Catweazle

powerful
magic.
    ‘On the morrow, I will ask the young sorcerer many things. Mayhap he
will teach me the new magic, for I have much to learn.’ And with this
considerable understatement, he fell asleep.

CASTLE SABURAC
     
    Catweazle woke very early the next morning
hearing a strange noise in the sky. The hair stood up on his dirty neck as it
came nearer, and finally, when the thunderous noise was overhead he could bear
it no longer, and, darting out of the chicken coop he looked up and saw a huge
fish swimming across the sky. Its fins were motionless, and it roared so loudly
that the earth shook.
    As it passed over him, Catweazle flung himself down in the wet grass and
waited for it to pounce, but the giant creature was apparently not hungry and
it continued on its way until it disappeared in the distance. It was
Catweazle’s first aeroplane.
    He rose unsteadily and began to creep towards the farm, hiding quickly
as he saw Mr Bennet and Winston moving between the sheds. Still shaken by the
aeroplane, he was making his way along the wall of the garage when he heard
another strange sound, this time like the hissing of serpents. Curiosity
overcoming his fear, he looked round the open door.
    It was Barakiel! The Prince of Lightning! As the Demon turned his great
head, revealing his one monstrous eye, showers of little stars tumbled from his
blasting rod.
    Catweazle jerked back making tiny cries of fear and a curious fizzing
noise through his teeth. He turned and fled from the garage.
    Sam Woodyard turned off the welder, and, lifting his protective helmet,
caught a glimpse of Catweazle running towards the back door of the farmhouse.
    Carrot,
who was at the sink in the scullery, suddenly saw Catweazle coming up to the
house and quickly pulled the old man inside. Catweazle was in such a panic of
fear that he ran past Carrot into the kitchen and went to earth under the
table.
    ‘Oh, Master, Master,’ he moaned as Carrot ran in after him, ‘deliver me
from the Demon.’ Getting a lump of chalk from a pocket in his tattered robe, he
drew a circle round himself on the flagstones.
    ‘Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas,’ he muttered.
    ‘Get up,’ said Carrot, who was expecting his father at any moment.
    ‘Gab, gaba, agaba.’
    ‘Will you get up?’ ordered the boy, hauling him out ‘You’ve got me into
enough trouble already. If Dad finds you, he’ll skin you alive.’
    Then the kettle whistled in the scullery and Catweazle, with another
moan, dived under the table again.
    ‘ ’Tis the Demon!’ he cried.
    ‘It’s the kettle, you fool,’ said Carrot crossly, running into the
scullery and turning off the gas. Slowly Catweazle came out from under the
table.
    ‘The kettle?’ he said. ‘It screams like a mandrake.’
    ‘I thought you’d gone,’ interrupted Carrot. ‘What on earth made you come
back?’
    ‘Thy magic, O Master. Teach me thy magic and I will serve thee,’ and
once more the old man knelt in front of him.
    The scullery door suddenly opened. Carrot left Catweazle and ran back
into the scullery, shutting the kitchen door behind him as Mr Bennet shooed
away Winston and came in from the yard.
    Hullo Dad,’ said Carrot, rather overdoing it.
    What’s up?’ asked Mr Bennet suspiciously as he went over to the sink to
wash.
    Nothing Dad,’ said Carrot, busily making the tea.
    ‘Haven’t broken another window have you? 1
    ‘No Dad.’
    ‘Well I’m glad you’ve got your voice back,’ said his father, opening the
kitchen door.
    There was no sign of Catweazle. Carrot couldn’t understand it. As Mr
Bennet sat down at the table, he unwittingly put his feet in the magician’s
protective circle.
    ‘Breakfast?’ asked Carrot, suddenly noticing the ring of chalk.
    ‘ ’Fraid I’ve only time for a cuppa.’
    Carrot rushed out to the scullery again. Picking up the tea-pot, he
collected a dish cloth and then nearly bumped into Theda Watkins, the
‘occasional help’, as Mr Bennet described her, as she came in from the yard.
    ‘Hey, steady, Carrot,’ said Theda, warding off the teapot.
    ‘Sorry, Theda,’ he gasped as he tore back into the kitchen.
    ‘Good man,’ said his father, as he brought the tea.
    Disappearing beneath the table, somewhat to Mr Ben-net’s surprise,
Carrot quickly wiped the thalk circle from the floor. ‘Spilt some milk,’ he
explained, surfacing again and looking round for traces of Catweazle.
    ‘It’s in here now I’ said his father sniffing.
    ‘What