Free Frogspell by C. J. Busby

his waist and prepared to pull his riding boots on.
    A slight, dark-haired girl, wearing squire’s clothes, slipped into the room. She looked familiar and Merlin frowned at her, trying to remember.
    “Olivia Pendragon, sir,” she said, curtsying.
    “Ah, of course! I do beg your pardon. What can I do for you?”
    “Well, it’s about the carrot, sir,” said Olivia, then stopped, and looked confused.
    “Carrot?” said Merlin, gently.
    “Yes!” she said, shaking her head violently. “I need to tell you, the carrot is not a parsnip.” She took a deep breath and started again. “It’s really important! I’m sorry, but I think a custard tart got in my ear. It’s making it hard to bake cakes! Oh!!”
    She almost screamed in frustration and stamped her foot on the floor. “You must help. It’s urgent! The carrot is going to be steamed and the lettuce and beans have gone down to the kitchen and – oh, dungballs!!” She stopped, tears of rage and frustration in her eyes, as Merlin leaned down and took her hand.
    “It’s all right,” he said, soothingly. “Don’t try to speak. You’ve clearly been put under a gagging spell – I recognise the symptoms. Very frustrating, I know, it’s happened to me before.”
    He straightened up and looked thoughtful.
    “Now, the only reason I can think of for you coming to me, with a gagging spell turning everything you say into gobbledegook, is if you know something about the prince. Is that it?”
    Olivia tried hard to nod, but the spell was making her shake her head. The end result was a kind of dizzy corkscrew movement that almost made her fall over.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” said Merlin grimly. “Now, what are we going to do? I can take the spell off, but it’s a tricky one – sometimes takes hours If they haven’t completely gagged you, it may be that you can write?”
    Olivia nodded. Brilliant. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Eagerly she took the parchment Merlin gave her and started to scribble as fast as she could. After a few sentences, she glanced back over what she’d written and nearly cried.
    The cook needs to put more salt in the stew because the parsnips taste like old boots and the carrots are as mouldy as a pair of old…
    “Oh!!” shouted Olivia, and threw the quill she was holding at the wall. Just as its ink spattered onto the floor, there was a tremendous crash and a smalldragon hurtled in through the door, hit the wall and tumbled to the floor in front of them. Immediately he scrabbled to his feet with a wild flapping of wings.
    “Sir, sir!” panted Adolphus, and held out his claw with a crumpled piece of parchment tied to it. “Quick! You have to rescue Olivia! And Max! And the prince! Quickly!”
    “Adolphus!” shrieked Olivia, as she threw her arms round him, dislodging the large black rat clinging to his back.
    “Oh, that’s all right,” said Ferocious, grumpily picking himself back up. “Don’t mind me. I’ll be fine. Just about had my whiskers blown out by the wind as we flew here and all my fur’s sticking out the wrong way, but never mind. Knock me flying why don’t you, just to finish off the journey nicely.”
    “Ferocious, don’t be such a grump,” said Olivia, fondly, stroking his fur down the right way. She turned to Merlin, who had taken the parchment and was reading it.
    “This is Adolphus,” explained Olivia, glad that the spell didn’t seem to affect what she said, so long as it was not about the prince. “My dragon. And Ferocious – Max’s rat. They were with Max when he went” She stopped. “Oh, what’s the point? I’ll just end up telling you they went to the dung heap to pick some bluebells!”
    “The note says that you need rescuing from ‘Hogsbottom’s Room’. Is that where you were?” Olivia nodded. Merlin looked thoughtful. “And the dragon has just come from Max and the prince?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Then I think we had better get there as soon as we can. Ferocious can give