The Skinwalker's Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page A

in its direction, and sending the ball soaring above Margo’s head, and reaching the top of the onion dome.
    Finally, with a flick of her wrist at the third ball she said, “ Inluzeo ,” and the sphere became brilliant with light.
    “Now, it is your turn,” she said turning to Margo.
    The Priestess waved her wand and the balls were gone, in their place was a glass tank with a white mouse inside. The mouse ran back and forth, pressing its little pink nose to the glass, and sniffing the air rapidly. Margo twitched, she didn’t like mice.
    Margo leaned away from the tank subtly, trying not to let on how scared she was of such a small animal, when suddenly the lights went out and Margo was thrown into pitch black darkness.
    “Priestess?” she asked anxiously but there was no response. She looked out the window, and although it was still day time, there was no sunlight streaming in.
    She called out her teacher’s name again, it was so dark, she couldn’t be sure she was even in the same room anymore.
    Margo opened her eyes wide, willing them to adjust to the darkness but it was no use. She wondered briefly if she had become blind, when she remembered the third ball.
    “ Inluzeo ,” she said waving her wand in a circle before her. The room flooded with light, and Margo could see The Priestess standing just as she had been before the room went dark.
    “Why didn’t you answer me , Priestess?” asked Margo innocently, and at that very moment she noticed something new had materialized on the table before her.
    A snaked, coiled around itself, and piled as high as Margo. She shrieked and jumped out of her chair, the snake beginning to slither towards the white mouse in the tank.
    “Priestess, help me,” she pleaded but her teacher remained silent, watching the events unfold before her.
    The snake poured over the top of the tank, hissing menacingly as the rodent cowered in a corner, the fear of death in its beady black eyes.
    Margo watched on in horror as The Priestess continued to do nothing, not even so much as looking in Margo’s direction. Her eyes were trained on the snake and the mouse.
    The snake was mere centimeters from the mouse, its mouth opening to reveal two large fangs and a split tongue just as Margo screamed, “ DIVISIO, ” pointing her wand at the snake. The snake convulsed, and was thrown back, but it remained draped inside the tank, and began to make its way towards the rodent once more. The Priestess repressed a smile, she had not demonstrated the dividing spell as part of her lesson, but Margo was clever, and had been watching carefully when The Priestess made her wand. The snake closed in on the mouse, but instead of swallowing him whole, he began to wrap around it, his slimey skin rubbing against the soft white fur. Margo was panicking, and had stopped looking to The Priestess for help. Instead she tried to think which of the spells she’d learned would help the creature escape. She was not fond of mice, but that did not mean she relished seeing them crushed to death.
    She gathered her wits and shouted, “ RESORGO ,” as the snake tightened his grip.
    Tiny sparks flew from the mouse’s fur, and he looked, for a moment, as if he were beginning to be dislodged. But alas, the snake’s hold on him was too strong, and Margo was left with only one more option.
    She gulped, hoping she didn’t cause the mouse to explode as she attempted the final spell. “ INCRESCO ,” she said, wincing, as she pointed her wand inside the tank
    The mouse shuddered, and then suddenly one of its ears balloned to a size bigger than its entire head. The other ear grew to match the first, and then with a sound like a spring being compressed and suddenly released, the creature’s belly shot out, the rest of his body following suit until the mouse was the size of a large house cat. The snake had been pressed against the sides of the tank, hissing furiously and flailing the end of its tail in dispair. Margo had saved the