Read Weava the Wilful Witch Online
Authors: Tiffany Mandrake
Weava the Wilful Witch
the
Wilful
Witch
Titles in the Series
Flax the Feral Fairy
Mal the Mischievous Mermaid
Nanda the Naughty Gnome
Tikki the Tricky Pixie
Effie the Outrageous Elf
Weava the Wilful Witch
the
Wilful
Witch
Tiffany Mandrake
Illustrated by Martin Chatterton
Little Hare Books
an imprint of
Hardie Grant Egmont
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.littleharebooks.com
Text copyright © Sally Odgers 2011
Illustrations copyright © Martin Chatterton 2011
First published 2011
First published in this edition 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Mandrake, Tiffany.
Weava the wilful witch / by Tiffany Mandrake;
illustrated by Martin Chatterton.
1st
978 1 742736 09 9 (epub)
Mandrake, Tiffany. Little horrors ; no. 6.
For primary school age.
WitchesâJuvenile fiction.
Chatterton, Martin.
A823.3
Cover design by Martin Chatterton
This product conforms to CPSIA 2008
For all you little horrors out there! (You know who you areâ¦)
âTM
To Libby Volke: after six books it's about time you got an honourable mention
âMC
Psst, this is me, Tiffany Mandrake, speaking to you from my cosy, creepy cottage in the grounds of Hag's Abademy of Badness. The Abademy is a place where bad fairies go to study how to be truly bad. It's not far from where you live, but you probably won't see it. The fairy-breed use special spells to make sure you don't.
It is run by three water hags, Maggie Nabbie, Auld Anni and Kirsty Breeks.
The hags started the Abademy because too many fairies were doing sweet deeds.
Sweet deeds are not always good deeds, and the world needs a bit of honest badness for balance. Otherwise, we humans get slack and lazy. The Abademy provides that balance. To enter the Abademy, young fairies must earn a Badge of Badness.
This is the story of Weava Charm, a wilful witchling who was determined to win her Badge of Badness, despite her sister's best efforts to stop her.
I don't come into this story at all, but the kit-fae told me about the problems Weava had with her sister, Merry, at Brimstone Buildings. I promised not to tell anyoneâ¦but you can keep a secret, can't you?
Sure you can.
So listenâ¦And remember, not a word to anyone!
âI'm not coming to Witchmeet,' said Weava Charm. âWho wants to go to a boring get-together for witches for a whole week?'
She waved her wand and a jam-jar lid spun into the air. It screwed itself onto a jar of black-magic jam. Weava smiled and sniffed the scent of blackberries, sugar and magic.
Weava's dad, Belfry, stared at his daughter. âWeava, you
love
Witchmeet,' he said. âAnd if you get into that school for bad fairies, this might be the last time we go together.'
âWitchmeet's no fun without Merry,' said Weava, dropping her wand. âEverybody just talks about old times.' Merry was Weava's elder sister. She had left the village of Wandwood the year before to go to college.
âBut what will you do instead of coming to Witchmeet?' asked Belfry.
âI'll stay with Merry at Wand College,' said Weava. âI haven't seen her for ages.' She giggled. âMerry is
so
bad and funny. Remember when she cast that bouncingspell on the jam jars? They smashed everywhere, and she pretended she'd been trying to clean them!'
âHmmm,' said Belfry.
âAnd when she pretended to lose her wand and did all her work
without magic
when she came back last holidays?' Weava sighed happily.
âWeavaââ' said Belfry.
âI'll take some of this jam and we'll make black-magic cake. I'm going to make one for the Head Hags when I get to the school. What's it called again? Hags' Abademy?'
âWeava!' said Belfry. âI need to tell you something about Merry.'
âWhat?'
âMerry's not at college,' Belfry said. âShe'sâ¦' He sighed deeply. âI should have told you this before. She's living in the city now.'
âWith humans?' Weava giggled with delight. âThat's even better! We'll have fun.
I can help Merry bother humans!' She clattered towards her bedroom in her clunky shoes.
Her dad followed. âWeava, you shouldn't visit Merry just now,' he said. âShe's not herself.'
âWhy not?' Weava pulled on her new cloak. âWhere's my skull buckle?'
âUse your witchsight to find it,' said Belfry.
*
âOK.' Weava reached down and patted her stocking. âDad, where's my wand?' She needed her wand to make her witchsight work. âI must have dropped it after I used it to screw the lids on the jam jars,' she said.
Belfry shook his head. âWeava, you
must
be more careful. You know the old saying:
Weak is the witch who has lost a wand; she's sure to sink if she falls in the pond.
'
Weava searched the kitchen. âMaybe it slid across the floor,' she muttered. She bent down to feel under the cupboards. âAh, here it is.'
She pulled out the wand and shook off the dust. âButâ¦' She stared at it in surprise. âThis isn't mine. It's Merry's! Oh, that's right. She had a new one for college.'
Weava found her skull buckle on the floor nearby, and used it to fasten her cloak. Then she spotted her own wand under the kitchen table and tucked it in her stocking. She thought for a moment, then added the old wand, too. She'd take it to Merry, for a surprise.
*
Witchsight is a special spell witches use when they lose some thing. It makes hidden things easier to find.