Sir George in Spain 1/5

Abigail was really excited about her first job as a journey-woman. She had been given a very unusual and important task to perform. As she flew further inland after leaving Barnacle Bill's paddle steamer, she was going over the details in her mind.

A disused gate into the alternate world had been discovered. It hadn't been used for so long that even the witches had forgotten about its very existence. A long time ago a very fierce dragon had come to live in the woods on the other side of the gate, which people had then been too scared to use. The gate had fallen into disrepair and Abigail's job was to close it by turning it into an ordinary part of each world.

In her kit bag were seven staves, each coated with a spell of unbinding and wrapped in cloth to prevent the spell from working before the proper time. Abigail followed the directions she'd been given until; at last she arrived at the site of the disused gate.

In this world, it looked like a tumbledown and overgrown ruin of an old mansion. She walked through to the other world, keeping a watchful eye open for Karg, the dragon who guarded the other entrance, but she could see no sign of him. The castle walls had fallen in, the drawbridge had rotted away completely and trees were growing right up to the ruins. There was no moat at all.

‘Oh well, it'll all be cut off in a minute or two,’ thought Abigail, so she walked back to her kit bag and started unpacking. She drove each stave into the ground at a carefully measured distance in a semi-circle round the ruins, took a deep breath and wiggled her fingers. The covers came off the staves simultaneously and each one began to glow with ever-increasing brightness. Then, to her horror, a knight in full armour rode out of the ruins and trotted towards her.