recently someone else and that after I’ve had the cream and collected the collar, I should come back.”
“Fine!” agrees Swot, winking at Gemma.
“Hold on to us!” cries Swot and the cat lifts her big paws so Gemma can hold them firmly. Nothing happens and the children wonder if Zophenas has fallen asleep. Then they feel the familiar wind under their feet and slowly they rise from the garden, higher and higher, until the white stones, silver streams and pagoda are mere specks below.
“What’s your name?” Swot asks the cat, whose two tails stick out stiffly behind her. “I haven’t a clue!” she replies. She has forgotten the details of her former life as a beautiful woman, although the feeling she should be somewhere else and not flying through the sky with two children, persists.
As they reach the Miasmic Sea, they descend sharply. The cat wobbles on the air currents and almost looses her grip. Gemma clutches her with all her might. Suddenly the scaly heads of four sea serpents break through the yellow crested waves. They open enormous jaws dripping with saliva, to show long white teeth with sharp points that snap and grind.
“A cat! Delicious! Better than children any day because cats are always spoiled and fed on the finest food!” cackles one sea serpent.
“Catch hold of its tail!” gurgles another.
“Pull at its legs!” suggests a third, while the fourth merely licks her horrible lips.
The cat screeches as the second sea serpent bites one of her tails, but Gemma wrenches her free. The third sea serpent snaps at her legs, but the cat puts out long claws that scratch the beast on the nose. The fourth sea serpent rears from the water and stretches rubbery lips towards the cat, but Gemma pulls her sharply out of the way.
The sea serpents start to bellow, then shriek, their hysterical voices echoing across the bad-tempered sea. But they are slow and flounder about in the water when they try to swim fast. Soon the children and the cat are out of their reach.
At the edge of the sea, they descend onto the misty ground. The cat sniffs, smelling no cream.
“Is this a trick?” she scowls, her silver eyes glinting suspiciously.
“Of course not!” Gemma soothes and holds her paws tightly. The cat shivers in the damp and she sees fleeting images of her former life. She sees a splendid kimono, a room with a table of delicacies and a fat gentleman emerges......
But it is too late. Zophenas has heard them approaching and chants the landing spell.
They come down with a bump.
“OUCH!” complains the cat, “I think I’ve knocked my tails out of joint.”
“Let me look at you!” says Zophenas, “ Oh yes, you have two magnificent tails. Now if I hold on to them very tightly, will you take me away from the Underearth?”
The cat screws up her silver eyes suspiciously. “What will you give me?” she asks.
“Oh you can have cream and a diamond studded collar, then you can go back to Japan,” says Zophenas who has heard Swot and Gemma’s promise on the wind.
She hangs on to the cat’s tails and says, “RUN!”
“Ow!” says the cat, “I hope this won’t take long!”
She runs along the ground but Zophenas stays firmly on it.
“It’s no good. This was my last chance and it hasn’t worked.”
“Does this mean we don’t get the Starflash Opal?” asks Swot.
“Seems so. I’m sorry children.”
“Wait a minute!” says Gemma, “Shouldn’t we check Waldo has really died? He may only have dropped off.”
“Mmm. It’s worth a try children, although he didn’t seem to have much life when I saw him. I’ll take the ointment and the two-tailed cat. Perhaps the combination will be strong enough to do the trick!”
They all set out for Waldo’s cave. Gemma braces herself to face the spiders. The cat’s silver eyes can see very well in the dark. They find Waldo singing softly to himself at the end of cave.
“You’re alive!” cries Gemma.
“Oh yes, I only had a nap. I can make it permanent any time.”
“Now I want to try some strong magic that I have heard might help me to the Upperearth,” says Zophenas, “You have your soul - in return can you levitate me and the children to the Upperearth?
“I’m willing to try,” says Waldo.”
“Wait while I rub on the witch’s ointment and hold on to the tails of this cat.”
Waldo blinks in surprise, then closes his eyes.
Zophenas and the children lie down. Zophenas holds on hard to the cats’ tails and Waldo’s deep voice echoes,
“Up, up, up
Above the mist and gloom
To the Upperearth where fresh flowers bloom.”
Slowly, Zophenas begins to rise, helped by the cat, given magical strength by Waldo. Swot and Gemma rise too. They all find themselves in a lush green field with red and blue flowers shining in the grass.
“So, here we are on the Upperearth at last!” says Zophenas, blinking at the bright light. The two-tailed cat blinks too, wondering how far she is from home. Then she remembers her cream and diamond studded collar. Zophenas reads her mind and conjures a huge saucer of cream at her feet and a collar studded with six dazzling diamonds round her neck.
“Off you go and thank you very much!” says Zophenas. The cat grins and skitters away through the flowers.
“I’ve sent her in the right direction, although it will take her weeks to get back to Japan!” Zophenas chuckles.
“Look! There’s our house!” cries Gemma.
“Oh yes, I do remember your house when I was looking for suitable children. And you have proved VERY suitable! You deserve the Starflash Opal. Stand still while I concentrate on raising it from that water over there!”
The children look at a great lake that was not there before; its ripples spreading slowly and silently from the centre as though something stirs beneath.
Zophenas walks to the lake’s edge and raises her arms.
“Rise Starflash Opal
A universe of stars!”
The ripples widen; blue, green, pale grey, and from the centre, the oval tip of a great stone - black with a galaxy of sparkling stars, breaks the surface. It rises; a blinding mass of red, green and orange.
Swot and Gemma watch in awe as it rests at last in sunlight on the water.
“But it’s enormous!” says Gemma wondering how on earth they can hide it at home.
“Don’t worry, I’ll shrink it,” says Zophenas. She walks into the water and uttering enchanted words to the stone, waits for it to slowly shrink until she can hold it in her hand.
She returns to the children and opening her palm, shows them the lovely stone. It might be a miniature, undiscovered galaxy, constantly changing in the sunlight.
“Did you say we have six wishes?” asks Gemma, who already has a good idea what her three will be.
“Yes. That is true but if you don’t use your wishes instantly, the opal will gain in power. If you keep it for two years - you may have twelve wishes; for four years, twenty four wishes and so on. If you do not use the wishes and hand it down to your children, it will be very powerful indeed. But as soon as you use its magic - now or in the future - the opal will vanish.”
“I don’t think we should use the wishes. It’s so beautiful,” says Swot. “And it would be a disaster if it was inherited and the wishes were evil. ”
“There is an alternative. I can take away the deep magic power and leave just enough to help you, even without asking, through difficulties, and you can keep one of the most beautiful stones in the world,” says Zophenas.
The children think deeply. It would be wonderful to have wishes come true. On the other hand, to wake up every day and look at the Starflash Opal, knowing it will help them without being asked whenever they are in trouble, has more lasting appeal.
“Of course one of our wishes might have been that we would never be in trouble,” muses Gemma,” But that would mean not really living life at all.”
/> “You are very wise Gemma,” says Zophenas, “Shall I take away the deep magic then?”
The children nod. Zophenas chants:
Wishes, wishes
join the fishes. They’ll have you for dinner.”
One by one the wishes fly out; small streaks of silver that hover for a moment over the water, then drop through its shining surface.
Zophenas hands the Starflash Opal to Gemma.
“Both of you take great care of it,” she says.
“What will you do?” asks Swot.
“Oh a little enchanting here and a little bewitchment there!” says Zophenas. “You never know, when I’ve had enough, I may need your help to get back to the Underearth.”
“We could have used the opal for that,” points out Gemma.
“No - no. There are much more exciting ways and if I do need your help and you land in trouble, the opal will help you. But I doubt if I’ll return to the Underearth in your lifetime.”
The children know now Zophenas is immortal. They hope to meet her again sometime, somewhere; perhaps in another dimension of time or in a galaxy like that gleaming in the opal.
Zophenas glides away. Once she turns and waves and then is gone, swallowed by the sun. Swot and Gemma - her hand clasped tightly round the Starflash Opal - walk in the other direction, towards their house nestling in the field of flowers.
~~~~~~END~~~~~~
Author's Note
Linda Talbot writes fantasy for adults and children. She now lives in Crete and as a journalist in London she specialised in reviewing art,