by Sarah Noffke
“That’s despicable.” Sophia looked over the side of the ship and spied the momma and papa narwhal swimming around in distress, obviously trying to get to their baby.
“I could use my fire to melt the glacier,” Lunis offered. “That would release the narwhals.”
Sophia thought for a moment. “That’s a pretty straightforward plan, but there’s a problem with it.”
“That you didn’t come up with it?” Lunis quipped.
She shook her head. “No, that glacier is probably a hundred thousand years old. The oldest ones in the world are in Greenland. We can’t in good conscience melt it, thereby creating problems for the planet and destroying something so old.”
Liv nodded. “Soph is right.”
“Guys, we’re talking about a few dozen baby narwhals that are trapped and going to be slaughtered by poachers,” Lunis argued. “We can wait around for those jerks to show up and take them out, or we can melt the glacier they’ve already partially destroyed and be on our way.”
“We’re going to do both,” Liv said, her eyes sparkling with sudden excitement. “Then we’re going to fix the damage they’ve done.”
“How are we going to do that?” Sophia asked, confused, and also intrigued.
Liv sighed, looking slightly disappointed. “We have to call someone I hoped not to because he has ice magic.”
Sophia groaned. “Oh, but I hoped we got to accomplish this mission without him…”
Liv returned the defeated expression. “Yeah, I know, but it appears we’ll have to rely on King Rudolf after all.”
Chapter Eighty-Six
The plan made the most sense, although summoning King Rudolf Sweetwater wasn’t something anyone wanted to do. However, as a fae, he had ice magic. This meant that Lunis could melt the glacier to release the baby narwhals, and the fae could resurrect it after, repairing what the poachers had done. Then Liv planned to follow the clues and go after the poachers, taking them out before they could do any more harm to magical creatures or the planet.
Pulling a small crystal out of her pocket, Liv gave Sophia a tired look. “Are you ready to be thoroughly annoyed?”
Sophia laughed. “Yeah. Once again, Rudolf is strangely going to save the day. I still don’t get how he’s so helpful when he has to wear loafers because he hasn’t figured out how to tie his shoes.”
“After six hundred years,” Liv added.
“Maybe when he turns seven hundred,” Lunis stated.
Liv held the crystal in her hand and rolled her eyes. “Please ignore what I’m about to say. It’s the only way the summoning crystal that Rudolf gave me for emergencies will work.”
Sophia nodded, having heard about this stone that would pull Rudolf from anywhere on the globe and instantly bring him straight to Liv. It was a pretty incredible magical artifact.
“Let’s hope that he’s decent.” Liv closed her eyes and released a breath. “Rudolf, I need you.”
The words were hardly out of her mouth when King Rudolf Sweetwater appeared beside them on the ship, his face covered in a charcoal face mask, his blond hair wrapped in foil rolls and dressed in a thick bathrobe—surprise evident on his face.
Chapter Eighty-Seven
“Holy bananas!” Rudolf exclaimed, cinching the bathrobe tighter around his body. “It’s freaking cold here in this spa.”
Liv sighed and glanced at Sophia. “At least he’s decent.”
“Sort of,” Lunis muttered. “I don’t think he has anything on under that robe. Nice leg, Rudolf.”
“Why thank you,” Rudolf sang with a smile that looked very strange with the thick charcoal face mask. “No, I don’t have anything on under this robe. Anyone want to see my birthday suit?”
“Not unless you want me to poke out my eyes,” Liv replied.
Sophia twirled her finger and magicked a thick parka around the fae, covering his bathrobe.
“This isn’t real fur, is it?” Rudolf asked, apparently the more burning question rather than why he was suddenly on his ship in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
Sophia shook her head. “No, and this isn’t a spa.”
Rudolf looked around, taking in the sights. “Are you sure? I’ve heard that the thermal pools in Iceland are amazing. I’d take one of those baths about now.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “No, King Dorkface. This is the Arctic, and we were trying to recover the genie’s lamp you had to throw in these waters instead of the ones off the coast of…I don’t know, anyplace else that’s warm.”
“Oh, you need my help after all as the ship’s captain?” Rudolf snapped his fingers, making the face mask and hair foil disappear.
“Nope,” Liv replied.
“You need help finding the genie’s lamp?” Rudolf questioned.
“Nah,” Liv answered.
“Then you simply missed me,” Rudolf stated triumphantly.
“I’d need a few hundred years away from you for that to happen,” Liv remarked.
“Then why would you interrupt my daily spa appointment? You know that if I don’t have daily massages and facials that I get grumpy and start to look as bad as you,” Rudolf remarked.
“Because…” Liv seemed to have trouble getting the words out. “We maybe, kind of, sort of need your help.”
“Oh, well, I’m happy to do that.” Rudolf snapped his fingers again and added clothes under the thick fur-lined parka. He looked at her sideways and nodded. “Yes, you’re right, that cloak makes you look fat. What else would you like me to advise you on? Your hair is probably beyond help at this point.”
“Strangely, I didn’t summon you here so you could advise me on fashion and hair,” Liv muttered.
“We need your ice magic,” Sophia cut in.
Rudolf glanced around. “Oh, silly girl. Isn’t this enough ice for you? There’s a whole block of it right there.” He indicated the glacier in front of the boat.
“That’s the thing,” Liv stated. “We’re going to melt that glacier.”
Rudolf’s eyes widened. “But melting glaciers is wrong according to the news.”
“Exactly,” Lunis chirped.
“Which is why we need you to put it back together,” Liv added.
“Oh…that’s a big job.” Rudolf suddenly looked overwhelmed. “I’m glad I ate that entire pan of brownies for breakfast.”
Chapter Eighty-Eight
“I had an entire pan of brownies for breakfast too,” Lunis stated.
“Me too,” Liv muttered.
“Then you had an Oreo cheesecake for lunch and dinner?” Sophia questioned her sister.
“That was yesterday. Keep up,” Liv answered.
“Okay, so how is this going to work?” Sophia felt like she needed to keep everyone focused or they’d all exchange brownie recipes instead of attending to the narwhal situation.
“You and Chip need to fly over the glacier and melt it to pieces,” Liv began. “Then you can usher the baby narwhals to freedom.”
Everyone nodded except for Rudolf. “I don’t know who Chip is, but I think it would be easier if Sophia rode Lunis and he melted the glacier.”
“Great idea,” Sophia stated.
“For me to put the glacier back together, I’ll need to be directly over it,” Rudolf stated.
Liv frowned. “Well, we have a boat and Sophia is using her dragon. Did you bring a hot air balloon?”
He felt around in his pockets as though one might be in there. “I don’t think so, but I do have this.”
Rudolf pulled out a small scrap of fabric from the parka that Sophia had manifested for him, which was entirely too perplexing for her brain to understand.
“Oh, great,” Liv said with mock excitement. “You brought fabric samples. That will be incredibly helpful as we try and rescue a bunch of baby narwhals from poachers. I’m so glad that against all my better instincts, I decided to summon you.”
“I know, right?” Rudolf agreed, not at all catching the sarcasm in Liv’s voice. “You’re going
to forever be in my debt after this one.”
He laid the small piece of fabric on the ship's deck and tapped his finger on his chin. “Now, what was the incantation to make this work?”
“I’m a dumb idiot, oh why does anyone like me?” Liv sing-songed.
Rudolf shook his head, quite seriously. “I don’t think so.” His face brightened with realization. “That’s right! It’s open sesame.”
Nothing happened.
Rudolf continued to drum his fingers on his chin. “Hmmmm…maybe it’s shazam.”
“I’m certain that it’s not,” Liv muttered dryly.
Again nothing happened to the piece of fabric.
“Oh!” Rudolf exclaimed, throwing his finger straight into the air. “It’s abracadabra!”
“Right,” Liv drew out the word. “The magical phrase to transform that piece of fabric into something useful is abracadabra…”
The king of the fae nodded at her with confidence, as though she was serious. Liv ate her doubt when the piece of seemingly useless fabric rose into the air with a poof of smoke, expanded in every direction, then scrunched up on itself. It appeared to be a large wad of fabric for a moment before it unrolled to reveal a lovely Persian rug hovering in the air.
Rudolf had done it again, surprising them all by creating a magic flying carpet.
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Everyone was silent.
Liv scratched her head, looked at Sophia with total surprise, then at the magic flying carpet, and back at Sophia.
Finally, she threw up her hands in surrender. “Is the joke really on us? Rudolf, are you a genius and you’ve made us all believe you’re an idiot? Or are you brain-dead as I’ve suspected all along and accidentally do things that are incredibly skillful and well, sometimes unintended?”
Rudolf held up his finger and wagged it back and forth. “I’m never going to tell you and therefore keep you guessing.”
“So, you regularly carry a magic carpet in the coat that someone else magicked for you then?” Lunis sounded amused.
The fae nodded. “Usually. It depends on what side of the equator I’m on. Oh, and the season. Oh! And if I’ve had beans recently.”
Sophia glanced at Lunis and shook her head at the confusion writing itself on his face. “Don’t ask. It’s better if you don’t ask.”
The blue dragon nodded. “You have more dealings with this genius looney-toon than I do, so I’ll take your word for it.”
“You…” Liv began and pointed at Rudolf, her voice fading, seeming lost for words. “You…you…created a magic flying carpet…”
“Well, I need to fly over where the glacier needs to be,” Rudolf explained. “Since we’re also retrieving a genie’s lamp from these waters, it only seemed fitting. Which reminds me, when Stan gets here, I need to skedaddle. I don’t want him to kill me and all.”
“Good point,” Liv stated. “I’d like to be his new master, so don’t worry. I’ll intervene.”
“Okay, then it sounds like we’re ready to rescue some baby narwhals.” Sophia strode over to Lunis and stepped up onto his wing to get into the saddle.
Rudolf jumped quite nimbly onto the floating carpet, then spun and offered a hand to Liv. “Will you accompany me on my mission, my lady?”
Liv pursed her lips, but a smile hid behind her eyes. Finally, she climbed onto the flying rug without taking the king’s hand. “Do you know how to steer this thing?”
“Yeah, it’s like Mario Kart,” Rudolf answered.
“You need a game controller?” Lunis questioned.
“The fact that you get that reference is weird, Greg,” Liv imparted.
“No, it’s like Mario Kart in that if you get hit by a turtle’s shell, you’ll get thrown off course,” Rudolf explained as if that made perfect sense.
Liv gave Sophia a tentative look. “I guess we’re avoiding flying turtle shells then…”
“Well, those are the metaphor, Liv,” Rudolf reasoned. “They represent sharp winds and clouds. As long as we don’t get hit by either, we should be fine.”
“Oh good,” Liv said sarcastically. “Because neither of those exists here in the frigid Arctic…”
Sophia looked up to where white puffy clouds rolled by, spurred on by the constant winds sailing over the Arctic Ocean. “Let’s make this fast. Then we can recover the genie’s lamp.”
Rudolf nodded as Lunis took off into the blue skies, the magic carpet following behind the dragon and rider. “Then we can all go and get some ice cream.”
“Think I’ll have my fill of ice after this,” Liv stated, crouching low to secure her balance on the moving carpet as it soared higher into the sky.
Chapter Ninety
The winds were stronger as Lunis and Sophia gained altitude. She looked over her shoulder, staying low, and worried how Liv and Rudolf were faring. She realized that she probably should be worried. Not only because the winds were cutting but because it looked like he was a little rusty at steering the magic flying carpet.
Liv held onto the sides of the Persian rug while looking over the side like she was thinking of jumping back onto the boat before it was too late. The carpet swung to one side and the next like a leaf being thrown around by the wind.
“Maybe we should go back and get Liv,” Sophia related to her dragon.
“She’ll be fine,” he stated with confidence. “They have their job, and we have ours. Have some confidence in the king of the fae.”
“But…”
“Have some faith, Sophia. They’re two of the most powerful magical people on this planet,” Lunis argued. “Sometimes you have to face forward and believe that the people you’ve put stock in will come through. Otherwise, you’ll be the one to let them down when you fail from being overly concerned about their wellbeing.”
Sophia couldn’t believe it, but Lunis had done it again. He’d gone from talking about Mario Kart to giving her sage advice.
Turning fully back to face forward, Sophia focused on the glacier as they approached. She didn’t have to do much at this point. Navigating was part of her job, but it was Lunis who would scorch the iceberg. Still, her dragon was right. If Sophia didn’t stay focused, she would ruin this for everyone.
After steering Lunis to the floe’s center, Sophia was careful to position him in exactly the right place. He could spend all day blasting fire to melt it like a blow torch dissolving an ice cube. Or he could hit a critical area and break the glacier at a pivotal part, sending it into pieces and thereby freeing the baby narwhals. That would be the most efficient strategy. Not only that, but it would make Rudolf’s reconstruction job easier.
When they were in place, Lunis hovered in front of the berg, close but not too close. They both knew that the potential of his fire rebounding off the thick ice was very likely. This wasn’t a straightforward job. It would take speed and resourcefulness.
“Are you ready?” Sophia leaned low on her dragon.
“Are you?” he asked. “A one-hundred-thousand-year-old glacier falling into the ocean won’t go unnoticed by those in the sea or the sky.”
Sophia nodded. “We’ve got this, Lunis. Soon this will be all over, and we’ll be warm once more.”
Chapter Ninety-One
Liv was pretty sure she was going to kill King Rudolf Sweetwater after this. He laughed with glee like they were joyriding on the magic carpet, which had zero shocks and jerked violently with every wind. She felt like she was riding on…well, a Persian rug over the Arctic Ocean. There wasn’t a better description. She’d once flown on a tiny single-engine plane and thought that was rough. That experience seemed like a luxury as the freezing wind blasted her in the face and she clung to the side of the magic rug, wishing there was a seat belt or an airbag or a puke bag.
The things I do to save the world, Liv bitterly thought as they swerved from side to side for no apparent reason. It seemed to her that they could have taken a straight course like Lunis and Sophia, who flew ahead of them, but instead, they
were on an invisible obstacle course.
A massive gust of wind hit the carpet's front, sending it up, and the rug nearly went vertical. Liv held on for dear life, wondering why she decided to accompany Rudolf when she could be safe and much warmer on the ship below. The fae didn’t at all seem unnerved by the ride. Instead, he hollered and slammed his fist down on the front of the rug, and it snapped back to a horizontal position.
I’m definitely going to kill him. Liv almost rolled off the side from the momentum. She caught herself with the front of her boot on the edge of the rug, which was much stiffer than she would have expected. Her gaze fell over the carpet’s side to the waters below, and Liv tensed, not wanting to know what the sea felt like. She didn’t think she’d survive a plunge into those waters. The baby definitely wouldn’t.
The magic carpet felt more like a roller coaster than a romantic ride that Aladdin and Jasmine would have taken. When Liv thought she was about to throw up over the side, it slowed. Stilled. Rose like an elevator, taking a position right next to the blue dragon.
Sophia looked so confident sitting on her dragon. She glanced at Liv, nodded, and turned her attention forward to the glacier in front of them.
It was time to free the captured narwhals.
Chapter Ninety-Two
Sophia knew that Lunis was right. She needed to focus on her mission with her dragon and lend him her support. Liv might look a little green on the magic carpet beside them, but she was safe. She’d be okay, Sophia told herself.
“Time to melt some hundred-thousand-year-old ice,” Lunis said casually.
“Just a regular Tuesday,” Sophia joked as her dragon opened his mouth and shot a massive spout of flame at the bluish glacier.
The fire was hot and fast, with an intensity that could knock over a steel-reinforced bank vault door. It hit the colossal ice floe and rebounded off it as they’d expected, but not so much that it hit them.