Tock breathed in deeply. ‘Salty Harbour,’ he said.
‘Father said it was the number-one holiday destination for magical beings,’ finished Tick.
‘Let’s get tongue-twisting taffy,’ said Tock.
‘And ride the Whirling Warlock,’ said Tick.
Tick and Tock flew in the direction of the waves, following the sandy path that curved up into a hill.
Tongue-twisting taffy? The Whirling Warlock? thought Cora. She trudged across the sand and up the hill, after the fairies. When she reached the top, she looked out at Salty Harbour.
The beach stretched out all the way to a sea as pristine and sparkling blue as the waterfall they had fallen through. The dark blue water of the harbour moved back and forth in waves upon the shore.
And out on the sea, Cora could see that there was one solitary red boat moored. Beyond the sand, and the arched shape of the harbour, the sea seemed to go on forever.
From where she stood, Cora could see a collection of colourful huts dotting the sandy shoreline. There were also a few more weathered shacks here and there. As she looked up and down the beach, she could hear the melodic sound of crashing waves.
There were no magical beings in sight.
Cora glanced around her. Besides a gentle breeze, the only thing that moved was the sea against the shore.
Salty Harbour was completely empty.
The fairies flew down to the colourful huts that lined the beach. Following, Cora slid down the sandy hill, and did her best to walk quickly through the heavy sand with her boots.
When they reached the coloured huts, Cora saw that they were actually stores, rides, stalls, games and gift shops. All of the buildings were worn and weathered with peeling paint and splintered walls. And all of them were empty, as though they had been left unused for years.
‘Looks like Salty Harbour isn’t the number-one holiday destination anymore,’ Cora said. She swiped sand from the counter of the pink ride next to her. The sign above the stall read Mermaid Go Round.
Tick and Tock flew from weathered store to rusty ride along the sand. They fluttered in and out of each stall, their brows creased in confusion and disappointment.
And then both fairies stopped in front of a ride that was painted red and black. A cart sat on the sand, and a long track wove in a circle before disappearing into the sand.
The Whirling Warlock.
‘Cora’s right. It looks more like a number fifty-seven holiday destination,’ said Tick. ‘And that’s after the Screaming Swamp.’
‘How long ago did King Clang come here?’ Cora asked. It looked as though nobody had holidayed in Salty Harbour for a few years.
‘When he was a boy,’ said Tock.
Oh, thought Cora.
‘And the sea-witch story?’ Cora asked. ‘How long ago was that?’
‘Also from when he was a boy,’ said Tick.
Cora groaned inwardly. She had hoped that they would be able to ask some magical beings if they knew anything about the sea witch Geraldine. But as Cora stared out at the vacant beach, she knew that that was not going to be possible. And she also realised one other thing.
‘So if Geraldine was ever here, we could be years too late,’ Cora said.
‘Or . . .’ said Tock softly.
‘Decades,’ finished Tick.
Decades!? Cora thought. Before they had even properly started, their journey to finding Geraldine the sea witch seemed like it had reached an abrupt and sandy dead end. Salty Harbour was empty.
The least amount of time they wasted on the bewitched beach the better. Cora turned and stepped across the sand in the direction they had come from.
Then she stopped. She turned back to the fairies.
‘How do we get out of here?’ Cora asked, looking around her. ‘If this place is bewitched, and we fell through a waterfall, then how do we . . .’
Tick and Tock grimaced.
‘If the spell was cast by a sea witch . . . then we need sea witch’s magic,’ said Tock.
Cora remembered how she had escaped the bewitched woods in the northern towns. The only way out was for her to syphon the magic from the witch who cast the spell on the woods.
‘What about just normal witch magic?’ Cora asked.
Closing her eye, Cora thought of Belle’s house in The Oak Wood. She grabbed onto the witch’s magic and clicked her fingers. Opening her eye, she looked around her and saw . . . sand. She hadn’t moved from her place on the beach.
Tick and Tock shook their heads.
‘Not the same,’ said Tick.
This time Cora groaned out loud.
They were now stuck in a bewitched town they had no idea how to leave. A bewitched town that had nobody else in it, including the sea witch who could get them out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cora walked over and sat on the ride that stuck up out of the sand nearby. It was a small carousel. The four seats that spun under an umbrella top were sculpted into the shape of mermaids. They each had long, golden hair.
Cora put her head in her hands.
Their trip to Salty Harbour was far from a holiday. It was going from bad to worse. She knew they shouldn’t have relied on a story. The story was decades old.
‘How long can a witch’s charm last?’ Cora asked the fairies.
‘Years,’ said Tock.
Cora winced. Geraldine could be anywhere by now. While they were stuck on a bewitched beach, Kaede was still out there somewhere. What if he already knew about the sea witch? Or worse, what if he knew where to find her brother? Or even worse, what if he had already found him?
Tick flew over to a shack with peeling blue paint.
‘Peppermint popcorn,’ he said dejected. ‘I wanted to try that.’
Tock fluttered to the shack next to it.
‘And exploding chocolate bombs,’ said Tock sadly.
Cora thought over everything they had discovered. There had to be something they were missing. Salty Harbour reminded Cora of Tynth, the syphon sanctuary that was hidden from the magical world. The buildings had a similar forgotten look to them, and it seemed magical beings had stopped coming to Salty Harbour some time ago.
But why?
‘Did magical beings stop coming here because it isn’t easy to find?’ Cora asked. ‘Because it is hidden behind a waterfall?’
Tick and Tock shook their heads.
‘Father never said anything about a bewitched waterfall,’ said Tock.
‘The harbour should have been on the other side of the mountains,’ said Tick.
Tock nodded. ‘That must mean that—’
‘Someone has moved it,’ said Tick.
Cora looked up at the fairies from her seat on the mermaid carousel. ‘Someone has moved the entire harbour?’ she replied.
The fairies nodded.
‘It can be done if you’re powerful enough,’ said Tick.
‘Like a warlock,’ said Tock.
‘Or a syphon,’ said Tick.
‘Or a sea witch,’ added Tock.
Cora stood up from the mermaid seat and walked along the sand, back and forth in thought. The syphons were hiding from the magical world. But why was Salty Harbour hidden? Then Cora thought back to the rock bridge they had crossed. And she realised . . . what if the bridge wasn’t only charmed to fix itself. What if it was charmed . . . to fall apart? To stop people from reaching the waterfall?
Cora stared out at the beach, and what they had left of the afternoon sun. ‘The only reason someone would move an entire town would be if . . .’ she said out loud.
‘. . . someone didn’t want to be found,’ finished the fairies.
And then Cora remembered the shoe print. The one on the ledge of the waterfall. It was new. Someone was here.
A flutter of excitement grew in Cora’s stomach.
‘The sea witch,’ said Cora.
‘Where!?’ asked Tick and Tock, their eyes wide as they swivelled around in the air to their left and right.
&nb
sp; ‘No,’ said Cora. ‘When I was sitting on the mountain, I saw a shoe print.’
‘A shoe print?’ echoed Tick. ‘I think it’s pronounced shoelace.’
Tock and Cora ignored Tick.
‘A shoe print on the mountain?’ added Tock.
Cora nodded. ‘In the dirt on the ledge. It was new and heading towards the waterfall.’
What she left out was that the shoe print could have belonged to anyone. The thought that it could have belonged to Kaede had entered Cora’s mind.
‘Don’t you see? There must be somebody here,’ said Cora. She had hoped it was the sea witch. If not, whoever it belongs to might know where to find Geraldine, she thought.
‘Let’s spread out. Search everywhere,’ said Cora.
The fairies nodded and shot off down the beach.
Cora made her way along the beach in the opposite direction.
She ducked into the peeling shacks that stood atop the sand. She searched their grimy shelves and worn floors. When she found nothing, Cora went down to the water’s edge and waded into the shallows. She kicked her boots against the waves, soaking her dress, for any sign of a door beneath the water.
Cora walked back up to the spot where she had landed after falling into the waterfall, keeping her eye to the ground for any more shoe prints or markings in the sand. She gazed out at the endless sandy path that wove up and over hills. She thought about walking it but quickly decided that with so little sun left, it was better to stay close to Tick and Tock. She turned to the Salty Harbour sign. She nudged it with her hand and it squeaked back and forth.
Time went by, and Cora didn’t discover a single thing or anyone. She was sure that she had combed every inch of her side of Salty Harbour. When Cora’s boots felt like they were made of stone with each step, she looked across the stretch of sand and watched Tick and Tock. The pair were digging holes beneath the sand and yanking on the half-buried rides.
Cora continued searching until the afternoon sun was long set and the beach was covered in night. But scouring the darkness made her eye pulse from straining and soon her muscles began to tire. She walked over to Tick and Tock in the middle of the beach.
‘Did you find anything?’ Cora asked, hopeful.
Tick nodded.
‘We found some leftover tongue-twisting taffy!’ said Tock.
The fairy held something out to Cora. On his palm was a twisted piece of pink candy half-covered in sand.
‘Want some?’ he asked. ‘Tick has already eaten his.’
‘See?’ Tick added, poking out his twisted tongue.
Cora didn’t feel much like eating taffy. They had been searching for hours and they still hadn’t found any sign of a magical being.
Defeated, Cora sat down on the sand. She watched the dark waves and listened to them roll back and forth. They had only just started their search for her brother and Geraldine, and she already felt like giving up. She remembered that they had only come to Salty Harbour because of a story. A story from many years ago, that might not have even ever been true. The starry night sky sparkled against the dark water. Wherever her brother was, she hoped he was safe.
Tock yawned loudly and the fairies sat down in the sand next to her.
Cora felt like she had gotten them into this mess. If it wasn’t for her falling into the bewitched waterfall, they might be well on their way to a nearby town, searching for Geraldine. And her brother. She thought of Dot. What would she say? What would she do?
There is always something.
A fairy hand touched her shoulder.
‘We’ll find someone, Cora,’ said Tick.
‘We’ll keep looking tomorrow,’ said Tock.
‘We’ll be much better finders after a big breakfast,’ said Tick with a yawn.
Cora nodded. Maybe there was fish in the sea?
Tick and Tock settled themselves into the sand, and in minutes, the sound of fairy snores filled the night air.
Cora stayed awake. She couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts were too busy. If they didn’t find somebody, Cora wasn’t sure what their next move should be. They could perhaps search all the sea towns along the coasts of the magical kingdom. But first they would need to find a way out of the bewitched Salty Harbour.
Cora sighed.
And then over at the very end of the beach, a light turned on.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cora’s heart jumped in her chest.
She stared at the soft, amber light at the other end of the beach. It flickered like a small beacon in the night. Cora closed her eye and opened it again, then she rubbed her eye just to make sure she wasn’t imagining it.
The light was still there.
Cora glanced over at the fairies.
Cuddled together, Tick and Tock were fast asleep on the sand.
Cora paused. She thought about waking them, but what if it was nothing? What if it was only a flickering light on a broken ride? What if it had always been there and they just didn’t see it during the day? She glanced over at the light once more, and then making up her mind, Cora stood up from the sand and stepped past the snoring fairies.
Carefully, Cora made her way along the dark beach, making sure to stay hidden behind the shacks and rides as she went, just in case. Keeping her eye on the light ahead, Cora continued forward along the sand until she was close enough to see where the light was coming from.
Peering out from behind a dilapidated stall, Cora saw that the soft, amber light shone through a pair of glass domes that stuck up out of the sand. The large glowing domes were in fact a pair of eyes and they were attached to a giant face half-buried in the sand. It was a ride of some kind. In addition to the two glass eyes, Cora could make out a nose, two cheeks, a pair of cross eyebrows and part of a forehead.
And then Cora heard something. She stopped and listened carefully.
The soft notes of a song hung in the night air.
Music.
Cora crept out from behind the stall and moved closer to the face in the sand. The music was coming from inside.
Cora searched the face. How could she get inside?
Kneeling down, Cora felt around the giant face for some kind of door or entranceway. Then, grabbing onto the princess’s magic, Cora called up the night air, and pushed the wind against the sand.
Slowly, Cora moved the sand, uncovering more and more of the ride until most of the face was above the sand. The ride now had a pair of ears, a mouth and a chin. The hair that swirled up and around the face still disappeared into the sand.
Stepping back, Cora saw that the giant face took up almost half the width of the beach. But, as far she could tell, there was still no sign of a way inside the face.
Placing her hands on the ride, Cora searched for a button or a lever that might have been hidden somewhere on the face. When she didn’t find anything, Cora lifted herself up and climbed on top of the ride. On her hands and knees, she crawled over to the large, glass-dome eyes and kneeling on top of one of them, Cora peered inside.
Below her, through the glass, Cora saw a collection of lighted candles. There were a few chairs. And was that a blanket?
And then a shadow moved across the floor.
Someone was walking around inside the abandoned ride.
Cora strained her neck to get a better look at who the shadow belonged to. As she did so, she moved her knees and hands on the glass eye below her and didn’t hear the crack that ruptured the glass. At least, not until it was too late.
Cora felt the glass eye beneath her shift unexpectedly. Looking down, she saw that the dome she was kneeling on had broken and splintered in multiple directions. In seconds, before Cora could move an inch, all of the cracks in the eye shattered at once and Cora fell through the glass dome, into the abandoned ride.
‘Argh!’
Cora hit the ground hard, landing heavily on her side. The smashed glass tinkled as it hit the floor around her, leaving little stinging cuts on her hands and face.
Cora rolled
over onto her stomach and winced as pain shot up her side.
‘Ow,’ she said.
And then remembering where she was and what she had found, Cora moved to stand up.
But a voice broke through the silence.
‘Don’t move.’
Cora paused. Laying awkwardly on her stomach, her hands outstretched, she remained where she was on the floor. Turning her head slightly, she watched as someone stepped in front of the candlelight.
Cora swallowed. She should have woken Tick and Tock when she saw the light. If she had been allowed to move, she would have kicked herself. Why did she think she could do this alone?
‘How did you get here?’ asked the voice.
From where she lay, it was difficult for Cora to see the person talking to her. So, ever so slightly, Cora tilted her chin up from the floor so that she could see the owner of the voice.
Standing a few steps away, was an older woman. From where she lay on the ground, Cora could only see the woman’s legs and feet. The woman wore a long blue dress that stretched down to her shins. And Cora noticed that she wasn’t wearing any shoes. The skin of her feet was roughened and dark in places, and there was a gold bangle wrapped around one of her ankles.
‘How did you get here?’ repeated the woman.
‘I . . . uh . . . I fell,’ Cora said.
The woman sighed. ‘Not here. I watched you smash through my roof,’ she said impatiently. ‘How did you find Salty Harbour?’
‘Oh,’ Cora said. ‘I can explain that . . . but . . . can I please move first?’
‘What?’
‘You said don’t move,’ Cora said. She still had her arms outstretched either side of her from when she had rolled onto her stomach. Her elbows and knees in addition to her side had now begun to ache.
‘Oh,’ said the woman. ‘Yes, yes. You can sit up.’
Relieved, Cora pushed herself up off the floor and carefully stood up. She rubbed her elbows and knees and side, which she was sure would be covered with bruises tomorrow. With stinging hands, Cora brushed the broken glass from her, and met the woman’s gaze.
The woman had long, grey hair that fell down to her waist. And in her hand was a staff made of dark wood.
Witched! Page 11
