The Polar Bear Explorers' Club

by Alex Bell

  She looked back into the mirror, and this time, she saw a pale face gazing back at her. It was a woman’s face, as beautiful and perfect as a porcelain doll’s. Her skin was white and smooth, her eyes were blue, and tendrils of silvery hair waved gently around her head as if she were underwater.

  ‘What … what are you?’ Stella asked, taking a step closer.

  ‘A magic mirror, of course,’ the mirror replied. ‘We are hung all over the castle. We watched as you took your first steps, princess.’

  ‘There’s been a mistake,’ Stella said. ‘I’m not a princess—’

  ‘These castle doors would only open for a snow queen or an ice princess,’ the mirror said. ‘And the tiara would appear only for you, Morwenna.’

  ‘My name isn’t Morwenna,’ Stella said, wrinkling her nose. ‘Thank goodness. It’s Stella. Stella Starflake Pearl.’

  ‘That may be your name now, but it’s not the one your parents gave you when you were crowned,’ the mirror said. It blinked its large eyes and said in a sad voice, ‘Do you really remember nothing of your life here at all?’

  Stella frowned, not knowing what to say. The castle did feel familiar somehow.

  ‘You must explore,’ the mirror said. ‘Perhaps it will come back to you.’

  Stella glanced behind her at the others. Ethan frowned and shook his head, just slightly. But the magician always suspected the worst of everything and there didn’t appear to be anything dangerous about the castle. Stella had always wanted to know where she’d come from, and this could be her one chance to get some of the answers she’d been waiting for her whole life.

  ‘I’m going to explore,’ she said. ‘But you can wait outside if you want.’

  Ethan scowled and shook his head. ‘I’m not waiting outside,’ he said.

  ‘I’m sure there are no carnivorous cabbages here,’ Stella said. She glanced at the mirror and said, ‘Are there?’

  ‘Certainly not, your highness,’ the mirror said, sounding shocked.

  ‘Well, then,’ Stella said. ‘That settles it.’

  She walked further into the castle, and as she did so, the most extraordinary thing happened: the abandoned, rundown place began to come to life all around her. The candles in the chandeliers blazed even brighter as the ice fell from the tapestries in sheets, the dust melted away from the floor, the dirt smearing the windows vanished, letting in the sunlight, and everything became bright and white and sparkling.

  ‘You’re waking up the castle,’ the mirror said happily. ‘It recognises you. It wants to welcome you home!’

  As the mirror spoke, one of the stone trolls by the staircase moved, startling the explorers. It was one of the ugliest-looking creatures Stella had ever seen – short and round, with a helmet that almost covered its eyes and a bushy beard that hid its mouth. Its companion – which also began to move and stretch – didn’t have a beard, and its too-small helmet perched precariously on top of its bat-like ears. One eye was higher in its face than the other, but it grinned delightedly at the sight of Stella and gave her a low, scraping bow. ‘We’ll show you around, princess,’ it said eagerly. ‘We’ll show you around.’

  The stone trolls led the way up the staircase and the explorers followed. A rug ran down the steps, and Stella had taken it for grey before but, as she walked up it, all the dirt and grime fell away to reveal a royal red rug, edged in golden braid.

  The castle had dozens and dozens of rooms, and every time they walked into one, the room lost its dust before their eyes and became clean and bright once again. A few more stone trolls came to life, and soon they had quite a group of them fussing around.

  All the rooms were lavishly decorated with plush rugs, chandeliers and exquisite tapestries picked out with golden thread, depicting snowy mountain scenes, and yetis, and mammoths, and grand castles. There was one room filled entirely with musical instruments, some of which Stella had never even heard of before, including a singing harp that started to serenade them the moment they walked in. It was quite annoying actually, but Stella felt obliged to applaud afterwards, out of politeness. Aunt Agatha insisted on singing for them at home sometimes, and Felix had taught Stella that one must always enthusiastically applaud a singer once they’d performed, even if their voice was absolutely dreadful. She felt a pang of homesickness at the thought of Felix, and wished he could be here to explore the enchanted castle with her.

  They went on to another room filled with jewelled eggs, dazzling in their coats of white diamonds and blue sapphires and green emeralds. Stella picked one up, opened it at its hinges and found a little jewelled yeti nestled inside.

  ‘These were your mother’s,’ the mirror on the wall said. Most of the castle’s rooms seemed to have a mirror, and they were all magical talking ones with the same beautiful face appearing in each. ‘She loved to collect pretty things. You’ll find an exquisite collection of music boxes in the next room.’

  They went through and did indeed find an extensive music box collection. Some were small and some were large, but they were all incredibly beautiful, with painted lids, and golden clasps, and tiny, clawed feet. Stella picked up one with a painting of two birds on the lid, who had diamonds for eyes, and when she opened it she discovered two mechanical birds that flew right out of the box, fluttering their blue wings and filling the room with the sweet sound of birdsong.

  ‘Did all this really belong to my mother?’ Stella asked, watching the pair of mechanical birds fly around the ceiling.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ one of the trolls said. ‘She was a fair and beautiful queen.’

  ‘But what happened to her?’ Stella asked. ‘What happened to my father? Why is the castle shut up and abandoned like this?’

  The trolls suddenly went quiet, shuffling their feet and scratching at their beards and looking anywhere other than at Stella.

  ‘A witch killed your parents,’ the mirror spoke at last.

  Stella thought of the burnt feet from her dream and shivered. ‘But why?’ she asked.

  ‘She was a witch,’ the mirror replied. ‘Witches are evil. She would have killed you too if faithful servants hadn’t smuggled you from the castle.’ The mirror turned its lovely face to the trolls then and said, ‘Why don’t you take the princess to her old nursery?’

  Stella followed the trolls up to a circular room at the top of one of the turrets. As with the others, the room came to life before her and she stared around in amazement. The walls were painted with delicate white snowflakes and there were dozens of the prettiest toys she had ever seen, including a unicorn rocking horse, a plush white yeti, and a magnificent dolls’ house that was a perfect replica of the castle itself. When Stella opened the doors to expose the inside, she saw that all the rooms were decorated just as they were in the real castle, right down to the room filled with jewelled eggs and the other with music boxes. When she ran her finger over the tiny harp in the music room, it even started to sing, just like the one in the actual music room had done.

  Stella felt a sudden sense of loss for her parents then, and mourned the fact that she had never got the chance to know them. They must have loved her very much to have gone to all this trouble with the nursery and to fill it with such beautiful toys.

  ‘There’s a painting of your parents in the red dining room if you’d like to see it,’ the mirror said.

  ‘Yes, please.’

  One of the trolls slipped its stone hand into Stella’s and led the way back downstairs into the dining room that they had glimpsed from outside. As the candles lit themselves and the dust fell away, Stella saw that there was a gigantic painting hung over the fireplace. She walked slowly up to it, hardly able to believe that this was her real mother and father. They were both so grand-looking, so regal, so royal.

  They had the same pale skin, white hair and light blue eyes as Stella, and were dressed in fur-lined robes and wore sparkling crowns. Stella thought that her mother was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, even though she wasn’t smiling in the paintin
g. Her dress was the same light blue as her eyes, lined in white fur, and her long, pale-fingered hands rested loosely in her lap as she gazed out of the painting, almost as if she could see Stella standing there.

  Stella turned her attention to her father next, and thought that he couldn’t have been any more different from Felix. He had a tall, proud, noble look, a square jaw and a smart dress robe that he wore with easy grace, looking every inch the king.

  ‘Since they’ve been gone the whole castle has been trapped in sleep,’ the mirror said beside her.

  Stella glanced into the mirror and saw that the tiara was on her head again. No matter how many times she kept taking it off, it somehow always seemed to appear on her hair.

  ‘What’s going on with this tiara?’ she asked. ‘I keep trying to take it off but it—’

  ‘It probably wants you to do some magic,’ the mirror replied. ‘It’s been waiting for you for such a long time.’

  Stella stared at the mirror. ‘I can do magic?’

  ‘Of course,’ the mirror replied. ‘You’re an ice princess.’

  Stella suddenly felt excited. She had always wanted to be able to do something magical or have some kind of special ability. After all, Shay had his wolf whispering, Beanie had his elfin healing and Ethan had his magician’s powers. It would be the best thing in the world if Stella could have something special like that too. ‘What kind of magic?’ she asked eagerly.

  ‘Ice magic,’ the mirror replied. ‘Naturally. All ice princesses can perform ice magic if they’re wearing their magic tiara. You can make anything you like out of ice, or freeze anything into ice. You just have to imagine it happening in your mind.’

  Stella quickly thought of something and was about to try it out when Ethan caught her arm and said, ‘Careful. You don’t understand this magic. It could be dangerous.’

  Stella shook him off impatiently – she was really getting pretty irritated by his constant doubts. She turned away from him and concentrated very hard before pointing her finger at the dining room table. To her delight, a burst of ice shot from her fingertip, and right before her eyes there appeared a glorious ice sculpture of a unicorn rearing up on its hind legs, its pearly hooves glinting in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Stella felt a sudden chill race up her arms, but she rubbed at them quickly and pointed her finger at another spot on the table. Within seconds, an ice castle appeared there, complete with sparkling spires and turrets. This time a chill ran down her back, as if someone had just dropped an ice cube down her cloak.

  Stella ignored the strange sensation and turned her attention to one of the candelabra. She pointed at it, and ice shot from her finger once again and froze the object solid. Stella looked at the others and said, ‘It’s too bad I didn’t have this tiara when we faced that carnivorous cabbage tree.’

  ‘I’m not sure about this, Sparky,’ Shay replied, frowning.

  Stella scowled at him and said, ‘I suppose you’re jealous!’ She felt a sudden, strong flare of dislike for Shay that took her by surprise. She almost felt like she wanted to shove him … But then the feeling melted away and she was left puzzled as to where it had come from in the first place.

  Shay ignored her remark, pointed at the fireplace and said to the mirror, ‘What are those?’

  Stella followed the direction he was pointing in and saw that there was an object amongst the cold ashes of the fireplace. They looked like shoes, only these were no ordinary shoes. They were made from bands of iron, and had heavy-looking padlocks on them, as if the wearer’s feet would be locked inside.

  ‘Those are iron slippers, of course,’ the magic mirror replied.

  ‘What are they for?’ Shay asked.

  The expression on the face in the mirror never seemed to change, but she sounded confused as she said, ‘Don’t you know?’

  ‘I guess I wouldn’t have asked if I already knew,’ Shay replied.

  ‘Well, the iron slippers are heated in the fire until they’re red hot,’ the mirror explained. ‘And then they’re put onto the feet of any person who refuses to dance.’

  It took Stella a moment to work out what the mirror meant at first, but then she gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. ‘But that … that would burn them horribly, it would be agony!’ She thought of her dream and said, ‘The witch wore the iron slippers, didn’t she? That’s why her feet were burnt.’

  ‘Your parents wanted the witch to dance at their wedding,’ the mirror replied. ‘She refused.’

  Stella tore the tiara from her head with shaking hands. ‘That … that’s the cruellest thing I ever heard,’ she said, blinking back tears. She looked at the painting of her parents, and although their features hadn’t changed, they didn’t look quite so beautiful to her any more. In fact, they really didn’t look beautiful at all.

  Suddenly she wished that Felix were there beside her. She wished she was far away from this castle and back in the orangery, eating ice cream for breakfast and throwing twigs for Buster.

  ‘It only seems cruel to you because your heart hasn’t frozen yet,’ the mirror said. ‘Too much time spent away from your own kind. After the wedding feast, the witch crawled away into the snow and we all thought she had died. When she attacked the castle three years later she caught everyone by surprise. The servants who took you away knew that you needed to be sent far from the Icelands or the witch would find you, too, so they left you in the path of that oncoming explorer. He kept you safe, as we hoped he would, but no doubt he filled your head up with lots of silly ideas that you will have to unlearn, as it seems your heart didn’t freeze the way it was supposed to. But every time you use the magic in the tiara, your heart will freeze a little more until the change is irreversible, and then all will be as it should be.’

  The tiara was on her head again so Stella dragged it off and flung it into the fireplace. ‘Then I’ll never use its magic again!’

  ‘You are an ice princess,’ the mirror said in a stern voice.

  Stella clenched her hands into fists. ‘I don’t want to be a princess – I want to be an explorer!’

  ‘No one can change what they were born to be,’ the mirror replied.

  ‘Of course they can,’ Stella said crossly. ‘No one is born to be anything! You decide for yourself.’

  ‘That is not the way it works here,’ the mirror said patiently, as if talking to someone who was very stupid.

  ‘Well, we’re leaving now anyway,’ Stella said. ‘Thank you for showing us around and explaining what happened to my parents, but now we really have to go.’

  ‘Go?’ the mirror replied. ‘But you can’t go. It is forbidden. You will stay here, princess, and you will rule your kingdom as you were meant to do all along. This castle has had enough of being asleep.’

  And then the room went dark as the shutters over the windows slammed closed, the doors shut with a bang, and the stone trolls gathered all around them, cutting off their only route of escape.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Three days later, Stella was pacing the nursery at the top of the tower, fuming.

  She hadn’t seen the others since the trolls had dragged them off to the dungeons beneath the castle. Shay had made a decent attempt to bring the trolls down with his boomerang and Ethan had brought out the magic arrows again, but none of that seemed to have any effect on stone. Koa had howled piteously as the explorers were taken away. And now three whole days had passed and Stella was starting to get seriously worried. If they didn’t leave today then they wouldn’t be able to get back in time to be picked up by the Bold Adventurer. Stella knew Felix would never give up on her and that he’d come back to the Icelands with a rescue party, but that could take weeks, probably months.

  The trolls brought meals on trays to the nursery for Stella but the magic mirror was refusing to allow her out unless she agreed to use her magic and stay at the castle forever. Koa appeared in the nursery from time to time, and Stella felt comforted by her presence, but there wasn’t much the shad
ow wolf could do to help her escape.

  Stella felt particularly annoyed that she was missing out on the dungeon. She’d never been in a dungeon before and was certain there must be all kinds of interesting things down there. Ethan had probably been bitten by several different creatures already. There were probably bats and skeletons, and trapdoors and fire pits, and secret passages and big, iron spikes, and all kinds of fascinating stuff.

  After searching through her bag and deciding there was nothing dangerous in there, the trolls had let her keep it. Stella had gone through it again herself to see if there might be anything useful, but she had to admit that the chances of her bringing down a stone troll with a moustache spoon seemed slim.

  She’d poked into every corner of the nursery too, but had found nothing that might help her escape. She’d got quite excited when she’d discovered a secret compartment, right at the back of the wardrobe, but the only thing it contained was a witch puppet. It was a beautifully made thing, carved entirely from pale gold wood, with real clothes, and frizzy grey hair puffing out from beneath the pointed witch’s hat glued to its head. Stella was horrified to notice that the witch puppet had burnt feet, and realised that it must be a replica of the witch who had killed her parents, and tried to kill her too. But why was there a puppet of her in the nursery? It didn’t make any sense.

  Stella found herself constantly coming back to the puppet, staring at it and frowning hard. She had the weirdest feeling about it. Almost as if there was something she was supposed to remember about the witch, something important. For some reason that she couldn’t quite explain, she didn’t put the puppet back in the secret drawer, but tucked it into her bag instead.

  Having failed to find anything that might help her escape, Stella thought about freezing the trolls who brought her meals, and then making a run for it down to the dungeon to find her friends – but she was afraid of doing too much magic and permanently turning her heart into ice. She remembered the chill she’d got in the dining room before, and that strange feeling of dislike she had felt for Shay. She didn’t want to run the risk of freezing her heart, but she didn’t want to remain stuck in the nursery either. And somebody needed to do something about rescuing the others, after all.