Icespell

by C. J. Busby

  “Quack!” said Vortigern, and stopped suddenly. “I think this is the one.”

  Max looked at the small side vent that led upwards from the drain. If it was the right one, it would come out just in front of the huge fireplace in the Great Hall, where it was used for draining the excess fat and juices dripping off the huge hogs roasted there when there was an especially large feast. If it was the wrong one, it would quite likely end up in the toilet of some knight’s chamber…

  Max swallowed, and started to hop up the sloping tunnel. He turned to Vortigern.

  “You’ll have to come too. You’ve got the potion bottle.”

  Vortigern scrambled after him, and together they carefully made their way up towards the strange blueish light coming from the ice at the top of the drain.

  “Ow!” Max was brought up short as he hit the wall of ice, blocking any further progress. He peered into the whiteness and tried to make out where they were.

  “It is the Great Hall,” he said. “It’s the right shape – too big for a toilet. But I can’t really see anything. We’re going to have to clear some space with one drop of the spell, and then see where we are.”

  Together they eased the bottle open, Vortigern clutching the stopper in his beak while Max pulled the bottle with his froggy hands. Once it was open, he tipped it carefully over, and watched one single precious drop roll down the neck and cling to the lip of the bottle. Max took a deep breath and shook the drop onto the ground. At the same time, he said the words of the spell that the Lady had taught him, and gathered all the magic of his own that he could.

  The drop of potion fizzed as it hit the ground, and a vast billowing spout of purple smoke wreathed around Max and Vortigern, swirling upwards into the ice, dissolving it as it went. Max concentrated as hard as he could, unravelling the spell he had cast, pulling it apart bit by bit, willing it to dissolve outwards from the spot where he stood. And it did – he could feel it cracking and crumbling and disappearing into a puff of nothing, further and further… Until it felt like he hit a brick wall. Morgana’s magic was there again, like a locked door, and the reversal stopped dead.

  Max looked at Vortigern. The duck grinned.

  “Definitely something. My feathers went quite tingly. Let’s go and see.”

  They scrambled up out of the drain opening, into the Great Hall, and stared around them. The de-icing had cleared almost half of the vast chamber, and there was now plenty of room for Max to move around in.

  Unfortunately, the half that was still encased in ice was the half with King Arthur’s great council table, and the king and all his knights were seated around it, looking like they were in earnest discussion. They were about twenty feet away from the sheer wall of ice that marked the outer edge of Max’s successful reversal.

  Only Merlin was not at the table. Merlin, who looked like he was explaining something rather tricky to the assorted knights, had positioned himself where all the men could see him clearly, at some distance from the table. He was only about five feet away from where Max was standing…

  Max turned to Vortigern.

  “We’re nearly there. We just need one more go. But this time, I think I’ll be human.”

  He closed his eyes, and thought his way back into being a boy, barely noticing the whoosh of stars as he transformed. His mind was fixed on the potion, and the spell, and Merlin, and how little time they had left.

  Morgana’s Spell

  Sir Lionel was feeling rather confused. It was not easy, being the most senior knight left in the kingdom, and although he had Sir Richard Hogsbottom to help, somehow he didn’t feel that Sir Richard was quite as concerned about the situation as he ought to be. There was a certain smugness in his voice and look as he contemplated the iced castle… And now a powerful dragon had arrived, with Sir Bertram’s children, claiming they had a potion to reverse the icespell and seeming quite keen to get on with the job before Lady Morgana got here.

  Sir Lionel frowned. He’d known Lady Wilhelmina for a long time. She had always been a good friend to the king. And she’d never been too fond of Lady Morgana. He looked at Snotty, lying on the ground with a pained expression, with the dragon’s great claw trapping him firmly. Then he looked at Sir Richard, wringing his hands and looking anxious at the news that some of the reversal spell had survived, and Max had disappeared with it.

  “So. Why not just wait for Lady Morgana?” he asked the huge dragon abruptly. She looked down at him with her amber eyes and considered.

  “Because she’s an evil scheming sorceress, Sir Lionel, as you should very well have realised. And she’s behind the whole plot.”

  Olivia gasped, and Sir Richard Hogsbottom started to stutter, “Now, now, that’s quite slanderous, I can’t permit such talk…” but he was silenced by a gesture from Sir Lionel, who was looking up at Great-Aunt Wilhelmina with an odd expression.

  “And will you be telling this to the king, if we manage to set him free?”

  “Of course not!” snorted Great-Aunt Wilhelmina. “He knows I dislike Morgana. Had a terrible row with him about her marrying Uriel and moving up to Gore. Right on my doorstep! I nearly burned down the castle, I was so cross… No, he wouldn’t believe me. Just call it a grudge. There’s no proof – and anyway, he knows she couldn’t have done the spell herself, not all the way from Gore. Not possible. So she’s completely in the clear.”

  “And here she comes,” observed Ferocious, who had just spotted a dark figure on a broomstick coast in towards the gatehouse and land gracefully a few hundred yards away. Olivia clenched her fists.

  “Come on Max,” she muttered. “Come on! Get on with it. She’s here!”

  ***

  Max had the potion bottle gripped firmly in his hand, and was trying to peer down the neck to see if there was still a full drop left. It looked like more than half of the tiny remnants of the spell had been used up already. He looked across at the frozen knights. He could see Sir Bertram, caught just as he was twisting up the ends of his magnificent moustache. Next to him, Lancelot had one eyebrow raised, and at the end of the table Arthur was watching Merlin, his blue eyes troubled and his face stern.

  Merlin, Max realised, appeared to be concentrating very hard. And as Max looked, he saw a slight drip form on the end of Merlin’s nose. Which meant that the ice near him was starting to melt! Somehow, Merlin was fighting the effects of the spell, even from inside the ice.

  “Quack!” said Vortigern, looking up at Max. “Get on with it, Max – we might only have a few seconds left!”

  ***

  “So pleased to see you, Lady Wilhelmina,” said Morgana, coming up to the dragon with a smile painted on to her white face. Great-Aunt Wilhelmina snorted, and a faint haze of smoke emerged from her nostrils.

  Morgana looked round at them all, and noted Snotty, flat out on the ground, and Sir Richard’s anxious expression. She smiled graciously at Olivia, but her eyes were cold.

  “And where is dear Max?” she said, in her honeyed voice.

  Olivia shivered.

  “He’s gone to… er… look for—”

  “He’s gone to save King Arthur!” said Adolphus, proudly. “He’s in the castle, with the potion we got from the Lady! It’s a rever… um… reverting, er… reversal spell!”

  He looked exceedingly pleased with himself for getting the word right, and flapped his wings happily. Ferocious groaned.

  Morgana stood up extremely straight. Her face looked like she’d had a bucket of iced water tipped over her. She looked over at the castle, and then whipped a large green potion bottle out of her robes.

  “Just as well I hurried,” she said. “There’s no knowing what Max might do to the castle if he tries to reverse the spell. Probably turn them all into ants!” She laughed, but her laughter was brittle, and her expression was savage. “No time to lose,” she said, and held up the potion above her head.

  Olivia launched herself at Morgana and knocked her flying. The sorceress landed on top of Snotty, who yelled lou
dly, and her potion bottle went hurtling through the air, coming to rest on the grass twenty yards away. Sir Richard scuttled after it, but before he could pick it up Sir Lionel strode over and put his large foot firmly down on top of it.

  “Apologies, my lady,” he said. “So sorry young Olivia tripped and stumbled into you. Let me get you your potion.”

  He picked the bottle up deliberately and examined it. Then he slowly started to walk towards them. Morgana had picked herself up rapidly, while Snotty lay groaning and clutching his stomach. Olivia was sitting up looking slightly dazed and holding her head, but Ferocious had entered the fray and was biting Morgana’s ankles, while she kicked out in a most unladylike fashion and tried to drive him off.

  “Hand me that potion!” she shrieked at Sir Lionel. Her hair was flying in all directions and her eyes were full of fury.

  He bowed.

  “Of course, my lady, of course…”

  But before Sir Lionel could delay any further, Snotty, who was just next to him, snatched the potion bottle from his hand and threw it to Morgana. She caught it expertly, and with a triumphant smile, she shook the entire contents out onto the grass, raised her hands, and said the words of the spell.

  ***

  In the Great Hall, the last small droplet of the Lady of the Island’s spell dripped out of the potion bottle onto the ground and fizzed slightly, a wisp of purple smoke circling up from it. Max felt a lightening of Morgana’s connection spell and closed his eyes and pushed with all his strength at the ice-wall in front of him, undoing the magic he’d done, tearing it apart as rapidly as he could, pushing as far into the ice as possible. He felt it give, and melt away, but he wasn’t sure if he’d reached Merlin and he could already feel the effects of the Lady’s magic wearing off. Desperately he willed away the ice around Merlin, thinking hard of the wizard’s warm voice and hawk-like eyes. There was a faint crack, and Max opened his eyes.

  He’d succeeded in driving the ice-wall back, almost completely freeing Merlin, and it seemed the wizard himself was finishing the job. As Max watched, Merlin put out his arms and pushed the ice away from him, and strode towards Max, frowning.

  “Max! What’s happened?” He looked round and saw the rest of the hall frozen in solid ice, and then turned back to Max, his hand on his sword. “Flame and thunder! Who’s responsible for this?”

  “I am,” said Max hurriedly. “But I’ll tell you everything later. Right now Morgana is—”

  There was an enormous BOOM! that reverberated through the entire castle. Merlin’s eyes widened and he flung up his hand, placing a protection spell over them all. As the icespell was ripped away by Morgana’s magic, a shockwave from the reversal seemed to shake everything in the castle. Merlin staggered, as if a great weight were pushing at him. Then it was gone, and Merlin straightened. He looked rather grey, but he appeared to be all right. And all around the hall knights were stirring, as the effects of the icespell wore off and they found themselves suddenly awake and wondering what on earth had just happened.

  ***

  Olivia and the others watched in awe as the ice mountain cracked from top to bottom then started to shatter into tiny pieces. The fragments sparkled in the sun and then vanished as if they had never existed.

  Lady Morgana clapped her hands together and took a deep breath.

  “Well, Sir Lionel,” she said, her voice quite restored to its usual warm honeyed tones. “You see – I managed to reverse the spell before Max could do any irreparable damage! I’m afraid we may not find many people alive in there, but let’s hope very hard that one of them is my dear brother…”

  She smiled in satisfaction. Olivia felt sick, and she noticed that Sir Lionel was also looking rather pale. But Sir Richard Hogsbottom looked like someone had just handed him a gold chain of office, and Snotty had a smile of triumph.

  Suddenly Great-Aunt Wilhelmina let out a roar and a spout of blue-white flame.

  “Your luck’s in, Morgana!” she boomed. “I can see the king… and Merlin… and Max!”

  She was right. Striding across the drawbridge, sword at the ready, was King Arthur, with Merlin by his side and all his knights following. Alongside Merlin was Max, looking exhausted, and waddling next to him was a small but very pleased-looking duck.

  “Hurrah! Hurrah!” shouted Adolphus, bouncing up and down, and Ferocious scampered up onto the top of the small dragon’s head where he could get a better view. Olivia felt a huge wave of relief as she watched Max walking towards them, and she joyfully punched Sir Lionel on the arm.

  “He did it! Max saved them!”

  “Well, technically it was Lady Morgana who de-iced the castle,” observed Sir Lionel with a grin. “But I rather think you’re right – I think Max may very well have saved them.” With a slight nod of his head he indicated the place where Lady Morgana had just been standing. When she had seen the figures emerging from the castle, she had crumpled to the ground in a dead faint.

  The Swordspell

  It was dark by the time the castle got back to any semblance of normality. Arthur had rushed around checking the defences while getting reports from Sir Lionel and Sir Richard on all that had happened while he had been trapped in the ice. Lady Morgana had been revived and taken to the chambers she usually occupied in Camelot, and her retinue had arrived from Gore. It seemed she would now be staying until the Festival of Chivalry in three weeks’ time.

  “She wore herself out with that reversal spell, Merlin,” said Arthur as they finally sat down to supper. “As well as hardly sleeping, so she could get down here from Gore as quickly as she did. We owe her our lives.” He looked solemnly at the wizard. “I know you have had your doubts about Morgana, but really, this time there’s proof. She couldn’t have had anything to do with it – and she broke the icespell to save us. What more do you want?”

  Merlin grimaced. “My lord, it is indeed clear that Lady Morgana cannot have cast the icespell herself. It is impossible to cast a spell so powerful from such a great distance. We shall obviously have to keep looking for this other sorceress, and hope we find her soon.” He sighed. “However, I must urge you to treat Lady Morgana with some caution – I have been talking to Sir Lionel, and—”

  King Arthur held up his hand for silence, and looked sternly at Merlin, his blue eyes bright. “I won’t talk about it, Merlin, I’m sorry. I had Sir Lionel approach me, too, but what he said didn’t amount to any kind of proof of anything, and I won’t have it repeated.” He suddenly looked weary, and rubbed his face with his hands. “She is my sister,” he said, in a low voice, “and I trust her. There’s the beginning and the end of it all.”

  ***

  “So, it looks like she’s got away with it again,” said Lancelot the next morning, as they all strolled across the grass to see Great-Aunt Wilhelmina off. “The king is overjoyed that events have finally put paid to any hint of suspicion of Morgana, and won’t hear another word against her. And we have no proof, unfortunately.”

  “Yes, very unfortunately,” said Merlin, looking at Max sternly. “If you hadn’t allowed yourself to get tricked into a most unwise display of power, we might not have—”

  “Oh now, Merlin, enough of that!” boomed Great-Aunt Wilhelmina. “Leave the poor boy alone, or I might have to recount the tale of the time you brought a certain king’s new castle down round his ears when you were just a slip of a lad!”

  Max looked up at Great-Aunt Wilhelmina in surprise, and she winked at him with one golden eye.

  “Seem to recall you had to invent some gobbledegook about dragons being responsible,” she said, looking very hard at Merlin, while the corner of her mouth twitched.

  Merlin coloured, and coughed.

  “Well, yes, er… you’re right, of course, Lady Wilhelmina. We all make mistakes when young. Perhaps best not to dwell on these things…”

  Lancelot laughed. “You brought a whole castle down? I’m not sure I’ve heard about that one. I should write a song about it!”

  Merlin
looked a bit uncomfortable, but then grinned. “Well, yes. Actually it was rather spectacular. No one inside, of course, it had only just been built. Anyway – that’s a story for another day…” He turned to Great-Aunt Wilhelmina. “We’re extremely grateful to you, my lady. And please – send my love and thanks to the Lady of the Island when you next see her.”

  “Will do, Merlin, will do,” the dragon rumbled. “Well now – good luck to all of you! I’m sure you’ll sort Morgana out eventually. She can’t get away with it forever. Be good, A-doll’s-house! And find some way to get even with that dreadful Botty Hogsnottom!”

  And with a few more final farewells to them all, she launched herself into the air and was soon just a flash of green heading rapidly west.

  Merlin and Lancelot had duties in the castle, but the rest of them decided to head down to the river for the afternoon. Max and Olivia had made a point, the day before, of seeking out Fred the kitchen boy and making him a present of a rather nice new skinning knife Max had been given for Christmas. He was surprised, but very grateful, and had sneaked them a whole sack of fresh pastries from the buttery that morning to say thank you.

  “You know,” said Max, as they stretched out by the pool in the sunshine and picked at the last pastry crumbs, “I thought I’d get a lot worse telling off from Merlin. Three cheers for Great-Aunt Wilhelmina, eh? Still, I’m going to keep my head down for a bit. I’m quite looking forward to the Festival of Chivalry – for once I’m the one that can sit back and watch, and you’ll be the one everyone will be looking at!”

  Olivia made a face. “Looking at me make a total fool of myself, you mean.”

  “No! You’re very good. Honest. I think you might even win. If someone turns Mordred into a caterpillar before the contest…”