Circles in the Stream (Avalon: Web of Magic #1) (12 page)

“Oh, of course, it would be just horrible being seen with us,” Adriane said.

“I just meant it might be easier,” Kara replied, as if she were speaking to a three-year-old. She twirled the ends of her long blonde hair.

Emily nudged Adriane.

“Okay,” Adriane agreed. “But we have to take you there.”

“And you have to promise that whatever we show you, you’ll keep secret,” Emily added.

“Of course,” Kara dropped her voice to a whisper. “I understand how important it is to keep cool about fashion. Pretty soon everyone would have one.”

“Geez! That’s not the point!” Adriane burst out.

Kara gave a well practiced ‘Like what’s with her?’ look.

“So, you promise?” Emily prompted.

Kara was getting impatient. “Yes, yes, fine.”

“Emily!” Emily looked up to see her mother calling her from the steps of the town hall. Gran stood beside her. Others were leaving the building. Evidently the meeting was over.

“Coming!” Emily called back. She turned to Kara. “Tomorrow at noon, meet us out by the baseball diamond in the playing fields and we’ll take you into the woods.”

“You found those in the woods? How disgusting! Forget it!”

Adriane shrugged. “Okay, fine, we’ll do it without you.”

“Wait, lemme see those again.” Kara grabbed for Emily’s wrist.

Brilliant turquoise light flared from the blue-green gem. Kara jumped back. It was so fast it might have been a trick of the light. This time it was Emily who was shocked by the vivid flare of her jewel.

Kara stared with her mouth open. “Okay, noon,” she said.

A
S THEY DROVE
home, Carolyn filled Emily in her conversation with Gran and the Mayor. Too many people were worried about dangerous predators; and even the mayor had to admit an interest in the money a new development would bring the community.

“The university analysis presents more immediate problems,” Carolyn went on.

Emily sank into her seat. “I shouldn’t have hidden it. That was pretty dumb, huh?”

“Yes, it was. Especially since the mayor’s office faxed me a copy only a few hours later.” She glanced at Emily. “Since you read it, you know they detected an unidentified toxin and they recommended quarantine.”

“But they can’t do that!”

“Health officials will be here in a few days. Unless we can show them the place is safe, it may have to be shut down.”

Emily softly rubbed the jewel under her sweatshirt sleeve. She and Adriane
had
to figure out how to help Phelonius and the animals. Time was running out.

I
T WAS A
quarter to noon when Emily left her house. With the Pet Palace population slowly dwindling as vacations ended, her chores were taking less time. She thought hard as she crossed the picnic grounds and headed over to the baseball fields. The townspeople were wrong—Phel was no monster! But they were also more right than they knew—something evil was in those woods and it was stalking all kinds of animals. How could they fight
that
? How—

“How is this supposed to work?”

Emily looked up to find Kara standing on home plate. The blond girl wore a silver silk jacket over a pink T-shirt that said ROCK STAR in fake silver gems. Light green shorts and strappy sandals completed the outfit.

“Oh, hi.” Emily said. In her concern for the animals, she had almost forgotten about Kara.

“What are we supposed to do?” Kara demanded. “Just wander around in the woods? It's creepy—and dangerous. Do we have a treasure map or something?” Her steely gaze bore into Emily.

“How ‘bout we just saddle up and follow the old Injun trail?” Adriane had come up from the other direction.

“Do you
always
wear black?” Kara remarked, taking in Adriane’s black jeans, black T-shirt, and black hiking boots with clear disdain.

“Just until they invent a darker color,” Adriane retorted. She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going, exactly?” Kara asked.

“You’re about to get the grand tour of the Ravenswood Wildlife Preserve,” Adriane told her. “We show you around and then take you home. That’s it.” She turned and walked back up toward the road. “And no lectures.”

“Hey!” Kara ran to catch up. “What about those stones?”

“If you find one, we’ll throw you a party,” Adriane said.

“What’s with her?” Kara asked Emily.

“She’s worried about the animals that live in the preserve,” Emily told her. “And if the place is closed down, she and Gran will have to move.”

“Why don’t you and
Gran
just move into a normal house?” Kara pressed.

Adriane stopped and faced Kara. “Look, just stay behind us and try not to say anything too stupid,
please!
”

“You know, you should really try a little bran in your diet.”

“Someone shoot me now!” Adriane strode quickly up the path.

Emily and Kara hurried to keep up with Adriane as she forged into the woods. The sun poured golden beams through the overhead branches and cool breezes blew the leaves, creating shifting patterns of light and shadow across the forest floor.

Kara had only one thing on her mind. “So, what do I look for? Minerals? Quartz crystals? I have a book on gems in my backpack.” She slung off her leather pack and began digging in it.

“You do? That’s really cool.” Emily was impressed. Adriane moved on ahead, not wanting any part of the conversation.

“Here, look.” Kara pulled out a small, fat book. “See?
Identifying Minerals and Gems
. It’s grouped by structure, composition, and luster. The structure is the shape, composition is the purity of the stone, and luster is color.”

“Wow.” It struck Emily that Kara might not be as shallow as she seemed. She might even be pretty smart.

Kara continued. “Here’s the really precious stones, emeralds, sapphires—and my favorite—diamonds!” Kara said. “We can look up your stone in here, too.”

Emily held up her wrist as Kara flipped through the pages, trying to find a match. “We made our own bands,” she commented self-consciously. “It was Adriane’s idea.”

Kara barely glanced up. “Not bad. I have some silver chains that’ll look much better. I’ll get you one.”

“I love silver, thanks,” Emily said.

“Here, looks like aventurine.” Kara pointed to the page. “Properties include protection and healing.”

Emily’s hazel eyes widened. What a coincidence that she, of all people, should pick up a healing stone! Sunlight reflected off the stone, sending shimmers of color through it.

Kara was mesmerized. She softly touched the gemstone. Blinding shafts of blue and green light flared from the stone.

Both girls screamed and Emily jerked her hand back.

Adriane wheeled around and ran back. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, my stone, it just—” Emily began.

“That was so awesome!” Kara exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like that!”

“What did you do?” Adriane asked Kara accusingly.

“Easy, Godzilla, I didn’t do anything. Her stone just lit up like a sparkler.”

Adriane glared. Kara beamed.

Adriane turned to Emily. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Emily answered. The gem, in its woven bracelet, was now back to normal. “That was so weird.”

“I have the perfect silver chain for
my
jewel,” Kara went on excitedly.

Adriane ignored her. “We’re coming up to the topiary gardens. Over there.” She pointed to a garden of living sculptures. There was a lion, a giraffe, an elephant, even a dinosaur all carefully carved out of magnificent foliage. “The topiary gardens are of the most amazing gardens on the estate.”

“Oooh, look!” Kara bent over and picked up a sparkly stone. She studied it, scrunched her nose, then tossed it away. “What’d you say?”

“Never mind.”

As they walked into the garden, even Kara seemed impressed with the carefully sculptured hedges. “Wow, tree animals! Cool!”

Adriane continued. “First designed in 1920, each of the hedge sculptures is supposed to represent an animal that was on the preserve at that time.”

“I thought we were in a ‘no lectures’ zone,” Kara commented.

“Oh, yeah.” Adriane and Kara actually smiled at each other.

“And another thing,” Kara continued, “these hedge sculptures can’t possibly represent the animals that were on the preserve.”

“What do you mean?” Adriane asked.

“Hellloo! That’s a unicorn, and that’s…like, a dinosaur! I’m pretty sure the hedge-a-saurus has been extinct for like a billion years.”

“Maybe they represent animals that were just visiting,” Emily said.

“Oookay.” Kara skipped ahead through the tall hedges. Out of the topiary gardens, the lawn sloped downward. Kara stopped as Ravenswood Manor loomed ahead like a gigantic haunted house nestled in the woods. “Are you related to the Addams Family?” Kara quipped.

“Very funny,” Adriane replied. “You’ve never seen Ravenswood Manor?”

“Just in some old pictures.”

“They used to have tours here,” Emily said.

“Big business on Halloween, I bet,” Kara remarked.

Adriane just rolled her eyes. “Come on, we’ll go out past the manor. I’ll show you the gardens out back.”

“What about my stone?”

“We said you
might
find one,” Adriane said.

Kara crossed her arms and pouted.

“We
could
look around a bit more,” Emily suggested.

“All right!” Adriane led them to the side of the manor and onto another path. They were soon in deep woods and the air was cool and damp. Above, the boughs seemed woven together into a solid canopy of green.

Something rustled in the trees.

“What was that?” Kara whispered nervously.

“Just animals,” Emily reassured her. “They won’t hurt you.”

“This is creepy. It’s like they’re following us.”

“They probably never saw anything like
you
before,” Adriane said sarcastically.

“On any other day, I might take that as a compliment.” Kara studied the ground around her. She gingerly picked up rocks and pebbles, compared them to pictures in her book, and placed some neatly in her backpack.

“Remind me again why she’s here,” Adriane grumbled to Emily.

“To convince her father to keep the preserve safe.”

“Ugh, bugs!” Kara announced behind them. “And I bet there’s poison ivy all over here.”

“Just keep looking for stones,” Adriane shot back over her shoulder. “They could be anywhere.”

She leaned in toward Emily again. “And what about the CDC?” she continued. “How are we gonna get through that inspection?”

“I don’t know,” Emily admitted.

“I don’t think they have a listing for ‘Black Fire.’”

Over the next hour, Kara amassed a small collection of stones. But none of them glowed, no matter what she did. After a while, she sat down, picked out the nicest stone, and held it tightly in one hand.

Emily noticed and nudged Adriane. The two girls watched, trying not to laugh, as Kara bent over the stone, wrinkle-browed and frowning, a look of intense concentration on her face. Realizing she was being observed, she glared icily at the other girls.

“What are you doing?” Adriane asked incredulously.

“Resting—what’s it to you?” Kara got up and tossed the stone away in disgust.

“One of the stones you find is bound to be special,” Emily consoled her.

Kara upended her backpack, pouring the stones on the ground. “None of these are any good!”

“Face it, Barbie,” Adriane said, “the magic doesn’t like you.”

Kara jumped to her feet, slinging her empty pack over her shoulder. “That’s it! Look, I am Kara Davies, and you are a couple of weirdos. If you think for a minute I’m going any farther into these woods in my brand-new sandals, you’re as crazy as you look! I am turning around right now and going to the mall, where normal people go!” She stalked off angrily.

“Now what?” Emily asked. “We can’t let her wander around the woods alone.”

“She’ll be completely lost in about, oh, fifteen seconds,” Adriane said.

“Aaahhh!” Kara’s scream cut through the forest.

“Correction: ten,” Adriane said. “Come on.”

Emily and Adriane cut back in the direction of Kara’s voice. They found her off the main trail, on a smaller path, looking down into a ravine.

“What now? Did you see a bee?” Adriane taunted.

Kara pointed to a gully ahead of her. “What’s that?”

Emily looked—and her breath caught in her throat. With a cry, she slid down the incline.

“Emily, wait!” Adriane cried. But all of Emily’s senses were focused on the wounded creature that lay there, half buried under debris. Carefully, she cleared away the branches and wet leaves. As if in a dream, she saw her stone pulsing wildly with blue light. She felt light-headed.

“Ariel!” she cried.

The owl lay in the gully, her body torn and bruised almost beyond recognition. One wing was mangled and bent at an impossible angle. A sickly green glowed in spots on the owl’s body. Carefully, Emily felt the owl’s chest to see if she was breathing. She was alive—just barely.

“Ugh! That's disgusting!” Kara said, peering down.