The Crystal Mirror (7 page)

Laney took a deep breath and launched into the air. Her wings snagged on the branches but she struggled on and flew over the thicket before bumping down to the ground again. Then she ran and ran until she’d left the hobgobbits and the Elders far behind. The terror of the night lessened a little. She didn’t know whether she was happier to get away from Stingwood or those creatures.

She pushed back the wisps of hair that had fallen over her eyes. Now that she thought about it, it wasn’t very hard to choose. Horrible as the hobgobbits were, with their growling and their pointed teeth, she’d rather face them than Stingwood any day.

She slowed down at the edge of Skellmore and spent a while trying to make her faerie form disappear. Why hadn’t she been able to use her Mist power in front of the Elders? She felt so stupid.

At last she managed to change back to human form. Then she hurried down the High Street, only stopping when she heard the sound of laughter. A few kids from school were hanging out next to the minimart and all of them had gold-ringed eyes.

“Hey, Laney!” Jessie walked up to Laney and looked her up and down.

Laney’s heart sank. So Jessie was a faerie too. Great.

Jessie faked a theatrical yawn. “I heard you’d Awoken
at last
. It must have been really boring
waiting for
so long
.”

The kids behind Laney sniggered.

Jessie’s eyes gleamed as she sensed Laney’s discomfort. “So now that you’re a Mist like me, you need to stop being such a freak and do
something
about your hair.” Her eyes swept over Laney’s clothes and she curled her lip.

“We’re in the same tribe?” Laney hadn’t thought her heart could sink any lower.

“Only if you really are a Mist faerie, and right now I really doubt that. And you can’t hang around with Claudia like you did this morning,” said Jessie. “Mist faeries don’t make friends with Greytails.”

“Why?” said Laney.

“Because they’re Greytails, stupid!” said Jessie. “They hang around with smelly animals. Didn’t you realise what the stink was?” Right on cue, the kids behind her laughed again.

“I’ll show you what a real Mist faerie looks like.” Jessie walked round the corner of the minimart, out of sight of the houses. The air shimmered as she changed into faerie form and stretched out violet wings. She swept her curly dark hair over her shoulders. “I heard that you can’t actually control your powers at all. What is the point of a faerie that can’t do that?” She leaned forwards. “And I was there just now, hidden behind the trees. I saw you fail the test and now they’ll never invite you to start
training.” She stepped back, her eyes alight with triumph.

“You were there?” Laney stared at her, disbelieving.

“You don’t deserve to be a Mist tribe member anyway,” said Jessie. “Not after the things you’ve done. Even when we were little I knew there was something wrong with you.”

“Shut up, Jessie.”

“It’s probably your dad’s fault. I bet freakiness runs in your family.”

Laney’s fists balled and she changed to faerie form instantly. As her anger rose she felt her wings begin to beat.

Jessie rolled her eyes. “Ooh, wings! Big wow! I bet you can’t even fly properly.”

The other faerie kids gave a cheer as Jessie swooped into the air and flew away across the fields.

Hot with anger, Laney flew straight after her.

“Face it, Laney!” Jessie yelled back at her. “There’s something wrong with you and you’ll never be one of us!”

Laney accelerated through the air. She would catch Jessie and make her sorry for being mean about her dad. She started to gain on her, but Jessie swung round and, seeing Laney so close, stretched out her hand. A cloud of hail with ice the size of tennis balls beat down on Laney, who put her hands
over her head to protect herself. One hailstone hit her on the side of the face and she fell, spiralling downwards through the air. She hit the ground and lay there, unable to move.

“Serves you right, freak girl,” called Jessie, and with a swish of purple wings she flew away.

Laney lay there for a while, while the balls of ice melted around her. Every muscle in her body hurt and she didn’t feel like she’d ever move again. What hurt even more was that some of what Jessie said was true. She had failed the test and Miss Reed had told her that she’d never become a proper member of the Mist tribe.

The stars became brighter and she heard foxes barking in the forest. Claudia’s face loomed over her, making her jump. “What are you doing?”

Laney tried to sit up. “I had a…row with Jessie. Then she hit me with these hailstones.”

Claudia raised her eyebrows. “So much for people in the same tribe sticking together. She’s never really liked you, has she?”

“I guess not.” Laney got up and brushed the
half-melted
ice off her dress. “I need to learn how to do that hailstone thing. Then if she tries it again I’ll get her back.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Claudia.

Laney looked at her, noticing for the first time that she was in human form. “How did you know I
was here?”

“I didn’t. I was just wandering around a bit and talking to the cats. They’re still freaked out by the red moon last night, same as the grown-ups are. But at least the river’s back to its normal colour.”

“It’s not red any more?” Laney felt relieved. At least everyone would stop being upset about what she’d done.

“Yeah, don’t do that again. It looked gross.” Claudia paused. “Why are you out here anyway?”

“I had to meet the Elders in Hobbin Forest. They wanted to test my Mist powers because of the red moon.” Laney clenched her hands for a moment, remembering how much it had hurt.

“Weird,” said Claudia. “They’re really stressed out about this red moon thing. But us Greytails don’t believe in that kind of stuff. Did you say my mum was there?”

Laney nodded. “I didn’t know she was an Elder.”

They began walking across the field together. “She’s the only Greytail Elder in the village, worse luck, and she never lets me forget it. So what kind of test was it?”

“They used this thread. They made it into a loop and put it around me—”

“The Seeing Thread?” Claudia’s eyes nearly popped. “No way! That’s serious stuff. They use it for judging spell crimes and things like that, but
I’ve never heard of it being used on someone young before. Does it hurt as much as it’s supposed to?”

“It was horrible but it was over quickly, I guess.” Laney didn’t add that she’d gone to save Toby from having to go through it. She was sure Gwen wouldn’t have wanted Toby tested, but Stingwood was definitely nasty enough to do it.

“Did they find anything?” said Claudia.

“Not really. I’m not supposed to be the greatest Mist faerie of the century or anything.” Claudia shot Laney a sideways look, her eyes thoughtful.

They came to the footpath that ran behind the village. From there, they turned up Oldwing Rise and stopped outside Laney’s house.

“I’ll never get back up there.” Laney looked in despair at her open window. “I don’t want to wake my dad up.”

“I can help you get back in. Just give me a minute.” Claudia fiddled with the front door for a moment and it opened noiselessly. “It’s an old Greytail trick,” she said. “They don’t have cat burglars for nothing. Isn’t that right, Dizzy?”

Miaow!
A small black cat ran over and circled round Claudia’s ankles.

“Do all Greytails like cats as much as you?” said Laney.

“Course they do! Cats are one of the few animals
that can see faerie magic. That makes them special. Go, and I’ll lock it again behind you.”

Laney crept upstairs and into her bedroom. Her back still felt sore from where she had hit the ground, but more than anything she felt angry – with Jessie and with the icy Miss Reed. She looked in the mirror and a pair of gold-ringed eyes glared back. So what if twelve years old was freakishly late to Awaken? She would show them all. She would become just as good at faerie magic as anyone in Skellmore.

Laney dreamed that she was falling. Darkness rushed past her. She stretched out her wings and tried to fly, but they barely slowed the speed of her fall. Then a black shape flew overhead, blotting out the stars.

At last her wings began to work and she swooped down over Oldwing Rise, looking for somewhere to hide. Behind her she heard the sweep of massive wings. She landed in the churchyard and crouched down behind a gravestone, fear creeping up her spine. She couldn’t see the black shape any more but she could feel that it was close. Even the trees next to the church wall seemed to shiver.

The stars overhead were clear and bright, but something moved in the corner of Laney’s eye. She turned her head, slowly, towards the far corner. There was a small pond, fenced off from the rest of the churchyard to keep children safe. A black shape bent down over the surface of the pond and spread out its wings.

It was the same dark shape she’d seen by the river on the night of the red moon. She was sure of it. She hadn’t seen any wings then, but it used the same horrible sliding movement. She knew she had to get away but a cold feeling crept through her, making it hard to move. The coldness grew stronger and she clasped her numb hands together.

The black shape was moving round the edge of
the pond. It bent over as if it was searching for something. It circled the pond for a long time, then with a sudden sweep of its wings it turned, knocking over part of the fence that surrounded the water. There was a loud crack as the wood splintered. Laney gasped, shocked at the proof that the figure was solid and real.

The figure scanned the churchyard, its wings spread out like a venomous bat’s. Laney crouched as low as she could as it took flight and rose into the sky.

She woke up with her heart pounding.

Grateful that it was only a dream, she opened her curtains and looked at the churchyard opposite. Nothing was moving and the stars were covered by cloud. She closed the curtains tightly and lay back down in bed, wishing that she could wipe the picture of the dark figure from her mind.

When she woke up, the room was full of daylight. She got dressed and went downstairs to find her dad waiting for her. She tried to smile, but she still couldn’t get used to his gold-ringed eyes.

“Morning, love,” he said. “Simon and I are doing a job in town this morning and then we’re driving back at lunchtime. Would you like a lift in with us? You’ve probably got friends there that you want to see.”

Laney’s heart leaped. A lift into Pennington!
Except that Steph would be on holiday by now so they wouldn’t be able to meet up. “I don’t know. I might just hang out here.” She put some bread into the toaster and got a plate from the cupboard.

“You’re not tired, are you?” Her dad paused. “Did you go out last night? I told you to leave the Elders to me. You are
not
to get involved with them. They’re awful people.”

“Gwen doesn’t seem awful,” Laney said, avoiding the question.

Her dad stiffened. “The Thorns are not to be trusted. You don’t know what the faerie tribes have done in the past.”

A shadow fell across the window. A black cat walked along the window ledge, glancing in at them. Her dad banged on the glass, making the cat jump down and run away across the garden. “Wretched Greytails,” he muttered.

“Dad? What have the Thorns done in the past?”

Mr Rivers hesitated before he said, “You’re too young to hear it.”

Laney scowled. He was still treating her like a child and after everything she’d put herself through.

“You haven’t answered me,” said her dad. “Did you go out last night?”

“I—” Laney broke off as the front door opened and Kim came in.

“Vandals!” said Kim. “Wretched vandals!”
Simon Morden, Mr Rivers’ work mate, followed her in. “Morning, everyone,” he said, nearly tripping over Kim’s shopping bag with his long legs.

“Morning, Simon.” Mr Rivers turned to Kim. “What’s wrong, love?”

Laney wasn’t surprised when she saw that Simon had gold-ringed eyes. He’d worked with her dad for years, so he was likely to be a faerie too. He winked at her when Kim wasn’t looking. Laney smiled back and picked her toast out of the toaster.

“It makes me so cross,” said Kim, putting a loaf of bread down on the table. “I was on my way back from the minimart and some vandals must have broken a fence last night. It’s completely smashed.”

Laney froze in the middle of buttering her toast. A fence had been smashed, just like in her dream. “Was it in the churchyard by the pond?”

“Yes it was.” Kim swung round on Laney. “What do you know about it? I hope you haven’t been mucking around. I heard that you’ve been in trouble at school. Craig told his mum that you broke a water fountain and caused a flood in the corridors. I told them that you weren’t the type to get in trouble.” She gave Laney a serious look.

Laney flushed.

“That wasn’t her fault,” Mr Rivers said quickly. “It was just an accident, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

Kim took another loaf out of the carrier bag. “Well, I didn’t know about any of that. You two are great ones for secrets!”

“It’s such a shame about the fence,” said Mr Rivers, quickly changing the subject. “It was put there to keep little children away from the water. That pond could be really dangerous.”

“You expect Skellmore to be safe from that kind of vandalism,” said Simon. “I hope they find the person who did it.”

Laney stared down at her toast. In her head she could hear the moment when the fence splintered and she could see the terrifying black shape with its wings spread. Feeling shaky, she finished eating and decided to go out.

Simon followed her to the front door. “Hey! Well done on…you know.” He grinned. “Joining the secret club, I guess. How are you finding it all so far?”

“Fine, thanks.” Laney forced a smile, but the last thing she wanted to do was talk about her life with one of her dad’s friends. “Er…I have to…”

“See you soon,” said Simon with a final wink.

Laney hurried down the front path, relieved to get away. Checking there was no one around, she let herself into the churchyard and walked over to the pond in the corner.

Dreamlike, she touched the broken wooden bars
of the fence that circled the pond. Whatever did this was massively strong. So was it just chance that she’d dreamed of the broken fence on the same night, or had the dark shape really been here?