‘No! Don’t do that! Please!’ gasped Erin, imagining how her dad and Jo would feel if they found her like that.
‘Maybe not,’ mused Marianne. ‘I think you will be of more use to me living your usual life, but under my control. I will be able to see what the stallion is up to. A binding bracelet would mean that you’d have to do everything I said.’
‘Like the binding rope you put round Tor’s neck to control him?’ asked Erin, a stab of fear going through her as she remembered the black rope Marianne had used to control Tor when she had first captured him. It had left raw blisters on Tor’s skin and had only been broken with very difficult and dangerous magic.
‘Yes.’ Marianne’s eyes glinted. ‘But there would be no one to help you, no one to set you free. Only a weather weaver can perform the magic needed to break a binding rope. You would be under my control for as long as I wanted.’
‘I’d fight you!’ said Erin desperately. ‘I’d fight you like Tor did.’
‘He is a sky stallion; you are just a child. You wouldn’t stand a chance. You would be as powerless as the foal is against me.’ Moving swiftly to the back of the cave, Marianne picked a small box off a rocky ledge and, opening it, she took out a thin piece of black cord.
She turned and faced Erin.
Erin’s throat went dry; her skin prickled with fear. ‘No!’ She struggled and screwed up her fists as she tried to push her arms away from her sides.
Marianne smiled and started walking towards her.
Suddenly, Erin felt something tickling her wrist and fingertips. She realized that it was the hair from Tor’s mane. It was working itself loose from her watchstrap.
Use this hair to contact me if you need to. Tor’s voice seemed to ring in her ears.
Erin clasped the hair between her fingers and pulled.
The hair tightened and for an awful moment she thought it was going to break, but then it came free.
Marianne had almost reached her. She couldn’t see Erin’s hands, nor what Erin was doing.
Tor! Tor! Erin yelled in her mind. Marianne’s caught me! Help me!
She didn’t know how to make the hair work or how the sky stallion could help her. Instinctively her thumb started pushing the end of the hair round to meet the hair caught between her fingers. Just as Marianne reached for her wrist, the two ends of the hair met, forming a complete circle.
There was a blinding flash of white light and Erin automatically shut her eyes. A screaming whinny filled her ears and she heard Marianne cry out in fear. Erin’s eyes blinked open. ‘Tor!’ she gasped.
Standing just in front of her was the sky stallion. His eyes were furious. Half rearing, he plunged at the dark spirit.
‘No!’ Marianne stumbled back. Her foot caught on a rock and she staggered and fell, dropping the black cord and Erin’s seeing stone. As it cracked to the floor, Erin felt the cobwebs start to loosen. She fought against them, tearing her hands and arms out of the white filmy strands.
Marianne’s hand shot up and she pointed at Tor.
‘The seeing stone, Erin!’ he said, half rearing again.
Erin ripped the cobwebs off her legs and threw herself towards the hagstone. She didn’t know what she had to do with it, but as her fingers closed round it she felt it tingle with magic.
Take hold of my mane! Tor’s voice rang in her head. And look into the stone.
Clutching it tightly, Erin grabbed Tor’s mane and stared into the hagstone.
‘Say where you want to go!’ he urged.
‘You will not escape!’ Marianne hissed. ‘Bind –’
‘Home!’ Erin gasped. She felt Tor jump forward. For a moment, his mane seemed to swirl around her like thick icy mist. She had the sensation of falling through whiteness and then she landed with a bump. She stared around, startled. She was back in her bedroom, on her own, lying on the carpet. Her eyes darted to the seeing stone in her hand. The shadowy hole was dark and seemed to draw her back to the cave. She threw it away from her. It banged into the skirting board and fell to the floor. Erin stared at it as it rocked slightly.
For a moment there was silence and then there was the sound of Jo’s voice outside on the landing. ‘Are you OK, Erin?’
Erin swallowed and forced her voice to sound normal. ‘Yes, I’m fine. I just dropped something.’
She heard Jo’s footsteps continue along the landing and down the stairs. Taking a deep, trembling breath, Erin got to her feet. Her legs felt shaky and she went to the bed. Images of the cave – of everything that had just happened – flooded in front of her eyes.
It was all too much and she covered her face with her hands. She wished she could shut out the memories, but they were vivid. Tor had said not to use a hagstone until she was with him. She should have listened. But she hadn’t and Marianne had almost managed to catch her. But then Tor had come…
Tor! Erin felt a lurch of fear. Where was he? What had happened to him? I hope he’s OK, she thought desperately. She looked down at her pyjamas. A long white horse hair was caught on her clothes. She seized it.
Tor, she thought. Tor, where are you?
In the woods. I am all right, the stallion’s voice echoed in her head. I helped you in my cloud form. Come as soon as you can safely turn into a stardust spirit.
I will, Erin thought back. And, Tor, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have looked in the stone. I shouldn’t have –
Just come. The stallion’s voice broke sharply across her thoughts, cutting her off.
Erin swallowed and put the hair down. He didn’t sound happy with her at all.
CHAPTER
Five
Erin lay awake, wondering what time her dad and Jo would go to bed that night. She felt sick and worried. What would Tor say to her? He’d told her not to try to see Marianne. She hadn’t listened and had got into real trouble.
Don’t go to bed, don’t go to bed, she whispered in her head as she heard her dad pottering about. But soon she heard him go into the bedroom with Jo, and a little while later there was a faint click as the light was turned off.
Erin waited until there was absolute quiet from their room and then turned herself into a stardust spirit. Still feeling sick with nerves, she took two stones out of the box and flew to meet Chloe.
Chloe was waiting on the beach as usual. She was looking excited. ‘Erin! I thought you were never going to get here! Come on! I want to get to Tor and see if he can show you how to use hagstones to spy on Marianne.’
‘It’s too late,’ Erin told her.
Chloe frowned and Erin explained what had happened earlier.
For once, Chloe looked almost lost for words. ‘Oh… oh, gosh.’
Erin bit her lip. ‘I wonder what Tor’s going to say.’
‘I guess we’d better find out,’ said Chloe. She squeezed Erin’s hand. ‘I bet he’ll be OK about it,’ she said, her hazel eyes hopeful. ‘You were only trying to help.’
They flew to the woods together.
Tor was waiting in the clearing. He stepped forward anxiously as they came down. ‘What did you do?’ he said to Erin. ‘What happened? How did you end up with the dark spirit?’
Erin looked at the grassy ground of the clearing. ‘I was looking into a seeing stone,’ she replied in a small voice. ‘I felt magic happening. I said Marianne’s name.’
‘But I said you must not use a seeing stone to seek her without me being there to guide you!’ exclaimed Tor.
‘I-I know. I’m s-sorry,’ stammered Erin. ‘She told me to come and I… I couldn’t stop myself.’
‘Erin was only trying to help,’ Chloe put in loyally.
‘But in doing so she risked everything!’ Tor looked stormily at Erin. ‘By looking at a vision of Marianne, you opened a gateway between where you were and where she was. You let her tempt your mind through that gateway. You could have been trapped there, your mind in one place, your body in another!’
‘I’m sorry!’ Erin glanced at the stallion. His body was tense.
He caught sight of her looking at him and sighed.
‘You did not fully realize the danger,’ he said more quietly. ‘I did not make it clear enough. A dark spirit like Marianne is powerful enough to sense any unprotected weather-weaving magic used to spy on her. I was going to teach you how to use a warding stone tonight so that you could prevent Marianne from sensing you through the seeing stone – and harming you, Erin.’
‘Oh.’ Erin felt really stupid. She remembered the vision and shuddered. ‘She was going to put a binding bracelet on me, Tor. She was going to try to control me, but then you came.’ She looked at him. ‘How?’
‘You made a gateway for me with the hair from my mane,’ Tor explained. ‘Hair, like stone and water, is very powerful in weather-weaving magic. It let me travel to you in the vision.’
‘If you hadn’t come…’ Erin’s voice trailed off.
Tor nuzzled her arm and spoke softly. ‘The most important thing is that you escaped unharmed.’
Erin was eager to make amends. ‘Can you teach me how to use the stones properly now, and I’ll try to see where Marianne is?’
But Tor was already shaking his head. ‘We cannot use a seeing stone to watch Marianne now. Once someone has willingly entered a weather weaver’s vision, the weather weaver will always have power to draw them into another vision if the gateway between them is reopened in the same way using a seeing stone.’
‘Even if they’re using a warding stone as well?’ asked Erin, her heart sinking.
‘Even then.’
Erin felt awful. ‘But, if we can’t use the stones to spy on her, how are we going to find out where she is keeping the trapping stone?’
There was a silence.
‘Oh, Tor, I-I’m so, so sorry,’ Erin stammered as she suddenly realized fully what she had done. ‘I really am.’
‘It cannot be helped,’ the stallion sighed. ‘Did Marianne give you any clues as to where the stone was?’
‘No.’ Erin thought back over everything that she had seen. ‘I suppose it might be in the cave, but I didn’t see the trapping stone and I don’t know where the cave was anyway.’ She felt awful. ‘I’ve messed everything up.’
Chloe took her hand. ‘You haven’t. We might not be able to use a seeing stone to spy on Marianne, but we’ll think of another way to find out where she is keeping the trapping stone. We can follow her or something.’
‘No. That would be very dangerous.’ Tor looked at Erin. ‘I do not know how we will find the stone now, but you must learn to use your magic properly to protect yourself from things like this and to cast and control visions yourself.’
‘Will you start teaching me?’ Erin asked him. ‘Now?’
‘I do not think it would be wise this evening,’ the stallion replied. ‘You need to be calm and focused to use hagstones and you are shaken after such a fright. Bring the stones again tomorrow. We will try then. Do no use the stones before.’
He looked stern.
Erin hung her head. ‘I won’t. Bye, Tor,’ she muttered. She followed Chloe into the sky.
Chloe shot her a sympathetic look. ‘Let’s do something fun!’ She swooped down and tagged Erin’s arm. ‘You’re it!’
Erin didn’t really feel like playing tag right then, but she knew Chloe was making an effort to make her feel better. She flew after her and lunged for Chloe’s foot.
Chloe raced away to the left. ‘Missed me!’
Pushing the events of the evening deep down in her mind, Erin pursued her and with a surge of speed managed to touch Chloe’s back. ‘Got you!’
Chloe swung round and chased Erin up towards the stars.
Erin gasped, ‘Rain be with me!’ A raincloud appeared and rain poured down, making Chloe squeal and stop.
‘Rain be gone!’ said Erin hastily before her friend got too wet.
‘Not fair!’ exclaimed Chloe as she shook the water drops out of her eyes. ‘I can’t use my stardust powers to stop you tagging me. It would be much too dangerous if I was to throw a fireball at you.’
‘Sorry,’ said Erin. She sighed. ‘I sometimes wish I could just be a normal stardust spirit – just doing this type of magic and not fighting Marianne every day. You could do that if you wanted, Chloe.’
‘It wouldn’t be so exciting,’ said Chloe. ‘I know it must have been horrid going into the vision with Marianne, but it’ll be better tomorrow night when you’ve got Tor to help you learn to use hagstones properly. I can’t believe I’m not going to be here to watch but I’m going to be staying with Xanthe and Allegra.’
With everything that had gone wrong that night with her weather-weaving magic, Erin wished Xanthe and Allegra were coming to visit Chloe, not the other way round.
Erin thought about the next night when she would be trying to learn how to use her weather-weaving powers. Immediately she remembered Marianne walking towards her in the cave, eyes gleaming icily, and she shuddered. She wasn’t going to be trying to spy on Marianne using seeing stones – she was going to be looking at other people – but what if she got it wrong? What if she made a mistake and somehow ended up using a seeing stone to look at Marianne and was pulled into her vision again?
She shivered. She wasn’t looking forward to the next night at all.
CHAPTER
Six
When Erin arrived at the stables the next day, the ponies were grazing in the sunshine, their tails lazily swishing at the flies. There was not even a breath of wind to move the leaves on the trees and the skies were cloudless. The air seemed so still it was almost creepy. Erin felt a prickle of unease. She was glad it was clear, but why was it like this? Surely Marianne had started using Mistral to control the skies by now. In which case, shouldn’t the weather be stormy? And, even if Marianne wasn’t using Mistral, why were the horses in the skies not more agitated now that Tor and Mistral were on Earth?
In one way, she felt very glad the weather was so calm. It would be awful for there to be a big storm and for her not to have learnt enough about weather weaving to be able to sort things out. But it did seem strange.
She wished Chloe was there to talk to about it, but she had already gone to Devon. It was weird being at the stables without her that day. Fran and Katie kept whispering together and glancing at her all morning. She was sure they were talking about Kestrel running off with her the day before.
Erin managed to stay out of their way until lunchtime, when she walked past the two girls filling up the water buckets. She saw Fran move the hosepipe out the corner of her eye, but wasn’t quick enough to miss being sprayed all over her jodhpurs and trainers.
As Erin exclaimed in shock, Jackie came out of a stable. She hadn’t noticed what had just happened. ‘Ah, Erin. I thought all the helpers could go out for a ride in the fields this afternoon. Would you like to ride Kestrel?’
Erin felt her stomach fill with ice. ‘Um…’ She could feel Fran and Katie watching her curiously.
‘I’ll lunge him first so he’ll be quite quiet,’ Jackie said reassuringly. ‘I do think it would be good for you to ride him again.’
Pictures flashed through Erin’s mind: Kestrel veering round the corner, the looks on everyone’s faces, the feeling of being unable to stop. She couldn’t do it! ‘I… I don’t want to!’ she burst out.
Jackie looked at her in surprise. ‘I know you had a bad experience yesterday, but I really think you should get on him again.’
‘No,’ Erin insisted, wanting to sink into the ground.
Jackie frowned. ‘Well, all right. I won’t force you. You can ride one of the others today, but I’d like you to ride him again soon.’
She walked off.
Fran and Katie giggled, and Erin hurried away, her feet wet in her trainers, her face burning. Oh, Chloe, she thought miserably, I wish you were here.
That night when Erin arrived in the woods, she found Tor pacing uneasily around. ‘The skies are very clear,’ he said, looking upwards.
‘I know,’ said Erin. ‘I thought you said
that now Marianne had Mistral there would be really bad weather.’
‘I thought there would be.’ Tor pawed the ground anxiously. ‘Something isn’t right. Have you brought the stones with you?’
Erin nodded. After her experience the day before, she wasn’t looking forward to using a seeing stone again. She took two grey stones out of the pocket of her dress and held them out. The stallion investigated them. ‘A warding stone to protect with,’ he said, touching the stone with two holes with his muzzle. ‘And a seeing stone to see with,’ he said, touching the stone with the single hole. ‘We will start with the warding stone,’ he said, to Erin’s relief. ‘Was this one of your mother’s stones?’
Erin nodded.
‘Good. In weather weaving, family links are extremely important,’ Tor said. ‘If your mother has worked spells of protection with this stone, then it will have absorbed some of her magic and if you add your own magic on top by working with it too, it will become more powerful than it would otherwise have been.’
Erin stared at the stone, thinking of what her mother might have done with it before her. ‘So how does the magic work?’ she asked.
‘Each type of hagstone has a different kind of magic inside it and you, being a weather weaver, have the ability to free that power and use it,’ Tor explained. ‘The way in which you free a stone’s power is the same regardless of the type of hagstone. Try now. Hold the warding stone with both hands. Imagine sinking into it and you will feel magic flowing through your fingers. As you feel the magic, you must focus on what you want the stone to do.’ He pushed her with his muzzle. ‘A warding stone can give protection so imagine that nothing and no one is able to touch or hurt you.’
Erin held the stone in her hands and looked down at it. It was a pale grey with shards chipped off it, showing a darker grey underneath the surface layers. The two holes in the centre were full of dark shadows. She stared into the two holes and felt a strange dissolving sensation, almost as if she was sinking into the stone. Her fingers started to buzz. The buzzing spread throughout her whole body.
Sky Horses: the Royal Foal Page 3
