by Astrid Foss
“It’s the Aurora girls,” Ida heard one woman saying. “Look at them, the poor things. They must be worried sick about their parents.”
“Has there been any news?”
“No, none.”
Ida tried to shut her ears to the whispers. Madame Olga stopped to inspect some jewellery at a market stall. Magda and Hanna went to pet a sturdy brown pony who was tied to a post and Ida made her way to a market stall selling second-hand books.
She was browsing through the titles when she felt a prickling across her shoulders and had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her. She swung round and saw an old lady bundled up in lots of layers standing in the shadows. Her coal-black eyes were sharp in her wrinkled face as she stared intently at Ida. For a moment, Ida was reminded of a wolf staring hungrily at its prey.
An icy shiver ran down Ida’s spine and she backed away. She hurried to join Madame Olga. When she reached her, she glanced back, but the old woman had vanished, leaving just a dark patch of empty shadow.
Ida blinked. Where had she gone? She couldn’t just have disappeared!
“Hanna! Magda! We must go to the haberdasher’s, girls!” said Madame Olga, sweeping towards a nearby shop selling material and ribbon.
Ida followed her, glancing back at the shadows as she did so. She wondered whether she should say something to her sisters but decided not to. It was probably nothing and she didn’t want to seem scared and silly.
The shop assistant, a lady about the same age as Madame Olga, was talking anxiously to a customer. “It’s a dreadful situation,” she was saying in hushed tones. “I heard the Shadow Witch is back.” She shivered.
“Whatever are we going to do?” said the customer fearfully. “What if Magnus and Freya never return?”
As the girls and their governess entered, they broke off.
“Madame Olga!” The shop assistant curtseyed. “And the three young Auroras. I am honoured indeed.”
The customer quickly hurried out of the shop.
“How may I help you?” the assistant asked.
“We need ribbons for the girls’ hair for the ball, Helga,” said Madame Olga. “Now, let me see. I wonder which colours will suit them best?”
The girls had to stand patiently while Madame Olga held up lengths of differently coloured ribbon to their hair. Hanna wanted to scream with frustration. She fidgeted impatiently and received a sharp look from Madame Olga. Oskar soon got bored and curled up into a ball in a basket of scrap materials and went to sleep, his black nose tucked against his stumpy white tail.
It seemed to take forever, but finally the girls’ ribbons had been decided – green for Hanna, blue for Ida and purple for Magda.
Madame Olga’s eyes fell on a display of bonnets. “Those bonnets look well made,” she said approvingly.
“Oh, they are, Madame Olga,” said the assistant. “Would you like to try one on? The dark red would look most fetching against your hair.”
Madame Olga nodded. “Maybe I will.”
Hanna groaned inwardly. Time was passing. They really needed to get out of the shop and escape! But how? There was no way Madame Olga was going to let them go outside on their own. They needed a distraction. Her eyes glanced to where three hat stands were lined up side by side, displaying a selection of winter hats. If one of the hat stands fell over then it would knock into the next hat stand and then the next. Maybe this was their chance!
“I like this hat over here,” she said, stepping towards the nearest hat stand. “Why don’t you try this one on, Madame Olga?”
Hanna saw Magda and Ida’s puzzled looks and winked at them, hoping they would guess she had a plan. As she reached the hat stand she pretended to stumble.
“Oh goodness!” she gasped, reaching out with her hands as she fell into the hat stand. It crashed down into the next hat stand, which also toppled over with a bang. Hats and bonnets flew everywhere, helped by a little of Hanna’s magic!
Madame Olga shrieked and staggered back, falling over as hats rained down on her.
The shop assistant gasped. “Oh, Madame Olga, let me help you,” she said, rushing to her assistance.
“Quick!” Hanna whispered to her sisters. “This is our chance!”
Grabbing their hands, she pulled them out of the shop. It was time for their adventure to begin!
“We’ve escaped!” exclaimed Magda as they rushed out into the busy street. “What now, though? How do we get to the east?”
Ida glanced back anxiously to where Madame Olga was being helped to her feet. “Madame Olga’s going to be worried sick if we just disappear. Can’t we leave her a note or something?”
“No, if we tell her where we’re going, she’ll come after us.” Hanna glanced around. Her eyes fell on the pony that she and Magda had been patting earlier.
“I know!” she said. “We’ll use the pony over there!”
“We can’t all ride one pony,” Magda pointed out.
“No, but if Ida uses her magic to draw a sleigh and a harness then he’ll be able to pull us through the snow.” Hanna turned to Ida. “Can you do that, Ida?”
Ida nodded. Crouching down, she grabbed a stick from the ground and began to sketch a picture of a sleigh and harness in the trampled-down snow beside him. Magic tingled through her fingers as she drew.
“You’re coming on an adventure with us,” Magda murmured, stroking the pony. He nuzzled her hands. She saw a name tag on his halter that said Caspar.
“Quickly, Ida!” Hanna urged, glancing back at the shop. Madame Olga was looking around, her eyes widening as she realised the girls were no longer there.
“Done it!” said Ida. The lines of the drawing seemed to shiver and then suddenly they vanished and a real sleigh with green sides and red runners and a red seat just big enough for three people was in the snow next to them. The pony jumped in surprise and snorted.
“Steady, Caspar,” Magda soothed. “It’s all right. Don’t worry. There’s nothing to be scared of.”
The pony’s ears flickered as he listened to her voice. Calming down, he let Magda start attaching the harness to him. She worked quickly, hoping his owner wouldn’t appear and ask what they were doing!
Hanna saw Madame Olga say something to the assistant and head for the door of the shop. She was about to come out! I’ve got to stop her, Hanna thought.
Her eyes fell on a barrel of apples near the shop door. Concentrating hard she felt magic surge through her. She grinned as she used the power to move the barrel with her mind, pushing it up against the shop door and barricading Madame Olga inside. It was getting easier to do magic now. At first she had found it hard, but now she just had to think what she wanted and it happened.
Madame Olga turned the handle of the door and tried to open it. Hanna saw the surprise on her face as she peered through the glass and spotted the barrel blocking her way.
“We’ve got to go right now!” she said urgently.
“We’re ready!” said Magda, fastening the last buckle and jumping into the sleigh. “Jump on board!” She flicked the reins. “Hup! Hup!” she cried to Caspar the pony.
He leapt forward. Hanna jumped on to the sleigh and grabbed Ida’s hands, pulling her on too. They held on to the sides as the pony started to canter haphazardly through the streets.
“Coming through!” shouted Magda as people started to jump out of the way. Chickens squawked, dogs barked and people yelled.
“Watch out!” cried a fruit stallholder as the pony careered round her cart and knocked over a barrel of pears.
Magda grappled with the reins, trying to get control of Caspar. “Whoa there!” she gasped. “Steady, boy!”
Caspar slowed down to a trot and Magda got full control of the reins. She used them to guide the pony round the remaining stalls and head towards the town gates. The old lady Ida had seen earlier was shuffling down the road, her dark cloak pulled round her.
“We’ve done it!” whooped Hanna, glancing behind at the people staring af
ter them with astounded looks on their faces. “To the east! Rainbow Pools, here we come!”
A cackle of laughter cut across her words as the old lady swung round, sweeping off her cloak and transforming into the tall figure of their aunt, her white hair becoming midnight black and her wrinkles fading.
Caspar shied and stopped, almost overturning the sleigh. Behind them the girls could hear the townspeople crying out and shouting as they all recognised the Shadow Witch.
“Aunt Veronika!” the three girls gasped.
“Yes,” their evil aunt hissed, her eyes glittering. “And thanks to your foolishness, I now know where to go. I shall travel to the Rainbow Pools and find the purple orb. I will have the power of the purple Everchanging Light!” She shrieked in delight as she saw the shock and dismay on their faces.
Hanna felt dreadful. Why had she said where they were going out loud? “You won’t get to the orb before us!” she exclaimed. “We’ll stop you!”
“I think not!” The Shadow Witch clapped her hands and there was a loud roar from the direction of the town gates.
“What’s that?” said Ida.
The Shadow Witch’s lips curved into a smile. “That, my meddling nieces, is how I shall be getting to the purple orb.” As she spoke, a gigantic white lion with long curving sabre-like teeth came bounding through the gates.
Caspar neighed in fear and tried to turn and gallop in the other direction. The townspeople yelled and started to run away. “Whoa!” gasped Magda, holding on tight to the reins and just about managing to stop the terrified pony.
The lion reached the Shadow Witch and crouched down. She wrapped her hands in its thick white mane and climbed on to its back.
“Goodbye, nieces!” she hissed. “You can bid farewell to your foolish plans to save Nordovia now. The power of the Everchanging Lights will be mine!” She kicked her heels to the lion’s sides and it set off, its muscles strong and powerful as it bounded through the gates.
“Quickly!” cried Hanna. “We can’t let her beat us!”
“Hup, Caspar!” cried Magda desperately. The pony leapt forward. The race to the Rainbow Pools had begun!
Caspar raced across the snowy plains outside of the town with Magda sitting between her sisters and urging him on with shakes of the reins. Aunt Veronika’s sabre-toothed snow lion had already vanished from sight.
“It’s so cold!” Hanna said, her teeth chattering.
Ida pulled out her sketchbook and quickly sketched some blankets. The magic tingled through her and they appeared on the floor of the sleigh. She grabbed them before they could bounce out and handed one to Hanna, tucking another round Magda’s legs.
“Oh no!” Magda cried.
“What?” demanded Ida.
“Oskar! He’s still with Madame Olga!”
The triplets looked at each other in dismay. They had been so focused on escaping from Madame Olga and heading north they had forgotten all about Oskar.
Magda swallowed. “He was asleep in the shop when we left it. I can’t believe we’ve come without him.”
Ida bit her lip. The bear cub usually went everywhere with them. “He’ll miss us so much.”
“And we’ll miss him,” said Hanna. For once even her enthusiasm seemed dampened. “He helped us so much in the other adventures.”
Magda had to fight back her tears. She hated the thought of being without Oskar. She longed to turn round and get him but she knew they couldn’t. Oh, Oskar, she thought. I’m sorry.
None of them spoke for a while. Caspar galloped on, pulling the sleigh across the snow, heading for a forest of dark pine trees with icicles hanging from every branch. The girls were lost in their own thoughts.
As they drew close to the trees, Hanna pulled the compass from her pocket and checked it.
“We need to go straight through these trees,” she said, breaking the silence.
Magda could tell Caspar was tiring, his neck was foaming with sweat and his nostrils were flaring. “We need to slow down for a while,” she said as they entered the gloomy woods. “Caspar needs to rest. Whoa, boy!” she called.
Caspar slowed to a trot and then a walk.
Frustration rushed through Hanna. She didn’t want to slow down. Their aunt was already far ahead of them. She couldn’t be allowed to reach the purple orb before them. Hanna felt a sharp flicker of guilt. Oh, why had she said out loud that they were heading for the Rainbow Pools? “We can’t slow down too much,” she said.
“We have to, Hanna. It’s not fair on Caspar,” Magda insisted.
“We should have taken two ponies,” said Ida. “They could have shared the load and we would have been able to travel further without taking a break.”
“Well, maybe one of you should have thought about that before we left!” said Hanna.
“I was busy drawing the sleigh,” said Ida.
“And I was calming Caspar down and harnessing him up,” said Magda.
“Oh, so I should have thought of it, should I?” huffed Hanna. “It’s my fault, just like everything else I suppose!”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t yelled out where we were going then we wouldn’t be in such a rush,” said Magda.
“And if we’d taken time to plan things, we’d have remembered to make sure we brought Oskar with us,” said Ida.
“If we’d listened to you, we wouldn’t be doing anything right now!” snapped Hanna. “We’d just be stuck back in the castle staring at the walls for yet another day. At least we’re on our way to find the orb thanks to me.”
“Oh, it’s all thanks to you, is it? Well—” Ida broke off with a gasp as they rounded a corner and they saw their Aunt Veronika standing in the middle of the track. Beside her was the gigantic white sabre-toothed lion.
Caspar stopped dead. Aunt Veronika hissed a word to the lion and, throwing back its head, it roared so loudly that the woods seemed to shake and snow fell from the nearby trees.
Caspar reared in terror, upsetting the sleigh and sending the girls tumbling on to the path.
The lion bounded towards them. The pony turned and bolted through the trees, heading back the way they had come, the sleigh bouncing behind him. The lion stopped with a victorious snarl and the Shadow Witch shrieked with laughter.
“So much for you getting to the east, nieces!” she cried. “You shall go no further!”
“That’s what you think!” cried Hanna, sitting up. She fixed her eyes on some icicles hanging above their aunt’s head and used her magic to loosen them. CRACK! They broke off and fell down through the air like daggers. But the Shadow Witch was too quick. She clicked her fingers and the icicles exploded into millions of tiny shards.
“You think your puny magic can possibly be a match for mine?” she snapped. “If you think that, you are even more stupid than I thought!” She pointed her hand at Hanna.
Magda wasn’t sure what their aunt was intending to do but she wasn’t going to wait to find out. Fixing her eyes on the sabre-toothed lion, she let her magic rush through her. She felt her body changing, arms becoming legs, hands becoming paws with sharp claws, her body transforming into another lion, just as large and with just as sharp teeth. Suddenly she saw the world through the lion’s eyes. She could see with incredible clarity every leaf, every pine needle, every tree root. She felt the urge to chase and hunt. Throwing back her head, she roared and then pounced.
The Shadow Witch screamed out a spell. As Magda leapt through the air, she felt her magic drain from her and she landed in a heap on the floor, just a girl once again.
The Shadow Witch swung round to where Ida was quickly drawing a picture of a net and threw an orange fireball at her notebook. It exploded into flames. Ida staggered back clutching her burnt fingers.
“This ends now!” hissed their aunt. Her hands lifted towards the sky and she chanted a spell. Bringing her hands down she fired three green balls of magic at the girls. The last thing they knew was the feeling of spells exploding around them and then the world went black.
Hanna was the first to wake up. Her eyes blinked open. She was lying on a freezing rocky floor. It was dark and gloomy and she ached all over. The cold seemed to bite into her face. Where was she? What was going on? Where were her sisters?
Images flashed through her mind – escaping from the town, galloping across the plains, entering the woods, them arguing and then Aunt Veronika…
She tried to stand up and only then realised her hands were tied behind her back. Wriggling on to her side, she managed to sit. She saw Magda and Ida lying on the floor nearby. For a moment her heart stopped. Were they dead? But then she saw their sides rising and falling with their breathing. Thank goodness. She glanced around. They were in a cave. An enormous boulder of ice had been rolled across the entrance, blocking the way out. Hanna got to her feet and walked unsteadily towards it. She was shivering with cold and her stomach was growling hungrily.
Hanna leaned against the ice boulder to see if it would move but it didn’t shift. I could use my magic to move it, she realised.
Taking a breath she fixed her eyes on the boulder. Move, she thought. But nothing happened. Hanna gritted her teeth and tried again but it was as though something more powerful than her own magic was holding the ice in place.
She cried out in frustration. Aunt Veronika must have used magic to fix it there – magic that was stronger than Hanna’s own. Despair swept through her. Now what were they going to do?
She heard a small groan behind her and swung round. Ida and Magda were both starting to sit up. They were blinking dazedly. Hanna hurried over to them.
“What’s… What’s going on?” said Magda.
“Where are we?” asked Ida. She struggled. “Why are we tied up?”