Everyone cheered.
Not far away, Sid and Hilda were in their beautiful turquoise palace. At the very moment the stone was placed in the cauldron, things began to go badly wrong for them.
Hilda was stomping around with her big stinky feet turning out drawers, throwing around cushions, peering behind cabinets and tearing down curtains.
“My beautiful royal jewellery!” she cried, black mascara tears streaming down her ugly face.
“I can’t find it! It’s gone!”
“Never mind your jewellery, woman!” Sid shouted, his face red with anger. “All the toilets in the palace have disappeared!” He would have been even angrier if he could have seen the wig on his head which had turned a horribly shocking shade of pink.
The first stone was already working its magic!
Chapter 4
The Obsidian House
Zoe smiled in delight. One stone found already and just four more to go.
“Now,” she said, twirling her dreadlocks. “The stone had the image of a snowflake on it, so that’s the clue to the whereabouts of the next magic stone. Is it snowing anywhere in this land at the moment?”
“No,” answered Amethyst. “It’s a very small land and it only snows in winter.”
“Oh no!” Emerald cried, clasping his head. “We can’t wait until winter. They’re being crowned tomorrow!”
“Calm down, think snowflake,” Sapphire said firmly.
“Snowflake, winter! Snowflake, winter!” Emerald shouted, jumping up and down, tears streaming from his eyes.
“What has a snowflake on it all year round?” Sapphire said, ignoring him.
The group fell silent as they thought about the image.
“The Obsidian House!” Citrine said. “It’s built of snowflake obsidian stone. Let’s go there.”
Zoe followed the others until they reached a large, gloomy house made of dark stone. The air suddenly turned colder and black clouds appeared in the sky. Zoe’s stomach churned. She didn’t like the look of the place one little bit. As they grew closer, Zoe could see the stone was black and speckled with white marks which gave the effect of snowflakes.
They wound their way through the dark, overgrown garden of spiky brambles and strange twisted plants to the huge black front door.
“It hasn’t been closed properly,” Sapphire whispered. He pushed the door open.
Everyone slowly followed him into a dark spooky hallway. Zoe’s legs felt like jelly and she could feel her heart hammering. At the end of the hall was a white wooden door. Sapphire pushed it. It creaked loudly. Inside was a shabby old white kitchen.
“Who’s there?” an elderly voice croaked.
Zoe and her friends exchanged frightened glances.
In the hallway, to their right, another door opened slowly into a dimly lit room and there stood a small, old, red crystal lady in a green and gold dress with a matching headscarf and big hoop earrings.
“Hello!” she said with a smile. “I’ve been expecting you. Do come in.”
They walked nervously into the large living room, which had long faded red curtains and gold framed paintings on brown walls. A dusty black settee and three large matching chairs stood towards the centre of the room around a coffee table.
“I’m Ruby,” the old lady said kindly. “I believe you need help finding the next stone.”
“Y-yes please,” Emerald stuttered. “So, you’re not under the spell?”
“I escaped the spell too. I was away high in the mountains, there was little chance of it catching me there. Do sit down.”
The girls sat down on the settee and the boys and Ruby sat on the chairs.
“Look what I’ve brought with me,” Ruby said holding up a battered old blue kettle.
“Brought it with you?” Zoe said, brushing dust off her dress. “So, you don’t live here?”
“Goodness me, no!” Ruby replied, picking up a large brown cloth bag from the floor. “What would an old widow want with a house this size?” She rummaged around the bag and brought out a chipped china teapot. “We must all drink tea,” she said.
Emerald screwed up his face. “I don’t like tea. Haven’t you got anything nice like lemonade or orange squash?”
“No. We must all drink tea. You’ll soon see why,” Ruby said, hobbling out of the room towards the kitchen.
Minutes later, she returned carrying the teapot. She put it down on the coffee table, reached into the bag again and pulled out six white teacups and saucers.
Emerald looked disgusted as Ruby poured the golden tea. “It’s got bits of tealeaf floating in it,” he snapped.
Each person took a cup. The children pulled faces as they sipped the bitter drink.
Then Sapphire gave his friends a cheeky look. “Was that a knock at the door?” he asked, winking.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Ruby said. “I’ll go and check.”
The moment she left the room, Sapphire jumped up and poured his tea into a nearby plant pot. The others did the same and quickly sat down again.
Ruby hobbled back into the room. “No one there,” she said. Then she noticed the five children’s cups were empty, apart from a few tealeaves dotted around the inside of each one.
“Oh, you’ve finished already,” Ruby said. “You must have been thirsty. Right, well this next bit’s exciting! You see the tealeaves have all arranged themselves into different patterns inside each cup?”
“Yes,” the children chorused.
“Well, these patterns tell me things. I read tealeaves you see. Believe it or not, one of your cups will tell us where the next stone is.”
First, she looked into Citrine’s cup. “Your leaves show me you will receive some good news soon,” she said. “But I’m afraid they don’t show me where the stone is.”
Next, she turned to Sapphire. “You’ve got good fortune coming to you, young man. But the leaves don’t hold the clue to the next stone.”
She picked up Emerald’s cup. “I see danger!” she said, her eyes wide with shock. “Be careful!”
“Trust me to get bad news!” he cried furiously.
“Try thinking happier thoughts and your life will be more pleasant,” Ruby said, patting his brown spiky hair.
“Happier thoughts?” screeched Emerald. “How can I think happier thoughts when you’ve just told me something terrible is going to happen to me?”
“I didn’t say that,” Ruby reassured him. “I just told you to take care.”
She peered into Amethyst’s cup. “I see a wish come true for you, my darling. I think you might be famous when you’re older. Do you sing?”
“Well … sometimes,” Amethyst replied.
Lastly, she picked up Zoe’s cup. “Your cup shows it very clearly,” Ruby said with a smile. “The stone is outside the gates of Sid and Hilda’s palace – just around the corner from here. Oh, and you are also going to be very successful in life! Would you like another cup of tea?”
“I’m alright thank you,” said Zoe, holding back a giggle.
“Thank you for helping us,” Sapphire said.
“Thank you,” the others chorused, rising to their feet.
“My pleasure,” said Ruby. “It’s been lovely meeting you all.”
The children said goodbye and wound their way back through the dark spooky garden.
Chapter 5
The Red Pebble
Soon, the grand turquoise palace came into view. They headed straight for the big golden gates.
“I think I can see it already!” Citrine squealed excitedly as they came closer to the beautiful building. Sure enough, there on the ground was a red pebble. It didn’t look as nice as the other stone. It looked as though it was an ordinary stone painted red.
Sapphire bounced forward and picked it up. It had a poor drawing of a fish on one side, scribbled on with grey chalk. “No time to lose!” he said. “Let’s go!”
They hurried to the big black caul
dron and Sapphire triumphantly waved the stone in the air before throwing it into the magic bubbling water. The moment he did so, a nasty bright bolt of red lightening shot into the air above the cauldron, followed by a huge roaring thunderclap.
“It’s a trick!” Amethyst screamed, covering her ears to protect them from the deafening sound. “You’ve just fed it a bad stone.”
“It’s the end of the world!” cried Emerald, silvery tears streaming down his cheeks.
Suddenly, they heard a horrible cackling sound. Everyone turned around and there was Ruby stood high within the hilly wood looking down and laughing at them. But then she began to change.
Citrine stared at her. “She’s turning white!” she cried.
“She’s growing taller!” Sapphire added.
“She’s looking uglier!” Emerald scowled.
“It’s Hilda!” Zoe exclaimed as the skinny Hilda turned and ran away into the distance.
There was another monstrous clap of thunder. The cauldron burst into flames and the horrible grinning face of Sid appeared in them. But then everything went silent. The smile on Sid’s face crumpled and turned to a ghastly look of horror as the cauldron spit the red stone out. It shot into the air and exploded like a firework. The cauldron had rejected the stone.
“Hooray!” the children cheered.
When Zoe had calmed down a little, something occurred to her. “Wait a minute,” she said. “What stones were we meant to find?”
“Well, there’s the rose quartz,” Amethyst said.
“And what colour is that?” Zoe asked.
“Pink,” Amethyst replied. “And then there’s a tigers eye – a stripy brown and gold stone. The sodalite – a blue stone.”
“And a diamond,” Citrine added.
“Ok,” said Zoe. “So Quartz never mentioned a red stone?”
“No,” the others chorused, realizing their mistake.
That messy fish drawing was probably meant to be a herring,” Zoe said, flicking her dreadlocks out of her face. The stone was a red herring! It was put there to throw us off the trail.”
“She must have been around when we said we were going to the Obsidian House,” Citrine said. “She must have heard and rushed there ahead of us in disguise.”
The bloodstone would have given her the power to change her looks,” Sapphire said sadly.
“I should have known she was lying when she told me I’d be a famous singer,” Amethyst said. “I can’t sing for toffee!”
“Neither can most pop stars,” Emerald hissed. “Thank goodness the bit about me being in danger was a lie too. Nasty old hag!”
“What do we do now?” Citrine asked, her forehead crinkled with worry.
“Think back to the snowflake,” Zoe said. “Where else around here can a snowflake be seen?”
“I know!” exclaimed Sapphire, grinning. “Frosty’s Ice Cream parlour at the beach.”
Chapter 6
At the Beach
Zoe felt warm and happy as the excited crew arrived at the beach. It was beautiful. The sand looked like gold dust with little pink and blue pearly shells scattered across it. The foamy waves swished over it and gently rolled away again, sparkling in the afternoon sun.
She spotted Frosty’s Ice Cream Parlour – a white hut with a blue snowflake on the front. They hurried to the parlour. The door was shut and on it was a sign which read ‘Closed.’ Then Emerald’s charm, which was shaped like a key, began to glow.
“My turn! My turn!” he cheered, jumping on one foot and then the other as he waved his skinny little arms in the air. He pressed his pointy nose against the gleaming glass door and peered inside. “It’s there on the counter,” he declared. “It’s the blue stone. It’s the sodalite!”
As Emerald put his key in the lock, Zoe picked up a discarded newspaper from the ground and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Every article in it was about Sid and Hilda. Sid and Hilda have beans on toast for breakfast. Hilda paints her fingernails purple. Sid goes shopping for new shoes. Hilda wins her tenth beauty competition. New TV delivered to Sid and Hilda’s palace.
“This is crazy,” Zoe scowled. “Everyone sounds totally in love with them. Hilda winning beauty competitions? She’s the ugliest woman ever!”
“No one reports real news anymore,” Citrine sighed. “It’s all silly stuff about them. The spell is extremely powerful.”
“It must be!” Zoe said, feeling sick. “People really enjoy reading about what they have for breakfast? That’s mad!”
“It’s worse than that,” Citrine replied. “If people read Sid and Hilda had beans on toast for breakfast, they copy and have beans on toast for breakfast the next day. It’s totally bonkers! Everyone’s walls are covered from top to bottom with Sid and Hilda posters too. Can you believe it?”
“No, I can’t!” exclaimed Zoe. Her mind spinning like a washing machine, as she tried to process all the ridiculous information she had just heard.
Suddenly, Amethyst’s jaw dropped in horror.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “It’s them!”
Zoe turned around and felt her heart sink to her shoes as she saw Sid and Hilda approaching.
The children rushed into the ice cream parlour and hurried towards Emerald, who was stood by a potted palm tree admiring the blue magic stone he had just found.
“Emerald!” Amethyst said. “Sid and Hilda are here.”
The stinky couple ambled up to the counter.
“We want coffee,” said Sid rudely.
“We don’t work here!” Emerald snapped.
“This place is closed,” Citrine said. “You’ll have to come back another time.”
“How dare you!” Hilda shouted. “When we ask for coffee, you give us coffee!”
The dirty pair sat themselves down at one of the white tables, looking at the children in disgust, as though they were something a dog had left behind on the pavement.
“We want our coffee extra hot!” Hilda screeched. “Get it now!”
“We’ve already told you this place is closed!” Sapphire exclaimed.
“Coffee isn’t meant to be drunk very hot!” Zoe said in anger. “My gran owns a café. If anyone comes in ordering her staff around she throws them straight out. She won’t tolerate rude people like you!”
“Children!” Emerald snapped. “You heard these lovely people. If they want coffee, we make it for them!”
The children stared at Emerald in amazement.
“You’re joking, right?” said a wide eyed Sapphire.
“No,” Emerald replied. “We are here to serve these lovely people.”
“Quite right!” said Hilda, smiling her silly smile.
“Emerald’s gone mad!” said Sapphire.
Citrine crept over to the corner of the room and beckoned Zoe, Sapphire and Amethyst over.
“The blue stone,” she whispered. “It must have bewitched him. I think he’s fallen under their spell!”
Zoe’s heart skipped a beat. “No!” she said.
“How are we going to succeed now one of us has fallen under their spell?” Amethyst asked.
“I don’t know,” replied Citrine, her bottom lip quivering as she held back tears.
The children stood open-mouthed as Emerald made the coffees for the vile humans. He carried two steaming hot cups over to the table. The horrid pair didn’t even thank him.
They picked up their cups at the same time as each other. They both took one sip and their faces screwed up so badly that they looked uglier than ever.
“Aaaaiiiiieeeee!” they screamed, running from the parlour as fast as their elderly legs could carry them. Everyone watched as they jumped into the sea and began drinking the sea water.
The children turned around and looked at Emerald, who was rolling on the floor laughing.
Zoe felt a glimmer of hope. “So…” she said slowly. “You’re not really under the spell?”
“Of course not,” Emerald said. “When they
asked for extra hot coffee I spied this behind the counter and had an idea.”
He held up a bottle which contained bright orange liquid.
His friends looked at the label and burst into fits of giggles.
“Hot pepper sauce!” Emerald said, grinning from ear to ear. “Even one drop of this stuff is horribly hot and I poured loads of it into each cup!”
“Well done, buddy!” said Sapphire, his dark eyes sparkling.
The children stepped out of the ice cream parlour. Emerald held the blue stone in the air like a little trophy. “Let’s get moving!” he said.
Chapter 7
Fun and Excitement
They made their way once more to the big black iron cauldron in the woods. Emerald proudly popped the stone inside it. Immediately, orange and blue swirling steam from the two magic stones it now contained danced and tumbled around as the children watched in awe.
Poor Hilda and Sid! Now both stones were working their magic.
They had just arrived home in time to watch a TV show about themselves called ‘The Beautiful People.’ Sid plonked himself down on the new blue velvet sofa with a plate of gooey chocolate spread sandwiches. He ripped them up and pushed them into the small hole in his mouth, chewing like a chipmunk.
“Lovely me! I am so lovely!” Hilda said, smiling her silly smile as she watched herself strutting about on the television.
Suddenly, there was a pop and a flash and the screen went blank. Sid threw down his empty plate and stood up, smearing the new sofa with chocolate spread from his mucky hands.
He thumped and kicked the television. “Stupid thing!” he yelled, straightening his curly wig.
“I was enjoying watching my pretty face,” Hilda cried. “Make it work again!”
“I’m trying!” he screamed, his face turning purple with rage.
“Get one of the silly crystal folk!” demanded Hilda. “Grab one off the street. They are here to do our jobs for us. Make them fix it.”
Sid ran outside the palace and called out “Idiots! Idiots! We want our telly fixing.” There was no one about. The crystal folk who, yesterday, had crowded round the palace only too happy to be called as servants, were not around. It seems the vile couple were beginning to lose some of their power now two magic stones had been found.
“But my pretty face,” said Hilda. “I want to see it.”
“Go and look in the mirror then!” Sid shouted at the top of his rough voice.
Hilda walked across the grand red carpeted room to her big oval gold framed mirror. She flicked back her messy dark hair as she admired her reflection.