All That Glitters (Avalon: Web of Magic #2) (4 page)

“They do?” Kara asked, looking at Emily.

“They’re all anxious to see you, Kara,” Emily told her.

“They are?” Kara looked at Adriane.

Adriane gave Kara a curt nod.

“We’ve also mapped a tour route of the preserve for you to show your dad and the town council,” Emily said.

“Our
special
animal friends will hide in the glade when the tours are scheduled,” Adriane continued.

“Wait till you see, Kara, it’s so cool!” Emily’s eyes sparkled.

Suddenly Kara felt as if she’d been left behind. What had happened here in the two weeks since she convinced her father to let the girls work at the preserve?

They rounded a bend and entered the grand circular driveway in front of Ravenswood Manor. With its towers and stained glass, the amazing old building looked like a castle. Ivy crawled up the stone walls to reach gargoyles perched under the eaves. Kara thought it looked haunted.

“What about the manor?” she asked. “Will that be part of the tour?”

“We haven’t explored much of it yet,” Emily responded.

“The garden tours and website should keep the council off our backs till we figure out how much of the manor we want to include,” Adriane added.

Kara was actually starting to get excited. Emily and Adriane were really taking this seriously.

“Come on.” Emily laughed as she walked around the cobblestone path that skirted the manor. “Ozzie’s with the animals out back.”

Kara and Adriane followed, glaring at each other.

“Show-off!”

“Barbie!”

“Come on, hurry!” Emily shouted, running onto the manicured sea of grass that was the great lawn behind the manor. Kara was surprised by a cacophony of neighing, bleating, hooting, and other less identifiable sounds. Before her stood a herd of animals.

“All right, everyone. Calm down.” A gold-and-brown ferret paced back and forth in front of the crowd like a small furry general.

The animals surged forward, bounding over the ferret.

“Gah!” came his muffled response.

Incredible animals surrounded Kara: butterfly-winged horses, green-and-purple-striped deer with long, floppy ears, silver duck-like things, and others even more outrageous. Kara felt giddy.

“I am Ronif,” one of the silver duck-things announced—quiffles, Emily had said they were called. “Emily and Adriane told us how you helped to give us a home here.”

“Stories will be passed down to generations of quiffles,” another quiffle proclaimed.

“The town allowed the preserve to stay open,” Kara said modestly. “I really didn’t do much.”

“You helped fight off the manticore!” a winged pony said.

The animals cheered.

The ferret came bounding over. “Welcome back, Kara. Your friends missed you.”

“I don’t know about that, Ozzie,” Kara said, bending down to speak to him. “Things seem to be going fine here without me.”

“Nonsense. It’s been much too boring.” The ferret smiled.

Kara grinned, though she was a little embarrassed to be talking to a ferret. Well, not really a ferret, she reminded herself—he claimed to be an elf trapped in a ferret body, but Kara had her doubts. Would an embattled world of magic really send a
ferret
to find help against the forces of evil?

Emily stepped forward. “Okay, everyone, roll call!”

With quacks, neighs, and a hoot, the animals quickly fell into line, shoulder to shoulder across the lawn. A large, white snow owl glided gracefully out of the sky to land on Emily’s arm. Turquoise and lavender glistened in her wing feathers.

“I’m here.”

“Thank you, Ariel,” Emily said. “You remember Ariel,” she said to Kara.

Kara gave the magnificent owl a little wave.

Emily took out a notebook and began to check off her list. “Pegasi?”

“We’re here,” a winged pony announced.

“Thank you, Balthazar. We have four pegasi,” she said so seriously that Kara almost laughed.

“Quiffles?”

“All here,” Ronif announced. Adriane scooped up four baby quiffles, and immediately the other little ones tried to leap up into her arms. She fell over in the grass laughing, covered in quiffle kisses.

“There are six adults and twelve babies.” Emily checked them off, then looked around. “Where’re the jeeran, Ozzie?”

“Running in the field,” Ozzie said, a little annoyed. “They can’t stand still for more than two minutes!”

Kara looked across the lawn and saw the tail end of a green-and-purple-striped deer soaring over a hedge.

“We also have seventeen jeeran,” Emily commented proudly, as if she were talking about normal deer, not some magical creatures from another world! She looked back at her list. “Brimbees?” she called out briskly.

“Here!” came a light, breathy voice.

Kara stared at what looked like big blue rabbits with iridescent dark blue spots.

Emily nodded. “Okay, that’s everyone.”

A small golden-winged creature about the size of a bat zipped up between the brimbees and hovered in front of Kara. It gave a squeak, its jeweled eyes dancing brightly.

“Who are you?” Emily asked, looking over her list.

“Skookee!” The bird-thing buzzed around Kara’s head, picking at her long hair.

“Hey!” Kara ducked, swatting it away.

Ariel eyed the little flier with a hungry hoot.

The gold bird-thing gave a loud squawk, zipped off, and vanished.

“What was that?” Kara asked, brushing her hair back into place.

“I don’t know.” Emily re-checked her call sheet. “Anyone come through this morning?”

“Not on my watch!” Ozzie answered stoutly.

“Ozzie, this is a sanctuary,” Adriane reminded him.

A large shape slunk behind the pegasi. Kara caught the glint of green eyes.

The big cat watched her, casually turned, and walked away.

“And, of course, the cat,” Emily said. “She comes and goes, but she sure seems to be interested in you.”

“I’ll say!” Kara blurted out. “The school’s going to be talking about it for weeks!”

“Yeah, so will the town council,” Adriane said, depositing the baby quiffles back with the adults. “Including that horrible Mrs. Windor,” she added with a shudder. “She’s been against Ravenswood from the start. If she hears about a wild animal showing up at school, our wildlife preserve, and my home, are as good as gone.”

K
ARA FOLLOWED THE
other girls through a back door into the manor. Inside, a short set of steps led to the first floor. Wide hallways lined with paintings opened onto bright sitting rooms filled with plush furniture.

“Wait till you see the library, come on!” Emily said as she propelled Kara up a steep staircase, down a hallway, and into a room straight out the nineteenth century.

“Wow!” Kara breathed.

They were inside a gigantic round library, illuminated in golden radiance. Kara stared up at a vast domed ceiling. Zodiac figures with twinkling stars inset were painted on it in fine gold. Below the dome hung a complicated mobile of suns and planets, shiny discs of metal on long arms. Large oval windows overlooked the great lawn and beautiful gardens out back. Across the parquet floor, a ladder was mounted on a track that ran around the perimeter of the room, allowing access to shelves high above. Books were crammed everywhere.

Kara walked over to look at a drawing taped to the wall. It was a map of the preserve. All of the gardens were noted, and dotted lines crisscrossed the area, carefully avoiding the special glade that lay hidden behind the ancient monument known as the Rocking Stone.

“Why does that garden have an X on it?” Kara asked, pointing to a section of the map.

“Some of the gardens are overgrown since we can’t maintain everything ourselves,” Adriane replied. “That one is the hedge maze. Gran said you can get lost in there for days, so it’s off-limits for tours.”

“Well, this library alone is worth a tour,” Kara said, turning around to take in the amazing room.

“No way,” Adriane countered. “We don’t know what special stuff is hidden in here.”

Kara shrugged. “Fine, let’s just get the website online.”

“I’ve been working on some ideas on how to organize it.” Emily indicated the notebooks lying open on the desk.

“I can get Kyle and Joey to set something up,” Kara said, looking over Emily’s papers. “They live for this stuff.”

“Are you nuts?” Adriane burst out. “We’re not bringing those loudmouths in here. We can figure it out ourselves.”

“Okaaay, if you say so,” Kara said. “How about a blog?”

“We can’t go blogging this all over the place,” Adriane argued. “A website is more secure.”

“The original website went down two years ago,” Emily said.

“Just about when Mr. Gardener disappeared,” Adriane noted.

Henry Gardener, the owner of Ravenswood, had mysteriously vanished, leaving the preserve under the care of Adriane’s grandmother.

“It would be a lot easier if we could find Mr. Gardener’s computer,” Emily continued. “Maybe we can use his files to set up the site.”

“Probably buried under all this stuff.” Kara gestured at globes, telescopes, dragon-shaped chess pieces and compasses littering a broad mahogany table.

“Let’s see the instructions from the council.”

“Here.” Kara reached into her tote and handed a printout of the council’s latest email to Emily.

“We should list all the animals: numbers, physical descriptions, habits and habitats, patterns—”

“Oh, really? You gonna add dwimbees?” Kara asked.

“Brimbees,” Emily corrected.

“Yeah, those, too.”

“Let’s check for wi-fi,” Adriane suggested.

“With what?” Kara asked, waving her arms around. “I don’t see a computer here, do you?”

Adriane and Emily looked at her.

“What? Oh, no! You’re not using my new laptop.”

“Come on, Kara, just to get us started,” Emily said.

“I see how it works,” Kara huffed. “You only want me for my stuff. Fine!” She pulled the pink laptop out of her backpack and opened it.

Emily booted up, opened the browser, and typed the town council’s web address. “We have a connection.”

The computer whirred, buzzed . . . and crashed.

“Great!” Kara yelled.

“That’s strange,” Emily mused as she rebooted. “We lost the council server.”

“The line live?” Adriane asked.

Two texts pinged onscreen.

beachbunny:
Hey Kstar dance class was awesome ;) can’t believe u missed it

goodgollymolly:
Kstar who’s gonna be at the bbq?

Kara pushed past Emily’s shoulder and flicked her fingers across the keypad.

kstar:
not home, still working, just be there at 6

beachbunny:
not home? u still at that creepy preserve with those creepy girls?

Kara felt her face flush.

kstar:
g2g l8rz

She turned off the IMs.

“Thanks for giving up your precious time for us
creeps!
” Adriane seethed behind her.

“I didn’t say that,” Kara said meekly, stepping away.

“You can’t judge Kara by her friends,” Emily chided.

“She may be your friend, but she’s not mine!” Adriane glared.

Kara was shocked.

“Kara, Adriane didn’t mean that,” Emily said.

“There wouldn’t even
be
a club without me,” Kara burst out.

“This is not a club!” Adriane yelled back.

Kara pressed on. “You like the fact that you have a magic jewel and I don’t. And if I never find one, that would suit you just fine, wouldn’t it?”

“Nobody’s trying to keep you from finding a stone,” Emily assured her.

“You want my stuff, fine. But don’t expect me to stand around and be insulted.” With that she turned and stormed to the far side of the room.

“Give her some space,” Emily said, turning back to the laptop.

“I’d like to give her outer space,” Adriane replied.

Kara pushed through the door, slammed it behind her, and stomped down the stairs. How dare they treat her that way? Especially when she was giving up a Saturday with her friends to be with them!

A feeling of righteous indignation swept over her as she walked outside and crossed the stone terrace behind the manor. She stopped to look up at the library windows, checking to see if Emily and Adriane were watching. But the big oval windows only reflected the sunny sky.