Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE Later that morning the girls headed to the gardens to work out their demonstration for the parents. They were so busy talking that as they rounded a corner they almost ran into Ms Primrose and Ms Nettles, who were standing on one of the paths. Ms Primrose was holding a basket filled with herbs. Ms Nettles looked angry. "Whoops! Sorry!" gasped Scarlett as the unicorns stopped just in time. "Girls! Whatever do you think you are doing? Please watch where you're going!" snapped Ms Nettles. Her glasses rattled on her

thin nose as she gave Blaze and Cloud a disapproving look– both unicorns had tangled manes and tails, and traces of mud on their legs. "Hmm, it's looks to me like some of you in Sapphire dorm should put more effort into grooming and less into talking!" She stalked off. Ms Primrose shook her head. "Don't mind Ms Nettles, girls," she said. "She has a lot on with the Graduation Ball." She reached into her basket and fed the unicorns some watermint leaves. "Here we are. A little treat for the

Sapphire unicorns." They snorted happily and munched up the leaves. "No, no more, I'm afraid, my dears," she chuckled as they looked at her hopefully. "I need the rest of these herbs for my spells." "What spells?" asked Layla curiously. Ms Primrose gave a vague smile. "This and that! These are herbs for a locking spell. I'm always working to keep the academy safe, you know." "How do you make spells, Ms Primrose?" asked Ava. "I'd love to learn." "It's complicated, my dear," said Ms Primrose. "You need to have a unicorn who is a spell- weaver like your unicorn, Sage, don't you, Ms Primrose?" said Layla. "I've read about it. A spell-weaver puts the magic in that makes a spell work– and if you've got a spell-weaver for a unicorn you can make spells that do all sorts of things."

"Goodness, Layla, you're very good at finding things out, aren't you?" Ms Primrose smiled but Olivia noticed an unusually sharp note to her voice. "That is quite correct. Now, girls, are you happy you've been given the lake to decorate?" The others nodded, but something about Ms Primrose's behaviour was striking Olivia as odd. What was it? Before she could figure it out, Ms Primrose said goodbye to them. "I must be off. Have fun practising for the demonstration, girls." "We will!" they chorused as their kindly headteacher hurried away. Isabel had already thought out a plan for their demonstration. "We'll all canter in together and then stop in the centre apart from Dancer, who can fly up into the air and turn a loop-the-loop. That will be a really impressive opening! Then

Blaze can create a circle of fire, Cloud can conjure rain to put the fire out, Star can make flowers grow where the fire was and Rainbow can magic up a rainbow over them!" They started to practise. A lot of the time was spent going through the difficult magical moves and there wasn't much for Olivia and Snowflake to do. "Should we stop now, Isabel?" called Ava after a while. "We can practise more later but if we do too much magic our unicorns will get tired." Doing magic used up a lot of energy for the unicorns. Isabel looked as if she was going to argue but Layla spoke before she could. "Good plan," she said, glancing over at Olivia and Snowflake, who were standing on their own. "Why don't we give the unicorns a rest and go and do something we can all be involved with, like decorating the lake?" Olivia gave her a grateful look. It wasn't

much fun just watching. They headed back to the stables first to let the unicorns have some sky berries. As they rode up to the door there was a loud shriek. Olivia and the others hurried inside. The students from Emerald dorm were there, most of them looking very excited because Cupcake, Delia's unicorn, had just discovered he had finding magic that allowed him to find things that were lost. And Delia's chestnut-coloured hair now had a streak of strawberry pink, the same shade as Cupcake's mane and tail.