Pale Peak Burning

by Paula Harrison

  The Shadow fired a torrent of lightning, hitting Laney in the back. Pain like a knife seared through her skin and she landed face down in the snow, not far from the faerie ring. She gulped, waiting for the agony to pass, and her fingers tightened round the Sparkstone. Lifting her head, she watched the tortoiseshell cat take the purse of dust between her teeth and bolt down the hill. The magpie gave a loud cry and flew after Claudia in a flash of black-and-white feathers.

  Struggling to her feet, Laney grimaced. Her back stung where the lightning had struck her.

  The Shadow marched over and seized her wrist. “You should join me, Tainted girl! We’ll open the faerie ring together. This Myrical contains the essence of all Blaze power and will give me more power than the Crystal Mirror or that Thorn Arrow. I shall use it to wipe this whole place clean of human vermin and the magic of the faerie ring will help me!”

  Laney’s eyes flicked to the faerie ring nearby. Already she could hear the faint singing drifting from the world beyond. “You can’t do that! All those people – they’re not really different from us!” She thought of Kim and Toby.

  “Give it to me!” He tried to grab the Sparkstone but Laney stepped back. She could feel the fierce pull of the ring behind her.

  “You can’t have it!” she yelled. “I bet you can’t work your spell without it.”

  The Shadow’s hood flapped and Simon’s thin face was revealed. “If you get caught by the ring you’ll never come back!” He smiled nastily. “You’ll get pulled into the Otherworld.”

  Laney swallowed and took a tiny step backwards. She could feel the tug of the ring growing stronger. A magical whirlpool of voices spun round her. “I don’t care!” she said. “If it means everyone else will be safe then I’ll do it.” But she did care, she realised. She couldn’t imagine never seeing Kim and Toby again … and not being able to speak to her dad one more time.

  “Laney, be careful!” The voice came from inside the ring. She knew that voice – she’d heard it before.

  “Who are you?” Laney whispered.

  The Shadow watched her carefully. “They say people can hear the voices of loved ones inside the rings. Can you hear your dead mother? Has she told you I was there the day she died? I was sent by the White Shadow to keep an eye on you – to work out why the curse hadn’t killed you.”

  Laney shuddered. She didn’t understand what curse he was talking about. “What did you do? Was it you that—” She broke off, unable to say the words.

  “I never planned to kill her.” The Shadow’s gaze kept returning to the Sparkstone in Laney’s hands. “It would never have come to that if she hadn’t seen me and gone to raise the alarm.”

  Laney felt sick. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know any more but she couldn’t stop herself whispering, “What happened?”

  The Shadow’s mouth curved into a smile. “I had to do it. I struck her down with lightning and I would have taken her dust for my spells if your father hadn’t stopped me.”

  Red-hot anger surged through Laney. “You monster!” She pointed her hand at the Shadow and a bolt of white lightning burst from her fingers. She dropped to her knees, shocked at herself. She hadn’t even known she could make lightning.

  The Shadow staggered backwards but quickly regained his balance. “Don’t flatter yourself that your weak spells can affect me. I am a hundred times stronger than you and I could kill you a hundred times over. But if you give me the Sparkstone now, I’ll let you live.” He lunged forwards, his hand reaching for the stone.

  “No!” Laney did the only thing left that she could think of. Whirling round, she flung the Sparkstone into the faerie ring. For one second, the Blaze Myrical twisted high into the air. Then the swirling currents of the ring caught it, spinning the stone round faster and faster. The singing from the Otherworld grew in a great crescendo, making the ice crack in the waterfall.

  Then the Sparkstone tumbled into the centre of the ring and vanished.

  Laney’s heart went cold. The Blaze Myrical was lost and it was all because of her. But she’d had no choice.

  The Shadow let out a terrible howl. “Cursed girl!” He marched over, grasping Laney by the throat. Ice crept over her neck, thickening on her skin. “This is the end for you – my lightning is the last thing you’ll ever see.” Thrusting her away, he stretched out his fingers.

  Laney crumpled as the first bolt hit her in the stomach. She tried to scramble up but her legs wouldn’t work. Lightning crackled again. She rolled sideways and the bolt grazed the arm of her coat.

  Leaping up, she started running when a third bolt knocked her off balance. The pull of the faerie ring caught her and she fell into a pool of swirling mist. The ring dragged her down and the snow-covered valley disappeared.

  “Laney!” called the voice from the ring. “Laney, hold on.” A pale hand slipped into hers and a translucent face swam closer. At first it seemed like Laney’s own face, but the girl’s hair was so long and her eyes were a sharper blue. Her touch was soft, like holding on to a cobweb. The spinning had stopped but they were still sinking into the mist. A rippling transparent surface closed over Laney’s head.

  Simon’s face peered down. His voice sounded faint. “Goodbye, Laney Rivers. No red moon prophecy could help you in the end.” He turned away, the magpie fluttering on to his shoulder.

  “I have to get back,” Laney cried, but as soon as she let go of the pale girl’s hands she was caught in the terrible swirling current again. The singing of the ring wove round her in a melody of many voices.

  “Laney!” The pale girl took her hands again and the spinning slowed. “Keep hold of me. We can only do this right if we’re together.”

  Laney stared at the strange girl who looked so much like her. “Who are you? I know you, don’t I?”

  “I’m Tara.” The girl smiled. “I’ve been waiting for you – hoping you’d hear me from the other side. I’m your twin.”

  “My twin!” As soon as she said the words out loud Laney knew it was true. “It was you trying to talk to me all this time. How did you know who I was?”

  “We’re connected,” Tara explained. “A magical curse killed me on the day we were born. But because of our close bond, my powers passed to you when I came here to the Otherworld.”

  “We’re sisters!” Laney hugged Tara. It was like trying to hold on to a cloud.

  Glancing round, she realised that they were still sinking. More and more transparent layers closed over their heads as they drifted slowly downwards. Laney’s insides burst with joy at finding Tara but what about leaving Kim, Toby and her dad behind? She glanced up. There was nothing above but deep silence and a white vortex of snow.

  “We don’t have much time!” Tara said. “If the prophecy is true we may be able to restore magic to the Sparkstone and send it back – return it to the Blaze tribe where it belongs.”

  “The prophecy!” Laney’s heart leapt. Could she fix what she’d done – get the Sparkstone back to the Blazes? “Will it really help us?”

  “I think so. In the Otherworld we know the songs of all the tribes. Sing with me!” Tara began to sing a song about fire. Laney copied her and voices all around them joined in. Laney began to see other faces in the mist – hundreds of them – each one a soul that had passed over to the other side.

  The song grew fiercer and at last the Sparkstone floated from the depths and settled on Laney and Tara’s joined hands. It was alight again, with a heart of glowing flame.

  “My daughters.” Laney’s mum stepped out of the throng of figures and kissed Laney and Tara. “I’m so proud of you both. Take the stone back, Laney. Quickly, before the portal closes.”

  “But what about you?” Laney looked from her mum to Tara.

  “We don’t have the power to leave the Otherworld, but it’s not your time to pass over,” Laney’s mum said urgently. “Go back – take the stone with you. Never forget that I love you.”

  They’d drifted so far down that the ripples had stopped. Not fa
r below her feet, Laney could see a burning golden light. She had the feeling that if she passed through that light she wouldn’t ever come back again. “I wish there was more time.”

  “You can always find us if you listen to the ring,” her mum told her. “Picture yourself returning to the surface and we’ll do the rest. Good luck, darling.”

  Laney tried to let go of Tara’s hand to take the Sparkstone but a strange force seemed to hold them together.

  “You have two powers – Blaze and Mist,” cried a figure in the pale throng. “You can’t take both powers back. You must choose.”

  Other spirits took up the cry. “You have to choose.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?” Laney asked.

  “Go back to the beginning,” Tara told her. “One of us was born with fire and the other with water. You just have to remember which one you are.”

  “I don’t know!” Laney cried. “I can’t remember that long ago. My powers didn’t Awaken till I was twelve and then I got Mist powers first and then Blaze.” The golden light was creeping closer. She could feel the heat from it warming her feet.

  Tara released one of her hands and placed it on Laney’s forehead. “Think back. Go back to the beginning.”

  Laney closed her eyes. Tara’s hand felt soft on her skin like the touch of an ocean wave.

  She was lying on a rug, a rattle in her hand. The crackle of fire in the grate. The tapping of rain on the window. She was longing for one sound. She was stretching out her fingers…

  Which sound had she longed for? Who was she really?

  The spirits swam in a circle, pushing her back through the rippling transparent layers. They sang of wind, rain and sunlight in a world they could never return to. Laney’s heart ached at the wistful note in their voices. She felt herself spiralling upwards.

  Blaze or Mist? She had to choose.

  Laney opened her eyes as she burst out of the faerie ring and tumbled through the air. Holding the Sparkstone tight, she collapsed into the snow beside the frozen stream. Her hands grew warmer and warmer until flames burst from her palms. She stared at them, her stomach somersaulting. She’d chosen! She was a Blaze – just like her mum – and Tara was a Mist.

  As Laney scrambled to her feet she saw the Shadow just in front of her, with his hood pulled low. Suddenly he twisted round and fired lightning across the chasm. Laney caught a glimpse of her uncle and other Blazes taking cover behind the boulders. There were more Blaze faeries at the top of the cliffs but none of them were close enough to help her.

  “How did you do that?” the Shadow demanded. “No one returns from inside the ring.”

  Laney thought she caught a note of uncertainty in his voice. She had to make the most of his doubts if she was going to escape. “Have you forgotten the prophecy? Maybe I’m more powerful than you think I am.” She hoped she sounded confident. Her fingers tightened around the warm Sparkstone.

  “No, you can’t be.” The Shadow reached out to grab her but a tall figure leapt out from behind a fractured ice wall. Throwing himself at the Shadow, Chips Delaney yelled, “Run, Laney!”

  Red lightning sizzled on the Shadow’s fingers but Delaney pinned his arms down. Laney paused, shocked by Delaney’s nerve, before she raced down the chasm. How could Delaney defend himself against a Shadow faerie? He didn’t even have any magic.

  Heart thudding, she stopped to look round. A lump came to her throat as she saw Chips Delaney lying still on the ground.

  “Laney, how on earth did you appear from the ring?” Hillburn drew her into a hollow behind a piece of jutting cliff. “Is that…? You have the Sparkstone! The Shadow told us he’d destroyed the Myrical completely.” Hillburn took the stone in his hand and tiny flames burst out all around it.

  A shout came from the clifftops as other Blaze faeries discovered that their magic had returned. Lightning flickered through the air as the Blazes began firing on the Shadow.

  Laney swallowed. “Please … I know you don’t like him but Mr Delaney needs our help. He saved me.”

  “Don’t worry,” Hillburn said grimly. “The Shadow is going to be very sorry he ever took on the Blaze tribe. Stay here.” He marched out into the snow.

  White lightning zigzagged from the clifftop but it missed the Shadow. Blue lightning came from the other side, hitting the wall of the ice maze and cracking it in two. The Shadow swung round, firing red lightning at his attackers.

  The chasm filled with Blazes leaping from the cliffs on outstretched wings. Lightning crisscrossed from all directions. Laney ran out, desperate to see if Delaney was all right.

  The Blaze faeries raised their hands, pouring fire at their enemy. The flames gathered into a huge ball which engulfed the Shadow. His black wings began to shrivel. The Blazes advanced, their fire growing bright and savage. The heat made Laney step back. She shivered at the fierce determination in the eyes of the Blazes.

  The Shadow collapsed on the ground, his hood falling back to reveal Simon’s face. Lifting his arm, he tried to shoot another bolt but the red lightning died on his fingertips. At last he was still, his eyes completely black, staring up at the white-wisped sky.

  A magpie flew down and pecked at his hood. Then, with a loud cry, it flew away. Gradually, a glow gathered around Simon’s figure and, with a sudden flash of light, his body vanished, leaving a pile of grey dust in the snow.

  “Mr Delaney, are you OK?” Laney rushed over to kneel beside the figure of Chips Delaney. His coat was torn and his shoulder slashed with deep red burns.

  “I’m all right,” he said faintly. “I just don’t think I can move right now.”

  Tears came to Laney’s eyes. “You shouldn’t have done that. The Shadow could have killed you.”

  He smiled. “I couldn’t let you be the hero by yourself, could I?”

  Hillburn said urgently, “Laney, did the Sparkstone go inside the ring with you? This Myrical is full of new power.” He held out the glowing stone. “Let Delaney hold it. Let us see if it can do anything for him. Quickly, before the moment passes.”

  Laney took the Sparkstone and placed it in Delaney’s hand. Then she watched as an amber glow passed across the man’s skin and the red welts on his shoulder knitted together. Laney held her breath as she watched the wounds heal. Delaney drew a deep breath and sat up. “That’s amazing. I feel so much better already.”

  “Careful now, that’s powerful magic,” Hillburn told him. “You may be a bit dizzy.”

  Delaney handed the Sparkstone back to Hillburn. “I do feel a bit odd – energetic – like a bottle of lemonade that’s been shaken up.” He staggered upright and a flame burst out in the palm of his hand.

  “Mr Delaney!” Laney gasped. “Look!”

  Delaney stared at the fire he’d made. “I don’t believe it! After all this time.”

  The other Blazes gathered round. Some of them smiled at Delaney awkwardly.

  “How did this happen? All my magic was taken away years ago only a few days after my Awakening.” Delaney didn’t take his eyes off the flame.

  “I think the Myrical drank in extra power inside the ring,” Hillburn explained. “I felt it as soon as I touched it. I think it’s time to start fresh, don’t you? Join our tribe again – with or without magic you have always been a Blaze.”

  Delaney met Hillburn’s eyes. “Thank you.”

  Laney smiled. Turning, she found Tyler and Claudia at her side.

  “What happened to you?” Tyler scanned her face. “They said you fell inside the ring but I was too far back to see.”

  “The Shadow struck me and that’s when I fell inside,” Laney said. “But the spirits helped me escape.” She told them about Tara, her twin, and how her sister’s magic had passed to her when Tara died. “It all makes sense now. I never understood why I had Mist and Blaze powers at the same time when everyone said that was impossible. I knew my dad had hidden the fact I was born on the night of a red moon and I thought there must be something wrong with me.”

 
; “Twin babies born to a Mist father and a Blaze mother,” Hillburn said slowly. “One with water magic and the other with power over fire.”

  “So the prophecy really was about you after all, Laney.” Claudia’s eyes were wide. “How does it go? Born under a Wolf Moon, the Child of Aether joins together powers far apart. She binds the opposites and drives a splinter through the faerie ring’s heart. But what’s Aether?”

  “No one really knows for sure,” Hillburn said. “But some stories say there is Aether in the Otherworld.”

  Laney thought of the strange mist inside the ring where the pale spirits lived. Had that been Aether? It was almost impossible to describe what it had been like in there. She saw the others looking at her curiously. “I’m just glad I got to meet Tara and see my mum again.”

  With a cracking sound, part of the ice wall behind them collapsed. Then a second crash echoed round the chasm as another part broke away.

  “The cold is fading because the Shadow is gone.” Hillburn held up the Sparkstone and everyone fell silent. “There’s a lot to discuss but for now be joyful that our Sparkstone is back in our hands. We must not forget the ones who helped us.” He nodded to Laney. “You have our deepest thanks, Laney Rivers, for saving our Sparkstone, and we must not forget the other young lady. The one who ran off with the dust the Shadow was trying to use. I have to say I never expected to owe such a debt of gratitude to a cat!” A ripple of laughter ran around the group.

  Claudia smiled and tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder. “I ran back to the village and gave Mr Willowby’s dust to Gwen Whitefern, the Thorn Elder. It’ll be safe with her.”

  Hillburn lifted his arms. “Now, in this place far from human eyes, let’s join together to share our fire magic.” Each Blaze raised their hands and lit a golden flame. They burned strongly together, bright and tall and unwavering. Delaney joined in, the fire casting a glow across his face.

  Laney slipped to the edge of the group. “I have to go. The hospital called my stepmum this morning because my dad had got worse. I have to go back to Kim and Toby.” She ran along the chasm, through the deep snow.