Circles in the Stream (Avalon: Web of Magic #1) (11 page)

The animals signaled their approval with bleats and neighs, barks and hisses, quacks and hoots.

“Go, Ozzie!” Adriane cheered.

The sniffling quiffles stared up at Ozzie.

“Hey now, I may be a weasel, but I can still dance!” Ozzie shuffled an elf dance in front of the quiffles. “Look, the wigjig!”

He leaped into the air, twisted, and landed with his arms outstretched—and fell over backward. The quiffles giggled.

“What I wouldn’t give for feet,” Ozzie mumbled into the dirt.

Suddenly the ground beside him swirled and he jumped back. The animals looked at one another. Emily and Adriane stared as four small pools of dirt and twigs rose from the ground, spinning into tiny whirlpools.

“
Fairimentals…” someone in the crowd said reverently. Everyone fell silent as the whirlpools danced toward the girls.

Emily and Adriane stood quickly as the whirlpools buzzed around their legs.

“Sankk uuuu…”
The voice seemed to come from the closest whirlpool, and Emily turned to follow it.

“Frrrrienndss…”
came the voice of another.

“Sssssssssrrrrrr…”
another said in a swirling frenzy. It flew apart, twigs and leaves flying.

The first whirlpool spun by even faster. “
Serrrrrrrrrrecch…”

“Search. Search for what?” asked Emily, listening hard.

“Hommmmm…”

“Hommmmmm…”

“
Hommmmm…”
the third cyclone added its tiny voice in a harmonic chorus as the three spun together, weaving in and out and around the girls.

“Please, can’t you tell us more?” Emily had bent over to make sure they could hear her.

One tiny tornado spun wildly by her.
“Weecannnotttsttaaayherrrr…”

“Er…I don’t mean to be rude, but before you go, you think you could, mmm, like, change me back?” Ozzie whispered.

“
Uucannnnottgoobackk…”

The whirlpools were wavering, starting to fall apart, as if the strength it took to communicate was too much for them.

“Please, don’t go! Where is home?” Emily was close to tears.

The whirlpools spun faster, trying to hold together for one last message. But with a whisper they blew apart and became the wind.

“Nooo!” Emily cried.

“Emily…” Adriane said in a hushed tone.

There on the ground before them, a word was etched in the dirt: Avalon.

“Thanks a lot!” Ozzie was jumping up and down.

Avalon.

Emily stared at the word as a cool breeze blew it to dust. What did it mean?

The animals moved about restlessly. Somehow they understood what the Fairimentals were saying: that there was no going back. They were refugees without a home. An unspoken sadness spread through the glade.

“What about the monster?” a little quiffle asked in a tiny voice. A perceptible chill swept through the crowd.

“The dark creature will hunt us down,” said a blue rabbit-like animal.

“
It’s out there somewhere, waiting,” a pegasus said ominously.

Phel stepped forward and the crowd parted to let him through. Pinpoints of light sparkled from his shimmering purple fur and a shower of stars gently cascaded over the glade. A sense of calm spread through the animals.

Emily rose and went to Phel. She put her arms around him as far as she could reach and held him close. He made a soft noise. Adriane joined Emily. The little quiffles giggled, and the girls laughed. Slowly others crept up to snuggle in. Emily and Adriane were soon buried in warm animals.

“You, too, Alice.” Adriane reached out and pulled Ozzie in.

“Gah!”

For that moment, surrounded by the giant arms and warm magic of Phel, no one was afraid.

S
TARS WINKED IN
a velvet sky as Adriane walked Emily down the road out of the preserve.

“Well, we found the animals,” Adriane said at last.

“We sure did.” Emily agreed.

“So, what’s your analysis of the situation, Doc?” Adriane asked lightly. But she looked tense.

“Well, most of what we know is still pretty vague.” Emily felt better analyzing the facts. “But one thing seems sure: these animals have come from another world, and that world is being poisoned by something terrible.”

“Go on.”

Emily took a deep breath. “Okay, now some kind of doorway between worlds has opened—a portal as Ozzie calls it—and the hurt animals are making their way here, where it’s safe.”

“But how safe?” Adriane asked.

“And the Fairimentals want us to find something…a place,” Emily continued.

“Avalon. The home of magic.”

“Adriane, Ozzie said the Fairimentals need three mages…”

Adriane looked at her, waiting.

“If we
are
two of them….who’s the third?”

“I don’t know anything about mages,” Adriane said with a shrug. “But I do know we
can’t
let Ravenswood be destroyed. Those animals have nowhere else to go!”

“You’re right. We have to do something.”

“We will.” Adriane held up her bracelet, and the striped jewel sparkled in the moonlight.

Emily lifted up her own gem. “Together,” she said. A spark flashed between the two stones—a connection forged between friends, a bond that would last forever.

Adriane turned and walked back up the road to the preserve. Emily looked out over the parklands at the warm lights of her house.

Avalon.
The word drifted through her mind like a soft breeze as she walked home.

T
HE STONEHILL TOWN
Hall was a two-story redbrick building right on Main Street, across from a nicely tended park with a playground and lots of benches and trees. Carolyn parked their green Explorer while Emily searched the crowded parking lot for Adriane and Gran. Then she heard the sputtering of an old pickup truck and looked over to see Gran barreling into a parking space. The ancient engine protested, shuddered, and came to rest.

“Hey!” Adriane jumped out to greet Emily.

“Hey,” Emily returned. “Mom, this is Adriane’s grandmother.”

“Please call me Nakoda,” Gran said warmly.

Carolyn held out her hand. “I’m Carolyn Fletcher.”

Gran smiled. “It is my pleasure. Emily is a special child.”

“She’ll do.” Carolyn smiled back.

The town hall was jammed. Mayor Davies was up on the podium, listening to people argue back and forth about the Ravenswood Preserve. They were convinced some dangerous predator was killing innocent animals.

Why couldn’t these people see how important Ravenswood was? Emily thought. Suddenly her wrist began to itch like crazy. She checked her bracelet. Her stone was pulsing light! Quickly, she pulled down the sleeve of her sweater to cover it. But she had the strangest sensation that someone was watching her. She looked around the room and her eyes met the bright blue eyes of the blond girl whose friends had teased her at Arrowhead Park.

“Who’s that?” Emily asked Adriane in a whisper.

Adriane scowled, “Kara Davies, the mayor’s daughter.”

“You don’t like her much,” Emily surmised.

“Who wears pink sweaters and perfectly matched pink sandals? She’s such a Barbie!” Adriane crossed her arms over her chest and glared daggers at Kara—and suddenly the jewel on her bracelet sparked. Startled, Adriane covered her wrist

The blond girl’s eyes narrowed.

“We think it was a bear!” one of the men Adriane had confronted on the preserve called out. “Almost had it, too.”

“And?” the mayor prompted.

“It got away,” the hunter scowled. “But we’ll get it!”

Emily stiffened. “They’re talking about Phel,” she whispered to Adriane. But she couldn’t dare tell anyone about Phel, that he was magic! How could she explain that he’d
healed
the animals?

The crowd was buzzing. “Place should be closed…Wild animals near our town—it’s too dangerous!” People were clearly upset.

Mrs. Beasley Windor, a very vocal member of the town council stood up. “Let’s just cut to the chase here.” Her tight black hair, beady eyes, and sharp nose made her look like a hawk. “We can’t have dangerous animals running around like a jungle. Ravenswood has a history, but I say it
is
history!”

“The animals need a place to live also!” Emily said more loudly than she’d intended.

“Yeah, they have rights, too!” Adriane echoed.

“Excuse me! Since when do
children
have a voice in town matters?” Mrs. Windor said condescendingly. “Especially those involving public safety!”

“Mrs. Windor, please,” the mayor said. “We still need proof of these accusations.”

“Oh, really.” She walked forward and slapped a letter onto the lectern in front of the mayor. “Why don’t you read this, Mayor?” She gave Carolyn and the girls a snide look. “It’s a copy of a letter sent to Dr. Carolyn Fletcher from the University of Pennsylvania.”

“Uh-oh, this is bad,” Adriane said to Emily.

Carolyn glanced at Emily. Emily tried to smile but felt her lips lock into a grimace.

The mayor quickly read the letter. “Well, this settles it then. Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control will be here in two days, so if we can’t find a solution to this problem, they will give us one.”

“You got that right.” Mrs. Windor was smiling. “The place should be shut down and the land properly developed!” she repeated to a chorus of agreements.

“Okay, folks, let’s take a break and cool down,” the mayor said. “Mrs. Charday, may I speak to you for a minute? You, too, Dr. Fletcher.”

Carolyn and Gran rose. Adriane and Emily started to follow, but Carolyn stopped them. “You two wait outside. You think you can do that without creating a town incident?”

Emily knew better than to argue with her mother when she used that tone.

Mortified, the girls left the building and walked over to the park. Except for their moods, the summer night was perfect—low humidity, a cool breeze, and a golden waxing moon.

Adriane kicked at a small rock. “Now what?”

“My mom’s gonna kill me about that letter!” Emily wailed. “I wish we had done something else!”

“Shhh, wait, someone’s coming,” Adriane hissed.

In the orangey glow of a street lamp, Emily saw pink sandals. She and Adriane stared as Kara Davies strolled up to them.

“What?” the blond girl asked. “Is there gum in my teeth?”

“What do you want?” Adriane asked rudely.

Kara didn’t seem fazed. “It’s a free country. I can walk here if I want to.” She looked at Emily. “Almost didn’t recognize you without a pile of dogs.”

Emily reddened. “I’m Emily Fletcher.”

“I’m Kara Davies—”

“We know who you are,” Adriane interrupted.

“So, I know who you are, too,” Kara replied, not missing a beat.

“Great, now what do you want?” Adriane shot back.

“Nothing… I just thought you could tell me what store in the mall carries those bracelets.”

“You can’t buy them,” Adriane told her with obvious satisfaction.

“I can
buy
anything I want.” Kara dismissed Adriane with a flick of her hand.

“Well, you can’t
buy
these!” Adriane held up her arm and shook the bracelet in front of Kara’s face. The stone blazed to life with a fierce golden fire. Startled, Adriane quickly pulled her wrist behind her back.

Kara’s bright blue eyes were as wide as saucers. “Wow! How’d you make it glow like that? Batteries?” she guessed.

Adriane looked at Emily. Neither girl replied.

Kara tried a new ploy. “Maybe I can help you and your wild animals, if you give me one of your bracelets,” she offered slyly.

“No way!” said Adriane.

“Wait a minute,” Emily said. “Maybe Kara
can
help us. If we show her where we got these, maybe she could convince her father to help…
all
the animals.” She looked meaningfully at Adriane.

“Daddy always listens to me,” Kara boasted. “But first you have to take me to the store where you got those.”

“Read my lips,” Adriane stated. “No
way!”

“Adriane, maybe Kara can find her own stone,” Emily suggested.

“Sure, I’m a power shopper,” Kara smiled, showing perfect teeth. “And you can just tell me where in the mall, you wouldn’t even have to go with me.”