Eye of the Storm

because I saw you writing in your diary. I didn’t mean to,’ she said hastily. ‘The hagstone just showed me pictures of you. I shouldn’t have read what you were writing, but I did. I saw what you said about not thinking I could heal Kestrel and about how much…’ She swallowed, her throat feeling tight as she looked at the floor. ‘How much fun you had with Fran and Katie yesterday and –’
    ‘Hang on! What diary? I haven’t got a diary!’ interrupted Chloe.
    Erin looked up. ‘You have. I saw you writing in it.’
    ‘No,’ said Chloe, shaking her head violently. ‘You can’t have. I really don’t have a diary, Erin.’
    Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Erin stared. A horrible thought dawned on her. ‘Oh, Chloe,’ she whispered. ‘You don’t think it was Marianne, do you? Using her magic to make me see visions?’
    Chloe caught her breath. ‘I bet it was. We know she can cast visions, make people see things. That’s part of weather weaving, like when you cast an image of Tor into the skies. And Marianne’s done it before. Remember, she sent a vision of Tor being ill-treated to Mistral, which is one of the reasons why he came through the gateway.’
    Erin put her hands to her mouth. She couldn’t believe she had been so dumb. ‘I just didn’t think about that. I wonder if they all came from her? Maybe she sent the one about the feather too, to get me in the house? But what about the vision about the hair?’
    ‘That must have been the stones,’ said Chloe. ‘She’d hardly have sent you a vision to show you where your great-grandmother’s hair was when she knows how powerful that could make you.’ She stared at Erin. ‘I can’t believe she was making you see me writing stuff about you in a diary.’
    Erin shook her head. ‘I should have known you wouldn’t think those things.’
    ‘Of course I wouldn’t,’ said Chloe. ‘As if I’d ever think Fran and Katie were loads of fun to hang around with. They drive me mad! I just didn’t want to be mean by saying they couldn’t ride Ziggy. But, you know, it was really cool when you got cross at Fran. I wanted to clap and cheer!’
    They grinned at each other.
    Chloe’s voice became more serious. ‘Marianne’s been trying to make us argue, to split us up, you know.’
    ‘Well, we’re not going to let her do that,’ Erin declared. ‘We’re in this together!’
    ‘Yeah.’ Chloe nodded fiercely. ‘Together! Come on, let’s go and tell Tor what’s been happening.’
    ‘And see if he knows how I can use Great-grandmother Margaret’s hair to make my power stronger,’ Erin added.
    As they flew to the woods, Erin told Chloe about Kestrel. Chloe was delighted. ‘That’s brilliant!’ she said, turning a somersault. ‘Oh, Erin! We’ll be able to ride whenever we want, go out on hacks, go to shows. Everything!’
    ‘But we’ll still help Jackie with the other ponies,’ Erin said.
    ‘Of course,’ grinned Chloe. ‘The more ponies, the better!’

    Erin smiled happily; it was the best feeling ever having Chloe back as her best friend. They swooped down through the trees. Tor and Mistral were waiting for them.
    ‘Loads has been happening!’ Erin gasped.
    She and Chloe told Tor and Mistral what had been going on. ‘You were very lucky to escape,’ said Tor in alarm. ‘And I’m sure you are right, that some of the visions did come from the stones themselves. Marianne would not have known about Margaret’s hair or she would have used it herself.’
    ‘What does Erin have to do with the hair, Father?’ asked Mistral.
    ‘It is simple.’ Tor looked at Erin. ‘All you have to do is to wind one of your great-grandmother’s hairs on to a hagstone and then whenever you use that hagstone to do magic, your great-grandmother’s powers will be added to yours.’
    ‘You’ll be like ultra-powerful when you use that stone!’ exclaimed Chloe.
    Erin took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be ultra-powerful. But if it meant she could cast visions again and maybe clear the skies so Tor could go through the gateway then she would do it. It didn’t look as if Marianne was going to come back of her own accord.
    She took one of her great-grandmother’s grey hairs out of the envelope and felt in her pocket for a hagstone. She had a seeing stone with her, a healing stone and a warding stone that could be used to protect her against harm. It hadn’t done much good in Marianne’s study, but she wasn’t very good at