Cloud Magic

wasn’t expecting it and knocked me into the wall with a blast of wind. I banged my head and almost passed out. I can only imagine she must have been in a hurry to get to wherever she wanted to be, because, rather than trying to injure me further or take my stardust, she set off.’
    ‘I wonder where she is,’ said Erin, glancing around, half expecting to see Marianne swooping towards them, but the sky was empty and silent. Very silent, Erin realized with a shiver. Almost as though the world was holding its breath.
    They reached the cliff top. Tor swept down the path to the beach. Erin, Chloe and Xanthe flew down after him. The three rocks on the spit of land were silhouetted against the black sky, the round hagstone with moonlight gleaming through it and the two tall stones pointing upwards like fingers.
    World’s End , thought Erin, realizing what a good name it was for it – the place that was the end of one world and the beginning of another. Had the people who had named it known that?
    ‘What do we have to do to open the gateway? What –’
    She broke off with a gasp as a hooded figure stepped out of the shadows around the giant hagstone on to the shingle beach. It was Marianne!

C H A P T E R
    Twelve
    ‘You!’ Marianne looked just as surprised to see them as they were to see her, Erin realized with a shock. The dark spirit’s eyes swept over Tor’s neck as he and the stardust spirits landed on the shingle in front of her. ‘The binding rope!’ she exclaimed in disbelief. ‘It’s gone!’
    ‘Yes!’ Tor’s voice rang out. ‘It has been destroyed.’
    Marianne’s gaze swung to Erin. ‘You did it! I didn’t even know you had discovered your powers.’
    Erin tensed, expecting Marianne to get angry, but to her surprise the dark spirit just stared coldly at her, then turned to look at Xanthe. ‘Well, well. You came to create a distraction while the spell was performed. I see it all now.’
    Xanthe met her gaze. ‘It is true. The stallion has been freed and he will return to the skies now. You have no business here any longer, dark spirit.’
    ‘We’re going to open the gateway and let him through, and you’re not going to stop us!’ Chloe exclaimed.
    Xanthe pulled Chloe protectively towards her.
    Marianne shrugged. ‘I agree I’m not going to stop you from opening the gateway, child. In fact…’ A smile curved the corners of her lips. ‘I’m going to open it for you.’
    ‘What?’ Erin and Chloe both burst out.
    Marianne turned to the hagstone and moved her left hand in a circle, muttering a word. The air in the hole immediately began to shimmer with a silver light. Tor moved towards it instinctively – then hesitated.
    Marianne looked at him. ‘The gateway is open, sky stallion. You may return if you wish. I do not need you any more. I have other plans!’ She laughed triumphantly. ‘And your presence here can only help me in those!’
    She turned to the stone and for a moment seemed to be addressing something through it rather than them. ‘Can you see him?’ she called. ‘Can you see him here?’
    ‘Father!’ a voice echoed back.
    There was a flash of bright white light and suddenly a colt came jumping through the hagstone, a colt made of clouds. His outline was slightly blurred, his body changing very slightly every second in size and shape. It was the same long-legged foal Erin had seen the night before.

    ‘Mistral!’ Tor whinnied in alarm.
    Marianne stepped forward swiftly, pulling out a hagstone with a chip of rock caught in the centre of its hole. She reached out and touched it to the grey colt’s head, muttering a string of dark words.
    To Erin’s horror, the colt gave a startled whinny that was cut off as he seemed to be sucked into the hole in the rock, the cloud that made him swirling in until it was gone.
    ‘No!’ Tor reared up. At the same moment, Xanthe lifted her hand to shoot magic at the dark spirit, but it was too late. Marianne had disappeared, the stone in her hands.
    ‘Reveal!’ Xanthe shouted desperately. But nothing happened.
    A cold laugh echoed from the cliff top above them. They swung round and looked to see Marianne standing there, the wind tossing back her long hair. She pointed at Xanthe. ‘Bind her!’ she snapped. Xanthe suddenly seemed to freeze in mid-air.
    Marianne looked directly at Erin. ‘You thought you had won by breaking the binding spell, but I do not need Tor any longer. He was too stubborn, too difficult. Any sky horse of