by Pat Judd
“Magic up some dinner,” Toby said looking very confused. “It’s not very hard.”
“Not very hard?” Cassie decided it was time to tell someone that she couldn’t do magic and Toby seemed nice. At least he wouldn’t turn her into something disgusting. “It is if you can’t do magic.”
“But you’re an Apprentice Magician. Of course you can do it. It’s one of the easiest things to do,” Toby insisted.
“Okay if it’s so easy then why don’t you do it for me. She wants chicken soup and roast duck.” Cassie was getting a little cross now. Why wouldn’t he just believe that she wasn’t really a magician?
“Chicken soup in a bowl,
Roast Duck on a plate,
Quick as a wink,
Dinner mustn’t be late.”
Cassie just stared as Toby recited the words and she almost fell over when a tray of food appeared on the floor in front of him. Toby was looking very pleased with himself and he dipped a spoon into the soup to taste it.
“But how did you...?” Cassie frowned and sank down onto the floor next to the tray.
“You don’t spend your whole life spying on a magician without picking something up,” Toby explained still looking pleased. “But there’s only enough here for one so you’d better do another lot.”
Cassie just stared at Toby. There was only one way to prove to him that she couldn’t do it so she repeated the verse that he had said.
“There I told you I couldn’t do it,” Cassie said and then her mouth fell open when Toby pointed to tray that now held two servings of food.
“You’d best take it out while it’s still hot,” Toby suggested. “She does tend to get a bit grumpy when she’s hungry.”
Cassie was still feeling shocked as she picked up the tray and carried it out of the storeroom. She stopped at the door and turned back to Toby. “But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. I never go hungry.” Toby grinned at her and she shut the door.
Moira seemed to calm down a lot after eating dinner and only commented once about the forgotten bread and butter pudding. Cassie went back to talk to Toby but he had gone. With Moira flicking through her books again Cassie excused herself and went to bed. She had no idea where the basket was but she was far too tired to look any more. First thing tomorrow she would find it and go home. This was definitely the weirdest day of her life.
Moira’s bedroom was just like the main living area. Littered with open books and quite messy. Cassie cleared off a space on the bed and much to her surprise she went straight to sleep. Just before she fell asleep she wondered if her mother and father were missing her yet. Bobby wouldn’t be, that was for sure, and she certainly didn’t miss him.
Cassie woke wondering what time it was and she assumed it must be the next morning. It was weird having no windows to look out of. It might be the middle of the night and she wouldn’t even know. She sneezed and rubbed her eyes then saw that Snow had been curled up next to her as she slept. She hoped that Moira hadn’t seen as it seemed to upset her that the cat liked her.
She got up and tried to straighten her wrinkled t-shirt before going out into the living area. Moira had her back to her and she was still flicking furiously through books. Cassie briefly wondered what could she be looking for and then decided that she probably didn’t want to know after all.
“Good morning,” Cassie said quietly not too sure if she should interrupt.
“Is it?” Moira looked up in surprise as she slammed shut the big black book she held and dropped it onto the floor. Snow had followed Cassie out and was rubbing around her legs and meowing loudly. Moira’s eyes narrowed and Cassie tried to push the cat away. “There’s no time to be playing with Snow. You obviously haven’t got enough to do. Look at this place it’s a mess so clean it up.”
Cassie sighed and started picking up the scattered books.
“What are you doing?” Moira looked shocked. Cassie stopped quite still and stared at her. What had she done wrong? “Magician’s don’t pick things up with their hands.”
Cassie put the books back down onto the sofa. What was she going to do now? Sure she had made a dinner last night but Toby had told her how. Toby, that was the answer, maybe he was in the storeroom. She dared a quick glance at Moira and saw she was once more deep in her books. Quietly she edged over to the store room door and slipped inside. With a sigh of relief she saw a flickering candle at the back of the room and Toby sitting against the wall.
“Toby.” Her voice sounded more desperate than she had intended and he looked up at her with one eyebrow raised.
“Having trouble?” He asked with a cheeky grin on his face. “You might have a piece of paper that says you’re a magician but you don’t know much magic do you?”
“I don’t know any.” Cassie stated shortly wishing again that she was at home.
“Then I can teach you.” Toby said and Cassie nodded. What choice did she have?
“So anyone can do magic?” Cassie was a bit disappointed that all it took was the right words to say.
“Of course not, it’s not that simple. Nobody else in this town or even half way across the country can make it work except Moira and myself. And now you,” he added. “Your parents must be magicians too. That’s the way it works.”
“So your parents were magicians?” Cassie was feeling a little more special now.
“I guess so. I never knew them. I was found in the forest when I was just a baby.” Toby didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he didn’t have any parents and Cassie felt sad for him. “They will come and get me one day.”
Cassie didn’t know what to say and they sat there in silence for a few seconds and then Toby grinned at her again.
“So what did you want me to teach you?”
“Moira wants me to clean up but I can’t use my hands,” Cassie said thinking that she probably would have finished by now if she had been allowed to pick them up.
“Broom.” Toby didn’t even get up and suddenly a broom appeared in his hand. He pushed it upright with one finger and then said. “Broom, sweep the floor and do it now.”
Cassie couldn’t help feeling that he was showing off just a bit but since he was willing to help her she didn’t say anything. The broom jumped up and quickly swept the floor and then leaned itself against the wall and stayed quite still.
“But that didn’t rhyme,” Cassie objected. “All spells rhyme, don’t they?”
“No. You only rhyme if you want to impress someone. Most of the time just a single word or two does the trick.” Toby pointed his finger at the broom and then made a flicking motion. “Gone.”
Cassie was definitely impressed to see the broom disappear and she was about to say so when Moira’s voice interrupted her.
“Girl, where are you?”
“I’d better go. So how do I put all the books away?” Cassie asked hurriedly backing towards the door.
“Just tell them to go back where they belong,” Toby replied, then picked up his candle and disappeared into the crack at the back of the room. “I’ll be back later.”
Cassie went back into the living area wishing that she had had time to practice. Moira looked up from her book and then glanced around the room.
“It’s a bit messy. Tidy it up will you?” She had obviously forgotten that she had already asked her to do it and Cassie took a deep breath before saying quietly.
“Books away.”
Cassie gasped and Moira shrieked in horror as every single book in the room disappeared. Moira turned to Cassie with a shocked look on her face and Cassie began to back away.
“Get them back!”
Cassie tried to speak but only a croak came out. She swallowed heavily and then tried again.
“Books come back where you belong,” she said so quietly that she could hardly even hear herself. To her relief the room was suddenly full of books again. All in nice tidy rows on the shelves and not a single one out of place.
Moira grunted and pulled a book from it
s shelf and turned her back on Cassie. Cassie decided she would sweep up too and try to get back into the magician’s good books.
“Broom.” She said and she smiled as a broom immediately appeared in her hand. “Broom sweep.”
The broom didn’t obediently sweep the floor as it had done for Toby. Instead it went straight to the fireplace and up the chimney and great billows of black soot began to fill the room.
“Broom gone,” Cassie said hastily and without looking she knew that Moira was staring at her. Black dust was settling all over the room and Cassie wondered how she was going to get out of this one.
“Oh, Great Magician of the South. Please come at once. The Magician of the North needs your help.” A voice echoed in the empty shell of a house outside and someone was banging furiously on its door.
Chapter Five - Off to fight a Dragon
“I’ll deal with this later,” Moira said as she swept past Cassie and out into the dark shell of the outside house. Cassie wasn’t sure if she should follow but she was curious so she went too. She hung back from the door of the run down cottage and took a peek around to see who was out there. Moira was standing on the old wooden verandah looking down at a short bald man standing next to the biggest horse Cassie had ever seen. The horse was sweating as if it had just run for a long time.
“Galo is in great trouble. He needs your help. You must come now.” The little man sounded just as tired as the horse looked and he gasped deeply between sentences.
“Jorn, what’s wrong with Galo.”
Cassie was surprised by the sudden change in Moira’s voice. All the sharpness and bitterness seemed to have gone and she sounded like a worried old lady.
“He’s been carried off by a dragon. We tried to rescue him but the dragon drove us away. You’re the only hope he’s got now. You have to come,” Jorn replied.
“Of course we’ll come at once.” Moira muttered rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Cassie come here.”
Cassie came out the door and stood quietly just behind Moira. So Moira did know her name after all and what was this ‘we’ business. She had no intentions of going anywhere near a dragon.
“I need to pack a few things and then we are going north to sort out a dragon. Get Jorn’s horse some water and we’ll need another two horses.” Moira was already heading back through the empty house and her voice echoed strangely.
Cassie stood staring at Jorn and his horse. The water she could probably manage but where was she going to get two more horses? Even if she got them there was no way she was going to ride a horse anywhere. She saw the bushes move behind Jorn and spotted Toby waving at her.
“Water in a bucket for the horse to drink.” Cassie muttered almost automatically and flicked her hand in the horses direction as she came down the steps. A metal bucket appeared in front of the horse and Cassie was surprised how quickly she was getting used to doing magic.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said to Jorn and headed for the bushes where she had seen Toby. “Toby. Did you hear all that?”
Toby popped up out of the bushes and nodded. “Make that three horses because I’m coming too. I’ve never seen a dragon.”
Cassie was disgusted at how thrilled he looked at the prospect of seeing a dragon and she screwed her face up.
“Well you can go instead of me then,” she stated and Toby pointed through the trees to where the front of the old house could just be seen. Moira had come back out and she was carrying Cassie’s basket.
“Cassie come on. We don’t have time to waste.” Moira called but she sounded more worried than cross.
“Well I guess I have to go if my basket is going.” Cassie muttered to herself. She wasn’t going to let that basket out of her sight again. “But I am not riding a horse like that. It’s far too big.”
“It’s smaller than most of them around here.” Toby said looking confused. “Make a smaller one if you want to.”
Cassie frowned as she tried to figure out what words she could use.
“Four legs that run,
smaller than that horse.
Just right for me,
and comfy of course.”
Cassie grinned to herself. That wasn’t too hard and there was no way that could go wrong. She had been quite specific about what she wanted.
“Cassie. That’s not a horse.”
Cassie could hear the laughter in Toby’s voice and she shook her head in dismay when she saw a padded chair standing next to her.
“I guess I got it wrong again.” Cassie sighed sitting down on the chair and putting her arms on the armrests. She felt the chair wriggle underneath her and would have jumped off it if it hadn’t started running through the bushes. Cassie held on tight while the chair trotted around a few trees and then settled back next to Toby. Toby had tears running down his cheeks and he couldn’t stop laughing. Cassie got up and glared angrily at the chair.
“Gone!” she snapped and it disappeared at once.
“Cassie.” Moira’s voice was closer this time. “Have you got the horses yet?”
“Toby?” Cassie gave him a pleading look and Toby grinned.
“On one condition... I come too,” Toby said and without giving her time to answer he muttered several words and three huge horses appeared in the clearing in front of the house. Then he headed out into the clearing leaving Cassie to hurry to catch up.
“I said two,” Moira commented and then looked at Toby and then back at the horses.
“Toby wants to see the dragon,” Cassie said quietly looking up at the massive horses in dismay.
“Well since he provided us with such excellent horses I guess he can come. Perhaps he can teach you a few things on the way.”
It was said so that only Cassie and Toby could hear and Cassie blushed. Toby jumped quickly up into the saddle of one of the horses and so did Moira with the weightless basket strapped to her back. Cassie, determined not to be embarrassed any more times today swung herself up into the saddle and hung on tightly as they set off down the narrow track.
Moira set a demanding pace as they raced through the forest ducking under low branches and charging across shallow rivers. By the time Moira called a halt it was late afternoon and Cassie was so sore that she wasn’t sure if she could get off the horse.
Cassie forced herself to get down off the horse and sat down against a tree trunk while Toby led the horses off to drink at a nearby stream. Cassie wondered just how long it was going to take them to get to where they were going but she didn’t ask. Cassie watched Moira put her basket down next to a tree and then a very modern looking tent appeared next to it. It seemed totally out of place in this more primitive land but Cassie was too tired to question it.
Cassie intended to get up as soon as everyone was asleep and take her basket and go home. She had had enough of magic and horses to last her a long time and she certainly wasn’t in a hurry to see a dragon. But as soon as Cassie’s head touched the pillow she fell fast asleep and only woke when Toby shook her the next morning.
They rode hard again all day and Cassie was about to stop her horse and demand a rest when a small village came into sight. People came out of their cottages and Moira slowed the horses to a gentle pace.
“She came!” one woman said sounding surprised.
“I told you all those stories were just rubbish,” her neighbour said knowingly. “She wouldn’t have come if they were true.”
“What stories?” Cassie hadn’t realised that she had said it aloud until Jorn, who was riding next to her, replied.
“The stories were that she was a recluse that wouldn’t help anyone and that she turned little children into statues if they wandered too near her house.”
Cassie would have believed it the first day she had met Moira but now she could see that she was just a lonely old woman who was bitter about something. They rode on into the centre of the village and dismounted in front of an official looking man.
“Thank you for coming......”
&nb
sp; “When are you going to kill the dragon?” shouted a man from the crowd that had gathered around them.
“Dragons see best in the dark,” Moira stated calmly. “First light is the best time. I will go then.”
Everyone nodded and grunted in agreement and Cassie was relieved by Moira’s use of ‘I’ and not ‘We’. They were put up for the night in a small inn and despite the lumpy bed Cassie slept soundly once again.
At first light the next morning Cassie reluctantly woke from her deep sleep to Toby’s urgent shaking.
“Hurry or we’ll miss out seeing the dragon,” he said as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She wasn’t particularly bothered if she did miss it but Toby insisted. She went down to the village square where Moira was already on her horse waiting for them. She had Cassie’s basket strapped to her back again and that convinced Cassie that she had to go too.
“Jorn will take us to where the dragon was seen just after Galo disappeared,” Moira said and they set off at a brisk pace that surprisingly didn’t bother Cassie as much today.
It was only a short time before the forest gave way to bare lands that stretched for miles and half an hour later they reached the sea. The white sand, littered with shells, stretched for miles in both directions and there was a small island a short distance out to sea.
“Galo was last seen down by this beach and then a dragon was spotted going to that island.” Jorn pointed out to sea. “When we came down with boats to row out there the dragon came and burnt them to ashes. We only just got out alive. Galo has been good to us and we wanted to help him but we can’t do it without you.”
“What do we do now,” Toby asked looking excited and he jumped down from his horse.
“We don’t do anything. I will go over and sort out the dragon. It’s far too dangerous for a child,” Moira said as she got off her horse. She handed the reins to Jorn and put the basket down on the ground.
“I’m not a child. I’m almost twelve.” Toby’s voice squeaked a little as he objected loudly.
“Cassie, I don’t want you to get involved in this. You might get hurt,” Moira said ignoring Toby’s outburst and she went down to stand on the beach. Toby hurried to catch her up and Cassie had to admire his bravery. She decided that she would rather be sitting on a horse than going in search of a dragon.