The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell (books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

ordinary shoes. They were made from bands of iron, and had heavy-looking padlocks on them, as if the wearer’s feet would be locked inside.

‘Those are iron slippers, of course,’ the magic mirror replied.

‘What are they for?’ Shay asked.

The expression on the face in the mirror never seemed to change, but she sounded confused as she said, ‘Don’t you know?’

‘I guess I wouldn’t have asked if I already knew,’ Shay replied.

‘Well, the iron slippers are heated in the fire until they’re red hot,’ the mirror explained. ‘And then they’re put onto the feet of any person who refuses to dance.’

It took Stella a moment to work out what the mirror meant at first, but then she gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. ‘But that … that would burn them horribly, it would be agony!’ She thought of her dream and said, ‘The witch wore the iron slippers, didn’t she? That’s why her feet were burnt.’

‘Your parents wanted the witch to dance at their wedding,’ the mirror replied. ‘She refused.’

Stella tore the tiara from her head with shaking hands. ‘That … that’s the cruellest thing I ever heard,’ she said, blinking back tears. She looked at the painting of her parents, and although their features hadn’t changed, they didn’t look quite so beautiful to her any more. In fact, they really didn’t look beautiful at all.

Suddenly she wished that Felix were there beside her. She wished she was far away from this castle and back in the orangery, eating ice cream for breakfast and throwing twigs for Buster.

‘It only seems cruel to you because your heart hasn’t frozen yet,’ the mirror said. ‘Too much time spent away from your own kind. After the wedding feast, the witch crawled away into the snow and we all thought she had died. When she attacked the castle three years later she caught everyone by surprise. The servants who took you away knew that you needed to be sent far from the Icelands or the witch would find you, too, so they left you in the path of that oncoming explorer. He kept you safe, as we hoped he would, but no doubt he filled your head up with lots of silly ideas that you will have to unlearn, as it seems your heart didn’t freeze the way it was supposed to. But every time you use the magic in the tiara, your heart will freeze a little more until the change is irreversible, and then all will be as it should be.’

The tiara was on her head again so Stella dragged it off and flung it into the fireplace. ‘Then I’ll never use its magic again!’

‘You are an ice princess,’ the mirror said in a stern voice.

Stella clenched her hands into fists. ‘I don’t want to be a princess – I want to be an explorer!’

‘No one can change what they were born to be,’ the mirror replied.

‘Of course they can,’ Stella said crossly. ‘No one is born to be anything! You decide for yourself.’

‘That is not the way it works here,’ the mirror said patiently, as if talking to someone who was very stupid.

‘Well, we’re leaving now anyway,’ Stella said. ‘Thank you for showing us around and explaining what happened to my parents, but now we really have to go.’

‘Go?’ the mirror replied. ‘But you can’t go. It is forbidden. You will stay here, princess, and you will rule your kingdom as you were meant to do all along. This castle has had enough of being asleep.’

And then the room went dark as the shutters over the windows slammed closed, the doors shut with a bang, and the stone trolls gathered all around them, cutting off their only route of escape.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Three days later, Stella was pacing the nursery at the top of the tower, fuming.

She hadn’t seen the others since the trolls had dragged them off to the dungeons beneath the castle. Shay had made a decent attempt to bring the trolls down with his boomerang and Ethan had brought out the magic arrows again, but none of that seemed to have any effect on stone. Koa had howled piteously as the explorers were taken away. And now three whole days had passed and Stella was starting to get seriously worried. If they didn’t leave today then they wouldn’t be able to get back in time to be picked up by the Bold Adventurer. Stella knew Felix would never give up on her and that he’d come back to the Icelands with a rescue party, but that could take weeks, probably months.

The trolls brought meals on trays to the nursery for Stella but the magic mirror was refusing to allow her out unless she agreed to use her magic and stay at the castle forever. Koa appeared in the nursery from time to time, and Stella felt comforted by her presence, but there wasn’t much the shadow wolf could do to help her escape.

Stella felt particularly annoyed that she was missing out on the dungeon. She’d never been in a dungeon before and was certain there must be all kinds of interesting things down there. Ethan had probably been bitten by several different creatures already. There were probably bats and skeletons, and trapdoors and fire pits, and secret passages and big, iron spikes, and all kinds of fascinating stuff.

After searching through her bag and deciding there was nothing dangerous in there, the trolls had let her keep it. Stella had gone through it again herself to see if there might be anything useful, but she had to admit that the chances of her bringing down a stone troll with a moustache spoon seemed slim.

She’d poked into every corner of the nursery too, but had found nothing that might help her escape. She’d got quite excited when she’d discovered a secret compartment, right at the back of the wardrobe, but the only thing it contained was a witch puppet. It was a beautifully made thing, carved entirely