Read Online The Lost Witch by David Tysdale - Free Book Online

clawlike fingers gripped her arms, stopping her cold.
    "Miss Sylphwood, I do not believe that now is the most opportune time to learn the
proper mechanics of broom flight."
    "Philamount! There's a werewolf--"
    The door exploded in slivers and snarls.
    "Quickly," Philamount ordered, dragging Carole to the now open escape route.
"Out!"
    "But we'll fall!"
    "Focus on home. Concentrate on a familiar image and jump."
----

- 9 -
    Carole screwed her eyes shut, but instead of hitting the ground she was jerked
backwards with a neck-snapping velocity. Twisting, she saw Melodious Philamount wrapped in
a shimmering rainbow vortex, struggling to hang onto her shoulders, but he lost his grip and spun
off into a black, starless void. An instant later her rucksack flashed through her mind. She
latched onto it, and found herself sprawled, chilled and shivering, beside the pack on a carpet of
warm grass.
    Squinting into the bright light, she discovered herself back atop the hill overlooking
Piedmont Elementary. Philamount wasn't with her, but then again, neither was the
werewolf.
    Five minutes later, when she had stopped shivering, he appeared amidst a splash of
color.
    "Oh, here you are," he said with annoyance. "When I said to pick an image of home,
obviously I meant The Hub, not this place."
    Carole bristled. "Kind of hard to do when I don't even know what The Hub looks like.
Besides, its not like you gave me much warning."
    "Miss Sylphwood, it is your response to a warning--any warning--that matters."
Philamount sniffed, dismissing her irritation with a wave of his hand. "What is also significant is
that your unexpected adventure has provided us with some extremely valuable information."
    "What sort of information?"
    "For one, we discovered that it was quite easy for me to trigger your latent
transdimensional jumping abilities."
    "You chucked me off the second floor of witch hall."
    "True, but given we had little choice, it seemed the proper thing to do."
    "I suppose it did work," she admitted. "Did we learn anything else?"
    "We learned that I could not maintain my hold on you once we crossed into the void.
Thus, I am now certain that you cannot return to The Hub with me through my own tunnel."
    "Was that the rainbow colored tube you were inside?"
    "Rainbow colored? You actually saw the tunnel?"
    "It looked like a long, skinny tornado."
    "How extraordinary! But of course, it all fits..."
    "Wait a minute, what about the witches?"
    "The witches?"
    "They might still need our help!"
    "Whatever for?"
    "The werewolf!"
    "Oh, they're perfectly fine."
    "How can you be so sure?"
    "Miss Sylphwood, exactly where do you think I've been these past few minutes? When I
saw that you hadn't accompanied me to The Hub, naturally I returned to the Nightshade Realm,
just in case."
    "In case? In case what?"
    "There was always the slightest possibility, though I was reasonably certain your natural
abilities would activate, that you, um...might have splatted." Philamount quickly added, "My
dear Miss Sylphwood, as I've said before, these are confusing and dangerous times, but under the
circumstances you performed brilliantly."
    "So what did happen after we left?" Carole said.
    "Apparently as you and I leapt from the building, a couple dozen cats, led by a rather
lionish looking feline, leapt onto the werewolf. I'm afraid that after the cats were finished with it,
there wasn't much left of the poor creature."
    "Eewww! And Mariat?"
    "Mariat?"
    "My witchling friend. She tried to protect me from the wolf."
    "Ah, that would be the child wearing a sack of ice on her head. It seems that in all the
commotion she somehow collided with the floor. Knocked senseless for a time."
    "Was she badly hurt?"
    "Not at all. A tough breed those witches. Takes a lot more than a knocked noggin to
keep one of them down for long. In fact she wanted you to have this." Melodious removed a
small package from his pocket and handed it to Carole.
    "What is it?"
    "Judging by the smell, I'd