The Wizard in the Woods

by Louie Stowell

  “Never!” said Kit. “I’m one of the good guys! You said!”

  “Well, good guys don’t turn baby dragons into battle tigers,” said Josh.

  “OK, fine,” said Kit. “I was only saying.” Josh took everything so literally. Though, on the plus side, he had taught her what the word “literally” meant.

  In all the breaks between lessons, they carried on researching spells that might require a stolen baby dragon. Faith joined them sometimes, leaving Greg, the Assistant Librarian, in charge of Draca and the Chatsworth Library, and bringing books of her own to help.

  “The spell we overheard…” she said, flipping pages as they sat in the book wood beneath the school. “I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. I fear it isn’t in any book – a new spell, crafted by those wizards. I think we missed too much of it to be able to piece it together.”

  Kit was getting annoyed. “Why are we bothering with research then? If we can’t find out what the spell was?”

  “Because we might be able to think our way round the problem. And because those wizards are still out there. Who knows what they’re up to now?” said Faith.

  “Maybe we should take a break, though,” suggested Ben. “I have a few spells Kit might like to try.” He leaned over and whispered in Faith’s ear.

  She laughed. “Well, sure, you can teach her that. You’ve got too much hair, anyway.”

  And so, over the next few days, Ben taught Kit how to breathe fire. It wasn’t a very useful spell, but it was a LOT of fun. Kit only burned Ben’s hair off once, and he was able to do a spell to replace it right away. Then he taught her a spell that extinguished other spells – and fires – quickly.

  In between spells and research – and the annoying interruptions from magic that were ordinary school lessons – Kit and the others visited the new baby dragon and wandered in the growing book wood.

  “It’s not growing quite as quickly as it should,” apologised Ben, as they walked there one break, while Josh and Alita were at maths club. “Because the dragon hatched outside the library, we lost that magical energy which would have made the trees grow faster. But if you help me plant some books with some growing spells, we should be able to make it all catch up in a couple of weeks.”

  Kit felt worried about that. She’d had a houseplant once and accidentally killed it because she tried to feed it perfume to make it smell nice. But Ben said the book wood trees were tough.

  “They’re full of ideas,” he said. “And ideas can survive a lot.”

  So they planted books, and said spells over them.

  “These spells combine with the magic of the dragon,” Ben explained. “Look.”

  As the spell worked, one of the books they’d planted started to shoot up into a sapling, with crinkly bark and unfurling green leaves, written all over in black ink.

  Kit shivered, feeling the magic go through her. It wasn’t a bad shiver. It was like the feeling Kit had when she listened to a piece of music that made her want to cry, but because it was beautiful, not because she was sad.

  “It’s lovely, isn’t it?” said Ben. “It must be hard for your friends, not having the powers you have.”

  Kit shrugged. “They’ve got other powers. Like maths.”

  “Wouldn’t it be great if magic was for everyone, though?” said Ben. “If everyone could benefit from what we have?”

  Kit had never thought about that. “What, if everyone in the world was a wizard?”

  “No, I mean if we could help everyone with magic,” said Ben. “If the Wizards’ Council wasn’t in charge of all magic. If we could do what we wanted with it. If we could … I don’t know, cure cancer. Cast a spell to stop people from hurting other people! Or just make everyone’s lives a little better.”

  Kit was shocked hearing a grown-up talk like that. But she liked it.

  “Faith said the Wizards’ Council thinks magic shouldn’t be used to solve human problems,” said Kit. “People have tried in the past and it’s gone badly.”

  Ben shrugged. “Personally I think they shouldn’t judge everyone so harshly.”

  “But people DO use magic for bad things. Like stealing dragon eggs!” pointed out Kit. Though she was starting to think he did have a point.

  “There have always been evil wizards,” said Ben. “That doesn’t mean all wizards are evil.” He shrugged again. “Sorry, I’m just thinking out loud. I do a lot of that. Been on an island on my own for too long, I suppose!” He laughed. “Come on. Let’s go and get the others. I’ve got something to show you all.”

  Kit went and fetched Alita and Josh and they wandered through the book wood until they reached a tree with a door in it.

  “I finally got round to it! We have a common room!” said Ben. His face lit up as he opened the doors to the tree and ushered them inside. When they reached the top, it was very different to the common room in Faith’s library.

  “I got a bit carried away, sorry,” said Ben, blushing.

  The common room was huge, with an area of squishy armchairs and tables and books … but there was also a go-kart ring! Each of the karts was designed to look like a dragon.

  “WHOA!” said Kit, jumping into one of them, looking for how to start it.

  “You have to use magic,” said Ben. “Watch.”

  He brushed his hand across the steering wheel and said, “Allezee!”

  The go-kart lurched into motion and Kit zoomed off, whooping.

  “The spell to stop it is ‘arrett!’, and stroke the wheel the other way!” Ben yelled after her. But Kit was in no hurry to stop. She zoomed round the track, still whooping.

  The others crept up to the track, more hesitant.

  “Hop in,” Kit heard Ben call, over the sound of her kart.

  Alita and Josh climbed into karts of their own and Ben said the spell to make them both start. Soon they were following Kit round the track.

  “This is brilliant!” said Josh. “I’m going to die, I think, but it’s still brilliant!”

  “You’re not going to die!” yelled Kit. “WHOOOOOO!”

  Alita wasn’t saying anything. She was just squealing like a guinea pig who’s eaten too much sugar. Kit couldn’t tell if she was scared or having the time of her life, or both.

  “Arrett!” Ben cried.

  Their cars came to a halt, all pointing towards him. He was holding a duradar and looking grim.

  “Sorry to end the fun,” he said. “But I just got a call from Faith. Something has happened. Something very, very bad.”

  As they rushed through the tunnels to the public library, all Ben could tell them was that Greg had arrived with bad news at the library, and that Faith was trying to get the full story out of him. Greg didn’t make much sense at the best of times, and this was clearly far from the best of times. All he’d said, over and over, was, “There’s something nasty in the chapel. Something nasty in the chapel.”

  Greg and Faith were waiting for them in the common room. Faith glanced up with worried eyes. “Hi,” she said.

  Greg was drinking tea and eating biscuits. His hand was shaking a little. Faith was sitting next to him, feeding him extra biscuits and talking to him in a low, soothing voice. The children gathered round.

  “What happened?” asked Kit.

  Greg looked up, but his eyes seemed to look through her. “WHOOSH! KABOOM! They’re in the chapel. They appeared. They weren’t there. Then they were there,” he said, which didn’t clear anything up.

  “I think we need to use a spell to help him,” said Faith. “But carefully. Mind magic is dangerous.”

  “Kaboom!” agreed Greg. “Can I have a biscuit?”

  Ben passed him a chocolate biscuit and he crunched down on it, getting crumbs in his long white beard.

  “There’s something nasty in the chapel,” he added, as soon as his mouth wasn’t too full.

  “Greg, can we use a spell to help you remember exactly what happened?” Faith asked. Her voice was low and steady but her black eyes wer
e full of fear.

  Greg nodded. “It’s all a great mass of tails and teeth,” he said. “They’re here. They’re here. There’s something nasty in the chapel.”

  “Ben, would you pass me the Circlet? It’s on the top shelf.”

  Ben went and fetched something that looked like a crown, made from twirling, twisting silver, and Faith placed it gently on to Greg’s head.

  Faith kept her hands on the crown and began to chant.

  “Take me to the mind

  Take the mind from the noise

  Tooshay tooshay the heart of the vision

  Sight return from noise, truth from cloud

  Take me to the mind.”

  All sound was sucked from the room, except for the sound of breathing. Kit couldn’t tell whose breath she could hear, but it was hard and fast. They were scared. Everything went dark for a moment, and then was replaced with the sight of green leaves twisted round graves. Tree roots were tripping at her feet as she stumbled closer to something. She could smell fresh earth and grass and damp leaves. Her heart felt that it would burst with fear. It felt weak.

  It was Greg’s heart. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew.

  Her bones felt old. Everything creaked and ached. With cramped hands she reached out to pull a branch aside to get a better look.

  The scene beyond the trees came into closer focus. A clearing. A tall, ruined building.

  “We’re in the cemetery,” said Faith. Kit couldn’t see her, but she felt that she was somewhere close by.

  “What’s Greg looking at?” asked Kit.

  “I don’t know yet. I can see figures, moving, but they’re blurred,” said Faith.

  Then Kit could see them too. They became clearer and clearer, until she saw that they were a group of men, all in hooded robes. One had blond hair.

  “I’ve seen him!” said Kit. “It’s the man from before, the one who had the dragon egg!”

  “Yes,” said Faith. “But what are they standing around? I can see shapes inside the circle. Large shapes.”

  There were creatures in the centre of the circle, on all fours. They were covered in ragged fur and their eyes glowed red.

  Rats. They were rats. Giant ones.

  Then they rose, stretching up to the height of the men, their beady red eyes blazing.

  The blond man began to speak. “We did it! We brought them back! Go, tell him to come.”

  “The hatching energy did its job,” said one of the robed figures. “It gave them the strength to break through. Now all we need is a day for them to regain strength.”

  “Faith,” whispered Kit. “Are they… Did they bring them back?”

  “It looks like it,” said Faith. “They never wanted the baby dragon. They just wanted to use the power of the hatching egg.”

  “The Dragon Masters,” said Kit.

  The rats in the centre of the circle staggered as they walked, and the blond man gestured to them, passing some kind of energy across them.

  “Someone’s here,” said another of the men. “In the bushes.”

  The blond man held up a hand. “He mustn’t see!”

  A wave of force threw Kit off her wobbly feet.

  Off Greg’s feet.

  Then she vanished, and she was back in the library, panting.

  “What happened?” asked Alita.

  “What did you see?” asked Josh.

  “The Dragon Masters,” said Kit. “Didn’t we, Faith?”

  Faith didn’t reply. Kit turned to see that she was still standing with her hands touching the crown on Greg’s head, still in the vision.

  “Faith?” said Ben. “Faith, are you OK?”

  Faith and Greg both let out a gasp. Then Faith fell to the floor, and Greg slumped to one side.

  “Faith!” yelled Kit.

  Ben bounded to her side, while Alita and Josh went to Greg.

  “Faith, wake up,” said Ben. He sounded desperate.

  “Greg! Greg!” said Alita. “Wake up.”

  “What’s wrong with them?” asked Kit. “What’s happening?”

  Ben looked at her with hollow eyes. “The spell … it went wrong. They’re in a trance and I don’t know how to wake them.” He made an anguished face. “I should have volunteered to do it. Mind magic is dangerous. She said so, and I still let her do it.”

  “No one lets Faith do anything,” murmured Josh.

  “Here, help me get her into a chair,” said Ben. Kit and Josh came and helped lift Faith into an armchair. She felt as heavy as lead, but still warm. With a lot of puffing and panting on Kit and Josh’s part, she was in a chair next to Greg. Side by side they both looked like they’d just drifted off for naps. But Kit felt an unnatural glister of magic in the air. This wasn’t a normal sleep.

  “We should call an ambulance,” said Alita.

  “It won’t do any good,” said Ben. “They’re not ill. This is a magical trance, from the spell. I think … because Greg was in such a state, he sucked Faith’s mind down with his. I’m afraid if we try to cure them with a spell, we could cause more harm.”

  “What can we do, then?” said Josh. “Is there a book…?” He sounded doubtful. That scared Kit. Josh thinking a book couldn’t fix something meant you were facing a truly terrible problem.

  Ben shook his head. “I think it’s time for me to go and see the Wizards’ Council.” He swallowed, hard, making his Adam’s apple bob up and down like he’d swallowed a golf ball. “I’ll go and ask them to fix this. And tell them this is my fault. I lost the dragon, then I allowed this to happen.”

  Kit felt a pang of sadness, followed by the stirring of determination. “No!” she said. “We can solve this ourselves. We don’t need to go running to the council. We’re not babies.”

  “But we’re not all-powerful ancient wizards in possession of the wisdom of the centuries either,” pointed out Josh.

  “No, but we fought Salt on our own, didn’t we? We defeated the ancient ghost rats from the dawn of time, and the evil mind-controlled mermaids.”

  “But now those rats are back,” said Ben. “And they’re not ghosts any more. Kit, this is beyond us. I know you’re a powerful wizard, and you’re very capable. But I need to bring in the big guns now.” He looked at her very seriously. “Don’t do anything until I return, OK? I couldn’t bear it if you got hurt.”

  Kit nodded. The other children did too.

  “I’ll get Dogon to watch over Faith and Greg when we go home,” said Alita. “And we can check on them in the morning.”

  “Good,” said Ben. “They won’t need to eat or drink at least, in this kind of mystical coma. Cheer up, Kit. They might just wake up on their own. And if not, the council will know how to fix it.”

  Kit sighed deeply. She couldn’t believe there was nothing she could do.

  “Now, go and get some rest,” said Ben. “You must all be exhausted. And, Kit, I’ll get this fixed, I promise. My mess, my clean-up.”

  “But I don’t want the council to punish you. This isn’t all your fault!” said Kit.

  “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, in the end,” said Ben. “We just need help. OK? Don’t do anything till I get back? Promise?”

  “OK,” said Kit, crossing her fingers behind her back.

  There was no way she was waiting for Ben. She was going to fix it, and make sure the Wizards’ Council had nothing to punish him for.

  The children were all at Alita’s house for tea, and after more helpings of food than even Kit really wanted, they retreated to Alita’s bedroom.

  “Tell me everything you saw,” said Josh, notebook out.

  Kit described every moment of the vision, including the part at the end where the blond man cast a spell on Greg to scramble his mind.

  “Isn’t it already kind of … pre-scrambled?” said Josh.

  “Perhaps he didn’t have to do a very powerful spell?” said Kit. “Anyway, that’s when the vision ended.”

  “I can’t believe the Dragon Masters are
back,” said Alita. She bit her lip and turned her eyes to the ground. “I thought we beat them properly, you know? I thought we won last time.”

  “They did say they’d return,” said Kit.

  “All villains say they’ll be back,” said Josh. “It’s just what villains do.”

  “But apparently these ones keep their promises,” said Alita. “Which is really annoying. Villains are supposed to break promises, not keep them.”

  “Speaking of breaking promises,” said Kit. “I don’t want to just sit here and wait for Ben. I want to DO something.”

  She waited for her friends to tell her off but instead they both nodded.

  “We can’t just leave Ben to do this. This isn’t like disobeying Faith when she told you not to go after Salt. Ben’s our friend, and we can’t let the council punish him for something that’s actually the fault of evil wizards,” said Alita.

  “Plus, the Wizards’ Council take SO long to make up their minds. This might be all over before they decide what to do,” said Josh. “Sometimes the fact that you are rash and hasty is useful.”

  Kit grinned with relief. “Oh good. I thought I was going to have to be rash and hasty on my own.” She felt a pang of worry, though. Should she really be bringing the others with her on dangerous missions? After what happened to Alita? After what could have happened.

  “You definitely shouldn’t do things on your own,” said Josh. “We’re a team. Even if we’re a very, very scared team,” he added.

  “OK then. In the morning, we begin,” said Kit.

  The next morning they went to check on Faith and Greg. They were exactly the same – staring into space, seeing nothing, as though they were frozen in time. Josh brewed up some chocolate tea with ingredients he’d brought from home, wafting their cups under Faith’s nose, before drinking it themselves.

  “I hope Ben’s not getting too shouted at by the Wizards’ Council,” said Kit. She’d been on the receiving end of Branwen’s sarcasm, and that was when she wasn’t even angry.