The Escape Of Athelwan: The Charlie Braithwaite Stories

By R.M. McLeod

The second book in the Charlie Braithwaite series finds our young English hero at home in his bedroom. It is a boring, wet afternoon, when suddenly his old friend the arch wizard Argetlám appears on his computer screen. At first delighted by the return of his friend, he soon discovers that the wizard has a job for him that is both extremely dangerous and possibly, crucially important to the freedom of everyone living in modern Britain if not the world.

Argetlám explains to Charlie that Athelwan, an evil sorcerer punished for his wicked ways by entombment in a cavern, centuries earlier, has escaped. Furthermore, he has materialised during the Battle of Britain, in 1940s England. The sorcerer has taken the job of headmaster of the local school and Argetlám is convinced that he is trying to help Britain's sworn enemy, the evil Nazis. Should he succeed in his scheme, Britain may well lose the battle and therefore, her freedom. The consequences of this re-writing of history being that even people as young as Charlie could be seriously affected, perhaps not even born!

Our hero is therefore persuaded to travel back to September 1940, in the guise of a London evacuee. Once there, he is to enrol at Athelwan's school (the sorcerer has taken the name Benson) in order to spy on him. This is another story about Charlie and the friends he made during the adventure – The Witches of Lewthan Mountain, as they spy on the forces of the Dark Side in an attempt to foil their evil ways. The question the reader must ask is – against all the powerful odds ranged against him, will, or even can, Charlie succeed?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Panda Press
• Release date: Jun 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386805243

R.M. McLeod

From being a small boy, R.M. McLeod has always been interested in ‘a good read’ and promised himself, from being a young boy, that one day he would also write one. He has had two books published in paperback – The Witches of Lewthan Mountain and The Escape of Athelwan. The Ghosts of Badger Wood has also been serialised in the North West Evening Mail. He lives in a fairly remote area of Cumbria and, he advises, it is the incredibly beautiful scenery surrounding his home that inspires the fantasies he so loves to write.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Archwizard Returns

It was mid-winter, the days short, often wet, invariably cold and always boring. Charlie Braithwaite, eleven year-old schoolboy and at times, very lonely only child, looked up from his homework and stared, wistfully, out of the rain-spattered window of his bedroom.

‘I wish something interesting would happen,’ he groaned to himself. ‘Life can be so boring when you’ve no one to play with.’ With a sigh he leant across the desk and switched on his computer. ‘Forget the homework,’ he said aloud and to no one but himself. ‘I’m going to have a surf.’ He had just finished typing in his Internet server password when the monitor screen turned bright blue and instead of the menu appearing, he found himself staring into the smiling face of an extremely old looking, white-bearded man. The man was dressed in a black cloak and a tall, well-battered pointed hat; both of which were liberally decorated with gold-coloured sequins, broomsticks, half moons and bolts of lightning.

‘Argetlám!’ cried Charlie, happily. ‘What are you doing in my computer?’

‘Is that where I am?’ said the wizard, looking confused. ‘I must have materialised in the wrong place. Wait one moment please.’ There followed a loud bang, the image on the screen momentarily flickered and a second later a puff of white smoke appeared in the far corner of Charlie’s bedroom. ‘That’s better,’ said the great archwizard, stretching his arms and back as the smoke cleared. ‘That’s much more comfortable.’

Still grinning like a Cheshire cat, Charlie watched his old friend as he walked across to the bed and, rather stiffly, eased himself onto it. ‘Argetlám!’ said Charlie again. ‘Great to see you, I’ve been bored out of my brain.’

‘Thank you,’ said the wizard, rubbing his neck. ‘I don’t know what’s coming over me these days. Fancy materialising in one of those horrible things,’ he continued, frowning at the computer. Then, looking affectionately at his red-haired, freckle-faced, eleven year-old friend, he said. ‘You know, I really, really hate computers young, Charlie.’

‘You must be losing your touch,’ replied Charlie, laughing. ‘Anyway, I really am delighted to see you; you don’t know how bored I’ve been today.’

The old wizard, with whom Charlie had enjoyed some hair-raising adventures the previous summer, in the witch and goblin infested Darklands of Cumbria, shook his head, sadly. ‘I don’t think you’ll be too pleased when I tell you why I’m here,’ he replied.

‘Oh, why’s that then?’ asked Charlie, sensing and secretly hoping that another exciting adventure may be in the offing.

Argetlám, looking tired, removed his pointed hat and lay back on the bed, resting his head on the down-filled pillows. ‘Do you remember the very first time we met, Charlie?’ he asked.

‘Do I? Why of course I do, the terrifying way you first appeared in my bedroom is something I’ll never forget. You frightened me half to death.’

‘Then you may also remember that I told you about the fate of the evil sorcerer - Athelwan.’

Charlie nodded. ‘Yes, you said that he was a bad wizard, a warlock, a man who stirred up trouble amongst the elfin folk and that he was defeated in a great battle, hundreds of years ago, somewhere in a vast underground cave.’

‘I think I used the word destroyed,’ said Argetlám.

‘You did,’ agreed Charlie. ‘Yes, I remember now.’

‘Well, sadly, I was mistaken,’ continued the wizard. ‘He was only entombed, albeit for many, many, peaceful centuries.’

‘Entombed?’ said Charlie.

‘Yes, he was only buried, in the rubble of the cave.’

‘You mean, he wasn’t killed?’

‘I do, Charlie,’ replied Argetlám.

‘And now?’ asked Charlie, suddenly worried by the wizard’s grave tone.

‘And now he’s escaped,’ replied the wizard, his expression even graver. ‘Not only has he escaped from the cave, he’s re-emerged in the Overland.’

‘In our dimension?’ gasped Charlie. ‘Where the good people live, the followers of the Light.’

‘Yes,’ said Argetlám.

‘What here?’

‘Not quite here, Charlie. I mean, yes he is living in your village, but not in this time period.’

Charlie, looking confused, shook his head. ‘Sorry, I don’t think I understand.’

Argetlám smiled, patiently. ‘When he escaped from the cave in The Darklands, he went back in time and entered the Overland – in the nineteen forties.’

‘But that’s over fifty years ago,’ said Charlie.

‘Try over sixty,’ corrected Argetlám, ‘he’s reappeared in nineteen forty. He’s also taken a job as a schoolmaster, as it happens, at your original junior school. The one that was pulled down after the new one was built.’

‘How do you know?’ asked Charlie.

The wizard smiled, grimly. ‘I have my spies, Charlie, as you well know.’

‘But how’s he done that?’

‘Simple,’ replied the wizard. ‘He applied for a job as a teacher and got it. Don’t forget, in nineteen forty there was a war on. Many, many people, including teachers, were called up for active service; there was a nation-wide shortage of just about every profession you can mention.’

‘I wish there was a nation-wide shortage of teachers now,’ said Charlie, wistfully.

‘There is,’ said Argetlám.

‘Good,’ replied Charlie. ‘But – well – what’s he doing there? As a schoolteacher of all things.’

‘I don’t know,’ replied the wizard. ‘But if I know Athelwan, he’ll be up to something and whatever it is, it won’t be good. That’s why I’m here.’

‘Err, sorry?’ said Charlie. ‘I don’t think I understand.’

‘I’m here, Charlie, because I want you to help me find out just what he is up to.’

‘Me?’ said Charlie, sounding astonished.

Argetlám smiled. ‘You, Charlie.’

‘How?’

Argetlám sighed. ‘I want you to travel back to the year nineteen forty and when you’re there, I want you to enrol at the village school – as a pupil. That way you can keep an eye on Athelwan for me.’

‘In nineteen forty!’ gasped Charlie, clearly appalled at the idea. ‘But school in those days was – well – it was like being in prison, if not worse. I know because my granddad told me. They used to beat you then, with rulers, pumps and great big sticks!’

‘Only if you misbehaved,’ said Argetlám.

But Charlie was shaking his head, adamantly. ‘Oh no, no way! I think I prefer life in the twenty-first century, thank you. At least nowadays we kids are safe from sadistic schoolteachers armed with big canes and foul tempers.’

Thoughtfully, the wizard looked at Charlie. ‘If I told you that Bregon may be in danger, would that help change your mind?’

‘Bregon? Danger?’ repeated Charlie, now sounding very concerned. Bregon was the old wizard’s rather inadequate apprentice and although very clever and centuries old himself, was so inept that he had yet to pass all the exams required that would make him fully qualified. Hence the reason he was still only an apprentice wizard. ‘How?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ replied Argetlám. ‘But if you remember, Bregon once told you that during World War Two he became a pilot to fight on the side of good, against the evil of the Nazis.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Charlie. ‘He told me that he was a Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain.’

‘Correct,’ said Argetlám. ‘Now consider this, Athelwan has materialised in September, nineteen forty.’ Charlie nodded his understanding. ‘In early September, nineteen forty, the Battle of Britain, the prelude to the invasion of our country by the dark forces of evil, was still in full swing. Every day the RAF was suffering crippling losses and the Nazis were slowly gaining the upper hand. The battle was a very close-run thing you know. We came within a gnat’s whisker of losing it.’

‘We did?’ said Charlie.

‘We most certainly did,’ confirmed the wizard. ‘Now then, whatever Athelwan is up to, it will not be for the benefit of the good guys, for the brave young men and women of the RAF. I’ll give you any odds you like that, somehow, he’s found a way of helping the forces of The Darklands, the evil ones. That can be the only reason he’s emerged in that time period.’

‘You mean he’s probably helping the Germans?’

Argetlám shook his head. ‘Don’t think of Germans and British in this war, Charlie, that’s an old-fashioned, even dangerous view now. Rather, think of Nazis as the forces of the Dark and the Allies as representing the Light. You see, the Germans were duped by the evil men who led them, the gangsters and thugs who were in total control of the German people. The men who told them what to do, how to think and who eventually sent their people to war in order to attain their wicked aims of world domination.’

‘You mean men like Adolf Hitler?’ asked Charlie.

‘I do,’ agreed Argetlám.

‘He was really, really bad,’ said Charlie. ‘Wasn’t he?’

‘As evil as any man can become,’ agreed Argetlám. ‘So, if Athelwan is trying to help a man like Adolf Hitler, and his brutal, racist, thuggish friends, are you going to help me?’

‘If you think that Bregon and our country may be in danger, then of course I will,’ agreed Charlie. Suddenly he smiled as he thought of the tubby, very poshly spoken and rather funny, apprentice wizard.

‘Good,’ said Argetlám, also smiling.

‘But – well – what exactly do you want me to do?’ asked Charlie. ‘I mean, you’re Britain’s most powerful wizard, surely with all your powers you can find out what he’s up to?’

Argetlám shook his head. ‘Alas, I can use few if any of my powers near Athelwan. If I was to invoke any really powerful spells he’d be bound to feel the disturbance in the ether and that would immediately alert him to my presence.’

‘Does that matter?’ asked Charlie.

‘Of course,’ replied the wizard. ‘If he knows I’ve found him, he’ll first go back into hiding, then reappear somewhere else with his evil plans. If he does that I may not be able to find him again. At least, not in time to stop him.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Charlie, ‘I think