The Jewel Fairies Collection Page 9

  “Where did they go?” Rachel asked. Then she looked down at the water and gasped. “Oh!”

  Kirsty stared into the pool. Three goldfish were swimming around her feet. They looked just like ordinary orange goldfish, except that they had extra-long pointed noses and very beady eyes! “The sapphire worked!” she said.

  “Of course, it worked,” Sophie cried, swooping down with a silvery laugh. “It’s a wishing jewel, isn’t it? What a great idea to use it like that, Kirsty!”

  “Thanks,” Kirsty said, smiling with relief. She bent down toward the water. “I hope you’ll be very happy living here, little goblin-fish,” she said cheerfully. The fish darted around her feet, and Kirsty could have sworn that they had grumpy frowns on their faces.

  Giggling, the girls picked up the squirt gun, umbrella, and shopping bag and climbed out of the fountain.

  “Just in time,” Sophie said, settling on Rachel’s shoulder and hiding under her hair as a group of shoppers walked by.

  The girls sat down on one of the benches and tried to look like they were just chatting. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice that they were dripping wet!

  As soon as the people had left the square, Sophie peeked out from behind Rachel’s hair. “Thanks for finding the sapphire,” she said happily.

  “I’m just glad we could help,” said Rachel, shivering on the bench. She looked at the sparkling jewel in her hand. “It’s beautiful!”

  “I know,” Sophie said, smiling. She touched her wand to the surface of the gem, and blue sparks flew into the air. “And now that my wand is full of wishing magic again, is there anything you two would like to wish for?” she asked, waving her wand in the air and leaving a trail of blue and silver glitter. Kirsty and Rachel looked at each other. “We wish we were warm and dry again!” they cried at the same time.

  “That’s easy!” Sophie declared with an expert wave of her wand. Sparkles swirled around the girls and, within a second, their wish was granted.

  “Thanks, Sophie,” Rachel said gratefully, feeling much warmer.

  “Will the goblins be OK as goldfish?” Kirsty asked.

  “They’ll be fine,” Sophie assured her. “When Jack Frost learns that the sapphire has been returned to Fairyland, he’ll come and find them. That’s when they’ll be in trouble.”

  She touched her wand to the sapphire in Kirsty’s hand. The girls blinked as the jewel vanished in a fountain of blue sparkles.

  “It’s safe in Fairyland now,” Sophie said. “And I’d better follow it. Good-bye girls, and thank you for saving another one of our magic jewels.” With that, Sophie flapped her wings. But to Kirsty and Rachel’s surprise, she didn’t fly into the air! They saw a look of concern cross Sophie’s face. She flapped her wings again. Nothing happened.

  “My wings aren’t working!” Sophie exclaimed, astonished.

  “What do you mean?” Kirsty asked.

  “They won’t lift me into the air,” Sophie replied, looking panicky.

  Kirsty looked down at the fairy’s back. Sophie’s silvery wings seemed strangely faint. “Your wings look really pale, Sophie,” she said.

  “Yes, they’re almost see-through,” Rachel agreed. “It seems like they’re … fading away.”

  “Fading away!” Sophie exclaimed. “But they can’t be!” She stared at the girls in horror. “What’s happening? Why can’t I fly?”

  “Maybe you’re just tired,” Rachel suggested hopefully. “You had to fly around a lot to avoid that squirt gun.”

  Sophie shook her head. “Fairies’ wings don’t fade when they get tired,” she replied. Silver tears filled her eyes. “I think I must be sick.”

  “Or maybe …” Kirsty said, thinking hard, “… it has something to do with the missing diamond.”

  “Oh, the diamond!” Rachel echoed. “It’s the only magic jewel we haven’t found yet.”

  Kirsty nodded. “Doesn’t the diamond control flying magic, Sophie?”

  “Yes,” Sophie agreed.

  “Well, maybe the fairies’ flying magic is running low because the diamond is still missing,” Kirsty suggested. “It might not be only your wings that are fading, Sophie. Maybe all the fairies’ wings are fading!”

  Sophie looked like she didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more worried.

  “I think you might be right, Kirsty!” she gasped. “Our flying magic must be running out!”

  “We’ll find the diamond,” Kirsty told her quickly. “Don’t worry about that, Sophie. But how are you going to get home to Fairyland now?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Sophie, looking upset. “How can I get back without wings?”

  “I have an idea,” Rachel said. “We could use some of our fairy dust to send you back!”

  “Oh, yes!” Kirsty agreed. She pulled out the golden locket she wore around her neck. Rachel had a matching one. “Queen Titania gave us these lockets,” she told Sophie. “They’re full of fairy dust. We’re supposed to use it if we ever need to get to Fairyland.”

  “And is there any reason why the fairy dust wouldn’t work on a fairy?” Rachel asked Sophie.

  “No,” said Sophie, grinning now. “In fact, I’m sure it would take me right back to Fairyland.”

  “Well, here goes …” Kirsty said, opening her locket and taking out a pinch of fairy dust.

  “Thanks for all your help, girls,” Sophie said. “I’ll be sure to tell everyone how kind you’ve been.”

  Very gently, Kirsty sprinkled the dust over Sophie’s head.

  “Good-bye, Sophie!” she and Rachel said together.

  The dust swirled around the tiny fairy, and Sophie smiled. “It’s working! I can feel it. I’m off to Fairyland!” she called. With a happy wave, she disappeared.

  “Phew,” Kirsty said in relief. “At least Sophie’s safely back home.”

  “Yes,” Rachel agreed happily. “And so is the sapphire.” Standing up, she put the squirt gun back into the shopping bag and picked up the umbrella. “It’s been an exciting day.”

  “Almost too exciting,” said Kirsty, looking at the fountain. “But now there’s only one jewel left for us to find.”

  “We have to find it as soon as possible,” Rachel pointed out. “The fairies need their flying magic back.”

  Kirsty nodded in agreement. It was awful to think of all their fairy friends, unable to fly. “We’ll find the diamond!” she declared firmly. “Even Jack Frost won’t be able to stop us.”

  Rachel grinned. “Watch out, goblins. Here we come!”

  Off to Fairyland!

  Starlight, Starbright

  A Frosty Encounter

  Fairy Friends to the Rescue

  Danger in the Stars

  Fire and Ice

  Kirsty Tate folded her sweatshirt and put it into her bag. “There,” she said to her best friend, Rachel Walker. “I’m all packed.” She looked at the clock on Rachel’s bedroom wall. “Six o’clock already!” Kirsty groaned. “Mom and Dad will be here to pick me up soon. I can’t believe this week is almost over, can you?”

  Rachel shook her head. “No,” she replied. “It’s gone so fast! But it’s been a lot of fun.”

  The girls grinned at each other. Whenever they were together, the two of them always had the most wonderful adventures: fairy adventures! This week, the girls had been helping the Jewel Fairies find the seven magic jewels missing from Fairy Queen Titania’s crown.

  Mean Jack Frost had stolen the gems. Without them, some very important kinds of fairy magic were running low. So far, Kirsty and Rachel had found six of the stolen jewels — but the diamond was still missing.

  Kirsty frowned. “I can’t help feeling like something’s wrong today,” she said. “I was sure we’d find the magic diamond before I had to go home.”

  “Me, too,” Rachel agreed. “And we haven’t seen a fairy today, either. I wonder if they’re all trapped in Fairyland?”

  The girls exchanged worried glances. They both knew that the diamond controlled fl
ying magic. Because it was missing, the fairies were starting to lose their ability to fly. The last fairy the girls had seen, Sophie the Sapphire Fairy, had fading wings.

  “We’ll just have to find the diamond and send it back to Fairyland ourselves,” Kirsty said in a determined voice. “Do you think we should start looking now?”

  Before Rachel could reply, both girls gasped in surprise.

  “Kirsty, your locket is glowing!” Rachel cried.

  “So is yours!” Kirsty’s eyes widened in surprise. “I think I know what this means …”

  “… Our fairy friends need us!” Rachel finished.

  The Fairy King and Queen had given each girl a locket filled with magic fairy dust. Just a pinch of fairy dust would whisk them away to Fairyland! Last time the king and queen needed their help, when the seven jewels were first stolen, Rachel’s and Kirsty’s lockets also glowed. But why would they go to Fairyland now? There was still one jewel left to find!

  Rachel’s eyes were wide. “What if the diamond isn’t here? What if it’s in Fairyland, and that’s why the king and queen are calling us?” she wondered out loud.

  Kirsty nodded and quickly opened her locket. “Let’s use our last pinches of fairy dust to get there,” she suggested.

  “Good idea,” Rachel agreed. “Let’s go!”

  Both girls sprinkled the glittering golden dust over themselves.Whoosh! Everything blurred into a whirlwind of sparkling rainbow colors. The girls felt like they were tumbling through the air, shrinking smaller and smaller as they spun.

  Moments later, they found themselves landing gently at the foot of a tall, twisting tree. It stretched high above their heads. In front of them stood King Oberon and Queen Titania, with all seven of the Jewel Fairies.

  “We’re back in Fairyland,” Kirsty cheered, “and we’re fairy-size!” She flapped her shimmering wings happily. Being a fairy was so much fun!

  “Welcome back, girls,” King Oberon said warmly.

  “Hello,” Rachel replied, smiling. She saw that almost all of the magical jewels were back in the queen’s crown, glittering brightly in the sun. But Rachel’s smile faded as she suddenly realized that something was terribly wrong. “Your Majesties!” she gasped, looking around. “Where are all the fairies’ wings?”

  Queen Titania sighed sadly. “Thank you for coming, Kirsty and Rachel,” she said. “As you can see, we don’t have any of the diamond’s magic power left. Our wings all grew fainter and fainter, and now they have disappeared. None of us can fly!”

  Kirsty’s own wings trembled as she heard this shocking news. “But … but … we have wings.” She pointed up, confused.

  King Oberon nodded. “That’s because you just used your fairy dust. Its magic is still strong, but it won’t last very long.”

  A fairy with short golden hair stepped forward. She was wearing a white top and skirt, decorated with ice-blue diamonds that sparkled whenever she moved. The girls knew that she must be Lucy the Diamond Fairy!

  “We think the diamond is up in the Twisty Tree,” she told the girls, pointing to the towering tree beside them. “We spotted four goblins here earlier today. Goblins never come into Fairyland unless they’re causing trouble!”

  “Do you think they were looking for the diamond?” Rachel asked.

  Lucy nodded. “They spent a long time arguing over who should climb the Twisty Tree to guard the diamond,” she went on. Her eyes twinkled. “But this is the tallest tree in Fairyland, and goblins don’t like heights. After hours of fighting about it, they all decided to come back tomorrow, instead.”

  “So what should we do?” Kirsty asked, gazing up at the tree. It really was tall, she realized. Its knotty trunk stretched up beyond the clouds and out of sight.

  Lucy hesitated. “Well, I’d fly up and look for the diamond myself, but …” She looked over her shoulder at the spot where her wings used to be. “I can’t,” she finished sadly.

  “Well, then, Rachel and I will fly up there and find the diamond for you!” Kirsty declared.

  Lucy clapped her hands. “Oh, I was hoping you’d say that,” she cried.

  “Thank you, girls,” the queen added. “But please be very careful.”

  “We will,” Rachel promised. “Come on, Kirsty. Let’s go!”

  The girls flapped their wings and headed up the Twisty Tree, while the Fairy King and Queen headed back to their palace. The tree trunk was thick and gnarled, and a tangle of branches stretched out in all different directions. Kirsty and Rachel searched along every branch, carefully peeking under all the leaves and into all the white flowers. The girls knew that Jack Frost had wanted to keep the seven magic jewels for himself, but he had thrown them away when he’d realized they were too hot to keep in his ice palace. Even though the other jewels ended up in the human world, it seemed that the diamond had hidden itself in Fairyland!

  Up and up the girls went. Soon they had flown right through the fluffy Fairyland clouds! “I’ve seen lots of bluebirds and hundreds of silver butterflies,” Rachel said after a while. “But no diamond!”

  “Me, too,” Kirsty called from higher up. “But Lucy seemed sure that it was here somewhere.”

  The girls continued their search, hoping to see a familiar sparkle. Eventually, they found themselves at the very top of the tree — but they still hadn’t seen any sign of the diamond!

  “Do you think we missed it?” Kirsty asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Rachel replied, disappointed. “We were looking so carefully.” She shrugged. “We’d better fly back down and tell Lucy we couldn’t find it, before our wings disappear, too.”

  “I guess so.” Kirsty sighed.

  The sun was setting, and the sky above Fairyland was turning from a beautiful pink to a deep red. Before Kirsty and Rachel had gotten very far down the tree, the sky had darkened further to a purply-blue.

  “Look,” Rachel said, hovering in midair as she gazed around. “Fairyland stars. Aren’t they pretty?”

  Kirsty watched as the twinkling lights appeared in the dark sky. “They’re beautiful,” she breathed.

  “Look at that one,” Rachel said, pointing off into the distance. “It’s really bright!”

  Kirsty turned to look. The star was bigger and brighter than anything else in the sky. “It’s different from the others,” she remarked. “It looks almost magical. …”

  Both girls gasped as the same thought hit them.

  “The magic diamond!” Kirsty cried.

  “It’s hidden in the sky with the stars!” Rachel finished.

  Both girls zoomed toward the glittering diamond, which shone bright white in the velvety blue darkness. Kirsty noticed that this jewel was smaller than the others she and Rachel had found. In the human world, the gems had been as big as eggs. But here in Fairyland, the diamond was fairy-size. It was no bigger than an apple seed — but it seemed bigger now that Rachel and Kirsty were fairy-size, too.

  Kirsty stretched out her hand to grab the jewel as she got closer to it. But just before her fingers touched it, an icy wind sprang up out of nowhere. The wind blew Kirsty and Rachel away from the diamond!

  “Help!” Kirsty cried as the wind sent both girls tumbling through the sky. They couldn’t fly at all! Luckily, they were swept back into the Twisty Tree. They clung gratefully to the branches as the wind howled around them.

  “Where did this storm come from?” Kirsty shivered, huddling closer to Rachel.

  Rachel frowned as the wind moaned through the branches. “It feels like a magic storm,” she said. “I wonder —”

  But before Rachel could finish her sentence, both girls heard a nasty laugh.

  “Jack Frost!” gasped Kirsty as a dark, spiky figure zoomed toward them on a wintry blast of air.

  Jack Frost sneered at the girls.

  “Trying to reach the diamond?” he said. “Well, you’ll never get it. You aren’t strong enough to fly in my ice storm!” With that, Jack Frost pointed his glittering wand to the sky and sent an icy l
ightning bolt hurtling toward the girls!

  The lightning crackled as it shot through the air. Rachel and Kirsty threw themselves out of the way just in time. The ice bolt struck the tree trunk nearby, and frost crystals glittered all around it.

  “Hurry!” Kirsty hissed. “We can’t fly, but we can climb back down the tree. Come on!”

  Rachel followed her friend. “We’ll have to tell Lucy what happened,” she said, clambering down the tree trunk as quickly as she could.

  “And we need to think of a way to get the diamond away from that horrible Jack Frost,” Kirsty added in a low voice, climbing down through the clouds.

  The fluffy layer of clouds seemed to be shielding the air below from Jack Frost’s storm. As Kirsty and Rachel emerged from underneath it, they were relieved to find that the air was calmer. The girls could fly the rest of the way to the ground.

  Lucy was waiting for them there. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Kirsty quickly told her what had happened. Lucy cheered when she heard that they’d found the diamond. But then, when Kirsty told her that Jack Frost was guarding the jewel, Lucy groaned.

  “Jack Frost is much harder to trick than his goblins,” she said, frowning.

  “So what can we do?” Rachel asked.

  “Maybe if Rachel and I distract Jack Frost,” Kirsty said slowly, “somebody else could sneak up and grab the diamond while he isn’t looking. It’s too bad we don’t have any fairy dust left. Lucy, is there any fairy who is still strong enough to fly?”