Crossing the Black Ice Bridge

by Alex Bell

  * * *

  The sun was setting as Felix led the way down Coldgate’s cobbled streets. The courthouse was a place for dry lawyers and crusty old judges—people who were fond of rule books and regulations and being safe and secure inside. Explorers, on the other hand, needed to be out in the fresh air, where anything might happen and grand adventures were only ever a footstep away.

  They walked to a restaurant near the train station called the Ice Yeti. Stella was pleased to see it had a miniature model of a yeti perched on the roof, complete with shaggy fur and glistening canines, and that it roared and thumped its chest every time someone walked by.

  “I don’t think we’ll be able to get in there, you know,” Joss said. “There’s a waiting list for tables.”

  “The owner is a friend of mine,” Felix replied.

  They went in through the front doors, and a thin man in a red waistcoat immediately came around from behind the front desk to shake Felix’s hand.

  “Mr. Pearl!” he exclaimed, beaming. “Welcome, sir, welcome! How many in your party today?”

  “Thank you, Gil. There’s six of us,” Felix said.

  From Stella’s pocket, Mustafah cleared his throat loudly. Felix immediately said, “Sorry, I meant there’s ten of us. We’re celebrating a birthday.”

  “How marvelous! Let me show you to your table.”

  Gil led the way through a blue curtain, and they found themselves in what appeared to be an ice cave. Stella saw that it wasn’t real ice, but was actually plaster designed to look like the inside of a snowy Icelands cave. There were even big yeti footprints carved into the floor and a frozen waterfall filled with savage-looking plastic piranha on one wall. Stella loved the place immediately.

  They settled themselves down in the booth Gil showed them to, and once they had ordered their food and some breadsticks had arrived, Felix looked at Joss and said, “Well, first things first. What on earth are you all doing here? I thought you were meant to be celebrating Beanie’s birthday back home.”

  “We wanted to come and support you,” Beanie said. “Some things are more important than birthday parties.”

  “But, Beanie,” Stella said. “You were so looking forward to it. There were going to be piñatas and paper hats and party whistles. And I thought Cadi and Drusilla were coming too?” Cadi was a witch hunter they’d met on their last adventure, along with Dru, a young witch.

  “We sent messages saying the party had been postponed,” Joss said.

  “But Shay and I said we’d come over anyway, and we all traveled to Coldgate together,” Ethan explained. “My father is on an expedition right now, so he won’t even notice I’m gone.”

  “My mother only let me leave on the strict understanding I’d be back home tomorrow,” Shay said with a sigh. He ran a hand through his dark hair, and Stella found herself startled, once again, by the streak of white in it.

  “Where’s Koa?” she asked, suddenly thinking it was strange she hadn’t seen Shay’s shadow wolf.

  “Under the table,” Shay said.

  Stella lifted the tablecloth and saw that Koa was indeed there, tucked beneath Shay’s chair with her snout between her feet. No one quite knew for sure why whisperers had shadow animals, but many people believed that they were part of the whisperer’s soul given a separate shape. The two shared a unique bond and were even able to communicate with each other inside their heads. Shadow animals had no physical substance and couldn’t be touched, but they never strayed far from their human whisperer.

  “She hasn’t been right since the wolf attack,” Shay said. “And my mum thinks… Well, the truth is, since the minute I got back she’s been treating me like someone who’s already dead; fussing and crying and grieving over me.” He looked up and said, “I’ve tried talking to her about the Black Ice Bridge. I’ve explained that we think there’s a book there that might contain a spell that can help me. She just says we can talk about it more once Dad is home, but he’s only been away for two months and he’s expected to be gone another month at least. He had already left by the time I got back, so he doesn’t know about the witch wolf’s bite, but I know he would agree with me—I just know it.”

  There was a brief silence—broken only by the sound of jungle fairies noisily munching on breadsticks.

  “Well,” Felix finally said. “I can understand your mother might feel that way.” He looked right at Shay. “But what do you want to do?”

  Shay met his gaze. “I want to try,” he said firmly. “I want to at least try to get the Book of Frost and find a cure. I definitely don’t want to go home and sit around waiting to die. Or turn into a witch wolf.”

  If an ordinary person was bitten by a witch wolf, they would eventually become one themselves—frozen in wolf shape for eternity, destined to roam the world looking for other souls to devour. But Shay was no ordinary person—he was a wolf whisperer and the witch wolf hadn’t bitten him but his shadow wolf. And so none of them knew exactly what was going to happen. They only knew that it wasn’t going to be anything good.

  “How have you been yourself?” Felix asked in a kind voice.

  “I’m cold,” Shay replied. “All the time.”

  Stella recalled how he had still been wearing his cloak in the courtroom.

  “And sometimes it’s… difficult to eat. I just don’t feel hungry.”

  Now that she looked at him more closely, Stella noticed that Shay’s normally lean face did look even more angular than usual. She felt a flare of worry deep in the pit of her stomach. She was, after all, partly to blame for what had happened. When the witch wolves had attacked them, Stella had used her ice magic to freeze the pack, but the act of doing so had chilled her heart so she no longer cared about her friends. She had hesitated before stopping the final witch wolf—and that moment of hesitation had been all it took to allow the wolf to bite Koa and put a piece of ice into her heart.

  Shay had said he didn’t blame Stella for what had happened, but she blamed herself enough for both of them. Her ice princess tiara was a powerful weapon that had come in handy on their expeditions, but Stella hated the way it twisted her soul and turned her into someone she had no wish to be.

  “Well, then,” Felix said quietly. “What are we to do? You all know what Stella and I learned a week ago. Jezzybella told us there’s a spell in the Book of Frost that might undo the witch wolf’s bite. So there’s a chance there, but it’s a slim one. First of all, Jezzybella—bless her heart—is not the most reliable person in the world. Sometimes I think the poor thing’s mind is quite addled. But she was there when the snow queen’s castle was attacked, so perhaps what she says is accurate. If that’s the case, though, there’s still the fact that no explorer in our history has ever successfully managed to cross the bridge.”

  They all glanced at Beanie. His explorer father, Adrian Albert Smith, had attempted the journey eight years ago, but his expedition had disappeared partway across the bridge. The rescue party that went after them had found their camp abandoned and frozen in the snow—all their belongings scattered about as if they’d only just left—but there was no sign of the explorers. They had simply… gone.

  They did find Adrian’s travel journal, however. In it he’d recorded a log of the doomed expedition, including the fact that the men said they could sense an evil presence on the bridge, which got stronger and stronger the farther they went. Others said the bridge was cursed and haunted and that strange monsters lived in the water below it. No one had any idea what was on the other side, and most said it was better not to know. Ever since his father’s disappearance, Beanie had nurtured the hope that he would one day be the first explorer to cross the bridge, no matter how many people told him it was impossible.

  Stella recalled what Shay said his father, Captain Khan Conrad Kipling, had told him once:

  There are some lands so forgotten, and forsaken, and forbidden that even explorers shouldn’t venture there.

  “Mother thinks that nothing good can come of
setting foot on the Black Ice Bridge,” Shay said. “I tried to tell her about the Book of Frost, but she… well, I don’t think she believes it even really exists.”

  “It’s a gamble,” Felix agreed. “In more ways than one.”

  “But it’s better to gamble than to simply give up,” Shay said. “If my dad were here, I know he would understand that, and he’d organize an expedition to the bridge. But he’s not, so I’ve just got to do it on my own.” He looked at the others. “I have to go on to the bridge, because I’ll die if I don’t. But it’s not fair to ask you all to risk everything for me.”

  Ethan punched his shoulder. “Don’t talk nonsense!” he exclaimed.

  Felix’s mouth twitched. “Ethan, please don’t hit people,” he said. “However, I agree with your sentiment.” He looked at Shay and said, “Let’s not forget that if you hadn’t accompanied Stella on her mission to save me, then you would never have been bitten in the first place. We both owe you a great deal, and we will certainly be going on to the bridge in pursuit of the Collector, whether or not anyone else decides to come with us.”

  Stella gave Felix’s arm a squeeze. She didn’t think she’d ever loved him more than she did at that moment. The jungle fairies seemed quite taken with the idea too and started emptying the sugar bowl into a napkin, which they then fashioned into a bag by tying it to a drumstick bone they stole from Stella’s plate.

  A waiter appeared just then to clear the table.

  “Someone tells me we’re celebrating a birthday here today,” he said cheerfully. “Who’s the lucky one?”

  All four jungle fairies immediately put up their hands, no doubt hoping some kind of dessert-shaped reward might be involved. Stella rolled her eyes at them and said, “It’s Beanie over there.”

  The waiter gave him a smile. “Happy birthday, young sir.” Then he produced some paper party hats from his pocket and scattered them over the table.

  They were all human-size, and the jungle fairies immediately started to kick up a great fuss, but the waiter said, “Hold your horses.”

  “I haven’t got any horses,” Beanie said, looking confused. Some of the odd things people said really didn’t make sense when you took them literally, like Beanie tended to.

  “He means wait a moment,” Stella said.

  “Here you go.” The waiter reached into his jacket pocket and dropped four fairy-size hats on the table. “I’ll be right back with your birthday treat.”

  Felix immediately picked up one of the hats and set it straight on his head. He loved absolutely anything to do with birthdays, including hats. The others followed suit, and Stella felt glad that Beanie was managing to have a bit of a birthday party, in spite of everything.

  “I’m going with you,” Beanie said as he straightened his hat. “I said I was going to cross the Black Ice Bridge, even before this happened. And of course we must do everything we can to save Shay.”

  “Well said.” Ethan snapped his fingers and a tiny party hat immediately appeared on Aubrey—the carved narwhal Beanie’s father had made for him during his final expedition, which now sat on the table in front of him.

  The medic looked delighted and gave Ethan a smile. The jungle fairies had each put on a party hat and were doing their new favorite chant of doom over in the corner of the table while performing backflips and somersaults.

  “Fee-fi-fo-fo! Fee-fi-fo-fo!!”

  It was a bit distracting, but everyone did their best to talk over them.

  “Well, I’ve already lost one loved one to that bridge and I don’t intend to lose another,” Joss said.

  Beanie immediately looked crestfallen. “Mum!” he said, sounding shocked. “You wouldn’t stop me from going—”

  “Of course not, Benjamin,” Joss replied, looking quite offended. “I’m coming with you. I know I’m no explorer, but I’m a nurse, after all, so I’m sure I can make myself useful.”

  Due to their elf heritage, both Joss and Beanie had magic of their own, but it was quite different from Ethan’s. As a magician, Ethan could perform a variety of spells—from turning someone into a frog to producing magical arrows in a crisis—whereas Beanie had healing magic and was training to be a medic like his mother. He could patch up cuts and take the pain away from bruises, and as such he was an extremely valuable member of their team.

  “So that’s decided,” Ethan said, looking pleased and grim at the same time. “We’re all going on to the bridge.”

  “I am a little concerned about your mother, however,” Felix said, looking at Shay. “If she has said she does not wish you to go—”

  “She hasn’t forbidden me from going,” said Shay. “She just wants to wait for my father to come home. She’s scared and she doesn’t know how to help. But it’s not up to her. It’s my life, and my shadow wolf. I have every right to try to save them both.”

  “Yes,” Felix replied. “But parents also have the right to decide what’s best for their children sometimes.” He chewed his lip and said, “And there’s also the fact that you’re not well, and the Black Ice Bridge will be very dangerous. More dangerous than anything any of us has ever faced. I just wonder whether perhaps you should sit this one out. Go back to your family and wait for us to—”

  “Felix!” Stella was shocked. “How can you say that? You’ve always said you should never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself, and you wouldn’t sit around at home, would you?”

  “I don’t have parents who’d be worried about me, Stella,” Felix pointed out.

  “I understand what you’re saying,” Shay said. “Really I do. But you’re thinking about it all wrong. It’s not a question of me going with you. I’m going no matter what you say. So you can come with me if you like, but the one place I’m not going is back home.” He looked pleadingly at Felix and said, “We can’t know for sure how much time I’ve got left, but I know somehow that it isn’t long. I can sense it. If I don’t go now, then it’ll be too late. I’ll send a message back home, of course, telling my mother what I’m doing. But I am going. If anyone is not going to go, then really it should be you. President Fogg said he would issue a warrant for your arrest if you went on an expedition.”

  “Never mind about that,” Felix replied. “They can arrest me upon our return, and we’ll worry about it then.” He drew in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “We’re cornered by circumstance here, and none of our options is ideal,” he said. “But I won’t stop you from trying to save your own life. I only hope your mother can understand.” He glanced at Ethan and said, “You’d better send word to your father, too.”

  “When will we leave?” Beanie asked.

  “We’ve got a room booked at the Ice Cave Hotel here in town,” Felix said. “I say we organize rooms for you all tonight too and then tomorrow we’ll return home to fetch the supplies that Stella and I have already started to gather. There are a few more things we could do with procuring before we set off, though we’ll have to be careful how we go about that now that we’ve been expelled from the club. We might have to complete our shopping elsewhere. And then we’ll have to think about how we’re going to get to Blackcastle.”

  Blackcastle was the village on the mainland, farther down the coastline, where the known side of the Black Ice Bridge joined the rest of the world. It was named for the black castle that brooded alone on the cliff top and had once been the home of Queen Portia—a snow queen who’d frozen all the members of her village in a sudden, inexplicable attack more than two hundred years ago. When they discovered what she’d done, an angry mob from the neighboring village had chased her onto the Black Ice Bridge, and she hadn’t been seen or heard from since.

  Blackcastle had been a forsaken, forgotten place ever since. No one went there anymore, and none of the young explorers relished the idea of visiting it, either. But it was the only way to get to the bridge.

  “Can’t we leave at once?” Ethan said. “Surely there’s no time to lose?”

  “This i
s no normal expedition,” Felix said. “We can’t go rushing straight on to the Black Ice Bridge like fools. We must do our best to prepare first. I know it’s hard, but I really think that we should take another week, maybe two, to gather our supplies, plan our strategy, and have a serious think about how exactly we’re going to—”

  “Felix Evelyn Pearl!”

  They all turned around in their seats to see President Fogg advancing toward them with two police constables in tow. Stella did not like the grim look on his face one bit.

  “Good heavens, what is it now, Fogg?” Felix said, a rare note of frustration creeping into his voice as he threw down his napkin. “Can’t you see that we’re trying to have a birthday party? Don’t tell me there’s some other rule I’ve managed to break in the last half hour. It can’t be anything to do with mustaches, because I don’t even possess one.”

  President Fogg’s own impressive mustache twitched as he looked down at them. “It’s not you,” he said. “It’s the girl.”

  “Excuse me, sir.” A waiter slid past President Fogg and placed a plate covered with a silver dish onto the table. “For the birthday boy!” he said cheerfully, before whipping off the domed lid.

  They all looked down at a little yeti, about five inches tall. It was made entirely from cake and wore a rather fetching red waistcoat with a black bow tie. The restaurant was well known for these magic puddings, and the next moment the yeti waltzed straight off the plate, a lit birthday candle clutched in one shaggy paw, and began to serenade Beanie with an enthusiastic chorus of “Happy Birthday,” all while doing an energetic tap dance.