The Crystal Mirror (13 page)

Laney decided there was no time to explain her plan to the others. She squeezed through the small hole and flew on into the tunnel. Strange fish in colours from gold to electric blue swam past her and the walls were lined with weird-shaped coral. One fish nibbled her finger before darting away again. This was underwater heaven, except for the icy cold. Maybe it was cold down here because it never got any sunlight.

Carefully, she ran her hands along the tunnel wall, searching for something – a smooth patch or anything that felt different. The mirror
had
to be here. Its Mist power must have made this place special. As she moved on, the tunnel narrowed. Afraid of getting stuck, she twisted back and grazed a wing against the wall. A dot of white light appeared where her wing scraped the tunnel and she reached out to touch it with her fingertips. The light grew underneath her fingers, casting rays of silver through the water.

Laney scratched at the tunnel wall, digging her nails into the mud as she tried to reach the light underneath. The earth came away in clumps, muddying the water as stones broke off and sank to the floor. This must be it! She could see something now. It was a curved edge decorated with a
crisscrossing
pattern, just the same as the frame of the Crystal Mirror from her dreams.

She took hold of that edge and pulled. For a second nothing happened. Then a mass of soil and rock came away and she was left holding on to a heavy round object. It shone even brighter now that it was free from the wall, and the water around it churned wildly. Laney felt like her blood was churning too. This was the Crystal Mirror. The power coming from it felt awesome and the silver light was almost blinding.

Laney darted away, afraid that the falling earth and churning water might make the ceiling collapse. She pushed the mirror along in front of her as she flew towards the hole at the end of the tunnel. Thrusting the mirror through the narrow gap, she climbed through after it and shot up towards the surface.

“Laney!” Fletcher leaned down to haul her out of the pool. “What have you been
doing
?”

“He’s been going mental,” said Claudia. “He was trying to persuade me that we should go in to rescue you. Me and muddy water – it was never going to happen.”

“I’m fine,” gasped Laney. “Look!” She carefully placed the mirror on the bank, before taking Fletcher’s hand to get out of the pool. Sitting up on the grass, she tried to shake off the icy feeling that had seeped into her inside the tunnel.

The mirror’s silver brilliance faded a little but the
air around it quivered with magic. Laney knelt over it, fascinated by the surface of crystal that glittered like a thousand stars.

“I can’t believe you found it,” said Claudia. “Where was it?”

“There’s a tunnel between the pools – an underwater one,” said Laney, leaning closer to try to make out the reflection in the mirror.

“So that’s what the dotted line on the map is,” said Fletcher. “That makes sense. But we should get moving. Other things could be drawn to the power coming from the mirror.”

He bent down to take hold of it but Laney pushed him off. “Wait! Don’t you get it? This has all of the power of the Mist tribe inside it.”

“I know, it’s one of the five Myricals and that’s why we have to take it back to the Elders,” said Fletcher.

“I wouldn’t give it to a Thorn faerie, not unless it was Gwen and she’s probably still away,” said Claudia. “That Stingwood man is really mean and I don’t trust him. Miss Reed looks dodgy too.”

“Have you lost your mind? We can’t keep it ourselves!” snapped Fletcher. “We have to get it back to Skellmore and give it to
all
the Elders.
They’ll
make sure it’s safe.”

“And what if they don’t? What if they fight over it?” said Claudia.

Laney reached out to touch the mirror. She could hear Fletcher and Claudia arguing behind her but their voices sounded muffled, as if someone had turned the volume down. She felt dizzy, and when her hand met the sheet of crystal, a tingling sensation ran up her arm. She felt connected to the power in the mirror, as if she could do anything – bring water out of solid rock or lift up a whole lake if she wanted to.

Now she would show Jessie and Miss Reed. She had the essence of Mist power at her command. They would beg her to join their tribe.

She still felt very cold but she didn’t care. She’d found the mirror! She placed her pale, frozen hands on its surface and gave a happy sigh. The breath curling from her mouth was freezing cold too, and it looked strange, like a cloud of thick red fog. She pulled backwards in alarm.

She’d seen fog like this before…and felt this deep cold… She’d been freezing cold every time she’d dreamed about the Shadow and his search for the mirror. She’d felt it during the dreamwalk too.

The weird-looking vapour twisted and turned, spreading outwards rapidly. It crept over the ground and across the still pool. Laney stood up, shuddering as she felt a cold wisp curl around her knees.

“What’s happening?” said Fletcher. “Laney, what
did you do? What is this red stuff and why did it come out of you?”

“I don’t know!” Laney cried. “It was in my breath.”

“Why?” Claudia’s voice rose. “What haven’t you told us?”

“Nothing, I swear!” said Laney.

The reddish fog climbed to waist height, curling and swirling as if it was alive, and suddenly Laney remembered exactly where she’d seen it before. The night she’d Awakened, the night of the red moon, there had been fog just like this. She had breathed it in and felt so cold, and at the same time she had seen the dark figure…

Laney picked up the heavy frame of the mirror. “We’ve got to take this far away, somewhere it can’t do any harm.” She broke off as the fog surrounded the Crystal Mirror, covering its bright surface. Then the mirror gave a pulse of dazzling light and all the fog vanished completely.

Laney caught her breath. The mirror had beaten the fog. It had won.

“It is finished,” said a voice full of horrible triumph. “The spell is complete.” A dark shape swept over their heads with its huge black wings stretched wide.

The Shadow faerie landed and the trees around it wilted and turned brown within seconds. Leaves withered on the branches before dropping to the
ground. The black figure towered over them all and the air reeked of decay.

“No!” whispered Laney.

The Shadow rounded on her and folded its vast wings. A hood hung right over its face, but as its head turned Laney thought she caught a glimpse of its eyes – black eyes full of creeping malice. It stretched out its fingers, pointing at each of them in turn.

Laney found that she couldn’t move. She could barely lift her eyes to see that Claudia and Fletcher were motionless too. They were all helpless.

“Your part is over,” said the Shadow. “You have brought me the mirror, just as I knew you would.”

Laney tried to move her lips to speak, but no sound came out. The Shadow waved his hand and she found her mouth unfrozen. She moistened her lips. “But you were searching for it yourself. I saw you.”

“That was my first plan,” the Shadow hissed. “I prepared my enchantments, making them so powerful they could not fail to unearth the Myrical. Then just as my spell was perfect, you blundered along and breathed in my spell fog. Stupid girl!” He snapped his fingers and a crowd of tiny ice arrows flew at Laney. She couldn’t move to dodge them and they struck her like little knives before falling to the ground.

The Shadow clenched his fist and after a moment he regained his control. “You took the core of my finding spell with you that night and then only you had the power to discover where the Crystal Mirror was hidden, and retrieve it.”

Laney’s mind flashed back to the orange-red fog near the faerie ring on the night she had Awakened and how cold she had felt after breathing it in. That same feeling – being frozen from the inside – had come back time after time. “It must have been the spell working every time it wanted me to look for the mirror,” she muttered.

“Once I realised what you’d done, I knew I had to make you find it for me. It was simple to pretend to hunt for it. It sparked your curiosity – always a useful failing of the ignorant.” The Shadow gave a cold laugh.

“You made us think you were hunting for the mirror.” Fletcher struggled to speak. “But we were doing what you wanted all the time.”

“And there is one more thing you will do for me. Give me the mirror and then I will destroy you with the rest of your village.” The Shadow stretched out his hand and the mirror wobbled.

Laney’s mind reeled. She tried to hold tight to the Crystal Mirror but her fingers were stiff with cold.

“Laney!” rasped Fletcher. “Don’t give it to him—”

“None of you can stop me.” The Shadow sounded
amused. “And this is what happens if you try.” A bolt of red lightning shot from his gloved fingers. It hit Fletcher in the stomach and he tumbled backwards through the trees.

Panic rose in Laney’s chest. In his frozen state Fletcher wouldn’t be able to work his wings to save himself. Next to her, she could see Claudia wriggling her fingers to try to break free from the Shadow’s spell hold. Her heart thudded as she tried to do the same. She could move her fingers a little but her hands felt strange and heavy. She tried harder and managed to move one arm. Then she stopped, terrified in case the Shadow saw.

“It took you long enough to accomplish the task of finding the mirror,” continued the Shadow. “But of course you do come from a second-rate family. Now I shall have what I came for.” He moved towards her.

Laney twitched one arm, and then moved her legs. She had done it – she had broken out of the Shadow’s spellhold. This was her chance.

With a strength born of panic, she held tight to the Crystal Mirror and launched herself into the sky. Straining her wings, she flew up high, carrying the mirror in both hands. A gust of wind nearly blew her into a tree but Fletcher grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

“Fletcher! You’re all right!” yelled Laney.

“Just fly, Laney!” he shouted back.

“He’s coming!” screeched Claudia, swooping beside them.

Crack!
Red lightning blasted into a tree right next to them. Laney felt the heat of the attack on her wings and back. The tree gave a long creak and toppled over in slow motion.

She sped up, not looking back.
Crack!
Red lightning shot past her legs. Losing her balance, she went spinning sideways. She hit her head against something hard and fell through a net of branches, still gripping the mirror. Branch after branch broke beneath her and finally she crumpled to the ground. The Shadow faerie landed next to her, a spark of red lightning still crackling from his gloved fingers.

He took the Crystal Mirror, which slipped easily from Laney’s grasp. For a moment, he leaned over it. His breath left no mist on its crystal surface, which made Laney wonder if he had any breath at all. Then he laughed and opened his great, black wings. The air around him festered like rotting meat. Laney’s stomach heaved and dark blotches swam in front of her eyes.

The Shadow held up the mirror and the glistening crystal surface darkened until Laney saw the grey river, rising up and spilling over its banks, filling Skellmore with a tide of water. Kim and Toby stood
at the upstairs window of their house, calling out to her…

“Say goodbye to Skellmore, because there won’t be anything left of it after tonight.” He soared into the air and flew off into the darkness.

Claudia flew down between the branches. “We have to get out of here before he comes back.”

Laney staggered to her feet. “He won’t come back. He’s got the mirror now and he’s going to use it to drown Skellmore.”

“He’s so strong,” said Claudia. “We’ll never stop him.”

“We can at least warn everyone. If we tell the faerie Elders, they can get people out of the village,” said Laney.

“Are you sure he doesn’t just want you to think he’s starting a flood?” said Fletcher. “What if it’s another trick? We’ve already helped him once by finding the Crystal Mirror for him.”

Laney’s shoulders sagged. “I know. It’s all my fault. But I didn’t know I was helping him.”

“I’m not blaming you.” Fletcher took off into the air. “But we have to find out if he’s telling the truth. If there’s a flood, it’ll start with the river.”

Laney and Claudia followed him into the air, but Laney’s wings felt shaky and she found it hard to keep up with the others. As they left the forest behind, a gigantic fork of lightning burst out of the storm clouds in front of them, pointing straight down at Skellmore. Then the rain started.

At first, there was a scattering of raindrops. Then the shower quickened into a pitiless torrent.

Laney peered through the grey curtain of rain.
The river rolled and churned below them – the wooden bridge was already underwater and only the top of the railing was showing. She remembered her rucksack that she’d left under a bush near the bridge that morning. It had probably been washed away by now.

“The river’s already over the top of its banks,” yelled Claudia.

“It won’t be long until the water reaches Skellmore,” said Fletcher. “Once it gets to the top of that footpath then there’s nothing to stop it – it’ll just run down the hill into the High Street.”

“I can’t fly for much longer in this rain.” Claudia shook the water from her wings.

“Why?” asked Laney.

“I haven’t got water wings like you,” said Claudia. “Only Mist and Kestrel faeries can fly in heavy rain.”

Laney’s heart sank. “But I’ll need your help to fly people to safety.”

Claudia stared. “Are you mad? The Elders will never let you get the humans out like that. You’ll expose the whole faerie world!”

“I don’t care about your faerie secrets! We need to make sure everyone’s safe – that’s a lot more important than the faerie world.” Laney wheeled round and flew towards Skellmore. At least she knew her dad would be on her side. He would want to get people out quickly, even if the tribes
didn’t like it.

She landed on the edge of the village, raced down the road and into the churchyard, taking the shortcut for home. As she sprinted up the path, she saw a large group standing by the church entrance. She heard raised voices and several people turned towards her, their gold-ringed eyes easy to spot even through the heavy rain.

“Here she is!” Jessie broke away from the group, pointing at Laney. “It’s nothing to do with the rest of the Mist tribe. It’s all
her
fault.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Mrs Lionhart. “How can one child be doing all of this?”

Claudia and Fletcher raced through the gate behind Laney.

“A Thorn faerie with a Mist and a Greytail!” Mr Stingwood waved his walking stick at Fletcher. “What is wrong with you, boy? You insult all Thorns by behaving like this. Stick to your own kind!”

Mrs Lionhart glared at him. “Be quiet, Peter! This isn’t the time for one of your rants.” Her firm manner instantly quietened the group. She turned to Claudia. “Where on earth have you been?”

“Mum, I can’t—” Claudia searched for words to explain. “I know I’ve been gone for ages, but there’s an emergency!”

“There’s a flood coming,” Laney burst out. “And
we have to wake people up and get them out of Skellmore.”

“See? She knows there’s a flood because she’s the one who made it!” cried Jessie. “You can’t blame the whole Mist tribe for this – it’s just her! And she’s been trying to do bad things at school too. I saw her down by the bridge today and she must have done something to make the river burst its banks. We all know she Awakened on the night of the red moon.”

“But it can’t be her,” said Miss Reed. “The test showed that her Mist power is tiny.”

“Maybe she had someone to help her,” growled Stingwood. “Maybe she and her dad did this together. Come here, girl. Explain what you have done.”

“I haven’t done anything!” Laney’s voice rose in desperation. “And my dad’s not even here. He’s working.” She hesitated. None of them believed in the Shadow faerie. She needed a way to make them understand the urgency.

“Never mind all the accusations,” said Mrs Lionhart. “Can’t you Mist faeries go down to the riverbank and hold back the flood with your powers?”

None of the Mist faeries spoke. Miss Reed flushed with embarrassment.

“They’ve already tried and failed,” said Stingwood
contemptuously. “But we can take
her
down there. Then we’ll see what she can do.” He jerked his head at Laney. “Girl, I said come here!” He thumped his walking stick on the ground and huge thorns sprouted all the way down the length of it.

Laney felt like backing away, but didn’t. “We have to get people out of Skellmore.”

There was a flash of lightning and someone knocked Laney over on to the grass next to a gravestone.

“Stop it!” shouted Mrs Lionhart. “This is not the way!”

Still shocked by her fall, Laney pushed her hair from her eyes and looked round the side of the gravestone. Stingwood was tangled up in a tightly knotted vine. He struggled to reach his spiky walking stick, which lay on the ground, and tiny bolts of white lightning began shooting from his fingertips. She pulled herself up to a crouch, still hidden behind the headstone.

“Stay still, Peter, and I’ll try to untie you,” said Mrs Lionhart. “Who did this to you?”

A bolt of lightning broke through the clouds above, followed by thunder so loud that it echoed round Laney’s head. Another smaller flash of lightning came from Stingwood’s fingers. Suddenly his hands shook and bolts of electricity shot in all directions. There were shrieks and the faeries scattered.

Laney crawled along the wet grass between the gravestones, hoping that Stingwood had forgotten about her. She had to get back home. The Elders weren’t going to help people away from the flood. She would have to do it herself, and she would start with Kim and Toby.

The rain pounded down. The churchyard path had become a tiny stream gushing down towards the gate. Lightning split the sky again, giving the churchyard one second of complete brightness. Laney ducked behind a headstone, afraid of who might see her in the sudden glare of light. Darkness fell again and she carried on crawling. A black cat ran in front of her. It stopped for a second, fixing its green eyes on her.

“Dizzy?” Laney was sure she recognised Claudia’s favourite cat.

“Run, Laney!” Claudia hissed, darting past her. “Stingwood’s hunting for you.”

Laney sprang up and ran. She saw a bulky figure waiting by the gate at the far side of the churchyard and ran the other way. Reaching the wall, she pulled herself up and scrambled over. She was in human form, she suddenly realised. She didn’t even know when her wings had disappeared. Her arms smarted from where she’d grazed them against the wall, but she carried on running, down the street and along the side alley by her house
She pulled down the handle of the back door and almost fell inside. The bright light of the kitchen made it hard to see.

“Laney!” Kim stood holding Toby in her arms. “Thank goodness you’re back. I’ve never seen rain like it. They’re saying on the radio that there might be flash floods.”

“Where’s Dad? Is he back?”

“No. He left a phone message for me when I was making Toby’s dinner. He and Simon are stuck on the main road out of town. The van broke down and Simon’s gone to fetch a mechanic. I’ve tried ringing back but I’m not getting any answer. They probably don’t know what’s going on in Skellmore at all.” She hugged Toby tighter.

“Mummy?” said Toby sleepily.

“It’s all right, darling.” Kim stroked his hair.

“Let’s leave now, in the car,” said Laney. “Let’s get right out of Skellmore.”