Eye of the Storm

swiftly began to move among the herd, calming them. Suddenly though, to Erin’s surprise, the horses in the circle began to dissolve into mist and fade away.
    Erin blinked. What was happening? The sky horses had all vanished. There was just Tor left.
    ‘Sky horses, come,’ she said quickly. A few wisps of mist swirled across the circle, but then they too disappeared.
    ‘What’s happening?’ Chloe demanded from outside the circle.
    ‘Why have you stopped using your magic, Erin?’ whinnied Mistral.
    ‘I-I haven’t,’ Erin stammered in surprise. ‘One minute I was doing it. The next the horses just disappeared.’ Her eyes flew to Tor’s. He was now growing back to full size again. ‘Was it Marianne, Tor? Was she doing something to stop me – to stop us from calming the horses?’
    Tor sighed heavily. ‘Not directly. It is your magic, Erin.’ He shook his head. ‘I was worried this would be the case. Your magic powers are being weakened by the dark gateway Marianne has made.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ asked Erin.
    ‘It is because Marianne used one of your hairs to create that gateway,’ said Tor. ‘Hair holds power and if one weather weaver has the hair of another they can draw on that other weather weaver’s power. As you know, when Marianne made the gateway she used one of your hairs and one of your mother’s from your mother’s old diary. The dark gateway is now drawing on your power, weakening your magic, and it will continue to do so for as long as it exists.’
    ‘So my weather-weaving powers will get weaker and weaker?’ asked Erin slowly.
    Tor nodded.
    ‘What can we do about it, Father?’ demanded Mistral.
    ‘The only way to stop it happening is to destroy the dark gateway,’ Tor answered. ‘But that will take a lot of power.’
    Chloe frowned. ‘But you’re saying that Erin doesn’t have much power at the moment, so how is she going to do it?’
    Tor hesitated. ‘I do not know,’ he admitted at last.
    Alarm shot through Erin. She tried to get it clear in her head. ‘So, even if we can get Marianne back here and get the hagstone that she made the gateway with so that we can destroy it, I still might not be able to do the magic?’ She pushed her hands through her hair. ‘This is pointless then!’
    ‘It’s not pointless!’ Chloe said quickly. ‘We’ll be able to do this. Remember, Xanthe and Allegra are coming tomorrow. I bet Xanthe will be able to give you some advice.’
    Xanthe was Chloe’s godmother and Allegra was her daughter. They were both stardust spirits. Xanthe was a very powerful one and she had helped Erin and Chloe before.
    Looking into Chloe’s hazel eyes, Erin felt her doubts fade. Chloe was right. They would be able to do it somehow. She nodded.
    Chloe turned to Tor. ‘I know! Couldn’t Erin use her mum’s hair to make herself more powerful? You told us a while ago that blood links are really important in weather weaving, that if you use the hair of one of your relatives in a spell their power adds to yours. Maybe there’s still one of Erin’s mum’s hairs somewhere in the old diary. One that Marianne didn’t find.’
    ‘Even if there is a hair still in the diary, it would not help,’ said Tor. ‘Because Marianne is using both Erin’s and her mother’s hairs to create the dark gateway, all that power is being used up. The only way Erin could get more power is to use the hair of another weather weaver, and it would need to be someone related to Erin.’
    ‘I don’t have any other relatives who are weather weavers,’ Erin said. ‘Well, apart from Marianne.’ A shiver ran through her. She had recently found out that Marianne was over a hundred years old. She didn’t look like it because she used her magic to stay young and beautiful – but she was Erin’s great-grandmother’s sister. She had once before tried to take control of the skies by capturing a cloud stallion and Erin now knew that her great-grandmother had stopped her. That was when there had been the first big storm. Will I be able to stop her this time? Erin thought.
    Chloe seemed to read her mind. ‘There’s no way we’re going to let Marianne win,’ she declared determinedly. ‘We’ll think of something.’
    Tor stamped a hoof. ‘You are right, Chloe. We will find a way.’ As he spoke, the wind seemed to blow even more strongly. Around the clearing the trees creaked as their branches swayed in the wind. There was a loud crack and they all jumped back just in