Magic and Matchmaking: A variation of Emma volume 1 (The Jane Austen Fairy Tales)
Page 26
It should have been easy. The words spoken with clarity and authority; the wand activated by the desire of the wand-bearer, attaching its power to the spoken words. All Rue had to do was speak and direct everything in the direction of the sprite.
But what Rue could not see at that moment, because of her eyes being shut, was the sudden rustle of bushes beyond, and the appearance of a blue head on a long neck, a head with glowing red eyes.
The sprite saw it from its high vantage and shrieked, letting go of a pinecone the size of a goose egg, which struck Rue on the head just as she had begun the first line:
‘All unnatural forms…’
She gave a cry of pain, whirled away from the direction of the sprite, cried out, ‘Blasted Bullfrogs!’ and power shot out of her wand.
There was an explosion of light. The glare passed, and Rue opened her eyes at the exact moment that Elizabeth screamed and Ben Larkins shouted and the donkey gave a deafening bray.
‘Rue! What have you done?’ shrieked Elizabeth, rushing to gather up something small and yellowish on the ground.
Rue looked about her, feeling bewildered. ‘What happened?’
‘Master Smith!’ said Elizabeth, holding out her hands, which was cupping something between them.
Elizabeth opened her fingers enough to show what she held.
‘It’s a frog!’ Rue still did not understand.
‘It’s Master Smith!’ yelled Elizabeth. ‘You turned Master Smith into a bullfrog!’ There was a pile of clothing on the ground, including a pair of laced up boots – the very clothes Master Smith had been wearing!
Rue suddenly felt light-headed, as though the world were spinning round. ‘No!’ she heard herself saying over and again. ’No, no, NO!’
‘YES!’ shouted Elizabeth. ‘Now, DO SOMETHING!’
‘Do something, do something,’ repeated Rue, nodding her head, feeling shocked and panicked and confused, both by the blow to her head and the shock to her senses at seeing Master Smith turned into a frog.
‘Be calm,’ she told herself. ‘Be calm. You must be calm. Recall your training.’ Oh, this was dreadful!
‘Hurry, Rue!’ urged Elizabeth, holding out her hands. ‘He’s squirming and wriggling, I don’t know how much longer I can hold him!’
Ben Larkins looked on in horror. He was staring wildly between the place where Master Smith had stood and Elizabeth’s outstretched hands, and was talking in gibberish about nuts and witches and dragons. Master Smith’s donkey now had no master to hold him, and he was growing skittish with all the shouting and pinecones raining down.
‘Hold that donkey!’ Rue commanded Ben, and it seemed to bring him a little out of his shock to have something to do. It made Rue feel a mite better to have thought of a sensible order. She could do this. She could make a spell that would bring Master Smith back. She had to. This was life and death. She could not leave Master Smith to the fate of a bullfrog. But, oh, how her head spun.
She closed her eyes and immediately felt dizzy and faint. She forced herself to say the spell, but the words felt treacly and muddled.
‘All natural forms unmake,’ garbled Rue, getting the words disordered. Her confusion was compounded by Ben and Elizabeth shrieking the word – ‘Dragon!’ at the same moment, and the donkey braying in terror.
Rue did not mean to point her wand at Ben, who stood gripping the donkey’s halter. ‘True form untake…’ she gasped just before the power shot out of the wand. The dizziness from the blow to her head overwhelmed her and she staggered to the ground, the wand flying from her hand.
Just as she fell, she thought she heard Elizabeth shouting, ‘No, no! Leave it!’ and as Rue’s eyes closed upon the world, the last thing she saw was the wand flying through the air like a stick, and a small blue dragon leaping after it with a shriek of glee.
Rue opened her eyes and heard a frog croaking the saddest croak she had ever heard.
‘Oh no. This isn’t real.’
‘You made it worse, Rue!’ sobbed Elizabeth. ‘Master Smith is still a frog, and Ben is a donkey and a dragon ate the wand!’
‘The… dragon… ate the wand? Ben… is… a… donkey?’ The world spun round again, and this time it lurched into blackness, as Rue fainted.
What Happens Next?
How will Rue undo her dreadful blunders?
What will Harriet and Emma do about their failed matches?
Can Frank Charmall make it to Highbury?
There’s a dragon missing and a wand eaten –
can things get any worse?
To be sure, they can!
Read on to find out what happens next in
Midwinter Mischief
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The Miller’s Girl
a Rumpelstiltskin retelling
Books by Nina Clare
The Thirteenth Princess
Beck
The Miller’s Girl
The Reluctant Wife
The Swan King
The Jane Austen Fairy Tales
Magic and Matchmaking
Midwinter Mischief
Midsummer Madness