by S G Read
‘How did you get out?’ The apprentice asked haughtily.
‘Well they were kind enough to give me my wand and when you were killed the spell holding me was nullified. With my wand in my hand the bars you made were not a problem and my old friend Griff was only too willing to give me a ride,’ the wizard explained, ‘and now we have some catching up to do. I will talk to you about it when I let you out in a hundred years time, the time you had me imprisoned unable to move or talk, or even scratch my nose! You boys have helped me and as I know all the spells by heart please put the books back where they came from and close the portal as you go.’
‘You need to sort out our other problem as well.’ Toby one declared, standing next to Toby two.
The wizard waved his wand and each twin merged to make one person again.
‘There you are, quite a good idea to have two groups out here.’ The wizard commended. ‘Oh and take those two Victorians with you, they have caused enough trouble in my kingdom.’
‘Simon will you open a second portal to let the rest of you out, Stevey and me will go through and use the flume to get out so if you can get down to the beach and help us if we choose the wrong flume.’ Stuart asked.
‘Okay Stu.’ Simon answered and opened a portal using the first spell he had tried.
The portal opened and they could see the trees in front of them.
‘Okay let us get going.’ Ben ordered, he wanted out, just in case the apprentice finally succeeded in blowing him up.
They manhandled to two Victorians through the portal Simon had opened and watched them disappear from sight in front of their very eyes.
‘They’ve gone!’ Ben cried in disbelief.
‘Just back to their own time, young man.’ The wizard explained.
Ben accepted that and scurried through the hole, when he was standing on the cliff in front of them, the rest followed, with the exception Simon and Molly. Molly took the book she was holding and gave it to Stuart before going through.
‘Good luck.’ She said earnestly.
Simon waited for her to get out of the way and gave Stevey the book he was carrying. He went to follow Molly through but at the same time, the apprentice made a dash for the portal on his broom. Simon who was word perfect on the spell to turn things to stone now, having sat on the ledge and rehearsed it after his close brush with a horrible death, uttered it as the apprentice passed him. Seconds later Molly popped her head back through the portal.
‘We now have a new statue out here, a man riding a broom.’ She called. ‘It looks quite neat really.’
Simon went through and Stuart closed the portal.
‘Well he did want to get out there.’ The wizard declared. ‘There will be another one of him in here now though, and my little army and I will have to find him and lock him up.’
‘We’ll hurry and put the books away just in case he is on his way to try to stop us.’ Stuart declared.
The two boys hurried back down to the track and on to the crossroad. The wizard followed on the gryphon and kept watch for the apprentice as they walked into the portal.
‘Thank you boys for all your help, from memory the right hole is the high up one and the left hole is the low down one.’ The wizard said from his exulted position. ‘I did use the flume in my younger days, although that high one is dangerous. I always had Griff waiting to catch me when I went down that one. When my apprentice arrived, I stopped using it or he would have been gone years ago. He was always bored in here but I don’t really know why.’
‘You are welcome Mr. Wizard.’ Stuart answered.
They walked inside and Stuart stood on the ledge.
'Oh by the way, you have a few trolls in your kingdom now.' He called up to the wizard.
'After a hundred years forced to do nothing, I am itching to do something and a war with some trolls will keep me happy for a while. I will give them another week to build up a reasonable army then we will do battle.’
‘You also have Goldilocks and the three bears, little red riding hood, Jack and the beanstalk and a tree that likes to eat people.’ Stevey added.
‘You have been busy and what was the apprentice doing all the time you were here?’
‘He was engrossed with the fight with Fergus,’ Stuart answered, ‘oh and you have quite a few copies of Fergus to sort out as well.’
After a last wave Stuart cast the spell to close the door, inside it was still light from the eerie glow coming from the rock where the book had stood. They put both books on the shelf Simon had found the second book on and as soon as they left them there, the wall closed over them. As the wall closed over the books the wall returned to being wall and they were left in darkness. Suddenly a light came on and then another, somehow the wizard on the other side of the wall had turned on the two torches which remained in the cavern. They picked up the torches.
‘So he thought the right one was high and the left one was low.’ Stuart said remembering what the wizard had said.
‘But they are not left and right they are one in front of the other, so left from one side is right from the other.’ Stevey pointed out.
‘All in all that is not very helpful then.’ Stuart declared. ‘So did he mean right from his side is high or right from our side is high?’
‘Could be either. We will have to choose one and go for it.’ Stevey replied.
‘But which one?’ Stuart asked.
‘How do I know? We could toss a coin if we had one.’ Stevey suggested. ‘I only have a credit card with me and they aren’t much good for tossing.’
‘And I haven’t any coins on me.’ Stuart added.
‘You choose.’ Stevey ordered.
‘No you, you're the rich one.’
‘How does that come into it?’ Stevey asked.
‘Being rich for such a short time, you should really want to survive.’ Stuart explained with a smile, which was lost in the darkness, as both torches were pointing at the two openings.
‘Believe me if I was poor, I would still want to survive just as much as I do now.’ Stevey declared.
‘This is getting us nowhere.’ Stuart complained.
‘How about rock, paper, scissors to decide?’ Stevey suggested.
‘Out of how many?’
‘Best of five?’ Stevey asked.
‘Okay.’
‘You count then.’
Stuart said ‘One two three.’ and they withdrew their hands from behind their back.
They shone the torches at their own hand, Stuart had chosen paper and Stevey had chosen scissors, which cuts paper.
‘One to you Stevey.’
The second time Stuart stuck on paper and Stevey tried stone, so as paper wraps up stone Stuart won.
‘One all.’
The third went to Stevey with stone as it blunted Stuart’s scissors and the fourth went to Stuart who had paper again and Stevey stuck with stone. The fifth was a draw as they both went for stone.
‘Well that worked, not.’ Stevey complained.
‘I say we go for that one.’ Stuart decided and pointed to the nearest one to him. As he pointed with his torch, it started to dim.
‘If we don’t go soon we will be here in the dark!’ Stevey agreed. ‘So that one it is.’
‘One at a time or both together?’ Stuart asked.
‘Let us do a train.’ Stevey answered.
‘A train it is then.’ Stuart agreed and they prepared for take off.
'Good luck.’ Stevey declared. ‘Just in case- it has been nice having you as a friend.’ He added.
‘You are the best friend I could have ever had.’ Stuart replied.
‘If it wasn’t for you I would be dead on the side of that mountain!’ Stevey replied.
‘Oh come on let’s do it.’ Stuart exclaimed. ‘Or we will be here in the dark.’
They launched into the hole and a few seconds later were high up in mid air.
‘Oops wrong one.’ Stevey exclaimed.
They both looked
down at the water below.
‘I don’t think I can swim that far to the shore.’ Stuart admitted.
‘Are you kidding, the fall will probably kill us!’ Stevey retorted.
