The Catchers

by Stuart J. Kent

  “Quickly, young catchers, climb!” ordered Colin and the little group clambered up Spot’s neck horns and into the secret room.

  “Are you okay, Spot?” asked Jamie as he climbed over poor Spot’s large bruised head into the room. The slightly dazed red dragon gave a little groan and then shut its eyes for a moment enjoying the feeling as Jamie sympathetically rubbed his bruised bonce. The little heroic group now found themselves in a large ornate room that had pastel blue walls, gold floral moulded surroundings and a very nice polished light oak floor.

  “It looks like the old ambassador’s room, for when visiting dignities from other countries come to visit” said Colin, looking around the room. “Unbelievable! Our dark wizard couldn’t even be bothered to create a new room, he just stole one that wasn’t being used, I mean, how lazy and rude is that!” he said, despairing of this sneaky menace.

  “Yes, it was very wrong of him, but more importantly, he’s not here!” grumbled Trixie more annoyed by the lack of a bad guy to defeat.

  “Yes, I had noticed,” replied Colin with a sigh.

  “So where is he?” asked Jamie.

  “I’m not sure, perhaps we should spread out and look for clues,” replied Colin, moving into the room. They carefully began to search the room, and Trixie was the first to spot that, along one of the walls were sheets of paper listing all kinds of magical creatures, and where they were being sent through the barrier.

  “You were right, Uncle, he has been trying to break the magical barrier,” she said, glancing at each page.

  “I knew it, the evil fiend,” replied Colin gruffly.

  “Is that the missing pile of reports?” asked Jamie as he stepped towards a huge pile of papers sitting in the middle of the room.

  “I believe so,” said Marty, leaning out of Colin’s pocket.

  “Oh, he is really making my blood boil, he is so naughty, look, they’re not even filed properly, they’ve just been dumped,” muttered Colin, getting angrier by the second.

  Then Trixie spotted a large glass ball sat on a wooden table and, picking it up, she watched it replay grainy footage of them entering the library the night before.

  “Hey look, he’s got a surveillance crystal ball of last night, and he’s drawn a pair of big ears and a giant Afro over your picture,” she said, holding it up.

  “Oh, that’s it, I don’t care if he is an evil dark wizard, he’s really annoyed me now, I’m going to knock his block off!” growled Colin suddenly skipping round the room pretending to shadow box. “I’ll give him a left and a right and then the old hay maker,” he growled, raising a clenched fist into the air.

  Suddenly, a low deep groan came from behind the pile of papers, and Colin screamed in a high-pitched voice at the sudden noise.

  “I mean, who’s there? Show yourself and be ready for a blooming good walloping!” Colin growled, regaining his composure and speaking in a more manly voice. The groan came again from behind the papers and quickly, the little group all produced their wands, ready for action.

  “Go that way,” whispered Colin, pointing to Jamie and Trixie, and slowly they moved to the right and made their way around the large pile of papers, as Colin moved to the left. Creeping closer to the source of the noise they all stepped nervously, unsure of what they might find, until suddenly Colin let out a cry.

  “Henry!” he gasped, finding the poor old wizard lying on the floor, tied up and gagged with a purple handkerchief. Quickly, they went to his aid and unbound him and removed his gag, before helping him to his feet.

  “Oh, thank you! Thank you! You came for me, you saved me, oh thank you!” cried Henry, relieved he was amongst his friends again. “How long have I been missing? Days? Weeks? Months?” asked Henry, a little disorientated after his ordeal.

  “About two hours, give or take,” replied Colin.

  “Oh!” sighed Henry feeling a little bit foolish. “Well no matter, you saved me and that’s all that counts.”

  “Yes, about that, what happened old boy?” asked Colin, intrigued to hear Henry’s story.

  “Well, I’m really not sure,” replied Henry, rubbing his poor old head where a small lump now sat. “But after you left, I had an idea: if the dark wizard had managed to gain access to the original copy of the council’s laws, then to do so he would have had to ask for permission for authorisation by filing an access form.”

  “Of course!” Colin said, realising he had missed such an obvious clue.

  “So I thought I could make a discreet enquiry to an old colleague of mine in the permission forms department, as to who recently had asked for access to the secure room,” continued Henry.

  “Oh I see,” said Colin, realising what Henry was about to say.

  “And shortly afterwards, as I sat in my garden waiting for a reply…” continued Henry before pausing.

  “The lights went out, so to speak,” Colin said, finishing his sentence, now knowing what had happened to his old friend.

  “Yes, yes indeed,” sighed Henry a little embarrassed at how easily he had been caught off-guard.

  “So that’s why the dark wizard kidnapped you, our little diversion was actually just a fortunate stroke of luck for him, he really was after you,” said Colin, shaking his head, annoyed.

  “But it might be a stroke of luck for us as well. Look!” Trixie said, pointing excitedly to a large piece of paper fixed to the opposite wall. Everybody quickly gathered around the large sheet to see what Trixie had found. It was an exact drawing of the end of parade area right outside of the Ministry building, where everyone would gather for the closing ceremony. It showed in detail a huge stage where the large golden throne would sit for the Carnival king or queen to be crowned, the large standing area where thousands of wizards and witches would be watching from, and the seating area for the high council and their special guests just off to the side of the stage.

  “This is it!” exclaimed Colin excitedly. “He’s obviously going to complete his dastardly plan here.”

  “But how? And what could it be?” Trixie asked as Colin stood quietly for a moment, again scratching his beard as he pondered, deep in thought.

  “It’s got to be something powerful, possibly to control everyone,” Colin muttered aloud, still trying to work it out in his old head.

  “Which is why he is doing it during the parade, there are thousands of people out there who normally wouldn’t be,” said Jamie excitedly, as he understood what Colin was saying.

  “Yes,” replied Colin, still trying to think it out.

  “Mind control?” suggested Trixie.

  “No, too many people, it wouldn’t work on that size of crowd,” replied Colin dismissively.

  “Some sort of Magic power spell?” suggested Henry.

  “No, I don’t think so, the only known power spells need cauldrons, mixing ingredients and time, and none of those spells include destroying the barrier,” replied Colin again.

  “Cheesecake?” suggested Marty.

  Everybody just gave him a long, silent stare.

  “What? Maybe he’s just trying to bribe everybody with delicious bakery goods in an attempt to gain total obedience?” continued Marty.

  “With cheesecake?” asked Trixie sarcastically.

  “It would work on me,” replied Marty.

  “No, no, there’s something we’re missing, something we’ve overlooked,” Colin grumbled, annoyed he just couldn’t figure out the final plan. As Colin paced back and forth, deep in thought, and Trixie and Henry stood silently trying to work it out as well, Jamie stared at the parade map wondering if there was a clue on it they had missed.

  “So what does the king or queen of the carnival do exactly?” he asked, seeing a crudely drawn picture of the crown by the throne.

  “That’s not really important right now,” replied Trixi
e bluntly.

  “I know, I was just asking,” muttered Jamie.

  “Well, normally it’s for the person who is voted the spirit of the carnival, the one who really got involved in it and showed their true carnival spirit, but generally it goes to one of the organisers,” replied Trixie.

  “What do they get?” Jamie asked, curious.

  “Well, that crown you saw…” replied Trixie about to continue, but was then interrupted by Jamie, adding,

  “Oh yeah, the big silver one.”

  “What big silver one?” Trixie asked, looking confused.

  Colin then suddenly stopped pacing, turned to face Jamie and immediately interrupted their conversation.

  “What did you say?” he asked.

  “The big silver one, the crown, it was a big silver one,” repeated Jamie nervously, now very aware everyone was staring at him.

  “Jamie, the carnival crown is a golden crown with a few decorative coloured gems on it,” replied Trixie, at which point Colin began smiling again.

  “What crown did you see?” he then asked, stepping closer to the young boy, now very intrigued. “Describe it in detail.”

  “Well, it was a large silver crown…” repeated Jamie again.

  “With a big purple gem on the front of it?” Colin said, finishing Jamie’s sentence.

  “Yes,” replied Jamie, nodding, amazed that somehow Colin knew what he was going to say. “And there was a big silver sceptre next to it as well.”

  “Of course!” cried Colin in dismay as he grabbed his hat and pulled it hard down on his head.

  “I knew it! I knew it! Right in front of me this whole time, right in front of me was the answer to this whole frustrating problem!” he continued, stomping around the room in despair. “Oh, what a fool, what a silly old fool I am!”

  As Colin continued to stomp around, cursing his slowness, Jamie glanced nervously at Trixie.

  “Is he okay?” he asked quietly.

  “He gets like this sometimes,” replied Trixie casually. “It’s best just to let him work it out of his system.”

  “Do you remember the big hissy fit of March?” asked Marty, who was now sat on one of the pile of papers in the middle of the room. “When he got the name wrong in the Cluedo game we were playing.”

  “Oh, yes,” sighed Trixie, remembering that dreadful day. “Two long horrible hours of angry muttering and banging every moveable object he could find because he said evil white witch, when he meant the wicked green one, not his finest moment.”

  Finally, after several more curses and heavy stomps, Colin regained his composure and turned to face the others again. “So that’s his game!” he said calmly.

  “What is?” asked Jamie.

  “The crown and the sceptre is not for the carnival, Jamie, it has a darker, more dangerous purpose,” Colin replied in a serious, low, dramatic tone. “Back about a thousand years ago, there was chaos around this magical land, the Ministry and the council had lost control of the people and there was a civil war between the wizards and witches who wanted to live by the Ministry’s laws, and those who did not.”

  “Oh yes, I remember reading about it when I was younger,” added Trixie. “It was a terrible time, there was a lot of fighting and distrust, and everyone looked so miserable in the hieroglyphs that were pictured in the book.”

  “Yes, they were,” agreed Henry, “I remember my great, great grandfather talking about how horrible it was.”

  “Anyway, the council soon realised the fighting would go on forever if they did not do something about it,” continued Colin, getting back to the point. “So they did. You see, one of the main reasons the council lost control of the people in the first place was that they couldn’t make a decision, they debated everything over and over and got nowhere fast,” he said before pausing for a breath. “So finally one day they made a decision, unfortunately it was a bad decision, a very bad decision indeed,” continued Colin. “To overcome the problem of the indecisiveness of the council, and to bring about the end of the civil unrest, they created a new position in the council, the Magic Commissionaire!” he said, pausing again for dramatic effect, which he was really beginning to get the hang of. “This position would allow one of them to initially oversee the meetings and make the final decision on problems the council could not agree on, it seemed a great idea at the time and would finally make the council useful again.”

  “Well it was certainly worth a try,” agreed Henry.

  “So, after a long discussion, they finally chose Raymond Marrow Marian to become the first Commissionaire of Magictasium,” continued Colin.

  “Really, Raymond Marrow Marian?” asked Jamie, chuckling at such a silly name.

  “Oh yes, he’s infamous now but back in the day his name was from a very, respected noble family,” nodded Trixie.

  “Then, shortly after becoming the Magic Commissionaire,” Colin continued once again, “he began to realise, if he just skipped the council meetings altogether, he could make decisions quicker and get things done faster.”

  “Well, wasn’t that a good thing?” Jamie asked, not understanding what the problem was.

  “Yes and no,” replied Colin. “You see, once he, instead of the council, began making the decisions, he soon realised how much control he had, and when anyone questioned his decisions he would use his new elevated position to quash their objections.”

  “You mean…” Jamie then mimed a sort of dead person with his eyes closed and his tongue hanging out.

  “No, worse, he removed their tongues,” added Marty, chuckling evilly.

  “Stop that!” Trixie said sternly, immediately silencing Marty’s fun.

  “Yes, unfortunately for Magicdom, he began a campaign of terror against the very people he was supposed to be helping, then finally he felt so powerful that he decided the Magic Commissionaire was no longer a suitable title for himself, so he gave himself another title,” said Colin, pausing for more dramatic effect. “The Emperor Wizard!”

  “Really?” said Jamie in amazement.

  “Oh yes” sighed Colin sadly. “And so, on a very dark day in our history, Raymond Marrow Marian had himself crowned with that silver crown and sceptre and became the Emperor Wizard in front of a fearful nation and for many, many long years to follow there was great suffering across the land,” Colin sighed again.

  “Some say it was worse than the civil war,” added Trixie.

  “So what happened to him?” Jamie asked curiously.

  “Eventually, after many horrible years under his dictatorship, a band of brave wizards and witches broke into the castle he had built for himself and seized him,” Trixie replied.

  “Then what happened?” asked Jamie, keen to know more.

  “He was fired!” replied Henry.

  “Really? They just fired him?” Jamie asked, a little disappointed to hear that this bad wizard got let off so easily.

  “Oh yes, from a cannon!” Trixie replied with a naughty grin making Jamie laugh.

  “And if you want to learn more about our magical history, then feel free to visit your local library, where learning is fun!” replied Henry with a smile.

  “Okay,” Jamie said, a little confused as to why Henry would say such a strange thing.

  “Oh blast! That was my tour guide banter kicking in,” Henry groaned despairingly. “Right, enough history lessons for the day, now we know what he’s up to, we need to stop him!” said Colin affirmatively, getting back to the matter at hand.

  “Well, if he’s trying to get the council to crown him, he needs to get on the stage,” said Trixie, looking back at the map.

  They all gathered around the map again and stared at it, hoping for a clue.

  “Firstly, he would need to be close to the stage,” said Colin, gazing at the carnival plan.
“To keep an eye on the crown.”

  “Well, there really is only one spot to do that from, but that would mean that he would be sat with the council,” Trixie said looking very worried at her uncle.

  “Who on the council would want to become the Emperor Wizard?”

  “I think I know who it is,” Colin sighed heavily. “There’s only one person who has the power to hide all the evil things that he’s been up too, to create a hidden room right under the other council member’s noses, and to rig a simple voting selection process to get himself crowned the Emperor Wizard without anyone realising it.”

  “Who?” the others asked together.

  “Lord Ernie Teathorpe!” he replied, pressing his finger on the seating placement map, where it read ‘Lord Teathorpe’.

  “No!” the others gasped in amazement.

  “Oh yes,” replied Colin confidently.

  “Really?” they asked again.

  “Yes, he is the only one with the intelligence, the ability and sheer utter cheek to carry out such a dastardly deed, and to think I sent him a Christmas card and muffin basket last winter!” Colin grumbled, very annoyed at being so easily deceived once again.

  “Well, what do we do now?” asked Henry.

  Colin didn’t reply but stood silently thinking of a plan until he heard the commotion and noise of the excited crowd as the masses of magic folk gathered below.

  “I guess it’s nearly time for the end ceremony,” he muttered, moving across to the broken window and then peering down at the crowd.

  “It’s up to us, then,” he said bravely, taking a deep breath.

  “We will have to stop him, because we don’t have the time for the authorities to get involved.”

  “We can do it, Uncle, together!” Trixie said as she as she took hold of her uncle’s hand and held it tight.

  “Yes, it’s time for a little payback!” Henry added, holding up his white Alaskan fir wand, which Colin had given back to him.

  “I’m with you, too!” said Jamie, proudly standing next to Trixie.

  Then a noise behind them made them all turn around. Back in the room, Marty was busily rooting through a small wooden chest full of shiny gold treasure. Colin then cleared his throat loudly to get Marty’s attention.