Secret Spell

by Linda Chapman

  “Maia! I’m sure there’s a Shade stalking me!” she hissed as she raced up to her. “It was in our garden this morning and then behind some trees on the way to school. One minute it’s there, the next it’s gone.”

  “Let’s go to the wall and talk there,” said Maia.

  “OK, there’s something else I need to talk to you about as well,” said Sita. “I’m sure it’s not true but Willow said I should mention it to you all.”

  As they walked over to the wall, Ionie came running up.

  “Where are you two going? Why weren’t you waiting for me? You don’t like me, do you? I knew it!” Her eyes filled with tears as she looked from Maia to Sita.

  “Don’t be silly!” Maia said in astonishment.

  “Ionie, I saw a Shade,” said Sita.

  “Where?” said Ionie.

  “In the trees, in the garden…”

  Maia sighed. “Sita thinks he’s stalking her but…”

  Ionie glared. “So you’ve been talking about it without me? Leaving me out?”

  “No!” Maia protested.

  “I knew you didn’t want to be friends with me!” Ionie said, and fighting back a sob she hurried away.

  “OK,” Maia said in despair. “Why are you all behaving so strangely?”

  “Look, in the shadows over there!” gasped Sita, pointing to a nearby hedge. Maia looked but there was nothing there. She let magic flow into her and used her powers to see if there was anything she couldn’t detect with her normal vision. Nothing.

  “Sita, there really isn’t a Shade there,” she said. “I’m sure of it.”

  The bell rang and Sita breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m going inside. It won’t follow me there!”

  Maia was beginning to think that somehow a Shade was affecting her friends. But what was it trying to do? Was there a type of Shade that just made people behave oddly? And if it was affecting her friends, why wasn’t it affecting her?

  Oh, Bracken, I wish I could talk to you right now! she thought.

  After school, no one wanted to meet up. Lottie wanted to go home in case the postman had delivered her exam results, Ionie was still refusing to talk to Maia and Sita, and Sita said she wanted to stay with her mum.

  As soon as Maia got home, she called Bracken.

  “What is it?” he asked her. “You look upset.”

  Maia hugged him and told him what they had been doing in a rush.

  “Why don’t I go and talk to Willow, Sorrel and Juniper?” Bracken said. “If a Shade has been anywhere near the others, Sorrel and Willow will definitely have smelled it.”

  “Can you just go off and talk to them?” said Maia. A thought struck her.

  “I can call them using Star Magic and we can meet each other if we go to the clearing,” Bracken replied. “The clearing is special because Star Magic is strong there. The waterfall is a link between this world and the Star World. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Maia kissed his head and he disappeared.

  Once he had left, the minutes seem to drag by. She picked up her mirror. Maybe while she was waiting she should use her magic? But what would she ask to see?

  Sita, she decided.

  A picture of her friend appeared in the mirror. She was with Willow in her bedroom.

  “I still haven’t talked to the others about it, Willow,” she was saying.

  “You must,” Willow said softly.

  “But what do you think they’ll say?” A noise made Sita jump. “The Shade! I just saw it again!”

  “Sita, there’s nothing there,” said Willow.

  Maia shook her head and tried Ionie next.

  Ionie was sitting on her bed, her arms pulled tight round her knees. Sorrel was nudging her head against Ionie’s arm.

  “No one likes me, Sorrel,” Ionie was saying. “Maia and Sita keep going off and leaving me out.”

  We don’t, Maia thought. What’s she talking about?

  “They don’t want to be friends and Lottie’s never liked me,” Ionie went on. “I’m never going to have any real friends, am I?” She sounded so despairing. Her usual air of confidence had completely vanished.

  “I’m your friend. I’ll always be here for you,” Sorrel said, her voice soft for once. “Please don’t be upset, Ionie. This isn’t like you.” She nuzzled Ionie’s cheek. Suddenly she stiffened, her head tilting to one side. “Ionie, Bracken is calling me. I need to go. He wouldn’t be calling me unless it was important.”

  Maia let the image fade and tried Lottie. She was pacing around her bedroom. “I’m going to fail, I’m going to fail,” she was whispering. “Oh, what am I going to do?”

  Juniper wasn’t there. Maia wondered if he was with Bracken and the others in the woods.

  Maia put down the mirror. Her friends all seemed so unhappy. She ran her hands through her hair. She didn’t know what to do about her friends and she didn’t know what to do about Mrs Crooks. Were the two things connected?

  Maia felt like she had lots of pieces of a jigsaw laid out in front of her but she just couldn’t seem to put the picture together.

  A few minutes later, there was a shimmer of light and Bracken reappeared.

  “I’ve spoken to the other animals, Maia.”

  “And?” Maia demanded.

  “They all agree something strange is going on. Sorrel and Willow have both smelled the faint scent of dark magic in Ionie and Sita’s bedrooms, although they say the smell comes and goes. They’re worried.”

  “What do we do, Bracken?” Maia said. “Should we try and find out what’s going on with them or should we try and find out more about Mrs Crooks? If only the others weren’t so distracted.”

  Bracken yipped and pricked his ears. “Maia! Maybe that’s it! If Mrs Crooks has somehow found out you’re all Star Friends, she might be using magic to distract them.”

  Maia frowned. “But why just Lottie, Sita and Ionie? Surely she’d want to distract me, too.”

  Bracken’s ears lowered. “Yes, you’re right, that doesn’t make sense,” he admitted.

  “Maia!” Clio called from outside the room. “Mum says tea is ready.”

  “Coming!” Maia got to her feet. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised Bracken.

  Maia’s mum had cooked lasagne for tea, Maia’s favourite, but she was so worried about what was going on, she didn’t feel like eating. Alfie didn’t seem to want his either. He pushed it round his plate and kept throwing his fork on the floor.

  “Come on, Alfie, eat up,” said Clio, picking up a spoonful of lasagne from his plate. “Here comes the train. Choo-choo!”

  “No!” Alfie wailed, hitting out and sending the spoon flying.

  Mrs Greene rubbed her forehead wearily. “Don’t worry, Clio. He’s just really tired.” Standing up, she lifted Alfie out of his chair. “Let’s go and get you into your pyjamas, Alfie-boy.”

  “I’ll take him upstairs, Mum,” offered Maia. Her mum looked really tired.

  “Thanks, sweetie.” Mrs Greene smiled. “Once he’s got his PJs on, he can come down and have some milk and I’ll read him a story.”

  Maia nodded and swung Alfie on to her hip. “Up we go,” she said, heading for the door.

  Alfie clutched her as they reached the stairs. “Beetle! No!”

  “What do you mean, beetle?” she said.

  He struggled. “In my room. Beetle!”

  “There aren’t beetles in your room, Alfie. You just saw them in a nightmare.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Big beetle!”

  They reached the top of the stairs. Maia put him down. “All right, if there’s a big beetle, I’ll get rid of it,” she said. “Let me have a look.” She pushed open the bedroom door. Alfie’s room looked just like it usually did. “See, no beetles.”

  Alfie came slowly into the room. He stiffened and pointed at the wardrobe.

  “Beetle!” he whispered, his eyes growing wide as saucers.

  “Don’t be silly, there isn’t a—�
� Maia broke off with a squeak as a large black beetle leg appeared out of one of the wardrobe doors.

  “Mai-Mai!” cried Alfie, grabbing her round the knees.

  Maia stared. What was going on? Suddenly the wardrobe doors flew open, revealing an enormous beetle with red eyes and sharp pincers. Rearing up on its back legs, it leaped out of the wardrobe!

  Maia hardly paused to think – she opened herself to the magic current. When she was using her magic she could see where things were going to move a second or two before they did it. But the magic allowed her to see something else, too. There was a glowing outline around the beetle. It wasn’t a real beetle. It was just an illusion!

  “I don’t believe in you!” she said, pointing at it. “You’re not real.”

  The beetle paused.

  “You are not real!” she repeated firmly.

  The beetle vanished in a flash of light.

  “Gone!” said Alfie in surprise. “Beetle go poof!”

  Maia breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, beetle go poof!” she said. Crouching down, she pulled Alfie to her and hugged him. “If it comes back, you just have to tell it you don’t believe in it. You mustn’t be scared – it’s not real.” She couldn’t help wondering why on earth there was a beetle illusion in her little brother’s room.

  As she pulled Alfie close, something fell out of his trouser pocket. It was the stretchy man Maia had given him at the fireworks display. Picking it up, she put it on his bookcase next to the bug catcher. “Come on now, put your pyjamas on.”

  She helped him get changed and took him back downstairs to their mum, then ran to her room and quickly told Bracken everything that had happened.

  “I just don’t understand,” she said. “Why was there a beetle illusion in Alfie’s room?”

  “It could be a Fear Shade,” said Bracken. “They discover people’s fears and use illusions to make it seem like those fears are coming to life. The more scared the person gets, the stronger the illusion grows.”

  “Do you think Fear Shades could be affecting Lottie, Sita and Ionie, too?” Maia said slowly. “Lottie’s been really scared about her exam results, Sita’s been terrified there’s a Shade following her and Ionie…” She paused. “Well, Ionie’s been convinced we don’t like her but I’m not sure what that has to do with being scared.”

  “Unless she’s scared about not having any friends,” said Bracken.

  Maia let out a breath. “Of course!” Ionie might often act as if she didn’t need anyone at all but she’d been really happy since they’d become friends. Her fear was being without friends again. Suddenly she remembered something. “Bracken! In my nightmare the other night, the Shades said, ‘We shall make your fears come true!’ Well, people’s fears are coming true – or at least it seems as if they are.”

  Bracken spun in a circle. “We need to find the objects the Shades are trapped in. What do all your friends have?”

  “It has to be something Alfie has, too.” Maia shook her head. “I can’t think of anything like that…” Then she gasped. “Oh yes, I can! It’s the little yellow stretchy men, Bracken! They were attached to the sparkler packets that Auntie Mabel gave us on bonfire night. I gave my little man to Alfie and the others all kept theirs. But hang on –” she paused, frowning – “Auntie Mabel wouldn’t give us something with dark magic in it. Unless…” She started to nod as she made sense of it. “Unless she didn’t know. She said she didn’t remember the little men being attached to the sparkler packets when she bought them at the shop. Someone must have stuck them on afterwards! It could have been Mrs Crooks even. After all, she only lives next door!”

  “We have to get hold of those stretchy men,” said Bracken.

  “There’s one in Alfie’s bedroom,” said Maia. “Come on, no one’s around.”

  They ran along the landing and into Alfie’s room and Maia shut the door. Her eyes fell on the little yellow stretchy man sitting on the bookcase where she had left it.

  No. She frowned. She’d left it on the top shelf and now it was on the second shelf down. Her skin prickled.

  “Come here, you!” she whispered, reaching out.

  The stretchy man jumped away from her. It scuttled along the shelf and then turned to face her. Its round face became pointed, its hands grew claw-like nails and its face twisted into an evil smile.

  With a growl, Bracken leaped at it but it jumped down to the floor. Maia grabbed hold of it but it bit her hard with its sharp teeth.

  “Ow!” she gasped, dropping it.

  It raced towards the door but Bracken was there in a flash. He leaped in front of it and crouched down, blocking the way. “You’re not getting out.”

  “Oh, I think I am,” the stretchy man hissed. “I’ll find someone else whose fears I can make come true.” He stretched his hands and his nails grew even longer. “Move, fox, or you’ll be sorry!”

  “Not as sorry as you’ll be for scaring my brother!” Maia grabbed the plastic bug catcher she’d given Alfie and clapped the jaws shut over the stretchy man, trapping him safely inside. “Got you!” she said, holding him up.

  “No!” the stretchy man screeched, hammering his little fists against the plastic container.

  “Oh yes, and now you and all the other Shades are going back to the shadows where you belong!” Maia picked up a metal tin that Alfie kept cars in. She emptied it and dropped the stretchy man inside, releasing the jaws of the bug catcher and slamming down the lid.

  Bracken spun in a circle. “Yay, Maia! You got him!”

  Maia grinned. “One caught, just three to go!”

  Maia persuaded her dad to drive her round to Ionie’s by telling him they had some homework they needed to do together. She thought it would be best to go to Ionie’s first, then she and Ionie could shadowtravel to Lottie and Sita’s houses together. Ionie’s mum, Mrs Cooper, answered the door.

  “Hello,” she said, looking a bit puzzled. “Ionie didn’t mention you were coming round this evening.”

  “Didn’t she?” Maia said innocently. “We arranged it at school.”

  “Well, come along in. She’s in her room.”

  Maia hurried up the stairs and knocked on Ionie’s bedroom door.

  “What is it?” Ionie sounded upset.

  “Ionie, it’s me – Maia.”

  “Maia?” The door opened. Ionie’s cheeks were tear-stained. “What are you doing here?”

  Maia shut the door behind her. “Bracken!” she whispered. He appeared in a shimmer. “Call Sorrel,” Maia urged Ionie.

  Ionie looked confused but did what Maia said. “Sorrel!”

  “What’s happening?” said the wildcat, as soon as she appeared. Her back arched and she glared at Maia’s bag. “Your bag smells of dark magic!”

  “I’ll tell you more about that in a moment,” said Maia. “But first, Ionie—”

  “Why are you here?” interrupted Ionie. “You don’t like me. You, Sita and Lottie don’t want to be friends with me. I bet you all talk about me behind my back. None of you want me to be a Star Friend.” Her eyes brimmed with hurt. “You wish I’d never been chosen.”

  Maia wondered what to do. She’d been able to make the beetle vanish simply by saying she didn’t believe in it, but Ionie’s fears were all in her head.

  “Sorrel’s the only friend I’ve got,” said Ionie miserably.

  “That’s not true!” Maia said. “Ionie, I’m your friend. Please believe me.”

  Ionie looked at her tearfully.

  “It’s true,” said Bracken, licking her hand. “After you fought the last Shade, Maia told me how glad she was that you were a Star Friend and how pleased she was that you were friends again.”

  “I think it’s a Shade that’s making you feel differently,” said Maia.

  “A Shade?” Ionie echoed.

  “Impossible,” said Sorrel. “I would know if a Shade had been affecting Ionie.”

  “You said you’d smelled the traces of a Shade here. Well, it’s been moving abou
t,” said Bracken. “Probably so that you wouldn’t catch it.”

  “Where is it?” said Sorrel, looking around. “What’s it trapped in?”

  “Ionie, you know that little yellow stretchy man you got on bonfire night?” Maia said. “The Shade is inside it. There’s one in my bag at the moment. We caught it at my house and put it in a tin. It made Alfie think there was a giant beetle in his room.”

  “They’re Fear Shades, I think,” Bracken said. “Shades that make people believe their worst fears are coming true.”

  “Alfie’s scared of beetles so he saw a giant beetle,” said Maia. “Lottie’s biggest fear is failing exams and I think the Shade in her house is making her believe that’s going to happen—”

  “Sita’s really scared of Shades so her Shade has made her believe there’s one stalking her,” Ionie broke in. “And me … it’s been making me think that no one likes me.”

  “You don’t need to be scared of that!” Maia burst out. “We all like you. I mean, I know sometimes you and Lottie don’t get on but we all want you to be our friend. We’re all glad you’re a Star Friend – Lottie as well.” She grabbed Ionie’s hands. “I promise I’m telling the truth.”

  As their eyes met, Ionie swallowed. “I believe you,” she said slowly. Her expression gradually cleared. “I’ve been so stupid!” she exclaimed, pulling away from Maia. “But the feelings I had seemed so real…”

  Maia nodded. “The Shade made you believe them.”

  “Where is this Shade?” hissed Sorrel, her tail fluffing out.

  There was a sinister chuckle and a small yellow stretchy man looked out from behind the mirror on Ionie’s desk.

  “Looks like I’ve been found out,” he said. “And I was having such fun making Ionie think everyone hated her. Tricked you!” He gave a squeaky laugh.

  Sorrel sprang on to the desk. The stretchy man somersaulted off and lightly landed on the floor.

  “Can’t catch me!” he chortled.

  He shot across the floor, heading for the slightly open window.

  Bracken was after him in a flash, jaws snapping, but the stretchy man zoomed up the wall, using his sticky hands and feet. He reached for the window ledge and then recoiled with a high-pitched gasp as sharp spikes suddenly shot out of the windowsill.