The Crystal Mirror

by Paula Harrison

  “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.”

  Kim came back downstairs with a bag full of Toby’s things. “OK, we can manage without everything else. Let’s go.”

  Laney stood in the sitting room, looking round the edge of the curtain. She’d been expecting to see Mr Stingwood, or one of the other Elders, striding up the road to their front door. Jessie had tried to convince them that she’d caused the river to burst its banks and she was sure a lot of them had believed it.

  The back door banged and Fletcher and Claudia ran through from the kitchen, dripping wet. “We didn’t know if you’d made it back here,” said Claudia. “It’s crazy out there and—”

  “Yeah, we’ve decided to leave in the car,” said Laney, with a warning look towards Kim. “Better to go now.”

  “Better to stay here,” said Fletcher quietly. “The High Street’s now underwater. At least here you’re part of the way up a hill. There’s a chance the water won’t reach you.”

  Kim turned white. “But if it gets worse we’ll be cut off.”

  “Mummy?” Toby, dressed in red firemen pyjamas, bumped down the stairs on his bottom one step at a time. “Where tiger?”

  “There’s a tiger toy in the kitchen,” said Fletcher.

  Toby reached the bottom stair and toddled away to find his tiger.

  “It’s his new favourite bedtime toy.” Kim rested a hand on her forehead. “I just can’t believe it – we’ve never had a flood around here before. Do your parents know that you’re all right?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” said Fletcher.

  “All right, I’m going to try your dad’s phone one more time, Laney.” Kim went back upstairs.

  As soon as she’d gone, Laney rounded on the others. “I have to get her and Toby out of here. If the High Street’s blocked then we’ll have to fly.”

  “But the faerie world—” said Claudia.

  “Stuff the faerie world!” said Laney.

  “No, Laney, wait,” Claudia insisted. “Faeries have staye
d secret for hundreds and hundreds of years. You can’t just… I don’t believe it, I sound like my mum!”

  “I know you want your family to be safe,” said Fletcher. “But what about the other humans living here? You won’t be able to carry everybody to safety. You can’t put yourself in danger just because you think the flood is your fault.”

  Tears filled Laney’s eyes and she turned back to the window. “It is my stinking fault! I gave the mirror to the Shadow with all the Mist tribe power inside it. So, really, Jessie’s right about everything!” She stared up at the storm clouds still pouring grey water over the village. She wasn’t going to cry. It wouldn’t help anyone.

  Another bolt of lightning split the sky, followed by a boom of thunder. Laney closed her eyes for a second. She could still see the shape of the lightning on the inside of her eyelids. One jagged line at the top split into three pathways that split even further at the bottom, like the shape of an upside-down tree. It was almost pretty.

  It had been raining for ages. How could the storm keep on going and going like this? How was there enough water in the sky for it to keep gushing down?

  Her eyes snapped open.

  There was one way the Shadow could make sure the storm didn’t stop – one way he could make sure the rain kept on pouring. Now that she’d touched the mirror and felt its power it all made sense.

  “What is it?” said Claudia. “You’ve suddenly gone all buzzy.”

  “How do you know?” said Fletcher.

  “Greytails are very sensitive to changes of mood,” said Claudia in a dignified tone. Fletcher coughed in a way that sounded a bit like “As sensitive as my armpit”, but Claudia ignored him.

  “Listen!” Laney told them. “The Shadow is using the Crystal Mirror to cause the flood, right? So he must have taken it up there inside the clouds, otherwise the rain wouldn’t keep going for this long.”

  “Laney?” Kim called. “I’ve just had a message from Tracey Mottle. She says the flood’s reached window height on the High Street and there’s water creeping up Beacon Way. That means the flood could be here in minutes. Check all the windows and doors are shut.”

  “OK,” Laney called back.

  “So what are we supposed to do?” hissed Claudia. “Fly up to certain death in the middle of a cloud? No thanks!”

  “If we don’t get the mirror back, he’ll be able to drown the countryside any time he wants,” said Fletcher. “People die in floods all the time. Their cars get washed away or they get hurt by the wreckage that’s loose in the floodwater.”

  Laney shivered. She couldn’t stop thinking of her dad. He can fly, she told herself, and maybe the flood wouldn’t get as far as the road to town.

  “Just a second.” Fletcher ran upstairs and returned a moment later. “I’ve told Kim we’re checking on the neighbours to see if anyone needs help. That’ll stop her worrying about where we are.”

  Laney raced to the back door, which was slightly open, showing a tiny glimpse of the darkness outside.

  “I still think this is a crazy idea,” said Claudia. “Even if we find the Shadow, how are we going to take the mirror from someone that powerful? Laney? What’s the matter?”

  Laney stopped dead with her hand on the back door. “Where’s Toby?”

  The kitchen was empty. The living room was empty too.

  “He didn’t go back upstairs,” said Claudia. “I would have seen him.”

  They all looked at the back door standing ajar.

  A small furry tiger lay on the kitchen table. “He came in here to get that toy,” said Fletcher.

  Laney spun round, searching behind the door, under the kitchen table and behind the sitting room sofa – anywhere she could think of. She felt as if a giant hand was squeezing her ribcage.

  “Stop a minute!” Fletcher grabbed her arm. “Are we sure he went outside? Claudia?”

  Claudia closed her eyes. “He’s definitely not in the house. I’d be able to sense him through sound or smell.”

  Laney ran out of the back door. “Toby!” A rushing, gurgling sound came from the front of the house. She ran down the side alley just as a cascade of water washed down Oldwing Rise from the direction of the stream at the end of the street.

  Something small and red moved by the front wall. Toby, in his firemen pyjamas, opened the gate and pushed himself through on his ride-on car. He stopped to look at the torrent gushing down the middle of the road.

  Laney tore down the front path just as Toby got off the little plastic car and crouched down by the edge of the road. The flood rose, pouring on to the pavement and surging into the front garden. Toby reached out for something that was sweeping past him in the water. He wobbled and fell in.

  Laney dived towards him but he was swept away down the road. She tried to yell but her face went under the water. Surrounded by the flood, her Mist energy fizzed through every cell of her body. She seized power from the water and transformed. Wings burst from her shoulders and she soared into the air.

  Claudia and Fletcher were flying over the rooftops at high speed. “He’s nearly got to the street corner!” Claudia shouted. “And the flood that’s rising up Beacon Way has joined up with water running down the main road from Skellmore Edge. If he falls into that he could get sucked under.”

  Beneath the roar of the water, Laney could hear Toby crying. She flew low over the flood and saw a small face and arms with red pyjama sleeves swirling in the water.

  Fletcher flew down. “Catch hold of the tree, Toby!” He pointed at a beech tree that bent its branches over the water for the little boy to catch hold of.

  But Toby missed the tree and was swept on, still crying. His little face looked up for one last moment as he reached the corner of Beacon Way and went under. Laney plunged into the flood after him. She swam hard, slipping round sunken garden furniture and other rubbish that had been carried along by the torrent. She found Toby, grabbed hold of him and held him tight. Together they broke through the surface of the water, rising up into the warm night air.

  “Toby, are you all right?” Laney gasped.

  Toby coughed and clasped his little arms round her neck. “Laney got wings!”

  “You scared me,” said Laney. “Don’t do that! Stay inside with Mummy.” She flew up over the rooftops, avoiding the windows of Oldwing Rise and any humans that might be watching.

  “I rescued the little car.” Fletcher flew past with the ride-on car under one arm. “Claudia’s on the ground. Her wings got too wet to fly.”

  Laney hugged Toby tighter as they flew downwards. Lightning cracked the sky and the thunder roared. Toby whimpered, but she shushed him gently.

  “Laney, look,” said Fletcher, pointing skywards. In the thickest part of the storm clouds, red lights flickered.

  “That’s where he is,” whispered Laney. “That’s where he’s holding the mirror.” Looking at Fletcher’s face she could see he thought the same.

  They swooped down to Laney’s back garden where Claudia was waiting. “My wings gave out.” A pair of bedraggled wings dripped behind her shoulders.

  Laney flew to the ground and handed Toby to Claudia. “Stay here and look after them for me, please.”

  Claudia hugged Toby. “Are you still going up there? Laney…what if it’s impossible?”

  “He’s not going to stop until he’s drowned the whole place,” said Laney. “Until everything and everyone gets swept away.”

  “Here – you’d better have this.” Claudia set Toby down for a moment. She unfastened a thin black cord from around her neck. It had something pointed and pearly-white dangling from it. “It’s a wolf’s tooth. It’s supposed to help with speed and stamina.”

  “Thanks.” Laney put it on as Claudia hurried inside with Toby and shut the door.

  Laney flew upwards with Fletcher beside her. They headed straight for the thickest part of the storm clouds. Below, Skellmore lay under a shifting mass of water. People stood at their upstairs windows, watching the flood rise. The gr
ey water swept a tide of junk along with it. Plastic bottles, tree branches and a dustbin floated by. On the High Street, only the roofs of the parked cars could be seen above the water.

  Laney rose into the night sky. She knew she had to climb quickly, before the dread of what she had to do caught hold. The wind and rain battered her, making it hard to fly in a straight line.

  “The higher we go, the thinner the air will be,” shouted Fletcher. “It might get hard to breathe.”

  Laney watched the world below shrinking. The Skellmore streetlights were now tiny orange pinpricks. She spread her wings and flew harder. Up here the rain was half frozen. It stung her arms and legs. Fletcher puffed beside her, his face slightly blue.

  “Go back! It’s OK,” she told him.

  Fletcher didn’t answer. He pointed.

  Red lightning flickered round the inside of the cloud above. Fear spread through Laney like a poison. She had thought she could do this. She had planned to be brave.

  “Hey!” Fletcher coughed. He cleared his throat. “Hey!”

  “What are you doing?” said Laney.

  Fletcher swept past her and the cloud swallowed him up. “Hey!” he shouted. “Where are you, you monster?”

  Laney’s heart raced. He couldn’t go in there. He didn’t have water wings like she did, and when the Shadow saw him… She shot after him. The rain cloud surrounded her and red lightning crackled through the greyness.

  A dark figure loomed out of the cloud vapour. In one black-gloved hand he held the Crystal Mirror and in the other he held Fletcher by the throat.

  Laney could see Fletcher’s eyes and she understood. She should get the mirror now, before the Shadow saw her. She stretched out her hands and with all the Mist power she could gather, she commanded the cloud water to seize the mirror and carry it to her.

  The Crystal Mirror spun free from the Shadow’s hand and floated through the fog.

  The Shadow turned with a furious cry. He let go of Fletcher, who collapsed, falling through the cloud and disappearing. Laney caught hold of the round mirror and threw herself sideways, just as the Shadow stretched out his hand and let loose his red lightning.