The Witch's Revenge (20 page)

“Drat!” he said. “There must be a spell that's just for furniture.…”

“Come on, Henry! We don't have much time!”

He kept trying until at last, on his fifth attempt, they heard the lock click and the drawer shot out, crashing to the floor and spilling its contents everywhere. Out of the jumble of jewelry and gloves flew the tooth, still attached to its gold chain. It bounced to Morag's feet. She snatched it up and ran to the door.

“We've got it!” she cried to Montgomery.

“Well done,” he told her.

They were just about to run when Morag heard Nathan's voice.

“Morag! Wait! What about us?”

“You can't leave us here,” Isabella pleaded. “Please. You must help us.”

Morag turned to Montgomery. “They're right,” she said. “I can't leave them here.”

The wizard was confused. “What do you mean? Leave who?”

“Nathan and Isabella. They're asking for our help.…”

Montgomery looked back at her blankly and shook his head.

“You can't hear their voices, can you?” she asked. When she gazed at the paintings of Nathan and Isabella she saw that their faces, normally rigid and unchanging, now seemed sad and hopeful all at once. Morag thrust the tooth into the wizard's hand.

“Wait here,” she said. She rushed over to the fireplace and, arms straining, lifted the large paintings off the wall.

“It's no use. You're too heavy to carry downstairs,” she admitted. Then her eyes fell on something glittering on the dressing table. “Of course!”

Morag ran over, grabbing a nail file to slice around Nathan's frame.

“What are you doing? Come on, we need to go!” Montgomery pressed from the doorway.

Large bare feet slapped loudly on the stairs outside.

“Morag!” Montgomery's voice was insistent, urgent. “What in the name of Colm Breck are you doing?”

“I'm coming,” she replied, hastily rolling up the painting of Nathan. “Just one more to do …”

But Montgomery was not listening. He crept into the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He put his fingers to his lips and froze. Someone was coming. Morag swallowed and stopped moving. The footsteps had left the stairwell and were getting louder as they came down the corridor.

Thump, thump, thump, thump
.

Morag clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her panicked breaths. There was nowhere to hide. She looked at Montgomery. He too was barely breathing.

Thump, thump, thump, thump
.

The footsteps stopped. Morag saw the shadow of something huge under the crack of the door. That something gave the air a long and deliberate sniff. That something took a step toward the door. That something rattled the handle. It turned slowly. With a shrill squeak the door started to open.…

“Kang! Is that you?” Devlish's voice rang out from farther down the corridor. “Get back here.”

Kang grunted a response, slammed the door shut again and stomped off down the corridor toward the warlock's room. Montgomery closed his eyes and slumped against the door. It took Morag a few moments to compose herself enough to return to cutting out Isabella's painting. As she did this, Montgomery opened the door a crack to listen.

“Thank you for rescuing us,” Isabella said as Morag gently lifted her out of her frame.

“No problem,” she replied. “I'll take you back to Marnoch Mor and I'm sure someone there will break the spell and free you.”

“I hope so,” replied Isabella, her voice muffled and sounding far away.

Morag rolled up the painting and secured both with black ribbon from Mephista's dressing table. Tucking them under her arm, she ran to Montgomery's side.

“I'm ready.”

“Just a minute,” he replied.

The wizard stood for some moments at the door, listening to raised voices coming from Devlish's room.

“It sounds like Devlish and Kang,” he said.

Morag stood behind him, and stuck her ear against the door.

“You promised me this body would be in better condition, Kang!” snapped Devlish. “Look at it! It's decaying. I feel so weak. Couldn't you have found me a better body?”

“When I heard Mephista wanted to resurrect her father,” explained Kang, “I offered my services right away. It was the only way I could bring my Great Master over from the dark side.”

“Why did you not bring me back sooner?”

“It took us longer than expected to acquire the necessary items, sire,” the Girallon replied. “That girl was especially hard to take from Marnoch Mor. They were watching her all the time, so we had to use
other
methods to lure her out.
That fool Klapp demon thinks he was behind it all, but if it hadn't been for me teaching him how to use magic …”

“And what happened to the tooth?” the warlock growled.

“The witch still has it,” replied Kang, “but don't worry, I shall be taking it from her tonight. Once you are strong enough, O Great Amergin, we will fulfill the other part of our plan. Mephista won't know what's hit her.”

“And neither will Marnoch Mor!” cackled the other voice.

“Amergin?”
Morag whispered to Montgomery. “I thought he was talking to Devlish.”

She searched the wizard's face for an explanation.

“Oh dear. This is much worse than I thought,” he said, frowning. “Kang has double-crossed Mephista and Tanktop. They haven't brought Devlish back to life at all. Amergin has possessed him. And he and Kang are going to seize power from Mephista.”

“Who is Amergin? You know, don't you?”

Montgomery bowed his head, his face white and tense. When he heard a sudden movement from Devlish's room he quickly closed the door.

“They're coming,” he whispered, shoving Morag away. “Quick, hide behind the bed!”

They ducked just as the door opened and someone looked in. Between the bed legs, Morag saw the silhouette of apelike feet in the doorway. Kang took a few heavy steps into the room. Then, as suddenly as he had arrived, he was gone.

“Is it safe?” Morag whispered to Montgomery.

“Not for long. He'll be back,” he replied. “Come on, we have to get out of here. Aldiss needs us.”

With her heart beating wildly, Morag picked up the paintings and followed Montgomery to the door. He opened it cautiously and glanced outside. The corridor was empty. They slipped out and sneaked downstairs. Along the corridor they ran toward the secret door, and under the cover of the growing darkness they bolted for the undergrowth beyond the path. They stopped for a few minutes, panting.

“Are you all right?” Montgomery asked Morag.

“Yes,” she replied, gradually getting her breath back.

“Let's go,” he said, then stopped. “Where are Shona, Bertie and Aldiss?”

“Follow me,” said Morag, pushing through the ferns. “They're close by. I only hope that we're not too late.…”

Aldiss was barely moving when they found him. The only sign that he was still clinging on to life was the slight trembling of his whiskers. Morag's eyes filled with tears and she could not talk as she handed Mina's tooth to Shona.

“How do we use it?” she gulped, her voice high-pitched and breaking. “I don't know what to do.”

“Mmpnhhgigrhmppph!” said a voice from Morag's pocket.

Henry! Morag put down the rolled-up paintings of Nathan and Isabella and pulled him out.

“Place it on Aldiss's chest,” the medallion instructed. “That's right. Leave it there … watch it doesn't roll off.”

He fell silent.

“Do we say something?” Morag asked. She was unable to tear her eyes away from the tooth or from Aldiss. “Is there a spell?” she demanded. Without thinking, she shook the
medallion hard as she spoke.
“What do we do, Henry?”
she wailed.

“Stop shaking me, for starters!” he snapped, glaring up at her. Morag's face was white and her eyes were large and worried.

“I'm sorry,” she said quietly, and looked away.

“Not at all. I understand,” the medallion replied. Then he inhaled deeply.

“Now we wait.”

The dragon, who had nursed Aldiss since he had been struck by the dart, frowned.

“Wait for what?” Shona asked. “Surely we can't just leave the tooth there. It's not doing anything. It … it …” She gazed down fondly at the little rat lying on his bed of bracken and a great tear rolled down her cheek and plopped to the ground.

“He's going to die, isn't he?” she sobbed, turning away. Bertie threw his wings around her and hugged her tightly.

“It's all my fault,” the dragon cried. “I wasn't there to protect him. He saved me in the past and I couldn't do the same for him. Now I'll never see Aldiss again!” Her body heaved and shook as her grief poured out.

Morag ran to her and placed her arms around Shona's wide belly, with Henry still dangling from her fingers. Tears of sorrow flowed from her eyes too as she tried to comfort both Shona and Bertie.

“Aldiss! I'm sorry, Aldiss! Whooaaaah-ah-ah-aahhhh!” bawled the dragon, eyes tightly closed.

As the three of them cried they did not notice the tooth brighten with a warm white glow. Only Montgomery
watched as it spread all over the rat's tiny body, enclosing him in a light that was almost too bright to look at.

“Er …,” he said, trying to attract their attention, but they were too upset to notice.

The light flickered and danced over Aldiss now. There were tiny tings, the sort of sounds you'd expect from violin strings snapping. Then the light went out and the tooth returned to its normal cream color.

“Booo hoo hoo!” Bertie sobbed. He pulled a large red and white polka-dot handkerchief from his bag and blew his beak loudly.

He did not notice that Aldiss's paws were twitching slightly, or that his whiskers and nose were flickering, or that he was yawning and slowly opening one eye.

“He was so lovely,” wailed Morag to her friends.

“You're right there. The loveliest rat ever!” Shona agreed. “He'd laugh if he heard me saying that. He used to tease me because I was afraid of rats.”

“I can't believe he's gone,” sobbed Bertie.

Aldiss opened his other eye and turned his head to see where all the crying was coming from. He sat up and stretched, letting the tooth slide to the ground. The stretch started in his arms, slunk down into his torso and ended with a very satisfying extension of his tail.

“Who's gone?” he squeaked. “Who are you talking about?”

Morag stopped sobbing. She let go of Shona and turned around. Then a smile swept over her tear-stained face.

“You're alive!” she cried, running to his side. She knelt down, picked him up and hugged and kissed him. The rat waved his little arms and legs.

“Of course I'm alive. What
else
would I be?”

“Oh, come here, rodent!” bellowed Shona and snatched him up into her huge embrace.

Aldiss was squeezed and kissed and hugged until he could stand it no more.

“Put me down!” he squeaked. “You'll squash me!”

They all laughed as Aldiss hopped to the ground and shook his tail.

“You had us all worried.” Morag grinned. “You nearly died!”

“Me? Not a chance! Are you sure?”

“Don't you remember the tornado in the castle?” tried Bertie. “Or being hit by the dart?”

Aldiss shook his whiskers.

“Fortunately Morag found just the thing to revive you,” said Montgomery.

Aldiss listened with growing disbelief and looked up at Morag gratefully.

“Thank you for saving my life,” he said.

“Montgomery helped,” she replied, “and it was Henry who suggested we get the tooth. Where is it anyway?” She scanned the ground. “Oh, there it is.” She bent down and picked it up by the chain. Nearby, the rolled-up paintings of Nathan and Isabella lay in the grass. She scooped them up and asked Bertie to keep them in his satchel, where they would be safe.

The rat turned to the wizard. “Montgomery, thank you …,” he began.

“It was nothing,” the wizard said quickly.

“No it's not. You saved my life.”

“Aldiss, we don't have time for this,” the wizard replied. “I'm glad you're alive, but we must get back to Marnoch Mor. The town needs me.”

And it was then that Morag remembered his connection to the Eye of Lornish.

“The Eye!” she gasped. “I'd forgotten all about it.” She looked at Montgomery, scared to ask. “How much time do we have left to get you back to the Eye?”

“The last time …,” the wizard replied. “Well, you were there, you know about the last time—it was four days before the town began to fall apart. You lot managed to get it back to me just in time. There were a few cracks in some buildings, but nothing that we couldn't put right afterward with magic.” He sighed. “I've been away from Marnoch Mor for about two days, so that means we still have about forty-eight hours.”

Morag stared at him. “This time it was different. It was much worse,” she said as she shook her head.

“I don't understand,” he said.

“There was an earthquake only minutes after you disappeared,” Morag explained.

“It was terrible,” added Bertie. “Buildings were collapsing all over town. Everyone headed to the Town Hall to get answers from the Queen. That's where something unimaginable happened.…”

Montgomery's face paled. “This is impossible. The Eye should protect the town for longer.… Tell me what happened.”

“Queen Flora's dead,” said Shona abruptly. “She was assassinated by the same thing that tried to kill Aldiss.”

Montgomery was stunned. Tears pricked Morag's eyes as she remembered her fear and the anger of the townspeople. “But everyone thought it was me!”

“Her Majesty told Morag of a secret escape route and we had to use it,” said Bertie.