Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower Read Online Free

doesn’t notice we’re not there.
    Me and Biddy walk past the WELCOME sign, and skip up the stone steps at the entrance of the Princess Tower. Then we go through the huge wooden doors at the top of the steps.
    Suddenly, we’re in a ginormous archway. It is all carved with special protection beings, like shamrocks and crosses and angels . This tower must be a very important place to have so much magical protection.
    We walk through the archway and into a massive hall. The hall has ceilings higher than the sky. It is as big as a supermarket, or a whole block of houses.
    ‘Oh!’ Biddy lifts her arms up. ‘It’s the Great Hall,’ she whispers. ‘All Princess Towers have got to have a Great Hall. It’s where the balls and dances are held.’



Biddy must be right. Why else would this place be so big? See, those huge marble pillars that stretch up to infinity? Well, they must be for the ladies to lean against when they’re tired from dancing. Or from waiting for the prince to fall in love with them.
    The windows have coloured pictures of old kings in them, with their gold staffs and pointy king-crowns. And on the other side in the windows there are queens in veils and long dresses, just like Amira Hassan’s mother—she’s a Muslim lady. Each queen is holding a little prince or princess.
    Today the hall is filled with seats. Perhaps the king is about to make a proclamation, and the seats are for all the people of the land to sit on while they hear him speak.
    I can feel Biddy tremble with excitement.
    ‘And when the princesses are not at a ball,’ Biddy whispers, ‘this Great Hall is where the people come to see the king. There’s his throne and that table is for …’ she hesitates, ‘… his stuff.’
    Behind the table is an alcove filled with flowers and gold ornaments and candles. There is also a passageway that must lead into the king’s private chamber.
    Biddy wants to go and see the king’s private chamber. I do, too.
    But, then, we see a tiny, little, just-big-enough-for-one-person balcony. It is snuggled against the wall. And it’s made out of a huge kind of bird statue. His claws are clutching the wall beneath him, and his wings are spread up and out behind him, to make a little railing. On the railing is a shelf. And on the shelf is the biggest book in the whole wide world.
    ‘A griffin !’ Biddy whispers.
    ‘A griffin?’ I ask. Of course it is a griffin. Why would they have a griffin holding a book? Griffins are the most important magical creatures in the universe. They protect sacred things.



Oo-laa-coo-laa-stinky-pooh-laa! That book must be really special.
    Biddy loves reading. I do, too. So we run towards the book. Biddy’s shoes go tink, tink, tink! on the stone floor. And then they go tap, tap, tap! up the steps into the little balcony.
    The balcony is so high up, we can see the whole Great Hall. But the book is even higher up than we are. Biddy stretches up on tippy-toes, trying to see the words in the book, reaching, stretching.
    She can just touch the edges of the book with her fingertips. But she can’t see it properly, so I go and look for her.
    I run up her arm to the ends of her fingers and touch the pages. They are so soft. And they’re covered in thousands and millions of words, all in neat rows. And running down the middle of the pages is a long silky red ribbon, like a giant bookmark.
    Biddy wants to see the book for herself. She holds onto the sides of the shelf.
    Then she uses her feet against the wall to pull herself up, up, up …
    ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ a huge deep voice booms from down in the Great Hall.
    Biddy spins around and ducks down behind the griffin. I run back up her arm, dive into her hair and hide.
    ‘That is definitely not a good idea,’ the huge deep voice booms again.
    What if the person speaking is the king? What if this is his most secret sacred book that no one is allowed to look at? What if he finds me and Biddy here, and locks