Shadow Castle

by MARIAN COCKRELL

  Mika rushed toward it, drawing his sword. But Branstookah was ahead of him. He lunged forward and just as Flame felt the cold breath of the worm in her face, Branstookah seized it just back of its head.

  “Wish to get away!” Elgi was shouting.

  But Flame, who hadn’t realized that Elgi’s magic would work now that the witch was out of the way, had fainted when the worm’s terrible head came so near. Floam was holding her up.

  As the dragon’s powerful teeth closed on it, the ground worm began to jerk its head furiously, back and forth, with terrible force. Branstookah held on. He braced his claws and pulled. The serpent thrashed about, trying to pull Branstookah down into its hole. Mika, standing with his sword ready, was afraid to plunge it into the serpent, for fear he might strike Branstookah by mistake.

  The fight raged on. Once Branstookah managed to pull the worm twenty feet out of its hole, and Mika struck with his sword again and again. Then Wryther gave a sudden lunge and wriggle back into the ground, almost taking the dragon with him. The cats and bats leaped about and howled and squeaked on the tree that had been Elbildish.

  Branstookah was panting heavily. His jaws never loosed their grip, but he was very tired and it seemed that he would never be able to pull the serpent out of its hole. In fact, the worm was pulling Branstookah ever nearer the hole.

  Then Wryther lunged with all its force, and Branstookah’s claws threw out dirt and stones as he slid stiffly over the ground toward the hole. Then, right at the edge, all at once it was over. The worm became still, and hung limply. The dragon’s powerful jaws had almost cut its head off.

  Flame’s eyes opened and she whimpered when she saw the worm.

  Branstookah, after a little rest, pulled and pulled, dragging the ground worm Wryther out of its hole. It seemed the worm would never end.

  “No wonder you couldn’t get it out,” Mika said, as the serpent’s tail finally appeared over the edge of the hole. “It must be at least seventy feet long.”

  Branstookah let go the worm’s head. “It—doesn’t—taste—very good,” he said between breaths, as he lay down, panting, to recover from the struggle.

  “I wish we weren’t tied to this stake,” Flame said, and looked surprised when the rope immediately fell away from them.

  “If you hadn’t gone and fainted,” Elgi said, “you could have wished for me to help Branstookah. You know I can’t do anything unless you say so.”

  “Leave her alone,” Floam said. “Anybody would have fainted.”

  Flame ran over and threw her arms around Branstookah—as far as they would go, that is. “Oh Branstookah, we might have lost you, you dear, wonderful dragon!”

  Branstookah patted her on the head. “Well, aren’t you silly. I couldn’t possibly fit into that hole.”

  Flame and Floam both looked a little embarrassed. “Couldn’t you shove it back in its hole?” Flame said. “It’s so ugly I hate to look at it.”

  Mika began cutting the worm in pieces with his sword, pushing each piece into the hole. “I’m not going to give it a chance to revive,” he said. Branstookah lay and watched him, too tired to move.

  As Mika pushed the last section of the serpent into the hole with his foot, there was a shaking of the earth, and then the ground closed over the monster. Right before their eyes the hole disappeared, and the worm was buried deep in the mountain. Then the stake to which Flame and Floam had been tied began to sink into the earth, and in a moment it too was gone.

  “Gadzooks!” said Floam. “Well, that’s that. I’m certainly grateful to you,” he said to Mika and Branstookah. “I thought we were going to be inside that worm in another minute.”

  “This is my friend Branstookah,” Mika told Floam. “Branstookah, this is Floam, son of the general in command of the army of the King of the Fire Fairies. He and I have been in trouble together before.”

  “He means he got me out of trouble before,” Floam said.

  “Did you say you’d been here a year?” Mika asked.

  “Yes. I was studying magic, and I think I was a mite too soon trying out my spells on witches. I don’t know why she didn’t feed me to the worm before now. I think she was lonesome and wanted someone to talk to, even if only a prisoner.”

  “Why don’t we go home?” Mika said.

  “Let’s,” said Floam. “And we’ll give a ball to celebrate my betrothal.”

  “Stop talking like that!” Flame cried. “I wish you were home in your old Fire country, where you couldn’t bother me!”

  Immediately Floam was gone, and Elgi too, but he was back again almost at once.

  “Oh, dear,” Flame said. “I didn’t mean it.”

  “When are you going to start thinking before you speak?” Elgi said severely. “Do you want me to go back and get him? He said to tell you he wouldn’t come back until you sent for him.”

  “Well, I won’t send for him,” Flame said stubbornly.

  “You can send for him from the castle,” Mika said.

  “I won’t send for him,” Flame repeated.

  Mika took a last look at the rocky mountain top, and thought how lucky they were to have conquered Elbildish. Maybe after three thousand years to think things over, she’d be easier to get along with.

  “Are you ready?” he asked them. He had a new spell, that would take you where you wanted to go, if you knew where that was. He wasn’t certain that even the West Wind could carry Branstookah. He turned a ring on his finger and at once they were all in the enchanted valley, right in front of the castle, so quickly that Branstookah was still lying down.

  21

  GOODBYE

  And here I am,” said Elgi. “Still right here. Can’t anyone release me from this mistake of Flame’s?”

  “I think Flumpdoria’s got a book of magic for such cases,” Mika said. “I can’t go there to get it though. Flame, suppose you wish that you had Flumpdoria’s book on Counteracting Magical Mistakes.”

  “I wish I had Flumpdoria’s book on Counteracting Magical Mistakes.”

  Almost as once Elgi had gone and come back with the book.

  “I hope Flumpdoria doesn’t miss it before we’re through with it,” Mika said. “I’ll need a little time to read the recipe. Lets go in and have dinner.”

  They went into the castle and found the servants much upset. They told Mika that they had all waked up from sleeping in the most unusual places, all over the castle.

  “Elbildish’s spell was probably taken away from you when she was turned into a tree,” Mika said, and told them what had happened while they were asleep.

  All through dinner Flame was silent and sad. She hardly said a word.

  After dinner Mika took the book to his library to study it, promising Elgi that he would be released from the spell the next morning.

  The next day they all gathered on the castle lawn.

  “I’m ready to begin,” Mika said. “I’m sure your troubles will soon be over, Elgi. You’ve been very kind and helpful, and I hope you’ll come back and see us once in a while even though you don’t have to.”

  “Yes, do, Elgi,” Flame said. “I’m sorry I got you into so much trouble.”

  “It was yourself you got into trouble, not me,” Elgi said. “Is there anything you’d like me to do before I go? If I do go,” he added doubtfully.

  Branstookah coughed delicately. Elgi looked at him.

  “I’d like my mountain moved,” said the dragon. “If it won’t be too much for you, Elgi.”

  “Certainly not. Where do you want it?”

  “I thought I’d like to have it in Fairyland. There’s no pleasure in living near mortals any more. Anywhere. Just any convenient spot.”

  “Just wish Branstookah’s mountain into Fairyland,” Elgi said to Flame, “and I’ll set it down in what looks like a good place.”

  Flame wished, and Elgi vanished. He was gone quite five minutes this time.

  “I put it down between the Kingdom of the Blue Elves and the Fire Kingdom,
” Elgi said, puffing, when he returned.

  “Fire Kingdom,” Flame murmured to herself.

  “I got it over the border of Blue Elf country a bit by mistake,” Elgi said, “and all that part of your mountain turned blue.”

  “I like blue,” Branstookah said. “Thank you so much, Elgi.”

  “Could you take this book back before you go?” Mika asked.

  “Of course,” said Elgi.

  “Now,” Mika said. “Are we ready? I want you to be very quiet while I’m performing this magic.” No one said anything.

  “All right.” He raised his hand and started to speak.

  “Wait!” Flame cried. “Oh dear!”

  “What’s the matter?” Mika asked.

  “I shouldn’t have been so hasty. I have such a bad temper! He is very handsome, too.” She began to cry.

  “Floam,” said Elgi. “She wants him back.”

  “Oh,” said Mika. “Do you care for him?”

  “I—I believe I do,” Flame whispered.

  “Go ahead,” Elgi said. “Wish.”

  “I wish Floam were here,” Flame said, and in a moment there he stood.

  “Well, well,” he said cheerfully. “I’ve missed you, my dear. But you are so sudden. I was in the middle of a conversation with my father. I disappeared from under his very nose, in fact. I’m afraid he’s annoyed.”

  “Oh,” Flame sighed. “Your family will never like me.”

  “They’ll love you,” Floam said, putting his arm around her.

  “I must be going,” Elgi reminded them.

  “Oh, Elgi dear, you will come back to see us once in a while, won’t you?”

  “I’ll be at the wedding,” Elgi said.

  “Quiet now,” Mika said. They were all silent and he began the magic incantation again. “Rimbel abra dabcum err…”

  It was quite long, and as he talked Elgi’s form grew dimmer and dimmer, until at the last word he vanished completely.

  “Goodbye! Goodbye!” they heard him call in a faint, far-off voice.

  They stood without speaking for a moment, thinking of Elgi and how much they had come to like him.

  “Well,” Flame said at last, “I wish—” She clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “It’s all right,” Floam said, laughing. “Elgi isn’t here to get your wish for you.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t wish anyway,” Flame said. “Without thinking.”

  “We’ll study magic together,” Floam said, looking satisfied at that notion.

  Michael stopped talking, and Lucy looked up. “Is that all?” she asked.

  Michael stood up. “It’s all there’s time for, little Lucy. You must go, right away. Look.”

  Lucy looked, and saw that the shadows were all running about, waving their arms excitedly.

  “What’re they doing, Michael?”

  “They know it’s almost time,” Michael said. “We must hurry.”

  Lucy took a last look at the wonderful shadow room as they went through the door, and then they were going down again, down the steep, narrow stairs hung with cobwebs.

  Michael hurried her through the castle and out into the valley.

  “There’s not much time,” he said. “I’m very glad you came, Lucy. I’ve enjoyed your visit.”

  “Time for what?” Lucy said.

  Michael paid no attention. “You must take Flumpy with you,” he said hurriedly. “I give him to you. Go with Lucy, Flumpy.”

  He was slipping a ring off his finger. He took her hand and slipped the ring on her middle finger. The ring, which had fitted Michael, became smaller as it slipped onto Lucy’s hand and fitted her small finger as though it had been made for it.

  She stared at it wonderingly.

  “Always wear this ring,” Michael said. “Never take it off. You may come back to the enchanted valley whenever you want to. But it will be different. It will always be different.”

  “Oh, may I?” Lucy exclaimed delightedly.

  “Some time you may want to bring someone with you,” Michael went on, “but if he or she isn’t the kind of person who should enter the enchanted valley, you will never find the tunnel while he is with you. You can tell by the ring. If you touch someone with the ring, and it glows with a fairy fire, you’ll know he is the kind of person you may take into the valley.”

  Suddenly Michael turned and started back into the castle.

  “Run, Lucy,” he said urgently. “Run! Go through the tunnel. The ring will protect you from the goblins. Hurry! The time is up!”

  Lucy didn’t know what he meant, but she ran as fast as she could toward the tunnel, and stopped only when she had reached the goblin grass that grew in front of it. There she turned for a last look at the enchanted valley.

  It was getting dark, and the strange green-blue sky seemed to toss about, flowing back and forth as though it were water instead of air. The goblin grass waved, although there was no wind. There was no sound anywhere.

  She looked at the castle and at Michael standing in front of it, waving to her.

  As she stood gazing at it, the castle simply disappeared. It wasn’t there any more. It was gone. Michael was gone, too. Lucy was looking out over a valley of grass and trees and far mountains and—nothing, nothing else.

  Then she knew. She waved her hand toward where the castle had been.

  “Goodbye, Michael!” she called softly. “Goodbye, Mika! I’m glad the thousand years are up. I’ll come back and see you.”

  Then she turned and ran as fast as she could through the dark tunnel, with Flumpy at her heels.

  “That’s why he was in a hurry,” Lucy thought as she ran along. “Suppose I had been in the castle when it went away? I wonder…”

  The sun was almost down when Lucy reached home, although she had run most of the way.

  “Where have you been, child?” her grandmother asked. “I was beginning to worry about you. Why, what’s this?”

  “This is Flumpdoria,” Lucy said. “He’s mine. Mika gave him to me. I expect he’s a human dog, and couldn’t go to Fairyland.”

  “Whatever are you talking about?” Grandma exclaimed, as she shook hands with Flumpy, who had put up a paw.

  So Lucy told her the whole story. “And I’m sure he’s Mika himself,” she finished, “and the thousand years and seven days must have been over, because the castle went away, and he did too, and now he’s with Gloria again, and I’m so glad!”

  Grandma sat a long time gazing in silence at the magic ring, after Lucy had told her everything.

  “It’s a lucky thing to be a friend of the little people,” she said at last. “But when you go back to the enchanted valley you must tell me, dear. I must always know where you are.”

  She sighed and said that Lucy must go to bed now.

  That night in her bed, Lucy felt the magic ring on her finger and wondered what she would find when she went again to the enchanted valley. Michael—Mika—had said it would all be different.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Illustrated by Olive Bailey.

  First Edition published 1945 by Whittlesey House.

  Copyright © 1945, 2013 by Amanda Cockrell

  ISBN: 978-1-5040-2972-8

  Distributed in 2016 by Open Road Distribution

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  New York, NY 10038

  www.openroadmedia.com