Stardust

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Stardust MAGIC SECRETS

  Linda Chapman lives in Leicestershire with her family and two Bernese mountain dogs. When she is not writing she spends her time looking after her two young daughters, horse riding and teaching drama.

  Books by Linda Chapman

  BRIGHT LIGHTS

  CENTRE STAGE

  NOT QUITE A MERMAID series

  MY SECRET UNICORN series

  STARDUST series

  Stardust MAGIC SECRETS

  Linda Chapman

  Illustrated by Angie Thompson

  PUFFIN

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,

  South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  puffinbooks.com

  First published 2007

  1

  Text copyright © Linda Chapman, 2007

  Illustrations copyright © Angie Thompson, 2007

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

  ISBN: 978–0–141–90146–6

  To Jessica Duxbury,

  for reminding me vividly of Lucy

  CHAPTER

  One

  ‘They are so cute!’ Lucy declared to her best friend, Allegra, as they flew above the clearing, watching three otter cubs rolling around on the riverbank. The cubs’ brown coats were slick with water and their mouths were open as if they were grinning.

  ‘Look, here come the badgers,’ Allegra said as a mother badger shambled out of the trees. Two fluffy badger cubs were at her side. In the moonlight the white stripes on their faces shone.

  Lucy flew down to land on the short grass. I love being a stardust spirit, she thought happily.

  Stardust spirits were special people who had more stardust than normal people. At night-time, stardust spirits flew through the sky to gather together and do magic. They met up in woods and on beaches and used their stardust powers to help protect nature, in particular putting right any wrongs done by humans. Lucy would never forget the night that she had found out she was a stardust spirit – it was just over a year ago now.

  The mother badger nuzzled Lucy’s hand. As she ambled on her way, Lucy heard the sound of voices in the air. Tucking her long brown hair behind her ears, she looked up. Ella and Faye, her and Allegra’s friends, flew into the clearing.

  ‘Hi!’ Ella called, her dark ponytail bouncing on her shoulders as she landed.

  Faye, who was smaller than Ella with short blonde hair and wide blue eyes, swooped down too. ‘The river’s looking full tonight,’ she commented. ‘I’ve never seen it so close to flooding.’

  ‘It must be because of all that rain,’ Ella agreed. ‘Did you two see it earlier this evening? It was like someone was just tipping water out of the sky.’

  Allegra nodded. ‘It really chucked it down, didn’t it?’

  ‘There’s been lots of weird weather stuff happening,’ Lucy commented. ‘There was that tornado a month ago and then the mini hurricane and now all this rain.’ She gave Allegra a concerned look.

  ‘Your mum thinks dark spirits might have been interfering with the stardust in the sky, doesn’t she?’

  Allegra nodded. The others shivered. Dark spirits were stardust spirits who had turned bad. They loved power and were always trying to get more, either by taking the stardust from normal stardust spirits or by drawing it down directly from the stars in the sky. ‘I hope there aren’t any dark spirits near here,’ Faye said anxiously.

  ‘Me too,’ agreed Lucy. She had met two dark spirits in the past. They had both tried to steal her stardust powers. Lucy was a very special stardust spirit. She had more power than any other stardust spirit her age – more power even than most adults. The dark spirits she had met had wanted that power. Luckily Lucy had managed to escape both times.

  The night suddenly seemed to grow darker. Clouds scudded across the moon.

  ‘It looks like it’s going to rain even more!’ Ella exclaimed.

  There was a long low rumbling in the distance. The badgers hastily turned and began to head back towards their sett in the trees. The otters scrambled out of the river. Big fat raindrops began to fall. They splashed on to the girls’ bare arms.

  ‘If there’s lots of rain the river might overflow its banks!’ Faye said in alarm. ‘What about the badgers? Their sett will be flooded.’

  Lucy looked round. It wasn’t just the badgers who were in danger. The nearby bushes had birds’ nests in them and there were many mice, voles and shrews and other small creatures living in the undergrowth. Their homes would be destroyed too if the river flooded. ‘We have to stop it!’

  ‘We can’t stop a storm,’ Ella said as the rain started to fall faster.

  An idea burst into Lucy’s brain. ‘We might not be able to stop a storm!’ she shouted over a crash of thunder. ‘But we can stop rain from falling into this part of the river at least!’

  She took a deep breath and shut her eyes. Lucy was a summer spirit, which meant that she could start fires and protect things by placing magic barriers around them or over them. There were four types of stardust spirit – summer, autumn, winter and spring. Each type could do different magic.

  Lucy’s skin began to tingle. The magic inside her surged upwards.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Allegra asked.

  In reply, Lucy opened her eyes and pointed her hand at the river. ‘Shield be with me!’

  The air above the river seemed to shimmer silver for a moment and then suddenly the rain started bouncing away before it hit the surface, as if there was an invisible barrier over the river.

  ‘You’ve put a shield over the river!’ Faye exclaimed.

  There was a flash of lightning. As the bright light lit up the sky, a group of adult stardust spirits came swooping into the clearing. Leading them was Allegra’s mum, Xanthe.

  In one glance, Xanthe saw what Lucy was doing. ‘Well done, Lucy!’ she cried above the noise of the rain. ‘We’ve got to stop the river flooding. We’re going to try and work together to divert the rain. Get back, girls!’

  Three of the adult spirits – Tom, Padma and Emma – formed a circle with Xanthe. They were all autumn spirits, which meant they could use their magic to conjure winds. Through the rain, Lucy saw them clasp hands and shut their eyes. She could tell they were using their strength to draw down magic from the skies. ‘Wind be with me!’ they all shouted, pointing their hands up high at the same moment.

  A gale ripped through the clearing. The trees creaked and bent; the grass flattened against the ground. Lucy’s long wet hair whipped around her face. But the magic was working. The wind hit the rain clouds and they began to move very slowly across the sky taking the rain with them.

  ‘More power!’ Xanthe cried as several branches broke off the trees and cras
hed to the ground.

  ‘We haven’t got any more!’ Tom shouted as the rain clouds seemed to battle back against the wind.

  Lucy had an idea. As well as having huge amounts of power inside her, she also had an unusual ability to attract magic. She knew she could draw down power from the skies and let it flow into other people because she’d done it before. Maybe she could do it again now?

  Fighting against the wind, she ran over. Xanthe seemed to realize what was in her mind. ‘Help us, Lucy!’ she urged.

  Lucy grabbed her hand. Letting the noise of the storm slip away, she let a lion form in her mind – a lion made out of stars. It was the constellation of Leo, the constellation that gave all summer spirits their powers.

  Come to me, she thought to the magic crackling in the skies above.

  Power surged into her. For a moment, she felt a fierce longing to hold on to it, to keep it, to use it herself. But she made herself ignore those feelings and keep her mind open. She willed the power to flow through her and out into Xanthe via their clasped hands. Xanthe gasped as the magic surged from the skies into Lucy and then into her. Around them more branches broke off trees and crashed to the ground.

  Lucy noticed Faye, Ella and Allegra run to the badgers’ sett, their hair flattened to their faces with the rain, the wind whipping their dresses around their legs. As she wondered what they were doing, she felt her magic lessen. She immediately focused on what she was doing. She could find out what her friends were up to later.

  Power, more power, she thought. The wind blew even harder. The rain clouds began to move away across the sky.

  ‘It’s working!’ cried Emma. ‘The clouds are splitting up!’

  The dark clouds rolled apart. They got smaller and smaller. The rain began to lessen. There was a final distant clap of fading thunder as the raindrops stopped falling.

  Lucy let the picture of the lion slip from her mind and the power stopped flowing. She took a deep trembling breath.

  She felt Xanthe’s hand on her shoulder. ‘Thank you,’ Xanthe said softly to her.

  ‘That’s OK.’ Lucy could hardly get the words out. Her skin was tingling with the remains of the magic.

  ‘Maybe you should sit down for a moment,’ Xanthe said.

  But Lucy shook her head. She wanted to find out what Allegra and the others were doing. She hurried over to where her friends were crouching around something on the ground. Shock jolted through her. The mother badger had been hit by a branch and was lying on her side, not moving. Lucy’s friends’ faces were serious. Faye had her hand on the badger’s head.

  Lucy crouched down. ‘Is she…is she dead?’

  Allegra shook her head and put her finger to her lips. Lucy saw that Faye’s eyes were closed and there was a look of intense concentration on her face.

  Healing magic, Lucy realized. Winter spirits like Faye could heal things as well as being able to make it rain.

  The mother badger’s eyes slowly blinked open. She lifted her head.

  ‘You’re better now,’ Faye murmured gently, opening her eyes too.

  The badger heaved itself to its feet and looked round anxiously. The two black and white cubs were peeping out of the sett entrance. They squeaked with delight when they saw their mother coming towards them.

  ‘Well done, Faye,’ Xanthe said, coming over. ‘That was quick work.’ Faye blushed with pride.

  ‘You got rid of the rain, Xanthe,’ Allegra said. She always called her mum by her first name, not ‘mum’. At first Lucy had found it odd, but now she was used to it.

  ‘With Lucy’s help,’ Xanthe said, throwing a smile in Lucy’s direction.

  ‘But a lot of damage has been done,’ said Tom, coming over with Emma and Padma.

  Lucy looked around. The clearing was strewn with broken branches and many of the plants and bushes had been flattened.

  ‘We had better start clearing up,’ Padma sighed.

  The girls began to pick up branches and move them to the side of the clearing.

  Ella, who was a spring spirit and could make things grow, used her magic to regrow some of the damaged plants and trees while the adult autumn spirits dried the ground out with gentle breezes.

  Xanthe beckoned to Lucy. ‘Can I speak to you for a moment, Lucy?’

  Curious as to what Xanthe wanted, Lucy joined her. Xanthe’s eyes were serious. ‘You used your powers really well,’ she said, taking Lucy’s hand. ‘We wouldn’t have been able to stop the rain without you. Your magic is getting stronger all the time.’

  Lucy hadn’t really thought about it, but now she realized Xanthe was right. A year ago she had always had to concentrate hard to do magic, but now, when she was a stardust spirit, she could do magic almost without thinking. ‘I suppose it is,’ she said.

  ‘Do you remember you once asked me what Dan meant when he called you the Last of the Summer Spirits?’ Xanthe said.

  Lucy nodded. Dan was a dark spirit she had met at Easter time. He had tried to use her to draw down stardust from the skies. Lucy had managed to fight him off and the battle between them had left him severely weakened. But as he had flown away he had vowed he would see her again and had called her the Last of the Summer Spirits. ‘I asked you what he meant, but you wouldn’t tell me,’ she said to Xanthe.

  ‘No,’ Xanthe said. ‘I thought you’d had enough to deal with that night. But now…’ She squeezed Lucy’s hand. ‘I think it’s time that you learned the truth.’

  CHAPTER

  Two

  Xanthe’s eyes were grave. ‘There have been no new summer spirits since you became one last year, Lucy,’ she said.

  Lucy stared at her. She knew that there hadn’t been any other summer spirits in their own stardust group, but did Xanthe really mean there hadn’t been any new ones anywhere? ‘What? There haven’t been any others?’ she said.

  Xanthe shook her head. ‘No. You are the last summer spirit. I believe it is why you attract magic so easily and why you are getting stronger all the time. As you know, when a person first turns into a stardust spirit, stardust from one of the four Royal Stars flows into them. Spirits like you who get stardust from the Royal Star, Regulus, become summer spirits; spring spirits get their stardust from Aldebaran, autumn spirits from Antares and winter spirits from Fomalhaut. The youngest spirit in the world acts like a magnet, attracting stardust from their Royal Star, and when the next new spirit comes along, that spirit becomes the magnet instead and so on. Because there have been no summer spirits since you, the stardust from Regulus has been flowing into you – and just you – for over a year now. I think that is why you are so incredibly powerful for your age.’

  Lucy’s head spun. ‘But why’s it been happening?’

  ‘I don’t know for sure,’ Xanthe replied. ‘But I believe it has something to do with dark spirits. It seems likely that a group of them have been working together to draw down power from the skies, disrupting the balance of nature, for over a year now.’

  ‘For as long as I’ve been a stardust spirit,’ said Lucy slowly.

  Xanthe nodded. ‘It also explains why there have been such a spate of strange weather conditions.’

  ‘Will there ever be any other summer spirits?’ Lucy asked.

  Xanthe hesitated. ‘I hope so. Without new spirits of each type we won’t be able to keep the balance of stardust in the skies and care for nature in the way we need to.’ She ran a hand through her long blonde hair. ‘But there’s more that I need to tell you, Lucy. The stars suggest that when the Last of the Summer Spirits arrives, there will be a great battle for power in the stardust world. It is written in the skies that the Last of the Summer Spirits will have an important role to play in that battle.’

  ‘Me?’ Lucy whispered in shock.

  Xanthe nodded. ‘It is hard to read the stars, Lucy, but you must be careful. We do not know where this group of dark spirits are, but if Dan is one of this group, or if they find out from him that you are the Last of the Summer Spirits, you are likely to be in
great danger. I don’t want you going off on your own at the moment – in fact, I don’t want any of you younger spirits flying around alone.’ Xanthe glanced at the other girls who were on the far side of the clearing. ‘You must keep practising your magic to make yourself as strong as possible. Promise me that.’

  ‘I will,’ Lucy promised, her heart thudding.

  A worried smile flickered across Xanthe’s lips. ‘Good girl. A friend of mine, Joanna, will be coming to join our stardust group. She has a daughter called Robyn, who is a few months older than you. Joanna is exceptionally good at travelling in the minds of animals and birds. It is a magic that not many spirits can do, but it allows you to travel with an animal and use its eyes and ears to see and hear. I think it would be good for you to try and learn this magic. It will help you if you ever need to spy out the land for danger. Would you like Joanna to teach you how to do it?’ Lucy nodded eagerly.

  ‘Good,’ Xanthe said. ‘I will speak to Joanna when she arrives tomorrow. It will be good to see her again. We were best friends when we were younger, just like you and Allegra, but Joanna’s work takes her all over the country and it is several years since we have seen each other. Now, go on back to the others.’

  ‘Can I tell them about all this?’ Lucy asked, seeing her friends watching her curiously from across the clearing.

  Xanthe nodded. ‘Yes.’ Lucy quickly flew over to the others.

  ‘What was that about?’ Allegra demanded.

  ‘Xanthe looked really serious,’ Ella said.

  ‘Was it something bad?’ Faye asked, her eyes scanning Lucy’s face.

  Lucy swallowed. ‘Oh, yes. It’s bad.’ As the adults left the clearing, she told the others what Xanthe had said. They were shocked.

  ‘So that’s what Dan meant when he said you were the Last of the Summer Spirits!’ Ella exclaimed.

  ‘And there’ve been no other summer spirits since you.’ Allegra’s usually mischievous eyes were very serious for once. ‘That’s why you’re so powerful?’ Lucy nodded.

  Faye looked scared. ‘So there are dark spirits trying to catch you?’

  ‘There might be,’ Lucy replied. ‘Xanthe said that no one knows where they are, but that none of us should go flying on our own.’