by Alex Bell
Stella felt tears suddenly fill her eyes, and she wasn’t sure whether it was because of Shay’s loyal words, her fear and worry over Felix, or a combination of the two.
“What would happen to you, though?” she asked, blinking them away. “If Koa got hurt, I mean.”
Shay shook his head and brushed his long dark hair back with one hand. “To be completely honest, I don’t know. Koa’s just always been there. The two of us are linked. I know that if I’m in pain she feels it too, so I guess it would work the other way around as well.” He gave Stella a quick smile and said, “Hopefully we won’t have to find out.”
Having finished their food, Mustafah immediately fetched his drums and the others started up their chant of doom in the middle of the table.
“They’re peculiar little things, aren’t they?” Cadi said, sweeping back her mass of dreadlocks. “Do you think they get bored doing all that chanting and drumming all the time? Looks a bit repetitive.” She snapped her fingers suddenly and said, “I wonder if they’d like some flags. They look like flag wavers to me. Does anyone have any paper and coloring pencils by any chance?”
Beanie had brought some pencils in case they were able to fill in any of the blank spaces on the Witch Mountain map. He also had a sketchbook to draw any interesting things they might discover along the way and had already filled several pages with the flying sharks and ice dragons. He tore a couple of sheets out for Cadi, who set about making four little flags. When she was finished, she cut them out and stuck each one to a twig.
“Let’s see what happens with this,” she said, handing the first flag to Mustafah.
The jungle fairy took it from her cautiously, stared at it for a bit, then scratched at his head, looking puzzled.
“You’re supposed to wave it,” Cadi told him. “Like this, look.” She took the flag from him and waved it back and forth. Mustafah’s eyes immediately lit up, and he practically snatched the flag from her and started waving it energetically, clearly delighted.
“There. I knew they’d like them,” Cadi said, looking pleased as the other fairies eagerly rushed forward for their flags.
“Oh, you’ve drawn the explorer club crests on them,” Stella said, peering closer and seeing that the flag Hermina was waving over her head was illustrated with the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club crest.
“I thought they could help me decide which club to join,” Cadi replied. “Assuming any of them accept my application, of course.”
Ethan squinted at the fairies and then said, “There’s no such thing as a Space Alien Explorers’ Club.”
“No, but there’s no point making an Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club flag, is there?” Cadi asked. “Seeing as they don’t accept girl members.”
Ethan seemed rather put out about this and fairly snatched the sketchbook from Beanie so that he could make a flag of his own.
“Is that supposed to be the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club crest?” Shay asked, peering at it once he was done.
“Of course it is,” Ethan snapped.
Shay grinned and said, “Well, that squid looks more like a banana peel, if you ask me.”
“Nobody is asking you,” Ethan said, and then gave the flag to Mustafah, who seemed even more thrilled with two flags than he had been with one, bounding around with them in quite a frenzy.
“Let’s have a poke around and explore,” Ethan announced, pushing the sketchbook away. “I need to find some food for Nigel, and we ought to take stock of what’s here.”
The others were only too willing to explore the magic fort. The table was set in a sort of kitchen area, with lots of cupboards, and they found these well stocked with tins of food and dried supplies. There was a brief commotion when Ethan stuck his hand into a drawer and was immediately attacked by a jumping cactus, which was basically a ball of vicious barbs that stuck themselves firmly into his skin. Eventually they were able to remove it, and Beanie provided a bit of healing magic and then offered Ethan a polar bear bandage from his pack. On the plus side, though, it turned out that jumping cactuses were food to camels. Nigel quickly ate the one that had jumped on Ethan, before wandering around the fort, poking his snout into corners, and picking up the other cactuses that Munch had failed to remove.
As well as a kitchen and living-room area, the fort had its own sleeping quarters, containing a neat row of narrow beds, all hung with mosquito nets.
“All right, there’s definitely someone here,” Ethan said, staring. “Look, there’s exactly five beds made up, and they’ve even put four matchboxes out with hankies for the jungle fairies to sleep in.”
As well as the made-up beds, there were five pairs of slippers neatly set out, all bearing the crest of the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club. It certainly looked as if there was someone in the fort with them, but they had seen no sign of anyone, and the fort consisted of only the two rooms.
“Hello?” Stella called, gazing around. “Is there anyone here?”
Nobody answered her.
“Maybe they’re hiding?” Cadi suggested. “Perhaps they’re shy?”
“Well, we’re going to have to root them out, whoever they are,” Ethan said. “I’m not sleeping here if there’s some unknown person lurking about. We might all be murdered in our beds. Garroted, most likely.”
“I don’t think that’s their plan,” Stella said. “So far all they’ve done is cook us dinner and make us up somewhere to sleep.”
They traipsed back into the living area, where five steaming mugs of hot chocolate stood on the table.
“This is ridiculous!” Ethan exclaimed. “It’s like we keep just missing them, but where are they scooting off to?”
“Aha!” Beanie exclaimed from the corner. “I think I’ve found them!” He turned around with a genie bottle clutched in his hands. “There’s bound to be a genie in this,” he said. “They’re extremely popular at the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club, aren’t they?”
The others came over and peered at the bottle, which was dark gold in color and had a variety of jewels and gems studded around the base.
“Well, give it a rub,” Shay suggested. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
Since none of them had had any contact with a genie before, no one was quite sure how to proceed. Beanie tried rubbing the bottle, as suggested, but this had no effect, so he removed the lid and peered inside instead.
“He’s in there!” he exclaimed. “The genie’s in there! I can see him!”
The others all squeezed against one another in their attempt to catch a glimpse. Stella gasped in delight at the sight of a tiny marbled bathroom contained within the genie bottle, complete with a claw-footed bathtub, in which a genie was soaking himself while a bright yellow rubber duck bobbed on the surface.
“Um … hello?” Beanie said. “Mr. Genie?”
At the sound of Beanie’s voice, the genie gave a great start, splashing around and slopping soapy water onto his marble floor. The next moment, pale blue smoke poured from the top of the genie bottle, and a full-size genie stood dripping wet before them. He had blue skin and an incredibly twisty black mustache, which the president of the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club would certainly approve of. He wore a bathrobe emblazoned with the crest of the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club. Stella could clearly see the rubber duck sticking out of one pocket.
“Oh,” she said. “Hello. We didn’t mean to—”
“No, no, don’t tell me.” The genie held up one hand. “It’s the little marshmallows. I knew I’d forgotten something that you explorers absolutely must have. I knew it would be something terribly important that couldn’t wait even a single instant. I knew I wouldn’t be able to have my bath in peace. Really, I don’t know how I could ever have been so optimistic as to run a bath in the first place. I ought to have just gone outside and rolled around in the sand.”
“We’re on Witch Mountain,” Beanie said. “There’s no sand outside. Only snow.”
“Rolled around in the snow, then,” the
genie snapped. “If we’re in the Icelands, then no wonder it’s so miserably cold all the time. That’s why I wanted to have a bath—to warm myself up.” He marched over to the kitchen and started banging around in the cupboards.
“We’re terribly sorry to have disturbed you,” Stella said, going after him. “We were just curious about who was doing the cooking and things, that’s all. We didn’t mean to interrupt your bath.”
“Would you like rattlesnake marshmallows or scorpion ones?” the genie asked.
“Oh dear, are those the only choices?” Stella replied. She tried to peer over the genie’s shoulder into the cupboard. “You don’t have any unicorn ones, I suppose?”
“Scorpion marshmallows it is,” the genie said, and set about dropping a few into each mug.
“Thank you very much,” Stella said, trying to salvage the situation. “My name’s Stella Starflake Pearl. And you are … ?”
“Ruprekt,” the genie replied. He turned around to face the group of explorers, seeming to take them in for the first time. “Good heavens, you explorers seem to get younger and younger all the time! But no matter. I’ll tell you the same thing I told Lord Rupert Benedict Arnold, and that is that I am a fort genie only. My role is to look after the place and your comfort. I can grant minor wishes involving particular requests.” He snapped his fingers and a fat bag of unicorn-shaped marshmallows appeared in his hand. He handed these to Stella without a word, and she couldn’t help wishing that he’d produced these before he’d filled her mug up with scorpion-shaped ones. “I’m happy to fulfill requests for particular types of marshmallows, or duck-shaped hot-water bottles, or exotically flavored breakfast dishes, or extra-fleecy blankets; I can provide knitted nose warmers, or foot massages, or scorching-hot baths. But I cannot grant any premium wishes. So if somebody gets themselves bitten by a poisonous snake, I can’t magic away the venom. I cannot extract a jumping cactus from any part of your body without leaving scratch marks and scars. And I certainly can’t snap my fingers and magic away an infestation of tarantulas from anyone’s underwear.”
“Great Scott!” Ethan exclaimed. “Being in the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club sounds like a nasty business!”
“Furthermore,” the genie went on, “if you get yourselves trapped in a ravine, or buried in a sandstorm, or stuck in a gorge of some kind, then put up the fort for shelter, by all means, but do not expect me to be able to magic the expedition to safety on some kind of magic carpet. Now, here are your breakfast menus.” The genie produced five cards from the pocket of his robe. “Please tick your choices and leave them on the table no later than midnight. If you require anything else from me tonight, kindly ring the genie bell rather than sticking your overlarge noses into my private, personal space.” He waved a hand in the direction of a blue and gold bell set on a table in one corner of the tent, and then—before anyone could say another word—smoked back inside his genie bottle.
Stella would have liked to continue speaking with the genie, but since he seemed to be in quite a bad mood, they left him to his bubble bath and set about turning in for the night.
Stella noticed that Beanie had brought his father’s journal with him again. It had been found among his things at the deserted expedition camp part of the way across the Black Ice Bridge, and Beanie was always poring over it, hoping for some clue to explain his father’s disappearance.
He was still set on being the first explorer to cross the infamous bridge one day, but Stella wasn’t convinced it was a good idea. The bridge was said to be cursed, and countless expeditions had vanished trying to cross it, never to be seen or heard from again. Perhaps, after all, there were some places in the world that were so cursed and forsaken that no person should venture into them, even if they were an explorer.
Stella left Beanie to his bedtime reading and then fetched a pith helmet that she and Cadi proceeded to fit to Gus’s big head. He’d crashed into things a few times, and the girls were concerned that he might hurt himself.
“I think this helmet makes him look rather dashing,” Stella said, giving the walrus a pat on the back.
“You know, I rather agree with you,” Cadi said. She glanced at Stella then and said, “So, what’s it like being a princess? Is it absolutely marvelous?”
Stella sighed. “Not really. Being an explorer is absolutely marvelous, but being an ice princess isn’t that great most of the time.”
“Gosh, I’d give anything to have magic powers,” Cadi said. “It sounds like glorious fun.”
“It would be,” Stella said. “But if I use my powers too much, my heart will freeze solid and I’ll turn into a villainous snow queen. That kind of takes the fun out of it. Even if I just use a little bit of tiara magic I can feel myself becoming colder. And crueler.” She shivered. “I stop caring about the people I love. And that’s a terrible, lonely, awful feeling.”
As if sensing she was feeling sad, Gus leaned forward and gave her a big sloppy kiss all the way up the side of her cheek. Stella laughed and scratched the walrus behind his ear. They left him preening at himself in front of the mirror, admiring his helmet from various angles, and settled into their sleeping quarters.
Stella felt bad about how they had disturbed Ruprekt during his bath, though. So a few minutes later, she tiptoed back out to the living area, where the fire still crackled cheerfully away to itself. She wanted to do something to make it up to the genie, so she took her scarf from her pocket and wound it carefully around the genie bottle. Felix had given her the scarf a few years ago, and it was a beautiful thing made from white yeti wool and stitched with pale blue polar bears and unicorns. Ruprekt had mentioned being cold, after all, so perhaps wrapping up the genie bottle would help keep him warm in there.
Stella still felt like this wasn’t quite enough, though. She recalled the snow unicorn and the snow yeti she had somehow managed to create and the magic that had fizzed through her fingers. She thought for a moment, and then walked over to the genie bell on the other side of the room. She lifted her hand and concentrated hard on what she wanted to do.
Sure enough, sparkly strands of blue magic fizzed from her fingertips, and moments later an entire troll family—no larger than the jungle fairies—stood on the table before her, all made from snow. They had big feet and tufts of hair that stuck out in all directions, and they each held a sign that read: GENIE SLEEPING: DO NOT DISTURB.
“There,” Stella said, pleased. “That ought to do it. Don’t let anyone ring the bell,” she said to the trolls, who were all gazing up at her expectantly. “Poor Ruprekt deserves to get a good night’s sleep just the same as the rest of us.”
The trolls nodded at her and then began marching up and down, clutching their signs. It proved to be a good precaution because, just as Stella was making her way back to bed, Ethan came out and headed straight for the bell. He’d decided he wanted a duck-shaped hot-water bottle, but when he tried to reach for the bell, one of the trolls bit him rather hard on the finger, before waving his sign at him energetically. The magician probably could have done something to the trolls if he’d really wanted to—turned them all into wonky squish-squish frogs, for example—but he could see Stella watching him from the bedroom doorway, so he shrugged bad-temperedly and stomped back over to her.
“You’re not wearing your tiara,” he remarked. “So how did you manage to make those trolls?”
“I don’t know,” Stella replied. “It seems like I don’t need to be wearing the tiara to do snow magic.”
“What does that mean?” Ethan asked.
Stella shook her head. “I have no idea.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
WHEN THE JUNIOR EXPLORERS woke the next morning, they each found a rubber duck at the end of their beds. They were all bright yellow and each wearing a different hat. Stella’s duck had a tiara, Cadi’s had a wide-brimmed cowboy-style hat, Beanie’s had a knitted pom-pom hat, Ethan’s had a pointed magician’s hat, and Shay’s had a cap with a wolf’s head printed on it.
&n
bsp; “I wonder what these are supposed to be for,” Cadi said, picking up her rubber duck. The second her fingers touched it, a curtain sprang up around her bed, which disappeared to be replaced by a claw-footed bathtub filled with steaming-hot water.
“Gosh, this is what I call service!” she exclaimed. “It even has my favorite bubble bath in it! Raspberry-scented!”
The others lost no time picking up their own ducks and all found themselves with baths of their own. Stella was particularly excited about hers because the bubbles smelled like marzipan, the soap was in the shape of a polar bear, and there were even little toy penguins floating about in the water, as well as little icebergs.
Once the explorers were all washed and dressed, they made their way to the table, which Ruprekt had already set out with their breakfast choices. Stella had requested pancakes, and on approaching, she was delighted to see that the genie had produced unicorn-shaped ones for her.
“Good morning, Miss Stella,” Ruprekt said, materializing beside her. “Allow me to pull out your chair. I hope the breakfast will be to your satisfaction.”
“Thank you very much,” Stella said, beaming at him.
The genie was wearing a robe stitched in an elaborate pattern of gold and blue, with emerald-green braid trim. He was also wearing Stella’s scarf in a jaunty fashion around his neck.
“No one has ever given me a gift before,” the genie said.
Stella had meant for the scarf to be more of a loan than a gift, but faced with the genie’s obvious delight, there was no way she could ask for it back. And she knew Felix would understand why she had given it away.
“Gosh, never?” she asked. It seemed to her that it must be a very sad thing to have never ever received a gift from anyone. “But that’s terrible!”
“Genies are servants, miss,” Ruprekt said quietly. “That’s how they see us in the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club, at least. And nobody gives gifts to servants.”