In the morning there was less wildlife than usual because I'd jammed the door shut.

A couple of the more agile cats had got in through the window. The window ledge was crowded with birds and there was a little brown mouse curled up under my chin. I cupped him in my hands, slipped out of bed, kicked the chair away from the door as quietly as I could and let him go in the corridor. If Poppy had seen him she'd have screamed. The noise woke her up.

"What you doing?"

"Just. . . er. . . letting the cats out," I replied, shooing them out of the door as I did so.

"You have to go," she threw off the covers and swung her legs off the bed. "You wash and get dressed. I'll go to the kitchen and get you some breakfast."

A few minutes later I was sitting at the table in my blue tunic, eating a plate of scrambled eggs while Poppy teased the tangles out of my hair with a brush.

"Mum'll be here soon with our clean clothes. Tell her everything I told you," I said through a mouthful of eggs. "Gerda said you two and Annifer should know but no one else." She didn't respond. I realised the brushing had stopped. "Poppy? Did you hear what I just said?" I turned around. She was staring straight ahead, her usually rosy cheeks were pale and her forehead was sweaty. "Poppy, are you feeling alright?"

"What?" She came back to life with a shake of her head. "Of course, I'm alright. Never better. Nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Here!" She lifted my cloak off its peg by the door and wrapped it round my shoulders. "The temperature's dropped, you'd better wear this." She shivered and forced a smile. I hesitated. She didn't look fine and I could feel no difference in the temperature but I really had to go. I was glad Mum was on her way. Her skin felt unnaturally cold when I kissed her goodbye.

As I pulled the door closed I heard her start to cough. I paused with my hand on the door handle. I'll ask Gerda to have a look at her later, I thought as I turned and ran to the stables. When I asked the stable boy to lend me a horse, he led out a grey stallion called Quicksilver. I swung myself on and galloped off through the castle gates.

There was a chestnut horse I'd never seen before, tethered in the front garden of Gerda's house. I swung off Quicksilver and led him through the gate. As I tied him next to the other horse, he rubbed his muzzle against my face with a whinny of pleasure. I patted his nose and went and knocked at the door. Gerda opened it seconds later, her forehead creased with worry. Looking over her shoulder, I saw she had company. A severe-looking woman with freckles and long red hair tied back in a tight ponytail sat at the kitchen table. When she rose to greet me and shook my hand, however, her sharp features broke into a warm smile. Bunches of herbs hung to dry from the kitchen ceiling and a pot heating, on the fire, filled the room with a sweet fragrance.

"This is Matilda," Gerda ladled the liquid into three earthenware mugs." She's a Wise Woman who's been practising secretly in Quain. Matilda, this is Daisy, my student." I felt a tingle of pride at being introduced as Gerda's student. "Matilda brings troubling news but by the look of things, you have some yourself."

"Yes, I do. Something happened at the feast." I told them everything as quickly as I could. When I got to the part about the red cloud, Matilda gasped, made a circle with her thumb and forefinger and held it to her heart. Gerda had taught me that the full moon was the symbol of the Goddess and this gesture was a secret Wise Women's sign meaning 'Goddess protect us.' I finished with, "Annifer said she wants you to come to the castle straightaway."

"You'll come too, Matilda." Gerda drained her cup and stood up. "I'll ride with Daisy." A short while later, we were galloping through the castle gates and handing our horses over to the stable boy. Matilda and I followed Gerda as she strode through the Grand Entrance Hall. Brought up a princess, she had a noble bearing. Now a Wise Woman, her every gesture hinted at great wisdom and depth. When I was with her, I sometimes had the feeling I was beside someone who'd lived for a thousand years. She was always poised, never flustered, but today her features were set and there was a fierce determination in her face. That told me the trouble we were in was really very serious.

Annifer was pacing the Throne Room waiting for us. I noticed with dismay that she was wearing an old green cotton dress and her scuffed slippers. Poppy would never let her out in public dressed like that. That meant she'd dressed herself. That meant something was wrong with Poppy. My stomach lurched.

"Annie! I mean . . . Princess!" Gerda bobbed a curtsy. Annifer hugged her and shook hands with Matilda. We sat down at the long table.

"Matilda, tell Annifer what you told me this morning."

Matilda bowed her head. "Princess, I'm sure you've heard of the Imperial Garden of Jamain."

The Imperial Garden was famous, I'd learnt about it in Gerda's lessons. It was an enormous botanical garden situated behind the famous palace, protected by high walls. Only the king, the Head Gardener and his team, known as the Secret Gardeners, were allowed to enter. They all had to swear an oath on pain of death never to divulge the garden's secrets and another oath that they would only use the plants for the good of the people. The Head Gardener who lived in a tower built into the garden's wall held the key to the only gate.

The Imperial Garden was said to contain the rarest, most precious and also most dangerous plants in the whole of Tarth. Their powers were legendary. Some were said to produce poisons that could slay a whole army with a single drop. Others could produce remedies that would revive the dying even when all hope was lost. But because of the secrecy surrounding the garden, no one knew if these tales were true.

Matilda continued, "The Head Gardener is an old man with a long white beard by the name of Ilfred. His father was Head Gardener before him and his grandfather before that. The secrets of the Imperial Garden have been passed down through his family for generations. One month ago Morwain had Ilfred and his whole team of Secret Gardeners arrested and thrown into jail. He told Edmund they'd been plotting against him. None of the gardeners have been seen since except for Ilfred. A week later, Morwain moved into the Gardener's Tower himself. He's been visiting the gardens regularly ever since, taking Ilfred with him in chains."

Annifer took a deep breath and poured herself a glass of water.

"There's worse, Princess. Morwain's also been visiting the Ancient Library of Jamain and accessing the restricted section right at the very top of the library tower. You can only access this with permission from the king himself. It contains all the books and scrolls that teach black magic. Morwain's training himself as a black sorcerer."

"But how can that be?" Annifer interrupted. "Why would Edmund allow it when he's so terrified of magic he's been persecuting the Wise Women for years?"

"It's precisely that fear that's led him to allow it. Now the Wise Women of Frailing practise freely, he feels threatened and he's decided the only way to fight them is with black magic. That's why he's letting his brother study sorcery."

"This red cloud we saw, do you know what it is?" I asked.

"Yes. It's the Red Plague. Legend has it that there's a tree in the Imperial Garden known as the Plague Tree. Once every fifteen years it bears fruit. The fruits are all red except for one white one. In ancient times it was used to carry plague to the neighbouring kingdoms that they wanted to conquer. The juice of the red fruit can be made into a deadly potion. They would pour this over a chest full of treasure and then seal it up. Then they'd give the treasure as a gift to their unsuspecting neighbours. When the chest was opened, the plague cloud would rise out of it and disperse, spreading plague throughout the kingdom. The people would soon fall ill with a high fever and coughing. Some would escape the illness but those who didn't would be dead within a week. No one would know where the plague came from. Then when the kingdom was weakened by illness, they could invade and conquer."

I gasped. My heart was thumping faster and faster.

"What's the cure for this Red Plague?" I asked, my voice tremulous and much too high.

"The one white fruit that the Plague Tree bears is known as the Plaguesbane. It has to be picked on the full moon night and then it can be made into a remedy which will cure the Red Plague. This one tiny fruit creates a remedy powerful enough to cure a whole country's worth of plague-stricken people."

Just then there was a knock at the door. No one disturbed Annifer in the Throne Room unless it was an emergency.

Oh God! My breath caught in my throat. It's already begun!

"Come in!" Annifer called.

The Great Doors swung open. It was Mum. Her grey-streaked hair was coming out of its neat bun. Her kind brown eyes were wild. She looked stricken. When she saw me sitting there, she quickly tried to pull her features into a neutral expression. Turning to Annifer, her voice strained, she said,

"Princess, many of the servants and courtiers are running a high temperature and coughing badly. Doctor Hosta is trying to treat them but. . . there are so many of them. . . He's asking you to send for the Wise Women to help him." She gulped. I felt panic rising within me.

"Send messengers out to all the Wise Women in Merlax. Ask them to come immediately."

"Yes, Princess." She backed up, throwing me a brave don't-worry smile, and closed the door behind her.

"So we have to get hold of this fruit," Annifer leapt to her feet and started pacing again. "Only it's growing on the Plague Tree which is somewhere in the Imperial Garden to which only Morwain holds the key in the middle of enemy territory over a hundred miles away and we'd have to cross a battlefield to get to it and the full moon's in three nights' time. Then we'd have to get it back to the castle and make the remedy all within a week if we want to save our people." She raised her hands to her head and grabbed two fistfuls of hair as if she wanted to pull them out by the roots. Gerda and Matilda just stared at each other.

It seemed impossible. It was impossible.

But I could see a glimmer of hope.

"I can do it," I said.

They all turned to look at me.

😊

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