The Tower at the End of Time by Amy Sparkes

Author:Amy Sparkes [Sparkes, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529507478
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2022-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

Gazillion released Flabberghast from the headlock, his fingers sparkling mauve as the dragon opened its mouth wide …

… and Flabberghast took off his left fluffy slipper and shoved it inside the rather surprised dragon’s mouth. A murmur of discontent mixed with a few sneering chuckles ran around the crowd.

Gazillion, still standing in front of Flabberghast, stared in surprise. “You really are the worst wizard.”

Nine’s heart leapt as Flabberghast dropped to his hands and knees and crawled through an outraged Gazillion’s legs onto number four.

“Flabby … cheat?” said Eric uncertainly.

Nine shrugged. “I’ll tell you when I’ve worked out the rules.”

“What rules?” muttered Spoon.

Up popped the sinister jack-in-the-box. The crimson-clad figure loomed over Flabberghast, who stayed on his hands and knees, crouching on square number four.

The jack-in-the-box rocked back and forth, getting lower and lower, until Gazillion, waiting for it to rock backwards, leapfrogged over Flabberghast’s back, landing confidently on numbers five and six.

“Hey!” said Flabberghast. He scrambled to his feet and followed Gazillion, just as the crimson jack-in-the-box rocked right down on the number four, smashing into a thousand crimson shards, which floated away.

Flabberghast and Gazillion rearranged themselves. Gazillion stood on the right, on number six, and Flabberghast stood – one foot slippered, the other slipperless – on number five. They waited.

Nine held her breath.

The crowd held their breath.

Flabberghast and Gazillion held their breath.

Suddenly, deathly pale arms shot upwards, two out of each of the squares, grabbing the wizards’ shins. Gazillion began shooting magic at the hands that held him, and Flabberghast yelled as he turned and twisted, trying to shake his off – but the pale fists were locked tight. A third arm shot up from number five and grabbed Flabberghast’s cloak. A fourth arm clamped itself around Flabberghast’s throat. A fifth snatched his indigo hat, thrusting its fist inside the pointed peak and spinning it around.

“The lad’s doomed,” said Spoon.

Flabberghast made a choking noise, his eyes bulging.

“Help … me…” he croaked, looking at Gazillion.

“Never!” said Gazillion, zapping a mauve mitten onto one of the confused-looking hands attacking him. “This is hopscotch, Flabberghast! Every wizard for himself!”

Eric dropped Nine’s hand and covered his eyes. The panic in Nine’s chest exploded into words. “Come on, Flabberghast!”

Flabberghast’s fingers scrabbled desperately at the hand at his throat, finally prising it free. He flung it to one side, but it started swinging back towards him. Flabberghast frantically released the fastener of his cloak, and it dropped, along with the arm holding it, down to the hopscotch square. The throat-grabbing arm was heading right for Flabberghast’s throat again.

“Punch it! Punch it!” yelled Nine, as several witches and wizards turned round to stare at her.

Flabberghast swung his fist at the incoming hand and knocked it back down again. It woozily tried, and failed, to rise up again.

“YES!” Nine shouted out, as Eric peeped between his thick fingers.

Flabberghast prised the hand from one of his shins, then gave it a good kick, leaving it lying motionless on the ground.

“Come on, lad!” roared Spoon in Nine’s ear.

The judges on the platform looked at each other, confused and frowning.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.