Witched!

by Rebecca McRitchie

  Archibald kicked over a pile of books in his path. The books flew towards the golem, who swiftly moved out of the way.

  The warlock stumbled from the effort. ‘He . . . promised me his power, his ability,’ he said, clenching his fists. ‘Lies!’ He kicked another pile of books, and they flew straight at the bookcase with a crack.

  Cora turned and looked at the fairies. Had she heard that correctly?

  The fairies stared back at her, their eyes wide. Archibald is trying to become . . . a syphon? Her mind filled with thoughts about what would happen if the warlock was able to syphon magic from others. He and Kaede would be . . . unstoppable.

  ‘A blood oath was made, and THIS is what I get in return,’ the warlock growled. ‘Weakness!’ Archibald’s growl turned into a collection of coughs. Then he reached down and grabbed the books that sat near him and threw them furiously into the flames of the fire. The fire roared to life and embers spat out at them.

  Barty quickly dashed over to the burning cinders and stamped them out before they could catch the floor alight.

  Cora thought about what Archibald had said and a small flutter of fear entered her stomach. ‘Can he do that?’ she asked the fairies quietly. ‘Make someone a syphon?’

  The fairies shook their heads but lines of concern creased their faces. ‘Syphons are born. Not made,’ whispered Tick.

  ‘I think Kaede promised the impossible,’ said Tock.

  Cora hoped the fairies were right. She pictured Kaede with an army of silver-haired syphons at his command. An army of silver-haired syphons who were all as powerful and as evil as him.

  It was obvious now why Archibald was working with Kaede. Why he had chased her around the magical world. Why he had destroyed her ice-stone bracelet. He wanted to be . . . like her.

  Panting, Archibald ran a hand through his greying hair and Cora watched as he pulled a clump of hair from his head. The warlock looked down at the hair with distaste.

  ‘Sir, you must rest,’ Barty said.

  The warlock hobbled across the hearth and back over to the lounge where he sat down awkwardly.

  ‘Come over here,’ Archibald beckoned.

  Cora’s heart quickened. Who was the warlock talking to? Then Cora watched as the golem reluctantly jumped up onto the lounge and sat next to the warlock. Archibald then placed a hand on the golem’s head and closed his eyes. The warlock muttered a few words and then Cora saw the warlock’s greying locks slowly turn back to black again.

  ‘He is taking the strength from the golem,’ whispered Tick.

  The creature squirmed beneath the warlock’s hand.

  ‘Appalling,’ Tock said with a scowl.

  Cora wanted to look away. Is this what it was like when she syphoned magic? It took everything in her not to burst from the bookcase and stop Archibald. Then the warlock lifted his hand, and the golem hastily jumped off the couch and waddled away.

  That’s when Cora spotted it. The black stone ring glinted in the firelight on Archibald’s slender finger. It was right there. The reason they had entered Drake Manor. The last thing they needed to help Dot. But how would she get it?

  ‘Get me my cloak,’ said Archibald to the butler. ‘I have to warn them.’

  ‘But, sir,’ Barty stammered. ‘The golem’s energy won’t last—’

  ‘Get me my cloak!’ Archibald repeated angrily.

  Cora could see that the warlock’s chest still heaved up and down with exhaustion. Archibald stood up from the lounge. Cora noticed that he was less shaky on his legs than he was before. Then she realised that now was her chance to grab the ring. Before Archibald left the manor. She searched inside herself for the warlock magic and found it instantly. Black sparks crackled lightly at her fingertips.

  ‘Cora,’ Tock whispered warningly.

  Ignoring the fairy, she focused on what she wanted. The small ring attached to the warlock’s finger. She paused. What if Archibald felt her remove it? Or worse, what if she couldn’t successfully take it with her magic, and he left for good?

  When Barty returned with the warlock’s cloak, Archibald snatched it from him. He threw the cloak over his shoulders and that’s when Cora grasped a hold of the ring with her magic. Swiftly, she tugged it downwards, off the man’s bony finger. The obsidian-stone ring dropped to the floor and rolled along it, coming to a stop underneath the lounge in the middle of the room.

  Cora and the fairies held their breath, hoping that the clink of metal on the floor had gone unheard. They watched as Archibald walked to the study doors and then stopped.

  Oh no.

  The warlock gathered himself before pulling the double doors open. He limped out of the study with Barty following closely behind him.

  Tick and Tock patted Cora on the back as she let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding in.

  The three of them stayed in the hidden room until they could no longer hear the clinking of footsteps on the emerald-tiled hallway. When it was quiet, Cora opened the bookcase door and tiptoed out into the study. She bent down on her knees and peered beneath the lounge.

  But there was no sign of the obsidian-stone ring.

  ‘What?’ she gasped.

  Cora ran a hand under the lounge, and when she didn’t feel anything, she ran her whole arm underneath it. There was nothing there but dust and parchment paper.

  The ring was gone.

  Tick and Tock flew down next to her.

  ‘It was right here,’ Cora said unbelieving. ‘I saw it roll under the lounge.’

  The fairies ducked and looked under the lounge too. Then they hovered close to the floor, checking the path that Archibald had taken to the study door.

  Cora felt panic creep under her skin. How could the ring have disappeared? And so quickly? She had just seen it roll under the lounge! Had Archibald felt her after all?

  Cora searched the floor around her. ‘It has to be here somewhere,’ she said. She stayed on her hands and knees and scanned the floor, pushing aside the books and papers in her path.

  ‘Be careful when touching it,’ said Tick by the study doors.

  ‘Powerful stones can be imbued with powerful spells,’ said Tock, lifting up a book from the floor and shaking it.

  The floorboards beneath her hands felt warm to touch. In fact, Cora noticed that the whole study felt warm. And, now that she thought about it, there was a new, strange scent in the room. Where was it coming from?

  ‘Do you smell something?’ Cora asked, pausing her search for the ring.

  Tock sniffed the air and looked at his brother.

  ‘It wasn’t me,’ said Tick holding his hands up innocently. ‘Honest!’

  Tock sniffed the air again. ‘It smells like something is . . . cooking.’

  Then Cora saw tendrils of dark-grey smoke snaking up from the other side of the lounge. Standing up and walking over, Cora saw that the pages and books that lined the floor by the fireplace had caught alight and were burning furiously, so much so that the fiery books had begun to burn through the floorboards.

  It wasn’t food that was cooking. It was the room.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ said Tock flying over to Cora’s side.

  ‘Barty must have missed some embers when Archibald threw the books into the fire,’ said Tick, joining them.

  The fairy was right. In seconds, the flames from the books and papers on the floor had jumped to the rows and rows of books that were sitting on the bookcase above them.

  Cora coughed as she breathed in the grey smoke.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Tick.

  But Cora couldn’t give up. Not yet. She returned to her hands and knees and continued to search the floor for Archibald’s obsidian-stone ring. But it didn’t take long for the thick grey smoke to blanket the study.

  ‘Cora, we have to leave,’ said Tock, lifting up the cushions on the lounge in search of the ring.

  ‘Before someone sees the smoke and realises there is a fire,’ said Tick.

  The smoky haze stu
ng her eye. Turning around, Cora saw something poking out from the side of the lounge. It was the golem, watching them.

  Crud!

  She had completely forgotten that the creature was still in the room. It had seen and heard them this entire time.

  Cora noticed that the golem’s eyes moved worriedly from her to the flames.

  Cora shuffled over to the creature, but the golem stepped back from her, uncertain.

  ‘Cora,’ said Tick warningly.

  Cora ignored the fairy.

  ‘He is the warlock’s golem,’ said Tock.

  ‘We can’t just leave it here,’ Cora replied.

  Tock had said the golem was a child. It had been separated from its family just like she had been. She couldn’t leave it in a room that was on fire.

  Slowly, Cora reached out a hand to the golem. The creature stared at her palm nervously.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said.

  There was a loud crack behind her from the burning bookcase. It was followed by a bang and a snap of breaking wood.

  Frightened, the golem quickly took Cora’s hand and jumped into her arms. Its fists clenched tightly, and the rocky golem then rolled into a ball in her arms.

  Cora held onto it. Its tiny body was cold and bumpy.

  Swivelling around, Cora saw that the fire had now engulfed more than half of the bookcase.

  Tick and Tock coughed. The smoke had become so thick it was unbearable. The fairies stared back at her, pinching their noses closed with their fingers.

  Cora stopped. They were right. What was she doing? The thought of returning to Dot without the stone made Cora feel sick in the stomach. They had come so close but they had to leave. It wasn’t safe. And it was no use. The obsidian-stone ring was gone. Or was going to be very soon.

  The fairies flew over to her. They put their hands on her shoulders, and Cora let them. Resigned, she looked up at the fire that had reached the top of the bookcase and watched as it spread to the roof of the study. Amongst falling embers and the sound of breaking wood beams, the three friends plus a golem disappeared from Drake Manor. Cora’s heart ached heavily with the guilt that only comes with disappointing a loved one.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A POP! of magic echoed in The Oak Wood, and Tick, Tock and Cora landed safely beside the flowing stream that wove through The Oak Wood.

  No longer in the burning study of Drake Manor, the three of them took a moment to breathe the cool, clean air into their lungs.

  Tock brushed the soot from his clothes.

  ‘I wonder how mad Archibald will be when he gets home,’ said Tick with a smirk.

  Cora was more interested in where the warlock had gone to. Was he with Kaede? The council? What were they planning? The spells and drawings they had found in the warlock’s study revealed that Archibald wanted to become a syphon. But Kaede wanted them all destroyed. And one piece of paper stuck out in her mind. The one with the drawing. The one that mentioned that syphons could give their syphoned magic back.

  The three friends made their way towards where Belle’s house sat at the end of the stream.

  Cora held the golem in her arms as she walked, her mind shifting on to what lay ahead of them. She felt like she had failed. And not only that, but she had also failed Dot. They had retrieved only two of the three items that Belle needed to help her. Without Archibald’s ring, they would have to go to Troll Town to find obsidian stone, which was far away in the northern towns. Cora hoped that Dot could hold on long enough for them to make the journey there and back again. Her stomach sloshed with a mixture of worry, guilt and dismay with each step she took closer to Belle’s house.

  She glanced down at the creature in her arms. It was still curled up in a ball. What were they going to do with a golem? Tock had said that they kept watch. Maybe the creature could watch over Dot while they journeyed to Troll Town?

  Tugging at Cora was also the need to continue the search for her parents, and, if Kaede was telling the truth, her brother. She wondered if he looked like her. Did he have the same hair? Was he older? Or younger? Did he like the same things that she did? What would he think of Scratch? Then Kaede’s smirking face lingered in her mind like a cloying shadow, darkening her thoughts. Whatever happened, she needed to be prepared for him.

  When Cora reached the orange door of Belle’s house, the weight on her shoulders suddenly felt heavier, and she stopped.

  Following closely behind, Tick and Tock flew into the back of her.

  ‘Ouch,’ the fairies said, rubbing their noses.

  Cora pointed ahead. She had stopped because the front door to Belle’s house was wide open. And the thoughts of Kaede swirled in her mind. Had he found them again?

  ‘Maybe Belle forgot to close it?’ Tock suggested.

  ‘Or a breeze blew it open?’ Tick offered.

  But worry bubbled inside of Cora like boiling water. ‘Or an evil syphon has come back to finish what he started,’ she said. Cora took a hold of the warlock magic, black sparks at her fingertips.

  Holding the golem with one hand, Cora led the way, pushing the orange door all the way open, and peeking inside. Belle’s home looked the same as when they had left it.

  Stepping inside, Cora quietly made her way into the living room and kitchen. The fairies followed.

  Tick’s stomach grumbled loudly with hunger.

  Cora and Tock stared at him.

  ‘What?’ he whispered. ‘It’s almost lunchtime.’

  At the back of the house, Cora heard murmurs. She could make out two voices, but not who they belonged to. They crept through the hobgoblin’s home and into the dark garden room with glowing plants. The voices became louder the closer they moved towards the door at the end. Dot’s room.

  When they reached it, Cora paused and listened, an ear to the door. She looked back at the fairies. They nodded, their hands at the ready.

  Swiftly, Cora threw open the door, all three of them bursting into the room . . . only to find Belle, sitting on a chair in front of them.

  The hobgoblin turned and stared at Cora and the fairies, a bemused expression colouring her features. And next to her, sitting up in bed with a small smile on her face . . . was Dot.

  Cora almost dropped the golem in disbelief. Dot was awake. Her heart leapt at the sight of the old woman smiling back at her. In three strides, Cora was by her bedside. She wanted to give Dot a great big hug, but as she stared at Dot, she stopped herself. She could see that the old woman was exhausted. Her face was thinner, her skin paler and her eyes duller. Cora could see that it took a lot of effort for Dot to stay sitting up.

  So, gently, Cora settled for sitting on the bed next to her and holding Dot’s hand in hers.

  The old woman held Cora’s hand in both of her hands, giving Cora’s a soft squeeze.

  ‘How?’ Cora asked. ‘I thought . . .’

  Belle smiled at her from her seat. ‘She is strong . . . for an old human.’

  Dot smiled at the hobgoblin.

  ‘We found the items you needed,’ said Cora. Pulling her hand from Dot’s, she rifled through her pockets and pack for the werewolf hair. Tick and Tock pulled out the metal box with the beetle worms inside.

  ‘Well, almost all of them,’ Cora added.

  ‘Oh,’ said Belle. ‘I only wanted you three to leave so that we could give her some space while she healed.’

  Cora and the fairies stared at the hobgoblin. They had faced werewolves, beetle worms, and Archibald . . . for nothing?

  ‘Only kidding,’ Belle said with a laugh and a snort.

  Dot let out a soft laugh too.

  ‘Hand them over,’ the hobgoblin said.

  Tock placed the metal box in the hobgoblin’s outstretched hand.

  ‘How many?’ she asked.

  ‘Three,’ Tick said, puffing his chest out proudly.

  Belle nodded. ‘Impressive.’

  Cora gave the clump of werewolf hair to Belle.

  ‘And the stone?’ the hobgoblin asked.


  ‘I’m sorry,’ Cora said, the sharp pang of guilt creeping back in. ‘We almost had the obsidian stone, but then . . .’ Cora trailed off, unsure of how to explain exactly what had happened in Archibald’s study.

  Belle frowned. She stood up and walked to the other side of the room, placing the werewolf hair into a wooden bowl.

  ‘Hello Dot,’ said Tock, approaching the bed.

  ‘Do you remember us?’ asked Tick shyly.

  ‘Of course I do,’ Dot said. ‘My two favourite fairies.’

  As Tick and Tock spoke to Dot, Cora moved from the bed and over to Belle. The hobgoblin was trying to pry open the metal box with the beetle worms inside.

  ‘Is it okay that we didn’t get the stone?’ Cora asked. ‘Dot’s awake. She doesn’t seem to need it anymore?’

  Belle turned to Cora, her face solemn. ‘I’m afraid she does, Cora. The healing magic I have used isn’t strong enough without the stone.’

  The guilt Cora felt doubled in her stomach. ‘We can still get it,’ she said. ‘We can go to Troll Town and leave right now.’

  ‘The northern towns are far from here,’ Belle said, shaking her head.

  Cora knew that but she couldn’t think of any other option. She looked over at Dot, her mind wondering how far she could travel using her syphoned witch’s magic.

  The hobgoblin’s short fingers finally opened the metal box and the room suddenly filled with a cacophony of the loud screeching of beetle worms. The fairies held their hands to their ears and Dot shut her eyes against the noise. Quickly, Belle closed the lid.

  Cora looked down at the golem in her arms. It remained in its ball, unperturbed by the sound. Then something moved by Cora’s boots. Looking down she saw her cat, Scratch. Cora bent down and rubbed his chin. He purred at her happily before jumping onto Dot’s bed and nestling himself next to her.

  Cora realised that if she was going to the northern towns, she was going to have to say goodbye again. She walked over to the bed and tried to think of the words to say.