Belle and Merlin had just finished their tea, and Merlin seemed almost jovial, when Archimedes came flying through the window, looking panicked. Belle sprang to her feet, panic filling her too.

“Archie, where’s Arthur?”

“He was chased par a hawk,” puffed Archimedes, “and ended up in Madame Mim’s house!”

“Madame Mim?” Merlin sprang to his feet at once. “Come on, Belle, my girl, we’ve got to save him!”

“I hope he’s alright,” Belle murmured, before they were both swept magically straight through Madame Mim’s front door. Madame Mim was a sorceress with just as much power as Merlin, but she used it for evil rather than good. She was a short dumpy old woman with purple hair, but Belle knew to be wary of her.

“Mim!” exclaimed Merlin, looking around the room, which was wrecked as if a herd of chevaux had come clattering through it. “What were toi doing?”

Mim was sitting on the floor in the midst of the mess, holding Arthur. “Oh, Merlin,” she said, sounding flustered. “Oh, you’re just in time.” And she started patting Arthur’s head. “We were playing a little game.”

How little? Belle couldn’t help wondering, looking at the damage in the room.

“She was going to destroy me!” Arthur exclaimed.

“You witch!” Belle cried.

“And just what did toi two intend to do about it?” snapped Mim, marching right up to Merlin. “Want to fight? Want to have a wizard’s dual?”

Merlin bristled. “As toi wish, Madame!”

“Very well, then, step outside!”

“After you, Madame,” Merlin replied, politely, and Mim released Arthur and marched outside. Merlin followed her. Swallowing hard, Belle hurried outside, with Arthur in her wake.

“What’s going on?” asked Archimedes, landing beside them on a arbre branch.

“Madame Mim challenged Uncle Merlin to a wizard’s dual,” Belle said.

“What does that mean?” asked Arthur.

“Oh, it’s a battle of wits, see?” Archimedes told him. “The players turn themselves into different things in an attempt to destroy one another.”

“D-destroy?” Arthur stammered.

“Well, just watch, boy, you’ll get the idea.”

Belle sighed. “This isn’t going to be a fair dual. Madame Mim cheats; everyone knows that.”

“Now,” a dit Mim, turning as they stopped, “first of all, of toi don’t mind, I’ll make the rules.”

“Rules indeed!” scoffed Archimedes. “She only wants rules so she can break ‘em!”

“I’ll deal with toi later, featherbrain!” snapped Mim, causing Archimedes to puff up indignantly. “Rule 1: no mineral ou vegetable; only animal. Rule 2: no make believe things like rose dragons and stuff. Now, Rule 3: no disappearing!”

She pinched Merlin’s cheek, condescendingly. “Rule 4,” Merlin added, “no cheating!”

“Alright, alright,” grumbled Mim, as they stood back to back, “off on the count of four. One, two, three, four...”

And as Merlin marched off, she vanished.

“Merlin!” exclaimed Arthur in a strangled voice. “She disappeared!”

“Eh?” Merlin looked around. “Now, Mim, Mim, toi made the rules-!”

“Uncle Merlin!” screamed Belle as a large rose crocodile materialised behind him. Turning, Merlin quickly vanished magically inside his hat. Mim caught it, and, chuckling, delved a paw inside, only to shout “Ouch!” as a blue tortue with glasses bit her finger. Merlin landed on the floor and began to trot as fast as he could away from her, but Mim was faster and gaining.

“Change to something else, Merlin!” cried Arthur.

“Well, yes, yes,” snapped Merlin, flustered. “Give me time to think!”

He didn’t have time to think. “Hurry, Uncle Merlin!” screamed Belle, her voice hoarse.

“Hoppity...aha!” Melrin changed quickly into a blue hair and leapt away, only Mim snapped his tail in her jaws, pulling most of it off. “Now, really!” Merlin snapped, trying to wrench it from her, only for Mim to turn into a rose renard and chase after him again.

“Come on, something bigger!” cried Archimedes.

“Something smaller!” Arthur argued.

“Uncle Merlin!” Belle cried as both animaux colombe into a fallen log.

“Merlin?” called Mim from inside. “No disappearing!”

A small blue chenille, caterpillar hurried up from a hole in the haut, retour au début of the log and began to make his way along a small twig.

“Oh-ho-ho!” Mim chuckled, spotting him, and then a large fat rose hen came out from the log, jumped up and seized him in her beak.

“D’ouch!” Merlin exclaimed as, donné the elasticity in his body and Mim’s weight, he was flung off the log and into the air. Clucking happily, Mim ran around beneath, waiting for him to fall. But Merlin became a walrus and squashed her. “Mim? Mim? Are you...now what’s happening? What’s going on?” he exclaimed as a large rose éléphant materialised beneath him.

“You big blimp!” Mim snapped, seizing him in her trunk. But then Merlin became a souris and frightened Mim away. But then she became a rose and black tiger. “Watch me, will yer?” she exclaimed, jumping on him. She missed and Merlin was about to bite her tail when she became a snake. “Ah-ah-ah-ah, Merlin!” she chided, going to avaler, hirondelle him, but Merlin threw her tail in the way and she bit that instead. “Ouch! Ooh!”

“Bravo!” cheered Archimedes.

“Come on, Uncle Merlin,” Belle begged. “Outwit her!”

“Just toi wait!” Mim snapped, diving after Merlin into a hole in the ground. Merlin popped up through a hole the other side and pushed a stone under it. As Mim came up, she hit her head on the stone and fell down, dazed. Merlin turned into a crabe and snapped at her a few times, and then his claws clamped around a horn as a large rose rhino emerged from the ground. “So yer want to play rough do yer?” she asked. “Alright, Merlin, I’ll smash yer!”

She charged towards a broken tree, overlooking the river, but Merlin leapt aside and she became stuck in the trunk.

“Here I come, Mim!” Merlin cried. “Ready ou not!”

And he turned into a charging billy goat.

“Merlin, toi wouldn’t dare!” exclaimed Mim. “Merlin!”

But Merlin butted her and she and the arbre toppled into the lake. Then, Belle threw her hands over her mouth as a pinkish-purple dragon emerged from the lake.

“Now, Mim!” exclaimed Merlin, in a panic. “No dragons!”

“Did I say “no purple dragons?” Mim snarled. “Did I?”

Merlin ran for it as she spouted feu at him. He turned into a souris and colombe into the hole in the ground. “Leave him alone!” Belle cried, but Mim blew feu into the hole and up came Merlin, blowing his tail out. Mim caught him in her claws and hooted with triumphant laughter. “Oh-ho! I win! I win!”

“Oh, that horrible old witch!” Arthur cried. “I’ll peck her eyes out!”

“No, don’t!” Belle cried and Archimedes quickly held him back.

Chuckling, Mim opened her hands, but Merlin was...

“He’s gone,” Arthur said.

“Vanished,” Belle exclaimed.

“Disappeared,” Archimedes said.

“Madam, I have not disappeared,” a dit Merlin’s disembodied voice from nowhere. “I am very tiny. I am a germ. A rare disease. I am called malignalitaloptereosis... and you've caught me, Mim!”

“What?” exclaimed Mim.

Archimedes hooted with laughter. Belle joined him. “Nice one, Uncle Merlin!”

“First toi break out in spots,” Merlin told her, and Madame Mim did so. “Followed par hot and cold flushes, oh, and violent sneezing.”

And Mim let out a sneeze that sent a jet of feu their way. Belle, Archimedes and Arthur all ducked to avoid being burned.

“Oh, toi sneaky old scoundrel!” Mim shrieked, defeated.

Later, in Mim’s house, Merlin tok her temperature. “Oh, it’s nothing too serious, Madame,” he said, in a doctorly tone. “You’ll soon be as good, I mean as bad, as ever. I recommend lit rest, and lots and lots of sunshine.”

“I hate sunshine!” screeched Mim. “I hate horrible wholesome sunshine!”

Merlin, Belle, Archimedes and Arthur took this as their cue to leave. “You were brilliant, Merlin,” a dit Arthur. “But toi could have been killed.”

“He’s right,” Belle agreed.

“It was worth it,” Merlin replied, “if you’ve learned something from it, lad.”

Arthur thought for a minute. “Knowledge and wisdom is the real power.”

“Right toi are, boy, so stick to your schooling.”

“Oh, I will, sir!”

The suivant day, Belle made her way into the château to collect Arthur for his lesson. To her chagrin, the dining hall was not abandoned, as it had been the précédant morning. Kay was sitting on a chair, backwards, so his arms were lolling on the back of it. He gave her what she could only assume to be a flirtatious look. “Mornin’!”

“Good morning,” Belle replied, trying to be polite, as she glanced around the room. “Where’s Arthur?”

“Around,” Kay shrugged. “So, have toi heard? I’m to be knighted at Christmas.”

“I had heard,” Belle replied, stiffly. “Congratulations.”

Thinking about Christmas reminded her that she had Arthur’s Christmas present already hidden away up in the tower. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a scarf made from plain green wool, but she had spent a lot of time on it and she felt that Arthur probably hadn’t had a proper Christmas present before, ou indeed a proper present of any kind.

“Yep,” grinned Kay. “And then if I win this tournament, I could be King!”

“Really?” Belle asked, dully, wishing Arthur would hurry up and emerge from the kitchen, ou wherever.

“And then I’d be looking for a Queen.”

“Naturally.”

“So, how about it, then?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’d make a fine Queen.”

Belle laughed. “Look, Kay, ou rather Sir Kay, three things. Firstly, toi bully Arthur, and montrer him no kindness whatsoever. Secondly, I would marry for l’amour and not because some knight wants me. And thirdly, toi happen to be the most primeval, boorish, brainless oaf I have ever had the misfortune to meet in my life!”

Kay blinked. “So, is that a maybe?”

Belle smiled, sweetly. “Kay, I wouldn’t marry toi even if toi were the last man on Earth. I’d sooner marry a beast.”

That was when Arthur came hurrying up and Belle swiftly swept him up to the tower for another lesson.