At one point she rummaged in her bag for her little igloo of penguins and felt profoundly sorry for herself when it occurred to her that these were the only friends she had left. The little penguin family didn’t seem like their usual cheery selves either. In fact, when Stella peeked inside, she saw they were all gathered around a framed photo of a rather grand-looking penguin, shaking their heads and blowing their noses into spotted handkerchiefs. Stella thought that maybe the penguins had a friend who’d deserted them, too.
Finally, once evening arrived, everything seemed to quieten down and Stella risked creeping back out into the shed. The trolls had left everything in a bit of a mess and Stella started sorting through it all – looking for anything that might be helpful. She would just have to start building her exploring supplies up again from scratch. There were blankets in the shed but Stella would need a lot more than that to survive on her own in the Icelands. She would have to sneak back into the castle to look for the rest of her supplies, but music boxes and jewelled eggs weren’t going to help her much, nor were poison apples and spinning wheels. And she’d have to be pretty lucky to find a magic goose or a baby volcano in there.
Stella shouldered her bag and opened the door of the shed, intending to have a poke around the grounds in search of anything that might be useful. The sparkling starflakes coating the snow and castle turrets continued to give off a soft, silver light, so she could see perfectly well.
And then she saw it. There, over on the other side of the castle, clear as anything in the bright moon and starlight, was the explorers’ sled. There were no people in it, but she could see all the wolves, and even Glacier the unicorn stood nearby.
Stella had heard that explorers from the Desert Jackal Explorers’ Club sometimes saw mirages – things that weren’t really there at all – when they ventured out into the desert, but she’d never heard of this happening to polar explorers before. But she didn’t waste any more time thinking about it, and hurried straight over to the sled.
The cold wood certainly felt real enough beneath her fingers, and so did the warm coats of the wolves, who greeted her happily and tried to lick her hands. As Stella stared at them in wonder, she heard the sounds of a squabble behind her.
She turned back towards the castle and her eyes widened at the sight of Ethan, Shay and Beanie, all suspended from a rope they had managed to throw over the turret roof. They appeared to be slowly climbing up towards the nursery window by bracing their boots against the wall and using the rope to haul themselves up. Ethan had reached the window and was staring through it.
‘But she must be in there,’ Shay was saying. ‘The trolls said she was being held prisoner in the nursery.’
‘I am not blind,’ Ethan said coldly. ‘I tell you, she’s not there.’
‘Tap on the window,’ Beanie suggested. ‘Maybe she’s hiding under the bed.’
Ethan snorted. ‘That doesn’t sound like Stella.’
‘What are you doing?’ Stella said from the ground.
The other three all jumped – and Ethan almost let go of the windowsill. They stared down at her with shocked faces.
‘We’re … we’re rescuing you,’ Ethan said at last.
Before, that would have given Stella a nice warm glow, but it didn’t have quite the same effect when she knew they’d gone off and left her earlier in the day.
‘Oh, so you changed your minds and thought you’d better come back for me after all, then?’ she said.
‘What are you talking about?’ Shay said, staring down at her.
‘I heard what you said in the dungeon,’ Stella said, crossing her arms. ‘And I saw you drive off in the sled.’
‘You idiot!’ Ethan hissed. ‘That was just for show! We planned the whole thing so they’d let us out. It’s pretty hard to rescue someone when you’re locked up in a dungeon!’
‘Personally, I thought you over-acted it a bit,’ Shay said. ‘All that snarling, and slamming people up against walls. It was a bit much, Ethan.’
‘Beanie didn’t mind,’ Ethan said dismissively. ‘And, anyway, someone had to sell it.’
‘But why were you arguing about it if it was your plan all along?’ Stella asked.
‘We thought it would look a bit suspicious if we agreed to leave too easily,’ Shay replied.
‘How could you hear us in the dungeon, anyway?’ Ethan said. ‘What were you doing down there?’
‘I was coming to rescue you,’ Stella said.
‘Couldn’t you have waited until night?’ Ethan replied. ‘Everyone knows the best rescue plans take place at night.’
‘The best rescue plans do all take place at night,’ Beanie said. ‘But we’re here now, so it doesn’t matter.’
‘He’s right,’ Stella said. ‘Get down from there and let’s go.’
‘Just because you’re a princess doesn’t give you the right to be bossy,’ Ethan grumbled.
‘Surely being a princess gives me every right to be bossy,’ Stella shot back.
‘Well, I’m not calling you “your highness”,’ said Ethan. ‘I’m not bowing, either – magicians don’t bow.’
The boys hurriedly climbed back down the rope and then Beanie rushed straight over to Stella, took the pom-pom hat from his head and put it straight onto hers, which Stella knew meant he was very pleased to see her.
‘I can’t believe you actually thought we would leave you here!’ he said. ‘There’s no way we were ever going to do that.’ He glanced back at the other two and said, ‘Was there?’
‘Not a chance,’ Shay replied, walking over to them.
‘Absolutely not,’ Ethan agreed. He gave Stella a sudden smile – the first
