Dark Tricks (Star Friends)

by Chapman, Linda

  A shiver ran down Maia’s spine as she recognized the crystal from her dream.

  Bracken sprang forwards and for a moment Maia thought he was going to be able to snatch it – but then Auntie Mabel swung the snow globe at him. The instant it touched his fur, he vanished.

  Maia stared at the empty space where he had been. “Bracken!” Her voice rose. “What have you done with him?”

  Auntie Mabel held up the snow globe with a triumphant smile. Inside the globe, next to the little dog, there was now a small russet fox. “He’s in here. And unless you do what I say, you won’t ever see him again.”

  “Bracken,” Maia whispered, horrified.

  Bracken started to bark furiously – Maia could see his mouth opening and closing but she couldn’t hear him. Auntie Mabel touched the Dark Stone to the bolts of the cellar door and they slid back of their own accord, opening the door.

  There was a flash of brown and Willow came charging out, heading straight for Auntie Mabel.

  “Willow! Be careful!” cried Sita.

  Moving more swiftly than Maia would have thought possible, Auntie Mabel swept the globe towards Willow and, as it touched her back, the deer vanished.

  “Two Star Animals are mine, just two to go!” crowed Auntie Mabel, holding up the globe. Inside Willow was standing next to Bracken, shaking her head and looking very surprised.

  “Into the cellar with your friend!” Auntie Mabel commanded, looking at Maia.

  “No.” Maia shook her head. “I’m not going in there.”

  “If you don’t, I shall smash the globe. And what will happen to your precious animals then?” Auntie Mabel’s eyes met Maia’s. “They’ll be gone forever!” She held the globe up above the hard tiled floor.

  “Stop it!” Sita cried, but Auntie Mabel ignored her.

  Maia hesitated. What should she do? Auntie Mabel’s hand started to swing the globe downwards.

  “No! Wait!” Maia gasped. “I’ll go in the cellar.”

  She joined Sita and, with a harsh laugh, Auntie Mabel swung the door shut, plunging them into darkness. As they heard the bolts being pushed across, Sita grabbed Maia’s hands. “What are we going to do?”

  “I… I don’t know.” Maia was struggling to take everything in. Bracken had gone and so had Willow… She and Sita were trapped… And Auntie Mabel had been the person using dark magic!

  Maia peered through the gloom. They were at the top of a staircase that led down into the cellar. “Isn’t there a light in here?”

  “I haven’t been able to find one,” said Sita.

  Maia drew on her magic. It tingled through her and her eyesight sharpened, letting her see through the gloom.

  “There!” she said, spotting an old-fashioned metal light switch high up on the wall. Standing on tiptoes, she pressed it and a single bulb in the ceiling lit up. It cast a weak light. At the bottom of the wooden stairs, the shadows in the cellar seemed to make everything look menacing. Still, it was better to have some light than none at all.

  “What’s she going to do to Bracken and Willow?” said Sita.

  “I don’t know.” Maia felt panic rising inside her but she forced it down. Panicking wouldn’t help them – or their animals. “We have to get them out of that globe.” She frowned. “How did you end up trapped here?”

  Sita shivered. “When I came round to talk to Auntie Mabel, she said she would make me some hot chocolate. As I was drinking it, I noticed the snow globe. Did you see it? Holly’s inside!”

  “I know! I saw!” Maia said. “Then I noticed your scarf on the floor.”

  “I must have dropped it when I saw Holly,” Sita went on. “I think Auntie Mabel put something in the hot chocolate. All I can remember is jumping up to leave but then feeling really dizzy. I must have passed out because when I woke up, I was in here. I called Willow and started banging on the door, and then I heard you on the other side. Now you’re in here, too!” Her eyes filled with tears.

  Maia hugged her. “Auntie Mabel can’t keep us in here forever,” she said. “When she comes back you’ll have to use your commanding magic and make her let us out.”

  “It doesn’t work,” said Sita. “I tried when she was about to smash the globe but it didn’t make any difference.”

  Maia’s heart sank. “You were trying to use your magic then?”

  Sita nodded. “I can’t do it. I told you. It was just a fluke with the stretchy men.” She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m not that powerful.”

  “Don’t worry,” Maia said. “I’ll come up with another way to get us out.” She thought back over the last few months. So, Auntie Mabel had been the person doing evil all along. She must have attached the stretchy men to the packets of sparklers herself. Maia remembered what the sales assistant at the garden centre had said to Ionie and Lottie – an older lady with grey hair and blue eyes had bought the Wish Gnome. That must have been Auntie Mabel, too. And then there was the very first Shade they had faced – the one who had been trapped inside the old compact mirror talking to Clio. A picture flashed into Maia’s mind of Auntie Mabel helping her mum sort out Granny Anne’s cottage…

  “Look what I just found in a drawer,” she’d said, turning round to Maia with the compact mirror in her hand.

  Maybe she took it with her and gave it to me on purpose, Maia realized. She wanted me to be affected by the Shade – only I gave the compact to Clio. Auntie Mabel found the compact just after I had told her I had seen a fox with indigo eyes. She must have realized I was going to be a Star Friend.

  She felt sick. She had trusted Auntie Mabel. She had told her about Bracken and let her see the Star Animals. She had asked her for advice and taken it. When she had tried to do what Auntie Mabel said, her magic had stopped working as well. Why hadn’t she realized?

  Because I thought Auntie Mabel was Granny Anne’s friend!

  Maia remembered the two different pasts she had seen – one using Star Magic and one using the Seeing Stone. She pulled the pink Seeing Stone out of her pocket and it glittered in the dim light. No wonder Bracken hadn’t liked it. It had been showing her lies about the past. She looked at the golden glow coming from it and groaned inwardly. She should have realized. Whenever something was under an illusion spell she saw a glow around it. “I don’t believe you look like you do,” she whispered.

  The glow faded and the stone turned an ugly grey with a red eye-shape in the centre.

  “What’s that stone?” Sita said curiously.

  “Auntie Mabel gave it to me,” Maia said. “She told me it would help me see into the past but it hasn’t been showing me the real past. It’s been showing me a past she wanted me to see. Auntie Mabel wanted me to think she and Granny Anne were really good friends. I guess she did it so that I would trust her.”

  “But they were friends, weren’t they?” Sita said, looking confused. “Didn’t your granny use to visit her lots?”

  Maia nodded. She didn’t understand that bit. Why had Granny Anne visited Auntie Mabel so often if Auntie Mabel was evil?

  She threw the Seeing Stone away from her, down the stairs into the shadows, and heard it clatter on to the stone floor.

  Just then there was the sound of the bolts pulling back. The girls jumped to their feet as the door opened and Auntie Mabel stood there, smiling at them, the snow globe in one hand, the Dark Stone in her other.

  “Let us go!” Sita said. She took a breath and Maia could tell she was trying to use her commanding magic. Her voice shook. “You must let us out of here.”

  Auntie Mabel laughed. “Oh no. You’re not going anywhere.”

  She held up the glittering Dark Stone and Maia cried out as a stream of energy seemed to thump into her stomach. Arms windmilling, she fell backwards, and she and Sita tumbled down the stairs in a tangle of arms and legs.

  They landed in a heap in the cellar. Auntie Mabel chuckled and followed them down to the bottom.

  For a moment Maia was winded and struggled to breathe. She
rolled on to her knees, drawing in gasps of air, and saw that Sita was doing the same.

  Maia was aware of Auntie Mabel moving swiftly around them. But it was only as she got her breath back that she realized Auntie Mabel had drawn a circle around them using the stone, leaving a glowing red line on the floor. Auntie Mabel straightened up and murmured a word. Instantly an assortment of candles standing on ledges around the stone cellar lit up. They cast a flickering glow, letting Maia see they were in a large underground room with a table at one end covered in rocks and crystals.

  “What are you doing?” Maia demanded, standing up and helping Sita to her feet.

  “I’m using the Dark Stone to make sure you can’t escape,” said Auntie Mabel coldly. “I shall keep you here until your friends arrive. When I have their Star Animals, too, I shall use the Dark Stone to take away all your memories of magic. I will make you forget you ever knew about Star Animals and the Star World. When you stop believing in magic, you will no longer stand in my way.”

  “We’ll never stop believing in magic,” exclaimed Maia.

  Auntie Mabel’s eyes glittered. “You will not be able to resist the Dark Stone. It is one of the most powerful crystals in the world. You’re going to have to say goodbye to your animals.”

  She held out the snow globe. Bracken put up his paws on the glass, looking desperately at Maia. She lunged forwards but flames leaped up from the glowing line on the floor, licking at her outstretched arms. Maia sprang back.

  “Why are you doing this?” shouted Sita.

  “Why?” Auntie Mabel raised her eyebrows. “So that I can be the most powerful. More powerful than any Star Friend will ever be.”

  “I thought you and Granny Anne were friends!” Maia said furiously, her eyes stinging with tears. “I thought you did good magic!”

  Auntie Mabel snorted. “That’s what she would have liked. But then I found the Dark Stone and I knew that when I learned to use it, I would be able to do anything I wanted.” Her voice grew bitter. “But before I could learn to use its powers properly, Anne managed to take it from me and use her commanding magic to stop me from taking it back. Every time she visited me she reinforced the command – and without the Dark Stone, I was powerless to fight back.”

  “So that’s why she visited you so often,” Maia said slowly.

  Auntie Mabel gave a nod. “People thought we were friends but really she was just trying to get me to lead a normal life. A dull life without magic and power while she –” her eyes filled with jealousy – “she could carry on doing her magic. She had her Star Animal. I had nothing!”

  “She stopped you because you were going to use magic for bad things,” said Maia. “You wanted to hurt people – just like you’re doing now.” She looked at the stone. “But how did you get the stone back?”

  “Oh, I was so helpful when your granny died, wasn’t I?” Auntie Mabel said with a sly smile. “I offered to sort through all her things and I found it. It was as if it was waiting for me.” Her fingers clenched around it. “Now it’s mine and I am going to use it to hurt all the people Anne wanted to protect.”

  “What do you mean?” said Sita.

  “Those knitted decorations upstairs are so sweet, aren’t they?” said Auntie Mabel. “I’m sure they’ll sell out at the fayre today. Once they’re in houses all around the village, they’ll start to affect people, little by little.”

  “The decorations?” Maia said. “But they haven’t got Shades in them. Sorrel checked.”

  “Oh, my dear, you have so much to learn. It’s not only Shades that can cause trouble,” said Auntie Mabel. “Herbs, potions, crystals, spells – they can all be used to release negative energy that will hurt and harm. Like that Seeing Stone I glamoured and gave to you. It showed you a false past and it has also been sending out negative energy to block your magic and stop it from working.”

  Maia stared at her. Now she thought about it, she realized it was true. Auntie Mabel laughed at her stunned expression.

  “You really have been so easy to deceive. Those crystals I carefully sewed into the eyes of the decorations will send out their negative energy. People will start to fall out and unhappiness will come. But no one will ever suspect the innocent little decorations. No one will be having a good Christmas in Westcombe this year.” She smiled in delight.

  “We’ll stop you!” Maia exclaimed.

  “How?” said Auntie Mabel, raising her eyebrows. “You’re trapped here. Soon your friends will be here with you, too, and then I shall take all your memories of magic away. If you don’t believe, you can’t make magic happen.”

  “But how will you get the others to come here?” said Sita.

  “By using a little illusion combined with modern technology.” Her voice hardened. “Star Friends always think they’re so special. But Crystal Magic is better. You each only have a few powers – I can do many things!” She walked to the table and put down the snow globe. Then she held up the Dark Stone and whispered Maia’s name. The air seemed to shiver and Auntie Mabel changed to look just like Maia. “What do you think?”

  “You won’t fool Lottie and Ionie!” Maia declared.

  “You don’t sound like Maia,” said Sita.

  Auntie Mabel held the stone to her throat and muttered another word.

  “I’ll be back very soon,” she said in Maia’s voice and then, picking up the snow globe, she laughed and headed up the stairs.

  “What are we going to do?” Maia said desperately as they heard the cellar door shut.

  “I don’t know,” said Sita. “But look, let me heal the burn on your arm first.” She took Maia’s arm and Maia felt as if a cooling breeze was sweeping over her skin, taking away the heat and pain. She watched the blisters disappear and the pinkness fade.

  “Thank you,” she said gratefully.

  “At least I can still do that type of magic,” said Sita with relief.

  “I bet you can do your commanding magic, too,” said Maia. Sita shook her head but Auntie Mabel’s words were echoing in Maia’s head: If you don’t believe, you can’t make magic happen. It reminded her of what Bracken had said. “Listen – when you try to do it, do you believe it will work?”

  Sita hesitated. “Um … not really, I guess. It’s not how I feel with healing magic. I know that will work.”

  “You need to believe your commanding magic will work, too,” said Maia. “When the Seeing Stone was affecting me, I stopped thinking my Star Magic would show me the past. Even when I wasn’t near the Seeing Stone, it didn’t work. But once I believed it would, it did.” Maia looked round for some way to escape. Right now, persuading Sita her magic would work wasn’t the priority. “We need to get to Ionie and Lottie somehow and warn them.”

  Sita gasped. “My phone! We could use it to message them!” She pulled it out of her pocket and tried to turn it on but then her face fell. “It’s not working. The battery must be dead.”

  “Or the magic in here is stopping it somehow,” said Maia.

  “Where’s yours?” said Sita.

  “In my coat in the hall,” said Maia. “We’ve got to think of a plan. I wonder how much time we have. If Auntie Mabel is going to persuade Lottie and Ionie to come here, it’ll take her a little while. I can use my magic to see where they are.” She took the mirror out of her pocket and tried to relax. “Lottie,” she whispered.

  An image of Lottie appeared. She was just going into Ionie’s house. “They’re at Ionie’s,” Maia said to Sita. She watched Ionie and Lottie run upstairs and go into Ionie’s bedroom.

  “The others will be here soon,” she heard Ionie say. “I wonder if we’ll find out anything about the person doing dark magic at the fayre this afternoon.”

  Suddenly Ionie’s phone rang and she picked it up from her desk. “Maia’s FaceTiming me.”

  Maia frowned. Auntie Mabel must have taken her phone! “Don’t answer it!” she pleaded, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her.

  “What’s happening?” dema
nded Sita.

  Maia shook her head – she needed to see what was happening. Ionie was answering the FaceTime call and a picture of Maia popped up on her screen. “Hi, it’s me.”

  It was really odd for Maia to hear her own voice.

  “Where are you?” Ionie asked, holding up the phone so Lottie could join in with the call.

  “At Auntie Mabel’s. I need you both to come here quickly.”

  “Why?’ said Lottie.

  “I’ve found something very important in the cellar. Come now.”

  “OK,” said Ionie. “But what is it?”

  “I’ll tell you when you get here.”

  The phone went blank.

  Maia’s face paled and she told Sita what had just happened.

  “We’ve got to think of some way to stop them,” said Sita.

  There was a crash and a clatter beside the table, and Ionie and Lottie appeared in the shadows with Sorrel and Juniper.

  Maia’s heart plummeted. It was too late.

  Sorrel took one sniff of the air and her tail fluffed up in alarm.

  “What’s going on?” Ionie demanded, hurrying towards Maia and Sita.

  Sorrel yowled and leaped in front of Ionie, tripping her over. Ionie sprawled on the stone floor. “What did you do that for?” she gasped.

  “Dark magic!” Sorrel hissed, her indigo eyes flashing as she looked at the circle on the floor. She spun round, taking in everything in the room. “This place reeks of it!”

  “Sorrel’s right,” Maia gabbled. “Whatever you do, don’t try and cross over the circle drawn on the floor. Flames jump up at you. You’ll get burnt.”

  Ionie scrambled to her feet and Lottie joined her. Juniper was next to her, looking around anxiously.

  “What’s going on?” Lottie demanded again.