All That Glitters (Avalon: Web of Magic #2) (7 page)

“And it could be dangerous,” Emily cautioned.

“I am going to do the best magic, ever! It’s too big for my wrist, sooooo . . . I’m going to make a necklace!”

“Kara, I don’t think you should use it until we figure out how it works,” Adriane said.

“It works great!” Kara skipped around the room, drawing shapes in the air with magic sparkles. Her jewel flared brightly, briefly outlining sections of the walls. Faint images flashed as Kara danced by, as if her magic was an X-ray machine illuminating shapes behind the oak paneling.

“There’s something behind there.” Adriane pointed.

Emily noticed it also. “If Mr. Gardener’s computer is hidden, maybe we can find it if we all use our jewels together.”

“Okeydokey.” Kara liked this game, now that she was a real player.

The girls stood together in the center of the library.

Emily held up her rainbow jewel.

Adriane held up her wolf stone.

Kara raised her jewel between them.

“Concentrate on a computer,” Adriane said.

Blue-green and golden light flared from Emily’s and Adriane’s gems. They all clasped their free hands together.

Instantly the magic flowed into Kara’s jewel and silver-white light burst from its tip so intensely that all three girls recoiled. The magic stream slammed into the pink laptop, launching it across the room.

Kara shrieked, dropping the other girls’ hands. The magic fell away as Kara ran over to check out her laptop.

“Wrong computer,” Adriane stated.

“Magic works better when we help,” Balthazar offered.

The pegasus, two quiffles, and Ozzie moved in to surround the three girls.

“Okay, everyone. Let’s try it again,” Emily said.

Standing in the center of the library, once again the three girls clasped hands and held their jewels in the air. The animals closed their eyes. Magic flared from Emily’s and Adriane’s gems and flowed into Kara’s stone, sending diamond beams bouncing around the room.

The library lit up like a small city. Sections of wall glowed, revealing secret doors and hiding places, gadgets whirred and clicked, the clockwork planets and suns zipped around their orbits.

“Concentrate on a computer!” Emily called out.

“And don’t think pink,” Adriane said to Kara.

Magic swirled around the room, twisting and blending into a single ribbon of turquoise, gold, and diamond-white. Suddenly the magic crashed into a section of wall, making it light up from within. A large panel slid to the side, revealing a giant screen.

“Look! Widescreen TV!” Kara exclaimed.

The golden light of the domed ceiling flashed and blinked out, casting the room in darkness except for the cool, soft glow of the screen.

“Enough!” Adriane ordered.

The girls dropped hands and let their stones cool.

Suddenly points of light, brilliant and dazzling, flashed overhead. The girls and the animals looked up in awe as a giant star map twinkled across the domed ceiling. Then they heard a voice.

“Welcome to the magic web.”

“I
T’S HIM!” EMILY
gasped.

“Him who?” Kara asked.

“Mr. Gardener,” Adriane said, amazed. “He owns Ravenswood. He disappeared about two years ago.”

Ozzie, Ronif, Rasha, and Balthazar looked curiously at the man smiling at them from the large screen set back in the wall. He had long, gray hair and wore small, round glasses over keen blue eyes.

“What’s he doing in there?” Kara wondered.

“Mr. Gardener, is that really you?” Adriane asked the image on the screen.

But no answer came. The kind face just kept smiling.

“It’s a video file or something,” Kara said.

Emily noticed a tray under the screen. She touched it and a keyboard slid out. “Look!”

She hit the ENTER button. The bright star map across the domed ceiling dimmed and was replaced by the golden luminescence.

“Whoever has found this station, the magic is with you,” the image of Gardener announced. “I am sorry I am not here to greet you in person, for you must have many questions.”

“I’ll say.” Kara crossed her arms.

“There is a portal, a gateway, in Ravenswood that leads to a world called Aldenmor. Sealed for centuries, it has recently opened, signaling that the time of magic has come full circle and three mages would soon be arriving.”

His face faded, and the screen filled with sparkling lines like a Spirograph, lights marking various points along the grids.

Then Gardener’s voice continued. “There is a web that connects many worlds, including Earth. Magic flows along this web to where it is needed. But there are very few places left that hold true magic, and over the years, the web has grown weak. If we are to save the web, we need to renew the magic from its very source, a hidden place called Avalon.”

Fairimentals had come to the three girls and left them a message scrawled in the earth: Avalon. It was at the center of the whole magical mystery the girls had embarked upon.

“I have gone to seek great magic to aid you on your quest. If you are viewing this message, then I have not yet returned to begin your training. I cannot say if I have fallen to dark forces but I can tell you this: be careful, young mages. Nary a corner of the web does not lie in some danger from a fearsome enemy. She is a magic master, twisted in her selfish desire to hoard magic and use it for herself.”

The image of Gardener paused, his eyes focused on them.

“This is your time, young mages. I have faith you will find what you need to fulfill your destiny. Good luck to you.”

The face of Henry Gardener faded, replaced by a blank screen.

“What was that all about?” Kara asked, incredulous.

“Mr. Gardener’s last message before he left,” Emily ventured.

Ozzie scratched his chin. “Something is wrong. Gardener was expecting mages, not monsters.”

“What exactly is a mage?” Adriane asked.

“A magic user,” replied Balthazar.

“So Gardener was supposed to teach us about all this magic stuff,” Kara huffed. “Thanks a lot for the help!”

“Now he’s gone and he left us with nothing!” Adriane said angrily.

“What am I?” Ozzie leaped onto the keyboard. “Chopped barleycorn?”

“Of course not!” Emily kissed his furry head. “You’re perfect.”

“Well . . . I . . .” Ozzie swooned and sat backwards on the keys and a cursor appeared onscreen. It was a dreamcatcher icon with jewels positioned top, bottom, left, and right, like the points of a compass.

“Whoa!” Ozzie scrambled to his seat as assorted icons appeared: animals, jewels, and one of Ravenswood Manor.

Emily moved the cursor over the icons. One by one, different images of Ravenswood appeared: pictures and text about the wildlife preserve and rare animals that had lived there at one time or another.

“It must be the original Ravenswood files!” Emily exclaimed.

“Wow, so cool! Look at all this stuff on it,” Adriane said.

“Good job, ferret.” Kara looked at her watch. “Now how do we link it to the town council?”

Emily turned to the others. “Mr. Gardener went to a lot of trouble to keep this a secret. What if we had two sites?” she suggested. “We set up the Ravenswood Preserve site as our homepage for tour information and list the animals we
can
show on the tour, like Ariel and the other birds, Storm, peacocks, deer—but we also make a second level, our own password encoded site.”

“I like it, a secret site,” Adriane said, smiling. “A website about magic—a magic web.”

“Cute.” Kara rolled her eyes. “You gonna design a space station too while you’re at it?”

“Well, we can at least get our homepage up,” Emily said. “But I don’t think we should link it until we check out everything on here. You heard the message: We have to be careful.”

“Agreed,” Adriane said.

Kara frowned. “That could take . . . hours!” Again she looked at her watch: 5:30. “I’m late!” she cried. “I’ve got to get to my—”

The girls and animals all looked at her.

“—party,” she finished sheepishly.

“So go,” Adriane told her.

“Listen, Kara,” Emily began. “It’s okay. We know you have your friends, but we’re your friends, too.”

“Yeah . . .” Kara didn’t look convinced.

“What I’m saying is, we share something, the three of us. Nobody else can know.”

“What she’s saying is, don’t do anything stupid with that jewel!” Adriane cut to the chase.

“I get it.” Kara was packing up her things. “No magic.”

“Right. No magic until we can figure it out together. It’s too dangerous,” Emily said.

“Okay, I hear you!” Kara ran out the library door.

T
HE DAVIES’S LARGE
Tudor house sat on meticulously landscaped grounds overlooking the Chitakaway River.

Kara raced up the driveway and burst into the kitchen with fifteen minutes to spare. A note from her mom was on the table.

“Nate and Alvin’s delivery just left. Everything’s ready out back. We’ll be home around ten.”

“Eek, I stink!” Kara took the stairs two at a time and rocketed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

A few minutes later, she dashed into her closet, scattering clothes every which way. She hopped back out, pulling on crisp new jeans and a bright green cami. Gathering her hair back in a ponytail, she thought about what had just happened at Ravenswood—probably the most amazing thing that had ever happened to anybody on the planet! A banshee had come after her, but her animal friends had protected her. Best of all, she’d found her very own fantabulous magic jewel.

She rummaged in her jewelry drawer and emerged with a silver chain necklace. She flipped open the locket clasp, removed the old star drops, and attached her new gem. She secured the chain around her neck.

“Perfect!”

“It is nice.”

“Oh, yes,” Kara agreed, looking admiringly in the mirror. “It’s so . . .
what?”
She whirled around to see the enormous cat lounging among the pillows at the top of her bed. “How did you get in here?”

The cat looked coolly at Kara.
“Would’ve been easier if you’d left the window open.”

“You can’t stay here. My mom practically freaked when I had a hamster! You’re so much . . .” Kara stopped, at a loss for words. All she could think of was
worse.

“Bigger?”
A huge paw stretched, extending razor claws as a mouth full of sharp teeth yawned.

Kara nudged the cat over as she sat down to slip into a pair of slides. “Were you outside my window the other night?”

“You had another visitor as well,”
the cat replied.

“I can’t believe that thing was in here.” Kara shivered.

“I could stay and keep an eye on things, if that’s okay with you.”

Kara suddenly felt a little shy. “Okay with me.” She ran her hand over the cat’s scruffy-looking fur. “What’s your name?”

“Lyra,”
the cat replied, eyes half closed as Kara scratched the corded muscles on her neck.

“That’s pretty,” Kara said, sounding surprised. “I’m Kara.”

The cat yawned and lay back in the pillows.

The doorbell sounded.

Kara jumped, stopped quickly to check herself in the mirror again, then eyed Lyra. “Just stay here!” she ordered, and closed the door as she ran downstairs.