Cloud Magic Read online

  There was an eager whinny from inside as if the sky stallion could sense them coming.

  ‘Tor!’ Erin gasped, reaching the door of the building. ‘We’re here and we’ve got everything!’

  Chloe opened the door.

  Tor stepped forward, his neck arched, his proud head held high. Erin reached out instinctively and then her hand dropped; he was not a tame horse to be petted. She stared at him in awe. He was wild, majestic, a king of horses.

  ‘I’m ready to do the spell and break the rope.’ Erin looked at the black rope round Tor’s neck and reached to pull it off.

  Tor jerked back. ‘No!’

  But he was too late; Erin’s fingers had already closed round it. It burnt her like flames and with a sharp cry she yanked her hands back.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Chloe asked in alarm.

  Erin stared down. Her fingers were red where she had touched it and she could already see three blisters forming. ‘Look!’

  Tor immediately breathed on her hand. Erin felt the sensation of snowflakes settling on her skin, soothing the burning, healing the blisters. ‘I am sorry, Erin. But the rope cannot be removed until it is broken by the spell. I should have warned you sooner.’

  Erin looked at the sores on his neck and bit her lip. ‘How do I do the spell?’

  ‘Unbinding magic is dangerous to perform,’ Tor replied. ‘You must use your powers as a weather weaver to enter a vision that will seem as real to you as real life. You must then do the unbinding in the vision. It will hurt and it will be hard.’

  ‘Oh,’ Erin said, swallowing.

  Tor’s dark eyes met hers. He raised his muzzle to her face, strength in his gaze. ‘You are special, Erin. You will be able to do this.’

  She felt his mane brush against her cheek, felt his breath on her hair, and courage flooded through her.

  She lifted her chin. ‘I won’t let you down.’

  Tor gave a low grateful whicker. ‘Come,’ he said softly. ‘It is time.’

  C H A P T E R

  Eleven

  Tor plunged out of the hut. ‘Clear the hagstones and make a circle with the bindweed as quickly as you can!’

  Chloe and Erin did as he said, piling the hagstones up and laying the bindweed rope on the ground, tying the two ends together.

  ‘What next?’ asked Erin.

  Tor stamped a hoof. ‘First, you must pull a loose thread from the binding rope…’

  ‘But that’ll burn Erin, won’t it?’ interrupted Chloe.

  ‘It will and I am sorry, Erin,’ Tor said gently. ‘But it is the only way.’

  Erin thought of how much Tor must be hurting right now. ‘I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘What do I have to do when I have the thread?’

  ‘Sit down with it in the bindweed circle and wind it through the hagstone. When it is all wound up, unwind the dark spirit’s three hairs without breaking them. As the final hair comes free, you will enter a vision. In your vision, the bindweed circle will burst into flames. You must ignore it and begin to unwind the thread from the stone, all the time saying the spell: unwind, untwist, free the bound one like this. When you unwind the last of the thread, the vision will end. But remember –’ Tor’s voice took a note of urgency – ‘if any words other than the spell pass your lips while you are in the vision, you will be trapped there. You must only speak the words of the spell.’

  Erin could feel panic swelling inside her. How could she remember everything? ‘Unwind, untwist, free the bound one like this,’ she repeated.

  Tor nodded. ‘Be careful. It is very important that once you have started the spell you must not stop. If you break off, then the binding rope can never be broken. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ Erin answered, her lips dry.

  Tor nudged her gently. ‘Then use your magic, weather weaver.’

  ‘Good luck,’ Chloe said desperately. ‘I know you can do it!’

  Erin took a deep breath and took hold of a loose black thread in the rope round Tor’s neck. It burnt her skin anew and she gasped.

  Trying to ignore the pain, she pulled and the thread slid out of the rope. Erin ran into the circle with it and sat down.

  Magic seemed to tingle through her from the stars and, as it did so, the pain from her fingers seemed to lessen slightly. Erin began to wind the thread through the hagstone, holding one end and taking the other through the hole and round and round. The thread cut into her fingers, but it wasn’t burning in the same way. She gritted her teeth and thought about the pain Tor must be in with the rope round his neck all the time

  Don’t stop, she thought. Keep going!

  Winding the last of the thread on, she tied the ends loosely and then began to unwind the three hairs – first one and then the next and then finally she started on the third.

  The tingling feeling of magic increased and the edges of the world around her seemed to grow dark and blurry.

  From the corners of her eyes she saw the white flowers of the bindweed seem to rise up and blaze with a bright light. She pulled the last hair away from the stone, and then suddenly the whole circle of bindweed burst into flame.

  Erin cried out in alarm. Fire surrounded her. It’s a vision, the word drummed in her head. It’s not real.

  But it felt real. She could feel the heat. Sweat broke out over her body. The flames seemed to be creeping closer. The woods, Tor, Chloe, everything had gone. There was just her and the flames and the hagstone in her hand.

  Finding the loose ends of the thread, she tried to untie her own loose knot. But it was hard to concentrate; her eyes kept flicking back to the flames. They were definitely closer! Her breath grew short in her chest; panic started to rise through her.

  Use your magic, Erin! Tor’s voice seemed to ring in her ears.

  Erin looked up at the sky – a cool, dark sea above. The stars were shining brightly, pinpricks of light and hope. Her panic ebbed, the ends came free and she started to unwind the thread from the stone. ‘Unbind, untwist, free the bound one like this,’ she whispered.

  She could do this. She was a weather weaver. Tor had told her she was special. She put her trust in the cloud stallion.

  ‘Unbind, untwist, free the bound one like this.’ She pulled at the thread again. She was almost there. It was starting to burn her fingers again though, hotter and hotter.

  ‘Unbind, untwist…’ Her voice rose as she forced herself to block out the pain and think only of Tor. ‘Free the bound one like this!’

  On the last word she pulled out the end of the thread. There was a flaring of white light; she had a feeling of falling and suddenly Erin was out of the vision, sitting again in the clearing in the woods, the hagstone with the thread beside it in her hands. She blinked. She could see Chloe, her eyes wide with concern. She could see Tor, all his attention focused on her.

  She’d done it. She had returned from the vision!

  But just then the circle of bindweed round her – the real-life circle of bindweed – burst into flames. She screamed and heard Chloe scream too.

  ‘Throw the thread into the flames, Erin!’ Tor’s voice rang out. ‘Then use your stardust magic to quench the fire!’

  Erin did as he said. As the thread burnt, the fire flared up, reaching towards her. She didn’t have time for doubts…

  ‘Rain be with me!’ she yelled.

  A second later, rain was pouring down, dousing the fire. With a sizzle, the flames died. The raindrops soaked her, streaming over her hair and face, soothing her heat-scorched skin.

  ‘Rain be gone!’ she gasped through the water.

  The raincloud vanished. Erin’s heart hammered in her chest. She looked at the circle of smoking, charred grass with just a few remaining bindweed leaves. Her eyes met Chloe’s. At the same moment, a triumphant whinny rang through the clearing and Erin swung round to see Tor rearing up in the air.

  ‘The rope!’ Erin gasped, staring at his neck. ‘It’s gone!’

  ‘You broke the spell!’ Tor exclaimed. ‘I am
free!’

  Erin jumped to her feet.

  The next minute Chloe was hugging her. ‘And you’re OK, Erin! Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe. It was horrible when you went into that trance. You cried out and then just went really still. I didn’t know what was happening and then the fire…’

  Tor plunged towards them and, as he did so, he seemed to change. The solid lines of his body blurred and faded, and in front of their eyes he grew bigger, filling the air of the clearing. He was no longer a stallion of flesh and blood, but a stallion made of swirling mist, his muscles rippling like scudding clouds, his mane and tail glittering like snow crystals caught in sunlight.

  ‘What’s happening to you?’ Erin cried.

  ‘My true cloud form!’

  Tor reached them, and returned to his usual size. But his outline stayed cloud-like. ‘Now the binding rope has gone, I can choose which form I take – real horse or sky horse. Oh, weather weaver…’ He bent his head and touched his muzzle to her forehead. ‘I knew you were special. Thank you.’

  ‘Thank you for showing me how to use my powers,’ Erin breathed, feeling a tingling coldness where his skin touched hers. She reached out to stroke his neck. It was like an icy mist, there but not there, soothing the last of the pain from her fingers.

  ‘I must return to my kingdom,’ Tor said. ‘I need you to open the gateway for me – the gateway between this world and the cloud world. It is at World’s End.’

  ‘Is it the rock that looks like a hagstone?’ Erin asked.

  ‘The rock that is a hagstone,’ Tor said. But just then a figure in a silver dress came flying through the trees. She was holding her head and looked pale.

  ‘Xanthe!’ Erin exclaimed. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘I’ll be fine, don’t worry,’ Xanthe said, flying down.

  ‘This is Xanthe, my godmother,’ Chloe said quickly to Tor. ‘She’s here to help us.’

  Xanthe landed lightly. ‘Greetings, sky stallion.’

  ‘Stardust spirit,’ Tor said, bowing his head slightly.

  Xanthe looked around. ‘Is Marianne here?’

  ‘No. We thought she was with you.’ Chloe frowned.

  ‘She was,’ Xanthe said. ‘But then she left. I tried to stop her, but her magic was too strong.’

  ‘I’ve broken the binding rope…’ Erin began.’

  ‘Oh, well done!’ Xanthe said.

  But Erin knew there was no time for congratulations. ‘Now I’m going to open a gateway so Tor can go back to the clouds.’ She had no idea how she would do it, but she trusted Tor completely. He would tell her what to do. She shook her wet hair back.

  ‘Let’s not hang around here waiting for Marianne,’ Chloe said. ‘Come on!’

  They flew out of the woods with Tor galloping below them, his outline constantly shifting and changing. No hedge or wall stopped him; he soared over them all, his mane and tail streaming out behind him like silver banners of mist.

  Above them, the stars shone down out of a velvet-black sky. The moon was round and full.

  As they flew, Xanthe explained what had happened at the house. ‘At first I talked to Marianne, as I said I would, but she got impatient, said she had somewhere to be. She told me to leave and when I wouldn’t she tried to use a stardust binding spell on me. I was ready and we fought. I managed to bind her, but she broke free when I wasn’t expecting it and knocked me into the wall with a blast of wind. I banged my head and almost passed out. I can only imagine she must have been in a hurry to get to wherever she wanted to be, because, rather than trying to injure me further or take my stardust, she set off.’

  ‘I wonder where she is,’ said Erin, glancing around, half expecting to see Marianne swooping towards them, but the sky was empty and silent. Very silent, Erin realized with a shiver. Almost as though the world was holding its breath.

  They reached the cliff top. Tor swept down the path to the beach. Erin, Chloe and Xanthe flew down after him. The three rocks on the spit of land were silhouetted against the black sky, the round hagstone with moonlight gleaming through it and the two tall stones pointing upwards like fingers.

  World’s End, thought Erin, realizing what a good name it was for it – the place that was the end of one world and the beginning of another. Had the people who had named it known that?

  ‘What do we have to do to open the gateway? What –’

  She broke off with a gasp as a hooded figure stepped out of the shadows around the giant hagstone on to the shingle beach. It was Marianne!

  C H A P T E R

  Twelve

  ‘You!’ Marianne looked just as surprised to see them as they were to see her, Erin realized with a shock. The dark spirit’s eyes swept over Tor’s neck as he and the stardust spirits landed on the shingle in front of her. ‘The binding rope!’ she exclaimed in disbelief. ‘It’s gone!’

  ‘Yes!’ Tor’s voice rang out. ‘It has been destroyed.’

  Marianne’s gaze swung to Erin. ‘You did it! I didn’t even know you had discovered your powers.’

  Erin tensed, expecting Marianne to get angry, but to her surprise the dark spirit just stared coldly at her, then turned to look at Xanthe. ‘Well, well. You came to create a distraction while the spell was performed. I see it all now.’

  Xanthe met her gaze. ‘It is true. The stallion has been freed and he will return to the skies now. You have no business here any longer, dark spirit.’

  ‘We’re going to open the gateway and let him through, and you’re not going to stop us!’ Chloe exclaimed.

  Xanthe pulled Chloe protectively towards her.

  Marianne shrugged. ‘I agree I’m not going to stop you from opening the gateway, child. In fact…’ A smile curved the corners of her lips. ‘I’m going to open it for you.’

  ‘What?’ Erin and Chloe both burst out.

  Marianne turned to the hagstone and moved her left hand in a circle, muttering a word. The air in the hole immediately began to shimmer with a silver light. Tor moved towards it instinctively – then hesitated.

  Marianne looked at him. ‘The gateway is open, sky stallion. You may return if you wish. I do not need you any more. I have other plans!’ She laughed triumphantly. ‘And your presence here can only help me in those!’

  She turned to the stone and for a moment seemed to be addressing something through it rather than them. ‘Can you see him?’ she called. ‘Can you see him here?’

  ‘Father!’ a voice echoed back.

  There was a flash of bright white light and suddenly a colt came jumping through the hagstone, a colt made of clouds. His outline was slightly blurred, his body changing very slightly every second in size and shape. It was the same long-legged foal Erin had seen the night before.

  ‘Mistral!’ Tor whinnied in alarm.

  Marianne stepped forward swiftly, pulling out a hagstone with a chip of rock caught in the centre of its hole. She reached out and touched it to the grey colt’s head, muttering a string of dark words.

  To Erin’s horror, the colt gave a startled whinny that was cut off as he seemed to be sucked into the hole in the rock, the cloud that made him swirling in until it was gone.

  ‘No!’ Tor reared up. At the same moment, Xanthe lifted her hand to shoot magic at the dark spirit, but it was too late. Marianne had disappeared, the stone in her hands.

  ‘Reveal!’ Xanthe shouted desperately. But nothing happened.

  A cold laugh echoed from the cliff top above them. They swung round and looked to see Marianne standing there, the wind tossing back her long hair. She pointed at Xanthe. ‘Bind her!’ she snapped. Xanthe suddenly seemed to freeze in mid-air.

  Marianne looked directly at Erin. ‘You thought you had won by breaking the binding spell, but I do not need Tor any longer. He was too stubborn, too difficult. Any sky horse of royal blood can be used to control the weather from Earth and so I found another. In fact, by bringing the stallion here you helped me. As soon as the foal saw his father, he came through the gateway willingly.’ She held up
the stone. ‘Now I will use him to control the skies. Just as it is written in the stars!’ With a gloating expression on her face, she quoted four lines:

  ‘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.’

  Marianne drew herself up to her full height. ‘You may have broken the binding, but my power has indeed grown.’ And, with that, she vanished.

  In the same instant, Xanthe broke free.

  ‘Quick! Let’s go after her!’ Chloe cried, flying into the air.

  ‘No, Chloe!’ exclaimed Xanthe. ‘Marianne is too powerful. We cannot stop her by chasing her now.’

  Chloe stopped reluctantly.

  ‘We need to wait and plan,’ said Xanthe. ‘We need to gather our strength.’

  Tor pawed the ground. ‘You are right,’ he said, but he did not sound as if he liked it. Looking at the anger on his face, Erin was sure he wanted to go flying after Marianne straight away.

  Chloe flew down again. ‘What did all those words she said mean?’

  ‘It sounded like a prophecy,’ Xanthe said grimly.

  ‘I’ve heard those words before,’ said Erin, her heart thudding. ‘They’re on a piece of paper that used to belong to my mum.’

  ‘It must be a weather-weaving prophecy,’ said Xanthe. ‘Marianne must have realized that if a sky horse came through the gateway willingly then she would become more powerful. It sounds as if she has been using her magic to cast visions of Tor being mistreated into the cloud world, knowing that his son would feel compelled to come through to try to help him.’

  ‘And then we helped her by coming here tonight,’ said Erin slowly.

  ‘And now my son is her prisoner, caught within a trapping stone, unable to break free,’ Tor said heavily.

  Chloe looked at him. ‘What will you do now? Will you go back to the cloud world?’