They rushed into the great hall. Thousands of bats were flying about. Hundreds of black cats, their green eyes shining, howled and meowed, spat and clawed at them. Mika drew his sword and began to slash about.
“You’ll just have to help, Elgi,” Flame said. “I wish all these bats and cats were gone.”
Elgi’s mist form flowed into the fray. Every time he touched a cat it disappeared. Just then Branstookah gave a tremendous growl. The spell was on him again.
“Keep away from Branstookah!” Mika shouted to the others. “I’m not going to stop him this time.”
Flame ran and hid behind the door. Branstookah had turned into a fearful monster. He raged and snapped. Since the only things within his reach were bats and cats, he snapped them up by the dozens in his huge jaws. Every time he sank his teeth into a cat or a bat there was a flash of green light, yellow smoke and a smell of sulphur, and the creature vanished. They were not real bats and cats, but witch’s demons. When they were killed they merely resumed their demon forms and went shrieking out on the wind.
Outside the wind was roaring, lashing the trees about. It had begun to storm and thunder, and flashes of lightning mingled with the green fire from the demons. Mika wondered where the servants were, why they weren’t there helping him. There was not one to be seen. Every cat or bat he pierced with his sword exploded in smoke. Elgi surrounded dozens of them at once, and they also exploded with loud bangs. The noise was ear-splitting.
Branstookah too was destroying the witch’s cats at a great rate. Her spell on him was working against her. Suddenly a piercing shriek arose, louder than the terrific din now going on, and there was the witch herself, riding around and around the great hall on a broomstick.
“Biddle lumps!” she screeched. “Warga widdle! Squeek-eek-bediddle-deek! That’ll fix you! Eating my cats and bats!”
Branstookah ceased his wild raging, looking about amazed. The spell was gone.
“Bite them anyway, Branstookah!” Mika shouted.
The witched laughed evilly. “I’ll fix you!” She swooped down, snatched Flame from behind the door, and swooshed out through the window, all the cats and bats that were left trailing her into the black storm. The noise of their going died away, and soon the only sound to be heard was the thunder and wind and rain.
Mika mopped his face and looked at Branstookah. Elgi was not to be seen. He was, of course, with Flame.
Branstookah made a terrible face. “I have the most awful taste of sulphur in my mouth. I’d just as soon have eaten so many firecrackers.”
“Drink some water,” Mika advised him, “while I get my witch-finder. We must go right after them.” He hurried toward the library. On the stairs he saw one of the maids, sound asleep. He shook her, but she slept on. The witch, of course. She had probably put them all to sleep. They would have to stay that way until he got back.
In the library he took a green and orange wand from a shelf. This wand always pointed toward witches. Mika had never used it. He had never wanted to find a witch before now. Now, how was he going to tell it which witch to point at? He ran downstairs, and there was the magician Glauz, striding about angrily.
“You’ve ruined the atmosphere! Thunder and lightning, screams and sulphur, cats, bats, witches! You must stop it at once!”
“I wish I could,” Mika told him. “I’m glad you’ve come. Maybe you can tell me the names of some witches.”
“What?”
Quickly Mika told him about Flame, and Elgi, and how she had offended the witch. “I’ve got to know her name,” he added.
“Always in trouble,” Glauz said. “I’ll write you a list of witches and you can try them all, but it was probably Elbildish. She has a terrible temper. She ought to be locked up.”
He gave Mika a list of witches, and another paper on which he wrote a powerful spell. “You have to face her, and put this spell on her before she can put one on you. This will turn her into a gnarly old tree for three thousand years, and all the cats and bats will have to sit in the tree until the enchantment is over. But if she finishes first she’ll be twice as powerful as before, and there’s no telling what will happen to you. Don’t use it unless you have to.”
“I should think not,” Mika said.
“Now get along and get this over with as soon as possible. How can I concentrate with storms and demons screeching through the air? It takes my mind off my work. Goodbye.”
Glauz faded away and Mika and Branstookah were alone in the great hall of the castle.
19
ON THE WITCH’S MOUNTAIN
Mika said, “suppose I ride on your back, and you take us wherever the wand points.”
Branstookah agreed, and after packing a knapsack with food and water, Mika climbed on his back. “Find Elbildish,” he said to the wand, and it turned in his hand and pointed in the direction in which the witch had gone. Branstookah stepped through the door and flew off after the witch. The wind blew so fiercely that he was blown this way and that as he surged through the black night. Mika directed him so that he was always flying with the wand exactly between his horns.
The dragon flew very high because it was so dark and he didn’t want to run into any trees or mountains. He flew all night long. At last he was so tired he could hardly move his wings. “I must rest a while,” he said. “I wish I could see where to land.”
“It’s getting lighter,” Mika answered. “If you can go on a little longer we’ll be able to see where we are.”
“I’ll try.” Branstookah struggled on, sinking lower and lower. By the first faint streaks of dawn they could see the outlines of a mountain, and he headed for it and at length sank thankfully on the very top.
As Branstookah lay panting, Mika walked about and stretched his cramped legs. “Eat something,” he said. “You’ll feel better.”
He opened the knapsack and both of them ate a little. Branstookah could have eaten everything in one bite, but he insisted he wasn’t hungry, and would only eat a small amount. The little bird, who had come with them, pecked at the crumbs.
As the black of night turned to gray, and the gray to the pink of dawn, they saw that they stood on a bare mountain top. Nothing but sand and great bare rocks, piled one on top of the other, as they had been since the world began. No bird flew past, no breeze touched their faces. Not a cloud was in the sky.
“It’s going to be terribly hot,” Mika said, “when the sun begins to reflect off these rocks.”
“I can’t go on until I’ve rested,” Branstookah said. “Heat doesn’t bother me. Get under my wing in the shade.”
As he spoke he fell sound asleep. Mika crept under his wing, and the bird came too. It grew hotter and hotter. Mika felt as if he would smother. Once he got out from under the dragon’s wing, and was struck by a blast of heat from the sun. Quickly he got back in the shade.
Branstookah slept on, his other wing over his face. About noon, when Mika felt he couldn’t stand it another minute, Branstookah sat up with a sigh and looked around.
“This is witch country all right. Are you ready to go on?”
“I should say so,” Mika said. “I’m practically roasted.”
It wasn’t so hot traveling through the air, away from the burning rocks. Mika read the spell Glauz had given him, and memorized it. He muttered it over and over until he could say it in ten seconds. When he looked up from the paper he saw that the wand pointed to a tall, tall mountain in the distance. As they drew near it they saw, on the topmost crag, a gray and crumbly old stone house, looking very gloomy and evil even in the light of day.
“Hurry, Branstookah,” Mika urged him. “If they traveled the whole way without stopping, she may be asleep. Maybe we can surprise her.”
As they flew above the mountain the wand turned in Mika’s hand and pointed straight at the old stone house. Branstookah landed in a dark, dismal wood a good way from the house.
“You stay here,” Mika said. “You’re so large she might see you. I’ve brought my
cloak of invisibility. I’ll take the bird and send him back with a message.”
He set off for the witch’s house, wearing the cloak, with the little pink bird on his shoulder. He didn’t know exactly what he meant to do. Elbildish might not be the right witch, but he was fairly sure she was, for surely there wouldn’t be two witches so close together.
“See if you can find Flame,” he said to the bird. It evidently understood him, because it flew away at once. Mika went after it as fast as he could over the rocky mountain top. He found the bird flying around a little stone hut, near the house but not part of it.
“I hope she’s in there,” he said to himself. “If she’s not deep down in a dungeon it will be much easier to get her out.”
He crept up to the hut in his invisible cloak. The bird settled on his shoulder again and became invisible too. The hut door was made of heavy wood, with stout iron hinges, iron bolts, and four locks. It would take time to unlock the place even with keys. Mika discovered a small barred window on one side. He peered through and started in surprise. There was Flame, indeed. But also—there was Floam, the Fire Fairy!
“Well!” he murmured. “I’m not the only one who gets in trouble.”
Flame was sitting on a rude wooden stool by a wooden table, on the edge of which sat Floam, swinging his feet. These were the only furnishings in the hut, which had only one room, one window, and a dirt floor. It was not a pleasant place.
Flame didn’t look very pleasant either. She and Floam were quarreling.
“Only a Fire Fairy could cope with your temper,” Floam was saying.
“Hah!” Flame retorted. “It’s bad enough being kidnapped by a witch, but being shut up with a creature like you is really too much. I wish—”
There was a loud groan from the corner of the room, and Mika saw that Elgi was there too. “Will you stop wishing?” he said pettishly.
“I didn’t,” Flame said. “But I don’t see why I can’t wish Mika and Branstookah here. You know they’re trying to find us.”
“It wouldn’t do any good,” Elgi said. “I can’t do anything against that witch’s magic. You wouldn’t be here if I could. I’m sure they’ll find us.”
“I’ve been here with this creature so long,” Flame said, looking scornfully at Floam, “that it seems like years.”
“I’ve been here a year already,” Floam said. “You’ll get used to me.”
“I could never get used to you,” Flame said.
“Yes, you will. You’re very lovely. You look just like a Fire princess.”
“I’m not interested in what you think of me.”
“You should be,” said Floam, “because I’m considering marrying you.”
“Marrying me?” Flame burst into laughter. “Think of it, Elgi. He wants me to have a husband about a foot high!”
Elgi said nothing. He seemed rather bored.
Floam swung his feet undisturbed. “Size means nothing to a fairy. Haven’t you found out that much? Of course Mika can’t change his size just now, but you don’t suppose he’s always been like that, do you?”
“The bigger you are, the more there is to annoy me,” Flame said. “Why don’t you shrink and get through those bars, then?”
“Those bars have a powerful spell on them,” Floam said. “I couldn’t get out if there were no bars at all. They’re for mortals like you. I’m glad you’re not all mortal, though. Your fairy blood will make it much easier.”
“Make what easier?”
“Easier to marry you. Otherwise I might have to do what Mika did, and stay away from Fairyland for a thousand years. Of course, you’re much too young for me.”
“Stop talking about marrying me,” Flame commanded. “I wouldn’t marry you for anything, even if you could grow, and I don’t believe you can.”
“I could make you smaller if I wanted to,” Floam said. “But I think I’d rather be larger myself just at present.”
“Go ahead then,” Flame said. “Prove it.”
“You’ll be sorry if I do.”
“Why?”
“Because the first thing I should do would be to kiss you right on that beautiful, bad-tempered mouth.”
“Heh heh,” laughed Elgi from his corner.
Mika couldn’t help laughing too. They looked so funny, the little Fire Fairy sitting on the edge of the table, swinging his legs calmly, and Flame fairly quivering with rage.
“In a minute,” Floam said, “I shall be exactly six inches taller than you.”
“Don’t you dare!” Flame cried.
Floam leaped lightly from the table, and there he stood, exactly six inches taller than Flame. He seized her by the shoulders and kissed her firmly.
“There,” he said. “Now we are betrothed.”
“Oh, you contemptible creature!” Flame picked up the stool she had been sitting on and threw it at him. Floam dodged it, and it went through Elgi and landed with a thud against the stone wall.
“Love at first sight,” said Floam. “She’s just demonstrating her affection.”
Flame looked around for something else to throw. She froze at the sound of a horrible chuckle, and a rattling at the door. Instead she clutched Floam’s arm as the door slowly opened.
“He he he!” chuckled Elbildish, her nose almost touching her chin as she laughed. “You’re a bit larger than you were the last time I saw you. Well, the more of you the better. My ground worm is very hungry.”
“Ground worm?” Flame said faintly.
“My worm Wryther,” said the witch with an unpleasant chortle. “Very soon, now. Very soon. He comes up at sundown for his dinner. I’ll teach you not to interfere with the most powerful witch in the world!”
She started to close the door again. Floam rushed toward her, but Elbildish merely stretched out her bony hand, and he was stopped in his tracks. She backed out and closed the door, laughing.
Floam sat down at the table again and sighed.
“Is she really the most powerful witch in the world?” Flame asked.
“Probably,” he said. “And it’s my fault, too.”
“Why?”
“Because I had a spell to overcome her, but she was too quick for me, and put a spell on me first, and it made her twice as powerful as she was before. She put me in here, and she’s been perfectly awful ever since.”
Mika thought this must be the same spell that Glauz had given him. “And if I use it and it doesn’t work, she’ll be four times as powerful, and nothing will stop her,” he said to himself.
“Flame!” he called softly. “Floam! Elgi!”
“It’s Mika,” Flame exclaimed. “Where are you?”
“At the window, but you can’t see me. I’m going to try to unlock the door, but I’m not sure I can.”
“I knew he’d come,” he heard Flame say as he went around to the door. He tried the bolts but he couldn’t pull them back. He knew there was a spell on them. He took out his wand and tried one spell and then another—all the magic he could think of for opening doors, but nothing happened. Floam had made Elbildish so powerful that Mika’s magic didn’t work at all. If he had a little time, he was sure he could work out something. But it was nearly sundown now. He would have to face the witch.
Then he saw her coming back. Quickly he stepped aside, well out of her way.
When she got to the door, she said, “Krumkriddle!” and the bolts unbolted themselves, and the locks unlocked.
20
THE WORM
Elbildish said, “come,” and they came out of the hut and followed her. They couldn’t help themselves.
“Fly to Branstookah,” Mika whispered to the little bird. “Tell him to come quickly, and attract the witch’s attention. Tell him to roar and scream. Hurry!”
The bird flew away, and Mika hurried after Elbildish and her captives. Right behind the witch they marched, as though they didn’t know what they were doing. They went around the witch’s house, which sat on the edge of a steep, rocky cliff. Just at
the edge of the cliff a stake was driven into the ground, and in front of the stake was a huge hole in the mountain.
“Go the stake,” Elbildish commanded, and Flame and Floam and Elgi walked over to it.
“Rope, bind!” screamed the witch, and a coil of rope, which had been lying at the foot of the stake, rose in the air and began to wind itself around Flame and Floam, and through Elgi, binding them to the stake.
The sun was almost down. Why didn’t Branstookah come? If he wasn’t there soon it would be too late. Mika could hear a rumbling and grumbling far down in the earth, and he knew it must be the ground worm getting ready to come out of its hole. Just then, to his joy, Mika heard a roaring of wings, and there was Branstookah, flying toward them as fast as he could, growling and gnashing his teeth.
Mika stepped up and faced Elbildish. She was looking at Branstookah. Glauz hadn’t said he couldn’t wear his invisible cloak. Mika began speaking as fast as he could. The moment she heard his voice the witch, without waiting to see where he was, started her own spell only seconds behind him.
Mika didn’t forget a word of the spell, and he never paused for breath. As he said the last words, Elbildish was still speaking. He had won!
Her words stopped, she screamed once in horror, and threw up her arms. Her arms stiffened in the air, her body bent and took root, and the scream died away like wind in a tree-top. She had turned into a gnarly old tree.
Then the air was filled with the howling shapes of bats and cats, who flew and climbed on the tree and settled on the limbs so thickly that there was very little of the witch Elbildish to be seen at all. They would sit there for three thousand years.
Mika gave a sigh of relief and took off his cloak of invisibility. It had been a close call.
“Mika! Mika!” Flame called frantically. “The ground worm!”
Mika turned quickly and to his horror saw the ground worm rearing out of its hole. It was an enormous serpent about four feet thick. It was a pale, sickly yellow, and its eyes were flat and dull. Its open mouth was green inside, with long, sharp yellow teeth. It had a forked green tongue. It swayed back and forth, reaching toward Flame and Floam, who were still bound to the stake.
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