Jody Richards and The Secret Potion (13 page)

Olaf quickly inspected her ankle and wiped it clean. “Does it hurt at all? Can you move it?” he asked.

Jody moved her ankle up and down. “Yes, it’s all right.”

“Fortunately the eagle doesn’t appear to have done any damage to you either,” said the pixie. “You were very lucky to escape.”

Jody smiled at The Bag Man and Olaf sheepishly. “Thank you both so much. You saved my life.”

The Bag Man’s face creased into a broad grin. “You’re very welcome,” he said. “That makes us all square, because back in the castle you saved me from a frog’s life. But we’ve got to be careful. If that was one of the witches’ eagles then they sent it to attack you.”

“But why?” asked Jody, perplexed.

“I’m not sure,” replied The Bag Man. “What I do know is that once they discover the secret potion has been destroyed they will be furious. And so will Hugo Toby. We’ve got to try to get you and your brother to safety as soon as possible.”

Chapter Twenty

HUGO TOBY looked out of his horse-drawn carriage as it sped towards his brother’s castle.

He peered into the forest and saw three boys with axes in their hands, climbing trees and chopping down branches.

Below the boys several dogs were barking at three people who were approaching them. The three figures were too far away for him to make out their faces, but one of them appeared to be a girl with long golden-brown hair and another seemed to be carrying three bags.

“Surely that can’t be the girl I sent to the whirlpool,” he said to himself. “But it does look remarkably like her. If she did escape perhaps it was my brother’s doing – maybe he rescued her because he wanted her to work for him. But, if not, then she must have been very, very lucky.

“Perhaps I should set her a tougher challenge – like putting her into a barrel of live snakes. I’d like to see if she could escape from that. What do you think, Wham?” He leaned across to stroke his large cat, which was filling the remainder of the carriage seat that was not occupied by his master’s bulk.

“It’s always good fun to terrorise an aggravating child, isn’t it?” Both questions went unanswered by Wham, who was beginning to look forward to another meal of giant prawns.

“You’re no good when it comes to giving advice, are you, Wham?” Hugo Toby chided. “I’d better refer to my lucky coin instead.” He fished in the top pocket of his robe and brought out his special golden coin.

“Now,” he said. “If it comes down ‘heads’ it is the same girl.” The wizard tossed the coin in the air, caught it on the palm of his hand and inspected it. It was ‘heads’

“And if it comes down ‘heads’ again she is up to no good.”

He spun the coin a second time and once more it landed ‘heads’ up. “That’s very interesting,” he mused.

Hugo poked his head out of the carriage window and shouted at his driver, a pathetically tall, thin goblin with gigantic ears and a pointed nose. “Faster,” he ordered. “We need to go faster.”

Finally, the carriage arrived at the castle. The driver, having suffered the indignity of being searched by the two guards outside the front gate, put all Hugo Toby’s bags in the hall before leaving without getting a tip or even a ‘thank you’.

Hugo, holding his walking stick and a lead attached to the collar of a disgruntled Wham, demanded to see his brother.

“I’m sorry sir, but Augustine has gone out,” Grog told him.

“Where?” insisted Hugo Toby, peering at one of the few people he had come across with a more hideous nose than himself.

“I don’t know. He...he didn’t say,” stammered the little pixie, his squint and his chewing habit both becoming more pronounced. “He left so quickly he didn’t have time to leave a message.”

Hugo Toby rubbed his stubbly beard, bent down to stroke Wham’s nose, and looked at the pixie suspiciously. “Doesn’t sound like my brother to me,” he said. “And when will he be back?”

“I don’t know, sir. He didn’t say,” uttered Grog again, shaking with fear.

“You seem to know very little,” Hugo scoffed. “Well, don’t just stand there, trembling. Here, take my cat.” With that he thrust the lead into the little pixie’s hand.

“Show Wham to my room. I trust you have prepared a separate bed for him. Make sure he is comfortable.”

“Yes, sir,” muttered the little pixie, struggling to hold the lead as Wham pulled on it and swished his tail in the air irritably.

“I want to be informed as soon as Augustine returns. Tell me, has he got any children working in the forest for him?”

The pixie looked increasingly uneasy, but before he could answer Hugo Toby added threateningly: “And don’t tell me you don’t know.”

“Yes, he has” said Grog.

“How many?”

“Three boys,” replied the pixie.

“No girls?” asked Hugo Toby again.

“I don’t think so, sir” Grog responded, breathing heavily and squinting wildly.

Mr. Toby glared at him. “While I’m waiting for Augustine to return, I think I’ll transport myself to the forest and see just what is going on there. Something doesn’t seem quite right to me. Make sure you look after my cat while I’m gone. Feed him some giant prawns.”

“I’ll get the chef to prepare some, sir. Would that be with or without salad?”

“Are you trying to be funny? Just make sure Wham is served a big portion of fresh prawns. If he is still hungry when I get back I’ll turn you into a prawn and feed you to Wham.”

Grog squinted uncontrollably and almost swallowed his tongue.

Chapter Twenty-One

BACK in Bromley, Jody’s distraught parents Marjorie and Herbert were experiencing a day they never wanted to relive.

It started just before 8 am. when Marjorie’s calls up the stairs to Jody went unanswered. Herbert then strode into his daughter’s room to awaken her and was shattered to find she was not there.

He did not go to work and they frantically telephoned the homes of Jody’s friends, only to be told she had not been there.

“We must go to the police immediately and report Jody missing,” said Marjorie.

“Yes, of course we must,” Herbert agreed.

“It’s absolutely awful,” Marjorie continued. “It was bad enough when James disappeared. I thought my heart would break. But for Jody to go missing as well – it’s more than I can take.”

“Maybe Jody has gone to look for James,” suggested Herbert. “No doubt that is what the police will suspect. Unless they think that we are to blame – in which case they will probably give us a grilling.”

Small beads of sweat began to gather on Herbert’s brow just below his receding hairline as his sub-conscious told him there was something more sinister about James’s disappearance. If only he could remember what it was.

Marjorie’s green eyes, which had been shedding tears almost non-stop, now flashed angrily at him. But Herbert was in full flow. “The police might think we are responsible. They could jump to the conclusion that we ill-treated the children and they both ran away from home. Or, even worse, they may accuse us of getting rid of them.”

Marjorie looked at her husband with contempt. “How can you be more concerned with what might happen to us than with what has become of Jody?” she stormed, her annoyance causing her cheeks to redden and make her freckles almost unnoticeable.

Herbert, normally full of confidence and assertiveness, dropped his shoulders in shame. “I was only....” he started to bluster but changed his mind. “I’m sorry,” he said, sheepishly. “Of course, you are right. Let’s go down the police station straight away.”

Marjorie, an attractive woman despite her plump figure, was already pulling her full-length coat over her ample frame. “It could be that someone has abducted both our children. But I think it is more likely that, as you said, Jody has gone to look for James.”

So Mr. and Mrs. Richards went along to Bromley police station to report their daughter missing to the same officers who were looking into the disappearance of their son. This time the officers did not seem so understanding and, as Herbert had predicted, they relentlessly fired questions at the couple for nearly two hours.

But Herbert didn’t mention anything about what he had found on James’s computer disc concerning the Castle of Dreams. He had no memory of it.

Chapter Twenty-Two

THE Bag Man, accompanied by Jody and Olaf, had found the spot in the forest where the boys were working, and had taken care of the original six guard dogs by giving them some more meat covered with sleeping potions.

Even the seventh dog – alias Bodger – succumbed to the pangs of hunger and ate the meat, but the other dog in black boots, Enoch, refused. Instead, Enoch growled ferociously at them, baring his large, dirty teeth.

He moved menacingly towards Jody, hell bent on seeking revenge for her causing Augustine The Awful to turn him from a goblin into a dog. Jody was filled with horror as anger blazed in the dog’s eyes.

The Bag Man moved between them, but still the dog came forward. This caused the Bag Man to edge slowly backwards, trying not to let Olaf see the terror he was feeling. The animal evaded the Bag Man’s attempt to grab him and leapt at the girl. Before he could sink his teeth into her, however, he was sent flying by a hefty blow delivered by James, who had raced up and swung the blunt end of his axe at the side of the dog’s head.

Enoch yelped in agony and fell to the ground, dazed.

“Are you all right?” asked James anxiously, catching Jody as she tottered unsteadily.

“Yes, I’m OK – thanks to you,” she said. “I didn’t think he would be so vicious.”

“Perhaps you could take the dog back to the castle,” the Bag Man asked Olaf. “Have you got a lead for him?”

“No,” said Olaf.

“Then you’ll have to use your belt,” shouted James.

“Yes, Olaf, use your belt as a lead,” the Bag Man urged.

The large pixie reluctantly started to remove his belt and immediately his trousers dropped two or three inches, causing him to hoist them up. “Bodger or Enoch should be here with the dogs, I don’t know what could have happened to them,” he said.

“That dog you are about to put a lead on IS Enoch,” Jody told him.

“What!?” exclaimed Olaf.

Enoch was now recovering and he growled fiercely at Olaf, who backed away.

“Yes,” said the Bag Man. “Augustine The Awful turned Enoch and Bodger into dogs. Now if you don’t want to become a dog, too, perhaps you would be good enough to fasten your belt to Enoch’s collar and take him back to the castle.”

Olaf certainly did not want to run the slightest risk of suffering the same fate as Enoch. So he persevered despite the fact the dog bit him twice.

The snarling beast was about to attack again, but just as Enoch prepared to leap at Olaf he suddenly had a sneezing fit and could only stand spluttering helplessly. The pixie recovered his composure and by the fifth sneeze Olaf had managed to get the belt attached to Enoch’s collar

“Well, done, Olaf,” the Bag Man exclaimed, quite relieved. “Make sure you give our friend Enoch a bath in the moat around the castle when you get back. That will literally take his mind off any desire he may have to bite you.”

Olaf grunted in agreement. He half led and half dragged an enraged Enoch back to the castle with one hand, while using the other to hold up his trousers.

The Bag Man then told James and the other two boys: “There is no time to lose. We have managed to escape from the castle, but Augustine The Awful’s brother Hugo could arrive at any minute. We’ve come to get you and take you with us.”

Jody didn’t help matters by informing James’s friends, a ginger-haired boy with a crew cut and a jolly-looking plump lad, that she was a very naughty girl and couldn’t be trusted.

It meant a further lengthy explanation after which the ginger-haired boy was still confused. He stood scratching his crew-cut and sliding his tongue over the braces on his teeth.

“Don’t worry, Nick-Knack,” James told him. “She has to say that stuff about being naughty and untrustworthy because a witch has put a curse on her.”

“Nick-Knack?” queried Jody. “That’s a strange name.”
“His name is Nick and we call him Nick-Knack because he has the knack of nicking himself with the clippers when cutting down the berries from the trees,” explained James. Nick-Knack held up three fingers with plasters on them by way of confirmation.

“But what if we do trust you and go with you?” asked Nick-Knack, running his hand through his hair which was so short it stuck up like bristles. “When Augustine The Awful finds out that we’ve gone he’ll come looking for us.”

“There’s not much chance of that now because he’s been turned into a frog.” Jody reasoned.

“Augustine The Awful is now a frog?” asked the third boy, whose large tummy and round face made him look like a trimmer version of the old comic book character Billy Bunter.