The Lazy Dragon and Bumblespells Wizard (5 page)

If the branch had only grown out over the river a few more feet, she could have used it to cross. Moire Ain would have to use the rope to swing far enough out that she could let go and sail over the river bank onto the other side.

Trees had always been special to Moire Ain, so she was sure this was the answer she was meant to find. She climbed out onto the overhanging branch, her hands in front and her toes gripping the thick branch as best she could. She inched along like a woolly caterpillar.

Halfway across, still three feet from where the rope hung down, the limb cracked. Moire Ain froze. She
willed the branch to not break. There was silence. She took a relieved breath and inched again, but the limb cracked again. She had to get to the rope and swing as hard as she could. At worst when she got close enough, she could throw her book to the opposite bank and drop into the river to swim.

Before she stretched to the rope, a soft chirrup made her look up. Above her a big branch stretched from a different tree on the opposite side of the river. The higher branch was thicker than the one she was on. If she could reach it and climb up, she could shinny over the river and not risk throwing her book.

She stretched her arm up, and the branch under her snapped louder. Sitting back, she pulled the book out of her bag and clutched it close, sighing. The plan wouldn't work; her arm was too short.

Her branch cracked and creaked again dropping another inch. She couldn't imagine how her slender weight could be too much for the branch she was sure the Greenfield children had just played on. It didn't make sense until a tingling in her nearly asleep arm made her look at the book. No bigger than her two hands, the book no longer felt light as a leaf. Trapped over the river, her precious book was becoming too heavy to hold. Too heavy for the branch.

She didn't dare move for fear she'd break the branch. She couldn't think what to do. And then a very strange
thing happened. A whisper snaked into her ear. “Awake.”

She stared at the book, but she wasn't surprised. Why shouldn't a magick book speak? She asked, “Are you ready to do magick?” She waited, but the only sounds around her were the distant yelling from the village and the chirp of the tree frogs above her.

She was disappointed that the book didn't answer, but she believed in it. There had to be an important reason that she'd found it just when Hedge-Witch was about to force Moire Ain into being a murderer. It was like its title:
Magicks Mysteries
.

Maybe it was not a chatty sort of book, but she was certain it was reaching out to her, to teach her magick. If the book didn't like to talk, maybe it could read her thoughts. She concentrated hard on what she needed most.

She had to get to the rope tied to her branch, swing out so she could drop on the other river bank, and … escape. And she needed to accomplish all of this before Hedge-Witch caught up to her.

Hoping the book was listening and would help, she edged forward an inch, her right hand sliding toward the swinging rope's knot around the branch. The limb cracked louder and sank closer to the river. She closed her eyes and thought as hard as she could, praying her book would help. “Rope. Rope. Rope.”

Moire Ain pictured her hand grabbing the hanging rope, standing, and jumping off, swinging far into the
air. She pictured the rope in her hand. In her head, she'd looped it around her wrist. But then the vision reformed. At the last second, instead of swinging on the rope, she saw herself throw the rope a dozen feet through the air at the tree limb above her.

There was a tug at her wrist. She opened her eyes and stared down at the rope still tied on her branch. Was she being told to throw a lasso? How? She couldn't reach the rope. But the next moment Moire Ain yelped when a tug at her waist nearly spilled her off her branch.

The rope belt around her waist stretched. One end spun out, sailing up and looping around the branch above her head. Moire Ain didn't move for fear she'd break the branch she clung to, but she watched the other limb dip down close until it was even with her cracking branch. She slowly slipped one leg and then the other over the new branch. She was safely on it when the lower branch gave a final crack and broke off, slamming into the river and bashing the water into a giant wave.

Riding the new branch, Moire Ain laughed even when river water swamped up at her. But as the broken branch rode the wave up past her and then fell into the river, it caught her ragged robe, nearly dragging her down. For the first time, she was grateful for the thin fabric of her robe when the cloth tore away. Her clothing bore a new hole, but she was still safely on her new branch. Moire Ain took a shaky breath and watched the
broken wood float down-river, the shred of dull cloth waving like a small flag.

Moire Ain crowed to her book, “Wow! That was great. Even the part where my robe ripped. Hedge-Witch will see the branch and think I've gone in the river and drowned. I hope.”

The book remained silent. She inched quickly across the new branch and was standing on firm ground in a minute. “I did that with my mind and you, book. That's more magick than I've ever done. I'm already a great wizard! And I haven't even really started any mastery lessons. That's mighty great. I'm mighty great. I'm great and mighty.”

She placed the book on a dry rock and inspected it for damage. Despite the splashing she'd gotten, it looked the same. Moire Ain was amazed. She'd gotten across water Hedge-Witch wouldn't cross. She hadn't damaged her book. The only thing she was sorry about was that when she'd run, she hadn't had a chance to get back in her hut and bring her pet raven, Raspberries. He'd been her only friend forever. Now she was alone with an uncommunicative book.

Picking
Magicks Mysteries
up again, she was about to tuck it back into her pouch when a blur of ebony feathers squawked through the tall trees and plopped on her shoulder. Moire Ain's heart soared, and she couldn't help grinning.

She rubbed her raven between his eyes, just above his beak. “Now that you're here, everything is perfect. You are the smartest raven in the world to have figured out how to get out of your cage. I wish I'd been able to get that lock off long ago.” Moire Ain noticed a bit of woven wood caught on the tip of the raven's beak. “You chewed your way out? My, brave, strong, smart Raspberries. I didn't mean to leave you behind. It all happened so fast. I had to run.”

The raven ducked his head and made contented growly noises.

“You weren't here to see what I just did. You are going to be so proud of me. I'm on my way to being a great and mighty wizard,” Moire Ain said.

The raven cocked his head at her and made his threatening noise.

“No. Don't worry, Raspberries. Not like Hedge-Witch. Truly. I promise I will never kill anyone. Or make people sick or their animals die. I will only be a nice wizard and a great one.”

Raspberries growled out, “Great and Mighty Wizard.”

Moire Ain laughed. “You can talk! Hedge-Witch tried at least three spells to teach you to speak, but you never did.”

“Great and Mighty Wizard,” Raspberries said again, and butted his head against her chin.

“You believe in me? You think I'm great and mighty?”
She felt like a beginner, but maybe she was on her way to being great and mighty. If she could rescue herself with a magick rope, it was time to believe in herself. It was time to change her name to Great and Mighty Wizard and become what she wanted to be. She'd begin her future.

“Great and Mighty Wizard it is.” She rested her head against her raven's side. “We're going to do great and mighty things, you and me, and my book.”

For a few moments, she stood imagining all the magickal good things they would do. Raspberries tugged on her hair, bringing her back to the present and the riverbank.

She took a deep breath. “But first we need a good hiding place for the night. We may have a river between us and Hedge-Witch, but she'll find a way to get to us. We need a safe place so I can get started learning some of
Magicks Mysteries'
lessons.” She tucked the book into her pouch.

“Rsssppp!” Raspberries said, and flew off her shoulder.

Moire Ain watched him fly high around the trees, circle, go low, then fly back to her shoulder. “Rsssppp!” He ducked his head, turning and pointing at the deep woods behind them.

“Lead on.” Moire Ain started to walk while Raspberries grumbled. They hiked through the woods for only ten minutes before they came to a cliff. Moire Ain looked along the cliff face and then up it. She spotted a
cave with a lot of shrubbery growing on either side of the opening.

Raspberries growled.

“In that cave?” she asked. “It was awfully easy for us to find this cave. Surely it will be at least as easy for Hedge-Witch to find it.”

Raspberries snorted and hopped off her shoulder. He flapped up to one of the shrubs and tugged it over the cave opening.

“Hide the entrance! Good idea!” Moire Ain said.

She climbed the short distance up the cliffside. Once she was inside the cave opening, she broke off branches from the bushes and wove a covering to hide the entrance.

“That'll hide us. Plus from up here we should hear Hedge-Witch and be able to get inside before she can see us.”

With Raspberries perched on her, she sat down in front of the cave covering and dug out the bread and cheese Goodwife Greenfield had given her. The food had been meant to last a few days, but she decided to eat it at once. She was so hungry, and she knew Raspberries would be too, since Hedge-Witch fed him so little. She hoped the book would help her find more food.

After their meal, the raven napped, and Moire Ain opened her book. She skimmed through
Magicks Mysteries,
figuring out that it was divided into lessons,
thirty, about how to become a true wizard. When she learned to read from Goodwife Greenfield, she'd hoped learning the common language of Albion was all she'd ever need. But most of the book was filled with funny scratching that seemed sometimes to move.

“How do I get started if you're written in some kind of magick words?” She thumped her book closed. Staring over the woods below the cave, she tried hard not to let the tears come back. She'd escaped Hedge-Witch, and it was for nothing. If Moire Ain couldn't learn to be a wizard, and because of that Hedge-Witch caught up with her and got the book, the cruel crone would be too powerful. Moire Ain would be forced to do what the old crone ordered, to be part of the murder.

“Rssspppbbb,” Raspberries slit open an eye, grumbled, and moved a step farther from her.

“Don't fret, Raspberries. I can puzzle this out. You know I can. No one but you and I know Hedge-Witch never even tried to cure anyone. She made a commotion of ordering me to learn to be useful, and I did it. She didn't really mean me to, but I was the one who figured out what plants would cure a fever or make blisters go away.”

Moire Ain ran her fingers over the edges of the book's closed pages. “I have to learn magick, but how, if I don't know the magick language?” She held her breath for a moment, hoping the book would say or do something
that would make its words appear in the Albion common language. But nothing happened. She fanned through the pages just in case the book communicated silently, and she would suddenly understand. But the indecipherable words still cluttered each page. “Magick should be just. This is not justice! It's not!”

Closing
Magicks Mysteries
again, Moire Ain drummed her fingers over the emblem on the front of the book. Almost worn away, it was a long rectangle with the title embossed on it. “It's shaped like one of those banners the Woosley kingdom's king puts out to announce how great he is. I remember last year he put out hundreds of banners to announce his birthday, and that everybody had to come up with a present. I wonder what it's like to get a present on your birthday? Or to know when your birthday is.”

Moire Ain snuffled up her running nose. All her bravery was leaking out her nose and leaving her with too many sad thoughts. Stupid sad thoughts.

Her raven shuffled over closer to her and gently tugged on a strand of her curly hair.

“Thanks, Raspberries.” She patted his head.

But he gave a sharper tug, pulled out a hair and dropped it on the book. Quicker than she could swat at him, he hopped onto the book cover and carefully arranged the hair so that it looked like a rope threaded through one corner of the embossed rectangle. He gave the hair a peck,
and the cover seemed to ripple like a sail filling with wind. For a moment it looked exactly like one of the king's banners snapping in the wind.

“Make banners?” Moire Ain asked. “Make banners about … what?”

Raspberries stared at her.

“I don't get it. What good does a banner do? I mean, how does that teach me to read my book?”

Raspberries squinted at her.

“Teach? A banner about teaching? Wait. A banner about getting a teacher so I can learn from my book! You're so smart!”

Moire Ain put the book down and started pacing in and out of the cave opening. “The Woosley king uses his banners, and he gets lots of presents. Could I do the same and get a teacher?”

Raspberries tucked his head into his shoulder and made snoring noises.

Moire Ain wasn't a bit sleepy. “Where will I get banners? I don't have any money. Cloth and paint and such cost money.” She sat, leaning her elbows on the cover of her book.

Raspberries' head popped out of his feathers. He snorted and leapt into the sky.

“What! Where are you going?” Moire Ain called after him. But the raven was a black blob, and she didn't dare run after him or yell any louder. Hedge-Witch
might hear and find her.

With nothing to do but wait for Raspberries to return, Moire Ain flipped through her book again. From time to time, she looked up at the sunlight drifting down into the treetops. Where was Raspberries? Where was Hedge-Witch? As long as she heard the birds singing, and the squirrels chittering around her, she knew Hedge-Witch had not caught up.