Amber's First Clue

by Gillian Shields

  Amber’s First Clue

  gillian shields

  illustrated by Helen turner

  Contents

  Map

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Arctic Mermaid Sisters of the Sea

  The Mermaid S.O.S. series

  For Lily Rose

  —G. S.

  For my best friend, Laura

  —Love H. T.

  Map

  Follow the Arctic Mermaids’ Adventures

  Prologue

  When the evil mermaid Mantora tried to destroy Coral Kingdom, she was outwitted by Misty and her young mermaid friends. Now she is hatching another terrible plot! This time it is against Ice Kingdom, the frozen realm of Princess Arctica.

  Mantora has stolen six precious snow diamonds from the underwater Ice Cavern. Not only that, she has trapped Princess Arctica and her good Merfolk in a huge cage of enchanted icicles, so they cannot follow her.

  Unless the snow diamonds are quickly returned to the Ice Cavern, the whole of Ice Kingdom will be destroyed and the distant southern lands will be flooded with melted ice.

  Only Princess Arctica’s courageous young mermaids—Amber, Katie, Megan, Jess, Becky, and Poppy—are small enough to slip through the jagged bars of Mantora’s frosty cage. They are Sisters of the Sea, who are loyal to the Mermaid Pledge:

  We promise that we’ll take good care

  Of all sea creatures everywhere.

  We’ll never hurt and never break,

  We’ll always give and never take.

  And as we fight Mantora’s threat,

  This saying we must not forget:

  “I’ll help you and you’ll help me,

  For we are Sisters of the Sea!”

  Amber and her friends vow to find the snow diamonds, before their frosty home melts forever. They set off on their quest, taking with them only Princess Arctica’s blessing and their stardust lockets.

  Mantora has left behind a trail of cryptic clues about where she has hidden the diamonds. Can Amber and her friends solve Mantora’s riddling rhymes and rescue the snow diamonds in time to save Ice Kingdom?

  If you cannot find the diamonds,

  The ice will start to melt.

  On all sides of the ocean,

  The danger will be felt.

  No more will seals and polar bears

  Enjoy their snowy home,

  The seas will rise, the lands will flood—

  Storm Kingdom will have come!

  So try to solve the riddling clues

  Of Mantora’s cruel game,

  But if you fail to work them out,

  The world won’t be the same …

  Amber

  Chapter One

  “So this is the Ice Cavern,” said Amber in an awed whisper. “I’ve never been here before.”

  She cautiously swished her sparkling lilac tail and swam into the middle of the underwater treasure store. Her young mermaid friends—Katie, Megan, Jess, Becky, and Poppy—followed her eagerly. They gazed up at the shining walls of ice that arched above them in a cluster of glistening icicles.

  “It’s so beautiful.” Becky sighed, glancing around with wide eyes at the carved walls. They gleamed with frosty flickers of white and blue and turquoise.

  It was the first time the young mermaids had seen the secret Ice Cavern, where the snow diamonds were kept. The diamonds were full of magical power, which helped Mother Nature keep Ice Kingdom frozen.

  “Wow,” said Poppy as she swam slowly around the magical chamber. “Look at those!”

  Amber and her friends stared in wonder at the six fabulous frozen statues that stood around the cavern. There was a darting fish, a flying bird, a glowing heart, a diving dolphin, a flowerlike anemone, and a shimmering star. The mermaids wove in and out of the statues, through the clear, cold water.

  “Have you noticed that the statues are the same shapes as our new stardust lockets?” asked Amber, stretching out her arm gracefully. A silver bracelet shined on her wrist, and from the bracelet dangled a sparkling locket, carved in the shape of a leaping fish.

  “You’re right,” agreed Jess. “Look, I’ve got the dolphin on my bracelet.”

  One by one, the mermaids raised their arms to admire their shining stardust lockets.

  “My locket is in the shape of the seabird,” said Katie. She examined her bracelet happily, then looked up at the matching ice carving.

  “And mine is the anemone, which is like a flower in the sea,” murmured Becky dreamily. “What is yours, Megan?”

  “Oh, mine is the heart,” said Megan, blushing.

  “That must be because you’re so kind.” Amber smiled. Megan was very caring to all the sea creatures, especially the tiny ones. She even had a pet shrimp called Sammy.

  “Well, I’ve got the star,” interrupted Poppy, with a bold grin. “So that must mean it’s the best!”

  “Don’t be a show-off, Poppy,” said Amber. “All the stardust lockets are beautiful, and they’re all equally important. Remember, this isn’t a game. Everyone in Ice Kingdom is relying on us.”

  The stardust lockets had been given to the young friends by Princess Arctica herself that very day—when disaster had struck Ice Kingdom!

  The evil mermaid Mantora had sneaked into the kingdom and stolen the precious snow diamonds from the underwater Ice Cavern, which was hidden away below the Ice Palace. Clutching the diamonds in her greedy hands, Mantora had swooped into the palace itself. Then she had trapped Princess Arctica and her loyal Merfolk in an enchanted cage of gleaming black icicles.

  Amber would never forget hearing Mantora’s taunting words, echoing through the clear water.

  “Now the snow diamonds are mine!” Mantora had laughed scornfully. “If you want them back in time to stop Ice Kingdom from melting away, you will have to be very clever. I have left you a message, my dear Arctica, in your precious Ice Cavern. But first you must get out of this prison of icicles. That is the first puzzle that you must solve! Ha, ha, ha!”

  With a swirl of her dark tail and cloak, Mantora had disappeared, her cruel laughter fading slowly as she swam away with the stolen treasure. The Merfolk didn’t know what to do, but, luckily, Amber and her young friends had been small enough to slip out of the enchanted cage with a wriggle of their bright tails.

  “We’ll go after her, Princess Arctica,” Amber had promised, eagerly pushing her golden hair away from her face. “And we’ll get the snow diamonds back somehow!”

  “Wait, my brave young mermaids. Take my stardust lockets,” Princess Arctica had urged them, unfastening her glittering jewels and passing them through the jagged bars of ice. “If you find the diamonds, keep them safe in these lockets until you can return them to the Ice Cavern. But you must work quickly, before Ice Kingdom begins to melt.”

  “Where should we look for the diamonds?” Jess had asked in a determined voice.

  “Swim first to the Ice Cavern underneath the palace,” the princess swiftly replied. “Mantora said she has left a message there. Perhaps it will be some kind of clue about how to get the diamonds back.”

  The good Merfolk who were trapped with Princess Arctica looked up with new hope at the courageous young Sisters of the Sea.

  “But do you think we could really rescue the diamonds, Your Highness?” gulped gentle Megan. “We’re only little mermaids. How can we fight Mantora?”

  “Brave young hearts and minds like yours are what she fears the most,” the princess had reassured her. “Also, the magical lockets I have given you are dusted with the light of the great North Star. They can guide and heal and
help, in more ways than you can imagine.”

  The mermaids looked at their sparkling lockets in amazement.

  “And even though I am now trapped by Mantora’s spell,” continued Princess Arctica, “I will somehow get news of our danger to my cousin, Queen Neptuna, in Coral Kingdom. She will do her best to send you help of some kind. Now go, and take the blessing of the Merfolk with you in this great task!”

  Then the Merfolk had waved through the spiky icicle bars of their enchanted prison and called, “Good luck! Take care!” Blowing one last kiss to their families and summoning up all their courage, the mermaids had set off.

  And so they had reached the secret Ice Cavern, hidden deep in the cool, turquoise waters. But as the friends were admiring the glittering ice statues and examining their lockets, Amber suddenly called out to them.

  “Look!” she said, pointing dramatically to a solid pillar of ice in the middle of the cavern. On the top of the pillar was a carved silver casket, which glittered with a thousand tiny crystals. But the casket had been wrenched open, and it was now completely empty. The six snow diamonds, which had once nestled there safely, really were gone! And the whole of Ice Kingdom was in grave danger without them.

  Amber swam over to the broken casket, followed by her friends. They hovered together in the clear water around the pillar of ice.

  “What’s that at the bottom of the casket?” asked Becky, picking up a small scroll with her dainty fingers. It was made of dark green parchment and tied with bloodred strands of seaweed.

  “It’s a message of some kind,” cried Katie. “Princess Arctica said we might find one.”

  “I don’t like the look of it,” said Megan as a shiver went down her spine.

  “Read it to us quickly, Amber,” added Jess. “We need to know what it is, even if it’s bad news.”

  Amber nervously undid the scroll and glanced at the cramped black letters. What would the strange message say?

  Chapter Two

  Amber took a deep breath and began to read aloud:

  “Greetings to the mermaids who dare to

  read this message!

  You must think you are very clever to escape

  my icicle cage, but trouble lies ahead for

  you. I am going to hide the snow diamonds

  where you will never find them.

  The only way to get them back is to solve all

  my rhyming riddles—but hurry up!

  Ice Kingdom cannot survive without the

  diamonds and their magical power.

  This snowy realm will become too warm,

  and its melted waters will flood far over the

  southern lands.

  All will be chaos and confusion.

  Storm Kingdom will triumph!

  So solve the clue to find the first diamond—

  if you dare.

  How I shall laugh, watching you struggle to

  work it out …”

  “What does she mean?” puzzled Becky.

  “Wait, there’s something else,” replied Amber. “Listen!”

  “Where you see white ghosts

  By these snowy coasts,

  There the diamond lies,

  Away from prying eyes,

  But you must dig deep,

  Or else you will weep!”

  “So that’s her silly old clue.” Poppy shrugged. “It can’t be that hard to solve.” Poppy wasn’t frightened of anything or anyone.

  “It looks pretty hard to me,” worried Katie. “What does she mean by white ghosts? There aren’t any ghosts here!”

  The mermaids frowned as they tried to work it out. Amber glided slowly around the Ice Cavern with her hands clasped behind her back, swishing her tail up and down. She glanced up at the glittering ice statues. They gave her an idea.

  “The clue says that white ghosts are by the ‘snowy coasts,’ so they must be here in Ice Kingdom,” Amber said thoughtfully. “These statues—and our stardust lockets— show all the different kinds of creatures in Ice Kingdom, who live under the light of the North Star and are loved by the Merfolk. Now, what are the white ghosts likely to be? Could they be fish? Or seabirds? Or something else?”

  “Amber, that’s so clever of you,” said Megan admiringly. “Now, what kind of creature could possibly look like a ghost?”

  They all stared at each other with puzzled expressions.

  “Or sound like a ghost,” replied Amber slowly.

  “I think you’re onto something, Amber,” exclaimed Jess. “Mantora’s riddle must be trying to trick us, so we have to think of something that isn’t the obvious answer. What if she really means a creature that calls out in a sad sort of voice, something that just sounds like a ghost?”

  The others looked around hopefully. Amber squinted with concentration.

  “Owls!” she blurted out. “What about the snowy owls who fly over Ice Kingdom on the way to their homes in the northern lands? They sound sad and spooky sometimes.”

  “Amber, you’ve done it. You’ve solved the clue!” cried Katie and Becky.

  “Not completely,” objected Poppy, with a shake of her coppery curls. “We still don’t know where the diamond is.”

  “But the first step is to try and talk to those owls,” said Jess firmly. She flicked her strong turquoise tail and sped over to the secret entrance of the Ice Cavern. “Let’s go up to the surface as quickly as we can to look for them!”

  The others followed her, rippling their pearly tails through the icy water. Only Amber waited for a moment, taking one last look at the empty casket. She knew that Princess Arctica was relying on her and the other young mermaids to save the snow diamonds—and the whole of Ice Kingdom. It was Amber’s first important task, and she was determined not to fail.

  “When we come back, we’ll bring the snow diamonds with us,” she promised in a whisper, glancing around at the glittering statues. Then she swiftly darted after her friends.

  Jess led the way from the Ice Cavern, swimming up through the clear, green water to the sparkling surface of the overwater world. As they reached the surface, the mermaids saw the frozen lands of Ice Kingdom all around them. The craggy tips of icebergs gleamed white and blue in the sun. The cold, deep sea lapped against a shore made of thick, flat stretches of ice, strong enough for polar bears to walk over.

  Amber quickly caught up with her friends and swam with them to the ice edge. With a clever twist of their glistening tails, the mermaids pulled themselves out of the water. Their tails glinted pink, peach, lilac, turquoise, lemon, and blue, as they sat gracefully on the smooth, white snow.

  “Could you please get out your harp, Katie?” asked Amber. “Then you could try calling the owls for us. Let’s hope they’re not too far away.”

  Katie was very musical and never went anywhere without her delicate little mermaid harp. It hung over her shoulder on a braided cord. The lively, friendly mermaid could make all sorts of special melodies to call the birds and creatures to her.

  Quickly, Katie strummed the harp’s golden strings and played a haunting tune. It sounded just like the snowy owls calling to each other. Very soon, Amber and her friends could see the owls themselves, gliding over the snow toward them.

  “Good job, Katie,” whispered Amber. “That was quick work.”

  The snowy owls landed by the mermaids in a flurry of soft white wings.

  “Your music has called us from the heights of the clear air, Sisters of the Sea!” said the leader, whose name was Orlando. “How can we help?”

  Amber quickly explained about the missing snow diamonds and the first clue.

  “So you see,” she said, “we wondered whether you might be the ‘white ghosts’ that Mantora was talking about. We thought you might be able to give us some help in solving the riddle.”

  The owls ruffled their feathers and laughed gently in funny, hooting voices.

  “Ha-hoo-ha!” Orlando chuckled. “We’ve never been called ghosts before. I can assure you-hoo, my dear mermaids, w
e are all alive and well! And we have not seen anything of Mantora or the snow diamonds. We cannot be the ‘ghosts’ you are looking for.”

  Amber groaned. She had been so sure that she had solved Mantora’s puzzle.

  “Oh dear.” She sighed. “We’ll have to think again.”

  Orlando looked around kindly at their disappointed faces.

  “We will do-hoo our best to help,” he hooted. “We know how important it is to get the diamonds safely back to the Ice Cavern.”

  “Can you think of anything unusual that you have seen as you have flown over Ice Kingdom?” Jess asked quickly.

  The owls went into a little huddle, softly cooing to each other. Then Orlando hopped over to Amber, blinking in the sunshine.

  “There is one thing we can tell you-hoo,” he said in a low voice. “We’ve seen one of the hoo-hoo-humans!”

  “Humans?” murmured the mermaids, all asking questions at once. “Where? Are there a lot of them? Are they dangerous?” The friends were worried, because Princess Arctica and their parents had warned them not to go near any humans.

  “Dangerous?” Orlando turned his head thoughtfully. “I don’t know about that. This one was only small, and it looked very young, like you. It was one of the humans living in these snowy lands, who-hoo call themselves the Inuit people. And it was do-hoo-ing something odd.”

  “What was it doing?” asked Becky nervously. “Was it hunting?”

  Orlando gave another snuffly hoot. “No, it wasn’t hunting,” he replied. “In fact, it was very strange. The odd little creature was sitting all by itself on the ice, far from the rest of its kind. And it was sobbing, with water streaming down its cheeks like raindrops.”

  “You mean it was crying!” exclaimed Megan. “Oh, Amber, the poor little thing.”

  Amber and her friends looked at one another in surprise. This was very mysterious—a human crying all by itself in the snow! What did it mean?