Spellsinger (Avalon: Web of Magic #5) (3 page)

It had to go.

Giggling whispers floated through the woods.

Who was that?

A flutter of leaves made Mrs. Windor turn toward a large outcropping of willow trees. She carefully tiptoed off the trail.

Hunching over, she peered into the small screen of the digital camera she had borrowed from her niece.

Strange creatures were here, and they were playing games with her. They were certain they had nothing to fear—and that would be their undoing.

“I’ve got you now,” she whispered.

Kara and Adriane hid behind a tree, watching as Mrs. Windor walked directly toward a space between two bushy willow trees.

“She’s moving away from the glade,” Kara whispered. She couldn’t believe their luck—

Adriane gasped, pointing. “Right into trouble.”

A pack of duck-like quiffles were pulling a large branch back tight, ready to let it fly at their unsuspecting visitor. Their big, webbed feet tapped with anticipation as the woman moved closer.

“We’ve got to do something!” Adriane said urgently.

“We can tell her they’re migrating visitors from Canada,” Kara suggested.

“Uh-huh, and what about that?” Adriane pointed behind the quiffles. “A visitor from Atlantis?”

Kara’s eyes widened. Standing a dozen feet beyond the quiffles, in a pool of warm, golden-glowing light, stood a pony with green and purple wings—a pegasus. All Mrs. Windor had to do was turn to the right with her camera and she would get the video of the year!

“Do something!” Adriane pushed Kara.

“All right, all right. Here.” Kara tapped Adriane’s jewel.

A searing bolt of golden light ripped from the stone, smashing into a treetop with a terrible explosion.

Whammm-crrrackkkk!

Three quiffles went flying as their branch shot forward. Mrs. Windor shrieked and whirled around—where a collection of seared branches toppled down, quickly piling up to obscure her view of the pegasus.

Adriane gave Kara a stern look. “I didn’t say to knock down the whole forest!”

A small blur of gold and brown dashed behind the new barrier, kicking the magical animals away and herding them deeper into the wilds of Ravenswood. Kara breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Ozzie, the magical ferret, give her a thumbs-up—well, actually a paws-up.

Mrs. Windor was frantically looking in every direction. “Who’s out there?”

Kara and Adriane poked their heads out from either side of the tree just in time to see Mrs. Windor about to trip over Rommel the wommel!

“Hey, watch where you’re—!” Rommel started, but his warning came too late.

Mrs. Windor, still holding onto the camera with trembling fingers, looked into the face of the small, talking koala-like bear. She leaped back, cried out, and tripped, landing in a puddle of mud.

By the time she raised her camera and wiped the lens clean, Rommel had rushed off.

“Come back here you little freak!” Mrs. Windor shouted, spitting out muddy goop.

“Oh no,” Kara groaned. What were they supposed to do now?

A sudden gust of wind blew around the woman, a spiral of force that kicked up dirt, twigs, and stone, quickly forming into what looked like a mini-twister!

“Adriane!” Kara hissed. “Stop it!”

The dark-haired girl looked at her wolf stone. The jewel was pulsing with strong amber light. “I’m not doing that!”

Then the ground beneath Mrs. Windor trembled. The whirlwind spun closer to the struggling woman. Mouth agape, she managed to keep the camera focused.

Suddenly, Mrs. Windor’s camera was ripped from her hands by a blast of wind. It flew into the air, smashing to pieces against a large stone.

The whirlwind picked up grass, vines, twigs, and leaves, magically forming into a figure made from the earth itself. Sparkling quartz eyes regarded its surroundings.

“It’s a Fairimental!” Adriane gasped.

Fairimentals were extremely magical beings, the keepers and protectors of good magic on Aldenmor.

“What’s it doing here?” Kara asked.

“Magesss,” the twiggy figure rustled, bits of leaves and dirt flying as it wobbled about.

“What the—?” Mrs. Windor looked closer at the creature.

With a sudden shudder, the Fairimental exploded, sending debris everywhere.

Mrs. Windor whirled around and raced back through the woods, howling.

Adriane and Kara ran to the various pieces of the Fairimental. Two tiny whirlpools of dirt and leaves spun from the ground, desperately trying to regain shape.

“Warrior…” one said. Rattling crazily, the whirlpool flew apart.

“…blazing star… terrible danger,” the other small pile managed to say. It, too, was starting to break up.

“What’s happened?” Adriane asked urgently.

“…ussse… fairy map…”

Kara swallowed hard, thinking about the glowing map she had lost.

“Spellsing as three...” The Fairimental caved in on itself, shaking violently into a whirling mess. “Before isss too late…”

Then whatever force was holding the Fairimentals together abruptly vanished and their elements crumbled to the ground.

Adriane looked at Kara.

The girls knew that the Dark Sorceress of Aldenmor would stop at nothing to find magic, and Avalon was the source of
all
magic. Her most recent attempts to locate Avalon had damaged the magic web itself, the strands of magical energy that connected worlds everywhere, and supposedly, reached all the way to Avalon. As far as the girls knew, the portals to the Fairy Glen on Aldenmor—where the Fairimentals lived—were still missing. No one had seen or heard from the Fairimentals since those portals had disappeared... until now.

“What was it trying to tell us about the fairy map?” Adriane asked.

“We already know the sorceress has it.” Kara remembered the gift the fairy creature called Phelonius had tried to give her. At the time, she didn’t know how important it was. In fact, she didn’t know what it was at all. Until it had been stolen and taken back to the sorceress. It was their one clue to finding Avalon.

“Maybe she’s trying to use it,” Adriane guessed.

“This is just great!” Kara tossed her hands in the air and spun back to face Adriane. “We’ve got Mrs. Windor about to announce Stonehill’s first alien sighting and Johnny Conrad is arriving in two days! We can’t have Fairimentals and who knows what else popping up!”

“Maybe we should just postpone the benefit,” Adriane suggested quietly.

“No
way
!” Kara stated. “This show is going on! The Fairy Glen and Avalon are just going to have to wait.”

Adriane bit her lip as she watched Kara stomp away, heading back to prepare Stonehill for the event of the year.

E
MILY RACED UP
the steps of Stonehill’s Town Hall. It was a little after four on Thursday, and hundreds of people were gathered on the sidewalk facing the old red brick building. Main Street had been cleared of parked cars and blocked off, and the park across the street from Town Hall was filled with even more spectators. Photographers and professional TV news crews had descended upon the normally quiet town square.

At the top of the steps, near the front entrance, stood a small podium with a microphone stand. A WELCOME JOHNNY CONRAD banner fluttered above the doors.

A pudgy security guard with curly red hair and freckles stood beside the main doors. “Hello, Emily. Got quite a crowd today.”

“Hey, George!” Emily said breathlessly as she slipped past him. She flew down the dark wood-paneled corridor, passing dozens of photographs detailing Stonehill’s history. She whipped past an open door where she smelled food and heard laughter. Inside, Mayor Davies and the Town Council gathered in the small room, chatting.

The real activity was centered in the main meeting room. Emily burst through the doors and was nearly run over by Kara’s brother, Kyle, and his friend Marcus, who were rushing by with stacks of folding chairs in their arms. The meeting room had been transformed into a reception hall, complete with streamers strung across the walls, balloons bouncing above decorated tables, and a budget-busting buffet piled with enough food to satisfy the entire population of Stonehill—twice!

“Over to the left…a bit higher,” Kara commanded, standing in the midst of her “troops,” more than two dozen volunteers from school. Her buds Heather, Tiffany, and Molly were doing their best to center a big poster of Johnny Conrad on the rear wall.

“It looks great, Kara!” Heather yelled.

“My arm is getting sore,” Molly muttered.

“No pain, no party!” Kara hollered. She looked down and brushed the front of her new leopard-print blouse, one eyebrow raised defensively at the possibility of a stray crumb.

Resisting the urge to duck and cover, Emily announced herself. “Sorry I’m late, Kara, the McHenrys dropped off their monkeys at the Pet Palace. The monkeys used to be in a circus. You should see them, they’re so smart and—”

“Emily!” Kara snapped, cutting her off. “Ice!” She slipped a large bowl into Emily’s hands.

“Nice to see you, too,” Emily groused, glancing over at Kara’s clique. Molly shrugged and waved. Heather held up a small sign with an arrow and pointed it at Kara. It said: G
IRL OUT OF CONTROL
!

Emily giggled as she headed past them. It felt good to be on the same side as Kara’s other friends for once. Maybe this event was exactly what the town needed to come together and support Ravenswood. And it was all thanks to Kara.

“Attention! Johnny will be here at seventeen hundred hours sharp!” Kara bellowed. “That’s less than an hour from right now for those of you who haven’t been paying attention. Everything has to be perfect!”

Kara’s blond hair whipped wildly as she spied her brother and his friend daring to rest for half a second. “Those chairs won’t move themselves, you slackers!”

“Aye, aye,
mon capitan
,” Marcus snapped to attention, giving Kara a salute.

Smiling, Emily walked into the kitchen. She was just starting to fill the ice bowl when Kara breezed in.

“Everything under control at Ravenswood?”

“Ozzie’s in command,” Emily answered quietly. “He’s under strict orders to keep the animals at the glade.”

“He better not let anyone past his fuzzy face,” Kara whispered, frowning. “We’re lucky Mrs. Windor hasn’t said anything about what she saw. Yet.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better about what happened.”

“We can’t worry about that right now.” Kara scanned the kitchen for any other slackers.

“It’s our job to worry about it.” Emily dumped more ice.

“Hey!” Kara yelled at Joey. “Easy on the food, save some for the rest of us!”

“Anyway, we have to stay calm, Kara—Kara?”

“Tick tock.” Kara pointed at her watch as she breezed back out of the kitchen.

At ten minutes to the hour, the room was ready. Kara scooted, shooed, and skedaddled the volunteers out of the room and locked it behind her so that
nothing
could be touched. She stood guard alone, eyes darting, another frown forming.

Emily approached cautiously. “Hi. My name is Emily. Can Kara come out to play?”

Kara slumped against the door. “There’s just so much going on...”

“You’re doing a great job,” Emily reassured her. “And so is everyone else. It would be nice if they heard that now and then.”

“Okay. What do you think we should do about the Fairimental’s message?”

“We should contact Zach after the press conference, when everything calms down,” Emily answered, referring to the human boy Adriane had met on Aldenmor.

“Fine. I’ll call the d-flies. They can make a portal phone call.”

Something
squawked
in Kara’s bag. She hauled out a small walkie-talkie.

“Ground control,” she said.

“Drone One to Queen Bee,” a voice hissed.

“Go ahead, Drone One.”

“Target spotted. Headed right toward Main Street. You are not going to believe it!”

“Stay calm, Drone One…” Kara urged.

“It’s Johnny
Conrad! Ahhhhh!
” The walkie-talkie crackled and cut off.

“We’ve lost Drone One,” Kara said. She quickly checked her watch. “T-minus five and counting. How do I look?” She fluffed her blond hair.