Chapter 11

 

 

Giselle stood nervously in the large, dingy storeroom that Nem-Nemon had conjured them to. It was lit by a single lantern hanging on a wall and the shadows in the corners were deep and unsettling. They had been here for some minutes and all were getting a bit jumpy whilst they waited for Henbane to find them. They were starting at every sound coming from a tiny barred window that looked out on the darkened street outside.

 

‘How long do you think it will take Henbane to find us?’ Giselle asked.

 

Stone-Fist shrugged.

 

‘I don’t know, princess,’ he replied. ‘We’re a few hundred miles from where the wedding was, so it all depends on how quickly she can fly here.’

 

‘Don’t you worry, princess,’ Iron-Ear said reassuringly. ‘We’ll keep you safe.’

 

‘Oh, I think it’s far too late for that!’ a sudden, insidious voice said from one of the darkened corners.

 

Giselle’s heart leapt into her mouth in fright as Henbane suddenly walked into the light. A smug sneer filled her face. Crimson Bone gave a shout and he and the dwarves went to draw their weapons. But Henbane waved a hand and brown tree roots suddenly sprang out of the floor. They curled about their legs and held them tight.

 

‘You… you were here before us!’ Giselle gasped, fearing their plot had been discovered. ‘How?’

 

Henbane gave a wicked laugh.

 

‘I thought Mother Poinsettia would suggest Nem-Nemon plead your plight to the Kingdom’s Council of Witches, so I came straight here from that silly wedding,’ she replied. ‘The Council building is just down the street and I hunted about for a hiding place he might bring you to. This was the obvious choice… and so here we are at last.’

 

‘You murderous, old hag!’ Stone-Fist growled in fury. ‘I’ll put a price on your head after this! You won’t be safe anywhere in Kingdoms!’

 

Henbane gave him an evil glare.

 

‘After I become an Arch-Witch, no-one will be a threat to me… least of all you silly dwarves. It will amuse me I think to put an end to your stupid Society so that no princesses will be safe from any stepmother!’

 

‘I don’t want to die!’ Giselle said in despair.

 

‘That, my dear, is your unfortunate fate,’ Henbane said. ‘You’ll be coming with me…’

 

‘I like the darkness in here,’ Crimson Bone suddenly said. ‘It does your ugliness justice.’

 

Henbane gave the pirate a withering glare.

 

‘I’ll sink your ship before I’m done, pirate… along with you and all your crew,’ she replied in an icy tone. ‘Once I’m an Arch…’

 

‘Light!’ Crimson suddenly shouted and instantly a brilliant flare of yellow light exploded from his body. It was a spell Nem-Nemon had bound to his body.

 

Henbane uttered a hiss of pain at the glare, momentarily blinded by it. But Giselle had been expecting it and had shut her eyes. She had been warned when Crimson had said the word darkness. She knew Nem-Nemon had woven the spell about him, one of several to protect them from Henbane.

 

‘Run, princess!’ Stone-Fist roared, but she was already moving, running to one of two doors in the storeroom and it flinging open. A narrow passage led away, passing under the street and she fled down it.

 

She heard Henbane shriek in rage behind her as she burst into another storeroom. Some stairs spiralled upwards and she blundered up them, bare moments before Henbane followed, the air crackling with magic fury.

 

Giselle climbed the stairs as quickly as she could, knowing the witch was right behind her. Twice tree roots burst out of the walls to grab her, but she kicked at them and broke free. She went past three doors leading to the ground and first two floors, then arrived gasping for breath at a forth door.

 

She flung it open and raced across a darkened room toward the far wall where Nem-Nemon had said she must reach. She sensed Henbane enter the room behind her and then tree roots suddenly burst out of the floor around her.

 

They grabbed her and Giselle uttered a scream of terror as she was lifted into the air. She was then flung across the room, hit the floor again and slid into the wall hard enough to stun her.

 

‘That’s far enough for you!’ Henbane snarled as she came striding toward her. ‘You’ve caused me no end of trouble girl, but that stops right now!’

 

‘Indeed it does,’ said Nem-Nemon’s voice and Giselle found herself conjured in an instant beside him as he stepped out of a doorway.

 

At the same time a panel of the wall before Henbane suddenly slid away and she found herself looking at a framed, white painting canvas.

 

Instantly she felt herself under attack from a magic spell in it and her magic defences came up to defend her. Whereas others had been captured by the painting’s spell immediately, Henbane was a very powerful witch and she fought to escape it.

 

Giselle watched as the witch’s hands lifted and steaming green slime slewed from outstretched fingers, pouring into the painting to try and melt it away. But the picture swallowed it all up, unaffected. Then clouds of billowing darkness rushed from the witch and into the canvas, trying in vain to smother it. Then fire and lightning was thrown at it, all useless, until with a hideous scream of rage, Henbane was pulled across the room and vanished.

 

At that some lamps on the walls flamed in life, flooding the room with light. Another door opened and through it stepped Seb-Sebek and an ogre dressed in dark slacks and a turtle-necked sweater. A still trembling Giselle and Nem-Nemon joined the newcomers as they walked up to the painting that wasn’t a plain white canvas anymore.

 

‘Oh, this is stunning!’ enthused the ogre. ‘Look how her magical efforts to escape has lit up the background.’

 

Giselle looked at the painting, now a picture of Henbane captured by its spell. An expression of fury and fear filled her face, her black cloak billowing about her, whilst the background was a mixture of livid green, dark shadows and streaks of fire and lightning.

 

‘She’s really gone… she can’t come back?’ she asked nervously.

 

‘No… she’s stuck in there for good,’ replied the ogre. ‘I’m Frost-Eye, Curator of the Kingdoms National Gallery and President of the Kingdoms Arts Council. You’re obviously the poor lass the witch was after. I’m very pleased to meet you.’

 

Giselle smiled.

 

‘Pleased to meet you too,’ she said. ‘Wherever did you find the canvas? When Nemon described it, it sounded just amazing.’

 

‘Oh, that’s a story I’ll tell you over the late supper I have prepared for all us,’ Frost-Eye replied.

 

‘But shouldn’t we be captured too since we’re looking at it?’ Giselle asked.

 

‘Oh, that was certainly the case when the spell was first woven into it,’ Frost-Eye replied. ‘But I had the wizard who made the spell change it so it would only capture a single subject and no other.’

 

‘And she’s still alive in the picture… she can see and hear us?’ Giselle asked.

 

‘Oh, yes,’ Nem-Nemon replied smugly.

 

Giselle looked at the picture and poked her tongue out at it.

 

A sudden commotion was heard behind them and they all turned to see Crimson Bone, Stone-Fist and Iron-Ear rush into the room. They ran over to them and Stone-Fist lifted Giselle into the air, then hugged her in delight.

 

‘Glad to see you safe, princess!’ he exclaimed. ‘I thought we we’re finished when Henbane surprised us.’

 

‘So did I,’ Giselle said. ‘Lucky for me Crimson had that spell ready.’

 

‘It was the least I could do,’ the pirate replied with a wink at her.

 

‘Well, the Dwarven Society for the Rescue of Princess from Wicked Stepmothers will be extremely happy with this outcome,’ Iron-Ear said happily. ‘It will rank as one of the most unusual rescue’s it’s ever done.’

 

‘I can’t thank you all enough for what you’ve done,’ Giselle said solemnly.

 

Nem-Nemon, Crimson Bone, Stone-Fist and Iron-Ear just looked a little embarrassed at the sudden fuss, made more so when Giselle gave them each a kiss on a cheek… as well as Seb-Sebek and Frost-Eye.

 

‘But what about another witch coming after you?’ Giselle asked Nem-Nemon. ‘Wasn’t that what you were so worried about if you did something to Henbane?’

 

‘Yes, but we actually haven’t harmed her, have we?’ the wizard replied. ‘She’s still alive and Mother Poinsettia said Henbane would be getting just what she deserved for being so evil.’

 

‘Well, I could do with an ale!’ Stone-Fist said. ‘All this has made me thirsty.’

 

‘I think I can arrange that,’ Frost-Eye replied. ‘Supper is waiting on the ground floor, so I suggest we all head down there.’

 

Then he suddenly took Giselle by an arm.

 

‘Now, princess! Before you leave, you must allow me to capture those wonderful lilac eyes of yours…’

 

Giselle gave an unnerved start.

 

‘… I know this excellent artist!’