Crossing the Black Ice Bridge

by Alex Bell

  “That’s not a person,” Joss said. “Not anymore, anyway.”

  As they descended, Stella realized Beanie’s mum was right. The small figure in the snow had once been a woman, but now she was as frozen and lifeless as any doll. She half crouched in the snow, an expression of terror still fixed upon her face as she stared up at some long-gone threat.

  Stella knelt in the snow before the woman and peered into her face, hoping for some flicker of life. Her lacy collar and bonnet were items from two centuries ago, and her eyelashes were delicate threads of ice. She seemed so real—almost as if she might blink at any moment.

  “Perhaps you could unfreeze her?” Beanie suggested.

  “I’ve got no idea how,” Stella replied. “And I don’t want to risk making it worse, but… I don’t think there’s anything left to unfreeze. She’s made completely of ice now—even her clothes.”

  She rested her fingertips lightly on the woman’s sleeve and could sense, somehow, that it was hopeless.

  “I think she’s been too cold for too long,” Stella said, removing her hand. “There’s nothing left to save.”

  She suddenly had a bad taste in her mouth, which got worse as they made their way through Blackcastle’s gates and into the village itself. Everything there was made from the same shiny black rock as the bridge, meaning it had stayed well preserved even though no one had lived there for years.

  But the shops and houses stood silent and deserted, and the only sound was the distant roar of the ocean. It was eerily quiet, and as the explorers walked through the streets they found more and more people—frozen just like the woman.

  The story was that Queen Portia’s attack had been unprovoked and sudden—and here was the proof. These people had clearly just been going about their everyday business. Stella saw women with baskets slung over their arms, dogs frozen midbark, and children caught in a game of hoop-rolling. All had the same horrified expression on their faces, even though whatever they’d been looking at had vanished.

  Stella felt a sense of shame prickle over her skin. It was one thing reading about the evil deeds of snow queens in a report, but it was quite another to come face-to-face with the reality. All these people’s lives just… ended. On a whim.

  I will never become this, Stella thought to herself, as hard as she could. I’ll never become a monster.

  They made their way through the village, taking care not to knock into any of the frozen people. They glanced through windows as they went, but anything that might be useful to them had long since gone. Shops had been picked bare and houses cleared out. All that remained were husks—just the shell of the village that had once stood there. Even the carpet of snow was clean and crisp and perfect, and it felt almost wrong to leave their footprints behind. Ice magic had torn through the place, scouring jagged gouges along the walls as it went and leaving behind an ice trail that still glittered.

  “It looks like the Black Ice Bridge is through there,” Shay said, pointing at a little arch in the walls.

  “Good,” Ethan said. “Let’s get out of this creepy place.”

  “Surely we’re going to look at the castle first?” Felix said, pointing. Everyone looked up at the castle built into the mountainside above, menacing and unfriendly, the windows dark and lifeless. It looked as if the magic had exploded right out of the castle wall, cracking open the bricks on the top floor and coating them in enchanted ice.

  “Queen Portia was evil,” Stella said. “It seems to me that we should stay well away from her castle.”

  “We still don’t have any weapons or transportation, though,” Ethan pointed out. “Perhaps we should take a look.”

  There was a momentary silence.

  Stella couldn’t deny that weapons and transportation would be extremely useful on the Black Ice Bridge. Maybe even the difference between life and death.…

  “All right,” she said with a sigh. “I guess we could take a quick look. But everyone just… keep your wits about you.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THEY MADE THEIR WAY up the cliff, flashing nervous glances at the castle as they went. The last snow queen’s castle they’d visited had been all towers and turrets, spindly and elegant. This one, by comparison, was a squat, square thing, hunched against the side of the cliff.

  They reached the front doors and stopped. Snarling gargoyle faces were carved into the black marble surface. Shay reached out to try the door handle, but it didn’t budge.

  “Locked,” he said, glancing at Stella.

  She stepped forward and reached out her hand. Before she could even touch the handle, it clicked down and the door swung slowly open into a hall, chilly and dark and deserted. Remembering what had happened the last time they’d entered a snow queen’s castle, Stella took a deep breath as she stepped over the threshold. Sure enough, the moment her boot touched the floor, the castle came to life in front of their eyes. Dust vanished from the floor, cobwebs disappeared from the chandelier, and the ice that had formed over the paintings cracked and fell away.

  The candles in the chandelier and the wall sconces suddenly lit themselves, casting a flickering glow over the polished black floor, stretching away from them as still and shiny as a lagoon. Dominating everything was a huge portrait of Queen Portia herself. The life-size painting was so vibrant and realistic that Stella jumped, mistaking it for the real thing.

  Despite her fear, she was curious about what this other snow queen had looked like and stepped closer to the painting. Like most snow queens, Queen Portia was very beautiful and elegant. She was wearing a purple velvet dress trimmed with white fur. Around her neck hung a splendid golden locket, with a silver dragon curled around it, clutching a single starflake in one clawed foot.

  Queen Portia’s skin was extremely pale, but unlike Stella, this snow queen’s hair was coal-black, pulled back in a complicated arrangement of plaits threaded with purple beads. A white tiara glittered in her hair, and there was a haughty look in her green eyes, which seemed to gaze right out of the canvas at them, as if she could actually see them.

  As she stared at the painting, Stella saw that Queen Portia wore a charm bracelet that looked very similar to her own. The only noticeable difference was that not all of the charms were silver—a single gold heart hung there too. An idea occurred to Stella, and she spun around to face the others.

  “Do you think this snow queen had her own Book of Frost?” she asked. “Jezzybella said that most snow queens have them, didn’t she? Just like witches have a Book of Shadows?”

  “That’s certainly what she implied,” Felix agreed.

  “Well, if Queen Portia had her own Book of Frost, and it’s still here, then perhaps it might contain the spell we need to save Shay! We might not need to cross the Black Ice Bridge at all!”

  A small buzz of excitement rippled through them. Perhaps their journey need not be so long and perilous. Perhaps it could end right here in this castle. Stella would still be wanted for arrest, of course, and Felix would still be expelled from the club, but if they cured Shay, then at least that was one less thing to worry about.

  “We should conduct a search,” Felix said. “Together, I think. It’ll take more time, but it’s probably best that we don’t split up.”

  They began to explore and quickly found that the castle was just as lavish as the one that had belonged to Stella’s birth parents, with countless maps upon the walls and expensive-looking old globes on stands.

  “It looks like Queen Portia liked traveling too,” Stella said, reaching out to spin one of the globes. “I thought snow queens were supposed to stay in their frozen kingdoms.”

  She didn’t much like the idea of having anything in common with this snow queen, and the thought nagged at her as they made their way upstairs to explore the upper floors. On the third level they quickly found the room with the broken outside wall. It seemed like some kind of magical explosion had taken place there. Enchanted ice spilled out from the center across the floorboards like fingers, sp
reading toward the wall, which had smashed apart beneath the impact. Icy air whistled in through the gap.

  “What’s with all the dragon images?” Shay asked, running his hand over a wall tapestry depicting a fearsome-looking white dragon. “I noticed them downstairs, too.”

  “Perhaps Queen Portia liked them,” Stella said.

  They went on to explore the rest of the castle, hunting high and low, but there was no sign of a Book of Frost or anything magical at all. Even the queen’s bedchamber had been stripped bare, with only an empty jewelry box on display.

  “Perhaps she took the book with her when the mob chased her away,” Beanie suggested. “It looks like she took her tiara and charms and things.”

  They made their way back downstairs feeling a bit deflated.

  “I feel like there’s something else here,” Stella said, gazing around. “But I don’t know what.…”

  She led the way back to the library.

  “Queen Jessamine’s castle had a secret passageway leading out of the castle,” Stella said to the others. “You just had to pull the right book out. Maybe this one has something similar?”

  They all started to pull books from the shelves at random.

  “These books are all terribly old,” Beanie said. “We should take some of them with us. They might be useful.”

  “How much use can a book about goblins be?” Ethan asked, throwing the book on the floor in disgust.

  Beanie ignored the remark and stuffed a few books into his bag. They were just starting to think that perhaps there was no secret door after all, when Beanie pulled out a book about dragons—one of the bookcases immediately slid back with a groan to reveal a passageway.

  “Well done, Beanie,” Stella said, already stepping inside.

  There was a stone dragon perched on a shelf just inside the doorway, and the lantern in its hand lit up as soon as Stella appeared.

  “It’s not a passageway, after all,” she said, looking around at the others. “It’s a staircase.”

  It was cut straight into the rock and curved away from them, down into the darkness.

  “Does this lead into the cliff?” Ethan asked, peering over Stella’s shoulder.

  “Looks like it,” she said. “Let’s find out.”

  Stella knew the staircase could just be another way out of the castle, but there was a chance it could lead to a secret room where the queen’s precious Book of Frost was hidden. They made their way down, with Stella at the front and the jungle fairies bringing up the rear. More dragon lanterns came to life as they went past, casting their flickering light over the shiny stone. The steps were damp with moss, and they had to move carefully so as to avoid slipping. As they went farther, Stella thought she could smell water and hear the soft drip-drip of droplets landing on stone.

  The staircase seemed to go on and on. They were just beginning to worry that they might never reach the bottom when finally they arrived at an arched doorway. As Stella stepped through, hundreds of candles sprang into life around them.

  “It’s a grotto!” she exclaimed.

  The others followed her, gazing around at the cave hollowed out of the rock. Spindly stalactites stretched down from the ceiling and sharp stalagmites reached up from between the rock pools below. There were shells scattered everywhere, of all different colors—pearl and pink and blue and coral. The air smelled of salt and damp, and they could hear the roar of the ocean coming from not far away.

  “And it’s a… a kind of carriage house too. Look.”

  Shay pointed, and they saw there were indeed a variety of sleighs and carriages lined up at the far end of the cave. They were beautiful glittering creations made from sea crystal, all of them fit for a queen.

  “They must have belonged to Queen Portia,” Stella said.

  They walked over to examine the vehicles and saw that, along with the more traditional sleighs they were familiar with, some of them were actually shaped like boats, complete with sails that hung limply from the masts. But it looked as if these boats were designed to run over ice rather than water, because they had steel blades attached to the bottom, the same as the sleighs.

  “If only we had some expedition wolves, we could use one of these things to travel across the bridge,” Ethan said, pointing at the harness attached to the boat’s prow.

  Stella frowned. “The harness looks too small for wolves. I wonder what type of animal it’s for.”

  She reached out, and the moment her hand touched the reins there was a clanking noise behind them. The explorers turned in time to see a group of gargoyles peeling themselves from the walls, their clawed feet landing on the shell-covered ground with a crunch. They were all slightly different shapes and sizes—strange things, with horns on their heads, large pointed ears, and wings that groaned as they unfurled. There were seven of them, all yawning and stretching, as if they had just woken up.

  “Astonishing,” Felix said.

  At his voice, the gargoyles looked around sharply, and soon they were clambering over the rocks toward the explorers, peering at them with their stone eyes and snuffling at them with their stone snouts.

  “They look just the right size for these harnesses,” Shay pointed out. “Perhaps Queen Portia had gargoyles rather than wolves.”

  “Do you think they’re friendly?” Beanie asked nervously.

  “They seem to recognize Stella,” Shay said.

  Indeed, the gargoyles were scraping and bowing in front of her.

  “Hello,” Stella said. “It’s nice to—oh!” She broke off in surprise as one of the gargoyles gripped her hand and started tugging her over a stone bridge, the others close behind her. The gargoyle pressed Stella’s hand against part of the wall that looked smoother than the rest. Before their eyes, a large chunk of stone slid back, and sunlight poured through the small gap.

  “Hang on!” Stella tugged her hand free. “We can’t leave just yet. First we have to explore the cave. Perhaps you can help us. You see, we’re looking for a special book that—”

  She broke off because, shaking its head, the gargoyle pointed at Stella and said something. The words came out all gravelly and clanky, like rocks knocking together.

  “Oh dear, I’m afraid I can’t understand you,” Stella said.

  The gargoyle pointed at her again and repeated whatever it had just said. When it realized she still couldn’t understand, the creature shook its head again. Then it suddenly grabbed Stella’s wrist and jabbed a stone finger at her charm bracelet.

  “That… that’s my bracelet,” Stella said. The gargoyle seemed to be getting quite agitated, so she added, “It’s all right; it can’t hurt you.”

  “It’s pointing at a particular charm, I think,” Shay said.

  He was right. The gargoyle was tapping its stone fingernail urgently against the silver dragon charm and then pointing back down into the cave. Stella recalled all the dragon motifs back in Queen Portia’s castle and then she looked at the rocks the gargoyle was jabbing at. A dreadful thought occurred to her.

  “You don’t suppose—” she began.

  But then Felix said sharply, “What was that noise?”

  Everyone fell silent, including the gargoyles. Above the distant roar of the ocean and the drip-drip of the damp walls was a new sound: a groaning rumble that made the ground tremble beneath their feet and tiny stones and pieces of shell shower down on them from the ceiling.

  And then a huge white dragon’s head appeared from over the top of a pile of rocks, trails of steam drifting from its nostrils as it poked its snout into the air. It blew out a great blast of glittering icy breath that snapped off stalactites as if they were made of sugar, covered all the shells in a layer of frost, and chilled the air throughout the entire cave.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THEY ALL STARED AS the dragon slowly stood up and unfurled its wings. It was massive—over a hundred feet long from snout to tail, with sharp spines along its back, hundreds of teeth, and a dangerous spiked tail. It seemed to be
made entirely of ice—all except for its eyes, which were a cloudy, milky blue. It had been buried beneath a layer of shells, and now it shook itself free, staggering slightly as the shells cascaded from it like water. Its tail whacked against the wall of the cave so hard that it cut a gouge right out of the rock, exposing a shining layer of sea crystal hidden beneath.

  Finally understanding what the gargoyles had been trying to warn them about, the explorers fled toward the exit.

  But it was too late. The dragon had realized they were there and let out a great bellow of anger. Its monstrous head whipped around, and it blew a freezing ice cloud at them, which quickly formed into a thick wall of dangerously glittering ice. It didn’t hit anyone, but Stella saw a stalactite snap off from the ceiling and go plummeting, like a blade, straight toward Joss.

  Stella cried out a warning. Felix spun around, and seeing what was about to happen, dived toward Joss, knocking her out of the stalactite’s path just in time. They toppled off the edge of the little bridge, landing upon a slab of rock beneath. Before they could even stand up, the dragon blew ice at them again, and this time it solidified all the way from the top of the bridge right down to the rocky slab, effectively creating a wall that sealed Felix and Joss behind it.

  “No!” Beanie screamed.

  His shout drew the dragon’s attention, and it raised its huge head, turning to face them. Its pale blue eyes wandered straight over them blindly, and there was a grayish tinge to the ice around its muzzle. Stella realized the dragon was old, and she wondered whether it could even see them.

  Ethan raised his hand and threw some magic arrows at it. They had fiery tips, and the dragon bellowed as they landed on its back. Its breath came in rapid gasps, and Stella suddenly saw that the dragon was afraid.

  “Stop!” she cried.

  She ran to the edge of the bridge and raised both her hands. She couldn’t do any ice magic without her tiara, but she knew she had to do something to show the dragon that she was an ice princess and that she wasn’t a threat.