Read How to Stop a Witch for Free Online

To his surprise, the four spirelings landed beside her. All six of them craned their necks to search the sky.
    To Greg’s horror, a huge black shape moved across the sun. The silhouette quickly grew as it moved closer, until suddenly it was passing directly overhead, and Greg could see clearly what it was. The dragon Ruuan let out another ear-splitting cry and soared after the retreating wyvern, releasing a searing jet of flames that would have annihilated all of them if it had been directed at the ground. Within seconds Ruuan had reached the spot where Greg had last seen the wyvern. The dragon released another jet of flames, but Greg could make out little else from this distance.
    Kristin’s face had lost all color. “I’m guessing that was a dragon.”
    Greg nodded. “Lucky he didn’t see us. I may have been wrong before about him not eating me.”
    Grunt stepped forward. “Oh, he saw us. The dragon could not possibly have missed our movements. Fortunately the witch did not.”
    “You saw Hazel up there too?” Greg asked.
    Growl stepped up to Grunt’s side. “Steering the beast, yes. She must be practicing controlling his movements in battle. Grunt is right. We were lucky to pass unnoticed. If Witch Hazel had spotted us, she would have ordered her attack on us, and I’m not sure the dragon could have resisted. It seems the witch is quickly gaining mastery over the use of Tehrer’s amulet.”
    “We need to get to the castle and warn them,” Greg said.
    The spirelings agreed. They quickly regained their litter, and soon Greg and Kristin were once again soaring through the trees toward the heart of the Smoky Mountains.
    Kristin stared wide-eyed as the scenery whizzed past. “That dragon was terrifying. How could you have possibly made friends with a creature like that? I can’t believe you’ve been coming here, doing all these incredible things, and you’ve never told me any of it.”
    “But I tried—”
    “You need to tell me now. It’s the least you can do.”
    Greg started to speak, but decided against trying to yell over the rushing wind. He removed his backpack, flipped open the flap and pulled out his old journal. He could no longer carry it in his pocket, as he had long since filled the last of the pages, and now the book was crammed full of loose slips of paper and bulged twice as wide as in the beginning of the year.
    “Everything I’ve done on Myrth is in there,” he said.
    Kristin stared at the book with the same reverence the spirelings had shown when they returned it to him on his last visit. The moment she cracked the cover, several loose slips of paper soared off in the rush of wind.
    She snapped it shut again. “I better save this for later.”
    Soon before dusk they reached Death’s Pass, a narrow tunnel of stairs cut through solid rock, connecting the highest peak of the Smoky Mountains with a point about halfway to the base. Under normal conditions the pass provided a quick descent, but at the speed the spirelings negotiated it, Greg had to wonder if they’d dropped their load and were still standing somewhere near the top, watching the litter free fall to the bottom. Fortunately, when the base drew near and the level ground rushed up to meet the litter, the spirelings were there too. They screeched to an uneventful halt.
    “We will camp here,” Gnash announced. “It is not safe to travel after dark.”
    “Did they think we were traveling safe before?” Kristin whispered to Greg.
    “Safely,” all four spirelings corrected at once.
    “Oh, I forgot,” said Greg. “Whispering doesn’t work around spirelings. They’ve got really good hearing.”
    Kristin looked at Gnash. “Greg says you can see in the dark without any trouble. Why is traveling at night so dangerous?”
    “We are not the only creatures who can see well in the dark. Some of the others you might find . . . well, let us just say you do not want to find them.”
    Kristin scanned the surrounding shadows.