Starfell: Willow Moss and the Lost Day. Dominique Valente

      

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019

      Published in this ebook edition in 2019

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      Text copyright © Dominique Valente 2019

      Illustrations copyright © Sarah Warburton 2019

      Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      Dominique Valente and Sarah Warburton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008308391

      Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008308414

      Version: 2020-08-28

       For Catherine, who loved it first, to Helen for helping to make a dream come true and to Rui for always believing that it would

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Map

      1. The Girl Who Found Lost Things

      2. A Question of Time

      3. The Monster from Under the Bed

4. The Portal Pantry

       5. The Broom-makers

       6. The (Newly) Forbidden City of Beady Hill

       7. Amora Spell

       8. The Sometimes House

       9. The Dragon’s Tale

       10. The Forgotten Teller

       11. The Lost Spells of Starfell

       12. The Moon Garden

       13. The Midnight Market

       14. The Hag Stone

       15. Wait and Forget

       16. Calamity Troll

       17. The Troll Army

       18. The Witch’s House

       19. Magic in Wolkana

       20. Enough to Make a Kobold Explode

       21. Yesterday Again

       Acknowledgements

       Keep Reading …

       About the Publisher

      

       1

       The Girl Who Found Lost Things

      Most people think being born with a magical power would be a bit of a dream come true. But that’s only because they assume that they’d get exciting powers, like the ability to fly, become invisible or turn an annoying relative into a pig. They think magic is a big feast, where everything is laid out, ripe for the picking.

      However, in the world of Starfell, not everyone who is lucky enough to have a bit of magic up their sleeve these days gets the really good bits – like, say, the triple-chocolate fudge cake. Some just get those wilted carrot sticks that no one really wanted to eat anyway. This seemed to be the unfortunate case for Willow Moss, the youngest and, alas, least powerful member of the Moss family.

      Willow had received an ability that was, in most people’s opinions, a little more magical scrapyard than magical feast. Useful, but not in a snap, fizzle and bang sort of way. Not even a little snap, or a low sort of bang, though there was almost a fizzle, when you squinted.

      Willow’s power was in finding lost things.

      Like keys. Or socks. Or, recently, old Jeremiah Crotchet’s wooden teeth.

      That hadn’t been fun; the teeth had landed in Willow’s outstretched palm, covered in gooey saliva from the mouth of Geezer, the Crotchets’ ancient bullmastiff.

      After the Crotchets paid Willow a spurgle – the standard rate since she was six – Willow decided that an increase was long overdue. She also made a vow from then on to keep a fisher’s net with her at all times to catch the more unsavoury items she was likely to find.

      So, while it wasn’t exactly a profitable talent, it did put food on the table – usually a half loaf of bread most days. Which was something at least. Unless you compared it to her middle sister Camille’s talent. Camille had recently lifted a plough, donkey still attached, off Garron Jensen, with her mind.

      Yup … Camille’s powers were a bit flashier.

      It was at age six, when Willow’s power had finally surfaced, that her father had explained to her that the world was made of different types of people. ‘They’re all necessary, all important. It’s just that some attract a bit more attention than others. There are people like your mother, who commands respect