The Starlight Caves were on the lower slopes of the mountains. They looked dark and very cold inside. Emily, Hannah and Molly peered into one. ‘Where are the icicles and the shining crystals Madame Longley told us about?’ Molly said, frowning.
‘Maybe these aren’t the right caves,’ Emily said.
‘No, they are.’ Hannah checked the map. ‘They definitely are.’
‘Perhaps we just need to go further in then,’ suggested Emily.
They got their torches out and walked cautiously into the cave.
There was a faint humming sound in the air around them. ‘What’s that noise?’ Emily asked.
Molly shrugged.
‘I don’t like this,’ said Hannah, looking around.
‘Let’s try going down that way,’ said Molly, pointing to a tunnel that led off the back of the cave.
It was very narrow and they could only just fit in it by ducking down. The humming grew louder as they edged along, the cold rock scraping at their clothes.
‘Maybe we should go back,’ Hannah started to say. ‘Try –’ She broke off with a gasp as the tunnel opened out into another cave. But this one was totally different!
Shining crystals studded the rocky ceiling. They glowed with their own inner light, sparkling like stars. Inside the cave were more icicles than Emily had ever seen. They hung down in strange glittering shapes. The air was alive with humming.
‘Oh, wow!’ Emily breathed. Her voice was drowned out by the sound. It was as if a whole choir of people, standing in a vast hall, were humming different notes. It was beautiful and magical, but almost unbearably loud.
Molly put her hands to her ears. ‘What’s making that sound?’
‘I think it’s the icicles.’ Emily took a step towards the nearest one and listened. It was definitely humming a note!
‘Weird.’ Hannah looked around. ‘I’m not sure I like it. Which icicle should we take?’
‘How about this one?’ Emily took hold of one, but she couldn’t break it off.
‘Here, let me have a go.’ Hannah struggled with it for a few moments and then Molly tried, but none of them could snap it.
‘Let’s try a thinner one,’ suggested Emily.
But no matter how hard they pulled and tugged at any of the icicles, they had no luck.
‘They should be called unbreakable icicles, not unmeltable!’ Molly said in dismay. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘Let’s go outside and think about it.’ Hannah shook her head. ‘I can’t concentrate with all this noise.’
She and Molly turned to go, but Emily stopped them. ‘Wait.’ She was remembering what Madame Letsworth had said as they had all left: sometimes it can help to listen. ‘Just a minute.’ Emily shut her eyes. Would she work out what to do if she just listened as Madame Letsworth had said? But all she could hear was the humming of the different icicles.
Humming…
She caught her breath.
‘What are you doing, Em?’ Molly demanded.
‘Listening. Shh. I might have an idea.’
Emily put her hand on the icicle nearest to her, shut her eyes again and concentrated on the sound it was making. She wasn’t sure if her plan would work, but it was worth a try and something inside her seemed to be telling her to follow her hunch. She listened hard and, after a few seconds, she started to hum herself, matching the note the icicle was making.
SNAP!
The icicle broke away from the rock and came off in her hand. Hannah and Molly gasped.
Emily stared. ‘I did it!’
‘But what did you do?’ asked Hannah.
‘I hummed the same note as the icicle,’ replied Emily. ‘It was like Madame Letsworth said. All we had to do was listen!’
‘You’re brilliant!’ Molly said, hugging her.
‘Totally! I’d never have thought of that,’ Hannah said, looking at Emily in astonishment.
Emily felt a happy glow. ‘It just came to me. I don’t know why.’
‘Well, I’m glad it did. Come on, let’s get out of here,’ said Hannah.
Once back in the snowy landscape, they put the icicle inside one of the pockets of Emily’s rucksack. ‘One item down!’ said Molly, finding a pen and ticking the icicle off the list of objects at the side of the map.
‘Now, we have to go to the Rainbow Pools,’ said Hannah. ‘They’re just round the mountain to the east. We can ski there.’
It didn’t take them long to reach the Rainbow Pools – seven pools between the mountains and the forest. The pools were heated by hot springs and so steam rose off them. Each was a different colour.
Hannah glanced at the banks of reeds fringing the water. ‘I hope getting a reed isn’t as difficult as getting an icicle,’ she said anxiously.
Molly got her penknife out of her bag. ‘Only one way to find out!’ She walked over and grabbed a reed. To their relief, she managed to cut it very easily.
‘Look, someone else has been here already!’ Emily said, spotting footprints in the snow around the reed banks. ‘I wonder which team it was.’
‘We’d better get a move on,’ said Molly, putting the reed in Emily’s rucksack with the icicle. ‘We’ve still got to get the feather and find the shelter this afternoon.’ She looked at the sky. It was well past midday and the sun was heading down in the sky.
Hannah checked the map. ‘Right, the ice owls are just south of here.’ She pointed across the field to where the woods started. ‘They’re through the trees that way, but that area is not marked as safe on the map. I guess what we need to do is go back the way we came and get on the main river again.’
‘But that’s a really long way round,’ Emily said. ‘We don’t have to go all the way back there, do we? We could use one of the smaller rivers marked on the map.’
‘Or, even better, just cut across the fields here, go into the woods and ski until we find a river,’ said Molly.
‘We can’t do that,’ protested Hannah. ‘We’re supposed to stay in the marked areas. You know that.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ said Molly. ‘It will be much quicker than going back.’
‘No,’ Hannah said.
‘Yes!’ said Molly.
‘Don’t argue, you two,’ Emily begged, but Molly and Hannah both ignored her.
‘We’re staying in the areas marked on the map,’ said Hannah stubbornly.
‘Maybe you are, but I’m not!’ Molly said equally stubbornly. ‘I’m going this way!’
‘No, Molly!’ Emily said quickly as Molly set off.
‘Molly, come back,’ Hannah called in alarm. ‘You can’t just go off on your own.’
‘You’d better come with me then,’ Molly cried over her shoulder.
‘Come on,’ Emily urged Hannah as Molly skied off across the meadow.
‘She’ll come back,’ Hannah replied. ‘She won’t really try and get there on her own.’
‘Hannah! How well do you know Molly? You know what she’s like when she gets like this,’ Emily said. ‘She’s not going to come back.’
Hannah hesitated.
‘Please! Come on!’ Emily pleaded.
Hannah gave in. ‘Oh, all right.’
‘Molly, wait!’ Emily called.
But Molly was too far ahead to hear them. She entered the woods without looking back.
Emily and Hannah headed after her towards the treeline. Suddenly they heard a loud scream.
They looked at each other. ‘Molly!’ they both gasped.