Dream a Little Dream (The Silver Trilogy) (F) by Kerstin Gier Page A

before she disappeared through a doorway with the words “It’s for your own good.”
    “Did you hear that?” Mia asked. “There are quails cackling somewhere around here.”
    “Right you are!” The door of the broom cupboard opened, creaking, and out came … Lottie. She was waving a hatchet about. “I could do with a bit of help. Someone has to stretch their necks out so that I can slaughter them.”
    “And if you don’t do it right, Nanny , Dad will throw you out and get Mrs. Dimbleby back.” Florence was skating gracefully along the corridor in a glittery black tutu. She performed a pirouette in front of the coat and hat stand, and gave us a nice smile. “Looking for the gingerbread house, were you? The witch will be so pleased to see you. Grayson, show these two the way, will you?”
    Grayson, who was leaning on the wall beside the coat stand, looked up from his iPhone for a moment and pointed to the door behind which Mom had disappeared. Its handle was a gigantic vanilla crescent. “Along there, mousies,” he said, and Mia set off at once.
    I wanted to call “Don’t be so stupid, Hansel!” after her, but something seemed to be sticking in my throat, and before I knew it, Mia had taken hold of the vanilla crescent, whereupon a claw appeared out of nowhere, then grabbed her by her collar, and she disappeared.
    “And now I have to share my bathroom with only one little quail,” said Florence, laughing. “Be a good little girl, Liv. Just follow your sister.”
    “No, don’t,” whispered Lottie behind me. “It’s only the first of September, far too soon for Christmas baking.” She pointed to a door beside the broom cupboard. It was painted green. “You’ll be safe in there.”
    “Don’t you dare!” screeched Florence. She skated straight toward me. I flung myself on the green door, tore it open, and slipped through, and it latched behind me a tenth of a second before Florence began thundering on it from the other side. Only at that moment did I realize that it was all just a dream, and a silly dream at that. (Besides being easy to interpret, except maybe for the skates. What was my unconscious mind trying to tell me about those skates?) All the same, my heart was still thudding rather fast with agitation.
    Hesitantly, I looked around me. I was in another corridor, one that seemed to go on forever, with countless doors to the right and left. The door I’d come through was painted deep green and had dark, old-fashioned metal fittings, a letter box in the same material, and a pretty brass doorknob in the shape of a lizard. I decided to go back, because now that I knew I was only dreaming, I wasn’t afraid of Florence anymore. I felt extremely keen to show her how good I was at kung fu. In a dream, of course, I’d be even better at it than in reality. But just as I was turning the lizard knob, I caught sight of a movement in the corner of my eye. Another door, next to this one, had opened, and someone had come out into the corridor. It was Grayson. Although he was only a few feet away, he didn’t seem to have noticed me. He carefully closed the door behind him and muttered something that I couldn’t make out. Then he took a deep breath, opened the door once more, and disappeared again. I let go of my door in order to take a closer look at Grayson’s. It was just like the white-painted front door to the Spencers’ house, including the steps outside and the heavyweight stone statue that was half eagle, half lion. When I came closer, the statue blinked its eyes, raised one clawed foot, and said in a surprisingly squeaky, high voice, “No one can come in unless they say my name three times backward.”
    Aha, a riddle. I loved riddles. Although this one could have been a little harder to crack. “You’re Frightful Freddy,” I said.
    The statue lowered its beak majestically. “Just Freddy, if you don’t mind.”
    “Oh, but that’s too simple,” I said, disappointed, and almost annoyed by