Willow sighed. She was planning on raising her price to a fleurie and a Leighton apple, but she wasn’t convinced that using her scary sister to bully it out of people was the best way to go about it. It wasn’t that she was overly fond of Leighton apples, but Wheezy the Jensens’ retired show horse was. Willow passed the old horse every Thursday when she went to the market. The children from the village had labelled him Wheezy because every time he came trotting to the pasture his chest made asthmatic wheezes. Considering that he went to the trouble to come greet her, Willow liked to have his favourite treat.
‘The trouble with you, Willow,’ said Juniper, who Willow couldn’t help noticing had failed to hand over the spurgle, ‘is that you don’t place enough value on your skills – such as they are.’
‘Skills! What skills?’ came Camille’s mocking tones as she emerged from the cottage, dressed head to foot in a long black robe made of rich, shimmery material.
‘Oh, you mean as a magical bloodhound?’ She smirked. Ignoring Willow’s protests, she turned to Juniper and said, ‘Ready?’ The two were heading off to join their mother for the Travelling Fortune Fair.
Willow closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply. When she opened them she saw that her sisters had sped off down the lane, their black hair and cloaks flowing in their wakes.
Resignedly she turned back to her queue of customers and jumped.
The queue had vanished, and in its place stood a lone woman. She was tall and reed-thin, with black hair framing a pale, slender face marked by high arching eyebrows. She wore a long dusky gown with purple pointed boots, and an expression that made Willow’s spine straighten before her brain could muster an objection.
The woman raised a brow and said, ‘Good morning?’
‘G-good morning …?’ managed Willow in response, wondering who the woman was.
There was a small part of Willow’s mind that held its breath. It was the part that seemed to be listening to her knees, which had begun to shake, as if they knew a secret her head did not.
‘Moreg Vaine,’ said the woman with casual nonchalance, as if declaring yourself the most feared witch in all of Starfell was an everyday occurrence. Which, to be fair, for Moreg Vaine, it probably was .
‘Oh dear,’ said Willow, whose wobbling knees had proved correct.
Moreg Vaine’s mouth curled up.
In years to come Willow would still wonder how it was possible that she had managed to keep her feet on the ground when a whisper would surely have knocked her over.
Yet never in Willow’s wildest fantasies of meeting the infamous witch Moreg Vaine could she ever have imagined for a moment what happened next.
‘Cup of tea?’ suggested Moreg.

2 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019 Published in this ebook edition in 2019 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is www.harpercollins.co.uk Text copyright © Dominique Valente 2019 Illustrations copyright © Sarah Warburton 2019 Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019 Dominique Valente and Sarah Warburton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008308391 Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008308414 Version: 2020-08-28 Dedication For Catherine, who loved it first, to Helen for helping to make a dream come true and to Rui for always believing that it would Map 1. The Girl Who Found Lost Things 2. A Question of Time 3. The Monster from Under the Bed 4. The Portal Pantry 5. The Broom-makers 6. The (Newly) Forbidden City of Beady Hill 7. Amora Spell 8. The Sometimes House 9. The Dragon’s Tale 10. The Forgotten Teller 11. The Lost Spells of Starfell 12. The Moon Garden 13. The Midnight Market 14. The Hag Stone 15. Wait and Forget 16. Calamity Troll 17. The Troll Army 18. The Witch’s House 19. Magic in Wolkana 20. Enough to Make a Kobold Explode 21. Yesterday Again Acknowledgements Keep Reading … About the Publisher
A Question of Time Contents Cover Title Page Copyright First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019 Published in this ebook edition in 2019 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is www.harpercollins.co.uk Text copyright © Dominique Valente 2019 Illustrations copyright © Sarah Warburton 2019 Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019 Dominique Valente and Sarah Warburton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008308391 Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008308414 Version: 2020-08-28 Dedication For Catherine, who loved it first, to Helen for helping to make a dream come true and to Rui for always believing that it would Map 1. The Girl Who Found Lost Things 2. A Question of Time 3. The Monster from Under the Bed 4. The Portal Pantry 5. The Broom-makers 6. The (Newly) Forbidden City of Beady Hill 7. Amora Spell 8. The Sometimes House 9. The Dragon’s Tale 10. The Forgotten Teller 11. The Lost Spells of Starfell 12. The Moon Garden 13. The Midnight Market 14. The Hag Stone 15. Wait and Forget 16. Calamity Troll 17. The Troll Army 18. The Witch’s House 19. Magic in Wolkana 20. Enough to Make a Kobold Explode 21. Yesterday Again Acknowledgements Keep Reading … About the Publisher
Willow followed Moreg Vaine into the cottage, staring in bafflement as the witch went about lighting the coal in the blackened stone fireplace, and filling the old dented teakettle with water. Moreg patted down her robe, withdrew a package and nodded to herself as she poured something into the pot.
Читать дальше