The Wizard in the Woods

by Louie Stowell

  “I don’t think we can wait and see,” said Kit.

  Checking that the dinosaur was out of sight, they opened the door to the hut and ran back down the path, the way they’d come. It didn’t take them long to find the Dragon Masters. They were in a clearing. The flying dinosaur soared overhead. More crashed through the undergrowth.

  YOU’RE BACK. AND MORE COUNCILS ARE COMING. I FEEL THEM COMING, said a Dragon Master. SHALL WE END YOU NOW, OR WAIT UNTIL YOU WATCH THEM FAIL?

  Kit looked sideways at Alita and Josh. They looked just like their usual selves. Had the spell failed?

  No, it can’t have done. Something was happening. Kit felt a tug deep inside her. It was her power, being pulled out of her, through her veins and out through her fingertips and down through the soles of her feet. She felt suddenly very weak, like she was made of water that was flowing downhill, dragging her down with it.

  INTERESTING, said a Dragon Master. PURPOSEFULLY MAKING YOURSELF WEAKER. IS THIS SO THAT WE WILL PITY YOU? BECAUSE PITY WASN’T AROUND WHEN WE EVOLVED.

  Alita and Josh gasped. They began to glow. Josh’s eyes gleamed yellow, while Alita’s brown skin took on an all-over sparkle.

  SHARING… said the Dragon Masters thoughtfully. AS A COLLECTIVE, WE RESPECT THAT. BUT ONLY IF YOU ALL HAVE POWER TO BEGIN WITH… OTHERWISE, YOU’RE JUST MAKING YOURSELF WEAKER.

  “This … tingles,” Josh murmured.

  “This is … incredible,” said Alita. She looked at her hands, watching their glow.

  “I don’t think we did it right,” said Kit. “I feel … like all my magic is slipping away.”

  Josh touched his forehead and spoke the spell word, “Ina!”

  The light spell flared weakly and failed.

  “Oh,” said Josh.

  The Dragon Masters laughed at them. It echoed all around the cemetery. Kit glanced upwards, seeing Faith, trapped in a bubble of force, staring down at them in horror and confusion. Seeing the remains of the Wizards’ Council around them, transformed and helpless.

  “I’m scared,” said Alita. She slipped her hand in Kit’s. Kit took Josh’s hand, swallowing hard. She just hoped they could buy enough time for the other wizard councils to arrive.

  “Me too,” whispered Kit.

  “Me three,” said Josh.

  “Well, at least we’re together,” said Kit. “Whatever happens.”

  “Um, Kit … something is happening,” said Josh. He motioned to his hands. They were glowing with a bright yellow light. His palms were see-through, like burning glass. Kit felt a strange prickling tingle in her own hands. Squinting through the sun-bright light, she realised she could see through her own palms!

  “Same!” said Alita, holding up her own see-through hands. She prodded at her left hand with her right index finger. “Oh phew, it doesn’t have a hole in. It’s just … vibrating.”

  “The transportation spell,” said Kit quickly.

  They spoke the words in unison.

  Kit felt a force flow through her, through her hands, up to her heart, and out of her mouth as she spoke. Light began to build around them, flickering and flashing, like a growing storm.

  The Dragon Masters stopped laughing. They started chittering; a high-pitched squeaking roar of fear.

  THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE. HUMANS ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH. WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE. WE ARE FOREVER. WE ARE THE FUTURE. WE WILL MAKE THIS EARTH GREAT ONCE MORE!

  Then a light swallowed them, and they began to shrink, smaller and smaller. The dinosaur wheeling overhead was sucked down and down, shrinking too. The pteranodon and the gigantic T. rex, all whirled and shrank down and down until, with a great rush and WHOOSH of air…

  There was nothing in their place. Just a burned patch of ground.

  “We’ve … done it,” said Kit. “We sent them back.”

  The three children sagged to the ground in exhaustion. Kit felt like her bones were melting with tiredness.

  The tree with the outstretched branches turned back into Branwen. The fallen wizards rose to their feet. The lost ones popped back into existence.

  “Well,” said Branwen. “While I do like trees, that’s taking it a bit far, isn’t it?” She looked around. “They’re gone?”

  Kit nodded.

  Branwen waved a hand, and the air around them began to sparkle. After a moment, she seemed satisfied. “Yes. Gone. For good, this time.”

  She sighed and slumped slightly, supported by one of her fellow council members. “We have to heal. We’ll be back soon to find out everything that happened here. But…” She gave Kit a careful look. “Well done, whatever you did.”

  She clicked her fingers, and the entire Council vanished.

  A second later there was a thump, and Faith fell to the ground. The Dragon Masters’ force bubble was broken.

  Alita and Kit rushed to Faith’s side. “Are you OK?” said Alita.

  Faith nodded. “But never mind me. What happened? What did you do?”

  “A spell to share Kit’s power,” said Josh.

  “Treble, treble, treble?” said Faith.

  Josh nodded. “It turned all three of us into wizards.”

  “Interesting. I wonder why that didn’t just cut Kit’s power in three?” said Faith.

  “Also … when does it start fading?” asked Alita. Kit saw fear flicker across her face.

  “It should happen in a minute or two,” said Josh. “According to the book I read it in.”

  But a minute passed. Two minutes. Three.

  “I can still feel…” Alita said with a shiver. “The magic is still there.”

  Faith got out her thaumometer and held it to Alita, frowning. The end of the device glowed pink. “Ah,” she said. “That’s …unexpected.”

  She switched to Josh and scanned him too. The thaumometer glowed bright pink again. “Very interesting…” Faith muttered to herself.

  “Could the book be wrong about how long it takes?” said Kit.

  “A book? Be WRONG?” said Josh in shock.

  “Possibly,” said Faith. “But before we find that out… Where is Ben?”

  “He was trapped in a bubble of force, with his bad guys,” said Josh.

  “Like you were,” said Alita to Faith.

  “My bubble popped when the Dragon Masters were banished,” said Faith. “So…”

  They all looked around.

  “Ben’s long gone, isn’t he?” said Alita, rolling her eyes. “What a coward.”

  “And he didn’t even stick around to say he’d be back for revenge,” said Josh, sounding disappointed.

  Faith looked into the trees thoughtfully. “We will have to watch our backs, though. And alert the councils of the world.”

  “Oh!” said Alita. “We should call them! And tell them they don’t need to come! And Duncan! I don’t want him to worry!

  Faith grinned. “I’ll handle that. You three go home and get some rest. You’ve earned it.”

  That night, Kit dreamed of wizards dancing in groups of three, and rats riding dinosaurs, and, because dreams sometimes don’t mean anything at all, going to the supermarket to buy a cow.

  She rushed back to the library to meet the others the next morning. They went down to the book wood, where Faith was waiting for them in the common room, along with Dogon, who was gnawing on a dog chew.

  “How are you all feeling?” asked Faith.

  “The same,” said Alita. “A bit … tingly?”

  Faith nodded and frowned. She rummaged around in a cupboard and brought out three cloaks. One was Kit’s – white with yellow at the bottom. The other two were all-white. “Try these on for size,” she said, handing one to Alita and one to Josh. “I want to see something…”

  Kit put on hers, and Josh and Alita put on cloaks of their own. After they’d fastened them round their necks, colour began to creep from the bottom, all the way up, like water soaking into a paper towel, until their cloaks were bright pink all over.

  Kit looked down and saw that her cloak had turned pink to
o, though with the additional yellow stripes.

  “That shouldn’t be possible,” murmured Faith.

  “I don’t know,” said Kit, feeling a bit grouchy. She’d had to work really hard to get her cloak to change colour at all, and Josh and Alita had pink ones already? Not fair. “Josh and Alita always did tend to skip levels at school … so it makes sense they’d go right on to pink cloaks from white.”

  “No, I mean … pink cloaks don’t exist,” said Faith. “At least, not any more. It’s an ancient school of magic … based on pure, wild magic.”

  The children looked down at their impossible cloaks. Alita wrapped hers tightly around her, like she was cold.

  “It might be why the spell didn’t just cut Kit’s magic in three. Instead, it tapped into the wild magic in the world, making all three of you strong,” said Faith.

  “Will the cloaks fade as our magic goes away?” asked Josh, looking a little sad.

  “I’m going to have to consult the council, but the fact that you’re still registering as a wizard now…” Faith shook her head. “I think, somehow … the spell might be permanent. Wild magic chose Kit before. Now I think it chose all three of you.”

  “YESSSS!” said Josh. “I’m a wizard! We’re all wizards! WIZARD TRIO!”

  Kit offered him a high-five, which he missed.

  Alita, on the other hand, burst into tears. Dogon flew over to lick her salty cheeks.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Kit. “Aren’t you pleased? We can all be wizards together!”

  Faith watched and said nothing, listening.

  “I… It was fun to try being a wizard, and doing that spell together… I always wondered what it felt like … but…” Alita let out another huge sob. “I don’t want to be a wizard. Not forever. I want to live my life and be me. I don’t want to be someone else!”

  “You’re not someone else, though! You’re just you, with magic!” said Kit.

  “This isn’t my magic, though! I’m part of you now,” said Alita. “And … what if I get lost and there’s no me any more!”

  “Alita,” said Faith at last. “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think that’s how this is. I don’t think you have Kit’s magic. I think Kit just woke up yours. And you too, Josh.”

  “What?” said all three children at once.

  “Alita, when you herded the animals up earlier in the summer both Duncan and I thought there was something a little magical about that. And, Josh, you took to the logic of spells so well, I always wondered.”

  “So we were wizards all along?” asked Alita.

  “In a sense,” said Faith. “The magic may never have awoken in you without the kick-start of this spell … or it might have done when you were older. We can’t know for sure. But I think this was all you. Kit was just the spark that lit the flame.”

  They all sat in silence while that sank in.

  “I still … I’m still scared,” said Alita. “I’m not normal any more.”

  “Alita, you’ve got a giant hellhound for a pet and you think dragons are cute. You were never normal,” said Kit, giving her a punch in the arm.

  “Careful,” said Alita. “I’m a powerful sorcerer now. Do not anger me. I shall become as beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night.”

  “All shall love you and despair!” added Josh.

  Kit laughed. Her friends were weird. Weird wizards.

  “So can we start training now?” said Josh. “I can’t wait to try out more spells!”

  “Soon,” said Faith. “After the council comes back for a debrief. Though we’ll have to get the council to send a new school librarian to train you during term time, while I train you at the weekends.”

  “A not-evil one this time, please,” said Kit.

  “Yeah,” said Faith. She looked suddenly sad. “I still can’t believe that’s what Ben became. He used to be so…” She shook her head. “But that’s not your problem. You’ve all done something amazing. You saved the world! And changed yourselves forever. So perhaps you deserve the day off, to just have fun.”

  “Learning spells is fun!” said Josh.

  “Fun outdoors. Or with your families,” said Faith. “That’s an order.”

  So the children did what they were told. Kit and Alita went to play at Kit’s house, while Josh took a book on wizard training back to his house, which was his idea of fun.

  “Do you mind? That you’re not the only child wizard now?” asked Alita, as they played a board game in Kit’s room.

  “Honestly?” said Kit, moving her counter two squares forward as she thought about this.

  “Honestly.”

  “I thought I would. But actually I feel relieved. I was alone. And now I’m not.”

  “You were never alone,” said Alita, taking her by the hand.

  Kit smiled, and fidgeted with her other hand.

  “Hey!” complained Alita. “Don’t use me being a nice friend as an opportunity to cheat. I saw you hiding that counter under your leg!”

  “Busted,” said Kit with a grin.

  A few days later Faith summoned them to the school library after lessons

  “What do you think it’s about?” asked Alita as they headed down the corridor. Everyone else was filing out to leave, rushing and shoving. Kit felt like a salmon trying to swim upstream.

  “Maybe they’ve got a new librarian?” she said.

  “Maybe there’s a new spell book?” said Josh.

  “Or maybe it’s a new apocalypse?” said Kit.

  “I hope not,” said Alita. “I just want life to be normal for a bit. Or as normal as it can be.” She looked down at her hands, as if she was looking for dirt under her nails.

  Down in the book wood, the air was fresh. The trees had grown tall over the past few days. Kit noticed piles of old books laid around the floor too, ready to turn into new trees. Faith had clearly been busy.

  She was nowhere to be seen, but in the air appeared a sign, written in glowing letters. It said:

  “Which ‘we’?” Kit wondered out loud.

  They climbed down the staircase to the dragon’s lair to find out.

  When they got to the bottom, a large group of people were waiting for them.

  Faith and the entire Wizards’ Council were standing in a circle around the dragon’s treasure hoard – along with Duncan, who gave them a little wave.

  “Hello!” he said. “Had to come and see you were all OK after the big kerfuffle. And it’s always an honour to see… Well. What we’re about to see.”

  “We’re more than OK!” said Josh.

  “They’re wizards now,” added Kit.

  “I knew it!” said Duncan, looking at Alita in particular.

  Alita looked away, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips.

  “Enough youthful high spirits!” said Branwen. “We have something to do!”

  In the middle of the crowd of wizards, the little blue dragon was looking around, curious. It let out a little chirrup and a puff of smoke. Dogon was fluttering around the chamber,

  Each wizard wore a cloak. Branwen’s cloak was green. The others wore blue cloaks, and Faith’s was black.

  “Your cloaks are here, children,” said Iyesha.

  They each slipped on their cloaks. Something in the air felt solemn, which kept Kit from asking one of the million questions she felt bubbling up in her throat. But she couldn’t resist just the one popping out. “What’s happening?” she asked. As a compromise, she asked it in a hushed voice.

  “It’s time for the dragon to go to sleep … and begin his real life,” said Faith.

  The dragon chirruped, clearly knowing they were talking about him, though unable to speak for himself yet.

  “How does it work? Do we put him to sleep?” asked Josh.

  Branwen gave him a scathing look. “He’s not a sick dog. He’ll go to sleep himself. But we have one duty as he does, to help him settle in to his new dream life.”

  “Tucking him in?” suggested K
it. She wondered if you were supposed to scoop treasure over him to make him comfy. He was getting up and circling, then sitting down, as though trying to find the best position. He let out a little flaming yawn.

  Branwen snorted. “Tuck him in? Think. What do librarians usually do to dragons?”

  “Protect them from evil property developers and giant rats?” suggested Kit.

  “Read to them,” said Alita.

  Branwen pointed to Alita. “Full points to the new wizard.”

  “Ooh, do we get points?” asked Josh. “How do we get points?”

  “Faith, I don’t know how you’re not constantly exhausted by these children,” sighed Branwen.

  “It’s a miracle,” said Faith. But she was smiling. “Now, perhaps you three could do the honours.” She produced a book, apparently from thin air. It was the first Danny Fandango book. “I thought you might enjoy starting with this one?”

  “YESSSS!” said Josh and Alita at once.

  The children read a page of the book each – even Kit volunteered to take a turn. As they read, the dragon’s eyes began to sink closed. His breathing grew deeper and slower. Before they reached the final line of the final page, he was deeply asleep.

  “Come,” said Branwen. “Let’s join him.”

  Branwen knelt down, ever so slowly, beside the dragon. The rest of the council joined her, then Faith, then Kit. Each laid a hand on the little dragon’s flank. It was quite a squeeze. Josh and Alita went to hold Kit’s hand, as usual. But she shook her head. “You don’t need me now!”

  With excited glances at one another, Josh and Alita each laid a hand on the remaining uncovered scales of the dragon’s back.

  Then everything went black.

  The baby dragon was sitting on a throne on a pebble beach.

  “That’s the throne from Danny Fandango!” cried Alita in excitement.

  Kit looked around to take in the whole scene. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a mermaid sat singing on a nearby rock. Not a real mermaid, covered in scales, but a storybook one, with a swimsuit top made out of shells, and long black hair. She waved at Kit. But Kit’s attention was all on the dragon.