Night Shade Read online

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  In The Star World

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Also in the Series

  Extract from Star Friends: Dark Tricks

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  Millions of tiny stars shone in the velvet-black sky, casting a sparkling light over the mountains and valleys, forests and lakes. In a wood, four of the wisest animals in the Star World had gathered around a forest pool – an owl, a wolf, a stag and a badger. Their fur and feathers glittered with stardust and their eyes were a deep indigo blue.

  “How are the four young Star Animals who travelled to the human world to find Star Friends?” asked the badger.

  “It must be three months now since they and their Star Friends stopped the old lady who was using dark magic,” said the stag.

  “Indeed it is.” Hunter, the owl, touched the pool with the tip of his wing and the water shimmered. “And Westcombe is peaceful again.” A picture appeared in the water. It showed a pretty Devon village with stone cottages, thatched roofs and narrow streets. “The person using dark magic has forgotten all about magic, and the Star Friends have been using the magic current to help people,” Hunter said. “Every good deed they do strengthens the current.”

  “Can we see the animals and their Star Friends?” asked the wolf eagerly.

  Hunter nodded and swept his wing across the pool. The picture changed, showing four girls and four animals running into a clearing in a wood. The girls were laughing and the animals – a fox, a squirrel, a deer and a wildcat – were bounding along beside them.

  Behind the girls, a small waterfall splashed over grey rocks and flowed away in a stream that then ran through the trees down to the sea. It was early spring and the stream was swollen with rainwater.

  “Maia, Ionie, Sita and Lottie,” said the wolf softly, looking at each of the girls.

  Maia, who had dark blond hair and a sideways fringe was chasing after the young fox, while Ionie was stepping into a patch of shadows with the wildcat beside her. They vanished and reappeared on the other side of the clearing. Sita, who had long dark hair and gentle brown eyes, spotted something in the grass and hurried over, with the deer trotting beside her. Crouching down, Sita picked up a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. She called to Lottie, who took the bird. Tucking it into a pocket of her coat, she swung herself into a tree and climbed up to the bird’s nest with Juniper, the red squirrel, next to her.

  “They look very happy,” the badger said contentedly.

  But as the animals watched, a dark cloud began to swirl across the image.

  The stag pawed the ground. “What does this darkness mean, Hunter?”

  The owl looked uneasy. “I think it is a warning to us that more evil is heading for Westcombe.”

  “So soon?” said the badger.

  Hunter nodded. “The clearing is a crossing place between our world and the human world, which makes it an area of very powerful magic. People who want to use magic for evil purposes will always be attracted to it.”

  The wolf padded around the pool. “I wish we could help.”

  “We cannot,” said Hunter, a sad look in his round eyes. “We have had our time in the human world. It is up to the young Star Animals and their Star Friends to defeat this new threat.”

  “But what is it?” questioned the stag.

  “I do not know,” said Hunter, staring at the water. “Let us watch and see…”

  Maia touched Bracken’s rusty red fur. “Got you!”

  The fox cub gave an excited yap as Maia raced away. She could feel magic tingling through her. When she connected with the current that flowed between the human world and the Star World, as Bracken had taught her, she could do all sorts of amazing things – see into the past, get glimpses of the future and watch things that were happening elsewhere. Now, she used the magic to see where Bracken was going to move so she could dodge out of the way. She moved to the left, saw him start to jump that way and dodged right at the last second, but Bracken knew her tricks well. He turned in the air and hit her chest with his front paws, sending her toppling to the ground.

  “Got you back, Maia!” Bracken said, snuffling at her hair. She rolled him over, tickling the pale, downy fur on his tummy. He squirmed in delight, his bushy tail waving from side to side.

  Maia felt a rush of happiness. She loved being a Star Friend! It was amazing being able to do magic with her three best friends and their Star Animals. The girls all had different magical abilities. Lottie could use magic to be incredibly fast and agile; Ionie could travel to places using shadows, and make illusions appear; Sita could soothe and heal, and she also had the awesome ability to command anyone to do as she wanted – which thankfully she didn’t use very often.

  “Hey, guys!” Lottie called, sounded slightly anxious. “Come over here a moment.” She jumped down from the tree.

  “Did you put the baby bird back in the nest?” Maia said, going over with Bracken.

  Lottie nodded. “It’s fine but I noticed something strange while I was doing it.” Her hazel eyes looked worried. Juniper leaped from the tree and landed lightly on her shoulder. His little paws played with the ends of her dark hair.

  “What is it?” said Ionie, appearing in the patch of shadows beside Lottie, with Sorrel next to her.

  “The trees don’t have any green spring buds any more,” Lottie said.

  “That’s weird,” said Ionie. “There are leaf buds on the trees outside my bedroom window at home and there’s even blossom on the cherry tree in our front garden. I wonder why there aren’t any spring buds here yet?”

  Juniper bobbed up and down on Lottie’s shoulder, his red tail flicking around anxiously. “It’s not that there aren’t any yet but rather that the buds here are turning brown. They were green a week ago but now they’re all withering.”

  Maia realized something else that was odd. “There are usually spring flowers here in February. I used to come here with my granny to pick daffodils and snowdrops.”

  “There were some snowdrops last week,” said Sita. “I found a baby mouse near some.” She went to the edge of the clearing. “Yes! Here!” She crouched down and then looked back over her shoulder in confusion. “They’ve died.”

  The others hurried over. The snowdrops by Sita’s feet had shrivelled up.

  “This isn’t good,” said Sorrel, stalking around the brown clump of withered snowdrops, her whiskers quivering. “Trees and plants don’t just die in early spring. I suspect dark magic must be going on here.”

  “Do you think it’s someone conjuring Shades?” Sita said uneasily.

  Shades were evil spirits who lived in the Shadow World. They could be conjured from the shadows by dark magic and then trapped in everyday objects. When those objects were placed in people’s homes, the Shades began to cause misery and chaos. As Star Friends it was the girls’ job to work with their Star Animals to send Shades back to their own world. So far the girls had fought a Mirror Shade who had been making Maia’s older sister extremely jealous of her best friend; a Wish Shade who had made wishes come true in horrible ways; and four Fear Shades trapped in little yellow stretchy men who had terrified people.

  “If someone is conjuring Shades, we’ll stop them,” said Ionie determinedly.

  A sharp thrill ran through Maia. Although fighting Shades was dangerous it was also very exciting.

  “Your bravery is admirable,” Sorrel told Ionie. “However,
I cannot smell any Shades here.”

  “Neither can I,” said Willow, her delicate nostrils flaring. Some Star Animals like Sorrel and Willow had a particular talent for smelling if Shades were near.

  “So what’s going on?” said Lottie, looking round.

  “Remember, dark magic isn’t just used for conjuring Shades,” said Juniper.

  “Yes, Auntie Mabel used it to make that horrible snow globe,” said Maia, stroking Bracken and thinking of the old lady who had been using dark magic. She’d trapped Bracken and Willow inside a crystal globe. Maia would never forget how she had felt when she thought she would never see Bracken again. It had been the worst moment of her life.

  “Indeed. You girls use the current of Star Magic when you do magic but some people use the magic contained inside crystals or plants,” Sorrel said. “Many people who use plants do good but others perform very powerful dark magic by pulling the life force from plants and trees, leaving them dying.” Sorrel touched the dead snowdrops with her nose. “It could explain what is happening in this clearing.”

  “How can we find out if that’s what’s going on?” Maia said.

  Bracken put his paws up on her knees. “You could use your magic to see if anything strange has happened here in the last week.”

  “Go on, Maia,” Ionie urged.

  Maia sat down on a tree stump. Pulling a small mirror out of her coat pocket, she looked into it. She needed a shiny surface if she wanted to use magic to see into the past or future. Cupping it in her hands, she let her mind open up to the current. Magic swirled into her, sparkling and tingling through her veins. “Show me if someone has been using dark magic here in the clearing,” she said.

  The surface of the mirror misted over for a moment and then a picture formed. Maia was the only one who could see it and so she described it out loud. “I’m seeing the clearing at night-time,” she said. “Someone’s coming into the clearing. They’re wearing a long dark coat with a hood. It’s a woman, I think.” The figure in the mirror looked around and then hurried to the centre of the clearing, where she used liquid from a small bottle to mark a circle on the ground around herself. The circle lit up with a faint green light. The person corked the bottle and then put a silver bowl down in the centre of the circle. She straightened up, showing a glimpse of blond hair.

  “She’s drawn a circle around herself with some kind of potion,” said Maia. “And now she’s putting leaves into a metal bowl.” She saw the woman wave her hand over the bowl and mutter some words. “It’s like she’s doing some sort of spell…” She gasped as the woman threw her arms in the air. The branches of the trees appeared to be pulled towards her as if by an invisible force. Wind whipped around the clearing, tossing her coat about her legs. The woman clasped her fingers together and leaves suddenly exploded off the trees, flying high into the sky. The wind stopped and the trees’ branches sagged, the buds shrivelling. Around the woman, the leaves floated slowly to the ground like sad confetti.

  “What can you see?” Ionie asked impatiently.

  Maia quickly told them. “Now she’s picking up the bowl. The leaves have changed into a liquid. It’s dark – almost black.” She watched as the woman poured it into an empty bottle she took from her pocket, then she stepped outside the circle. The light vanished and she hurried away. “She’s gone,” Maia said slowly.

  Sorrel hissed. “It seems someone has been doing dark magic here just as I suspected.”

  “But what for?” said Willow.

  “And who is this woman?” said Bracken.

  “I’ll see if the magic will show me,” said Maia. She looked into her mirror again. “Show me the face of the person doing dark magic,” she said hopefully.

  The hooded figure appeared in the mirror again but her face was a blur. Maia shook her head. “She must be using a blocking spell to hide herself from anyone spying on her.”

  “We need to find out who she is,” said Lottie.

  “And stop her!” declared Ionie.

  Just then, Maia’s phone rang, making them all jump. She checked the screen. “It’s my mum.”

  “Where are you all?” her mum asked as she answered. “If you want to go to that new shop in town before the film, we need to leave Westcombe in five minutes.”

  “Sorry, Mum. We lost track of time. We’re in the woods by Granny Anne’s cottage,” Maia said.

  “I’ll drive to the top of the lane,” said her mum. “Meet me there in five.”

  “OK.” Maia clicked the phone off. “Mum says we need to go now.”

  The four girls had arranged a trip to the movies for the last afternoon of their February half-term holiday.

  “We’d better go and meet Mum,” Maia told Bracken. “But I promise we’ll try to find out who’s doing dark magic here.”

  Bracken licked Maia’s nose and then he and the other animals disappeared in a swirl of starry light. They could vanish in an instant but would always reappear again when the girls called their names.

  The Star Friends took one last look around the clearing with its bare-branched trees and and then hurried away down the overgrown footpath.

  The footpath came out on a little stony lane. To the right, the lane led down to the cliffs and sea, and to the left, it led back up to the main road and village. Opposite the entrance to the footpath was a thatched cottage with a pretty garden and a little white front gate. Maia’s heart twisted as she looked at it. It had been her granny’s home before she died but now it had new owners.

  The new family hadn’t moved in straight away. Painters and decorators had come and gone and a conservatory had been quickly built on to the back. However, a few days ago, the removal lorries had turned up. Now, a white van was parked outside the cottage and a tall, slim woman, about Maia’s mum’s age, was directing two men as they carried some giant pot plants inside.

  The lady smiled in greeting. “Hi, Maia!”

  “Hi!” Maia called back. She had met the lady – Esther – with her mum when she had come to look round the cottage. “Is the move going OK?”

  “Yes, thank you. We’re just about done. Can you tell your mum I’ll call in and have a coffee with her soon?” Esther said.

  “I will! Bye!” Maia hurried after her friends.

  “She seems nice,” Sita said.

  “Yes. She and Mum went to school together.” Maia glanced at Lottie. “Your mum was with them, too.”

  Lottie nodded. “Mum said she knew her but they weren’t really good friends.”

  “She’s got a daughter, hasn’t she?” Ionie said to Maia.

  “Yes, I haven’t met her but she’s starting at our school tomorrow. I think she’s in Year Six like us.”

  “We’ll have to help her settle in,” said Sita. “I’d hate to start a new school in the middle of Year Six.”

  Mrs Greene – Maia’s mum – was waiting at the top of the lane in her car with the engine running. “Honestly, you girls,” she said as they scrambled into the car. “We’d better get a move on or we won’t get a chance to go to Fairytales.”

  “My sister, Simi, went on the first day it opened,” said Sita. “She says they’ve got all sorts of amazing stuff – models of fairies, elves and unicorns, cards that can tell the future, jewellery, posters and books.”

  “It sounds awesome.” Maia remembered something. “Oh, Mum, we just saw Esther. She said to say hi and that she’d call in for a coffee soon.”

  “OK, great – it’ll be good to have a proper catch-up.” Mrs Greene shook her head. “It’s funny how you can spend every day with people at school when you’re younger but then you all go your separate ways. I’d heard Esther had started a business making herbal face creams and body lotions but I didn’t even know she’d got married and had a child until she came to look round the cottage.”

  Maia frowned, thinking that there was no way she would ever lose touch with Lottie, Sita and Maia. “Why didn’t you stay friends?”

  Her mum shrugged. “We were in different
friendship groups at school. Esther was one of the popular girls. My friends were more into reading and studying.”

  Maia grinned. “So you were a geek, Mum!”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being a geek,” Ionie said.

  “Nope. Geeks rule!” said Lottie. They high-fived each other. Both of them were very clever and always did very well in tests and exams.

  “Well said, girls,” said Mrs Greene approvingly. “Now, you’ll all help Esther’s daughter, Essie, settle in, won’t you?”

  “Of course we will,” Maia said.

  “She’ll either be with Maia and Ionie in Miss Harris’s class or in Mr Neal’s class with me and Lottie,” Sita said. “So we’ll be able to make sure she’s OK.”

  Mrs Greene smiled and drove on. When they got to town, they parked near the new shop. It was tucked away down a little street with a cobbled alleyway on one side. It had a wooden sign with gold writing saying Fairytales, an old-fashioned front window and a bell that rang as they walked inside. The air smelled of incense, and the wind chimes that hung from the ceiling were tinkling gently. The shelves were filled with fantasy figures and colourful packets of herbs.

  A lady in her fifties with shoulder-length blond hair was standing behind the counter. “Welcome to Fairytales.” She beamed. “I’m Alice. Let me know if I can help you.”

  “Thank you,” Maia’s mum said. “The girls have been longing to come in to have a look around.”

  “Come in, dearies,” Alice said.

  “Oh, wow,” said Sita, heading over to a shelf with unicorn models. “Look at these.”

  “Aren’t these sweet, too?” said Lottie, picking up a stone egg that had a dragon hatching out.

  “Look with your eyes not with your hands,” Alice trilled.

  Lottie glanced at Maia. How old did Alice think they were?

  Maia’s mum browsed some leaflets while the girls looked around. “Oh, the Westcombe beachcomber sculpture competition,” she said to Alice as she picked up a flyer. “We live in Westcombe and it’s always such a big thing. Lots of people enter – my next-door neighbour always makes something incredible and usually wins.”