The Silver Secret

by Astrid Foss

  “Let’s go, boy,” Magda whispered. “Now you can get bigger!”

  Oskar looked round at the girls, then suddenly took off at a brisk pace, growing magically in size as he went and pulling the sledge easily. They slid through the castle gates and finally they were out into the night!

  The girls pulled the blanket over their laps and huddled together beneath the coarse snow-soaked fabric of their clothes.

  “We’re going to do it!” Hanna whispered to Magda and Ida as they gripped each other’s hands.

  Magda nodded emphatically. “We’re going to find the orb, and save our parents …”

  “… And the island!” Ida finished.

  The sledge slipped through the moonlit forest. Silvery evergreen trees, their needles slick with ice, towered over the girls. The forest grew denser as Oskar pulled them deeper into it. The girls could smell the sharp, fresh scent of pine and the warm musk of the blanket. They heard little except the crunch of Oskar’s heavy paws on the snow and the rasp of the sledge’s blades. Now and then an owl’s eerie hoot pierced the cold night air.

  “The sky’s darker now,” Ida observed, shivering and pulling the blanket closer round her legs.

  “I think it’s because the forest is getting thicker. The trees are blocking the moonlight,” Magda pointed out. She, too, shivered. “Don’t hog the blanket, Ida!” she complained, but she was secretly very glad to have her sisters on either side of her.

  “We should be getting to Gregor’s camp soon,” said Hanna, sounding more confident than she felt. “I’m almost sure I remember this stretch of forest from the time we visited his camp with Madame Olga. We went right by this part of the woods.”

  “Really? You must be excellent at recognising trees,” said Magda. “They all look the same to me!”

  “All right, all right. But I do think we need to head east now,” Hanna continued, squinting at the sky through the trees, trying to locate the North Star. “I’m sure we headed east that day.”

  “No,” said Magda. “The sun was at our backs that morning, not ahead of us. We headed west through the woods.”

  As Oskar ran on between the dark, dense trees, Ida glanced around. Everywhere looked exactly the same to her. The cold moonlight reached the ground in a few places, making the frost sparkle. But mostly she just saw tall, silent trees full of shadows. She suddenly trembled. “We’re totally lost, aren’t we?” she asked her sisters.

  “Of course not!” said Hanna firmly. “It’s a clear night, and I see the North Star. We’re heading in the right direction, I think. If we’re not, we’ll just change direction, that’s all.”

  Ida groaned in frustration. She closed her eyes briefly, hoping that she might wake up from this strange dream. But when she opened them they were still in the sledge. Which was exactly right, she reminded herself firmly. They were on a mission to save Mother and Father. They couldn’t do that while tucked up in bed, and now that her magic had begun to appear she might be able to help.

  “Don’t worry, Ida. We’ll find the camp soon enough,” said Magda, trying to soothe her sister. But then a high-pitched howl made them catch their breaths and huddle together beneath the blanket.

  “It’s only an Arctic fox,” gasped Hanna. She tried to make her voice strong, but it sounded thin in the blast of cold air that whipped their cheeks. “Probably just lost its way, like us…”

  “I thought you said we weren’t lost!” cried Ida. “I knew it! You just rush into things—”

  “Stop it!” shouted Magda. “Either way—”

  Something heavy crashed ahead of them and the girls were thrown forward as the sledge halted with a dull thud.

  “Oskar!” cried Magda, struggling out of the sledge. “Hanna, Ida! Oskar’s stuck!”

  The sisters hurried out of the sledge and rushed to the bear’s side. A large tree had fallen across the reins between Oskar and the sledge, pinning them down in the thick snow. Oskar was struggling to free himself, and growing in size as he panicked and thrashed around.

  “Easy, boy, easy,” said Magda, trying to soothe him, but the reins were straining against the polar bear and he was getting ever more distressed. “We have to do something,” she said to her sisters, tears of worry in her eyes.

  Ida looked around, desperately hoping to see something that they could use to free him. But instead, in the distance, she saw a shadow move between the dark trees.

  Ida grasped Hanna’s arm. “Look!” she whispered, the terror she felt making it hard to speak. A dark figure was slowly approaching, scarcely visible in the dim light.

  Hanna gasped. “We have to free Oskar! He can protect us,” she said.

  A growl rolled through Oskar’s throat. He struggled and fought, his front paws churning the air, but the leather harness didn’t break.

  Magda was desperately pulling at the trapped reins. “Ida!” she called. “Can you use your magic to draw something that might help?”

  Ida frantically glanced around for ideas but shook her head. “Like what?”

  The figure was coming closer through the trees. Hanna could see its breath misting the freezing air around it. She sank her hand into Oskar’s thick fur, trying to think. She crouched down to where the reins were caught, right underneath the heavy tree trunk. She pushed on the trunk, hoping to move it away enough to free the panicking bear.

  “Help me push!” she said to her sisters. All three pushed as hard as they could, but it was no use.

  “I’m scared,” whispered Ida.

  Magda hugged Oskar, trying to calm him. “We’ll think of something.”

  Hanna concentrated on the tree trunk, hoping to find some other way of freeing him. Then, suddenly, like when she’d been trying to loosen the latch to the shed, she felt a strange tingling sensation behind her eyes. Taking a breath, she concentrated, and focused her eyes on the tree trunk. To her amazement, it started to move.

  “Hanna? W-what’s happening?” Ida stuttered.

  Both she and Magda stood open-mouthed as Hanna concentrated harder.

  “I … I’m moving it!” Hanna murmured. “I think this might be my power!”

  Sure enough the tree creaked as one end lifted a tiny bit above the snow. Magda ducked down and freed Oskar’s reins, before Hanna blinked and the tree slammed back into place.

  “That was amazing!” said Hanna. “I can move things with my mind – heavy things!”

  Ida frowned. “Well, as long as you don’t blink!”

  Magda quickly untangled the distraught polar bear from the reins and harness.

  Realising he was free, Oskar leapt forward and began running towards the approaching figure.

  As the huge polar bear neared the shadowy figure, a bird’s screeching cry made the girls catch their breath. The sound seemed to come from the direction of the figure. Then several birds were calling, and as the figure reached the nearest trees Magda saw that it was a boy, and the moonlight flashed on a shiny blue macaw’s feather on his jacket.

  “Gregor!” she cried. A flood of relief rushed over her.

  But Oskar didn’t understand. He stood between Gregor and the girls, the fur on his back raised.

  Magda ran to the bear and placed a soothing hand on his side.

  “Easy, boy,” she whispered. “It’s OK. It’s Gregor. He’s not an enemy!”

  Hanna and Ida ran to their sister’s side. They each placed a palm on Oskar’s enormous back, their hands sinking into his thick fur as they spoke to him in reassuring tones.

  “We’re not in any danger,” Magda told the bear. “Don’t use up all your magic!”

  “Don’t be afraid, Oskar,” Ida added.

  Oskar stopped growling and dropped back on to four paws, shrinking down to his usual size. He eyed Gregor warily, still ready to protect the girls if necessary.

  Gregor walked closer, and a buzzard whirled down and settled on his shoulder, flapping his huge wings. Two falcons flew into the branches above him. Their harsh calls matched the boy’s angry
expression, and Magda, Ida and Hanna’s relief began to drain away as he barked, “What on earth are you girls doing all the way out here in the middle of the night? Your polar bear nearly attacked me!”

  Hanna was the first to speak.

  “Uh… We were… We’re sorry… We tried …” she began, but then she trailed off, uncertain.

  Gregor stood before them, seeming taller than he had back at the courtyard, his boots planted firmly in the snow. His blue eyes were stern. The large buzzard on his shoulder eyed the girls suspiciously.

  Magda took over from her sister. “We travelled into the forest, because we need—”

  The sight of another enormous bird swooping down from the sky stopped her. It was a golden eagle, one of Gregor’s birds of prey. Magda froze, looking at its sharp beak and yellow eyes. She felt a strange tingling down her spine as she regarded it, and quickly looked away.

  “We have to find the silver snow hawk,” Ida finished at last. She was relieved that they’d finally managed to say it. Why were they so anxious? Gregor was only a tiny bit older than they were. Then she realised – if Gregor decided to tell his master, the falconer, about them, they would be taken straight back home and they would never be allowed to finish their quest.

  Gregor’s face, dimly visible in the trickle of moonlight coming through the trees, was stony.

  “Why on earth do you need to find a snow hawk?” he demanded. “And at this late hour? You could freeze to death.” His glance swept warily over Oskar, the sledge and the riding clothes the sisters were wearing.

  “Please—” Hanna began again, but Gregor cut her off.

  “Whatever you three are up to, I’ll be no part of it. If my master found out I’d helped you do something dangerous, I would lose my apprenticeship. You need to return to the castle immediately.”

  The golden eagle reared up and flapped its wings, as though in agreement with him.

  “Easy now,” whispered Magda, stretching a hand towards the bird. “We won’t hurt you.”

  Ida held her breath as she watched Magda stroke the speckled feathers on the bird’s wing. To her amazement, the eagle settled down and allowed Magda to continue soothing it. Ida let out her breath.

  “Please,” Hanna repeated, feeling stronger now, “we need your help. It has to do with our parents. You probably heard –” she swallowed, but kept going – “that they’re missing.”

  Gregor’s face softened just for a moment. Hanna set her jaw and continued. “And it’s because they’re missing that we’re on a quest to find a rare snow hawk – a pure white one with a tail of silver feathers.”

  “We need to find its nest,” Magda explained, her hand still on the eagle. “And now you’re here, you could help us search!”

  “I know it sounds strange,” said Ida, “but if we don’t find it, something terrible could happen to our parents, and to the island.”

  To their surprise Gregor nodded.

  “I’m sorry about your parents,” he muttered. He regarded the girls, then glanced up at the dimming lights in the sky. “And the Everchanging Lights haven’t been right since they went missing … That’s why I was out walking tonight. We promised the guards that we’d help to keep a patrol in the forest.”

  “Then you’ll help us?” asked Hanna hopefully.

  Gregor stood in silence.

  “By morning everyone will be looking for us,” Ida said urgently to Gregor. “Even if you won’t help us, you won’t tell anyone that you saw us, will you? We have to complete our quest.”

  Gregor looked at the girls for a long moment. Finally he bent his head in agreement.

  “I won’t tell,” he said. “And … I will help you find the silver snow hawk.”

  The girls looked at one another in relief.

  “Thank you!” Hanna remembered to say, and the others echoed her quickly.

  Gregor nodded once, then turned and began to make his way through the trees. The girls hurried to their sledge to put Oskar back in the harness. As he heard them arguing about who would steer, Gregor looked over his shoulder and let out a gruff laugh. “Oh, you’ll have no use for that where we’re heading. The woods we’ll be going through are too dense to navigate by sledge. We go on foot.”

  He walked briskly away, letting out a short whistle that prompted the birds to fly up off their perches and follow him.

  The girls looked at one another.

  “On foot?” repeated Ida, wide-eyed.

  Hanna was the first to jump off the sledge. “Don’t be such a baby, Ida. You heard him,” she said, as her boots sank into the deepening snow. She pulled one foot out with a bit of a wobble. “Do you want to find the orb or not?”

  Ida frowned and jumped down from the sledge after her sister. “Of course I do!” Then her eyes twinkled and she reached down for a stick. “But we should at least be prepared! Wait a second while I try something.”

  She waited for the tingle to return to her hands, and then, using the stick, she began to draw something in the thick snow. Magda jumped down from the sledge and put her hands on her hips. “What on earth are you doing, Ida? This is no time for a drawing.”

  “I think you might be wrong there,” Ida replied. She pointed at the ground and laughed in delight. “It worked!” There in the snow was a pair of white snowshoes, their outline barely visible against the snow. Ida slid one foot into each and grinned triumphantly at her sisters.

  Hanna winked at her sister. “Well done, Ida! Now, how about you draw a pair for the two of us as well, and we can get going? We’ll lose track of Gregor soon!”

  Magda watched as Ida drew them each a pair of snowshoes and crossed her arms impatiently. “Well, I’m happy that you’ve both got such useful powers,” she muttered, “but when am I going to see if I even have any magic?”

  Hanna shrugged and Ida gave Magda a quick hug as they stepped into their snowshoes. Then, with Oskar lumbering eagerly at their side, they quickly walked after the young falconer. They were on their way to finding the first orb!

  “To be honest, I think Madame Olga would have something to say about Gregor’s manners,” Magda whispered as they caught up with him, crossing the snow easily now in the shoes that Ida had made. The girls chuckled, imagining their governess lecturing the bird handler.

  “And she certainly wouldn’t like us trekking through the snow!” added Ida.

  “She would demand that Gregor take us to find the snow hawk in Nordovia’s finest sleigh, with hot chocolate breaks every half an hour!” said Hanna, and the three of them laughed again, but the laughter faded. Madame Olga and hot chocolate felt very far away.

  “Hurry up, you three!” called Gregor, sounding irritated. The girls hurried after him, with Oskar, back to his smallest size, bounding along beside them. They were struggling past a large snowdrift when they saw the boy standing still in a clearing ahead of them.

  “What is it?” Hanna asked him.

  Gregor pointed skywards, then looked up and gave a long, low whistle. The three sisters followed his gaze. They all saw it at the same time: a thin flash of silver in pure gleaming white circling far above the treetops.

  “The silver snow hawk!” they gasped.

  “Gregor’s using a call to attract it!” Magda added, and Hanna nodded eagerly.

  “I think it’s working!” Ida whispered.

  The bird circled lower. The girls watched it vanish and reappear as it spiralled among the pines. Gregor, following its path, ran further into the dark trees, calling it. He quickly disappeared from view.

  “Come on!” said Hanna. “We’re going to find that orb!”

  But as she spoke the sisters noticed something moving in the forest beside them. They strained to see more clearly.

  “What’s that?” Ida asked.

  “Maybe it’s just shadows from the trees?” Magda suggested in a tense whisper.

  “No, I don’t think so,” said Hanna, trying to keep her voice steady. “Whatever it is, it’s coming closer!”

>   Oskar stood near them, growling, his eyes fixed on the shadow too. The girls could see that he sensed a threat as much as they did.

  They clutched hands as the dark shape emerged from the trees. The girls could make out four legs and a sweeping tail.

  “A wolf!” screamed Ida.

  The enormous beast stalked towards them, its head hunched low between its shoulder blades, its heavy paws crunching deep into the snow. It stood so close that the girls could feel the beast’s hot blasts of breath. The three sisters huddled together, and Oskar moved in front of them protectively.

  Magda murmured, “No ordinary wolf is that big…”

  “It has to be the Shadow Witch’s magic!” hissed Hanna.

  The wolf suddenly narrowed its angry red eyes and bared its sharp teeth, its snarl getting louder. The beast seemed to grow even larger and more terrifying as its fierce gaze fixed on them.

  An icy breeze began to gust through the forest. It drove shivers through the drifts of snow and rattled the needles of the pine trees, and as it grew stronger a cold, harsh voice blew into the girls’ ears.

  “You won’t defeat me,” it whispered. “Give up, and I may let you live.”

  The girls locked arms, frozen with fear as a swirl of icy air surrounded them.

  “You know who I am,” said the voice. “Your Aunt Veronika, the Shadow Witch. I spied you travelling through my woods, and though the tree I felled didn’t stop you, my friend here will ensure that this is the end of your adventure.”

  The wolf drew its snout into a sneer, holding them in the gaze of its mean blood-coloured eyes. They knew they couldn’t outrun it. They could hear the rumbling growl in its throat, and Ida gasped in horror as saliva slid from its mouth into the snow.