‘It could be snow goblins,’ Beanie said. ‘Or cold crabs. Or frost bats. Or ice scorpions. Or—’
‘Surely ice scorpions don’t live in igloos?’ Stella replied.
‘Uncle Benedict says they’re fiendishly clever,’ Beanie said. ‘I bet they could build themselves some igloos if they wanted to.’
‘With pincers?’ Stella asked dubiously.
‘There’s only one way to find out what’s in there,’ Shay said. ‘Let’s go and introduce ourselves.’ He fumbled in his cloak pockets and brought out a well-thumbed, rather battered book entitled Captain Filibuster’s Guide to Expeditions and Exploration. Stella remembered that Shay’s father was Captain Kipling, and realised that Shay was probably training to be a captain too.
Stella and Beanie scrambled out of the sled and followed Shay, with Ethan slouching along behind. They stopped when they got to the nearest igloo and Shay crouched down in the snow. ‘Making first contact with the locals,’ he muttered to himself as he thumbed through the book’s index. He opened the guide to the correct page and said, ‘Good day. We are members of the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club—’
Ethan cleared his throat loudly behind him.
‘And the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club,’ Shay said, rolling his eyes. ‘We have travelled a long way to make the acquaintance of the indigenous peoples of this land, and would like to formally introduce ourselves so that we may cultivate your friendship and esteem.’
‘Does it really need to be that verbose?’ Ethan complained. ‘What’s wrong with just asking them to come out of their igloos?’
‘If they’re ice scorpions then they won’t understand what you say anyway,’ Beanie pointed out. ‘I’m sure it’s ice scorpions. There’re one hundred and eighty-three types of poisonous scorpion in the discovered world. And I bet there’s twice as many in the undiscovered world. Perhaps even three times as many.’
‘Put a stick through the front door and wriggle it about a bit,’ Ethan suggested, ignoring Beanie. ‘That will bring them out, whatever they are.’
‘Absolutely not!’ Stella said, aghast. ‘We’re guests here. We’ve got to be polite. And poking a stick into someone’s house is definitely not polite.’
She was about to suggest kneeling down and peering into one of the igloos, but then it occurred to her that that was really every bit as rude, and besides, if there were snow goblins in there, then that was a certain way to get one’s eye poked out with a stick, or a claw, or some other pointy object.
But then Beanie suddenly said, ‘Stella, look – there’s a butterfly on your shoulder!’
Stella glanced up at the beautiful blue wings, almost as large as the palm of her hand. ‘It’s not a butterfly!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s a …’
She was about to say ‘fairy’ but trailed off unsure. Stella had grown up around fairies – they had lived at the bottom of her garden for as long as she could remember, tempted in by the beautiful fairy houses Felix built for them. But this was quite unlike any fairy she’d ever seen. Its blue wings were like lace, and its body looked like lots of ice shards stuck together. Its eyes were two chips of pale blue within its angular face and it had long hair as white as Stella’s own. The long hair made Stella think it must be a girl, but it was very difficult to tell otherwise. Stella was used to girl fairies with petticoats puffing out their dresses and flowers in their hair, and boy fairies with shiny top hats and frock coats. But this creature wasn’t wearing any clothes at all and its body almost seemed to be made out of ice itself. And were those claws on the ends of its fingers? Stella had never heard of any fairy with claws before.
The next moment dozens of the winged creatures were coming out of the igloos, filling the air with fluttering blue wings and glittering clouds of some kind of fairy dust. Stella heard Beanie sneeze behind her. Unfortunately, Beanie was allergic to fairy dust – as well as hamsters, daisies, ducks, horned frogs, spotted frogs and blue frogs. Most types of frogs, really.
Soon Stella had them on both shoulders and arms, dangling from the ends of her fingers and perched on top of her hood. Some of the fairies, she noticed, sported waxed moustaches, very much like most of the men back home.
‘Hello,’ Stella said to the creatures, who gazed up at her with their cold blue eyes. ‘Are you … are you some kind of fairy?’
‘We’re frosties,’ the frosty said. ‘Fairies are distant cousins of ours. It’s a great pleasure to meet you and your intrepid explorer friends. Do you have time to pause your expedition long enough to take tea with us? We love throwing tea parties, but we don’t get guests out here too often.’
Stella thought that a frosty tea party in the middle of the snow was just about the best thing she could think of. So she was surprised, and quite annoyed, when Ethan said in a cold, unfriendly voice, ‘Why? What do you want in return?’
‘Nothing at all!’ the frosty exclaimed.
‘So you’re just trying to be nice?’ Ethan said dubiously, as if he couldn’t think of anything more unlikely or preposterous. ‘To total strangers who you’ve never even met?’
‘Of course! Hospitality is very important to us. Please. Come this way.’
‘Are you deliberately trying to offend them?’ Stella hissed at Ethan as the frosties moved away. ‘Haven’t you ever heard of strangers being nice before?’
The magician crossed his arms over his chest. ‘It’s just not my experience, that’s all,’ he said. ‘And I am the only one of us who’s ever been on an expedition before. You lot have got no idea. I could tell you some stories that would make your—’
‘Perhaps the Icelands are just more polite than the South Seas, or wherever it is you went, Prawn,’ Shay said, before glancing down at Koa, who had suddenly appeared again at his side. The shadow wolf was staring at
