The Wing Spell Read online

  The Unicorn Princesses series

  Sunbeam’s Shine

  Flash’s Dash

  Bloom’s Ball

  Prism’s Paint

  Breeze’s Blast

  Moon’s Dance

  Firefly’s Glow

  Feather’s Flight

  The Moonbeams

  The Wing Spell

  For Phoenix and Lynx

  In the top tower of Spiral Palace, Ernest, a wizard-lizard, lay in bed under a puffy purple comforter. He stretched and blinked as sunlight streamed through his window. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. And then, with his green scaly hands, he reached over to his bedside table and grabbed a book. In red script across the cover, the title read, Get It Right the First Time: Ten Easy Tips to End Magical Mishaps and Cast Spells with Confidence.

  Ernest flipped the book open to where he’d left a bookmark. He began to read silently from page 38:

  TIP FOUR: Read spells while you’re casting them, even if you’re completely sure you have them memorized!

  Many wizard-lizards insist on trying to memorize spells before they cast them. But attempting to memorize a spell instead of reading it is a leading cause of mistakes. We strongly suggest you read directly from your books while you’re casting spells, especially if your spells often result in magical mishaps.

  “Hmm,” Ernest said to himself. “I don’t know about that. I suppose it’s worth considering. Maybe.”

  Before he could continue reading, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” he called.

  The door creaked open, and in walked a silver unicorn. Around her neck hung a pink ribbon necklace with a diamond gemstone.

  “Princess Flash!” Ernest said, smiling.

  Flash looked at Ernest, still lying in bed. “Did I wake you?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Ernest said. “I was reading.”

  “What are you reading?” Flash asked.

  “Um, nothing really. Just a book about casting spells,” Ernest said, shutting the book and shoving it under his pillow. He slid out from under his comforter and stood, revealing purple-and-white-striped pajamas. “Might I help you with something?” he asked, looking hopeful. “You don’t happen to need any magical assistance, do you?”

  Flash grinned. “It just so happens I do.”

  Ernest’s eyes lit up. “You do?” he asked. “Really? You need help from me?”

  Flash smiled. “Yes,” she said. “From you, the one and only Ernest.”

  Ernest hopped from one foot to the other. “What can I do?” he asked. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it right away.”

  “Well,” Flash said, “did you know Feather is going on a trip to the Wing Realm today?”

  Ernest nodded.

  “The rest of us can’t go because we can’t fly,” Flash continued.

  Ernest nodded.

  “But you know how my magic power is to run so fast lightning bolts crackle around my horn and hooves?” Flash asked.

  Ernest nodded.

  “Well,” Flash said, “doesn’t it seem like if I had wings, I could use my magic to fly just as fast and just as far as Feather?”

  “I never thought about that,” Ernest said.

  “What I’m wondering,” Flash said, “is if you might be so kind as to make me a set of wings. That way, I can join Feather on her trip.”

  Ernest grinned and clapped his hands. “Absolutely! Wing spells are some of the most advanced. And that’s why I’m the right wizard-lizard for the job.”

  “Wing spells are advanced?” Flash asked, frowning. She took a step backward. “Maybe this plan isn’t the best idea.”

  “It’s a marvelous idea,” Ernest said. “I’m thrilled to help. I’m certainly not one to shy away from a challenge.” Ernest spun around and sprinted to his bookshelf. “And I know just the right spell.” He jumped up and pulled a thick black book from the top shelf and set it down on his desk.

  “I suppose we could give it a try,” Flash said. “Can you promise me you’ll read the spell carefully before you cast it?”

  “Of course,” Ernest said. “I always do.” He flipped through the book and stopped when he got to page 178. Across the top, it read, “The 12-Hour Pega-corn: Conjuring Temporary Pegasus Wings for Speedy Unicorns [Most Advanced].”

  “Here it is,” Ernest said. “These wings will last until this evening. They’ll work when you use your magic to run fast.”

  “Perfect,” Flash said.

  “I’ve always wanted to cast this spell,” Ernest said. “Give me a moment to memorize it.”

  “Um, just an idea,” Flash said. “Is there any chance you might be willing to read it while you cast it instead of memorizing it?”

  “No, no, no,” Ernest said. “Real wizard-lizards memorize their spells. And I am a real wizard-lizard.”

  “Of course you are,” Flash said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

  Ernest studied the spell, silently mouthing the words. Then, he looked up at Flash and cleared his throat. He lifted his wand over the unicorn’s head. And, without looking down at the book, he chanted, “Wingedy Springedy Sprungedy Sprore! Make Princess Dash a Friendly Wild Boar!”

  Flash and Ernest waited. No wings appeared on Flash’s back. The unicorn and the wizard-lizard nervously looked out the window for signs Ernest had accidentally cast a spell on another part of the Rainbow Realm. But no lightning tore through the sky, and no thunder rumbled.

  “Oh dear,” Ernest said. “Let me try again.”

  Flash glanced down at the open spell book for a moment. “Ernest,” she said gently, “I wonder if you might read the spell from the book. Just as a favor to me. It won’t make you any less of a real wizard-lizard. And, in case you forgot, my name is Flash. Not Dash.”

  Ernest blushed. “Oh, right. Of course.” He shrugged and smiled. “No problem. I’ll read it as a favor to you. I admit that I do occasionally say the wrong words.” He pointed his wand toward Flash and, looking down at the open spell book, chanted, “Wingedy Springedy Sprungedly Sprore! Make Princess Flash Ready to Soar!”

  Light swirled around Flash. And then two silver-feathered wings appeared on her back. Flash blinked and turned her head to look at them. For a moment, her mouth hung open, but then she grinned. “Oh, Ernest,” she said, “these are amazing. Thank you!”

  “No problem, Dash. I mean Flash,” Ernest said, winking.

  Flash laughed. “I need to go show Feather my wings right away. She’ll be thrilled that I’ll be able to join her.” With that, Flash galloped out of the room, calling, “Feather! Guess what? It worked!”

  Cressida Jenkins, wearing pink unicorn pajamas and a pair of fuzzy unicorn slippers, sat on her bed with her legs crossed and her back propped up against her lime green, unicorn-shaped pillow. It was Saturday morning, and on one side of Cressida lay a large teal tote bag with a black unicorn on the front. Crammed inside the bag were twenty-five books—the maximum number children were allowed to borrow from the Pinewood Public Library.

  Cressida opened the bag and tried to decide which book to read first. After a few seconds, she pulled out Wild Animals!, a hardcover book with pictures of a kangaroo and a porcupine on the cover. She opened the book to the first page to find a photograph of what looked to Cressida like three enormous pigs—except, unlike the pigs Cressida had seen at a farm her family often visited, each pig had two tusks and a body covered in wiry, blackish-brown bristles. Across the top of the page were the words, “Wild Boars.” As Cressida read, she learned that boars are wild pigs that live in forests, where they eat nuts, seeds, acorns, roots, and fruit. Cressida thought to herself that she would very much like to see a real wild boar someday. Just as she was about to turn the page, she heard a high, tinkling noise coming from her bedside table drawer.<
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  Cressida grinned with excitement. She closed Wild Animals! and put the book down on her unicorn bedspread. Then she slid off her bed, opened her bedside table drawer, and pulled out an old-fashioned key with a pink crystal ball handle. The key had been a gift from the unicorn princesses—eight unicorns, each with unique magic powers, who reigned over a world called the Rainbow Realm. Cressida could visit them any time she wanted by pushing the key into a tiny hole in the base of an oak tree in the woods behind her house. Whenever the unicorns wanted to invite her to the Rainbow Realm for a special occasion, the key made a noise like the sound of someone playing a triangle, and the crystal ball handle glowed bright pink and pulsed.

  Cressida leaped across her room and put the key down on top of her bureau. She peeled off her pajamas and put on a pair of yellow leggings with a unicorn print, a blue skirt with pockets, green-and-black-striped socks, and a white T-shirt with a sequined unicorn on the front. She pushed the key into her skirt pocket and slid her feet into her favorite shoes—silver unicorn sneakers with pink lights that blinked every time she walked, ran, or jumped. Cressida skipped out of her room and down the hall to the kitchen, where her mother, wrapped in a maroon bathrobe, read a book.

  Her mother smiled and took a long sip from a mug of coffee. “Good morning, sweetheart. You’re up early,” she said.

  Cressida grinned. “I’m going for a quick walk in the woods,” she said. Time in the human world froze while Cressida visited the Rainbow Realm. That meant that even if Cressida spent hours with the unicorns, she would only be away from her house for a few minutes.

  “Have fun, sweetheart,” her mother said.

  Cressida grabbed two chocolate chip granola bars from the pantry and skipped out the back door. She ate the granola bars in five big bites as she walked across her yard to the edge of the woods. She found the trail that led to the magic oak tree, and once she finished chewing, she began to sprint, running so fast she felt as though she were flying. She held out her arms like wings and imagined soaring through the sky.

  When Cressida got to the oak tree, she kneeled at the base and fished the old-fashioned key from her skirt pocket. Holding the crystal ball handle, she pushed the key into a tiny hole at the base of the tree. Suddenly, the forest began to spin until it was a swirl of blue sky, green leaves, and brown tree trunks. Then everything went pitch black, and Cressida felt herself falling through the air. She sucked in her breath—this part of traveling to the Rainbow Realm always scared her a little. But then she landed on something soft. At first, all she could see was a blur of pink, purple, white, and silver. But when the room stopped spinning, she knew exactly where she was: sitting on a purple velvet armchair in the front hall of Spiral Palace, the unicorn princesses’ horn-shaped home.

  Pink and purple curtains fluttered in the breeze. Light from the chandeliers shimmered on the marble floors. The scents of lavender and cedar hung in the air. And the unicorn princesses—yellow Sunbeam, silver Flash, green Bloom, purple Prism, blue Breeze, black Moon, orange Firefly, and pink Feather—stood together in a tight circle in the center of the room. Cressida blinked in amazement when she saw two large silver feathery wings on Flash’s back. She had already been excited to discover what the unicorns were doing that day, but now she couldn’t wait another second to find out. “Hello,” she said, standing up and skipping across the floor toward her friends.

  All eight unicorns looked toward her, and all eight smiled with delight. “My human girl is back!” Sunbeam called out as she danced in a circle.

  Bloom and Prism reared up and whinnied.

  Breeze swished her tail.

  Moon and Firefly both said, “Welcome!”

  And Flash and Feather galloped straight over to Cressida.

  “You’ve come just in time!” Feather said.

  “Feather and I are about to go on a trip together,” Flash said. “Will you come with us?”

  “Please?” Feather asked.

  Cressida laughed. “Where are you going?”

  “The Wing Realm,” Feather said. “All the creatures there have—”

  “Let me guess,” Cressida interrupted, giggling. “Wings?”

  “Exactly,” Feather said.

  “Precisely,” Flash said.

  “Our cousins, the pegasus princesses, live there,” Feather said. “We’ve never met them. But they all have wings! A pegasus is a winged horse.”

  “So we thought we’d pay them a surprise visit today,” Flash said.

  “Will you come with us?” Flash and Feather asked at the same time.

  “Yes,” Cressida said, jumping up and down. She couldn’t think of anything that sounded more exciting than joining Flash and Feather on an adventure to a different realm to meet a family of royal pegasus sisters.

  “Fantastic,” Flash said. “What do you think of my wings?”

  “I love them,” Cressida said. “Will you have them forever?”

  Flash shook her head. “Only until this evening, when Ernest’s spell will wear off.”

  Cressida nodded. She glanced over at Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, Breeze, Moon, and Firefly, expecting at least a few of the other unicorns to look like they felt jealous or excluded. Cressida felt surprised to see they were all smiling and nodding.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Sunbeam said. “It’s true that at first we were really jealous of Flash.”

  “I was so jealous I didn’t want her to go unless I could join them,” Prism admitted.

  Bloom and Breeze nodded.

  “But just now, we were all talking about how we felt,” Moon explained.

  “We decided that if Flash’s wings work well enough that she can go on this trip, we’ll ask Ernest to magically make wings for the rest of us,” Sunbeam said.

  “And then we’ll all go on a trip together,” Moon said.

  “I’ve even asked the bookworms in the Shimmering Caves to make books for the Glow Library about good places for unicorns to go on vacation,” Firefly said.

  “Now we’re happy for Flash, and we’re hoping her wings work,” Bloom explained.

  “That makes perfect sense,” Cressida said, hoping that if the unicorns went on vacation, they would invite her to come along.

  “Well,” Feather said, looking at Flash and Cressida, “are you ready to go?”

  “Definitely,” Flash said.

  “Absolutely,” Cressida said.

  Feather kneeled for Cressida to climb onto her back. But just then, a high nasal voice echoed through the palace. “Wait! Don’t go yet!”

  Cressida heard the clacking of clawed feet racing along a hallway. And then Ernest burst into the front hall wearing his pajamas. “Don’t worry,” Cressida said. “We’re still here.”

  “I’ve got just the thing for your trip,” Ernest said, pulling his wand from the pocket of his pajama shirt. “I’ve been so busy practicing this spell I didn’t have time to get dressed this morning.”

  Cressida laughed and braced herself for a magical mishap.

  Ernest cleared his throat before he waved his wand and chanted, “Navigably Lavigably Ravigably Glap! Please Make Cressida a Golden Rocket Clap!”

  Light swirled around Cressida, and suddenly, two large golden hands appeared a few inches from Cressida’s nose. They clapped five times and then, in another swirl of light, transformed into a small rocket ship that shot up to the ceiling and zoomed in figure eights around the chandeliers.

  “Oh dear,” Ernest said. “I’ve had rockets shooting all over my bedroom this morning.” He took a deep breath, and then he waved his wand as he chanted, “Rockety Sprockety Sprackety Sprace! Send the Rocket to Outer Space! Navigably Lavigably Ravigably Glap! Now Make Cressida a Fold-Up Pocket Map!”

  Wind swirled around Cressida’s hand. A golden light flashed, and between her thumb and index finger appeared a rectangular piece of paper, folded into quarters.

  A satisfied grin spread across Ernest’s face. Then, he leaned in toward Cressida’s ear and whispe
red, “It’s a map of all the nearby realms. It’s possible you’ll need it when you discover . . . well . . . I mean . . . actually . . . never mind. Please take it with you. Just in case.”

  Cressida smiled and nodded. “Thanks, Ernest,” she whispered. She slid the map into her pocket.

  “Well,” Ernest said, “I’d really better get dressed. Right away. No time like the present.” He turned and, as he sprinted away down the hall, he called out, “Have a fantastic trip, and say hello to the pegasus princesses for me.”

  Cressida, Flash, and Feather looked at each other and laughed. Then, Feather kneeled again, and Cressida climbed onto her back.

  “See you all very soon,” Flash said as she and Feather trotted toward the palace door.

  Sunbeam called out, “Have an amazing trip!”

  “We’ll be excited to hear all about it,” Bloom said.

  “Bon voyage,” Prism, Moon, and Firefly said.

  “Thank you,” Feather said. “We’ll tell you all about it this evening. Hopefully this trip will work so well we’ll be able to start planning our vacation together tonight!”

  Feather and Flash walked out the palace door and along the clear stones that led away from Spiral Palace and into the surrounding forest. Cressida held on tightly to Feather’s pink mane, and, for a fleeting moment, she turned back and looked at the unicorns’ pearly, horn-shaped palace, which glittered in the morning sun. She couldn’t help but giggle when she looked through the window of the top tower: at least twenty little golden rockets were shooting and spiraling across the room.

  “I’m thrilled you can both join me on this trip,” Feather said, as she and Flash turned onto a path that cut through a grove of beech trees. “I love nothing more than having adventures, but sometimes I get lonely.”

  “Thank you for including me,” Cressida said.

  “Yes,” Flash said. “Thank you.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” Feather said. She nodded at the long, straight stretch of trail ahead of them and looked at Flash. “This would be a perfect place for you to take off.”