Crossing the Black Ice Bridge

by Alex Bell

  They rushed over to it, and Beanie pulled the lever triumphantly. They immediately heard the groan and clank of machinery and raced to the windows in time to see the top of the aviary winding back, leaving a vast gap for the phoenixes to fly through.

  The great birds took to the sky immediately, and for the next few minutes the view from the turret window was a nonstop flurry of red and orange wings as they soared to freedom like fiery little rockets. Stella felt her heart swell with the sight and grinned at the others in delight.

  Finally, there were no more birds in the air, so they made their way back down. When they opened the door and stepped back outside, however, they saw that not all of the phoenixes had left after all. Two of them remained. One was the phoenix that had first knelt before them, and it had been joined by another bird, which had taken up a similar stance. They looked right at the explorers with fierce, wise eyes.

  Stella’s hands flew to her mouth. “They waited for us!” she exclaimed. She looked at the others. “Do you think we might actually be able to ride them?”

  “It could be a way back to the bridge!” Shay exclaimed. “None of us have been trained to ride phoenixes, though.…”

  He trailed off. Everyone was grinning. There was no way they weren’t going to ride those magnificent birds, and everybody knew it.

  “I’ll fetch the tack,” Shay said, already turning back to the stable.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  THE TWO PHOENIXES EXPLODED into the sky in a riot of glorious feathers. They were both singing in delight, and their song was as strong and golden and glorious as fire, covering Stella’s skin with a feeling of warmth, every note like melted butter. She gripped the phoenix’s feathers and found it quite impossible not to let out a cry of delight. Behind her, Shay tightened his hold around her waist and laughed in her ear.

  The Hanging Gardens of Amadon spread below them in colorful bursts of extraordinary flowers, interspersed with glittering blue pools and waterfalls. But the sight was there for only a moment before the phoenixes soared up through the clouds, past the torn magic-disguise painting, and finally burst out into the sky.

  “They’re all here!” Stella exclaimed.

  And, indeed, the phoenixes were all there above the clouds, wheeling and swooping and stretching out their great wings to catch the sun’s rays, singing their delight at finally being free in the sky, like they were meant to be.

  Stella glanced over and saw Beanie and Ethan marveling at the display, just as they were. The magic-disguise painting hanging from the bridge hid the gardens once again so you would never know they were there if it weren’t for the rip in the fabric. Apart from that, the view consisted only of the sparkling stars of space. Above them, the Black Ice Bridge stretched back across the surface of the ocean, its black stone glittering in the sunlight.

  “Now we just have to hope that they listen to our instructions,” Shay said to Stella. “And that they don’t take it into their heads to fly off wherever they fancy.”

  “I guess it depends how well trained they are,” Stella replied. She glanced back at Shay. “Let’s hope they’re like Polar Bear Explorers’ Club expedition wolves rather than those untrained ones the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club brought on our first expedition.”

  “One way to find out,” Shay replied.

  Stella nodded and turned back to the phoenix. “Beautiful bird, I have no idea whether you can understand me,” she said. “But we need to cross the Black Ice Bridge to get back to Queen Portia’s caves in Blackcastle.”

  The bird gave no indication of having understood Stella, but when she gently tugged on the reins to direct it up toward the bridge, the phoenix responded instantly and all the other phoenixes followed, rising into the sky together like a great golden cloud.

  In all the excitement of the escape, Stella had completely forgotten about Queen Portia. When the phoenixes flew up over the side of the bridge, she saw the snow queen at once, surrounded by her gargoyles, who must have flown straight up from the gardens. She was standing right at the edge of the bridge, gazing out as if looking for something.

  Stella looked back at Shay. “I suppose we’d better land and make sure she’s all right.”

  She guided her phoenix down, and Ethan and Beanie did the same. The snow queen’s eyes widened at the sight of the two magnificent birds, and the gargoyles shrank back in fear, clutching at the queen’s skirts like children.

  “Shhh,” Queen Portia soothed them, reaching down her hand to rest upon one of their stone heads. “They won’t harm you.”

  She seemed different from before—there was a clarity in her eyes that hadn’t been there previously. She still looked exhausted, but she also looked as if she fully understood where she was and what was happening.

  “Are you all right?” Stella asked, leaning down from the saddle to speak to the snow queen. She saw she held an empty snow globe in one hand, but the cuff was still fastened around her wrist. “Didn’t the key work?” she said.

  “I’m sure it will work now that I have my heart back,” Queen Portia said. “Here, you’d better take this.”

  She handed the snow globe up to Stella, then took the ice key from her pocket.

  “I just wanted to thank you first,” she said. “And to say I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” Stella replied.

  “For creating those snow globes in the first place. I remember it all now. I remember the horror of understanding the Collector would take the whole entire world if he could. The gargoyles tell me there’s another Collector there now, but she sounds every bit as bad as Jared Aligheri.”

  “It’s okay,” said Stella. “At least now that we know what’s happening, we’ll be able to fight back against the Collector and the Phantom Atlas Society. And that’s something.”

  “The collecting started off as a noble endeavor,” Queen Portia said. “We really were trying to do good. I hope you can believe that.”

  “I do,” Stella replied. “It’s okay. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

  Queen Portia closed her eyes briefly. “Thank you,” she said. “And good luck.”

  She lifted the sparkling ice key to her handcuff and once again it slid in smoothly. But this time the lock clicked back and the cuff fell to the floor. The ice queen took in a great gasp of air, as if she’d been holding her breath underwater for a really long time and had finally broken the surface.

  A big smile spread over her face as she looked at Stella and silently mouthed her thanks once again. And then she was fading from view, melting away into dozens and dozens of starflakes, which hung for a moment, glittering in the air, before they too vanished into the sea mist sweeping in across the bridge.

  The gargoyles looked both sad and relieved as they watched her go. The seven of them nodded their thanks to Stella and then took a running leap into the sky, spreading their wings and disappearing into the fog. The snow-boat was left abandoned on the bridge behind them, but luckily the young explorers didn’t need it anymore.

  Stella let out a sigh. “Right,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  She tugged gently on the reins to urge her phoenix up to join the other birds in the sky, with Ethan and Beanie right behind her. They turned in the direction of the castle and began their journey back across the bridge.

  * * *

  It turned out that the phoenixes could fly incredibly quickly, forcing Shay, Beanie, and Ethan to wrap their cloaks and scarves tightly around themselves as protection from the icy wind racing past. But they made good progress through the air, where there was nothing to hinder them. They passed a couple of abandoned gremlin crow’s nests situated on top of the bridge’s towers, and Ethan remarked on these when they stopped to put up their fort for the night.

  “I bet that’s how they brought down those hot-air balloons,” he said. “The gremlins would have catapulted themselves on board and interfered with the inner workings of the balloon.”

  “They can do that?” Stella asked. �
��That must have been a pretty powerful catapult.”

  “Oh yes,” Ethan replied. “Gremlins can catapult themselves for miles and miles if they want to.”

  Despite the iciness of the wind and the cramps they developed in their legs, the four explorers all agreed that traveling by phoenix was absolutely marvelous, especially with the other phoenixes swooping and wheeling around them in a colorful flock.

  They made good progress, stopping only to eat and to sleep as they raced back toward Blackcastle, and Stella was delighted that after a couple of days Shay and Koa seemed to have made a complete recovery. Koa was back to her usual self, and Shay appeared to be too—with no more nightmares, or voices, or headaches.

  Although when they flew back over the abandoned expedition camp Stella felt Shay startle behind her. When she looked back to ask what was wrong, he said, “It’s probably nothing.… But just for a moment I thought I saw the ghost of that fairyologist waving at us from the ground.”

  Stella frowned. “You don’t think that you’re still able to see ghosts somehow?”

  Shay shrugged. “I hope not,” he said.

  They continued on, and after just one more day, suddenly they were there. They could see the end of the bridge, and the craggy cliff top, and the castle clinging to the side of it.

  “We made it,” Stella said, hardly believing it was true.

  They landed their phoenixes outside the castle and scrambled to the ground.

  “Time to rescue our parents,” Stella said, grinning at Beanie.

  She ached to see Felix again and hoped that the two of them had been okay down in the ice cave with only the jungle fairies to look after them. She’d deliberately done no magic whatsoever during the journey back so that she’d be ready to melt the ice wall the moment they returned.

  Stella and the other two were already heading for the door when Beanie said, “Wait.”

  They turned back to see that Beanie had a snow globe in his hand—the one containing his father’s lost expedition.

  “I need to do this first,” he said, looking paler than usual. “If it doesn’t work… If my dad isn’t there, then at least my mum won’t ever have to know. I don’t want her to get her hopes up.”

  Stella nodded. “Of course,” she said.

  She could see Aubrey poking out of the top of Beanie’s pocket, and the moment seemed suddenly charged with an unbearable hope for all of them.

  Stella held her breath and crossed all of her fingers. Beside her, she was aware of Ethan and Shay doing the same. Even Melville somehow managed to cross his wings.

  Beanie looked down at the snow globe and slowly started to unscrew it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  A FEW MINUTES LATER, STELLA was hurrying down the stone staircase into the cave with the others close behind her. It looked exactly as they had left it—water was steadily dripping into the rock pools from the stalactites, and the ice dragon was snoozing peacefully on her shining bed of shells. Below, the ice wall trapping Felix and Joss inside remained thick and solid, and Stella’s fingers were already itching to perform the spell that would melt it.

  There was no sign of the jungle fairies, and she was just worrying that they might have lost interest and fluttered off somewhere when a movement drew her eye. She saw the four fairies had set up some kind of makeshift mini-golf course on top of the ice dragon—using little sticks of ice to knock a tiny round shell around the dragon’s claws and over her tail.

  “Hey!” Stella called to get their attention.

  Hermina dropped her golf club, startled, and then exclaimed in delight at the sight of Stella. The next second, all four jungle fairies came tumbling down from the dragon in a tangle of big hairy feet and excited grins. They fluttered straight over to the explorers, dancing and cartwheeling in excitement. Stella grinned and waved at them before hurrying over to the wall.

  “Felix!” she cried, banging on the ice with her fist. “Are you still in there?”

  There was a muffled exclamation from the other side, and then Felix’s voice called back. “Stella? My darling girl, is that really you, or have we finally lost our marbles in here?”

  “It’s me!” Stella replied, grinning.

  “Beanie?” Joss’s voice called out at the same time that Beanie called for her.

  “Quick, Stella!” Beanie exclaimed. “Get them out.”

  Stella was already reaching for the star charm at her wrist and reciting the spell from the Book of Frost:

  “This shard of ice shall be no more,

  “Revert to how it was before.”

  Of course, it wasn’t actually a shard of ice this time, but a great thick wall, and so it took Stella several attempts before the ice was finally thin enough for them to break through with their boots.

  Stella was feeling decidedly wobbly by then, but the next moment Felix’s arms were around her, and she sank against him in relief.

  “You extraordinary girl!” he exclaimed, before holding her out at arm’s length. “Are you all right?”

  Stella reassured him she was fine. “Are you okay?” she asked. She saw that he had rather a scruffy layer of stubble, but the eyes twinkling at her over the top of it were exactly the same.

  “I hope I never see a piranha cupcake again,” he told her. “But other than that we are both well. The jungle fairies were magnificent.”

  Stella looked over to where Joss knelt before Beanie, gripping his shoulder and having a similar conversation. Then Beanie glanced behind him and said, “Mum, there’s someone else here who wants to see you.”

  Joss followed the direction of his gaze, and a gasp caught in her throat. A few yards behind Beanie stood a tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in Polar Bear Explorers’ Club robes.

  “It… it can’t be!” Joss exclaimed in a whisper.

  Adrian Albert Smith walked slowly forward. He looked tired and still a little dazed, but a smile spread over his face, making crow’s feet appear at the corners of his eyes. “Joss,” he said, his voice shaking and hopeful and uncertain all at the same time. He reached out a hand tentatively toward her. “It really is me.”

  Joss shook her head and blinked hard, as if expecting this to be a mirage, but when he didn’t vanish into the air, she leapt to her feet with a cry—a sound of raw, unspeakable happiness. And the next second she was running straight to him, throwing her arms around his neck and clinging to him tightly with one arm as she gestured frantically for Beanie to join them with the other. Stella knew her friend didn’t normally like to be touched, but he made an exception this time, standing between his parents and gripping them both by the hand. He was trembling from head to foot, and Joss was openly sobbing as she covered her husband’s face in kisses.

  “You broke my heart!” she told him. “I love you too much and you completely broke my heart!”

  “I know.” Adrian sighed into her ear. He closed his eyes and said, “But I’m going to put it back together again. I’ll make it up to you both.”

  “Good gracious, Stella,” Felix said as she leaned against his arm. “What in the world have the four of you been up to?” He looked down. “And who is this fine fellow?”

  Stella saw Melville standing at their feet, doffing his bowler hat. “Melville Montgomery—of the Bayside Montgomerys—at your service,” he said.

  “He’s from the Islet of Gentleman Flamingos,” Stella said.

  “But… there’s no such thing,” Felix said. He looked back at Melville and said, “I beg your pardon. Of course I’m delighted to meet you, but the Islet of Gentleman Flamingos was disproved and removed from the map years ago.”

  “Ah,” Stella said. “About that. There are a few things we need to tell you.”

  EPILOGUE

  Three Months Later

  IT WAS A BRIGHT, crisp sunny day, and Stella was in the garden doing cartwheels with her polar bear when Felix called to her from the veranda. She got up, brushed snow from her dress, gave Gruff a great big kiss on the side of his head, an
d then made her way over to where Felix stood waiting for her with a newspaper in his hand.

  “I thought you might like to see this,” he said, holding it out to her with a smile.

  Stella looked at the paper warily. Since they’d returned from their expedition with news of the Collector and the Phantom Atlas Society, there had been an uproar, to say the least. The revelation of what was really on the other side of the Black Ice Bridge had spread like wildfire. An emergency meeting was called at the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club, attended by representatives from the other clubs, as well as the members of Stella’s own expedition.

  There had, at first, been a great deal of skepticism regarding their story. The president of the Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club even suggested that Beanie’s dad had lost his marbles during his time on the bridge and, what’s more, that the entire thing was an elaborate lie in order to avoid Felix’s and Stella’s arrest.

  “My dear sir,” Felix protested, “you can see a great flock of phoenixes out there with your own eyes!”

  Since they’d arrived back in civilization, the phoenixes had stayed glued to Stella’s side, which had made it rather difficult for anyone thinking of arresting her. A phoenix had a strong, savage beak, and their bite could take a hand off if you weren’t careful.

  “No one denies that the young people managed to discover a flock of phoenixes, but that doesn’t make the rest of their story true,” President Fogg said.

  “And what about Melville?” Stella gestured at the gentleman flamingo, who had also come to support them.

  “Probably just a strange anomaly you picked up somewhere.” President Smythe sniffed.

  “Well, I never!” Melville exclaimed indignantly.

  “You can’t seriously expect us to believe that this snow globe contains the Land of the Giants,” President Fogg said, picking up one of the snow globes that had been spread out on the table and squinting at it. “Or the Island of Lady Swans,” he said, moving on to the next one. “Or the Sky Phoenix Explorers’ Club, for heaven’s sake!”