‘The top-hat box!’ Stella yelled at Beanie. ‘Pass me the top-hat box!’
He shoved it over to her and Stella threw open the lid, narrowly missing the jaws of the cabbage as she grabbed hold of her tiara. In another moment it was on her head and she felt a cold tingling in her fingertips as she stood up and threw out her hands, just as they reached the very edge of the cliff.
Instead of thin air, the wolves’ paws landed on solid ice and the space around Stella fizzed with blue sparks as she concentrated on creating the ice bridge as fast as the wolves could run. The magic didn’t just give her a chill this time – it felt like her entire body had been plunged beneath the surface of a frozen lake. From head to toe she was so cold that it was almost impossible to breathe. But if she lost her focus on the bridge for even a moment then the wolves would tumble into nothing and that would be that. They couldn’t die. Not when they were this close to the finish.
Finally the bridge joined with the other side of the ravine, but the sled slid as it landed, going so fast that it turned over, spilling the four explorers – and Dora – out onto the snow. Stella landed on her front, right at the edge of the cliff, with Ethan close beside her.
Dora was the unluckiest one. The goose was hurled the furthest and, seeing that she was about to fall off the edge, and remembering what the frosties had said about these geese being unable to fly, Ethan lunged after her. But what had looked like solid land was in fact just a clump of snow that fell away beneath his feet the moment he snatched up the goose, and the magician would have fallen straight to the ravine floor below if Stella hadn’t grabbed his arm just in time.
On the other side of the drop, the yeti gingerly placed one of its gigantic feet on the ice bridge, but it wasn’t strong enough to support the creature’s monstrous size and a great slab broke off, shattering the bridge into pieces. The yeti gave a loud, angry cry that echoed all around them, and pummelled its fists against the mountain in frustration.
‘That was a close one,’ Shay said.
Stella looked around and saw that he and Beanie were both getting to their feet and dusting themselves off.
‘A little help?’ Ethan said below her. ‘Your goose is pecking my head.’
Stella looked down to where the magician was clinging onto her arm with one hand, his boots scrabbling against the cliff edge. He had Dora clamped in his other arm, and the goose was, indeed, doing her best to peck him.
Stella found it hard to care. Her shoulder felt as if it were about to pop right out of its socket. When he’d flown past her she had grabbed him instinctively, but now she found herself wondering why she had bothered. She looked down at the magician and suddenly remembered every annoying thing he had ever said to her. A strong feeling of dislike surged through her and she said in a cold voice, ‘You threatened to turn me into a blind mole-rat once.’
Ethan looked up at her, startled. ‘That … yes, I did say that, but—’
Stella loosened her grip slightly and the magician slipped, his boots knocking loose big clumps of snow from the side of the cliff as he tried to find a foothold.
‘Stella!’ he gasped. ‘Please—’
‘You’re hurting my arm,’ she said. ‘Let go.’
‘That’s the ice magic talking, Sparky,’ Shay said behind her. ‘It’s not you.’
Stella turned her head to glare at him and Beanie. Who did he think he was to speak to her like that? Didn’t he realise she was a princess? Didn’t he know she was royalty?
‘Don’t come another step closer or I swear I’ll drop him!’ she said.
Shay held up both hands and Beanie did the same.
‘Just … remember who you are, Stella,’ Beanie said.
But Stella did remember now – that was the point. She was an ice princess, and her place was in her castle, with her trolls and her magic mirrors and her dungeons and her iron slippers. Why had she ever let these people talk her into leaving?
She stared down at Ethan – who was still struggling to keep hold of Dora in spite of her continuous attempts to peck him – and she didn’t know how she could ever have felt anything like friendship towards him. She hated him. She hated all of them …
Ethan saw something in Stella’s eyes then that made him feel truly afraid. He knew that she was going to let him go. He was going to fall to his death, all because he’d tried to save a goose that didn’t even like him. First Julian was killed by a squid, and now Ethan was about to be polished off by an ice princess and her deranged goose.
‘Tell my father—’ he began.
But before he could continue, Beanie said, ‘What will Felix say?’
Stella froze at the sound of that name. ‘Felix?’ she repeated.
Then she heard Felix’s voice inside her head – the words he had spoken to her back at the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club: What does it cost us to be kind?
‘What will he say when he finds out that you let another explorer die when you could have saved him?’ Beanie went on.
Stella felt something twist in the pit of her stomach. When she thought of Felix – and his laugh, and his smile, and the way he looked at her when he was pleased with her – she suddenly felt warm instead of cold.
‘He’s responsible for your actions on the expedition,
