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The Big Freeze

The ree, braised eel heads and spicy onions lay abandoned on the table as Aunt Zelda tried to coax soe The inside of the ere glazing over with ice, and the te, but still Aunt Zelda could not get the fire going Bert sed her pride and snuggled up to Maxie to keep war at the struggling fire

"Why don&039;t you let o at that fire, Zelda?" Marcia asked crossly "I don&039;t see e have to sit here and freeze when all I have to do is this" Marcia clicked her fingers and the fire blazed up in the grate

"You know I don&039;t agree with Interfering with the elements, Marcia," said Aunt Zelda sternly "You Wizards have no respect for Mother Nature"

"Not when Mother Nature is turning rumbled

"Well, if you wore so around in little purple snakey things, your feet would be fine," Aunt Zelda observed

Marcia ignored her She sat war fire and noted with some satisfaction that Aunt Zelda had made no atte state

Outside the cottage, the North Wind howled mournfully The snow flurries froht with it a thick, swirling blizzard that blew in over the Marraan to cover the land with deep drifts of snow As the night wore on and Marcia&039;s fire at last began to warm them up, the noise of the wind beca up outside Soon the inside of the cottage had become full of a soft, snowy silence

The fire burned steadily in the grate, and one by one they all followed Maxie&039;s exa successfully buried the cottage up to its roof in snow, the Big Freeze continued its journey Out over thethe brackish s and quags and sending thedown into the depths of the mires where the frost could not reach It swept up the river and spread across the land on either side, burying cow barns and cottages and the occasional sheep

At ht it arrived at the Castle, where all was prepared

During theFreeze, the Castle dwellers stockpiled their food, ventured into the Forest and brought back as much wood as they could carry, and spent a fair a blankets It was at this ti their supplies of heavy wool cloth, thick arctic furs and salted fish, not forgetting the spicy foods that the Wendron Witches loved so much The Northern Traders had an uncanny instinct for the ti about ajust before it set in The five Traders who had sat in Sally Mullin&039;s cafe on the night of the fire had been the last ones to leave, and so no one in the Castle was at all surprised by the arrival of the Big Freeze In fact, the general opinion was that it was soh the truth was that the last of the Northern Traders had left a little earlier than they had expected, due to unforeseen circuotten that the Big Freeze was due and had found hie snowdrift blocked the entrance As he had nowhere else to go anyway, he settled down and decided to s while Alther and a few of the Ancients pursued their task of trying to find Simon

The black rat in the Rat Office, aiting Stanley&039;s return, found himself marooned at the top of the iced-up EastGateLookoutTower The drainpipe had filled ater fro his way out The rats in the Customer Office downstairs left him to it and went ho for Stanley&039;s return Not only did he want information from the rat - where exactly Marcia Overstrand was - he was also anxiously awaiting the outco happened From the day the rat was sent, a platoon of fully ar their frozen feet and staring into the blizzard, waiting for the ExtraOrdinary Wizard to Appear But Marcia did not return

The Big Freeze set in The Supre to Doe Rat of his Confidential status and sending a false e to Marcia, now did his best to avoid his Master He spent as much time as he could in the Ladies&039; Washroom The Supreme Custodian was not a superstitious man, but he was not a stupid man either, and it had not escaped his notice that any plans he had discussed while he was in the Ladies&039; Washrooh he had no idea why He also enjoyed the comfort of the small stove, but most of all he relished the opportunity to lurk The Supre He had been one of those s around a corner to other people&039;s conversations, and consequently he was often able to have a hold over soe It had served hi his advancee part in his appoint Freeze, the Supreme Custodian holed up in the washroo behind the innocent-see to conversations as people passed by It was such a pleasure to see the blood drain from their faces as he ju comment they had just made about him It was even more of a pleasure to call the Guard and have theeons, especially if they went in for a bit of pleading The Supre So far he had had twenty-six people arrested and thrown into the dungeons forrude comments about him, and it had never crossed hisnice being said

But theproject that occupied the Supreht from the chapel to the Ladies&039; Washroom and chained to a pipe As Jenna&039;s adopted brother, the Supreone, and he was looking forward to persuading Si Freeze set in and neither the Message Rat nor Marcia returned to the Castle, Siuished in the Ladies&039; Washroom, constantly questioned about Jenna&039;s whereabouts At first he was too terrified to talk, but the Supre Simon&039;s confidence Whenever he had a spare moment, the unpleasant little man would prance into the washroom and prattle on to Simon about his tedious day, and Simon would listen politely, too scared to speak After a while Simon dared to venture a few cohted to have a reaction fro him extra food and drink And so Si before he found hi his desire to be the next ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and his disappointment with the way that Marcia had fled It was not, he told the Supre that he would have done

The Suprely Here at last was a Heap who made some sense And when he offered Simon the possibility of an Apprenticeship with the new Extra-Ordinary Wizard - "seeing as, and I know this will just re Si h hopes for hian to see a new future for hiht be respected and be able to use his Magykal talent, and not treated , after the Supreme Custodian had sat down companionably beside him and offered him a hot drink, Simon Heap told hione to Aunt Zelda&039;s cottage in the Marram Marshes

"And where exactly would that be, lad?" asked the Supreme Custodian with a sharp smile on his face

Simon had to confess he did not know exactly

In a fit of temper the Supreme Custodian stormed out and went to see the Hunter, who listened in silence to the Supreeneral and of Simon Heap in particular "I mean, Gerald - " (For that was the Hunter&039;s na he liked to keep quiet about, but to his irrita tion the Supreme Custodian used "Gerald" at every possible opportunity) " - I inantly as he strode up and down the Hunter&039;s sparsely furnished roo his arms dramatically in the air, "how can anyone not know exactly where their aunt lives? How, Gerald, can he visit her if he doesn&039;t know exactly where she lives?"

The Supreme Custodian was a dutiful visitor of his numerous aunts, most of ished that their nephew did not know exactly where they lived

But Sih inforone, the Hunter set to ith his detailedhad pinpointed the likely whereabouts of Aunt Zelda&039;s cottage He was ready once again for the Chase

And so, with some trepidation, the Hunter went to see Do at the top of the Wizard Tower, passing the Big Freeze by digging out the old Necromancy books that Alther had locked away in a cupboard and Su his library assistants, two short and extres after he had jumped from the Tower Normally they lived far below the earth and consequently bore a close rese, boneless arround on a trail of slily fast when they wanted to be The Magogs had no hair, were a yellohite color and appeared to have no eyes They did in fact have one small eye that was also yellohite; it lay just above the only features in their face, which were two glistening round holes where a nose should be and a mouth slit The sli although Doreeable

Each Magog would probably have been about four feet tall if you had stretched it out straight; although that was so no one had ever attempted There were better ways to fill your days, like scratching your nails down a blackboard or eating a bucket of frog spawn No one ever touched a Magog unless it was byquality to it that just reh to round fro anis or dorogs to get out of the shells Once the first rays of the spring sunshine had warmed the earth, the larvae would burst out, consume as left of the aniround until it reached a Magog cha chambers around his hideout in the Badlands and always had a steady supply They aveand saw the&039;s claould becoreatest deterrent was how they looked: their bulbous yellohite head, apparently blind, and their constantly ruesos had arrived just before the Big Freeze They had terrified the Apprentice out of his wits, which had given DomDaniel so out on the landing while he tried, yet again, to learn the Thirteen Tiave the Hunter a bit of a shock too As he made it to the top of the spiral stairs and strode past the Apprentice on the landing, deliberately ignoring the boy, the Hunter slipped on the trail of Magog sliot his balance back in ti fro the Apprentice had a littleat soht to his Master&039;s angry voice, which traveled extreh the heavy purple door

"No, no, No!" Do "You ain on a Hunt on your own You are a buet to do the job, believe o And then you will go under my supervision Don&039;t interrupt! No! I will not listen Now get out - or would you like one of s to assist you?"

The Apprentice watched as the purple door was flung open and the Hunterdown the stairs as fast as he could After that the Apprentice alot up to thirteen times seven, which was his best yet

Alther, who had been busyHe blew out the fire and followed the Hunter out of the Tohere he Caused a huge snowfall to drop from the Great Arch just as the Hunter walked under it It was hours before anyone bothered to dig the Hunter out, but that was little consolation to Alther Things were not looking good

Deep in the frozen Forest, the Wendron Witches set out their traps in the hope of catching an unolverine or two to tide them over the lean time ahead Then they retired to the communal winter cave in the slate quarry, where they burrowed into their furs, told each other stories and kept a fire burning day and night

The occupants of the tree house gathered around the woodburning stove in the big hut and steadily ate their way through Galen&039;s stores of nuts and berries Sally Mullin huddled into a pile of wolverine furs and quietly e pile of hazel-nuts Sarah and Galen kept the stove going and talked about herbs and potions through the long cold days

The four Heap boys made a snow camp down on the Forest floor so wild They trapped and roasted squirrels and anything else they could find,It kept the boys occupied and out of the tree house, and it also conserved her winter food supplies, which were being rapidly nibbled through by Sally Mullin Sarah visited the boys every day, and although at first she orried about the out on their own in the Forest, she was iloos they built and noticed that so by with ss of food and drink Soon it became rare for Sarah to find her boys without at least two or three young witches helping the and telling jokes It surprised Sarah just how ed the boys They all suddenly seeest, Jo-Jo, as still only thirteen After a while Sarah began to feel a bit of an interloper in their ca them every day, partly to keep an eye on them and partly because she had developed quite a taste for roast squirrel

Pythons and Rats

TheFreeze, Nicko opened the front door of the cottage to find a wall of snow before hi a tunnel about six feet long through the snow and into the bright winter sun Jenna and Boy 412 caht

"It&039;s so bright," said Jenna She shaded her eyes against the snohich glinted al Freeze had transforloo The marshland that surrounded theed by the windblown snowdrifts and the long shadows cast by the lointer sun Maxie co in the snow until he resembled an overexcited polar bear

Jenna and Boy 412 helped Nicko dig a path down to the frozen Mott, then they raided Aunt Zelda&039;s large stock of broo the snow off the ice so that they could skate all around the Mott Jenna made a start while the two boys threballs at each other Boy 412 turned out to be a good shot and Nicko ended up looking rather like Maxie

The ice was already about six inches thick and was as slass A iving the ice a slightly cloudy appearance, but it was still clear enough to see the frozen strands of grass trapped within it and to see what lay beneath And what lay beneath Jenna&039;s feet as she swept away the first swathe of snoere the two unblinking yellow eyes of a giant snake, staring straight at her

"Argh!" screamed Jenna

"What&039;s that, Jen?" asked Nicko

"Eyes Snake eyes There&039;s a massive snake underneath the ice

Boy 412 and Nicko cae," Nicko said

Jenna knelt down and scraped away soht by its head It must stretch all around the Mott"