For the rest of the day, all everyone talked about was the competition. The maps were given out after supper. Hannah spent ages poring over her copy, chewing her thumb as she tried to work out the best – and safest – route to take. Meanwhile Amanda just sat on one of the sofas in the common room and moaned.
‘I just don’t see why we have to go outside. This is supposed to be an ice-skating school, isn’t it, so why do we have to go skiing and stuff?’ She looked around. No one was really listening. Amanda pouted. ‘I hate getting cold and I hate getting wet. It’s not fair and…’
‘Oh, Amanda, be quiet,’ Camilla groaned. ‘You’re giving me a headache!’
For once, Emily had to agree with her.
The door opened and Madame Letsworth came in. ‘How are you all getting on with your maps? Any questions?’
‘Do we have to go?’ Amanda said plaintively. She gave a little cough and held her hand against her chest. ‘I get colds really easily. At home, my mum doesn’t let me outside when it’s freezing. She says it’s bad for me and –’
‘You’ll be fine, Amanda,’ Madame Letsworth cut in.
‘But…’
‘No buts. You’ll be going out with the others and that’s that.’ Amanda turned away sulkily. ‘So, any questions?’ Madame Letsworth asked.
Zoe put up her hand. ‘Do we have to stay in our own shelter? Or can we visit the other teams?’
‘We don’t want anyone leaving their shelter after dark,’ answered Madame Letsworth. ‘It would be too dangerous – you could get lost in the woods. So the answer is no.’
She walked around checking everyone was OK and then left.
‘Right,’ Hannah announced to Molly and Emily, her brow furrowed. ‘I think I’ve got a plan now. It will be most sensible to go to the furthest point first and then work our way back. That means going all the way to the Starlight Caves and then coming back by the Rainbow Pools before going to where the ice owls nest in the woods.’ She pointed to where ‘Ice Owls’ was marked in some trees. ‘And after that, we can find our shelter for the night.’ There was a small hut marked with a star. ‘Then the next day, we get a leaf from one of the burning bushes that grow over here.’ She indicated the place on the map. ‘And last of all, we come back to school.’
‘Hopefully getting here first,’ Molly added.
Emily nodded and glanced round the room.
Nearby, Camilla was talking quickly to her team in a low voice. She saw Emily watching. ‘Are you listening?’
‘No,’ Emily said quickly.
‘You’d better not be,’ Camilla snorted. ‘We’re going to win this. Go Snow Foxes!’
She held up her hand in a high five and the others hit her palm with theirs.
‘Is that all you four ever do?’ Molly said, rolling her eyes. She mimicked Camilla’s voice: ‘Go Snow Foxes!’ she said, putting her hand up in a high five too. She giggled.
‘Go and look in the mirror and you know what you’ll see, Molly? A great big loser!’ said Camilla. She turned haughtily to her friends. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ They all left the common room.
Molly shook her head. ‘We have to beat them. We’ll never hear the last of it if they win this competition. Have you got some sneaky short cuts planned, Hannah?’
‘Oh, no,’ Hannah said hastily. ‘We’re not taking short cuts – well, only safe ones marked on the map.’
Molly groaned. ‘Hannah, we’ll never win if we play it safe.’
Emily shook her head as they started to argue and sank back into the sofa. She shut her eyes and imagined all the amazing things they were going to see and do. Whether they won or not, one thing was for sure – they were going to have fun!
When Emily woke up the next morning, the others were all asleep. She decided to go to the ice rink. She loved skating when there was no one else around. Pulling on her clothes, which had been washed and neatly folded by the frost fairies, she hurried down to the rink.
The early-morning sun was shining through the domed glass roof. The ice was sparkling, perfectly smooth and white. Emily’s feet itched to get on to it. As she opened her locker, she hesitated. Which boots should she wear? She had two pairs, her usual slightly battered boots that she wore for lessons and practising, and the snow-white ones she had won in the first week’s competition. Emily didn’t wear them most of the time because she didn’t want people to think she was showing off, but when she was on her own, she loved to put them on. Now she took them out and did up the silver laces.
After warming up with some stretching exercises, Emily skated a few times round the rink, practising gliding for as long as she could between steps. The only sound was the swishing of her blades as they moved across the ice. It was so wonderful to be there on her own. Joy filled her and she sped up. She lifted into a single axel jump and then threw her arms back into a layback spin, the world blurring around her. As she came out of it, she stumbled, but she didn’t care. She felt wonderful. What a perfect way to start the day!
Emily skated over to the music box at the side of the rink. At first, she had thought the music box was run on electricity like a CD player at home, but it wasn’t at all. She lifted the lid. Inside was a complicated system of levers and wheels and three small silvery-blue ice dragons. They were asleep, curled up together in a happy heap on the floor, but, as she looked inside, their eyes opened and they chirruped when they saw her.
Emily loved the ice dragons and had been trying to learn their language. She chirruped a hello back.
The dragon on the top of the heap gave her a toothy grin and flew into the air.
How are you? Emily tried to say in dragon language as he hovered by her face.
The dragon whistled back.
‘We’re going on a scavenger hunt tomorrow in teams.’ Emily broke into English and told the dragons all about it. They started whistling and squeaking excitedly. She tried to work out what they were saying. ‘I should look out for…?’ She couldn’t quite understand.
The dragon by her head flew down to the ice. Using the end of his pointed tail he drew a picture on the ice. Emily saw he was drawing some trees with nests in and little dragons flying about.
‘You’re trying to tell me there will be dragons like you in the forest?’ she guessed.
All three dragons nodded eagerly.
Emily grinned. ‘Cool! I was hoping there might be. I’ll come back afterwards and tell you all about it.’
Just then, she heard voices and saw Hannah and Molly coming down to the rink. They waved at her and got their skates on too. Emily changed back into her old practice skates and soon all three of them were skating around.
Hannah started practising her double toe loop–double flip combination again. It didn’t look as if it was getting better; if anything, she seemed to be making more mistakes.
‘She’s trying too hard,’ said Molly as Hannah wobbled on her landing and exclaimed in frustration.
‘Hannah!’ Emily went round the rink to where Hannah was skating. ‘Why don’t you do something else for a bit?’
‘No. I want to get this right and we’re going to be off the rink for two days with this competition. I wish we didn’t have to go. I’d rather just be skating here.’
With a determined look on her face, Hannah skated off. Emily watched her. She had a feeling it was going to be good for Hannah to get away from the rink for a few days. Hannah took everything to do with skating so seriously, which was great, but not when she got so stressed about it. Emily watched her try the jumps again. Hannah might not be looking forward to the scavenger hunt, but she couldn’t wait!