Hidden Charm

  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

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Collect Them All

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  The trees in the forest glittered with stardust. In a secret clearing, a wolf with silver-tipped fur gazed into a pool of mirror-like water. A picture on the surface of the pool showed four girls sitting in a circle, each with a young animal beside them. The wolf’s gaze lingered longest on the girl with shoulder-length dark-blond hair. The fox cuddled up to her had large pricked ears, a white tip to his bushy tail and a cheeky look in his indigo eyes.

  The silver wolf’s ears twitched as a snowy owl came flying through the black sky with a soft hoot. He landed on a tree branch beside her, his feathers shining. A stag with magnificent antlers stepped silently from the shadows and a badger came shuffling out of the bushes.

  “Greetings,” said the wolf.

  The stag looked at the picture in the forest pool. “Are you watching our friends in Westcombe village again?”

  The wolf nodded. She and the other elder Star Animals used the magic pool to watch over the young Star Animals who had travelled to the human world. Each animal had to find a child to be their Star Friend. They taught that child how to use the magic current that flowed between the Star World and the human world to do magic and help people.

  “Maia and her friends have learned a lot about magic since they became Star Friends,” said Hunter the owl.

  “But they have not yet solved the latest mystery,” the badger said, watching as the red squirrel whisked up the arm of the girl he was sitting by and tickled her with his tiny paws. “They do not know who conjured the Shades that caused so much trouble last week.”

  Shades were evil spirits who lived in the shadows. They could be conjured by people using dark magic and trapped inside everyday objects. They brought chaos and misery wherever they went, and Star Friends had to work with their Star Animals to send them back to the shadows.

  “It is an unusual case this time,” said Hunter thoughtfully.

  “It is, but anyone using dark magic must be stopped – whatever their reasons,” said the stag.

  “Let us see if the Star Friends in Westcombe can find out the identity of the person before more trouble comes,” said the badger.

  The animals nodded and settled down to watch.

  “This is so annoying!” Ionie looked at her friends in frustration as they sat in the clearing. “I hate that there’s a mystery we haven’t solved!”

  Her Star Animal, Sorrel – a wildcat – swished her long tabby tail. “It’s been over a week since we discovered that Shades were causing the strange events happening in the village and we still haven’t found out who conjured them from the shadows.”

  “I know but we’ve all been busy,” Lottie pointed out, cuddling Juniper, her red squirrel. “We all had family things on at Easter so we couldn’t meet up then.”

  “And after that I was on holiday,” added Sita, her arm round Willow, her fallow deer.

  “I was away for a few days, too,” said Maia, pushing her blond fringe out of her eyes and kissing Bracken, her fox, on the nose.

  “Well, now we’re all back together, we can discover what’s going on,” said Ionie. “We’ve got six days until school starts. Hopefully that will be enough time to solve the mystery and stop whoever it is from conjuring Shades again.”

  Maia stroked Bracken’s russet fur. Ionie was right: they had to work out what was going on. The week before last they had found some horrible Shades trapped in dolls in the house of an older couple, Ana and Mike Jefferson, who lived in the village. The Shades had been trying to make Mike’s heart’s desire – for Westcombe to win the contest for Best Kept Village – come true. The village had won the title, but the Shades’ actions had upset everyone, including Mike. They’d stolen play equipment from gardens, dug up flower beds, cut down ivy on houses and locked up pet cats and the ducks from the pond. Luckily Maia and the others had tracked the Shades down and sent them back to the shadows.

  “Should I see if the magic can give me any clues that might help?” Maia said, pulling a small mirror from her pocket. The others nodded eagerly.

  They had all learned to use the magic current to do different types of magic. Maia could look into a shining surface and see things that were happening in other places. She could also look into the past and the future, and ask the magic to show her things that might help the Star Friends. Sometimes she had magic dreams that gave her important information.

  Lottie could use the magic current to become very agile and she had recently developed the ability to sense when danger was approaching. Sita could heal wounds and command people to do whatever she wanted, although she didn’t like making people obey her so she only used that power in emergencies. Ionie could travel to different places, using shadows, and she could cast glamours – disguising objects or people. She was also a Spirit Speaker, which meant that she could send Shades back to the shadows.

  Maia took a deep breath. Don’t think about anything else, just think about the magic, she told herself. She focused on the mirror and felt herself connect with the current. It always felt as if a door had opened in her mind, allowing the magic current to surge into her, tingling through her veins.

  “Show me anything that will help us work out who put the Shades in the dolls,” she breathed into the mirror.

  Her own reflection faded and she saw a picture of the main road that led into the village – there was a row of houses and the Copper Kettle café. She had seen the same image when they were trying to find the Heart’s Desire Shades. The image faded to be replaced by another picture she had seen previously – a small rectangular black object. Maia still couldn’t tell what it was… Maybe a TV remote? Before she could get a good look, that image faded, too, and became a woman looking into a mirror with lights all around it. The woman in the mirror had red hair. Whenever she had seen the image before, Maia had always felt that there was something odd about it, but she could never work out what. Before she could figure it out, a new image appeared – a necklace made of multi-coloured beads with a large, silver pendant in the shape of an M. The pictures faded and Maia found herself staring at her own reflection again.

  “Well?” Bracken asked as Maia looked up at them.

  She reported what she’d seen. “I just keep seeing the same things – the main road by the Copper Kettle, a TV remote and a woman looking in a mirror. Although there was one new picture – a necklace. I don’t know what they all mean.”

  The others swapped uncertain looks.

  “You used to also see Mike and Ana’s house next to the ivy-covered cottage,” said Ionie.

  “I’m not seeing that any more,” said Maia. “But I guess that’s because we’ve got rid of the Shades who were in Ana’s dolls.”

  “Well, this is no good,” said Sorrel, getting up and stalking around. “Sitting here like day-old kittens won’t solve the mystery – we need a plan of action. If the magic clues aren’t helping, then I suggest we start by trying to find out if the people who own the dolls have any enemies.”

  “That makes sense,” said Lottie. “After all, only someone who dislikes Ana and Mike would have put Shades in their dolls.”

  “But no one dislikes them,” said Sita. Ana was a school governor and Mike was chair on the school Parent Teacher Association and d
id a lot of fund-raising. They were very popular in the village.

  “There has to be someone who doesn’t like them for the Shades to have been put in Ana’s dolls. Let’s go and see if they’re home,” said Maia, getting to her feet.

  “Yes, then come back and tell us what they said!” Bracken said eagerly, jumping up as well and almost knocking Sorrel over.

  Sorrel’s tail puffed up. “Watch it, fox!”

  “You shouldn’t be so slow, pussycat!” Bracken pounced on her tail and tweaked the hairs at the end of it with his teeth. “Got you!”

  Sorrel swiped at him furiously with a paw. Bracken darted back, hiding behind Maia’s legs. “Slowcoach!” he teased.

  Sorrel hissed again.

  “Just ignore him, Sorrel,” Ionie said, stroking the wildcat’s head. Bracken often teased Sorrel and she always got cross. Sorrel rubbed her forehead against Ionie’s hand and her fur flattened as she calmed down. She was sharp-tongued, but she adored Ionie.

  “Right, off you go then,” Juniper said to the girls, waving at them with his paw. “Call for us and tell us what you’ve found out as soon as you can.”

  “We will,” they promised.

  The animals vanished and would reappear as soon as the girls called their names.

  “Off to Ana and Mike’s then,” said Lottie, turning a cartwheel on the soft grass.

  Maia grinned. “To try to solve the mystery at last!”

  The girls headed down the path that led out of the clearing, pushing the overgrown brambles out of the way. The path came out on a quiet, stony track opposite a pretty thatched cottage where Maia’s Granny Anne used to live before she died. Maia had recently found out that her granny had been a Star Friend, too, and that her Star Animal had been a beautiful silver wolf.

  She really wished her granny was still alive. It would have been amazing to do magic together and to talk about the Star World. And not just that: more and more Maia felt she would like to talk to her granny about all the other things that were happening in her normal, non-magic life – the Year Six SATs exams that were coming up, her first long school trip when she would be away from home for four nights, and starting secondary school in September.

  There were so many new things happening! It was a bit scary. But, she reminded herself, becoming a Star Friend had been a new thing once. Her life had changed hugely when she’d met Bracken and she would never wish to go back to how it had been before. Doing magic and being his Star Friend was amazing!

  Maia and the others turned left on the track and headed up the hill towards the village. At the top of the track, beside the main road, there was a row of stone houses where Ionie lived with her mum and dad.

  “Wait a sec,” Ionie said. “Let me just ask Mum something.”

  She dashed inside and came out a few minutes later, grinning and waving a ten-pound note. “Mum gave me this so we can get ice creams from the Copper Kettle on our way!”

  “Yum!” said Maia. The Copper Kettle had the best home-made ice cream ever!

  They crossed over the busy main road at the top of the lane. The Copper Kettle was on the other side of the road. It had a large bay window and was very cosy inside, with an old-fashioned glass counter filled with cakes and pastries, and two large rooms with round tables and mismatched chairs. In the winter, a fire always burned in the grate, but now it was spring there was a large bunch of flowers in the fireplace, arranged inside an old copper kettle. Dried flowers and antique pans hung from the ceiling and there were shelves on the walls with displays of Victorian baby dolls and old-fashioned teddies. A hatstand stood beside the till and there was a wooden newspaper rack on the wall by the door. Mary, who ran the café, was an older lady with short brown hair and she lived in a flat above the café.

  When the girls opened the door, they saw that Mary was sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine. There were no customers at the tables. “Hello, girls,” she said. “What can I get you?”

  “Ice creams, please,” said Ionie.

  They all chose what they would like – honeycomb for Maia, chocolate for Lottie, mint choc chip for Ionie and strawberries and cream for Sita.

  “It’s very quiet today,” Ionie said, looking round at the empty café.

  Mary sighed. “I’ve never known business to be so bad at this time of year. People used to stop here as they travelled down the coast, but now they seem to be driving on and heading for the new marina instead.”

  A few months ago, a marina had opened further along the coastal road – there was a water park, a hotel and a café.

  “You should put a big sign up advertising your ice cream so people stop here instead,” said Maia, licking her cone. “It’s the best ice cream in the world!”

  “It’s my grandma’s special recipe,” said Mary, “made with just a touch of Cornish magic!” But, although she smiled, Maia could see the worry in her face. “I do hope things improve. If they don’t, I may have to shut the café. I can’t keep it going with no customers. I was hoping that winning Best Kept Village might help, but it hasn’t.”

  “You can’t close down,” Lottie said in dismay. “We love coming here.”

  Mary smiled at them. “Well, if you think of any clever plans to drum up some more business then let me know.”

  “We will,” Maia promised.

  They said goodbye and left.

  “I wish there was a way we could help Mary using magic,” said Ionie.

  “So do I,” said Maia. “But I don’t see how.”

  “I guess there are some things even magic can’t help with,” said Sita. “Like starting secondary school and SATs tests.”

  “And having a mum who makes you revise for them all the time,” groaned Lottie. She glanced at Sita. “Though maybe you could command her not to?”

  “No!” said Sita firmly. She sighed. “I hope the exams are going to be OK. I’m really worried about them.”

  “They’ll be easy, don’t stress,” said Ionie airily. She was very clever.

  Maia glanced at Sita. She didn’t look convinced.

  As they passed the duck pond on the village green, they discussed their plan. The girls decided that it might seem odd if they all turned up at Ana and Mike’s and that it would be better if Maia went by herself.

  “I’ll ask if Lucia’s in,” said Maia. Lucia was Ana and Mike’s little granddaughter. She was in Reception at school and Maia was her Year Six buddy. Maia left the others and went on alone to Ana and Mike’s cottage. Mike was in the garden, doing some weeding, and Ana was chatting to him.

  “Hi, Maia,” said Ana as Maia opened the gate. Ana was in her late fifties with dark hair. She’d grown up in Portugal, but had lived in Westcombe for many years. She and Mike were moving to live in Portugal after the summer. He was a bit older than Ana and was very tall and slim with a broad smile.

  “Hi!” Maia said. “Is Lucia with you today?”

  Ana nodded. “She is and I’m sure she’d love to see you. Lucia! Maia’s here!” she called, standing by the front door. “Come on in,” she said, beckoning Maia inside.

  Lucia ran down the stairs, her pigtails bobbing. “Maia!” she squealed. “Come and see the cookies I made with Nana!”

  She grabbed Maia by the hand and pulled her into the kitchen. As they passed the dining room, Maia caught sight of Ana’s collection of old-fashioned foreign dolls on the window ledge. A shiver ran down her spine. Last time she’d been in the house, the dolls had been possessed by Shades and they had attacked her and the others. They were just normal dolls again now, but Maia still found them creepy.

  In the kitchen, a batch of cookies was cooling on the rack. “Would you two like to ice them with me?” Ana said, washing her hands.

  “Yes, please,” said Maia. It would be a great chance to get Ana talking.

  They settled down at the table with spoons and a bowl full of icing. As they began to ice the cookies, Maia tried to work out how she was going to ask Ana if there was anyone who might not like h
er and Mike. It was a bit of an odd question to just come out with!

  “Can I have a cookie, Nana?” Lucia said.

  “Yes, OK,” said Ana with a smile. “Maia, do you want one?”

  “Thanks but I’m full at the moment,” said Maia. “I’ve just had an ice cream.”

  “From the Copper Kettle? Were there many people in there?” Ana asked.

  “No, it was really quiet,” said Maia.

  “Poor Mary,” sighed Ana. “It’s such a shame that new marina went ahead. It’s been bad for her business. Mike tried to oppose it when it was at the planning stage – he knew it would affect the shops here in Westcombe – but it went ahead anyway. Desmond Hannigan’s disliked Mike ever since.”

  Maia’s ears pricked up at the mention of someone who didn’t like Mike. “Desmond Hannigan? Who’s he?”

  “The owner of the marina,” said Ana. She smiled. “Still, if in sixty years you’ve only made one enemy in life, then that’s a life lived well as far as I’m concerned.”

  Maia stored the information in her head. So Mike only had one enemy and it was this Desmond Hannigan. Maybe he was responsible for putting the Shades in the dolls?

  “The cookies are yummy, Nana,” said Lucia, licking her fingers.

  Ana smiled. “It’s a recipe from Portugal.”

  “You made them for the PTA psychic evening that Mike organized, didn’t you?” Maia remembered. “When that lady, Mystic Maureen, came and told people’s fortunes?”

  Ana nodded. “Yes, that was a great evening. It was actually Mary at the Copper Kettle who suggested it. She gave one of Mystic Maureen’s business cards to Mike and it turned out to be a real fund-raiser. Look.” She took a photo off the fridge and handed it to Maia.

  Maia glanced at the photo. It showed Mystic Maureen and some of the parents with Mike. Maia remembered the fortune-teller well. She had shoulder-length red hair and was wearing a colourful dress and an unusual scarf.