Free The Song of the Quarkbeast: Last Dragonslayer: Book Two by Jasper Fforde

Indeed, I am told the skills are interchangeable, and the myth about wands may originally have begun with a conductor’s baton.
    And then, just as Tiger and I were getting bored and thinking of other things to do, our ears popped as something happened.
    ‘Okay,’ she said, giving a rare smile, ‘I’ll just reset the passthought and we’re done.’
    She made a few more flourishes with her hands to an illusory woodwind section, and the rent closed.
    ‘There,’ she said triumphantly. ‘I’m surprised it was so easy. The coils will be full by this time tomorrow and we can run a test spell with them by Friday morning. Prawns, go and fetch Moobin so I can share the passthought.’
    Tiger hurried out and I congratulated her on the work.
    ‘I could have done it in my sleep ten years ago,’ she replied, ‘but I thank you for your praise. Why are you staring at me?’
    ‘You’re going grey,’ I said.
    ‘I’ve been grey for years,’ she said, ‘and I’ve warned you against impertinence.’
    ‘No, no,’ I replied, ‘ everything on you is going grey.’
    And so she was. Her black crinoline dress was now a charcoal colour, and lightening by the second. Lady Mawgon frowned, looked at her hands and then stared up at me with a wan smile.
    ‘Blast,’ she said in a resigned tone, and a few moments later she had turned entirely to stone.
    ‘ Damn ,’ I said.
     
----
     
    1 A thousand MegaShandars is equal to one GigaShandar, and a thousand GigaShandars is one TeraShandar; 28.2 TeraShandars is the estimated total wizidrical power discharged throughout the history of magic – the equivalent of taking Hereford’s cathedral to the moon and back, and still having enough left over to take it around the earth ten times.
     
    2 Very like a password, but infinitely more complex. To share a passthought you really need to have witnessed the event or emotion the passthought was based on.
     

Turned to stone
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    I’d never seen anyone turned to stone before, and after the initial shock had worn off, I ventured closer. Every single pore of her skin, every wrinkle, every eyelash was perfectly rendered in the finest alabaster I had seen. It felt odd being in such close proximity to Lady Mawgon, even if she was now a four-hundred-pound block of stone, and although getting turned to stone was bad news, it might have been worse. The really serious cases of petrification involved dolorite, marble, or worse, granite.
    Moobin laughed as he walked in, closely followed by Tiger.
    ‘Goodness, the old girl will never live this down. Dibble the Extraordinary lived up to his name – a stoning incantation as a gatekeeper. Well, well, never would have thought of it.’
    ‘You can change her back?
    ‘Child’s play. Although to be honest, it is a lot quieter with her like this.’
    ‘If I draw a moustache on her,’ added Tiger, ‘will she still have it on her when she changes back?’
    ‘It’s not funny,’ I said, even though I, too, had mixed feelings. ‘I’d be happier to have her back in one piece as soon as possible.’
    ‘Very well,’ said Moobin, and after taking a deep breath, he drew himself into the ‘hard spelling’ posture, pointed both index fingers at her and let fly.
    Nothing happened.
    He stood up, relaxed, then tried again.
    Still nothing happened.
    ‘That’s odd,’ he said at last. ‘Did she change to stone quickly?’
    ‘About ten seconds.’
    ‘Oh dear. Wait here a moment.’
    And he ran out the door.
    ‘She still looks kind of frightening, doesn’t she?’ said Tiger.
    She did, even though her features were not trapped in the more usual Mawgon look of scowling displeasure. Rather she wore the resigned smile she had given when she had realised that the long-dead Dibble had outwitted her.
    ‘Still,’ said Tiger, ‘it proves what I always thought.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘That she does wear roller skates under her dress.’
    I looked down, and just peeking out from the soft white folds of