The Polar Bear Explorers' Club Read online

  ‘It’s all right, Sparky,’ he said softly. ‘The night is full of good and bad dreams for each of us. I had terrible nightmares when I was little, so my grandmother made me this. Dream-snatchers don’t like the taste of good dreams – they’re too sugary for them – but they go mad for nightmares. Gobble them up the second they arrive, which means they never even have a chance to reach you.’

  Stella looked up at the little dream-snatcher, which was beating its wings so fast that it hovered in the air right over her head, just like a hummingbird. Stella returned her gaze to Shay. ‘What were your bad dreams about?’ she asked, then immediately wished she hadn’t in case Shay thought she was being nosy.

  He didn’t seem to mind though, and said, ‘I dreamt I was a wolf caught in a trap. There was trouble, you see, between the wild wolves and the village where I grew up. Being a wolf whisperer isn’t always fun. In fact, sometimes it’s just no fun at all. Hang it up nearby where you’re sleeping,’ he said. ‘That way you’ll be protected.’

  Stella whispered her thanks, then went to join Beanie in the corner. He wordlessly pushed one of the piles of jellybeans over to her and they sat and ate them together in silence. Then Stella hung the dream-snatcher from the nearby navigational wheel before lying down next to her friend.

  The Polar Bear explorers all drew up the hoods of their cloaks, and the fur linings felt snug and warm against their ears. Looking at Ethan’s bare, blond head, Stella wondered if he regretted not taking Beanie up on his offer to loan him his hat. But, if he did, he didn’t say anything. In fact, no one was in much of a chatting mood at all. It had been a long day. Without another word to each other, the explorers bedded down, and went to sleep.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  That night, Stella had one of the nicest dreams she could ever remember having. She was tucked up in bed, and someone was reading her a bedtime story. At first Stella assumed it was Felix, but then she realised that it wasn’t his voice, and that the hands holding the enormous book which masked the reader’s face were actually a woman’s. She had a delicate silver charm bracelet dangling from her wrist. There was a unicorn charm, along with other charms Stella couldn’t make out properly, and they made a tinkling noise every time the woman moved her hand to turn the page.

  ‘When the first unicorn came to the Icelands,’ she read, ‘it searched high and low for a home of its own where it would be safe from the yetis.’

  She snapped her fingers and, out of thin air, a tiny unicorn made of snow appeared on Stella’s bed, prancing excitedly up and down the covers, leaving little frosted hoofmarks in its wake. Stella clapped her hands together, delighted.

  ‘The unicorn soon found itself in a beautiful ice garden …’ the voice went on, and Stella watched as snow flowers and ice trees began growing up from her blanket, filling the air with the scent of magic and petals …

  But then, all of a sudden, something went wrong. Stella heard another voice, raised in anger. The book dropped from the woman’s hands, and the snow unicorn and trees and flowers disappeared instantly.

  ‘Quick!’ the woman’s voice gasped. ‘Hide under the bed, dear! Don’t make a sound!’

  Stella found herself bundled out of her soft warm blankets and lying on the cold hard floor beneath her bed. Her hands were spread flat against the polished wood, so she felt the exact moment when the floorboards started to tremble.

  That angry voice came from downstairs again, and Stella stared down at the floorboards, dreading whatever it was that was lurking just out of sight below. There was something evil down there, and it was looking for her. She could feel its rage beating up through the floor, thumping like the pounding of a black, shrivelled-up heart. Stella felt a wail of fear bubble up in her throat, but knew that she absolutely must not make a sound. Suddenly, there was a crash from the hallway, and Stella watched in breathless terror as the door handle on the other side of the room slowly started to turn—

  A hand clamped down on Stella’s arm and she sat up with a shriek – only to see that the fingers gripping her shoulder were Shay’s. She realised she was still inside the ship, and the darkness pressing up against the windows told her that it was still the middle of the night. Beanie and Ethan were tucked up asleep in their blankets, but Shay was staring down at her, his long hair messed up from sleep, a shocked expression on his face.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he said.

  Stella nodded. ‘I’m sorry if I woke you.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ Shay replied. ‘Stella, what the heck were you dreaming about?’

  ‘It’s … it’s just that nightmare I have sometimes.’

  Shay lifted his hand and, for the first time, Stella realised the dream-snatcher lay curled on his palm, its wings fluttering feebly. Its beaded feathers were choked full of writhing dark shapes, long snakes of shadowy smoke that twisted and tangled until suddenly, they ripped free, breaking the dream-snatcher apart in the process. The broken pieces fell through Shay’s fingers, the green beads flying over the floorboards. The nightmare shadows melted away like fog.

  Shay and Stella looked at each other.

  ‘No normal dream should be able to do that,’ Shay said.

  He was looking at her as if she might be able to explain what had just happened, but Stella didn’t know what to say. At that moment, Koa padded out from the shadows and lay down close beside her. Stella wished she were a real wolf so that she could throw her arms around her and be comforted by the warmth and softness of her fur.

  ‘I’m really sorry about your grandmother’s dream-snatcher,’ she said.

  Shay shook his head. ‘It’s not your fault.’ He glanced out the window. ‘We should try to get back to sleep.’ He paused, then added, ‘Koa will watch over you tonight if you like.’

  Stella looked at the shadow wolf and felt comforted by the steady dark eyes gazing back at her. But, even so, as she settled back down in her blankets, she felt scared to go back to sleep in case the dream returned.

  *

  Thankfully, there were no more nightmares that night, and when Stella woke up the next morning Koa had gone, along with Shay and Ethan. Stella sat up, and the movement woke Beanie beside her. He propped himself up on his elbows, his dark hair sticking up in all directions. He blinked a few times and then frowned. ‘Was that there last night?’ he asked.

  ‘What?’ Stella replied.

  ‘That chair.’ Beanie pointed into the corner of the room.

  Stella turned to look, and then gasped. ‘That’s no chair,’ she said. ‘It’s a throne.’

  They both stared at it. It was, indeed, a magnificent throne, made entirely from snow, with images of frosties, yetis and polar bears engraved on the back of it.

  ‘Who could have built it?’ Beanie wondered.

  Stella stood up. She knew it was silly, but she had the distinct feeling that her dream had somehow built the throne. She had the almost overpowering urge to touch it. She felt it was calling out to her to sit in it. She started to walk forwards but suddenly Beanie was beside her.

  ‘I don’t think we should touch it,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’ Stella replied. ‘It’s only a chair.’

  ‘I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about it,’ Beanie insisted.

  Stella felt so drawn to the throne. It seemed almost familiar. She reached out to run her finger along the top of the seat, but the next moment the throne melted away, and the two children were left staring at a puddle that quickly froze as it spread across the icy floor.

  ‘I told you we shouldn’t touch it,’ Beanie said. ‘Where have the others gone anyway?’

  Stella couldn’t help feeling irritated with Beanie for preventing her from touching the chair, but she tried to push the feeling away. And moments later she felt a little bit ashamed. Beanie was right to be cautious, wasn’t he?

  Stella shook herself. ‘I don’t know.’ She went back to her bag and pulled out the folding pocket moustache comb. ‘I hope they’re not having a duel or anything.’ Sh
e undid her long hair from its plait, tugged the comb through its tangles, and quickly plaited it again. ‘Right,’ she said, stuffing the comb back in her bag, ‘we’d better go find them.’

  They stepped out onto the deck where it was brilliantly sunny, but still bitterly cold. Stella was glad of the fresh air. The two explorers hugged their thick blue cloaks tighter around themselves, shivering as they fumbled to do up the buttons with their gloved fingers.

  They spotted Shay at once. The wolf whisperer had tied his dark hair back with a piece of leather cord, and was building a fire in the middle of the deck using some broken pieces of wood he must have found inside the ship. Koa lay on the deck at his side, her head lifted to sniff at the early morning air. Shay set the fire alight as they walked over and the dry wood instantly caught fire, giving off smoke that was a little salty and dank, but the warmth of the flames more than made up for that, and Stella and Beanie hurried to settle themselves beside it.

  ‘Hi, folks,’ Shay greeted them. ‘I went down to feed the animals and found us some breakfast.’

  He gestured at the little pile of speckled goose eggs on the deck beside him. ‘Thank you, magic goose,’ he said, handing them around.

  ‘Where’s Ethan?’ Stella asked.

  Shay shrugged. ‘He wasn’t here when I woke up. That was about an hour ago. I was going to look for him but I haven’t had time.’

  Stella couldn’t help feeling a little bit worried, despite the fact that she was still angry with the magician – but then a scraping sound made them all turn around in time to see Ethan scrambling over the side of the ship. He looked rather like he’d been rolling around in the snow. His black sleeves were wet, the front of his explorer’s cloak was all dusted with white, and there were even clumps of it in his pale blond hair.

  ‘We thought you’d gone,’ Shay remarked. ‘Taken yourself off to die in peace and quiet somewhere.’

  Ethan ignored him and walked straight up to Beanie. ‘I’m sorry for throwing your narwhal away. And for calling you bait. That was … unnecessary. And cruel. I am cruel sometimes. I’m sorry.’

  They all stared at him for a moment. Ethan had not struck any of them as the apologising type. Fortunately, though, Beanie was definitely the forgiving type, so Stella wasn’t surprised when he said, ‘That’s okay. You’re right, anyway; I should never have let go of the ladder and dragged you off in the first place.’ He paused, then added, ‘Look, I know I’m not like other people. I know some of the things I do might seem odd to you. Uncle Benedict says I’m enough to drive anyone round the twist, and that it’s no wonder I only have one friend in all the world, and that no one ever wants to come to my birthday parties. Even my cousin, Moira, said she would never come again, no matter what her parents said, because I’m a weirdo, and she doesn’t like me, and she wishes we weren’t even related.’

  ‘Moira really is such a snot!’ Stella said, hating Beanie’s cousin all over again. ‘It’s her loss, anyway. More cake for us, Beanie.’

  At the mention of that cake, they both immediately winced at the memory of how many jellybeans they’d eaten.

  Ethan looked taken aback for a moment. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Be that as it may. I shouldn’t have done what I did. Perhaps this will help make up for it.’

  He reached out his hand and opened his gloved fingers to reveal a wooden narwhal – frozen solid, but otherwise quite unharmed.

  ‘Oh!’ Beanie scrambled to his feet and snatched the narwhal from Ethan’s hand. ‘Oh, you found him!’

  He stared down at the narwhal for a moment before carefully putting it in his pocket and placing his hand on Ethan’s arm – which surprised Stella because it was highly unusual for Beanie to touch another person of his own free will. ‘Thank you so very much,’ Beanie said.

  ‘Forget it.’

  Beanie removed his hand, looking puzzled. ‘How can I forget it? It only just happened.’

  Ethan sighed. ‘I mean: you’re welcome.’

  He peeled off his wet gloves and turned away to shake them out over the deck, but before he could finish doing so, Stella had got to her feet and thrown her arms around the magician.

  ‘Oh, please don’t hug me,’ Ethan groaned, trying to disentangle himself from her embrace.

  Stella let him go with a grin. ‘How did you find it?’ she asked.

  ‘I tried to use a locator spell,’ Ethan replied. ‘Only it didn’t work. So I just had to dig in the snow.’

  ‘But that must have taken hours!’ Shay said.

  ‘Most of the night,’ Ethan agreed. He looked at Beanie. ‘Look, my brother, Julian … well … he’s gone too,’ he said. ‘So I know what it’s like to lose someone on an expedition. And I am sorry about your father. The Black Ice Bridge has claimed many good explorers.’

  Beanie nodded. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry about your brother.’

  ‘Me too,’ Stella said. ‘You should have told us about him before.’

  ‘Why?’ Ethan said. ‘You never knew him. It doesn’t matter to you.’

  ‘But we know you,’ Stella said. ‘So it does matter. Plus, we would have, you know, made allowances for you whenever you were being obnoxious.’

  ‘Obnoxious’ was another one of the words Felix had taught her how to spell, and Stella was rather fond of it and enjoyed using it wherever possible. She remembered Felix telling her once that grief could make people a bit obnoxious sometimes. Why, Aunt Agatha had been particularly obnoxious for practically an entire year after their father died. Stella didn’t want Ethan to think she was being horrible to him again though, so she threw her arms around him in another hug.

  ‘Would you please stop doing that?’ Ethan said.

  Stella gave him a final squeeze and then let go. She couldn’t help noticing that he looked pink and embarrassed, and maybe just a little bit pleased as well.

  ‘Ethan—’ Shay began.

  The magician pointed a warning finger at the wolf whisperer. ‘Don’t. Don’t even think about hugging me. Nothing’s changed. I’m still obnoxious.’

  Shay grinned. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I still think you’re uppity. And a prawn, come to that. I was just going to say, “catch”.’

  He threw one of the goose eggs at him. Unfortunately, Ethan wasn’t very good at catching flying objects, and ended up fumbling with the egg for a moment before dropping it on the floor, and having to scrabble around for it in an undignified kind of way. It didn’t break though, and he soon scooped it back up again.

  ‘Stop messing about with that egg and sit down,’ Shay said. ‘Have some breakfast.’

  Ethan sat and the four of them concentrated on what breakfast they’d like to find in their eggs. Before long, the smells of porridge, toast and bacon filled the air, and the explorers enjoyed their first breakfast on the ice in companionable silence.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  ‘We should explore the ship before we go,’ Stella said once breakfast was finished.

  ‘Definitely,’ Shay said. ‘There could be supplies down there. We still need another tent. And some weapons.’

  ‘Does anyone here even know how to use a weapon?’ Ethan asked.

  Stella shrugged. ‘How hard can it be with a spear? You just point the pointy end at the enemy and jab them with it. Or, if it’s a heavy thing – like that moustache spoon – you whack them with it. It made quite a good weapon, actually.’ She patted her pockets to make sure that the moustache spoon was still there, just in case she came across anything else that tried to give her any trouble.

  ‘Captain Ajax and the outlaws probably didn’t leave anything on the ship worth having,’ Shay said. ‘But we might as well have a quick poke around whilst we’re here.’

  The four of them quickly located a trapdoor with a ladder and made their way down into the murky belly of the ship. Captain Ajax had been right – it stank something dreadful down below: a horrible mixture of rot and mildew and slimy, seaweedy things.

  Stella noticed the crest for the Royal Crown
Steam Navigation Company on one of the walls, and realised that the Snow Queen had been built by the same company that had made the Bold Adventurer. But the ship that had brought them to the Icelands had been plush with rugs and lamps and fine silverware. The Snow Queen, on the other hand, was a dark, damp, hollowed-out shell. The corridors were long and narrow and full of shadows, and the wood groaned in a most disconcerting way beneath their feet. The planks were covered in a film of salty dust, and the explorers had to lift the hems of their cloaks to stop them getting sticky with it.

  Stella was a little worried that they might come across a skeleton at some point, but they never did, which made her feel half relieved and half disappointed. They did spot one or two rats though, scampering about in the corners, running over old chains in the dark. They were surprisingly large, no doubt having grown fat from feasting on whatever stocks of inedible ship’s biscuits had been left behind.

  Between the rats and the crew, the ship seemed to have been stripped of anything even remotely useful. There was no food left in the kitchen, no books in the library, no tents or blankets or rope in the old convict cells. Only endless coils of rusty chain.

  ‘We should get back to the animals and push on,’ Shay said. ‘There’s nothing here to get excited about.’

  ‘Let’s just go down this last corridor,’ Stella said, pointing. ‘And if there’s nothing there then we’ll leave.’

  It didn’t seem right that they should venture into the dark, deserted ship without discovering something for their trouble. To make all this effort and not even see so much as a skeleton seemed like the most dreadful let-down.

  So they ventured into the final corridor, which got darker and darker as they walked down it. There were portholes in the wall, but they weren’t letting any light in, and Stella guessed they must be near the bottom of the ship and that the windows had been covered up with snow. Shay took a lantern from his bag and lit it to guide their way until they reached the door at the end of the corridor. There were words carved into the wood, and Shay lifted the lantern up a little higher to illuminate them. Stella grinned when she saw what they said. This was definitely more like it.