The Wizard in the Woods

by Louie Stowell

  “Sneaky,” said Faith. “They’re cleverer than I thought. And therefore, more dangerous. I think it’s best Ben and I go and check this out on our own,” she said. “You three should go home. It’s too risky. We might need to use battle magic.”

  “We’ll be fine!” said Kit.

  “Yes,” said Faith. “Because you’re going home.”

  She gave them one of her Looks.

  “I think we should go home,” said Josh with a grimace. “She’s doing the Look.”

  Faith nodded in approval. “Come on, Ben,” she said.

  The two adult wizards walked off down the path, Ben’s thaumometer held out in front of them.

  “Go home!” called Faith without looking back.

  The children started walking towards the exit.

  “Are we really going home?” asked Josh.

  “Of course not,” said Kit. “They’re out of sight now, let’s turn around.”

  Alita was looking at her, closely. “You’ve got a weird look on your face. What is it, Kit?”

  Kit tried to put it into words. “There’s something here, in the air. It feels … like someone’s doing some pretty intense magic.”

  It was like the feeling she got close to a dragon, crossed with the feeling she’d had when they’d defeated the Dragon Masters. Big magic. Old magic.

  “What is it, Kit?” asked Alita, watching her closely.

  “I think it’s nearby. Despite what Ben’s thaumometer said. There’s something here.” She shivered. Whatever the spell was, it was making the little hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention.

  “Maybe we should go home?” said Alita. “Faith told us to.”

  “You can,” said Kit. “I’m staying.”

  Alita sighed. “No. We stay together or we all go.”

  “How about we stay, but run away really fast if something bad happens?” Josh suggested.

  They made their way back through the graveyard, down a leafy alley. The feeling inside Kit grew stronger. “There’s Dark Magic here somewhere.” They were beside the chapel now. The air was humming with magic. It made Kit’s stomach feel queasy. This magic felt wrong, like someone was reaching inside her and twisting something. “I can feel it … but I can’t see anything.”

  “Well,” said Alita, “that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything, does it? Evil wizards aren’t going to play fair. So maybe they’ve hidden themselves somehow.”

  “Invisible evil wizards!” said Josh. “Of course! Illusion magic! I know a counter-spell you can use! It makes hidden things visible.”

  “Teach me?” said Kit.

  “Faith’s already taught you it,” frowned Josh.

  “Er, I forgot it,” said Kit with a blush. Keeping all the spells she’d been taught in her head was a battle. She wished she had more room in there! It was such a crowded jumble.

  Josh sighed. “You raise your hands, palm forward. Yes, like that… Then repeat the spell after me.”

  “Break the light into atoms.

  The dark inside dehors

  Take this eye to the truth.”

  Kit repeated the spell, holding her palms out. The air began to shimmer and shake, like a bubble stretching and popping.

  Then, all of a sudden, the chapel wasn’t empty. A group of hooded figures were standing there in a circle, chanting.

  In the centre of the circle was a shape.

  The egg.

  One of the robed figures turned. A young man, with bright blond hair.

  “We have company,” he said. He raised an arm, and light shot out from his fingertips. Towards Alita.

  Alita crumpled to the ground with a gasp.

  “No!” cried Kit. She rushed forward, hands raised, frantically running through spells in her mind. Which to use? Which to use? She felt panic rising. The robed man was raising his hands to hurl another spell at her.

  “Shield spell!” hissed Josh.

  She remembered.

  “Tortuga!” she cried, criss-crossing her hands to create an invisible shield – just in time, as a fireball hurtled towards them. The shield absorbed the hit, but shivered and shook. Kit looked down at Alita. Josh was kneeling beside her.

  “Is she OK?”

  Alita groaned in reply.

  Kit shuddered as another fireball hit the shield.

  “It’s just kids,” the blond man called to the other hooded wizards. “Keep going, I’ve got this covered!” His hands crackled with energy. It might be something more powerful than a fireball this time.

  Kit was going to have to counter-attack. She sent more energy into the shield spell, flowing through her fingers, then poised to hurl a fireball of her own at the blond man.

  The chanting of the hooded wizards grew louder. They were raising their hands. She let the energy build within her, and cast the fireball spell towards her enemy.

  The blond man cried out a shield spell just as her fireball hit, but it made him stagger.

  “Hit him again!” said Josh.

  Kit glanced at Alita, who still looked wobbly, the warmth in her brown skin drained. Kit felt a stab of guilt. She’d made her stay. She’d got Alita hurt.

  She cast another fireball spell, but she knew she wasn’t focusing as well as she should. The small fireball dissolved against the evil wizard’s shield with a pathetic PFFFT.

  “Child, you can’t break my shield,” snarled the blond man. “You can’t stop this. Keep going!” he cried to the robed figures.

  They answered by raising their voices as they chanted. Magic built in the air around them. There was a mighty cracking sound, and a blast of light flowed into each of the figures, including the blond man.

  Kit didn’t know what to do. If she sent a fireball at them now that the blond man wasn’t fighting back, she might hurt the egg.

  There was a crack in the undergrowth behind them. Kit’s heart thumped in terror. There are more of them! she thought. They’ve got us.

  But, as branches parted, she saw Ben and Faith. Faith put a finger to her lips. Then she and Ben raised their hands and cried out.

  “Telay parrah, away to far!”

  Faith swiped her flat hand through the air, and Ben mirrored the gesture. Energy began to build between them.

  “What?” cried the blond man, turning from his spell to see Faith and Ben emerging from the bushes. “NO!”

  Just then, Faith and Ben flung their arms out in front of them, releasing the energy from their spell.

  The blond man released a counter-spell as the energy engulfed him and his robed followers. Kit saw it coming for them. For Josh. It was headed right towards him. She couldn’t find words for a spell of her own. Time seemed to slow.

  Then everything happened quicker than light. There was a thunderclap and a cloud of shadows, snatching the robed figures away into thin air.

  Faith snuffed out the evil wizard’s spell before it hit Josh with a yell of “Theostru!”

  “Oh,” said Josh. He staggered slightly, then steadied himself. “Well, that was close.”

  “What happened? Where did they go?” asked Kit.

  Sweet-smelling smoke rose all around the chapel, and they could barely make out the ruined stones.

  “We teleported them away,” said Ben. “I don’t know if they’ll be back, but we should be safe for now. But I fear whatever spell they were casting, they managed to finish.” He waved at the smoke. “That’s not from our teleportation spell.”

  “Are you OK?” asked Faith. The cemetery was quiet. All Kit could hear was the thumping of blood in her ears.

  “We’re OK, but Alita was hit,” said Kit with another stab of guilt.

  “What with?” asked Faith.

  “Some kind of energy-bolt spell. She hit her head,” said Josh.

  “M’OK,” muttered Alita.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” said Faith. “Look at me, Alita,” she said, passing her fingers back and forth before Alita’s eyes. “Follow my finger.”

  “What spe
ll are you doing?” asked Josh, getting out his notebook.

  “First aid!” said Faith. “Part of every wizard librarian’s training.”

  Josh looked a bit disappointed.

  Faith got Alita to walk in a straight line, then stand on one leg, until she was satisfied. “No concussion, but you should take it easy for a while,” she said.

  “Now,” she said to Kit. “We can talk about why you didn’t go home like you were told later. First, I think we need to check out the chapel.” She pointed towards it.

  As they headed into the ruined church, the smoke began to clear and they could see where the wizards had been circled around the egg.

  The egg was gone. But as they got closer, Kit saw something on the ground.

  Something … moving.

  If she wasn’t mistaken, it was a baby dragon.

  A cracked shell lay on the ground, and the dragon – a just-waking, tiny dragon – was blinking up at them. It was blue, with bright purple eyes.

  “A blue!” gasped Ben. “The rarest kind of dragon!”

  “It’s beautiful!” said Alita.

  “I think we stopped them just in time!” said Ben. He leaned against a pillar, looking very pale. “Phew. That was intense. I … don’t remember that teleportation spell being so tiring.”

  Kit, Alita and Josh gathered around the dragon.

  “Are you OK?” asked Alita, reaching out to stroke it, then stopping. “Is it OK to touch it? I won’t hurt it, will I?”

  “It’s fine,” said Faith. “Let the little one sniff your finger so it knows your scent first.”

  Alita did so, and the dragon gave her a great big lick with its forked tongue.

  Kit was feeling too worried to get any closer herself. She kept glancing at Alita. She still looked pale. Was she OK?

  Why did I let them stay with me? I should have done it on my own.

  “Aww, it’s so cute!” giggled Alita, as the dragon licked her hand.

  Then Kit had a thought. “Wait … isn’t an awake dragon bad? Isn’t that what caused the Great Fire of London?” She listened, in case a rumbling was coming that signified Bad Things. But all was quiet in the graveyard.

  Faith laughed. “I think we’re OK,” she said.

  “They’re meant to be awake for the first month of life,” said Josh. “In one of the egg-care books I read, it says they only go to sleep when they’re ready.” He looked down at the dragon. “That one doesn’t look very happy, though.”

  “Do you think it’s male or female?” asked Alita.

  “There’s no way of telling unless you ask them,” said Faith. “We’ll have to wait until they’re asleep to ask. They can’t talk when they’re awake.”

  The dragon coughed, letting out a little puff of smoke. “Is that normal?” asked Kit.

  “Perfectly normal. Baby dragons tend to build up some fire in their lungs before they hatch. They’re just letting it out,” said Faith. “But I bet being eggnapped was a shock.”

  “Are you OK, little one?” asked Ben, leaning down and holding out his hand for the dragon to sniff. The baby dragon licked his hand and then nuzzled into him, letting out the saddest noise, like a lamb that’s just realised it’s lost its mother.

  “Oh!” said Alita, hand on heart. “The poor thing! How can we help?”

  “We can take it home,” said Faith. “Then we can find out who those wizards were. And I can think of the right punishment for you three for disobeying me.”

  The children groaned. Although, Kit realised, she didn’t mind being punished. She just wanted Alita and Josh to be safe. And she decided she wasn’t going to let anything like that happen again, ever. She was a wizard, and her friends weren’t. She couldn’t let them take the same risks as her.

  They made their way slowly back to Chatsworth Library and through the tunnels to the book wood beneath the school. Josh was scribbling notes in his book, while Kit, Faith and Alita carried the shards of the dragon’s egg very carefully, and Ben carried the dragon. It seemed to like him, and was asleep in his arms within minutes.

  “Wait, is the dragon going to sleep for real? Already?” asked Josh.

  “No, this is a normal sleep, like any baby creature that’s had a tiring few hours,” said Faith.

  Ben looked down at the sleepy creature in his arms. They were nearly at the school’s book wood and the little one was stirring. “This one deserves to be read to a lot to get over the shock.”

  They took the dragon carefully down to its lair and laid it to rest on its hoard. After Alita adjusted its tail to make sure it was comfortable, Faith and Ben cast extra protection spells over the dragon, and Faith taught Kit a new one to use on the door to the lair.

  “Still, we should stay to guard it,” said Faith. “I’ll take first watch. Kit, Alita, Josh … your punishment for disobeying me is … chewing gum duty.”

  “Ewww!” said the three children in unison. But they headed back up to the library and got started.

  Once they’d scraped sticky disgusting wads of chewing gum off the undersides of all the library tables, Ben looked at his watch. “Right,” he said. “You’ve all got about … fifteen minutes to do all your homework before the library closes. GO! I have some shelving to do.”

  He wandered off and the children sat down in a quiet corner and got their notebooks out.

  “Can I copy yours?” Kit asked Alita.

  “I haven’t done it yet,” said Alita. “You’ve been with me the whole time!”

  “Can I copy yours?” Kit asked Josh.

  Josh paused.

  “You’ve already done it, haven’t you?” said Kit.

  “When?” asked Alita.

  “When we were walking back through the tunnels,” said Josh. “I finished writing up about the wizards in the graveyard so I thought I’d do my homework.”

  Kit took the notebook from him. “I thought this was just for magic stuff.”

  “Homework IS magic, if you do it properly,” said Josh.

  Kit rolled her eyes but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to copy Josh’s work.

  “I’ve been thinking,” said Josh, in the school playground the next morning. “Why did those wizards steal the egg?”

  “Does it matter?” asked Kit. “We got the dragon back!”

  “Yes, it does, actually,” said Josh. “If there are a bunch of people out there stealing dragon eggs, we should stop them. We’re the good guys. It’s our job. And what if they try to steal the dragon again?”

  “Didn’t Ben and Faith just say we shouldn’t be going after evil wizards?” asked Alita. “Not that I’m scared of evil wizards. But I am scared of getting into trouble.”

  “Actually, you make a good point,” said Josh. “So am I. But we wouldn’t get into trouble just researching them, would we?”

  “Do you think Ben has any books on evil wizards in the school library?” asked Kit.

  “Let’s find out!” said Alita, eyes glinting. “A book hunt!”

  Kit pretended to yawn, but she had to admit she was a BIT interested in finding out why a bunch of evil wizards might want to steal a dragon egg … and if that meant reading more, she would just have to be brave and face the music. Or rather, the pages.

  When they arrived at the library, Ben was already there, tidying up some books.

  “Can we go down to the stacks and find some books on evil wizards?” asked Josh.

  Ben chuckled. “Well, hello to you too.”

  “Sorry, hello, Mr Picarda,” said Alita.

  “Call me Ben,” said Ben. “Mr Picarda is just for when other students are listening. And please, go on down. I’m on guard duty with the baby dragon, and I’ve got some wards set up, but you won’t trip them. And I’ve started stocking the stacks a little more, so you’ll find a whole section on Dark Magic towards the end of the corridor where the book wood begins. Mind you, Dark Magic is a matter of perspective. I’m not sure I agree with calling magic ‘Dark’. It’s all about your intention. A so-c
alled Dark spell could do good in the right hands.”

  “Are my hands the right hands?” asked Kit. She looked at her palms. They were already covered in ink stains, and something that looked like porridge, from her breakfast.

  “Absolutely!” grinned Ben.

  Josh was scribbling notes.

  Not all Dark Magic is evil. It’s only evil if you mean it to be. Mr Picarda is so cool. Look at his hair!

  “Shall we go and research?” said Alita, tugging on Josh’s sleeve. “We only have twenty minutes before school starts!”

  “Sorry, I haven’t made the common room in the book wood yet,” said Ben. “I’ll do that later today. But there’s still the table to sit at down there.”

  Down in the tunnels they found a collection of books on a shelf labelled “So-called Dark Magic” and took a few to read. They sat down at Ben’s table in the wood.

  “This one says that baby dragons can be used in wish-granting magic, if you trap them in magical bonds and siphon their magic off over years. I wonder if that’s what they were planning!” said Josh.

  That idea was too much for Alita, and she had to go and check on the dragon while Kit and Josh carried on reading. They couldn’t find any spells that contained the words they’d heard in the cemetery, but they did find a lot more books on uses of dragons’ eggs and baby dragons.

  Kit found one that said that baby dragons could be used to create other magical creatures. Like Dogon! she thought. “I wonder if they were going to breed their own race of, like, battle creatures using the baby dragon’s magic. That would be awesome!” She said, picturing having her own tiger-dragon to ride into battle.

  “That would be very bad,” said Josh disapprovingly.

  “Things can be bad AND awesome at the same time,” objected Kit.

  “It’s a good thing I’m here to be your conscience,” sniffed Josh. “Otherwise I worry you could become an evil wizard!”