The Magician's lecture 4/7

Abigail looked round at the Home. Her apprentice was quite right, impossible though it seemed. The countryside beyond the castle looked strange as well. For the first time for centuries the ground continued right round the half castle that was still standing. She looked back at the Magician who was talking nervously to the Grand Dame. They both looked very serious indeed. Something much more than the disappearance of the Witches' Home was worrying them.

"Oh well," said Abigail, "at least we've got the very best people here to try and sort out whatever's gone wrong. Here have a chocolate swiss roll and relax a bit."

She wiggled her fingers in the familiar spell but nothing happened. "That's strange," she said, "that spell's never failed before."

A very peculiar look passed across her face as a terrible thought crossed her mind. Jennifer Jane watched as she made a more complicated wiggle. Again nothing happened and the colour drained from Abigail's face.

"There's no magic any more," she whispered in a horrified voice.

The witches and wizards around them were all beginning to come to the same conclusion judging by the rising sound of dismay. Jennifer Jane tried to find the Magician in the crowd and at last saw him huddled on the ground, curled up in a ball with his thumb in his mouth, sobbing.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" asked Jennifer Jane.

"That's the whole point, we can't. If there isn't any magic any more, none of the existing spells will work and we can't correct the situation without using magic. We'll have to rely on a mechanical solution but I don't see how that can possibly help us either, even supposing we could think of anything. I wish your Dad was here, he might be able to think of something to do."

"I could pop through the Gate and fetch him if you...oh!"

"Exactly," said Abigail, "there's no Gate, you're stuck here, it seems to be quite a habit you're getting into and this time I can't see any way of getting you home again."

"I came in my canoe through the fog, perhaps I could go home and get help that way."
Abigail just looked at her and shook her head.

"Oh crumbs! 'magic' fog, I don't suppose that'll be working either."

The despondent crowd started to make their way back to the castle. Two of the larger wizards were carrying the Magician who was still sobbing helplessly.

"I've just thought of something else," said Abigail miserably, "the refectory was in the mansion side of the building, there won't be anything to eat or drink!"

A loud hail from the woods made them look round. The giant was coming back to the castle carrying his box full of passengers. He put down a handful of normal size chickens and rabbits that he'd just taken in payment for the visit to his castle.

"Magic that lot up to size please, my enlarging box doesn't work any more and Fundin says he can't find anything wrong with it. You'll have to send someone up to me in the morning to fix the spell."

Abigail explained the situation as best she could.

"Well, I'll have run out of proper sized food by the end of week. If it's not fixed by then it'll be back to peasants I'm afraid."

He gave them all a rather nasty smile and walked off leaving the food and the box full of passengers behind.

"They'll get a lift home when they can pay for it properly."

The villagers got out of the box grumbling about the long walk home. There were a few rather nasty looks at the witches.

"Just as everything was getting better, they go and let us down. The dragons'll be after us again as well I shouldn't wonder. It's all their fault messing around with things, we were better off before. At least we knew where we stood in those days."

"I've just had an idea," said Jennifer Jane. "We need someone like my Dad to think of a way out of this mess. We can't get to him, so the nearest person I can think of is Fundin. I'll go up to the giant's castle and see if he can think of a way to help."

Abigail looked over Jennifer Jane's shoulder and groaned.

"Here comes another one to complain about the loss of a spell. By the way don't worry about the dragons I'm sure they'll still be happy eating coal instead of peasants."

Jennifer Jane turned to see who Abigail had spotted. Trotting along the track from Lurgin's Bridge was Sir George. She could guess what his problem was going to be even before he came to a halt. His horse was making a tremendous noise but in the absence of any magic none of it made sense. Apart from the volume and the total lack of a break in the neighing, he was just making ordinary horse noises.

Jennifer Jane and Abigail both looked the horse in the eyes and shrugged their shoulders. The horse stopped neighing for a moment and gave a snort that sounded just as if he was asking a question. Abigail shook her head sadly and the horse seemed to understand and became very quiet.

"I'faith, I no longer understand him," George said to Abigail, then he noticed Jennifer Jane. "Hi there kid," he said in his best alternate world manner, "what gives?"

Abigail explained the total absence of magic for the foreseeable future. Then she looked at Jennifer Jane. "You wanted to see Fundin, well here's your ride."

George leaned down from his saddle, picked up Jennifer Jane and sat her in front of him. "Giant's castle and one dwarf coming up," he said with a grin, "oh and I have to say 'gee up' to the horse, he only seems to understand that and 'whoa' these last few minutes."

Abigail watched them ride off towards the woods, the future for all wizards and witches looked very bleak unless someone could think of a solution. For a start, having to walk everywhere was going to be a problem.

She was beginning to feel hungry and thirsty already. She took off her pointed hat and cloak, so that she didn't look too much like a witch and headed off after the villagers towards the George and Dragons. Gordon the Troll was going to do very well with his riddles, until another way across the river could be found.