The Further Adventures Of Gobbolino And The Little Wooden Horse

19 THE LAST SPELL

The WITCH uttered one shriek of joy.

Sootica uttered another.

The next moment they were in each other’s arms, and purrs, duckings and endearments mingled so thickly together that it was difficult to distinguish witch from cat or cat from witch.

"Is it really you, my little cat?" cried the witch, when the first excitement of their meeting had died down.

"Yes it’s really me! Me! ME!" shrieked Sootica. "And is it really you, my dear mistress? So thin! So old and pale! Hardly a witch any longer!"

"I don’t want to be a witch any more!" said the old witch, wildly swinging Sootica round by the tail, which she did not seem to mind at all. "All I want is a little company, a little love and affection, and a nice warm cavern to live in for ever and ever! I don’t like the outside world at all!"

"Why, you sound just like my brother Gobbolino!" said Sootica, still licking the witch’s chin, when she could get a perch on her shoulder. "And the strange thing is that all I want is just exactly the same thing! I had a dreadful time out in the wide world, trying to find a comfortable home to live in! Nobody wanted a witch’s cat like me! The more I promised to be good the less they trusted me. I’ve been turned out of doors with a boot behind me, or a broom, or a bucket of water! You have no idea how cruel people are out there in the places where people live and work and call themselves human beings. Mind you, nobody got away with treating me like that! The person who kicked me found the sole of his boot dropped off when he next set out from home! And all the bristles fell out of the broom! It was almost new, too! As for the pail of water, there is such a hole in the bottom now it will never hold water again! Serve them all right!"

Gobbolino stared at his sister with his beautiful blue eyes. It did not sound as if Sootica had altered her character very much since she went away.

She noticed him at last.

"So you are still here, brother, are you?" she said, fixing him with an impudent stare. "And your wooden friend with you! Are you sorry I have come back? Have you enjoyed being a witch’s cat after all?"

The witch seized her by the scruff of her neck and shook her soundly.

"You wicked little wretch!" she cried indignantly. "Don’t you know I nearly died of grief when I found you had deserted me? If it hadn’t been for your good little brother and his friend I would have been dead by now! They looked after me! They cared for me! They nursed me back to life! Get into your corner, miss, and count your blessings, for you may well find yourself shrivelled into a hazelnut in return for your heartless behaviour. I don’t need your companionship now! These good friends have come to live with me for ever, and I shall reward them as they deserve. Tell me, Gobbolino, my good cat, and tell me, my little horse, now that I have my Sootica back to help me read my book of spells, I can grant you any wish you may utter. What would you like me to do for you?"

Both Gobbolino and the little wooden horse announced in the same breath:

"Please, ma’am! We would like to go home!"

The witch’s face fell, but Sootica cackled with laughter, and immediately dashed for the book of spells and began to turn the pages.

"Let them go! Let them go!" she babbled. "Who wants to keep them?"

"Only, when we were crossing the plain, the hounds chased us!" said the little wooden horse.

"They chased me too," boasted Sootica, "but I was too quick for them!"

"The bats might carry us back again!" Gobbolino said hopefully.

"Or my mistress might carry you on her broomstick!" said Sootica.

But the witch closed her lips angrily and shook her head.

"Two would be too heavy, and my stick won’t fly these days!" she muttered. "They put a kind of spell on it and it has never been the same since. Besides.. she began to sob, "if these two go home and leave me, how am I to know that you will stay with me and not desert me for a second time? What is to prevent you from flying off again one morning and never coming back?"

"Oh no I shan’t!" said Sootica decidedly "I shall stay here for ever and be just a common cat for the rest of my days."

"Do you promise that?" asked the little wooden horse.

"I promise," said Sootica.

"No more making of wicked spells?"

"No more… not ever."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Cross your heart?" said the little wooden horse. "No, cross my ear! The old priest blessed it, so you must swear on my wooden ear that you will never be a witch’s cat again."

"I promise! Oh, I promise!" agreed Sootica. "And my mistress must promise never again to be a witch."

"I promise too!" said the witch.

"Will you swear it on my wooden ear?" said the little wooden horse.

"Oh I will, I will!"

The little wooden horse took off his charred wooden ear.

"But how are we going to get home?" asked Gobbolino. "Supposing the bats won’t take us?"

"Wait!" said the witch. "Before we swear these very important things on the wooden ear, let me make just one more spell. Just one little one!"

Gobbolino and the little wooden horse jumped to their feet in a fright. They did not trust the witch’s spells at all. She was whispering now to Sootica, but they could not hear a word that she said.

Sootica smiled and nodded her head. She began feverishly to turn over the pages of the book of spells with her paw.

"No thank you," Gobbolino said, edging towards the door of the cavern. "I think we will start on our journey now! We wish you well, ma’am, and you too, sister Sootica, but it is time that we went on our own way."

Secretly, he felt more ready to face the dangers of the long journey than to risk another moment or another spell in the cavern of the witch.

But both Sootica and her mistress were searching the pages with excited smiles on their faces, and uttering little cries of delight when they seemed close to finding what they wanted.

"Here it is! No herd Not quite! Two pages further on!"

It could only be a trick to keep them longer in the cave. The little wooden horse stooped down to pick up his ear, and trotted after Gobbolino to the entrance.

"Wait! Wait!" cried the witch. "Don’t be afraid! We aren’t going to harm you! We only mean to wish you well! Quickly, Sootica! Get the cauldron ready! Put in this!… and this!… and that! Don’t lose a moment!"

At these words the little wooden horse and Gobbolino fairly bolted out of the door. The little wooden horse dropped his ear in the entrance but dared not stop to pick it up. "Uncle Peder will make me another one if I ever get safely back to him again!" he panted.

They hurtled down the path which zig-zagged down the crags in a precipitous fashion. It was so steep, in fact, that when the witch and Sootica appeared from the cave, they were actually directly over their heads, high above them.

"Stop! Wait!" the witch shrieked, hurling something from a wooden ladle that fell like rain down the rocks, in a thousand rainbow-coloured drops.

As he galloped along the little wooden horse received a full dollop on his back, and all at once a most extraordinary sensation filled his body.

He found himself lifting his feet and his wheels from the path. The stones no longer bruised his feet. His wheels, that were wearing out, shed no splinters. He was beginning to fly!

"Gobbolino! Jump on my back! Quickly! Quickly!" he called to the cat scampering on ahead.

Gobbolino stopped, turned round, and leapt in one great bound on to his back.

As he did so the little wooden horse soared into the air.. higher, higher, and still higher..

Now they were on a level with the witch and Sootica who laughed and waved their hands to them from the door of the cavern. The goats, grazing on the rocks, raised their heads and bleated in admiration.

"Goodbye! Goodbye!" called Sootica and the witch, as the wooden horse veered away towards the south.

"We promise!" they shouted after the flying pair. "We promise! Goodbye! Goodbye!"

"My ear is there to make sure they keep their promise!" the little wooden horse said, flying steadily southwards. "If they try to throw it away it will burn their fingers far, far worse than the flames in the magic circle."

"How do you know?" asked Gobbolino.

"I just do!" said the little wooden horse solemnly.

They flew high over the church, where the bells were ringing for service. They would have liked to go down and say a last goodbye to the old priest and his housekeeper, but they did not know how long the spell would last, and if it came to an end in the middle of the plain they would be worse off than before.

"Goodbye!" called Sootica and the witch.

So they flew over the steeple, and on across the stream, and now the forest was a dark shadow on the horizon, while down below the pack of hounds were quartering the plain, just as they had done the day before.

Safe as they were at such a height, neither of them could repress a shudder as the dreadful music came to their ears, but soon it was lost far behind them.

"Are you tired?" Gobbolino asked the little wooden horse, as he thought he felt him falter.

"Not exactly," said the little wooden horse, "but I think the spell may be coming to an end, because I can’t fly quite as high as I did at first."

"Well, never mind," said Gobbolino comfortingly, "because we are very nearly at the forest!"

It was quite true. The trees, that for a long time had been only a far shadow, were now just a short distance below them, and as the flying powers of the little wooden horse slowly faded, they floated lower and lower towards the upraised branches, coming gently to earth at the foot of a pine tree, and landing on a bed of pine needles that felt as soft as feathers after the rigours of the mountain.

Gobbolino jumped to the ground.

"Do you think you will be able to fly again?" he asked the little wooden horse.

"No, never! Never, never!" said the little wooden horse, and he sounded perfectly satisfied.

It had been a lovely flight. Twice in his life he had soared in the sky, and seen the earth like a carpet spread out below him, but his wooden wheels were not made for sweeping the stars, and he was glad to be down on the earth again.

They decided to spend the night just where they were, and after a little searching they discovered a tree with branches that gave them protection like a kind of tent.

They were just settling down to sleep until the morning when a movement in the branches above them caught their attention.

Not ten feet above their heads sat the owl!