The Ice King (A Witch Ways Whisper) Read Free Page A

eyebrows were wiggled into question marks. Vanessa thought her mother looked prettiest with her wriggly eyebrows.
    “The lake threw it back.” she replied. Her mother nodded.
    “Precisely. Don’t worry about the monster pike, he can take care of himself.”
    But Vanessa did worry about the pike and about her mother having to confront stupid people who were, as far as Vanessa could assess, cruel bullies. She recalled too often the ugly and dangerous look on Stocky Mike’s face and that her mum had no one to help her in her job as Gamekeeper.
    “Are you done? Shall we go?” at the sound of her mother’s voice Vanessa flipped the encyclopaedia closed. It made a satisfying thomp which echoed around the round domed central room of the Castlebury library. Vanessa flapped shut the top of her schoolbag and picked up the library books from the table. She hurried to close up her notebook and catch her pen which was rolling off the table onto the floor.
    She had constructed a good plan and she would be able to put it into action on Saturday. She would be useful, helping her mother in her work and she would also, above everything else, be helping save the life of the monster pike from all comers.
    She had looked up Pike in the encyclopaedia, a book too heavy to sneak into her schoolbag. She already loved the pike, his mysterious lake existence and now, of course, his Latin name Esox Lucius . The books she had managed to borrow in secret were one on fishing and another on identifying freshwater fish. She needed her reference points so that she could take her measurements and make an accurate biological survey.
    She had sort of stolen the books because they were in her bag and not on the counter, with her other choices, being stamped. This was ok for two reasons; one; she needed them for the plan and two; she was going to return them, not keep them, hence she termed it secret borrowing. Not stealing. Not at all.
    Back at Cob Cottage Vanessa dropped her coat on the back of the kitchen chair and scooted down the short curved corridor. Round in shape, Vanessa’s bedroom was a small short tower of a place, nestling into the east side of the cottage. It was insulated with her bookcases made from curving branches of oak and alder with a long thin window set up in the wall just below the thatch. Although she could not see the lake she could see sky and treetops and the rookery. It was like living, Vanessa thought, in a small mud castle. She shut the gnarly oak door behind her and unloaded her school bag secrets. Yes, she felt confident of her plan to help her mother.
    She was busy over the next few days assembling things she needed for the fishing aspect of her plan: twine, wire, wool, string, which she wove and twisted. She made good progress because her mother was suddenly busy too, there had been several more fishermen sneaking to the lake and some traps that her mother had found in Havoc Wood that made her very angry indeed.
    “Do people want to catch the animals for food?” Vanessa asked as they ate bacon sandwiches on the front porch on Friday night. Her mother laughed.
    “Ha. No sweetheart. They want to catch them because they can. They won’t eat a fox or a falcon. They do it to be cruel and feel powerful.” she kissed Vanessa’s forehead and her mother’s gaze drifted out across Havoc Wood. “They don’t understand, there’s nothing more cruel and more powerful than this wood.”
    *
    It was cold on Saturday. After breakfast her mother wrapped up in her old black waxed raincoat and pulled on her battered boots ready for her usual Patrol.
    “There’s sandwich stuff in the fridge.” she was giving instruction. “I won’t be late. If you get bothered or need me, just light the lantern on the porch…ok?”
    “Can’t I come with you?” today Vanessa had no wish to go with her mother but she wanted to make it seem like a normal day, one in which she would read books and do homework and whinge about missing out on