Moonlight Mischief (Witch-in-Training, Book 7) Read online

  At that, there was a huge explosion of Chinese crackers. Hundreds of them went off, one after the other until the whole garden was cloaked in a dense cloud of smoke. The moon turned even bluer.

  Then out from behind the smoke there came a flight of witches, twirling and swooping and spinning over Dame Walpurga’s Memorial Garden.

  “Broom Riders and Witches, I give you The Moonlight Games Champions!” announced a voice over the loudspeaker.

  The crowd went wild. They whooped and cheered. They stood up on their seats and held their mascots aloft. Some covens waved flags, others blew trumpets and let off firecrackers. One witch, draped in an orange sash, solemnly beat the cauldron that she wore slung around her neck like an enormous drum.

  Jessica felt her heart pounding as the Moonlight Champions Zoomed over her head, trailing clouds of smoke.

  “This is the best thing I have ever seen in my whole life!” she said, turning to Miss Strega and whispering softly.

  “Huh! First timer!” said a voice above her.

  Chapter Four

  Jessica looked up.

  Medea, the Champion Witch-in-Training, was hovering above her head.

  “Hi,” Jessica smiled. “My name is Jessica. I’m a witch-in-training too.”

  “I didn’t think you were a mascot,” said Medea. “Anyway, what are you doing here?”

  Jessica’s nose twitched angrily. “I’m here to watch the Games, like everybody else.”

  “Just to watch? You’re too scared to compete, are you? Too much of a mouse?” She tapped her wand on Jessica’s shoulder and laughed.

  Jessica could feel her neck and ears tingle where she had dabbed Miss Strega’s Protection Cream.

  Medea suddenly frowned. “You are not turning into a mouse!”

  “Charming as always, Medea!” said Miss Strega. “Of course Jessica is not turning into a mouse. She wouldn’t fall for a cheap old spell like that. And of course she is here to compete. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knocked you off your Moonlight Games Champion Witch-in-Training pedestal.”

  Medea’s eyes flashed. “I don’t think so!” she sneered, then cackled right in Jessica’s face, before spinning off.

  Jessica was gobsmacked.

  “What did you say that for, about my knocking her off her pedestal?”

  Miss Strega smiled sweetly. “Because, my enchanting little lamb’s lettuce, I would expect nothing less of you.”

  “I don’t even know what competitions there are for witches-in-training. It might be some kind of witchy subject I haven’t even done yet.”

  “Why don’t you pop along to the information desk and find out. I’ll keep your seat.”

  Blooming Miss Strega, Jessica thought as she made her way back to the main building. It’s bad enough having to take part in these Games without having Medea out to get me.

  There was no one at reception but there was a notice taped to the counter.

  * * *

  Competitors for the Witch-in-Training Championship Hurdles may be asked to demonstrate their skills in any or all of the following: spelling, brewing, flying, charming and switching.

  * * *

  Well, at least I have tried all of those, thought Jessica, relieved. A little bit anyway.

  * * *

  The qualifying heat will take place in the library directly after the Witch Muster and the Opening of the Games. Previous winners qualify automatically.

  * * *

  “Blithering batwings!” Jessica whizzed over to the staircase. “I hope I’m in time.”

  There was a mean-looking library assistant at the door, handing out badges to competitors. “Fill in this name tag!” she barked. “And wait over there with the others!”

  Jessica slipped in between two other witches-in-training on a long wooden bench. One had a long ponytail down to her waist. The other was so spiky she must have had a whole pot of gel in her hair. Ariadne and Florinda, the speedy spellers! The witches-in-training who had caused all the trouble on the roof!

  “Hi,” said Jessica, “I thought Shar Pintake had turned you to stone?”

  “Yes,” said Ariadne, with a toss of her ponytail, “but she came back and took the spell off us just before the Witch Muster. I was petrified! I thought I was going to miss the Games.”

  “Me too,” said Florinda. “And it wasn’t fair because I didn’t start the fight.”

  “Oh yes, you did!” Ariadne retorted.

  Florinda gave her a hard stare. “I did NOT.”

  “You’re just a—”

  “Oh, stop it!” said Jessica crossly.

  She stroked her ears where she had put Miss Strega’s Protection Cream. All she needed was for Florinda and Ariadne to fly off the handle and Shar Pintake would be sure to change them all into stone statues.

  No one spoke for ages. The library clock ticked loudly.

  “Have either of you met Medea?” Jessica asked, to break the silence. “She’s the Champion Witch-in-Training – she tried to turn me into a mouse but—”

  Out of the blue, Ariadne stood up and stamped her feet.

  “Why are we waiting? Why doesn’t somebody come and tell us what we have to DO?”

  “Why don’t you just wait your turn, for once?” Florinda sighed loudly.

  I don’t believe it! thought Jessica. I haven’t met another witch-in-training until today and then all three of them turn out to be nightmares. That Medea is so stuck up she thinks she’s the cat’s pyjamas, Florinda has a rotten temper and Ariadne is SO impatient. I shall have to be on full alert and not fall for any of their sneaky tricks.

  She carefully began to check that she had all her lucky charms and pins.

  “Right, girls,” said the library assistant, frostily. “It looks like nobody else is going to turn up so we might as well get on with it. The first thing I want you to do is a Witch Switch (NO live animals please). Imagine you are on a spying mission in a restaurant – what would be a good disguise? On your marks, go!”

  Jessica instantly turned into a table lamp and switched herself on.

  Chapter Five

  “Well done!”

  Miss Strega was thrilled when Jessica came back and told her she had passed the qualifying heat to enter the Witch-in-Training Championship Hurdles.

  “There are only four of us,” Jessica explained, “Ariadne and Florinda, who don’t stop bickering, that dreadful Medea, who tried to turn me into a mouse, and me.”

  As she was speaking, the spectators burst into loud applause as the first witch in the Moon-Vaulting competition landed in the garden and flew over the finishing line.

  “What exactly do you have to do?” Miss Strega shouted over the noise.

  “It’s a sort of race around the garden but with a lot of tasks along the way. First we have to fly backwards as fast as we can to a line of spell boxes, find the key to open the right box, read the spell that is inside, then rush to a cauldron, make up the correct brew and cast the spell. It’s got something to do with rabbits.”

  “Sounds like lots of things could go wrong.” Miss Strega looked at her watch. “Perhaps I should make you a batch of Confusing Powder. It’s marvellous stuff. You scatter it on the other girls’ shoes and it really gets them into a muddle. They’ll trip over themselves, fall off their brooms and generally forget where they’re supposed to be going. Of course, you must be careful not to accidentally get any on yourself.”

  Jessica drew herself up to her full height. “Miss Strega, if you don’t mind, I’m going to do this on my own.”

  “Would you not dab on some of my Protection Cream, at least? That little bit you put on earlier will have worn off by now.”

  “I’ve decided to play fair and square,” said Jessica firmly.

  Miss Strega stroked her very long chin. “Whatever you think best, gum drop,” she replied.

  “Witches and Crones!” the voice on the loudspeaker announced. “I am delighted to announce the commencement of the Moonlight Games Witch-in-Training Cha
mpionship Hurdles. I’m sure we are in for a big treat. Will all the competitors please make their way to the starting line?”

  Jessica Zoomed off.

  *

  The four witches-in-training lined up in their appointed lanes.

  Race officials gave each of them special race helmets and racing numbers, which they wore over their capes, whilst Shar Pintake gravely inspected their brooms for any unapproved attachments.

  Jessica was feeling really nervous as she fumbled with her helmet strap. She silently chanted, “I can do it, I can do it, I can really do it!.”

  “. . .And they’re under starters’ orders,” said the voice on the loudspeaker. “And they’re OFF. It’s Ariadne taking the lead on the straight as she approaches the first hurdle, with Florinda and Medea neck-and-neck behind her. Jessica in the fourth lane seems to be struggling at the rear with broom problems.”

  Indeed, Jessica was finding flying backwards tough going. It was crazy. She was zigzagging all over the place as if her broom were being pulled sideways by a swarm of invisible goblins.

  “Moonrays and marrowbones!” she shouted, tugging at the Fast Reverse twig. “Why will you not fly straight?”

  The broom paid no attention.

  “And now, as they come up to the Spell Box Hurdle, Medea seems to be gaining on Florinda and, yes, now she is overtaking Ariadne too. What a champion this girl is. I’m sure you can all remember her star performance in the last Games. She is way out in front now, reversing at a gallop towards the spell boxes, with Florinda close behind, Ariadne now in third position and Jessica still far back in fourth place. But wait! It looks like plucky young Jessica has literally kicked her broom back into shape and is picking up speed. She’s got a lot of work to do to catch up with Medea, I fear, who has already opened the box and is racing towards her cauldron with Florinda and Ariadne in hot pursuit.

  “Oh no! More trouble for Jessica there. Dear, oh dear, oh dear. Jessica seems to have disappeared into a patch of fog. It’s a real peasouper. I’m afraid I can’t see her at all any longer.”

  Jessica could not believe what bad luck she was having, first with the wonky broom and then this thick blanket of fog appearing from nowhere and swallowing her up. She couldn’t even see her twig controls. She blindly kept going backwards until she heard a loud thump and realised she had just crashed into the table and knocked the spell box to the ground. She scrabbled around on the muddy grass, groping for the box and then fiddling with the key as she tried to find the keyhole. “Come on, come on!”

  Finally, she managed to undo the lock, grabbed the spell paper – no time to read it – and sped off in the direction, she hoped, of her cauldron. She emerged from the peasouper just in time to see Medea triumphantly punching the air and a long-eared rabbit loping off into the stands.

  The crowd were on their feet, yelling, “Medea! Medea!”

  Moments later, Florinda took second place.

  Jessica’s cheeks were blazing as she stirred and stirred and crissed and crossed her brew.

  “And Ariadne has just drawn her rabbit out of her hat, so that puts her in third place,” said the loudspeaker.

  “Hu-eet,” encouraged Berkeley, wiping Jessica’s brow with her wing feather.

  “Everyone will have flown home by the time I have finished this,” Jessica fretted. “Miss Strega must be having kittens.”

  But in the end, the brew came right. Jessica intoned the spell. A peeved-looking rabbit hopped out of her hat, gave her a scornful look, as if it were saying “About time!” and scampered off.

  Well, thought Jessica, so much for knocking Medea off her pedestal!

  “Better late than never, I suppose,” Medea shouted over her shoulder. “Did you lose your way? Forget how to steer a broom?”

  Jessica’s eyes narrowed.

  “Medea!” she hissed. “You may think you’re a star with all your swanky clothes and everybody saying you’re the best – but I don’t.” And she stormed off.

  A few minutes later, she was sitting, still fuming, drinking a cup of Calm Down Brew with Miss Strega.

  “There, there,” murmured Miss Strega, soothingly, “you can’t win 'em all.”

  “All?!” Jessica spluttered. “I came last!”

  “Well, I think you did very well – under the circumstances . . .”

  “What do you mean?” said Jessica.

  Miss Strega topped up both their cups before answering. “It just crossed my mind that that fog was a bit unnatural.”

  Jessica stared at Miss Strega, her mouth open wide. “You mean . . .”

  Just then, the announcer’s voice interrupted the Hags’ Derby: “President Shar Pintake has announced an enquiry into the result of the Witch-in-Training Championship Hurdles. All contestants are requested to come immediately to the President’s Chair.”

  Chapter Six

  By the time Jessica had pushed her way back through the crowds into the garden, Shar Pintake had ascended the stage beside Walpurga’s Well and was seated in a vast throne-like chair, sucking her teeth and looking as if she could happily bite someone’s head off.

  “Up here, Jessica!” she commanded grimly.

  Jessica was so nervous she could hear her knees knocking. She awkwardly flew up on to the stage and shot a glance at her fellow witches-in-training. Medea was looking a little less sparkly; Ariadne was impatiently tapping her foot on the floor; Florinda was looking bored.

  Every witch in the audience was all ears as President Shar Pintake began to speak.

  “My fellow witches,” she said, “I regret to tell you that eyebrows have been raised about the conduct of the Witch-in-Training Championship Hurdles. We are therefore holding a stewards’ enquiry – this will take the form of the Sincerity Seed Test. It is clear that someone has been up to mischief!”

  She sharply drew in her breath, took off her half-moon glasses and looked so witheringly at the four witches-in-training that they all shrank back in horror.

  “Come forward one by one and take one of these.” Shar Pintake held out a silver saucer on which lay four transparent red pomegranate seeds. “If anyone has been cheating, and I say “if” – this is an inquiry, not a public ducking – then the cheat will turn as scarlet as the skin of the pomegranate. Come on, girls, we haven’t got all night.”

  One by one the witches-in-training chose a seed and bit it. It was as crisp as a water ice. They waited. Jessica, though she had nothing to be guilty about, felt as if she were being roasted alive.

  Suddenly, the crowd gasped.

  Jessica gasped.

  Medea, the Champion Witch-in-Training, was turning bright bright red!

  “It is just as I feared,” said Shar Pintake. “Medea, I accuse you of bamboozling, of unprofessional sorcery, to wit, putting a spell on a competitor’s broom and creating weather hazards in breach of the Witches World Wide Rule Book (Moonlight Games Section). You are a disgrace to the good name of Witches World Wide. Pack up your belongings and then come and see me before the end of the Games at Walpurga’s Well. The rest of you are free to enjoy the remainder of the Games until I decide what to do about this unfortunate incident. Do keep out of trouble until then.”

  Jessica was over the moon with happiness. She could hardly wait to get off the stage and find Miss Strega.

  On the other hand, Medea now looked as if she had eaten a lemon. She glared at Shar Pintake as she flounced off the stage and hissed under her breath.

  “Nobody treats me like this and gets away with it. I am a star!”

  *

  The Moonlight Games went on all night long. The Walpurga Wailers won the Chanting Competition as expected; there was a surprise result in the Poisonous Potion Event when several competitors had to withdraw with tummy upsets and a complete outsider took first place, and Heckitty Darling won the Switching Contest for the third Games in a row.

  The final event was one of the highlights of the Moonlight Games. Teams of Fighting Gasps raced each other across the night sky
on double-handled brooms rather like catamarans, dodging planets, slaloming around constellations and smashing into asteroids. All eyes were looking skyward when a flash of something red on Jessica’s left distracted her. She turned around to see Medea hovering on her broomstick beside the hawthorn tree. She was behaving very oddly, looking over her shoulder as if to check no one was watching her. Her lips moved as if she was speaking or maybe singing to herself. Jessica tiptoed closer.

  Medea appeared to be clutching something in one hand and looking up at the crown of the tree which was festooned more than ever with offerings.

  She raised her arms as if she were going to tie something to one of the branches, then turned around, leant over the wall of Walpurga’s well, and spoke again. Then she quickly brought her broomstick around and Zoomed out of the garden.

  Jessica nudged Miss Strega. “I have just seen Medea hanging something on the hawthorn tree. She’s just as superstitious as all the silly old witches who leave offerings for Walpurga. As if Walpurga can save her from the wrath of Shar Pintake!”

  As the last team of Fighting Gasps returned to Coven Garden, the blue moon had begun to sink. Fingers of pink light flickered on the horizon. It would soon be dawn. It was time for the prize-giving ceremony and the Farewell Muster.

  Jessica stood in front of the grandstand with Florinda and Ariadne. If Shar Pintake disqualified Medea then it might just mean that Jessica could have third place and receive the Bronze Cat.

  “Would President Pintake please make her way to the Grandstand?” the loudspeaker announced.

  Two minutes later, the announcer appealed again. “Would President Pintake please contact one of the Games Stewards?”