Crossing the Black Ice Bridge

by Alex Bell

  “Well,” Ethan finally said. “This is a heck of a mess. What are we going to do?”

  “We can’t risk going home,” Felix said, scratching his chin. “They’ll send guards there. I’m afraid we’ve got no choice but to proceed straight to the Black Ice Bridge.”

  “But we’ve got nothing!” the magician replied. “No wolves, no tents, no sleds, no provisions, no—”

  “There is a long list of things we do not have,” Felix agreed. “But how about we start with what we do have? Everyone empty their pockets and bags.”

  Their shared supplies didn’t come to an awful lot, but Ethan had brought the magic fort blanket they’d gained on their last expedition, in case they’d been unable to find a place to stay the night in Coldgate, so despite what he’d said a moment before, they did have a tent large enough to accommodate everybody, along with Ruprekt the genie who lived in it and magically produced marvelous cooked dinners and packed lunches on demand, as well as hot baths and hot chocolate and—if he was in a really good mood—foot soaks.

  “Why, this is fantastic!” Felix exclaimed, staring in delight at the magic fort blanket, which mostly looked like a tatty old rag in its natural state. “This will provide us with all the essentials. Well done for bringing it, my boy.”

  “It’s always wise to be prepared,” Ethan said pompously. “Especially since you Polar Bear explorers seem to enjoy sudden emergencies and unexpected disasters.”

  They all diplomatically ignored the barb and counted up what else they had. Beanie had brought lots of jelly beans, but also had his medic kit. Joss had some bandages and party whistles. Shay had his boomerang, and Stella had her charm bracelet and compass. Shay also had an updated copy of Captain Filibuster’s Guide to Expeditions and Exploration, and Felix had his usual kit of telescope, magnifying glass, emergency mint cake, matches, and ball of string, which he had transferred into a satchel before handing over his explorer’s bag.

  “Yes, all in all, this is a much better state of affairs than it might have been,” Felix said, sounding pleased.

  “We’ve got a magic fort blanket and some jelly beans,” Ethan said in a sarcastic tone. “That’ll be a great help when we come across whatever fearsome monster lives on the Black Ice Bridge.”

  “We don’t know for sure that there’s a monster on the bridge—” Shay began.

  “There’s something there,” Ethan said. “There’s got to be some explanation for all the explorers who’ve gone missing over the years.”

  “Four hundred and fifty-six,” Beanie said quietly. “More explorers have disappeared on the Black Ice Bridge than anywhere else in the known world.”

  Joss exchanged a look with Beanie. They knew better than most how dangerous the bridge could be.

  “Exactly,” Ethan said. “So what are we going to do when we come face-to-face with whatever the heck it is? Throw jelly beans at it?”

  Beanie frowned. “I don’t think that’s very likely to work,” he said.

  “Stella doesn’t even have her tiara!” Ethan pointed out.

  “No, but I’ve got this.” Stella touched her charm bracelet. “And I’m better doing magic with this because it doesn’t chill my heart.”

  “Yes, but you don’t really understand the magic or how it works,” Ethan said, looking suddenly serious. “Look, I keep trying to tell you—magic is tricky, and difficult, and it takes a lot of practice to properly master it.”

  “You should know,” Stella said, feeling a bit offended. “You’re always creating polar beans by mistake, or conjuring up sea cucumbers instead of spears, or—”

  “Indeed,” Ethan snapped. His pale face had turned a little pink, meaning he was getting irritated. “I know you lot think I mess up spells because I’m an idiot, but the truth is that none of you has the faintest idea how difficult magic actually is to even touch, let alone control.”

  “No one thinks you’re an idiot,” Stella said, trying to be conciliatory.

  “I sometimes think you’re an idiot when you’re mean to other people,” Beanie volunteered. “But I don’t think you’re an idiot for getting spells wrong. Everyone gets things wrong while they’re still learning.”

  “All right, everyone, I think that’s enough bickering for now,” Felix said. “We can all agree that our situation is not ideal, but we’re stuck with it, I’m afraid, so we’d better make the best of things. Now, my suggestion is this: We make our way back toward the mainland and pull up on the coast somewhere. From there we can make our way to the nearest village to gather whatever additional supplies we can find—”

  “Large spears,” Ethan interrupted. “I think we should definitely have at least one large spear.”

  “Perhaps, but let’s talk about that later,” Felix said. “Once we’re equipped, we can catch the train to Blackcastle.”

  Everyone fell quiet, lost in their own thoughts and concerns about what lay ahead. They’d left the lights of Coldgate far behind them now, and the dark ocean stretched out disconcertingly in every direction as far as the eye could see—which, admittedly, wasn’t all that far since it was very dark, with only the lantern at the front of the sleigh to light their way. Now that Stella looked at it more closely, she saw that the lantern dangling from the troll’s hand had a single pale candle inside it, which also seemed to be made from ice. An odd white flame flickered from the wick, shedding a sparkly, frosty light dancing over the waves, and when Stella put her hand to the glass side, it was cold to the touch rather than warm.

  She kept peering at the ocean, worrying that she had glimpsed the silent, deadly glide of a shark’s fin or the splash of a squid’s tentacle momentarily breaking the surface. Beanie’s thoughts were obviously going the same way because he said:

  “Captain Caspar Jasper Caratacus and his team were killed by snow sharks in the Icelands during the ill-fated Snow Shark Expedition. Guess how many shark teeth they found embedded in their ship?”

  “Beanie, remember what we talked about the other day?” Joss said. “About how sometimes, in certain situations, this kind of conversation can make people uneasy?”

  Beanie paused, then nodded slowly. Stella very much wanted him to change topic, especially since he might go on to mention Ethan’s brother, Julian, who’d been killed in the Poison Tentacle Sea by the screeching red devil squid.

  “Perhaps you could think those facts inside your head rather than saying them out loud?” she suggested.

  Beanie nodded again. “All right. But it was two hundred and four,” he said. “Shark teeth, I mean. That’s how many they found embedded in the ship.”

  Ethan turned to Stella and said, “Do you even know where these bears are taking us? They could be swimming straight toward the Land of Pyramids for all we know.”

  “It turns out there’s no such thing,” Shay said. “It’s been discredited.”

  “What do you mean?” Felix asked.

  “I read about it in one of Father’s scientific journals,” Shay said. “Captain Filibuster took an expedition to the exact reported coordinates for the Land of Pyramids, but there was nothing there. People are saying that perhaps Lord Horace Hogarton Jennings made the whole discovery up to get accolades and credit. He might even be expelled from the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club.”

  “But that can’t be right,” Felix said, frowning. “I’ve seen the Land of Pyramids. From a distance, granted, and many years ago, but I definitely saw it. Besides which, most explorers don’t give tuppence for accolades and credit.”

  Stella knew that Felix didn’t care about those things himself, but she wasn’t convinced that they weren’t terribly important to some of the other explorers.

  “Well, the bears aren’t taking us to the Land of Pyramids, real or not,” she said, squinting down at the compass in her hand. Her eyes seemed to itch with tiredness all of a sudden and her shoulders felt heavy, as if there were a weight resting on them. “I’ve set this for home,” she went on. “I know we’re not actually going back t
here, but we need to aim for the nearest shore down the coast. The bears are going the right way and seem to be listening to me again. We’ll be there in no time.”

  “It’ll take all night and most of tomorrow,” Ethan replied. “We’re still miles and miles away, and these bears are going at about six miles an hour.”

  He was right. Polar bears were strong swimmers, and Stella knew that they could keep going for days and days. But they weren’t exactly the fastest swimmers in the world.

  “Well, we’ll get there eventually,” Stella said, doing her best to sound cheerful at the same time as wondering why on earth she suddenly felt so exhausted. “And that’s the most important thing.”

  The moment she finished speaking, however, something odd started to happen to the sleigh. Stella felt her fingers sinking into the seat like it was made from putty rather than ice. It seemed smaller than it had been a moment ago too. There were cries of dismay from the others as they realized that the sleigh was shrinking around them. The splashing noises made by the polar bears disappeared as the two animals faded away in a twinkling of blue lights, leaving them drifting without direction.

  As the sleigh shrank, they were forced to clamber out onto the little iceberg and, moments later, the sleigh had vanished entirely, leaving them with nothing but a floating lump of ice that was barely big enough to contain everybody, and rapidly getting smaller.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DO SOMETHING!” ETHAN SAID to Stella. “Get them back!”

  “I’m trying!” she gasped. She was clutching the silver charm on her bracelet and concentrating as hard as she could, but it was as if the magic was suddenly slipping through her fingers. Without the carriage’s lantern, it seemed very dark out on the ocean, with only the stars shining softly overhead.

  Ethan groaned. “I knew this would happen,” he said. “I tried to tell you that magic wasn’t easy.”

  “The iceberg is disappearing too,” Beanie pointed out.

  Stella saw that he was right. The piece of ice beneath them was melting away at an alarming rate. If it carried on like this, they’d all be in the sea within moments. She looked at the icy black waves lapping hungrily against the iceberg and felt a little shudder of dread run through her.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked. “We’ve got no boat, nothing to use as a raft, nothing that will even float!”

  “I’ve been practicing my raft spell,” Ethan said. “Allow me.”

  He drew himself up a little straighter and with a superior, self-satisfied look clicked his fingers. Everyone looked at the water hopefully, praying that a strong, sturdy raft with a nice big sail would materialize, but instead an inflatable hippopotamus appeared—the type children play with in swimming pools, only ten times as big. It had an extremely grumpy-looking face and bobbed awkwardly in the water beside them.

  Everyone looked at Ethan.

  “Well, it’s something, isn’t it?” he said defensively.

  “Perhaps if you’d spent a little more time practicing your raft spells and a little less time working on humiliation spells for Gideon, we might be in a better position right now,” Shay growled.

  Ethan scowled. “I’ve been practicing a shield spell too,” he said, a little sulkily. “And I can do it really well.”

  “It’s better than swimming,” Felix cut in. “Everyone climb on quick, or else it will float away.”

  The hippo did look as if it was about to bob off without them, so they all hurriedly climbed onto its back—an extremely awkward procedure, involving a lot of slipping, sliding, and squabbling. Finally, everyone was on—with Ethan right at the front and Felix and Joss at the back—and only just in time, because moments later the iceberg melted away into nothing.

  With all of them on it, the hippo sat a bit lower in the water and their boots only just hovered above the surface of the ocean. Shay sat right behind Stella, and she could feel he was trembling through his cloak. She looked around at him and whispered, “Are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Sparky,” he replied. He looked paler than before and Stella felt guilt stir in the pit of her stomach again, but he offered her a smile and said, “Just cold, that’s all.”

  It was cold out in the middle of the freezing ocean with a salty breeze scraping roughly over their skin. And yet no one else was shivering like Shay.

  “Hopefully no sharp shark fins will go by,” Beanie remarked. “Because if they do, they’ll pop this hippo like a balloon.”

  There were no handholds for them to grab on to, meaning that everyone had to tighten their grip with their legs and balance precariously where they sat.

  “So, what do we do now?” Stella asked. She looked at Ethan and said, “I don’t suppose you’ve got another spell to get this thing to swim forward?”

  The magician shook his head, causing the moonlight to glint off his white-blond hair. “I’d probably just make things worse,” he said in a morose tone. “As you were so keen to point out, my magic doesn’t always go to plan.”

  “Could we fashion a sail out of a petticoat?” Beanie suggested hopefully.

  They considered it for a moment, but Beanie’s mum was wearing trousers and although Stella was perfectly prepared to give up her petticoat, it wouldn’t be big enough by itself to form a sail.

  “A ship is bound to pass us eventually,” Felix said. “They’ll stop and pick us up.”

  “What if pirates find us before a respectable ship does?” Beanie said.

  “Even if a respectable ship discovers us, they’ll probably hand you two straight in to the authorities,” Ethan said, glancing over his shoulder at Felix and Stella.

  “Perhaps you could use your frost magic to make paddles?” Beanie suggested.

  “Frost magic only makes things out of snow,” Stella replied. “And snow paddles would disintegrate. Besides, I don’t think I’m able to do any more magic right now. It feels like that carriage spell took everything.”

  “That was pretty big magic,” Ethan said with a grunt. “It’s no wonder it used up all your reserves.”

  A miserable silence descended upon the group. Stella didn’t think there was anything guaranteed to make you feel small as much as bobbing around helplessly on an inflatable hippo in the middle of a freezing sea.

  They were just debating whether the jungle fairies ought to be sent to fetch help and, if so, who exactly they should be sent to, when suddenly Joss said sharply, “Did anyone hear that?”

  The group fell quiet.

  “I don’t hear—” Ethan began.

  “I do,” Beanie said, all the color draining from his face. “It’s mermaids.”

  Elves have better hearing than humans, but after a few moments the others heard it too: an eerie, whispering, lilting song that sent shivers across their skin. Beanie didn’t recite any facts this time and Stella was relieved. They all knew how dangerous mermaids could be. They all knew that they would sometimes drag sailors and explorers beneath the waves to drown them for no reason.

  “Stay calm,” Felix murmured beneath his breath. “And don’t jump to conclusions. There are lots of dark rumors about mermaids, but I met a fellow once who said a mermaid had saved his life. They may not all be bad.”

  The singing got nearer and louder. It was beautiful, but strange too, and Stella couldn’t decide whether she liked it or not. It made her feel odd inside her head, like she might float away at any second. She’d seen paintings of mermaids in books and little pictures of them printed on maps, but she’d never seen one in real life before and part of her was thrilled—while the other part was terrified that a hand might suddenly shoot up from beneath the water, wrap around her dangling foot, and drag her straight down into the sea.

  “There’s one!” Shay cried.

  They all followed his pointing finger. Stella thought she saw a flash of something, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

  Then there was a splash and a ripple just behind them, followed by another and another.


  Stella looked down and this time clearly caught sight of a mermaid’s tail, wet and shining in the starlight, for a brief moment before it disappeared back beneath the surface.

  “They’re surrounding us,” she whispered.

  A bigger ripple rocked the inflatable hippo, and they all squeezed it with their legs a little tighter. The next second, a mermaid’s head broke the surface of the water.

  Her hair was a tangle of green and blue braids, knotted with shells and pieces of coral. She wore a necklace of tiny pearls around her throat and her halter-neck top was woven together from strands of seaweed. Her skin was almost as white as Stella’s, and her dark eyes seemed too big for her face somehow. Like their singing, the mermaid was both strange and beautiful.

  For a moment, there was a strained silence while they stared at each other.

  Then Felix said, “Hello. It’s an honor to meet you. My name is Felix Evelyn Pearl. My companions and I are explorers.”

  Everyone held their breath as the mermaid gazed back at them. Finally, she said, “I’ve never known explorers to travel on an inflatable hippo before.”

  Her voice was low and gravelly, like she had sand in her throat.

  “Ah,” Felix said. “Well, that was somewhat of a mistake. You see we—”

  “Can we have our flower back, please?” the mermaid said.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “That boy has one of our flowers.” She pointed at Ethan.

  “I most certainly do not,” he protested.

  “It’s down the back of your cloak,” the mermaid said.

  Stella leaned forward and, ignoring Ethan’s yelp of complaint, thrust her hand down his cloak. Her fingers immediately made contact with something smooth and cool, and she carefully drew out the mermaid flower.

  “It must have happened when we crashed through the market,” she said.

  Mermaid flowers were made from sea glass, and this one had a blue stem with jade petals. Stella thought it was glorious.