Icespell (3 page)

Disaster at Camelot

I
t was Ferocious who broke the silence. He had watched the encounter between Max and Snotty with one eye open, while curled up for an afternoon doze on Max’s pack. But now he jumped down and stretched.

“Well, it’s no use looking like a wet fish, Max. Whatever you’ve done, you’ve done. Better just go and find out what it is.”

At that moment there was a flurry of splashing and squawking as Adolphus crash-landed in the pool alongside a small duck, and both of them flapped their way noisily to the bank.

“Hello! Hello! I’ve made a friend! Come and meet him!” called Adolphus happily.

The duck waddled out of the water with Adolphus bounding round him in circles, and bobbed his head at them all with a wide grin.

“Quack!” he said cheerily. “Got any bread?”

“What?” said Max, startled.

“
Got any bread?
” said the duck. “Only, I always ask. If it’s humans. ’Cos they often do have. And I like a bit of bread.”

“Umm, yes, I think so,” said Max, and looked in his pack. There was an old dried-up piece of bread he’d stuffed in there at breakfast a few days ago, intending to eat it later. He broke it up and threw it into the water, where the duck happily splashed around finding every last bit.

“Quack!” he said, when it had all gone. “Much
obliged. Tasty bit of bread that. Got any more?”

“No, sorry,” said Max.

“Ah well, never mind. Maybe another time.” And the duck dived under the surface for a second, splashed water over himself happily, then waddled out of the river.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said, putting his head on one side and looking at Max and Olivia with one beady black eye. “So – what are we doing now?”

“We’re going back to the castle,” said Ferocious. “To see what wonders Max has managed to achieve with his latest spell. Probably turned all the fish in the moat to tadpoles or something.”

“Oh, magic, eh?” said the duck. “Like a bit of magic myself. Got a lot of friends who do magic. Are you any good?” He looked at Max brightly, and Max coloured.

“Well,” he said. “I’m not too bad. But things do have a habit of going wrong…”

He bit his lip, and hoped Ferocious was right and he’d only done something minor with the spell.
He had an awful feeling it was going to turn out to be much, much worse.

The shadows were lengthening as they reached the edge of the woodland. The duck, whose name was Vortigern, had decided to come with them to visit a distant cousin of his who lived in the castle duckpond. He had regaled them all the way with tales of his family and various adventures – it seemed that he was named after an ancient king, who had been saved from ambush by Vortigern’s great-great-great grandfather, and had gratefully made the whole family official Royal Ducks.

“So really, you ought to call me
King
Vortigern,” he explained. “Or Your Highness. But I let my friends off.”

Max had gradually relaxed as they trudged back, and was looking forward to a good dinner and Lancelot’s new song. But as they rounded the corner and the castle came into full view, all thoughts of food disappeared. Max stood rooted to the spot, feeling
like a vast weight had just dropped on top of him.

There, in the distance, should have been Camelot. But in its place, reaching up higher than even the tallest turret of the castle, was a mountain of ice, sparkling blue-white and sheer, right to the edges of the moat.

“Druid’s toenails,” breathed Olivia, awed. “What have you
done
, Max?”

They all looked at him, wide-eyed.

“Quack!” said Vortigern. “That’s a corker! Did you do that all by yourself? My cousin’s not going to be happy.”

“Neither is anyone else,” said Ferocious. “You’ve really done it this time, Max. Better take it off, quick.”

Max sat down on the ground. He didn’t think his legs would hold him up any more. He felt like he might be sick.

“You
can
take it off, Max?” said Olivia, looking anxiously at his pale face.

Max pulled out the stone from his pocket and looked at it. It was still solid and covered in ice. None of it had melted.

“The thing is,” he said in a small voice, “I didn’t direct the spell at Camelot. I did it on the stone. There’s some magic that’s linked the stone to the castle, and I’m not sure I
can
reverse it. And there’s something odd about the spell, too, because the ice should have melted by now and it hasn’t.” He looked at them miserably. “I tried taking the spell off the stone back at the clearing, after Snotty had gone. But I couldn’t. And I’m pretty certain that means I can’t take it off the castle either.”

They looked at him, appalled. The castle was encased in a mountain of ice, which meant that everyone inside it was also encased in ice – King Arthur, Merlin, Sir Bertram… And Max couldn’t take the spell off.

“Wonderful,” said Ferocious, who recovered first. “Excellent. Castle and all its inhabitants iced for an unknown amount of time while we figure out how to break the spell. It’s just as well we were all
outside
the castle when you did it, Max, or we’d
really
have been in a sticky situation.”

Olivia gave a shaky laugh. “He’s right, Max. It could have been worse. At least we’re all here together. We’ll find a way to reverse it… But I suppose… the people in the castle… they will be all right, won’t they? When the spell comes off, I mean?” She was trying not to make too much of the question, but Max could see that she had gone rather white. He nodded.

“I’m pretty sure they will be. Luckily there was an ant on the stone so I made sure there was a bit of the spell that protected anything alive on it while it was iced.
That
should mean the same thing applied to the castle.”

“Well then,” said Ferocious. “Nothing to worry about. Between us, we’ll find a way to take the spell off, you’ll see.”

“Yes, yes!” said Adolphus, nodding vigorously. “And Vortigern will help, won’t you?”

“Quack!” said Vortigern. “You can count on me. Always happy to help!”

Max nodded and felt a bit better. He looked again at the distant castle. He could see dark figures moving around by the gatehouse, which was just outside the moat and so the only part of the castle not encased in ice.

“Umm, Olivia,” he said slowly. “Do you happen to remember who was on guard duty when we left?”

She considered. “Well… everyone important was in the meeting with King Arthur – the one about the mysterious sorceress. I think the only one on guard duty was… oh…” Her face fell. “It was Sir Richard.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Max grimly. “Sir Richard Hogsbottom. Because he knew what was going to happen!”

Ferocious sniffed. “Well, in that case it’s probably best if we don’t just walk up to the castle and ask if they need any help. Or we’ll be helping from the bottom of a very deep dungeon.”

“Too right,” said Olivia. “Maybe we’d better just go back to the woods.”

Max thought about it. “I agree. We can head for the old charcoal-burner’s hut. But first I think we need to know what they’re planning. Which means getting a bit closer, without being seen.”

“Oh yes,” said Adolphus eagerly. “I can do that! I’m very good at creeping. Look – look at me doing invisible creeping!”

He wriggled along the ground on his belly, squawking slightly as he scraped over stones, and not quite in control of his tail, which waved enthusiastically every few yards.

“Yes, Adolphus, very good,” said Olivia encouragingly. “But you’re a bit big. I think it might be better to send Ferocious.”

“Oh yes, me as usual, into the mouth of danger. Ha! Never fear, Ferocious is always ready to risk life and limb,” said the rat, and sighed.

“Quack! I’ll go too! Might get some bread from the guards!” said Vortigern.

“Right,” said Max. “Good idea. Vortigern, you can act as a decoy – distract the guards while
Ferocious gets closer and tries to find out what Sir Richard’s up to.”

Ferocious crept quietly along the floor of the gatehouse, under the wooden benches by the side of the wall. Vortigern was already outside, quacking loudly, and most of the guards were competing to see who could get a piece of bread straight into his open beak from ten yards. Inside, one of the gate guards was discussing the situation with Sir Lionel, who had just arrived from Leogrance.

“It’s been a complete nightmare! We’ve tried chipping our way into the castle but the ice is like solid rock! Nothing can seem to break it.”

Sir Lionel stroked his moustache. “It’s obviously an enchantment, and I never was any use when it came to magic. It’s a good thing Sir Richard was outside the castle when it happened – at least he knows a bit more about these things!”

Ferocious sniffed. Sir Richard Hogsbottom, Snotty’s father, knew hardly anything about magic –
but he knew a great deal about plotting. He was almost certainly in on the whole thing, and was bound to have something nasty up his wide velvet sleeve.

“Yes, well, he’s outside having a look at the ice now, with young Adrian,” said the guard. “And he’s sent a swift to Lady Morgana le Fay – she may be able to help, of course. Hopefully the answer will be back soon.”

Almost as he spoke, the great door of the gatehouse crashed open and Snotty walked in, with his father behind him. Sir Richard was a short, rather tubby knight, with an ingratiating manner. He smiled round at them all, looking very pleased with himself, and then seemed to remember that the occasion was a solemn one and changed his expression to one of concern.

“I fear there’s nothing I can do – and even Adrian, who is
very
skilled in magic, cannot make a dent in it.”

“I’m afraid so,” nodded Snotty. “It’s quite likely that they’re all dead.” His eyes gleamed, and his
mouth gave the tiniest twitch of triumph as he said it.

“Er, well – we can’t be sure of that,” said Sir Richard quickly. “It’s entirely possible they are simply frozen temporarily… We will have to wait and see.”

As he spoke, a small white bird darted into the room, and hovered in front of them. Sir Richard plucked it out of the air and it immediately transformed into a small folded piece of parchment.

“Ah, the return swift from my lady Morgana,” he said with satisfaction, and opened it. He looked round.

“She says she will come at once. She may be able to remove the spell without anyone being hurt – at least, she will do her best. And in the meantime she will accept the position of queen – temporarily, of course – in Arthur’s place. She will be here in three days.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Sir Lionel heartily. “If anyone can sort this blasted sorceress out, it’s Lady Morgana. So – we’ll just do our best to guard the castle, keep the peace, and wait for her to arrive, eh?”

Ferocious had heard enough. He sneaked carefully out of the gatehouse and hurried back to the others. When they heard what Ferocious had to report, Max looked grim, and so did Olivia. Lady Morgana was due in three days, and they had to find a way to take the spell off before she got here. Because if Morgana was the one who removed the spell, there was absolutely no chance that either Arthur or Merlin would survive the disenchantment process.

Adolphus Has a Plan

V
ortigern the duck had found a nice sheltered corner of the wall just outside the gatehouse door. The moon was beginning to rise over the black outline of the hills to the east of the castle, and the icy mountain behind him was shimmering with a pale white translucence. The few soldiers still guarding the boundaries of what used to be Castle Camelot were moving quietly, their armour clinking slightly as they
shifted position, peering into the darkness.

Vortigern was considering what to do. He had heard quite a bit about Morgana le Fay from his cousin Guido. Guido regularly found his pond disturbed by the arrival of rather startled castle servants, transported fully clothed and upside down into the mud whenever they annoyed the visiting sorceress. Vortigern was rather curious to see the lady herself. And the soldiers in the gatehouse had bread, and were willing to share it. But on the other hand, Max was clearly quite a magical person, too. And Adolphus was a lot of fun. And he rather thought there was still a bit of bread left in Max’s pack. The duck stretched, ruffled his feathers, and waddled quietly towards the river.

It was an hour before Max and Olivia stumbled wearily back to the stretch of river where they’d spent the afternoon. Even Adolphus had lost some of his bounce. The trees around the clearing were shades of silver or grey, while the old stones of the
charcoal-
burner’s
hut shone pale white in the moonlight,
its shadow stretching out into the woods like an inky pool.

Inside, the hut was dusty and full of cobwebs hanging from every beam and corner, but when Olivia investigated the cupboards she found jars of preserves, nuts and dried fruit, blankets and firewood. Soon they had a warm fire crackling in the hearth, a bowl of nuts and sweet, wrinkled, old apples balanced between them, and a couple of musty blankets to lie on. If it hadn’t been for the dead weight in his stomach every time he remembered Camelot buried under a ton of ice, Max might actually have enjoyed the sense of adventure.

“So,” said Olivia, as she bit into one of the apples and threw another to Max. “What do you think?”

Max grimaced. “I’ve been trying to work it out. I’m pretty sure it’s something to do with that spell Snotty was planting the other day. The stone he gave me – it’s exactly like the chip of stone that was in the middle of his spell powder. I
knew
I recognised it but I couldn’t think where I’d seen it before.”

“Do you think that’s what made the connection between your spell and Camelot?” asked Olivia.

Ferocious emerged from Max’s belt pouch and scampered over to the bowl to get himself a nut.

“Of course it’s the connection, pea-brain,” he observed, spitting out a bit of hard shell. “Snotty must have spread them all over the castle – didn’t he say that that was ‘the last one’?”

“Yes, he did,” said Max. “And he also said it had to be against the northernmost wall. I wonder… Maybe he had one in each direction – east, west, north, south. That would be enough to bring the whole castle into the spell. Rotten back-stabbing slimeball!”

They sat for a moment, contemplating Snotty’s complete and absolute treachery. Then Olivia frowned, and threw her apple core in the fire.

“What I don’t understand though, Max, is how you managed to ice the whole of Camelot. Even if the stone
was
somehow connected to the castle. That’s a bit of a massive spell, isn’t it? You’d need an
enormous amount of magic to do something like that, wouldn’t you?”

Max bit his lip. He’d been hoping no one would think of that particular question. It was the aspect of the whole disaster he felt most guilty about. He
had
known there was something odd about the stone. He
had
known something big was preventing the icespell from working, and he should have stopped. But he didn’t want to back down in front of Snotty. He was angry, and determined to show off his new-found skill, and he had gone ahead and thrown every ounce of his magic at the jagged grey flint. And he had iced Camelot – the whole castle. It was all his fault.

He looked up and found Olivia watching him still, her eyebrows raised.

“Well, I… er… I did quite a massive spell,” he admitted. “It didn’t work with only a small one – and I thought maybe Snotty was blocking it somehow… But it must have been the fact that I was actually spelling the whole castle.”

Ferocious whistled. “Well blow me down with a dragonfly’s wing, Max. That’s
some
magic you’ve got there. I thought maybe Morgana had done an increasing spell on the rock or something. But if you did it all yourself, why can’t you take it off?”

Max sighed. “I think it’s because of the connection spell. I’d have to take that off before I could reverse my own spell, and Morgana’s magic is really tricky – not just strong, but almost impossible for anyone else to undo. The only person I know who can unravel her spells is Merlin, and he’s inside the castle.”

There was a silence as they thought about the fact that everyone they would normally rely on for help – Merlin, King Arthur, Sir Bertram, even Lancelot – were all stuck inside the ice mountain. Suddenly Adolphus lifted his head.

“Er – can anyone hear anything?” he said.

They listened. There was a slight rustling in the undergrowth outside the hut. They held their breath, keeping as still as possible. The rustling seemed to be
getting nearer, and then it stopped. They sat in silence, staring wide-eyed at each other, waiting to see if there was any more movement. Then, erupting into the stillness with an enormous CRASH, something hurtled through the single window of the hut right into the middle of the floor.

“Aaarrghh! Help! Save me!” shrieked Adolphus as they all scrambled rapidly away from the dark shadowy creature that was flapping noisily around in front of them.

“Quack!” it said loudly. “Got any bread?”

“Vortigern!” exclaimed Olivia. “What on earth? You gave us a real shock! What are you doing here?”

“Followed you,” said the duck happily. “I was going to stick around to see Lady Morgana do her stuff – I like a bit of magic myself – but then I thought, well, Max is quite a magical sort, and Adolphus is my new chum, and you have bread. You
do
have bread, don’t you?” he added anxiously.

“I do, as it happens,” said Max, laughing. After all the tension, the sudden arrival of the duck had left
him feeling rather hysterical. He dug out his pack, and broke off a small piece of one of the rolls left from their picnic. Vortigern gobbled it up, and then bobbed his head in thanks.

“Right then,” he said. “What’s the plan? I mean, seeing as I’m the nearest thing you have to royalty, I’m assuming I’m the leader. So I’d better know the plan.”

Max caught Olivia’s eye and they both grinned. Vortigern was probably the least royal-looking creature you could imagine. But he had a certain bumptious confidence, and he’d made them all feel a lot more cheerful. They could certainly do much worse for a leader.

“We’ve got to find a way to take the spell off Camelot,” said Max. “I can’t do it – I can’t undo Morgana’s magic. And I don’t know anyone who can, except Merlin.”

“Who’s currently deep in the middle of a mountain of ice,” put in Ferocious.

“And we don’t have any horses, or supplies,
and Morgana’s three days away from taking over the kingdom,” said Olivia.

“Quack… Tricky,” Vortigern said, then looked over at Adolphus. “Adolphus? You got any ideas for a plan?”

Ferocious snorted, and Max and Olivia tried not to smile. Only someone who didn’t know Adolphus would turn to him for ideas. They all loved him dearly, but there was no doubt that the small dragon was hopelessly dim.

Adolphus bounced up and down happily. A plan! He’d been asked to come up with a plan! He closed one eye, stuck out his tongue, waved his tail, and concentrated very, very hard. Camelot was covered in ice… They needed to get rid of the ice… Umm… He breathed a bit of fire to clear his head and then suddenly he had it! An idea! Ice was very cold, and fire was very hot. They just needed lots and lots of fire. They needed…

“Great-Aunt Wilhelmina!” he shouted triumphantly. “Why don’t we ask Great-Aunt
Wilhelmina? She can breath fire at it!”

Ferocious rolled his eyes. “Adolphus, you twit, this is a
magic
mountain of ice, not a build-up of frost on a cold night. You can’t melt an icespell…”

But Max had jumped up in delight. “You’ve got it, Adolphus, well done, you’re a genius!” he cried. “Great-Aunt Wilhelmina! Of course!”

“Um, sorry?” said Ferocious, taken aback. “You do know fire won’t work, don’t you, Max?”

“Yes, yes, I know,” said Max happily. “It’s not that. It’s that Great-Aunt Wilhelmina is a dragon. A very ancient dragon. And dragons are magical creatures. A dragon as old as Great-Aunt Wilhelmina is
bound
to know a way to reverse the icespell.”

“Brilliant!” said Olivia. “Well done, Adolphus!”

“Yes, yes,” said Adolphus, excitedly. “Well done me, whoopee, we’re going to see Great-Aunt Wilhelmina again! She’ll melt the icespell! Hurrah!” He flapped his wings and grinned, bouncing joyfully around the hut until he tripped over the basket
of wood and crashed into the wall with a thud.

“Umm – ouch,” he said, and sat down looking slightly cross-eyed.

“Right then,” said Vortigern. “That’s the plan. Great-Aunt Wilhelmina, first thing tomorrow. But right now, we all need to get some rest. So off to bed everyone. Quack quack!”

He waddled round, herding them all towards the fire and the spread-out blankets with loud quacks and flapping wings. When they were all settled down, he bobbed his head in approval, then tucked it under his wing and went to sleep.

Olivia opened one eye and grinned at Max.

“Well, we’ve got a leader, and we’ve got a plan. Things are looking up.”

Max nodded. He felt a lot better now they had someone to go to for help. Dragons were hugely magical, although they didn’t start to develop their magic till they were about a hundred, so Adolphus had a long way to go. But Great-Aunt Wilhelmina was four hundred and forty-three. He remembered
the last time they’d met her, up in Gore, and the power he’d felt in her piercing golden eyes. If anyone could help them sort out the icespell, it was Great-Aunt Wilhelmina.