Kara felt dizzy. The trees were starting to sway around her. Fighting the queasiness, she looked closer. Greasy, stringy hair hung down, covering the old woman’s face. Her long dress was ripped in shreds, revealing patches of pockmarked . . . green skin! With long, gnarly green fingers, the tattered old crone spread the cloth on the rock—it was pink.
Kara’s world crumbled. Fear shot down her spine. It was her sweater! The pink sweater she had lost!
She froze, gasping for air.
The old woman turned to Kara. The . . . creature . . . had a woman’s face, but its skin was green and covered with horrible sores. Blood-red eyes were set deep at odd angles to a—there was no nose, just a ragged hole where a nose should have been. The creature’s mouth twisted as a hiss escaped through thin blue lips. The mouth contorted open, the hiss building into a howl. Kara’s hands flew over her ears and she screamed. The creature lurched, monstrous in her fury, clawing her way toward Kara.
EVERYTHING SEEMED TO slip into slow motion as Kara whirled around, slid on the muddy bank, and tumbled backward. One of her sneakers went flying. With dripping green claws, the ragged apparition reached for her. Something big flew at Kara and she scrambled sideways in the mud. She turned to see the cat standing between her and the ghoulish creature.
With a snarl, the cat bared fearsome fangs.
The monster howled incoherently, reaching and clawing.
Kara leaped to her feet and ran. “Ow, ow, ouch!” she shrieked as her sock-covered foot came down on sharp rocks. She gripped her gem and focused. Quick! A new pair of Nikes with shock soles! But no footwear materialized.
“Use your magic!” The cat’s voice was in her head.
“I’m trying!” Kara yelled back.
Think! Do what Adriane did. Kara concentrated. Left, right, arms together, swing tight . . . She pinwheeled her arms, whipping the crystal around, and landed on one knee, jewel pointed toward the monster. Tiny sparkles fizzled from the tip. Kara frowned. That cheer routine killed at the home game.
“Kara?”
“Over that way!”
Voices were approaching from beyond the trees. A moment later the animals came charging into the glade. In the lead was Balthazar the pegasus with Ozzie standing on his back.
“What is it?” a quiffle yelled.
“Another monster!” a brimbee cried in terror as the creature lurched toward Kara.
Ozzie jumped onto the pegasus’s head. “Kara, are you all right?”
“No!” Kara ran to the animals, shaking with fear. “That thing is after me!”
A cloud of swirling mist swept by and Stormbringer appeared. The great wolf bared teeth and growled low. Stormbringer and the cat closed ranks in front of Kara, blocking the advance of the creature.
Huddled in tattered rags, the horrid thing hissed, “Givesss me jewel!”
“No way!” Kara yelled. “I found it and it’s mine!”
“You found a jewel?” Ozzie asked.
“Yes, look. Isn’t it awesome?” She held up the crystal and felt it flare to life, sending energy prickling through her hand and up and down her arm. “It’s working!” she cried.
“Quickly, gather round!” Ozzie ordered. The pegasi crowded behind Kara; brimbees and the larger quiffles pressed in close. Storm and the cat stood on each side. The jewel blazed with light.
Suddenly, a string of colored bubbles popped above them. Dragonflies zipped out, diving and twirling. Screeching, the ragged ghoul swatted them with gnarled fingers. A bright golden dragonfly spiraled down. Piping, frantic screams cut off as it hit the water and vanished.
“Goldie!” Kara shouted in fear and anger. With her free hand she clutched the cat and the jewel exploded with fierce power.
Kara screamed as diamond fire shot straight up into the sky so unbearably bright she could see it even through her closed eyelids.
The monster hissed and backed away. Kara’s arms ached as she desperately fought to control the stream of magic. It was like trying to direct a tidal wave. The stream twisted back and forth like a fiery snake, knocking Kara to the ground as it dissipated over the glade.
She opened her eyes to see a ferret face staring at her, very concerned. Other animals surrounded her.
“What happened?” Kara asked.
“Storm sensed strong magic, then we heard screaming,” Ozzie said.
“And then we clobbered the monster!” Ronif added.
Kara got unsteadily to her feet and realized the creature had vanished. “Wow! My magic jewel totally evaporated the monster!”
The animals had helped her, Kara realized. They had supercharged her jewel, just like she always made Emily’s and Adriane’s gems go crazy!
“What was that thing?” she asked.
“It looked like a banshee,” Balthazar replied.
“A what?”
“A cursed fairy creature. But this one was worse. It was poisoned by the Black Fire.”
“Well . . . what’s it doing here?”
“I don’t know.”
Kara walked over and picked up her pink sweater. It was burned through with ragged holes. She flashed on the glowing green slime outside her bedroom window. That thing, that banshee, had been in her room! “What was it doing with my sweater?”
“Banshees practice strange magic,” Balthazar mused. “Their spells often include articles of clothing so they can track their victim.”
“Victim?” Kara repeated.
She looked at the jewel, now cool in her hand. She was nobody’s victim. Now she had her own magic jewel! Grabbing her sneaker, Kara followed the group down the trail back to the manor. She looked over her shoulder for the cat, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“HEY!” KARA BOUNDED into the library with Ozzie, Ronif, Rasha, and Balthazar.
Emily was examining a pile of books while Adriane rummaged through a collection of odd devices scattered about a tabletop.
Emily gasped and jumped to her feet. “What happened to you?”
Even Adriane was astonished when she saw Kara.
Kara was covered in mud. Her shirt was torn, her shoelaces were undone, her pink sneakers were caked with dirt. Her golden hair was wet, slick against her head, and full of grass and twigs.
“What do you mean?” she asked, beaming with joy.
“Are you all right?” Emily walked toward Kara, her rainbow jewel pulsing softly with turquoise light.
“Never been better.” Kara rocked back and forth, arms behind her back, hiding her secret for as long as she could.
Emily looked at the animals. “What happened?”
“You should have seen it!” Ozzie blurted out.
“Seen what?” Emily asked.
“Unbelievable!” Ronif exclaimed.
“We all helped,” Rasha stated.
“The cat helped, too,” Kara added with a smirk. “I talked to her.”
“You what?” Adriane walked over, amber light pulsing from her wolf stone.
“That’s right,” Kara said proudly, sliding sideways under the planetarium mobile. The clockwork mechanism suddenly came to life, comets and stars revolving and interweaving in a complex cosmic dance. Emily’s eyes widened at the sudden movement. Balthazar ducked to avoid the swinging pendulum.
“Just what I said, I talked to the cat—oh, and I got attacked by a monster,” Kara added. A comet swung by on an arc, following her. A shiny planet swept by, catching Ronif and whisking the startled quiffle into the air.
“The manticore is back?” Emily asked, shocked.
“Nooope, guess again,” Kara said coyly.
“Oh, my.” Ozzie stood on a table to study the intricate mechanism of the moving mobile. He tried to grab Ronif as the quiffle came swinging by, but a moon caught the ferret, swinging him into orbit. “Dooooohooo!”
Adriane was losing her patience, rubbing at the pulsing stone on her wrist. “If it wasn’t the manticore, what was it?”
“It was a homeless monster thingy from the magic world!”
Kara declared.
“A what?”
“Yeah, and it was washing my pink sweater.”
“Thank goodness you were there!” Adriane confirmed. “We can’t have monsters running around the preserve washing clothes.”
“Well, you weren’t even there, Miss Kung Fu show-off,” Kara gloated.
“It was a fairy creature,” Balthazar said, sidestepping as Ozzie and Ronif swung by. “A banshee, but horribly mutated, poisoned by Black Fire.”
“Oh, no! How did you fight it?” Emily asked.
“Hmmm, well, let me see . . . with my amazing personality? No . . . my striking good looks? No . . . my cutting-edge yet tasteful fashion sense?”
“Would you stop fooling around!” Adriane yelled.
“Maybeeeee . . . I used . . . this!” Kara whipped out the jewel from behind her back. It flashed like a diamond in the light, casting rainbow sparkles across the room.
Emily and Adriane stared openmouthed.
“A magic stone!” Adriane exclaimed.
“Where did you find it?” Emily asked.
“In the glade, where you found yours.” Kara stopped herself from saying, and it’s bigger, better—no, the best magic jewel ever! She swung her arm around, trailing glitter from the jewel’s tip. The clockwork planetarium sped up like a carnival ride.
“Help!” Ronif and Ozzie wailed.
“Kara! That jewel activated the mobile!” Emily exclaimed.
“Stop flashing that thing around!” Adriane said, jumping up and down, trying to grab Ozzie and Ronif as they swung by.
“I’m going to turn my room pink and stick Kyle in a tree and give all my friends new iPads.”
“Wise use of magical powers,” Adriane cracked as she pulled Ronif and Ozzie down.
“Kara, stop using your jewel. It’s doing something to mine!” Emily held up her wrist to show her gem shifting through rainbow colors.
“Has it changed?” Adriane asked Kara.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, both Emily’s and mine were rough stones when we first found them. They became polished and even changed shape after we started using them.”
Kara shrugged. “Mine doesn’t have to change. It’s perfect the way it is.”
“It’s very powerful. We all saw it,” Ozzie said.
“And it could be dangerous,” Emily cautioned.
“I am going to do the best magic, ever! It’s too big for my wrist, sooooo . . . I’m going to make a necklace!”
“Kara, I don’t think you should use it until we figure out how it works,” Adriane said.
“It works great!” Kara skipped around the room, drawing shapes in the air with magic sparkles. Her jewel flared brightly, briefly outlining sections of the walls. Faint images flashed as Kara danced by, as if her magic was an X-ray machine illuminating shapes behind the oak paneling.
“There’s something behind there.” Adriane pointed.
Emily noticed it also. “If Mr. Gardener’s computer is hidden, maybe we can find it if we all use our jewels together.”
“Okeydokey.” Kara liked this game, now that she was a real player.
The girls stood together in the center of the library.
Emily held up her rainbow jewel.
Adriane held up her wolf stone.
Kara raised her jewel between them.
“Concentrate on a computer,” Adriane said.
Blue-green and golden light flared from Emily’s and Adriane’s gems. They all clasped their free hands together.
Instantly the magic flowed into Kara’s jewel and silver-white light burst from its tip so intensely that all three girls recoiled. The magic stream slammed into the pink laptop, launching it across the room.
Kara shrieked, dropping the other girls’ hands. The magic fell away as Kara ran over to check out her laptop.
“Wrong computer,” Adriane stated.
“Magic works better when we help,” Balthazar offered.
The pegasus, two quiffles, and Ozzie moved in to surround the three girls.
“Okay, everyone. Let’s try it again,” Emily said.
Standing in the center of the library, once again the three girls clasped hands and held their jewels in the air. The animals closed their eyes. Magic flared from Emily’s and Adriane’s gems and flowed into Kara’s stone, sending diamond beams bouncing around the room.
The library lit up like a small city. Sections of wall glowed, revealing secret doors and hiding places, gadgets whirred and clicked, the clockwork planets and suns zipped around their orbits.
“Concentrate on a computer!” Emily called out.
“And don’t think pink,” Adriane said to Kara.
Magic swirled around the room, twisting and blending into a single ribbon of turquoise, gold, and diamond-white. Suddenly the magic crashed into a section of wall, making it light up from within. A large panel slid to the side, revealing a giant screen.
“Look! Widescreen TV!” Kara exclaimed.
The golden light of the domed ceiling flashed and blinked out, casting the room in darkness except for the cool, soft glow of the screen.
“Enough!” Adriane ordered.
The girls dropped hands and let their stones cool.
Suddenly points of light, brilliant and dazzling, flashed overhead. The girls and the animals looked up in awe as a giant star map twinkled across the domed ceiling. Then they heard a voice.
“Welcome to the magic web.”
“IT’S HIM!” EMILY gasped.
“Him who?” Kara asked.
“Mr. Gardener,” Adriane said, amazed. “He owns Ravenswood. He disappeared about two years ago.”
Ozzie, Ronif, Rasha, and Balthazar looked curiously at the man smiling at them from the large screen set back in the wall. He had long, gray hair and wore small, round glasses over keen blue eyes.
“What’s he doing in there?” Kara wondered.
“Mr. Gardener, is that really you?” Adriane asked the image on the screen.
But no answer came. The kind face just kept smiling.
“It’s a video file or something,” Kara said.
Emily noticed a tray under the screen. She touched it and a keyboard slid out. “Look!”
She hit the ENTER button. The bright star map across the domed ceiling dimmed and was replaced by the golden luminescence.
“Whoever has found this station, the magic is with you,” the image of Gardener announced. “I am sorry I am not here to greet you in person, for you must have many questions.”
“I’ll say.” Kara crossed her arms.
“There is a portal, a gateway, in Ravenswood that leads to a world called Aldenmor. Sealed for centuries, it has recently opened, signaling that the time of magic has come full circle and three mages would soon be arriving.”
His face faded, and the screen filled with sparkling lines like a Spirograph, lights marking various points along the grids.
Then Gardener’s voice continued. “There is a web that connects many worlds, including Earth. Magic flows along this web to where it is needed. But there are very few places left that hold true magic, and over the years, the web has grown weak. If we are to save the web, we need to renew the magic from its very source, a hidden place called Avalon.”
Fairimentals had come to the three girls and left them a message scrawled in the earth: Avalon. It was at the center of the whole magical mystery the girls had embarked upon.
“I have gone to seek great magic to aid you on your quest. If you are viewing this message, then I have not yet returned to begin your training. I cannot say if I have fallen to dark forces but I can tell you this: be careful, young mages. Nary a corner of the web does not lie in some danger from a fearsome enemy. She is a magic master, twisted in her selfish desire to hoard magic and use it for herself.”
The image of Gardener paused, his eyes focused on them.
“This is your time, young mages. I have faith you will find what you need to fulfill your destiny.
Good luck to you.”
The face of Henry Gardener faded, replaced by a blank screen.
“What was that all about?” Kara asked, incredulous.
“Mr. Gardener’s last message before he left,” Emily ventured.
Ozzie scratched his chin. “Something is wrong. Gardener was expecting mages, not monsters.”
“What exactly is a mage?” Adriane asked.
“A magic user,” replied Balthazar.
“So Gardener was supposed to teach us about all this magic stuff,” Kara huffed. “Thanks a lot for the help!”
“Now he’s gone and he left us with nothing!” Adriane said angrily.
“What am I?” Ozzie leaped onto the keyboard. “Chopped barleycorn?”
“Of course not!” Emily kissed his furry head. “You’re perfect.”
“Well . . . I . . .” Ozzie swooned and sat backwards on the keys and a cursor appeared onscreen. It was a dreamcatcher icon with jewels positioned top, bottom, left, and right, like the points of a compass.
“Whoa!” Ozzie scrambled to his seat as assorted icons appeared: animals, jewels, and one of Ravenswood Manor.
Emily moved the cursor over the icons. One by one, different images of Ravenswood appeared: pictures and text about the wildlife preserve and rare animals that had lived there at one time or another.
“It must be the original Ravenswood files!” Emily exclaimed.
“Wow, so cool! Look at all this stuff on it,” Adriane said.
“Good job, ferret.” Kara looked at her watch. “Now how do we link it to the town council?”
Emily turned to the others. “Mr. Gardener went to a lot of trouble to keep this a secret. What if we had two sites?” she suggested. “We set up the Ravenswood Preserve site as our homepage for tour information and list the animals we can show on the tour, like Ariel and the other birds, Storm, peacocks, deer—but we also make a second level, our own password encoded site.”
“I like it, a secret site,” Adriane said, smiling. “A website about magic—a magic web.”
“Cute.” Kara rolled her eyes. “You gonna design a space station too while you’re at it?”
“Well, we can at least get our homepage up,” Emily said. “But I don’t think we should link it until we check out everything on here. You heard the message: We have to be careful.”
All That Glitters (Avalon: Web of Magic #2) Page 4