The Magician's lecture 6/7

Chaos reigned at the Wish Warehouse. The crystal ball that was used to check the effect of important spells, had become cloudy so that nothing could be seen. Lieutenant Moonshine had tried to send one of her staff to the Witches' Home to have it repaired. She'd opened a rarely used homing spell and it hadn't worked.

As a check she tried a small puff of wind to send herself from one end of the building to the other and that hadn't worked either. Fortunately one of the snowmen and his cloud was available, so she'd asked him to take her to the Witches' Home.

They landed on the front lawn as usual and she ran up to the door. There was absolutely no one about. Going inside, she spotted the notice on the board outside the Assembly Hall. She ran down the corridor towards the castle side of the Home but halfway along came out into open ground. There was no castle to be seen.

Something very strange was going on. She returned to the front lawn and asked the snowman to take her up on his cloud, so that she could look down at the building.

Just half the old mansion house was standing in the grounds, which ran down to the river. The castle side had disappeared as if cut off with a large knife. The surrounding countryside looked perfectly normal as well, not a trace of the magic haze that usually surrounded the estate.

She couldn't see a witch or wizard anywhere. The notice in the Assembly Hall had mentioned a meeting on the castle side of the Home, so presumably everyone had gone there and then the disaster, whatever it may have been, had happened. She asked the snowman to fly her back to the Wish Warehouse. Then on the way she changed her mind.

"Take me to Jennifer Jane's house and land in the garden so that their neighbours won't see us. Perhaps she can come up with one of her bright ideas to explain all this."

Lieutenant Moonshine knocked on the kitchen door until Mary came to let her in, while the snowman took his cloud up into the colder air and waited for further instructions.

"I'm sorry to trouble you but could I have a word with Jennifer Jane please."

"I'm afraid she's gone to the Witches' Home to see a Magician perform a new spell. Why whatever is the matter? you look quite ill!"

Mary rushed over to the sink and gave the fairy a glass of cold water. Then she put the kettle on and made her a cup of strong tea with lots of sugar. Moonshine had gone very white and had almost collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs.

"Try and make a cherry cake," murmured Moonshine, so quietly that Mary could hardly hear her.

Mary looked puzzled and did her best but there was no result.

"Strange, I usually get a few crumbs at least and lots of cherries."

"I think the new spell at the Witches' Home must have gone wrong and something terrible's happened. Magic doesn't seem to work any more!"

She told Mary about the disappearance of the witches and wizards and the castle side of the Home. Also the fact that none of the spells in the Warehouse worked. As the full implications dawned on Mary it was her turn to sit down suddenly and pour herself a cup of tea.

"Until everything gets back to normal I suppose we won't be hearing from Jennifer Jane."

Moonshine put her arms round Mary and tried to comfort her as they both burst into tears. Mary had just realised that without magic the situation couldn't be corrected and she might never see her daughter again.