Crossing the Black Ice Bridge

by Alex Bell

  Stella knew that Ethan had not really acted properly there. He should have turned Gideon back into a boy the moment they arrived at Witch Mountain, but the magician claimed to have forgotten the spell. The others had all known deep down that this wasn’t true, but no one had tried very hard to persuade him to turn Gideon back because they had evil witches to worry about, and vampire trolls and ice spiders, and no one particularly wanted to listen to him complaining while they attempted to scale the mountain.

  Stella could still see the pure hatred that had blazed in Gideon’s eyes as he’d glared up at Ethan from where he lay sprawled on the salted planks of the pier after they got home and he was human once again.

  I’ll get you back, he’d said. One day, I swear I’ll get you back for what you did to me.

  And now here he was, making life difficult for them. If Gideon hadn’t been so furious about the whole thing, perhaps the president of the Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club might not have made such noisy complaints and this might all be going very differently now.

  Gideon stood up from his chair, completely ignored Ethan, and addressed the judge instead. “The magician had nothing to do with it,” he said. “He’s just trying to take the blame for the ice princess. No doubt she’s bewitched him somehow.” He pointed at Stella. “She’s the one who attacked me.”

  “I can’t turn anyone into a frog!” Stella exclaimed. “I can only use ice magic—”

  “Who knows what the girl can and cannot do?” President Smythe said. “We hardly know anything about ice princesses. Except for the fact that they’re dangerous.”

  “Your son is a filthy liar!” Ethan exclaimed.

  An annoyed ripple went around the courtroom at that, and Stella saw Beanie’s mum pull Ethan back into his seat and urgently whisper something in his ear.

  “I tell you, it was her!” Gideon insisted.

  Stella didn’t know how to make them listen. She’d already been through everything that had happened at earlier meetings. No one seemed to want to hear anything she had to say.

  President Fogg picked up his gavel and hammered it down briskly. “Silence!” he cried. “There will be no more of these outbursts, or I will have the room cleared.” He turned his gaze on Felix and said, “There can be no excuse for stealing President Smythe’s dirigible. None. Not only was it stolen, but it was also lost during the course of the expedition. The craft was hand-carved by Tikki nymphs from the Tikki Zikki River. It was invaluable.”

  Stella flinched. Upon arriving at Witch Mountain, they had traded the dirigible at Weenus’s Trading Post. It had seemed vital at the time to have a camel and a magic fort blanket for the expedition that lay ahead, but now she was starting to think that perhaps they ought to have made more of an effort to bring the dirigible back with them. She had been so focused on rescuing Felix that she’d barely given it a moment’s thought.

  “I accept that Stella took the dirigible,” Felix was saying, “but precedent states that when another explorer’s life is at stake, in an emergency situation it is permissible to—”

  “Thank you, Pearl, but we do not require a law lecture,” President Fogg snapped. “We are here merely to summarize the facts and to give our decision.” He set down his gavel and drew himself up a little straighter in his chair. “When I admitted this girl into our club—against my better judgment, I might add—you told me you would take full responsibility for her. She has committed countless infractions and breaches of the rules. Countless. She has led other junior explorers astray.” His gaze flickered toward Beanie, Shay, and Ethan, who all got to their feet and started to protest together. President Fogg didn’t even pause for breath—he merely raised his voice and steamrolled over their explanations. “As a result, there has been an official complaint from the Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club, and you have left me no choice but to take action. Both you and the girl are to be expelled from the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club.”

  The others all stopped talking, and for a moment there was stunned silence. Stella felt like her chest might burst with the unfairness and wrongness of it. She remembered Felix’s words to her just before her very first expedition:

  If anything goes wrong with the expedition as a result, I will certainly lose my membership in the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club.…

  She had promised him that wouldn’t happen. She knew how much the club meant to him—she knew that exploring was Felix’s whole life. The other people in the room were exclaiming around her—some in outrage and some in satisfaction.

  “Your cloak, sir,” President Fogg said in a cold voice. “You have lost the right to wear it. I must also ask that you hand in your explorer’s bag and card at the confiscation desk before leaving the courthouse.”

  Stella saw Felix’s fingers shake slightly as he fumbled with the clasp, and before she knew what she was doing she was on her feet, scattering the fairies, who tumbled to the floor in an indignant heap.

  “No!” Her voice rang out across the courtroom, and everyone turned to stare at her. “No!” she said again. “This isn’t right! I was the one who stole the dirigible. I was the one who broke into the club. Felix only went to Witch Mountain because of me. It isn’t fair to punish him for something I did!”

  “You do not get to decide what is fair,” President Fogg said sternly. “In fact, you have no say in this courtroom at all.”

  Stella knew it was hopeless to try to make the panel see reason when they were all so clearly determined not to. For a wild moment, her fingers strayed to the charm bracelet at her wrist. When Felix had finally found the witch he had set after, she had turned out to be Stella’s old nanny, Jezzybella, and he realized it had all been a big misunderstanding; she had never meant Stella any harm. When they were reunited, Jezzybella had given Stella the charm bracelet. She’d even come home with them and told Stella that each charm on the bracelet created a different spell. Perhaps she could use one now to fight against the panel somehow.

  “Stella,” Felix said quietly, his voice full of warning.

  She looked at him, and he shook his head just slightly before his eyes flicked over to where Shay stood. Stella felt her anger drain away uselessly. She knew what Felix was saying—she had to stay out of trouble because she was the only one who had any hope of saving Shay’s life. If they managed to cross the Black Ice Bridge and if they found the Collector and if they managed to steal the Book of Frost, then Stella was the only person who would be able to use the ice-melting spell to counteract the witch wolf’s bite.

  “I do not regret a single one of my actions, and I will gladly give up my membership if that is the price,” Felix said calmly as he carefully folded the cloak and placed it on a nearby table.

  “That’s so typical of you, Pearl!” one of the retired explorers on the panel said with a sneer. “If you ask me, the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club is better off without mavericks like you. You damage the integrity of the club, attack our traditions, and make a mockery of our history.”

  Stella knew this explorer. His name was Quentin Bodwin Moore, and he was a fairyologist like Felix, only Quentin favored things like pinned fairy displays and killing jars. He’d been furious when Felix had persuaded the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club to remove their pinned fairy display and had nursed a vendetta against Felix ever since.

  “Let me be quite clear,” Felix said. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club. For all the exploring clubs, in fact. But sometimes it is surely desirable that we rethink the attitudes of our past and adapt with the times—”

  “What nonsense!” Quentin exclaimed. “Perhaps without you putting stupid ideas in people’s heads we will be able to bring back the pinned fairy display that stood in our lobby for more than a hundred years!”

  “Perhaps you will, Quentin,” Felix replied with a sigh, and Stella didn’t think she had ever heard him sound quite so sad or so tired.

  Before anyone else could say another word, however, Mustafah flew up into the air, slingsho
t already in hand. Stella saw what he was about to do, but before she could even think about whether she wanted to stop him or not, he drew back the elastic band, took aim, and fired a stink-berry straight at Quentin. Stella supposed the jungle fairy was a little peeved at the suggestion that a pinned fairy display should be reintroduced into the club, and she couldn’t really blame him.

  Even so, a tiny fairy catapulting a stink-berry at a member of the panel was perhaps not the most helpful thing that could have happened at that moment. The red berry shot straight across the room and hit the explorer on the cheek, where it burst and let loose a vile smell. It’s hard to describe a stink-berry stench to someone who has never actually smelled it, but it’s a bit like polar bear poo, walrus breath, and camel vomit all rolled into one, with a sprinkling of unwashed feet and cheese that has moldy bits growing on it. It filled the entire courtroom and immediately sent everyone heaving and rising to their feet, tripping over one another as they raced toward the exit.

  CHAPTER TWO

  HAVING LIVED WITH THE jungle fairies since their return from Witch Mountain, Stella and Felix were a little more used to the smell than everyone else, and Felix walked over to Stella, offering her a small half smile.

  “Don’t look so upset,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “We knew there was every chance this might happen.”

  “I didn’t… I just didn’t think it actually would,” Stella said, hating the fact that her voice shook. “It’s so unfair.”

  “Life is not always fair,” Felix agreed. “But you and I have bigger things to worry about right now.”

  He glanced past her to the corridor, where they could see their friends waiting for them with handkerchiefs pressed over their noses.

  “Let’s join the others,” Felix said.

  Stella beckoned the fairies over, and they happily piled into the front pocket of her dress—an extra-large one her dressmaker had made for just that purpose. They walked out to the corridor, where Beanie’s mum gave Felix a quick hug.

  “It’s an outrage,” Joss said quietly. “They’ve got to see reason and let you back in eventually. They’ve got to.” She smiled over at Stella and gave her arm a squeeze. “You were so brave in there, my dear,” she said.

  Stella tried to smile back at her, but there was an ache in her throat that she couldn’t seem to shift. Still, she was glad in her soul that her friends were there, and she was pleased to see Joss, who was always resolutely cheerful. She noticed that Beanie’s mum wore one of her own knit creations today—a woolly sweater so big that it practically swamped her tiny frame. She’d stitched a big, friendly looking yeti on it, with actual fluffy white bits for the fur.

  “What’s done is done,” Felix said. “Let’s grab our coats and get out of here. Courthouses make me itchy.”

  They made their way to the coatroom, where they handed over their tickets and collected their hats and bags.

  “Pearl.”

  They all turned around to see President Fogg standing behind them, his eyes still watering from the pungent reek of the stink-berry. It had even made his mustache wilt a little.

  “You’ve been expelled from the club,” he said, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief. “I trust you understand what that means? You have lost the right to mount any expeditions into the unknown. Only qualified explorers are permitted that privilege.” He glanced toward the front doors, where President Smythe was lingering, looking smug, with his son, Gideon. “And you’ve made yourself a powerful enemy, Felix,” Fogg went on in a quieter voice. Stella thought she saw just a hint of regret in his eyes as they rested on her father. “You know I can’t risk jeopardizing our friendly relations with the other clubs—we’re on thin enough ice as it is with the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club after that Snow Shark Expedition fiasco.” He sighed. “You are a fine explorer and the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club was glad to have you, but you’ve left me no choice in this matter. If I hear that you’re planning any kind of expedition, I will have to apply for a warrant for your arrest.”

  Stella gasped. It was, technically, the law that only explorers were allowed on expeditions, but it wasn’t usually a law that was enforced. After all, what harm did it do? If some foolhardy person wanted to buy themselves a raft, tie a flag to it, and go sailing off into the ocean, never to be seen or heard from again, then surely that was their own affair?

  “I understand,” Felix said in a quiet voice.

  “Please don’t make me arrest you, Felix,” the president went on. “Explorers’ prison is not a happy place. You don’t want to be locked away with poachers and pirates and bandits and—”

  “Indeed not,” Felix said, placing his top hat on his head. “Good day, President Fogg.”

  The others trailed after Felix toward the lobby, all feeling rather crushed and subdued. Stella felt particularly bad for Beanie, because it was a terrible thing to feel crushed and subdued on one’s birthday.

  “I just have to hand these things in,” Felix said, gesturing to his explorer’s bag. Somehow, he managed to still make his voice sound cheerful. “And then we’ll go.”

  He went off to the desk on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, President Smythe and his son walked across the lobby at that very moment, buttoning up their cloaks as they headed for the front doors. Stella felt Ethan twitch beside her.

  “Don’t say anything to them,” she warned. “It’s not worth it.”

  Perhaps Ethan would have done as she’d said if Gideon hadn’t deliberately barged into him on the way past, muttering an insult under his breath and almost knocking him over. The magician staggered slightly but was quickly righted by Joss. Before anyone could stop him, Ethan spun around on the spot and threw a magic spell at Gideon’s back. It hit the older boy square between the shoulders. Stella wasn’t quite sure whether the magic made his clothes invisible or caused them to disappear entirely, but either way the effect was that Gideon suddenly appeared to be standing in the middle of the lobby wearing nothing but his underwear—a pair of boxer shorts with elephants and bananas printed all over them.

  “Ha!” Ethan cried triumphantly. “I’ve been practicing that spell for weeks!”

  Some of the people in the lobby burst out laughing, while others tutted disapprovingly. Beanie’s mum gasped, President Smythe swore, Beanie tugged at his pom-pom hat in agitation, and Gideon’s face turned flaming scarlet.

  “Ethan!” Joss exclaimed. “Take that spell off at once!”

  The magician shrugged, but he clicked his fingers and Gideon suddenly had all his clothes back again.

  “I will have you all thrown out of your clubs in disgrace if you carry on like this!” President Smythe said, rounding on them. “You’ll never go on another expedition again, any of you! As soon as I am home I will write official letters of complaint to all your—”

  Felix suddenly appeared beside them, and Stella could tell he had seen what had happened because he said quietly, “Sir, please let’s not continue our quarrel any further. For my part in it, I apologize unreservedly. The children are only young and they will learn. I’m sure we both did things in our youth of which we are not proud. These petty feuds don’t do anyone a bit of good, and I am thrown out of the club now at any rate, so might we not let bygones be bygones?”

  Felix held out his hand. President Smythe stared at it like it was something dirty and distasteful.

  “The plain fact of the matter is, Pearl, that they should never have allowed a man of your sort to be admitted into the club in the first place.”

  “Ah.” Felix slowly lowered his hand. “I see.”

  Stella gasped, suddenly breathless with outrage.

  “You, sir,” President Smythe went on, “are no gentleman.”

  Before Stella could leap to his defense, Joss exclaimed, “How utterly shameful. Felix Evelyn Pearl is one of the best explorers—one of the very best men, in fact—that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing! You’re… you’re nothing but a blasted nincompoop!” The tips of h
er ears had turned scarlet, which Stella knew meant she was furious.

  “It is quite all right, Joss,” Felix said in a mild voice. “The president is entitled to his opinion.”

  “Come, Gideon,” said President Smythe, fixing Joss with a frosty look before turning and stalking toward the doors.

  Stella thought that might finally be the end of the unpleasant encounter, but then Gideon spat on Felix’s coat, a long white trail running slowly down the front.

  “That’s it!” Ethan cried, raising his hand. “I’m going to—”

  “You’ll do nothing,” Felix said calmly, pushing the magician’s hand back down again.

  Gideon hurried after his father before anyone could hex him, and the next second they had both gone.

  Felix took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the spit off without a word. Then he glanced at the others and said, “It seems to me that some birthday cake is in order.”

  “He… he spat on you!” Ethan exclaimed, outraged, as they made their way toward the door.

  “I was sneezed on by a yeti once, you know,” Felix said, looking thoughtful as he recalled the incident. “After that, a little bit of spit hardly seems like anything to make a great fuss about.”

  “I wouldn’t have let him get away with it!” Ethan fumed, as they stepped out into the street. “I would have—”

  “You would have made everything worse, just like you always do!” Shay burst out. He looked genuinely angry, which wasn’t like him. “Hasn’t it even occurred to you that if you hadn’t turned Gideon into a frog in the first place, then maybe Felix would still be in the club?”

  Ethan looked suddenly stricken. “But… but I—”

  “All right, gather around, everyone,” Felix said, drawing them together on the frosty pavement. He bent down slightly to their level, and Stella immediately found herself comforted by the warmth that was always there in his eyes. “Now, listen,” Felix said. “Courthouses bring out the worst in people—that’s just the way of it for some reason—but sometimes it’s stronger not to show strength, especially when facing someone weaker than ourselves.” He fixed Ethan with a pointed look, and Stella noticed that the magician couldn’t help squirming a little. “If we must humiliate another person in order to make ourselves feel big, then we have become very small and scared indeed. So let’s leave all that squabbling behind us.” He glanced at Beanie’s mum and said, “We have far more important things to discuss right now, and we will need each other—more than ever—for what’s to come.”