by C. J. Busby
Olivia stood for a moment, looking thoughtful.
“Adolphus?” she said at last. “Do you remember Snotty saying something about getting the brat away from the castle?”
Schemes and Enchantments
Max swam faster than he thought it was possible for a small orange frog to swim, but the pike was faster. Within seconds, he could almost feel the tip of its nose inches from his back legs and its mean-looking jaws opening wide, ready to snap shut and swallow him whole…
Max was seconds away from being a tasty pike snack when he spotted a deep crevice between the stones of the wall to his left. He swerved into the narrow, dark space and kicked frantically to propel himself as far up it as possible. If there was a crayfish in this one, thought Max, it could just share or he’d poke its eyes out.
He had just whipped his back legs into the crack, when the pike’s jaws hit the wall with a thud and he saw its sharp teeth scraping across the stones, trying to prise him away from the wall. Max gulped and pushed himself as far into the crevice as he could. The pike circled for a while, coming back to investigate, trying to sniff out where that annoying little creature had disappeared to, but eventually it got bored and glided off in search of easier prey.
Phew!
Max looked around and saw that this really was a very deep crevice. It seemed to continue into the wall. He swam forward, then realised he would have to climb, as a large square stone blocked the way. Max clambered up the edge of the stone and then saw another gap leading back deeper into the wall. It looked as if he might be able to crawl all the way through to the castle.
Slowly, carefully, Max pulled himself up and through the gaps in the thick stone walls. In places the stones were set so tight he could only just squeeze through, feeling like his eyeballs were going to pop out. In other places deep, dark crevices seemed to reach back into the wall for miles and smelled like something horrible lived in them. Max hopped past these as fast as he could. He was gradually climbing higher, well above the level of the moat now, and it was beginning to feel as if he’d been crawling forever. He remembered once hearing someone say that the walls of the castle were thick enough to have whole rooms hidden in them, and he could believe it now. It was hot in the wall, and difficult to breathe – he could feel the weight of the hundreds of stones above him and couldn’t help picturing what a very squished frog he would be if any of them slipped.
At last the darkness around him started to seem a little less black, and then distinctly grey, and soon after that he began to see glimpses of brightness in between the cracks. Max squeezed through a particularly small gap and realised that he was now behind the very last layer of stones. They were cut squarer and more neatly than the others and, he realised with a sinking feeling, they were much more closely fitted together – it was going to be difficult to get out into the room beyond. Max scanned up and down and sideways for a bigger gap, and then with huge relief he saw light streaming in. The corner of one of the stones was broken off! He scrambled over to it and peered cautiously into the chamber beyond.
It was a medium-sized room, square and quite richly furnished – a knight’s quarters, Max guessed. There were tapestries on the walls and a rich embroidered carpet on the floor. Two large windows allowed light into the chamber. There didn’t appear to be anyone there. After a few minutes of waiting for noises Max carefully eased himself out of the wall and fell, plop, onto the carpet. He breathed a sigh of relief. He’d done it! He’d managed to escape the moat and the pike, and he’d got back into the castle – now all he had to do was find Olivia and get turned back into a boy.
Max scanned the room quickly for the way out. In one corner was a small arched recess, which probably led to the toilet. That wasn’t going to get him anywhere except down a long smelly chute to the moat again The archway in the opposite wall looked more promising, but as Max started to hop towards it, he heard voices in the corridor outside, and a door started to open. Quickly he leapt to the shelter of the wall and hid in the shadow of one of the trailing tapestries.
***
Sir Richard Hogsbottom was trying his very best to be ingratiating, and his very best was very good indeed, since he was famous in Camelot for being the biggest bootlicker that ever lived. His plump red face was positively glistening with the effort of sucking up to the lady by his side, and it seemed that even his robes curved round his ample body in a humble and admiring sort of way.
“My lady,” he was saying, as he ushered his companion into his chambers with what he hoped a winning and loyal smile (he actually looked like he had swallowed a boot). “Permit me to welcome you to my humble chambers – I apologise that I have no food or drink to offer that is worthy of your attention but perhaps a little—”
His companion held up her hand for silence. She was a tall, slim woman with long black hair and pale skin. She was beautiful, but she looked like a marble statue, with no real life or warmth in her expression. Her eyes were such a pale blue that they were almost colourless. She stopped dead in the centre of the room and turned her head, frowning in concentration, almost tasting the air around her.
“Magic,” she said, her pale eyes sweeping over the rich tapestries on the walls and the embroidered carpet under her feet. “There’s something magic in the room.” Her voice was as smooth as honey, low and silky, but it made Max shudder. He cowered closer to the wall as he felt her eyes pass across the place where he was hiding. “Something Has the door been locked while you were out, Sir Richard?”
“Why yes, of course, my lady, completely locked,” protested Sir Richard, looking anxious. “But perhaps – you know, Merlin is working every hour of the day and night to make sure nothing happens to the prince Is it possible a small checking spell may have crept under the door?”
“Mmm” said the lady, considering the situation. Then she laughed and it was like the tinkling of icicles falling on hard frost. “Merlin – of course – sniffing around the castle, trying to find out what’s up. He’s going to get a shock when he finds his spell wall broken and the prince gone! Ha! Then he’ll have to kneel before me and beg for help, and then” she lowered her voice, but Max, cowering in the tapestries beside her, could just hear her say to herself in a bleak and savage whisper, “Then we’ll see King Arthur broken!”
***
Adolphus flew silently down the long, dark corridor and settled as quietly as possible on the roof beams near the end. Beneath him, two boys were squabbling.
“I’m not doing it, Adrian, I’m not, it’s too dangerous! Merlin’s on the prowl now and he’ll find us out for sure. He’s bound to!”
“Don’t be such a coward, Jerome!” hissed the other boy. “There’s been no alarm raised, the guards don’t know anything. No one’s going to bother with two young squires going out for a ride in the middle of all this bustle for the festival.”
“But what if the brat wakes up and starts yelling?”
“I told you,” said Snotty scornfully. “I’ll have a full immobility spell on him. He’s not going to be moving a muscle or saying anything, never mind yelling. Just buck up, Jerome! Druid’s toenails! All we have to do is roll him up in a blanket on the back of one of our horses and then we stroll out of the castle. If they ask, we tell them we’re taking provisions to one of the camps. Come on!”
Snotty tried to pull Jerome down the next passage, but Jerome’s plump face was still looking rather pale and he obstinately refused to move.
“What about the spell wall?” he said stubbornly.
“I told you!” said Snotty, exasperated. “She’s dealt with it. It won’t be a problem.”
“You mean Lady—”
“Shhh! Don’t even think about saying her name! She has ways of dealing with traitors you don’t even want to hear about!”
Jerome looked distinctly mutinous, but after a few moments he shrugged. “Okay. If you say so. But I’ve heard Merlin can turn people into dung beetles and I really don’t fancy having six legs and living on a pile of hors
e manure for the rest of my life.”
The two boys set off down the passage towards the stables. As they disappeared, Adolphus looked back down the corridor and beckoned with a claw. Olivia, pressing herself against the wall, eased herself quietly along until she reached the dragon. She was wearing a pair of Max’s leggings and a dark tunic, and with her dark hair and some smudgy dirt on her face, blended very well into the shadows.
“I told you, Adolphus!” she whispered excitedly. “I knew those two had something to do with it!”
“Shall we follow them some more?” said Adolphus, jumping up and down on the beam. “I can be really really quiet again. I can see where they’re going.”
“I don’t know” said Olivia, thinking – but she was too late. Adolphus, twirling his wings, was off in a flash of blue-green scales and she was forced to go after him.
As they turned the corner, they saw that the passageway was empty. Adolphus started to fly round in circles anxiously. “Where are they? We need to catch them! Where have they gone?!” he twittered.
“Adolphus!” Olivia hissed. “Wait! Come back! I think it might be better if we just go and find Merlin!”
“Yes, it probably would be better,” drawled a familiar voice, and Snotty stepped out from a dark shadowy doorway behind her. “But I don’t think we’ll be letting you, actually. Not so great for us, you see.”
“Snotty!” groaned Olivia. “Oh dungballs!”
“Dungballs indeed, my dearest Olivia,” said Snotty as he forced one of her arms up behind her back and Jerome emerged from the gloom to grab the other one. “I thought I’d sorted you out once already today You know, if you’re going to go sneaking around and poking your nose in where it’s not wanted, you really shouldn’t do it with a pea-brained pet dragon who sounds like a herd of griffins stalking down the corridor. We could have heard you three counties away.”
He turned and threw a handful of something at Adolphus, who was flapping around their heads in a flurry of wings and anxiety, and the dragon dropped to the ground like a stone.
Kidnapped!
Sir Richard Hogsbottom was rubbing his plump hands in glee. Lady Morgana le Fay, the most powerful enchantress in the land, half-sister to the king himself, was in his chambers, drinking his best vintage Roman wine and talking to him like an equal. Well, almost like an equal. Okay, so he had to stand, while she sat in the big carved oak chair. And she told him what to do, while he said “Yes, my lady” and “No, my lady” – but they were in the same room! And he was in on the plot! He was a trusted co-conspirator in her plan to topple King Arthur!
Sir Richard smiled to himself. He’d been quite surprised to find how much she hated her half-brother, how strongly she wanted to replace him and be queen. She did such a good job of appearing adoring, most of the time. But now he knew the truth. And when his son Adrian had done his bit, he, Sir Richard, was going to be the new queen’s favourite. Rich, famous – why, he could have that awful Sir Bertram Pendragon hung from the castle walls by his toenails if he wanted. And he would certainly get bigger and more richly furnished rooms when he stayed in Camelot – this one was poky, and there was a distinct smell of pondweed coming from somewhere…
“Sir Richard!” Lady Morgana’s voice brought him back from his daydreaming with a start.
“Indeed, my lady, indeed, yes, I agree absolutely!” he stuttered, not sure what she had been talking about.
“I said, when is your son expected?” said Lady Morgana, coldly.
“Oh, er, yes, sorry, indeed – well, any minute now, your graciousness. Should be along directly. Very good boy, Adrian, very clever – quite a dab hand at magic himself, you know, won the Novices’ two years running!”
Behind the tapestry, Max was seething. Snotty Hogsbottom! It wasn’t his magic skills – it was his cheating, lying, weasel skills that had won him the Novices’ two years running. It wasn’t going to happen again. Assuming, of course, that Max could escape, find Olivia and be ready for the competition tomorrow afternoon. Right now, that seemed trickier than it had before Sir Richard and Lady Morgana had entered the room. And it was about to get even trickier.
Sir Richard’s ‘proud father’ act was interrupted by a loud bang at the door. Almost instantly it flew open to reveal Snotty, holding a struggling, kicking Olivia, while Jerome stood behind them, staggering under the dead weight of a small blue-green dragon, who was out cold.
“Adrian!” spluttered Sir Richard. “What’s going on? What on earth? What’s she doing here?”
Olivia tried to speak, but they had gagged her with a tunic belt and all she could manage was, “Mmmnph… Mmmnph!”
Snotty shoved her viciously and she fell to the ground in a sprawl of limbs in front of Lady Morgana, who looked down at her as if she were a particularly slimy kind of slug.
“It’s that weed Pendragon’s little sister,” Snotty spat. “Lurking around after us with her dung-brained pet dragon. They heard me talking to Jerome about taking the prince out to the forest We’ve got to get rid of them.”
“Oh, er, well, that’s rather extreme, surely? Perhaps if we just, well, er – my lady?” Sir Richard turned to Lady Morgana with a slightly appalled expression on his plump face. He really hadn’t banked on anyone having to get hurt in this escapade. Humiliated, yes. Brought to the brink of war, fine. Deposed and thrown in the dungeon while everyone else feasted and celebrated, only what was to be expected. But got rid of? Actual bodily harm? He wasn’t really made for that kind of thing…
“Not just yet,” said Lady Morgana decisively. “She may be useful as an extra hostage. If not, we can deal with her later. For now, I think it is time we got on with the plan. Leave the girl and the dragon here and lock the door. They won’t be going anywhere.” She laughed, and on the floor Olivia shivered at the sound.
“Come along, Sir Richard – we need to go and help the boys get their horses ‘packed’, don’t we?” And she swept out of the room with Snotty at her side and Sir Richard, feeling rather weak at the knees, following. Jerome dumped Adolphus on the floor and headed out after them.
The door thudded shut and Max heard the key being turned in the lock.
“Olivia!” he croaked. “Olivia! I’m here, by the tapestries…” He hopped towards his sister, who was picking herself up off the floor.
“Mmmmnph! Mmmmnph!” she said excitedly when she saw the orange frog hopping towards her. “Mmmnph Mmmnph!” She reached up and clumsily pulled at the gag, eventually managing to drag it off, half undone.
“Phew, that’s better! Max! How did you end up here?”
“Well,” said Max, taking a deep breath. He was about to embark on a long and detailed explanation of his trials and tribulations in the moat and inside the castle walls when they were both distracted by a rustling sound, followed by a loud squeak, and a muffled curse. With that, a large black rat squeezed its way out of a gap in the stone wall and fell to the ground with a thud.
“All right, all right, you can stop panicking, I’ve made it, I’m in one piece, just about, though I do think I may have rather less fur than I had at the beginning And I’m not sure that pike didn’t have a tiny bit of the end of my tail, but still, never mind, can’t complain, all in a day’s work.” Ferocious looked around, and noticed Olivia, and then Adolphus sprawled unconscious on the floor. “Well, well, all here together,” he added. “Isn’t that nice?”
“Ferocious!” exclaimed Max happily. “You came after me!”
“Well, I didn’t have a lot of choice really,” said Ferocious, modestly. “Seeing as your sister more or less threw me out the window Go and rescue Max, she says. Oh yes, piece of cake, say I, no problem, just follow the smell of pondweed. You can rely on good old Ferocious to brave terrible pikes and—”
But Max and Olivia had stopped listening. They were too busy exchanging news and piecing together the bits of plot they had overheard between them.
“Ah, well,” sighed Ferocious. “Always the way. No gratitude.” And he s
tarted to clean his whiskers and check how much fur he had lost in the castle walls.
“So,” said Max thoughtfully. “They’re heading off now, on horseback?”
“Yes,” said Olivia. “Snotty will have the prince wrapped in blankets on his horse – Lady Morgana has sorted Merlin’s spell wall so it won’t be a problem – and they said, they were taking him to the forest. They must mean Grimeswood – it’s about five miles away downriver. But the forest is huge. No one will find them if they’ve got a hiding place in there somewhere.”
“We need to stop them before they leave the castle,” said Max.
“But we can’t get a message to anyone,” objected Olivia. “The only way out of here is down the toilet or out of the window!”
“Hmm,” said Max. “I’m not keen on the toilet. But out of the window…”
“You’re a frog, Max, you don’t have wings,” said Olivia.
“I haven’t got wings,” said Max. “But he has…” and he pointed one webbed foot at Adolphus, sprawled on the carpet, before shouting, “Ferocious!”
“Oh, decided to remember I exist, have you?” said Ferocious brightly. “Want something done, I expect.”
“Yes,” said Max. “Go and bite Adolphus and see if you can wake him up from whatever enchantment he’s got on him.”
“Pleasure,” said Ferocious, baring his teeth in an evil grin and scampering over to the dragon.
“Oh, don’t hurt him too much,” begged Olivia, but Ferocious was being quite gentle, nipping Adolphus on the ears and nuzzling his head, while Max shook him hard and tried to lift up his eyelids.
It seemed to be working. Adolphus snuffled and moved a leg, then opened one eye blearily.
