The Apprentice Witch

by James Nicol

  The crowd grew thicker as she drew closer to the town wall and the East Gate, some pointing up at the fading spell flare. People were slow to move aside, even though she called ahead, ‘Can you make way, please? Coming through!’ She tried not to think too much about what she might be about to find. She felt breathless with worry and her legs seemed to be turning into lumps of stone.

  Arianwyn pushed forwards, towards the East Gate. The high stone arch framed a glimpse of green meadow and woodland that pulled her onwards.

  ‘Out of the way!’ she shouted, unable to keep her voice sounding polite any longer. The last few townspeople in the lane pulled to one side and Arianwyn got her first clear sight of the meadow and the Great Wood beyond.

  Blasts of magical energy flashed somewhere just inside the line of trees and, even from this distance, the rancid stench of dark magic caught in her nose and throat.

  Grandmother stood at her side and lifted a handkerchief over her mouth.

  ‘This is not good,’ she whispered quietly to Arianwyn.

  ‘We need to keep everyone safe. Can we cast a protection spell over the East Gate, at least?’ Arianwyn asked.

  ‘Yes, but one of us will have to stay here to maintain a spell of that size,’ Grandmother said.

  ‘I’ll go and help the others, you stay here. It’s more important to keep the town safe,’ Arianwyn said quickly, though she didn’t know if she could go on without Grandmother at her side.

  ‘You’ll be fine!’ Grandmother said, as if she had read her thoughts. She lifted her hand to Arianwyn’s cheek and smiled. ‘You’ll be amazing!’ She then raised her hands high and turned towards the people gathering around the gate.

  ‘Everyone needs to stay within the town until we’ve worked out what is going on.’ Grandmother’s voice was full and commanding. ‘We’re concerned that there is a very real danger to Lull and all of you from a dark spirit creature that is at large in the Great Wood. Nobody must pass beyond the gate!’

  She turned to her granddaughter. ‘Will you help me with the spell,Arianwyn?’ Grandmother asked.

  Arianwyn glanced towards the woods, the bursts of magic growing in intensity.

  ‘We’ll be quick!’ Grandmother reassured her. ‘Just a moment or two!’

  Grandmother pulled off her jacket and folded it on the ground. She paused for a moment, considering, and then she raised her hands and started quickly to sketch glyphs in the air in front of her. Arianwyn saw the flash of magic as each one formed and she slowly began to copy her grandmother’s spell.

  The watching townspeople fell quiet, Arianwyn caught sight of faces she knew among the crowd. They looked frightened, but each smiled warmly at her and she felt a small surge of confidence. All was silent but for the breeze through the grass and the sound of Grandmother humming softly to herself.

  ‘Why do you hum like that when you’re casting spells or concentrating?’ Arianwyn asked. Grandmother glanced at her and for a second she was worried she had offended her. But then she chuckled, a light joyful sound that was swallowed up by the unnerving silence as quickly as water down a drain.

  ‘Old habits die hard. When I was an apprentice, I used to get so nervous casting certain spells. I would get sick with worry and fright each time and so I used to hum this little tune to myself.’ She sang a few lines of the song:

  Don’t be scared, my little one,

  the clouds roll in and hide the sun

  but deep within our true light shines

  and keeps us safe in darker times.

  ‘You were scared?’Arianwyn asked, unable to hide the shock from her voice. She looked harder at her grandmother, glimpsing the girl she had once been all those years before.

  Grandmother nodded. ‘And I still am sometimes. Fear is with us all at some time or other. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Arianwyn.’ She carried on singing and humming as she worked.

  The soft rose-coloured light of the spell flowed towards the gateway. Grandmother twisted her hands, helping the flow of magic to tumble this way and that to the opening. The magic fizzed and crackled as it sealed the gates with magic.

  ‘There! Not bad for an old witch, eh?’ Grandmother grinned.

  Arianwyn beamed, she had never felt more proud of her grandmother.

  She turned back to face the Great Wood. Dread crept around her again.

  ‘You can do it!’ Grandmother said reassuringly. Arianwyn smiled, but she could already feel tears forming as she pushed the gate open, the spell tingling under her fingers. She felt all the watching eyes on her as she turned back towards the wood and started to walk quickly across the meadow without looking back.

  The long grass swayed in the breeze; it was dotted here and there with blood-red poppies and brilliant white daises, but it all seemed a blur to Arianwyn. As another screaming spell flare rose into the sky high above the tops of the trees, she broke into a run, summoning her own spell orb as she did. It crackled and fizzed ready in her palm.

  She had only gone a few metres into the woods when the trees directly in front of her started to tremble and shake as if whipped up by a storm, even though the breeze itself was only just strong enough to stir the meadow grass.

  Shapes shifted and lurched between the trunks and behind the branches. Arianwyn ducked this way and that, trying to see clearly. And then she heard a cry:‘Help, please! Someone help!’

  It was Salle!

  Without thinking a second longer, Arianwyn charged through the trees.

  The scene that awaited her was nothing short of bizarre and terrifying.

  Slumped against a tree was Miss Delafield, her left leg twisted at a very strange angle. It was clearly broken. Salle sat beside her, partly shielded by the older witch, who hurled spell orb after spell orb through the trees.

  And growing on every tree trunk and across large patches of the ground was a black carpet of hex, like thick hairy cobwebs – it smothered everything it touched!

  ‘Oh, rune rot!’Arianwyn breathed. Her own spell orb extinguished in fear. How had the hex spread so far, and so fast? A shower of leaves drifted through the air, falling far too soon because of the hex that now riddled the trees.

  Arianwyn dashed towards Miss Delafield and Salle. Twin looks of relief passed across their grubby, scratched faces. Miss Delafield took a deep breath and leant on Salle.

  ‘Are you OK, Salle?’ Arianwyn asked quickly, glancing at her friend, who was muddy and covered in scratches but didn’t seem to be in any more trouble than that.

  Salle nodded. ‘I’m fine but Miss Delafield’s leg is broken,’ she said quickly. ‘We need to get her back to town.’

  ‘Oh, Arianwyn, dear,’ Miss Delafield said. ‘Thank heavens you’re here. I’m afraid I’ve bitten off more than I can chew! The creature . . . it’s a night ghast!’

  ‘A what?’Arianwyn asked and looked through the trees, but all she saw were dark moving shapes, like shadows. She had never heard of such a creature.

  ‘A night ghast. It’s a very ancient dark spirit, dear. They haven’t been seen for hundreds of years,’ Miss Delafield said, her teeth gritted in pain. ‘They’re vicious, though, and rather tougher to get rid of than I imagined. Nothing seems to be working, dear.’

  ‘Where’s Gimma and Mayor Belcher?’ Arianwyn asked, panic crashing against her like a wave.

  Salle nodded to a large rock just to her left and a little further back. She rolled her eyes.

  Arianwyn could just see Gimma and the mayor huddled together, crouching behind the rock. They were both covered in bits of tree and mud and looked beyond terrified. Arianwyn dashed to them as Miss Delafield sent another volley of spell orbs into the distant trees.

  ‘Mayor Belcher, are you all right?’

  The mayor looked up. His regal purple sash was rumpled and torn and twisted around his neck. His golden medal was nowhere to be seen.

  He was out of breath, his face purple. ‘You have to get us back to town, Miss Gribble,’ he pleaded. ‘I don’t think Miss Delafiel
d knew what she was doing when she brought us out here, it’s really not safe!’

  Arianwyn looked at Gimma. ‘We need you to help keep this night ghast thing at bay, so we can get back to town.’

  Gimma said nothing and avoided Arianwyn’s gaze.

  ‘It seems my niece’s abilities are . . . very much affected by the dark magic and the hex, Miss Gribble. She’s struggling with her spells at the moment.’ Even the mayor didn’t sound convinced.

  Gimma’s eyes flicked to Arianwyn, and then away again.

  Arianwyn sighed and hurried back to Salle and Miss Delafield.

  ‘We really need to get out of here,’ she said, looking back over at Gimma and the mayor. ‘The hex is affecting Gimma!’

  ‘Oh that’s nonsense,Wyn, and you know it!’ Salle said suddenly.

  ‘All right, Salle, dear!’ Miss Delafield said, patting her hand and looking carefully at Arianwyn as she lobbed another spell orb. It arced high, its bright yellow trail lighting up the trees briefly before it disappeared in among the branches and trunks. ‘I think we all know it’s not the hex that is Miss Alverston’s problem, don’t we,Arianwyn?’

  Arianwyn glanced from Salle to Miss Delafield and then across to Gimma. Salle had apparently told Miss Delafield everything.

  ‘She’d have worked it out sooner or later,’ Salle said, lifting her chin and glaring at Arianwyn.

  ‘Now then, girls, let’s not fall out at this precise moment in time!’

  From within the thicket came a rasping, clicking, insect sound.

  ‘Cuk cuk cuk!’

  Arianwyn looked at Miss Delafield and Salle.

  ‘It’s coming again!’ Salle said, pointing deeper into the woods.

  ‘Well, let’s get out of here, then. Grandmother’s put a protection spell up around the East Gate. If we get back there perhaps we can hold it off until help arrives.’

  ‘A very brave plan!’ Miss Delafield said, but something in her eyes made Arianwyn feel suddenly much more afraid than she had before.

  ‘Gimma, Mayor Belcher, get ready to run!’Arianwyn called back to the rock.

  Then she nodded at Miss Delafield and they sent a massive volley of spell orbs flying into the trees. The clicking sound retreated and then stopped briefly.

  ‘RUN!’ Arianwyn shouted.

  Salle and Arianwyn helped get Miss Delafield to her feet. She cried out in pain as they pulled her along, her broken leg limp and useless, dragging behind.

  Gimma and the mayor were already running ahead. They didn’t glance back to check if Arianwyn and the others were following.

  They shuffled clear of the trees, emerging at last into the meadow. The sky was dark, steely grey clouds filling the sky, a few light spots of rain falling against Arianwyn’s face. The honey-coloured stone walls of Lull looked a million miles away. Arianwyn could see crowds of people watching and waiting behind the gates. A soft rose-coloured light surrounded them; Grandmother’s spell was still in place.

  Arianwyn and Salle pulled Miss Delafield along but had only gone a few metres when the ‘cuk cuk cuk’ sound filled Arianwyn’s ears again. She glanced over her shoulder just as the creature finally emerged from the trees and she saw the night ghast for the first time.

  The twisted shape looked like a stunted tree, blackened, menacing and moving slowly towards them. It twisted its long branch-like tentacles, swinging them wide. It was a vortex, a black whirlwind. ‘Cuk cuk cuk’ came the sound again, dry and echoing through the trees.

  As it drew closer, Arianwyn could make out its smooth featureless face – featureless but for the angry jagged shape that was its mouth. Its tentacle arms snapped and writhed around it. It felt for the patches of hex, its limbs snaking across the ground, feeling and searching this way and that. Arianwyn was sure it was drawing power from the dark magic.

  ‘Arrrgh!’ Miss Delafield cried out in pain and frustration. She turned with Salle’s help and, with another scream of fury, she fired another round of spell orbs. But this time she was aiming for the trees and the ground beneath the creature.

  It seemed as though a small portion of the wood exploded. Trees were torn from their roots, the earth opened up and massive trees came toppling down on to the night ghast.

  Chapter 39

  DON’T DO IT

  rianwyn and Salle held tight to Miss Delafield as she hobbled across the meadow. The supervisor was pale and her eyes fluttered with exhaustion.

  The thunderous cracking and creaking noise of trees toppling seemed to engulf them.

  Just ahead, Mayor Belcher was hunched in the grass, his face purple. He panted and clung tight to Gimma’s arm.

  ‘Did . . . you . . . stop it?’ he wheezed, looking back at the wood.

  ‘Unlikely!’ Miss Delafield said grimly. ‘I think it would be a good idea to put up some spell barriers now. To keep it back for as long as possible.’

  Arianwyn nodded and started to create a barrier spell that would form close to the pile of charred trees. It wouldn’t hold the night ghast for long but it should slow its progress.

  ‘Why isn’t anyone coming to help?’ Gimma moaned, looking back at Lull.

  ‘Madam Stronelli has sealed the East Gate with a spell,’ Miss Delafield said, ‘to keep everyone safe.’

  ‘Colin was going to call the C. W. A. for help,’ Arianwyn offered, as the first barrier formed.

  ‘Good.’ Miss Delafield nodded. ‘They’ll coordinate help from other local witches.’ But something in her voice told Arianwyn that this would still not be enough.

  They all looked back at the night ghast.

  ‘But we’re not going to be able to stop it, are we Miss Delafield?’ Salle’s voice was grave but clear.

  Miss Delafield shook her head.

  An idea was forming in Arianwyn’s mind. She slipped her trembling hand into her pocket and her fingers brushed the page that held the unknown glyph. Perhaps Miss Delafield could control it. Perhaps she was a skilful enough witch to wield its dark magic?

  Arianwyn’s fingers tightened now around the page. She lifted it from her pocket and offered it to Miss Delafield.

  ‘I think we should try this—’

  ‘No!’ Miss Delafield cut her off, her voice full of anger and fear. She turned away and busied herself with another barrier spell. Her shoulders tensed as she drew more glyphs into the air in front of her. ‘I thought we’d got rid of that!’

  The air was suddenly filled with a loud cracking noise. Like thunder but much louder, as though the earth itself was being ripped apart.

  Arianwyn turned just as the tumble of trees were thrown high into the air in an explosion of earth, tree and rock. The night ghast crawled slowly from the blackened, charred mess.

  ‘Cuk cuk cuk!’

  It surged forwards but came to a halt at the first barrier spell. Magic flared and sparks illuminated the meadow as the night ghast threw itself against the barrier, its tentacles flailing against the spell again and again.

  ‘It’s not going to hold for long,’Arianwyn shouted back to Miss Delafield. She could already see fractures forming. The thought that had been blooming in her mind was now fully formed and demanded her attention.

  The unknown glyph.

  It was the only way.

  ‘I’m going to summon the glyph!’ Arianwyn called, ‘It’s the only chance we have.’

  ‘No! Completely out of the question,’ Miss Delafield shouted back. ‘Don’t even think about it, dear! I can’t ask you to risk yourself like that.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ Mayor Belcher called. He was less wheezy but still rather purple.

  ‘Miss Gribble wishes to use an unknown spell to stop the night ghast,’ Miss Delafield explained loudly. ‘One I have forbidden her from using! It’s not safe!’

  ‘Heavens, let her do it, Jucasta!’ Mayor Belcher’s voice rose in pitch and volume. ‘She might be the only one who can save us all. Gimma’s clearly no use!’

  Arianwyn glanced over her shoulder at the mayor. Gimma
, who had been at his side, took several deliberate steps away. She looked hurt, as though the mayor had given her a good slap.

  The mayor, noticing his error, reached out quickly, ‘Oh, Gimma, precious. I am sorry—’

  She wasn’t listening; she batted his hand away. ‘Well, I’ll show you!’ she said, her voice flat and quiet, but everyone heard her. She undid the ridiculous little bag that she always carried, and from it she pulled a small slip of paper. It was crossed with a line of tape. As she unfolded it a sickening knot of dread tightened around Arianwyn’s heart.

  It was the piece of paper Arianwyn had drawn the unknown glyph on to for Miss Delafield. Gimma had never thrown it into the stove. She had kept it all this time.

  ‘You can’t use that glyph, Gimma!’ Arianwyn shouted, fear shaking her voice. ‘Its power is as dark as the night ghast, darker perhaps. It’s too dangerous for you!’

  ‘Too dangerous for me, is it?’ Gimma asked. ‘But not too dangerous for you, I suppose.’ Gimma spat the words. ‘You always thought you were better than me, didn’t you,Arianwyn Dribble?’

  ‘NO!’ Arianwyn said, her voice shaking but loud, ‘It’s the truth, Gimma. Please!’

  There was a rush of air and a flash of blinding blue light.

  ‘Miss Gribble is correct. It is an incredibly dangerous glyph.’ A small voice filled the moment. ‘It’s proper name is Skygɛ, the shadow glyph. One of the ancient quiet glyphs.’

  Everyone turned to see Estar. He stood only metres away, surrounded by a halo of fading blue light. He smiled at Arianwyn and then bowed to the others.

  ‘You!’ shrieked the mayor. He surged towards Estar, jabbing a finger and roaring, ‘You’re making all of this up. This is the creature Miss Gribble has been in league with all this time!’ He shook, and little specks of spittle flew from his mouth. ‘We will not listen to any more lies! You’ll be banished along with the night ghast, back to the void with the lot of you!’

  Estar blinked calmly and stared up at the mayor.

  Arianwyn froze for a moment, aware everyone was looking at her.

  ‘That’s enough!’ Miss Delafield shouted. ‘Arianwyn and this . . . creature, are telling the truth. That glyph is far too dangerous for Gimma to use.’