Icespell (4 page)

An Encounter with Snotty Hogsbottom

O
livia woke up early in the morning, cold and stiff. Pale light was filtering through the single window, and every tree outside seemed to have its own orchestra of birds, each competing with the others to be the noisiest. She groaned, and turned to pull the blankets over her head and go back to sleep, but the others were also stirring and soon Vortigern was chivvying them all into getting up.

“Come along, come along, haven’t got all day. Bread first, then we need to set off. Quack quack!” And he waddled outside for a quick splash in the lake. Olivia opened one eye and looked at Max, who was blearily rubbing his face.

“Does Vortigern
have
to be leader?” she whispered.

Max made a face.

“I’m not sure we’ve got any choice. But anyway, he’s right. We have to get going.”

“Yes, but where to?” asked Ferocious, emerging yawning from a wrinkle of blankets in the corner. “In all the planning last night, I think I must have missed the bit where we actually found out where Great-Aunt Wilhelmina
is
. For all we know, she’s gone back to Gore.”

“Umm… good point,” said Max, and felt his heart sink. “Adolphus?” he called. “Do you actually know where your great-aunt is?”

Adolphus nodded his head happily and grinned.

“Well, she said… she was going to… she was…
umm… I know she told me, but… er… well… no. Not exactly. Sorry!”

“Wonderful,” said Ferocious. “Excellent. Now what?”

At that moment Vortigern waddled back into the hut. He stopped when he saw their downcast faces.

“Quack!” he said. “Cheer up! Time for bread!”

“Vortigern,” said Ferocious. “I don’t care if you are first in line to the throne of the Roman Empire, if you mention bread one more time I will personally bite your beak off.” And he displayed his sharp white teeth.

Vortigern bobbed his head and quacked.

“Not to worry. It’s just I do like a bit of… Well, anyway. Why all the long faces?”

“We don’t know where Great-Aunt Wilhelmina is,” said Max. “So we can’t go and ask her for a reversal spell.”

“Oh, is that all?” said the duck cheerily. “Well that’s okay, then. Because I know exactly where she is.”

“You do?” said Olivia, surprised. “How come
you
know Great-Aunt Wilhelmina?”

“Well, I did say I like a bit of magic. Always make it a point to introduce myself to any new magic users in the area. And Lady Wilhelmina came down here, oh, must have been a month ago now. As a matter of fact, I showed her the cave she’s staying in now. Down by the sea.”

“Yes, yes,” sad Adolphus happily. “That’s it! By the sea. I
knew
that’s what she said. Yippee! I remembered!”

“The thing is,” said the duck, thoughtfully, “it’s a bit of a way. Down in the west. Takes me about half a day to fly it… but walking, it could be a couple of days or more. Not sure we can do it on foot and be back before Lady Morgana gets here.”

“Could we get some horses from the castle?” suggested Olivia. “Or – Max! Could you change us into something? Maybe we could be dragons, then we could
all
fly?”

“Er – no thanks,” said Ferocious swiftly. “Me and Adolphus will go together, won’t we Adolphus?
We’re old hands at flying together, eh? Not that I don’t trust you, Max, your new magic without potions is very impressive, but, well, I think I’d rather stay as a rat, this time…”

Max grinned. “It’s all right, Ferocious, I won’t change you into an earwig by mistake. I’m pretty sure I can manage this one, I did it with Merlin.”

“All the same, very kind of you Max, but I’m fine as a rat,” said Ferocious, scampering over to Adolphus and climbing up onto his back.

Max looked at Olivia. “I can change us into something, but we might have to rely on Great-Aunt Wilhelmina to turn us back.”

She took a deep breath.

“We’ve got to get there as quickly as we can, Max. I trust you. Do what you have to.”

Max thought about the long trip west, and decided that it would make more sense to be a bird – much less noticeable than a dragon. Last time he and Olivia had been dragons, they’d nearly been caught in the Castle Gore dragon hunt. He thought about the
bird he knew best, the hunting kestrel he and Olivia shared back at Castle Perilous. He thought about the bird’s bright black eyes, her questioning look, her curved beak and mottled reddish-brown feathers and the power in her strong wings. Then he felt for the magic inside him, gathered it up and threw it at himself and Olivia.

BANG!

Suddenly everything seemed brighter, and sharper. He realised that his vision was about a thousand times better, and he could hear the whisper of a small insect scurrying across the wooden floor. At the same time he could feel the power and strength in his shoulder muscles as they flexed his great wings. He looked across at Olivia, and gulped.

She was, like him, a kestrel, and he could tell that she was equally awed at the effects of the transformation. But she was bright pink.

He looked down at himself, and had to laugh. He was also bright pink, with mottled bits of purple.

“Never mind, Max,” said Olivia. “It’s amazing!
Much
better than being a frog! I feel like I could fly for hours. Race you!”

She swooped out of the hut and rose into the air with short, powerful wingbeats, circling to gain height. Even from a hundred feet up, she could see every tiny detail of the clearing beneath them, every movement of the leaves in the wind, every ripple in the water as a fish rose to take a fly. The sun was coming up, and the day was going to be a sunny one. Simply for the joy of it, Olivia put her beak down and dived, hurtling towards the ground at an incredible speed then pulling up just inches from the surface of the river and gliding gently to a branch overhanging the stone hut.

“Quack!” said Vortigern, and flew up to the branch to join her. “Very impressive. I do like to see magic done, gives me a tingling feeling all through my feathers. Right then, you lot. Are we ready to go?”

Max glided along, riding the air currents high above the river, his wings carefully dipping and twisting to keep him level. He looked down, following the
progress of a couple of riders gently ambling along the road west from Camelot. Suddenly he stiffened, and focused on them more closely. There was something about the rider in front… Just then, the rider lifted his head, and looked straight up at Max, his pale face and spiky black hair perfectly visible. It was Snotty Hogsbottom.

Max hesitated for a second, and then dived. He was so angry he barely thought what he would do when he got down there, but it had something to do with claws, beaks and wings, and the desired result definitely involved Snotty falling off his horse.

But the riders had seen him coming, and pulled up under a nearby tree. Snotty had his sword out and he was waving it dangerously round his head. Max hovered for a second, then settled on a branch just above the waving sword.

“Back off, Pendragon!” shouted Snotty. “I know it’s you, because I’ve got a direction spell set on you and I’ve been following you all morning. And don’t think you can get away from me – however fast
you fly, you’ve still got to wait for that potty duck you’re with, and we’re not going to be far behind you. So don’t think you’re going to be doing any heroic rescuing this time.”

“Er – Adrian?” Jerome said hesitantly, plucking at Snotty’s sleeve. “Are you sure that’s Max? You’re not just ranting at some strange bird, are you?”

“Don’t be such a turnip head, Jerome,” said Snotty dismissively. “I’d recognise that loser anywhere, even if he has turned himself into a bird. Besides, only Pendragon could have turned himself into a
pink
kestrel.”

Max ground his teeth at his inability to communicate just what he thought of Snotty, but before he could even screech, Snotty looked up and shook his head.

“You know, I never thought you’d actually do it. Lady Morgana has been keeping a close eye on your progress with Merlin, and she said you would – you’d take the bait
and
you’d do the spell. Turns out she was right, as usual. And she’s only two days away from
being queen now, so you’d better watch out. If you show any signs of finding out how to reverse the spell before she gets here, I’ve been given the job of sorting you out… And it will be my pleasure.” He smiled, and his eyes gleamed with malice. “In fact, maybe I’ll just do it anyway, before you get a chance. What do you think, Jerome? Roast kestrel for supper?”

He reached behind for his bow, and had an arrow on the string before Max could blink. Max took off just as he loosed it, and the arrow whistled past his tail feathers as he soared rapidly into the sky, seething with rage.

Snotty Hogsbottom! One of these days he was going to find a way to get even with that slimy no-good poisonous slug’s backside. But in the meantime, he was
not
going to let Snotty find out where they were going. Drawing on every bit of magic he could mentally lay his hands on while also trying to control his wings, Max flung a misdirection spell out behind him. With any luck, it would at least slow Snotty down while they got a chance to consult Great-Aunt Wilhelmina.

The Dragon's Cave

I
t turned out that Vortigern had been a little over-optimistic about the time it would take to get to Great-Aunt Wilhelmina's cave. Even if they'd flown non-stop it would have been afternoon by the time they got there. As it was, with fairly frequent stops for a rest and a paddle and a lot of catching fish, the sun was low over the horizon when they finally crested the last hill and saw the land give way to endless blue sea.

Max blinked, dazzled for a moment by the brightness of the sun reflecting off the water, and glided down to a stunted old tree by the shore. The sea was startlingly blue, with constantly shifting, peeling waves smashing down in spumes of spray, one after the other, as they rolled into the shore. The water swirled round jagged rocks and ran up the pebbly beach before being sucked back with a rattling roar into the oncoming waves.

Max had seen the sea once or twice before, but not for a few years. He rested, gripping the branch he was perched on tightly, as gusts of wind buffeted him and blew his feathers all the wrong way, tasting the salt in the air and watching the gulls wheeling overhead. They were dancing in and out of each other's way, occasionally getting caught by the spray from a particularly huge wave and calling out in their harsh voices.

“Isn't it brilliant?” gasped Olivia, as she landed beside him. “I'd forgotten how big the sea is. And how wild!”

“Quack!” said Vortigern, landing just by the tree in a not very elegant flurry of wings. “Bit windy!”

Next moment, Adolphus too had dropped out of the sky next to them, and a very ruffled-looking Ferocious had crawled thankfully off his back, trying to smooth his fur back to its normal sleekness.

“Tail and whiskers! We're here at last. I almost think I might let you turn me into a bird for the trip back, Max. I'd forgotten that Adolphus flies like a maniac crossed with a bouncing ball. Nearly fell off a hundred miles back and haven't dared move ever since…”

“Umm, Max,” said Olivia, with one eye on the seagulls wheeling close by. “I think we'd better be human again, if you can manage it. Those birds aren't looking very friendly.”

Max looked up. She was right. The gulls were not best pleased to be sharing their beach with two strangely coloured birds of prey, and looked like they might get nasty at any minute. He closed his eyes and thought hard about being human again.

Crack!

The branch they were sitting on snapped under their combined weight and the two of them, fully human, were deposited on the ground with a thud.

“Ouch!” said Max, rubbing his shoulder. “I didn't think it would work, or I'd have got down from the branch before I changed back.”

“Well, great magic, Max, but next time warn me,” said Olivia feelingly, as she tried to stand up. “I think I might have broken several small bones and bruised the rest of them.”

“Enough complaining,” said Ferocious unsympathetically. “We're on a mission. We need to find a dragon. Lead on, Your Royal Duckness!”

Great-Aunt Wilhelmina's cave stretched far back into the cliff, so far that you could hardly hear the distant boom and crash of the sea. A small, narrow split between two immense rock faces widened into a passageway, and that in turn opened out into an immense cavern. It should have been quite dark, but it
shone with a greenish white glow that came from the same eerie spheres of light that Max remembered from the last time he'd met the dragon, deep in a mountain in the misty lakeland of Gore.

Great-Aunt Wilhelmina lay stretched out on the flat sandy floor of the cave, her huge head turned towards them, her amber eyes watching them approach.

“Well, well. If it isn't my dear nephew, A-
drip-nose
, and his companions… And Your Royal Highness. What a pleasure,” she rumbled, in her deep voice.

“Greetings, Lady Wilhelmina,” quacked Vortigern. “Got any – well – er…”

“I do indeed have bread,” said the dragon with a wide grin, and pushed a small, low table towards them, on which was piled bread, meat, fruit, pastries and flagons of hot, spiced apple. “I had a feeling I might be having some guests…”

Adolphus bounded forward joyfully and got stuck into a large platter of roasted caterpillars. The rest of the feast looked delicious, and Max suddenly realised how fantastically hungry he was. He bowed to
the great dragon, and thanked her for her hospitality.

“Think nothing of it, young Pendragon,” she boomed. “Always glad to see another magic user… How did you get on with that cauldron I gave you?”

In between mouthfuls of pastry and swigs of apple juice, Max and Olivia told her the story of their adventures in Gore, how Olivia had been sent to the Otherworld by Morgana, and how they'd been able to use the cauldron to rescue her and bring King Arthur and his companions back safely. Vortigern, who had not heard the story before, got quite excited, and kept interrupting. When they described Olivia's masterful cauldron throw, which had knocked out the Silent Sentinel and saved Arthur's life, he whooped and turned three somersaults.

But all too soon the feast was finished and the story over. Great-Aunt Wilhelmina turned her golden eyes on Max and looked at him with a quizzical expression.

“So, young Pendragon, what brings you here? I had a feeling in my bones I would see you again, but
I didn't think it would be quite so soon.”

Max swallowed hard. He wasn't sure where to begin. As he hesitated, Adolphus bounced over and thumped the floor of the cave enthusiastically with his tail.

“We need you to breathe fire. It was all my idea. Vortigern asked for a plan – and I came up with one! Me! We need someone to breathe lots and lots of fire and melt the ice.” He looked up at Great-Aunt Wilhelmina expectantly, and breathed a little fire of his own, as if to show her just what he meant.

“Ice?” she rumbled. “You need me to melt some
ice
? Is that
all
?” She sounded extremely offended at the idea that she was wanted simply as a very large mobile bonfire.

“No, no, that's not it at all,” said Max hurriedly. “Adolphus has got it a bit mixed up. We have an ice problem, but it's not fire we need. It's a spell.”

Great-Aunt Wilhelmina narrowed her eyes. “So. An icespell. Which you can't undo yourself? Where is it, and who cast it, may I ask?”

Max coloured. “It was me. And it's on Camelot.”

“Camelot?” she said, looking surprised. “The whole castle?”

“Yes,” said Max, in a small voice. “I got tricked into it. And the spell that tricked me was made by Morgana, so I can't seem to undo it.”

Max waited for the old dragon to tell him what a foolish boy he'd been, and how wizards should never ever be tempted to show off. But to his surprise she did neither of these things. She widened her eyes, took a deep breath, and hooted with laughter.

“Iced the
whole
castle? The whole castle? My dear boy, what a spectacular idiot you are! Morgana must be rubbing her hands in glee!”

She snorted in delight, breathing little gusts of blue-white flame from her nostrils and waving her long green tail as she laughed. Finally she stopped, and wiped her eyes with a great claw and grinned at Max.

“Haven't laughed so much in years. Not since Merlin… well, anyway. Knew you'd be good value, Max, way back when I gave you my special cauldron…
So. We'll have to do something about this before that dreadful sorceress gets down to Camelot, won't we?”

“So you
can
reverse the spell,” said Max, thankfully. “We were hoping you could.”

“Oh, no, not me,” said Great-Aunt Wilhelmina, shaking her head. “We'll have to ask the Lady. She's a bit potty, but she's very powerful, and she's got a soft spot for Merlin. I'm sure she'll find a way to sort it all out. But not till morning. Can't get to the Lady till sunrise. So we may as well get some rest. Come along, A-dormouse, and Your Royal Highness, there's a nice waterfall back here to shower in, and comfortable beds all round.”

Max exchanged glances with Olivia, and she gave him a thumbs-up. It looked like Great-Aunt Wilhelmina was going to help, and it seemed like she had a good idea of what to do. They followed her to the back of the cave, where there was indeed a small waterfall, as well as a deep pool in which Vortigern was already happily splashing around, quacking loudly. Next to the pool was a pile of soft, richly embroidered
blankets. Olivia fell onto the pile with a sigh, and closed her eyes.

“Fantastic. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“Not quite so long, please, my dear,” said Great-Aunt Wilhelmina with a rumbling laugh. “We need to be up well before dawn. I'll wake you when it's time. And in the meantime, A-dog's-nose, maybe you could come and sit with me and tell me all the family news…”

Adolphus danced alongside her to the front of the cave, chatting away. The greenish light faded as they went, leaving the area round the pool in a gentle dusky darkness.

Ferocious jumped onto Max's shoulder and gently nipped his ear.

“Time for sleep, Max. Been a long day. Lots of magic and too much fear of death by falling off Adolphus's back.”

Max grinned, and tickled Ferocious behind the ears, then settled down on the pile of blankets with a yawn.

“Any idea who this Lady is we're going to see?” he asked sleepily, as Olivia started to snore.

“Nope,” said Ferocious. “Must be some witch or other. Better hope she's a match for that evil old hag Morgana, eh Max?”

But Max was already asleep, dreaming of ice and dragons and flying down an endless dark tunnel looking for something that wasn't there.