Whetū Toa and the Magician E-Book

Steph Matuku

• Herausgeber: Huia Publishers
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

When Whetū's mother takes a job at a magician's house and farm, Whetū becomes the animal keeper, looking after some unusual animals and the magician's stage assistant – a troublesome white rabbit called Errant. Errant's been playing around with magic and done something he can't undo. Rather than face the magician, Errant disappears, and Whetū becomes the magician's new assistant, just in time for the royal performance. It all seems to be going well until Errant reappears, and Whetū must save the day – and the king.

Leseprobe

First published in 2018 by Huia Publishers

39 Pipitea Street, PO Box 12280

Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

www.huia.co.nz

ISBN 978-1-77550-353-8 (print)

ISBN 978-1-77550-364-4 (EPUB)

ISBN 978-1-77550-365-1 (Kindle)

Text copyright © Steph Matuku 2018

Illustrations copyright © Katharine Hall 2018

This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the prior permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National

Library of New Zealand.

Published with the assistance of

Ebook conversion 2018 by meBooks

To Wi Henry and Elsie

The magic started with you.

BEGINNINGS

ERRANT

CLEANING

INTRODUCTIONS

DIAMONDS AND DIVISION

INCONSOLABULL

ARRANGEMENTS

JOBS

WHETŪ HAS A LITTLE LAMB

HARDER THAN IT LOOKS

DEBT

GETTING THINGS DONE

HARD WORK IS GOOD FOR YOU

THE MAGICIAN RETURNS

CHANGES

A NEW JOB

THE DRESSING ROOM

ERRANT’S PROMISE

WARNING

GETTING READY

THE SHOW

DANGEROUS MAGIC

RECOVERY

1

– BEGINNINGS –

The little cottage in the country was very different to their old apartment in the city. No car horns, just birdsong. No concrete, just grass and flowers. No noisy neighbours banging around next door, just the faint sound of horses whinnying somewhere nearby.

Whetū’s mother turned off the car engine. It was very quiet without the ancient motor whining and complaining. “Come on, let’s get our suitcases out.”

Whetū squeezed her mother’s hand. “It’s not too late to change your mind, Mum. Are you sure you want to work for a magician?”

“A magician is just like anyone else. He needs his house cleaned and his bills paid and his business managed. He’s far too busy to do it all himself.”

“I’d have thought he could use magic to do all those things,” said Whetū, but only very quietly. Mum was excited about her new job, and Whetū didn’t want to spoil it for her. She was now The Mighty Mikaere’s new personal assistant, which meant she was in charge of his home and business while he travelled the world, performing magic on stage for adoring audiences. The Mighty Mikaere was very famous, very rich, and also very secretive. Neither Whetū nor her mother had ever met him.

“It’s lucky for us that he doesn’t do it all himself,” said Mum, “otherwise I wouldn’t have a job and we’d have to live in the car.”

She fished out a piece of paper from her handbag and squinted at it, trying to read the magician’s old-fashioned scrawl. “The key’s under the doormat. Go and look, there’s a love.”

The front doormat had a picture of a cheerful duck on it. Whetū peeked underneath and took out a big iron key. She stuck it in the keyhole, turned it with both hands, and pushed open the door. As she stepped forward, she trod on the mat, and to her surprise it quacked – loudly and indignantly. Whetū got such a fright she dropped the key, which landed on the porch with a loud clang. The doormat lifted up and the key rolled back underneath. The doormat settled down again, wriggling this way and that, like a real duck settling on its eggs, waiting for them to hatch.

Mum was getting their suitcases out of the car and hadn’t noticed anything strange. Whetū pulled her back, just as she was about to step on the doormat.

“Don’t, Mum! I think you’d better jump over it.”

“Don’t be silly, Whetū.” She trod heavily on the duck’s face and the mat quacked loudly and flapped its edges. Mum squealed and backed away. “I see what you mean. I’m glad I didn’t wipe my feet on it – it might have bitten me!”

Mum slipped off her shoes and went into the house. The doormat didn’t move. It lay there, quietly innocent, as a doormat should be.

“Whetū!” called Mum. “Stop scowling at the doormat! Come and choose a bedroom!”

Whetū toed off her sneakers. Unlike the key, they stayed where she left them, neatly side by side on the porch.

The house felt as though it hadn’t had any visitors for a long time. Mum threw open the windows to let the fresh air chase away the musty smell. Whetū investigated all the rooms downstairs – the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and a funny little room her mother said would do for storage. Old bits of furniture, faded pictures and dusty ornaments were scattered about everywhere.

Whetū climbed a flight of steep narrow stairs and found two little bedrooms opposite each other. One had walls painted in a soft cream colour, but the other one had dark blue wallpaper with bright silver constellations all over it. Naturally she chose that one, because her name, Whetū, meant ‘star’.

She crossed over to the window and looked down to the fields below. There were horses in one, which pleased Whetū very much, because she liked horses. A sturdy bull was grazing in another, which didn’t please Whetū as much as the horses did. The field between them was empty.

On the far side of the fields stood a big red barn, a few tumbledown sheds and another house. It wasn’t like any house she’d ever seen before. It looked more like a lighthouse – very tall, white and skinny, but bent sideways in the middle, a bit like an upside-down ‘L’. Pink smoke billowed from one of the windows, and Whetū knew that was where the magician lived.

Whetū turned away from the window and caught a glimpse of something darting behind the iron bedstead. There were no blankets or duvets on the bed, just a rather dusty white mattress. She dropped to her knees on the threadbare carpet and peered underneath. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another whisking movement, and the curtains trembled, as if something had just scuttled behind them.

“Mum!” shouted Whetū. “I think we’ve got mice!”

There was no answer.

Still, she thought, it could be worse. It could be rats.

She tiptoed over to the curtain and quickly pulled it aside, but there was nothing there. She frowned. She had almost definitely seen something. Whetū turned around and gasped. Sitting in the middle of her bed was a large white rabbit.