Icespell by C.J. Busby Page A

dragon abruptly. She looked down at him with her amber eyes and considered.
    â€œBecause she’s an evil scheming sorceress, Sir Lionel, as you should very well have realised. And she’s behind the whole plot.”
    Olivia gasped, and Sir Richard Hogsbottom started to stutter, “Now, now, that’s quite slanderous, I can’t permit such talk…” but he was silenced bya gesture from Sir Lionel, who was looking up at Great-Aunt Wilhelmina with an odd expression.
    â€œAnd will you be telling this to the king, if we manage to set him free?”
    â€œOf course not!” snorted Great-Aunt Wilhelmina. “He knows I dislike Morgana. Had a terrible row with him about her marrying Uriel and moving up to Gore. Right on my doorstep! I nearly burned down the castle, I was so cross… No, he wouldn’t believe me. Just call it a grudge. There’s no proof – and anyway, he knows she couldn’t have done the spell herself, not all the way from Gore. Not possible. So she’s completely in the clear.”
    â€œAnd here she comes,” observed Ferocious, who had just spotted a dark figure on a broomstick coast in towards the gatehouse and land gracefully a few hundred yards away. Olivia clenched her fists.
    â€œCome on Max,” she muttered. “Come on! Get on with it. She’s here!”
    ***
    Max had the potion bottle gripped firmly in his hand,and was trying to peer down the neck to see if there was still a full drop left. It looked like more than half of the tiny remnants of the spell had been used up already. He looked across at the frozen knights. He could see Sir Bertram, caught just as he was twisting up the ends of his magnificent moustache. Next to him, Lancelot had one eyebrow raised, and at the end of the table Arthur was watching Merlin, his blue eyes troubled and his face stern.
    Merlin, Max realised, appeared to be concentrating very hard. And as Max looked, he saw a slight drip form on the end of Merlin’s nose. Which meant that the ice near him was starting to melt! Somehow, Merlin was fighting the effects of the spell, even from inside the ice.
    â€œQuack!” said Vortigern, looking up at Max. “Get on with it, Max – we might only have a few seconds left!”
    ***
    â€œSo pleased to see you, Lady Wilhelmina,” said Morgana, coming up to the dragon with a smilepainted on to her white face. Great-Aunt Wilhelmina snorted, and a faint haze of smoke emerged from her nostrils.
    Morgana looked round at them all, and noted Snotty, flat out on the ground, and Sir Richard’s anxious expression. She smiled graciously at Olivia, but her eyes were cold.
    â€œAnd where is dear Max?” she said, in her honeyed voice.
    Olivia shivered.
    â€œHe’s gone to… er… look for—”
    â€œHe’s gone to save King Arthur!” said Adolphus, proudly. “He’s in the castle, with the potion we got from the Lady! It’s a rever… um… reverting, er… reversal spell!”
    He looked exceedingly pleased with himself for getting the word right, and flapped his wings happily. Ferocious groaned.
    Morgana stood up extremely straight. Her face looked like she’d had a bucket of iced water tipped over her. She looked over at the castle, and thenwhipped a large green potion bottle out of her robes.
    â€œJust as well I hurried,” she said. “There’s no knowing what Max might do to the castle if he tries to reverse the spell. Probably turn them all into ants!” She laughed, but her laughter was brittle, and her expression was savage. “No time to lose,” she said, and held up the potion above her head.
    Olivia launched herself at Morgana and knocked her flying. The sorceress landed on top of Snotty, who yelled loudly, and her potion bottle went hurtling through the air, coming to rest on the grass twenty yards away. Sir Richard scuttled after it, but before he could pick it up Sir