Trial By Fire (Avalon: Web of Magic #6) (3 page)

“We don’t know that, Kara,” Emily said. “We stopped the Skultum and took the map back.”

The girls glanced at the glowing orb sitting on the reading table. Inside, a pattern of stars twinkled.

“We can’t just keep sitting around waiting,” Adriane stated. “What if the sorceress attacks Ravenswood?”

“DAhh!” Ozzie pulled a flaming stick out of the fire, waving it around his head.

“Careful, Ozzie!” Adriane exclaimed, covering her hair.

Ronif and Rasha weren’t faring much better, each losing their marshmallows to the hungry flames.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Kara said softly.

“What?”

“Here. Give me that.” Kara took the wooden stick from Ozzie’s paw and speared a marshmallow. “You have to lightly brown the marshmallow without letting it burn. See?”

Kara held it over the flame, slowly twirling it until it was golden brown.

“Ooo. That’s very good.”

The animals all nodded in agreement.

“Then,” Kara continued, “you place it between
two
layers of chocolate. This way the chocolate covers both graham crackers.”

“She’s a genius!” Ronif exclaimed.

Emily and Adriane suppressed smiles.

The others, except for Storm and Lyra, followed suit. Soon Ozzie was happily covered in melted marshmallow fluff, chocolate, and crumbs.

Adriane picked up the paper Emily had brought in. The front page displayed a picture of Mrs. Beasley Windor and the town council. Windor was holding a landmark status certificate for Ravenswood. The headline read: RAVENSWOOD A ROARING SUCCESS. PUTS STONEHILL ON THE MAP.

Adriane snorted. “Look at this. Windor hated the idea of Ravenswood from the start, and now she is totally taking credit for our success!”

“That’s politics,” Emily said. “All things considered, we should be grateful. Why do you think we were able to get the funds for the winter supplies so fast? Windor personally approved the invoices!”

“Yeah, but I still don’t have to like it.” Adriane threw the paper down.

“Even with the supplies, what if we get more refugees from Aldenmor?” Balthazar, the pegasus, asked. “We can’t turn them away.”

Ronif waddled over, testing a marshmallow sandwich in his rubbery beak. “Even with the tours closed for the cold season, someone is bound to discover us.”

Ronif was right. Even on a preserve as big as Ravenswood, the mages could not hide all of the refugees forever. Although it seemed Mrs. Windor was on their side now, they all knew how quickly things could change.

Kara picked up the newspaper and regarded the picture. Yes, the girls had pulled off the concert and fooled the whole crowd into thinking that the magical battle they saw was all part of the show. But still, the evil shape-shifting Skultum pretending to be pop star Johnny Conrad had put Kara under its spell. It had tapped into her blazing star magic, and to Kara’s horror she had discovered the magic to be dark and ugly. That was no illusion.

“Kawaaa.” Ozzie jumped onto the table, his mouth exploding with marshmallows. “Makemee sommmorre!”

“The Fairimentals should have made you a pig instead of a ferret,” Kara commented.

Pop!
The fire surged upward in the hearth with a huge crackle, startling the group.

“How are you doing with the email search for B*Tween?” Emily asked Ozzie.

“Nothing new,” Ozzie remarked. “I’ve tried replying a dozen times but wherever that email came from, it can’t be traced.”

Ozzie was referring to a message sent from the magical musical group known as B*Tween. From somewhere on the magic web, they had told the girls to stand strong and be ready. Their time was coming.

The ferret munched thoughtfully on another s’more. “B*Tween didn’t give us much information.”

“Maybe they couldn’t,” Rasha said around a mouth full of mallows. “Afraid they might get caught.”

“Hey, watch the fur,”
Storm rumbled, licking a dollop of melted marshmallow off her shimmering coat.

“Sorry,” Ozzie said, holding the stick of marshmallows behind him as he faced the group.

Sparks leaped from the crackling logs, licking at the six melting marshmallows the ferret had crammed onto his stick.

“Be careful, Ozzie,” Ronif complained. “That’s hot!”

“And it smells awful.” The ferret scrunched his marshmallow mustache, sniffing the air around him. “Smells like—”

“Ozzie!” Emily yelled.

“Your tail’s on fire,” Balthazar observed.

“Huh?” Ozzie looked over his shoulder. “
Ahhhh!”

The ferret tossed his marshmallows as he ran across the room, a plume of smoke trailing behind him. Everyone jumped out of the way, grabbing rugs, towels, and anything they could find to throw over the smoking ferret.

Kara grabbed a vase from an end table, pulled out the flowers, and emptied the water over Ozzie.

“BluB!”

Smoke hissed from the soaked ferret.

“Are you okay, Ozzie?” Emily asked, hoisting him upside down to examine his tail.

“Watch it! Watch it!”

“Hold still.” Emily’s rainbow jewel pulsed with blue healing light. It bathed the ferret in a cool glow. “How’s that?”

“Put me down!”

The soft lights in the library flickered and went dark.

The girls looked around. Smoke was slowly encircling the room.

“We blow a fuse?” Adriane asked.

The fireplace blazed, flames leaping high, sending sparks into the air as shadows skittered across the walls.

Suddenly, the fire hissed and with a loud
Pop!
flames leaped out, licking at the mantel.

The s’more eaters scrambled back.

“The fire’s too big!” Adriane yelled.

With a shudder, flames erupted from the stone hearth, pushing aside the screen to roll across the rug in a fiery wave.

Hsssssssssssss.

Like snakes, tendrils of flame reached up and coiled around themselves.

“Get the extinguisher!” Emily cried.

“Wait,”
Lyra told the girls. The big cat was on her feet, fur standing along the scruff of her neck.

“It’s not burning anything.” Ronif pointed a wing at the rug.

The fire was now completely outside the fireplace, on the carpet in the center of the room. The flames left no mark on what they touched, as if the fire were merely a ghost.

Swirling yellow, red, and blue flames reached to the domed ceiling of the library. They formed a figure, shimmering and glowing with magic.

“A Fairimental!” Eddie the brimbee exclaimed.

“It’s a
Fire
mental!” Balthazar said, astonished. “The most powerful and dangerous of the Fairimentals.”

“We thought you were lost!” Ozzie’s fur stood out as he leaped to his feet.

The fiery figure reached with flaming arms toward Kara.

The blond girl squealed and stepped back.

“Stand still, Kara!” Adriane urged.

Kara stood motionless as a writhing river of fire swept up the fairy map. A tendril snapped like a whip and the portals expanded, wrapping Kara in a blazing web of fire.

“You opened the portalsss!” the Firemental hissed at her.

Kara winced. It was not the fire that burned her, but the heat of her own shame.

“I… I’m sorry… I don’t know what I did. I messed up really bad. And now the Dark Sorceress is all over Avalon…”

“The witch waitsssss in her lair.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “The sorceress is not in Avalon?”

“She needssss map.”

Kara looked at the pattern of portals burning along the fairy map. “We’ll never let her get it again!”

“There isss another…”

“Another map?” Kara felt desperate waves of magic as the Firemental struggled to hold itself together. She barely heard the small voice hissing in her ear.

“Follow your path, blazing ssstar, and ssssave Aldenmor.”

The Firemental whirled around the room, encircling the three mages.

With a final spatter, it flickered out.

“Wait!” Adriane gasped. “Come back.”

The fairy map cooled to a small silver-blue orb and came to rest in Kara’s hand.

“Is everyone all right?” Emily scanned the room, making sure no one was burned.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before!” Balthazar exclaimed.

Lyra stood beside Kara, flicking her tail.
“If they risked sending a Firemental, things must be bad on Aldenmor.”

“There’s a second fairy map!” Ozzie exclaimed.

“The only other map I know of…” Adriane began slowly, “belongs to Moonshadow.”

Emily looked worried. “If the Dark Sorceress needs the other map—”

“She’s going to go after the mistwolves,” Adriane finished.

Storm snarled.
“We must warn them.”

“Why would she need another map if she already knows what’s in this one?” Ronif asked.

“Maybe she doesn’t,” Kara said hopefully.

“Maybe she needs a second map to open other portals,” Rasha suggested.

The warrior got to her feet. “Either way, there’s still time. We have to get to Moonshadow before the Dark Sorceress and we have to get to Avalon first.” Adriane pounded her fist. “It’s the only way to save Aldenmor. I know it!” A quick glance at her friends told Adriane that they were all thinking the same thing. Without Avalon’s magic, Aldenmor would be lost.

“Remember when the Fairimentals first came to us at the glade?” Adriane asked.

Emily nodded. “They told us to find Avalon.”

“And that’s what Kara was doing.”

Kara’s eyes flew open wide. “So maybe… I did good.”

“You do have a knack for using magic in unusually lucky ways.” Adriane smiled wryly.

“Kara.” Emily stepped in front of the blond girl. “Whatever you did, we know you
meant
to do good and that’s what counts.”

“That’s right!” Ozzie leaned over the table to hug Kara. “We’re always with you no matter what!”

The animals converged on Kara in warm hugs.

Kara flushed but smiled, holding the gooey ferret away from her sweater.

“Thanks.” She placed Ozzie back on the rug.

The Firemental had said to follow her path. She had worried that her blazing star magic would send her spiraling out of control, burning out in a blaze of glory. She felt the fire roiling at the very core of her being. Well, whatever blazed inside her, it was time to let it free!

Kara tossed her golden hair over a shoulder, forging ahead before she could stop to think about what she was saying. “If we’re going to save Aldenmor, we’ve got to stop talking about it and
do
it!”

The room was silent. They all knew Kara was right. The time had come for the girls to put all they had learned to the test. To act now. Or it would be too late.

“We’ll use the unicorn horn and open the portal here at Ravenswood,” Kara said. “Just like I did before.”

“It’s time.” Emily took Kara’s and Adriane’s hands in hers.

Lyra pushed her large head into Kara’s side.
“Time to stand together.”

“Time to save our friends!”
Storm stood between the mages.

“The Fairimentals chose me to choose you.” Ozzie stood tall, puffing out his furry chest. “Now let’s all choose to do what we were chosen for. Let’s go!”

Ronif and Rasha looked at one another as the sticky ferret whizzed by and charged out of the library.

“We’ll bring the unicorn horn and the fairy map,” Kara said, racing ahead before she could change her mind. “The magic of the horn should keep us safe.”

“I’ll tell Gran we’re going on a school trip,” Adriane said.

“I’ll get the Pet Palace shut down,” Emily said.

“I’ll go pack,” Kara concluded.

Everyone looked at Kara.

“What?” She shrugged. “I’m not going without a change of clothes!”

“Good to have you back, Kara,” Emily smiled.

Kara grinned and glanced at Adriane.

The dark-haired girl raised her fist and touched Kara’s fist. “Okay, we’ll meet at the portal field in half an hour.”

“What should we tell the others?” asked Ronif.

“Tell them to get ready!” Kara said. “We’re going to bring them home.”

T
HE NOON SUN
broke through patchwork clouds as animals filled the large field in the northwest quadrant of the wildlife preserve. It was here they had first appeared in Ravenswood—wommels, brimbees, pegasi, jeeran, and all the others, desperately rushing through the hidden doorway from their world to be healed.