This was a day that everyone in Horsmarlonerpool had being looking forward to for weeks.
Everyone had it in their diaries in big letters - ‘The Ball at the Palace’.
Since Helen and Jensen had returned from the Skylands with news that Prince Barnaby and Princess Agnetha had invited the whole town to a ball, everyone had been making new clothes and practicing their dancing. Nobody, aside from Lord and Lady Devonroe, had ever been to a royal palace before - let alone a proper, official ball.
Because the Skylands were so much further to the north than Horsmarlonerpool, at least a three hour express train journey, the summer days were very long, and the winter days were very short.
In fact, the days right in the middle of summer were so long that it was still light until nearly midnight, and then only dark for three and a half hours before the sun would come up again.
And the people of the Skylands knew that they were so lucky to have these special summer days, that on mid-summer’s night, they celebrated it in the most wonderful way possible. Captain Hercule would fly into the town of Marbleglow in his gigantic zeppelin - a floating airship as long as a skyscraper is tall - a huge balloon-like structure the shape of a marrow. And below it, a large set of rooms and cabins for people to ride in.
Theo, Scarlett and James were all in Mr Wiggins’ class at Bluesky school in Marbleglow - the main town in the Skylands, far to the north of Horsmarlonerpool.
One Tuesday morning, Mr Wiggins had a special announcement to make - tomorrow, the whole of their year were going on a special school trip to the White Tunnels.
The class looked at each other with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. The White Tunnels were mysterious places that began in a large cave in the rocks on the outskirts of town. But nobody knew where they went, or how far they went. Nobody had ever been brave enough to explore them fully.
Lord and Lady Devonroe were eating breakfast in the morning room at Castle Earnose. They always ate the same thing - two boiled eggs each that the castle chickens had laid that morning in the garden, and three slices of smashberry jam on toast.
Often, they’d invite two friends to join them, and today Helen and Jensen (who were both regular visitors to the castle because they were friends with Lord and Lady D) had got up nice and early to come and join them.
