Dark Tricks

by Linda Chapman

  Maia nodded. She pulled the mirror out of her pocket and held it in front of her. “Holly, the Patels’ dog,” she told it, opening herself to the magical current. She felt it flow through her like a stream of glittering light, chasing away every drop of irritation and tension. At first all she saw in the mirror was whiteness but then an image of the brown and white spaniel appeared. Where was she?

  Maia looked more closely, searching for clues. Everywhere around Holly was just white. Suddenly Maia realized it was snow!

  “What are you seeing?” Bracken asked her.

  “Snow,” she said, feeling puzzled. “But that can’t be right.” She glanced out of the window and saw drizzle falling from the grey sky. There was definitely no snow. She tried again. “Show me where Holly, the Patels’ dog, is.” But the image didn’t change. “I don’t know what to do. My magic isn’t showing me where she is.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Willow. “Me, Bracken, Juniper and Sorrel can go and look through the woods and countryside and see if we can find any trace of her.”

  Bracken jumped off Maia’s knee. “We’ll do it tonight.”

  “We’ll find her,” said Juniper. “And as soon as we do, we’ll let you know.”

  Maia nodded unhappily, feeling envious of her three friends – their magic didn’t seem to come and go like hers.

  “You could use your magic to try and find out more about the person doing dark magic,” Sita suggested.

  Maia shook her head. “It never shows me anything if I ask it to show me that. Just blackness.” Bracken had told her it was probably because the person was using dark magic to block herself from being discovered.

  She got to her feet. “I think I might go home. I’m feeling a bit odd again.”

  “I’ll ask my dad if he’ll give you a lift,” Ionie said.

  Maia followed Ionie down the stairs. The happiness she had felt when she was doing magic had vanished and now she just felt cross and fed up again.

  When Maia got back home, she put her school things away and her eyes fell on the Seeing Stone. She picked it up, wanting to forget the day by looking into the past. She was about to call Bracken’s name when she hesitated.

  Maybe I won’t bother him – he’ll be busy trying to find Holly, she told herself. But she knew deep down that it was an excuse, and that really she didn’t want him there because he would try and stop her using the Seeing Stone.

  Guilt flared inside her but she ignored it. “Show me Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel,” she whispered to the stone.

  A picture appeared in the surface. Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel both looked about fourteen. Auntie Mabel had a crystal in her hands and was healing a scratch on Granny Anne’s leg. Granny Anne hugged her and then Auntie Mabel showed her how she could use a different crystal to cast an illusion – making a rock beside the river appear to turn into a picnic hamper. Maia was impressed – Auntie Mabel could do so much with her Crystal Magic. Granny Anne clapped and smiled.

  Maia continued to stare into the stone. She lost track of time as she watched image after image of Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel. She only stopped when she felt so tired that she couldn’t go on any more.

  She put down the Seeing Stone, feeling as if her energy had been sucked into it. Still, it had been worth it.

  Maia placed the stone on her desk and called Bracken. He appeared instantly.

  “Maia!” he said. “I’ve been worried about you. You didn’t seem yourself earlier.”

  “I’m fine.” Maia yawned.

  Bracken sat back on his haunches. “What have you been doing?” he asked curiously.

  “Just stuff.” Maia shrugged.

  “What stuff?” Bracken asked.

  “Nothing important. Stop asking me questions!” Maia’s words came out more sharply than she meant them to.

  Bracken’s ears flattened unhappily. Maia felt bad but couldn’t bring herself to say sorry. She turned away and started tidying things on her desk. When she looked back, she saw Bracken had jumped on to her bed and was watching her. He looked worried.

  The silence stretched between them, awkward and uncomfortable.

  “I’m going downstairs to have tea,” Maia muttered, hurrying out of the room.

  By the next morning, Maia was still in a bad mood and it appeared to have spread to the rest of her family. Alfie was grouchy and Clio was banging around, trying to find her make-up bag. “Can’t you find it for me?” she said to Maia.

  “I can’t find everything you lose,” Maia snapped.

  “Girls, please stop bickering!” Mrs Greene said as Alfie started to wail.

  Maia grabbed her toast and stomped upstairs, leaving the chaos in the kitchen behind.

  When she got to school, she saw Ionie waiting in the playground and went over to her. Ionie was holding a book on wild animals in Africa. Maia hadn’t seen it before.

  “Hi,” Maia muttered.

  “Hi,” Ionie muttered back.

  “What’s the book for?” Maia said.

  “For Lottie. Her class are doing their projects on endangered animals this week.”

  Maia felt a stab of jealousy. “Very friendly,” she said sarcastically.

  Ionie frowned. “Are you jealous?” she said. “You are, aren’t you? You’re jealous that Lottie and me are friends now!”

  “Don’t be stupid!” Maia retorted.

  “I’m not the stupid one – you are!” Ionie shot back.

  Just then, Lottie and Sita arrived. Lottie looked grumpy, too, but Sita was smiling as usual. “What’s going on?” she said, looking at Maia and Ionie’s cross faces.

  “Ask her,” Ionie and Maia muttered at the same time.

  Sita looked from one friend to the other. “Should I use my magic to help you feel better?”

  “Oh yes, your incredibly amazing magic,” said Lottie. “You’re such a show-off, Sita!”

  “I was just trying to help,” said Sita, looking upset.

  “Sita isn’t a show-off!” Maia said angrily.

  “You always take her side!” Lottie snapped.

  “No, I don’t!”

  “Why are you all arguing today?” Sita exclaimed.

  Their squabble was interrupted by the bell ringing. The girls picked up their bags and stomped away without saying anything more.

  Maia felt like she had a black cloud hanging over her all day. Lottie and Ionie seemed to feel the same and no one suggested meeting up after school. Maia went straight home and shut herself in her room. She wanted to use the Seeing Stone to see Granny Anne again even though she knew Bracken wouldn’t like it. She thought about not calling him but she didn’t want to have to lie to him like she had the night before. Reluctantly she called his name.

  He appeared beside her. “How was school?” he asked.

  Maia shrugged. “Not great.” She felt suddenly cross with him. Why did he have to make her feel guilty about using the Seeing Stone? She picked it up from her desk. “I’m going to use this to see Granny Anne.”

  “Maia, don’t,” Bracken pleaded.

  “But it’s better than the mirror,” Maia argued. “I don’t know why you’re so funny about me using it.” She stared into it and tried to ignore him. “Show me Granny Anne when she was younger.”

  She was soon engrossed in watching Auntie Mabel and Granny Anne doing magic together. When she finally finished, she turned round to find that Bracken had curled into a small ball on her bed. Maia longed to go and cuddle him but some part of herself stopped her.

  It’s not like using the Seeing Stone is really bad, she thought irritably. She got changed out of her school clothes without saying a word to Bracken, and then went downstairs. When she came back after tea he had gone and she didn’t call his name until bedtime. Then he just curled up quietly by her feet instead of in her arms like he usually did. She turned out the light.

  When Maia woke up the next morning, she found that Bracken had gone. She glanced at her bedside clock and realized it was much later than usua
l. Where was he? He usually woke her on school mornings with licks and cuddles.

  “Bracken!” she called.

  He appeared in her room, beside her bed.

  “Where have you been?” she asked, getting up. “You didn’t wake me and now I’m late for school.” She looked at him.

  “I… I was out looking for Holly,” he said.

  Maia felt guilty as she realized she’d forgotten all about the lost dog. “Oh, is that why your paws are muddy?” she said noticing Bracken’s paws were flecked with soil. “Did you find her?” she asked as she started to pull on her school clothes.

  “No, there’s no trace of her down in the woods.”

  “I hope she’s OK,” Maia said anxiously. “Perhaps I should use the Seeing Stone to try and see her again.”

  “No, don’t!” Bracken said quickly.

  Maia frowned. The Seeing Stone wasn’t on her desk where she’d left it. She crouched down to check the floor but just then her dad knocked on the door and opened it. Bracken vanished just in time.

  “Come on, Maia. What are you doing? You’re going to be late for school. You need to have some breakfast.”

  Maia had no choice but to follow her dad downstairs. I’ll find the Seeing Stone later, she thought uneasily.

  However when Maia got back from school, she couldn’t find the Seeing Stone anywhere. She called Bracken.

  “It can’t have just vanished into thin air,” she said. “Have you seen it?”

  Bracken scratched his ear with his back paw as he watched her search. “No.”

  Maia felt a flash of anger. “What am I going to do? I need it!”

  “You don’t need it,” said Bracken, trotting over to her. “You can use Star Magic.”

  It doesn’t work as well, Maia thought, but she didn’t say anything to Bracken.

  “You can,” Bracken insisted, jumping up on to her lap. “Why don’t you try now?”

  “There’s no point,” Maia muttered, stroking his fur. “It won’t work.”

  Bracken cocked his head on one side. “Is that what you think?”

  She nodded.

  “But Maia, you mustn’t think like that.” He looked at her earnestly. “Remember when you first started learning to do magic, I said it would only happen if you believed it would. If you don’t believe the magic will work, it won’t.”

  Maia frowned. She’d forgotten that.

  “Seeing magic is hard to control,” Bracken went on. “But it won’t help if you think it’s not going to work.”

  “Maybe I’ll try again,” Maia said, feeling her bad mood start to fade. She stared into the mirror on the dressing table, stroking Bracken as she did so. “Show me, Holly,” she said, hoping she would get more of an idea of where Holly was this time. She leaned forward eagerly as an image gradually formed in the mirror but it just showed Holly surrounded by lots of snow again. Maia couldn’t understand what was going on.

  She frowned. Was her magic working? She decided to try something else. “Show me Granny Anne when she and Auntie Mabel were my age,” she said.

  The surface of the mirror swirled like liquid silver and Maia’s heart gave a leap as an image of Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel appeared. They were both wearing old-fashioned school uniform. Auntie Mabel was glaring at Granny Anne and speaking crossly. She could hear Auntie Mabel saying, “It’s not fair! Everyone likes you, Anne. Everyone wants to be your friend. No one wants to be mine!”

  “That’s not true, Mabel,” said Granny Anne. “I’m your friend.”

  “Yes, but you like everyone!” said Auntie Mabel, then she turned and ran away.

  Maia sat back in surprise. She’d never seen Auntie Mabel and Granny Anne arguing before.

  “Show me Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel when they start doing magic,” she said curiously.

  The image changed and she saw Granny Anne with her hand on her wolf’s back, staring at Auntie Mabel who seemed to be hovering behind a blackberry bush as if she’d been hiding. “You mustn’t tell anyone, Mabel,” Granny Anne pleaded. “No one’s supposed to know about Star Magic. Promise you won’t say a word!”

  Maia blinked. Weird. She’d seen this moment in the past before but it hadn’t been like this. When she’d seen it in the Seeing Stone, Granny Anne had been excitedly telling Auntie Mabel that she had a secret to share with her. Now Granny Anne seemed to be begging Auntie Mabel not to say anything – almost as if Granny Anne hadn’t wanted Auntie Mabel to know…

  “This is odd,” Maia whispered to Bracken. “I’m seeing a different past to the one I’ve seen in the Seeing Stone.”

  “A different past?” He tilted his head. “But there can’t be two pasts.”

  “I don’t know which is real,” said Maia. “Show me more,” she said to the mirror.

  The image changed and Maia saw Auntie Mabel in the clearing with Granny Anne. They were older now – teenagers. “I can do magic, too,” Auntie Mabel was saying to Granny Anne, showing her a crystal. “It’s not just you now. I’m special as well!”

  “Yes,” Granny Anne said slowly, “but you must be careful, Mabel. Magic should only be used for good. Please only do good things with it.”

  Auntie Mabel smiled slyly as she turned the crystal over in her hand. “We’ll see.”

  Maia sat back and let the images fade. “In the Seeing Stone, I see Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel as really good friends but when I look with Star Magic, it’s not quite like that. Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Bracken said anxiously. “But I think you should believe what the Star Magic is showing you.”

  Maia stroked him. “I wish I knew where the Seeing Stone was.”

  Bracken nuzzled her. “Maybe you should stop doing magic for tonight. We can talk to the other animals tomorrow and see if they have any idea about why the things you’re seeing are different.”

  When Maia went to sleep, she had the first vivid dream she’d had in ages. Bracken had told her that her dreams might show real things now her magic was growing stronger. For a while they had – she’d seen the Fear Shades before they started affecting people – but for the last couple of weeks her dreams hadn’t shown her anything at all. Tonight was different though.

  In her dream, Granny Anne and Auntie Mabel were in the clearing. They looked about sixteen years old.

  Auntie Mabel’s eyes were shining. “Crystals have energy inside them,” she said to Granny Anne. “All you have to do is work out how to channel it and then you can use it for anything you want. You can make an object look like something else! They can heal, hurt, upset—”

  “But magic should only be used for good,” Granny Anne interrupted. “You know that.”

  “But why?” said Auntie Mabel. “We could get our own back on people who have made us miserable.”

  “No!” Granny Anne exclaimed. “You mustn’t do that.”

  Auntie Mabel smiled. “When I possess the Dark Stone, no one will be able to stop me. Not even you.” She laughed.

  Maia sat up in bed, her heart pounding. Had her dream been real? It couldn’t be. Auntie Mabel wouldn’t use magic to do bad things. Bracken was still snoozing beside her. Dawn was just breaking, the dark of night turning to a cold grey.

  Maia went to her desk to look for the Seeing Stone. How could it have just vanished? Then she looked into the mirror and had an idea. Of course! She could use Star Magic to see where it was.

  She opened herself to the magic current. “Show me where the Seeing Stone is.”

  A picture of her back garden appeared in the mirror.

  But how can it be in the garden? she wondered.

  “Show me how the Seeing Stone got there,” she said curiously.

  The image reformed. Ice seemed to run down her spine as she saw a fox trotting towards the flowerbed just as dawn was breaking. It was Bracken and he had the Seeing Stone in his mouth. She watched as he dropped it on to the soil, dug a hole and nudged it inside.

  Bracken had taken the Seeing Stone. He had lied to her!
Unless … unless what she was seeing was false.

  “Bracken!” she said, swinging round.

  He woke instantly. “What is it?” he said, jumping to his feet.

  “Did you take the Seeing Stone?” she demanded. “Did you bury it in the garden?” She was sure he was going to shake his head and tell her that what she had seen wasn’t true.

  But he looked down at the bed. “Yes,” he admitted. “I’m sorry. But I didn’t like you using it. There’s something strange about it, Maia. I think it’s showing you a false past and I think it’s doing something to your Star Magic…”

  “How dare you?” Maia hissed. She grabbed her dressing gown and slippers. “I’m going to get it back!”

  “Maia!” Bracken protested. “Don’t go!”

  “You’re the one who should go,” Maia said. “I don’t want you here!”

  Bracken whimpered. “You don’t mean that.”

  “I do! Go!”

  Maia ran out of her room, down the stairs and through the back door. A light frost covered the grass and the air stung her cheeks. She ran to the flower bed she had seen in the mirror and spotted a patch of soil that looked like it had been recently disturbed. Crouching down, she used her hands to dig into the freezing soil. She caught a glimmer of pink and pushed the soil to one side. It was the Seeing Stone! She took it out with a sigh of relief.

  When she came back into the house, her dad was in the kitchen getting Alfie a bottle of milk.

  “Maia!” he exclaimed. “What on earth are you doing out in the garden at this hour?”

  “I’d left something out there,” Maia lied.

  “Well, you don’t go out at six in the morning! And look at the mess you’re making on the carpet.”

  “Sorry,” Maia said. “I’ll clean it up.”

  “Just take off your slippers and get back upstairs,” her dad snapped. “I don’t want this to happen again.”