Emily worked hard all lesson and afterwards she stayed on the ice to practise some more. The rink emptied until there were just three other people left – Zoe, Heather and Amanda. They were all from the Ice Owls dorm. Zoe was helping Heather, and Amanda was skating through sections of the routine on her own.
‘Are you staying too?’ Emily asked, skating over to Amanda.
When she had first started at the school, Amanda had been really annoying, often boasting and telling tales, as well as being really competitive. But the Ice-skating Academy had been good for her. She seemed to be trying much harder to be nice now.
Amanda nodded. ‘Do you want some help?’
‘Yes, please,’ Emily replied eagerly. ‘I’m having a problem with the first section.’
‘OK, let me see what you’re doing.’
Emily set off. She jumped the double loop and that was fine, but when she started the next steps, her feet seemed to get tangled up and she ended up stopping and exclaiming in frustration.
‘You’re going too fast,’ Amanda told her. ‘And you’re looking down. It’s throwing your balance off. Let’s go through it slowly.’
Amanda went through all the steps until Emily could do them properly.
‘Wow! Thanks!’ she said, amazed Amanda had been so patient.
‘No problem.’ Amanda smiled. ‘You helped me in the scavenger hunt and you really helped Heather last week. Now it’s my turn to help you.’
‘I wish I could see the dance from start to finish,’ Emily said, sighing. ‘It might help me to learn it.’
‘I could try,’ offered Amanda. ‘I won’t be brilliant, but it’ll give you an idea. Why don’t you ask the dragons to play the music?’
‘It’s almost suppertime,’ Zoe called to them from across the rink. ‘Are you two coming?’
‘In a minute,’ Amanda called back.
Emily skated over to the large purple music box at the side of the rink and lifted the lid. Inside there was a complicated set of wheels and levers and four pale-blue ice dragons, each about the size of her hand.
‘Hi,’ Emily chirruped in dragon language. ‘Would you play the Lulling Dance for us, please?’
‘Of course,’ one of the dragons chirruped back.
Emily lowered the lid. She loved the ice dragons and had started to learn their language in the second week. She was getting good at it now.
Amanda skated to the centre of the ice. She stood, hands by her side, one leg crossed behind the other, waiting for the beautiful music to begin. Emily watched as Amanda began to skate through the routine. She was very good. Maybe she’ll be the Ice Princess, Emily thought, watching as Amanda jumped the double loop followed by a graceful layback spin, her dark hair sweeping around her.
Amanda moved into the mid section, jumping a double flip followed by a double lutz. Emily rubbed her eyes. Suddenly she felt really tired. Amanda was gliding on one leg, lifting the other leg up behind her. She finished with a final upright spin. Emily had to blink to stop her eyes from closing.
Amanda skated over. ‘How was that?’ Emily couldn’t stop herself. She yawned.
Amanda’s face fell. ‘Oh, that good.’
‘Sorry,’ Emily apologized. ‘It was great. I just feel so tired suddenly.’
‘Me too,’ yawned Zoe, who had been watching from the side with Heather.
‘I guess we have had a long skating session,’ said Heather, rubbing her eyes.
Amanda looked at the three of them. ‘Or…’ She broke off. ‘No, it couldn’t be,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘What?’ asked Zoe.
‘Well, the dance is supposed to make the dragon sleepy, right?’
Emily stared at her, trying to work out what she was thinking. ‘You mean maybe the dance was working? Maybe that’s why we’re all feeling sleepy!’
‘I’m not feeling quite so tired now you’ve stopped dancing,’ said Zoe. ‘Just sort of happy and content.’
‘Like you’ve had a long sleep?’ said Emily. Zoe nodded.
‘Weird! I feel just like that too!’ Emily said.
‘The magic must have been working!’ Amanda said in astonishment.
‘That’s so cool!’ breathed Heather.
Emily looked enviously at Amanda. She wished she could dance the routine well enough to make the magic work already. She’d only just managed to do the first section. The girls came off the ice and Zoe and Heather waited for them while they changed out of their skates.
‘I do love being here,’ said Zoe happily. ‘All the magic stuff is great – and learning about the land – but it’s also just amazing being at a school like this. I always used to read books about boarding schools and wish I could go. Now I know what it would be like.’
Emily nodded. ‘I wish we’d had a midnight feast like they do in books.’
‘Well, why don’t we?’ suggested Amanda. ‘We could!’
‘Oh, yes!’ Zoe gasped. ‘We could do it on Saturday night, our last night here.’
‘All of us?’ said Emily.
‘No, not Camilla,’ said Heather promptly.
‘But we can’t just leave her out,’ protested Emily. ‘That would be really mean.’
Zoe looked thoughtful. ‘I suppose we could just have the feast for our two dorms. We don’t need to tell anyone in the Snow Foxes dorm.’
‘Good idea,’ said Heather, pleased. ‘Let’s do it just for us. And we can have it here. We can eat and skate – perfect!’
‘OK,’ Zoe said, her eyes shining. ‘We meet here at midnight on Saturday night then. Agreed?’
‘Agreed!’ they all declared.
Emily told her dorm about the feast at suppertime.
‘It’s a brilliant idea!’ exclaimed Molly.
‘What will we do about food?’ Tilda asked.
‘We could ask the frost fairies for some,’ suggested Alice.
‘We could ask them to join us for the feast too – and the ice dragons,’ said Emily eagerly.
‘But we’ll need to keep it secret from the teachers though,’ warned Hannah. ‘I bet we’ll get into loads of trouble if they find out.’
‘And we mustn’t let the Snow Foxes know,’ muttered Molly, glancing over to where Camilla, Tess, Helena and Clare were sitting at a table together.
Tess saw her looking. ‘What are you lot talking about?’
‘It’s a secret,’ they all chorused with grins.
‘Oh, ignore them,’ said Camilla, turning her back.
Molly giggled, but Emily felt a pang of guilt. She didn’t like the Snow Foxes, but it did seem a bit mean to leave them out. ‘Maybe we should invite them too?’
‘No way!’ whispered Molly. ‘They’ll only spoil it. Now, let’s start planning what food to ask the frost fairies for.’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘This is going to be so much fun!’
