Cloud Magic Page 7
‘Yes,’ said Erin. ‘We can find Mistral and you can tell us what to do, how to free him.’
‘Your herd needs you, sky stallion,’ said Xanthe, looking up at the stormy sky.
‘I cannot go,’ Tor said in frustration. ‘To free Mistral after he has been trapped in the stone, I will need to speak his sky name. A sky horse’s secret name must not be spoken by any apart from those from the cloud world, or the sky horse will become earthbound forever.’
‘But what about the storms?’ protested Erin. ‘If you stay here, then what’s going to happen?’
‘All hope is not lost. If you will help me by learning to use your weather-weaving powers, we will be able to control the weather and calm the skies from here,’ said Tor. ‘But I will need you to work your magic.’
‘I’ll do anything!’ said Erin fervently. ‘Anything!’ She looked at the giant hagstone – the gateway to another world. She could almost see the faint outline of the colt, ears pricked, as he had burst through it and landed on the shingle.
Tor touched her shoulder with his muzzle. ‘Thank you. Maybe together we can defeat the dark one.’
They flew back to Chloe’s house. Tor said he would stay in the woods. Now Marianne had the foal she would not try to capture him again.
Back at Chloe’s house, Xanthe made them some hot chocolate. As Erin sipped the froth off the top of her mug and nibbled at a biscuit, she sighed. She felt shaken. Tor should have returned to his cloud kingdom. She’d done the magic and the binding rope was broken, but now that Marianne had Mistral he still couldn’t go back.
Xanthe squeezed Erin’s shoulder as if she could read her thoughts. ‘You should be really proud of what you did tonight, Erin. Working the spell to break the binding rope must have been incredibly hard, and to do it when you have only just become a weather weaver… well, that’s amazing.’
‘It didn’t help though, did it?’ Erin said unhappily.
‘Erin!’ Xanthe moved round so she could look into her eyes. ‘Of course it helped! Tor is free. He can be either his earth form or his cloud form and now that he is no longer controlled by Marianne he will be able to work with you to manage the weather in the skies, stopping the storms and then freeing Mistral. If he had still been bound by Marianne, then he would not have been able to do that. He said he will tell you what to do tomorrow.’
‘I can’t believe you’re going to get to work with Tor to control the weather,’ Chloe said. ‘That’s so cool!’ She shook her head wonderingly. ‘It really has been an amazing few days, hasn’t it?’
It had. Erin realized that just a week ago she hadn’t heard of stardust, hadn’t known about weather weavers, had had no idea there were horses in the skies and absolutely no idea she could do magic. So much had happened – good bits, bad bits, and two of the best bits, she realized, had been making friends with Chloe and the strong bond she now felt with Tor, a weather-weaving bond that linked her and the stallion across the wide, dark night.
‘You really were brilliant this evening, Erin,’ Chloe said. ‘Xanthe’s right. It would have been great if we could have got Tor back to the clouds, but the most important thing is that he’s free and Marianne can’t hurt him any more with that horrible rope.’
Erin nodded slowly. ‘And we will set Mistral free too. We’re not going to let Marianne beat us.’
‘No way!’ declared Chloe.
Their eyes met and Erin felt a warmth spread through her that had nothing to do with the chocolate she was drinking. ‘Definitely no way,’ she said, lifting her chin with a smile.
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
High Above…
Sky Horses: Cloud Magic
CHAPTER One
CHAPTER Two
CHAPTER Three
CHAPTER Four
CHAPTER Five
CHAPTER Six
CHAPTER Seven
CHAPTER Eight
CHAPTER Nine
CHAPTER Ten
CHAPTER Eleven
CHAPTER Twelve
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
High Above…
Sky Horses: Cloud Magic
CHAPTER One
CHAPTER Two
CHAPTER Three
CHAPTER Four
CHAPTER Five
CHAPTER Six
CHAPTER Seven
CHAPTER Eight
CHAPTER Nine
CHAPTER Ten
CHAPTER Eleven
CHAPTER Twelve