face away and was staring at the wall.
“Bring them to me,” said Aunty. “The dark-haired one is very bony and will be good for naught, but look at the fair one. Bring it so I can see. Aunty will feel its arm and tell you exactly how to cook it, what kind of sauce to use, and what kind of night vegetables to serve it with.”
“What of the king?” asked Hafwen.
“Pah! The king—what of him? He has just had a wedding feast. Aunty will send him the skinny one and keep the fat one!” shouted Aunty.
Annabel had never been called fat! No one had ever told her how she was to be cooked! She wanted to speak, and she was beginning to speak when Erta interrupted.
“This one does magic,” said Erta, and she prodded Kitty with her fat, dirty finger.
“Oh, does she?” said Aunty. “Even better! The king will give us a reward for her. Do some now, humanling child.”
“I can’t when I am tied up,” said Kitty.
Aunty laughed and her belly heaved.
“Aunty is not stupid,” said Aunty. “Untie you and you will magic us to death.”
“And this one lay with these two pieces of wood,” said Marta.
“They’re my broomstick and my magic wand,” said Annabel. Then, hopefully, “I can do magic, too.” She didn’t want to be cooked in a pot with night vegetables.
Marta clipped Annabel on the head for speaking.
“Ouch!” shouted Annabel. “I beg you, please stop.”
Erta and Marta raised their eyebrows.
“Please,” repeated Annabel. She felt very cross. “We must pass through the Kingdom of Trolls and we must continue on our journey. We must find the Morever Wand. I am the Valiant Defender of Good Magic and the youngest and most able of the Great & Benevolent Magical Society, and the whole of London depends upon me.”
Erta and Marta laughed so hard that they both broke wind.
They pushed Annabel close to Aunty, who pinched her arm.
“Delicious,” said Aunty. “But look—she has lines all over her. Will that ruin the taste? Tell Aunty again where you have come from with a broomstick and a magic wand and what is the purpose of your journey.”
“I come from London,” said Annabel, and she would have pointed above her head if she had had a free arm. “Have you heard of it? And the world is in danger, you see, because there is a gentleman by the name of Mr. Angel and he has built a machine that will produce dark magic, and already he is raising shadowlings. They are terrible things. I don’t think you’d like to see one. And when the moon rises tonight, he will raise an entire army of them and everything will be in darkness and he will turn everything to dust. At least I think it is tonight in London Above.”
Oh, it all sounded wrong. Kitty did nothing to help her. Kitty would be glad she was not for the pot but to be taken to the king. Just the thought of that made Annabel feel even angrier. She made a small angry noise.
“So, yes, the world, all the world, will be in darkness. And I am the Valiant Defender of Good Magic, and I must find the White Wand and take it back to the Great & Benevolent Magical Society so they can defeat Mr. Angel. I beg you to let us pass!” she cried, exasperated.
“Yes,” said Aunty, scratching her large belly and then her large hairy chin. “Of course.”
Annabel breathed out a sigh.
“Only, we are quite fond of darkness, us troll-kind,” Aunty continued. “And this gently-man wants more of it, you say. And you on your way to save the world, and this scrawny one here, being magical.”
“I am a little magical, too,” said Annabel eagerly.
It sounded as if she were making it up.
“Yes, both magical now,” said Aunty. “Let Aunty think….The skinny one was seen to do magic. The golden-haired one with the two sticks says she has magic and she is the valiant defender of the magic, here to save the wide world, upstairs and downstairs….Let Aunty think.”
Erta and Marta leaned toward her, waiting for the decision. Aunty chewed on her bottom lip like an enormous cow. Hafwen stared at the wall, unmoving.
“No,” said Aunty at last. “We will eat them both. With a black sauce. The skinny one will add flavor with her magical bones.”
She began to laugh then, and she laughed so hard that bits of clod fell from the walls of the little round room.
“Keep them tied while