I must be dreaming. Maia shivered as she looked around. She was standing in the woods dressed only in her pyjamas. The sky had just the faintest hint of dawn light in the east.
I want to wake up, Maia thought firmly. Wake up now! But she didn’t. Through the trees she could see the clearing where she had first met Bracken, her fox who had come from the Star World. She started walking towards it but then stopped dead. A cloaked figure was standing in the centre of the clearing, surrounded by a green circle of light. She was tearing leaves up and dropping them into a silver bowl. A chill crept down Maia’s spine. She had a feeling something bad was going to happen. Wake up, she told herself quickly. Just wake up!
But she remained in the woods.
“Creeping ivy … ground elder … nightshade…” muttered the woman as she dropped the plant leaves. A large hood concealed her face. “Come together, merge together, give me power to bind forever…”
She waved her hand over the bowl and green smoke spiralled up. Then she pointed at a bush nearby. Small pink and white flowers suddenly bloomed all over it, buds bursting open as if it were a summer’s day instead of a cold winter’s night.
Picking the flowers, the woman added them to the bowl. “And to seal the spell,” she said. The smoke thickened and a bitter smell wafted towards Maia’s nostrils.
“Give me your power, trees!” the woman cried.
A cold wind swept around the clearing, blowing Maia’s shoulder-length, dark blond hair around her face and pulling at her pyjama legs. She could feel magic crackling through the air, prickling her skin like needles. The trees shook and then there was a bright flash of light inside the bowl and the clearing became still again.
The woman laughed and, taking a silver bottle from her pocket, she filled it with dark liquid from the bowl. Then she straightened and held it up to the stars. “For those who would meddle in my affairs,” she said grimly. “They will be sorry.”
Maia felt intense foreboding sweep over her as she looked at the little silver bottle in the woman’s hands.
With a laugh, the woman tucked it into a pocket of her cloak and strode from the clearing. She passed Maia without seeming to notice her, her dark cloak swishing around her ankles…
Maia woke, her heart pounding. A damp nose was snuffling at her cheek. “Are you OK?” She found herself gazing into Bracken’s indigo-blue eyes. “Were you having a nightmare?” he asked anxiously.
She nodded and sat up, looking around the room. She was having a sleepover with her friends at Ionie’s house. Ionie’s Star Animal, Sorrel, the wildcat, was stretched out at her feet. Lottie was sleeping in a camp bed with Juniper, the squirrel, snuggled against her chest while Sita, like Maia, was sleeping on a blow-up bed on the floor. Willow, the deer, was lying beside Sita, her delicate legs curled underneath her, her head resting on Sita’s back. They looked very peaceful. Maia pulled Bracken into her arms and stroked his soft russet-red fur. His black whiskers tickled her skin.
“Was it a magic nightmare?” he asked as he cuddled closer.
Maia pushed back her hair as she remembered it. “It was.”
The Star Animals had shown Maia and her friends how to use the current of Star Magic in order to do magic themselves. The girls all had different magical abilities. Ionie could create illusions, shadow-travel and command Shades to return to the shadows where they belonged; Lottie could use magic to be incredibly agile and run super-fast; Sita could heal and soothe, and also had the ability to command people to do whatever she wanted, although she found that power frightening and almost never used it; Maia’s abilities were to do with sight. She could use a shiny surface to see what was happening in other places and to see into the past and future, and her dreams often showed her things that were useful.
“What did you see?” Bracken asked.
Maia told him.
“You’ve had a dream like this before, haven’t you?” Bracken said.
“Kind of, but not exactly the same,” said Maia. Last time she had seen the cloaked figure in a dream, the figure had also been drawing energy from the surrounding trees and using it to make a potion. “There was less wind this time and no lightning and the person made a bush bloom with flowers, then used the flowers in a potion she was making. She said words that sounded like a spell.” She shivered as she remembered the silver bottle the person had held up. “I don’t know what she was doing but it felt like very bad magic.”
“We’d better tell the others,” said Bracken anxiously.
Maia glanced up at the window. Pale light was starting to streak across the night sky. “OK, let’s wake them up.” She went round gently shaking her friends’ shoulders while Bracken woke the Star Animals. He nuzzled Juniper and Willow awake but when it came to Sorrel he gave her long tabby tail a cheeky tug.
She sprang up with a hiss and glared at him. “What are you doing, Fox?” she spat. “How dare you bite my—”
“Maia’s had a dream,” Bracken interrupted. “I had to wake you up quickly. Come on, pussycat.”
Leaving Sorrel with her fur puffed up, he leaped back into Maia’s arms. She shook her head at him but couldn’t help smiling. He and Sorrel had a prickly relationship. The wildcat could be very arrogant and Bracken could be a tease.
Soon, the girls were all sitting on Maia’s blow-up bed, their duvets over their legs, cuddling their animals and listening as she recounted her dream.
“So, you were in the woods and you saw someone making a potion?” said Ionie.
“Was it definitely the same person you’ve seen before?” asked Sita, stroking Willow’s velvety, dappled-brown coat.
“Definitely,” said Maia. “I couldn’t see her face but I’m sure it was the same person.”
“The one who’s been doing dark magic in the clearing, making potions and conjuring Shades,” said Willow with a shiver.
Maia nodded. The clearing was a crossing point between the human world and the Star World, and so the magic current was very strong there. A few weeks ago, the girls and animals had discovered that the clearing was withering – the spring flowers and green buds were shrivelling up. The animals suspected it was because someone was doing dark magic in the clearing, draining its power. Maia’s dreams and visions had seemed to back this up.
“Do you think you were seeing something that has happened in the past or was it something that will happen in the future, Maia?” Lottie said. “Your dreams can show either, can’t they?”
Maia nodded. “I don’t know which it was.”
“You said it was almost morning in your dream,” said Ionie thoughtfully, glancing at her bedroom window. “Well, the sun’s just rising now. Could you have been seeing the present?”
Maia hadn’t thought about that possibility. “I guess… I was wearing these pyjamas,” she said slowly.
“So you could have been seeing what was actually happening as it was happening?” said Bracken, pricking his ears. “That’s a clever idea, Ionie!”
“Of course it is,” said Sorrel. She purred and pressed herself against Ionie’s chest. “Ionie always has excellent ideas.”
Ionie looked pleased. “If it’s only just happened there may be some clues in the clearing still – clues that will help us work out who this person is,” she said eagerly. “We might find a footprint or the person might have dropped something.” She pushed her duvet back. “We could go and look.”
“OK!” said Maia, jumping to her feet.
“But what if your mum comes in here, Ionie?” said Lottie.
“I’ll leave a note saying we wanted to go for an early morning walk and I’ll take my phone so she can ring me if she’s worried,” said Ionie. “It’ll be fine.”
“Um … what if we go there and the person comes back?” said Sita.
“Even better. Then we’ll know who she is and you’ll be able to use your magic to command her to stop!” said Ionie.
“Oh … OK,” said Sita, looking a bit alarmed.
“Come on, everyone, get dressed!” Ionie insisted. Grabbing a hoody, she pulled it on over her pyjama top.
“Yes, do stop sitting around like lemons and let’s have some action,” said Sorrel, padding over the airbeds and stopping expectantly by the door, her fluffy tail held high in the air. “Ionie’s right. There’s no time to waste.”
Bracken bounded over to her. “For once I agree with you, pussycat,” he said, his eyes shining with excitement and his bushy tail wagging. “Let’s go!”