“I’m starving,” the second goblin said, licking his lips. He tried to scoop up some of the icing with a warty finger, but Kirsty batted him away.
“Excuse me,” she said importantly. “I don’t think Mr. Frost will be very happy if his cake arrives all covered in goblin fingerprints!”
The goblin shrank back at her words. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Which way to the kitchen, please?” Rachel asked, taking a step closer to the doors. Her heart thumped and she crossed her fingers behind her back, willing the guards to let them in.
“Straight through the doors. Take the first hallway on your left, and follow it around,” the greedy-eyed goblin said, pushing open the enormous metal doors.
The girls and Gabriella stepped inside, hardly able to believe their luck. They had made it into Jack Frost’s Ice Castle! Now all they had to do was find the silver chest containing the festive spirit.
They were standing in a huge, chilly room. Above their heads hung a chandlelier made of ice diamonds.
“This way, I guess,” Gabriella said, pointing to where a dark, gloomy hallway curved away on the left. She shivered. “Let’s walk quickly. It’s freezing in here!”
The three friends made their way down the hallway and found a large, brightly lit kitchen at the end. A goblin chef with a tall white hat was blending silvery-blue ice cream when they entered.
“We’re just delivering this,” Kirsty told the chef, carefully setting the cake down on a table.
The chef barely looked up from his mixing bowl. “Thanks,” he said, then stared at a recipe book. “Stir until ice crystals appear,” he muttered to himself.
“Um … I was just wondering,” Rachel said. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a silver chest anywhere in the castle, have you?”
“Or a bottle of violet-colored liquid?” Gabriella added hopefully.
“What’s this, twenty questions?” the goblin grumbled, as he stirred his mixture. “I don’t have time for anything except party food right now, OK?”
“So you haven’t seen the silver —” Kirsty began, but the goblin glared at her.
“I’m busy!” he snapped. “Now go away!”
Kirsty, Rachel, and Gabriella left the room quickly and huddled outside. “What now?” Rachel wondered. “This castle is huge. The festive spirit could be anywhere!”
Kirsty thought hard. Then an idea popped into her head. “Would you be able to turn yourself into a really tiny fairy, Gabriella?” she said, thinking out loud. “Then you could hide in my pocket. Rachel and I could get ourselves captured by the guards, and —”
Rachel interrupted. “Captured?” she echoed.
“Yes,” Kirsty replied. “If we’re captured, the guards are sure to take us to Jack Frost. Then we can tell him we broke in to get the festive spirit, and …”
Rachel and Gabriella were both staring at Kirsty as if she were completely crazy, but she continued talking. “We can make Jack Frost believe that Gabriella is on her way back to Fairyland with the silver chest,” she explained. “Jack Frost is sure to panic and rush to wherever he’s keeping the festive spirit to see if it’s still there. Then we’ll find out where he’s been hiding it!”
Rachel and Gabriella tried to take all of this in. “It’s a clever idea,” Rachel replied after a moment.
“But risky,” Gabriella said. Her pretty face crinkled with doubt.
“Well, I can’t think of any other way to find out where the festive spirit is hidden, can you?” Kirsty asked them.
Her friends shook their heads.
“That settles it, then,” Kirsty said. “We’ll have to try. Now, how should we get ourselves captured?”
“Wait,” Gabriella said. “What will we do once we’ve found out where the festive spirit is? Try to grab it and fly off with it?”
Kirsty hesitated. “Um … I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” she confessed. “I’m not sure. I guess we’ll just have to decide when we see it.”
They all looked at one another. Getting taken to Jack Frost with no real escape plan seemed very dangerous. But, as Kirsty said, they didn’t have any other ideas right now.
“Well, here goes,” Gabriella said. She sprinkled some blue and red fairy dust over herself. Immediately, she began shrinking until she was as small as Kirsty’s little finger. “Will that do?” she asked, her voice a tiny squeak.
“Perfect,” Kirsty said, and pulled open her pocket so Gabriella could slip inside. Then she looked at Rachel. “Now to get ourselves captured!” she said, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.
Rachel nodded. “Let’s go back to the big hall,” she suggested. “We can pretend to be spying, and hope some of the goblins spot us.”
Once they were in the icy hall, the two friends began prowling around, calling out to each other in loud, clear voices. “Well, she’s not down here,” Kirsty bellowed, pretending to search behind a tall metal coat-stand.
“No, she’s not over here either,” Rachel shouted back, peering behind some midnight-blue curtains at one of the windows.
“I hope she gets away without Jack Frost catching her!” Kirsty called.
“Hey!” came a voice just then. “What’s going on here?”
Two goblins had appeared. Rachel and Kirsty pretended to gasp in fright. “Oh no!” Rachel cried.
“We’ve been caught!” Kirsty wailed.
“You certainly have,” one of the goblins said, stalking toward them with an unpleasant smile. “Looking for something? Spying in the boss’s castle?”
“Take them to the dungeon!” the second goblin declared. “Let’s lock them up. Spies deserve nothing less.”
Rachel and Kirsty exchanged glances. If they were locked in the dungeon, they’d have no chance of seeing Jack Frost! “As long as you don’t take us to Jack Frost,” Rachel begged desperately. “He’s so scary!”
The goblins looked at one another. “On second thought,” one of them said, “let’s take them to Jack Frost. I wonder what he’ll say when we tell him you’ve been spying?”
“Oh no,” Kirsty cried. “We’re going to be in so much trouble!”
The goblins looked pleased. “Yes, you are,” they said, taking Kirsty and Rachel by their wrists. “This way!”
The goblins hauled the girls along a stone hallway into the Great Hall. Jack Frost sat the end of the room on a huge, icy throne. He looked up when he saw the girls enter with his guards. A suspicious gleam came into his eyes. “You two!” he said, recognizing Kirsty and Rachel, despite their delivery uniforms. “What are you doing here?”
“They were spying,” one of the goblins said, pushing the girls roughly toward Jack Frost. “We caught them!”
“Spying, eh?” Jack Frost glared at Rachel and Kirsty. “I should have known. What did you hope to find?”
“Well …” Rachel said timidly, scuffing her foot along the ground. She hesitated, so it would seem like she didn’t want to tell him anything.
“I’m waiting!” he snapped in an icy voice.
“We were trying to get the festive spirit back for the fairies,” Kirsty said after a few moments.
“Of course,” Jack Frost said. “Meddling again. How did you get here?”
“Our friend Gabriella the Snow Kingdom Fairy brought us to Fairyland,” Rachel told him meekly.
“Did she? And where is she now?” Jack Frost asked, leaning forward on his throne.
Rachel and Kirsty exchanged glances. They didn’t want to tell any lies about where Gabriella was, but at the same time they really wanted Jack Frost to think that she had already taken the festive spirit away.
“I … I can’t see her anywhere,” Kirsty said truthfully. “Maybe she’s gone back to the other fairies.”
Jack Frost frowned and stroked his bony chin. “But if she came to get the festive spirit, why would she leave without it?” he wondered. Then a thought struck him. “Unless …” He jumped off his throne with a gasp of horror. “Unless she’s already got it!”<
br />
Kirsty and Rachel watched as Jack Frost rushed over to a pattern carved into the floor. It looked like a puzzle made from blocks of ice. What was he doing?
Jack Frost rearranged the squares of ice so that a picture of his face appeared on the blocks. When the picture was complete, he opened a trapdoor in the puzzle and took out a silver chest.
Kirsty held her breath. That had to be the Fairyland chest containing the festive spirit! Jack Frost held up the chest with a grin. “Ha!” he gloated. “Your friend failed. I still have the festive spirit right here!”
Rachel swallowed nervously, and looked at Kirsty. What should they do now? She wished they’d thought out their plan more carefully. The two goblin guards were still in the room, and so was Jack Frost. There was no way she and Kirsty would be able to escape with the chest!
An idea came to Rachel just in time. “Are you sure that’s the real chest?” she asked Jack Frost. “Someone might have put a fake one in there just to trick you.”
Jack Frost looked worried. “Do you mean you put a fake chest in there?” he demanded.
Rachel shrugged, trying as hard as she could to stay calm. It was difficult with Jack Frost staring right at her! “You won’t know until you look, will you?” she asked.
Jack Frost kept looking from the girls to the chest, clearly debating what to do. Eventually, it seemed he couldn’t handle not knowing … so he opened the chest.
Kirsty and Rachel watched anxiously as Jack Frost lifted out a crystal bottle with some violet-colored liquid inside. The bottle had a glass stopper studded with a glittering diamond. Jack Frost pulled out the stopper and sniffed the contents.
As he sniffed, the girls saw a sparkling purple vapor swirl out of the bottle and waft around Jack Frost’s head. He replaced the stopper, and a dreamy expression spread over his face. He smiled in wonder at the bottle, and put it carefully back in the chest.
Kirsty felt something wriggling in her pocket and looked down. Gabriella was peeking out, doing an excited dance. “The festive spirit has put Jack Frost in a really happy holiday mood!” the tiny fairy whispered breathlessly.
Jack Frost in a good mood? That didn’t happen very often! Kirsty seized the opportunity to ask him a question. “I was wondering,” she said politely, “would it be all right if we took the chest back to the fairies now? It would be so great to give everyone happy holidays with the festive spirit.”
Jack Frost seemed delighted by the suggestion. “Of course! My pleasure,” he said, closing the latch on the silver chest and handing it to Kirsty. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to see everyone enjoying the holidays.”
“Thank you,” Kirsty said. “That’s very kind. I hope you like your cake, by the way!”
“Cake?” Jack Frost marveled. “For me? Oh, this is the best day!”
“Let’s go,” Gabriella whispered, “before the effects of the festive spirit wear off!”
Rachel, Kirsty, and Gabriella left the throne room and made their way out of the castle very quickly. They didn’t want Jack Frost to change his mind!
Outside, Gabriella did a delighted spin through the air. “Fantastic work, girls,” she cried. “You were terrific in there!”
“Is there enough festive spirit left for the Winter Festival tomorrow?” Rachel wondered. “It seemed as if a lot came out when Jack Frost opened the bottle.”
Gabriella smiled and magically grew back to her normal size. “Don’t worry,” she said. “The festive spirit replenishes itself overnight. There will be plenty more by tomorrow morning. The festival is sure to be a success.” She patted the chest happily and tucked it under one arm. “Thanks again,” she said. “The winter holidays have been saved, and it’s all because of you. Everyone will be in a happy mood now that I have the festive spirit back. I’ll send you to your world now, to enjoy the rest of the holidays — and the festival too, of course!”
“We will,” Rachel assured her, waving to the fairy. “Thanks, Gabriella. Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!” Kirsty called, as Gabriella waved her wand over them again.
Everything blurred as they were whisked away by fairy magic. Seconds later, they were their normal size and back at the ski lodge in their ski outfits. They could hear whoops of laughter coming from the nearby slopes.
Kirsty grinned at the sound. “It seems like the festive spirit is working already,” she said.
“Hooray for happy holidays!” Rachel cheered.
The next day, Kirsty and Rachel spent hours skiing and snowboarding on the slopes. Gabriella’s festive spirit was working wonderfully — everyone was laughing, smiling, and really enjoying themselves.
“That was great,” Rachel said happily, as they headed back to the ski lodge later that afternoon. “I’m looking forward to warming up in front of the fire now, though. I’m freezing!”
“Me, too,” Kirsty said. “I love having a big roaring fire in the lodge every evening. It gets so cozy in there.”
But when they went inside, both girls were surprised and disappointed to discover that there was no fire. Mr. Tate was crouching in front of the hearth, looking fed up. “I can’t get it to light,” he told the girls. “We’ve all tried, but the flame won’t catch.”
Rachel shivered. “It’s so cold in here,” she said.
Mrs. Walker hugged her for warmth. “Don’t worry,” she assured her. “We’ll just have to head down to the village earlier than we’d planned. The Winter Festival starts soon, and there’ll be a big bonfire. We can warm up in front of that.”
“There are going to be fireworks later, too,” said Mrs. Tate. “And a craft fair with people selling gifts.”
“And best of all,” Mr. Walker said, pulling on his coat, “some stalls selling hot food and drinks. What are we waiting for?”
Kirsty and Rachel went to the coat room to put on their jackets, hats, and scarves again. As Rachel picked up her gloves, a burst of sparkles floated up from one of them … and out flew Gabriella!
“Oh, girls,” she said urgently. “I need your help again — and fast! I’ve got to find the magic firestone as soon as possible!”
Kirsty glanced toward the main living room of the lodge where her parents were standing. “We can’t let our parents see you,” she whispered to Gabriella, motioning her and Rachel into a nearby closet. “What happened?” Kirsty asked.
“The magic firestone is kept in the hearth of the Grand Hall in the Fairyland palace,” Gabriella explained. “It makes sure that humans and fairies can light fires for warmth and cooking. But Jack Frost was so angry about being tricked into giving back the festive spirit, he sent his goblins to steal the firestone and hide it in the human world. Now that the firestone is missing, there can be no fire in the human world or in Fairyland. Jack Frost is determined to ruin the winter fun!”
“So that’s why our parents couldn’t light a fire here in the ski lodge,” Kirsty realized.
“Yes,” Gabriella said. “I’m sure the goblins with the firestone are somewhere at the festival in the village.”
“We’re going there with our families,” Rachel said. “We’ll help you search for goblins — and the firestone! What does it look like?”
“It looks likes an ordinary rock, but it’s surrounded by magical flames,” Gabriella said. “If you see any sort of flame, the firestone is sure to be nearby.”
Gabriella hid in the folds of Rachel’s scarf and the two girls slipped out of the closet. “Ready when you are!” Kirsty called to her parents.
The two families set off into the village. It was dark now, but strings of twinkling lights had been hung from the branches of the trees to show the way. At the festival, there were crowds of adults and children bundled up in thick winter coats and hats. They crowded around the craft stalls that lined the village street.
“Where’s the bonfire?” Rachel wondered, trying to peer through the crowd.
“I heard it was going to be in the town square,” Mr. Walker replied. “This way.”
<
br /> They squeezed through the stalls that were selling festive gingerbread, painted wooden toys, furry mittens, and all sorts of other gifts. “Here’s the square,” Mr. Tate said, as they came out at the end of the street. “Oh dear,” he added, as he saw the huge unlit bonfire in the center. “It seems like they’re having trouble getting their fire started, too!”
Rachel and Kirsty stood and watched as a couple of men tried to light the enormous bonfire. “I can’t even get a spark, let alone a flame from these matches,” they heard one of the men grumble. “What are we going to do when it’s time to set off the fireworks?”
Kirsty nudged Rachel. This was all because the magic firestone was missing! If they couldn’t find the firestone in time, the bonfire and fireworks would never be lit — and the festival’s finale would be ruined!
Mrs. Tate gave each of the girls some money. “Take a look around the stalls on your own, if you want,” she told them. “Let’s meet back here in an hour.”
Rachel and Kirsty were excited. “Now we can look for the firestone,” Rachel whispered after they’d said good-bye to their parents.
“Remember to watch out for any flames — and for goblins!” Gabriella reminded them, peeking out from behind Rachel’s fluffy scarf.
“Let’s wander around this side of the square,” Kirsty suggested. “Look, there are some ice sculptures down here.”
The friends headed for the ice statues Kirsty had spotted. A couple of sculptors were carving shapes from huge blocks of ice with silver chisels. There was an ice swan, an ice polar bear with an ice fish in its mouth, and even an ice rabbit, with its ears perked up.
The Rainbow Magic Holiday Collection Page 9
