All That Glitters (Avalon: Web of Magic #2) (5 page)

“They can keep their magical stuff,” she grumbled. “Magic doesn’t like me anyway!”

Kara marched straight across the lawn toward a row of giant hedges. She didn’t notice the swarm of colorful creatures diving from the skies to follow her.

B
EING OUTSIDE HELPED
clear her head. Kara took a deep breath and looked back at the expanse of the great lawn. What a perfect place for the first fund-raising event. Now
that
was something she could handle! She imagined medieval torches encircling the magnificent gardens with the rocking sounds of Sampleton Malls blasting from the stage! She giggled. And Kara, the princess of the ball, in a runway-ready leather-and-silk gown, dancing the night away with the most handsome prince. Adriane can stay home and be the wicked stepsister, she thought with a laugh and twirled past the rose gardens.

Such beautiful roses. She bent to admire a striking patch of China reds and rugosas. An amazing flower caught her eye. It looked like a dandelion, except the seeds were bright rainbow sparkles. It reminded her of Emily’s magic jewel.
Zip!
Something buzzed past her ear.

“Koook.”

“Hey! Watch it!” It was one of those bird-things, a blue one. Up close it didn’t look like a bird, it looked more like a . . . a . . . tiny dragon! It hovered above the rainbow flower, dipped its small front paws in the seeds, and grabbed them. With a squeak it flew away, trailing rainbow sparkles behind it. Kara stood still as another one came out of nowhere. It hovered in front of her. This one was purple. It definitely looked like a miniature flying dragon, with jeweled eyes that reflected glints of light. A dragon . . . fly. Kara was pleased with the wordplay. A dragonfly!

“Scrook?”

“Shoo,” Kara replied.

“Screeek!” The purple dragonfly swirled around Kara’s head, picking at her hair. Kara waved it away and it zipped over to another flower, grabbed clawfuls of seeds, and took off.

Kara was curious. Why were the little dragons taking the seeds? To spread them somewhere else? Bet Emily and Adriane don’t know about his, she thought gleefully. She looked at her watch: 4:00. Time to collect her stuff and head home. Her friends were coming over at six.

She turned to go back to the manor but the roses and brambles seemed to have gotten all tangled up behind her. She tried to push through. Ouch! The thorns were sharp.

Kara cut through an opening in the hedges and started down an overgrown path walled in on either side by towering hedgerows.

The path came to a dead end at the head of a T: she could go right or left. It looked like some kind of giant maze, she realized.
Gran said you could get lost in the hedge maze for days, so it’s off-limits for tours . . .
Yeah, right, who would be so stupid to . . . well, getting lost in a hedge maze was just stupid.

Kara looked around. The hedgerows loomed above her, blocking the view of the manor.

“Hey! Hello? Ozzie? Storm? Someone? I’m . . . lost!” Where were all the animals now that she needed help? She kicked her sneaker along the gravel and a small cloud of rainbow seeds sparkled up into the air. Probably dropped by those pesky dragonflies. The cloud of seeds trailed to the right, so Kara followed. She walked into a wide circle with trails leading off in at least a dozen different directions.

There was a soft rustle in the hedge. She caught a glimpse of an animal rounding a corner.

“Hey, dwimbee!” Kara ran around the corner and gasped. The big cat sat in the middle of the path, her green eyes gazing at Kara.

The cat yawned, then stood and strolled deeper into the maze, glancing over her shoulder.

She expected Kara to follow?! How dumb did that cat think she was?

The cat turned and blinked at her.

“I’m coming, keep your fur on!” Kara grumbled and crunched along, dire thoughts of rock’n’roll princesses who wander away from the party and get lost forever in enchanted hedgerows playing in her head.

The cat moved purposefully through the twisting green corridors.

Then she turned a corner—and walked out of the maze.

“Thank goodness! I thought we were going to be stuck in there forever!”

The cat was threading her way into a patch of deep woods.

“Hey, kitty! Wait for me.” She set off into the trees, hurrying to keep the cat in sight. Deep, dense forest now surrounded her. But at least she was on a path, muddy and narrow, but definitely a trail.

“Kitty, where are you?” she called.

She saw the cat entering a wall of giant firs. Kara scrambled after her, looking up in awe at the trees, their green boughs covering the sky. She emerged into a wide-open clearing in the woods. A stream bubbled by, running into a large pond. Fir trees circled the glade protectively, and on the far side, the immense boulder called the Rocking Stone stretched its rocky finger way up into the skies.

Finally, a landmark she recognized! Beyond the Rocking Stone was a path that would take her back to the manor. It was a moment before she realized where she really was—at the
secret
glade, where Emily had found her magic healing stone.

Kara headed for the pond. There, in the shade of weeping willow trees, something sparkled in the crystal-clear water. She knelt down to look closer. Stones, dozens of beautiful stones! She reached into the water and scooped up a handful; they were rough and unpolished, but flecked with crystal. Woot! A ton of
magic stones!
She held up a tiny green one and closed her eyes, concentrating on making the stone light up the way Emily’s and Adriane’s could. Nothing happened. She tossed it away and tried again with a yellow one, then a blue one. Nothing.

These didn’t feel magical at all! Then again, how do you know if a stone is magical or not? The feeling that maybe she just didn’t have what it took to make magic came over her. She had helped Adriane and Emily with magic, but the key word was “helped.”

She looked up to see the cat sitting next to her. The animal’s green eyes were magnetic, filled with deep empathy. Once again, Kara was shaken by the intensity of the feeling. The cat nodded toward a rock by the edge of the water. Kara scampered over and looked behind it.

Half submerged in the shallows was the most beautiful crystal Kara had ever seen. It was teardrop-shaped and scalloped like an ornate shell. She reached down and picked it up. Smooth and polished, it gleamed diamond bright, reflecting light in all directions. She stood up and held the stone tight.

Instantly, warmth pulsed up Kara’s arm! It seemed to lodge in her heart and her eyes and her brain. The gem flashed, sending rainbows around the clearing. Magic! Kara jumped for sheer joy, shrieking with the wonder of it. She waved her arm in a circle and brilliant twinkles spiraled from the gem.

“I can’t believe it,” she cried. A magic jewel! A stone, her own stone, and the most beautiful one of all!

She danced over to the cat. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

It was as if she’d turned on a faucet of magic. Multicolored bubbles streamed everywhere, popping and bouncing around her. Kara spun in a circle, stretching her arms out, trailing ribbons of light from her jewel.

“Look at meeeeee!” she sang. “I have magic!”

“Sreeeeeeep!”

“Whoooooohoooo!” Kara cried.

“WOooOOooh…”

“Yeeheep!”

“Yeah, that’s meeee—”

“Keekeee!”

Kara whirled to a stop. Wait a minute!

Five dragonflies were singing and dancing with her, ecstatically whirling and twirling in the air. They thronged around her, chirping and flashing!

This was magic and it was better than she could ever have imagined. No wonder Emily and Adriane were so in love with it!

“Can you believe this? The others’ll absolutely die!” Adriane’s wolf stone and Emily’s rainbow jewel were cool, but just wait until they saw
this
stone!

“It makes an impressive display.”

“Oh, doesn’t it? I can feel it, it’s the most mag . . . gi . . . cal . . .” Kara slowly turned back to the cat. “What?”

“It suits you.”

A look of suspicion crossed Kara’s face. “You can talk?”

“Most humans have a hard time hearing without some magical assistance,”
the cat told her. She began to groom her mottled patches of fur.

“Say that again,” Kara commanded.

“I am not a trained performer,”
the cat said mildly, sweeping her big, rough tongue across her shoulder.

“Sorry. It’s just kinda unbelievable.”

A golden dragonfly settled on Kara’s shoulder and grinned up at her.

“Beat it, Goldie.” Kara flicked it away. It vanished in a burst of color.

“I am glad you are pleased,”
the cat replied, standing up.

“Oh, yes! I’m going to . . . to
magic
myself right back to the manor!”

The cat’s whiskers twitched.
“How do you plan to accomplish that?”

Kara blushed, then made up her mind to try. How hard could it be? She held out her gleaming stone. “Mirror, mirror . . .” No, that wouldn’t work for transportation. Kara realized with surprise that she didn’t have any actual idea how to work the gem. Her mind raced through possibilities. Abracadabra seemed a little risky. Twinkle, twinkle? No, that didn’t seem like a good bet, either.

“
Start small,”
the cat suggested.

How did Adriane and Emily work their stones? They hadn’t said anything about rhyming or spells. They just pictured something in their minds and focused on it.

Kara clutched the beautiful stone as hard as she could, squinched her eyes closed, and pictured herself rising off the ground . . .

Nothing happened.

Darn! She tried again, picturing herself as accurately as she could: lustrous blond hair, creamy skin, dewy red lips—no, she’d sworn off lip gloss long ago, make that pale pink lips—rising up, inch by inch, sparkling blue eyes still closed . . .

Her feet left the ground! She actually felt the magic pulling her into the air! She also felt little pinpricks through her shirt, along her skin, and even in her hair. She opened her eyes a crack and gasped. Dozens of little dragonflies were tugging her upward, their tiny wings beating furiously.

Her eyes flew open and she tumbled to earth—from a height of about five inches. “Hey!” Kara shouted, swatting away the pesky little things. Well, it took Adriane two weeks to figure out that trick with her stone. Just takes practice. This is going to be a blast!

“I have been watching the little dragons collecting magic seeds,”
the cat said.
“Those seeds compress into crystals. But the one you found doesn’t feel new. It’s too strong.”

“I knew it! Maybe there’re more like this one,” Kara said, running to the pond and searching among the pebbles in the water. The cat gave a sniff and started up the hill. “Oh, c’mon,” Kara whined. But the cat kept going. “Okay, be that way.”

She sat, sifting through the stones as the dragonflies happily buzzed about. “Shoo, go away!”

Grabbing a few more stones, she examined them and tossed them away. The sound of gently running water echoed through the peaceful forest glen. She noticed the dragonflies had vanished. Everything was quiet except for the sounds of splashing.

Swish, swish . . .

Kara felt the oddest tingling sensation and realized the jewel was getting warm in her hand. She held it up to examine it. The stone pulsed with light, like a heartbeat. Flashes bounced off the water, sending an ashen glow into the trees beyond. The glade now seemed surreal. Suddenly she didn’t feel so good. Her stomach twisted and she felt light-headed.

Swish, swish . . .

There it was again. Something splashing in the water. Kara turned and saw a ragged old woman crouched by the side of the lake, dipping something into the crystal-clear water. Her face was turned away as she scrubbed in clean, swift strokes.
Swish, swish . . .
Looked like she was cleaning an article of clothing.

Was she a homeless person? What was she doing out here?

Uneasily, Kara got to her feet and edged forward. The woman’s whole outfit was rags, splotched and nasty. Slimy green weeds hung from her arms and legs. Yuck!