Icespell by C.J. Busby

bottle.”
    Vortigern scrambled after him, and together they carefully made their way up towards the strange blueishlight coming from the ice at the top of the drain.
    “Ow!” Max was brought up short as he hit the wall of ice, blocking any further progress. He peered into the whiteness and tried to make out where they were.
    “It is the Great Hall,” he said. “It’s the right shape – too big for a toilet. But I can’t really see anything. We’re going to have to clear some space with one drop of the spell, and then see where we are.”
    Together they eased the bottle open, Vortigern clutching the stopper in his beak while Max pulled the bottle with his froggy hands. Once it was open, he tipped it carefully over, and watched one single precious drop roll down the neck and cling to the lip of the bottle. Max took a deep breath and shook the drop onto the ground. At the same time, he said the words of the spell that the Lady had taught him, and gathered all the magic of his own that he could.
    The drop of potion fizzed as it hit the ground, and a vast billowing spout of purple smoke wreathed around Max and Vortigern, swirling upwards into the ice, dissolving it as it went. Max concentrated as hardas he could, unravelling the spell he had cast, pulling it apart bit by bit, willing it to dissolve outwards from the spot where he stood. And it did – he could feel it cracking and crumbling and disappearing into a puff of nothing, further and further… Until it felt like he hit a brick wall. Morgana’s magic was there again, like a locked door, and the reversal stopped dead.
    Max looked at Vortigern. The duck grinned.
    “Definitely something. My feathers went quite tingly. Let’s go and see.”
    They scrambled up out of the drain opening, into the Great Hall, and stared around them. The de-icing had cleared almost half of the vast chamber, and there was now plenty of room for Max to move around in.
    Unfortunately, the half that was still encased in ice was the half with King Arthur’s great council table, and the king and all his knights were seated around it, looking like they were in earnest discussion. They were about twenty feet away from the sheer wall of ice that marked the outer edge of Max’s successful reversal.
    Only Merlin was not at the table. Merlin, wholooked like he was explaining something rather tricky to the assorted knights, had positioned himself where all the men could see him clearly, at some distance from the table. He was only about five feet away from where Max was standing…
    Max turned to Vortigern.
    “We’re nearly there. We just need one more go. But this time, I think I’ll be human.”
    He closed his eyes, and thought his way back into being a boy, barely noticing the whoosh of stars as he transformed. His mind was fixed on the potion, and the spell, and Merlin, and how little time they had left.

Morgana’s Spell
    S ir Lionel was feeling rather confused. It was not easy, being the most senior knight left in the kingdom, and although he had Sir Richard Hogsbottom to help, somehow he didn’t feel that Sir Richard was quite as concerned about the situation as he ought to be. There was a certain smugness in his voice and look as he contemplated the iced castle… And now a powerful dragon had arrived, with SirBertram’s children, claiming they had a potion to reverse the icespell and seeming quite keen to get on with the job before Lady Morgana got here.
    Sir Lionel frowned. He’d known Lady Wilhelmina for a long time. She had always been a good friend to the king. And she’d never been too fond of Lady Morgana. He looked at Snotty, lying on the ground with a pained expression, with the dragon’s great claw trapping him firmly. Then he looked at Sir Richard, wringing his hands and looking anxious at the news that some of the reversal spell had survived, and Max had disappeared with it.
    â€œSo. Why not just wait for Lady Morgana?” he asked the huge