‘Hopefully getting here first,’ Molly added.
Emily nodded and glanced round the room.
Nearby, Camilla was talking quickly to her team in a low voice. She saw Emily watching. ‘Are you listening?’
‘No,’ Emily said quickly.
‘You’d better not be,’ Camilla snorted. ‘We’re going to win this. Go Snow Foxes!’
She held up her hand in a high five and the others hit her palm with theirs.
‘Is that all you four ever do?’ Molly said, rolling her eyes. She mimicked Camilla’s voice: ‘Go Snow Foxes!’ she said, putting her hand up in a high five too. She giggled.
‘Go and look in the mirror and you know what you’ll see, Molly? A great big loser!’ said Camilla. She turned haughtily to her friends. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ They all left the common room.
Molly shook her head. ‘We have to beat them. We’ll never hear the last of it if they win this competition. Have you got some sneaky short cuts planned, Hannah?’
‘Oh, no,’ Hannah said hastily. ‘We’re not taking short cuts – well, only safe ones marked on the map.’
Molly groaned. ‘Hannah, we’ll never win if we play it safe.’
Emily shook her head as they started to argue and sank back into the sofa. She shut her eyes and imagined all the amazing things they were going to see and do. Whether they won or not, one thing was for sure – they were going to have fun!
When Emily woke up the next morning, the others were all asleep. She decided to go to the ice rink. She loved skating when there was no one else around. Pulling on her clothes, which had been washed and neatly folded by the frost fairies, she hurried down to the rink.
The early-morning sun was shining through the domed glass roof. The ice was sparkling, perfectly smooth and white. Emily’s feet itched to get on to it. As she opened her locker, she hesitated. Which boots should she wear? She had two pairs, her usual slightly battered boots that she wore for lessons and practising, and the snow-white ones she had won in the first week’s competition. Emily didn’t wear them most of the time because she didn’t want people to think she was showing off, but when she was on her own, she loved to put them on. Now she took them out and did up the silver laces.
After warming up with some stretching exercises, Emily skated a few times round the rink, practising gliding for as long as she could between steps. The only sound was the swishing of her blades as they moved across the ice. It was so wonderful to be there on her own. Joy filled her and she sped up. She lifted into a single axel jump and then threw her arms back into a layback spin, the world blurring around her. As she came out of it, she stumbled, but she didn’t care. She felt wonderful. What a perfect way to start the day!
Emily skated over to the music box at the side of the rink. At first, she had thought the music box was run on electricity like a CD player at home, but it wasn’t at all. She lifted the lid. Inside was a complicated system of levers and wheels and three small silvery-blue ice dragons. They were asleep, curled up together in a happy heap on the floor, but, as she looked inside, their eyes opened and they chirruped when they saw her.
Emily loved the ice dragons and had been trying to learn their language. She chirruped a hello back.
The dragon on the top of the heap gave her a toothy grin and flew into the air.
How are you? Emily tried to say in dragon language as he hovered by her face.
The dragon whistled back.
‘We’re going on a scavenger hunt tomorrow in teams.’ Emily broke into English and told the dragons all about it. They started whistling and squeaking excitedly. She tried to work out what they were saying. ‘I should look out for…?’ She couldn’t quite understand.
The dragon by her head flew down to the ice. Using the end of his pointed tail he drew a picture on the ice. Emily saw he was drawing some trees with nests in and little dragons flying about.
‘You’re trying to tell me there will be dragons like you in the forest?’ she guessed.
All three dragons nodded eagerly.
Emily grinned. ‘Cool! I was hoping there might be. I’ll come back afterwards and tell you all about it.’
Just then, she heard voices and saw Hannah and Molly coming down to the rink. They waved at her and got their skates on too. Emily changed back into her old practice skates and soon all three of them were skating around.
Hannah started practising her double toe loop–double flip combination again. It didn’t look as if it was getting better; if anything, she seemed to be making more mistakes.
‘She’s trying too hard,’ said Molly as Hannah wobbled on her landing and exclaimed in frustration.
‘Hannah!’ Emily went round the rink to where Hannah was skating. ‘Why don’t you do something else for a bit?’
‘No. I want to get this right and we’re going to be off the rink for two days with this competition. I wish we didn’t have to go. I’d rather just be skating here.’
With a determined look on her face, Hannah skated off. Emily watched her. She had a feeling it was going to be good for Hannah to get away from the rink for a few days. Hannah took everything to do with skating so seriously, which was great, but not when she got so stressed about it. Emily watched her try the jumps again. Hannah might not be looking forward to the scavenger hunt, but she couldn’t wait!
Chapter Four
On Their Way!
‘Come on!’ Molly bounced up and down on the spot on the morning of the scavenger hunt. ‘Let’s go and have breakfast and get our rucksacks!’
They had all been given their equipment for the trip – cross-country skis and boots, outdoor skates, packets of dried food, a torch, a penknife, a compass, a sleeping bag, matches and a small magic crystal ball. If someone was in trouble, all they had to do was rub the ball in their hands for ten seconds, breathe on it and then, as the mist cleared, they would be able to see one of the teachers back at school and talk to them. ‘Day or night, your call will be answered,’ Madame Letsworth had told them. ‘Use them only in an emergency though. We want to see how you cope without our assistance.’
Everyone was down at breakfast early that day. There was a loud buzz of excitement in the air. Emily didn’t feel like eating at all, but Hannah made her. ‘We’ll get hungry and have to stop sooner if we don’t eat now,’ she said sensibly.
Emily forced down a piece of toast though it tasted like cardboard in her mouth. She just wanted to set off!
As soon as breakfast was over, the girls put on their warm coats and trousers, scarves, gloves and hats and then hauled on their rucksacks. Last of all, they helped each other tie their cross-country skis and boots to the rucksacks and then they were ready.
They all made their way to the lake at the back of the school. Three rivers ran into it from the mountains. The girls would all start on the North River until they reached the woods and then they could choose their own way, staying on the main river or setting off down the smaller rivers, which were marked on the maps.
Everyone milled around on the ice, getting used to skating with rucksacks on their backs.
‘This feels weird!’ Molly said as she tried to experiment skating backwards and doing a turn. ‘Whoa!’ Her arms flailed and she fell over with a bump.
Emily pulled her to her feet. ‘Maybe you should just try going in a straight line first,’ she said, grinning.
‘I can’t do this!’ Amanda was moaning. ‘My rucksack’s too heavy. The straps hurt.’
Madame Letsworth, who was standing with the other teachers – Madame Longley, Madame Li and Monsieur Carvallio, blew a whistle. ‘OK, girls. It’s almost time to go,’ she said, checking her watch. ‘Remember, first team back here tomorrow morning with all the things wins. Some of the items may be more difficult to get than others and will take a bit of working out, but that is part of the test.’ She smiled. ‘A little clue for one of them – sometimes it can help to listen.’
The girls all exchanged mystified glances.
‘What does that mean?’ Hannah muttered. But Emily had no idea.
‘All right. Are you ready? Good luck, everyone! On your marks, get set, go!’ Madame Letsworth declared. And they were off!
It was difficult to skate at first with so many people all together on the river. But after five minutes they reached the woods and the teams started splitting off in different directions.
‘See you at the finish line, losers!’ Camilla called mockingly to Emily’s team. ‘And when you get there, we’ll already be collecting our scarlet skates.’
Her teammates giggled.
‘Ignore them,’ Hannah said sensibly. The Snow Foxes skated off down a small river to the left and Hannah pointed ahead. ‘We’ll just stay on this river,’ she told Emily and Molly. ‘It should take us all the way through the woods to where the mountains start.’
Emily frowned. The main river ran pretty much straight through the trees heading north. But the Starlight Caves and Rainbow Pools in the foothills of the mountains were more to the east. ‘But don’t we need to go more in that direction?’ She nodded through the trees.
‘That’s the most direct way,’ Hannah agreed. ‘But the rivers that go that way are small and there’s no guarantee we’d be able to skate down them all. They might be blocked in some way. I think it’s safer if we stay on this river. At least we’ll be able to skate all the way there and not have to stop or turn round.’
‘I think we should go the faster way,’ argued Molly. ‘If it’s blocked, we’ll find some other way.’
Hannah shook her head. ‘My way’s safer.’
Molly looked mutinous.
Emily spoke quickly. ‘We can always take smaller rivers later. Let’s just get to the mountains safely and get the reed and the unmeltable icicle.’
Molly sighed. ‘OK.’
The air was icy and their breath came out in little puffs. It was quiet and peaceful with the trees on either side of them. ‘Look there!’ Emily pointed out two white snow foxes rolling in the snow on the bank ahead.
‘I love being outside like this,’ Molly said happily.
Emily looked at Hannah, who grinned. ‘It is rather cool,’ she admitted.
It took nearly all morning for the girls to reach the edge of the woods. After a couple of hours, including a biscuit break and an early lunch of sandwiches, dried fruit and chocolate, at long last they got close to the foothills of the craggy mountains. The peaks were so high they were hidden by the clouds. Flat meadows covered with snow spanned the area between the trees and the mountains.
‘The Starlight Caves are round the side of the mountains over there to the east,’ Hannah said, pointing to the right. ‘We need to put our skis on now.’
They swapped their ice skates for boots, skis and poles. Soon they were swishing across the thick flat snow. Emily had never been cross-country skiing until she had started at the Ice-skating Academy. You had to slide your skis over the snow, using the poles to help you along.
It was a bit like skating, but much harder work, and the girls were soon flushed and out of breath. Emily wiped her glove across her face and pulled off her scarf, pushing it into her pocket. ‘I’m hot.’
‘Me too,’ puffed Hannah. ‘It’s partly the skiing, but also the air’s not as cold here.’
Emily realized she was right. Their breath was no longer freezing in white clouds and although she had taken her scarf off, the cold did not seem to be biting into her skin the way it usually did.
‘There are some green buds on those trees over there,’ Molly pointed out.
‘This is really strange,’ said Hannah. ‘It’s usually colder in mountains, isn’t it?’
A memory stirred in Emily’s head. She hesitated, not wanting to sound silly. ‘Do you remember we had a lesson about fire dragons once with Madame Longley?’ she said slowly. ‘She told us about massive dragons who breathe fire and fly round the land and sometimes stop on mountains, and how that wasn’t good because their breath melted things…’ She looked from Molly to Hannah.
‘What – you think it might be warmer because of a dragon?’ Molly said.
Emily shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But Madame Longley did say that we might get to meet a fire dragon one day.’
‘I remember,’ said Hannah, nodding. ‘We thought she might be talking about the person who is going to be the Ice Princess.’
‘Do you think it is?’ said Emily. Since they had arrived at the school, they hadn’t been told anything more about the Ice Princess. They didn’t know what she was going to have to do or how she was going to be chosen, although they did think that it might have something to do with the competitions.
Molly’s eyes lit up. ‘I know! Let’s go exploring in the mountains. If there is a dragon, maybe we’ll see it!’
‘No way,’ Hannah said quickly.
‘But…’
‘No, Molly!’ Hannah shook her head. ‘It would be too dangerous. We haven’t got any of the right stuff for going up a mountain. Anyway, I thought you wanted to win this competition? If you do, we need to get back to school as quickly as possible.’
Molly looked torn.
‘Hannah’s right,’ Emily said. ‘We’ll never win if we start going into the mountains now.’
‘If we go exploring and get into trouble, they might even send us home,’ added Hannah.
‘All right.’ Molly gave a wistful look at the mountain, but gave in. ‘Let’s just concentrate on the competition for now.’ She started to ski faster. ‘Starlight Caves, here we come!’
Chapter Five
Listening
The Starlight Caves were on the lower slopes of the mountains. They looked dark and very cold inside. Emily, Hannah and Molly peered into one. ‘Where are the icicles and the shining crystals Madame Longley told us about?’ Molly said, frowning.
‘Maybe these aren’t the right caves,’ Emily said.
‘No, they are.’ Hannah checked the map. ‘They definitely are.’
‘Perhaps we just need to go further in then,’ suggested Emily.
They got their torches out and walked cautiously into the cave.
There was a faint humming sound in the air around them. ‘What’s that noise?’ Emily asked.
Molly shrugged.
‘I don’t like this,’ said Hannah, looking around.
‘Let’s try going down that way,’ said Molly, pointing to a tunnel that led off the back of the cave.
It was very narrow and they could only just fit in it by ducking down. The humming grew louder as they edged along, the cold rock scraping at their clothes.
‘Maybe we should go back,’ Hannah started to say. ‘Try –’ She broke off with a gasp as the tunnel opened out into another cave. But this one was totally different!
Shining crystals studded the rocky ceiling. They glowed with their own inner light, sparkling like stars. Inside the cave were more icicles than Emily had ever seen. They hung down in strange glittering shapes. The air was alive with humming.
‘Oh, wow!’ Emily breathed. Her voice was drowned out by the sound. It was as if a whole choir of people, standing in a vast hall, were humming different notes. It was beautiful and magical, but almost unbearably loud.
Molly put her hands to her ears. ‘What’s making that sound?’
‘I think it’s the icicles.’ Emily took a step towards the nearest one and listened. It was definitely humming a note!
‘Weird.’ Hannah looked around. ‘I’m not sure I like it. Which icicle should we take?’
‘How about this one?’ Emily took hold of one, but she couldn’t break it off.
‘Here, let me have a go.’ Hannah struggled with it for a few moments and then Molly tried, but none of them could snap it.
‘Let’s try a thinner one,’ suggested Emily.
But no matter how hard they pulled and tugged at any of the icicles, they had no luck.
‘They should be called unbreakable icicles, not unmeltable!’ Molly said in dismay. ‘What are
we going to do?’
‘Let’s go outside and think about it.’ Hannah shook her head. ‘I can’t concentrate with all this noise.’
She and Molly turned to go, but Emily stopped them. ‘Wait.’ She was remembering what Madame Letsworth had said as they had all left: sometimes it can help to listen. ‘Just a minute.’ Emily shut her eyes. Would she work out what to do if she just listened as Madame Letsworth had said? But all she could hear was the humming of the different icicles.
Humming…
She caught her breath.
‘What are you doing, Em?’ Molly demanded.
‘Listening. Shh. I might have an idea.’
Emily put her hand on the icicle nearest to her, shut her eyes again and concentrated on the sound it was making. She wasn’t sure if her plan would work, but it was worth a try and something inside her seemed to be telling her to follow her hunch. She listened hard and, after a few seconds, she started to hum herself, matching the note the icicle was making.
SNAP!
The icicle broke away from the rock and came off in her hand. Hannah and Molly gasped.
Emily stared. ‘I did it!’
‘But what did you do?’ asked Hannah.
‘I hummed the same note as the icicle,’ replied Emily. ‘It was like Madame Letsworth said. All we had to do was listen!’
‘You’re brilliant!’ Molly said, hugging her.
‘Totally! I’d never have thought of that,’ Hannah said, looking at Emily in astonishment.
Emily felt a happy glow. ‘It just came to me. I don’t know why.’
‘Well, I’m glad it did. Come on, let’s get out of here,’ said Hannah.
Once back in the snowy landscape, they put the icicle inside one of the pockets of Emily’s rucksack. ‘One item down!’ said Molly, finding a pen and ticking the icicle off the list of objects at the side of the map.
Skating School: Scarlet Skate Magic Page 2
