Stardust (9 page)

‘Bind them!' Rowena shouted, firing magic through the skies. Lucy instinctively called up a protective shield,
but the others weren't quick enough; they were caught in mid-air.

Rowena realized that Lucy had escaped and began to utter a string of strange, ancient-sounding words. A silvery mist formed and began to wind around Lucy. She gasped and looked around. The mist tightened like ropes around her, pulling her arms to her sides.

No!
she thought.

‘Yes!' Rowena hissed. ‘You will be ours!'

Drawing on all the power inside her Lucy tried to fight free. Her body crackled with sparks. As they burst off her, they burnt through the mist. The dark spirit's voice rose, but Lucy fought back.

‘Give in,' Rowena commanded.

Never
, Lucy thought. She pictured
the bright star of Regulus in her mind's eyes. She drew on its power. She could feel her arms able to move slightly. She concentrated harder.
I can do this
, she thought through gritted teeth. The mist began to weaken and fade. Lucy yanked her arms free.

‘Fire be with me!' she yelled, seizing her chance.

A burning firebolt shot straight at Rowena. Taken by surprise, Rowena staggered backwards, dropping the book.

The book!
Lucy thought.

Not stopping to think, she dived down, grabbed the book and shot upwards again. ‘No!' Rowena shrieked.

The book tingled and felt hot under Lucy's fingers. From below, the dark spirits shot balls of fire at her. Magic
seemed to be creeping out of the cover of the book. The darkest book of magic, written by the darkest spirit of all. Lucy could feel the magic winding over her fingers. She felt giddy and faint.

‘Let the others go!' she yelled to Rowena, ducking and dodging and fighting against the dizziness. ‘Or I'll burn the book!'

‘Give it back to me!' Rowena cried.

‘I won't!' shouted Lucy.

‘Then your friends will suffer!'

Rowena's eyes flashed with cruelty and she raised her hands.

‘No!' Lucy yelled desperately. She opened the book and went to rip out a page to stop Rowena, but the second her fingers touched the handwritten words inside there was a blinding flash.

Lucy's hand was glued to the page. She tried to pull it back but couldn't. She could sense dark magic pulsing in the pages of the book, feel her own bright magic fighting back. Waves of giddiness threatened to overwhelm her.

No!
she thought, thinking of her friends trapped in the sky.

Morwenna's dark magic seemed to be snaking round her fingers, over her wrists, up her arm…Lucy fought

against the blackness that was sweeping across her mind.

You're not going to win!
she thought. Gritting her teeth, she drew on every drop of power that was inside her. An image of Allegra, Robyn and Joanna filled her mind. The tendrils of dark magic seemed to pause.

Regulus be with me
, Lucy cried in her mind.

There was a huge bang. Streams of powerful energy suddenly exploded out of the book. They flew in all directions with Lucy at the centre.

My magic!

The thought came into Lucy's mind, crystal clear. She didn't know how she knew, but she just knew that the energy streaming across the sky was her magic
and it was good. It shot towards the dark spirits – burning arrows lighting up the sky. The dark spirits shrieked and flew up into the air.

‘You have ruined the spell!' Rowena cried as the other dark spirits scattered from Lucy's magic in terror. ‘You will not get away with this!' she hissed at Lucy, who was still clutching the book. ‘We will be back!'

One of the streaming arrows of light shot towards Rowena's heart. With a cry of alarm, she raced off after the others into the night.

There was another bang and then Lucy knew nothing.

When she woke up, she was lying on the ground with her head resting on
Xanthe's lap. Adam, a winter spirit, was kneeling beside her, his fingers gently holding Lucy's head.

Lucy blinked her eyes open. ‘What happened? Where am I?' As she sat up, she saw that Joanna, Ella, Faye and Robyn were kneeling next to Xanthe. Allegra was holding her hand. Standing a little further off were the other stardust spirits. Relief washed over everyone's faces. Looking round, Lucy realized she was in the main stardust clearing.

‘What happened?' she repeated, bewildered. ‘Where's Rowena and all the other dark spirits?'

‘Don't worry. You're safe,' Xanthe said. ‘They have all gone, thanks to you. They are very powerful.' Her eyes flicked to Joanna's. ‘But you defeated them.'

‘But I didn't do anything. I just opened the book,' Lucy said.

‘And so your magic met Morwenna's,' Xanthe said. ‘The lightest of all light magic against the darkest of all dark magic. You won. Your magic conquered hers. It exploded from the book and the dark spirits fled from it. If dark magic had won and shot through the clearing…' She broke off and her eyes flicked to Allegra, Joanna and Robyn. ‘Everyone could have been killed.'

Allegra squeezed Lucy's fingers. ‘I'm glad you won, Lucy,' she said shakily.

‘But I didn't really win. The dark spirits got away,' Lucy replied as she remembered them flying off into the night.

Xanthe nodded. ‘They did, but your magic destroyed the book. The explosion
knocked you out, but without the book, the dark spirits' power will be greatly lessened. They won't be able to do their magic which has been causing the recent flash floods.' She hugged Lucy. ‘You did amazingly well. You fought against the dark magic of Morwenna and won. Light triumphed over dark.' She looked round at the other stardust spirits. ‘We will be able to make the feast tonight a real celebration!'

‘We should get it ready,' Padma said as Xanthe helped Lucy to her feet.

‘Come on, everyone!' Adam said. ‘Let's get started!'

Lucy looked at Robyn. ‘They thought you were the Last of the Summer Spirits.'

Xanthe frowned. ‘That's the one strange thing in all this. I wonder why they captured Robyn and not you, Lucy.'

‘Because they'd been watching us,' Lucy said. ‘And they'd seen my magic not working.'

Robyn shivered. ‘It was horrid.'

‘And it's my fault,' Joanna said quietly.

‘What do you mean?' frowned Xanthe.

Joanna twisted her hands together. ‘I'm the person who's been interfering with Lucy's magic.'

Xanthe looked astonished. ‘You! But why, Jo?'

‘For Robyn,' Joanna explained. ‘I was just trying to help Robyn fit in.'

‘I didn't want you to do it, Mum,' Robyn said.

‘And you didn't need to,' Xanthe said. ‘Robyn is more than capable of making friends on her own, Jo.'

‘I know,' Joanna replied, nodding. ‘It
was a stupid thing to do and could have…could have…'

She broke off and Lucy was sure she was thinking back to seeing Robyn in the centre of the circle of dark spirits with the spell about to begin.

Lucy felt suddenly sorry for Joanna. It had been an awful thing to do, but she could see why Joanna had done it.

‘It doesn't matter now. And I'm sorry about our argument,' she said, turning to Robyn. ‘I shouldn't have said such horrid things.'
Like about your mum being a dark spirit
, she added silently in her mind.

Robyn's eyes met hers. ‘Let's just forget it.'

‘Deal,' Lucy said and they both smiled.

‘Well, now that's sorted out,' Xanthe said, ‘I think we've got a party to get ready for!'

They all flew off to help. There were decorations to put up and food to fetch from some of the adult stardust spirits' houses. As the feasting started, Lucy hovered in the air. The clouds had cleared and the stars were shining down brightly. Everyone was smiling. Ella and Faye were getting plates of food. Joanna and Robyn were sitting with Xanthe and Allegra in the oak tree. They were talking and laughing.

I wonder what it would be like if my mum and dad were here
, Lucy thought.

The idea of her sensible mum and dad joining in with a stardust feast made her smile. She loved them to bits and knew they loved her and would always be there for her, but their lives were so different from her stardust life.

And maybe it was better that way…

For the first time, Lucy really imagined what it would be like if her mum and dad were in the woods with her every night – they'd be keeping an eye on her, telling her what to do, fussing over her…

OK
, she decided hastily.
I don't want them to be stardust spirits. It definitely
is
better this way!

Grinning happily, she flew down to join the others in the starlit glade.