The Witch's Revenge (22 page)

Montgomery gasped. “Give me Henry and the tooth.…”

He was hugging his body tightly, and, to Morag's horror, his face now looked even older than it had in the clearing. Deep lines ridged his forehead and encased his eyes. His
cheeks were hollow, and wrinkles had begun to appear under his chin.

“What are you going to do?” the girl asked, handing over the medallion and the tooth. Henry gleamed in what little moonlight there was and seemed to be smiling, as if he knew what was coming next.

“Watch,” replied the wizard.

Montgomery whispered to Henry, who seemed to nod, although Morag could not work out how. He closed his tiny eyes and started a long low chant that gradually grew in intensity. Some minutes had passed when suddenly the tooth began to glow brightly. Montgomery placed the tooth on the ground and an arc of light blazed across the waves to the boat. Montgomery took a breath before speaking.

“It's a bridge. Who'll be first to walk over it?” he gasped. “It's quite safe for you all.”

“What about you?” Morag asked. She could sense that he meant to stay behind.

“I'll follow,” he said. “Someone has to stay with the tooth. Go … please.…”

The Girallon horn sounded again—their scent had clearly been picked up—and Morag felt the earth tremor as the burly creatures thundered toward them. She looked back at her friend again.

“
Now
, Morag!” Montgomery hissed.

The girl hesitated no more. As soon as she stepped into the light she was pulled across the ledge, as if on a moving walkway in the human world. There was no sound, only
bright light surrounding her. She wasn't even sure if her friends were following, but she trusted Montgomery. Seconds later, she found herself stepping down onto the deck of the fishing boat and looking into the startled face of Kyle.

“Hey! What happened …?” he began.

“I'll tell you later,” she said as Bertie appeared in a flurry of gray feathers behind her. Aldiss leapt down next, followed by a disgruntled Mephista held by Shona. They all stood together on deck, ignoring the piercing cold wind that whipped their hair and feathers around in a frenzy.

“Where's Montgomery?” Morag asked.

“And why is he taking so long …?” continued Bertie.

Seconds turned into a minute, then another, and finally a shape appeared before them. Montgomery materialized, smiled weakly and then collapsed. The tunnel of light immediately blinked out and Morag ran to him.

Mephista was about to move until she saw Bertie lift her own wand in warning. She raised her hands and stood still.

“I don't feel so good,” said Montgomery before his eyes closed.

“Help me get him downstairs!” yelled Morag. “Kyle, get us out of here. Girallons are hunting us and we need to get to Marnoch Mor as soon as possible, otherwise Montgomery will … will …”

She couldn't say the word. She couldn't believe that he might die. With Aldiss opening doors for them, Shona helped Morag carry the ailing wizard down below. They
laid him on a bunk, where Morag pulled a woolen blanket over him. She smoothed his whitened hair from his forehead. “He'll be all right, won't he, Shona? Once we get him home? Everything will be fine. Won't it?”

The dragon said nothing, but laid a consoling claw on the little girl's shoulder.

Kyle hauled in the anchor and ran to the wheelhouse. He started the engine and plotted a course heading east toward the mainland.

Once she had dried her eyes, Morag went back up on deck and saw the witch looking back to the DarkIsle, gazing at the torch-illuminated outline of the castle. She did not seem to care that Morag was there, just kept on staring at her home.

“My father will be furious with you,” Mephista sneered. “He will be hatching a plan to get me back right now. He'll come after us, you know.”

In the darkness, Morag's eyes twitched at the thought of another confrontation, and she was glad the witch could not see her discomfort.

“Your father is not who you think he is,” she said at last.

“Don't you dare tell me I don't know my own father,” Mephista said. Through the darkness, Morag sensed the witch was smiling. “It's only a matter of time before he finds me. And when he does, you'll wish Tanktop had thrown you to the wolves.”

Morag staggered back and walked up to the wheelhouse, where Kyle was pushing the fishing boat to its limits. It was a small and nimble craft that was capable of a fast
rate of knots, but it had its limitations. In the brightness of the lone bulb, Morag saw how serious and determined he was. He managed to smile when she joined him at the wheel.

“Any sign of them coming after us?” the fisherman asked, keeping his eyes glued on the dark sea rising and falling in front of them.

“Not so far, but Mephista says it's only a matter of time,” Morag told him. Her throat tightened at the prospect of seeing the resurrected warlock again, of looking into those cold dead eyes.

“What does
she
know?” Kyle smiled. “I bet that without her ladyship everyone in the castle will be celebrating, Morag.”

“Morag?”
repeated a disembodied girl's voice. Morag looked at Kyle in alarm.
“H-hello, Morag? Are you there?”

Kyle's radio was crackling with static, but they could hear the voice coming through it quite clearly.

“Chelsea? Is that you?” asked Morag.

“Yours truly. I found a radio in the clearing. It's not like anything we have on Murst, so I guessed one of you guys must have dropped it.”

“I—I wanted to come back for you, Chelsea, honestly. But Montgomery was too sick for me to leave him.”

“It's okay. I thought you might have to leave in a hurry. Listen, I can't talk for long. I just had to thank you. There's chaos here! Mephista and Tanktop are missing, and Kang and Devlish and all the Girallons have left the castle. I've freed all the men they took from the village and we're taking control of the castle. I'm just waiting here for my gran. She's bringing
reinforcements from Dragon's End. They're going to have quite a fight when they come back! It's amazing!”

Morag wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. “You make it sound like fun.”

“Believe me, it's been a long time since we felt this free! All thanks to you and the Ancient One.”

As time went on and they got farther away, Morag began to relax a little and even joined her friends downstairs. Mephista, seemingly unconcerned by the ice-cold sea spray that was drenching her dress and dampening her normally glossy hair, stayed at the railings, keeping a vigil for her father. They let her. She was no threat to them now.

“Squid's-eye soup, anyone?” Bertie said, sticking his wing into his bag.

Morag shook her head. “No thank you.”

“A Spruggit sandwich? No?”

“Nothing to eat for me, just tea,” the girl said, glancing anxiously over to where Montgomery lay. He had not woken up and she was worried about him. His face was gray and drawn, his hair was falling out as she watched, the lines on his face were deepening and his body was becoming frail and gaunt. He moaned slightly and then was still again.

What are we going to do?
Morag fretted.
What if he dies before we can get him home?

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a loud cackle from above. It was Mephista. Startled, Morag glanced at her friends and scrambled to her feet. Taking the stairs two
at a time, she rushed up and into the open. There, Mephista was dancing from foot to foot, her hands punching the air with delight.

“You! I told you he would come! I told you!” she whooped, excitedly pointing in the direction of Murst, her long white fingers stabbing the air as if she were parrying with the night. She turned on Morag. “Now you'll be sorry!” she hissed.

Morag squinted to see what the witch had been pointing at. The sky was thick with heavy dark clouds, interspersed with little pockets of the deepest black and the odd star. At first Morag could only see the distant outline of the castle silhouetted against the sky, nothing else. No … wait … what was that in the sky? Something large, something blacker than the night. A large ebony gondola, carried through the sky by hundreds of bats, cut through the clouds and hurtled toward them.

Morag ran to the wheelhouse, where Kyle was singing quietly to himself. “It's Devlish!” she cried, and without pausing for breath, “He's heading this way—fast!”

“That's not good,” Kyle said. “I've got the
Kelpie
going as fast as she can. She can't go any faster.”

“Is there nothing you can do to make her speed up?” Morag asked, not bothering to keep the desperation from her voice. “There must be
something.
”

Kyle shook his head. “I'm not the one who can do magic. I'm just a fisherman! Why don't you ask your friends if they can help?”

Henry, still clutched in Montgomery's lifeless hand, was the only one to come up with a plan. “Get me out of
here,” he mumbled from behind Montgomery's fingers, “and bring me the tooth.”

It took Morag and Bertie a few minutes to prize him out of Montgomery's hand. At first, his fingers were too stiff, but after some tugging they managed to open them long enough.

“Now, put me down on the table, place the tooth on top of me and leave me to it,” Henry ordered.

Morag did as she was told; then Henry added: “Run upstairs and keep an eye out for Devlish. This spell may take a few moments and he mustn't catch up with us before it's worked.”

As Morag climbed the steps the medallion began to utter unintelligible magic words. She opened the door and immediately heard Mephista shouting on deck.

“I'm here, Father, come and get me!” She jumped up and down and waved.

“Be quiet, woman!” flustered Bertie, holding Mephista's wand in his trembling wing, “or you'll leave me with no choice but to use this.”

She looked down at the dodo and scoffed. “You wouldn't know one end of that wand from the other. You belong in a glass case with all the other extinct beasts.”

“How d-dare you!” Bertie spluttered in outrage.

“Don't talk to him like that,” cried Aldiss, standing between them with his paws on his hips. “I'll have you know Bertie is a Trainee Wizard who—”

“And YOU …,” Mephista snarled. “Well, I don't need a magic wand to deal with vermin.”

She threw her head back and laughed, but now her voice
sounded different, almost muffled. Morag, Aldiss and Bertie were silent as they watched a giant bubble swell over and around the
Sea Kelpie
.

Mephista shrieked and climbed up on the railing to pummel the bubble with her fists. The membrane stretched and squeaked, but did not tear.

“What's going on?” Morag asked Henry when she went back to the cabin.

“It's like the shield that covers Marnoch Mor. It should keep us invisible until we get home,” he told her proudly.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Totally. The spell isn't permanent but it should last long enough.”

But Morag was not convinced and went back up to be with Bertie and Aldiss to watch for Devlish's gondola. Once she had found the black dot growing in the sky, gleaming like a dark star, she could not take her eyes off it.

“I'm here!” screamed Mephista.

With her heart in her mouth, Morag watched as the gondola sped toward them out of the night sky. Now she could clearly see the warlock's red hair flickering like flames from the top of his head. His skull-white face, the contemptuous grimace and his wild staring eyes sent chills down her spine. Beside him, aiming a crossbow, was the four-armed captain of the Girallons, Kang. He was shouting, but from inside the bubble, Morag could only guess at what he was saying.

The cloud of a thousand bats strained at their reins as the warlock forced them to fly faster. Bertie covered his eyes
with a wing and Aldiss hid behind Morag's coat. Morag continued to stare straight ahead but was silently praying that the spell was working.

Mephista shrieked with joy as the dark hull bore down on the
Sea Kelpie
. But it flew over, soaring past them. Morag let out a long sigh of relief. Henry had been right; Devlish had not seen them and was flying on.

“I don't know why you're looking so pleased with yourself,” snapped Mephista. “My father is not only looking for
me
, he's looking for
you
, too. He'll find us, and when he does
you'll
be sorry. And no amount of magic will prevent my father—the greatest warlock who ever lived—from finding me. Mark my words.”

The witch stormed past the girl to the cabin door, but suddenly came to a halt. Something in the sky had caught her attention. A smile of triumph lit Mephista's face. Looking up, Morag could see that Devlish's gondola had turned and was rocketing back toward them.