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tell me one of you did that,’ Saffy whispered.
    No-one answered. Jasper knew that the fears of every kid in their class lay inside this room. And a queen Skrinkerscreech with twenty-three eggs, or possibly twenty-three hatchlings feeding on screechwort. Jasper suddenly wondered how long it took the hatchlings to mutate into ferocious, hideous monsters , but he figured it was probably too late to ask Felix.
    Footsteps echoed around them, but they couldn’t see anyone coming. Suddenly, candles ignited overhead, and a flickering light cast spooky shadows on the walls. The footsteps became louder.
    â€˜Well, I’m not just gonna stand here waiting,’ Saffy whispered. ‘Come on!’
    The footsteps were really eerie. Jasper didn’t want to see who they belonged to.
    They turned a corner and a huge rat came scurrying along the floor, followed by a horde of mice. Jasper saw Felix squirming, but rodents were something they could all handle. The room could get a lot worse.
    The footsteps had stopped.
    The four kids bunched together, trying not to bump into anything as they walked.
    â€˜We need a new plan,’ Felix hissed.
    â€˜Isn’t it a bit late to be planning now?’ Jasper replied. ‘I thought the plan was get in, get the eggs, get out. Come on, let’s keep moving.’
    Around the next corner, Jasper felt something prickle at his neck. He stopped and slowly put his hand up to his shoulder. A huge tarantula crawled onto the back of his fingers. Jasper yelped and flung the spider away. He could see more spiders crawling from the walls, scuttling towards him on their hairy, horrible legs, or spinning down from above.
    Felix brushed frantically at Jasper’s shoulders and Saffy hurtled any spiders that came too close out of the way. Boris sprayed the others with his dog drool, which worked surprisingly well.
    â€˜OK, a new plan would be good,’ said Jasper.
    Boris was inspecting a bloody sword next to a realistic-looking severed head. ‘Cool,’ he murmured.
    â€˜Mental manipulation,’ Saffy said, turning to Jasper. ‘What did you learn in your tutorial today? It was some sort of Mental Manipulation, wasn’t it? That’s what you’re good at.’
    Jasper thought back to his lesson with Mr Z. It seemed so long ago. ‘Nothing of use. I barely had any time,’ Jasper answered.
    â€˜You must have learnt something ,’ Saffy huffed. ‘ I invented a walkie-talkie, Felix learnt everything about the Skrinkerscreech, and you learnt … what?’
    â€˜I didn’t really learn anything,’ said Jasper. All Mr Z had said was that Jasper had found his tune. Mr Z hadn’t taught him how to make people forget. And even if he had, how would that help?
    Unless we could forget our fears, Jasper thought uncertainly. But what if something goes wrong? What if we forget where we’re going or what we’re doing in here?
    Jasper saw some small, blank faces growing in the walls around them. They looked at Saffy.
    â€˜Oh no,’ said Saffy. Her face turning pale, she grabbed Jasper’s arm. ‘Please Jasp, try, ’ she pleaded.
    Saffy never pleaded.
    â€˜ Saffy …’ a voice called softly through the room.
    Saffy’s eyes grew wide. She grabbed her earplugs and was about to shove them into her ears when Jasper snatched them out of her hands.
    â€˜I’ll try,’ he said and tossed the earplugs to Boris. ‘Boris, put these in. Just in case this doesn’t work and we end up forgetting why we’re here. Whatever happens, lead us to the queen. When we get there, stop me whistling. Got it?’
    Boris nodded.
    Jasper really hoped this would work. Boris was pretty tough. And besides, the Trail of Terror had been set up for Class 2B. Jasper was betting that if Boris wasn’t in their class, his fear wouldn’t be in here.
    Meanwhile, dolls had started popping out of the walls. They floated