The Crystal Mirror (4 page)

Laney had expected Gwen’s eyes to be golden, but they were tawny just as they’d always been. She wasn’t sure they looked very different. She couldn’t help gazing at them, trying to work out if there was any change.

“Hello, Mrs Whitefern,” she said awkwardly. “Claudia said I should come and see you.” Suddenly she wondered if this was a good idea. Mrs Whitefern couldn’t be the same as her. She just couldn’t be.

“Yes, come in. It’s nice to have you to visit. Of course, you used to come here when you were little, but I think you really came for my cookies back then. It’s lucky that I baked a fresh batch of them this morning.” Gwen tottered into the front room, which was filled with the scent of cookies. The smell brought back the memory of all the times Laney had been there when she was younger.

“I think I should go,” said Laney. “This must be a mistake.”

“No, there’s no mistake, my dear.” Gwen hobbled to the sofa and plumped the cushions. “Sit down and have something to eat.” She offered Laney a plate stacked high with duck-shaped cookies.

Laney edged towards the door. “I’m sorry, Mrs Whitefern. I didn’t mean to… I should go.”

“But you’ve only just got here.” Gwen looked at her beadily. “Someone as old and little as me can hardly understand what you’re going through, is
that what you’re thinking?”

“Um, it’s just that I have to get back.” Laney tried to smile politely. She was pretty sure that Mrs Whitefern couldn’t help her, but she didn’t want to be rude.

Gwen tottered over to a fruit bowl that stood on a side table. She peeled an orange and took a pip from one of the segments. Holding it in the palm of her crinkly hand, she whispered to it and then blew softly. It sprouted instantly, growing a sturdy stem, then several side branches, all with leaves. Within half a minute there were ripe oranges hanging from each branch of the tree. It carried on growing and sprouting until it reached the ceiling.

Laney stared wide-eyed at Gwen through the tangle of branches. This was the same Gwen. She just hadn’t really known her before. “That was amazing! I didn’t think you were…like that…” She tailed off.

“I know.” Gwen picked an orange and offered it to Laney with a wrinkled smile. “Sometimes you have to see with the heart not with the eyes. Not all power lies in young skin and supple limbs.”

“I’m sorry!” Laney blushed as she took the orange.

Gwen placed the orange tree, now bushy with overhanging roots, carefully on the carpet. “It seems we must start afresh. I am Gwen, faerie Elder and the oldest Thorn faerie in Skellmore.”
She stood a little taller as she spoke, power shining from behind her tawny eyes.

Laney sat down heavily on the flowery sofa. She thought she knew this room. She remembered the threadbare bit on the arm of the sofa where you could see the white lining underneath. Yet all the time Gwen had kept her secret. She took hold of a rose-patterned cushion and held it tight. “So it’s all true then? About the…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word faeries.

“You
are
a faerie, Laney,” Gwen said solemnly. “There are faeries living in different places all over the world and this village is one of them.”

Laney shook her head. “But this is just Skellmore!”

Gwen smiled and tucked her curly white hair under her hat. “There’s more to this village than you think. Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.” She tottered through the door and down the passageway. “Usually I keep my front room as ordinary as possible. Then I use my skills down here in my plant house,” she called back.

Laney skirted round the orange tree and followed her down the passage. Even though she’d been to Gwen’s house millions of times, she’d never been any further than the front room before.

They passed through a doorway hung with long curling vines and the scent of flowers filled the air. Then she was inside a huge plant house with two
glass walls and a glass ceiling. Small trees stretched up to the windowed panes in the roof. Flowers grew beneath them in crimson, pink and mauve.

“It’s beautiful!” said Laney.

“This is the part of my house I could never let you see before you Awakened,” said Gwen.

They followed the path, which was almost covered with foliage. The flowers turned their faces towards Gwen as she passed. A nearby tree branch moved creakily to rest its leaves on her shoulder. Laney caught her breath.

“Come and sit down.” Gwen slowly seated herself on a wooden bench with long vines woven all around it. The flowers gazed at the old lady with upturned faces. Laney noticed that the backs of Gwen’s hands were covered with curling silvery marks that she’d never seen before.

“Other Elders said that you might never Awaken,” Gwen told her. “They said that twelve was too old. But there was just something about you – something waiting to come out. That’s why I’ve been expecting you to come here.”

“But why did I change… I mean, Awaken?” said Laney.

“Your faerie self was always inside you, waiting. Maybe it was simply the right time for it to come alive,” said Gwen. “Awakening must happen to each faerie, otherwise their power stays locked inside
them. The power of your tribe has now been set free.”

Laney’s mind whirled with questions. “What’s a tribe? Claudia said something about that too.”

“Your tribe describes the root of your power, and in time they will become like your family,” said Gwen. “I am from the Thorn tribe. We draw our strength from plants and trees, and in turn we use our powers to help them.”

“Am I a Thorn faerie?” said Laney.

Gwen looked at her steadily and Laney suddenly wondered how much she could see with those penetrating eyes. “No, I don’t think you are,” Gwen told her. “But the Thornbeam family are Thorns and so are the Willowbys.”

Laney thought of Fletcher and his little sister Sara, both Thorn faeries. But what was she? “What are the other tribes called?” she asked.

“There are five tribes altogether. The Greytails have power over any creature on the land. Then the Kestrels have power over the air. The Blaze tribe can control fire and the Mist tribe have power over water.” Gwen smiled. “There are no Kestrel or Blaze faeries living in Skellmore, although we sometimes see them passing through.”

“Thorn, Kestrels, Blaze and Greytails?” said Laney.

“And Mist,” said Gwen.

“And Mist,” Laney repeated, pushing back the tendrils of hair that fell over her forehead. She felt as though the world was tilting sideways again, just like it had when Claudia had told her she was a faerie.

She had to know what tribe she belonged to. What power did she have? She sprang up from the bench and stared at her reflection in the window. The answer was staring her in the face. No wonder she’d made the water fountain explode.

“I have power over water.” She turned to Gwen. “I’m a Mist faerie, aren’t I?”

“Yes, I think you are,” said Gwen with a smile.

The front door banged and Claudia ran down the passageway. “Did you know there’s an orange tree in the middle of your sitting room?”

“Help yourself if you’d like any fruit,” said Gwen. “You did the right thing by sending Laney to me.”

Claudia grinned. “I don’t think I was explaining things very well.”

“I get it now,” said Laney. “I’m a Mist faerie.” It felt strange to say it.

“Well, duh!” Claudia grinned. “Don’t get me wet, OK? I don’t like water.”

“But why is this happening in Skellmore?” said Laney. “I thought this was the most boring place on the planet.”

“It
is
quite boring here,” agreed Claudia. “My
mum and dad won’t even let me fly on my own half the time! I had to sneak out of the window last night.”

Laney blinked. She had a picture in her head of Claudia flying out of the window, her pale wings shimmering in the dark. “I’d like to learn to fly.”

“You have to be careful that none of the humans see you.” Claudia climbed on to a garden table and leaned back languidly. “Although people could work out what’s going on if they tried a bit harder. They could totally spot the different tribes, for a start. I mean, have you ever wondered why some people can make anything grow? That’s typical Thorn tribe. And people who dash about like a whirlwind – well, that’s your Kestrel tribe. As for us Greytails, well, we’re the best, of course…”

“Claudia, Laney needs time to take all of this in.” Gwen’s high voice grew stern.

Claudia carried on. “But it amazes me that humans never notice. And – oh! We haven’t told you how many famous faeries there are. Queen Elizabeth the First was a Greytail, but only because her mother, Anne Boleyn, was and—”

“Claudia!” said Gwen.

Laney struggled for a moment with her whirling thoughts. “But…where do you – I mean we – come from? And why do you live as if you’re the same as humans?”

“In the beginning we called ourselves the ‘Fair Eyes’, because only we could see the golden circles in our eyes that made us different,” said Gwen solemnly. “Time went by, and the name became shorter. ‘Fair Eyes’ became ‘faeries’. But the secret of our existence was kept hidden. Any stories about us faded into legend.” She fixed Laney with her gaze. “You must give your word that you will keep this secret, always.”

“Can we tell her the Tale of the First Faeries?” said Claudia.

Gwen didn’t reply. She watched Laney unwaveringly.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” said Laney, wondering who would believe her anyway.

“Be sure you keep to your promise. Bad things will happen if you choose to break it. Now…” Gwen’s tone lightened and her little-old-lady manner returned. “The Tale of the First Faeries, did you say, Claudia? Let me see if I’ve got any Spirit Smoke in the cupboard.” She got up and went down the passageway, returning a minute later with a
dark-blue
bottle. “I haven’t done this for a while.” She clicked her fingers and a long vine dropped down to hold the bottle suspended in the air.

“What does it do?” said Laney.

“It’s the tale of faeries from long ago,” said Claudia. “It’s a great story!”
“It’s not just a story,” Gwen said seriously. “This is faerie lore, part of the ancient wisdom of our people.” She took the stopper out of the bottle and thin grey smoke began to curl over the top. It swayed from side to side and then spread slowly outwards, turning from grey to all the colours of the rainbow.

Laney started to see shapes inside the smoke – mountains and people and trees. She wanted to reach out and touch them.

Gwen cleared her throat. “For hundreds of years, faeries lived in their tribes far away from humans. The Thorns lived deep in the forest.”

At Gwen’s words, Laney saw great green forests sprouting in the smoke. She could even smell the earth and leaves.

“The Greytails ran with packs of animals,” continued Gwen, and Laney saw a pack of wolves running under a full moon. She could almost feel the earth beneath their feet, it seemed so real.

“The Mist tribes dwelled by the water, loving the quiet ways of the pond and stream…” As Gwen’s voice tailed away, Laney saw dragonflies skimming across a river, the sapphire sheen on their wings catching the sun.

“The Blaze and Kestrel tribes had their favourite places too.” At this, Laney saw the dancing flames of a fire and then a bird circling high in the air. She
could feel the wind on her face.

“But as time passed, the forests were cut down and the humans hunted the animals for food. Life became hard for the faeries, so they secretly began to live among humans in order to survive. They learned to disguise themselves, joining in with human ways until they couldn’t remember why they’d ever stayed apart.” Laney watched the scene change as all the faeries’ wings vanished and they blended in with other people. She felt a little sad.

“Although they were hidden, the faeries never forgot what they were and each tribe forged a sacred object to hold the essence of their power. These were called the Myricals and they were very precious.”

The smoke changed colour and formed five objects. There was a wooden arrow, a pale wolf figurine, a slim transparent bottle, a scarred grey rock and a bright mirror. Laney leaned forwards to look at them more closely, but the images faded. Then the smoke turned grey again and curled away into nothing.

“And that’s how we came to be here, living with everyone else,” said Gwen. “That’s our faerie history and that’s how it’s told to each new faerie that Awakens. Although not many get to see the story by Spirit Smoke.”

“Cool, huh?” Claudia jumped down off the table
and stretched.

“But it’s sad, really – the way they had to change their lives,” said Laney. “How weird to have magic power but be forced to hide it…” She stopped, suddenly realising that’s exactly how Gwen and Claudia were living.

“Listen to me, Laney,” said Gwen. “You must not let humans know what you are. This is the most dangerous time. Your powers are completely new and you’re not in control of them yet. Every thought, every feeling, could make something happen.”

“She’s already made something happen,” said Claudia. “She changed the colour of the river, down by the bridge. I bet the other faerie Elders will go mad when they find it. They’re already freaking out about some red moon.”