Suddenly, a huge crack appeared across the mirror, splitting it in two, then it shattered into thousands of tiny fragments. She covered her ugly face with her long bony hands and burst into tears.
Back in the woods, Emerald stood looking horrified.
“What’s the matter?” asked Amethyst.
“The picture on the magic stone,” he said. “I can’t remember it.”
“Well, you were stood admiring it for long enough,” said Amethyst. “You’ll soon remember what it was.”
Emeralds forehead crinkled as he frowned. “I can’t remember. Oh, goodness me, I can’t remember!” he cried.
“Calm down and think,” Sapphire said.
Ten minutes slowly went by before Emerald finally said “Oh yes, it was a sort of a … like a …”
“WHAT?” the others chorused impatiently.
“One of those round things,” Emerald said.
“Round?” Zoe said. “Tennis ball?”
It was obvious from all their faces that they didn’t know what a tennis ball was. The game obviously didn’t exist in The Crystal World or, if it did, it was called something else.
“It’s round and you go round and round on it,” Emerald said.
“Merry-go-round?” suggested Amethyst.
“Yes!” he exclaimed.
“I know,” Sapphire said, his dark eyes sparkling. “A fair opened this morning on Feldspar Field.”
The children were so excited that they ran most of the way to the fair. It didn’t take long to get there and the first thing they spotted was the merry-go-round. They strolled around in the sunshine enjoying the fun of it all.
About a hundred crystal folk bustled about the busy fair. Teenagers screamed on scary rides, boys and girls threw hoops to win prizes, children munched candy floss and carried big stuffed toys. Cries of fear and excitement could be heard from inside the ghost train tunnel.
“I hope we don’t have to go in there to find the next stone,” said Amethyst, looking terrified.
As they passed a stall with a big blue and white sign which read ‘Super Raffle,’ Sapphire’s charm, which was shaped like a coin, began to glow.
“It must be here somewhere!” he exclaimed, his eyes darting around keenly.
Zoe took a close look at the raffle stall. There were all sorts of prizes - big and small – stuffed toys, games, books, sweets – lots of lovely things. Then she noticed prize number seventy-five – a large and beautiful stripy brown and gold tigers eye stone!
“There!” she said pointing at the glossy gem. “It’s our next magic stone! You can pay with your coin charm, Sapphire. Let’s hope it’s lucky.”
Sapphire touched the charm and a hundred coins came magically spilling out of it. They rolled all over the grass as the children ran around frantically picking them up. Each coin was exactly enough for one go at the raffle. They decided to take turns to buy the tickets in fives.
Emerald eagerly went first. He won a cuddly duck, a pair of pink earrings, a lipstick, a bag of sweets and a book called ‘How To Look Like Hilda.’
Citrine went next, winning amongst other things, a tub of slimy green goo and a tacky ‘Dress Up As Sid’ kit.
All the children kept on taking turns. After the fiftieth ticket had been bought, they had won between them - eight stuffed toys, fourteen tubs of slimy goo, five different Sid and Hilda posters, one lipstick, eight chocolate bars, ten bags of sweets, two pairs of earrings, the ‘Dress Up As Sid’ kit and the ‘How To Look Like Hilda’ book.
With hundreds of prizes on offer, they were beginning to realize they might never win the tigers eye stone they so desperately needed.
Finally, Sapphire used the last five coins to buy the last five tickets they could afford. This was their final bit of hope and things weren’t looking good.
As he opened each ticket, the other children stared at him hopefully, unable to speak.
He tore open the ninety-sixth ticket and won … a wiggly rubber snake.
He ripped open the ninety-seventh ticket and won … a squished chocolate bar.
He sliced open the ninety-eighth ticket and won … a coffee mug emblazoned with a horrible picture of Sid sticking his finger up his nose.
He tore open the ninety-ninth ticket and won … a bag of fizzy lemon sweets.
He opened the hundredth ticket and finally shouted, “Yes! Number seventy-five. The tigers eye stone!”
They all jumped for joy. Sapphire handed the ticket to the orange crystal woman running the stall. She walked towards the magic stone, but picked up the cuddly toy bunny close to it.
“That’s the wrong prize,” said Emerald.
“No it isn’t,” said the woman, holding up Sapphire’s ticket. It’s number seventy-three – the cuddly toy bunny.”
“You said it was number seventy-five,” Emerald said, staring at Sapphire through furious narrowed eyes.
“I thought it was,” said Sapphire sadly. “I was so nervous and excited that I got it wrong.”
Emerald turned to the woman. “Can’t you just give us the tigers eye stone?” he said.
The woman raised her eyebrows. “That’s not really how it works,” she replied.
“How about we give you all the prizes back?” asked Citrine hopefully.
“Yes, and you can keep all the money we gave you,” said Zoe. “We just really like the tigers eye stone. We thought it would make a nice present for someone.”
“But, there are thousands of Tiger’s Eye trees around here,” said the woman. “Why do you want this stone so badly when you can get one for free?”
“Because ….,” Amethyst said, desperately trying to think of something. “Because …. It’s extra big and shiny and it’s got a ballet shoe painted on it. It’s for my Gran’s birthday. She loves ballet.”
“I see,” said the orange crystal woman. “Then of course you can have it.”
She plucked the stone from the display and placed it on the counter. The children threw their unwanted prizes into a large empty box.
“I’ll tell you what,” the woman said. “As you’ve spent so much, you can keep the Sid and Hilda posters. They’re such a good looking couple, aren’t they?”
“No!” cried Emerald.
“I beg your pardon?” said the woman, suddenly looking angry. “They’re the most beautiful people in the universe. How dare you say otherwise!”
“He means no we don’t want the posters,” Citrine said, thinking quickly. “We already have lots of posters of the lovely couple in our homes.”
“Oh, I see,” said the woman, smiling again. “No room on your walls for any more?”
“That’s right,” replied Sapphire and Citrine at the same time.
“Sounds just like my home. Well, ok then. I’ll keep them for some other lucky people to win.”
She handed the stone to Sapphire, who sighed with relief as he tucked the gem into his trouser pocket.
Once safely away from the fair, Sapphire held the stripy brown and gold stone in his hand for everyone to see. Everyone stared at the silvery ballet shoe painted on the stone.
“There was a ballet on at the Agate Theatre,” Amethyst said sadly. “My family had tickets to see it, but then Sid and Hilda arrived and shut the theatre down.”
“That’s got to be it,” Sapphire said. “It’s not far from here. Time’s running out, so let’s hold on to the tigers eye and place it in the cauldron with the next magic stone we find. Let’s go!”
They rushed down the street, round a corner and under a bridge. Zoe’s eyes widened as a beautiful building came into view. It was made of stripy glossy bricks in lots of different colours.
“That’s the Agate Theatre,” said Amethyst.
They hurried down the street and over the road to the theatre. On the front was a poster of a ballet dancer with the words ‘The Magic Ballet Shoes’ across the top.
Zoe led the way to the gleaming glass front doors. She pulled at each one, but they were locked. <
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“Try the stage door!” Amethyst said. “It’s the entrance the actors and dancers used to use.”
They followed her to a red door around the corner. It was open. Everyone crept into the cold, dark entrance lobby. Inside was a counter, behind which stood a chair and a shelf which contained a pile of letters and a coffee mug.
Amethyst opened another door which led further into the theatre.
“All I can see is darkness,” she said, her eyes wide with fear.
“Feel the walls!” Emerald demanded. “There’s bound to be a light switch.”
“I’m not going in there. You go in!” Amethyst replied.
“No!” Emerald said. “You are the one who led us here. You look for the switch.”
“I’ll go!” said Sapphire bravely.
He stepped into the darkness and screamed.
Chapter 8
The Stage
“Sapphire!” exclaimed Amethyst. “Are you ok?”
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I just tripped over something. In fact, I think it’s a … wow, how handy!”
The passageway lit up and there stood Sapphire holding a torch.
“What luck!” he said as he found the light switch and clicked it on.
They followed Sapphire through a glossy black door and found themselves on a brightly lit stage.
Citrine spotted a ballet shoe at the foot of one of the front row seats. “It might be in there,” she said. She hurried down the stage steps and fell over. The others rushed to help her. As they reached the seating, Amethyst picked up the shoe and her charm, which was shaped like a pair of tweezers, began to glow.
All of a sudden, loud classical music started to play. Everyone looked up at the stage, and there were Sid and Hilda dressed in white tutus!
The children watched in disbelief as the silly couple jumped and pranced around the stage like a pair of lead dumplings.
Sid and Hilda stretched out their arms and whirled around and around until they went all dizzy and cross eyed. Then they collided with each other and both fell over. They lay there wiggling their knobbly legs in the air.
Hilda scrambled to her feet and attempted to balance on one leg. She tripped and fell on top of Sid. He pushed her away, got up, stuck out his bottom and did a mad chicken dance. His head moved back and forth as he turned around and around in circles.
Suddenly, without warning. Hilda took off and flew towards the audience, suspended by strings. She grabbed Amethyst, who was still holding the ballet shoe, and flew back onto the stage. Sid and Hilda held her down, grabbed the shoe, and ran off.
“After them!” Emerald yelled, leaping up the stage steps two at a time. The children sprinted after him. They hurried back towards the stage door area, ending up by a staircase. There was no sign of the horrid couple.
Zoe noticed the stairs, which had been dark before, were now brightly lit.
“Looks like they’ve gone that way,” she said, pointing at the staircase.
Everyone shot up the spiral stairs going up and round and round and up. At the top, they reached a long white passageway with lots of glossy black doors along the left side.
The first six doors were all locked, but the next one was open. It led into a dressing room. Inside was a large mirror surrounded by bright light bulbs and there sat Hilda next to it, turning her head this way and that, admiring her reflection.
She spotted the children and screamed. Her hands rose in shock and she let go of the pink ballet shoe which flew upwards and knocked over a vase of flowers which landed on her head. Her eyes turned circles, she went all wibbly wobbly and fell to the floor.
Amethyst quickly grabbed the shoe and the children followed her back down the passageway. They ran down and round and round and down the stairs and rushed out of the theatre.
The light was fading as they reached the woods again. The great black bubbling cauldron looked magnificent outlined against the deep blue twilight sky.
Amethyst popped the tweezers on the end of her charm necklace into the ballet shoe and the delicate pink rose quartz stone came out with little effort.
They took a closer look. On the surface was a picture of a silver bottle.
“It looks exactly like the charm on Zoe’s necklace,” observed Emerald.
Sapphire reached into his pocket and pulled out the tigers eye stone. Amethyst and Sapphire threw the magic stones which landed in the cauldron with a splish and a splash and now the steam was alight with four lovely spiraling colours.
The children watched in awe as the orange, blue, gold and pink display swirled up towards the twilight sky.
Back at the theatre, Hilda and Sid panicked. They were too stupid to remember the way they’d come in and had wandered deeper into the building and got lost. They had now managed to lock themselves in a room full of stage costumes.
“Help! Get us out!” they shouted as they pounded the door. No one came as they were all alone in the place.
Poor things! They couldn’t see what was happening back at their home. There had been a huge explosion when the last two stones landed in the cauldron. The palace was now just a mound of turquoise rubble. The beautiful roses in their garden were all dead, blackened and twisted, and the lush green lawns had turned to sloppy brown mud.
Back in the woods, everyone suddenly noticed Zoe’s bottle charm necklace was glowing.
“So that means the diamond must be here somewhere!” Citrine said excitedly. “I wonder why it’s never glowed when we’ve been here before.”
Zoe touched the bottle charm and blue smoke began pouring from it. She stood there stunned.
“She’s on fire!” said Emerald, leaping about. “Water! Water! Water!”
Chapter 9
A Big Surprise
The smoke kept on streaming from the bottle, followed by a flurry of glittering silver stars. Next, there was an enormous flash. The children jumped in surprise. A black crystal man with a little pointy beard appeared. He wore a red and gold turban.
“A genie!” Citrine squealed in delight.
“Correct!” he said, smiling brightly. “My name is Onyx, pleased to meet you all. I’ve come to take you to get the diamond.”
There was another flash and a gold and blue carpet appeared on the ground.
“We must ride on this,” Onyx said.
“A magic carpet!” Zoe exclaimed.
They all hopped onto the large rug and sat down. Onyx raised his arms and shouted, “Up, up and away to the Land of the Desert Rose and to the Sunset Prince’s palace!”
The carpet shot up into the twilight sky and sped across the sea towards a beautiful pink, yellow and orange sunset. Their hair blew back in the wind as they looked down at the sparkling ocean speckled with little bobbing boats and leaping golden dolphins.
The carpet gathered speed and they found themselves rising higher and higher and shooting faster and faster into the sunset.
Eventually, it floated down and came to rest in a place of endless rippled glistening white sand.
“We’re in a desert!” Emerald said, alarmed. “There is no water! What are we going to do?”
Onyx laughed. “Relax, little fellow. I just need to get my bearings.” He reached deep into his pocket and pulled out a golden compass. But, as he looked at it, the smile on his face melted. “The compass is broken,” he said.
“What now then?” asked Amethyst in dismay.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to rest here overnight,” Onyx sighed.
“But we haven’t much time,” Citrine said gloomily.
“We have no choice,” Onyx replied. “It will take a little time for the magic to mend the compass and the carpet needs to re-charge. However, I can work a little extra magic for you now.”
He closed his eyes, placed his hands on either side of his head and began to hum a mysterious tune. The children watched, half nervous, half excited.
Then there was an enormous flash and a funny sound like popcorn p
opping. The children sat there open-mouthed and wide-eyed as three white tents appeared.
“The large one is for you three girls,” Onyx said. “The medium one is for you two boys and I shall sleep in the small tent.”
Everyone said goodnight and headed for their tents. Zoe was amazed to see the girls’ tent seemed much larger inside. In the centre was a velvety red and gold rug laid with an assortment of fruit and around the edge lay three red sleeping bags. The children enjoyed their delicious feast of sparkly bananas, oranges, apples and grapes. When their tummies were full they settled down to a comfortable sleep.
Next morning, the children were awoken by Onyx calling, “Wake up children, breakfast has arrived!”
The girls were amazed to see breakfast all ready for them in the centre of their tent where the fruit had been the night before. Zoe stretched and yawned and climbed out of her sleeping bag. The girls all enjoyed toast, jam and orange juice.
Then Onyx shouted, “We must leave now. Hurry please!”
The girls emerged from their tent to see a beautiful golden sun rising in a pastel blue and pink sky.
Onyx and the boys were already sitting on the carpet ready to go. They stepped on board and the carpet rose and gathered speed over the beautiful rippled white sand.
Soon they were flying over pink, glistening, knobbly mountains.
“The mountains of the Desert Rose!” Onyx declared.
Slowly and smoothly, the magic carpet began to drop height. They flew over a market where crystal people dressed in beautiful bright clothes and turbans bustled about. They spoke in a strange language.
As they spotted the carpet, a group of people smiled and shouted, “Bananas!”
“Bananas to you too!” Emerald shouted back rudely.
“They’re saying hello,” Onyx explained. “Bananas means hello in their language.”
Embarrassed by Emerald’s behaviour, the others waved and shouted “Bananas!” back to the people.
Then a huge and beautiful sandy pink palace came into view. The grand, glorious building had about a hundred windows. The carpet whizzed towards it.
“We’re going a bit fast,” Citrine said.
“We’re going to crash!” Emerald screamed.
“We’re going right in!” Zoe exclaimed.
Chapter 10