Star looked about frantically and, with confusion, noticed that behind her the evidence of her quarry had also disappeared. The browns and yellows of the dead grasses were slowly brightening into the greens of spring and the gray and orange of the stormy sky grew blue and clear. Hearing the twittering of birds, she jerked her head around and found not only the birds, but their nests. A pair of cream-colored butterflies flitted across her line of vision. Then, Star saw her. A figure who walked out of the past and into the present by approaching from the horizon. “Mother!” Star called and began to run toward the woman. She was dressed neatly in her pale blue dress with the purple apron that matched her eyes. She swung a fistful of herbs and wildflowers in one hand and waved cheerfully at her daughter with the other. Star could hear her laugh carried on the warm breeze that had sprung up. Her mother swept her up in a hug when they finally reached each other and then put an arm around her. “Are you ready to go?” she asked. “Go?” replied Star, confused. “You goose!” said Mother, “As if the Academy wasn’t the only thing you’ve been talking about for a year! Call Andy and Bella and your father will be along with your things.” As if summoned by the words, Star’s brother and sister appeared at the top of a nearby hill and tumbled down, giggling. They seemed no worse for the wear for all of their adventuring and Star began to wonder if everything had not been some cruel trick.
“What a strange thing to find two wood nymphs and a pair of sprites where I expected to meet my family!” Star whirled around to find her father leading Stew toward them with a cart that carried a trunk so large she could fit in it. He strode merrily toward them with a sparkle in his eyes that Star had not seen in years. He had a red beard that covered most of his face and he looked younger, somehow, than he should have. “Da!” she cried out, using the name she had not called him since she was Andy and Bella’s age. He, too, swept her up in his arms on reaching her and whirled her around. When he finally set her back on her feet, he murmured, “I’m so proud of my little girl.” The party jovially set off toward the Academy, with the morning sun at their backs. West? thought Star But the Academy is east of Parselwood Clearing.
Instantly, Stew and Star’s father began to dissolve. The rest of her family and her surroundings seemed to melt away, leaving wretched beings writhing in agony before her. “It hurts,” whimpered Bella, “make it stop.” Andy tried in vain to push away some unseen adversary and cover his sister’s body. Her mother’s hair was long and scraggly, her dress and apron colorless and worn to rags. She moaned, then looked Star directly in the eye. “Run!” she hissed, “Run now!”
Star stumbled as she turned and, looking up, saw before her the darkest creature she could imagine. A voice that rasped liked a file on a nail came from everywhere and penetrated her skull. “Star,” it whispered seductively, “you can yet free them.”
