Frogspell (5 page)

A Knockout Punch

Max, Ferocious and Adolphus were perched uncomfortably in the upper branches of a large oak tree in Grimeswood Forest. After his spectacular skydive almost to the surface of the moat, Adolphus had suddenly remembered how wings work. He’d corrected his downward plunge with a tremendous jerk, soaring over the heads of the startled castle guards while Max and Ferocious tried hard not to be
sick. Then they had glided for miles over the countryside, always keeping Snotty and Jerome in sight, until they reached the edge of Grimeswood. It was gloomy in the forest, with the closeness of the trees blotting out most of the bright midday sun, and they had had to follow more closely for the last hour, flying carefully from tree to tree. Now, however, it seemed that Snotty and Jerome had at last reached their destination: a small stone hut, deep among the trees.

“I don’t like it, Adrian,” Jerome was saying nervously, looking over his shoulder. “I’m sure we’re being followed.”

“Oh, stop moaning, Jerome!” said Snotty impatiently. “Druid’s toenails! Remind me never to attempt any dark and dangerous deeds with you in tow again, you’re such a wimp! Here, help me with the prince!”

Reluctantly Jerome came and took one end of the bundle Snotty was pulling off his horse, and they staggered into the hut and shut the door.

“Ferocious!” hissed Max. “Change me back! I might be able to get the horses away while they’re in there!”

Ferocious quickly pulled the bottle stopper out with his teeth and shook a few drops of potion onto the orange frog in front of him. There was a flash, followed by a loud crack. The branch Max had been sitting on quite happily as a frog suddenly snapped under the weight of an eleven-year-old boy and he fell to the forest floor like a stunned dragon.

“Oww! Dungballs!” he swore, as he rolled over on the ground and then staggered to his knees. He quickly glanced over at the hut, but all seemed quiet there still. He looked up at the tree.

“Ferocious! Adolphus!” he called quietly. “Come down! I might need backup.”

There was a scramble as the two of them appeared, peering through the lower canopy of leaves. Ferocious leaped down onto Max’s shoulder and nipped his ear affectionately.

“I do prefer you when you’re a boy, Max,”
he said happily. ‘You smell so awful when you’re a frog.’

Max grinned and tickled the rat behind his ears, where he liked it. “Come on,” he said, “let’s see if we can get these horses away…”

He tiptoed over to where the horses were grazing and then stopped. Horses made him nervous at the best of times and these were rather large. He reached out a tentative hand towards the nearest one, which looked up and snorted at him. Max took a hurried step backwards. The horse moved closer, trying to nibble at his tunic.

“Good horse,” said Max, not sounding very convincing. “Good horse – er – just go away, will you? Shoo!”

Just as Max thought he was going to have to leg it, Adolphus shot out of the tree and swooped down on them, breathing fire. The horse jerked its head up and whinnied in terror. In the twitch of a dragon’s tail, the two horses had crashed off down the forest path as fast as their legs would take them.

Adolphus flew triumphantly in circles round Max’s head.

“Did you see that? Did you see them go? Whoosh! I just breathed a little fire and, hey, gone! Hurrah for Adolphus!”

“Fantastic, Adolphus, very good,” said Max hurriedly. “But for goodness’ sake, hide!” and he dived behind a bush just as Snotty and Jerome appeared wide-eyed at the door of the hut.

“What was that?” shouted Jerome in a panic. “Where have the horses gone? I told you we’d been followed!”

“Shut up!” said Snotty savagely. “I don’t know what it was, but the horses have bolted. We’d better try and get them back or Father’ll be furious when he gets here with her.”

“I don’t want—” began Jerome but Snotty cut him off.

“You don’t want to have to share a horse’s back with Lady Morgana, Jerome, believe me. And if we have to share, I’m going with Father.”

This was enough to silence Jerome, who nervously followed Snotty down the forest path after the horses.

“Quick!” whispered Max to the others. “Into the hut!”

As Snotty and Jerome disappeared off into the gloom, Max, Adolphus and Ferocious crept into the small hut. There was a faint yellow light from a lamp hanging from the ceiling, and by it Max could see a small boy, lying on a wooden bed in the corner of the room and looking rather haughtily at them. He was about seven years old, and rather pale and grubby, but Max could see that his clothes were very rich indeed and he had an air of being used to getting his own way.

“We’ve come to rescue you,” said Max. “Can you move? Has the immobility spell worn off?”

“You’re not a very big rescuer,” the boy said. “I think the spell’s worn off a bit, but I can’t move my legs. Are you a wizard?”

“Well, a bit of one,” said Max, modestly.
“That’s how we managed to get here and find you. But I don’t know enough to reverse the spell. We’ll just have to help you till it wears off.”

“I wasn’t thinking of the spell,” said the boy. “I just thought you might need a spell for them,” and he pointed at the door.

Max turned. There stood Jerome, looking wide and meaty, and Snotty, with his arms crossed and a sneer on his face.

Adolphus launched himself at Snotty, breathing fire, but the boy just laughed nastily and sidestepped, at the same time throwing some powder at Adolphus. At once the dragon found his flames had turned pink and were now just faintly warm and tickly.

“Oww! That’s cheating!” squealed Adolphus, but Snotty couldn’t understand dragon and wouldn’t have cared if he could. He stalked further into the room, leaving the way clear for Adolphus to deal with Jerome, Max saw with relief. Even with lukewarm fire, the small dragon was a whirl of
blue-green, flashing scales and claws and teeth, and Jerome fled yelling, with Adolphus chasing him down the path.

“Well, well, what on earth are you doing here?” Snotty drawled, looking Max up and down contemptuously.

“I might ask you the same thing,” said Max, trying to sound braver than he felt.

Snotty Hogsbottom sneered.

“I’m doing a job for an important person – and she won’t want you sticking your nose in. You’re dead meat, Pendragon. You’d better start saying your prayers.”

Max swallowed. Snotty was a lot bigger and heavier than he was and Max didn’t think having Ferocious there to bite his ankles was going to even up the odds enough. But he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He tried to remember all the things his father had told him about hand-to-hand combat. He wished he’d paid a bit more attention in boxing classes. He wished he wasn’t so small. He wished he had
bigger biceps…

Measuring up the distance to Snotty’s face, Max recalled one piece of useful advice from Sir Bertram: “Straight on the nose, son, when they’re least expecting it. Put your whole body into it!”

Snotty was reaching into his jacket and starting to pull out a potion bottle. It was now or never. Max launched himself, kicking off with his legs, throwing his arm forward and following it with his shoulder, aiming his fist right at the centre of Snotty’s surprised-looking face.

WHAM!

His fist completely missed Snotty’s face, but the force of his charge carried him straight on and sent the bigger boy flying. Snotty’s head hit the stone wall of the hut with a crack! and he slumped to the floor like a sack of corn.

Max scrambled up from the floor and looked down at Snotty. He had gone a slightly funny colour and he appeared to be completely out for the count, but he was still breathing.

“Wow!” said the prince, in awe. “That was amazing!”

“Yes, well done, Max,” said Ferocious, sitting on Snotty’s stomach and calmly cleaning his whiskers. “Of course, you couldn’t have done it without me distracting him with a few well-aimed nips to the ankles, but still – your father would be proud of you.”

Max took a deep breath. He couldn’t quite believe what had happened. He’d knocked Snotty out cold and Adolphus had chased Jerome goodness knows where – it looked as if he’d actually rescued the prince. He was in charge! Max suddenly felt rather weak and sat down quickly before his knees gave way.

At that moment Adolphus flew happily through the doorway, breathing proper-coloured fire again and flapping excitedly around their heads.

“I chased him off! All the way down the path! Did you see? He found one of the horses in the end and galloped off in completely the wrong direction for the castle! It was really good fun! Did you see me breathe a really big bit of flame just
now? Whoopee!”

“Yes, well done, Adolphus,” said Ferocious hurriedly. “Just calm down before you set the place alight. That would be all we need – heroes of the hour burned to a crisp by their brainless companion.”

Adolphus flew down to the ground and folded his wings, but he couldn’t stop bouncing. “Now what, Max? What shall I do now? What do you want me to do, Max? Shall I breathe fire again? Just let me know!”

Max took a deep breath, and looked round the hut. “Um, actually, you could breath some fire over here, Adolphus,” he said, showing the dragon the fireplace where Snotty and Jerome had laid a neat little pile of logs and twigs, just ready to light. “I’m going to tie Snotty up, in case he comes round, but I think we all need something to warm us up. Plus I’m starving. I don’t know about you lot, but being scared makes me really hungry.”

“No problem!” said Adolphus, and sent a three-foot flame scorching into the narrow fireplace
and halfway up the chimney. At once, the logs glowed red hot and started to crackle merrily. Meanwhile, Max trussed Snotty up like a chicken ready for the oven and Ferocious sniffed about in Snotty and Jerome’s saddlebags for food and drink. In what seemed like no time, the prince and his rescuers were sitting happily by the fire, drinking hot spiced apple juice and eating bread and cheese. The young prince was much friendlier than he’d been when they’d first appeared. He couldn’t understand a word Ferocious or Adolphus said, but Max translated, and he solemnly thanked all of them for what they had done.

“You can call me Cael, if you like,” he said rather grandly. “After all, you are my rescuers.”

“Well, I suppose technically we haven’t rescued you till we get you back to the castle,” said Max – and then suddenly he felt cold all over. Olivia! Olivia was still in the castle, still trapped in Sir Richard’s rooms, and possibly at the mercy of Morgana at this very moment! What had he
been thinking of?! He was so dazed by the success of his fight with Snotty, he had completely forgotten Olivia. To say nothing of getting the prince back to the castle before Sir Richard and Lady Morgana arrived. What a turnip-head!

“Adolphus!” he said urgently. “We’ve got to get a message to the castle. We need to get Merlin or someone out here to collect the prince – but even more importantly, we need to get Olivia out of Sir Richard’s chambers. You’ll have to do it, you’re the only one who can get there quickly enough!”

“Oh yes! Okay! Off to the castle! But, er, which bit exactly?” said Adolphus uncertainly.

Max groaned. He had felt so triumphant a minute ago and now his daring rescue seemed as if it was falling apart around him. Where should he send Adolphus, assuming Adolphus could even remember the way? And how was the young dragon going to get anyone to understand him? And what was he, Max, going to do if Sir Richard
and Morgana turned up in the meantime? Should he try to get the prince away?

“Er, your highness? Do you think you can walk?”

“Oh, no, no way,” said Cael cheerfully. “My legs feel like bits of string.”

“Ah,” said Max, heavily. Nothing for it, then. He had to face the possibility of being here when Sir Richard and that awful witch arrived. But in the meantime, Olivia needed rescuing as badly as the prince. Max remembered her small, frightened voice when he’d left, and made up his mind.

“Ferocious, you go with Adolphus. Between you, that makes one brain and one pair of wings – they should be enough to get you to Merlin’s rooms. If he’s not there, you’d better try to find Dad. Merlin will probably understand you, but Dad will need a note – hang on, I’ll write one and tie it to Adolphus’s leg.”

Max found a scrap of parchment in one
of Snotty’s saddlebags and, using a charred stick from the fire, managed to roughly scratch out:
Olivia Hogsbottom’s room. Hurry!

“I hope it’s still readable when you get there,” he said, frowning, and rolled it up and tied it on while Adolphus did his best to stand still. “Ferocious? Are you ready?”

The black rat scampered over to Max and nipped him affectionately.

“I’ll make sure we get there and I’ll make sure we find Merlin, don’t you worry. Much as I love your dear father, I don’t think he’d last ten seconds against that le Fay woman. Just you sit tight, and if they get here before us, well, then, spit at them for me, eh, Max?”

Max laughed, shakily, and Ferocious grinned. “That’s the spirit! Come on, Adolphus. We’re off to the castle, quick as your wings will take us!”

He hopped on to Adolphus’s back and dug in with his claws. Adolphus leaped into the air and shot off like a rocket, a streak of blue-green hurtling into
the late afternoon sun, with a thin wail of “Maybe not thaat faaaaaaast!” trailing behind him.