Flitterwig Read online

  Manna looked into the fire and back to Ella. ‘The Ban has clearly been broken,’ she said after a while, ‘just as the Flitterwig Files said it would be, from the Prophecy in the Magusian Tomes.’ She shook her head. ‘As I understand it from my days at the Rooniun, the Duke has long envied humans their freedom to do as they please with their planet. He envies their determination, their knack for self-deception, their greed, their decadence, their love of progress at whatever cost.

  ‘Saul, who is co-chairman of the Rooniun, sometimes spoke of forming an alliance with the Duke. He felt restricted by the secrecy imposed on the Rooniun by the Ban. He wanted to get into Magus through a Mirror of Foreverness and ultimately to overthrow the Queen. But while Flitterwigs can become skilled in almost all magical endeavours, Shrinkification and Stretchification are two enchantments no Flitterwig has ever truly mastered. To get into Magus, one has to be very small. As far as I am aware, only a pure Royal Magical can shrink or stretch a Flitterwig, or anything else for that matter, for any substantial period of time, so Saul never succeeded. Not least because the other chairman, Samuel, Magic bless him, never let him study the Flitterwig Files too closely. He did not want to run the risk that Saul might potentially unlock that secret. Samuel honours the Ban. He leaves Magicals to their business and they leave him to his – unless they are in danger, at which point we have been known to lend a helping hand. Samuel would not see the spirit of the Ban broken, however.’

  She leaned in close to Ella, sighing deep inside herself. ‘Ella, I took a vow to forsake my active involvement in magic the day my daughter and grandsons were lost to us, and I try to honour that vow. I have made an exception today, for you, because I realise that you are more powerful than I or your mother or your brothers could ever be. Your mother clearly knew this, and that is why she wanted me to save you when the accident happened. Who would have imagined that my own granddaughter could be the Clearheart in the Prophecy? How exciting! But how scary, too, because I’m sure that the Duke won’t stop until he has captured you. He must have you working for him rather than for the Queen.’ She looked Ella full in the eyes. ‘There could be danger ahead, my darling, but if you have the courage and the conviction, you will find the Dewdrops. You will be the one to restore them to the Queen and save Magus from the Duke’s dastardly ambitions. I have every faith in you.’ Manna smiled reassuringly at her granddaughter, and then said, ‘After today I shall have a long, hard think about what my own relationship with magic should be in the future. But I am here for you, my lovely girl, should you need me.’

  The lump that had been sitting in Ella’s throat all day swelled to bursting. Even her own grandmother believed in the Prophecy. The burden of her powers was inescapable.

  That night Manna tucked Ella into bed. The white cotton sheets smelt of lavender, and once again Ella felt a dull longing for her mum. Manna stroked her hair and gently sprinkled a little elf dust onto her face to bring her the clarity of a dreamy sleep.

  In her dreams Ella grew and shrank and shrank and grew. Shrank and shrank and grew and grew until dawn broke and she could shrink and grow no more.

  Ella woke with a start. As light streamed in through her bedroom window, yesterday’s revelations flooded back. But instead of drowning in fear or regret, she felt strangely determined.

  She tweaked her ear as Manna had shown her and saw a pair of feet running across the bedspread. Reaching across to the bedside table, she put the spectacles on. Dixon was racing towards her.

  ‘The dewdroplets are here. They’ve come, they’ve come! Come, swum, hum!’ he yelled. ‘You must have listened well to Manna and been brave enough to trust her, because the dewdroplets are the Dewdrops’ messengers! You’re getting Clearheartier already! Brilliant, swilliant, magalilliant!’

  A flurry of tiny sparkling droplets spun through the air past him. They whizzed about Ella’s head and kissed her on the cheek before forming a transparent shape that solidified into a small silver note. The note fell into her lap.

  Ella wiped a speck of water from her cheeks, nearly knocking the spectacles off her face. What a way to wake up! She picked up the silver note and read it out loud:

  In your dreams

  You caught a glimpse

  Of changes on the morrow.

  For you were able

  To stay strong

  As Manna spoke of sorrow.

  So trust us now,

  As we trust you,

  To guide you on your way.

  Do not let fear

  Or guilt or pain

  Allow your mind to stray.

  A trial will come

  A few hours hence,

  Requiring you to travel

  So spotted elves

  And one wise man

  Can mysteries unravel.

  When you return, now listen close,

  You’ll find us in the deep,

  Close to a friend who isn’t yet,

  Where water lizards creep.

  Ella read the riddle again. It didn’t make much sense. In fact, nothing recently made any sense at all.

  chapter 12

  duke & duplicity

  Saul, the disloyal and ambitious co-chairman of the Flitterwig Rooniun, sat across a makeshift table from the Duke in the barn on Snoppit Farm. He seemed a perfectly ordinary human being, of perfectly ordinary, if stocky, dimensions, apart from his very large forehead, extraordinarily bushy eyebrows and the quantity of hair growing out of his nose and ears. He was passing his hand thoughtfully through his beard.

  ‘You’re lucky I bumped into four Troggles stuck in a tree who pointed me in the right direction, or I might never have found you! I told you to head north-east when you came through the Mirror, not north-west,’ he said gruffly to the Duke. ‘I also told you to look out for a Georgian house, not a dilapidated barn. I didn’t trick you into going to the wrong place. You went the wrong way all by your stupid self!’

  Saul raised his eyes to the heavens and took a deep breath. He had been worried that the Duke might be a hopeless villain, and it seemed his fears were coming to fruition. Magicals really were unreliable when it came to subterfuge and cunning. It didn’t help at all, of course, that Ella hadn’t even been at home.

  ‘So where are the Dewdrops?’ he growled. ‘We agreed to hide them together. What possessed you to break our arrangement and hide them on your own? You Magicals are supposed to be scrupulously honest.’

  ‘And you Flitterwigs are supposed to be a wonderful combination of the Magical and the human and therefore at a distinct advantage, deception being a natural human characteristic,’ said the Duke. ‘However, Mr Saul, I’ve been studying human behaviour for a long time now, and deception is a skill I have been honing for over a hundred years. I’m getting rather good at it, too, if I do say so myself.’

  Ragwald, the Duke’s Goblin Protector, was doling out swabs of a reddish-black mixture to a line of Troggles, all pushing and squabbling like rotten children in a lunch queue. True to his word, Saul had brought the Antidote for Trogglitis and pollution with him. It could only be administered in small quantities at a time, however, or the Troggles might recover entirely and revert to their former coherent and beautiful Magical selves, which was not the plan at all.

  Charlie Snoppit lay on his back unconscious while a Troggle, using small wads of sugar paper, collected blood from under a scab on his knee. Another Troggle added a drip of inky goo to each swab before handing it on to Ragwald.

  ‘Who is this Flitterwig?’ the Duke enquired, looking over at Charlie. ‘He says his name is Charlie Snoppit, but that doesn’t mean a thing to me. Who is he?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Saul impatiently. ‘I don’t have a list of every Flitterwig in England, you know. Most of them don’t even know they are Flitterwigs, for Magic’s sake.’

  ‘Well, whoever he is, he’s coming in rather handy, isn’t he?’ said the Duke defensively. ‘I’ve been thinking that he might be receptive to Possession. If I can Possess his body, I migh
t be able to lure the girl to us that way. And if we hadn’t found him, whose blood were you intending to use to complete the recipe for the Antidote?’

  ‘I had been hoping to force tears from the Clearheart, or steal them from the Rooniun hospital, but I was unable to get into the safe where they are kept. Tears are far preferable to blood for the Antidote, although much harder to come by.’

  ‘Surely we’ll need more blood than this boy can provide,’ said the Duke. ‘Won’t the drainage kill him eventually?’

  ‘It will weaken him, yes,’ Saul answered dismissively, ‘but it doesn’t have to kill him if we’re careful about it. Now, let’s get back to the subject at hand. Where are the Magicforsaken Dewdrops?’

  The Duke rapped his talons on the table. Or course he didn’t have a clue where the Dewdrops were, but he couldn’t possibly let Saul know that.

  ‘Let’s recap, shall we?’ he said, playing for time. ‘Work through this logically, without losing our tempers. In essence, you and I want the same things: progress and power, at any cost. I want to rule Magus, and I want to introduce engines and all those marvellous human inventions to my kingdom. But as you know, fossil fuel emissions are fatal to my kind. I need to work with you because you have the Antidote, the potion that stabilises the effects of pollution, Trogglitis and the like. And I’d like to thank you for that discovery,’ he added, indicating the swabs. ‘I’d be feeling much worse right now without it.’

  Saul started to interrupt, but he couldn’t get a word in. ‘You need me too,’ the Duke continued, flourishing his right hand so that his claws flashed like knives, ‘for purposes of Shrinkification and Stretchification. Something you Flitterwigs haven’t figured out yet.’ The Duke looked Saul in the eye, hoping he was holding the balance of power in the conversation.

  ‘You may know how to Shrinkify and Stretchify both objects and people, although we Flitterwigs have been known to perform the odd Shrinkification, you know,’ Saul said, raising his voice, ‘but you sure as Magic don’t have enough power to Shrinkify us all, or any of our cars or rockets or trains or motorbikes for that matter, on an ongoing basis, without the Dewdrops. And I certainly shan’t be revealing to you the ingredients to the Antidote, which you will need if you are to protect the rest of your lot back in Magus once you get the machines in there, until you tell me WHERE THEY ARE!’

  ‘And thus we have stalemate,’ said the Duke, rather enjoying himself. Being beastly was actually a lot of fun. Although, Magic above, he’d give his right arm to know where the blasted Dewdrops were himself.

  ‘What you seem to underestimate,’ said Saul, taking a deep breath, ‘is the potential power of Ella Montgomery. And while we sit here shooting the breeze, who knows what she and the Royal Court have figured out and how close they may be to finding the Dewdrops on their own.’ He stood up from the makeshift table and then sat down again. ‘And if they find them first, the game is over. Luckily, I have this under control.’ Saul drew close to the Duke and whispered something to him.

  ‘Good idea,’ said the Duke, sitting back. ‘And I agree, of course we need the Clearheart. We both know, from the Magusian Tomes, or whatever record of history you Flitterwigs use, that we need her in order to manipulate the Dewdrops. But let’s remember that she’s just a child, for Magic’s sake. She didn’t even know she was a Flitterwig until a few days ago,’ he added, casting away concerns with another wave of his hand. ‘The Queen will be sick as a sicklepeck by now, and her Court don’t have the cunning to find us.’ He adjusted his cloak: this tail of his was so uncomfortable. ‘What’s more, I had Ella Montgomery and the pixie trailed from London to the farm by some Troggles. According to them, they appear to be a completely harmless team.’

  ‘Never underestimate the power of goodness or the stupidity of Troggles,’ warned Saul. ‘It is a mistake I have made in the past. My co-chairman, Samuel, has always stayed a step ahead of me because of his confounded goodwill. Until now. Now that the Ban is truly broken, everything will change.’ Saul let out a long, low rumble of pleasure.

  Charlie stirred. He opened his eyes and sat up in a daze. Because he was so very short-sighted, he couldn’t see the bushy, burly figure of Saul sitting at the table. And without his glasses,he couldn’t see the Troggles lined up by his right knee, either. He felt around for his spectacles and put them on.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he yelled, as the Troggles appeared before him. ‘And who the heck are you?’ he demanded of Saul, moving closer and taking off his specs to see if the man disappeared. He didn’t, which meant that he wasn’t one of ‘them’. Charlie slipped the spectacles back on.

  ‘Look,’ the Duke said to Saul, enjoying Charlie’s bewilderment. ‘He’s completely confused, poor boy. As you can see, children are dumb by nature. So just how much of a threat can this Ella really be?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Charlie spluttered, hurt to the core by the Duke’s insensitivity. ‘I’m not dumb, remember? I’ve got magic specs that give me magic powers and you said I was very clever to have worked that spell you showed me that shuts up the frogs.’ Charlie sounded so desperate that even the Duke felt a moment of compassion for him.

  ‘Oh be quiet,’ said Saul. ‘This has nothing to do with you.’ He stood up and marched towards the barn door. ‘I’ll be back at midnight,’ he said to the Duke. ‘I’ll take you to Willow Farm, and we will then unleash our plan.’

  chapter 13

  mishap & misadventure

  Grandpa didn’t come to Manna’s cottage to pick Ella up in the morning. Instead, it was Dribbles who came, driven to the cottage by Mr P. Her face was as dark as a storm cloud.

  ‘I must speak with you privately,’ Dribbles said to Manna, eyeing her suspiciously and refusing to step through the front door.

  Ella, coming down the stairs, was surprised to see her governess. ‘Hello, Mrs Dribbleton-Faucet,’ she said.

  ‘Hello,’ said Dribbles.

  Ella examined Dribbles more closely. Something was wrong. Dribbles never said ‘hello’ back!

  ‘Good morning, Ella,’ said Manna, and then, realising that Dribbles was seriously not all right, ‘Would you mind popping back upstairs to get dressed, darling?’

  When Ella came downstairs again, she caught Manna whispering to Dribbles at the doorway. Manna’s light skin was particularly pale as she motioned to Ella to sit down at the kitchen table.

  ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news for you, Ella,’ Manna said. She sat down beside her and held Ella’s hands in hers. ‘Your granny and grandpa have disappeared.’ She took a deep breath. ‘It seems that when Mrs Dribbleton-Faucet arrived at Willow Farm this morning, all she found was a tea-towel on the floor in the kitchen.’

  Ella felt sick. Granny would never, ever leave a tea-towel on the floor.

  ‘I’m afraid this makes your quest all the more dangerous, child.’ Manna dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned in close to her, looking up to make sure Dribbles, who had stepped away from the door, wasn’t listening through the window. ‘I fear the Duke may be behind this. Now, Mrs Dribbleton-Faucet has told me that you must leave England immediately with your father, Ella. He flies to Spain today to visit a factory and has instructed that you accompany him, for your own safety. See, he still cares. I would keep you with me, but your father would never allow it. And anyway, you will be safer out of the country for a little while. Trust me.’

  A faint humming began in Ella’s head. Her ears prickled and her shoulderblades felt hot. She couldn’t speak as Manna led her to the car, pressed her inhaler gently into her hand, kissed her forehead and bade her farewell.

  ‘This is all your fault,’ said Dribbles, her confidence somewhat restored once they were driving up the hill, away from the cottage.

  Ella said nothing, but somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered the words of the riddle the dewdroplets had brought her that morning, and drew strength from them. The riddle had told her she would have to travel. It also told her to have trust. So trust she must.<
br />
  ‘You come from a cursed line,’ Dribbles went on. ‘I had hoped never to have to set eyes on that woman again.’ She shook her head with a wobble and wiped some dribble off her chin.

  As she boarded the plane to fly to Spain, Ella thought she saw her father step into business class, but it was so long since she had last seen him that she couldn’t be sure.

  Once the plane was safely in the air and Ella had overcome her intense nausea, she put on the spectacles. She had hoped to find Dixon, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a handful of tiny orange bug-like creatures wearing black leotards buzzed about her on transparent wings, cheeky and malevolent. Other identical creatures flew from seat to seat and table to table, tickling passengers’ noses and knocking over their drinks.

  One of the little creatures spotted Ella looking at them. ‘Argh,’ it cried, fluttering upwards in a panic. ‘She can see us! She can see us!’ The little creature’s cries drew the attention of more little creatures. ‘It must be a Flitterwig,’ another squealed, ducking under a seat. The creatures flew left, right and centre in panicked circles until a plucky one bobbed up from somewhere behind Ella.

  ‘It’s okay!’ it cried. ‘We’re allowed to talk to her, remember? The pixie told us it was all right!’

  Ella searched about her again for Dixon, panic rising.

  The little orange bugs flew tentatively up to her, examining her curiously. One touched her face and then pulled away. Another landed on her nose before zipping off again in a fright.

  ‘If you want the pixie, he’s over there, over there,’ one of the acrobatic little creatures squeaked at her. ‘Follow us, follow us,’ a chorus of others joined in, forming a beeline along the aisle.