Crossing the Black Ice Bridge Read online

  “It’s okay!” she cried. “We’re not going to hurt you!”

  Perhaps the dragon was deaf as well—or else it simply didn’t understand or believe her—because it roared out another blast of ice, passing so close to Stella that she had to duck in order to avoid being struck down by it.

  Before the dragon could lash out again, Stella straightened back up, raised her arms, and concentrated as hard as she could. The air crackled around her hands and, magically, a butterfly appeared in the air before her. It was as large as an eagle, its wings formed of sparkling strands of pale blue frost, delicate and beautiful as spun fairy silk.

  The butterfly immediately fluttered toward the dragon, landing on the very tip of its snout, where it beat its wings gently. The dragon went still, and everybody held their breath. Something about the motion seemed to calm it, and after a moment the dragon slowly lowered its head to rest it upon the stone bridge, snorting out icy air in agitated puffs.

  Aware of the others watching from a distance, Stella walked over to the dragon.

  “It’s okay,” she said, gently laying her hand on the creature’s snout. The ice was freezing to her touch, but it didn’t burn or blister her skin as she stroked up and down with her fingers. “We’re sorry for disturbing you,” she said. “You’re safe. You can go back to sleep now.”

  The dragon started to make little rumbling sounds of contentment, and a few minutes later it had fallen asleep, drooling slightly. The delicate frost butterfly seemed to melt away into the air.

  Stella stood up carefully and slowly, without waking the dragon, and the next second the young explorers hurried down to the wall of ice below, slipping and sliding over the shifting carpet of frost-covered shells.

  Beanie reached the ice wall first and hammered on it with his fist. “Mum!” he yelled, forgetting to be quiet. “Felix! Are you okay?”

  Fortunately, the sleeping dragon didn’t move a muscle. The others reached the wall in time to hear Joss call back, though her voice could only be heard faintly through the thick wall of ice.

  “We’re all right, Benjamin.”

  “How do we get them out?” Shay asked, looking at the others.

  “If only there had been some weapons in the castle,” Ethan said. “An axe on the wall, or something.”

  “This ice is too thick,” Felix called back. “You wouldn’t be able to break through it, even if you had an axe.”

  He let out a muttered curse, and Stella could hear anger in his voice, which wasn’t like Felix.

  “Can you do anything?” Beanie asked, looking at Stella.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know the ice-melting spell, remember? I can’t do it without the Book of Frost.”

  They all stared at the wall in dismay. It seemed that the same spell they needed to save Shay was the one they now needed to free Felix and Joss from their ice prison.

  “Well, I’ve got to at least try,” Stella said. “I mean, I didn’t know how to cast a spell to create a frost butterfly, but it just sort of happened on its own. Perhaps I need to think about it really hard.”

  She hoped no one would bring up what had happened when she’d tried this with Koa’s witch wolf’s bite. Koa had started howling almost as soon as the spell began and Shay had begged her to stop. But the desire to at least try to do something was overwhelming.

  “I don’t think you should,” Ethan said at once. “Remember what happened when—”

  Stella rounded on him with more bitterness than she’d meant to. “Well, what do you think I should do?” she demanded. “You’re always telling us what shouldn’t be done, but I never hear you suggesting anything that might actually be useful! It’s like Shay said—all you ever do is make things worse!”

  Ethan looked taken aback. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what to suggest. I only know that magic can be dangerous—”

  “Being sealed up inside an ice cave isn’t the safest thing, either,” Stella said. “And it’s not one of your parents trapped in there. So be quiet and let me do this!”

  Ethan shrugged but said nothing. Stella felt a small flutter of regret at the way she’d spoken to her friend—she wasn’t really angry with him, but at the situation. They should never have come to the snow queen’s castle. She shouldn’t have let herself be talked into it.

  “You’d best step back just in case,” Stella said, glancing at the others.

  They did as she said. Stella noticed that Koa had appeared at Shay’s side, and this time she was sure that the white streak in her dark fur had gotten bigger. The wolf was panting, which Stella didn’t remember ever seeing her do before.

  She tried to push all her guilt and worry out of her mind as she turned back to the ice wall in front of her. They may not have discovered the Book of Frost in Queen Portia’s castle, but perhaps the ice dragon had provided her with the opportunity to discover the magic spell all on her own.

  “Felix, Joss, you’d better stand back,” she yelled. “I’m going to try to get you out.”

  She raised her hands and concentrated, as hard as she could, on melting the ice in front of her. She wanted so badly to be able to fix all of this right here and now—to magically make it better for everyone.

  She could feel the magic fizzing in her fingertips and her hands were growing warm, but nothing seemed to be happening at first, until Felix called out in an alarmed voice, “Stella, whatever you’re doing, I think you’d better stop! It’s getting very warm in here.”

  “But that must mean it’s working!” Stella said. The thought of success gave her an extra burst of determination as she threw all her strength into the magic.

  But then there was a sudden shriek from behind the wall, and Felix shouted, “Stella, for goodness’ sake, stop!”

  Both her hands dropped to her sides as her heart seemed to plummet into her shoes. “What’s wrong?” she called, suddenly terribly afraid of what the answer might be.

  “Joss’s hair was on fire!” Felix called back.

  “What?” Stella gasped.

  Beanie groaned and rushed forward toward the wall. “Mum, are you okay?”

  “It’s all right,” his mum called back. “I’m fine. Felix put the fire out. But, Stella, dear, I don’t think you can get through here with magic.”

  “All right, I won’t try again.” Stella bunched her hands up into fists. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Perfectly fine,” Joss replied.

  “What do we do now?” Stella said hopelessly.

  There was a brief pause.

  Then Joss called, “You’ll have to go without us.”

  “But we can’t!” Beanie cried. “We can’t leave you in there, Mum!”

  “He’s right,” Shay said. “The journey across the bridge and back will take weeks—if we even manage it at all. They’d both starve.”

  One of the jungle fairies tugged on Stella’s sleeve. She looked down and saw it was Hermina holding up a plate of piranha cupcakes. The fairies seemed to be able to produce these whenever they liked, as if by magic. Hermina pointed to herself and then up at the gap in the wall, which, Stella saw, was large enough to admit a jungle fairy. As she watched, the other three disappeared through the gap, all carrying their own plate of piranha cupcakes.

  “The fairies are going to stay behind with us,” Joss called.

  “But… but you can’t just live off piranha cupcakes!” Stella called back. “Felix?”

  “I’ve lived off worse in my time,” Felix replied. His voice sounded strained as he swore again. Stella didn’t think she’d ever heard him do that before. “Gods, Stella, I’m so sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do. You’ll have to go by yourselves.”

  “But what about water?” Stella called.

  “The cave stretches back quite a bit,” Joss replied. “One of the rock pools has got spring water in it.”

  The young explorers looked at one another.

  “I don’t see another way,” Shay said.
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  Stella looked back at the wall. This couldn’t be happening. It had been bad enough thinking they would have to cross the Black Ice Bridge when they were all together, let alone with the adults stuck here in Queen Portia’s castle. She childishly felt there had to be something Felix could do to fix this. She needed him beside her for this adventure.

  “Felix, you have to come,” she said, even though she was very aware of how useless those words were.

  “My darling, I wish that I could,” Felix said. “But it isn’t possible. Once you get the book and cure Shay, you’ll just have to come back here and set us free.”

  “But what if we don’t get the book?” Stella asked. “What if the bridge takes us?”

  The explorers were all equally horrified at the prospect.

  “I believe you can do this, Stella,” Felix said. “Remember, you’re not just an explorer. You’re an ice princess, too.”

  Stella drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to accept what had happened. A hand gripped her shoulder, and she looked around to see Ethan standing beside her.

  “It’s all right,” he said in a quiet, steady voice that Stella found immediately soothing. “We can do this. Somehow, we’ll figure it out.”

  She looked at the others, who nodded. There was no choice. If they didn’t go on, then they would lose two of their parents as well as Shay. Still, Stella couldn’t help thinking it was a terribly bad sign that they had lost two members of their expedition already, before they’d even set foot on the Black Ice Bridge itself.

  “All right, Felix,” she called back, her heart heavy as a stone. “We’re going. But we’ll come back for you.”

  They called their good-byes through the wall. Stella wished with all her soul that she could hug Felix, or at least see him just one more time before she went. After all, they might never lay eyes on each other again. But although the jungle fairies came out to say good-bye, the humans were of course trapped inside.

  “Benjamin,” Joss called out as they were about to go.

  “Yes, Mum?”

  “Please promise me that you will come back off that bridge.”

  Beanie closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I swear it,” he said. “I’ll come back.”

  But of course it wasn’t a promise he could possibly keep—it wasn’t a promise any of them could keep. Beanie’s father had promised too, and he had loved his family just as much as they all did, but in the end it hadn’t been enough. The bridge had taken him anyway.

  And Stella couldn’t help being aware, right down to her very bones, that the odds were stacked entirely against them—the chances were that none of them would ever return.

  “At the risk of you biting my head off again, don’t you think we should take that dragon with us?” Ethan said as they made their way toward the exit.

  Stella shook her head. “It’s old,” she said. “And tired. I don’t think it would get very far. Besides, it’s too big to fit through the gap in the wall.”

  “What about one of these sleighs?” Shay said, gesturing toward them.

  They looked over and saw that the gargoyles had already buckled themselves into the harnesses attached to one of the snow-boats and were looking at the explorers expectantly, as if they were waiting for them.

  Relieved that something had finally worked in their favor, Stella led the way over to the boat. There was just enough room for the four of them to climb up onto its deck.

  CHAPTER NINE

  THE GARGOYLES SHOT FROM the mouth of the cave, towing the snow-boat behind them. They came out onto a rocky ledge partway up the cliff. It was wet and slick with salt spray from the ocean, but this seemed to give the sure-footed gargoyles no trouble as they charged up a winding path that was just wide enough for the boat.

  The gargoyles stopped when they reached the top, unbuckled their harnesses, and immediately rolled around joyously in the snow. The young explorers climbed out onto the cliff top. The sea sparkled several feet below, and the Black Ice Bridge loomed overhead, but it was the snow-boat they turned their attention to.

  It was about the size of a sailing boat, carved from the same shimmering sea crystal they had seen in the caves—a beautiful mixture of white, blue, and green. A carved yeti snarled at the prow, and white and silver sails hung from the mast. A ladder led up to the small deck, where a spoked brass navigation wheel was linked to the gargoyles’ reins.

  It looked as if it had a lower deck below because there were portholes farther down too.

  “This would be perfect for traveling across the Black Ice Bridge,” Ethan said. He glanced at Stella. “Do you think you could order the gargoyles to take us?”

  She frowned. “They’re not slaves, and I’m not ordering them anywhere. But we could try asking them.” At that moment, the gargoyles came scampering over. Soon all seven of the strange stone creatures stood on the ledge, bowing in front of Stella. In the sunlight, they could see that the gargoyles had bits of shell and coral embedded in their dark stone bodies, as well as barnacles clinging to their clawed feet and ankles. She wondered how long they’d been in the cave.

  Still bent over in a bow, they looked up at Stella expectantly, as if waiting for her to say something.

  “Er… thank you for trying to warn us about the dragon,” she said.

  “Can they understand you?” Beanie asked.

  “I’ve got no idea,” Stella said, still looking at the gargoyles. “We’re actually on a very important expedition. You see, we need to get to the other side of the Black Ice Bridge. It’s likely to be extremely dangerous, and of course you’re under no obligation to take us, but—”

  Stella broke off because the gargoyles were already hurrying to buckle themselves back into their harnesses.

  Stella glanced at the others. “I think that’s a yes,” she said.

  They climbed the ladder back onto the little boat, and the moment they were on board there was a lurch as the gargoyles started forward, towing the boat toward the Black Ice Bridge, leaving Queen Portia’s castle behind them.

  The four explorers went straight to the front of the boat and leaned forward over the railings. They saw that five of the gargoyles were on the ground, leaning into their harnesses and galloping across the snow on all fours. Their faces were screwed up against the cold, but Stella got the impression they were enjoying themselves. The other two gargoyles had spread their wings and risen up high into the sky above them, pulling the boat along from above. Stella could feel the powerful beat of their wings from where she stood, and when she looked down again, she saw that the boat was racing along the snow at a terrific rate.

  “Good heavens!” Ethan exclaimed. “They must be immensely strong!”

  Stella felt a smile spread over her face. “Just what we need for the Black Ice Bridge,” she said. “At this rate, we’ll be across to the other side in no time at all.”

  “And because gargoyles are made of stone, they don’t even need to stop to rest or sleep,” Beanie said. “Look, we’re almost there.”

  They had indeed finally reached the Black Ice Bridge. This close, it seemed even more looming and forbidding than it had from the ocean. A gigantic, mysterious thing that stretched out over the water as far as the eye could see, until it was eventually swallowed up by the thick sea mist.

  But the time for second thoughts and turning back had been and gone. The four junior explorers were racing straight for the infamous bridge that even the bravest of adult explorers only spoke of in hushed tones.

  And now that they had such a perfect mode of transportation, Stella felt a small gleam of hope that perhaps they might just succeed after all.

  CHAPTER TEN

  STELLA TUGGED GENTLY ON the reins to get the gargoyles to stop and then the explorers climbed down the ladder. They all felt a sense of trepidation as they stepped onto the bridge, but no curse came to strike them and no monster appeared from the fog. The structure must have been at least forty feet wide, but aside from its size
it was almost as if it were just any other normal, everyday bridge.

  Almost… but not quite.

  Something felt wrong—Stella sensed it the moment she set foot on it—an unnatural chill that went all the way through her, as if some small, dead hand had just crept into hers, each cold finger trembling as it tried to hold on, and Stella didn’t know whether to push it away or try to comfort it.

  She shivered as she turned to the others. “Do you feel it too?” she asked. But she could tell at once from their stricken faces that they did.

  “Perhaps it’s just the stories about the bridge affecting us?” Beanie suggested hopefully.

  Ethan shook his head. “It’s the magic,” he said. “Evil magic. The bridge is soaked in it.”

  “I’ve got a book about evil magic,” Beanie announced, surprising everyone by producing a battered old tome from his bag.

  “Where the heck did you get that?” Ethan demanded.

  “It was one of the books I took from Queen Portia’s library.”

  Ethan stared at the book like it was a dangerous snake that might suddenly strike them.

  “Books like that are very dangerous,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t just go around collecting them like Easter eggs. If you’ve got any sense, you’ll chuck it away.”

  Beanie frowned at the book in his hand. “But if evil magic is such a powerful threat, then surely it makes sense to learn as much about it as we can,” he said, looking to the others for support.

  Shay nodded. “That makes sense, I guess,” he said.

  “Isn’t it against the law to own a book about evil magic?” Stella said. “I think I remember Felix telling me that once.”

  “I’m only borrowing it,” Beanie said, putting it back in his bag. “And we’re already breaking a lot of rules. I don’t think one book is going to make much difference. Shall we take a proper look on the snow-boat? The gargoyles seem to know where they’re going.”

  They climbed back onto the boat, and the gargoyles continued forward. There wasn’t much spare space with the four of them standing on deck. The rest of it was taken up by the spoked wheel at the front, a bench seat at the back, and the mast in the middle.