Sky Horses: the Whispering Tree

by Linda Chapman

  ‘Of course you can’t,’ said Chloe, horrified.

  ‘But I can’t give her the diary either. Oh, Chloe, what do you think she meant by saying she knows where I live? Do you think she meant she would go to my house and steal the diary, or maybe… maybe that she would do something to my family?’ Erin felt tears start in her eyes. She’d been worrying about it ever since she had seen Marianne that afternoon. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

  Chloe squeezed her hand. ‘It’s OK. We’ll find the entrance that leads to the gateway, set Tor and Mistral free, seal the gateway like your mum talks about and then Marianne can’t do anything, even if she does get the diary!’

  Seeing the determination in Chloe’s eyes, Erin felt a little bit better.

  ‘Come on, let’s start looking right away!’ said Chloe.

  They flew over the beach, their eyes scanning the cliffs to the side of them. ‘How about we go round the headland,’ said Chloe. ‘We haven’t looked on the other side yet.’

  ‘OK,’ agreed Erin. They flew on, past the rocks at World’s End, two tall stones like fingers pointing at the sky and the blasted remains of the giant hagstone that had once been big enough for adults to climb through. It was now broken into pieces that lay on the rocky spit of land. Erin had heard her dad saying that people thought it must have been hit by lightning, but she and Chloe knew the truth. It had been hit by powerful magic – her magic and Marianne’s. As Erin thought of the moment when the magic had hit and the stone had exploded, she shuddered. It had been really scary. Marianne could have injured them, done anything to them, if her magic hadn’t collided with Erin’s and hit the stone.

  They were flying on the other side of the headland now. They didn’t usually go round to that side of the headland because the sea was wilder and the winds stronger. The coastline looked different too. When the sea was in, it came right up to the bottom of the cliffs so there was no beach, just rocks. The cliffs were steeper, with bare expanses of soil and gravel, broken only by tufts of long grass and pale tree roots sticking out. There were trees along the tops of the cliffs.

  Chloe frowned. ‘The aspen tree could be one of those trees.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Erin was feeling strange. Her skin was prickling. She reached for the warding stone she had put in her pocket earlier. It felt icy cold. Her heart flipped with fear. ‘Chloe! I think Marianne might be watching us. The warding stone is really cold. Let’s camouflage our –’

  But before she could say anything else there was a savage, shrieking scream. Both girls jumped as a large, black-feathered hawk appeared out of nowhere and dived straight towards Erin, cruel beak open.

  Erin dodged just in time, the stone cracking in her hands as the hawk flew straight at her. ‘Camouflagus!’ she gasped as the hawk’s beak slashed at the air just where she had been hovering.

  She saw Chloe disappear at the same time. They had to get away! Hoping that Chloe would be thinking the same, Erin began to fly upwards so that she could fly over the hawk and across the cliff top, but as she did so she saw the hawk change back into Marianne.

  The dark spirit turned, her back to the cliff, knowing they were there in the darkness. Raising her hands she pointed to the sky. ‘Rain be with me!’ she commanded.

  Rain began to pour down out of the sky – not just light rain like Erin could conjure, but falling in a deluge. Erin gasped and struggled to keep her camouflage up as it poured over her head. She looked at Marianne and saw that she had somehow managed to cast a magic barrier around herself so that the rain fell around her but not a single drop fell on her. Water streamed over Erin’s hair and down her body. She dashed it from her eyes, just in time to see Marianne raise her hands again.

  ‘Hail be with me!’ Erin heard Marianne snap out and suddenly the rain changed to hailstones, balls of ice as big as marbles.

  Erin cried out as they battered against her. It felt as if someone was pelting her with stones. Putting up her hands to shield her face, she tried to fly upwards, but it was impossible. The hail was forcing her down towards the jagged rocks. She couldn’t see anything. Where was Chloe? How close was she to the rocks below?

  Erin knew she had lost her camouflage, but that was the least of her worries. The hailstones beat against her, driving her lower and lower.

  Tor, she thought desperately, her hand reaching for the hair round her watch. Tor, help us!

  CHAPTER

  Nine

  ‘Cease!’ Marianne hissed.

  The hail vanished. Erin looked around, panting. The sky was dark and clear, still again, lit by the full moon. She saw Chloe beneath her, very close to the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff, gasping for breath. A minute later and Chloe would have been driven straight into them. Marianne’s eyes glittered as she held out her hand. ‘I want the diary, Erin. I know you have it with you. I was watching from the darkness and I saw you put it into your pocket. Give it to me.’

  ‘No,’ said Erin, shaking her head.

  Marianne pointed at the skies again. ‘Hail be with me!’ she snapped.

  The hail started again. Erin heard Chloe scream.

  ‘Stop it!’ yelled Erin, fear for Chloe exploding through her. ‘Stop it! You can have the diary!’

  The hail ceased.

  Marianne looked at Erin triumphantly. ‘I thought you’d see sense.’

  Erin gave Chloe a desperate look.

  Chloe glanced at the cliff and then gasped, ‘Give it to her!’

  Erin felt a flicker of surprise. She’d thought that Chloe would try to persuade her not to. She hesitated.

  Marianne raised her hands again.

  ‘Do it, Erin!’ Chloe urged.

  Erin made up her mind, grabbed the diary and thrust it into Marianne’s hands. If Marianne conjured more hail, Chloe would be driven on to the rocks and injured badly. She couldn’t let that happen.

  Marianne raced upwards as Chloe started to fly towards Erin. ‘Now, I cannot be stopped!’ the dark spirit cried. ‘I will control the skies!’

  ‘We’ll stop you!’ Chloe shouted fiercely.

  ‘Really?’ said Marianne. ‘Hail be with me! Fog be with me!’ The words snapped out and the next moment the hail started to fall again, but it was worse this time because a thick mist swirled around them too.

  Erin could see nothing but white, could feel nothing but hailstones battering into her body. She didn’t know where she was flying. She was lost in a white world, unable to see anything. ‘Chloe!’ she shouted, reaching out desperately. ‘Chloe! Where are you?’

  ‘I’m near the cliff! Help!’

  Erin dived down as best she could, her hand reaching out blindly as she tried to work out where Chloe was. Her fingertips touched Chloe’s. Chloe grasped on. The hailstones battered down at them. They tried to fly upwards, but the battering of the frozen ice was too strong. They were both forced downwards.

  ‘We’re going to hit the rocks!’ yelled Erin, holding on tight to Chloe’s hands. She tensed her body, waiting to crash into the rocks.

  But as she did so she felt a warmth swirl around her, the feel of a horse’s mane, a smooth shoulder, breath on her hair.

  ‘Tor?’ gasped Erin.

  ‘Hold on to me,’ said Tor’s voice calmly. Erin grasped blindly at the air around her. Her hands found Tor’s neck, his long mane. He was not solid, like a real horse. He was in his cloud form. She could feel him, but at the same time her hands seemed to sink through him as if they were pressing on freshly fallen snow. ‘Chloe, hold on to Mistral!’ said Tor. ‘He is beside you. See us in your heads and you will be able to feel us more solidly beside you.’

  Erin imagined Tor, seeing his proud head, his arched neck, his broad back. Her arms wrapped round his neck and she felt him suddenly solid beneath her.

  His mane flowed around her. She felt him begin to gallop upwards and was aware of Mistral and Chloe to her right. The two cloud horses swept them out of the mist and landed on the cliff top by some trees. The hail was still falling, but less hard,
and the mist that was swirling over where they had been looked like it was starting to clear.

  ‘Can you get rid of the hail and rain now you are safe, Erin?’ Tor asked. ‘With Marianne gone, the magic will be weakening.’

  Erin pointed a hand at the mist and hail and felt stardust magic tingle through her. ‘Hail be gone! Mist be gone!’

  Gradually the hail stopped and the mist cleared.

  Chloe breathed out. ‘That was horrible! I thought we were going to die.’

  Tor pawed the ground. ‘Luckily Erin called to me, and Mistral and I managed to get here in time.’

  The colt snorted and rubbed his head against Chloe. ‘I’m OK,’ Chloe told Mistral. ‘Thank you for rescuing me.’ She hugged him impulsively.

  ‘And thanks for rescuing me,’ Erin said to Tor. She didn’t quite dare to hug him as Chloe had, but she stroked his neck. Since they had landed, he and Mistral had turned back into the usual real-horse forms and he felt reassuringly solid.

  ‘What’s been happening?’ Tor demanded.

  Erin felt sick as the memories came flooding back. ‘It’s awful, Tor. Marianne’s got the diary.’

  Tor snorted in alarm. ‘What?’

  ‘I’m really sorry. I had to give it to her,’ said Erin. She looked at Chloe for back-up, but Chloe had left Mistral and was looking around curiously at the trees. ‘I thought she was going to hurt Chloe on the rocks.’ Erin’s eyes filled with tears as she realized how much she had let Tor down. ‘I didn’t want to give it to her.’ She loyally didn’t mention that Chloe had told her to. ‘Now she’s got it, she’ll find the clues to where the gateway is and if she finds it before us she’ll use it to get control of the skies before you can get back there and stop her and there’ll be storms and floods and everything.’

  To her surprise, Tor nuzzled her. ‘Erin, you did what you had to.’

  ‘And it doesn’t matter anyway,’ said Chloe, swinging round from investigating the bushes around them. ‘She’s not going to find it before us.’ They all looked at her. Her eyes shone. ‘Because I think we’ve just found the gateway ourselves!’

  CHAPTER

  Ten

  Erin frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Look!’ Chloe swept her arm around. ‘These are holly bushes! And there’s an aspen!’ She pointed to a tree near the edge of the cliff. It had a thick grey trunk, and leaves that seemed to tremble and rustle in the breeze. Erin had been so busy talking to Tor that she hadn’t noticed. Thick bramble bushes clustered round its base, but the vision of her mum sitting writing in her diary flashed into Erin’s mind. If the brambles weren’t there…

  She looked around. This could be just the place she had seen her mum in the vision!

  ‘Yes, this could be the right tree,’ she said.

  ‘It’s not just the tree that makes me think this is the place where the gateway might be,’ Chloe went on. ‘When Marianne had almost driven me on to the rocks, I saw a cave in the cliff below. It’s hidden from above by a ledge and the sea would hide it when the tide is in. I saw it and wondered if it could be what we were looking for. That’s why I said to give Marianne the diary. I thought if she had it she’d leave us alone and we could look around. Hopefully she’s gone back to her house and is reading through it to try and find where the gateway is so we’ve got some time.’

  ‘Oh, clever stardust spirit,’ Tor said. Chloe looked delighted. He stepped forward and nuzzled her cheek.

  ‘You were amazing to notice the cave, Chloe!’ said Erin. ‘I couldn’t think about anything but the rocks.’

  ‘I was just further down than you,’ said Chloe modestly. ‘You’d have noticed it too, I bet.’

  ‘Maybe the gateway is really near us,’ said Mistral in excitement.

  ‘If it is here we have to get to it from below,’ Erin remembered. ‘That’s what the diary says.’

  Chloe flew into the air. Erin followed her and the two horses dissolved into their misty cloud form and cantered up into the sky. They all swooped over the cliff edge. The sea was still out.

  ‘Look, there it is!’ said Chloe, landing very carefully on the sharp rocks. She pointed to an overhanging ledge that was about two metres up the cliff. Erin landed beside her and saw a cave entrance underneath the ledge. It was made from a slab of rock and it hid the cave well. Erin looked inside. The cave was really dark and the floor was covered with pools of water.

  ‘We have to go in,’ she said. ‘But it’s so dark. We won’t be able to see a thing. I wish we’d got a torch.’

  ‘Hang on!’ said Chloe. She raced up to the cliff top and returned with two fallen branches. ‘Fire be with me,’ she said, pointing her hands at the top of them. They burst into flame. Chloe handed one gingerly to Erin. ‘I don’t know how long they’ll last, but they should help us for a little bit.’

  Tor and Mistral backed away uneasily from the burning branches as bits of leaf and bark spat into the air.

  ‘I’ll go first if you like,’ offered Chloe.

  Erin hesitated. She didn’t really want to lead the way, but she felt she should. ‘No, it’s OK.’

  She stepped into the cave, holding the branch high so that the flames lit up the darkness. The walls were thrown into shadow, but straight away she could see a tunnel at the back. She walked towards it. The water on the floor was very cold under her feet. Goosebumps prickled on her arms. She looked round and was relieved to see Tor shrinking slightly in size and following Chloe in, Mistral walking beside him.

  Erin headed warily down the tunnel. The burning branch spat. Erin flinched and almost dropped it as a burning piece of bark touched her hand. She saw a dark hollow high up in the wall.

  Holding the branch up, Erin found that a small white candle in a metal tray had been placed in the hollow. There was another one further on.

  ‘There are candles!’ she exclaimed in relief. She took one down. The wick seemed dry. They had been high enough that the sea hadn’t reached them recently. ‘Chloe! Can you light them?

  It only took Chloe a few minutes to point her finger and light the candle and then put the branches out. The candles didn’t give off much light, but it was better than the burning sticks and Erin felt somehow reassured by the little tea lights as they flickered in the darkness. Maybe her mum had left them there.

  This has to be the way to the gateway, she realized. Why else would there be candles here?

  She continued cautiously down the cold, dark tunnel wondering what they were going to find. What would the gateway be like? Where was it?

  Chloe walked beside her, lighting every new candle they came across. After a few minutes they saw the end of the tunnel. Erin felt excitement leap inside her. It looked like it opened out into a small cave. Was that where they were going to find the gateway?

  She and Chloe stepped into the cave with Tor and Mistral following. The ceiling was high up. Chloe held up one of the candles and they looked around. There were no tunnels leading off this cave. It was just a dead end. A round space with smooth walls, a high ceiling and nothing else.

  For a moment none of them said anything.

  ‘There’s nothing here,’ said Chloe at last.

  Erin didn’t know what she’d been expecting. Some sort of stone formation, a rock with a hole in it like the one that used to stand at World’s End maybe. But Chloe was right, there was nothing that looked like a gateway.

  ‘Maybe this isn’t the place,’ said Mistral uncertainly.

  ‘But it has to be,’ argued Erin. ‘Otherwise why would the candles be here and it…’ she struggled to explain, ‘it just feels right.’

  ‘Magic has been worked here,’ Tor agreed.

  ‘But there’s no gateway, Father,’ said Mistral.

  ‘Hey, look! What’s that,’ said Chloe, pointing to a faint glimmering circle on the floor. ‘It wasn’t there a moment ago.’

  They all stared at the circle. As they stared, it got brighter and brighter, a perfect round disc of light forming on the floor.r />
  ‘The moon!’ gasped Erin, looking up.

  In the ceiling, way, way above them, there was a round hole, about thirty centimetres wide. Moonlight was streaming through it and making the circle of light on the floor. ‘The cliff top must be up there,’ realized Chloe.

  Tor whinnied in excitement, the sound echoing loudly around the cave. ‘Made from moonlight!’ He stamped a hoof. ‘Don’t you see? This is the gateway. It is a circle of moonlight!’

  Erin gasped. ‘Deep underground! Like the prophecy said. And I bet the whispering tree is probably just above us, near where the hole up there is!’

  ‘We’ve found it!’ Chloe exclaimed. ‘Oh, Tor, we can set you and Mistral free now!’

  But just as she spoke, clouds covered the moon in the skies and the gateway disappeared.

  ‘We’ll have to clear the skies of clouds, Erin, before we can use the gateway,’ said Tor. ‘We’ll have to be quick though. The moon moves across the sky. It will only shine in the right place to create the gateway for a short time.’

  But as Erin started to nod, there was a thundering and a rumbling from behind them.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Chloe in alarm.

  CRASH!

  They all jumped as the whole cave seemed to shake. ‘What just happened?’ asked Erin.

  But even Tor looked uncertain.

  ‘Let’s go and see,’ said Chloe, her voice shaky.

  ‘I’ll go first.’ Tor trotted past Chloe into the first cave. Erin heard him whinny in dismay.

  She and Chloe stopped as they reached the cave. A large slab of rock now blocked the entrance. There were small spaces around the sides, but none of them were anywhere near big enough for the girls to get through.

  ‘We’re… we’re trapped!’ stammered Chloe.

  From outside the cave, Erin heard a familiar laugh.

  ‘Trapped and unable to do anything,’ Marianne’s cold voice said. ‘You fools! You made it too easy for me. It was a small matter to break the ledge above the entrance. You will stay there while I create a dark gateway I can use to get to the cloud world. Now I have the diary it is, at last, possible for me to do the magic I need.’