The Hidden Treasure

by Jessica Burkhart

  The princess landed on her knees, the compass flying from her hand and landing facedown just ahead of her.

  Bella hurried to her feet even though her knees throbbed. She swiped the compass from the ground, blowing dirt off of it. The princess used the compass as a flashlight to see what had caused her fall. A thin tree root was raised just high enough to catch her foot.

  “Please stay here, compass,” Bella said. She removed her hand from under the compass, and it stayed in the air while she looked at her knees. Thankfully, the soft forest dirt had prevented her from getting too hurt—there was only a small cut on her left knee.

  “Oh, great!” Bella said, pulling the compass closer. Her dress was now streaked with dirt, thanks to the fall and where she had wiped her hands, not knowing that they were so dirty.

  Ivy and Clara will help me do a cleanup spell, Bella thought. I’ll worry about Mom or Dad seeing my dress and knees when I’m home safe.

  Bella plucked the compass out of the air and found a semi-clear path. She walked for several minutes before the towering trees began to thin out and she finally saw the sky. It was no longer the brilliant blue that it had been when the princess had left home. Full black clouds rolled across the gray sky. Bella’s heartbeat jumped up as fast as a hummingbird’s wings because of what she spotted next. Not far in the distance, smoke billowed into the air. Two black towers with triangle-shaped tops stretched into the sky.

  Queen Fire’s castle.

  Bella walked toward the smoke, this time keeping a closer eye on the trail.

  It could have been minutes or hours when the princess stopped. Fear—and a tiny bit of curiosity—ran through her. This was it. She was glad, no matter how scared she had been, that she had come alone. She didn’t think her aunt would be happy if she brought company—like Ivy or Clara—along on her first visit.

  She tried to be brave, but it was hard. Who knew what was in the castle? Knowing her aunt, there could be anything beyond those castle doors. The red unicorn that had almost attacked Glimmer was scary enough. She patted the note in her pocket and swallowed hard. Everything would be okay as long as she had that note. Her parents could rescue her. Bella stopped when the entire castle came into view. It was as big as her own, but made of glass instead of stone. Two red unicorns stood guard on either side of the door.

  This is it. I have to save Glimmer, Bella thought.

  As she walked closer to the castle doors, she watched colors flickering in the glass, first red, then black, finally purple. Purple—that’s my aura, Bella thought. Why was that? She didn’t have time to think about it, though, because almost all too soon she had reached two unicorns on concrete pedestals standing guard. They had black manes and were more muscular-looking than the royal unicorns.

  “My name is Bella. Princess Bella. I’m here to see Queen Fire,” she announced to the unicorn guards. They sidestepped away from the door, their hooves striking the concrete, as the door swung open.

  Bella stepped carefully into the great hall, looking around her. The inside was glass, but without the colors swirling, like the outside. It looked like her own castle with different colors. There was a large painting at the end of the hall that caught her eye. In the painting, Queen Fire stood with her unicorns, with one on each side of her. Red and black rugs covered the floor with dizzying zigzag designs.

  Not sure what to do, Bella walked into the closest room and sat down on a red velvet couch. It faced an empty fireplace. There were no family pictures on the walls of Queen Fire’s castle. For a minute, Bella actually felt sad for her mom’s sister.

  The princess shivered as she looked around the room. Suddenly, with a whoosh of black smoke, a fire appeared in the fireplace and warmed the room up instantly.

  “You came after all, dear niece,” Queen Fire said. She walked around to face Bella. Her long, black, wavy hair tumbled down her back. She wore red crystal earrings that sparkled in the firelight.

  “I promised that I would come,” Bella said. “I need you to keep your promise and not hurt Glimmer.”

  “As long as you hold up your end of the bargain, I will keep my word,” Queen Fire said.

  “What does this crystal do?” Bella asked. “Why do you need it?”

  “That answer comes in due time,” Queen Fire said. A black leather chair shot forward. Sitting down, the queen looked over at Bella. “Do the king and queen know you’re here?”

  “No—”

  “Oh, dear,” Queen Fire said. A look of what might have been sadness flickered across her face. “You injured yourself on the journey. Are you hurt?”

  “No,” Bella said, shaking her head. “I’m fi—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the queen snapped her fingers. A short man in a white coat trotted into the room, stethoscope around his neck and a black bag in hand.

  “Your Highness?” the man asked, looking at Queen Fire.

  “Dr. Foster, please tend to my niece’s injuries,” Queen Fire said.

  “Really, I’m okay,” Bella said. “Thank you, but—”

  “I’ll return in a moment,” Queen Fire interrupted. She disappeared, leaving Bella with the doctor.

  The doctor, who had a kind face and thick glasses, placed his bag on the floor.

  “I’m Dr. Foster,” he said, holding out a hand.

  Bella shook his hand. “I’m Bella.”

  “Do you mind if I take a look at your knees?” he asked. His silver hair and easy manner made Bella feel at ease.

  “Okay,” she said.

  The doctor asked Bella how she had fallen and applied a disinfectant that stung a little. A quiet woman had come with a bowl of steaming-hot water and soap as the doctor treated Bella. She held the bowl while Bella washed dirt and grime from her hands. Then the maid sprayed something that foamed onto the dirty parts of Bella’s dress. In seconds, the foam disappeared, and so did the stains. The servant left without uttering a word. Dr. Foster smoothed a small bandage over Bella’s cut just as Queen Fire reappeared.

  “It was lovely to meet you, Bella,” Dr. Foster said. “Safe travels home.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” Bella said, smiling at him.

  He bowed to Queen Fire and disappeared.

  “Are you hungry?” Queen Fire asked. She didn’t wait for an answer from Bella. Two silver plates floated in the air, holding forks and a kind of cake Bella had never seen before. It was a chocolate cake topped with dark-red berries.

  Bella was starving after her journey through the Dark Forest—but she was scared to eat it. What if it’s a trick? She watched as Queen Fire took a plate and fork for herself.

  “A Dark Forest specialty,” the queen said. “Try it.” She dug her fork into the cake.

  Bella finally took a bite of the cake. She was relieved when she tasted a rich dark chocolate. She took another small bite. She sneaked a look toward her aunt. This was perfectly normal. A niece and an aunt eating dessert. Bella’s mind wandered as she thought about what it would be like to have a nice Queen Fire in her life.

  “Your castle is really . . . interesting,” Bella said. “Um, thank you for inviting me, but I can’t stay long. My friends are covering for me at home.”

  “The fact that this is your first visit to your aunt’s castle is sad. How wrong my sister was to keep me a secret from you. It was quite a pleasure to see you on your eighth birthday. I’m not forgetting your dear friends, and unicorn, of course,” Queen Fire said. Her eyes were dark as coal.

  Whatever “normal” niece-and-aunt-relationship thoughts Bella had vanished.

  “My mom wasn’t wrong. You’re bad and you steal unicorns.”

  Queen Fire smirked.

  “Please just tell me anything I need to know about the crystal. The sooner I get home, the faster I can find it.” Bella rested her hands on her lap after her plate and fork floated away. She didn’t want Queen Fire to see them shaking.

  “Oh yes, the reason I brought you,” Queen Fire said.

  “The specia
l crystal is hidden in a vault. I’m guessing that vault is inside the castle.”

  “Guessing?” Bella asked. “Does that mean it could be anywhere?” She felt a bit sick with this new piece of information. It was already enough to have an entire castle to search. But if the vault could be on the grounds . . .

  “Not anywhere,” Queen Fire said, scowling. “It’s definitely in the castle, and I wouldn’t waste your time looking on the grounds. The crystal is very important to me.”

  “Why?” Bella asked.

  “It is”—the queen paused—“personal.”

  “I can get it for you. I mean, I can try. I’ll look everywhere for it. Once I find it in the vault, I’ll bring it to you,” Bella promised. What if she wants to be part of our family again?

  Queen Fire stared blankly at her, tilting her head a little. “No, princess, you must get me into the castle. You can remove it from its hiding place, but only I can take it from Crystal Castle. The crystal will lose all of its worth to me if you try to take it off castle grounds. I’m the only one who can remove it.” Queen Fire paused. “Well, so can your mother.”

  “Only you and Mom?” Bella asked. “Why just you two?”

  The queen shot Bella a dark look that made the princess swallow and forget her next question.

  “But my dad said that if you ever came to our castle again, he would throw you in jail! We would never make it past the guards, and—”

  “Bella, remember our agreement,” Queen Fire pointed out.

  Bella looked at her. A vision of Glimmer’s beautiful white coat turning red flashed in front of her eyes.

  “I’ll get you into the castle. I’ll do anything!” Bella said. “But you must promise me that you won’t hurt my family, me, or my unicorn.”

  “All those precious things will be kept safe. You have my word. Hurry home before your parents discover that you’re missing. And, darling Bella? You have one week to find the crystal and get me safely inside Crystal Castle. Or Glimmer is mine.”

  One week?! Bella felt like she had eaten too many pieces of sunray pie. There was no way they could search the castle in just one week. But she had no choice.

  “Fine. I’ll do it,” Bella said.

  “So you shall. And to show that I’m a woman of my word, I will create a contract for us,” Queen Fire said. She clapped her hands, and with a puff of black smoke, a contract appeared. Bella read the words carefully and saw that Queen Fire hadn’t lied. The paper said that if she helped her aunt, Glimmer was safe.

  The contract hovered in the air, a dark black X marking the spot for Bella’s name. Bella grabbed the black pen floating next to the paper. She closed her eyes for a second and then dashed off her name. The ink glowed in red and then turned to gold. The contract disappeared in the same black smoke.

  “Excellent,” Queen Fire said. She waved her hand. “You may go. I’ll look forward to hearing about your progress each day.”

  Without a look at her aunt, Bella almost stumbled over her own feet as she hurried out of the room. She wanted to be home and pretend this hadn’t happened.

  “Bella?”

  The princess jerked to a halt, slowly spinning to face Queen Fire.

  “Don’t forget. If you fail, Glimmer is mine.”

  6

  Search Party

  Once Bella’s feet hit the dirt outside the castle, she bolted for the Dark Forest. She ran so fast that not even the speediest Busy Bee could catch up to her.

  She slowed to a jog and made an abrupt U-turn when she realized that she had no berries! Oops! She hurried back to the sunray berry bushes and pulled a few handfuls into the tote that she had hidden at the edge of the berry patch.

  I could have blown my cover on the first day! Bella scolded herself. She forced herself to breathe and pasted a smile on her face. She glanced down at her watch—she had been gone for a little over an hour.

  The guards tipped their heads. “Greetings, Princess Bella,” a different, smiling guard said. “The previous guard informed me of your trip.” He tipped his head toward the berry tote. “Hard time finding good, ripe berries?”

  “Oh, um, yes,” Bella said. She forced herself to laugh. “I did something silly—I lay down on the grass for a minute to watch the clouds, and I fell asleep.” She patted the heads of the two nearby guard dogs. She was afraid the words I AM A GIANT FIBBER would pop up with an arrow pointing to her.

  But nothing happened. The dogs’ wet noses didn’t turn red signaling danger or sensing that someone was very, very nervous—nervous like they were hiding a secret or about to attempt to smuggle someone onto the castle grounds.

  The guard smiled. “I’m just relieved that you’re safe.”

  With a wave to the guards, Bella pulled out her Chat Crystal.

  I’M BACK! she wrote to her friends. MEET ME IN MY ROOM? She didn’t want to spend time searching the dozens of gardens for her friends.

  The Chat Crystal vibrated and turned bubble-gum pink. ON OUR WAY! came from Clara’s crystal. Bella put the crystal back in her pocket and looked out to the pasture where she had left Glimmer. She spotted the gorgeous unicorn and whistled to get Glimmer’s attention. Glimmer’s eyes connected with Bella’s, and it made the princess willing to make the trek to Queen Fire’s castle every day if it meant coming home to her unicorn.

  Bella blew Glimmer a kiss. “I’ll come see you later!” she called. Glimmer let out a loud whinny and kicked up her heels, dashing across the grass.

  Once inside, Bella dumped the berries into a plastic bowl for Thomas, the main chef. He could whip up something tasty with the berries.

  Heading toward her room, the princess felt a little better. The canopy bed with its soft lavender sheets and big fluffy comforter always made her smile. She looked over at the pictures with her friends and then a picture of Glimmer. The picture frames changed colors according to the sunlight. Right now the frame was a soft pink. Bella was glad it wasn’t red. She didn’t need a reminder of Queen Fire.

  “You’re safe!” Ivy said as she dashed through the doorway, startling Bella. She ran up to Bella and hugged her hard, with Clara right behind her. The friends group-hugged, and Ivy and Clara hopped onto Bella’s bed. Bella typed a quick message to Violet, letting her cousin know that she was home safe and would message her later.

  “Tell us everything,” Clara said. “Don’t leave out one detail!”

  “What was the castle like?” Ivy asked, her big blue eyes open super wide.

  “I’ll tell you both everything, but first, did my mom or dad notice that I wasn’t with you guys?” Bella asked.

  “Queen Katherine found us once,” Ivy said. “Clara and I were sitting on one of the benches in the Sunshine Garden.”

  “We heard someone heading toward us, so we started talking about the sunray pie we were excited to make,” Clara said.

  “What did my mom say?” Bella asked, feeling like her heart was beating a thousand times a minute.

  “She just said that sunray pie sounded good, and before she could ask, we told her that you were out getting berries at a new patch you had found. We told her that we’d stayed behind to look through the gardens for new ingredients that we wanted to try in the pie.”

  “I’m sorry that you had to lie,” Bella apologized. “I should have thought more about that when I asked you to cover for me.”

  “Ivy and I talked about that while you were gone,” Clara said. “We hate lying too, but not when it’s for the right reasons. Keeping Glimmer is definitely a right reason.”

  Bella launched into the story of her afternoon, not leaving out a single detail. Then she flashed a grateful smile to the girls. “You guys are the best friends in the world. You covered for me today. I wouldn’t have gotten away with it without you. Now I have to start the search for the vault that has the crystal.”

  “What do you mean ‘I have to start’?” Ivy asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

  “You and Violet have been so amazing, from maps
to talking to my mom, but I can’t ask you guys to do more. I know what I said before, but I changed my mind. I should do this on my own.”

  “Um, no, best friend,” Clara said. She and Ivy glanced at each other, then looked at Bella.

  “We know you so well,” Ivy said. “Clara and I knew you’d say all of that stuff. But we’re not going to let you change the plan we all agreed to.”

  Clara touched Bella’s arm. “We’re going to help you whether you like it or not. But it would be a lot easier if you just liked it already!”

  Bella laughed, shaking her head. “You two aren’t going to give up, are you?”

  “Nope,” Ivy said. “So get out Violet’s map and let’s start checking rooms off that list.”

  The princess was quiet for a moment as she looked at her friends. Finally she let out a giant sigh. “Okay, okay!” Bella said, smiling. “If you insist.”

  “We do,” Clara said. “I have to be home in a couple of hours, so let’s go! Where should we start?”

  Bella scanned the map. “How about we all start in the great room? We’ll be searching for it while totally being out in the open. If someone comes into the room, just pretend we’re playing a game.”

  “Let’s go!” Ivy said, hopping off Bella’s bed. “We should look on our way.”

  The search was on! It took the friends five times as long to get to the great room as usual. The hallways from Bella’s room to the downstairs were clear. The girls spread out in the great room. Bella slid a giant photograph of herself as a baby to the left and touched the bare wall. After an hour, they found a book that Bella had been looking for, a stale cookie, and a sparkly butterfly barrette. But there was no crystal to be found. At least, not yet.

  7

  Tick, Tock

  Bella’s alarm chimed, playing the official Crystal Kingdom anthem to wake her up. She hummed along as she pushed the button on the rainbow-shaped alarm clock to turn it off. Most mornings, if she didn’t wake up at the first chirp of the alarm, the clock would shine a light on her bed. The light would turn a rainbow of colors, getting brighter until she got up. Today was different.