Eye of the Storm

long she sat there for, but slowly she felt the stone start to lose its icy coldness. When it felt just like any normal stone, she straightened up. ‘Its magic is used up,’ she said. She gently touched the skin around the bandage. It felt much cooler and the swelling seemed to have gone down. ‘I think it might have worked.’
    ‘I suppose we’d better not take the bandage off to look,’ said Chloe. ‘We might not be able to get it on again.’
    That made sense even though, just then, Erin didn’t feel like admitting anything Chloe said might be useful.
    Kestrel rubbed Erin’s arm with his head. She was sure his eyes looked brighter.
    ‘We’d better get back to Tor.’ Erin hugged Kestrel goodbye. ‘See you tomorrow after school,’ she promised him.
    ‘That was really good,’ said Chloe, looking genuinely impressed as they left. ‘I’m so glad you could help.’
    Erin felt a small flare of triumph. Chloe should never have doubted her.
    ‘You know, while you were healing Kestrel, I was thinking about the prophecy,’ Chloe went on. ‘About the last verse especially.’ She recited it:

‘Yet danger is found with the new
gateway –
Beware the dark horse who leaps for
the sky.
With arrow of fire and grey feather’s
direction,
Two must help here or all hopes will die.
If the darkest impostor is not defeated,
Then never again will the cloud stallion
fly.’
    ‘ Two must help here ,’ Chloe repeated. ‘I bet that means us. That we both have to help.’
    ‘Mmm, it might do,’ said Erin.
    ‘The darkest impostor must be Marianne,’ said Chloe. ‘But what does it mean about an arrow of fire and a grey feather? I was wondering if the arrow of fire might have something to do with me. After all, I can make arrows of fire with my summer magic.’

    ‘It probably means lightning or something like that,’ Erin said.
    ‘But it could mean me,’ persisted Chloe.
    ‘How could arrows of fire help? I bet it doesn’t mean you,’ said Erin, shaking her head.
    Chloe frowned. ‘Oh, why? Because it’s always got to be you? Is that it? You want to do it all yourself.’
    ‘Of course not. I –’ said Erin in astonishment.
    Chloe didn’t let her finish. Temper flared in her eyes. ‘It’s always all about your weather-weaving powers at the moment, isn’t it, Erin? You doing stuff with Tor. You seeing Marianne. You healing Kestrel. Well, the prophecy says two can help . And that means it’s not just you in this, Erin. I’m important too. You’ll see!’
    She turned and flew off, tears in her eyes.
    ‘Chloe, wait!’ Erin was completely taken aback by Chloe’s outburst. She looked all around, but Chloe had gone.

CHAPTER
Eight
    Dear Mum,
    It’s been a weird night. Good in some ways. Bad in others. There’s no news from Xanthe, and Chloe and I had an argument because she’s been feeling left out. She thinks the prophecy says something about her, but I don’t think it is her. When I said that, she got mad and lost her temper. I guess I should have noticed that she’s been feeling a bit cross about stuff, but I’ve just been so busy thinking about everything else. We never seem to be able to use the hidden gateway and Tor thinks there’s another storm coming, but we can’t stop it because my powers are too weak. I really wish there was something I could do.
    Erin didn’t want to write more – she didn’t want to think about how frustrating everything felt. Instead she picked up her mum’s diary and turned to 20 June, today’s date, wondering what her mum had been doing on the same day when she had been eleven.
    Mum and I are going to seal the gateways again tomorrow. We have all the things we need. I can’t wait!
    Erin quickly turned the page and looked at the next entry. Every seven years, her granny and then her mum had performed a spell to seal the gateways to the cloud kingdom so that no one could pass between the worlds. The spell had run out last year, almost seven years after her mum had died. She read on.
    Mum and I went to the giant hagstone gateway first. She held a seeing stone in the centre of the gateway, put it into the silver bowl and then she brushed air over it with the grey feather…

    Erin broke off. A grey feather! Was that the same grey feather that the prophecy had mentioned – a grey feather to seal a gateway? Was it a special grey feather or would any grey feather work? Her eyes skimmed quickly over the rest of the words.
    Then she dropped water on it from