Sky Horses: the Whispering Tree Read online

  There were different types of hagstones and they could all be used to do different kinds of magic. Seeing stones, like the stone in her hand, had a single hole through the centre and they could be used for visions of people and places, and talking to people or sky horses far away. Stones with two holes were called warding stones. They could be used to protect the person holding them from being injured or being watched. There were other stones too, like healing stones, but Erin hadn’t learnt how to use those yet.

  If Mum was still alive maybe she would have taught me, Erin thought. Her real mum had died almost eight years ago in a car accident. Erin now knew that weather weaving was always inherited, so her mum must have been a weather weaver too.

  Erin looked down again at the hagstone in her hands. It was so strange to think that she had the power to affect the weather. Tor had explained to her that weather weavers worked in harmony with the horses. Not Marianne though, thought Erin with a shiver. Marianne wanted to make the sky horses do whatever she wanted so that she had complete control over the weather and everyone would fear her. Sky horses of royal blood could be used to control the weather from Earth, which was why Marianne had captured Tor.

  Erin had used her weather magic to free him. However, just as Tor had been about to go back to the skies through a magic gateway at a place called World’s End, Marianne had tricked his son, Mistral, into coming through to look for him. Marianne had imprisoned the foal in a trapping stone and tried to use him to control the weather instead.

  Almost two weeks ago, Erin and Chloe had managed to find the trapping stone and Erin had used her powers to break it and free Mistral, but as she had done so the gateway had been destroyed. Now Erin and Chloe were trying to help Mistral and Tor find another gateway so they could return home. If only we knew where it was, thought Erin. There was a stardust prophecy that suggested there was another gateway hidden somewhere:

  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.

  ‘Lost in memory. Hidden by the sea,’ Erin whispered, thinking hard. ‘Deep underground. Made from moonlight. Near a whispering tree.’

  She frowned. How could something be underground but hidden by the sea and be near a tree. It didn’t make any sense. ‘What is a whispering tree anyway?’ she wondered. Her fingers buzzed as if the stone was sending sparks of electricity into her skin.

  Magic, she realized.

  She caught her breath as she had an idea. Could she use the hagstone to see where the whispering tree was?

  She stared at the hole in the stone and let her mind go blank apart from one thought: the whispering tree. She let the words float in and out of her mind, waiting to see what would happen and if the hagstone would show her anything.

  Darkness closed in on her and a picture started to appear inside the hole in the stone. It grew bigger and bigger until Erin wasn’t sure whether she was looking at it or whether she was actually in the vision herself. There was a tree in front of her. A tall tree with a gnarled grey trunk and round green leaves with feathered edges hanging down from slender branches. The leaves rustled together in the breeze, making a whispering sound, almost as if they were talking. Erin could hear waves crashing on rocks nearby, but before she could look around and see if she could recognize where she was, the tree started to dissolve and a new vision began to form.

  Erin was taken aback. What was happening? Often the visions she had through the stones would fade – Tor had said it was because she wasn’t a very experienced weather weaver – but she wasn’t used to new visions taking their place. She watched as the picture changed. It was the same tree, but this time there was someone sitting underneath it – a girl wearing wide jeans and a yellow and brown T-shirt and a long coat. She looked about Erin’s age and had a fringe and dark hair that curled under at her shoulders. She was writing in a blue leather diary. She looked up and chewed her pen.

  Erin gasped. She knew who it was! She’d seen photos in the photo album downstairs.

  Her throat felt dry with shock. ‘Mum?’ she managed to whisper.

  She had a rushing, swirling feeling and then darkness engulfed her. She blinked and found herself back in her room again.

  Her heart pounded. Calm down, she thought. It was just a vision.

  But she couldn’t calm down. She’d never seen into the past before. And to see her mum when in real life she could hardly remember her… Erin couldn’t stop trembling.

  Her mum had been sitting by the whispering tree – the very tree Erin was trying to find – and she had been writing in a diary…

  A diary!

  Erin’s eyes widened as she made the connection with her real life. Up in the attic there was a box full of her mum’s old diaries and notebooks. Erin’s dad had said he was keeping them for Erin when she got older. A few years ago, Erin had gone through some of them, but her mum’s handwriting had been quite hard to read and what she’d deciphered hadn’t made much sense. In the end, she’d given up. She hadn’t thought about the box since then. But maybe things about stardust and weather weaving were written in those diaries and journals! Maybe there would be a clue about the whispering tree!

  Erin jumped to her feet and ran downstairs. The car race was still on. Jo, her dad and her brothers, Jake, Sam and Ben, were all glued to it. ‘Dad?’ Erin said.

  ‘Later, Erin. It’s almost finished.’

  ‘But, Dad, this is important. Can I go into the attic?’

  ‘Why?’ asked her dad, not taking his eyes off the telly.

  ‘I just want to look through those old diaries of Mum’s.’

  That had the effect of getting her dad’s attention. He looked swiftly at her. ‘Any particular reason, sweetheart?’

  ‘No,’ said Erin, shaking her head, seeing Jo glance at her too. ‘I just feel like it.’

  Her dad frowned. ‘OK, well, of course it’s fine, but maybe I’ll come with you…’ However, just then there was an excited yell from the commentator on TV, and Erin’s brothers and Jo all gasped. ‘The Ferrari’s gone!’ shouted Jake.

  Erin’s dad’s eyes darted back to the TV. Erin quietly left the room. She went back upstairs and up a further flight that led into the attic. It was a long, dark, dusty room and there were boxes and old suitcases everywhere. A single light bulb hung down from the roof. Erin switched it on and a weak yellow light shone out, illuminating the darkness.

  Erin spotted the plastic crate very quickly. It was pushed to one side of the attic room. She hurried over and took the lid off. Yes, there were all the diaries! Erin’s eyes fell on a blue diary. It looked just like the diary her mum had been writing in when she’d seen her in the vision! She picked it up and looked inside. Her mum had written her name on the first page: Rachel Margaret Winston, aged 10 and ¾. It was a two-year diary and there was a lock of dark hair pressed inside the cover, secured with a piece of yellowing sticky tape.

  Mum’s hair, thought Erin, touching it in awe. It was darker than her own. Gingerly, she turned over the pages of the diary and began to read…

  CHAPTER

  Three

  1 January

  Well, it’s New Year’s Day today and the start of my new diary. My new year’s resolution is to write in my diary every single day. Even if nothing’s happening, I’ve decided I’ll write about stardust and weather weaving. Mum has been telling me loads this Christmas holiday. She says now I’m nearly eleven I need to know.

  The big round hagstone down at World’s End is a gateway between our world and the cloud world and Mum says that every seven years we have to put a new spell on it so it can’t be used by anyone – not sky horse or human. Granny used to do it and now Mum does and I’ll have to when I get older. The spell has to be done again on Midsumm
er’s Day next year. It’s weird to think that the stone is a gateway and that we could use it to get to the cloud world. I’d love to actually meet a sky horse. Just imagine being able to stroke one. It would be brilliant! But Mum says it’s really bad for the horses if the gateways get used too much. They get ill or something. There’s another gateway as well as the one at World’s End…

  It was the end of the page. Hardly able to breathe, Erin turned the page over. This was amazing! Her mum writing about gateways and sky horses! She read on, her eyes struggling to make sense of the scribbled words:

  The other gateway’s a massive secret. Mum says she thinks only me and her know about it now. Granny created it when she was fighting her sister, May, who was a really dark spirit. I came on my bike today and I’m now sitting by the whispering tree. You’d never ever guess the gateway was close by. I think the whispering tree is the best tree in the whole world. When I sit here, I can almost imagine that it’s talking to me. There’s a lot of holly here too and at the moment it’s got berries all over it. I saw a robin pecking at the berries a few minutes ago. It was very sweet…

  ‘Erin?’

  Erin jumped.

  Her dad was standing in the attic doorway. ‘Are you all right, sweetheart?’

  ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ said Erin. She’d been miles away, so excited by what she was reading in her mum’s diary that she’d almost forgotten she was in the attic. ‘Can I take these books to my room, Dad?’

  ‘Of course,’ her dad said. ‘I kept them so that you could read them all one day. Why the sudden interest though?’

  Erin shrugged.

  Her dad looked at her. ‘Everything is OK, isn’t it? You’re not upset by anything?’

  ‘No, no, everything’s fine.’ Erin just wanted to get on and read some more of the blue diary. ‘Can you bring the box down for me, please, Dad? It’s really heavy.’

  Her dad nodded and carried the box to her bedroom. ‘You do know you can talk to me about your mum at any time,’ he said as he put it on the floor.

  ‘I know,’ said Erin. She just wanted to get him out of the room. ‘But I’m all right, Dad. Really. I promise.’

  ‘OK then.’ Her dad ruffled her hair and left.

  Erin sank on to her bed with the blue diary and started to read again.

  By bedtime she was up to March in the diary. She hadn’t found out any more about where the gateway was, but her mum did write about it one more time. There was an interesting diary entry in February that Erin had read several times:

  12 February

  Mum and I went for a walk on the cliffs today and she told me more about the hidden gateway. She said that Granny made it when her sister, May, captured the sky stallion. May was jealous of Granny because everyone said Granny had more power than she did and so May went into the cloud world and captured the sky stallion so that she would have complete control over the weather. She made a great storm happen so that people would be scared of her. It rained for days. Lots of people were killed and places flooded. Granny wanted to make May release the stallion back to the sky. She made the gateway in case she needed to get into the cloud world and couldn’t use the gateway at World’s End. She didn’t need it in the end because she managed to defeat May in a fight, but she must have been a really powerful weather weaver to have made it. Mum says she thinks Granny and Great-Aunt May were two of the most powerful weather weavers ever. I hope I get to be as powerful as them one day!

  Erin shivered. Tor had told her that there had once been a devastating storm caused by a dark spirit catching a sky stallion. But Erin hadn’t realized that the dark spirit had been her great-grandmother’s sister, May. She sounds just like Marianne, she thought. Horrible images of wild storms, torrential rain and flooding filled her mind. If Marianne gets control over the weather like Great-Aunt May did, she realized, the same thing could happen all over again.

  She was longing to read on and find out more. Maybe there would be other clues as to where the gateway was. As it was, she knew a few more things than she had before she found the diary. It was near holly bushes and near the edge of the cliff and the sea and it was close enough for her mum to cycle to. Surely if she and Chloe flew round the coastal area enough they’d be able to find it?

  She shut the diary. She couldn’t wait to show Chloe that night!

  ‘Oh wow!’ breathed Chloe, when Erin told her.

  They had met on the beach, just as they usually did on the days when they weren’t staying at each other’s houses. The sea pulled at the shingle beach, dragging the stones down the beach with a clatter. There was the smell of drying seaweed in the air. The full moon shone down, making Erin’s dress glitter silvery blue. Chloe’s dress was golden. There were four types of stardust spirit – summer, autumn, winter and spring. They each wore different-coloured clothes and could do different types of magic. Chloe was a summer spirit, which meant she could start fires, and Erin, like all weather weavers, was a winter spirit, which meant she had the power to make rain, hail or snow happen around her.

  ‘Does the diary say anything about the hidden gateway?’ Chloe asked.

  ‘Yes!’ Erin showed Chloe the first entry and then turned to the one where her mum had written about the gateway being created.

  Chloe’s eyes skimmed over it. ‘So the dark spirit who captured a sky stallion the time before was your great-grandmother’s sister?’

  Erin nodded. ‘It’s weird, isn’t it? One sister – my great-granny – must have been good; Great-Aunt May must have been bad.’

  Chloe looked thoughtful. ‘You know the night you broke the trapping stone, Tor said he thought you and Marianne might be related because your magic exploded with such power when it met. Well, maybe Marianne is May’s granddaughter or something like that? Maybe that’s how you’re related to her.’

  Erin considered it. When Tor had told her what he thought, she had found it hard to believe him because as far as she knew she didn’t have any other relatives. Her mum and her granny had both been only children, so she didn’t have any aunts or cousins, but now she wondered if Chloe was right, if the link went back further. ‘I’ll ask Dad tomorrow if he knows anything about her.’ A shiver ran through her. She didn’t like the thought of being related to Marianne. She shut the diary and suddenly became aware that the back of her neck was prickling, just like the night before.

  She reached for the warding stone she usually carried in her pocket. It would warn her of danger by turning icy cold, but the warding stone wasn’t there. Her heart sank. She had been so eager to get out and see Chloe that she’d left the house without it.

  She quickly crouched down, moving the stones on the beach with her hands. Could she find another one? Her skin was still prickling.

  ‘Erin?’ said Chloe in surprise. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Just a minute!’ Erin scanned the stones. She’d always had a knack of finding hagstones; other people could look for ages, but she just seemed to spot them straight away. Sure enough she soon discovered a brown stone with two holes and picked it up. Holding it in her hand, she shut her eyes and imagined an invisible shield round her and Chloe, imagined rocks and branches bouncing off it. The stone glowed warm and then cold.

  She straightened up and saw that Chloe was staring at her in bafflement.

  ‘Sorry. I had that feeling again, like Marianne was watching us as we were talking, but I’ve got a warding stone to protect us now just in case.’ Erin glanced around.

  Chloe looked worried. ‘If she was just watching, she’ll have seen the diary.’

  Erin’s fingers tightened anxiously on the blue book. ‘Let’s go and meet Tor.’

  Chloe nodded. ‘We can look for a whispering tree on the way. I brought an old book of Dad’s about trees from home.’ She pulled a slim leather-bound book out of her pocket. ‘I thought we could look through it and see if it gives us any ideas about what type of tree it might be.’

  Erin put the diary and the warding stone in her pocket and to
ok the guidebook. ‘I saw the tree in a vision today. I think I know what it looks like.’ She began to turn over the pages of the book. ‘No, not that one. Not that one…’ She stopped. ‘There! That’s it!’

  She read out the name. ‘Aspen.’

  Chloe peered over her shoulder and read out. ‘The slightest breeze flutters the green leaves of the aspen, hence its folk name – the whispering tree.’ She looked at Erin in excitement. ‘You’re right! It is an aspen tree we have to find. At least we know what we’re after now. Come on, but let’s camouflage ourselves first.’

  All stardust spirits could camouflage themselves, using magic to blend into the background. Erin started to nod, but just then the air behind her flickered. Erin gasped as a woman with long blonde hair appeared. She landed lightly on the shingle, her silvery-blue dress shining in the starlight as she pointed at the girls.

  The woman’s voice hissed out like a breath of ice in the night. ‘Bind them!’

  CHAPTER

  Four

  Erin pulled Chloe down just in time as Marianne shot a blast of white light at them.

  Chloe reacted instantly, using her own stardust magic.

  ‘Fire be with me!’ she yelled. A burning fireball burst from her fingers and flew at Marianne.

  Marianne snapped her fingers and a small icy cloud appeared between her and the girls. As the fireball shot through it, the flames extinguished and it vanished with a crack. Marianne clenched her fist. The cloud turned into a ball of ice. She flicked open her fingers with a laugh. The ball immediately spun straight towards Chloe’s head.