“So, what do you think?” Essie said, twirling the end of her blond ponytail. Everything about her had changed – her clothes, her hair. “You fell for it.”
“You’re… you’re both Essie and Esther?” Maia stuttered.
“You got it!” Essie smirked. “Now, you’ve got to admit that’s clever.”
Maia glanced across at the others. Their eyes showed the horror she was feeling.
“But why would you want to pretend to be a ten-year-old?” Lottie burst out.
“So I could re-live my youth,” said Essie. “Being at school was the best time of my life and now I get to do it again but without parents telling me what to do and with all the money I need. How perfect is that? No one will be more popular than me.” She shot a look at Ionie. “Although you have been trying to thwart that. Making the boys laugh at me today.” Her eyes hardened. “You’ll be sorry.”
“You’re the one who’s going to be sorry!” cried Maia. “We’ll tell everyone the truth.”
“Like they’d believe you!” scoffed Essie. “And anyway, you won’t be telling anyone anything. Not after I’ve used this on you.” She pulled a second bottle from her pocket – it was made of silver.
Ice ran down Maia’s spine. She had seen that bottle in her vision. It had the bindweed potion inside it.
“One drop of this binding potion on your skin and you’ll have to do as I say. Forever.” Essie smiled coldly. “I will use it on all of you and stop you revealing the truth about me.”
Maia felt the creepers on her wrist loosen as Bracken silently gnawed at them. Keep going, Bracken, she willed him. I’ve got to get free.
She glanced across at Lottie and Ionie and saw faint movement in the undergrowth beside them. She guessed Juniper and Sorrel were trying to free them, too. Willow was the only animal who couldn’t help – she was too big to creep up through the bushes and she didn’t have paws or sharp teeth that were good at gnawing. Maia glanced at Sita, who was still lying knocked out on the ground, and wondered where Willow was.
“So, who should I start with?” said Essie, clearly enjoying the moment. “Ionie, I think. Just imagine all the stupid things I can make you say and do when you’re bound to obey me, Ionie. Now we’ll see who gets laughed at.”
Ionie’s green eyes flashed furiously.
Essie started towards Ionie when suddenly a blazing fire appeared in front of her.
“What…” Essie staggered back and then her eyes narrowed as she realized it was just an illusion. “Oh, Ionie, did you seriously think that was going to stop me?”
Ionie pulled her hands up, showing that the creepers had gone, and ripped the one from her mouth. “No, I didn’t think that would, but I hoped Willow might!” she cried. She nodded at the nearby trees. “Go, Willow!”
Willow came galloping out. Her usually gentle eyes were furious as she charged at Essie, butting her as hard as she could with her head. Essie cried out in shock. Before she had a chance to use her magic, Lottie was on her feet and grabbing a creeper. She swung through the trees, her feet connecting with Essie’s shoulders and knocking her over. Essie sprawled on the ground just as Maia’s bonds finally broke and she leaped to her feet and raced to Sita with Bracken beside her.
“Sita, wake up!”
Bracken started to lick Sita’s face. Willow cantered to her side and nuzzled at her neck and hair. Sita’s eyelids fluttered. Lottie, Juniper, Ionie and Sorrel raced over.
“No!” screamed Essie.
Maia tugged frantically at the creepers covering Sita’s mouth. If Sita could speak she could use her magic.
Essie grabbed a handful of pine needles from the ground and tossed them into the air.
“Help Sita!” Maia gasped to the others as pine needles started to swirl up in a tornado again. “I’ll make a magic shield.”
She pictured a shield around them, protecting them. Triumph rushed through her as she saw a silvery bubble form around her friends and their animals. The pine needles battered against it, scratching and scraping, but the shield stayed strong and the needles dropped harmlessly to the ground.
Sita started to sit up. “What’s happening?” she said in confusion, peering through the silvery shield. “Why’s Essie here?”
“We’ll explain later,” said Ionie quickly. “All you need to know is she’s bad!”
Essie scrambled to her feet. “That shield won’t protect you from me!” she snarled. “A shield cast by a single ten-year-old, inexperienced in using magic?” She shook her head and uncorked the silver bottle. She walked towards them. “Pathetic! One drop of this and it will dissolve instantly.”
Maia’s mind was working frantically. ‘But it’s not cast just by a single ten-year-old!” She turned to the others. “Everyone, help me, like we helped Sita before!” Maia didn’t need to say any more – the others instantly understood. They all reached out and touched her.
Maia felt them draw on the magic current around them and they started channelling it into her. It flowed strongly. She felt wonderfully powerful as she focused on the shield. Suddenly it started to glow. Rainbow colours streamed across its surface, and light sparked off it just as Essie threw the contents of the bottle.
The potion hit the surface and rebounded, splashing all over Essie. She screamed and collapsed on the ground, changing back into Esther as she did so. Sita gasped in shock. “She’s Esther!” The others nodded as the plants instantly released their grip on the girls.
“What have you done?” Esther panted hoarsely, glaring at them from the ground. “I can’t move!”
“What’s happening?” Maia said to Bracken.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“I believe I do! It’s the threefold rule of magic,” said Sorrel. “The evil she intended when she threw the potion has returned to her three times as strongly. The binding spell has tripled in power.” She looked smugly at Esther. “Now she can’t do anything without your command.”
The girls looked at each other. Maia broke the connection with the current and the bubble evaporated into a shower of glittery sparkles. “What do we do?” she said to the others.
“I don’t want her under our command,” said Lottie.
“Leave this to me,” said Ionie. She walked over to Esther. “We command you to leave Westcombe,” she said firmly. “You must never be Essie again. You must stay as Esther and you must only use your magic for good from now on. If you do anything else, you will … you will … explode!” she finished.
“Explode?” Maia exclaimed, glancing at Esther, who looked horrified.
Ionie grinned. “I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“I’m really glad Sita’s the one who usually does the commanding,” said Lottie. Sita gave her a weak smile. “But yes, I guess you’re right in this case. You must be good from now on and get older like normal people do,” she told Esther.
“Now get up and go home without saying anything,” said Ionie. “Oh, and I also command you to give your cat some treats. It’s not his fault that you used magic on him.”
Glaring at her, Esther got to her feet. With a toss of her hair, she turned and stalked off into the trees, the cat following at her heels.
“We did it,” said Ionie, looking at the others as the animals jumped around them – barking, meowing, bleating and chattering.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” said Sita in confusion.
They quickly explained.
“So, Esther was Essie and Essie was Esther all along?” Sita shook her head in astonishment. “Esther was doing the dark magic?” She rubbed her head. “Ouch. I’ve got a massive lump. I wish I could heal myself but healing magic only works on other people.”
Willow inspected the bump. “It should get better soon.”
“And I guess it’s definitely worth having a lump if it means we’ve stopped the dark magic,” said Sita, stroking her.
“I told you we were right to come into the clearing and see what was going on,” Ionie said to Lottie.
“Right?” spluttered Lottie. “We almost got killed, or at least bound to do her bidding forever!”
“It was very scary!” said Juniper, taking a flying leap on to Lottie’s head.
“It wasn’t that bad,’ said Ionie airily. She nudged Maia. “Thanks for coming after me.”
“No probs, but next time, maybe let’s think about it – at least for a few seconds first,” said Maia.
“Maybe,” said Ionie, with a grin. “Maybe not.”
“Look, everyone!” said Sita. “Look what’s happening!”
All around them, the clearing was healing itself. The withered trees straightened up, green leaves sprouting on their branches and pine needles reappearing on the branches. Bright daffodils pushed up through the ground and the waterfall started to flow with sparkling water that rushed away, over the stones and down to the sea in a glittering stream. Birds swooped through the branches.
“It looks beautiful!” said Willow.
“It’s the threefold rule again,” said Sorrel, walking around the clearing. “The good you’ve just done has come back threefold. The magic has been strengthened so much the clearing is rejuvenating and returning to normal.”
Bracken barked in excitement. Willow bucked and Juniper raced up the tree trunks and leaped from branch to branch.
“We did it! We did it!” said Maia, grabbing Ionie’s hands and swinging her round. She imagined her granny smiling down at her from wherever she was and knew she would be feeling very proud. “We saved the clearing!”
“And we did some awesome magic together!” said Ionie happily.
“There’s always something new to learn about magic,” said Lottie. “That’s why I love it so much.”
“Me, too.” Maia smiled. “I can’t wait to learn even more!” She held out her arms and Bracken jumped into them.
“Whatever comes along next we’ll be ready for it,” he said, licking her nose.
“Ready and waiting,” Maia agreed, hugging him tightly.
A week later, the girls stood on the lane by the footpath watching the last of Esther’s possessions being loaded into a removal lorry. None of them had seen Esther since the evening in the woods. According to Maia’s mum, she’d decided she couldn’t live so far away from London and so the family had moved back.
The totally made-up, pretend family, Maia thought.
“I wonder what will happen to your granny’s house now,” Sita said to Maia. “Hopefully someone nice will move in.”
“Esther seemed nice,” said Maia. She shook her head. “It’s so hard to tell with people, isn’t it? You meet someone and think one thing about them and they turn out to be totally different.”
“Like Mrs Sands,” said Ionie. “She’s been much friendlier this week.”
“I went into the office when she was there and used my magic to heal her back,” said Sita. “My nan says Mrs Sands thinks she’s feeling better because she got some new painkillers from the doctor. I don’t mind what she thinks, I’m just glad she’s happier now. It was the pain that was making her so grumpy.”
“I feel bad we suspected her,” said Lottie. “It’s difficult to know who to trust though.”
Maia linked arms with her. “We can trust each other. At least we know that.”
“And Sorrel, Bracken, Willow and Juniper,” added Ionie.
“Let’s go to the clearing and see them,” said Sita eagerly. “We can try combining our magic again.”
“And I want to have another go at making a magic barrier,” said Lottie. “I’m sure I’ll be able to do it one day if I keep practising.”
“Race you all there!” Maia said.
She set off down the woodland path, pushing through the undergrowth and bursting out into the clearing. It looked very different to how it did a few weeks ago. The waterfall was rushing merrily over the rocks, the water glinting in the sunlight. The trees’ branches were covered with new leaves, bluebells carpeted the forest floor among the tree trunks and swathes of pretty pink flowers edged the soft grass of the clearing. The air smelled fresh and sweet.
The girls called their animals’ names. Bracken, Willow, Juniper and Sorrel appeared and gambolled around the girls.
Happiness rushed through Maia as Bracken bounded into her arms, his beautiful indigo eyes shining. “Is it magic time, Maia?” he asked eagerly.
Maia grinned and kissed him on the nose. “Oh, yes!” she said. “It always is!”