The Broomstick Collection: Books 1–4. Nathan Reed

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СКАЧАТЬ was there just gripped on more tightly.

      “Right,” thought Jessica, “you’ve had it.” She leant forward and pressed the Eject twig. But the Eject twig was obviously out of order for the thing kept fluttering under her cloak. Jessica even thought she heard a little silvery laugh.

      “Right,” Jessica decided, “I’m not putting up with this.”

      Gripping her broomstick firmly between her knees, she took the Descend and Zoom twigs together in her hands. Immediately the broom began to drop out of the sky, falling back to earth like a stone flung from the top of a cliff.

      A few minutes later, Jessica crash-landed with a terrific thump outside the hardware shop.

      Miss Strega landed beside her and helped her to her feet.

      “You know, Jessica, the Zoom-Descend manoeuvre should really only be used if you are landing in water or possibly a lovely soft sand dune,” she half scolded her as she led her into the back room of the shop. “It’s not meant for pavement touch-downs.”

      Jessica’s head was spinning. She felt so dizzy that she was seeing stars. She seemed to be surrounded by hundreds of Miss Stregas with long pointy chins. Most curious of all, she could hear singing. Something or somebody was singing. Something or somebody was singing underneath her cloak.

      “What’s that singing?” asked Miss Strega.

      Jessica gingerly undid her cloak. There, sitting on her shoulder, was a small damp brown bird with bedraggled feathers, singing in a very beautiful musical voice.

      “What on earth is that?” Jessica asked.

      “Well, slap my tummy with a wet fish!” exclaimed Miss Strega. “You have just been adopted by a night-in-gale. That is the best mascot of all. Not only do you get storm protection but you’ll have in-flight music too! You lucky, lucky girl.”

      

      Miss Strega was sitting cross-legged on her stool behind the counter, with her chin comfortably cradled in the palm of her hand. “Apprentice fliers …” she read aloud from the Witches World Wide Rule Book, “must be skilled in twig control, indoor flying, night flying and flying in storm conditions. As part of their training, they should expect to deal with one serious emergency …”

      Jessica, who was sitting on the counter patting the cat, looked questioningly at Miss Strega. “You didn’t, by any chance, arrange that goblin attack?”

      Miss Strega’s nose twitched. “So,” she carried on brightly, ignoring Jessica’s question, “it seems you are ready to move on to Advanced Flying. I’ll take you up to the Milky Way tonight.”

      The Milky Way turned out to be a bright multi-lane inter-galactic highway that cut through the night sky. Jessica could not believe how busy it was.

      She constantly had to use her Ducking and Diving twigs to avoid bumping into all the witches who were whizzing and zooming in every direction. And it wasn’t just witches who used the Milky Way. Angels zipped past on their personalized clouds. Red-horned demons sped along on flame-throwing forks. Huge brutes of dragons snorting nasty black puffs of smoke lumbered along illegally in the fast lane, causing long tailbacks. There were gangs of goblins too, but fortunately, they didn’t pay any attention to Jessica. They were far too busy racing each other up and down the central reservation with their cosmos-blasters blaring.

      As Jessica followed Miss Strega on to a busy junction, she noticed a large banner hanging between two stars:

      “What does that mean – by order BR(EATH)?” Jessica asked Miss Strega.

      “BR(EATH) is the W3 flying licence authority. It stands for Broom Riders (Earth And The Heavens).”

      Jessica paused. “Do I need a licence?”

      “Do keep up, Jessica,” Miss Strega called over her shoulder, “there’s a minimum speed here on the Milky Way. Of course you need a licence. But the test is not too difficult.”

      Jessica’s jaw dropped. “A flying test?”

      “Of course – every witch-in-training has to do a test.”

      “How many marks do you need to pass?”

      “Ten out of ten, of course.”

      Jessica almost toppled off her broomstick.

      “Please tuck up those knees, Jessica,” Miss Strega called over her shoulder, “and follow me up into Emergency Air Space. I want to see why the traffic is slowing down. There must be another dragon ahead.”

      Jessica and Miss Strega hovered above a convoy of magic carpets and peered down the starry highway of the Milky Way. As far as they could see there were no dragons but, for some reason, all fliers were being filtered into a single lane. Further on, the Milky Way Traffic Police had set up a skyway block and traffic had come to a complete standstill behind a flashing notice:

      “How infuriating!” huffed Miss Strega. “The phoenix only rises once every five hundred years. It’s just our luck that he’s doing it on your first night on the Milky Way. This could hold us up for hours.”

      “What is a Phoenix Rising?” asked Jessica.

      “The phoenix is a rather curious old bird,” Miss Strega explained. “Only one of them exists at a time. When it dies, it bursts into flames and ascends into space. Then its ashes drop back to earth and it comes alive again. Perhaps we should zoom along to see it. Turn on your emergency tail-lights, Jessica – push that two-prong twig on the second row – and follow me.”

      Jessica zoomed off after Miss Strega as she soared high into space. The night sky was touched with streaks of red and gold, but as they drew near the skyway block it glowed ever more fiercely. The hot air whirred and hummed and buzzed as if it was alive. Suddenly, the spinning fireball of the phoenix exploded into view with its feathers blazing, a fiery torpedo aimed at the heavens. At the same time, a young scaly dragon with a load of screaming goblins on its back came galloping down the central reservation and crashed through the skyway block. The watching crowd of genies, dragons, witches, angels and demons gasped in horror. Dragon and phoenix seemed set for a head-on collision.

      “Moonrays and marrowbones,” yelled Miss Strega. “I’ll have to make a spell.”

      As the fiery ball of the phoenix rocketed upwards and the dragon and his joy-riding goblins bore down on him, Miss Strega began to chant:

      “Rise, СКАЧАТЬ