The Jewel Fairies Collection Read online

  Cover

  Map

  Poem

  The Jewel Fairies #1: India the Moonstone Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #2: Scarlett the Garnet Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #3: Emily the Emerald Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #4: Chloe the Topaz Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #5: Amy the Amethyst Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #6: Sophie the Sapphire Fairy

  The Jewel Fairies #7: Lucy the Diamond Fairy

  Also Available

  Copyright

  A Nasty Nightmare

  Fairy News

  Lost!

  On the Right Track

  The Big Chase

  Rock-a-bye, Goblins

  “Kirsty, help!” Rachel Walker shouted. “The goblins are going to get me!”

  Breathing hard, Rachel glanced behind her. She was running as fast as she could, but the green goblins were getting closer and closer. They were grinning nastily, showing their pointed teeth. Now one of them had grabbed Rachel by the shoulder and was shaking her —

  “Rachel?” Kirsty Tate was leaning over her friend’s bed, trying to awaken her. “Wake up! You’re having a nightmare.”

  Rachel sat up in bed. “What time is it?” she asked. “I had a dream that there were horrible goblins chasing me and I couldn’t get away.”

  “It’s seven thirty,” Kirsty replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Why were the goblins after you in your dream?”

  Rachel frowned. “I can’t remember,” she said, sighing. “But you know what, Kirsty? I have a funny feeling that Jack Frost might be causing trouble again!”

  Kirsty’s eyes opened wide. “Do you really think so?” She gasped. “Then maybe our fairy friends need our help!”

  Rachel and Kirsty shared a magical secret. They had become friends with the fairies! Whenever there was a problem in Fairyland, Kirsty and Rachel were asked to help.

  The fairies’ biggest enemy was Jack Frost. He and his mean goblins were always causing problems. Not long ago, Jack Frost had mixed up all the weather in Fairyland. But luckily, Kirsty and Rachel had come to the rescue.

  “We’ll have to keep our eyes open,” Rachel agreed. “If the fairies need our help, they’ll let us know somehow.”

  Kirsty nodded. “Well, it’s only the beginning of our school break, and I’m staying with you for the whole week,” she pointed out. “So we have lots of time.”

  Before Rachel could reply, she felt a gentle tug at her neck. Both she and Kirsty jumped.

  “What was that?” Kirsty asked.

  Rachel looked at her friend. “You felt it, too?” Rachel looked down and gasped. The locket around her neck was glowing! “Look, Kirsty!” she cried. “Your locket is glowing, too!”

  Rachel and Kirsty took a closer look at their necklaces. Rachel was right! The lockets were glowing with a faint pink light.

  After helping the Weather Fairies stop Jack Frost from mixing up the weather in Fairyland, Rachel and Kirsty had each been given a beautiful locket. The lockets were filled with fairy dust, and the girls wore them every day. But they had never glowed like this before! What could it mean? There was only one way to find out. The girls were pretty sure that another fairy adventure wasn’t far away!

  “Let’s open them, Rachel,” Kirsty whispered.

  Holding their breath, both girls slowly pried open their lockets.

  Immediately, a glittering shower of multicolored fairy dust burst from both lockets. It swirled around the girls, wrapping them in a cloud of sparkles and lifting them off their feet.

  After a minute or two, the sparkles began to fade. Rachel and Kirsty felt their feet lightly touch the ground. They blinked a few times and looked around.

  “Kirsty, we’re in Fairyland!” Rachel gasped.

  “In our pajamas!” Kirsty added.

  The girls were fairy-size and had glittering fairy wings on their backs! They were standing in the golden Great Hall of the fairy palace. King Oberon, Queen Titania, and a small crowd of fairies stood in front of them. The girls noticed that all of the fairies looked very worried.

  Queen Titania stepped forward. “Welcome back, girls,” she said with a smile. “I hope you don’t mind us bringing you here without warning.”

  “Of course not,” Rachel said quickly.

  “You have been such good friends to us in the past,” the queen went on. “We were hoping you might be able to help us again. I’m afraid that we are in trouble.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Kirsty.

  “Let me explain,” the queen replied sadly. “Every year, at Halloween, we have a huge celebration in Fairyland. That’s when all the fairies recharge their fairy magic for another year.”

  “Every fairy in Fairyland parades around the Grand Square,” King Oberon added. “Then they all march into the palace, where Queen Titania’s crown rests upon a velvet pillow.”

  “It sounds wonderful,” Rachel said. She hoped that she and Kirsty would be allowed to watch the parade one day.

  Queen Titania nodded. “It is,” she replied. “And my crown is a very important part of fairy magic. It contains seven beautiful jewels. A sparkling fountain of fairy dust pours from each of the seven jewels, and they join together to form a great, glittering rainbow.”

  Kirsty and Rachel listened carefully, their eyes wide. “What happens then?” Kirsty asked.

  “Each fairy must recharge her wand by dipping it in the rainbow,” the queen explained. “Then she will be able to perform magic for another year.”

  The king shook his head sadly. “But now Jack Frost has ended all that,” he said, sighing. “Two nights ago, he crept into the palace and stole the seven jewels from Queen Titania’s crown!”

  “Oh, no!” Rachel and Kirsty exclaimed together.

  “Our special celebration is only a week away,” the queen went on, looking worried. “So the fairies’ magic is already running low.”

  “The jewels must be returned to the crown before the Jewel Fairies run out of magic completely!” King Oberon added.

  “Does this mean that there will be no magic at all left in Fairyland?” asked Kirsty anxiously.

  “Not exactly,” the queen replied. “Fairy magic is more complicated than that. Some magic, like Weather Magic and Rainbow Magic, isn’t controlled by the jewels.”

  “But the jewels do control some of the most important kinds of fairy magic,” the king added. “They are in charge of things like flying, wishes, and sweet dreams. Some people have already started to have nightmares!”

  Rachel nodded, thinking about her own scary dream. “We have to get the jewels back!” she said firmly.

  “Where is Jack Frost now?” Kirsty asked. “Did he take the jewels to his ice castle?”

  The queen shook her head. “Jack Frost doesn’t have the jewels anymore,” she said. “Come with us. We will show you what happened.”

  Rachel and Kirsty followed the fairies outside to the beautiful palace gardens. They stopped next to the golden pool. Its surface was as clear and smooth as glass.

  “Watch,” Queen Titania said softly, waving her wand over the water.

  Immediately, tiny ripples spread across the surface of the pool. The ripples grew bigger and bigger, and a picture slowly appeared in the water.

  “It’s Jack Frost!” Rachel cried. Tall, thin Jack Frost stood in front of Queen Titania’s golden crown. The seven magic jewels glittered as streams of magic dust poured from them. Laughing, Jack Frost thrust his wand into the magic rainbow, where it glowed like fire.

  “He is recharging his magic,” King Oberon explained.

  Kirsty and Rachel watched in dismay as Jack Frost pulled the sparkling gems out of the crown. He wave
d his wand, and immediately the jewels were surrounded by ice.

  “What is he doing?” Rachel asked, confused.

  “The light and heat of the jewels’ magic makes them difficult for cold creatures like Jack Frost and his goblins to hold,” Queen Titania explained.

  Now Jack Frost was flying back to his ice castle, carried by a frosty wind. He held the jewels in his arms, but Rachel and Kirsty could see that the ice around them was already beginning to melt.

  Jack Frost swooped down from the gray sky and landed in his ice castle. By now, the ice around the jewels was almost gone. The jewels glowed, casting shimmering rays of light into every corner of the icy room. Goblins came running to see the gems. They wore sunglasses to protect their eyes from the light.

  “Stand back, you fools!” Jack Frost roared, waving his wand and casting another spell to cover the jewels with ice. But the jewels were still glowing, and the ice began to melt away.

  “Look, Master!” yelled one of the goblins. “The fairy magic is melting your castle!”

  Jack Frost looked around in rage. Sure enough, water was beginning to trickle down the icy walls, and there was a huge puddle at the foot of his ice throne.

  “Jack Frost’s magic is not strong enough to block the power of the jewels,” Queen Titania told Rachel and Kirsty.

  The girls watched as the goblins began rushing around, mopping up the water as fast as they could. But as soon as they soaked up one puddle, two more appeared.

  “Fine!” shouted Jack Frost, stomping his feet in anger. “If I cannot keep the magic jewels, no one else can have them, either! I will cast a spell to get rid of them.” And he raised his wand high above his head.

  “Oh, no!” Kirsty gasped. She and Rachel watched in horror as a chilly blast of wind tore through the ice castle. The glowing jewels were sent spinning out of the window, where they scattered.

  “See how the jewels grow larger as they fall into the human world?” Queen Titania pointed out. The image in the pool began to flicker and fade. “Because they are magical, the jewels will hide themselves until we can find them and bring them back to Fairyland.”

  The picture in the pool was fading fast. But just before it disappeared, Rachel saw one of the jewels, a cream-colored stone, fall into someone’s backyard. Rachel was surprised to realize that she knew exactly whose yard it was!

  Queen Titania shook her head sadly as the image vanished. “All of our fairy seeing magic is used up,” she said, sighing. “The pool can’t show us where all the jewels have gone.”

  “But I know where one of them is!” Rachel burst out excitedly. “I recognized the yard where it fell!”

  Everyone turned to stare at her.

  “Are you sure, Rachel?” Kirsty asked.

  Rachel nodded. “It was Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s backyard,” she explained. “The Palmers are my parents’ friends. I’ve been to their house lots of times to help my mom babysit their little girl, Ellie.”

  One of the fairies was so excited to hear this that she whirled up into the air. Her long brown hair streamed out behind her. “I’m India the Moonstone Fairy,” she cried, her eyes shining. “And I’m sure it was my moonstone that fell into your friends’ backyard!”

  The little fairy wore a pretty dress with a fluttery skirt. The dress was white, but every time India moved, Rachel and Kirsty could see shimmering flashes of pink and blue. On her feet, India wore dainty white sandals.

  “You must meet all our Jewel Fairies,” said King Oberon as the other fairies crowded around. “Each one is responsible for teaching all the other fairies in Fairyland how to use her jewel’s magic.” He pointed at India the Moonstone Fairy. “India teaches dream magic, while Scarlett the Garnet Fairy teaches growing and shrinking magic, Emily the Emerald Fairy teaches seeing magic, Chloe the Topaz Fairy teaches changing and transforming magic, Amy the Amethyst Fairy teaches appearing and disappearing magic, Sophie the Sapphire Fairy teaches wishing magic, and Lucy the Diamond Fairy teaches flying magic.”

  Rachel and Kirsty smiled at all the Jewel Fairies. “We’ll do our best to get your jewels back,” Kirsty said.

  “Thank you,” the fairies replied.

  “We knew you would help us,” Queen Titania said gratefully. “But Jack Frost knows we will be trying to find the jewels, too. He has sent his goblins into the human world to guard them.”

  “The goblins will have trouble picking up the jewels,” King Oberon continued. “The bright light and magic of the gems will burn them, because goblins belong to the cold, icy world of Jack Frost. Instead, the goblins will probably hide near the jewels and try to keep us from getting them back.”

  Rachel and Kirsty nodded. They weren’t eager to see the goblins again, but they had to help their fairy friends!

  Queen Titania looked serious. “So we not only need your help to find each magic jewel,” she said, “but to outwit the goblins that are guarding them!”

  “We’ll find a way to get the jewels back,” Rachel said firmly. Kirsty nodded.

  King Oberon smiled at them. “And you will have our Jewel Fairies to help you.”

  Rachel frowned. “I had a dream that the goblins were chasing me,” she said slowly.

  India sighed, looking very sad. “Without the moonstone, the fairies’ power to send sweet dreams into the human world is fading,” she explained. “That’s why you had a nightmare, Rachel.”

  “India will return with you to your world,” said Queen Titania. “She’ll help you find the moonstone.”

  “We know we have to look in the Palmers’ backyard,” Kirsty said. “But how will we know where to search for the other jewels?”

  Queen Titania smiled. “You must let the magic come to you,” she replied. “The jewels will find you! And remember, they have grown bigger in the human world, so they will be easier to spot.”

  Rachel and Kirsty nodded. Then India fluttered over to join them. The Fairy Queen raised her wand.

  “Good luck!” called the fairies. Queen Titania waved her wand, and Rachel, Kirsty, and India disappeared in a shower of magic sparkles.

  When the cloud of fairy dust had vanished, Rachel and Kirsty realized that they were back in Rachel’s bedroom.

  “We must get to work right away, girls!” called a silvery voice.

  The girls turned and saw India perched on top of Rachel’s mirror.

  “Yes, let’s go over to the Palmers’ house now,” said Rachel eagerly. She headed for the door.

  Suddenly, Kirsty burst out laughing. “I think we’d better change out of our pajamas first, don’t you?”

  “Good idea!” Rachel grinned.

  “How will we get into the Palmers’ backyard?” India asked as the girls quickly got dressed.

  “We could throw a ball over the fence,” Kirsty suggested. “Then we could ask the Palmers to let us into their yard to find it.”

  “Yes, that would work,” Rachel agreed.

  “Girls, are you awake?” Mrs. Walker’s voice drifted up the stairs. “Breakfast is ready.”

  India fluttered across the room and hid herself in Kirsty’s pocket, and the girls hurried downstairs. “Mom,” said Rachel as she and Kirsty ate toast and cereal, “is it OK if we go out to play after breakfast?”

  “Sure,” Mrs. Walker agreed. “But don’t go farther than the park, and be back in time for lunch.”

  “Thanks, Mom!” Rachel said, getting up out of her chair.

  Kirsty did the same. “We need a ball,” she whispered as they headed outside.

  “There’s one in the shed, I think,” Rachel replied.

  The girls found a tennis ball and headed down the street. Even though it was autumn, it was a warm day. The sun shone down brightly from the blue sky.

  “I hope my moonstone is safe,” India said softly, popping her head out of Kirsty’s pocket. “I wonder if there are any goblins guarding it.”

  “We’ll find out soon,” Rachel replied, stopping in front of a house with a bright red door. “This is t
he Palmers’ house.”

  The house was only three doors down from Rachel’s, on the corner of the street. Rachel took the ball out of her pocket, slipped around the corner, and tossed it over the fence into the backyard. Then she joined Kirsty and India again in front of the house.

  “I’ll knock on the door,” Rachel said, leading the way up the front steps.

  “Let’s hope they’re home!” replied Kirsty.

  Rachel rang the bell, but everything was quiet for a while. Just as the girls and India were starting to give up hope, the door opened.

  “Hello, Rachel,” said Mrs. Palmer, smiling. “And this must be Kirsty. Rachel told me she was having a friend visit this week.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Kirsty said politely.

  “Sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Palmer,” Rachel said, “but I’m afraid we just lost our ball in your backyard.”

  Mrs. Palmer smiled. “As a matter of fact, I was just sitting out back with Ellie. I didn’t see your ball. Do you want to come and look for it?”

  “Yes, please,” Rachel replied.

  “If you don’t mind,” added Kirsty.

  Mrs. Palmer opened the door wide. “Go right through, girls. I’m just going to run upstairs for a minute. Ellie’s in her stroller on the patio, if you want to say hello.”

  Rachel led Kirsty through the kitchen and out the back door.

  India popped her head out of Kirsty’s pocket. “The moonstone is here somewhere,” she cried happily. “I can feel it!”

  “It’s a big yard,” Kirsty said. “We’d better start looking right away.”