The Wizard in the Woods

by Louie Stowell

  “So dragons are born from pools of fire inside a dream?” Kit’s brain was boggling.

  “How else did you think they’d be born? asked Branwen. “In a hospital?”

  “No, but maybe I thought it would come … out of the end of a dragon?” said Kit, looking at Draig in embarrassment.

  “We’re not farm chickens,” said Draig. “We’re ancient magical beings from before the dawn of time.” She held out the egg to Kit. “Now. Take the little one to its new home. Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye.” The six wizards spoke as one, and then disappeared from the dragon’s dream.

  “Goodbye,” said Kit and Faith.

  And everything went black again.

  Back in the chamber of the dragon, Kit was holding the egg out in front of her. It was bigger than any egg she had ever seen, and slightly reddish. It was also heavy. She put it down, ever so carefully.

  “Should we put it under the dragon to hatch?” Kit whispered to Faith.

  Faith shook her head. “She’s not a chicken, remember! For a dragon egg to hatch, you need to lay it beneath its own library. It’s a bit like planting a seed. You speak a spell over the egg, and it sinks down into the earth, making its own cavern. After a few days, the egg hatches.”

  Kit imagined the egg on the floor cracking and hatching. What would the little dragon inside look like? She couldn’t wait to find out.

  “Where’s this egg’s library?” asked Kit. Her mind was racing with questions.

  “Not far from ours,” said Faith. “The exact location is a surprise.”

  Kit narrowed her eyes.

  “A good surprise,” said Faith, laughing.

  “How’s it getting there?” asked Kit. “To its new library. Can we go with it?”

  “Of course you can – you’re taking it,” said Branwen. “Honestly, girl, you’re not the quickest off the mark, are you? I would’ve thought wild magic might have chosen a slightly less dopey child to pick as the youngest wizard in the world.”

  That stung.

  “So…” said Faith. “We’d better go and take this to its new home! Let’s head upstairs.”

  Kit started to feel nervous. What if she dropped the egg on her way back up?

  Faith was watching her, and smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s pretty tough. You could drop it down a hundred flights of stairs and it wouldn’t break.”

  Kit carried it carefully upstairs all the same, with Branwen walking behind.

  In the library above, Branwen gave Kit a stern warning. “It might be physically tough, but it’s vulnerable to magic,” she said. “And you never know who might try to take it from you. Take good care.”

  Just then, a bell rang. Branwen sighed. “No rest for the ancient,” she said to Kit and Faith. “You can show yourselves out.”

  Faith nodded, and Branwen disappeared down the corridor and back to the book wood.

  “Start reading,” suggested Faith, picking up the portal book they’d used to get there. “I’ll keep hold of the egg, while we’re entering a magical space.”

  So Kit began to read the comic, and moments later, the library was gone.

  When they reappeared in the library at the other end, there was no one about. Faith went and found a box for them to put the egg in. “So it’s a surprise for Alita and Josh,” she said.

  They found the others down in Draca’s lair, with Dogon curled up on Alita’s lap as she drew a sketch of Draca, and Josh reading a very long book to the dragon.

  Josh stopped reading as they came in. “How was the council?”

  “We brought you back a present,” said Kit.

  “Present!” said Alita, dropping her sketchbook and scurrying over, sending Dogon fluttering up grumpily into the air.

  “Is it a spell book?” asked Josh, eyeing the box.

  “Is it a cake?” asked Alita.

  “Come on,” said Kit. “Do you think the Wizards’ Council would trust me with a cake? It would be eaten by the time we got through the portal book. Open it!” She couldn’t wait to see their faces.

  Alita prised open a tiny edge of the box, then slowly, slowly lifted it up. Then she lifted the next flap up, just as slowly.

  This was almost as bad as watching her eat a chocolate bar, piece by piece.

  Josh noticed Kit’s impatience. “It’s called delayed gratification,” he said. “Which is when you put off doing something nice so it’ll be nicer when it comes.”

  Kit shook her head. “No it wouldn’t. It would just mean more time without the nice thing.”

  But when Alita finally opened the lid of the box, and peered inside, her face showed a kind of joy that Kit couldn’t even imagine feeling, not even after climbing the highest tree in the world. Like sunlight light was shining out of her dark-brown eyes.

  Josh peered into the box, and his face almost matched hers. “Is that what I think it is?” he asked in a small voice.

  “A dragon’s egg!” breathed Alita. “A real dragon’s egg!”

  “And it’s ours!” said Kit triumphantly.

  “No!” said Faith.

  The children looked at her quizzically.

  “It’s yours to help care for. But a dragon only ever belongs to itself,” said Faith.

  “So we get to care for it?” asked Alita. “This is the best thing to happen since I met Dogon!”

  Faith nodded. “It will live beneath a library close by, so you can visit it quite often.”

  Alita would have jumped up and down if she hadn’t been cradling the egg like a baby. She did, however, let out an excited sound somewhere between a cat mewing and a kettle boiling.

  “If you’re this excited about an egg, I’m worried you’re going to literally explode when it hatches into a dragon,” laughed Kit.

  “It’ll be worth it!” said Alita.

  “More importantly,” said Josh, “is there a book on dragon egg care?”

  “There are hundreds,” said Faith. “I’ll show you later. But first, we need to plant the egg. Follow me.”

  The children followed her, with a million questions, up away from the dragon, and through the book wood. Dogon followed them, flapping close to Alita and snuffling at the dragon’s egg.

  “Get off! You might make me drop it! That’s, like, your cousin or something in there!” said Alita, batting the creature away.

  Dogon growled at the egg.

  “I think he’s jealous!” said Kit.

  “Silly Dogon,” said Alita. “I can love you AND a baby dragon at the same time.”

  “When will the egg hatch?” Josh asked Faith.

  “Soon,” said Faith. “In a few days.”

  “Shouldn’t we be putting it under the dragon to hatch?” asked Alita.

  “Dragons aren’t chickens, you know,” said Kit, feeling very wise. “They don’t lay eggs out of their bottoms. This egg came out of a pool of fire. We’re going to bury it beneath a library, speak a spell over it, and it’ll sink down and down to make its own cavern. Then it’ll hatch.” She beamed at them proudly.

  Alita and Josh did a double-take, very unused to Kit knowing more than them. It didn’t last long, though.

  “How big is the dragon going to be when it comes out?” asked Josh. “Which library are we burying it under?”

  “When it hatches, will it already be asleep?” asked Alita. “What does it eat?”

  “Er…” said Kit.

  “Wait and see,” said Faith. “Weren’t you just telling Kit about delayed gratification?”

  “I hate it when people use my own arguments against me,” muttered Josh.

  “Kit, we’re going in there,” said Faith, pointing at a tree in the book wood. “Use the Moria spell I taught you the other day to open a tunnel. I’ve already enchanted the tree to guide the tunnel’s path.”

  Kit nodded and spoke the spell carefully.

  “Moria beneath us open

  Hollow stollen down ididay”

  A circle of the tree’s bark melted away, creating a
dark doorway. Kit went in first, carrying the egg into the darkness.

  “Ina!” she said, tapping her own forehead. A ball of light appeared ahead of them, and they started off down a flight of stairs, which changed into a winding pathway that seemed to be made of hard-packed earth. It smelled a little damp, but also alive.

  “Where are we going?” asked Josh.

  “Wait and see,” said Faith.

  Kit felt the anticipation building. She had no idea where they could be by now. They couldn’t be under the library any more. They’d walked too far. But she didn’t know of any other libraries nearby.

  The small light spell she’d cast only showed a few feet around them, but the drop in temperature and a change in the smell of the air told Kit they were in a larger space now.

  “Ina vyaapak!” said Faith in an echoing voice.

  Light blazed out from the tips of her fingers, and showed that they were standing in an enormous cavern. The floor was mossy and the walls were covered in shelves, full of books all around them. More books were scattered on the mossy ground. Dogon flew over to sniff them, swooping up and down, then flying up high and doing a loop-the-loop.

  “What happened here?” asked Kit. “Who threw all those books on the ground?”

  “Me,” said Faith. “But I didn’t throw them. I planted them. This, Kit, is the beginning of a new book wood.”

  “It doesn’t look like a wood,” said Kit.

  “Be patient,” said Faith. “The wood can’t begin to grow until the dragon egg has been planted.”

  “Where are we?” asked Josh.

  Faith pointed upwards with an elegantly nailed finger. “We’re right below your school. This is where we’re planting the egg.”

  “But you said the egg had to be planted beneath a library. We don’t have a school library,” said Kit.

  “Yeah,” said Alita. “I spent ages helping my mum campaign to GET us one, so we can’t have one already.”

  “Surprise!” said Faith. “The campaign worked! You have a library just above our heads!”

  Josh and Alita looked like all their Christmases and Diwalis and birthdays had come at once. Even Kit felt at least Easter-levels of pleased. Sure, she didn’t want MORE books in her life. But magic, beneath her school! That was worth something.

  “I can’t believe the campaign worked!” said Alita, excitedly. “My mum didn’t say a thing!” “She wanted it to be a surprise when you got to school,” said Faith. “So tell her you were surprised, all right?”

  “I will look so surprised my eyes might almost fall out of my head,” promised Alita. “She’ll be calling the optician before I have finished being surprised!”

  Faith chuckled. “Excellent! It should all be up and running on the first day of school – the Wizards’ Council are sending a new librarian! Your mum even persuaded the parent teacher association to help pay their salary! She might not be a wizard, but that counts as magic in my book!”

  “Oh,” said Josh. His face fell. “Aren’t you going to be our librarian?”

  “I can’t manage more than one library at a time,” said Faith. “The school deserves its own librarian, to give the books – and, once it’s hatched, the dragon – all the care and attention they deserve.”

  “So who is going to be our librarian?” asked Kit.

  “An old friend,” said Faith with a smile. “You’ll like him. His name’s Ben Picarda. We went to the Academy together but I haven’t spoken to him in a while. He’s been living on a remote Scottish island, practising his magic until he got allocated his own library. Now, let’s plant that egg!”

  “We don’t have to dig, do we?” asked Josh, poking the moss cautiously with his white trainer.

  Faith shook her head. “There’s a spell for that.” She gestured around at the cavern. “This is the beginning of the book wood. When we plant the egg, it will begin to flourish. And when the dragon hatches…” She tailed off. “Well, you’ll see.”

  “What are we waiting for then?” asked Kit. “Let’s plant the egg!”

  Faith nodded. “Say the spell after me. And raise your arms like this.”

  She raised her arms – both arms – wide and high.

  Kit did the same.

  Faith began to chant, one line at a time. Kit followed her, echoing her words.

  Kit felt the magic build. It had a flavour to it, like fresh-mown grass and springtime. There was an aftertaste of metal, and a feeling of lightning under her skin. This was wild magic like she’d never felt before.

  It felt amazing!

  The ground beneath the egg sparkled and rippled. There was a faint rumbling beneath them and the children took a step back.

  Faith lowered her hands and stopped speaking. “Even further back!” She shooed them off closer to the edge of the cavern, as the spell truly took hold.

  The egg, and the ground around it, began to sink, sparkling as it went.

  “The new dragon’s chamber is forming,” said Faith.

  The sparkles around the egg started to take on solid shapes, forming a mound beneath the egg.

  “Treasure!” gasped Kit. She kneeled down to grab a fistful, but it slipped between her fingers like sand.

  “It’s not fully solid yet,” said Faith. “Also, hands off! That belongs to the dragon.”

  “I just wanted to touch it,” grumbled Kit.

  “How would you like it if a dragon came and messed up your bed?” said Faith.

  “I wouldn’t mind. My bed is already as messy as it can be,” said Kit, grinning.

  Faith let out a deep, heartfelt sigh and massaged her temples.

  “Why DO dragons sleep on treasure?” asked Josh.

  “Gold is good for their skin,” said Faith. “Also, it’s traditional.”

  The egg had sunk down out of sight now, and the glow was fading. Above the pit it had formed, the ground knitted itself back together, and soon it was as though nothing had ever been there.

  “How do we get down there?” asked Alita. “To visit the egg?”

  “The stairs will grow as soon as the first tree sprouts,” said Faith. “And to grow the first tree, we need to read the egg its very first story. Would you like to go and pick one from the new library?”

  “Yessss!” said Josh, making a fist of victory.

  “Can Dogon come?” asked Alita. He fluttered down to land on her shoulder.

  “Probably better if he doesn’t. I don’t want to have to explain any dragon droppings to Ben on his first day,” said Faith.

  “Go on home,” said Alita to Dogon. “I’ll see you later. I may even bring you a treat.”

  When Dogon heard the t-word, he was off off in a blur of wings and scales.

  Faith led them up another tunnel between two bookshelves in the wall of the cavern. It sloped gently upwards until they reached a wall of books. Faith nudged one of them out of place, and the shelf slid sideways.

  They were in an unfamiliar library, full of new books but no people.

  Faith turned to them, arms folded, with a satisfied look on her face. “I do love that new library smell.”

  Josh and Alita ran off through the shelves to see what treasures the new library held that they could read to the dragon’s egg below.

  “So,” said Faith to Kit. “What do you think?”

  “I can’t believe I have ANOTHER library to do shelving in,” said Kit. But secretly, she was pleased.

  “You love it, don’t you?” said Faith with a smile.

  “OK, I might like it. A bit,” said Kit, unable to stop herself from smiling. She glanced around. “There aren’t any teachers here yet, are there?” She didn’t want to be caught on school premises and get a detention before term even started.

  “Don’t worry. They’re not here until tomorrow,” said Faith. “We have the place to ourselves.”

  “We’ve got the perfect book!” said Alita, holding a book and pelting down between the shelves, with Josh just behind.

  “The Goose that
Laid the Golden Egg!” said Josh.

  “We thought the egg might like something it can relate to, emotionally,” Alita explained.

  They went back down the way they had come. “It’s this book that you pull out here,” said Faith, pointing to a dusty old volume about ships. “The usual spell.”

  Kit pulled it and said the same spell that opened the stacks in the public library. “Labbah.”

  Once they were down in the cavern, they sat on a rock together and Alita started reading. It didn’t take long before a tiny green shoot sprouted out of one of the books that lay on the ground.

  Josh was scribbling in his book and looking at his watch.

  The shoot grew and grew, like a magical beanstalk – only, as it grew, it became coated in bark. It was a fully grown tree!

  “Wow,” said Kit. “That was fast! And I’m not very patient, so it must have been REALLY fast.”

  “Three minutes,” agreed Josh. “Well, three minutes thirty seconds if you count it sprouting flowers.” He gestured to the fully grown tree, which was now in full bloom. It looked like no tree Kit had ever climbed. Its bark had a slight golden shimmer to it, and the flowers were fluffy and white, like the feathers inside a very fancy pillow.

  “It’s awesome, isn’t it!” said Kit to Alita.

  Alita looked like she was about to cry. She did that when she was happy sometimes. Kit never really understood it.

  “I made that happen,” said Alita in a tiny voice.

  “Yes you did,” said Faith, patting her on the shoulder.

  Faith, Kit and Alita took turns to read stories to the dragon after that, sitting in the book wood as it grew around them, or sometimes sitting beside the egg in its new cavern. They read the egg stories of dragons and baby birds and trains and rainy days and adventures in faraway lands, and near ones too.

  They visited the egg multiple times that day, and read it lots of stories. Each time when they went down to visit, new shoots were growing above it in the book wood – the beginnings of lots of tiny trees. The children were thrilled.

  “And that’s nothing compared to what will happen to the wood once the dragon hatches,” said Faith. They were heading down from the new wood to the dragon’s lair, down the stairs that seemed to go on forever.