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30.2: NOT ALL HEROES (part 2)

As if in deliberate contrast to Elizabeth's, Minola Caw's eyes widened. On anyone else, this might have had some effect. Those soft hazel irises, those luscious lashes, and that beautifully bewildered expression might have stirred some gallant impulse in their breasts and they might have released the poor damsel, maybe even helping her on her way. But as it was, the only other person in the vicinity was Edmund and he was preoccupied with the broomstick. The broom was still bucking, desperate to help its mistress, but Edmund had managed to straddle it and was crying "Yip yip! Yip yip!" as it lurched beneath him.

No, Minola Caw was stuck between two merciless vampiresses who were both unaffected by her wiles. Realising this, the witch swallowed, and her eyes darted guiltily towards the bird's nest that Elizabeth had accidentally enchanted. Elizabeth followed Minola's gaze. When she saw what the witch was looking at, and connected the woollen nest with the woollen Rupert she had seen in the scrying glass, she gasped.

That gasp was the only warning Minola Caw had.

Elizabeth shot straight at her enemy with her lips drawn back and her teeth bared. Even Pim started as her aunt threw herself towards the witch. In an instant, Elizabeth had Minola Caw's head between her hands, thrusting it to one side while her fangs descended upon the witch's neck.

But Elizabeth's teeth only had time to prick the surface of that velvety skin before she was interrupted by a noise that went poof! and a voice that said, "Madam, please glide away from the godmother."

Elizabeth whirled around. Three women were watching her, one slightly in front of the other two-presumably the leader. At first glance, they looked much like Middlers. They had their hair pulled back into tight, practical buns, they were wearing drab, practical dresses, and they had nondescript, practical faces. However, they also had belts fastened about their waists, and attached to each belt was a thin leather tube, and from the tube protruded the end of a wand. The wands were the first clue that the women were not Middlers. The second clue was that they were floating thirty feet above the ground. This was not, as far as Elizabeth was aware, something that humans were wont to do.

"And who might you be?" Elizabeth demanded. "More witches?"

"Madam," the woman in the centre repeated, "before you do anything rash, please glide away from the godmother." She spoke in a hard, authoritative tone. Elizabeth did not appreciate being spoken to in such a way, especially when she was so close to avenging her poor, woolly son. Besides, in Elizabeth's opinion one only earned a right to use that tone when one was over three centuries old, and this woman looked nowhere near that esteemed age.

"I will do no such thing," she told the woman archly. "What right do you have to order me so?"

One of the woman's colleagues drifted closer. "We are well within our rights here, Madam. We are the R.G.N.T., protectorate of the C.F.G., authorised by T.F.G.H., acting in the capacity set out by the E.C.C. to handle all affairs of A.M.P. in an effective and professional manner."

The woman apparently thought she had answered Elizabeth's question, as she drifted back into place behind her companion. Elizabeth, however, had no idea what she'd just said.

"Explain yourselves," she barked.

To Elizabeth's intense irritation, the third woman rolled her eyes while the second spoke again. "We are the Rogue Godmother Neutralisation Team, protectorate of the Council of Fairy Godmothers, authorised by The Fairy Godmother Herself, acting in the capacity set out by the External Complaints Committee to handle all affairs of Abuse of Magical Position. In," she repeated, "an effective and timely manner."