The Storm Tower Thief

by Anne Cameron

  “You and Dougal had better sleep in an emergency weather shelter tonight,” he said, chucking it at Angus with a wink. “There’s no time to start another igloo from scratch now. Indigo will be sharing an igloo with Violet Quinn and Georgina Fox.”

  “That was one of the best moments of my life!” Dougal said, a look of pure bliss on his face as Jeremius walked away. “I don’t care if we can trust your uncle or not; that was absolutely brilliant!”

  As soon as all igloos and tents were ready, Jeremius called everyone over to a large supplies igloo and handed out cooking pots and utensils. Dinner turned out to be another packet of special emergency stew concocted by the experimental division, which the lightning cubs heated over a small camp stove.

  “What flavor is this one supposed to be?” Angus asked, prodding the bits that were floating on the surface with a spoon. After their mammoth igloo-building session and their snowball battle with the Vellum twins, he was famished. And he’d already decided to eat the stew, even if it contained storm fluff and thistles.

  “According to the packet, it’s beef stew and dumplings.” Dougal wrinkled his nose, peering into the murky depths. “I’d rather eat frozen polar bear droppings than a bowl of that swill.”

  Despite Dougal’s misgivings, they both ate the hot stew hungrily, reliving the glorious moment when Jeremius sent the Vellum twins packing. It was only as a chilly wind began to pick up that they decided to call it a night and entered the shelter itself. Angus hung his wet socks over one of the tent poles to dry. He changed swiftly into the striped pajamas he found wrapped inside his sleeping bag and then climbed inside it before his feet got cold. Dougal, however, had gone strangely still.

  “What’s wrong?” Angus asked, pulling the sleeping bag around his ears to keep them warm.

  “I can’t wear these!” Dougal swung around and held up his own pajamas in disgust. They were a sickly shade of pink and covered in fluffy white kittens. “These are girl’s pajamas!”

  “Nice!” Angus grinned, unable to help himself. “You should really think about getting yourself a pair next time you’re in Little Frog’s Bottom.”

  Dougal scowled. “What am I going to do? If anyone sees me covered in kittens . . .”

  “Go and get some more from the supplies igloo,” Angus suggested, still grinning.

  At that moment, however, a ferocious gust of wind shook the entire tent and the first few flakes of snow began to settle on the roof with a thick flumping sound. Dougal hesitated for a second, then—

  “If you ever breathe a word of this to another living soul . . .”

  Dougal pulled on the pajamas with as much dignity as he could muster and then jumped into his own sleeping bag. He grabbed his coat off the floor, where he’d dumped it, took Cid out of the pocket, and let him flap about the tent. “Well, he’s got to stretch his wings for a bit every now and then, or they get all seized up,” Dougal said, watching Cid fondly. “Theodore Twill’s going to show me how to teach him some tricks next week.”

  Angus rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, listening to the sound of a storm that was suddenly raging outside. He was just wondering if the emergency shelter could withstand such a battering when he noticed something dangling from one of the tent poles, next to his damp socks. He reached up, still in his sleeping bag, and grabbed a small envelope. He instantly recognized the handwriting on the front.

  “What’s that?” Dougal asked.

  “It’s another note from Dark-Angel. Somebody must have delivered it while we were getting our cooking stuff.”

  “But why didn’t she just wait until the morning? I mean, we’re in the Rotundra, in the middle of a storm.” The wind wailed outside, as if to confirm the fact. “What does it say, anyway?”

  Angus tore open the envelope and read the message aloud.

  “Angus,

  I have arranged another storm prophet test for first thing tomorrow morning. Doctor Obsidian has assured me that the projectograms are now in a stable condition.”

  “Ha!” Dougal snorted, propping himself up on his elbow so he could listen and watch Cid at the same time. “That’s what they said the last time, just before some fake ice diamond storm almost killed you.”

  Angus felt a flurry of nerves. He did not want to go through the same ordeal again. He continued reading.

  “I have spoken at length with your uncle Jeremius, and he has given his permission for the tests to proceed, on the condition that he is in attendance at all times.”

  Angus looked up from the letter, frowning. “I wonder why Jeremius didn’t mention something about it earlier, when we were talking to him.”

  “He’s had a lot on his mind, what with ice diamond storms and lightning moths causing trouble all over the place,” Dougal said as the storm shook the shelter from side to side. “Does Dark-Angel say anything else?”

  “She just says, ‘Gudgeon will escort you down to Doctor Obsidian. Please do not be late. I have included a map, showing the best route to the testing tunnels, in case you and Gudgeon should become separated. Please keep it with you at all times.’”

  Angus pulled a second sheet of paper out of the envelope. “Gudgeon already gave me one of these ages ago, when he first took me down into the tunnels.”

  He glanced briefly at the new map. It was almost identical to the one he still had tucked into the pocket of his pants. With one major difference. Angus stared at it and gulped. At the center of the map there was a very familiar thumbprint, with a lightning bolt running straight through the middle.

  “What’s up with you?” Dougal asked. “You look like you’ve just discovered you’re Percival Vellum’s long-lost cousin or something.”

  Angus grabbed his coat off the floor and rummaged through the pockets, searching for the secret message from his dad. He unfolded the note with shaking fingers. His heart skipped several beats. The two thumbprints were exactly the same.

  Before he could show Dougal, the tent flap rustled and Indigo crawled inside, still wrapped up in her coat and boots.

  “Hey!” Dougal grabbed an extra blanket and pulled it around his shoulders before she could spot his kitten pajamas. “This is a boys’ tent! You can’t just barge in here without knocking!”

  Indigo grinned, holding up a couple of small flashlights. “Catcher Castleman asked me to make sure everyone had one of these. Just in case. What’s going on?” she added.

  “Dark-Angel wants him to do more tests with the projectograms,” Dougal explained. He reached out and grabbed Cid as the moth flapped past, before his wings got tangled up in Indigo’s hair, and put him carefully back in his coat pocket.

  Indigo frowned, resting back on her heels. “But I thought Jeremius had banned her from arranging anymore.”

  “Listen, none of that matters now!” Angus interrupted, excitement almost bubbling over. “I think I’ve found it! The lightning heart! I think I know where it is!”

  It took several seconds for his words to sink in. Dougal’s eyebrows slowly rose, disappearing under his bangs. Indigo’s face was frozen in stunned surprise.

  “But I—how— What are you talking about?” Dougal spluttered.

  Angus waved the map and the note from his dad at them. “It’s the thumbprint, the one on my dad’s note. There’s an identical one on the map that Dark-Angel’s just sent me. And I suddenly thought, what if it’s a signpost? You know, like X marks the spot. What if it shows us exactly where the lightning heart’s actually hidden?”

  Dougal grabbed the map. “You could be on to something! And if you’re right . . . it looks like it’s sitting right under the Rotundra, in the snow dome. We never even thought of looking for it down there!”

  He handed the map to Indigo, who studied it, blinking. “But we still don’t know who those thumbprints belong to. We’ve got no idea what they actually mean.”

  “Who cares what they mean?” Dougal grinned from ear to ear. “The only thing that matters now is that we’ve got another clue, and
if it does leads us straight to the lightning heart . . .”

  Angus studied the map again. After months of fruitless searching, after dangerous ice diamond storms, silver lightning moths, and stubborn holographic horrors, could they finally have found the lightning heart?

  “So all I’ve got to do now is figure out how to use it,” Angus said. “And then I can stop the ice diamond storms. Just like my dad—”

  BOOM!

  Angus sat bolt upright, his head hitting canvas. The ground suddenly shook beneath them, sending a shudder through every tent pole.

  “What was that?”

  “Oh, no!” Dougal gulped, turning white. “It’s a hibernating polar bear!”

  Angus struggled out of his sleeping bag. He grabbed his snow boots and tried to pull on his coat over his pajamas. By the time he’d finally thrust his arms through the correct sleeves, Indigo had already crawled back out into the freezing Rotundra.

  Angus hurried after her and staggered through the thick snow until he found her standing next to a long, banana-shaped igloo. She was staring into the distance, a rigid look of horror on her face.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” asked Angus.

  He stared around at the mass of small igloos before them until he finally saw it. At the far end of the Rotundra, sparkling in a thin sliver of moonlight, was a cloud of diamond-shaped spores. Flung high into the air, they had already formed a terrifying plume.

  “It’s an ice diamond storm!” Dougal gasped, plowing through the snow behind them. He’d accidentally dragged his coat on back to front, exposing the seat of his kitten pajamas. “We’ve got to tell someone before the spores spread!”

  But the alarm had already been raised. A flustered Catcher Castleman was scrambling out of her own igloo, pulling on a heavy coat over her pea-green nightdress. She stared at the growing column of sparkling diamond-shaped spores in shock, then came marching over to them.

  “Dewsnap! Quickly, boy, look at your storm timetable. What weather can we expect in the next ten minutes?”

  Dougal unfolded the timetable from his pocket with fumbling fingers. “We’re in the middle of a blizzard cycle, miss. Each blizzard lasts for precisely ten minutes, with ten-minute gaps in between. The next one is due to strike us in four minutes,” he said, checking his weather watch.

  “Midnight! Which direction is the wind coming from?”

  Indigo checked her own watch. “I-it’s an easterly wind, miss.”

  “Good. That will hold the spores back temporarily, long enough for us to reach the changing rooms safely. I am ordering the immediate evacuation of this Rotundra!” she announced. “We must alert the rest of the Exploratorium immediately! Get everyone else up, now!”

  “But, miss.” Angus stood his ground, a growing weight pressing in on his chest. “What about Jeremius and Gudgeon?” Neither of them had emerged from any of the igloos nearby. “They’re camping out with some lightning catchers from the Canadian Exploratorium. But I don’t know where . . .”

  Catcher Castleman glanced over her shoulder into the distance where a small cluster of igloos huddled together. Indigo gasped in horror. Angus felt his heart falter inside his chest. The igloos stood directly in the path of the ice diamond storm, dwarfed by the glittering cloud that was now rising behind them. It was obvious they would be engulfed by the deadly spores in a matter of minutes.

  “We can’t just leave them there!” Angus burst out. “They’ll never get out in time!”

  “Gudgeon and your uncle are expert lightning catchers and are perfectly capable of forming their own escape plan,” Catcher Castleman said brusquely. “Helping them would place everyone else in unacceptable danger. I cannot risk it, McFangus.”

  “But we’ve got to help them!” said Dougal.

  “We have to do something!” said Indigo.

  “It is out of the question,” Catcher Castleman said. “We are already wasting valuable time.”

  “But, miss,” Angus pleaded, trying to swallow down a growing feeling of despair.

  “I said no, McFangus!” She turned away abruptly and began to shout at the confused and sleepy lightning cubs who were now beginning to emerge from their own igloos. “Another ice diamond storm has just erupted inside the Rotundra! I want everyone to grab coats and boots and come straight back to me! Leave the rest of your possessions behind. And for goodness’ sake, Quinn, there’s no time to brush your hair, you silly girl!” Violet squeaked and dropped the hairbrush she’d been holding into the snow as Catcher Castleman marched toward her.

  “I don’t care what Castleman says, I’ve got to do something!” Angus said as soon as she was out of earshot. “I’m going to the snow dome right now. I’ve got to find out if we’re right about the lightning heart and make this all stop! Jeremius and Gudgeon—” His voice broke. He could vividly recall his own brush with the fake ice diamond storm in the testing tunnel, how he’d been fooled into feeling the slow creep of the deadly frost over his fingers and into his bones, the blood freezing in his heart. Only this time it was for real. And if Jeremius had been trapped by the cloud, if Gudgeon had been overtaken by the spores before he could get out . . .

  Indigo and Dougal were watching him intently. There was no need to ask if they were going with him. He could see the shock and horror in their faces, too.

  “But how are we going to get past Catcher Castleman?” Indigo said. “She’ll never let us go wandering off by ourselves.”

  Dougal gulped. “We’ll have to make a run for it as soon as we get back to the changing rooms.”

  “Yeah.” Angus nodded. “Castleman can’t just abandon everyone else and come charging after us.”

  It was a flimsy plan, with a high possibility of failure. But there was no time to come up with anything better.

  Catcher Castleman gathered everyone together, doing a hasty head count. Less than a minute later, she began leading them swiftly back toward the changing rooms. They trudged silently after her, Indigo trailing behind Angus, Angus following Dougal, who was hard on the heels of Violet Quinn at the back of the main group. Angus glanced over his shoulder every few feet. The plume of ice diamond spores was growing, spreading rapidly. In less than four minutes, it had already begun to advance across the Rotundra like a massive wave, coating everything in its path in crystal fronds. Angus gulped. He could no longer see the igloos. It wouldn’t take long before the entire Rotundra, and everyone left in it, would be frozen solid. Including Jeremius and Gudgeon.

  On through the endless snow they marched, heads bent against the wind, great sheets of ice battering them from all directions as the next ten-minute blizzard arrived and swiftly swallowed them up. Angus could barely see his own hand in front of his face, and for quite some time he wasn’t entirely sure if he was following Dougal . . . or a stray emperor penguin that had wandered into the Rotundra by accident. He also had the strange sensation, all of a sudden, that the ground beneath him was moving. That it was gliding, almost.

  “Ooff!”

  He crashed into Dougal, who had come to an abrupt halt.

  “What’s wrong?” he yelled.

  But as he spoke, the ten-minute blizzard suddenly subsided. The wind dropped away, the clouds cleared, and Angus realized, with a jolt of surprise, that they were no longer standing on solid ground. Instead, they were balancing on a tiny iceberg that was only just big enough for all three of them to cling to.

  “I think we’ve come the wrong way!” Dougal whimpered as the iceberg wobbled dangerously in the water.

  “But I don’t understand!” Indigo gasped, holding tightly on to them both. “You’ve been following Violet Quinn!”

  “Only until she got swallowed up by the blizzard, and then I had to follow her footprints in the snow instead.”

  Angus suddenly understood. In the confusion of the raging snowstorm, Dougal had accidentally followed the wrong set of footprints. They had somehow strayed onto the treacherous emergency training course and were now adrift on an iceberg. It w
as already floating away from the shore and across a large lake littered with dozens of similar icebergs. There was no sign of Violet Quinn, Catcher Castleman, or a rescue party. If they didn’t act quickly, their hopes of escaping the Rotundra and finding the lightning heart would literally sink without a trace into the freezing depths.

  “What do we do now?” asked Dougal.

  Angus scanned the treacherous waters around them. They’d already floated too far away from the shore to return safely. “We’ve got to get across to the other side of this lake before the next blizzard hits.”

  Indigo nodded solemnly. “Iceberg hopping.”

  “Have you both gone completely mental?” Dougal gasped. “Iceberg hopping is only the most dangerous sport known to man.”

  “Well, we can’t just hang around here waiting for the ice diamond storm to finish us off!”

  Angus pointed over his shoulder, being careful not to lose his balance. The diamond-shaped spores, which had been slowed down temporarily by the ferocious winds of the blizzard, were now advancing across the Rotundra again, creeping closer by the second.

  “This is like the worst nightmare I’ve ever had.” Dougal gulped.

  Indigo picked the quickest route, bravely leading the way, leaping from one terrible lump of floating ice to the next as they tripped, slipped, and scrambled their way across the lake. At the halfway point, they were hit by the next ten-minute blizzard. Snow and ice gusted around them, making it almost impossible to see.

  BOOM!

  Dougal yelped as something shot past them at high speed and crashed into the water, causing the iceberg to pitch and roll alarmingly.

  “What was that?” Indigo yelled.

  Angus checked his weather watch and felt his spirits plummet. “It’s a snow bomb bombardment! The whole storm’s riddled with them!”

  His nerves were tingling; he could feel the fire dragon lurking, getting ready to erupt. If they got hit by a snow bomb, if any one of them fell into the lake and disappeared . . .