Knock Three Times

by Cressida Cowell

  “You were brilliant, Bodkin!” said Caliburn admiringly. “You’re a hero! You should have seen him, Xar and Wish!”

  “You saved our lives! I KNEW you’d be a hero when the time came!” said Wish. “Didn’t I say it?”

  Xar shook Bodkin’s hand. “Yes, Wish was right all along—you are a hero, Bodkin.”

  Xar bowed to Bodkin and then clapped him on the back. “Here, you take the stone and complete the bargain, because if it wasn’t for you we would never have gotten it.”

  Bodkin thought he was going to burst with pride.

  Wish, proud of him, Bodkin!

  Xar, bowing to him, Bodkin!

  He had overcome his fear. He hadn’t fainted or fallen asleep. He had acted like a hero. And most importantly, he hadn’t been an idiot for coming here, the jealousy of the betrayal was forgotten and forgiven, the quest had been a success in the end, all because of him.

  It was a magnificent moment for Bodkin.

  He stepped forward importantly toward their fallen opponent.

  He bowed, because that is the polite and gracious thing to do to a defeated adversary.

  Bodkin held up the stone. “Nuckalavee, I am so sorry that I offended you by forgetting to remove my shoes when I landed on your island. We have answered your question. We have completed the task you set us. Here is the stone that has been worrying you for the last twenty years. Now you must complete the bargain and give us four of your scales.”

  The Nuckalavee opened his thirteen eyes wearily, slowly.

  “You have the scales already,” said the Nuckalavee.

  “What do you mean, we have the scales already?” said Xar, bewildered. “No we don’t! You can’t try and trick us AGAIN!”

  Xar reached out to take four of the Nuckalavee’s shining scales—

  But all at once, the curse bottles with the name “Encanzo” exploded into little pieces. They ducked so as not to be hit by the flying glass.

  And the scales exploded off the outline of the Nuckalavee. They tried to catch the scales raining all around them, but the scales slipped through their fingers, burning bright silver for a moment, before they faded and seemed to melt into the beach.

  But the Nuckalavee seemed somehow… happier without his scales.

  Younger, even. He shone like a star in the cavern, glowing white as coral.

  It was as if a spell had been lifted, and the beast had awoken from a trance that bound him.

  A moment earlier, he had seemed like he was on the edge of death, barely breathing. Now he seemed reborn.

  “Thank you for breaking the Riddle and the Curse of the Nuckalavee,” said the scale-less creature before them, still weak, but gathering strength in front of their eyes.

  A great sweep of the Nuckalavee’s tail toppled the treasure heap, as if he no longer cared about the treasure anymore.

  Magic boots and caps with wings and singing swords went bouncing around the cavern in lunatic directions. Xar and Wish and Bodkin had to throw themselves on the ground to get out of the way as arrows made of moon and horns of plenty spewing out food and harps playing themselves in a cacophony of noise flew around the cavern in mad eccentric circles.

  “Oh dear…” moaned Caliburn, “oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… all the magical objects are escaping…”

  Sure enough, the seven-league boots were marching up the cavern walls and then right out of the cave itself, running away as fast as they could, followed by Magic staffs of indescribable power and golden shields of destiny and all manner of other dangerous objects that ought to be kept safe and guarded, and out of human reach.

  But worse than this, much worse than this…

  The Nuckalavee turned and dived into the darkness of the water.

  And then the Nuckalavee swam away and out into the open sea.

  Shielding their faces with their arms, Xar and Wish and Bodkin watched him go with open mouths.

  “Um… what just happened?” said Xar.

  “He’s GONE! The Nuckalavee has gone! But more importantly, where are the scales?” panicked Wish.

  They dropped to their knees on the beach, but the last remains of the Nuckalavee’s scales slipped through their fingers like mist.

  The Nuckalavee had vanished as completely as if he had never existed.

  And after all that work, after Xar and Wish rescuing Bodkin, and Bodkin rescuing Wish and Xar, they had failed nonetheless.

  NO SCALES.

  The last ingredient in the spell to get rid of Witches had gone forever.

  And, believe it or not, there was worse to come.

  With a magnificent, sweeping flourish, the Enchanted Sword finally drew itself out of its own scabbard and placed itself into Bodkin’s trembling hand.

  Behind them, in a dark corner of the cavern, there came a horrible, creaking hiss of a whisper.

  “Foolish,” croaked the voice, “to go on a quest without knowing the rules yet.”

  They whirled around.

  Out of the darkness, out of the heap of dark treasure the Nuckalavee had been guarding, there rolled, trapped in a ball of iron…

  The Kingwitch.

  23. We Are All on a Quest Without Knowing the Rules Yet

  Yes, it is so, so tricky to know the rules of the quest you are going on until you reach the end of it.

  This was why the Witches had wanted them to get to the Isle of the Nuckalavee.

  The Kingwitch was there.

  The Kingwitch was trapped inside a great ball of iron.

  And only Wish could get him out.

  The Kingwitch was encased in a ball of iron that Wish’s Magic had melted all around him in a huge misshapen mass of spears and arrows and shields. He was clutching a tiny piece of blue dust in one claw, and he had been rubbing that piece of dust against the walls of his iron prison with such ferocity that he had turned a small patch of it invisible. Wish could just see one dreadful Witch eye glaring out at her from inside the iron ball.

  The Kingwitch had been captured by the Droods and their giants with terrible difficulty and was rolled painstakingly carefully by giant hands out of the sea and hidden in this cavern. The Droods and the giants had wedged the ball of iron tight under a crevice and heaped it up with treasure, but the newly freed Nuckalavee had accidentally knocked it free with one swipe of his joyful tail.

  So, like the rest of the treasure in that cavern, the ball of iron with the Kingwitch inside it was no longer guarded but free to move of its own accord, and it rolled slowly but steadily toward them like a dark and dreadful fate.

  “Wissssshhhhhh…” whispered the Kingwitch inside the ball of iron. “Wisssshhhhh… I have a bargain to offer you too… Come closer…”

  “Don’t listen, Wish!” shrieked Caliburn, putting his wings over Wish’s ears, as they all backed away from the iron ball. “Don’t listen!”

  “Bring me the sprite and Xar, and I will take away the Witch Magic that is poisoning them once and for all…” said the Kingwitch.

  “And in return,” continued the Kingwitch, “you will releasssse me from this iron prison… And then you and I, Wish, will settle this once and for all in a single spellfight…”

  It was always going to come down to this. The Kingwitch led the Witches, and while he was safe inside the ball of iron, he couldn’t lead them to victory. But if he could persuade Wish to release him and challenge Wish to a spellfight, why, then he might get his talons on the Magic-that-works-on-iron…

  Because they had all seen, back in Pook’s Hill, how bad Wish was at spellfights.

  But it was almost as if Wish and Xar were hypnotized by the voice of the Kingwitch as he rolled toward them… And then Xar began to walk toward the Kingwitch of his own accord.

  Little Squeezjoos, who had been tucked, worryingly rigid and still in Xar’s pocket since they had left the healing comfort of Perdita, now lifted his head and began to move. He bit off the buttons that secured the pocket, and he flew out toward the Kingwitch.

  “I iss feelings a li
ttle funny again…” said poor little Squeezjoos uncertainly, flying toward the Kingwitch upside down. “Oh! It’s the Chiwgink! Hello, Chiwgink!”

  “Come back, Xar!” cried Bodkin, grabbing hold of the edge of Xar’s waistcoat, and dragging him back. “Xar! What are you doing?”

  But Xar was half eaten by the Witch Magic already, and he did not seem to hear what Bodkin was saying.

  “Xar, come to me… and Wissssh…” whispered the Kingwitch. “Wissssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Give me your Magic… Give me your Magic… GIVE ME YOUR MAGIC…”

  Louder still chanted the Kingwitch in the ball of iron, louder and louder, until the chant became an unbearable screech and the ball of iron was moving faster, faster.

  “GIVE ME YOUR MAGIC!!!!”

  “DON’T LISTEN!” bellowed Bodkin, leaping in front of Xar and Wish, and he held up the Enchanted Sword, which blazed for one moment with a light so blindingly bright that Xar’s hypnotized eyes refocused, and he came to his senses.

  “RUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!” shouted Bodkin.

  OUT of the cavern the children ran, terrified, as the ball of iron rolled after them.

  UP the tunnels of the Nuckalavee’s cave.

  ONTO the beach, where the log boat was waiting for them.

  But above their heads, as they ran across the sand, there was a whirr of soft wings, and two swifts flew around and around.

  “My father!” yelled Xar.

  The swifts circled once more and then hovered in front of the children for a second before their wings turned into the long trails of sleeves, and Sychorax and Encanzo landed lightly on the beach in front of them.

  They looked absolutely hopping mad.

  Great thunderclouds were rolling off the top of Encanzo’s head. Sychorax was white with fury.

  “Oh dear, my mother as well…” Wish sighed.

  24. Two Angry Parents

  Hurriedly, Bodkin hid the Stone-That-Was-Encanzo’s-Heart in his pocket.

  “QUICK! The Witches are coming!” cried Sychorax. “Encanzo can take all of you in the boat to safety! And—Oh, by mistletoe and all things dark, THE KINGWITCH!… As I thought, the Droods must have captured him!”

  Sure enough, the ball of iron containing the Kingwitch came rolling out of the mouth of the cavern and halted as if waiting for something.

  Hovering over the ball of iron was Squeezjoos.

  In the terror of the moment of running away, they had forgotten about the little sprite, and this time he was too far away for Xar to grab him and put him in his pocket.

  “Come here, Squeezjoos!” shouted Xar. But Squeezjoos did not seem to hear his old friend Xar. He had turned a very bright green indeed, and his eyes were a little feverish. “I iss with the Chiwgink…” chanted Squeezjoos. “I iss with the Chiwgink!”

  “Squeezjoos is saying he’s with the Kingwitch,” said Caliburn sadly. “Chiwgink is ‘Kingwitch’ spelled backward… sort of…”

  “Come with us, Squeezjooos!” cried Xar. “Please come with us!”

  But Squeezjoos slipped between Xar’s fingers.

  “I’sss can’t…” said Squeezjoos sadly, a desperate look in his eye, before he started shaking again, and flying back and forth like a poor little upside-down trapped bumblebee.

  “We can’t leave without Squeezjoos!” said Xar.

  “Don’t be ridiculous! You can’t fight the Kingwitch,” shouted Encanzo. “LOOK UP THERE!”

  Wish and Xar and Bodkin looked up, and in the distance the sky was dark with Witches. They were flying in from all directions, screaming wildly, heading toward the island of the Nuckalavee.

  “Quick! Wish! Make a force field!” yelled Xar.

  Wish took off her eyepatch. She thought of fires, and fires leaped up, forming a protective circle around the children and turning into a great humming force field.

  We can still fight him. The Kingwitch can’t get out of the ball of iron… thought Wish. Don’t think of what he’s like…

  Horrible images of the times she had met the Kingwitch before had leaped into her brain and were making her sweat with fear. The Kingwitch, curled up like a great dark grasshopper inside the stone she had released him from in the first place… The Kingwitch springing in the air, great dark feathers spread wide, talons like swords, terrifying Magic blasting out of his mouth…

  Don’t be scared or that will make the force field weaken… He’s trapped and he can’t do any harm to us from in there… Wish’s thoughts chased around inside her skull like panicking rabbits.

  Only I can let him out, and until then we are perfectly safe…

  WHAM!

  The first Witch lunged down from above and rammed into Wish’s force field with such violence that Wish fell over, gasping, as if someone had punched her in the stomach, and—

  WHAM!

  Another Witch punched into the force field.

  Sychorax drew her bow and arrows and shot at the departing Witch, and the creature let out a dreadful screech as it escaped upward into the air.

  But the sky was full of Witches, flying closer, closer.

  “We’ll go back for Squeezjoos later when we’ve got all the ingredients of the spell!” shouted Xar, trying to keep his balance inside the rocking, shaking force field. “It won’t do Squeezjoos any good if we stay here to get killed by Witches…”

  WHAM! Another great ram of the Kingwitch in the ball of iron and the entire side of Wish’s force field caved in.

  “We need to go NOW!” shouted Sychorax. “And get to the safety of the Beach of Shoes… THE WITCHES WON’T DARE ATTACK WITH MY IRON WARRIORS THERE!”

  Sychorax had sent word to her Warriors to make haste to the Beach of Shoes. She did not know whether they had gotten there yet… but crafty war leader that she was, she wanted the Witches to think they were there.

  “INTO THE BOAT!” roared Encanzo. Scrambling, tumbling across the beach inside Wish’s dented force field, Wish, Xar, and Bodkin ran after Sychorax and Encanzo toward the sea. The Kingwitch in the ball of iron followed them, gaining momentum as it went downhill on the gentle slope of the beach.

  “Only a little farther…” panted Xar.

  They got to the log boat in the absolute nick of time. For as they scrambled in and Encanzo pushed the boat off the shore, another great Witch swooped to get them.

  “DUUUUCCKKKK!” screamed Bodkin, and they had a nightmare vision of the talons of the Witch.

  But Encanzo’s staff sent the boat shooting off the sand with such magical speed that they all fell flat on their backs—

  SPPPLLLASSSHHHHHHHHHHH!

  The great ball of iron slammed into the shallow water of the beach with such ferocity that a huge spray of water still reached them as they sped away.

  Trembling, shaking, water in her hair and in her eyes, some of it sea and some of it tears, Wish looked back. The ball of iron with the Kingwitch inside it was stopped dead for the moment, half buried in the sludge and sand, surrounded by great whirlpool ripples. Wish half expected it to be following after them, but even the Kingwitch seemed to have accepted that a ball of iron cannot roll on water.

  Crusher came panting up and tried to catch Squeezjoos, but the little sprite dodged out of the way, screeching “I iss with the Chiwgink!” Crusher tried again, but Squeezjoos was too quick for him and Crusher had to leave too, diving after them all.

  Squeezjoos watched them go, buzzing upside down forlornly. Sometimes he seemed to get up a manic energy, fizzing with bright green sparks, and then he calmed down and Wish could not bear to look at him, so alone and so desolate. She thought she heard him shout something… she wasn’t sure whether it was “Don’t leave me!”

  or “Please save me!”

  Whatever it was, it was unbearable.

  “We will save you, Squeezjoos, I promise!” shouted Wish, tears running down her face, and then she turned to Caliburn. “They won’t hurt him, will they, Caliburn?”

  “No, they won’t hurt him,” said Caliburn sadly. “He is the Witches’
creature now, so they won’t hurt him…”

  “TRUST ME, SQUEEZJOOS, WE’LL BE BACK TO RESCUE YOU!” hollered Xar, who was also crying. “I ALWAYS LOOK AFTER MY SPRITES!”

  Squeezjoos shouted something back, but again he was too far away to be sure of what he said, but I think it was something like: “Don’t worry, Masster! I trusts you! And I iss FINE! I iss upside down and with the Chiwgink… but I iss FINE!”

  And then he was too far away for them to see him anymore.

  They had only just gotten away in time.

  Most of the Witches had reached the island now and although the ball of iron could not follow over water, the Witches had wings and they were after that boat like eagles pursuing a mouse.

  Encanzo shot back at them with great blasts of Magic from his spelling staff.

  Sychorax took down a few with her iron arrows. But there were too many of them.

  And Wish set up another force field, this time over the entire boat, as the screaming, screeching, yelling nightmares of Witches dived again and again, talons out, trying to rip open the force field and get at them.

  My goodness, that boat went fast when Encanzo was spelling it. The boat skimmed across the open water of the sea. Encanzo muttered a few words and the front end of the boat reared up, and then they fairly flew across the water, humming on the top of the waves, sending three horrible Witches who had landed on top of the force field spiraling away.

  The onslaught of the Witches was relentless. Again and again they attacked. The boat was in imminent danger of being capsized, and Wish was struggling to maintain the force field. Just when she was thinking once again, I can’t hold on much longer… the attacks abruptly ceased.