The Ruby Quest (6 page)

The crowd gasped. Hyldi's eyes widened greedily and she reached for the jewel.

Yufa wrenched herself from Gunnar and cantered straight for the witch. She snaked out her neck, sank her teeth into Hyldi's bun, and pulled. The comb came away in her mouth.

Hyldi screamed. ‘My ruby!' She raised one hand to her hair and threw a fireball at Yufa with the other.

Without thinking, Tia conjured up a stream of flames and hurled it at Hyldi's fireball. The two collided and shot into the air in a plume of shrieking fire.

For a second there was a shocked silence then the crowd dived for cover, yelling in terror.

‘So, you want a fight, little thief,' Hyldi sneered and threw another fireball.

Tia leapt aside and the fireball hit the troll, knocking its head off. Loki flew away with a squawk of protest.

Hyldi threw fireball after fireball. As Tia dodged them all, Hyldi's aim grew wilder. The battered houses in the square began to smoke, the stalls went up in flames and the troll was reduced to a stump.

At last Hyldi stopped, lungs heaving, to catch her breath.

That gave Tia the perfect chance to hurl a fireball of her own, but she hesitated. She didn't want to fight back with her own fire; it might cause yet more damage to the smouldering houses or hurt someone. But she didn't know what else to do.

Yufa galloped out of a side street where she'd been sheltering and dropped the comb in front of Tia. ‘Use this!'

The ruby glowed temptingly at Tia's feet. ‘I promised Finn I wouldn't,' she whispered.

‘Look out!' the horse warned.

Hyldi was running forward, hair swirling like a nest of snakes, hand stretched out to grab the comb.

Tia snatched it up by the ruby, and felt its crimson power running through her. She pointed the comb at Hyldi. Strands of red light streamed from the jewel and formed a bubble round the witch. It bobbed gently in front of Tia, pulsing red, and Hyldi's frozen expression of furious surprise glared out at her before the bubble drifted off around the square.

Tia sat on one of the troll's gigantic feet and leaned back against the stump of his leg. She was exhausted. Yufa, who had followed her, nuzzled her face comfortingly. Cautiously, people crept out of hiding and into the square. They stared in amazement at the drifting bubble and the witch inside it.

‘She hasn't got the ruby any more,' Tia said to them. ‘She can't hurt you.'

‘No, you've got it,' a man said, looking at the comb Tia was holding.

‘And you've got those other jewels as well,' a woman added.

A girl clutched at the woman's arm. ‘She could turn into a bear and eat us!'

‘Or turn us to ice!'

‘Or make us disappear!'

The accusations grew wilder and wilder.

‘But I've captured Hyldi for you,' Tia cried, waving her hands in protest. The ruby gave off streams of red light as it moved. The people cried out in fear and scrambled off as quickly as they could. Tia even saw Vanna hurrying Frida away.

Loki fluttered down and perched on the troll's stump. ‘They've seen that you're a powerful witch-child and that makes them scared of you,' he said.

It was just what Tia had dreaded. And she was sure Finn would react in the same way when he knew the truth about her.

‘At least I can free Shandor,' she told Yufa. ‘And the other prisoners.'

‘Thank you,' the little horse said. And Tia knew that was the only thanks she would get for defeating the High Witch of Askarlend.

In the cavern Tia stabbed the prongs of the comb into the nearest time bubble. It burst in a shower of glittering red dust and a woman dropped to the stony floor. She stared at Tia in bewilderment.

Tia hid the comb behind her back. ‘Hyldi's lost the magic ruby and she can't harm you any more.' She pointed to the tunnel entrance. ‘That's the way out.' The dazed woman mumbled her thanks and stumbled away.

As soon as she'd gone Tia stabbed the next bubble to glide past. A man fell out of it. Tia gave him the same message, watched him go and then, one by one, released each prisoner. The cavern filled with swirling red dust and Tia's arm began to ache. It took a long time to free all the prisoners. She left Shandor till last.

Tia popped his bubble and he tumbled at her feet. She thrust the comb into her pocket and bent down to help him up. While he shook his head and his mind began to clear, Tia told him about Hyldi, and smiled. ‘Yufa's waiting for you.'

Shandor's face lit up with delight and he jumped to his feet. ‘Let's go!'

Tia had told Yufa to let Gunnar take her to the stables and sure enough, she was there. Shandor rushed into the stall and flung his arms round the horse's neck.

Tia felt tears prickle her eyes as Yufa whickered happily. She rubbed them away, left the stables quietly and made her way back to her room. She ignored the sideways glances people gave her, and their whispered comments and fearful looks. Hyldi had enjoyed making people feel afraid but Tia didn't.

The minute she reached her room she grabbed her bag from the table, checked that her belongings were still there, slung the bag over her shoulder and left. She didn't try to find Frida, Gunnar or Vanna to say goodbye. She couldn't bear to see distrust on their faces.

Tia, Finn and Loki decided to wait until the next day before setting out on the final quest to recover the pearl from Holmurholt. They lounged idly on a wooded hill overlooking the smoking plains of Askarlend.

Finn bent his long neck round and blinked at Tia as she lay propped against his coppery side. ‘You're very quiet. What's worrying you?'

Tia was thinking about the horrified looks the people of Askarlend had given her when they realised she was a witch-child. She couldn't tell Finn she was scared that one day soon he would look at her in the same way.

‘Is it because the last witch is your human mother?' Finn guessed.

‘No! It doesn't matter to me who Ondine is – I hate all the High Witches,' Tia insisted. ‘Freya is my mother, and you are my DragonBrother.'

Finn breathed reassuring smoke over her and she snuggled closer to his cosy, spicy-smelling hide. As she relaxed, a small, niggling doubt entered her mind. She thought she remembered gentle arms holding her, a sweet laugh and a thread of song.

Just for a moment she allowed herself to think,
Perhaps Ondine isn't like her sisters
. After all, the pearl had the power to heal and mend. Surely Ondine could only use that for good things?

No! Ondine was still a High Witch. She'd find a way somehow to use the pearl to her own wicked advantage.

Many miles away, Ondine looked from her palace window over the lands of Holmurholt. Its rivers glittered in the sun and the stately buildings
rising from its dozens of small islands looked as beautiful as ever. Encircling the far-off hills sparkled the spell that defended Holmurholt from dragon attacks. Now there was another threat to Ondine's homeland: a thief who was stealing the jewels of power from the High Witches. At least four had been taken and possibly, by now, a fifth.

As each jewel had been stolen so the spell of protection had grown weaker. It was still powerful but perhaps not powerful enough.

The pearl that hung from a diadem around Ondine's head began to glow as she concentrated. She closed her eyes. Ah yes! The pearl showed her a fragile place in the spell. The gem glowed steadily brighter and the damaged spell began to mend. Soon it was as strong as when it was first made.

Satisfied, Ondine opened her eyes and turned back into her room. The sheen on the pearl dimmed. Now she had mended the dragon spell, she needed to conjure up a completely new one.

Ondine pressed her lips together in a tight, grim line. No little Trader thief was going to take her pearl. It was the dearest thing in the world to her. She picked up one of her books of magic and turned the pages. Ah, there it was: A Spell to Catch a Thief.

Can Tia and her friends meet the challenge of
the final adventure? Find out in

published by Bloomsbury
July 2014

This electronic edition published in March 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing

Copyright © 2014 A & C Black
Text copyright © 2014 Gill Vickery
Illustrations copyright © 2014 Mike Love

First published March 2014 by A & C Black
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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London, WC1B 3DP

www.bloomsbury.com

The right of Gill Vickery and Mike Love to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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