How to Stop a Witch Read Online Free PDF

help?”
    Greg felt embarrassed to have to say what he was thinking, but these were desperate times. “We need to get to Pendegrass Castle. Even if we found our way, it would take weeks on foot. Obviously your warriors can get there much quicker.”
    “Your point?” Queen Gnarla asked impatiently.
    Greg looked to Kristin and back to a spot somewhere near Queen Gnarla’s feet.
    “Do you think they might be able to . . . well, you know . . . carry us?”

Whirlwind Tour
    And so it was that Greg and Kristin found themselves riding atop a litter carried by four spireling warriors, watching the blurred forms of snow-covered trees whiz past on both sides, close enough to touch.
    Two of the litter-bearers were Grunt and Growl, who Greg and Kristin had met inside the spire. The others claimed to be Greg’s friends Gnash and Gnaw, though in truth, Greg had no way of knowing for sure. Not only did they look just like every other spireling Greg had ever seen, but when Greg traveled with Gnash and Gnaw on his last visit, all the other spirelings shared the experience. There was nothing these two alone would know that could prove they were the actual pair who accompanied him during the last prophecy.
    “This is incredible,” shouted Kristin. “How can they move so quickly?”
    “It is something, isn’t it?” said Greg, “Next to traveling by dragon, I don’t see how we could make better time.”
    “Dragons can move faster than this? You’re kidding?”
    “Much faster. Ruuan could have carried us to the castle in a matter of minutes.”
    “I’m not sure if I’d like to see that or not,” Kristin admitted.
    “You’d like Ruuan,” he told her. “He’s really cool for a dragon.”
    Kristin began to relax after that. She looked to be enjoying her adventure, and Greg accepted his, too, partly because he was glad to be there with Kristin, but mostly because he’d temporarily forgotten all about Simon’s prophecy and his “rather unfortunate demise.”
    Earlier, just before the group left the spire, Queen Gnarla gave the children vests identical to the kind her spireling warriors wore.
    “Is there going to be another battle?” Greg had asked worriedly.
    “These will keep you warm,” Queen Gnarla told him, which was hard for Greg to believe, since it was freezing outside, and the chain mail was little more than a collection of holes. But amazingly, when he slipped the gift on under his windbreaker, he felt quite cozy, and he had since discovered that with it he could barely feel the torrent of wind that threatened to lift him off the litter at any moment.
    Since all four spirelings were dressed alike, in tattered pants and light chain mail, shortly into the journey Greg suggested they each wear some accessory he could use to tell them apart. At first they thought he was joking, as there was clearly no way one spireling could be confused with another, but later, when Kristin admitted having trouble telling them apart too, they knew Greg had been serious.
    Quickly they did as he asked, and Greg was only mildly insulted when Growl suggested that it might be helpful if Greg and Kristin each wore some identifying accessory, as well. Greg found an oddly shaped twig he tucked into his belt. Kristin picked a cluster of bright red berries to adorn her hair, which Greg felt Growl might have noticed was easily five times as long as Greg’s.
    Gnash had managed to find a bright purple flower peeking up through the snow just outside the spire. He’d plucked it out of the ground and poked the stem though a hole in his chain mail, which was the only way Greg could be sure it was Gnash who cried out now.
    “Attack!”
    The group stopped in an instant. If not for the spirelings’ dexterous manipulation of the litter, Greg and Kristin surely would have been hurled into the woods.
    “What’s going on?” asked Greg. “Why are we stopping?”
    As one, the spirelings dropped their respective corners of the litter and lifted their