E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell

Elizabeth was alone in the hallway of the ice temple, extremely thoughtful. She looked out the window at the blizzard that was milder now, but it was clear it was still too cold outside. Everything was white, snow and ice and even the coniferous forests that were near the temple and were completely covered in ice. The trunks of those trees were also covered by that glossy ice and looked as if they were candied fir trees and spruce trees. And the twigs seemed to be poured into that icy topping, loaded and bent so much as if they weren’t coniferous but willows.

Miss Edwards saw white bears lurking around the temple. Were they wild bears or guardians of the temple like the two companions of the white wizard? Who knows? But it was certain that only they could survive more than two minutes in the cold outside, with no clothes like the ones Knudlac gave to the children when they came here.

Finally, the door before which Elizabeth stopped opened and Pmyrie, the little elf, if we can call her like that, came out.

The girl approached her, smiling at her as if they were friends for hundreds of years, and the girl’s gentle glance made Pmyrie’s smile.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning. Sure you came to talk about the test,” the elf girl replied.

“You can…? Can you read people's thoughts?” the girl wondered.

“Yes, so be careful what you think,” the elf laughed slightly.

Elizabeth said nothing more, just looked at Pmyrie as she laughed loud.

"I apologize," the pointed-ear girl said, finally. “We don't laugh too much. That was how we were educated ... But if you had seen your face, you’d laugh too, in my shoes.”

She looked at Elizabeth as she was puzzled, so she thought she had to give more explanations.

“We can't read thoughts. At least not as you think. We can deduce instead what might happen, after analysing situations. And after I saw how your two teammates contradict each other, I think anyone realized you’d come at some point to ask for help from ...”

Pmyrie stopped for a moment.

“You’d come to talk with the other teams.”

Elizabeth gasped in relief. First because she couldn't imagine what it would be like for someone to know everything she thought, and second because the elf girl relieved her of the inconvenience of trying to beg for help.

“Yes ... we’re lost.”

“There’s no such thing,” the elf corrected her. “Come to our room. I’ll show you that it’s not easy, but not impossible. If you think about it, no one could do something perfect unless he/she were perfect. A test made by a man, can be passed by another man ... just as a test conceived by an elf can be solved by an elf.”

Elizabeth didn't quite understand Pmyrie's words, but she still followed her into her room.

And when they opened the door and entered the hall of the three elf competitors, it seemed as if they came out. But not outside in the vicinity of the ice temple, but outside elsewhere.

The sun was shining, warming everything around as pleasantly as it was spring, regardless of the cold outside the ice Temple they stayed in. That sun brightened a huge tree, with leaves smelling of a fresh green, whose roots formed a huge hall like the one they had at Elmbridge Magic School. But this was large like London train station and its walls were made of the roots of that tree. In fact, there were no whole walls that formed a room, but the roots of the tree were like pillars of support, which raised its trunk to a height of at least thirty cubits against the ground, making the living room not only high, but also lighted by that strong sun and that let go a lot of rays through the roots.

Of course, that luminous and so hot sun was created by magic, because in that snowstorm outside, surely no sun would resist; it would be really frozen.

In that salon, in one of its corners, the elf competitors had a lawn area of such a beautiful green that you could roll around like a stray puppy and feel pampered in it.

But you’d better choose not to do that, because in that area all sorts of moving obstacles were placed put there for the elves to train. There were thick, heavy logs there, which not only could crush you like a cockroach, but they also had a lot of blades and axes with multiple cutting edges that could split you up at any moment. There were also logs that were quickly raised and lowered by mechanisms, also with the purpose of crushing or splitting. There were wheels with several strings of braided strands, which swirled fast in order to catch you and get you down to the ground or even throw you into the other splitting or bone-crushing traps.

And even more of Nakutsck's inventions were gathered there, meant to trouble Ehm'il. Because elves used to recreate in such places.

The only problem of the elf boy in passing those difficult tests was that he hadn’t even warmed up. So he had to take it from the beginning when he reached the end of the route. And what could be more boring for him, than to do the same thing again, so close to the banal for them.

It was as if someone asked you to solve the same homework again, or to watch a play again that you didn't like that much.

Elizabeth wondered at first when she saw that "amusement park" why they didn't have such a room, but after she saw how difficult it was, though, to get through those tests, even if for Eh'mil it was only the morning exercise, she got that just the most trained adults could pass the tests ... or young but experienced elves. So she didn’t regret they didn’t have that training ground but she enjoyed the so quiet salon they had.

In another corner of the elves' common room, in the distance, there were more moving targets that Fahria, that elf a little taller than Pmyrie, darted so easily, as if she were only shooting the arrows and targets were the ones that had to be touched by arrows, but without moving of course.

Elizabeth tried to see what else that room contained, but it was far too wide for her eyes to cover. However, she didn't have time for that either, because she was interrupted by Pmyrie:

"Come up the stairs to my room," the elf girl recommended, and she started to go up to her bedroom.

Elizabeth, though, not because she didn't want to go up or because she was lazy, but she couldn't even get to the elf's room. Because those steps we talk about, in fact, weren’t a normal stairway. They were just short, thick twigs, or holes in the bark of the tree that the elves probably considered steps. Because the elf girl seemed like she climbed some steps, so easily and gently she climbed them and in the blink of an eye she was in front of her room door. In fact, in front of the hollow that was the entrance to her bedroom.