The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Author:Cressida Cowell [COWELL, CRESSIDA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2017-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

12. Iron Warrior Fort

Xar and Caliburn and the sprites and the snowcats and Wish and Bodkin were lying in the undergrowth in front of iron Warrior fort. They had a problem.

Breaking OUT of a heavily armed Warrior fort with seven ditches and thirteen watchtowers is hard enough. But breaking IN is virtually impossible.

And it is made even harder if you are accompanied by a Wizard with a Witch-stain and a band of snowcats and sprites.

They could see the sentries on the battlements, pacing nervously up, down, up, down, constantly straining to see what was out there in the forest.

They had abandoned the door in the cover of the forest, for a flying door is rather conspicuous. And then Wish led them around to the stable entrance, which was where she had sneaked out in the first place. The doors there were always opening and closing, with hunting parties going out and returning.

Xar got the sprites to cover them with weather spells and invisibility spells so that they could sneak up on the entrance without being seen.

“Thisss will only work until we get inside the fort. Tiffinstorm’sss Magic will not work in there,” warned Tiffinstorm. “There isss too much iron…”

“Stop worrying, everyone,” said Xar confidently. “I’ve broken into more forts than you’ve had hot dinners.”

It took a while for the little party of snowcats, sprites, Xar, Bodkin, and Wish to maneuver themselves into position underneath the drawbridge.

And then the plan worked beautifully… at first.

Xar and Wish and Bodkin and the snowcats stole invisibly into the fort, under the cloak of Ariel’s and Tiffinstorm’s spells.

It wasn’t until they were a good way into the stableyard that it was clear the spells were being affected by the sheer amount of iron surrounding them. To Xar’s horror, he could see his feet below him, s-l-o-w-l-y becoming visible.

Wish and Bodkin were even more obviously there already, although Bodkin was materializing the other way around, and for a second he was just a ghoulishly floating torso.

But if we can just make it to the next building, thought Xar in a panic, maybe we can hide in the shadows there…

“Run!” he whispered. “Run!”

Too late.

A sentry had turned, to see the bottom half of a gradually-becoming-visible snowcat bounding across Queen Sychorax’s stableyard.

“MAGIC!” roared the sentry.

They were discovered.

Wish had to make up an entirely new plan right there on the spot.

“HELP!” cried Wish, who was now entirely visible. “HELP! HELP! HELP!!!!! OVER HERE! WIZARD ATTACK!”

The Warrior guards turned.

And there was Sychorax’s weird little daughter, pointing at a Wizard, with three furious snowcats and a cloud of buzzing sprites.

“WIZARD ATTACK!” cried the guards. “Sound the alarm!”

The Wizards don’t often attack the Warriors, for obvious reasons.

But Warriors, nonetheless, are always ready for any kind of attack.

Ready in a manner that you could almost call overkill.

From all over came the thunderous sounds of clattering armor and clanking swords and stamping iron-clad feet as the soldiers of Queen Sychorax leaped into action.

“THE ATTACK IS IN THE THIRD QUARTER! BACKUP IS NEEDED!” roared the guards who had already surrounded them, swords and spears at the ready.

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