The Last Task
Page 3
On the President’s left stood Heckitty Darling, bearing a large black satin pillow. On her right stood Professor Cobbleroni, bearing another large black satin pillow.
Jessica carefully placed one of Dame Walpurga’s lost and found shoes on each of them.
Heckitty and the Professor, still carrying Dame Walpurga’s shoes on the black satin pillows in one hand, immediately seized Jessica by the elbows. They steered her up the grand staircase at such a cracking pace that her feet hardly touched the ground. Jessica looked back over her shoulder to see if Miss Strega was following but her teacher had been swallowed up in the sea of witches flowing up the stairs.
They ushered her past the legendary Old Woman’s Shoe (she had so many children she didn’t know what to do) and into a room as long as a ballroom, as high as a cathedral and stuffed from floor to ceiling with shoes – nothing but shoes.
“These,” said Heckitty, pulling her off to the right, “are the bootees that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“But these,” countered Professor Cobbleroni, pulling her by the left elbow, “are the red shoes that belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East: the very ones that Dorothy wore when she went to see the Wizard of Oz.”
Heckitty yanked her away. “But these dinky red shoes were made by the Shoemaker for the Helpful Elves.”
Professor Cobbleroni picked up a long pointy metal shoe with ferocious spurs. “St George was wearing this when he slew the dragon. He gave it to me himself.”
Heckitty threw her eyes up to heaven and steered Jessica towards a beautiful pair of jewelled sandals with toes that curled up at the ends. “These belonged to Scheherazade, the storyteller and enchantress of the 1001 Arabian Nights! Beat that, Cobbleroni!”
“That’s enough!” Shar Pintake roared. “We’re all in this Fancy Feet First Footwear Fund Foundation together.”
Heckitty and Professor Cobbleroni backed away from the president’s flying spittle.
“Now, Jessica, if you please.”
Jessica made a deep bow and presented her with the matching pillows with Dame Walpurga’s lost and found dress shoes.
All the witches cheered and stamped their feet and waved their brooms above their heads until Shar Pintake silenced them by holding up her silver mace.
“Today,” she said, “is a day of great joy when we honour Jessica Diamond as a Full Witch in recognition of her services to witchery. Not only has she returned Dame Walpurga’s lost shoes but she has put an end to the rivalry between the Feet First Fund and the Fancy Footwear Foundation.” Shar Pintake paused to stare meaningfully at Heckitty Darling and Professor Cobbleroni. “For the first time in history, Cinderella’s glass slippers are re-united and the Bootees of the Wicked Witch of the West and the red shoes of the Wicked Witch of the East are under the same roof. Oh happy day! Jessica, will you please step forward to accept this cauldron as a token of our gratitude?”
Jessica looked down at the audience, at all the smiling faces.
There was Dr Krank who had taught her how to make the General Purpose This-Will-Fix-It brew.
And Miss Wigg from the Coven Garden Theatre, who had given her her invisibility cape.
And Pelagia, the ex-pirate from the lighthouse on the Charm Archipelago, who had given her the Lantern Fish.
And there, waving enthusiastically and beaming from ear to ear, was her special guest – Auntie Mugwump.
But where on earth was Miss Strega? Tonight of all nights.
Jessica bowed in all directions as she accepted her new cauldron. “I am over the moon. I am thrilled to bits.”
As the witches applauded and camera lights flashed and corks of special brew popped, Jessica struggled to make her voice heard. “I want to say a special thank you to someone without whom I would never have become a Full Witch.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Heckitty Darling and Professor Cobbleroni bickering again.
“And that person,” Jessica was almost shouting, “is Miss Strega, the best witch trainer ever!”
Sadly, her words were drowned out in the general hugger-mugger.
Then people were thrusting microphones in her face.
“Jessica, what are your plans now that you are a Full Witch? Will you start your own business? What about Hollywood?”
“I’m not … I haven’t … I won’t …”
As soon as she managed to escape, Jessica rushed to the library and ran right around the bookcases from Alchemy to Zymurgy, but Miss Strega was not there.
She slid down the banisters to the hall, ran across the spider-web floor and out on to the front steps where she looked up into the starry night sky. There was not a single broom rider to be seen, least of all Miss Strega.
“Oh where, oh where, can she be?”
Back she flew across the hall, past the portraits of famous witches and under the low doorway that led out to the Dame Walpurga Memorial Garden and Well (which as everybody knows is one of the Wonders of the Witch World).
The garden was deserted. Not a single witch was drawing up a bucket of magic water from Dame Walpurga’s well. No one was queueing at the statue of Dame Walpurga to pat the wart at the end of her nose for good luck. Walpurga’s magic hawthorn tree, adorned with all the little offerings of tiny broomsticks and scraps of cape, cast a long shadow across the lawn.
Jessica sniffed.
From behind the well, there came a familiar answering mew and out strolled Felicity – and Miss Strega!
“Oh, Miss Strega,” Jessica cried, wrapping her arms around her, “I thought you had gone home without me!”
“Winking cats and frisky bats, Jess! Go home without you! As if. Actually, I had sort of hoped … well, Felicity and I have been talking things over … we were wondering … of course it mightn’t be your cup of brew … now that you’re a Full Witch … if you and Berkeley …”
“Blithering batwings, Miss Strega, of course I’d love to work with you!”
Miss Strega’s long chin wobbled so hard you might have thought she was going to cry.
“Hu-eet,” whistled Berkeley.
“Meeeooww,” purred Felicity and she did a figure-of-eight around Jessica’s legs.
Jessica slung her new cauldron on to the back of her broomstick. “Come on, team,” she said. “Let’s take to the air. We’ll have a moon-vault and treat ourselves to the best muncheon ever. I’ll brew.”
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Storyteller’s Note
If, some day, you happen to be on the High Street, have a look for the shop where Jessica did her witch training. It’s tucked in between the estate agents and the toy shop. The window display is as untidy as ever, with balls of twine, hurricane lamps, mouse traps and black cooking pots all in a jumble. But the creaking old shop sign has gone. There’s a new one now.
Also by the Author
Flying Lessons
Spelling Trouble
Charming or What?
Brewing Up
Broomstick Battles
Witch Switch
Moonlight Mischief
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2005
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Text © Maeve Friel 2006
Illustrations © Nathan Reed 2006
Maeve Friel and Nathan Reed assert the moral right to be identified as author and illustrator of the Work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
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Source ISBN: 9780007185276
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2013 ISBN:9780007571901
Version: 2014–01–07
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