It was a pale, sunny afternoon on the lawn at Lily's house. The grass was fresh, and on a big flowered blanket sat four slices of bread with strawberry jam. Lily, Ziggy, Skye and Dash were sitting in a circle, eating happily.

"The jam is dripping on my fingers," said Dash, laughing. His chin was already sticky. "It is so sweet!"

"Mine is dripping too," said Ziggy, and he gave a little hop, because Ziggy could never sit still for long. "But I like it this way."

Skye, calm as a cloud, licked a tiny bit of jam from her finger and smiled. "Do you hear the wind? It is whispering something."

Everyone stopped to listen. The leaves of the big apple tree in the garden were moving and making a soft sound, but it was not just any sound. It was as if someone were speaking from very far away, trying to warn them.

"It sounds like it is saying... help," said Lily. Her blue eyes had grown alert.

Right at that moment, from the path came a happy whistle.

CHUFFFF CHUFFFF.

It was Toby the Magic Train, with smoke puffing in little circles from his chimney and eyes shining like two gold coins. He stopped in front of the children and said, in rhyme:

"CHUFFFF CHUFFFF, I am Toby, what a soft and special day,
a tender little message in the wind has come this way.
Climb aboard, my friends, to where a quiet mystery shines bright,
where a kind and gentle heart will come to set things right."

The children looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Let's go!" said Lily, and she was the first to jump into the red car.

Ziggy ran right after her with a leap. Dash, who was quick, arrived in two long strides. Skye climbed in last, calmly, and sat next to the window.

The little train set off. Under the wheels, the lawn turned into hills, the hills into valleys, and the valleys into a great plain of wind. Toby ran along a track that looked like it was made of clouds.

After a while, a big hill appeared in front of them, and on top of the hill there was a castle.

It was a strange castle. It had tall towers, round windows, and all the flags were still, even though the wind was blowing. It looked abandoned.

"What castle is that?" asked Dash.

"It is called the Castle of Whispers," said Skye in a low voice, as if she had always known. "The wind says so."

Toby stopped in front of a big dark wooden door. The children climbed down on tiptoe, because everything was so quiet that talking loudly seemed wrong.

They pushed the door. It opened with a gentle creak.

Inside, a great hall welcomed them: it was the Throne Room. There were dusty red carpets on the floor, crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and a golden throne at the back. On the cushion of the throne, a little hedgehog was sleeping. He was as dusty as an old book, and he was snoring: "fff... fff..."

Near the throne, a white cat with green eyes stood still as a statue. She looked like a very serious guard.

And on the biggest chandelier, gently swaying, was a little brown owl, with two round eyes that sparkled.

"Oh!" Ziggy whispered, and gave another little hop. "There are animals!"

The white cat opened her mouth and spoke. Her voice was polite, like a kind grandmother's.

"Welcome, little ones. We are the keepers of this castle, ever since the king went away. My name is Brina. The one who sleeps is Riccolo, and the one who flies is Lume."

"And why did you call us?" asked Lily, stepping forward.

Brina lowered her ears. "For many weeks now, the telescope in the castle tower has been all foggy. We cannot see the Goodnight Star anymore. It is the star that lights up the dreams of all the children in the world. Without her, dreams turn dark."

Skye put a hand on her heart. "Oh," she said, "that is so sad."

Meanwhile, Dash had wandered off. He was playing with a red carpet rolled up in a corner. He tugged it with his usual energy, and POOOOF, a cloud of dust rose up. And under the carpet, leaning against the wall, was an old mirror with a carved frame.

"Look!" Dash shouted. "I found a mirror!"

The children came closer. The mirror was cloudy. But when Lily stood in front of it, the cloudiness cleared, and out of the glass came a thin little voice. It was like the rustle of autumn leaves.

"Only the one who does not chase away," the mirror whispered, "what seems out of place, will find what they are looking for."

Lily took a step back. "What does that mean?"

The mirror did not answer. It was a mysterious mirror, the kind that speaks in secret and gives riddles, not answers.

"Maybe it means we have to look very carefully," said Skye.

"We need to find a book," said Brina. "It is called The Book of the Gentle Stars. It tells how to clean a magic telescope. It is in the library, but the library is... well, a bit of a mess."

And it really was.

The children went down a spiral staircase, and found themselves in an enormous room full of very tall shelves. The books were not on the shelves. They were everywhere: on the floor, in piles, open, closed, on top of other books. It looked like someone had been playing hopscotch in the middle of them.

"Oh my," said Dash, and he started running between the piles, because he could never resist when he saw obstacles to jump over.

"Let's search!" said Lily, determined.

They searched. They would open a book, read the title, set it aside. Stories of dragons. Stories of pirates. Recipes for blueberry cakes. A map of the sea. No stars.

Ziggy, in the meantime, had stopped beside Lume, the owl, who had landed on a pillar. He looked at her with a furrowed brow. "Listen," said Ziggy, "I think the owl should stay outside. Maybe she is the one fogging up the windows with her breath."

Lily looked at him seriously. "Ziggy, no. Lume belongs here. You do not chase an animal away without a real reason."

"But what if it is her fault?" Ziggy insisted.

"And what if it is not her fault?" Lily replied. "Wait before sending someone away."

Lume said nothing. But she lowered her head, as if she had understood.

While they were talking, Skye lifted her eyes and pointed up high. On a very tall shelf, on the very top, was a book with a deep blue cover and a small silver star. You could just barely read: The Book of the Gentle Stars.

"It is up there!" said Skye with an excited whisper.

There was a wooden ladder leaning against the shelf. It was an old ladder, with crooked rungs.

"I will go," said Lily, and she set her foot on the first rung.

CREEEAK. The ladder squeaked.

"Be careful!" said Skye, putting her hands over her mouth.

Lily climbed. One rung. Two rungs. Three.

CREEEAK. The ladder swayed.

Ziggy held the bottom of the ladder steady with both hands. Dash stood on the other side. Skye watched up with her heart beating fast.

Lily reached the very top rung. She stretched out her hand. Her fingers brushed the spine of the book. She pulled, and the book came free.

But the book was big, and it slipped from Lily's hands.

"OH!" everyone shouted together.

The book was falling. And it was falling straight toward the Talking Mirror. If it hit it, it would break it.

Lily, from the top of the ladder, saw everything. She dove. She jumped down from the ladder, landed on the red carpet, and with a swift move stretched out her arms. The book landed in her hands an instant before touching the mirror.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then everyone breathed.

"You were amazing!" said Dash.

"My knees are shaking," said Lily, laughing halfway.

They opened the book. There were drawings of stars and telescopes. One page explained: "To clean the lens of the telescope, all you need is a gentle puff from someone who lives nearby. But first, check what is making it foggy."

"What does that mean?" asked Dash.

"Let's go to the tower," said Lily.

They climbed up. The tower was tall, and there were many steps. When they reached the top, there was a big telescope pointing at the sky. It really was foggy, opaque like the bathroom glass after a shower.

But there was something else.

Inside the big glass lens, snuggled up in the warm spot, were three little baby owls. Three tiny chicks, soft as little balls of gray wool. They were blinking their eyes, and breathing big breaths.

"Oh!" Skye whispered. Her eyes were shiny. "They are so beautiful."

Lume, the owl, came flying in from the window and landed next to her little ones. She cooed something soft, as if to say, "I am here."

"So it was their breath fogging up the lens," said Lily. "She was keeping them warm."

Ziggy blushed a little. "I said we should send her away."

"And it is a good thing we did not," said Lily. But she did not say it meanly. She said it the way friends do, when they want to remind you of something important.

Right at that moment, from the windows came a soft sound: TIC TIC TIC.

A gentle, very light rain had begun to fall, like little fingers tapping on the glass.

"We can make a new nest," said Skye. "Right down here, next to the telescope. That way Lume and the chicks will be safe, but the lens will be free."

They all got to work together. Ziggy hopped here and there gathering soft fallen feathers. Dash ran to fetch a basket forgotten in a corner. Lily arranged the little twigs. Skye put a small piece of soft cloth from her pocket inside the basket.

When the nest was ready, Lume brought her beak close and made a little sound. Then, very gently, she took the first chick and placed it in the nest. Then the second. Then the third.

The chicks fell asleep right away, because the new nest was warm, dry and perfect.

And then Lume did a wonderful thing.

She turned toward the telescope, opened her wings, and with a single beat of her wings she gave a gentle puff on the lens.

The fog vanished like mist in the sun.

And inside the telescope, high in the sky that had cleared between one cloud and another, a star shone. It was the Goodnight Star. She shone with a golden light, warm, sweet, like a candle in the middle of the dark.

The children looked through the telescope one after the other, without saying a word. It was one of those things too beautiful to explain.

When they came down, the Talking Mirror was waiting for them in the throne room. It cleared, and whispered just one sentence, thin as a feather:

"You are beautiful inside because you protect those who have no voice."

Lily smiled. She had felt proud, but she had not said anything. It was enough just to know.

Brina, the white cat, purred. Riccolo, the hedgehog, stretched on the throne cushion and gave a little "fff" of gratitude.

It was time to go.

Outside, under the gentle rain, Toby was waiting. When he saw them climb aboard, he whistled.

CHUFFFF CHUFFFF.

And then, in rhyme:

"CHUFFFF CHUFFFF, it is time to chug back home to your green meadow,
the sky is bright again, with no more rain and no more shadow.
You cared for the little ones with the smallest, softest voice,
and now the dreams of children everywhere will all rejoice."

The little train set off. The valleys became hills, the hills became meadows, and the meadow became the one at Lily's house, where the flowered blanket still lay, with a few crumbs of bread.

The children climbed down. The sky had cleared. And above them, a silver star watched them shine.

That night, all the children in the world had golden dreams.