Sky Horses: the Whispering Tree

by Linda Chapman

  Erin shoved the tree guide in her pocket with the diary and grabbed the warding stone. She squeezed it tight. Protect us. Protect us, she willed it.

  The ball of ice seemed to hit a wall and bounce away. Erin felt a rush of relief, but she knew her weather magic wasn’t very powerful yet and the warding stone she had made so hastily wouldn’t be strong enough to protect them from Marianne for long.

  Marianne advanced on them. ‘I want that diary,’ she said coldly.

  ‘No,’ said Erin, shaking her head and backing up towards the sea. ‘You can’t have it.’

  Marianne’s eyes glittered like blue ice. ‘Impudent child! Give it to me now!’ She pointed her hand at Erin’s pocket and muttered a word. Erin gasped as she felt the warding stone crack in two! Marianne swung round and pointed at Chloe. ‘Bind her!’ she snapped, shooting out white light again.

  Chloe didn’t move fast enough. She cried out, her voice cutting off abruptly as this time the magic did hit her. Her hands were pinned to her side as if held there by thick rope.

  Erin stared at her in dismay. She knew that the only way to break free from a binding spell was if the dark spirit casting it was distracted, but how could she do that? Suddenly she had an idea. She reached into her pocket for the diary.

  Marianne took an eager step towards her just as Erin had hoped, Marianne’s eyes on her and not on Chloe. ‘Hail be with me!’ Erin shouted, grabbing her opportunity and pointing at Marianne’s head with her other hand. Marianne looked up, properly distracted now as hail started to fall.

  Chloe took her chance and broke free of the binding magic, sending a fireball firing straight at Marianne’s feet. The dark spirit staggered back in surprise.

  ‘Come on, Erin!’ Chloe yelled, vanishing against the dark sky. Erin was just about to camouflage herself when Marianne sprang towards her. Swooping through the air, her body started to change shape, her arms becoming wings, feathers covering her body.

  Suddenly where Marianne had been there was now a black-feathered hawk with a curving beak and long talons!

  For a moment Erin was too astonished to move. The hawk flew straight at Erin’s face. Yelling in shock and alarm, Erin twisted away from the sharp beak. The hawk’s talons ripped through Erin’s pocket, through the thin fabric of her dress, slashing down Erin’s leg. As Erin cried out in pain, the hawk grabbed the book in her cruel beak before flapping her wings and shooting up into the sky. In an instant she had disappeared.

  ‘D-did you see that?’ stammered Chloe, appearing in the air again.

  ‘Marianne turned into a bird!’ Erin breathed. She looked down at her leg. The jagged scratch was bleeding heavily.

  ‘She got the diary,’ said Chloe in dismay.

  Erin reached into the remains of her pocket. ‘Not quite.’ She pulled out the small blue diary.

  Chloe stared.

  Erin smiled shakily. ‘She got your dad’s book on trees!’

  ‘Marianne’s got the wrong book?’ Chloe exclaimed.

  Erin nodded.

  ‘Oh cool!’ The delight on Chloe’s face changed swiftly to alarm and concern. ‘We’d better get out of here. She’s bound to realize and be back any minute! Come on!’ She grabbed Erin’s hand and flew up into the sky, camouflaging herself at the same time.

  ‘Camouflagus,’ Erin whispered, and her body disappeared too, blending into the starry background.

  They raced through the air, side by side. ‘You were right. Marianne must have been watching us earlier,’ hissed Chloe. ‘She must have heard us talking about the gateway and wants the diary because she thinks it will help her find out where it is!’

  They reached the woods and flew down into the clearing. Tor and Mistral were waiting for them. The young grey colt whinnied in greeting. ‘Hi, boy,’ said Chloe, stroking his neck.

  Tor looked at Erin’s face. He seemed to tell instantly that something was wrong. ‘What’s been happening?’ he asked as she went over to him shakily.

  ‘Lots.’ She told him about finding the diary and about looking at it on the beach and about Marianne appearing. ‘She turned into a bird,’ said Erin, looking down at the deep scratch on her leg. The blood had dried now, but it was still sore. She rubbed it. ‘She changed into a hawk, Tor. I didn’t know stardust spirits could do that.’

  Tor nodded. ‘Powerful stardust spirits can turn into animals and birds, but it is usually only dark spirits who do because it disrupts the balance of nature. You must make sure you carry a warding stone at all times, Erin.’

  ‘I should have brought one with me this evening,’ said Erin. ‘I did manage to find another on the beach, but Marianne cracked it. If only I’d come out with one in the first place – it would have warned me that she was coming and we could have got away before she arrived. I can’t believe I was so stupid!’ She sighed.

  ‘At least you’ve still got the diary,’ Chloe reminded her.

  Erin nodded. ‘My mum wrote lots of things about weather weaving in it.’

  ‘This could be very important. Keep it at your house,’ advised Tor. ‘It is not safe to carry it around. Now Marianne knows about it, I am sure she will come back and try to steal it from you again. You must read it carefully. It may tell us all we need to know.’

  Erin looked at him. There was something that had been on her mind ever since she had seen the vision of her mum. ‘Tor, how come I saw Mum? I mean, she’s… she’s dead.’

  ‘Visions can be of the past or the present,’ replied Tor. ‘When you are more practised with your powers, you will be able to use seeing stones to look into the past whenever you want.’ He glanced up at the sky; thick clouds were starting to edge across it. ‘We cannot talk more about it now. I need to appear to my herd.’

  If Erin and Tor worked together, Tor could appear to the horses in the sky and move among his herd while he was actually here on Earth. They would follow him and do as he commanded, letting him change the weather.

  Erin and Chloe set out hagstones in a circle. Mistral tried to help by rolling stones to the circle with his nose, but he always ended up pushing them too far. Chloe giggled at him and he butted her with his head. She rubbed his neck and he snorted happily. Erin smiled. It was sometimes hard to imagine that one day he would be as majestic as Tor, but already she could see it in the way he held his head, the pride in his eyes, the curve of his neck. She suddenly realized how lucky she was to be able to get to know and to talk to two sky horses.

  Tor stepped into the circle. ‘Are you ready, Erin?’

  Erin took a deep breath. Trying to clear her mind of Marianne and what had just happened, she nodded slowly. ‘Ready.’

  She followed Tor into the circle, her heart beating fast at the thought of doing weather-weaving magic again. He touched her shoulder with his nose and their eyes met. Sometimes they didn’t need to talk. Sitting down on the ground, she took a seeing stone out of her pocket. She remembered how nervous she had felt the very first time she had tried to work this type of weather magic with Tor just a few weeks ago. She was beginning to get used to it now. The stone felt as if it was trembling in her hand.

  Tor snorted softly. Erin stared at the hole in the centre of the seeing stone. The edges of her sight blurred. ‘Sky horses, I ask you to come,’ she murmured.

  Tor seemed to blur, dissolving from flesh and bone into silvery mist. The mist spiralled round and re-formed. Tor appeared again, the size of a model horse, his body almost see-through, his mane and tail glittering like snow crystals. Around the edge of the circle of stones other sky horses, all a similar size, started to appear. Some had their heads down grazing, others were playing or rolling. Erin watched them, knowing that it was an exact picture of what was happening in the clouds above them.

  A beautiful white mare with a sweeping mane and tail cantered up to Tor. Snowdance, thought Erin, Tor’s lead mare. Over the last few weeks she had got to know the horses, and she knew how fond Tor and Snowdance were of each other. Snowdance looked very relieved to see Tor. She s
topped in front of him and they touched noses, their eyes half closing.

  But they could not stand still for long. On the outskirts of the herd, there was a group of mares with foals who were pacing around anxiously, and a young stallion called Lightning and his friends were fighting. Erin watched as Tor trotted over to the mares. He moved proudly, his ears pricked, his tail floating like a banner. The agitated mares crowded round him. He moved among them, touching noses, breathing gently muzzle to muzzle. Slowly the tension left the horses and they began to look calmer.

  Meanwhile Snowdance went over to the young stallions. The fighting that had started playfully was becoming more serious. Lightning landed a kick on one of the other colts’ side and grazed his teeth down another colt’s shoulder. As Snowdance came over, he put his ears back and squealed at her as if daring her to stop him. She approached him, her own ears flattened. He turned round and kicked out with his back legs. Looking angry, she dodged his hooves and nipped him sharply on the back before closing in to bite the crest of his neck.

  Lightning began to canter away and then seemed to think again. He stopped and confronted the mare. Tor came galloping over. Lightning shot off. Tor chased after him, driving him on. The younger stallion soon began to tire. He lowered his head as if offering an apology. Tor stopped and let him slow to a walk. Lightning turned and looked at him. There was a long pause and then Tor snorted and Lightning walked slowly over. Tor turned haughtily and walked back to the herd with Lightning following him.

  Erin could have sat watching the sky horses all night, but Tor began to lead them across the stone circle. They followed him obediently. Tor led them all the way to the stones at the edge of the circle. There he stopped, but the other horses carried on walking and disappeared.

  Erin knew that if she looked up she would see the clouds above her disappearing over the horizon. When the circle inside the stones was clear, Tor looked at her and whinnied and Erin’s fingers closed over the hole in the stone. ‘End,’ she whispered.

  Darkness fell over her eyes. As it cleared, she blinked. Tor was standing in front of her, back to his normal size, his body solid again.

  ‘Snowdance is so beautiful,’ said Erin.

  ‘She misses me and Mistral very much,’ replied Tor heavily. ‘At least the skies are quiet again now,’ he said, glancing up. ‘But the unrest grows every day. Brief visits from me cannot keep the skies properly calm for long, the herd need a leader with them full time. Lightning is young but ambitious. His strength is growing. Snowdance will always stay loyal to me, and many others will follow her lead, but if I do not return, violent fights will break out among the herd and that will bring great storms to the coast. I must go home as soon as possible for the sake of my herd and the sake of people living here.’

  ‘We’ll find the gateway and get you back,’ said Chloe, from outside the circle. ‘We’ve found out what type of tree the whispering tree is and there are some clues in Erin’s mum’s diary about it. It’s near a cliff and it’s got holly bushes around it. We’re going to go and look for it.’

  ‘I hope you find it,’ said Tor worriedly.

  ‘We’ll try,’ Erin promised him.

  *

  But although she and Chloe flew around for several hours and saw all sorts of trees, even a few aspen trees, they couldn’t find an aspen tree growing in a place like the vision Erin had had and eventually they gave up for the night.

  When Erin got home, she flew in through her window and landed on her bedroom floor. ‘Stardust be gone,’ she whispered. A heaviness sank over her as she became her normal self again, her stardust dress turning into pyjamas. Stretching, Erin got into bed. She tucked the diary under her pillow. Tomorrow she would read some more.

  Erin woke up early the next morning. When she went downstairs, she found her dad in the kitchen, washing up from the night before. ‘Morning,’ he said.

  ‘Hi.’ Erin sat down, grateful for the peace and quiet.

  ‘Sleep well?’ her dad asked as he put a pan on the draining board.

  ‘Mmmm.’ Erin hesitated, remembering what she’d been going to ask him. ‘Dad?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, reaching for a towel.

  ‘Do you know anything about my great-grandmother – Mum’s granny. She was called Margaret.’

  ‘Yes, I met her quite a few times before she died,’ her dad said. ‘Why?’

  ‘Oh, Mum just mentions her in her diary,’ said Erin. ‘Did… did you ever meet May, her sister?’

  ‘No. I remember your mum saying May was the black sheep of the family. Apparently there was some big argument with Margaret when she was younger and after that she left the area. They never saw each other or spoke ever again. Your mum tried to trace her at one point, but her letters were returned unanswered. May must be dead now.’

  ‘Did she have any children?’ asked Erin eagerly.

  Her dad shook his head. ‘No.’ He put the tea towel down and came over. ‘Are you sure there isn’t something on your mind at the moment, love? First wanting to see your mum’s diaries and now all these questions…’

  ‘It’s nothing, Dad.’ Erin changed the subject. ‘Can I have some toast, please?’

  Her dad hesitated and then shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘White bread or brown?’

  ‘Have you read any more of the diary?’ whispered Chloe, when she and Erin met in the car park at the stables after school.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Erin. ‘But I’ve got it with me. I thought it would be safe to have it here and we can look at it later.’

  ‘Great,’ said Chloe. ‘Maybe we can find some more clues about where the gateway is.’

  Erin nodded. ‘I hope so.’ She glanced at the yard. ‘Let’s go and see what Jackie wants us to do today.’

  ‘I’m sure she’ll want you to catch your pony,’ Chloe teased her. ‘And groom your pony and ride your pony. Are you sure you’ll have enough time to think about any of the other ponies?’

  Erin punched her arm.

  They set off towards the yard but just then a silver Land Rover with a new trailer attached drove into the car park. Inside the trailer, a horse whinnied.

  ‘Smart trailer,’ commented Chloe. ‘It must be someone coming for a lesson…’ She broke off as the Land Rover stopped, the driver’s door opened and someone stepped out. Erin gasped.

  It was Marianne!

  CHAPTER

  Five

  Erin felt frozen to the spot. Marianne had been to the stable once before, but that was before they had known she was a dark spirit. Now she surveyed the car park. She was wearing black breeches and riding boots and a plain white fitted T-shirt. Her blonde hair was tied back in a neat knot at the base of her neck. She looked very elegant, but completely ordinary.

  Chloe grabbed Erin’s hand. ‘Quick! Run!’ she said in panic.

  They both ran up the yard. Erin glanced round and saw a cold, amused smile on Marianne’s face as she watched them.

  When the girls reached the top of the yard by the back stable block, they stopped, panting. ‘What’s she doing here?’ Chloe demanded.

  ‘She does know Jackie,’ Erin reminded her.

  ‘She’s up to something,’ Chloe groaned. ‘I wish we could talk to Tor.’

  ‘We can,’ Erin said, her fingers touching a long white hair that was wound carefully round her watchstrap. ‘I’ve still got the hair from his mane. I keep it with me all the time. I can use it to talk to him if I need to.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ said Chloe. ‘Ask him what we should do!’

  Erin checked there was no one around and closed her fingers on the hair. Tor, she thought. Tor, I need you.

  ‘What is it?’ Tor replied immediately.

  She felt a rush of relief as she heard his strong, warm voice.

  ‘Chloe and I are at the stables and Marianne’s here. What shall we do?’

  ‘Marianne is with you?’

  Erin heard the alarm in his voice. ‘Yes.’

  There was a pause. ‘Do nothing,’
he said at last. ‘She will not attempt to hurt you with so many other people around.’

  ‘But…’ Erin began.

  ‘There is nothing you can do. You cannot tell anyone about her true nature. They would not believe you. She will not harm you, I am sure, but stay close to other people just in case.’

  ‘OK,’ said Erin, her heart starting to slow down.

  ‘I will see you tonight,’ said Tor reassuringly.

  ‘Yes, tonight,’ replied Erin. Letting go of the hair, she looked at Chloe.

  ‘What did he say?’ demanded Chloe.

  ‘He doesn’t think she is after us.’ Erin repeated what Tor had said. ‘I guess we just keep out of her way.’

  ‘Suits me. I like the bit about sticking near to other people too!’ said Chloe.

  They walked cautiously back down the yard and stopped as they reached the tack room. Marianne was walking towards Jackie’s office, talking to Fran. Hanging back where she couldn’t see them, they watched as she went inside.

  Fran came over to the tack room.

  ‘Who… who was that woman?’ asked Chloe innocently, stepping forward. Erin heard a faint shake in her voice, but Fran didn’t notice anything odd.

  ‘Oh, just a friend of Jackie’s. She’s going to be keeping her two horses at livery here for a few months because she’s too busy to look after them at home.’

  Erin swallowed. That could mean Marianne coming down every day to the stables!

  ‘I bet her horses are lovely,’ Fran went on obliviously. ‘Did you see her trailer? It’s brand new.’

  Just then Jackie came out of the office with Marianne. They were chatting and smiling. ‘These three are some of my pony helpers,’ Jackie said. ‘You’ll probably see quite a bit of them when you’re here, Marianne. This is Fran and Erin and Chloe.’

  Marianne looked at Chloe and Erin and her mouth curved into a smile. ‘I’ve met you before, haven’t I?’ she said as if she didn’t really know them. ‘I hope you’ll be able to help show me around a bit.’