Ghostly getaway, p.1
Ghostly Getaway, page 1
5 River Road, Suite 128, Wilton, CT 06897
Published in the United States 2025
Originally published in Great Britain 2022 by Little Tiger Press Limited
Text copyright © 2022 Perdita & Honor Cargill
Illustrations copyright © 2022 Katie Saunders
ISBN-13: 978-1-6643-4088-6 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-6643-4088-2 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-6643-9009-6 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 1-6643-9009-X (ebook)
Ebook ISBN 9781664390096
All rights reserved
www.tigertalesbooks.com
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Contents
Dedication
Hopes & Dreams:
Tuesday, January 18
Wednesday, January 19
Thursday, January 20
Friday, January 21
Saturday, January 22
About the Author
TO THE READERS WHO HAVE SENT US LETTERS AND DRAWINGS, THANK YOU! WE THINK YOU ARE MAGICAL, AND THIS BOOK IS ESPECIALLY FOR YOU, H. AND P. XX
TO MY LONG-SUFFERING SISTER SARAH (MRS. COTTA) AND THE LOVELY CHILDREN AT IWADE SCHOOL, WHO SHE READS THESE MAGICAL BOOKS TO - K.S.
HOPES & DREAMS:
To be a Little Spellshire witch FOREVER.
To become less of a WORRY WITCH, especially about being away from from home, ghosts, and anything else that goes bump in the night.
To master learn all the some witchy skills and traditions and the olde-worlde history of Cadabra Castle!
CHALLENGES:
VERY IMPORTANT: Stop Dad from finishing his book about the extraordinary weather of Little Spellshire[*] so that he doesn’t make us move somewhere else (to write about the weather there).
Be a good member of TEAM FINKELSPARK (Winnie, Puck, Amara, Fabi, and ME!) and try to get along with everyone else in my class, even Hunter, Izzi, and Blair???!?
Survive the school trip bonding exercises and get safely back home to Piggoty Lane in one piece!
Skip Notes
* With Ash’s help!
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18
8:02 a.m. Our Cadabra Castle bedroom
My first morning in a real Witchy Castle! And I’ve been woken up by Amara squealing so loudly that I almost fell out of our four-poster bed, and Stan shot up in the air and landed on my nose.
“Wow!” She’s pointing at one of the tapestries on the wall. The dusty flowers and creatures that we’d seen last night are gone and instead, in gold thread….
“Oooooh, I love schedules,” says Winnie happily.
“Ooooh, I love mystery challenges!” Amara grins.
I think I love mystery challenges, but witchy mystery challenges? At least I won’t have time to miss home! Wait…the gold thread is weaving before our eyes….
8:31 a.m. The Buttery
We found the buttery by following our noses. It’s a big white room next to the kitchens[*1] and it doesn’t feel ruin-y at all! The stained-glass windows are only a little broken and the sun is shining through, splashing the walls with dancing golden unicorns. There’s a long table with benches on either side that could seat a hundred witches, and on a little raised platform at the end of the room, there’s a smaller round table surrounded by much comfier chairs. Almost hidden behind coffeepots and newspapers are our teachers and Dolly Pumpkin[*2].
“Over here!” Puck waves. “We saved you spots.”
I’d been worried that breakfast would be more witch sausages, but it looks like it’s CAKE! A special yellow striped breakfast cake that tastes like honey that Dolly promises will give us all as much energy as baby dragons, washed down with a drink that looks like tea, but somehow tastes like toast. Yum.
9:35 a.m.
It’s almost time for Professor Crisp’s history lecture in the library. Where is the library?
9:55 a.m.
Found a room full of maps, a room full of brooms, and a room full of bats, but can’t find the library. This castle is HUGE!
“Who needs a plan of the castle?” trills Dolly, flitting past.
“Us, please!”
10:01 a.m. The library
I’ve never been so excited by a library in my life.[*3] It’s at least two stories high, and its shelves are crammed with old-fashioned-looking books with titles like: Dentistry for Dragons, How to Bond with Bavarian Bluffwaffles, and oh! The Friendly Finkelspark of Cadabra. I’d have started reading then and there, but Professor Crisp was on his feet and motioning us to sit down and hush.
“The first time we can really begin to trace the history of Cadabra Castle,” he begins in his low, slow voice, “is during the foreign occupation of the country. Castrum Cadabrorum was one of the greatest forts built—renowned even in its day for its excellent working toilets.” He flicks his wand, and one wall of shelves disappears to be replaced by a whiteboard.
“I think it’s best if we skip over much of what happened at Cadabra during the reign of Aethlric the Angry,” says the professor. “We’ll come back to this difficult and rather dark period in ninth grade. All you need to know now is that, even by the standards of very angry witch warriors, Aethlric was the MOST FURIOUS of all. Not the kind of witch you’d want to meet on the battlefield.”
“Tell us more!” we chorus.
“You really are a REVOLTINGLY BLOODTHIRSTY class! No, no, we need to move on because you’ll never understand Cadabra without knowing that it’s the first-and-forever home of witchy cooperation—” He breaks off to tell Hunter to stop wand-sword-fighting with his neighbor. “Where was I? Ah, yes, cooperation and communication—and never were those virtues more needed in the witch world than in the aftermath of Aethlric’s rule.”
He flicks his wand, and a new entry appears on the timeline:
“Dance-witchery!” Amara jumps up and does a little twirl. “I choose that one.”
“I pick SWORD-WITCHERY!” yells Hunter.
“Cake-witchery!” shouts Puck. “I’ve found my tribe!”
“The whole point,” says the professor with a sigh, “is that it is NOT A GOOD THING for witches to divide themselves into tribes. Witches should learn from each other and share their skills, and it was at Cadabra that the first steps were taken toward this when the tribal leaders agreed that they were all spending too much time and energy and dragons’ gold fighting one another and that they’d be stronger—and better able to survive in a world where they were not always well understood—if they put their pointy hats together. Look and learn….”
Another flick of his wand, and the timeline grows longer….
“So…it’s the LAW that we have to be friends with each other?” Winnie makes a careful note.
“WHAAAAT!” Hunter sounds shocked.[*4]
“All of us?!” (I swear Blair looked at me when she said that.)[*5]
“All the time?” We’re all worried now!
Professor Crisp looks at our faces and laughs. “Don’t panic. You’re not off to the dungeons. The law simply requires that we witches listen to one another, work with one another, try to get along, and stay away from battles and such!”
He points to a small red-leather chest sitting on its own little throne in an alcove between the bookshelves. “Would you like to see the scroll?”
YES, PLEASE!
12:15 p.m. Lower ramparts
Very good picnic! Chocolate cake, followed by strawberry cake, followed by toffee cake.
Dolly says her baking is very newtrishus full of vitamins. Dr. Pellicano says that it’s just as well we’re only here until Friday.
1:00 p.m.
Dr Pellicano is sending us on a SCAVENGER HUNT for our challenge.
CAN YOU FIND?
* Rainbow moss on a great elm
* A spider’s web bigger than your head
* A fairy whirlpool
* A quaking bog
* Wolfwish tracks (added by special request of Prof. Agu) p.s. Miss Lupo says, “Don’t forget to pick up any healing plants you see!”
1:13 p.m.
I don’t even know what half these things are!
“You must all stay together,” says Dr. Pellicano firmly. “And, as I want you to concentrate on your observation skills today, I’ve marked the way for you with numbered signposts. All the items (in no particular order) can be spotted somewhere on, or within sight of, the marked route. They’re not easy to find, but not IMPOSSIBLE. Snacks will be waiting for you all next to the quaking bog, so good luck finding that one.”
“Can we fly?” I ask.
“I’d like you to start out on foot, but it’s a long course, so you’ll find brooms waiting for you at the sixth signpost. From there, you can fly if you want.” She looks over at Stan and me. “Or hop—I really don’t care as long as you complete the task.”
“Is there a prize for the first witch who checks them all off?” Blair does like to win.
“The only prize on offer today is not making me cross. And let me repeat—I want everyone to work together on this. All the best geographers can work in a team. Do you think you can manage that?”
She did say it was a challenge….
1:20 p.m.
Checking off the giant spider’s web was easy.
Winnie has never been so popular—she practically has an ensklopee encyclopedia in her head. We’ve checked off the purple bark and the rainbow moss already.
2:16 p.m. A whirlpool
We’ve found a whirlpool! It’s very small and practically hidden by a tangle of brambles—we’d have walked right past it if Amara hadn’t stood in it. Sadly, there were no actual fairies anywhere to be seen, although we DID find some scrooby grass and piggy-toe leaves for Miss Lupo. I stashed them in my pocket for safekeeping.
This is fun!
3:11 p.m. Somewhere just past signpost 4
The sun has gone behind dark clouds, I’ve got a blister, Puck fell in a patch of nettles, and Winnie’s fed up with doing all the work.
Everyone’s getting hungry and we’ve retraced our steps twice. We can’t find the quaking bog. We’ve found quite a few other bogs, but none of them looked as if they were shaking, let alone quaking.[*6]
3:36 p.m. Near Dr. Pellicano’s sixth signpost, but honestly could be anywhere
Have eaten nothing but a handful of blackberries and now everyone is having a HUGE argument about wolfwish tracks.
I’m not convinced. They look very much like dog pawprints to me, but what do I know? As Blair happily points out, I’m too non-witchy-Ordinary to have ever met a wolfwish.[*7]
3:55 p.m.
Everyone finally got fed up and agreed we should forget about the wolfwish and concentrate on finding this quaking bog before we FAINT from hunger. At least this time we can take to our brooms, which were stacked up neatly next to signpost 6, just as Dr. Pellicano had said they’d be.
4:16 p.m.
Everything always feels better in the air.
4:24 p.m. In a tree!
We were swooping over some trees, STILL looking for this very secretive bog, when Winnie—who was flying lower and slower than the rest of us—called up to me.
“Did you hear that?”
“What?” I yelled down.
“SHHHHHH!” she whisper-shouted. “Slow down and listen. I think there are people over there.”
I slowed, dipped, and skimmed across the top of the spiky trees until I could hover out of sight and listen to the muffled voices. They did NOT sound like witches.
I zoomed back and reported. “Ordinaries below!”
“Non-witches? HERE???” Even Puck looked worried.
“Maybe they’re witch-hunters,” gasped Polly.
“Witch-hunters!” echoed half the class.
“It’s fine! TOTALLY FINE,” I said. “We’ll just pop down and say hi. There’s no reason not to be friendly. They’re probably…they’re ALMOST CERTAINLY not witch-hunters.”
“Um, I hate to point this out,” Blair hissed, “but we are currently RIDING BROOMSTICKS. I don’t think we can just ‘pop down and say hi!’” She had a point.
“Quick!” said Winnie. “We need to seem Ordinary!”
And then everyone stared at me. Rude!
“Stop stressing out,” muttered Hunter. “Who cares about a bunch of Ordinaries? They’re down there—we’re up here. There are tons of leaves in the way, and they’re hardly going to be looking for us, are they? Let’s just keep flying and find MY SNACKS.”
“Bit risky. Also….” Raven gulped and pointed to a big clearing in the trees that WE WERE FLYING STRAIGHT TOWARD.
Everyone started swerving and pulling up with their broom handles.
“That way!”
“Which way?”
And attempting emergency reversing techniques and banging into each other.[*8]
“Out of my way!”
“Toadbrain!”
“Did y’all hear voices?” said someone below. OH, NO!
And then I had an ACTUAL brainstorm!
“The trees, the TREES,” I loud-whispered. “We fly into the trees and then we…um…we just sit there like we’ve climbed up them!”
Hunter flew alongside me and frowned. “Is that something Ordinaries do?”
“Sometimes…yes.”
“Where are those noises coming from?” I heard a panicky voice below. “The sky?!”
“Could be parrots?” said someone else.
“Never heard a parrot call another parrot a toadbrain,” said the first voice doubtfully.
“No choice,” said Winnie. “Let’s do it!”
There was only just time for each of us to land on one of the highest branches and hide our broomsticks in the leaves behind us before three very non-witchy-looking walkers wearing coats appeared in the clearing below.
4:39 p.m.
“Well, howdy!” a beardy man carrying a backpack shouts up to us.
“What are y’all doing way up in the trees?” calls a lady wearing a bright yellow coat.
“Um—” I clear my throat—“climbing?”
“Y’all are very good climbers.” The other lady, looking up from under her neon-pink sun visor, sounds suspicious.
“Thank you!” trills Blair, flicking one braid over her shoulder.[*9]
“Where did y’all come from?” asks the beardy man. “We haven’t passed so much as a pigsty in miles.”
“We’re staying at the castle.” Li sounds as proud as if he owns it.
“Ooooh! What castle?!” they ask.
“The big castle over—”
Puck stops talking when Winnie elbows him so hard he almost falls out of the tree.
“Um…the ruins. We’re, um…camping near some ruins,” Amara says desperately.
“Oh my GOSH!” The woman in the yellow jacket starts flapping her arms so enthusiastically she looks like an actual chicken. “Real old-world ruins! We gotta see those!” She peers up at us. “We love ruins and ghosts an’ all. The ruin-ier and ghost-ier, the better!”
Ghosts?! “We don’t have anything like that at Cadabra,” I say quickly.
“Cadabra?” says the woman. “Isn’t that just the quaintest name! Well, I guess y’all can tell us how to get there.”
“Oh, no!” says Fabi. “Sorry, we, um…we don’t know how to give directions. We just, um…know how to climb trees.”
The tourists look at us as though they have a strong suspicion we are toadbrains and then nod kindly and wave. “Well, don’t y’all worry. It can’t be far away. I’m sure we’ll find our way there ourselves!”
I. HOPE. NOT!!!!
4:52 p.m.
As soon as they’re gone, Winnie grabs her broom. “We need to find the teachers.”
She’s right—everyone agrees.
Ordinaries at Cadabra could be VERY BAD INDEED.
5:21 p.m. The quaking bog
We ran and ran[*10] and finally we found Ms. Sparks, Zephyr, Dr. Pellicano, and Professor Crisp sitting next to what looked suspiciously like…A QUAKING BOG! They were having a very nice time, picnicking on what looked suspiciously like…OUR SNACKS!
“Ordinaries,” puffs Li. “On their way to the castle!”
“And it looks like they’re getting closer.” Fabi has gotten back on his broom and is hovering sneakily above the bushiest part of the treeline.
Dr. Pellicano looks at Ms. Sparks, and then they both turn to the professor.
