The Opal Quest Read Online Free Page B

was stuck in a room with windows Loki couldn’t fly through; how was she going to get a message to Finn?
    She shivered. It was growing dark and the room was so cold! She hurried to the fireplace and found a box with moss and flints inside. She pushed the moss among the sticks and fire-rock in the hearthand struck the flints together, but the moss was slightly damp and the sparks wouldn’t catch.
    â€˜I wish I
was
a hedge witch!’ Tia grumbled, snapping her fingers as Halla had done to ignite the sticks under her cauldrons of water.
    Whoosh! Fire ate up moss and sticks, turned the black fire-rock to glowing red, and roared up the chimney, scattering handfuls of sparks like little red sprites.
    Tia fell back in shock. No hedge witch could have conjured up fire like this. Tears stung her eyes. The dragonets had been right after all: she was a witch-brat.
    She sat for a long time, turning over and over in her mind what to do. Eventually she decided to keep her new-found ability a secret: she wouldn’t even tell Finn, and definitely not Loki. No-one was going to compare her to her evil aunts, the High Witches of Tulay.
    The fire had begun to die down. Cautiously Tia added more fire-rock and blew gently to fan the flames. To her relief they flickered and danced quite normally. She’d just have to be very careful not to let this unexpected magic ability show.
    She yawned and stumbled into bed and instantly fell asleep
    Katinka woke her the next morning. ‘I see you found the flints,’ she said nodding towards the embers in the hearth. She put Tia’s freshly laundered Trader clothes on the chest. On top of the clothes was a small tray with a mean breakfast. ‘Hurry up and get ready. The High Witch wants her story.’
    Tia looked gloomily at the bread and cheese on the tray; it wasn’t going to take her very long to eat that!

    Yordis was in her own form, sitting in bed, lolling against heaped-up pillows with a large plate of food on her lap. Tia could see the High Witch was very like her sister, Malindra, but much broader and not so beautiful. She wasn’t wearing the opal.
    â€˜Sit on the bed, Trader girl, and tell me the story of Prince Kaspar and the Great Bear,’ Yordis said.
    Tia obediently climbed onto the enormous bed and sat cross-legged. Katinka curtseyed. ‘Is there anything more, Lady Yordis?’
    â€˜Who asked you to speak?’ Yordis threw a chicken leg at the girl, who scurried out, glaring at Tia.
    It’s not my fault if Yordis likes stories
, Tia thought.

    â€˜Now, girl, begin – and make it a good tale,’ Yordis ordered.
    Tia told her made-up story. She acted out the voices and made big gestures as she described Prince Kaspar’s fights. The further she got into the story the more she liked it; she added details as she went along and time flew by.
    Suddenly Yordis screeched, ‘Vermin!’ She reared up and flung her plate at a little mouse scampering by the wall. Tia nearly fell off the bed with shock as the plate smashed into pieces and the mouse disappeared through a crack in the wall. Yordis, pale and trembling, sank back into her pillows.
    â€˜Mice!’ she shuddered. ‘I hate them!’
    Tia bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. Yordis, the mighty High Witch of Kulafoss who stalked her lands as a great and fearsome bear, was afraid of a tiny little mouse!
    â€˜I’ve heard enough for now!’ Yordis said. ‘We will continue the story tomorrow. Go to your room – and stay there.’
    Tia did as she was told. She sat on her bed and wrote down more ideas for her story of Prince Kaspar. After a while she heard snuffling outside her room; Yordis was a bear again and checking on Tia.
She can’t have gone far to change back so quickly
, Tia thought.
Perhaps the opal’s in her chambers somewhere
. The snuffling stopped and she heard the heavy flump, flump, flump as the bear stamped away