Sky Horses: the Whispering Tree Read online

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  The third book in the quartet

  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 and baby son, horse riding and talking to people about writing.

  You can find out more about Linda on her websites at lindachapman.co.uk and lindachapmanauthor.co.uk

  Books by Linda Chapman

  BRIGHT LIGHTS

  CENTRE STAGE

  MY SECRET UNICORN series

  NOT QUITE A MERMAID series

  SKY HORSES series

  STARDUST series

  UNICORN SCHOOL series

  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.)

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  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

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  Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

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

  puffinbooks.com

  First published 2009

  Text copyright © Linda Chapman, 2009

  Illustrations copyright © Ann Kronheimer, 2009

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the

  condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,

  or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding

  or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition

  including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN: 978-0-14-195646-6

  To Fiona Ambery for first suggesting

  hagstones – and to Charlotte, Bea and

  Damaris. I hope you enjoy reading

  about the sky horses.

  When the dark one returns, the door shall be reopened And danger will threaten all living below. If the binding is broken, they can be protected, But one coming willingly lets the dark’s power grow Until the first gateway is split by magic And he who is trapped is free to go.

  Two gateways now balance the light and the darkness, One lost in memory, hidden by the sea. The dark door is reserved for the hand that creates it. The other lies close to a whispering tree, Deep underground and made from moonlight. When it is found, then two can be free.

  Yet danger is found with the new gateway – Beware the dark horse who leaps for the sky. With arrow of fire and grey feather’s direction, Two must help here or all hopes will die. If the darkest impostor is not defeated, Then never again will the cloud stallion fly.

  Watching…

  It was midnight. The wind swept through the trees outside the large house on the cliff top. Branches of a tree brushed against the window of the study, like bony fingers scraping at the glass. A woman with long blonde hair, Marianne, was sitting at the desk inside the study. Ignoring the sound, she stared at the grey stone in her hands. It had a single round hole through its centre.

  ‘Two gateways,’ she murmured. ‘One hidden.’

  She passed a hand over the stone. The air in the room seemed to shiver slightly. Marianne leant forward, seeing a picture forming in the centre of the stone. The picture grew bigger – a cliff with trees at the top. The cliff face was steep, covered in grass with gashes of bare soil. At the bottom of the cliff were jagged rocks that were covered with damp seaweed. Water glittered in pools between them.

  A person came into the vision. A slim teenage girl, a younger version of Marianne, came scrambling down the cliff. She was wearing a long brown skirt, a shawl and old-fashioned boots and her blonde hair was blowing around her face. She paused as she came to a ledge of rock jutting out near the base of the cliffs.

  ‘A gateway lost in memory,’ Marianne whispered.

  Another girl appeared in the vision. Marianne’s eyes hardened. The second girl had the same honey-blonde hair and blue eyes, but her face was more heart-shaped. She looked about a year older and very determined. As she came down the cliff, she started arguing angrily with the girl at the bottom who just laughed, tossed her hair back and clambered over the ledge, before disappearing beneath it.

  Marianne chuckled to herself. ‘Yes. It was hidden well then and still is now. But enough with the past. Let me see the present.’ She closed her fingers over the hole in the stone and the picture disappeared. ‘Reveal the sky stallion,’ she whispered.

  She opened her fingers and a new vision formed, revealing a snow-white stallion and a grey colt standing in a clearing in the woods next to two girls. The moon shone down on them. The foal had a fluffy mane and a mischievous expression. The stallion’s mane and tail swept to the floor; his dark eyes were wise, his head noble. There was something almost otherworldly about both horses; the lines of their bodies seemed hazy, as if a fine mist surrounded them.

  One of the girls had dark-brown curls, laughing hazel eyes and skin the colour of milk chocolate, but Marianne barely even glanced at her. Her attention was fixed on the tall, slim girl with long dark-blonde hair and a heart-shaped face. She was holding a stone with a hole in the centre.

  ‘I am sure you think you can stop me just like she did…’ As Marianne spoke, the blonde girl broke off from talking and glanced around uneasily. Her fingers tightened on a stone in her own hand and Marianne’s vision vanished.

  ‘But not this time,’ Marianne hissed. ‘Nothing will stop me this time…’

  CHAPTER

  One

  ‘Wakey, wakey!’

  Erin heard a voice and felt something tickling her nose. Still half asleep, she brushed it away.

  ‘Erin!’

  Erin opened her eyes. Chloe was leaning over her, stroking her nose with the tail of a cuddly toy horse. Erin giggled. ‘Stop it!’ she said, pushing her away.

  ‘I thought you were never going to wake up,’ Chloe complained. ‘I’ve been up for ages.’

  Erin yawned. For a long time after she and Chloe had got back from the woods, she hadn’t been able to sleep, and had lain in bed thinking about Tor, the magnificent sky stallion they had been talking to that evening. It was very weird to think that just a few weeks ago she’d had no idea that sky horses existed and now she and Chloe were trying to help one of them. Sky horses lived in the clouds – their moods and movements changed the weather. When the sky horses were quiet and peaceful, the weather was calm; when they were agitated, the wind and rain blew and when they fought there were storms.

  Tor was the leader of the sky horses along the Dorset coastline. He and his young son, Mistral, had been captured by a dark spirit called Marianne. The girls were trying to help the horses get back to their kingdom in the clouds. But it wasn’t proving to be easy. Erin rubbed her tired eyes and lay back down.

  ‘Oh no! You are not going bac
k to sleep again,’ Chloe declared, yanking the duvet off Erin’s bed. ‘If you go back to sleep, we’ll be late getting to the stables this morning.’

  Of course! Erin realized. We’re going riding today! The thought of going to Hawthorn Stables acted like a magic spell, instantly sweeping her tiredness away. She jumped straight up and quickly started emptying out her rucksack, looking for her jodhpurs. ‘What are you waiting for?’ she teased, glancing at Chloe’s surprised face. ‘Do you have to be so slow?’

  Chloe grinned and threw the cuddly horse at her.

  ‘It took me ages to get to sleep last night,’ Erin admitted as they both started to get dressed. ‘I kept thinking about Tor and then about Marianne. Don’t you think it’s weird that we haven’t seen her since we freed Mistral? It’s almost two weeks now.’

  ‘I know,’ agreed Chloe. ‘I’d have thought she’d have been trying to do something to us – capture Mistral again or something – but it’s like she’s vanished.’

  Erin hesitated. ‘A few times this week I’ve had this kind of prickling feeling, as if someone’s watching me. I felt it again last night. I think she might be spying on us with magic.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say something to Tor?’ asked Chloe, looking alarmed.

  Erin shrugged. ‘I wasn’t sure about it. It was only when we got back that I kept remembering it.’

  ‘You’d better tell Tor tonight. I hope it’s not Marianne.’ Chloe shivered. ‘And I wish we knew why she’s being so quiet.’

  Erin’s eyes met hers. ‘It feels like she’s waiting for something.’

  ‘Chloe! Erin!’ Chloe’s mum called up the stairs, interrupting the girls’ worried silence. ‘Time for breakfast.’

  Chloe went to the door. ‘Coming, Mum!’ She turned to Erin and spoke quickly. ‘Look, we’d better not talk about it now – we don’t want Mum and Dad to hear.’

  Erin nodded. Chloe was right. No one was supposed to know about Tor or their magic. ‘OK, later.’

  ‘Later,’ Chloe agreed.

  The two girls started talking loudly about the ponies at the riding school as they quickly finished getting dressed. Packing her nightdress away, Erin thought how lucky she was to have Chloe to share everything with. It felt like they had known each other forever.

  In fact, they had first met just under a month ago on the day Erin had discovered that there were sky horses and that she was a stardust spirit – a special kind of person who could fly and do magic at night time. Stardust spirits were supposed to use their magic to look after nature. Chloe was a stardust spirit too. She’d turned into one for the first time just a few days before Erin. They’d agreed to start meeting up and had been best friends ever since.

  They were both pony-mad and longed for their own ponies. Chloe, who had just moved into the area, had started going to Hawthorn Stables like Erin, which meant that they got to hang out together at weekends, in school holidays and on the days after school when they persuaded their parents to let them go to the stables to help.

  When the girls were dressed, they hurried downstairs. Chloe’s mum and dad were in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the papers.

  ‘Morning, you two,’ said Chloe’s dad, Mike, with a cheerful smile.

  Erin could never get over how calm and quiet Chloe’s house was. She had three older stepbrothers, and breakfast at her house was always very noisy. She usually just tried to read a book and ignore them all.

  ‘So what are you going to be doing today at the stables?’ asked Nicky, Chloe’s mum.

  ‘We’re going on a beach ride,’ replied Erin. Nicky had ridden lots herself when she was growing up and she loved talking about horses and riding.

  ‘And let me guess: you’ll be hoping you ride Kestrel?’ said Nicky.

  Erin grinned and nodded. Kestrel was a new pony at the stables, but already he was her favourite. He was a part-Arab grey and very lively. For a while, Erin had been scared of riding him, but now she loved him. She always tried to be the one to catch him and groom him if she could. Secretly, in her own head – and she didn’t even tell Chloe this – she sometimes pretended that he was her very own pony.

  ‘I bet you will get to ride him,’ said Chloe. ‘You nearly always do. It’s almost like he’s yours.’ She sighed and looked at her dad. ‘I so need a pony of my own, Dad.’

  Her dad raised his eyebrows. ‘You need one, do you?’

  ‘Yes. You could get me one for my birthday on Tuesday,’ said Chloe hopefully. She ran round to him and knelt down beside him, holding her hands up as if she was praying. ‘Please, please, please, please, please!’

  Her dad leant over and tickled her. She squealed and jumped up.

  Erin smiled. She kept asking her dad and stepmum, Jo, for a pony too.

  ‘Come on, you two. Let’s get some breakfast inside you,’ said Nicky. ‘Then we’d better get going. You don’t want to be late for your beach ride!’

  As soon as they arrived at the stables, they went to the office to find out which ponies they were going to be riding that day. Erin’s heart leapt as she saw that she was going to be riding Kestrel, just as she had hoped.

  ‘Yay!’ said Chloe happily. ‘I’ve got Misty.’ The grey Welsh mountain pony was one of her favourites.

  Just then Fran and Katie, two of the other helpers, came in. Erin had once been best friends with them, but they had been really mean ever since they discovered she was going to a different secondary school from them in September.

  ‘We’ve got Pippin and Tango,’ said Katie, checking the board.

  Fran snorted. ‘No surprise who’s got Kestrel, is it?’ She swung round, hands on hips. ‘You always get to ride him, Erin. Everyone knows it’s just because you’re Jackie’s little pet!’

  Erin swallowed. She hated people being mean to her. Chloe scowled at Fran and opened her mouth to make a sharp retort. But just then the door opened and Jackie, their teacher, came in. ‘Hi, girls,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Have you all seen which ponies you’re riding on the beach?’

  They nodded, Fran looking as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She was very good at putting on an act around grown-ups.

  ‘Right then, off you go and catch them,’ said Jackie. ‘We’ll head off at eleven.’

  The four girls left the office. Kestrel was in a different field from the other ponies. As Erin reached the gate, she called his name. He lifted his head from the grass and whinnied, his ears pricked. She felt in her pocket for a Polo. ‘Come on, boy. Here, Kestrel!’

  Kestrel came trotting up the field towards her. He was a dapple grey with a long mane, huge dark eyes and ears that almost seemed to touch at the tips. He reached her and crunched the sweet happily while she clipped on his lead rope. Erin rubbed his forehead. He reminded her a bit of Tor, but whereas Tor was a majestic stallion whom she sometimes felt a bit shy about patting, Kestrel loved hugs and cuddles and she never felt shy about patting him!

  She led him back to the yard and tied him up before she and Chloe set about getting rid of the mud and grass stains on the two ponies’ grey coats.

  As Erin groomed his shoulder and back, Kestrel turned his head and rested his muzzle on her shoulder.

  Jackie walked over. ‘He really seems to have taken to you, Erin. I’m a bit worried about how he is settling in at the moment though; he’s lost weight since he got here. I’m not sure he’s cut out to be a riding-school pony.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been here a lot more in the evenings after school in the last few weeks.’

  ‘Yes, now my SATs are over, my dad says it’s fine for me to come down here whenever I’m free,’ Erin explained.

  ‘Well, how would you feel about taking more responsibility for looking after Kestrel – grooming him, feeding him, riding him when you’re here? Just for a short while. I wonder if having one regular person who looks after him for a bit might calm him down.’

  Erin stared at Jackie, almost too stunned to speak. ‘Really? That would be brilliant!’

/>   Jackie smiled. ‘Good. I’ll speak to your parents and check they’re all right with it, but I do think it might help Kestrel to have one carer for a while whom he can bond with.’ She sighed. ‘If he doesn’t settle in soon, I might have to consider selling him.’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’ll help him settle in better,’ said Erin quickly.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Jackie, smiling, and she walked away.

  Erin swung round to Chloe. ‘Can you believe it?’ she gasped. ‘I’m going to be looking after Kestrel! It’ll be almost like he’s my very own pony. It’ll be just –’

  ‘Yeah. It’ll be great for you!’ Chloe interrupted abruptly, and walked away.

  Erin stared after her. How could she have been so stupid? She’d been so caught up in her own excitement that she’d forgotten to think about Chloe’s feelings. She asked herself how she would have felt if it had been the other way round and Jackie had been asking Chloe to look after one of the ponies as if it was her own. She knew immediately that she’d have felt horribly jealous! No wonder Chloe had walked away.

  Throwing down her dandy brush, she ran after Chloe. She caught up with her at the field gate. Chloe’s back was to her. ‘Chloe! I-I’m sorry!’ Erin stammered. ‘I… I’m really sorry,’ she said again helplessly, not knowing what else to say.

  Chloe hesitated and then her shoulders sagged. ‘Oh, it’s OK,’ she said, turning round. ‘I shouldn’t have snapped. Only I’d love it if Jackie asked me to look after a pony.’ She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. ‘But that’s really good, Erin. I’m really pleased for you.’

  ‘So we’re still friends then?’ asked Erin anxiously.

  Chloe grinned, suddenly looking much more like her normal self. ‘Best friends! Come on!’ she said, linking arms with Erin. ‘Let’s go and finish grooming.’

  Erin walked back up the yard, joy surging through her. She was going to be looking after Kestrel and she had the best friend in the world.

  She glanced up and tried to ignore the storm clouds that were beginning to creep across the sky.

  CHAPTER

  Two

  After supper that night, Erin went to her bedroom. Downstairs she could hear a car race blaring out on the TV. The rest of her sports-mad family were all in the lounge watching it. She went to her windowsill. There was a wooden box on it that was full of stones with holes in – hagstones. Erin took one out and sat down on her bed with it. She was a special kind of stardust spirit called a weather weaver. Marianne – the dark spirit – was a weather weaver too. Weather weavers could work magic with hagstones and use them for talking to the sky horses. Erin stroked the pale smooth stone in her hand.