Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve

by Mary Pope Osborne

  “HA-HA-REE-REE!

  JAH-JAH-AWK-NEE!”

  O hazel twig from hazel tree!

  Make him Jack, and make me, me!

  There was a mighty roar and a flash of light and a blast of heat!

  Then Jack heard Annie giggle. “Yippee! I made the magic work for us. Look.”

  Jack looked down at his arms and legs and feet. “Ohh, man,” he breathed.

  Awk-nee and Jah were gone. Annie and Jack were back.

  Jack wiggled his fingers and toes. He felt his face: his mouth, his nose, his ears. He loved having his own body back!

  “Teddy’s going to be so surprised,” said Annie.

  “He acts like he’s the only kid who can do magic.” She looked around the nursery. “Hi! We’re back!” she called to the invisible children. “Guess what? We’ve got the diamond!”

  “The diamond! Where is it?” said Jack. “I must’ve dropped it when you changed us!”

  Suddenly they heard a swoosh and a flapping at the window.

  “Teddy!” cried Annie. She and Jack whirled around.

  But Teddy wasn’t there.

  Instead, perched on the ledge of the nursery window was a horrifying creature. He was part human and part raven. He had silky feathers for hair, a beak for a nose, sharp claws, and a billowing feathered cape that glistened in the moonlight like shiny black armor.

  “Good evening,” said the Raven King.

  Jack and Annie were too stunned to speak.

  Staring at the bizarre creature, Jack remembered the story of the Raven King—how the king had wanted to be a bird, how he had stolen a spell from the Wizard of Winter, how the spell had worked only halfway and left him half bird and half human.

  The Raven King jumped from the window to the floor. One by one, his raven bodyguards swooshed into the room after him. At least twenty ravens came through the window. Soon Jack and Annie were surrounded by dark wings, sharp beaks, and bright eyes.

  Once his guards were in place, the Raven King twisted his head from side to side, looking from Jack to Annie. “Where are the two ravens who stole my diamond?” he asked in a raspy voice.

  “What diamond?” asked Annie.

  “What … what ravens?” asked Jack, his voice trembling. He wished desperately that he still had the Diamond of Destiny to give him strength and courage.

  “The ravens that came to this castle after raiding my treasure room,” said the Raven King. “Where are they hiding?”

  Jack tried to imagine that he was still holding the diamond. “We don’t know anything about them,” he said in a low, steady voice. Pretending to hold the diamond actually made him feel brave.

  “You don’t know anything about them?” said the Raven King.

  “No,” said Jack. “You must have the wrong castle.”

  “Ah, the wrong castle,” said the Raven King.

  “Yes,” said Jack.

  “Perhaps you’re right,” said the Raven King. “But are you certain you haven’t seen them? They look very much like this little one here.”

  The Raven King threw his cape over his shoulder and held up an iron birdcage. A raven was held captive inside.

  “JAH, AWK-NEE!” the raven croaked.

  “Teddy!” cried Annie.

  “His name is Teddy?” said the Raven King. “How charming. I’ve caught a Teddy. I think he’ll make a wonderful pet, don’t you?”

  Jack was horrified to see Teddy trapped in the Raven King’s cage. “It’s not charming,” he said. “It’s cruel. You better let him go, or else!”

  “Yeah, let him go,” said Annie. “Or else.”

  “Or else?” said the Raven King. “Or else what?” With backward jerks of his head, he laughed a raspy laugh.

  As the king laughed, Jack glanced at the floor under the window. He saw the hazel twig. He moved toward it.

  The Raven King caught sight of him. His laugh stopped abruptly. “CREE! CAW!” he croaked to one of his bodyguards.

  Jack dashed for the twig. But before he could grab it, the king’s bodyguard had swooped across the floor and picked up the twig in his beak. As the raven carried it to the top of the window, Jack noticed that one of his tail feathers was bent.

  “Jack, look, it’s Rok!” said Annie. She called up to the bird. “Rok! Rok!”

  From his perch above the window, the raven looked down at Annie.

  “Rok, it’s me, Annie,” she said. “I helped you when the people in the village threw stones at you. Remember?”

  “What nonsense,” croaked the Raven King. “Bring me the stick, bird.”

  Rok didn’t move. Gripping the hazel twig in his beak, he stared down at Annie.

  “Give the twig to Jack, Rok,” she said. “So he can turn Teddy back into a boy.”

  “So that ugly little stick is a magic wand, is it?” said the Raven King. “Bring it to me, bird. Now!”

  “Don’t do it, Rok,” said Annie. “Don’t let him boss you around anymore.”

  The raven stared at Annie for a moment with his dark brown eyes. He looked at the Raven King. He looked back at Annie. Then he swooped down to Jack and dropped the hazel twig at his feet.

  Jack grabbed it.

  “Traitor!” the Raven King shrieked at Rok. “You’ll pay for this!” He lunged toward the raven. Rok tried to escape, but the king grabbed him by the throat.

  Jack had to save Rok! He pointed the twig at the Raven King’s back and shouted:

  “O hazel twig from hazel tree!

  Make him what he wanted to be!”

  A deafening wind roared through the room. A blinding light flashed. Then all was clear.

  The Raven King had vanished. His cape lay on the floor. Rok hopped away, unharmed.

  From under the feathered cape came a hoarse cry. Awk.

  Annie lifted the cape and uncovered a tiny raven. “Ohh!” she said softly.

  The bird stretched out his scrawny neck. Awk, he croaked again.

  “Hello yourself,” Annie said, smiling. She stroked the downy feathers on the creature’s head. Then she looked up at Jack. “How did you come up with that rhyme?”

  “It just came to me,” said Jack.

  “I knew I had to save Rok. But I didn’t want to hurt the Raven King. I think I actually felt sorry for him.”

  “So you helped him finally get what he wanted,” said Annie. “You turned him into a baby raven.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “Now he can live his whole life as a bird.”

  Rok flew up to the window ledge. He looked around at the other ravens. It was clear he had become their new leader.

  “GRO! GRO!” Rok croaked.

  He stepped aside. The raven troops began to leave the nursery, one by one. Two of them escorted the new member of their flock as he timidly flapped his small wings.

  Rok was the last to leave. He stared at Annie and Jack with a long gaze. Then he lifted off the window ledge and flew away into the light of the silver dawn.

  Queek.

  A little croak came from the cage on the floor.

  “Teddy!” cried Annie.

  “We almost forgot you!” said Jack.

  Queek, Teddy croaked again.

  “Let me change him back,” Annie said to Jack.

  “Okay, but let me get out of the way first,” said Jack. He handed Annie the hazel twig. Then he quickly stepped over to the window.

  Annie moved closer to Teddy’s cage. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. Then she waved the wand over the cage and said:

  “O hazel twig from hazel tree!

  Make him Teddy! Set him free!”

  There was a mighty roar, a blast of heat, and a blaze of light! Then the cage was gone, and Teddy was a boy again, sitting on the floor.

  “Yay!” said Annie.

  “Nicely done,” said Teddy. “Thanks.”

  “Welcome back!” said Jack. He and Annie helped Teddy stand up.

  Teddy shook his arms and legs. “Ahhh! ’Tis good to be human again!” he said.
“And now we must help the duke’s family. Where’s the diamond?”

  “We lost it!” said Annie.

  “Yeah, I had it in my beak,” said Jack. “But I must have dropped it when Annie changed us back into ourselves.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Teddy, “it must be here somewhere.”

  The three of them got on their hands and knees and started crawling around the floor of the nursery. There was no sign of the diamond. Suddenly Jack heard Teddy gasp.

  “Oh, my,” Teddy whispered. “Look.” He was staring at the corner.

  The Diamond of Destiny was rising from the basket of wool by the spinning wheel.

  “The ghost girl must have hidden it when the Raven King came!” whispered Annie.

  The diamond moved slowly toward Jack and stopped in front of him. Jack held out his hand, and the diamond settled into his palm.

  “Thank you,” Jack said to the ghost girl. “I’ll put it back in its place now.”

  Carefully holding the diamond, Jack crossed the room. Annie pulled the tapestry aside, and Jack opened the golden door of the cabinet.

  He looked one last time at the shining stone. “I really felt brave when I was carrying this diamond,” he said softly.

  “Jack,” said Annie, “you were pretty brave just now without it.”

  “Indeed you were,” said Teddy.

  Jack smiled. He carefully put the Diamond of Destiny back in its place and closed the golden door. Then Annie covered the cabinet once more with the tapestry.

  The air in the nursery grew warmer. A girl began to take shape beside Teddy. She wore a white nightgown. She had dark curly hair. She was about Teddy’s age.

  At the chess table, two boys took shape, too. They looked just alike. They were twins about Annie’s age.

  At first the children were a bit pale and cloudy. Slowly they grew more and more visible, until they were solid and rosy-cheeked.

  At the same time, a large brown dog became visible by the door. He barked and ran to the girl.

  “Oliver!” she cried. She hugged him. Then she looked at Jack, Annie, and Teddy. She gave them a big smile. “Hello,” she said.

  “Hi!” said Annie. “Are the three of you the only people in this castle?”

  “Oh, no, everyone else is here, too,” the girl said, “but they were all asleep when the Raven King stole the diamond. We were supposed to be asleep, too. But sometimes we like to sneak out of bed and play. We were playing hide-and-seek when I found the secret door behind the tapestry. I wanted to see the diamond better, so I put it on the window ledge to catch the moonlight. Then Tom and Henry started to play chess—” She pointed to the boys.

  “Gwendolyn started spinning,” said Tom. “And Oliver went down to the great hall to look for scraps.”

  “That’s when the Raven King swooped down to the window and stole the diamond,” said Gwendolyn. “Before we could even go tell our mother and father, we began to fade away.”

  “Mother! Father!” said Tom, as if he’d just remembered their parents. “We must wake them, Gwendolyn!”

  “I know,” she said. “We shall go upstairs and wake them at once. Since they were sleeping, I suspect they never even knew they were invisible!”

  Gwendolyn took her brothers’ hands, and the three of them started out of the nursery. At the door, she looked back at Jack, Annie, and Teddy. “Thank you for helping us,” she said, “whoever you are.”

  The duke’s children then slipped out of the nursery. Oliver grabbed his bone and bounded after them.

  Jack handed the hazel twig to Teddy.

  “Listen,” Jack said. “I don’t think this is something that kids should play with—even sorcerer kids. You’d better give it back to your cousin.”

  “Aye, perhaps that is a good plan,” said Teddy. He grinned impishly as he slipped the twig back into his pocket. Then he gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

  Jack and Annie nodded.

  Teddy picked up his lantern and blew out the candle. Then he led them all out of the castle nursery into the hallway. As they started down the stairs, servants rushed by.

  “Ring the bells!” one said.

  “Bring water for the duke and duchess!” said another.

  “We’re getting a late start today!” said a third.

  Jack, Annie, and Teddy kept winding down the stairs, past the great hall, past the armor room, down to the entrance of the keep.

  As they stepped into the courtyard, bright sunlight shone on the castle towers. The bells began to ring. Roosters crowed. Horses neighed.

  Servants were making a big cooking fire. A blacksmith was pounding his anvil. A milkmaid was hauling her pails.

  In the bright daylight, Jack, Annie, and, Teddy walked through the busy courtyard. They passed through the gatehouse and crossed the wooden bridge. When they got to the other side, they looked back.

  Archers now stood guard on top of the castle walls.

  Teddy waved to them. Then he looked at Jack and Annie. “Order has returned to the castle!” he said. “Our mission is done!”

  Laughing, they ran through the patch of trees toward the small village. As they hurried along the dirt path past the cottages, they saw villagers in their doorways. They were all staring in the direction of the ringing castle bells.

  Maggie, the old woman, grinned toothlessly at the three of them. “The bells are ringing again,” she said in a creaky voice.

  “Yes!” said Jack. “The boys and the girl and the hound are all back! There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore. The whole castle is alive and well!”

  Jack, Annie, and Teddy left the village and headed for the woods. As they walked through the fallen leaves, sunlight filtered down through the tree branches.

  Merlin’s words echoed in Jack’s mind: You are about to enter a tunnel of fear. Proceed onward with courage, and you will come out into the light.

  Jack looked around. The forest was bright with the most beautiful golden light he had ever seen.

  Jack, Annie, and Teddy crunched through fallen leaves until they came to Merlin’s oak. They found the hidden door near the rope ladder. Teddy pushed on the bark.

  The door opened. One by one, they slipped into the candlelit hollow of the tree trunk. Merlin was sitting in his tall wooden chair.

  “So you restored order to the castle?” he said calmly.

  “Yes, sir,” said Teddy. “Had to use a bit of magic, but now all is well.”

  “Your rhyming must have improved,” Merlin said to Teddy.

  Teddy grinned sheepishly. “Well, to be truthful, the real magic was not in my rhymes. ’Twas the magic of Jack and Annie’s courage and kindness that saved the day—and saved me, too.”

  “Indeed?” said Merlin.

  “Aye,” said Teddy. “They have a magic as powerful as any sorcerer’s rhymes or enchanted hazel twig.”

  Merlin raised a bushy eyebrow. “Enchanted hazel twig?” he said.

  “’Tis only a figure of speech,” Teddy said quickly.

  Merlin turned to Jack and Annie. “I thank you for your help,” he said. “All the realm of Camelot thanks you.”

  “You’re welcome,” they said.

  Merlin stood up. “Come along, my boy,” he said to Teddy. “I will help speed you back to Morgan now. My research is done. We must return these rare books to her library.”

  He reached down and picked up a stack of ancient-looking books from the floor. He piled them into Teddy’s arms.

  Teddy turned awkwardly with his books. Then he and Jack and Annie followed Merlin out of the heart of the oak.

  The sun had risen higher in the sky. The woods were still.

  Teddy peered over the tops of the books. “I suppose we must say good-bye now,” he said to Jack and Annie.

  “When will we see you again?” asked Annie.

  “When duty calls, I suppose,” said Teddy. He looked at Merlin.

  The magician smiled.

  “Will you be able to find your way home al
l right?” Teddy asked them.

  “Oh, sure,” said Jack. “The tree house will take us back.”

  He and Annie looked up at the magic tree house at the top of the oak. A sudden gust of wind rustled the leaves.

  Jack and Annie turned back to Merlin and Teddy. But they were gone. Bright yellow leaves swirled and danced in the spot where they’d been standing.

  “Wow …,” said Annie.

  “Yeah …,” said Jack.

  “Well,” said Annie, sighing. “Onward?”

  “Homeward!” said Jack.

  Annie started up the rope ladder. Jack followed. When they climbed inside the tree house, Merlin’s leaf invitation was fluttering off the floor. Before it could blow out the window, Annie grabbed it. She pointed to the words Frog Creek.

  “I wish we could go there!” she said.

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster!

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  * * *

  Jack opened his eyes. He and Annie sat quietly on the floor of the tree house for a moment. Jack looked out the window. High overhead, a bird was soaring through the dusky sky.

  Jack could hardly believe that just a little while ago, he had been a bird himself.

  “Ready to go home?” said Annie.

  Jack nodded. There was no way to explain what had just happened to them, he thought. There was no way to even talk about it.

  Annie carefully placed Merlin’s autumn leaf in the corner of the tree house, next to their Royal Christmas Invitation. Then she and Jack climbed down the ladder and started through the woods.

  In the gathering dark of Halloween night, nothing seemed very spooky. Jack knew all the trees. He knew the familiar path out to their street.

  As he and Annie headed toward home, three creatures stepped onto the sidewalk in front of them—a hideous witch, a grinning skeleton, and a huge, hairy eyeball.

  The creatures cackled and rattled and hissed.

  Jack and Annie laughed.

  “Oh, brother,” said Jack.

  “Good costumes,” said Annie.

  Jack and Annie crossed their yard and climbed their front steps. “Are you ready for trick-or-treating?” said Annie.