Part One Escape

One of the Wuards was the Drood Commander of Garmipcrag, and Xar pointed to the spelling staff the

Drood Commander was holding That's the reason we're here. whispered Xar

"Became the Drood Commander's spelling staff controls

everything on this Cartle

'Ohhh no . . . oh noo . . . 'whispered Caliburn the raven, in a frenzy of alarm. Don't tell me that your plan is to steal the Staff-That-Commands-the-Castle?" Xar nodded. That was indeed his plan

Toss brilliant! Is brilliant squeaked Squeezjoos,

buzzing around in such an over-excited fashion that he was very nearly sick Sssshhhhhhhh everyone else whispered back.

The werewolf gave a small grunt that might have

been approval. It was quite a good plan actually. At least,

it was something the werewolf had never tried before

But as Xat peered into the room, the shaggy weight of the werewolf's fur on his shoulder, he started so violently he nearly fell off the windowsill.

^^^For he suddenly recognised the other Wizards who were talking to the Drood Commander of Gormincrag "My father and my brother..." whispered Xar^^^

It was indeed Xar's father, the Great Wizard Enchanter, Encanzo the Magnificent, King of Wizards, and Xar's older brother, Looter. Nar could feel a mixture of fear and shame rising within him, starting with a queasy flip of his stomach, and then bubbling up into a hot flush of shame.

on a mission When Xar had been arrested by the Drood Guards, Encanzo and Looter had been travelling. to the Witch mountains, to find out how bad the threat from the Witches was.

So they did not yet know why Xar was in here and Nar really, really didn't want them to find that out...

Xar could just about hear what the Wizards were saying, if he leaned in through the window. Your Droods have crept into my kingdom while 1

was away and stolen my son from me!' raged Encanzo,

I demand that you release him this instant!"

Xar's father, Encanzo, was a tall, immensely powerful Wizard, of such Magic strength that it was curiously difficult to look at him. His outline was blurred by Magic, shifting, moving, and great steaming clouds of enchantment drifted off his head as he spoke. He was looking a little weary, for he was at his wits' end, trying to lead his people in the fight against the Witches.

The Drood Commander was taller still, a rake of a man, spitefully thin, and with eyebrows so long he had braided them. He had grown so old in the forest that there was something of the tree about him. His fingers had bent and twisted into twigs, and his face was as green and wrinkled as ancient bark. The Drood Commander was well intentioned, but he was convinced that he was right about absolutely everything. and everyone else was absolutely wrong. Over time that can make you bitter rather than gentle, for whatever we are tends to concentrate as we get older, and it had distilled him into a pungent, poisonous drink indeed. Cross, judgmental little eyes glittered in his tree-bark wrinkled face, and his claw-like hands closed jealously over his spelling staff. 'I am not keeping Xar here for my own amusement!" snapped the Drood Commander. "Your wretched son has completely disrupted my prison!

He has;

for no reason whatsoever, au off some tail hair of the Great Howling Hairy Hindogre while it was sleeping in its cell, and the Great Howling Hairy Hindogre is still howling in fury five days later, keeping everyone in the western tower of the prison awake all

night... "Ah," said Encanzo thoughtfully, "is that the distant moaning sound I can hear?' "That wasn't for no reason!" objected Xar in a whisper to his companions, 'I needed that hair so I could escape in an absolutely foolproof Bigfoot- soldier-with-a-beard disguise...

"Nobodys going to think you're old enough to have a beard, Xar!' objected Caliburn. "And Bigfoot soldiers are at least six feet tall!

That was a slight flaw in the foolproof plan, admitted Xar.

It wasn't the only flaw. When their winter coats come in. Howling Hairy Hindogres are an attractive shade of midnight blue, and Xar had been caught within about five minutes because the Drood Guards agreed with Caliburn that there was no such thing as a five-foot tall Bigfoot with a bright-blue beard.

The Drood Commander was really getting going now, with a long list of Xar's offences:

Put itching powder in the knickers of my Guards on patrol... stolen a prison Guard's cape and hood and dropped it in the vampire-dog pit... dropped the stinky socks of a Rogrebreath Guard into the breakfast porridge so that it tasted disgustingly of rotten eggs.

"Accidents... all accidents and misunderstandings ... whispered Xar from the window.

'And then, out of sheer wanton mischief, the Drood Commander ended, 'he glued the behinds of Drood High Command to their chairs while they sat quietly and peacefully eating their dinner! Indefensible, inexplicable, inexcusable behaviour!'

This last incident had particularly upset the Drood Commander, for he was a man of great dignity, and he had not liked having to visit the Sanitorium with a chair stuck firmly to his bottom. He had draped a cloak over it, but it was quite a large chair and the Rogrebreaths, still stuffed to the tips of their hairy ears with Cursing Potion, had made quite a few personal remarks that still stung when the Drood Commander

That was quite funny,' admitted Xar, smiling at the memory of it, but that, too, was an accident! They shouldn't have locked me up if they didn't want me to try and escape!' 'All of these things you are describing are just

remembered them.

disobediences, said Xar's father Encanzo, with relief. 'Annoying. I grant you, and Xar ought to have grown out of such stuff, but there's nothing wicked in those things... he'll just be getting fed up with being in here, and I don't blame him, quite frankly...

'I do have a prison to run,' said the Drood, his lips pursing. I cannot let your son completely disrupt it. He is here because he represents a severe threat to the entire Magic community continued the Drood Commander, getting to his feet. 'But I can show you he is safe. Come with me...

All around the Drood Commander's room were gigantic mirrors, and they were not normal mirrors. If you looked into those mirrors you could see into every single room in the castle. So at any point the Drood Commander of Gormincrag could know exactly what was going on, all around the prison.

The Drood Commander pointed at one of the mirrors, and the mirror clouded up, before gradually showing the view inside a small cell in the high security block

13 empty," said Encanzo the King Enchanter The cell was indeed, as Encanzo said, empty. The Drood Commander stared at the empty cell in astonishment. 'I don't understand it!' said the Drood Commander. "That is most definitely Xar's cell... Where on earth is he?

I thought you were supposed to be the most secure, maximum high-security prison in the wildwoods?" snapped Encanzo. "And you are telling me, that you have somehow mislaid my thirteen-year-old son?" This is most unusual... blustered the Drood

Commander, blinking at all the mirrors so that they rapidly clouded up to reveal cell after cell, each one containing a captured Rogre, or Grim Annis, or Venge-sprite... but absolutely no sign of Xar. 'Of course there must be some perfectly reasonable explanation for all this... the Guards must have moved him without telling me...

'Dear, oh dear... purred Encanzo, 'that's not very organised is it? Rather poor communication with your guards, I'd say... I repeat, Commander, where is my son?"

'Here I am,' said a voice behind them.

Unfortunately, when the three Wizards stepped away from the Drood Commander's desk and stood in front of the mirrors, they had forgetfully left

their Spelling Staffs lying on

the desk behind them, in full view of Xar who had an empty pouch, just the right size for a couple more staffs.

So now when they both slo-o-owly

turned round...

there was Xar

He was accompanied by a seven-foot werewolf,

standing by the desk. Above Xar's head buzzed his

sprites, and a very guilty looking Caliburn. There was a sprite word for the way that the Drood Commander and Encanzo and Looter were looking at Xar in that moment.

And the sprite word for it is: 'goggle-smarked'. Absolutely 'flabberwastedly, jiggerdroppingly goggle- smarked', to be precise.

to be continued

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