The Witch's Revenge (10 page)

“Well,” said the fisherman, scratching his head, “if I'm
not here, I must be a ghost.” He patted himself as if checking to make sure he was real. “Nope, I'm definitely here.”

Morag ran to hug him.

“Hoi!” called a tinny voice from inside her duffle coat. “Watch it! You're squashing me.”

“Is that Henry I hear?” asked the fisherman with a grin.

Morag nodded and pulled the medallion out. Henry's gold face was furrowed into a scowl as he looked at his friends laughing. “I'm almost pure gold, you know,” he snapped, “which means I'm easily bent out of shape.”

“I'm sorry, Henry,” said Morag softly. “I'm just so pleased to see Kyle again.”

“So,” said Kyle, “what brings you back to Oban?”

As Morag and Aldiss told him the terrible things that had happened in Marnoch Mor and how they suspected Montgomery was being held on Murst, he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“The
Kelpie
is moored in a cove a few miles north,” he told them. “It won't take long to get up there in a taxi.”

“There's only one problem,” said Morag. “How are we going to get Shona and Bertie there without anyone seeing them?”

“It won't be too long before the light starts to fade,” Kyle said. “In which case I think I might just have a plan.”

Shona and Bertie were hiding behind a large hedge when the others found them. The dragon was shivering and the dodo's feathers were puffed up against the bitter winter cold.

The fisherman's plan was simple: he would walk on ahead and if he saw anyone coming he would wave his scarf to alert them. Morag was to walk with Shona, Bertie and Aldiss and keep an eye out for any cars or individuals approaching from behind. It was getting dark now, Kyle said, so it would be easier to get them to the boat unnoticed.

“It's also starting to rain,” the cold dragon chittered. “Can't we get going now? I'm freezing.”

The journey to the outskirts of town should have taken no more than ten minutes, but because Shona and Bertie had to dive into the undergrowth every time someone passed, it took over half an hour. They broke into a run when they reached a road without bushes or trees that turned out of town and headed north.

Night closed in around them. As the streetlamps blinked on, eerie shadows were sent across the pavement. People turned on their house lights and drew their curtains, making Morag wish she were back home in Marnoch Mor. She pulled up her hood as the rain began to lash down.

“How much farther?” Bertie complained. His claws were aching and he was tired of flapping into ditches or behind damp patches of ferns.

“I'm n-not sure,” Morag stuttered. “Kyle said the
Kelpie
was nearby.”

“Yes, but what's Kyle's definition of ‘nearby'?” Henry asked from under her coat.

“In no time we'll be safe and dry on the
Sea Kelpie
and on our way to Montgomery,” she told them.

Just then she heard Aldiss squeaking in fright. Morag looked up to see Kyle running back toward them. He
looked panicked. Realizing something had gone wrong, Morag acted fast.

“Hide! Quickly!” she instructed her friends.

Shona and Bertie dove into a small copse of trees just as the headlights of a large white van came into view.

“It's the police …,” Kyle panted.

The van drew up beside them. A policeman slid out and put on his hat. He strode purposefully toward them. “It's a bit of a nasty night to be out with a young child, don't you think?” he asked Kyle.

“Yes, Officer,” the fisherman replied. “That's why me and my … er … daughter here are heading back to the boat. Don't want to keep her out too long in this. She'll catch a cold.”

The policeman stared intently at Morag. She looked away, afraid to catch his eye. What if he recognized her and forced her to go back to Jermy and Moira's?

“So where are you headed?” the policeman asked. “I can't see any boat.” He searched the dark horizon of the sea as if expecting to see the
Kelpie
bobbing up and down there.

“It's moored a little way up the road,” Kyle answered, pointing in the direction the policeman had come.

The policeman nodded. “Can I offer you a lift?” he asked. “I wouldn't want your daughter here to get any wetter.”

“No!” said Morag too quickly. Kyle threw her a warning glance. The speed of her answer had been suspicious.

“What she means,” he said with a smile, “is ‘no thank you.' We'd rather walk. We've … er … got this bet on, you see, that she'll get there before me. It's a game we play.”

The policeman eyed them both warily. “All right,” he said, “but mind and go straight home. There's supposed to be a storm tonight.”

“Thank you, Officer, we will,” Kyle replied. “Come on, Morag, let's get you home.”

The policeman flinched when he heard Morag's name, but said nothing as they headed up the road in the direction of the cove where the
Sea Kelpie
was moored. Morag turned round a few times to see if he was still watching them. Eventually, she saw him head back to his van. “Good, he's going,” she said to Kyle, who also turned to look.

“No, he's not,” the fisherman said.

“What?”

The policeman was standing at the door of his vehicle talking into his radio. His eyes never left them.

“Kyle,” Morag said, stomach knotting with fear, “I think he knows who I am.”

“Don't be silly,” he replied. “How could he know that?”

“Because Jermy and Moira are still looking for me,” she began. “For some reason, they want me back, and I don't think they'll stop till they find me. If they've told the police I'm missing or that I've been kidnapped, we could both be in a lot of trouble.”

Kyle knew by her worried expression that she was telling the truth.

“Keep walking,” he said, “we might just get away with it.”

“What about Shona and Bertie?” a muffled voice sounded from beneath Morag's coat. The girl unbuttoned her duffle coat and pulled Henry out. “We can't leave them in the undergrowth,” the medallion continued.

“They'll have to hide until the policeman leaves,” said Kyle. “We'll come back for them later. Right now, we have to get Morag out of here. Come on, run!”

Without looking back, the pair broke into a run, but just as they were about to turn the first corner they heard a shout behind them.

“Hoi! You two! Come back here, I want a word with you!” the policeman bellowed.

“Keep going. Pretend you don't hear him,” Kyle whispered to the terrified girl.

“Hoi!” the policeman called again.

They heard the engine start, the gears squeal and the van roar toward them. It stopped with a screech about a meter in front of them. The policeman jumped out, angry now. “Did you two not hear me?” he demanded.

“Sorry, Officer, is something wrong?” Kyle asked innocently. “We were in too much of a hurry to get home.”

As the rain continued to pour, the policeman glared at Kyle.

“I can see why you were in a hurry,” he said. He pulled a crumpled paper out of a pocket and looked at it. Then he stared at Morag.

“Aren't you Morag MacTavish? Missing from Stoker's Bed and Breakfast, Irvine Beach, North Ayrshire?”

Morag didn't know what to say.

“I … eh …,” she stuttered.

“No, she's not,” replied Kyle sharply. “I told you before: she's my daughter and we need to get home.”

“You won't be going anywhere, I'm afraid, sir. I'd like you both to come back to the station with me,” the policeman said firmly. “Then we'll find out exactly who she is. Come on, in the van with both of you.”

He grabbed Morag's arm, but as he did, an angry female voice yelled: “Get your hands off my friend!”

The policeman looked up disbelievingly as Shona glared down at him, her yellow eyes burning and her nostrils smoking.

“Unhand that girl,” Bertie demanded as he flapped to Morag's side. Without thinking, the policeman did as he
was told. “You're a … And you're a …” His mouth opened and closed as if he were a fish but he couldn't get the words out.

“A dragon and a dodo, yes, that's correct,” said Bertie, tugging Morag.

“Not so fast,” growled the policeman as he grabbed Morag's shoulder again. “You belong in a circus,” he told Shona, “and this one belongs in a cell. She's coming with me.”

“No!” squealed Aldiss from the ground. “You're not taking her!”

“A talking rat now,” said the policeman. “Well, that's a new one.”

“A talking rat with wand!” replied the rodent, fishing a little polished stick from his woolen hat. Dancing from foot to foot, he brandished it like a swordsman.

“Aldiss!” Bertie warned. “Put that wand away. You'll have someone's eye out with it.”

The rat didn't seem to hear. “Aldiss!” the dodo said again.

“Don't try to stop me, Bertie,” said Aldiss, his eyes bright with excitement as he waved the wand. “I know what I'm doing. I won't let this man take Morag. No way can he have her. She's our friend … and … oh … oops!”

Before he could finish, a stream of multicolored sparkles flew from the toothpick-sized wand. A flurry of bubbles hit the policeman in the face. Their tickling caused him to sneeze, fall to his knees, then snort and hee-haw loudly.

Morag gasped and stared. “Aldiss,” she said. “You seem to have turned him into a donkey.”

“That wasn't quite what I had in mind for him,” the rat confessed.

“Change him back,” Morag demanded.

The rat looked a little shamefaced. “I can't,” he said.

“Why not?”

“I've not got to that bit in my night class yet—you know,
undoing
spells. We're studying it next week. I could come back then?”

Morag took a deep breath.

“That just goes to show how stupid it is to teach rodents magic,” Henry put in.

“What's the difference between teaching a rat magic and teaching a necklace how to talk?” Shona said in Aldiss's defense.

“I am not a necklace, I am a magic medallion! An amulet specifically created to perform magic. That's the difference, my dear lizard friend,” Henry replied snippily. After a moment, he added, “I suppose you'll want me to fix this.”

No one said a word because no one wanted the medallion to feel he had the upper hand, but just then the donkey policeman decided to bray again.

“Please fix this, Henry,” Morag begged. “And can you make sure the poor policeman doesn't remember a thing? I don't want him telling everyone who and what he's seen tonight.”

And so it was that a perplexed policeman found himself standing in the rain on a remote stretch of Highland road with no knowledge of how he got there. He knew his name, he knew where he lived, he knew he was a policeman, but
what he was doing standing in front of his van, so far out of town, he didn't know. He blinked a few times and had a look around. He must have stopped for some reason, but he didn't know why. He got back into his van and drove back to the station. He had decided it would be for the best if his colleagues never found out what had happened.

Up the hill and round the bend a bit, a girl with a gold medallion, a fisherman, a rat, a dodo and a dragon were running across scrubland to a windswept beach. Moored offshore, and gleaming white against the dark gray winter's sky, a fishing boat called the
Sea Kelpie
rocked jauntily on the incoming tide. Morag suddenly felt apprehensive.

“Are you all right, Morag?” Shona asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I'm just a bit cold, that's all.”

“We'll soon be on board and we'll get warmed up,” the dragon reassured her.

I wonder if Montgomery is feeling warm right now
, Morag thought as she clambered into a rowing boat.
I wonder if he's feeling scared for his life, like I was when I was taken there
.

“We're coming for you, Montgomery,” she whispered, wiping away a tear as they rowed out to the
Kelpie
.

“Did you say something, Morag?” Henry asked.

“No,” the girl hastily replied. “It must have been the wind you heard.”