asked the policeman.
The witch gave him a glimmering look, then she sighed and turned her gaze to me. ‘Your mother did not tell Rose what was happening. She had prepared her in a way, by filling her head with stories of towers and princesses and sacrifice. She had told Rose that a special destiny awaited her. She was to go to faerie and there face a wicked witch, and of course there was to be a prince.
‘But as she prepared to go, Rose turned back to her mother and said, “I love Willow and I don’t mind. Will you tell her that?” And Charledine saw then that Rose knew everything. It was not her faerie blood but her innocence that made her so wise. Rose knew that she had been born to save you. If she had cursed your mother and wept and begged to be spared, Charledine would not have been moved, but Rose gave herself willingly, because of her love for you.
‘I do not know what was in Charledine’s heart after Rose left her. Perhaps, at the very last, she loved the child, or maybe Rose’s words made her realise how you would feel when your beloved sister vanished, and she could not face it. She may even have feared that you would know what she had done, just as Rose did. Or maybe it is simply that, having freed you, she did not wish to go on without her prince, and so she lay down and gave up her spirit to the land.’
There was a long silence, and I felt the tears streaming down my face. I did not know if I wept more for my mother’s betrayal and death or for Rose’s sacrifice.
‘And Rose?’ asked the policeman.
But Griselda entered the room, this time with dessert. She put the small, eggshell-thin chocolate dishes of tiny forest strawberries in front of us, and I ate without tasting, certain the witch would say no more until the food was finished. Only as I put the last strawberry to my mouth did I notice the tips of my fingers were stained red. Something occurred to me. ‘In stories, when you eat a person’s food, you are in their power.’ There was a dull accusation in my voice.
‘My dear Willow, you were in my power from the moment you stepped into this land, for I am its queen,’ said the witch. She sighed a little and made an impatient gesture for Griselda to clear the table. In her haste to obey, the old woman dropped several of the strawberries, which rolled under the table. Seeing the poor old thing’s distress, I slipped from my seat to help her. When I put the berries into her gnarled hands, she gave me a toothless smile.
‘Your sister was kind too,’ she whispered, and scuttled out.
I turned to see Madame Torquemada watching me. She nodded. ‘Your sister came here, of course. Godred led her here. He took her the long way, for the tests. Her visit to me was the next-to-last test, and in being kind to my dear faithful Griselda, Rose showed her sweetness of nature. There remains only one test and it is the most dangerous. If she succeeds in it, she will become queen in my place. If she fails, she will be eaten by a dragon.’
‘I will take her place,’ I said at once.
Madam Torquemada laughed. ‘I have seen the passing of a thousand princesses and I have waited a thousand years for a worthy successor, though not always impatiently.’ She gave a secretive and rather sensuous smile, and glanced at the empty setting. Then her expression became weary and I saw that the red in her hair was now a mere burnish of gold on silver. ‘I will not release your sister, for none has ever come so close to winning my place.’
‘What is the test?’ asked the policeman.
The witch gave him her sharp-toothed smile. ‘She must make the queen’s choice, and not the choice of a princess.’
5.
The tower lay three hills further on from the hut, which had become a palace from the inside out, so that we only saw its true magnificence when we were departing. Madame Torquemada’s hair had reddened again, and she rode elegantly side-saddle on a beautiful horse, white as sugar, which had taken a liking to the policeman and kept nibbling his ear. Once, it nipped him, drawing blood, but he only mopped it with his handkerchief, saying the love of a horse was