‘She was a witch,’ the mirror replied. ‘Witches are evil. She would have killed you too if faithful servants hadn’t smuggled you from the castle.’ The mirror turned its lovely face to the trolls then and said, ‘Why don’t you take the princess to her old nursery?’
Stella followed the trolls up to a circular room at the top of one of the turrets. As with the others, the room came to life before her and she stared around in amazement. The walls were painted with delicate white snowflakes and there were dozens of the prettiest toys she had ever seen, including a unicorn rocking horse, a plush white yeti, and a magnificent dolls’ house that was a perfect replica of the castle itself. When Stella opened the doors to expose the inside, she saw that all the rooms were decorated just as they were in the real castle, right down to the room filled with jewelled eggs and the other with music boxes. When she ran her finger over the tiny harp in the music room, it even started to sing, just like the one in the actual music room had done.
Stella felt a sudden sense of loss for her parents then, and mourned the fact that she had never got the chance to know them. They must have loved her very much to have gone to all this trouble with the nursery and to fill it with such beautiful toys.
‘There’s a painting of your parents in the red dining room if you’d like to see it,’ the mirror said.
‘Yes, please.’
One of the trolls slipped its stone hand into Stella’s and led the way back downstairs into the dining room that they had glimpsed from outside. As the candles lit themselves and the dust fell away, Stella saw that there was a gigantic painting hung over the fireplace. She walked slowly up to it, hardly able to believe that this was her real mother and father. They were both so grand-looking, so regal, so royal.
They had the same pale skin, white hair and light blue eyes as Stella, and were dressed in fur-lined robes and wore sparkling crowns. Stella thought that her mother was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, even though she wasn’t smiling in the painting. Her dress was the same light blue as her eyes, lined in white fur, and her long, pale-fingered hands rested loosely in her lap as she gazed out of the painting, almost as if she could see Stella standing there.
Stella turned her attention to her father next, and thought that he couldn’t have been any more different from Felix. He had a tall, proud, noble look, a square jaw and a smart dress robe that he wore with easy grace, looking every inch the king.
‘Since they’ve been gone the whole castle has been trapped in sleep,’ the mirror said beside her.
Stella glanced into the mirror and saw that the tiara was on her head again. No matter how many times she kept taking it off, it somehow always seemed to appear on her hair.
‘What’s going on with this tiara?’ she asked. ‘I keep trying to take it off but it—’
‘It probably wants you to do some magic,’ the mirror replied. ‘It’s been waiting for you for such a long time.’
Stella stared at the mirror. ‘I can do magic?’
‘Of course,’ the mirror replied. ‘You’re an ice princess.’
Stella suddenly felt excited. She had always wanted to be able to do something magical or have some kind of special ability. After all, Shay had his wolf whispering, Beanie had his elfin healing and Ethan had his magician’s powers. It would be the best thing in the world if Stella could have something special like that too. ‘What kind of magic?’ she asked eagerly.
‘Ice magic,’ the mirror replied. ‘Naturally. All ice princesses can perform ice magic if they’re wearing their magic tiara. You can make anything you like out of ice, or freeze anything into ice. You just have to imagine it happening in your mind.’
Stella quickly thought of something and was about to try it out when Ethan caught her arm and said, ‘Careful. You don’t understand this magic. It could be dangerous.’
Stella shook him off impatiently – she was really getting pretty irritated by his constant doubts. She turned away from him and concentrated very hard before pointing her finger at the dining room table. To her delight, a burst of ice shot from her fingertip, and right before her eyes there appeared a glorious ice sculpture of a unicorn rearing up on its hind legs, its pearly hooves glinting in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Stella felt a sudden chill race up her arms, but she rubbed at them quickly and pointed her finger at another spot on the table. Within seconds, an ice castle appeared there, complete with sparkling spires and turrets. This time a chill ran down her back, as if someone had just dropped an ice cube down her cloak.
Stella ignored the strange sensation and turned her attention to one of the candelabra. She pointed at it, and ice shot from her finger once again and froze the object solid. Stella looked at the others and said, ‘It’s too bad I didn’t have this tiara when we faced that carnivorous cabbage tree.’
‘I’m not sure about this, Sparky,’ Shay replied, frowning.
Stella scowled at him and said, ‘I suppose you’re jealous!’ She felt a sudden, strong flare of dislike for Shay that took her by surprise. She almost felt like she wanted to shove him … But then the feeling melted away and she was left puzzled as to where it had come from in the first place.
Shay ignored her remark, pointed at the fireplace and said to the mirror, ‘What are those?’
Stella followed the direction he was pointing in and saw that there was an object amongst the cold ashes of the fireplace. They looked like shoes, only these were no
