Stardust Read Online Free PDF

to dive upwards, but Allegra shot out her hand. ‘Wind be with me!’
    A breeze blew straight at Ella. She gasped as it threw her towards Allegra who instantly ticked her. ‘Got you!’ Allegra grinned.
    Ella and Allegra raced towards Lucy, Faye and Robyn. Faye darted through the trees. Ella pointed her hand. ‘Ivy grow!’ Immediately a thick curtain of ivy curled from the branches.
    Faye flew straight into it. She turned and tried to escape, but she was too late. Ella and Allegra dived at her. ‘Tick!’ they shouted.
    Faye giggled and joined them in the hunt for Lucy and Robyn. They dived at Robyn, but she swung round in a circle, lighting a fire as she went so it blazed uparound her. The three girls gasped and stopped, then dived at Lucy instead.
    â€˜Shield be with me!’ Lucy cried, throwing out her hand, but to her surprise nothing happened. For a second the air did shimmer, but then the magic seemed to block inside her and the shield didn’t form.
    Allegra, Ella and Faye all pulled up in surprise.
    â€˜My magic’s not working,’ Lucy said. She swung round. There were a few older stardust spirits watching them play their game, but no dark spirits or anything suspicious.
    â€˜What’s happening?’ Robyn let her fires die down and flew over.
    â€˜My magic didn’t work,’ Lucy said. She saw Robyn glance quickly at Joanna.Joanna smiled brightly. ‘Everything OK, girls?’
    â€˜No,’ Allegra said anxiously. ‘Lucy’s magic isn’t working.’
    Joanna frowned. ‘Try something else.’
    Lucy pointed at the ground. ‘Fire be with me!’ A fireball hit the ground and exploded in a shower of sparks.
    â€˜Seems all right now,’ Joanna commented.
    Lucy stared at the ground in astonishment. Her magic was fine again. But why hadn’t it worked before?
    â€˜That’s weird,’ Allegra said.
    â€˜Yeah,’ Ella said. ‘Maybe you just didn’t do something right before, Lucy.’ She turned to Robyn. ‘Your circle of fire was cool though.’
    â€˜Really good,’ Faye agreed.
    â€˜Thanks,’ Robyn said, but she didn’t look very happy. She glanced at her mum.
    Joanna smiled brightly. ‘I have some time free now, Lucy. Would you like to try travelling with an animal again?’
    â€˜Yes, please,’ Lucy said although she still felt disturbed by what had just happened. She never got things wrong. It had been the same feeling as the other night, as if something was blocking her.
Or someone
, she thought, glancing uneasily into the shadows of the trees.
    â€˜Let’s try an otter this time,’ Joanna suggested. ‘They are wonderful to travel with.’
    They flew to the riverbank. Watched over by Joanna, Lucy let her mind become one with the otter’s. Shetravelled with the otter across the bank and into the fast-flowing water. She felt its joy as it raced down the stream, felt the jolt as its strong jaws snapped shut around a fish. Her thoughts merged with the otter’s – she could see the cosy dark of the holt, watch the two contented otter cubs curled in a nest, smell the comforting warm scent of the damp earth.
    â€˜That was amazing!’ she said when she left the otter’s mind.
    Joanna smiled at her. ‘You’re a very quick learner, Lucy. It takes most people a long time to learn how to use their powers to travel with an animal. Well done.’
    The pride Lucy felt at Joanna’s words didn’t completely cancel out the anxietyshe was feeling about what had happened before. OK, not being able to put up a shield while playing tick was nowhere near as big a thing as not being able to channel power when the others stardust spirits needed it, but it had still freaked her out.
    When they got back to the clearing, she went to talk to Xanthe about it. ‘It can’t have been a dark spirit,’ Xanthe said. ‘Not while you