Stardust

by Linda Chapman

  She hugged her mum. ‘I love you, Mum.’

  ‘Love you too,’ her mum said, kissing her hair.

  Lucy glanced out of the window. The sky was covered with clouds. It looked dark and oppressive. She shivered. It was almost as though the night was waiting for something…

  Lucy waited for her parents to go to bed and then flew next door. Allegra was waiting for her. ‘There’s a really strange feeling in the air, isn’t there?’

  Lucy nodded. Her skin was prickling uncomfortably. Being a stardust spirit, she usually loved the dark, but as they flew across the fields towards the woods, she found herself glancing at the shadows. Maybe it was because the clouds were covering the stars and so the night was blacker than normal, but she felt uneasy, as if danger was lurking.

  ‘I hope it doesn’t rain again tonight,’ Allegra said, looking at the heavy sky. The air seemed to press in on them. Lucy could feel the magic crackling around them.

  Something’s happening, she thought. Something to do with magic. In the distance there was an ominous rumble of thunder.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Allegra said in dismay.

  ‘There’s going to be another storm!’

  They swooped into the trees.

  CRASH!

  They both gasped as the loudest clap of thunder they had ever heard exploded directly over their heads. A fork of bright white lightning jagged down from the sky into the woods. There was a loud bang and suddenly a column of flames shot up into the air. ‘A tree’s been hit!’ Allegra exclaimed. ‘Come on! We’d better go and check it out!’

  They raced towards the fire. It was coming from a nearby grove of alder trees and hawthorn. ‘There!’ Lucy exclaimed, spotting a tree on fire.

  She swooped towards it. They would have to put the fire out in case it damaged the surrounding trees and bushes. The tree that had been hit was on the edge of a small clearing. It was burning brightly, orange flames licking up into the black sky. Lucy started in shock as she saw two figures standing in the dancing shadows of the flames. One of them was pointing their hands at the blaze.

  With a shock of recognition, Lucy realized that it was Joanna and Robyn. Magic was beating through the air. She could feel it swirling and growing. What was going on?

  ‘What are you doing?’ she cried.

  ‘Putting the fire out!’ Joanna shouted. She waved her hands and the fire died down until there were just a few flames licking at the grass. ‘We were just flying past and we saw the flames.’ She looked round, her face uneasy. ‘We should get away from here. Something strange is happening. Can you feel it in the air?’

  Lucy landed. ‘Yes.’ A wave of iciness swept over her. She stepped back. ‘It’s you, isn’t it? You’re doing something!’

  Joanna frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘Lucy, shut up!’ Robyn said fiercely. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I do,’ Lucy exclaimed. She looked at Joanna. ‘You’re a dark spirit!’

  ‘A dark spirit!’ Joanna sounded as if she couldn’t believe her ears. ‘But…’

  ‘Mum, just ignore her!’ Robyn said, grabbing her mum’s arm. ‘It’s just ’cos of…’

  ‘A dark spirit!’ Joanna repeated, her eyes flashing with anger. She stepped towards Lucy. ‘You think I’m a dark spirit?’

  For a moment, Lucy felt her nerve fail her, but she made herself look Joanna straight in the eye. ‘Yes!’ she declared. ‘Why else are you stopping my magic? I know it’s you!’ she went on. ‘You’re always there! Don’t try and say it’s not.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Joanna snapped. ‘It is me!’

  ‘Mum!’ Robyn exclaimed in dismay.

  Joanna ignored her. ‘But I am not a dark spirit.’

  ‘Mum, be quiet!’ Robyn said, looking really upset. She flew into the air and

  glanced round to see if her mum was following. ‘I’m going!’

  ‘Wait for me in the next clearing!’ Joanna commanded. ‘Don’t go any further on your own. I need to talk to Lucy. I will not be accused of being a dark spirit!’

  Joanna sounded so angry that Lucy began to feel a prickle of uncertainty. She was right, wasn’t she?

  ‘What have you been doing to me?’ she demanded.

  Joanna hesitated and then sighed. ‘I have been stopping your magic from working, Lucy,’ she admitted. ‘But it’s not because I’m a dark spirit. It’s because…’ she took a deep breath. ‘It’s because I’ve been trying to help Robyn.’

  ‘Help Robyn?’ Lucy echoed in astonishment. She exchanged looks with Allegra.

  ‘But how? Why?’ Allegra sounded as confused as Lucy was feeling.

  ‘It’s hard for Robyn,’ Joanna said, rubbing her forehead. ‘I move around so much with my job and she always has to make new friends. It makes it easier if you are powerful and can use magic well. People are interested in you – they accept you more.’

  ‘Is that why you make Robyn practise so much?’ Allegra asked.

  Joanna nodded. ‘Robyn is naturally powerful, but by practising she has learned how to do things that impress people. It helps her fit in when we move to new areas. Others her age are keen to be her friend. Adults are interested in her. She doesn’t get picked on or bullied.’ She looked from Lucy to Allegra. ‘I never want her to go through the awfulness of that…’ Her voice trailed off.

  Lucy frowned. It sounded like Joanna was speaking from her own experience.

  ‘People can be cruel,’ Joanna went on slowly. ‘When I was at school I was bullied by a group of girls. Nothing really bad. They never hit me or anything, but they made my life miserable. My parents were older than normal parents. I wasn’t into clothes or music. I worked hard and tried to do well. The girls who picked on me teased me and called me names. I hated it.’ She glanced at Allegra. ‘Your mum used to stand up for me, but the only thing that made it bearable was knowing that each night I could become a stardust spirit. I’d do anything to help Robyn avoid being bullied like I was.’

  Lucy felt bewildered. She would never have imagined that Joanna had been bullied, or that her determination to make Robyn practise her magic had anything to do with her wanting Robyn to fit in. But now she knew, she could see that it made sense – Joanna’s insistence that Robyn made friends, her pride in Robyn’s magic, Robyn’s cool clothes and perfect appearance. She frowned. ‘But why have you been doing stuff to me?’ she asked.

  Joanna sighed. ‘Your magic’s so strong, Lucy. I knew it would be much harder for Robyn to impress people with her magic here. That first night, when we were fighting the storm, I suddenly realized that if I could stop your magic and if Robyn used her powers, well then people would be interested in her and impressed with what she could do. So I blocked the magic coming into you. I did it a few other times too – just to help her.’

  Lucy didn’t know what to say. In one way it was a huge relief to realize that it hadn’t been a dark spirit or something going wrong with her magic, but it was still weird to think that it had been Joanna, an adult spirit, who had stopped her magic from working.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Lucy,’ Joanna said, stepping towards her. ‘I was just trying to help Robyn fit in. I promise I haven’t been meaning to harm you or hurt you in any way. I’m not a dark spirit.’ Her eyes searched Lucy’s face. ‘I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have done it.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Lucy said slowly as she tried to get her head round it. ‘I guess I should have known it wasn’t a real dark spirit. It felt odd, but not as if I was in real danger like when I’ve met dark spirits before. I did feel like I was being watched though and that was creepy.’

  Joanna frowned. ‘That’s strange. Robyn’s felt she’s being watched too, but that wasn’t me.’ She turned to Allegra.

  ‘Have you felt anything strange, Allegra?’

  ‘No,’ replied Allegra.

  ‘So it’s just you and Robyn,’ Joanna said to Lucy. She looked worried. ‘Can you describe how you felt?’

  ‘Just strange,’ Lucy said, shiveri
ng as she remembered. ‘Like there were eyes on me. It made me feel cold. Sometimes I thought I saw something move in the shadows, but when I looked it was just an animal.’

  ‘Or maybe not just an animal,’ Joanna said. ‘Maybe it was someone travelling in an animal’s mind.’

  ‘A real dark spirit?’ Allegra said in alarm.

  Joanna nodded uneasily. ‘I wonder where Robyn is. I hope she’s waited in the next clearing like I told her to. We’d better go and find her!’ She rose into the air. ‘Robyn!’ she called. ‘Robyn!’

  Allegra and Lucy followed her into the next clearing. The clouds were pressing down and the air felt heavy and thick. Lucy’s heart sank as they looked round the clearing. Robyn wasn’t there.

  ‘She must have flown on!’ Allegra said.

  ‘But she wouldn’t,’ said Joanna.

  Lucy’s eyes spotted something small and golden on the ground. ‘What’s that?’ She dived down and picked up a gold hair bobble. ’It’s Robyn’s!’

  ‘It must have fallen out of her hair,’ Allegra said.

  ‘Why didn’t she stop to pick it up?’ Joanna looked very worried. ‘She wouldn’t have flown on without me. Where is she? Robyn!’ she shouted again.

  But there was no reply.

  CHAPTER

  Ten

  Lucy looked round the clearing. ‘Robyn must be near here.’ There was a huge clap of thunder.

  ‘Something’s happening!’ Joanna said in alarm.

  All Lucy’s senses felt alert. Magic was pulsing across the dark skies. She could feel it, like lines of energy moving between the stars above the clouds. Where was Robyn?

  An owl swooped across the clearing.

  An idea came to Lucy. Maybe if she saw though its eyes she could find out where Robyn had got to. Not stopping to waste time asking the others if she should do it, she jumped into the owl’s mind. Almost immediately, she sensed the bird’s fear. It knew something was going on and it wanted to get away from the woods. It beat its wings hard. Lucy watched the trees flicking by beneath them, searching for any sign of Robyn.

  As the owl flew towards the river, Lucy gasped. Five hooded figures were standing in a circle around the old oak tree. Dark spirits and…

  ‘Robyn!’ she whispered in shock.

  Robyn was cowering against the oak tree. Her eyes were moving desperately from side to side, but she wasn’t moving.

  The figures circled around her. In a flash, Lucy realized Robyn was being held by a binding spell. She had been held by one herself once. It was horrid. You couldn’t move; you couldn’t do anything.

  Lucy let go of the owl’s mind. She opened her eyes to find herself in the alder grove. ‘I’ve seen Robyn!’ she gasped, jumping to her feet. ‘She’s been captured by dark spirits!’

  Joanna paled. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘By the riverbank!’ Lucy didn’t stop to think. Robyn looked in deadly danger. They had to do something – and fast! ‘Come on!’

  Joanna was already racing out of the clearing. Lucy and Allegra followed her.

  By the time they reached the riverbank, one of the dark figures was holding up her hands to the sky. Her hood had fallen back and Lucy saw it was a beautiful blonde-haired woman in her early forties. Her eyes glittered darkly. ‘The moment has come. Power will be ours!’ she declared. ‘I will lead you all in the Ritual of the Four Royal Stars.’

  ‘Is everything ready for us to perform the ritual, Rowena?’ the spirit to her left hissed.

  ‘Yes, Richard,’ Rowena, the first spirit, replied. With Morwenna’s Book of Darkness that Daniel brought us from Wales, and with the Last of the Summer Spirits, we shall become the most powerful dark spirits the world has ever known. We shall restore Daniel’s strength and draw all the stardust we could wish for down from the skies.’

  ‘No!’ Joanna exclaimed.

  The dark spirits swung round. Their intake of breath sounded like a hiss.

  ‘You!’ Rowena exclaimed, staring at Joanna as if she had seen a ghost.

  The air seemed to crackle between the two spirits and Lucy had the sudden feeling that they knew each other, but almost before the thought had finished forming in her mind, Rowena was stepping forward. ‘How dare you disturb us!’

  Joanna moved, but before she could do anything, Rowena shot a hand out towards her, Lucy and Allegra. Suddenly Lucy found that she was frozen in the air. A binding spell! She couldn’t move. Her eyes flicked from side to side and she realized that Joanna and Allegra were being held by the same spell too.

  Rowena swept her hand in an arc. A stream of stars flew from her fingertips. ‘We will not be stopped! We have everything we need for the Ritual of the Royal Stars. We have Morwenna’s book – a book that holds the words and the power of the darkest spirit who ever lived.’ She held up a small black book. Its cover was so dark it seemed to suck light into it. Rowena swung round and pointed at Robyn. ‘We have the Last of the Summer Spirits! Power will be ours!’

  Lucy stared in shock. They thought Robyn was the Last of the Summer Spirits! No, she wanted to shout. You’ve got it wrong! But no words came out.

  Rowena stepped closer to Robyn, her glittering eyes boring into the girl’s terrified face. ‘Your power drew us here, summer spirit. We have been watching you this week and we have seen that your magic is greater than any of the other spirits your age. You may have defeated Daniel, but you will not escape from us. We are going to use the power in Morwenna’s book to draw stardust from the Royal Stars through you and into us!’

  For a moment, Lucy wondered what Rowena was talking about. How could they have got it wrong? Robyn might be powerful, but she was nowhere near as strong as Lucy was. And then Lucy realized. If the dark spirits had been watching through animals’ eyes while Joanna had been blocking her magic then it would have looked as if Robyn was much better at magic than Lucy was.

  A rumble of thunder shook the air.

  ‘Summer spirits gathered here, unite your power,’ Rowena commanded. ‘We must use our magic from Regulus and the magic in Morwenna’s book to draw down stardust from the other three Royal Stars – Antares, the scorpion; Fomalhaut – the water bearer and Aldebaran – the bull. Their power will meet in the skies, hit the Last of the Summer Spirits and flow into us. The stars have foretold it. It is written in the skies that a time will come when the Last of the Summer Spirits will give up her power and great power will flow. That power will come to us.’

  Lucy felt sick. Dan had tried to perform a similar ritual on her. The magic would gather together and strike down like a bolt of lightning. It would hit Robyn. The dark spirits would then drain it away, destroying Robyn’s own stardust in the process. Without that, she would never be able to turn into a stardust spirit again. I have to stop it, Lucy thought.

  Rowena opened the book. ‘Let the spell begin!’ she declared. ‘We have the power of the lion and with it we command the scorpion, the water bearer and the bull to light up the skies.’

  The clouds seemed to grow darker and thicker. They swirled in the sky.

  ‘Scorpion, water bearer, bull,’ the other dark spirits chanted, beginning to circle around the tree. ‘We command you!’

  Two of the other dark spirits’ hoods fell back. Their faces looked unlined and young, but their eyes seemed to glitter with an ancient light.

  ‘With the power of Regulus we command you!’ cried Rowena, throwing up her hands and holding the book up to the skies. Sparks of magic crackled over its pages. It seemed almost alive. The sky pulsed with powerful currents. They were gathering, coming together. Any minute now…

  Lightning bolts forked from three places in the sky and shot towards each other. As they exploded together, there was a huge crash and the whole sky was lit up by a glittering white light.

  Lucy felt as if she could see every leaf on every tree, every blade of grass, every stone, every pebble, every reed in the riverbank. Power surged up inside her, hot and swift. She gasped at its strength. Overhead the three lightning bolts had m
erged into one. As if in slow motion, she saw them form one glowing bolt of light and magic. There was more power in it than she had ever seen in her life. It shot towards the ground.

  Lucy felt the power of Regulus that had been building and growing inside her over the last year race upwards as if it wanted to meet it. The magic lightning blasted towards Robyn, but just as it was about to reach her it angled to one side and hit Lucy in a second explosion of white light.

  Lucy felt as if she was dancing with the stars. Her mind was bathed in

  brightness. She realized she was spinning upwards. The magic bonds had broken!

  Below her, the dark spirits were standing round in confusion. Lucy didn’t stop to question what had happened. She had to act fast. She dived down, leaving a crackling trail of sparks behind her. Her skin glowed with stardust. Light shone from every strand of her hair.

  From the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Allegra and Joanna use the confusion as a chance to break free from their bonds too, but she didn’t stop. Only one thought beat through her mind. I’ve got to rescue Robyn!

  CHAPTER

  Eleven

  ‘You!’ Rowena, the dark spirit, shrieked. ‘You must be the Last of the Summer Spirits!’ She blasted a bolt of fire at Lucy. ‘We were misled!’

  Lucy shot out a hand. The fireball deflected away from her as if it had hit an invisible force. It whistled past her and struck the oak tree. The branches burst into flames.

  The next second there were fireballs everywhere. Ducking and dodging through them, Lucy raced to Robyn. ‘Come on!’ she yelled.

  Robyn looked over her shoulder in alarm. ‘Watch out, Lucy!’

  Lucy swung round and saw a fireball heading straight at them.

  ‘Shield be with me!’ Robyn cried. A silvery barrier shimmered in the air and the fireball rebounded, almost hitting the dark spirit who had sent it.

  ‘Thanks!’ Lucy grabbed her hand. The binding spell on Robyn must have disintegrated in the confusion. ‘Quick! We’ve got to get out of here!’ They soared upwards. Allegra and Joanna raced to meet them.