softly. âIâll think of something.â Every problem had a solution, even in Aventurine. I had solved the elfâs riddle and opened the boulder gate. And Queen Patchouliâs magic rope had summoned the wind to carry the reindeer and me across the canyon. âThatâs it!â
âDo you have a brilliant idea?â Ardee asked hopefully.
âI have an idea. Itâs too obvious to be brilliant.â I would have grinned, but the cold hurt my teeth. Instead, I reached under my coat. The pouch was stiff with cold, and I struggled to open it. Finally, I pulled out the rope and touched the second knot. âHere we go again!â
âOh, fiddlesticks!â The reindeer stiffened and closed her eyes. âJust tell me when itâs over.â
The ribbon wind sliced through the purple sky, a ghostly streamer of arctic breath. I tried to hang on to the reindeerâs fur, but the wind didnât pick us uptogether this time. First it sailed under Ardeeâs belly, looped over her back, sailed under her belly again, and jerked tight as it yanked the reindeer off the ground.
At the same time as Ardeeâs hooves left the ground, the wind whipped around my chest. Still clinging to the rope, I raised my arms so they wouldnât be trapped when the ribbon wind tightened. Takeoff was sudden, and the wind rose skyward too fast for sightseeing. It did not adjust course to avoid the bulges in the frozen waterfall. I had to be on guard, pushing off the ice wall with my free hand and my feet so I wouldnât smash into the hard mounds. Ardee squealed every time she banged into the ice. Her sharp hooves cut deep when she hit, causing a spray of ice crystals.
The icy specks were so cold they stung my face. I tried tucking my chin, but slivers of ice cut the skin on my cheeks anyway. My first impulse was to swat the bits away. Then I realized that the crystals swarming around my head like angry bees were actually alive. Since Ardee and I had disturbed them, I couldnât justify doing them more harm. I was sure someone was keeping track of such things in Aventurine. How else would the fairies know whichfairy-godmothers-in-the-making deserved to return and complete the training?
All such thoughts ceased when the ice creatures fled in a sudden, frantic flurry. Just as the last one flew away, a hairy hand burst through the ice and grabbed my wrist.
7
Fairy Lights
I am hardly a screamer, but
this
made me screamâas loud as I could. Thankfully, the wind stopped instantly, so that I hung suspended against the ice wall instead of having my arm ripped off.
âWhatâs happening!â Ardee shrieked. âWhy did we stop? Are we there yet? Oh, I canât look!â The wind had clearly stopped going up with her, too.
The hairy hand was attached to the hairy arm of a monster trapped in the ice. Round eyes glared at me from a misshapen face that was framed by black spikes streaked with silver. The mouth was curled in a sneer, showing yellow teeth. A blood-red coat covered the monsterâs bulging belly.
It reminded me of another folktale my father used to tell me, about a fur trapper who had been frozen behind a waterfall at the sudden onslaught ofwinter. He could escape only if he captured a human girl to melt the ice, freeing him as she froze in his place.
My arm had started to freeze in the monsterâs grip. While my flesh was turning to ice, the ice encasing the monsterâs arm melted.
I gasped.
I
was the girl! And if I didnât find a way out, Iâd be frozen in the waterfall! I still held the magic rope in my free hand. There was one knot left. I was already using the ribbon wind, so the knot couldnât help me. But I didnât dare drop it to grab my Kalis stick. It couldnât smash through tons of ice, and if I survived, I would need the knot later.
âI think Iâm going to throw up,â Ardee moaned.
I had one thing to offer the monster,