by Astrid Foss
Overhead, flying in front of the creatures, were flocks of enormous eagles, crows and ravens, their dark shadows blotting the golden sky. They screamed and cawed as they flew towards the castle, their eyes gleaming viciously, their razor-sharp beaks open and talons outstretched.
Magda felt fear rip through her. With one beat of her powerful wings, she turned and raced back to the ground. She turned back into herself, her wings turning back to arms, her feathers disappearing.
“What is it?” demanded Hanna. “What did you see?”
“Aunt Veronika has sent an army of creatures!” Magda gasped. “She must have put a spell on them because they are so big and their eyes are all red. There are lots of birds too.”
“Like the crows we fought at the Rainbow Pools?” said Ida.
“Like that but there are wolves and sabre-toothed lions too! I couldn’t see Aunt Veronika though.”
“She’s probably controlling them from far away,” said Hanna. “The coward! We’ve got to stop them and—” She broke off as the first flocks of vicious ravens and eagles swept over the castle walls. Hanna quickly pulled the felt bag containing the globe out of the basket and attached it to the belt around her waist. She was going to need her hands free to fight but she wasn’t going to leave the globe lying around unattended. It was much too precious. They had to protect it with their lives.
The guests cried out as the birds swooped, attacking with beaks and claws. People tried to fight them off, throwing plates and cutlery and metal goblets. Gregor, the Falconer’s apprentice, ran to free the castle hawks from the hawkery so they could fight back. Torin the waggoner, and Lars the sleigh driver, grabbed chairs and used them as weapons, swiping them at the birds.
The air was filled with the sound of screaming and shouting. The archers fired their arrows but there were too many birds to fight them all off. Guards ran for cover on the turrets as the birds attacked them and beneath everyone’s feet the ground shook as the rest of the army approached the gates.
Oskar roared and grew to his full size, charging at the birds. The girls acted instinctively. Magda turned into a bear just like Oskar and charged at the birds too, swiping at them with her big paws and knocking them out so they fell to the ground, unconscious. She didn’t want to kill them because she knew the birds were not evil themselves – the Shadow Witch’s magic was making them attack.
Meanwhile, Ida pulled a piece of chalk from her pocket and drew a couple of large nets on the ground. “Hanna! Use these!” she shouted as the magic tingled through her and the nets appeared on the floor.
“Good idea!” Hanna cried. She drew on her own magic and sent the nets flying up into the air. They trapped the birds beneath them, bringing them down to the ground with a thump. The birds’ beaks tore at the netting but they couldn’t get free.
“To the gates, guards!” Captain Vladimir yelled above the noise. “They’re giving way!”
The guards had already barricaded the gates shut but the army of enormous creatures had reached them and were trying to break them down. There was the sound of claws and fangs slashing through wood and the scream of timbers creaking and breaking as the animals pressed against them.
Magda turned back into herself and ran to her sisters. “We’ve got to do something!” she cried. “This is all our aunt’s work. We have to stop her!”
Suddenly the world froze, birds stopping in the air mid-attack, people like statues, mouths open mid-shout. Instead of the noise of the battle there was just an eerie silence. “What’s going on?” Ida said, looking round as she realised she and her sisters were the only things moving in the castle grounds.
“Time has stopped,” said Hanna. “It must be Aunt Veronika.” Anger rushed through her. The ability to freeze time was her mother’s main power – their aunt must have taken it from her!
“Oh, my troublesome nieces!” Their aunt’s voice tore through the air like an icy wind. “You still think you can stop me – but you have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. In a few moments, my army will break down the gates and everything you love will be destroyed.”
Hanna hugged the snow globe to her chest. “We’ll never let you take the Everchanging Lights!”
“You have a choice,” their aunt’s voice hissed. “Give me the snow globe and I shall call my army off the castle. Refuse to give it to me and everyone here shall die. Do you really want that to happen?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “Decide!”
The girls exchanged looks. What could they do?
Hanna shook her head at her sisters. They couldn’t give the Lights to their aunt. They were Auroras. It was their duty to protect them, just as their mother had done. To her relief she saw Ida and Magda shaking their heads too.
“We’re not giving up the snow globe!” Hanna raised her voice. “No matter what you do.”
“Are you quite sure?” snapped their aunt. “Maybe you need a few more moments to decide.” There was a loud crack and time started again. The cacophony of noise hit their eardrums as all around them people and birds started moving again and the gates started creaking and breaking.
Magda grabbed her sisters’ arms. “What are we going to do? If we don’t give her the globe, everyone here will perish!”
Chapter Three
Hanna looked around at the chaos in the castle grounds. Vicious birds pecked and screeched, people shouted and screamed, and guards raced desperately from the turrets as the castle gates splintered from the creatures’ attack. “There must be something we can do to help!” she yelled above the noise. “Can Ida draw a big fire near the gates? Then when the animals come through they’ll plunge straight into it.”
“But they’d be killed,” Magda protested. “It’s not their fault they’re attacking! They’re being controlled.”
“I know it’s not their fault but we mustn’t let Aunt Veronika get the globe,” said Hanna.
Magda realised Ida wasn’t joining in with their argument. She was crouching down, drawing something on the ground. “What are you doing?” she asked.
Before Ida could reply, a snow globe appeared next to her. It didn’t sparkle quite so brightly as the real magic snow globe but in all other ways it looked the same. Ida quickly picked it up.
Hanna frowned. “Why have you drawn a—”
Ida put her fingers to her lips and made a frantic shushing sound. She suspected their aunt could use her magic to listen to what they were saying and if her plan was to work, then their aunt mustn’t know there were two globes.
“Aunt Veronika wants the snow globe,” Ida said, looking meaningfully at the new globe and then at the bag tied around Hanna’s waist containing the real globe, hoping her sisters would guess her plan. “Well, I think we should give the globe to her.” She held out the fake globe.
As she saw Magda’s eyes widen and a smile flicker across Hanna’s lips, Ida wanted to hug them both. She was sure they had guessed her plan! If they could trick their aunt and give her the fake globe, they might just be able to buy themselves enough time to escape from the castle and get to the waterfall with the real globe. It wasn’t much of a plan but surely it was worth a go?
“You’re right, Ida,” Magda said loudly. “We should give her the globe. It’s the only way to save everyone here.”
Hanna nodded. “Aunt Veronika!” she shouted into the air. “You can have the globe if you stop your army! It’s here. Ida’s got it – look!”
There was an ear-shattering screech above them and then the sound of beating wings as a dark shadow fell over the girls. They glanced up, just in time to see a giant golden eagle flying straight towards them, its claws open.
Ida expected the eagle to grab the globe but it didn’t. Its talons grabbed the back of her dress and swept her up into the air, the globe in her hands. Ida shrieked in alarm. She hadn’t meant this to happen!
“Ida!” screamed Magda and Hanna as the eagle flapped away with their sister. Oskar, still in his large form, came charging up and skidded to a halt beside them. He
roared in dismay as the eagle carried Ida off.
“We’ve got to go after her!” cried Hanna.
“I know a way. Oskar, you have to shrink and Hanna, you have to grab him!” Before her sister could ask any questions, Magda concentrated on the eagle flying away with Ida and felt her body changing. Her arms became feathered wings, her eyes sharpened, her feet turned to talons. With a screech, she flapped her wings and rose upwards. Hanna picked up Oskar who had quickly shrunk back to a cub. Magda swooped over and grabbed Hanna by the back of her dress just as the other eagle had done then, flapping her powerful wings, she soared up into the sky and headed after the eagle carrying Ida. Hanna gasped, excitement rushing through her as she held Oskar and the bag with the globe in it tightly against her chest.
She looked down at the castle below them. The red-eyed army of creatures was backing away from the gates and the flocks of birds were starting to fly away from the castle, leaving the people to pick themselves off the ground. Hanna realised that now their aunt thought she had the globe heading towards her, she must have lost interest in using up her magic powers to control the army.
We did it, Hanna thought, relief beating through her. We’ve saved everyone at the castle. The icy wind rushed through her short hair and stung her face and arms as Magda, in eagle form, carried her across the snowy plains and over the tops of the pinewoods, but Hanna didn’t care about the cold. They had got away from the castle. Now they just needed to get Ida back and then find a way of getting to the waterfall with the real globe.
She knew they were heading into danger but her eyes shone. Whatever was waiting for them, they would deal with it.
The eagle flew on through the skies, heading for the western coast, with Magda following it. She kept her distance, not wanting it to realise it was being followed. Her senses were extra sharp now she was a bird. As she flew over the plains towards the meadows with their lighter smattering of snow, she could taste the faint tang of salt on the air and knew that they were getting close to the sea. Her pulse quickened. The Silfur Falls fell from the cliffs into the Western Sea. If they managed to rescue Ida then there was a chance they could get to the waterfall by midnight with the real snow globe!
But she also knew time was passing. The sun was low in the sky behind them – there were only a few hours to go until midnight. Could they do everything they had to do in the time left?
We have to! She thought determinedly.
A snow-capped mountain loomed up in front of them and the other eagle soared upwards, heading for the highest peak which stretched up into the sky.
Magda slowed. She would follow him up there but she did not want him to realise she was behind him. Instead she skirted around the mountain, her wings beating fast. On the other side of the mountain she could see clifftops covered with heather and a dusting of snow. A sparkling waterfall spilled from one of the cliffs, falling in a bright silver column into the icy blue sea. The Silfur Falls. They were so close to them, but first they had to rescue Ida.
Magda gathered her strength and started to fly up to the top of the mountain, approaching from the opposite direction to the other eagle. She hoped Hanna was OK. Glancing down to her claws, she saw that Hanna’s short hair was standing on end from the wind but she looked excited as she gazed around at the landscape beneath her. Oskar seemed to be like a hot water bottle in her arms, keeping her warm.
From the top of the mountain she could see across the whole of the island – from the forbidding mountains and frozen glaciers of the north to the lava fields and hot springs in the east, and across the snowy pinewoods that covered the central region where the castle stood to the warmer western plains beneath them where shaggy ponies grazed, scraping away the thin layer of snow to get to the shoots of sweet grass beneath. Magda’s heart sang. Nordovia was so beautiful. She and her sisters had to save it – and their mother and father.
Her sharp ears caught a cry from beneath her. Glancing down, she saw a platform of ice at the top of the peak. Around the circle of ice the snowy sides of the mountain fell away steeply to a thick ring of thorny bushes. There was no sign of the other eagle – it appeared to have flown away. But she did see her aunt – long, raven-black hair sweeping to her ankles, an evil smile on her face.
Magda felt a rush of alarm. Ida was lying at her aunt’s feet in a crumpled heap on the icy ground.
Chapter Four
Ida had the fake globe clutched to her chest. Magda flew silently towards her from above, making sure she stayed behind her aunt. She could hear Veronika laughing mockingly.
“I have you at my mercy,” she taunted Ida. “What will your dear sisters be thinking? They’ll be out of their minds with worry.”
To Magda’s relief, Ida moved. She started to sit up. “Let me go!” she said hoarsely.
“No. You will not leave this place. You should have listened to me when I warned you I would stop at nothing to get the Lights. Now, hand over the globe!”
Ida glared at her and held out the fake globe. Her aunt’s eyes gleamed greedily as she hurried to take it. Magda realised this was her chance. She needed to grab Ida while her aunt was distracted. She flew towards them on silent wings. Ida, she called in her head. Ida, we’re here!
Whether Ida sensed she was near or whether she caught the sound of the faint beat of her wings, Magda didn’t know, but her sister looked upwards. Seeing Magda and Hanna swooping towards her, Ida’s face lit up and as her aunt reached to take the globe, she threw it as hard as she could across the ice. “If you want it, you can go and get it!” she shouted.
The Shadow Witch shrieked in annoyance as the globe bounced away across the icy ground. “You fool!” she snapped, racing after the globe. But as she reached for it, it started to roll again, moving away from their aunt as if pushed by an invisible hand. Glancing down, Magda saw Hanna’s eyes were fixed on the globe. She was moving it using her magic! It rolled over to the edge of the mountain and then bounced over the side.
“No!” their aunt gasped as it tumbled down the mountainside before coming to rest deep in one of the thorny bushes.
Magda landed beside Ida and released Hanna just as their aunt swung round. She looked confused as she saw Hanna and Oskar standing next to Ida, with Magda as a giant golden eagle beside them.
“What’s happening?” the Shadow Witch demanded. “Why have you brought them here? I didn’t tell you to.”
Magda realised her aunt thought she was one of her enchanted birds. She took advantage of her confusion and flew at her, her beak open and her talons outstretched.
“What are you doing? Get off me! Go away!” shrieked the Shadow Witch, flapping her hands. She staggered backwards to get away from Magda’s claws and tripped over. The next moment she was tumbling down the snowy side of the mountain. Magda screeched in delight as her aunt rolled over and over in the snow until she came to a jarring stop in the thorny bushes near to the fake globe.
Veronika screamed and thrashed around in fury as the thorns tangled in her cloak and long hair.
“Well done, Magda! Time to get out of here!” Hanna said, running over and hugging Ida.
“I’m so glad you came after me!” Ida gasped. “It was a brilliant idea to turn into an eagle, Magda.”
Magda squawked and rose into the air, picking up her sisters, one in each claw. Oskar jumped into Hanna’s arms again and Magda flew away from the peak. But strong as she was, it was hard to fly with the weight of Ida, Hanna and Oskar. She doubled her efforts, her wings beating, but she felt her leg muscles straining and her talons aching. I can’t fly all the way to the waterfall, she realised. I won’t make it.
She could see the waterfall in the distance, falling from its crest in the clifftop down into the sea, but she could feel herself sinking lower. She tried to flap harder but her wings were tired now. She was going to have to land. Spotting a grassy clifftop a safe distance away from where Aunt Veronika was thrashing in the brambles, she aimed for it and landed, her talons giving way and releasi
ng her sisters and Oskar. As they all tumbled into the soft heather, Magda felt herself turning back into a girl. For a moment, she lay there, gasping for breath. Every muscle in her body ached. She felt a warm tongue licking her face and opened her eyes to see Oskar’s concerned face. She groaned and gathered the furry cub in her arms.
“Magda, are you all right?” Ida and Hanna crouched down beside her, helping her to sit up.
“Yes, just tired,” she gasped.
“You were amazing,” said Hanna. “I can’t believe you carried me and Oskar all the way here.”
“And then rescued me!” said Ida. “I thought Aunt Veronika was going to kill me.”
“But I didn’t manage to get us all the way to the waterfall,” said Magda. She pointed to it in the distance. “The only way to get there is to go across the clifftops but it will take us ages to walk there – we’ll never get to it by midnight.” For once her usual cheerfulness deserted her and she felt tears fill her eyes.
Hanna hugged her. “We’ll think of something.”
Ida wrapped her arms around her too. “Don’t cry. We can do this.”
The sisters hugged each other tightly, their minds racing. What could they do? How could they get across the clifftops to the waterfall?
“WUFF!”
Hearing a loud polar bear bark they turned and saw that Oskar had grown to his largest size. He cocked his head on one side and whined, looking at them and then to the waterfall and then back to them.
Ida caught her breath. “Oskar wants us to ride on him! I think he wants to carry us to the waterfall.”
“It will be much quicker if we ride him,” said Hanna, remembering the times Oskar had helped them before.