First Printed in 2011
This is a work of fiction—any resemblance to actual people living or dead is coïncidental
2011
*AN: This story was cowritten with my sister, so I can take full responsibility (or blame) for it. It is a crossover with the children's book series, 'Stardust' by Linda Chapman, but please, don't let the fact that there are fairy's fluttering around put you off, this story is at it's heart a MidSomer Murders story, with as much death and intrigue (in our opinion anyway) as any of the episodes. We hope you enjoy it.
PROLOGUE
It was a dull night in Devon. Thick dark clouds mostly obscured the almost full moon, and a chilling breeze blew across the countryside. Most people by this time were in bed, but just outside the second story windows of two neighbouring houses, a slight shimmer betrayed the fact that not all were...
With a light sparkling, one of the shimmers coalesced to form the image of an eleven year-old girl with curly blond hair and a mischievous grin. "Hi Lucy!" Called the girl, flying over to meet her best friend.
The second shimmer also failed with a slight sparkle, revealing an auburn haired girl of about the same age. "Hi, Allegra." Returned Lucy, "How did the shopping go today?"
Allegra giggled. "Fine." She said, "But you should have seen the list that Joanna gave Xanthe and me!" Joanna was the mother of one of their good friends, for many weeks now she had been one of the main organizers for a wildlife and nature promotional festival, and to the general amusement of Lucy, Allegra and their friends, had become increasingly harried over the past few weeks.
"Long would be an understatement for it!" Continued Allegra, "It took up three whole pages! And Joanna was doing that much again herself!"
"Oh, well. I guess it's a big thing for her—she's never done anything like this before." Lucy commented.
"I guess." Conceded Allegra. She looked up at the sky scrutinisingly and shivered. "There's a strange feel to the air tonight, isn't there?" She stated, quietly.
"Yeah, there is." Lucy agreed, "It's almost like... Oh, I don't know what! But it's certainly not a good feeling."
"Mmm, I know what you mean..."
The two of them once again eyed the racing clouds above.
The two girls were anything but normal children; inherited from the four Royal Stars, Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut, they possessed the power to turn into magical spirits during the night. There were large but secret groups of people all over the world that met in woods, plains and beaches by night as 'Stardust Spirits', so called because of their ability to use the magic from the stars.
Allegra's mother was a Stardust Spirit as well, and the unofficial leader of their local group, for though she was only young, her powers were far greater than most could even hope of achieving. Joanna and her daughter Robyn were also Stardust Spirits, and it was through their group that the Wildlife Fair had first been conceived. For the Stardust Spirits, in return for their powers had dedicated themselves to repairing damage to nature caused by humans.
But due to their affinity with nature, and their magic besides, they were acutely attuned to nature, and the current weather sent a clear message to all that could read it: 'something was wrong'.
"C'mon." Said Allegra presently, "Maybe the others know more about it."
"Maybe..." Repeated Lucy, but she doubted it. "Let's go then." With simultaneous shimmers, they both disappeared from view again, and only a slight distortion of the air betrayed their position as they soared away from their houses and over the woodlands behind them.
It was raining by the time that they reached the glade in the middle of the forest where their Stardust community met. With their hair plastering itself to their faces, and the usually ethereal petals of their dresses sticking to their bare legs.
Seeing a girl of their own age standing beneath a dense fir tree at the side of the glade, Lucy and Allegra flew down to her, landing just a few feet away. "Hi Lucy, Hi Allegra." the girl said, blowing a lock of blonde hair out of her face.
"Hey Faye." Returned Lucy and Allegra as they tried to wring themselves out a little. "Are the other's not here yet?" Added Lucy.
"No, they're just over there, finding out what we're supposed to be doing tonight." Said Faye, grinning at the two's attempts to dry themselves off.
"Why are you still dry?" Grumbled Allegra as she gave up wringing her hair.
"I just used my winter powers to stop the rain from falling on me." Faye answered, half gesturing at her ice blue dress as their other two friends joined them.
Each Stardust Spirit belonged to a different season, and drew their power from a different Royal Star.
Faye, a Winter Spirit, drew her power from the Fomalhaut and was clothed in a dress of Bright blue. Allegra, shared her association with Antares, the autumn Star, and was dressed in silver for the wind. The two new comers, Ella and Robyn, were dressed in green and gold respectively, Ella for the spring, and for Aldebaran, and Robyn for the summer star; Regulus.
Lucy had once been a Summer Spirit as well, but last year, she and her friends had been captured by evil spirits, who had craved Lucy's unusually strong powers for themselves. They had tried to channel the magic of the four stars through her, seeking to give themselves access to all four seasons' powers, but in the end, their efforts had backfired, and Lucy had instead gotten the access to the four seasons, and the Evil ones, with their leader dead from the uncontrollable magic had fled.
Now Lucy, while she still had an affinity for summer magic, was able to use the other three branches of Stardust magic as well. Though not to the same standard as her friends could, and she still found rain, the basic winter magic, particularly hard to control.
"Hi guys," Said Ella brightly. Robyn grumbled the greeting.
"What's the matter?" Asked Lucy in surprise of the stony grumble.
Robyn exploded, "My Mum's the problem!" she fumed, "Honestly! She's in such a state with this festival that it's ridiculous!"
Ella giggled. "What's happened now?" Asked Faye.
"It's awful!" She grumbled "Apart from making me ask you whether or not you're coming tomorrow—as if I haven't been told to do that a few million times before!—she's asked us to go and check on the river tonight—"
"That doesn't sound so bad." Allegra commented, interrupting Robyn's diatribe.
"Well no... But that's not the end of it! She wants us to be back within an hour so that we 'don't get to worn out for tomorrow'!" Robyn whinged.
"Hullo, girls." Greeted Joanna as she flew up behind them. The five girls jumped.
"Hi, Joanna," Said Allegra brightly, recovering quickly.
"We were just talking about what we're going to do tonight." Chimed in Faye, "And also about the festival tomorrow of course."
Joanna beamed, "Ahh, excellent, so you're all coming then?"
Faye, Ella, Allegra and Lucy all nodded; Robyn behind her mum buried her head in her hands. Joanna looked pleased, "I'm glad about that." She said, before turning to Robyn who only just snapped to attention in time. "Now remember, I want you back within the hour. Any problems that can't be fixed within that time; come and tell us about okay!"
"Yes, Mum." Robyn sighed wearily.
"Come on! Let's go get 'em!" Shouted Allegra as she took to the air, "Last one to the river is stripped like a badger!"
"That doesn't make any sense!" Shouted Ella after her as the other four took off.
"I know!" Grinned Allegra as she somehow managed to soar ahead of them backwards, "I was pretending to be Australian, none of their sayings make any sense!"
"You'd better worry more about where you're going." Called Lucy just before Allegra got cleaned up by a tree. With a startled shriek, she managed to avoid going further than bumping a few branches, but in the time it took for her to right herself, everyone else had sailed past and crossed the line of the river.
"So whatever a stripped badger is—Allegra is one of them." Grinned Robyn.
Allegra 'hmphed' and said nothing. The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, they patrolled up and down the river, and removed a large mattress that had disrupted the rain swollen flow quite badly, before regrowing some damaged undergrowth. They watched the otter's frolic in the water for a few minutes, and then they flew back to the clearing.
"Where have you been!" Cried Joanna as they flew back into the clearing, talking amongst themselves about their night's adventures. Upon hearing Joanna's voice they sprang to attention, "You've been gone for ages! I was about to come looking for you!" She ranted.
"Sorry." Ella said placating, "We must have lost track of time."
Joanna's face softened, "Never mind, you're here now, how was everything?"
"Fine." Said Ella, giving a brief report on what they had done.
"Hmm, well it seems like you've had a productive evening." Joanna decreed.
"Yeah, it's been a strange one though," Said Lucy, "Has anyone else noticed the strange feeling that's been around tonight?"
"Yeah," Added Allegra, "It's been really odd."
"Unsettling." Said Faye astutely.
"What's the matter?" Asked Xanthe flying up to them after evidently arriving while they were gone.
"There's that really weird feeling in the air." Said Lucy, "We've been wondering about it.
Xanthe looked a little surprised, "You're right, it's rather an unfriendly feeling," She said, "But it's very subtle—I'm surprised you girls noticed it."
"Well I didn't." Conceded Joanna, "But then I've been concerned about the Festival tonight."
"And every other night for the past two weeks." Muttered Robyn beneath her breath.
"Speaking of which, you'd better be heading back to bed girls!" Noted Joanna happily.
"What!" Exploded Robyn, "But it's only early!"
"You don't want to be tired and cranky for the festival, do you?" Frowned Joanna.
"We've never been to bed this early though!" Argued Allegra who also looked mutinous, Lucy agreed, as did Faye and Ella.
"But, you—" Started Joanna, but Xanthe soothingly cut across, "Maybe they can just play quietly around here." She suggested, "I'm sure they won't wear themselves out too much."
Lucy shot Xanthe a grateful look but Allegra and Robyn still didn't look particularly impressed. It seemed to be an acceptable compromise to Joanna though who grudgingly agreed to it "On the condition that you do all go to bed early."
"Sorry." Whispered Xanthe to the girls as Joanna walked away, "I'm afraid that Jo gets like this when she's fixated on something. If you can just wait it out 'till the end of the festival, things'll go back to normal... Promise..." She shot a smile at them before going off to rescue Faye's sister, Lizzie, and her friends who had managed to do something to raise the ire of Joanna in the sixty or so seconds that she had gone off alone.
"Anyone else get the feeling that Xanthe's running damage control at the moment?" Asked Allegra with a slight smile. Lucy nodded.
"Well c'mon, if we're confined to the clearing here, we might as well make the best of it... You're it!" Cried Allegra, tagging Faye and then shooting off into the sky. The three other girls took to the air with shrieks of fun, and a second later the five of them had forgotten all about their grievances with the festival the next day, as they soared through the dripping trees in an entertaining game of tick.
At one end of the main street, slightly apart from the terrace buildings that made up the line of shops, a small brick building stood innocuously, a fading sign hanging over the door proclaimed to be 'Star Insurance'.
At this hour of the night, the whole village was still, and the main street, though well-lit through the centre, was covered by shadows up past the end of the row where Star Insurance was, and so a cloaked person darting from one shadow to another went by completely undetected.
The person crept up along the side of the building, carefully feeling along the window ledges as they went until at last, finding whatever they were looking for, they stopped.
The sudden ringing of the church bells scared the life out of the becloaked figure, until they remembered that the chimes were automated. As the counting toll rang out for the second time, the figure raised their arm back and struck the window with a large rock that they had picked up from the window still, the large reverberating ring from the charge almost completely blocking the sound of the breaking glass.
Now far more confident, the intruder entered through the window, and disappeared into the shadows within the building.
M I D S O M E R
M U R D E R S
Murder by Stardust