The sorcerer and his new apprentice waited in the entrance hall.

"Time, Cathy?" Hex asked.

She checked the time on the grandfather clock in the corner. "Ten minutes past nine," she answered.

"Late! They're always late," Hex grumbled, pacing as they waited for Prince Horace. "They can flip a coin and travel to wherever they wish, and yet, they are always late. I can't abide poor timekeeping."

Hex just finished his griping when a flash of green lit up the hall.

"At last," Hex huffed.

Horace lifted his lip in a snarl and growled, "I have an entire Empire to run, Hex. It doesn't run itself. This morning I had to sentence three traitorous trolls, five gullible goblins, and a ferocious ferret to death in my Maze of Monsters. You can't rush these things... or it'd be no fun. It's the grovelling I enjoy. The pathetic pleading, 'Please don't kill me, I'll never do it again.' It makes me feel alive."

A shiver ran through Cathy's entire body. What crime would warrant being sentenced to death in a maze full of monsters? And what monsters?

"Just get us to the Whispering Woods, Horace. We have a lot to do."

Horace took the large silver coin from his waistcoat pocket and flicked it into the air. The moment the coin left the imp's hand, Cathy felt the ground beneath her shift. She tumbled down through a strange dark hole in the earth. Below her, a tiny pinprick of light shone like a distant star. The light came closer and closer, bigger and bigger until she stopped falling with a sudden jolt, in the middle of a wood. Landing on her feet, but only just.

"I'll be back to collect you before sun-down," Horace said. "I expect to see progress when I return."

Hex spun around to face the Prince. "You will. Now leave us."

Cathy could tell by the bulging vein in Hex's right temple that Horace was walking a fine line.

A moment later, Hex and Cathy were alone.

"Where do we start?" she asked, looking at the mossy ground.

"To build a house, we need firm foundations."

"Uh-huh," she said and nodded in agreement.

Hex stared at her.

"How would you build the foundations?" he asked, tapping his foot on the grass.

"By digging a hole," she suggested.

  Hex clicked his fingers, and a single shovel appeared on the ground beside her.

"Start digging then." Hex studied his fingernails, making no effort to help.

Cathy picked up the shovel, and with a loud sigh, she dug.

Two hours later and the sweat glistened on her forehead. She flinched at the painful blisters on her palms, and her back may never straighten.

  No matter how hard she'd tried, the shovel had barely made a dent in the sun-baked earth.

She looked at Hex, who was sitting on a fallen tree trunk.

He amused himself by turning bumble bees into stripy pom-poms, and butterflies into gigantic wasps with huge stingers. Wispy clouds of dark magic and tiny bolts of lightning flashed above their heads.

"Have you had enough yet?" Hex asked, zapping another butterfly.

Cathy ducked as the wasp flew past her head, buzzing loudly.

"Yes, I've had enough. I can't do it. The ground is too hard." She dropped the shovel and sat on the grass, defeated.

Hex stood and walked towards her. He towered over her, casting a dark shadow.

"Your first lesson is complete." Hex rolled up his sleeves.

Cathy was confused, as she hadn't used a drop of magic. She hadn't learnt a thing.

  Hex stooped down and grabbed Cathy by her ear. Yanking her to her feet, he said, "Step aside."

Cathy wriggled free from Hex's grip and stumbled towards the treeline. She watched as Hex raised his arms to the sky.

The ground shook, the sky darkened, and the dark wisps of magic huddled closer to Hex. Almost resting on his shoulders.

Cathy didn't dare move.

The wisps listened to Hex's whispers as he pointed to the earth.

"Now, I command you!" he shouted.

The darkness burrowed beneath the soil. Finding the widest cracks. Twisting and slithering, lower and lower. The ground heaved upwards and with a mighty rumble, an immense hole appeared.

Cathy rubbed her eyes and blinked. From the front of her overalls, she took out her plans.

Sure enough, the hole was the exact size needed to build the foundations. But if magic created the hole... why make her dig for two hours?

Cathy stared at her blistered palms and then glared at Hex.

Hex tutted at her.

"Don't look at me like that, with your piggy eyes and your lip curled upwards. I asked you how you would build the foundations. It was you who suggested digging a hole. If you'd said by magic, it would have saved us an awful lot of time." Hex shrugged his shoulders. "This is a lesson you won't forget."

Cathy seethed with anger but said nothing.

"Now, what do we do next?" Hex asked.

"We pour the concrete."

"And how do we do that?"

"With magic," she replied.

Hex grinned.

"Very good, Pet. See... you remembered."