ‘And one day I shall take you away – but not yet. For the moment, you are safest here – alone and hidden away. The new emperor of Levithia, your uncle, believes you are dead. That is what keeps you safe. But one day …’ He let the thought hang in the air between them for a moment, then he turned and walked back into the woods.

  ‘Shall we see you again?’ Ella called after him.

  The man stopped and turned round. ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘But not for a while. I have much to do, but I promise you I will return.’ He continued walking away from them and soon he was swallowed up by the trees.

  The days turned to weeks which then turned to months, but the man did not return. Asher and Ella began to enjoy their time in the wood – although they both felt it could never really become their home. The creatures, however, were friendly and, as the seasons changed, led the twins to different sources of food; in return, the twins helped the animals if they were sick or injured. They all lived together in a happy harmony, and the twins settled into their new way of life.

  Asher and Ella did not real
ise that a whole year passed before the man again appeared out of the woods. As before, he hid his features beneath a hooded cloak, and brought with him gifts of food and books. This time, though, he accepted the twins’ invitation to come into their cottage – he declined any food or drink, however, and he never once lowered his hood.

  ‘Why won’t you let us see your face?’ Ella asked him. She and her brother had speculated often about why the man might keep his face hidden. They thought perhaps he might have suffered some disfigurement or injury, and Ella said so now. He simply laughed at the suggestion.

  ‘You will know one day,’ he said. ‘But until that day I don’t want to get your hopes up. Perhaps next year.’

  They asked him what he meant by this, but he would be drawn no further. Soon he bid them farewell, wished them a happy birthday and walked back into the woods.

  Intrigued, they began counting the days. Would the mysterious man return on their next birthday? That would be the day they came of age, the day they would have assumed the throne of the Levithian Empire. It was incredible how completely their lives had changed in such a short time …

  The children passed the next year in much the same fashion as they had the previous one. They had grown well and truly accustomed to their life on this planet by now, and what had seemed repetitive and boring during their first year here had ceased to worry them – it was nothing more than habit, and they barely noticed the time passing.

  True to their guess, on the twins’ next birthday the man did indeed appear once more – but this time he brought no gifts. He arrived at the cottage and, as soon as Ella and Asher came out to meet him, he threw back his hood, revealing his face. It was a face they remembered well.

  ‘Rigel!’ Ella exclaimed.

  ‘But it was you who murdered our father,’ Asher said.

  Rigel shook his head sadly. ‘I did not kill your father any more than you did,’ he said. ‘Indeed, I loved him almost as much. But I know who did kill him.’

  It was a warm afternoon so, rather than go inside the makeshift cottage, Rigel and the twins walked together through the woods while they talked.