Far past the last bright star anyone on Earth has named, there is a galaxy shaped like a box of glittering dice. Its worlds are cubes called cubits, every face covered in paths, hedges and secret doors, and at its centre floats the Crown Cube, holding the Crown and its three jewels: a Ruby for courage, a Sapphire for wisdom and an Emerald for kindness. As long as the Crown shines, the creatures of the Cube Galaxy live in friendship.

Then the hum began. A web of blinking silver towers drifted in from a faraway alien world: the Lattice, a machine built to connect and to control. It linked in to the galaxy's neat little squares and began to transmit the Static, a signal that shouts over a creature's heart until its eyes glow red and it forgets its friends' names.

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Meet the friends

• GlimmerfluffAurora Fuzzball whose fur glows brighter the braver she feels
• EmberlingTail-flame pup. Brave, fast and always warm
• AquablobDew blob who heals any bruise with one cool hug
• PebblehideMossy shellback. Slow, steady, strong as stone
• WhiskerhornMoonlit hornfox who always knows the shortest path
• PixelfangGlitch chomper, and the first to hear the Static

Their trials and tribulations

• The first to fall. Pixelfang climbs his home-made antenna to catch the strange new signal, and a crackle of red light changes him in an instant. By morning, three more creatures have turned.
• The Council of Elders. Root Elder, the Sand Keeper, Clockwork Eye and Shadowbloom reveal that every network has a plug, and that the scattered crown jewels are the only thing strong enough to pull it.
• The Battle of the Board. Crimson Gloom, the Ember Fiend, leads an army in chess hats. Lose, and the whole cube joins the network.
• Crumble Royale. On the Shattered Plateau the floor falls away tile by tile while Storm, the Thunderhead Imp, tries to bump everyone into the dark.
• The Crown Cube maze. Dice, keys, teleport tiles and prowling hunters, and at the centre, a doorway to far cubes and strange sideways worlds.
• The android shells. Empty alien robots with glass-dome heads, built for the Lattice to steer… unless someone small and brave climbs in first.
• Guardians in bubbles. Each jewel is guarded by a giant creature the Static has sealed in light, and every one of them used to be a friend.

Can five small friends bring everyone home before the Lattice's last transmission? You'll have to read it to find out.

Free preview: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Cube Galaxy

Far, far away, past the last bright star that anyone on Earth has ever named, there is a galaxy shaped like a box of glittering dice. Its worlds are not round like ours. They are cubes, each one a little planet with six square faces, and every face is covered in paths, hedges and secret doors. The creatures who live there call their home the Cube Galaxy, and they call each tiny world a cubit.

On a cubit called Glowmere lived a small, round, very fluffy creature named Glimmerfluff. She was an Aurora Fuzzball, which meant that when she was happy her fur shimmered pink, then blue, then gold, like a sunrise that could not make up its mind. When she was sad it barely glowed at all. Most days, it glowed a lot.

Glimmerfluff had four best friends. Emberling was a tail-flame pup whose tail burned like a birthday candle that never went out. Aquablob was a dew blob, soft and wobbly and kind, who could heal a scraped knee with one cool hug. Pebblehide was a mossy shellback, slow and steady, whose shell was so strong that rain bounced off it like popcorn. And Whiskerhorn was a moonlit hornfox, quick as a breeze, who always knew the shortest path around any cube.

Every creature in the galaxy had a power. Some could heal, some could protect, some could swap places with a friend in the blink of an eye. The elders taught that powers were like gifts in a box: they were meant to be shared.

On Glowmere, the five friends spent their days racing around the faces of their cube, collecting the sparkling gems that grew in the corners like flowers, and playing games of wits on the great checkered Board in the town square.

At the very center of the galaxy floated the Crown Cube, the oldest cubit of all. On its highest face rested the Crown, set with three crown jewels: a Ruby for courage, a Sapphire for wisdom and an Emerald for kindness. As long as the Crown sat whole and shining, the cubes turned gently, the gems kept growing, and every creature, big or small, lived in friendship. Nobody imagined that anything could ever change that.

But somewhere far beyond the edge of the Cube Galaxy, something was listening.

To be continued in Chapter 2: The Hum in the Sky…

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