All That Glitters (Avalon: Web of Magic #2)

by Rachel Roberts

  Crash!

  A fur-covered thing landed in the middle of the picnic table. Food and drinks went flying. Kara and her friends screamed and jumped back as their uninvited visitor shook salad dressing off one back paw and snarled.

  “Whoa!” Joey fell over backward, startled. The other boys sprang from their table. Kids ran over to see what all the excitement was about, forming a ring around Kara’s table and the creature that stood there.

  IT WAS BIG, the size of a leopard. Spotted fur grew in random patches. Its body was crisscrossed with ugly scars. Dangerous eyes flashed across the crowd—and settled on Kara. She shrieked and tried to dodge behind Molly, who squealed, pushed Kara away, and ran behind the tree. The big cat looked at them, eyes narrowed, wild and glowering, and stalked down the table toward Kara.

  Everyone panicked, yelling in confusion and excitement.

  “What is that thing?”

  “Ewwwww, it’s disgusting!”

  “Oh, man, that thing is wicked!”

  “Someone do something!”

  “Here, kitty, kitty.” Adam was holding out his half-eaten burger, trying to lure the cat away.

  “Don’t feed it, you moron!” yelled Tiffany.

  Kara froze, trembling, caught in the fierce glare of icy green cat eyes. Tiffany and Heather edged away from the table, but the cat didn’t even glance at them. It made a noise halfway between a mew and a croak, looking right at Kara.

  “Kara, run!” Tiffany cried.

  But she couldn’t.

  The cat held Kara’s gaze, its eyes searching. And suddenly Kara felt a sadness so intense she almost burst into tears.

  A carton of milk splattered across the cat’s back. She whirled, baring gleaming white fangs.

  Joey closed in, waving a large stick. “Here, kitty!” The cat dug its front claws into the wooden table with an audible crunch. Scraggy fur stood straight up, making her look even bigger and scarier. The cat arched its back, bared gleaming fangs, and growled.

  “Uh . . . good kitty.” Joey backed off uncertainly.

  The cat hissed ferociously—then lunged at him.

  Joey leaped back, tripping over his own feet. “Help! Get it off!” he cried.

  Gold light suddenly flared in the crowd.

  “Stop it!” A tall, thin girl with long black hair stood between Joey and the cat. Adriane. Her eyes flashed with fury, daring anyone to make a move. No one did.

  “Just back away,” she said evenly. “She won’t hurt you.”

  “Let me through!” Another girl pushed her way in. She had long, curly auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail. Emily. She ran right over to the animal, completely unafraid.

  “Are you all right?” she asked softly, rubbing her hand gently over the cat’s back, wiping away the dripping milk.

  The cat looked at Emily and allowed the girl to check her over.

  “Is she okay?” Adriane asked over her shoulder.

  “I think so,” Emily answered.

  Adriane turned to Kara. “What did you do?”

  Everyone stared at Kara.

  “It’s that creepy girl who lives in the woods, Adriane something,” Kara heard Tiffany tell Heather.

  “The other one is Emily Fletcher,” Heather responded. “Her mom’s the vet.”

  Kara gaped in disbelief. This was too much. How dare Adriane take that tone with her! Right in front of everybody!

  Blue light sparkled as Emily’s bracelet slid down her wrist. Quickly she shoved her hand into her pocket, hiding her rainbow gemstone. “It’s okay, Adriane,” Emily said. She explained to everyone, “The cat lives at Ravenswood Preserve.”

  “What’s it doing here?” Molly demanded.

  “It could bite somebody!” Kyle called out.

  Joey pushed forward. “Look at it. It’s got rabies or something.”

  “She does not have rabies and you stay away from her!” Adriane was instantly in his face, fists balling at her sides.

  Joey stepped back, embarrassed.

  Kara noticed the gem at Adriane’s wrist pulsing with gold light.

  Adriane looked at Kara, then at her bracelet, and backed away. “She must have wandered down here, that’s all.”

  “And Kara found her,” Emily added.

  “I didn’t find your cat, it found me,” Kara told Emily.

  Emily eyed Kara with interest.

  “Ahh!” Molly shrieked and ran behind Kara. “It’s in the tree!”

  While they’d been arguing, the cat had leaped from the picnic table up into the big tree. Nimbly leaping from branch to branch, she found a way into the next tree, over the school fence, and into the woods beyond. Emily called after her, but the cat had disappeared.

  As kids returned to their tables, Emily turned to Kara. “We have work to do this weekend.”

  Tiffany, Heather, and Molly shot Kara a look.

  Emily noticed and quickly added, “We’re setting up the Ravenswood Wildlife Preservation Society. It’s like an independent school project.”

  “Kara, you’re going to be working with them?” Molly asked, right in front of Emily and Adriane.

  “In the woods?” Tiffany added, her face contorted in disgust.

  “I can’t believe you’d want to have anything to do with that,” Heather scoffed.

  “Well, it was all Kara’s idea, actually. She’s president,” Adriane informed them with a smirk.

  The girls all looked at Kara again. She gave Adriane a fierce glower, but she really felt like diving under the table.

  Luckily the bell rang for afternoon classes. As kids hustled their trays to the disposal stations, the buzz was loud and clear: this was the coolest first day of school ever!

  “We’ll see you on Saturday,” Emily said as they started to head back inside.

  “I thought you were seeing us Saturday,” Molly pouted. “Shopping and then the barbecue.”

  Kara hushed her friend, but she saw that Emily had heard. “Look, I promised my dad I would . . . look after things for him.”

  “It’s so creepy!” Tiffany exclaimed.

  “I’ll be back in plenty of time for the barbecue,” Kara assured them. “Just come over at six.”

  Kara led Molly inside. She sensed Heather and Tiffany softly whispering behind her back. Her ears burned.

  This was not going at all like she had planned. How could she tell her friends what was really going on at Ravenswood? If they only knew how incredible those jewels were, what you could do with them. She sighed. At least she didn’t look like a complete lunatic—the cat was real. But why was it stalking her? She hoped all this weirdness was over, but she had a bad feeling it was just getting started.

  ON SATURDAY, THE air tingled with the scent of pine and moss as Kara walked up the road that led to the Ravenswood Preserve.

  Heather, Tiffany, and Molly had made it clear they totally disapproved of her plans to work with Emily and Adriane. Kara felt irritated. How’d she end up in the middle of her best friends and . . . well . . . them?

  Okay, so Emily and Adriane were the only other two human beings on Earth who knew that the magic was real. But at school, they were so . . . unpopular. Hanging with them could make her unpopular as well—right? Yet the adventure they had shared still played across her mind, a fairy tale with magic and magical creatures.

  Well, there’s room for only one princess in this fairy tale. If she was going to be president of the Ravenswood Wildlife Preservation Society, she would have to get her own magic jewel—and soon! She’d make it up to Moll, Tiff, and Heather tonight.

  Emily and Adriane were waiting for her as she approached the twin iron gates of the Ravenswood Preserve entrance.

  “How are you doing, Kara?” Emily asked.

  “Terrific,” Kara answered sarcastically.

  The tall gates creaked as Adriane pushed them open.

  “So, what do we do first?” Kara adjusted her rhinestone-studded tote and followed them up the gravel road.

  “Adriane’s
gran said there’s a computer in the library,” Emily explained. “We thought we’d see if we can find it. We know the preserve used to have a website.”

  “Fine,” Kara answered. “Let’s just do this. I have a party to get ready for.”

  “We wouldn’t want to keep you from your friends.” Adriane tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and glared at Kara. Kara glared back as the girls made their way toward the manor. The woods were quiet and peaceful in the warm afternoon sunlight. That lasted about three seconds.

  “You should’ve told us right away the cat was on school grounds!” Adriane said angrily.

  “Oh, now I’m supposed to report to you?” Kara was really getting annoyed. “Who put you in charge, anyway?”

  “You gonna turn around and have the cat hunted down, too?”

  Kara stopped and crossed her arms.

  Emily quickly inserted herself between the two. “Adriane, Kara didn’t know Phel wasn’t a monster.”

  “Don’t take her side, you always do that!” Adriane accused Emily.

  Kara was fuming. “You got the preserve back! You and Gran have a place to live, as quaint as that is. What is your problem?”

  “You are!” Adriane didn’t skip a beat. “We don’t hear anything from you for two weeks and then you waltz right in as if nothing has happened.”

  “So what? I’ve been busy.”

  “But something has happened, hasn’t it, Kara?” Emily asked softly.

  Kara shook her head. “Look, let’s just get the site online so I can tell my dad it’s done, and you can go play all you want with your—”

  Adriane narrowed her eyes. “Our what?”

  “Never mind,” Kara said, turning away behind her curtain of golden hair.

  “Go ahead, let’s get this out.” Adriane moved around to face Kara. “You can’t stand the fact that we have magic jewels and you don’t!”

  “Adriane—” Emily touched her friend’s arm.

  “No!” Adriane continued, shaking Emily’s hand off. “I don’t have to take this attitude from Miss Perfect, with her perfect clothes and her perfect friends!”

  “Now that you mention it, I don’t have a jewel,” Kara shot back. “I have school now, and . . . things to do.”

  “So do we!” Adriane stepped back and assumed a fighting stance. Kara tensed.

  Adriane spun in a balanced martial arts move. She swung her arm and a ribbon of golden light spiraled from the gem at her wrist. She whipped the stream of light into a golden ring. The dark-haired girl gracefully moved her arms, and the ring settled around Kara. Adriane resumed her stance, neat and slick. Magic sparkles danced around Kara and winked out.

  Kara’s mouth hung open as twinkly sparks tickled her skin.

  “We’ve been busy, too,” Adriane said, and turned away to continue down the road.

  A cloud of mist swirled out from between the trees. The mist seemed to fold in on itself and grow darker, then vanished as Stormbringer appeared. The great silver-gray wolf padded over to Kara.

  “We’ve been waiting for you.” The sound of the wolf’s voice in her head was startling. “You . . . you have?”

  Kara looked into gentle, golden wolf eyes.

  “The animals want to thank you for saving this home.”

  “They do?” Kara asked, looking at Emily.

  “They’re all anxious to see you, Kara,” Emily told her.

  “They are?” Kara looked at Adriane.

  Adriane gave Kara a curt nod.

  “We’ve also mapped a tour route of the preserve for you to show your dad and the town council,” Emily said.

  “Our special animal friends will hide in the glade when the tours are scheduled,” Adriane continued.

  “Wait till you see, Kara, it’s so cool!” Emily’s eyes sparkled.

  Suddenly Kara felt as if she’d been left behind. What had happened here in the two weeks since she convinced her father to let the girls work at the preserve?

  They rounded a bend and entered the grand circular driveway in front of Ravenswood Manor. With its towers and stained glass, the amazing old building looked like a castle. Ivy crawled up the stone walls to reach gargoyles perched under the eaves. Kara thought it looked haunted.

  “What about the manor?” she asked. “Will that be part of the tour?”

  “We haven’t explored much of it yet,” Emily responded.

  “The garden tours and website should keep the council off our backs till we figure out how much of the manor we want to include,” Adriane added.

  Kara was actually starting to get excited. Emily and Adriane were really taking this seriously.

  “Come on.” Emily laughed as she walked around the cobblestone path that skirted the manor. “Ozzie’s with the animals out back.”

  Kara and Adriane followed, glaring at each other.

  “Show-off!”

  “Barbie!”

  “Come on, hurry!” Emily shouted, running onto the manicured sea of grass that was the great lawn behind the manor. Kara was surprised by a cacophony of neighing, bleating, hooting, and other less identifiable sounds. Before her stood a herd of animals.

  “All right, everyone. Calm down.” A gold-and-brown ferret paced back and forth in front of the crowd like a small furry general.

  The animals surged forward, bounding over the ferret.

  “Gah!” came his muffled response.

  Incredible animals surrounded Kara: butterfly-winged horses, green-and-purple-striped deer with long, floppy ears, silver duck-like things, and others even more outrageous. Kara felt giddy.

  “I am Ronif,” one of the silver duck-things announced—quiffles, Emily had said they were called. “Emily and Adriane told us how you helped to give us a home here.”

  “Stories will be passed down to generations of quiffles,” another quiffle proclaimed.

  “The town allowed the preserve to stay open,” Kara said modestly. “I really didn’t do much.”

  “You helped fight off the manticore!” a winged pony said.

  The animals cheered.

  The ferret came bounding over. “Welcome back, Kara. Your friends missed you.”

  “I don’t know about that, Ozzie,” Kara said, bending down to speak to him. “Things seem to be going fine here without me.”

  “Nonsense. It’s been much too boring.” The ferret smiled.

  Kara grinned, though she was a little embarrassed to be talking to a ferret. Well, not really a ferret, she reminded herself—he claimed to be an elf trapped in a ferret body, but Kara had her doubts. Would an embattled world of magic really send a ferret to find help against the forces of evil?

  Emily stepped forward. “Okay, everyone, roll call!”

  With quacks, neighs, and a hoot, the animals quickly fell into line, shoulder to shoulder across the lawn. A large, white snow owl glided gracefully out of the sky to land on Emily’s arm. Turquoise and lavender glistened in her wing feathers.

  “I’m here.”

  “Thank you, Ariel,” Emily said. “You remember Ariel,” she said to Kara.

  Kara gave the magnificent owl a little wave.

  Emily took out a notebook and began to check off her list. “Pegasi?”

  “We’re here,” a winged pony announced.

  “Thank you, Balthazar. We have four pegasi,” she said so seriously that Kara almost laughed.

  “Quiffles?”

  “All here,” Ronif announced. Adriane scooped up four baby quiffles, and immediately the other little ones tried to leap up into her arms. She fell over in the grass laughing, covered in quiffle kisses.

  “There are six adults and twelve babies.” Emily checked them off, then looked around. “Where’re the jeeran, Ozzie?”

  “Running in the field,” Ozzie said, a little annoyed. “They can’t stand still for more than two minutes!”

  Kara looked across the lawn and saw the tail end of a green-and-purple-striped deer soaring over a hedge.

  “We also have sevent
een jeeran,” Emily commented proudly, as if she were talking about normal deer, not some magical creatures from another world! She looked back at her list. “Brimbees?” she called out briskly.

  “Here!” came a light, breathy voice.

  Kara stared at what looked like big blue rabbits with iridescent dark blue spots.

  Emily nodded. “Okay, that’s everyone.”

  A small golden-winged creature about the size of a bat zipped up between the brimbees and hovered in front of Kara. It gave a squeak, its jeweled eyes dancing brightly.

  “Who are you?” Emily asked, looking over her list.

  “Skookee!” The bird-thing buzzed around Kara’s head, picking at her long hair.

  “Hey!” Kara ducked, swatting it away.

  Ariel eyed the little flier with a hungry hoot.

  The gold bird-thing gave a loud squawk, zipped off, and vanished.

  “What was that?” Kara asked, brushing her hair back into place.

  “I don’t know.” Emily re-checked her call sheet. “Anyone come through this morning?”

  “Not on my watch!” Ozzie answered stoutly.

  “Ozzie, this is a sanctuary,” Adriane reminded him.

  A large shape slunk behind the pegasi. Kara caught the glint of green eyes.

  The big cat watched her, casually turned, and walked away.

  “And, of course, the cat,” Emily said. “She comes and goes, but she sure seems to be interested in you.”

  “I’ll say!” Kara blurted out. “The school’s going to be talking about it for weeks!”

  “Yeah, so will the town council,” Adriane said, depositing the baby quiffles back with the adults. “Including that horrible Mrs. Windor,” she added with a shudder. “She’s been against Ravenswood from the start. If she hears about a wild animal showing up at school, our wildlife preserve, and my home, are as good as gone.”

  KARA FOLLOWED THE other girls through a back door into the manor. Inside, a short set of steps led to the first floor. Wide hallways lined with paintings opened onto bright sitting rooms filled with plush furniture.

  “Wait till you see the library, come on!” Emily said as she propelled Kara up a steep staircase, down a hallway, and into a room straight out the nineteenth century.